1. Connecticut has had good fortune to remain undefeated at 8-0. Fresh in everyone’s memory is the Shabazz Napier buzzer beater against Florida, but they also escaped one-point games against both Indiana and Maryland, and held on for a two-point victory against Boston College. The Hartford Courant said Connecticut is creating its own luck with its tenacity. Each of the close wins individually may not be overly impressive, but as a group, they are quite impressive. The Huskies can’t keep living on the edge and expect to pull out every nail-biting game, but the early-season experience — and the fact that Napier is on the team — will only help them in AAC play and beyond.
2. Rutgers coach Eddie Jordan had a bad Thanksgiving. His team was 4-4 heading into a tough match-up with George Washington last night, and that record is simply unacceptable to the first year coach. Depth was an issue for Jordan’s squad coming in to the season, and that was before injuries to Kadeem Jack, Craig Brown, and Kerwin Okoro. Jordan is not pushing the panic button, but knows his team just needs to execute better, play hard and play intelligently. The players better listen to their coach, or the Scarlett Knights will have a hard time fighting their way out of the cellar of the AAC this winter.
3. Memphis’ big win against Oklahoma State Sunday was a course-correcting win, head coach Josh Pastner said. Pastner spoke of the need for course correction after the humiliating loss in the first meeting between the two teams in Stillwater. The Tigers had to work to make sure the rematch could even take place, coming from eight down in the second half to beat LSU in the semifinal. It’s still very early into the season, and Pastner knows his team is not a finished product, but it’s nice to know the national perception of the Tigers has changed, and a great deal of local pressure has been lifted. At least for the time being.
4. Much has been said about Memphis’ big win Sunday against Oklahoma State, mainly because of the amount of pressure it relieved from head coach Josh Pastner. The pressure on Pastner stemmed from the success his predecessor John Calipari had. Pastner initially said anyone who wanted to follow Calipari at Memphis would have to be a nut job to even think about it. Pastner’s mentor, and former coach Lute Olson didn’t think it was the right path for the young, aspiring coach. The 36-year old may be nuts, but he is also winning games and has a team this season that could compete for a conference crown that matters more than those ones he gathered previously in C-USA.
5. One of Louisville’s all-time great basketball players, DeJuan Wheat, will be added to the school’s illustrious Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2014. Wheat was a part of Hall of Fame coach Denny Crum’s last strong team in 1997 that was a game away from getting back to the Final Four. A game in which Wheat was hobbled with an ankle injury. Wheat’s jersey already hangs from the YUM! Center rafters and the Louisville athletic Hall of Fame wouldn’t be accurate without Wheat in it.

Ross Schulz (34 Posts)

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 5th, 2013 at 7:40 am by Ross Schulz and is filed under aac, microsites, morning 5. Tagged: connecticut, dejuan wheat, eddie jordan, josh pastner, memphis, uconn. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.