College Basketball By The Tweets: UCLA, Texas Are Bad, Victor Oladipo is Good…
Posted by Nick Fasulo on December 11th, 2012
Nick Fasulo is an RTC correspondent who writes the column College Basketball By the Tweets, a look at the world of college hoops through the prism of everyone’s favorite social media platform. You can find him on Twitter @nickfasuloSBN.
We are now one month in to the college basketball season. What does that mean? It’s probably fair to start making definitive “this team is good, this team is bad” statements… only more eloquently. This week, Twitter was rife with negativity, as the reality of some team’s deficiencies were confirmed in week four.
Texas is Bad, Jaded
Take Texas for example. Sure, the absence of Myck Kybongo is killing this team, but offensively the Longhorns are an absolute mess, and simply plopping an above-average sophomore point guard into the rotation isn’t going to just fix everything. It’s even put the Worldwide Leader in a tenuous situation!
Texas is holding opponents to the lowest FG% in the nation. Georgetown scored 37 pts in their win Friday against Tennessee #nothinghastogive
— Longhorn Network (@LonghornNetwork) December 4, 2012
I can’t imagine people are rushing to get Texas #longhorn network. This hoops team is not great and not fun to watch. #NCAA
— Wally Szczerbiak (@wallyball) December 5, 2012
Texas has 11 turnovers in 13 minutes. They also wish this game was on the Longhorn Network so no one could see it.
— Greg Giombarrese (@ggiombarrese) December 5, 2012
UCLA is Bad Too, And Texas Is Still Bad!
Following that drubbing against Georgetown, the Longhorns were unfortunately back on national television. They could not hide, playing against an equally disappointing UCLA team in Reliant Stadium. Two high-level programs failing miserably to meet preseason expectations makes for an empty football stadium.
Buy a ticket,get the entire section at Reliant!
— Doug Gottlieb (@GottliebShow) December 8, 2012
Still sitting here with hundreds of others (dead serious) at Reliant, awaiting tipoff between Texas-UCLA
— Jason King (@JasonKingESPN) December 8, 2012
How bad is Texas? They’ve missed three wide-open layups. How bad is UCLA? They trail Texas by one.
— Jeff Eisenberg (@JeffEisenberg) December 8, 2012
Honestly, I don’t know what’s more embarrassing, a moist basketball court on an aircraft carrier, or crickets.
November Uncontrolled Madness
Speaking of gimmicks, the Mad Scientist Mark Hollis is at it again… sitting in the lab thinking up crazy ideas to present the game of college basketball. His latest concept of an AAU-style event at Cowboys Stadium sparked polarizing opinions.
Everybody’s mad at Mark Hollis “AAU” idea. Guy came up with model for Winter Classic, the Aircraft Carrier game and stadium Final Four.
— Michael DeCourcy (@tsnmike) December 7, 2012
Seeing a lot of hoops snobs all in a tizzy about Mark Hollis’ four games at once idea. Calm down. You’d love it if your team was involved.
— Nick Baumgardner (@nickbaumgardner) December 7, 2012
A dyspeptic, cacophonous monstrosity of pointless over-indulgence with Spartans & Texans at the center of it. freep.com/article/201212…
— Bison C. Messink (@bisonmessink) December 6, 2012
My take: Gimmicks will not save college basketball. A better quality product and match-ups against top teams on college campuses (see: North Carolina vs. Indiana; Ohio State vs. Duke) will improve college basketball.
Jay Wright’s Alleged Infidelities
It was the worst game of telephone we’ve ever played. According to Twitter, Jay Wright impregnated a Villanova coed, and this baseless rumor spread like wildfire.
Heard Jay Wright may resign at halftime because he got a cheerleader pregnant #sheep
— Thomas Eagan (@tomgunz1) December 6, 2012
Let’s play a game …. Which one of the nova girls soccer players did Jay Wright get pregnant ??
— Amy Gillespie (@Amy_GMixx) December 6, 2012
There were thousands of tweets just like this, and we also learned that the rumor had started in small Villanova circles back in June. Naturally, things started to get a bit weird.
What’s this business about Jay Wright being the father of Kate Middleton’s baby?
— Dan Gross (@PhillyGossip) December 7, 2012
Jay Wright got a former Villanova cheerleader pregnant three times..
— d’FoyeEffect (@TheFoyeEffect) December 5, 2012
Then reality, thankfully, intervened.
The amount of people who just tweet out the Jay Wright rumors should give Newt Gingrich hope people still believe in his moon colony.
— Michael Lemaire (@Mike_Lemaire) December 5, 2012
Jay Wright isn’t resigning tomorrow. There is no press conference scheduled. If you believe this rumor, you will be disappointed.
— Brian Ewart (@Brian_Ewart) December 5, 2012
Wright has plenty more to worry about. The Wildcats are 5-4 and looking like an incredibly underwhelming team that could really struggle in the Big East.
The Emergence Of Victor Oladipo
I have a confession to make: I did not know who Victor Oladipo was entering last season. Indiana had yet to make that next step under Tom Crean, and the 6’5″ guard put up average stats on a bad team. Last year Oladipo made a splash with his athletic play on the both ends of the court. This season, he’s becoming a star, and making sure everyone knows, from dunks gone viral…
Victor Oladipo on his dunks: “The one where I dunked on the dude was pretty good. The backwards one, I liked that one too.”
— Jeff Rabjohns (@JeffRabjohns) December 9, 2012
Oladipo’s dunk looked more like a Hoosier Hysteria dunk contest than a game. Only difference was there were no kids in the lane to leap over
— Terry Hutchens (@indystar_hutch) December 9, 2012
… to his tenacious on ball defense.
Oladipo only had five steals yesterday. Must have taken the day off.
— Seth Davis (@SethDavisHoops) December 9, 2012
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