Game #104. RTC Live makes its first trip to Long Island for a key CAA game this afternoon.
Picked to finish 5th in the CAA, Hofstra has taken the league by storm in the early going under the guidance of first year head coach Mo Cassara. The Pride are undefeated in 2011, and will look to keep that streak going against preseason favorite Old Dominion. After losing their season opener to Georgetown by just three points, ODU won nine of their next 10 games. Since then, however, they are 2-3 with a gut wrenching five point loss at Drexel. Standing at 3-2 in the league, ODU can ill afford to drop another game at this stage of conference play, especially to Hofstra as a loss would put them three games behind the Pride (6-0 vs. 3-3). As for the game itself, the Monarchs do not play the most aesthetically pleasing brand of basketball, but if you are a fan of in-your-face defense then ODU is for you. Surrendering less than 60 points a game, ODU will certainly look to contain Hofstra’s stud guard and potential NBA player Charles Jenkins who is a scoring machine and arguably the league’s best player. The senior from Queens averages 23.5 points a game which is tops in the CAA and fifth nationally. Limiting Jenkins’ production will be no easy task, but if there was a defense in the CAA that could do it, it may be ODU’s.
Game #105. RTC Live heads to DePaul as the struggling Blue Demons take on Kemba Walker and UConn.
The Kemba Walker show comes to Chicago to take on DePaul in an afternoon matinee contest on Saturday at 1 p.m. central. Connecticut (13-2) comes into the game at Allstate Arena with Walker averaging 25.3 points per game this season. He’s getting help from a number of places for the No. 9 Huskies as well. Sophomore Alex Oriakhi averages 10.9 points and 9.5 rebounds per game. The Blue Demons are led by two dynamic freshman in Cleveland Melvin, who originally committed to Jim Calhoun before landing in Lincoln Park, and Brandon Young. Those two are the future of a struggling DePaul team that is 6-10 overall and 0-4 in the Big East. Still, Oliver Purnell’s dynamic pressing system always gives the Blue Demons a chance as they’ve been close into the second half in each of their last three Big East games against Georgetown, West Virginia and Seton Hall. Come see if the Blue Demons can pull the monster upset at home.
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.
Pre-Game Analysis
#11 Missouri at #16 Texas A&M: A preview of what might be the best game of the weekend in what will be the Aggies toughest game so far this season. (Rock M Nation)
#15 Illinois at #17 Wisconsin: The Illini try to bounce back from a loss at Penn State against a Badger team that they beat at home less than two weeks ago. (Hail to the Orange)
#19 Georgetown at Rutgers: Analyzing the Hoyas trip to New Jersey on the heels of a disastrous stretch that has left some questioning the team. (Casual Hoya)
Michigan at Indiana: The Wolverines come to Assembly Hall after losing close games against Kansas and Ohio State. (Inside the Hall: Preview and Hoosier Quotes; UM Hoops: Preview and Q&A)
Marquette at Louisville: The Eagles look to build on their big win over Notre Dame against a Louisville team that has not beaten a quality opponent in over a month. (Cracked Sidewalks or Anonymous Eagle)
Dayton at Xavier: Previewing a big Atlantic 10 match-up featuring two of the top teams in the conference. (Pickin Splinters)
Wake Forest at Virginia Tech: The Hokies look to rebound after a rough start to ACC play against a Demon Deacon team that might be one of the worst in any of the major conferences. (Tech Hoops)
***** – 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.
Another action-packed weekend awaits grateful hoop fans as we’re about two months away from March Madness. Conference play is really heating up and races are beginning to take shape. All rankings from RTC and all times eastern.
That’s Debatable is back for another year of expert opinions, ridiculous assertions and general know-it-all-itude. Remember, kids, there are no stupid answers, just stupid people. We’ll try to do one of these each week during the season. We’re fairly discerning around here, but if you want to be included, send us an email with your take telling us why at rushthecourt@yahoo.com.
This Week’s Topic: The NCAA has taken a lot of flak in the last week for its seeming inconsistency in recent rulings involving Cam Newton, the Ohio State football players and Enes Kanter, among others. Give us your ideas on how the NCAA should handle an increasingly complex environment involving the eligibility issues of its student-athletes. Can it be consistent?
Andrew Murawa, RTC contributor
If the NCAA can at least be consistent in attempting to look out for the best interests of student-athletes, while maintaining as near a level playing field as possible for all schools to compete upon, that should be enough. In the Kanter case, it seemed to me that Kanter didn’t do anything inherently “wrong.” He accepted money from a Turkish professional team above and beyond expenses for housing, education and the like, but Kanter never showed any real interest in becoming a professional. If he had wanted to be a professional, he could have been pulling a salary overseas for years now, but he made the commitment to come to the United States and try to compete at the college level. If the NCAA was going to rule with the best interests of the student-athlete in mind, Kanter would have been eligible at some point, after an appropriate penalty and his repayment of whatever additional funds he received. The NCAA is never going to be able to come up with a one-size-fits-all solution to these types of amateurism cases, and comparing the circumstances and motives behind each individual case will never be exact, but if they can consistently rule in a manner protective of its student-athletes – while still protecting the goal of amateurism – they’ll at least be serving their mission.
Tom Wolfmeyer, RTC contributor
Transparency, transparency, transparency. The NCAA’s biggest problem in my eyes is that nobody seems to be able to predict how rules will be interpreted or penalties handed out in a given case. And then when the organization is questioned, they have trouble articulating the nuance and distinguishing between decisions. The only way to combat this is with complete transparency in how their enforcement system works and the decision-making matrix that the NCAA uses to establish guidelines for punishment. If Cam Newton’s situation is indeed different than Enes Kanter’s, and his is different than Derrick Rose’s, et al., then the NCAA needs to inform us as to the specific criteria used to make decisions and then follow those same guidelines in future, similar cases. The way it stands now is entirely too ambiguous, which ultimately creates an appearance of the NCAA enforcement folks playing favorites and impropriety. And isn’t that the exact thing that the NCAA purports to be working for — a level playing field with a fair and just system?
Brian Otskey, RTC contributor
I think it’s impossible for the NCAA to be consistent when it comes to every student-athlete. I know Cam Newton was basically shopped around but I don’t follow college football and don’t know anything beyond that so it’s not my place to comment on that or the Ohio State football controversy. What I do know is that Enes Kanter is a professional athlete. He played for a professional team and received $33,000 above his necessary expenses, according to the university and the NCAA. The outrage from Dick Vitale and others that the NCAA declared him ineligible to get back at John Calipari is ludicrous. Kanter would be ineligible no matter what team he played for and teams knew he was a risk while recruiting him. I can’t blame Kentucky for taking a risk with a potentially great reward but let’s stop with the conspiracy theories about this. When it comes to Josh Selby, that money wasn’t even 15% of what Kanter was paid, though it does seem strange that he’s allowed to pay it back and play while Kanter cannot. The bottom line is that it’s impossible to create one rigid standard for everyone. Each situation should be looked at on a case-by-case basis.
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
#21 Minnesota 70, #8 Purdue 67: With their season on the verge of falling apart the Gophers hung on for a tight home win over the Boilermakers behind 26 points from Blake Hoffarber. (Minnesota: The Daily Gopher or From the Barn; Purdue: Boiled Sports or Hammer and Rails)
Other Games of Interest
UNC 64, Virginia Tech 61: “Malcolm Delaney’s 28 points, including seven three-pointers, was not enough for the Hokies on the road against ACC rival UNC. Especially when Jeff Allen follows a career game with four points and seven rebounds against the Heels. Despite a 16-point first-half lead, Tech loses 61-64 to UNC.” (Tech Hoops)
Gonzaga 92, Pepperdine 75: “Robert Sacre put up sixteen shots tonight against Pepperdine. Eight of them were from the floor and eight of them were from the free throw line. He didn’t miss once. The junior center finished with a career high 24 points this evening against the Waves of Pepperdine as Gonzaga cruised to a 17 point victory tonight in Spokane.” (The Slipper Still Fits)
UCLA 62, Oregon State 57: “UCLA beat OSU 62-57 in a game that played true to the UCLA season so far. 20 minutes this team looks great. In the first half UCLA shoots 65%, holds OSU to 23.3% and out rebounds a small OSU team 23-11. Zeke leads us with 9 points and sure there are too many TOs but not a bad half. Second half OSU outscores us by 10 overcomes a 17 point deficit to take the lead and out rebounds us! But really, there is no surprise this is the Bruins of 2010-11. Final score, UCLA won and did what they were suppose to do. But this is so ugly it is like a moral defeat.” (Bruins Nation)
Villanova is ranked in the top ten and may seem like its in a similar position to what it was last season when the Wildcats roared to a 20-1 start. But things are different this time around, says head coach Jay Wright, as his team has bought into playing better defense and sharing the ball en route to a 15-1 record so far this year. We can buy it. Villanova looked worn down by the end of last season, and their big men (particularly Mouph Yarou) were not quite ready for prime time. This year’s team has yet to play a road game against a legitimate team, so we’ll reserve judgment until we see how they do in trips to Storrs and Syracuse in coming weeks.
Ugh. The father of the teenager who is accusing an unnamed Washington player of sexual assault in Seattle has come out to say that he is “outraged” that the player is still on the team and playing basketball. He said that his daughter has not yet been back to school since the alleged incident, and it “boils his blood” that he feels the police and university are protecting the player. This sounds like it’s only going to get worse before it gets better. We have no idea who this player might be, but it’s interesting that the father said the player went to a liquor store prior to taking the girl back to her apartment. Does this mean he’s at least 21 years old?
Oregon opened its brand-new, Phil Knight-funded Matthew Knight Arena on Thursday night with a win over USC. In case you missed it or forgot what their new court looks like, take a gander at this. Yes, in HD it looks even worse than expected.
We have it on great authority that Luke Winn pulled an all-nighter to get his latest Power Rankings up this week. And here we thought all along that it was all in his head, expelled onto his laptop in a mere twenty minutes or less. The new #1 is, not surprisingly, Ohio State, but as usual, you’ll learn more about the sport in 15 minutes reading his column that you will by spending hours in most other places the entire rest of the week. Oh, and he also churned out a column on Duke’s loss to Florida State Wednesday night, just for good measure.
One day after Memphis’ second consecutive loss at SMU, Josh Pastner indefinitely suspended junior Wesley Witherspoonfor mocking an assistant coach during the bus ride home, “going as far as getting on the bus’ loudspeakers and doing an impression of the coach.” All we can say is… wow. Who does this after an embarrassing loss? Who does this, period?
The Lede. Thursday night was angry because it had to follow Wednesday night’s ridiculous bounty of hoops and the Florida State upset of Duke. Still, there were some compelling storylines to follow on tonight’s slate, including a streak on the line at Minnesota, some serious glare coming off the Jackson Pollock painting that is Oregon’s new floor, and whether or not Seth Greenberg and Virginia Tech would have enough players to finish their game at North Carolina.
Your Watercooler Moment. For those in the East who stayed up long enough to see it, here’s a look at what people saw on the broadcast of the debut of Oregon’s Matthew Knight Arena:
The glare you see is not a product of taking a picture of a television with a camera. In reality, it looked even worse than this. The central part (the “non-tree” portion) of the floor is comprised of very light-colored wood, and as you can see, the light from the long strip of lights along the ceiling bounces right off of that wood, through the camera, and onto your screaming retinas. In high-def it was atrocious, and if the game was shown on HDTVs in sports bars around the country, it could aptly be described as a civic danger. During the game, everybody from Sports Illustrated writers to ESPN personalities were commenting on it through Twitter; one friend even said he had to wear sunglasses while watching the game. The hot shots who came up with the design for this court should be able to figure out some lighting scheme that will provide sufficient illumination for basketball while also letting home viewers enjoy the floor in all its, er…glory. Let’s hope so.
After Florida State’s victory over Duke last night, there are but four undefeated teams left in D-I college basketball: San Diego State, Kansas, Syracuse, and the heir apparent to the #1 ranking on Monday, Ohio State. You’ve probably heard about that today just as much as you’ve heard the analysis about how hard it is for a team to go undefeated any more (no kidding). Soon, we’ll make our predictions on when the remaining four undefeateds will lose. Because they will.
Kyle Randall and UNCG Have Made It Just Past the Midpoint of Their Schedule Without a Win
But what about the other side — the unvictorious? It’s been three seasons since a school has gone through the entirety of their schedule without a single win, an ignominy achieved by the 2007-08 New Jersey Tech (NJIT) Highlanders, God love ’em, and their 0-29 run as an independent. Last year, two teams came close, when Marist and Bryant both went 1-29. Marist rung in 2010 by beating Manhattan, 72-66, on January 2nd. Bryant, however, had everyone holding their breath late into the season until, with only four games left, they finally snagged that first victory on February 18th — a 53-51 squeaker at Wagner.
This season, there are still two teams without a victory. UNC-Greensboro is 0-15 with 14 regular season games left on their schedule. And even though they may have one of the best nicknames in the game — the Gentlemen — Centenary is 0-17 with 13 games remaining.
The future is a tad brighter for UNCG than it is for Centenary, it would seem. The oracle that is KenPomprojects the Spartans to finish at 4-25 and has them winning their first game on January 20th against Georgia Southern, a game that also represents their best chance at a victory (75%). Unfortunately for the Gentlemen, it’s pretty dire. KenPom’s projection relegates them to the dustbin of history, a perfectly unvictorious 0-30, with their best chance for a win coming on February 24th against Western Illinois — a mere 15% chance, at that. We should note that Centenary, the smallest D-I school in the country, is playing with lame duck status. They’ll move back down to Division III next season.
Good luck, fellas, and we’ll be watching. We hope you both get at least one before season’s end!
It’s nothing new that athletes love to talk. Mostly about themselves, but sometimes about completely unrelated things too. Such as… girlfriends, coaches, other players, fans, referees, or anything that tangentially relates back to themselves. This is part of the reason that social networking platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have had to become so regulated by coaches and universities — players don’t always have the ability to filter their thoughts from their mouths (but honestly, who does?). Two incidents in college hoops this week help to crystallize this point.
Smith Has Some Lessons Still to Learn (UCLA D-B)
First, UCLA center and freshman behemoth Josh Smith lashed out after Sunday night’s loss to USC where he was clearly frustrated by his 22-minute, five-foul performance. In the postgame comments, he blamed much of his 8-point, 3-rebound night on the zebras:
The refs, honestly, were terrible. They were giving me B.S. answers [about fouls]. They were telling me this, this, this. Hopefully, they can watch tape and correct themselves.
He also left the Galen Center on Sunday night hoisting a one-finger salute to a USC fan who had obviously irritated him. All in all, not the greatest debut for the rookie in his first rivalry game of the series. Predictably by Tuesday, Smith had been reeled in by UCLA staff and forced to apologize (after all, he’ll see those Pac-10 referees again), with head coach Ben Howland acting the role of disappointed parent:
