Story of the Night. Normally this would require its own post, but today was a travel day for us, so we’re going to throw it in tonight’s ATB. Great news! Bob Knight will return as an analyst and commentator for ESPN college hoops games this year (h/t TBL). The analyst part we’re absolutely sure is a great idea (although his title game picks could use some help). Everyone remembers how entertaining Knight was in the studio during the last few weeks of the regular season last year (he also showed up for the football Gameday at Texas Tech a couple of weeks ago). Adding him to the Gameday crew for the entire season is a natural fit. We’re less sure about Knight as an in-game commentator (with Dan Shulman or Brent Musberger on Thursday night games), but the possibility of a profane Knight tirade about a boneheaded player or ref makes us positively giddy at the prospect.
Game of the Night. Tonight we had more CvC action, with the second night of the Durham, NC, regional and the opening nights at both the Carbondale, IL, and Ann Arbor, MI, regionals. The only televised games were Duke v. Georgia Southern and the Michigan v. Michigan Tech games on ESPNU, so if you saw either feel free to provide some comments below. N-Bug sent along a quote from Coach K relating Duke’s offensive output to a pinball game (he’s from a different era, ok), but in looking at the stat sheet of the 97-54 win, it appears that he should have been talking about his defense. Duke held GSU to 28% from the field and outrebounded the Eagles by 25 boards, which must have made his happier with his team’s overall effort. Singler again led the way with 19/8. It’s difficult to nitpick a 43-point win, but Coach K might want to have his team work on FTs during the next week, as his team could have won by 60 had they shot it from the line a little better (25-49). Duke will play the winner of S. Illinois/UMass in the semis next Thursday at MSG.
Other Games.
-
Carbondale Regional. SIU and UMass both played D2 opponents, so we’re not sure how valuable analyzing their wins vs. California (PA) and Arkansas-Monticello are, respectively. SIU’s Carlton Fay had 16/11 as the Salukis pulled away in the second half to win 66-52. UMass won its first contest in new coach Derek Kellogg’s debut, as Chris Lowe paced the Minutemen with 18/11 assts. SIU v. UMass tomorrow night should be a good game, and either team would make for an interesting semifinal matchup with Duke.
-
Ann Arbor Regional. Michigan’s Manny Harris dropped 30/7 on Michigan Tech in the opener for John Beilein’s second team in Ann Arbor. If anyone else saw this game, we’d be interested in knowing how the Beilein system in Y2 looked. In the other game, Northeastern handled IUPUI 73-60 in a game that was not as close as the final score indicates. Michigan should take this Northeastern team seriously – they’ll be fired up and are a substantial upgrade of talent than what the Wolverines faced tonight. It would not shock us if Northeastern wins tomorrow night’s game.
On Tap Wednesday (all times EST). Several more CvC games… it figures that the best game (SIU v. UMass) will be broadcast, um, nowhere…
- Miami (OH) (-12.5) v. Weber St. – 7:15pm
- S. Illinois (-4.5) v UMass – 8pm
- Michigan (-5) v. Northeastern (ESPNU) – 8pm
- UCLA (-35) v. Prairie View A&M (ESPNU) – 10pm
View Comments (8)
I just wish they'd make Knight interview coaches after games--so maybe he could get served up some of his own medicine.
Sounds like at the SIU regional since the two D2 teams that lost to UMass and SIU last night will be playing in the consolation game, they are playing at 10 a.m. Wednesday morning in a game not open to the public. Due to NCAA rules about when the Division II basketball season starts, the game is a scrimmage, and not an official game.
Link.
Wildjays -
That's really interesting. Why do they use D2 teams in the first place? There are over 340 D1 teams - seems as if 2kSports could troll down at the nether reaches to find a few teams willing to take their lumps for the payout.
Knight as an in-game commentator? No thanks. As if listening to Brent Musberger was bad enough, now we get to hear him bully, insult, etc.
Most of ESPN's college basketball crews are awful. No one can tell me they think Mike Patrick is a quality play-by-play man... can they?
Mike Patrick doing PbP with Dick Vitale is like watching a pedophile in a Bangkok schoolyard. He's ridiculous with his hyperbole.
Michigan is going to get eaten alive inside this year. They do have the ability to stay in tough games with the shooters they have, but no one outside of Manny can create their own shot on a consistent basis.
Gibson played fairly decent, he will be key.
Well what it came down to was they had to scramble for a 4th host school because Pitt backed out of the 2K Sports Classic at the last minute. Luckily SIU was there to agree to take part.
There was even some confusion on where UMass and IUPUI were going to play. Originally UMass was going to be in the Michigan regional and IUPUI at SIU regional and it was as late as the end of September and into October before the host schools knew exactly who they were playing. I know UMass was pretty upset over the whole situation. I think a lot of schedules were filled by the time the 2KSports classic still needed to be filled and probably all they could get were D2 teams to fill out the tourney and make it 16 teams.
The Gazelle group needs to get things together especially since they instituted their new CBE rules where the host schools (Kansas, Syracuse, Washington, Floriday) make it to Kansas City to play whether they win their "pod" or not.
Thanks Patrick. Nice summary of their clusterfark.