Ray Floriani of College Chalktalk is the RTC correspondent for the MAAC and NEC Conferences.
SOUTH ORANGE, NJ – The standings of the NEC, Monday January 12, as the race is starting to take shape.
Patrick Marshall of Bluejay Basketball is the RTC correspondent for the Big 12 and Missouri Valley Conferences.
Current Records and my standings (Conference Record)(Last Week Rank)
So many things have happened this week and the Valley power has shifted this week. Thus life in the Missouri Valley Conference.
GAME OF THE WEEK:
Bradley 56, Illinois St. 52—Bradley won this one in a grind it out affair. Holding Illinois St. to 37% shooting for the game and 23% from 3-point land helped knock off the last non-major conference undefeated team. Champ Oguchi was held to 3 points in this game which was key since he has been a major part of helping get this team to where it is.
Because of the weak schedule the next two days, I’m doing a 2-for-1 edition of Set Your Tivos covering both Monday and Tuesday night for you today.
Monday
– #13 Notre Dame at #20 Louisville at 7 PM on ESPN and ESPN360.com: After a tough victory at Villanova on Saturday (best game of the day), Rick Pitino will be looking to have his Cardinals build on the momentum as the reigning Big East POY Luke Harangody comes to town. The Cardinals will have their hands full with the experience of the Fighting Irish to go along with the inside play of Harangody (24.5 PPG and 12.7 RPG) and the outside shooting of Kyle McAlarney (16.5 PPG on 46.3% from 3). While Harangody gets all the hype (for good reason), Mike Brey‘s chances of taking Notre Dame deep into March will likely ride on the shooting of McAlarney, who may be the best pure shooter in the nation (Stephen Curry fanatics: feel free to flame away in the comment section). However, the Irish’s chances tonight will depend on the play of PG Tory Jackson (11.8 PPG, 5.9 APG, and 4.5 RPG). If Jackson can outplay the enigmatic Edgar Sosa, Notre Dame has a good chance at pulling out a win tonight. If Sosa is having an off night, Louisville will need strong performances from their interior guys (Earl Clark, Samardo Samuels, and Terrence Williams) against Harangody and hope that McAlarney doesn’t go off. We keep waiting for Louisville to play to their “potential”. Will this be the night?
– #11 Texas at #5 Oklahoma at 9 PM on ESPN and ESPN360.com: A match-up of teams that couldn’t beat Arkansas. Blake Griffin will probably end up with another ridiculous 20/20 and Texas doesn’t have anybody who can match-up with (nobody in college does) so the Longhorns will need to focus on limiting Willie Warren (the diaper dandy who has been surprisingly consistent this season). If Rick Barnes wants to get the victory, he will need strong games out of A.J. Abrams and Damion James. [Side note: What is going on with Connor Atchley? His numbers are down across the board.] I’d like to give Texas a chance here with Abrams bouncing back from his awful effort against Arkansas, but I’m going to have to with the Sooners since Griffin is a double-double machine and my gut feeling that Warren will go off.
Tuesday
– Memphis at Tulsa at 7:30 PM on ESPN2 and ESPN360.com: Tulsa remains a bit of a mystery with an 11-5 record, but their best player (and one of the best in Conference USA) Jerome Jordan has played very poorly in several of their losses. I’m not really expecting Tulsa to beat the Tigers here, but it will be interesting to see if anybody in Conference USA can challenge Memphis, who is down this year as Tyreke Evans hasn’t played to the level that many expected him to after all the hype that he has received.
– Kentucky at Tennessee at 9 PM on ESPN and ESPN360.com: It looks like these two disappointing teams will be battling for the SEC East title this year. Regardless of the relatively slow starts for both teams, this should be an interesting one from a rivalry perspective and whethere Kentucky’s dynamic duo of Jodie Meeks (24.2 PPG) and Patrick Patterson (18.9 PPG on a ridiculous 70.9% FG and 9.3 RPG) can do enough to match Tennessee’s superior depth (headed by Tyler Smith and Wayne Chism). I’d normally call this one a toss-up, but the home court should give the Vols the edge.
We’re old enough to remember the mid-80s, when Hoya Paranoia ruled the national college basketball scene. Back then, the word Georgetown was synonymous with high-flying, athletic but brutish players who liked to get in an opponent’s face and let him smell what he had for breakfast. The Hoyas under John Thompson were intimidating. They were brash. They were physical and they let you know it. In some hushed circles, the Hoyas were even called “thugs.”
Image was part of it. Maybe it was the unique grey t-shirts under their uniforms or the way-before-its-time shaven head of hired gun Michael Graham. Maybe it was the bombastic style of their oversized coach with his towel and militaristic type of discipline. More likely, it was the superior size, skill and power of players like Patrick Ewing, Charles Smith and Reggie Williams. We remember watching teams simply wilt when faced with another patented Georgetown blitzkrieg. A few woofs, a couple of wailing chin-ups on the rim, and you could literally see the fear develop in the eyes of the opponent. John Thompson, of course, enabled and facilitated this mentality – it was gasoline to fuel his “us against them” paradigm, and it worked. The Hoyas went to three title games from 1982-85, and won the whole shebang in 1984.
So it was interesting to hear last week that JT the Elder had admonished his son’s team on his radio show over Georgetown’s current rebounding woes by stating that the Hoyas need more “thugs” on its team. From the AP report:
One of the pitfalls of having a Hall of Fame father with a radio show is that the father-son advice gets dispensed for everyone to hear. Those listening to the John Thompson Show on local station WTEM (DC) this week heard the longtime Georgetown coach suggest that the current team was in need of some “thugs.” Not criminals or classroom bullies. But guys who can go get some rebounds. Thompson gave more or less the same advice when he visited practice this week, imploring the players to adopt the kind of get-the-ball attitude that could solve the rebounding woes that have beset the program under John Thompson III.
Of course, we all know what Thompson meant – that Georgetown needs to get tougher – but it was an interesting use of a loaded word by the CEO of Hoya Paranoia, someone who would have defiantly taken umbrage with that characterization of his team (and used it to his full advantage) a generation ago.
Nevertheless, there is truth to JT2’s complaint. Georgetown currently ranks a paltry 289th nationally in rebound percentage (47.9%), they have been outrebounded in eight of their fourteen contests, and only Greg Monroe (6.3) averages more than five per game. Even the son JT3 admits that it is a problem. To the Hoyas’ credit, in their last two games, they’ve been +5 (Notre Dame) and +11 (Providence) in the rebounding department, so maybe in taking a page from his motivational playbook, father knows best after all.
A new set of Fast Breaks to get your “work” week off to a good start. . .
And now, with your RTC public service announcement…
ESPN Full Court will be FREE, as in zero dollars, for the week of Jan. 12-17, as part of a promotional teaser to inspire you to buy the second half of the season for the low, low price of $75*.
Here are a few of the nationally prominent games featured this week that you shouldn’t miss because they’re free (the full schedule is here):
Check your local cable or dish provider for the channel listing and times.
* – actually not that low of a price
Zach Hayes is RTC’s resident bracketologist. He’ll be regularly out-scooping, out-thinking and out-shining Lunardi over the next three months.
Conference play is beginning to heat up (what a game between Wake Forest and North Carolina on Sunday night) and that means the bracket is starting to become a bit less muddled. This week saw 10 teams trade places in the bracket and a major shift amongst the top four seeds. I used RPI, SOS, record, conference record and wins vs. RPI top 1-50 while evaluating the true bubble teams by their individual resumes. Please leave any thoughts/gripes in the comments.
Quick notes:
Last Four In: Dayton, Oklahoma State, Maryland, Florida State
Last Four Out: Kentucky, Illinois State, Boston College, Missouri
Next Four Out: Creighton, Stanford, Arizona, South Carolina
Multiple bids per conference: Big East (9), Atlantic Coast (7), Big 10 (7), Big 12 (6), Pacific 10 (4), SEC (3), Mountain West (3), West Coast (2), Atlantic 10 (2).
Automatic bids: Binghamton, Xavier, Wake Forest, East Tennessee State, Oklahoma, Pittsburgh, Weber State, VMI, Michigan State, Long Beach State, George Mason, Memphis, Butler, Cornell, Siena, Miami (OH), Morgan State, Northern Iowa, San Diego State, Robert Morris, Morehead State, California, Navy, Tennessee, Davidson, Stephen F. Austin, Alabama State, North Dakota State, Western Kentucky, Gonzaga, Utah State.
New additions: Binghamton, East Tennessee State, Long Beach State, Miami (OH), Morgan State, Northern Iowa, Oklahoma State, Robert Morris, San Diego State, Weber State.
Dropped out: Belmont, Boston College, Illinois State, Missouri, LSU, Oakland, Portland State, Stanford, Quinnipiac, Vermont.
Carolina Goes Down Again. Wake Forest 92, UNC 89. Roy Williams may want to avoid these Sunday night FSN games in the ACC, as his Tar Heels lost for the second consecutive weekend in the showcase event (UNC only has one more scheduled – Feb. 15 at Miami (FL)). Unlike last week when UNC lost to BC, an upset in the traditional sense of the word, we don’t consider the #4 team in America beating the #3 team (even if it’s Carolina) as much of an upset (and the Wake students should lose their ticket privileges for their ignorant, inappropriate RTC tonight). Vegas disagreed (UNC was a 7-pt fav at tipoff), but having watched both teams several times this season, we’re absolutely convinced that Wake (not the more vaunted Heels) is the team with more NBA-level talent on its roster. It played out tonight, as Wake’s long arms and quick defensive closeouts regularly harassed the Carolina shooters into rushed and contested shots – the Heels shot a season-worst 35% from the floor (26% from three). This is consistent with Wake’s position as the second most efficient defense in the country – the package of length, size and quickness that players such as Al-Farouq Aminu, James Johnson and Jeff Teague bring to bear quieted the offensive skills of everyone on the Heel roster except Danny Green (22/6/5 assts). Consider that Tyler Hansbrough (3-12), Deon Thompson (3-13), Ty Lawson (4-12) and Wayne Ellington (4-13) threw up bricks from everywhere on the floor; the only thing that kept the Heels in this game was their superior work on the boards (46-35 and 17 off rebs) and 31 made free throws. On the Wake side, Jeff Teague (career-high 34 pts) is every bit as good as advertised and he may just be the best player in the ACC this year (21/4/4 assts on 53% FG and 54% 3FG for the season) – notwithstanding the hype machine that surrounds Psycho-T’s every move. Chas McFarland had a quietly efficient game (20/9), but the key to Wake’s victory tonight was reining in Carolina’s breakneck attack that results in easy baskets. We recall no more than a mere handful of occasions where Lawson was able to actually push the ball into the gut of the Wake transition defense and create good scoring opportunities. Oh, and this play by James Johnson was simply nasty…
So what does this mean – is UNC overrated? Probably not in the sense that they’re definitely one of the top five teams in America. But the ridiculous talk about undefeated seasons and ‘best team ever’ was egregious and irresponsible. Carolina is an experienced, talented team, but they’re essentially the same team as last year. Their offense remains spectacular, especially when Lawson can get them running up and down the court, but their defense is almost completely predicated on getting on-the-fly turnovers to fuel that attack. When they don’t get takeaways where they can run, they have to rely solely on their halfcourt defense, and as we saw tonight, it can be broken down and exposed by dribble penetration and ball movement. What about Wake Forest – are the Deacs underrated? As John Stevens’ showed in his column last week, there are dozens of teams ahead of Wake on the Vegas odds list, so it’s clear that the national consciousness hasn’t caught up with them yet. But we’re looking at a team with two NBA lottery picks in the starting lineup (Teague/Aminu), the possibility of a third (Johnson), a few other nice parts (McFarland, Williams, Hale, Woods) and we’re wondering if any other team in America, Carolina included, has more talent? Furthermore, the core of Wake’s team are sophomores and freshmen, which means this team could be markedly better by March (cf. with UNC, where we pretty much know what we’re going to get) – how good could this Wake Forest team ultimately become? From the looks of it now, this team is clearly one of the top four in America, and probably has more upside than anybody. The only real question is how the Deacs will perform now that the national spotlight will begin to squarely focus on their program. This isn’t a program that has traditionally reveled in that role.
Wake's Rush the Court = FAIL
Sunday’s Other Games.
Corey Johns is the RTC correspondent for the America East Conference.
Standings
The Contenders
Binghamton- At the beginning of the season nobody knew what Binghamton was going to do. They are loaded with talent but they were mostly transfers coming together for the first year. They are definitely answering any questions people had about them as they are 6-1 in their last seven games with three conference wins. D.J. Rivera (21.6ppg, 7.0rpg) and Malik Alvin (12.2ppg, 4.3apg) were a questionable backcourt coming into the season as Rivera is a transfer from St. Joseph’s who did not have to sit out a transfer year and Alvin is a junior college transfer. Nobody knew how well they would play together but they complement each other greatly and are the reason Binghamton is top the conference right now.
Back for another day of BGTD. We have a light early schedule today with only a couple interesting early games. I’ll be updating this post throughout the early part of the day so keep on checking back and feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments.
St. John’s at #1 Pittsburgh, Noon
– Been a struggle so far for the #1 team in the country. The Red Storm have been on fire from the field while the Panthers have struggled to find their range from the FT line (7/15). The Red Storm have been getting a big game out of D.J. Kennedy, who has 9 points at the half. The only reason the Panthers are in this game has been dominating the glass and a big start from DeJuan Blair, who has been beastly in the first half. It will be fun seeing Blair go head-to-head against the other big men in the Big East.
– Rough start for Sam Young with 5 points on 2/11 FG although he just got a nice assist to Gilbert Brown to put Pitt up by 5 with 1:20 left and then a nasty dunk off a feed from Levance Fields.
– Pitt up 41-36 at half after heating up a little at the end of the half and St. John’s missing a couple shots in a row.
– Interesting fact: Both Kennedy and Blair played at Schenley HS (Pittsburgh) on a team that won the Pennsylvania (PIAA) Class AAAA Championship. Does anybody know if Schenley is a regional powerhouse or just a fluke getting 2 D-1 scholarship guys on the same team?
– Weird setup for the seating at Petersen Events Center. It almost looks like they have luxury boxes behind the benches. Hard to see on TV. Does anybody who has been inside the arena have a little more info on this?
– Pitt is up 58-42 with 13:01 left.
– Wow. That’s a brutal schedule for Pittsburgh for the rest of January (5 straight games against ranked teams after a game against USF).
– Looks like Pitt has opened up a big lead and should be able to cruise the rest of the way. I’m going to switch my focus to the other 2 game below unless something interesting happens in this game.
– Pitt is putting on a clinic now. 85-61 with 2:36 left. Time to call this game.
#18 Xavier at Fordham, 1 PM
– Xavier up 35-22 with 4:34 left in the first half.
– Pretty dominant performance so far. They are shooting 60% from the field compared to Fordham’s 28%.
– I guess this is why people ranked Xavier above Butler in the BlogPoll a few weeks back even after Butler beat them. (Butler barely beat a bad Detroit team at home yesterday).
– Not getting this one on TV so if anybody is actually watching this one and wants to fill us in. Feel free because it’s hard to say something insightful by looking at constantly refreshing box scores.
– Fordham starts the 2nd half on an 13-4 run to cut the lead to 6 with 16:42 left making my above comment look really bad.
– Make that an 18-4 run to cut it to 49-48 with 15:25 left. How is the #18 team in the nation letting this happen against a 2-11 team?
– Xavier finally brought their team out after halftime. Now they’re up by 15 with 9:10 left. If I just saw the box score tomorrow morning, I would have assumed that Xavier rolled in this game.
– Xavier is up by 23 now with 4:07 left. Looks like another “routine” victory.
– Nice balanced effort from Xavier with 6 guys in double figures.
Wisconsin at #14 Purdue, 1:30 PM
– This should be a good game. Wisconsin has played well this year winning their first 3 games in the Big Ten including a big win at Michigan earlier this year.
– The game is being played on Keady Court. Is it too much to ask for a logo with a horrible combover?
– Speaking of the court. It looks like another of the raised courts (benches are below the floor). How many other schools have something like this? Does it have something to do with the colors? The only other one I can think of is at Vanderbilt.
– Looks like Robbie Hummel is healthy as he just hit a 3 after missing some time. He is coming off the bench, but I don’t think that will last long.
– Looks like a football game is breaking out here. Bodies hitting the floor.
– Nasty putback dunk by JaJuan Johnson. I guess the Big Ten does have some athletes.
– The Badgers have played pretty poorly, but is still in the game at half, 32-26 off an 8-0 run to end the half. If Purdue wants to make a run in March, they need to start putting teams away.
– Big first half by Johnson with 14 points on 6-of-7 from the field.
– Wisconsin keeps hanging around, but they haven’t been able to challenge Purdue for the lead. Each time they come close, they fail to convert.
– Tough foul on E’Twaun Moore there. Could have went either way.
– I have no idea what Bill Raftery was trying to say there. Something about Hummel’s 3-pointer, church, and marriage.
– Purdue is opening up a nice working margin here.
– Wisconsin would be right in this game if they could finish near the basket. They must have missed a dozen shots within 5 feet so far today with 7 min left in the game.
– Nice victory for Purdue (first win in the Big Ten after 2 losses). They won a game they should win without ever being in too much trouble. Great game from JaJuan Johnson with 20 points and 10 rebounds.
Overnight 5: February 16, 2023
2021-22 Rush The Court Preseason All-America TeamsRTC 16: 2021-2022 Pre-Season Rankings
Preseason Stock Report: Buy Now
Preseason Stock Report: Bear Market
2020-21 Rush the Court All-America Teams and Yearly AwardsEight Questions for the Final FourEight Key Questions for the Sweet Sixteen16 Questions For First Round Saturday of the NCAA Tournament16 Questions for First Round Friday of the NCAA Tournament
