John Templon is the RTC correspondent for America East. You can also find his musings online at NYC Buckets or on Twitter @nybuckets
Reader’s Take
The Week That Was
New Hampshire feeds teams hungry for wins: No one saw UMBC’s victory at New Hampshire coming before conference play began. It caused quite the stir in America East. Chase Plummer scored 23 points to lead the Retrievers in that 82-76 win, just their second of the season. The thing is, the Wildcats followed that loss up by losing at Hartford, the Hawks’ first win of the season.
BU a man down: The Terriers were without star guard D.J. Irving for three games as he worked through the effects of post-concussion syndrome. The concussion happened sometime during the Villanova game, which BU lost 68-43. It’s proving to be much more costly in the long run. Irving returned for the game at Vermont on Thursday, but he went 1-8 from the field in 27 minutes in the Terriers’ 14-point loss.
Gerardo Suero shoots a lot of free throws: Albany’s junior college transfer is one of the most prolific free throw shooters in the nation. He’s on pace to attempt over 300 free throws this season. That’s a whole heck of a lot. One Bid Wonders had a great breakdown of Suero and past results in America East play.
Gerald McLemore Has Helped Maine Shoot To The Top Of The Standings (goblackbears.com)
Power Rankings
Maine (7-5, 1-0) – Maine has been living on the road for a while and finally gets to return on home on Saturday to take on UMBC. The Black Bears might have five losses, but three of them (at Connecticut, Notre Dame and San Diego) are completely understandable. With Gerald McLemore and freshman sensation Justin Edwards leading the way, this might be Maine’s year to rise up. Read the rest of this entry »
Eric Moyer is the RTC correspondent for the Atlantic Sun Conference.
Reader’s Take
Looking Back
After each school opened league play in December, the A-Sun’s conference season resumed on Monday. Belmont and Mercer each scored a pair of impressive victories. The Bruins own the only unblemished A-Sun mark at 4-0, while the Bears sport a 3-1 mark – with that lone loss coming at Belmont. Both have positioned themselves inside of CollegeRPI.com’s top 100.
For the Bruins, this start only builds off their dominating championship season of a year ago. Over their last 27 games against A-Sun foes, the Bruins own a 26-1 mark with the one loss came against their next opponent, cross-town rival Lipscomb.
For Mercer, wins against Florida Gulf Coast and Stetson came on the heels on a 13-day road swing on which the Bears notched wins at Georgia Tech and Navy to conclude the non-conference portion of the season at 8-5, their best non-conference record since going 5-2 in 2004-05.
In Memorial
Iconic coach Gene Bartow, seen here with his wife, Ruth, will be greatly missed by the college basketball community. (AP)
On Tuesday, legendary head coach Gene Bartow passed away at the age of 81. His son, Murry, took to the bench one day later guiding his East Tennessee State Buccaneers to an 88-73 victory against USC Upstate. Following that win, which improved the Bucs’ record to 6-7 (1-2 in league play), Bartow said, “Today was difficult and the last 24 hours were tough with the news of my dad. But I was proud of my guys and the way they came out ready to play. We had a lot riding on this game because we started the year 0-2 in our conference, and then my dad passing away just added even more motivational factors. Honestly, I would have shocked if we had lost considering all of that.” Read the rest of this entry »
Michael James is the RTC correspondent for the Ivy League. You can also find his musings on Twitter at @mrjames2006 and @ivybball.
Reader’s Poll
A Look Back
Game of the Year (Thus Far): When Harvard held Florida State to 14 points in the first half earlier this year, pundits marveled at the re-tooled Crimson defense. Well, what about allowing the Seminoles to score just 10 points in a half? Princeton did just that on December 30, jumping out to a 27-10 lead on Florida State at the intermission – the fewest points ever scored in the first half by the Seminoles in Tallahassee. Down 40-26 with just over 12 minutes left, Florida State broke off a 12-0 run and the margin for either side would never balloon beyond five the rest of the way. A Xavier Gibson tip shot brought the Seminoles even for the first time since 2-2 with just 52 seconds remaining and the Tigers couldn’t get a couple potential game-winning looks to fall. Florida State made the first bucket of each overtime, but Princeton responded every time. A 7-0 Tigers run in the second extra session staked them to a three-point lead with under a minute to play, but the Seminoles answered with two free throws, a steal, and another free throw to extend the game another five minutes. Finally, a 10-3 run comprised of two Douglas Davis threes and two Ian Hummer layups gave the Tigers a five-point cushion with under 30 seconds to play, and they were able to salt away the 73-71 win by draining five of six from the free throw line.
Another Not So Shabby Contest: The students were gone for winter break, but Lavietes Pavilion was still sold out, as Harvard set out to defend an AP Top 25 ranking at home for the first time against St. Joseph’s. The Hawks posted an outrageous 92 eFG% in the first half, and if it hadn’t been for nine turnovers, St. Joseph’s might have buried the Crimson instead of leading by just 10. Not much changed coming out of the intermission. The Hawks matched Harvard shot for shot, holding a 61-50 advantage with just over 10 minutes to play. The Crimson had cut the lead to seven before St. Joseph’s made its biggest mistake of the game, as Halil Kanacevic drew a technical for a post-foul dunk attempt. Oliver McNally drained both and the final seven minutes of the game became the Kyle Casey show. Casey scored 10 of Harvard’s final 16 points, including a dagger three to put his squad up four with 42 seconds left, as the Crimson closed the contest on a 24-8 run to snare the victory. Harvard and Princeton’s performances gave the Ivy League its fourth and fifth Pomeroy Top 100 wins of the year – the third straight season with at least five such victories against non-conference opponents. Just two opportunities remain to tie or break the record of six Top 100 wins, set last season, and both are Pennsylvania’s final Big 5 match-ups with La Salle and St. Joseph’s.
Conference Play Begins: The nation’s only regular season conference tournament gets underway this weekend as Dartmouth visits Harvard, followed by the first Ivy back-to-backs the following Friday and Saturday nights as Cornell and Columbia host Pennsylvania and Princeton. Usually all but the final weekend of January is reserved for the travel partner games, but because of the Tigers’ exam schedule, it had to move the first back-to-back forward to mid-January. Different sources have released conference title odds projections, which have placed the Crimson’s odds of defending its Ivy title (it lost the automatic bid in a playoff with Princeton) around 90%. For the league to produce a challenger to Harvard, one or two teams from the middle of the pack (Columbia, Cornell, Pennsylvania, Princeton and Yale) will have to excel in these 50/50 games. If those five merely split their meetings, that will provide the Crimson the cushion it would need to coast to the NCAA bid. So while Harvard-Dartmouth officially kicks off Ivy play, the next weekend’s games between Columbia, Cornell, Pennsylvania, and Princeton will be the first that have a huge impact on the title chase.
The Tigers Are At THeir Best When Douglas Davis Is On The Floor (Vaughn Wilson/Florida A&M).
Power Rankings
Harvard (12-2) – If the win over St. Joseph’s was the high point of Harvard’s season thus far, the low point came just three short days later. Unable to crack the Fordham 2-3 zone or shoot over it, the Crimson registered its second-worst offensive showing of the season in a 60-54 loss to the Rams. Harvard point guard Brandyn Curry was in foul trouble for most of the second half, and it has become quite clear that this Crimson offense is nowhere near as good when he is off the floor. While Harvard still is the class of the league, the gap might not be as large as it appeared just a few weeks ago. Fordham showed that this Crimson team can be had on the road, which is something that other Ivies undoubtedly noticed.
Princeton (8-7) – There isn’t an Ivy team with two better road wins than the Tigers’ triumphs over Florida State and Rutgers. At the same time, only Columbia and cellar-dwellers Brown and Dartmouth have three worse losses to this point. Trying to determine which is the real Princeton team misses the point. The true Tigers squad is indeed both. That’s why Princeton will record some very nice wins during league play, but will also take some really questionable losses. So, despite the Tigers’ decently lofty ceiling and the ability of Ian Hummer and Douglas Davis to take over a game offensively, the league is too strong for a high variance team not to get dinged in games it objectively shouldn’t lose. Read the rest of this entry »
Jonathan Reed of Big Sky Basketball is the RTC correspondent for the Big Sky conference. You can find him on Twitter at @bigskybball.
Reader’s Take
The Past Couple Weeks
Montana establishes itself as #2 again – They came into the year ranked second, and at different times they looked like they might relinquish that role. However, they are back solidly among the top two after beating Portland State soundly, and then following that up with a tough win over Eastern Washington. They are playing well on both ends of the court, and they should be considered the top challenger to Weber State.
Spots 4-9 are wide open – Eastern Washington has solidified themselves as a legitimate top-three team, but after that, the race is wide open. Nobody else is above .500, and nobody was able to distinguish themselves at the beginning of conference play. All of those teams are likely to beat up on each other all year, and it is just a matter of which three can do it the best to move to the conference tournament. It should be a crazy race.
Damian Lillard still leads nation in scoring – I talk about Lillard in all of these check-ins, but for good reason. He is the best player in the conference, and one of the most dynamic players in America. He is the most efficient player in America, and has evolved into a very complete player. Catch him while you can – he is a junior but there is a chance this will be his last season in Ogden. Reportedly, as many as 25-30 NBA scouts will be in attendance in Portland when they play the Vikings.
Montana And Weber State Will Tangle On Jan. 14, Marking The First Big Game Of The Big Sky Season. Talented Guards Will Cherry (left) and Damian Lillard Lead The Charge For Each Squad.
Power Rankings
Weber State (10-3, 2-0) – They are still awaiting the return of Kyle Bullinger and Frank Otis, but they started out conference play with solid wins over Sacramento State and Idaho State. Scott Bamforth is beginning to get free a bit more again, and that is huge for them because it takes some of the pressure off of Damian Lillard (25.2 PPG/5.8 RPG). Byron Fulton is also starting to play better, and he can be a nice scorer himself.
Montana (9-5, 2-0) – As talked about above, they have established themselves again as the second best team in the Big Sky. Will Cherry (14.6 PPG/4.3 RPG) is the reigning conference player of the week, and is looking like the guy that is the top challenger to Damian Lillard for the unofficial “best player in the Big Sky” award. In addition, they have some solid offensive weapons in Kareem Jamar, Derek Selvig, and Mathias Ward. This is a team that is on the rise, and they always seem to get better under Coach Wayne Tinkle. Read the rest of this entry »
Ray Floriani is the RTC correspondent for the MAAC and NEC conferences.
Reader’s Take
Looking Back
That is why, the cliché tells us, “they put erasers on pencils.”At any rate, Wagner has suddenly emerged as the team to beat in the NEC. There will be competition from LIU, Robert Morris and Central Connecticut. Regardless, Danny Hurley’s team has our undivided attention — and the attention of folks outside of our time zone as well (going into Pittsburgh to defeat Pitt, then winning the Cable Car Classic out West will do that).
At any rate, out-of-conference skirmishes are done and in the books. NEC play is now full speed ahead…
Standings
Team, MAAC record, overall record:
Robert Morris
2-0, 11-4
LIU
2-0, 8-6
Central Connecticut
2-0, 5-7
St. Francis (PA)
2-0, 3-10
Wagner
1-1, 10-3
Quinnipiac
1-1, 8-5
Sacred Heart
1-1, 7-8
St. Francis (NY)
1-1, 4-9
Mount St. Mary’s
0-2, 2-11
Monmouth
0-2, 2-12
FDU
0-2, 1-11
Bryant
0-2, 1-12
NEC Co-Players of the Week
Latif Rivers, 6’1″, So., G, Wagner – Averaged a team-best 18.7 points per game for the last three contests. Scored all 18 points the second half of the big win at Pitt. Rivers iced that one with six free throws in the closing seconds. Averaged 19 points to capture Cable Car Classic MVP honors.
Julian Boyd, 6’7″, Jr., F, LIU – Recorded a pair of double-doubles as the Blackbirds stretched their winning streak to three games. Scored 18 of his game-high 22 points in the second half of the win over NJIT.
NEC Rookie of the Week
Ousmane Drame, 6’9″, Fr., F, Quinnipiac – Averaged 9.7 points, 10.3 rebounds in a three-game stretch. Drame also had a six-block game to complement his 10-point, 10-rebound performance in the win over Boston university.
Latif Rivers And Wagner Have Become Serious Contenders For the NEC Crown (AP)
Power Rankings
Wagner: Scored a big win at Pitt just before Christmas. The Seahawks followed that up defeating Air Force and host Santa Clara to win the Cable Car Championship. It was Wagner’s first in-season tournament title since they took the 1997 Marist Pepsi Classic. Latif Rivers was named Cable Car MVP while sophomore Kenneth Ortiz was named Most Inspirational Player. Ortiz’s game winning shot against Santa Clara has had over a million visitors view it on the internet (more on that incredible shot below). Read the rest of this entry »
Kevin McCarthy of Parsing The WAC and Sam Wasson of bleedCrimson.net are the RTC correspondents for the WAC. You can follow Sam on Twitter @AgsBleedCrimson.
Reader’s Take
Looking Back
The WAC finished off non-conference play with a few near-misses. Utah State lost by two, 66-64, at Mississippi State, Hawai’i was unable to overtake UNLV, falling 74-69, Idaho came up just short against Boise State, 76-73, but Fresno State extracted some revenge for the conference, shellacking the Broncos 72-59 in Fresno.
Meanwhile New Mexico State needed a miracle to overcome Cal State-Bakersfield 73-72. In the game, NMSU lived out a “Butler over Pitt” scenario, giving up a go-ahead free throw with 2.4 seconds to go, but got fouled on the ensuing possession with 0.9 seconds left and hit a pair of free throws to escape with a win. The WAC heads into conference play as the 16th-best conference as rated by the RPI and a 56-50 record in the non-conference.
Utah State Fell By Just Two To An Improved Mississippi State Squad, But Enters WAC Play With Confidence. (Rogelio V. Solis/AP)
Power Rankings
Nevada (10-3): The preseason pick to win the WAC heads into league play with the best record in the non-conference portion of play but has not played since December 28. The Wolf Pack open up league play on the road at Idaho and Utah State and a pair of victories to open league play there would definitely put them in the early driver’s seat. Why they won’t win the WAC: Lack of depth. The starters for Nevada score 82.8 percent of their points (56.4 of 68.1). Conference play is a grind and the Wolf Pack starters may eventually succumb to the wear and tear of the pressure of having to produce night in and night out with no scoring help from the bench. Read the rest of this entry »
Andrew Murawa is the RTC correspondent for the Pac-12 and Mountain West conferences. He is also a Pac-12 microsite staffer.
Reader’s Take
Top Storylines
The home teams dominated play this week, going 9-1 in the first weekend of conference play. Fans around the conference will gnash their teeth and overreact to the first two games and anoint teams like Washington, Stanford and California as the runaway favorites, but the fact remains that even in a down year in the Pac-12, the eventual winner of the regular season title will need to win their fair share of road games, while still defending their home court. So, it is good news for the Huskies, Cardinal and Golden Bears, but they’ve still got a lot to prove before distancing themselves from a team like Oregon State, who dropped its first two games of the year in disappointing fashion.
The one road team to score a win last weekend was Oregon, who played almost a perfect game in their opener against Washington State, scoring almost 1.8 points per possession in the first half, shooting a 78.6 eFG% and sweeping to a 17-point road win. They were brought back to earth a bit on Saturday, when a suddenly hot Washington team tore through them, but a 1-1 record for the Ducks is a significant accomplishment. If they can back that up by holding serve as the Bay Area schools come north this weekend, they’ll be in business.
Olu Ashaolu's Double-Double Led The Ducks To The Lone Road Win In The Opening Week Of The Pac-12 (Young Kwak/AP)
What to Watch For
A week of conference play only tells half of the story. This week, for the most part, teams that benefited from opening week homestands have to head on the road, while last week’s road warriors get the comfort of some home-cooking. The biggest clashes of the week may come when the Oregon schools host the Bay Area schools. If either Stanford or California is able to somehow pull off a sweep, they have earned the early title of Pac-12 favorites. Meanwhile, Oregon State, considered by some (ahem), to be the conference favorite prior to last weekend has a lot to prove. The Beavers absolutely have to win both of their games this weekend at Gill Coliseum to still be considered a legitimate contender to the throne. Read the rest of this entry »
Michael Vernetti is the West Coast Conference correspondent for RTC.
Reader’s Take
Looking Back
Along with greater strength at the top through the addition of Brigham Young, the WCC was supposed to exhibit league-wide improvement in 2011-12. At least in the early stages of conference play, that hasn’t happened. In fact, the gap between the haves and the have-nots appears to be widening.
Opening games in WCC play found Gonzaga throttling Portland at home by a score of 90-51, Saint Mary’s skunking Pepperdine in Malibu by 74-45 and BYU beating San Diego at home by 88-52. That’s an average beat-down of 35 points, not indicative of a conference trending toward parity. In games not involving the league’s Big Three of Gonzaga, Saint Mary’s and BYU, Pepperdine beat San Francisco at home by a score of 77-61 and Loyola Marymount also topped San Francisco in overtime by 77-76. Completing a week of total futility, San Francisco’s loss to Loyola came on its home court.
Santa Clara spent last week splitting games in its own Cable Car Classic, topping Eastern Michigan by 77-55 and losing to Wagner 64-62 in a game so surreal it deserves a paragraph of its own (see below). Santa Clara is one of the WCC teams thought to be gaining in stature, but will have to wait until tonight to taste its first league action against Portland in Portland. The Broncos have given fans equal reason to have hopes for resurgence or despair in non-conference play, balancing wins over New Mexico and Villanova with losses to Washington State (93-55 – it was the margin of defeat not the opponent that made this one sting) and Houston Baptist (72-71). The Broncos do not have a road win this year, giving Portland hopes for a chance to stop its own bleeding in tonight’s game.
Talented Senior Rob Jones Has Sparked An Excellent Start For St. Mary's (SF Chronicle)
Power Rankings
Saint Mary’s (13-2 overall, 2-0 in WCC play): Continued its post-Baylor rise with an eye-opening throbbing of BYU in Moraga by the unlikely score of 98-82, then followed up with a thorough dispatch of Pepperdine, which may have harbored hopes of an upset after beating San Francisco by 16 in its league opener. Close observers of the Gaels concede strong games every outing from senior forward Rob Jones (14.1 PPG, 10.5 RPG) and junior point guard MatthewDellavedova (14.3 PPG, 6.5 APG), but say lesser-known players Clint Steindl, Stephen Holt and Jorden Page must step up if the Gaels are to be an NCAA team. They’re stepping, as Holt has had games of 16, 21 and 14 points since a relatively quiet performance against Baylor, and Page has had three double-digit outings of his own (10, 13 and 14 points) over the same span. Steindl hasn’t been stepping anywhere since turning an ankle against Missouri State. Read the rest of this entry »
Joe Dzuback is the RTC correspondent for the Atlantic 10 Conference. You can also find his musings online at Villanova by the Numbers or on Twitter @(vbtnBlog)
Reader’s Take
The Week That Was
No A-10 Teams in the Top 25, Again: The latest round of the AP and Coaches polls (January 2) show no Atlantic 10 team that gathered enough support nationally to be ranked … for the second consecutive week. Saint Louis missed a good opportunity to impress when the Billikens dropped a four-point decision to New Mexico on Saturday, picking up their second loss in the process. With the next six teams showing three or four losses, the conference is out of the Top 25 conversation for the next few weeks. The other name brands, Xavier and Temple, did not help their causes this past week. Xavier dropped their third game in the last four, this time to Gonzaga in what might have been a good “comparison” game for the Selection Committee. Temple won their third straight, but the last two have not been especially impressive. The Owls may get the conference’s last good chance for some noise when they host #3 Duke tonight.
Conference Comparisons: Nearly 90% of the out-of-conference games are on the books and the Atlantic 10 has posted a 62.6% winning percentage:
Against the six power conferences, the conference has logged a respectable 22-26 (0.458) record. Highlights include .500 or better records against the ACC (7-6, 0.538 – note Temple hosts Duke tonighit, see below), the Big Ten (4-4, 0.500) and the SEC (4-1, 0.800). Conference members logged their strongest numbers against the teams within the conference footprint – those traditional opponents during the out-of-conference portion of the schedule, posting a 63.8% (30-17) winning record against teams located throughout New England, the Middle Atlantic and upper Midwest regions. Against those conferences most likely to compete for the at-large bids not allocated to the power conference teams, the A-10 posted a strong – but deceptive – 23-12 (0.657) record, largely at the expense of the CAA (15-5, 0.750) and C-USA (4-3, 0.571); both show improvement over the 2010-11 season when, through the end of December, the A-10 went 7-10 versus the CAA and 2-5 with C-USA.
Conference Play Commences: The conference maintains their traditional “opening night” tipoff with five conference games and a sixth game to be played on Thursday night. Saturday will feature six conference games with the seventh game to be played on Sunday. By next Monday, every member will have logged at least one conference game.
Despite A Tough Start, Tu Holloway And Xavier Will Be A Major Challenger For The A-10 Crown (AP)
Power Rankings
With only a few games scheduled, and those yielding mixed results for the teams at the top of last week’s power ranking, the conference appears to be sliding sideways. Massachusetts disposes of their last out of conference opponents fairly easily to move up a spot, while Temple finishes the month 6-1 and Fordham upsets a ranked team.
Saint Louis (12-2) – The Billikens ended the week 1-1 — the loss coming at the hands of New Mexico (WAC) at the notorious Pit, UNM’s homecourt. Rick Majerus’ crew smothered Texas Southern with defense in a 71-39 win on 12/27, limiting the Tigers to a paltry 0.57 points per possession (or PPP, with 68 possessions per team calculated), about half a point per possession, just over half of the Division I average. Saint Louis’ own 1.04 point per possession hints at the ongoing point production problem with Saint Louis, but when a defense holds an opponent under 0.6 PPP, the team does not need a very efficient offense to win. Brian Conklin earned an Honorable Mention for his 35-point performance over the two games which yielded an average of 17.5 points per game with an eFG% of 68.4%. Very impressive numbers indeed. The Lobos were a different matter, as the Billikens were down two at the half, and gave up another two points in the second half.Saint Louis opens conference play at Dayton Wednesday, then returns home to host George Washington on Saturday. Read the rest of this entry »
Patrick Marshall is the RTC correspondent for the Missouri Valley Conference. You can also find his musings online at White & Blue Review or on Twitter @wildjays.
Reader’s Take
The Week That Was
Wild Play Underway—As Missouri Valley Conference play started this week, you can pretty much throw everything away you learned in the non-conference season. Creighton, Wichita State and NorthernIowa, who expect to be at the top of the league this season, have already lost home conference games. Only two teams were able to get through the first week unscathed—Missouri State and Evansville. Tis the season to focus on basketball.
Evansville and Missouri State Leading The Way—After disappointing non-conference play, both the Purple Aces and the Bears are starting on the right foot in conference play. Evansville came back from behind to get a big road win at Northern Iowa while Missouri State shocked Creighton on their home court to open MVC play. The defending MVC champs got an MVP performance from Kyle Weems as he scored 25 of his career high 31 points in the victory over the Bluejays. That performance earned him some national honors this week.
Creighton Still Ranked—Despite the loss against Missouri State at home, the Bluejays turned around and got themselves a big win on the road at the other MVC favorite, Wichita State. With that win, Creighton is still ranked in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches poll at #24, while just falling out of the AP poll. If Creighton eventually falls out of the polls, don’t be surprised if you do not see another MVC team in the top 25 this season with the way conference season has started. However, some early bracketology projections have three MVC teams that could make the NCAA Tournament.
Kyle Weems Reminded Everyone That There's More To The Valley Than Doug McDermott (MVC-Sports.com)
Power Rankings (last week’s ranking in parentheses)
Creighton (12-2, 2-1) (1)— With the week that was, Creighton is sticking in the top spot for this week. Although they lost to Missouri State, they came back to beat Wichita State on the road. Doug McDermott has been recognized more in conference play with each team focusing the defense on him. Grant Gibbs, however, continues to be the glue for Creighton. While most of the attention on him has been his passing ability, he turned up the scoring against the Shockers. Read the rest of this entry »
