If you are interested in participating in our ATB2 feature, send in your submissions to rushthecourt@gmail.com. We will add to this post throughout the day as the submissions come in so keep on sending them.
Top 25 Games
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#2 Kansas 85, Baylor 65: “Things finally seemed to click and the Jayhawks looked like a team playing as close to their ceiling as they have all year. In a game watched live by 35 NBA scouts and 10 NBA General Managers, the Morris twins led Kansas from the outset and completely dominated the first half of basketball in Waco.” (Rock Chalk Talk)
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#5 Pittsburgh 74, #3 Syracuse 66: “When you start a football game down 19-0, things are off to a bad start, but at least you’re holding them out of the endzone. When you start a basketball game down 19-0, you’re not doing anything right. Such was the case tonight when the Orange found themselves in a 19-point hole early. It’s the kind of demoralizing start to a game that makes you want to throw in the towel.” (Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician)
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#8 UConn 61, #7 Villanova 59: “I’ll admit it: I had my doubts about this team. Oh, I thought they were very, very good, or at least had the potential to be, but that doesn’t mean I thought they deserved a top-10 ranking. On paper they had earned it, but when I turned on the TV, I didn’t see a top-10 team staring back at me. Even after the huge win at Texas last week I felt the Huskies were more lucky than good. If Rick Barnes could coach his way out of a paper bag then we would have spent the last week blasting Roscoe Smith and wondering what might have been. But that was all before today’s game, because now, the doubts are gone: UConn deserves to be mentioned with the big boys. This is a top-10 team.” (The UConn Blog)
Other Games of Interest
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Siena 73, Canisius 69: “Gaby Belardo had a career-high performance, but it was not enough. Ryan Rossiter registered his 45th career double-double as the Siena Saints avenged an earlier defeat with a 73-69 victory over Canisius Golden Griffins in Metro-Atlantic Athletic Conference action at the Times-Union Center.” (Pickin Splinters)
Pre-Game Analysis
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#22 Georgetown at Seton Hall: The Hoyas look to build on their win against Rutgers after going through a rough patch early in Big East play. (Casual Hoya)
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Clemson at UNC: “By my count, Brad Brownell is the 13th coach at Clemson to attempt to win in Chapel Hill. And considering the way UNC has been playing of late, he may have the best chance of doing so of any of them.” (Carolina March)
News/Analysis
- Why is the ACC so bad? Experience might tell us why: “I watched two ACC games this weekend: Duke-Virginia (obviously) and UNC-GT. I can safely say that both games were just terrible to watch – even when Virginia was winning, glorious basketball was no where to be found. All manner of pundits have lined up to say just how terrible the ACC is and they’re right. One thing that gets my goat, however, is that no one has offered any reason for why the ACC is so decrepit.” (Dear Old U. Va.)
- Creek has stress facture, out indefinitely: “According to our good friend Dustin Dopirak over at the Herald-Times, Tom Crean announced tonight on his radio show that Maurice Creek has a stress fracture in his right knee cap, and is out indefinitely.” (Inside the Hall)
- A (semi) Statistical Recap of Baylor: Using KenPom’s Four Forces to break down the Jayhawks resounding victory over the Bears. (Rock Chalk Talk)
- UCLA Basketball: 2 More Must Wins and the Harrick Funnel: “The gist are these next two games against Cal and Stanford are must win games and, no not all games are must wins. As of Monday night in the RPI, we are ranked 64. We have one very good quality win over #4 in RPI BYU but we have one bad loss to Montana #120 and some other losses that are at least not helpful including VCU at 79, USC at 87. A win over Cal would be helpful with our RPI as Cal has an RPI of 53, better than ours. The lowest RPI to make the big dance is usually around 60, with the lowest in 15 years being 74 according to a 2009 ESPN article I found in a quick search. But of course RPI is not enough. A fourth place or lower finish in the PAC 10 is almost certain death as well. If we win Saturday, on national TV mind you, against Stanford we will be guaranteed a tie for second in the conference going into the next week. In other words, we will be on our way to accomplishing the Tourney goal.” (Bruins Nation)
- Texas Basketball Report 4.3: Sustaining the Success: “The University of Texas men’s basketball team enters this week 14-3 overall and 2-0 in conference play after thoroughly dispatching Big 12 cellar dwellars Texas Tech (83-52) and Oklahoma (66-46) this week. As has already been detailed, this team is ahead of schedule and exceeding expectations, finishing the nonconference season with quality wins over Illinois, North Carolina, and Michigan State, while narrowly losing to Pitt and UConn, both of which Texas could have (and arguably should have) won.” (Burnt Orange Nation)
- Does OU’s Jeff Capel Get Another Year?: “Jeff Capel has been the head coach of the men’s basketball program since 2006. In his first season, his team went 16-15 overall and 6-10 in conference. Not exactly the numbers we are looking for but it was Capel’s first year and he did have a winning record. In his entire tenure, Capel is 82-51 giving him a .616 winning percentage overall and .500 in conference and most of these numbers were because of Blake Griffin deciding to play two seasons for Capel. Are these numbers acceptable for a head coach to get paid $1.05 million a year at what some people have called ‘one of the best programs in the nation’?” (Crimson and Cream Machine)
- Big Ten Roundup: January 17th, 2011: Breaking down the Big Ten by the numbers. (UM Hoops)
- Big Ten power rankings: Week 4: The Indiana bloggers seem to be in complete agreement about the pecking order in the Big Ten as they all submitted similar ballots. (Inside the Hall)
- Positive PostGame Prognosis: Rutgers: “Overall I don’t think the Hoyas really did anything different than they have the past couple of games, their shots just fell this game where they hadn’t in the past. This game was only a B, B+ out of the Hoyas, but they won where in the past they’ve lost due to the fact that their outside touch returned. We can definitely play better than we did and we will continue to play better now that the most dangerous weapon in our arsenal has returned. Seeing the ball go through the hoop is huge for a team. Making shots cures a lot of deficiencies. This return to form is most encouraging as hitting shots tends to lead to hitting more shots. If we can return to our normal shooting numbers for the rest of the big east season we’re going to get plenty of more wins.” (Casual Hoya)