Welcome to College Park where we at RTC will once again be courtside as the Florida State Seminoles meet up with the Maryland Terrapins. It will be the ACC opener for the Terps, who have not quite lived up to expectations this season. With a senior-duo in the back court, including all-american Greivis Vasquez, and a couple of talented wings, Maryland was expected to be a top 25 team this season. But Gary Williams club is just 1-3 against major conference foes, the only win being against Indiana, and alos has a loss to William & Mary on their resume. Florida State, on the other hand, comes into this one with a 13-2 record, having already beaten Georgia Tech on the road in ACC play. The Noles have length and athleticism for days, but their back court can be suspect at times. There are going to be two keys to watch for tonight: How will FSU’s back court handle the pressure (Maryland has been using a 2-2-1 3/4 press the last month or so) the Terps bring, and will the much smaller Terps (FSU goes 7’0″, 6’9″, 6’9″ across their starting front line) be able to compete in the paint.

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RTC Live is making a habit of heading over to Berkeley for games at Cal, but if we keep getting games like we had on Wednesday night at Haas Pavilion versus UCLA — a 1-pt game UCLA won with 1.8 seconds remaining — we’ll keep going back.  Tonight the Bears welcome the surprise team of the Pac-10, Kevin O’Neill’s USC Trojans.  As you know, USC learned earlier this week that, despite their surprisingly strong pre-conference record, they would not be playing in the postseason this year as a result of the OJ Mayo/Tim Floyd/Rodney Guillory fiasco.  Somewhat predictably, they immediately lost their next game by one point at Stanford.  Now that the players have had a little more time to digest the news, we’re expecting a much more focused Mike Gerrity, Alex Stepheson and company tonight.  As for Cal, they’ll try to recover from a game against the Bruins that they obviously felt they should have won.  Jerome Randle will try to get his shooting touch back, as he only had 11 points on 2-11 shooting in 41 minutes of action, and they will undoubtedly have their hands full with the sticky USC defense as both teams seek to avoid a second loss in the conference. Join us tonight (late-night on the east coast) for some Pac-10 hoops!

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Two teams fighting for respect in the Big East, not to mention a post season bid, meet tonight at the Rock in Newark, NJ.  Cincinnati, led by freshman Lance Stephenson, sophomore Yancy Gates and senior Deonta Vaughn will face off against Bobby Gonzalez and his band of Pirates, led by junior scoring machine Jeremy Hazell and transfers Herb Pope and Keon Lawrence. In a season many predicted would overturn the old order in the Big East, the Bearcats and Pirates both had plans to move up in the conference pecking order.  Cincinnati’s plan is on track – they took care of business in their opening game, downing Connecticut at Fifth Third, then traveled to the RAC and knocked off Rutgers. But they stumbled in their last conference game when they dropped a 74-71 decision to Pittsburgh. A win tonight restores their momentum and puts them (well) ahead of Seton Hall in the New Order of Things in the Big East. Seton Hall had a plan too, but three close losses into their conference season, the plan is down to “just win”. Join us at 6:00 eastern time for the tipoff.

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Welcome to RTC Live. Today, we are coming to you live from the Verizon Center in DC as the Hoyas welcome UConn to the nation’s capital. Georgetown has had the Huskies number of late. Last season, Georgetown went into Hartford, and led by freshman Greg Monroe ran the Huskies off the court in the Big East opener. Two seasons ago right here in the Verizon Center, UConn blew a late six point lead as 7’2″ Roy Hibbert drilled a three from the top of the key with less than five seconds left for the win. This winner of today’s game is going to be determined by who controls tempo. Where Georgetown loves to slow the game down, executing their deliberate offense in the half court, UConn wants to play a full court game, taking advantage of their athleticism and ability to finish in transition. The winner will move to 3-1 in conference play.

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College basketball has now entered its second act for this season, the days of conference play.  It’s all about the family from now through March.  In the three-act paradigm, the second act is where you find conflict and confrontation as things move toward the third act’s resolution.  Like characters in a play, it’s in this middle section where teams find what they’re made of.  It’s conference play that will determine how we (and the NCAA Selection Committee) as observers will judge them.  On Saturday afternoon, Georgia (8-5) comes knocking at Rupp Arena to face Kentucky (15-0) in the first conference tilt for both sides.  We all know about the Wildcats and what they bring to the table.  To keep this one interesting, Georgia’s going to have to do a couple of things.  First (and rather intuitively), they’ve got to step up the defense.  The Bulldogs rank 126th in the nation in FG% defense (42%) while Kentucky is shooting a blistering 50.2% (6th nationally).  Second, Georgia has to forget that they’re 8-5 (which isn’t bad, really) and that the Wildcats are 15-0, and concentrate on the fact that they’re both 0-0…in conference.  They must realize that the first game of the SEC season represents a new beginning, and come in with the mindset that they can play with anyone in the country.  It starts at 4pm ET, and we’ll start things off here about 15 minutes before tipoff.  We hope you’ll join us! Read the rest of this entry »

A little Friday night college hoops, anyone?  RTC Live will be visiting a historic old gym tonight in an effort to see all the crumbling old beauties before they disappear when we’ll be at the University of San Francisco’s War Memorial Gymnasium for a WCC battle between St. Mary’s and San Francisco.  Why is it historic?  Well, for you young’uns out there, USF may not be relevant these days, but in the mid-50s with a couple of players by the names of Bill Russell and KC Jones, they were pretty much ridiculous.  The Dons won the 1955 and 1956 NCAA titles including  a streak of 55 consecutive victories over that span.  Nowadays, things have changed, and USF has been relegated to a mid-major program with its ups and downs, but they’re usually good for an upset or two each year when a big-name comes to town and St. Mary’s just might fit the bill.  SMC comes into tonight’s game at 13-2 (vs. 5-10 for USF), and Randy Bennett’s team is once again eyeing the WCC championship that starts and ends in Spokane.  The Gaels can’t afford to drop games like this if they want to have a shot at the regular season championship.  The two players to watch are Omar Samhan (21/11/3 blks) of St. Mary’s, one of the most efficient players in America, and Dior Lowhorn (19/6) of San Francisco, the two-time defending conference scoring leader and two-time first-team all-conference performer in the WCC.  We hope you find some time tonight to join  us for a little hoops action from the middle of San Francisco. 

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Tonight’s game between Cal and UCLA in Haas Pavilion has the air of a changing of the guard in the heirarchy of the Pac-10, as it is Mike Montgomery’s Bears who are looking toward March with a hopeful eye while the regal Bruins from SoCal are merely struggling to keep their heads above water.  Coming into this one at 6-8 (1-1), much has already been written about UCLA’s foibles this year, but Ben Howland knows that there are no “down” years in Westwood and if you expect to keep the bluebloods off your back, his team will have to start winning games very soon.  Cal will be without their glue guy off the bench, Jorge Gutierrez, who tweaked his knee over the weekend, but UCLA has also benched (at least for the tip) its starting point guard, Jerime Anderson, who comes in averaging 6/4 per game.  After some early-season struggles (particularly with Theo Robertson out of the lineup), Cal has looked much better in recent weeks, playing #1 Kansas tough in Lawrence, and dominating Stanford in their Pac-10 opener.  According to KenPom.com, the Bears have the third-most efficient offense in the country, which is somewhat surprising given how poor that offense looked in the 2kSports CvC games in New York in November.  As for UCLA, they are going to have to start a winning streak soon if they endeavor to save their season, as the clock is running out on the Bruins.  Join us tonight for what should be a raucous environment in Berkeley on RTC Live!

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The Marquette Golden Eagles will enjoy the honor of facing their third consecutive top-15 team when they invite the Georgetown Hoyas into the Bradley Center Wednesday night. A young Marquette squad and their energetic coach Buzz Williams have certainly experienced their fair share of heartbreak in the early going, falling to 0-2 in the Big East in two losses to West Virginia and Villanova by a combined three points. Despite losing four senior starters, the Golden Eagles are as dangerous as they come behind the inside-outside game of Lazar Hayward and the emergence of guard Dwight Buycks and forward Jimmy Butler. They’ve experienced tremendous success playing on their home floor in recent years, a bit of knowledge all too fresh in the mind of Georgetown coach John Thompson III. The Golden Eagles put up 94 points on 52% shooting and made 34 free throws in last year’s clash in Milwaukee and Marquette even went on the defeat the Hoyas in DC during the Georgetown tailspin that led to an NIT berth. This year Thompson hopes their good start can be sustained well into conference play. The Hoyas have only fallen to Old Dominion and have wins notched against Temple, Butler and Washington. Everything revolves around star sophomore forward Greg Monroe and the outside shooting of Austin Freeman for Georgetown. Make sure to join RTC Live at the Bradley Center for this much-anticipated Big East clash.

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Can USC keep its spot atop the Pac-10 Conference following its self-imposed ban on post-season play? Can Stanford shake off a 92-66 pasting by archrival Cal last week and even up its own Pac-10 record? These questions and others will be answered when 6-7 Stanford hosts Southern Cal and its eight-game, Mike Gerrity-led winning streak on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. PT. The game will be the first since USC announced its own punishment for recruiting violations concerning departed star O.J. Mayo. Before the ban was announced USC ran the table last weekend on Arizona and Arizona State to go 2-0 in conference play.  Stanford has been up and down all year, beating Virginia and taking Kentucky to the wire earlier this year, but coming into this game having dropped four of five.  It’ll be very interesting to see how the Trojans respond to their disappointing news at Maples Pavilion this evening. 

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When the Gators and Wolfpack got together last season, it was the third day in January and Nick Calathes scored 32 points to help Florida pull out a 68-66 win in Gainesville. Exactly one year later, the faces have changed, but many expect the 2010 version of Florida (10-3) v. North Carolina State (10-3) to be just as exciting: Ken Pomeroy predicts a 66-65 win for Billy Donovan’s team. For NC State to come out on top, star big man Tracy Smith (17.2 ppg & 9.1 rpg) needs to be a factor—his foul trouble relegated him to the bench in State’s loss to Wake Forest and his comments on said foul trouble garnered Smith a one-game suspension in the Wolfpack’s 2-point loss to Arizona in the following game. This being the Gators’ final game before SEC play begins, expect them to look to their standout freshman, Kenny Boynton (14.2 ppg) to step up and dominate the speedy yet mistake-prone Javier Gonzalez. This game should be a good one, so please stop by and join the chat!

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