Game #116. RTC Live is back on the east coast, trekking through another snowstorm to get to a Big East game…
Georgetown and St. John’s are both stuck in the wasteland known as the middle of the Big East. With the power at the top of the league, taking care of business against fellow bubble dwellers in the middle becomes so important, and with 11 teams competing for a spot in the NCAA Tournament, games like this may end up what determines an NCAA at-large berth or an NIT bid. The Johnnies beat Georgetown earlier this season up at MSG as the Hoyas struggled to get anything going offensively. Austin Freeman woke up against Seton Hall, going for 28 points, but both Chris Wright and Jason Clark have struggled since their hot starts during non-conference play. Georgetown is 3-4 in the conference, and falling any further behind the pack would spell trouble. This team has proven the past couple of years they don’t handle adversity all that well. St. John’s, on the other hand, is winding down the brutal stretch of their schedule in which they played eight straight teams that are or recently were ranked. They’ve gone 2-4 — including their win over Georgetown — and currently sit at 4-4 in Big East play. The Johnnies have less breathing room than the Hoyas, however, since their non-conference schedule is highlighted by losses to Fordham and St. Bonaventure while Georgetown has wins at Old Dominion and Missouri. Picking up a road win to complete a sweep of Georgetown sure would look good come March.
***** – quit your job and divorce your wife if that’s what it takes to watch this game live
**** – best watched live, but if you must, tivo and watch it tonight as soon as you get home
*** – set your tivo but make sure you watch it later
** – set your tivo but we’ll forgive you if it stays in the queue until 2013
* – don’t waste bandwidth (yours or the tivo’s) of any kind on this game
Brian Otskey is an RTC contributor.
Coming off their huge win at Kansas on Saturday, Texas heads back out on the road to another tough environment and looking to avoid a letdown while the game of the year in the Mountain West takes place tonight in Provo, Utah. All rankings from RTC and all times eastern.
#6 Texas @ Oklahoma State – 7:30 pm on ESPN (***)
Hamilton and the 'Horns Enter a Tough Environment Tonight, Even Without the Added Emotion
Emotions will be running high in Stillwater as the Cowboys take the court tonight and the Oklahoma State community honors the legacy of the ten lives lost in the plane crash that occurred ten years ago Thursday. Gallagher-Iba Arena is always a tough place to play and that will especially ring true this evening.
They say that revenge can be the strongest motivator to do great things. So while we’re not completely certain why Kentucky forward Terrence Jones has a color photograph of Georgia’s all-SEC forward Trey Thompkins dunking in his locker, we can probably guess why. Obviously, Jones must think that Thompkins is super hot, or perhaps he’s a fan of the versatile forward’s all-around game. We’re sure it wouldn’t have anything to do with the 25/7 Thompkins dropped on him in a Georgia win on January 8 (to be fair, though, Jones had 24/10 the other way).
Thompkins Is Prominently Displayed (h/t KSR)
We only have one question, though. Can bulletin board material be comprised of other bulletin board material? In other words, can Thompkins fairly use the fact that Jones is thinking of him during practices in Lexington as his own motivation by thinking about Jones thinking about him? It’s a convoluted question, but we think the answer is yes. The story goes that Michael Jordan in his heyday once caught Patrick Ewing viewing his Come Fly With Me video before crushing his soul and having his knees shipped in dry ice to Arizona.
The Bulldogs make the return trip to Lexington this Saturday. It’ll certainly be interesting to watch the interplay between these two future NBA small forwards after this.
Many of you are aware of the ongoing ordeal at Missouri where the athletic department has been trying to get a ruling from the NCAA on the eligibility of Tony Mitchell, a recruit considered by many to be one of the top 10 or 15 overall in last year’s class. A recent column by Seth Davis indicated that due to a strange stipulation in the NCAA rules if Mitchell did not enroll at Missouri and take a requisite number of courses by the end of the Spring semester not only would he be ineligible to play this season or even next fall, but he would never be allowed to play at the Division 1 level (scroll down). The exact number of courses that Mitchell needed to take to fulfill that requirement was not known because of some questions about his high school transcripts at an unaccredited school that he briefly attended in Florida. The reported deadline for the NCAA to make a decision and for Mitchell to enroll at Missouri was yesterday (January 25th), which was the last day for a student to enroll at Missouri for the Spring semester. That date came and passed without a ruling or news of Mitchell’s enrollment, but news came out that the decision might be pushed back until March 14th and there was a possibility that he could be eligible this spring.
Mitchell may be headed to the Sun Belt
We called the NCAA with regards to the ruling and the assertion by Davis that Mitchell might never be allowed to play Division 1 basketball, but thus far our calls have not been returned. We were able to get in touch with a spokesperson at Missouri who stated, “We don’t comment on that stuff. When we’re ready to comment we will comment.” Interestingly, shortly after our conversation with the spokesperson at Missouri news broke that Mitchell might be enrolling this year, but at North Texas instead of Missouri. According to some reports, if Mitchell is admitted to North Texas he could potentially be eligible to play next season although he could not be on scholarship until that point and would have to pay in-state tuition (note that the Sun Belt accepts partial qualifiers while the Big 12 does not). We are still waiting for more news on this and to hear back from the NCAA about Mitchell’s eligibility officially, but it seems pretty clear that this is one of the most complex recruiting/eligibility ordeals that we have seen.
This is my favorite part of the college basketball season. Everything is more certain, yet still mutable: we know where things stand, but for most, it’s not too late for a strong push to finish the season. We don’t have to rely on pre-season guesswork or early returns: we have an idea of the mettle of most teams. The hype around fall flavors like Kansas State has been forgotten, and instead, we now read up on San Diego State. Here is the part of the season where we have taken stock of the landscape, the prologue is over, and now, we get to the good stuff: the build-up to conference championships and March confrontations. That said, the landscape of college basketball is as interesting as it’s ever been. It would be wrong of us to move along too quickly without stopping to admire some of the interesting and stylistically odd teams that this season has given us. And speaking of moving too quickly, let’s take some time to look at some of the more interesting slow-as-Christmas teams in the country.
Ryan's System Works For Him
In Madison, they are, as always, playing Bo Ryan’s brand of basketball, but this year the team has achieved a special level of Ryan-ness. With an emphasis on fundamentals, this Wisconsin team is the pride of sanctimonious gym teachers across this fair land. The team rarely ever turns the ball over, easily leading the nation by surrendering the ball only 13.5% of the time. As a team, the Badgers are the best free throw shooting team in the nation, making 81.9% of their free throws. With those two distinctions, Wisconsin is now, if it wasn’t already, officially, the epitome of dad-basketball across the nation. Unfortunately, the meticulous style of play also means that Wisconsin leads the nation in one more category: slowest pace. The Badgers average 58 father-pleasing possessions a game.
At Samford, they are playing slowly as well, and while the style of play isn’t exactly dad-pleasing, it’s certainly interesting. It’s mostly confusing, but technically superlative in quite a few ways. Samford leads the nation in assist-to-field-goal ratio, which may or may not mean anything. They also easily lead the nation in proportion of three point shots taken, shooting 56.1% of their shots from beyond the arc. They are also the worst team in the nation at offensive rebounding, grabbing only 19.1% of available boards. I have not seen Samford play, but from the numbers I’m picking up on the kind of mad-genius idea that few coaches and teams have the stomach to implement.
If you are interested in participating in our ATB2 feature, send in your submissions to rushthecourt@gmail.com. We will add to this post throughout the day as the submissions come in so keep on sending them.
Top 25 Games
#1 Ohio State 87, #12 Purdue 64: “Well, I guess that takes care of any questions as to which team is truly the cream of the crop in the B1G – and the country – for that matter. Featuring a balanced attack that saw six Buckeyes reach double figures, Ohio State simply outmanned and out hustled the Purdue Boilermakers on the way to an uber-convincing 87-64 blowout victory in front of a national TV audience.” (Eleven Warriors or Boiled Sports)
#5 Kansas 82, Colorado 78: “In the last Big 12 meeting in Boulder for the Jayhawks and Buffaloes, Kansas heads home after winning 82-78. This was just an amazing game to watch as a fan all the way down to the end. Great plays for the good guys and a couple of outstanding performances from Alec Burks and Cory Higgins for Colorado. This was like watching a baseball game at pre-humidor Coors field. We knew Colorado could score at home and they did just that, scoring 1.24 points per possession on the night. Luckily Kansas was even better with five guys scoring 9 or more points. The balance that had been missing in the early part of the conference schedule showed up with Brady Morningstar and Josh Selby having very good offensive nights. Selby led the team with 17 points followed by Marcus Morris with 15 points.” (Rock Chalk Talk)
Seton Hall 90, #10 Syracuse 68: Syracuse fans can’t even begin to describe how shocked they were by this so instead they turned to old movie clips to describe the sensation. (Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician)
This idea has been batted around for some time now, but it looks like it’s going to come to fruition. North Carolina and Michigan State are finalizing a deal to play each other next Veteran’s Day (November 11) on an aircraft carrier in San Diego Harbor. At first, we wondered why an eastern team and a midwestern team would travel so far to play when they have perfectly good aircraft carriers in their half of the country (Norfolk, Virginia, for example). And then we realized that the game will occur in November, and well, the game will be outside. San Diego’s rather predictable weather makes for a safer bet, and a deal should be announced soon for what will make for a rather interesting gimmick game. Let’s just hope that they properly adjust for the wind coming in off the water.
In advance of tonight’s blockbuster game in Provo, Luke Winn breaks down Jimmer Fredette’sfour worst performances of the season for some clues that San Diego State may use to try to contain him. It was interesting to hear South Florida’s Stan Heath discussing how his team defended both UConn’s Kemba Walker and Fredette, ultimately concluding that Fredette was the tougher cover because “his shooting range is a little more extended [and] while Kemba is quicker and more explosive, Fredette’s changes-of-speed, plus his hops and step-back moves, make him better. And when he elevates to shoot, he really gets up in the air.” Great stuff.
This commentary by the Austin American-Statesman’s Kirk Bohls discusses the gargantuan difference in team chemistry between last year’s Texas team and this year’s edition. It’s clear that even the locals around Austin are sensing a little something special about the group that Rick Barnes has at his disposal this time around. For our money, we’d agree; nobody in the country has more upside than this team. And if Jordan Hamilton can get his Glen Rice on in March, don’t be shocked to see UT playing in Houston in April.
Conference realignment ain’t over. The Mountain West Conference is meeting in Las Vegas this week and is prepared to offer current WAC school Utah State membership to replace the losses of Salt Lake City-area schools Utah (Pac-12) and BYU (independent + WCC). Last year USU turned down the MWC when it appeared that BYU was planning on leaving the conference for the WAC, causing the league to enact an end-around and effectively blow up the WAC by poaching several of its schools.
With Ohio State’s win over Purdue last night and SDSU on the chopping block tonight at BYU, the talk of unbeaten regular seasons is ramping up. We’re still a long way from serious consideration of that achievement by one of the final two unbeatens, but Mike DeCourcy harkened back to the 27-0 2003-04 St. Joseph’s team in discussing how the pressure builds with each passing game. It certainly makes things more interesting for us journo-bloggers out there, eh?
The Lede. It was an exceptionally strange night out there in college basketball-land. The best game on paper was a complete dud, while a couple that didn’t look very exciting at all turned out to be outstanding. A team that looked unbeatable in its conference race got knocked out by an old crosstown rival, and a venerable old program with a curmudgeonly old coach who’s been telling us his team isn’t very good suffered a beatdown that nobody else saw coming. The NPOY race may have gotten a tad more clear tonight as east coast candidate #1 struggled, but let’s wait until tomorrow and west coast candidate plays before rushing to judgment on that decision. Here we go…
This Guy Gets It Right (C-D/C. Russell)
Your Watercooler Moment. Buckeyes Defend Their #1 Ranking With Authority. For some reason or another, there was an underlying sentiment among some people out in the world that Thad Matta’s Ohio State Buckeyes were not nearly as good as their #1 ranking. We don’t personally claim to know any of those folks, but one thing is certain. After tonight’s thorough destruction of a game Purdue team with a couple of all-americans in its lineup and a night after Pittsburgh shot itself in the foot at home against Notre Dame, let there be no question: Ohio State is the best team in America right now. And they might just be the favorite to cut down the nets in Houston in early April as well. The Buckeyes unleashed a flurry of early threes against a team with a great defense, the kind of defense that doesn’t allow teams to drain five threes against it prior to the second television timeout. Then, as soon as Purdue started figuring out how to take away that weapon, Thad Matta’s team started penetrating for open looks inside. The scariest part for every other team in the country — NPOY candidate Jared Sullinger really wasn’t even a part of the 20-point halftime lead that OSU built. He only had four points while veterans William Buford, Jon Diebler and David Lighty did their thing. No other elite team in America — not even Duke with Kyrie Irving healthy — has the inside/outside balance and experience that Ohio State brings to the table. Against lesser teams, of course, a twenty-point lead is something that really good teams like Purdue can overcome; yet, everybody watching this one knew that Purdue was simply outclassed tonight. Short of a massive misstep, OSU will most likely hit February still unbeaten after a win at Northwestern this weekend. A home game against Michigan follows, and then a road game at Minnesota (now without Al Nolen). The most likely chance for the Buckeyes to lose next now appears to be the February 12 game at Wisconsin.
Tonight’s Quick Hits...
Florida-Georgia as Must-See TV. Tonight’s Super Tuesday matchup between Florida and Georgia was 1000 times more interesting and exciting that last week’s horrific Florida-Auburn game on ESPN. The Gators and Dawgs went at each other tonight in a way we haven’t seen in years in the SEC (the closest comparison is some of the epic Tennessee-Florida battles in recent years), but it was Erving Walker who managed to go from the Gator goat to hero in the course of just a few game minutes. Walker’s missed FT attempts down the stretch of regulation allowed Georgia to have a chance to tie the game on Trey Thompkins’ putback at the buzzer, but it was his 30-footer at the horn of the first overtime (see below) that gave his team another chance in the second extra period. Florida ran away with it in the second OT, putting the Gators at 5-1 in the SEC with big road wins already at Tennessee and Georgia. We’re never going to be completely sold on these Gators because of their personnel, but we’ll give them credit for winning two nailbiters in very tough SEC East venues this season. Do it at Vandy and Kentucky… then they’ll have our attention.
Kemba Walker’s Teammates, Again. What was especially impressive about tonight’s clutch 76-68 UConn win at Marquette was that despite the NPOY candidate’s poor shooting night (5-16 FG; 0-5 from three), other players stepped up to carry the load. Usually that’s been Alex Oriakhi, at least in the past month since Jim Calhoun called him out, but not tonight — Oriakhi only contributed 6/2 this evening. Rather it was the talented corps of freshmen led by Jeremy Lamb’s career-high 24/3/4 assts that kept UConn competitive throughout — Roscoe Smith added 11/8 and Shabazz Napier had 11/6/4 assts/3 stls. The reason that UConn has gone from an NIT team to a possible Final Four team in one season is twofold — 1) Kemba, obviously; but also, 2) the talented freshman class in addition to Alex Oriakhi’s development from stand-around-and-watch players to actual contributors. If this keeps up much longer, Jim Calhoun deserves serious NCOY consideration.
Lucious also released a statement, in which he admitted, “I didn’t live up to the standards of the program. Unfortunately, I let my teammates, my coaches, and myself down, and I wish them the best for the rest of the season.”
Lucious had led the team in assists, dishing out 4.1 APG as well as contributing 6.5 PPG this year. He also led the team in assist-to-turnover ratio with a rate of 1.9.
So far, there has been no mention as to whether Lucious will be eligible to rejoin the team as a senior next season. He had endured some criticism from MSU fans this year regarding a tendency to disappear late in games, a sentiment that would belie his performance in his most well-known moment as a Spartan: his buzzer-beater against Maryland that sent Midwest 5th-seed Michigan State through to the Sweet Sixteen of last year’s NCAA Tournament:
Tom Izzo is known for how his Spartan squads improve throughout a season and usually overachieve in the NCAA Tournament. In his 15 seasons as head coach, he’s taken MSU to the Tournament 13 times, and those teams have “underachieved” their seeding only twice. Both of those were first-round losses — as a Midwest #7 against Nevada in 2004, and as a Washington-pod #6 against that history making George Mason squad in 2006. Despite their 12-7 record this year, many followers of the game still held out faith that the Spartans would eventually show their usual late-season performance spike, evidenced by the fact that MSU clung to the bottom rung of the AP Top 25 and tied for 23rd in RTC’s rankings this week (see upper left).
As part of their remaining Big Ten slate, Michigan State still has upcoming games against Purdue and Illinois in East Lansing, and on the road at Minnesota, Ohio State, and Wisconsin. Even with six Final Fours, two trips to the championship game and his title in 2000, to survive that schedule and build a record good enough to warrant a bid to the NCAA Tournament this year would be Izzo’s greatest achievement yet. Izzo has four other guards who play at least 11 minutes a game, so what Lucious brought to the team in terms of points and rebounds won’t be terribly hard to absorb among the other players. But the dark cloud and mental gut-punch that this suspension brings to the program in an already difficult year is bigger than any scoring or rebounding contributions that the Spartans will be missing as a result of Lucious’ dismissal.
Earlier tonight a chartered flight carrying the Massachusetts basketball team to their game tomorrow against St. Bonaventure was forced to make an emergency landing when smoke began to fill the cockpit. Information on the incident is still limited, but it appears that the crew first became aware of the problem when several people on the plane smelled smoke about 10 minutes into the flight, and soon after the team was informed that they would have to make an emergency landing in Albany. The team was understandably shaken, as coach Derek Kellogg said, “It came as a little bit of a shock and surprise; to see some of the facial expressions of the players was priceless.” Senior guard Gary Correia added, “I was afraid. I didn’t know how to respond. It was out of my hands. I just prayed and luckily we’re here.”
When the plane landed it was met by a group of fire trucks, then the team was escorted off the plane and onto buses that took them away while maintenance crews worked on the plane. The fact that the team actually decided to take another flight to make their game tomorrow is relatively meaningless in the grand scheme of things, but it is worth noting that the team and staff made a decision to get on a plane again just a few hours after an incident that would leave many hesitant to board a plane for months, much less a few hours.
We're All Thankful History Didn't Repeat Itself Tonight
The more sobering fact for many of us who follow college basketball is that this incident comes nearly 10 years to the day after a plane crash that killed 10 members of the Oklahoma State entourage on board, including two players. Cowboys’ coach Travis Ford, who coincidentally took the job in Stillwater after a stint with the Minutemen, will lead a ceremony to honor those who lost their lives on that flight during tonight’s game against Texas. Perhaps the combination of that tragic event and this near tragedy will remind us of how trivial the sport we love is and how lucky we all are to be able to participate in it at some level either as players, coaches, journalists, or fans.
