10.10.07 Fast Breaks

Posted by rtmsf on October 10th, 2007

Lots of MSM content coming out this week…

  • But first, have you heard that Stanford’s Brook Lopez can’t pass calculus?  He’ll be out until he figures out derivatives (presumably Dec. 19, after nine games).
  • Along the same lines, the NCAA cleared Marquette big man frosh Trevor Mbakwe to play this season.
  • New Mexico swingman and all-Mtn West selection Tony Danridge had surgery on his broken left leg, and is expected to be back by January 2008.   Arkansas forward Sonny Weems is due back from his hand injury within the next couple of weeks.    
  • A hoops pollster explains why college football polling is misguided
  • Shawn Siegel lists the top 25 players in the ACC. 
  • CSTV claims Louisville and UConn have the top 2008 Big East recruiting classes so far. 
  • We already know why George Mason will get an at-large bid next spring – one name: Tom O’Connor
  • DeCourcy goes with Chris Lofton as his preseason POY, but there’s no way we think he’ll win it. 
  • Catching up with coaches…  Parrish looks at how Dan Monson is adjusting to life at Long Beach St.  Katz examines how Jim Calhoun is recovering from his worst season ever.  And the AP reports on John Beilein not knowing what to expect at Michigan.
  • Luke Winn also has an interesting Q&A with Jerel McNeal, defensive dynamo at Marquette. 
  • Finally, the offense that’s taking over the nation – Memphis’s AASAA
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10.07.07 Fast Breaks

Posted by rtmsf on October 7th, 2007

We’ve let the news accumulate for a while, so without any further delay…

  • Tom Izzo porked the media by putting them through a “typical” 2-hr MSU practice last week.
  • Ben Howland got a hefty raise and an extension through 2014 coaching his self-professed dream job.
  • If you haven’t heard, Jim Jones’ grandson Rob Jones will be playing for the University of San Diego this year. There have been multiple takes on this, but we like Extra P.’s at STF best.
  • Hoops Weiss has a scathing analysis of the Jim Calhoun / Holy Cross Coaches vs. Cancer situation.
  • Kyle Whelliston contributed a really insightful article on espn.com about high majors playing road games at mid-major schools this year.
  • Hard luck- former McD’s all-american Mike Williams ruptured his achilles tendon in a workout at Cincinnati last week and will the entire season (he sat out last year as a transfer from Texas). USC’s Daniel Hackett broke his jaw (on OJ Mayo’s elbow) last week and will miss up to six weeks. Vandy’s JeJuan Brown has withdrawn from school for personal reasons.
  • Speaking of OJ, this video of him playing in summer league is making the rounds.
  • AOL Fanhouse is continuing its analysis of all the Big East schedules.
  • NCAA Hoops Today continued its analysis of last spring’s HS all-star games with the Roundball Classic and the Jordan Classic.
  • The Big Ten Network’s twelve viewers will get to see several Midnight Madnesses next Friday, including Illini Madness, Hoosier Hysteria, Midnight Madness (MSU), Tubby’s Tipoff and Night of the Grateful Red.
  • Gary Parrish lists his top points and combo guards (Derrick RoseMemphis), top shooters and wings (Chris Lofton – Tennessee), and top bigs (Tyler Hansbrough – UNC) in the nation. He really likes freshmen.
  • DeCourcy lists his top players the more traditional way – centers (Hansbrough), power forwards (Darrell Arthur – Kansas), small forwards (Chase Budinger – Arizona), shooting guards (Lofton), and point guards (DJ Augustin – Texas).
  • And continuing our edification of various offensive and defensive schemes, here’s an explanation of Bo Ryan’s Wisconsin swing offense and a John Beilein-esque 1-3-1 trap.
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09.28.07 Fast Breaks

Posted by rtmsf on September 28th, 2007

Fourteen Days to go…

  • JT3 gets himself a well-deserved raise (reportedly doubling his salary to $900k) and extension through 2013 at Georgetown, although he’s still grossly underpaid. He’ll have to start the 2007-08 season without backup PG Chris Wright, however, due to a broken foot. Wright is expected back later this season.
  • Considerable speculation over Duke Crews’ suspension ended when the Tennesseean reported that a bag of maryjane was found in his dorm room.
  • JJ Redick don’t play like dat, and his brother will let you know it…
  • According to Six Pack Sports Report, Jim Calhoun hates kids with cancer b/c he won’t play Holy Cross. Speaking of which, the Coaches v. Cancer 2007 regional schedules are out – the ripest upset possibility now that HC isn’t allowed in? Oklahoma.
  • Staying in the Big East, we talked about Melo’s $3M gift the other day, but Storming the Floor reports that his charitable contributions for the year 2006 ranks #8 NATIONALLY among celebrities. Go, Melo.
  • STF also gets their preseason primer started with the eight must-watch nonconference games this year. Marco, no UNC-UK (Dec. 1) or Pitt-Duke (Dec. 20) for a crisp ten?
  • What’s left unsaid in Demarcus Nelson being named captain at Duke? How about Greg Paulus’ demotion – he was a tri-captain along with Nelson and McBob last year.
  • Making the Dance takes a look at the last 25 and 10 years worth of NCAA F4 appearances by conference. Solid first post, if we’re interpreting that correctly.
  • NCAA Hoops Today evaluates the Nike Hoop Summit to prep us on the freshmen to watch this season.
  • Mike DeCourcey asks ten questions that we should know the answers to this season.
  • In MSM-world, Hoops Weiss informs us that John Beilein has a tough road ahead at Michigan; Jeff Goodman at foxsports.com lets us know that Gonzaga isn’t going anywhere anytime soon; Seth Davis portrays Coach K as the energizer bunny that could; and Gary Parrish contends that the one-and-done “argument” has been settled for good. Oh, and Andy Katz tries to explain why NYC-area schools suck so badly.
  • Finally, if you want to learn how to run some full-court pressure D Bruce Pearl-style (Pat Summit cheer outfit not included) or how to get a 3 off the break, look no further.
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09.26.07 Fast Breaks

Posted by rtmsf on September 26th, 2007

Some news flotsam and jetsam we’ve accumulated this week…

  • It was an expensive week for Ohio State paying its head coaches, as Thad Matta got a $500k raise (to $2.5M per annum) and contract extension through 2016.
  • Tennessee forward Duke Crews has been suspended indefinitely for violating team rules. How long is “indefintely?”
  • We mentioned it briefly above, but it deserves its own note. Former Hawg PG Corey Beck was shot Sunday morning during a robbery attempt – he is listed in good condition.
  • Free Shoes University is embroiled in another cheating scandal – the question is which sports are involved?
  • Porsches, Polo & Ponies. SMU basketball avoids NCAA sanctions – wait, SMU still has a basketball program? Oh, right. Matt Doherty. So the answer is no.
  • Plissken at the Buzzer gives a thorough and interesting breakdown of Memphis’ schedule (following up on Andy Katz’s top 10 last week) and how that will affect the Tigers’ NCAA seed next March.
  • Melo is giving back to Syracuse, as Jim Juli Boeheim convinced him to fork over $3M toward a new practice facility for the Orange.
  • Injury Report – Louisville freshman Clarence Holloway will miss the entire season after open heart surgery (!!), and NC State’s PG Javier Gonzalez will miss the next twelve weeks with a shooting thumb injury.
  • BC’s success in the ACC on the gridiron and hardwood have increased its applications from traditionally ACC country.
  • Construda still loves Luke Recker, oh these many years later…
  • We guess Shawn Stockton isn’t as good as his uncle John.
  • According to Jeff Goodman, 2008 #1 player Greg Monroe has narrowed his list to LSU, Kansas, Duke and Georgetown. Although Gary Parrish disputes this in a meandering article about Monroe’s eight finalists.
  • Speaking of Parrish and Goodman, the former riffs on Bama’s point guard situation after losing Ronald Steele, and the latter notes that Bruce Pearl is in search of outside shooters and Arizona is looking at possible successors for Lute Olson.
  • It’s NEVER too early for a projected field of 65.
  • MascotLove: College Hoops Heaven takes a look at the top 15 mascots.
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09.21.07 Fast Breaks

Posted by rtmsf on September 21st, 2007

21 days to Midnight Madness, folks.

  • Roy’s 05 studs may end up costing him a recruit. 
  • UK’s Joe Crawford got his knee scoped, but is expected to be ready for the season.
  • Arizona doesn’t plan on having McKale Madness this year.
  • Gonzaga plays hard teams.  Now you too can understand how they run their flex offense
  • Katz puts forth an informative article – he rates the top 10 teams’ nonconference schedules (not to be confused as the top 10 nonconference schedules)
  • Rivals projects how ten new coaches will fare this year.
  • Some folks think Florida’s Mareese Speights will become a beast. 
  • Hoopwise interviews the head coach of the Gonzaga of the East (S. Illinois), Chris Lowery
  • Coach Cal is looking for the next Yi Jianlian
  • Seth Davis points out that the recruiting world didn’t end with the text messaging ban in effect. 
  • What kind of sports blogger are we?  Thinking #9, #8, and #3 on this list.  Mmm… link whore. 
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09.19.07 Fast Breaks

Posted by rtmsf on September 19th, 2007

Aside from Bruce Pearl’s newly-freed, um, pearls, what else is going on this week?

  • From the we-don’t-see-this-often file, Memphis’s home newspaper called out Tiger star and smack-ophist Joey Dorsey for being a piece of oversized dung troublemaker who deserves expulsion from the team.
  • Speaking of trouble, former Oklahoma State all-american Byron Houston was sentenced to four years in prison for violating probation based on a public nudity charge.  Memo to Byron: please stay away from railroad tracks.    
  • Rivals makes a pair of arguments that the Big 10 or the ACC will be the worst major conference this year.  Our vote, just like last year:  Big 10. 
  • Tim Donaghy’s employer waxes poetic on the dangers of gambling to UNC athletes, while simultaneously casing the damage to Psycho T’s nose from Gerald Henderson’s errant ‘bow
  • A former Bruin riffs on his coach Steve Lavin’s wedding that he didn’t get to attend
  • Tony Mejia at cbssportsline.com came up with a list of top NBA players by school attended, and we found it fairly cool. 
  • Goodman talks about Arizona’s offseason (Chase Budinger got stronger), while Parrish confirms that UK fans are indeed nuts (lining up 3 days early for Midnight Madness tix). 
  • Finally, Norman Chad takes our fun, stomps on it, and renders it immature, selfish and otherwise useless. 
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09.17.07 Fast Breaks

Posted by rtmsf on September 17th, 2007

Can’t quite get that image below out of our head…  but we’ll try.

  • Pitt incumbent PG Levance Fields decided no he will not go quietly and in fact, he would rather be tasered, when asked to do so by the Pittsburgh PD last weekend.   
  • Ball St. found no evidence that Ronny Thompson put racially inflammatory notes under Ronny Thompson’s office door while he was still coaching there. 
  • The guy who will be responsible for throwing the ball to OJ Mayo and getting the hell outta the way is now eligible (Angelo Johnson). 
  • Coaching news.  GW’s Karl Hobbs was given an extension to 2012, and FAMU tabbed Eugene Harris (asst. at Georgia St.) to take over for Mike Gillespie. 
  • Haven’t we heard this before?  John Beilein and Bruce Weber (particularly Bruce Weber) can’t recruit. 
  • Digger for Prez.  Haven’t we had enough bumbling around/making no sense/talking in circles for one generation? 
  • UCLA fans are already talking basketball season.  Come on home, friends.  Others (ahem, Louisville, Notre Dame, Michigan, UNC, etc.) are already here.  More to come.
  • SEC Hoops:  Good, Bad & Dirty breaks down and gives predictions for the 12 SEC basketball schedules.  We’ll give odds on Mississippi St. not going 27-3! 
  • Frank Burlison at foxsports.com gives us a viewer’s guide to the best early-season tournaments to watch. 
  • MMAS gives us a list of key transfers to watch out for and teams looking to make the jump in 07-08. 
  • Finally, today Hoopwise has a Q&A with arguably the best college hoops analyst out there – Fran Fraschilla (apologies to Raff, Bilas, Tirico and others). 
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09.13.07 Fast Breaks

Posted by rtmsf on September 12th, 2007

News from around the basketblogosphere…

  • A couple of late summer transfers to report today. It appears Kenny Cooper is leaving Oklahoma St. to be closer to home (Louisiana) and Anthony Gurley (Massachusetts) is leaving Wake Forest for the same reason.
  • Our new friends over at Plissken at the Buzzer put together a well-thought out and detailed analysis of the Pac-10’s non-conference schedules in an effort to determine how it will ultimately affect their postseason chances.
  • Lion in Oil reports that the Final Four will embrace the BasketBowl approach to squeeze more fans into “distant view” seats on the final weekend beginning in 2009.
  • Gonzaga’s Josh Heytvelt of psychedelic mushroom fame is set to return to the team after paying off his debt to society (no, it did not involve organic farming).
  • NC State’s promising freshman Jonny Thomas is out for the season with a knee injury.
  • Goodman reports Greg Monroe is down to his final eight schools (Duke, Georgetown, LSU, USC, Baylor, UConn, Texas, Kansas), and that KU’s Darrell Arthur is fully recovered from his stress fracture.
  • Fluff Pieces. Parrish writes about Capel’s rebuilding project at Oklahoma, DeCourcy writes about Willie Kemp’s expected role at Memphis alongside Derrick Rose, and Goodman writes about Donnie Jones returning home to coach at Marshall.
  • Shawn Siegel‘s teams that won’t make the NCAA Tournament (#144 – #72) are up, with some interesting comparisons to the preseason rankings from 2006.
  • Finally, we have to mention that we’re excited to see what the combo of Ken Pomeroy and Baseball Prospectus can come up with in their new blog called Basketball Prospectus, which will focus exclusively on college hoops from a statistical bent beginning this fall.
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09.11.07 Fast Breaks

Posted by rtmsf on September 11th, 2007

We’re so far behind in news that this is a must-post…

  • Huckleberry Hound Roy Williams and the entire 1966 Texas Western squad were the collegiate candidates inducted into the Basketball HOF on Friday.  No beef with the Glory Road fellas (although UK and Rupp’s ex post facto vilification is a story that still needs correcting), but has RW accomplished enough yet (five F4s, one title) to warrant inclusion?  Seems as if the committee jumped a little early on that one.
  • Come see the new inclusions in your town this fall, as the HOF is making a 30-city tour around the country over the next year.  The spokesperson of the tour is the Human Highlight Film himself. 
  • Stability in the Northeast – BC’s Al Skinner and Holy Cross’s Ralph Willard both had their contracts extended through 2013. 
  • Calipari mobilizes the entire city of Memphis to watch his players, who apparently cannot be trusted out on their own without inciting a freakin’ riot.  We knew before it even came out that The Mouth of the South, Joey Dorsey, would somehow be involved in this.  Make it rain, Joey.     
  • Not to be outdone, Mike Davis’s transfers at UAB decided to party without him, and all five were arrested on various charges.  The most disturbing in our eyes?  Walter Sharpe’s outstanding warrant for his arrest on a prior marijuana charge.  Not only did he already have a prior, but he didn’t even show up for the hearing?  And Davis didn’t know about this??  Now we know why IU fans wanted him gone.
  • Oh, and former Terp star and NCAA Champion Lonny Baxter has an unhealthy interest in firearms likes guns. 
  • From a while back, ESPN believes that nearly a third of D1 teams are eligible to become Bracket Busters.  (h/t to Awful Announcing)
  • Louisville’s new arena (due in 2010) is already bidding for future NCAA Tournament games.  Possible beneficiaries:  Kentucky, Indiana, Cincinnati, Xavier.   
  • Rivals weighs in with Alabama, Villanova, Illinois and others’ Labor Day weekend trips.  (takeaways:  Bama will struggle w/o Steele and Scottie Reynolds was on fire
  • Andy Katz also contributes with reports (here and here) of his trip to Mexico with OJ Mayo and USC.  (takeaway: OJ is the real deal)  
  • Goodman also has some summer excursion thoughts on Oklahoma, Duquesne, USC and Arkansas here; and Villanova, Marquette and James Madison here
  • Apparently Ohio St.’s Kosta Koufos was offered but did not take a Christian Drejer deal in Greece last week. 
  • Blue Ribbon’s preseason All-Americans are out – Drew Neitzel, Chris Lofton, Roy Hibbert, Tyler Hansbrough and Dominic James.  We’re lukewarm on Neitzel as a first-teamer. 
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08.30.07 Fast Breaks

Posted by rtmsf on August 30th, 2007

What’s going on around the hoops world this week?

  • “Hoops” Weiss reports that 2007 A10 rookie of the year Robert Mitchell (16ppg; 5rpg) from Duquesne is transferring to Seton Hall. 
  • More injuries – Louisville’s Edgar Sosa is out four weeks with a sprained ankle, and Arkansas’ Sonny Weems is out the same amount of time with a broken hand (Weems has to miss the Hawgs’ trip to Cancun – rotten timing for him).
  • The Wooden Classic matchups are set, with San Diego St. taking on St. Mary’s in the undercard and Davidson vs. UCLA in the headliner game on Dec. 8.  We can’t wait to see Stephen Curry match up against Darren Collison. 
  • Apparently KU’s Brandon Rush is a fast healer.
  • NC State’s Gavin Grant has high expectations for his squad this season (memo to GG: you’ll have four losses by Jan. 12).  Find all 12 ACC teams’ scheduling highlights here
  • Ever the shameless promoter, OJ Mayo is floating the idea of sticking around USC for two seasons
  • OJ’s former HS buddy Bill Walker is ready for his first full season in Manhattan (Kansas). 
  • Speaking of USC, we always wondered how that big lead against UNC evaporated so quickly in last year’s sweet 16.  Oh, right, Tim Floyd
  • Sticking with the SoCal theme, here’s the next wannabe crossover conglomerate that Floyd can “recruit” to USC – 2009 #1 player Renardo Sidney (and his pops). 
  • Large things are expected in HoosierLand for Eric Gordon (best since Isiah??  Wow!).  Kelvin Sampson gives an interview on his team’s prospects prior to IU’s trip to the Bahamas here
  • Finally, the Big 10 Network is set to come on the air tonight at 8pm.  According to Mike DeCourcey,  “among the intriguing games that will show up on the BTN will be Indiana at Iowa (January 2), Purdue at Michigan State (January 8), Wisconsin at Illinois (February 20) and three conference tournament games.”
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