- In an interesting twist, Mississippi State had been relatively quiet for a few weeks. Sure, their team was falling apart on the court, but at least they were not imploding off of it like they have done quite frequently recently. That all changed yesterday when star forward Arnett Moultrie told a reporter that he did not think that the team was tough enough to bounce back from their five-game losing streak. While we tend to agree with Moultrie’s assessment it is shocking that Moultrie would come out and say that publicly although maybe we should not be so surprised when none of his teammates have come out and challenged that assertion even anonymously.
- While most of the nation (or at least the college basketball-watching part) watched the last regular season Border War game for the foreseeable, former Kansas star Marcus Morris watched the game in Lawrence. Following the Jayhawks remarkable comeback, Morris reportedly went to a local Lawrence bar where he was cited for his involvement in a fight well after midnight. The fight reportedly involved another man at the bar and an employee, who was punched at least twice. The details on what actually occurred are hard to find right now, but Morris will be due back in a Lawrence court on March 20, which will fall on the Tuesday in between the opening and second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
- Gregg Doyel is known for going after hot-button topics and yesterday he took on another one as he defended the coaching ability of John Calipari. It might sound like a ridiculous topic to even discuss and some might even argue that Doyel is essentially building up a straw man just to knock him down, but apparently there are a handful of people out there who think that Calipari is just a great recruiter/salesman and not an excellent coach. While we might agree that Calipari’s ability on the recruiting trail might exceed his X-and-O capacity, that is not meant as much as a slight as it is a reflection of how he is the best recruiter in the game right now. The fact is that there are plenty of coaches who get great recruits to come to their school, but fail to back it up with results on the court and John Calipari is not one of those coaches.
- Looking for scatter plots with regression analyses to try to figure out which teams are going to do well in March? If the answer is yes (or if you just want the latter part to figure out who will do well in March), John Ezekowitz may have the answer for you. The actual conclusion probably is not groundbreaking for most fans, but the actual analysis and the fact that it may give you flashbacks to statistics class is certainly worth a look. Of course, since the results fit what we already suspected we are always more willing to buy into what he is selling.
- In this week’s edition of Hoop Thoughts, Seth Davis takes a look at Marquette, a top 10 team from the Big East that nobody is talking about as a national title contender. While Seth is not willing to call them that yet, he does note how strong the program has become under Buzz Williams, who is just his fourth year as head coach at the school. To Davis the story with Marquette is not just what they have done this season, which is remarkable in its own right, but instead what they have become as a program and what the future holds for a program led by a coach who is not even 40 yet.