Samhan I Am. St. Mary’s 101, Portland State 80. Had St. Mary’s not lost to Vanderbilt by two points during Thanksgiving weekend, we’d probably be listing the Gaels as a ranked team and the name of Omar Samhan might be getting a little more publicity at this point.  With tonight’s 61% shooting evening leading to another blowout win, St. Mary’s is currently 8-1 with solid road wins at Utah State and Oregon, and even though fellow WCCers San Diego and Portland were getting the early-season hype, it might be SMC as the team most likely to challenge Gonzaga as tops in the league again this year.  The big reason is that Gonzaga has nobody like Omar Samhan, the 6’11 senior who dropped 31/17 tonight and is averaging 21/12/2 blks on 61% shooting for the year — his efficiency rating of 24.2 puts him in the neighborhood of some other players you may have heard of… namely Evan Turner, Luke Harangody, Aubrey Coleman, Quincy Pondexter and Manny Harris.  Freshman guard Matthew Dellavedova is another player to watch on this team, as he’s averaging 14/3/4 assts and has a healthy 2:1 A/TO ratio.  Don’t be alarmed with what we’re about to say, but those are actually better numbers than what Patty Mills put up as a rookie at St. Mary’s in 2008.  The Gaels are definitely a team to watch as we head into the WCC this year.

Best Player You Don't Know (photo: Tod Fiemer)

Floriani Live.  Rutgers 80, Rider 70 (OT). Ryan Thompson did not disappoint the nine or so NBA scouts in attendance. The Rider senior scored a game high 26 points while pulling down 8 rebounds. Rutgers adjusted and did a good job defending Thompson in the stretch and OT. “They (Rutgers) face guarded and denied him,” said Rider coach Tommy Dempsey. “Anytime he had the ball they had trouble staying in front of him.” Thompson shot 9 of 19 but forced only two of them and stayed within the framework of the offense.  Another significant note for Rutgers: Mike Rosario scored 18 but was 5-17 from the floor. James Beatty, a junior guard, stepped up leading Rutgers with 21 points. Beatty was 6 of 8 beyond the arc and played some nice defense on Thompson in the stretch. “We recruited Beatty as a point but we knew he had several games in junior college where he knocked down about five treys. Tonight he had the looks, buried them and needs to do that.” Especially when Big East play starts for Rutgers just after the New Year.

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Paul Jordan of Wildcat Blue Blog is the RTC correspondent for the Southeastern Conference.

CURRENT STANDINGS

EAST

1. Kentucky  10-0
2. Florida  8-1
3. Tennessee  7-1
4. South Carolina  6-2
5. Vanderbilt  6-3
6. Georgia  4-4

WEST

1. Mississippi  8-1
2. Mississippi State  7-2
3. LSU  6-2
4. Alabama  6-3
5. Auburn  5-4
6. Arkansas  4-5

It was a very slow week in the SEC as three teams did not see any action at all.  Kentucky and Mississippi State represented the SEC well in the SEC/Big East Invitational while Florida and Georgia lost their matchups.  Both Mississippi teams have been coming on strong and supplying some firepower to the West; Tennessee has only one setback and they should challenge UK all season.  The big story for the rest of the year will be the race to 2000 wins between UK and North Carolina.  Kentucky has pretty much assured themselves of being the first team to break the 2000-win plateau as they currently have 1998 wins to 1992 for UNC.

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Jason Prziborowski is the RTC correspondent for the Big Ten conference.

Three things from the past week.  Wisconsin loses to Wisconsin-Green Bay. The second thing is Ohio State loses without Evan Turner. The third thing is freshman Maurice Creek from Indiana and Drew Crawford from Northwestern are filling it up with more 30 points in their last games. Now three Big Ten teams are in the top 25: #4 Purdue, #12 Michigan State, and #18 Ohio State.

Standings

1. Purdue 9-0
2. Northwestern 7-1
3. Illinois 8-2
4. Michigan State 8-2
5. Ohio State 7-2
6. Wisconsin 7-2
7. Minnesota 7-3
8. Penn State 6-4
9. Michigan 5-4
10. Indiana 4-5
11. Iowa 3-7

Top Storylines

• Can Purdue win on the road against top teams? Purdue had to use the whole game to polish off Alabama down in Tuscaloosa. Granted that Alabama team is now 6-3 and beat Michigan earlier in the year, but still, Alabama is no Wisconsin in Madison. That will be Purdue’s first difficult road test, and a good one at that, as Wisconsin is practically unbeatable in the Kohl Center under Bo Ryan.
• Was Butler a fluke or is Ohio State on the verge of dropping out of the top 25?  Butler is definitely on the way back up, but I am questioning whether OSU has enough in its tank to make up the difference. William Buford, who is averaging 12/4 on the year, stepped up for 20/7 for the Buckeyes. David Lighty, who is 12/5 on the year, went for 16/7 against the bulldogs. OSU is averaging 85.4 points per game this season, and scored just 66 against Butler. That’s about the gap of one Evan Turner.
• Is Illinois as good as their record suggests? It’s hard to say, but after their big Clemson upset, they haven’t played anybody too great. Yes, you could argue that Vandy is tough, but you definitely can’t make the case for Western Michigan. If you play Illinois, just don’t do so at their place. They are 8-0 at Assembly Hall in Champaign. A big test will be against Northwestern on December 30th at home.

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The last time we were this late on something, we got a nice little package from the stork that said “COD” on it.  Nevertheless, it’s our job to keep you updated as to the ins and outs of college basketball to the best of our abilities, and since we’ve unofficially declared this John Wall Day around RTC, we figured we might as well get something up about this. 

The John Wall Dance — have you seen or heard about this thing yet?  Apparently it’s completely taken over the Bluegrass State, and it’s working its way into the national zeitgeist through means beyond the standard YouTube clips of people doing it at weddings and deer hunts and Great Walls and Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parades.   Yes, we said deer hunts (hey, that deer was talking s#%#t!).  We’re not all the way there yet, as we haven’t yet seen Obama give us the characteristic raised arm with a rotating wrist (probably a good idea, as his detractors would accuse him of signaling Al Qaeda), but we’re hopeful that he’ll take on the Dance by March along with the rest of us.  What we have seen is that the JWD made its way onto a nationally televised prime time sitcom on ABC known as “Cougar Town,” where Courtney Cox undoubtedly pretends to act old and put upon by younger men in a new show with a tired formula.  Nevertheless, one of the main characters on the show, her neighbor (played by Josh Hopkins), threw the Wall Dance into a recent episode during a pickup basketball game (you know, the kind where the rims are all seven feet tall and middle-aged guys who can’t even dribble a ball are throwing down eye-level-at-the-rim dunks).  Take a gander below, and we’d recommend getting on board with this before your wife starts doing it and makes you look even more out of touch than you already are.

Each week RTC will posit a That’s Debatable question or topic that is relevant to the world of college basketball.  Sometimes whimsical, sometimes serious, we’ll post the thoughts from our core editing crew (in 200 words or less), but we’ll also be expanding to include our contributors and correspondents as appropriate throughout the season.  We also invite you, the readers, to join us as we mull over some of the questions facing the game today.  Feel free to send us your takes and/or leave them in the comments below.

This Week’s Topic: Kentucky’s John Wall has burst upon the scene as not only one of the best freshmen in America this season, but possibly one of the best we’ve seen around these parts in quite some time.  How good is he relative to some of the other great freshmen of recent vintage?  He’s the best freshman since whom and why?

Wall's World: We're Just Living In It (AP/Ed Reinke)

 zach hayes – editor/contributor, RTC

Kevin Durant. I know I’m not exactly digging into the history books with this one, but Durant was a totally dominant scorer in his only year in Austin, as well as one of those players you absolutely cannot miss if he’s on TV that night. His final numbers in 2006-07 were incredible: 25.8 PPG, 11.1 RPG, 47% FG, 82% FT, 40% 3pt. Rarely in college basketball do you see a player surpass the 45%/80%/40% trifecta. Durant completed the task in his freshman season. The only argument against Durant is that his Longhorns flamed out early in March; I’d blame that falter on a weak/young supporting cast that relied on Durant to completely carry that team. Plug Durant on John Wall’s Wildcats and the national championship trophy would be a lock to return to Lexington.

nvr1983 – editor/contributor, RTC

Is this a joke? Am I the only college basketball fan who isn’t fully aboard the John Wall bandwagon? I know he exceptionally talented, but he is still very rough around the edges. For every jaw-dropping play he makes (and there have been several) there are a half dozen turnovers. This isn’t exactly shocking since Wall has only played nine games, but for some reason everybody is willing to overlook his carelessness because of his ridiculous athleticism and his penchant for hitting big shots. I get the infatuation with his potential, but before I anoint him “The Next Big Thing” I want to see him dominate. I am talking a 37/23 like Durant put up against Texas Tech (in regulation!) back when Bob Knight was still roaming the sideline in Lubbock. Wall gives us glimpses of his ability to dominate, but he hasn’t put it together for a long enough stretch to have me put him at that level yet. Wall may never put up similar numbers because of the DDM and the fact that Wall has more talented players around him than Durant did, but I’m going to wait for a little more consistency out of Wall before I even consider him in the discussion of the all-time freshmen.

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Last weekend’s Villanova loss created the only substantive movement in the RTC Top 25 this week, but we weren’t rating the Wildcats as high as everyone else anyway, so the market on Jay Wright’s team appears to have been corrected.  Analysis after the jump…

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You may have noticed that our daily conference check-ins of nearly every D1 conference have oddly disappeared from view on our front page in the last 24 hours.  Or maybe you haven’t.  Regardless, this is not a mistake.  As part of the re-design that we’re trying so very hard to finish, we’re streamlining the site to make it easier for everyone to navigate.  So you’ve probably noticed a couple of new additions to the top of the site.  Let’s briefly cover how you can find the latest Conference Check-Ins that we know so many of you rely on with your morning espresso and croissants.  First, the schedule:

With the caveat that there are often other mitigating factors both with our correspondents and ourselves in terms of getting these up on time, here’s the ideal schedule. 

• Mondays – ACC, MVC, Big 12
• Tuesdays – Big 10, SEC
• Wednesdays – Big East, Atlantic 10
• Thursdays – Pac-10, WAC, Mountain West, WCC
• Mid-Major Fridays (every other week) – Horizon, Ivy, MAAC, SoCon, Summit, America East, Big West, MAC
• Mid-Major Fridays (every other week) – Horizon, NEC, Atlantic Sun, OVC, Patriot, Big South, Big Sky, Sun Belt

Next, the Navigation Bar at the top.  Pretty self-explanatory.  Each of the conferences we have regular check-ins for are alphabetically represented on this list.  So if you want to read the last six check-ins for the Big East (from most recent to oldest), this bar is where you’d do it. 

Next, you’ve undoubtedly noticed the four little boxes hanging out just above the top post.  The second box from the left contains the most recent twelve conference check-ins that we have posted.  So, for example, as of this morning, our most recent check-ins were our weekly looks at the Missouri Valley and the ACC, both of which were posted yesterday.  Prior to that was the Pac-10 over the weekend, and before that was a bunch from last Friday’s mid-major conference check-in day.  This is where you’ll want to come each day that your favorite conference is posted.

The final thing we’re going to try to do is provide one post each day that will excerpt that day’s check-ins so that you don’t forget that we’re doing these things.  We’ll see how this goes and reserve the right to change this around if necessary.  But for now, here are the excerpted versions of Monday’s ACC and MVC updates…

ACC – Steve Moore  (READ MORE)

RAMBLING RANT OF THE WEEK: The only news to come out of North Carolina’s rout of Presbyterian was this little tale from the uber-sensitive-snotty-coach file. In short, a Presbyterian fan (I know, I laughed too) shouted “Deon, you’re gonna miss it!” to Deon Thompson as he was shooting a free throw. Roy Williams was so upset that he had security escort the fan out of the building. I mean, are you kidding me Roy? Have you listened to what fans say at Duke games, or what your own fans say? Considering the score, this guy ­was probably being sarcastic, or at least just showing some pride for his school. Laugh if you want, or pass back an autographed Gatorade cup as a joke. But you’re gonna have him kicked out? This is the same guy who ripped his own fans for not coming to one of his cupcake-fests earlier this year. Grow up, Roy. You have a great team, a great fanbase, and more money and job security than you ever dreamed of. Act like a professional who has actually been to a college basketball game once in your life.  (…)

Missouri Valley – Patrick Marshall  (READ MORE)

Missouri St. wins two more games.  The Bears are continuing to win, much to the chagrin of my pre-season rankings. I thought they would have at least 3 losses by now. Home court advantage was probably a help to their early success, but they also have two wins on the road and are in the middle of a three-game road trip. It would be pretty amazing if they finish the non-conference season undefeated by getting road wins at St. Louis and Arkansas, both very winnable games. (…)

1. Marquette lost freshman forward Jeronne Maymon today when coach Buzz Williams announced that he was transferring from the school after just nine games, leaving the Golden Eagles with a mere nine scholarship players.  Or are they?  According to Maymon’s father, it was news to him and his son is “loving every minute of being” at Marquette.   Stay tuned on this one.
2. South Carolina head coach Darrin Horn received a two-year extension and a hefty raise of $300k yesterday in a showing by the school that they’re serious in trying to keep the talented young coach around for a while.
3. Food for thought:  Seth Davis reminds us that Kansas guard Xavier Henry is pretty solid in his own right, while the rest of us have become a sticky hot wet mess over Kentucky’s John Wall.
4. If you didn’t read John Stevens’ report from the Crosstown Shootout on Sunday night, grab yourself a cup of joe, relax, and let yourself be taken away to a college basketball nirvana.
5. Roy’s ejectee Brian King was interviewed by Dane Huffman at WRAL Sports yesterday, and he unequivocally states that he was not intoxicated and that he did nothing to warrant the ire that the UNC coach projected at him after he heckled Deon Thompson.  We gave our opinion on this yesterday, and yeah, this pretty much confirms what we thought.  Roy’s knowing smirk at the end of his press conference interview is telling — he’s the teflon don and he knows it.

Finals Week Crickets.  Yeah, this week is even worse than the last, as there’s no Jimmy V Classic nor SEC/Big East Invitational games to fill our schedule.  In fact, there’s not a single game involving two ranked teams until Saturday, so we’ll have to amuse ourselves in other ways this week.

Favors & the Ga Tech Freshman are Pretty Good (AP/Wade Payne)

Looking in at Georgia Tech’s Freshmen.  Georgia Tech 95, Chattanooga 64.  Not much of a game, but we thought since nothing else is going on tonight, this is a good opportunity to check in with the Ramblin’ Wreck’s talented corps of freshmen (A non-freshman, Gani Lawal had 29/7 to lead the Jackets in this game).  The jewel of the class, of course, was Derrick Favors, and he had a great night (14/10/3 assts/3 stls), right on par with his season averages of 14/8/2 blks on 68% shooting and an 18.0 efficiency rating.  Remember, Favors was considered to be right at the top of the Class of 2009 with John Wall, and is likely to be one of the top three picks in next year’s NBA Draft.  The surprise of Paul Hewitt’s class, however, has been Mfon Udofia, a 6’2 guard who has burst onto the scene his freshman year with 13/3/3 assts in a team-high 26 MPG — he contributed 10/2/3 assts tonight.  Two other new pieces at Tech’s disposal,  forward Brian Oliver and guard Glen Rice, Jr., are getting around twelve minutes per game and giving about 10/4 combined in their debut seasons.  This means that Hewitt is getting nearly half of the team’s production from his talented group of rooks.  Whether the young Jackets can keep it up throughout the rugged ACC is another question, but so far, so good, as GT is now 7-1 with its sole loss to an experienced Dayton team back in their second game of the year.  Tech fans must be excited about their future with this group.

This fall I’ve had the pleasure to travel around a little and attend several college basketball games as a media member, but as I walked by the loading docks and into the back of the Cintas Center on Sunday night, I felt it as soon as I got inside.  I’ve attended Xavier basketball games on a media credential in the past, but this time, the buzz, the sounds, the aura…

This was different.

I had expected a different experience, because this was my first Crosstown Shootout.  But this was beyond expectation.  I made a quick detour through the media room and, without being asked, one of the very helpful Xavier Sports Info workers showed me to my seat.  I was positioned just around the corner from the Cincinnati bench, a short bounce pass away from UC head coach Mick Cronin, himself.  If you’re familiar with the Cintas Center setup, you’ve probably already realized — I was right in front of the Xavier student section. 

Total.  Freaking.  Mayhem.

Now, that period-after-every-word emphasis thing you see above is an overused tool by everyone ranging from amateur tweeters (myself included) to professional sportswriters (myself not included), and it’s losing a little luster.  I use it here because…well, if I had to use it once in my life to get a point across, this is when I would choose to use it.  As I said, I’ve been to a number of games in this part of the country this season.  The only way I can think to describe this particular student section on this night is…”beautifully ridiculous.”  I turned around, saw their painted faces and myriad noise-producing implements, heard the unbelievable roar that flowed from them, and I honestly thought I’d see Mel Gibson as William Wallace riding around in front of them on a horse.  They were both exhilarating and horrifying.  And I mean that in the best way possible.  I didn’t grow up in Cincinnati, I didn’t go to either one of these schools, and I brought no allegiance with me for either program to this game.  I was there as an observer.  But they numbered in the hundreds and sounded like thousands.  They were already putting in a legendary performance — and the game hadn’t even tipped off.

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