We’re constantly impressed by the fearlessness shown by athletes in coming back from injuries and medical hurdles, playing as if nothing had ever happened, ignoring that the rolled ankle becomes a little less stable every time it happens, that concussions can have an additive effect over time, that blood sugar levels have to be monitored no matter if it’s during study hall or a time out during an overtime. It’s even more amazing when players play with or through medical issues that 18-22 year-olds, quite frankly, shouldn’t have to deal with, espeically those involving the ticker. After nearly dying twice this past summer from cardiac issues, do you think Seton Hall’s Herb Pope won’t enjoy every snowflake this winter or every fruitcake he gets as a Christmas present, let alone the chance to continue playing basketball?

We Say Bravo That Boyd Is Back For the Blackbirds (Photo: LIU)

In that spirit, check out this AP story from the Wall Street Journal today about the return of Long Island University’s Julian Boyd, who has returned to the court this season after taking a year off. After a freshman campaign that earned him the honor of being named the Northeast Conference’s Rookie of the Year after the 2008-09 season, Boyd began to experience symptoms resembling kidney failure. Tests revealed that he had a congenital (meaning it often occurs while you’re in the womb, no matter the cause) heart condition called noncompaction cardiomyopathy, a disorder in which the muscle in your heart stays soft and spongy during its development, causing it to enlarge and not beat as efficiently as it should.

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Jesse Baumgartner is an RTC contributor.  In this piece he’ll spend each week reviewing the five things he loved and hated about the previous week of college basketball.

The Five Things I Loved This Week

I LOVED…..SILENT NIGHT!! Come on, what’s not to love about this hilarious marketing scheme where the entire crowd at Taylor University stays silent until 10 points have been scored. Palm Sunday anyone?

Creative Fans For the Win, Alex...

I LOVED…..an honest coach. This week it was Arizona’s Sean Miller, who said his Wildcats were nothing more than “frightened” kittens against the big, bad Jimmer Fredette in BYU’s rout over UA. On a similar free-flowing note, Craig Robinson of Oregon State sounded off on what he doesn’t like about the college game. Here’s to coaches who tell it like it is.

I LOVED…..that the incredible winning streak of the UConn women has us talking about John Wooden’s UCLA teams. Say what you will about how the two dynasties compare (no comment), but I soak up every bit of Bruins history I can when the mainstream media starts talking Alcindor and Walton. We’ll never see anything like it again.

I LOVED…..the worldwide effort to save Kyrie Irving’s toe. Not everyone loves the Cameron Crazies, but that’s pretty humorous.

I LOVED…..the shockers. Not that we expect anything less from our beloved college basketball, but no one saw Tennessee losing two games to mid-majors – the second to a team that had just kicked off its leading scorer. And then a downtrodden Gonzaga goes to Texas and beats a Baylor team we were just starting to hype. As usual, no logic needed.

The Five Things I Hated This Week

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Game #78.  RTC is back in the World’s Most Famous Arena for the Holiday Festival hosted by St. John’s.

The Madison Square Garden Holiday Festival gets started tonight when Northwestern takes on Northeast Conference power St. Francis (NY) at 7 p.m. The Wildcats are led by John Shurna and his 23.7 points per game and need every win they can get if they want to be in the conversation for their first ever NCAA Tournament berth. Northwestern is currently undefeated at 7-0. The Terriers are 2-0 in the NEC, 6-3 overall, and are rated number one in the conference according to Ken Pomeroy, but Akeem Bennett (16.3 PPG) and Ricky Cadell (16.2 PPG) are going to find it tough sledding against the Northwestern. We’ll be there live from The World’s Most Famous Arena tonight.

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***** – 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.

Not much on the schedule tonight but the action picks up on Tuesday and Wednesday. All rankings from RTC and all times eastern.

Davidson @ St. John’s – 9:30 pm on MSG (**)

This is game two of the MSG Holiday Festival with the winner taking on Northwestern or St. Francis (NY) tomorrow night at the Garden. St. John’s is 5-3 but has lost two straight games to teams they arguably should have beaten, St. Bonaventure and Fordham. St. John’s hasn’t tasted victory since December 1, a win over Wagner. Steve Lavin makes his Garden debut tonight as coach of the Red Storm in a game pivotal for confidence moving forward towards Big East play. The keys to this game will be ball protection and inside scoring. Neither team shoots or defends the three well at all, though Davidson has a constant threat in Brendan McKillop. 6’10 big man Jake Cohen can also shoot it well from deep but he does most of his work inside, leading the team with 15/7 per game on 53% shooting. St. John’s has to defend the paint well because they’re not exactly a potent offensive club, either. The Johnnies are a poor free throw and three point shooting team but they do have some talent. D.J. Kennedy is a versatile forward who can score inside using his athleticism against bigger plodders and has a good mid-range game. Dwight Hardy is also a key player for Lavin’s team as he’s the main three point threat but has been dreadful so far this year, shooting just 26%. Hardy has to get going for St. John’s to make any kind of noise this year. When it comes to ball control, St. John’s has a strong edge. The Red Storm are second in the nation in turnover percentage, committing just ten turnovers a game. By contrast Davidson is ranked #220 and averages 15 per game. The Wildcats have to protect the ball much better than they have been doing in order to have a chance tonight on the road against St. John’s. With Cohen in the post, Davidson may have a rebounding advantage and should use that to create more possessions and limit the damage from possible turnovers. St. John’s should win but the two losses to inferior competition have to give you some pause. They’re at home but this game may be closer than you think.

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It was a quiet Sunday of college basketball so our recap today will be short. If you are interested in participating in our ATB2 feature, send in your submissions to rushthecourt@gmail.com.

Game of Interest

• Indiana 102, South Carolina State 60: “Another home non-conference game, another dominant performance. We know the drill by now. Sure, it wasn’t a complete cakewalk. South Carolina State came out with more intensity than the Hoosiers. Indiana also hit a stretch in the early first half where it couldn’t buy a bucket — despite getting some good looks — and were letting the Bulldogs get some easy buckets. They actually snagged a 27-20 lead at the 7:59 mark in the first half, but the Hoosiers started to connect, were grabbing offensive rebounds when they weren’t and getting after it a bit more as they finished out the half on a 23-8 run to take a 43-35 lead into half. The second half was an offensive clinic as Indiana scored a whopping 59 points on 61.1 percent shooting from the field (21-of-31), 66.7 percent from three (4-of-6) and 81.3 percent from the line (13-of-16).” (Inside the Hall)

News/Analysis

• Dominican Republic Basketball Federation now looking at John Calipari: “In the words of every KSR post written about Louisville: “folks, you just couldn’t make this up if you tried.” With Rick Pitino appearing poised to be announced as the new head coach of the Puerto Rican national basketball team, reports are now surfacing that the Dominican Republic, P.R.’s Latin American rival, is making a serious play to land Kentucky head coach John Calipari.” (Card Chronicle)
• The Gameplan’s Weekly Recap: Tennessee/Michigan: “Another week, another weekly recap from the Gameplan. This week’s edition covers the Tennessee upset and Michigan loss.” (Golden Grizzlies Gameplan)
• Five Key Plays: Oakland: Breaking down the key plays in Michigan’s victory over Oakland (UM Hoops)
• Zeller goes for 27 points, 20 rebounds in win at Bosse: A look at Cody Zeller and other Indiana recruits. (Inside the Hall: Text and Video)
• Kentucky Basketball: Statistics And Other Nonesuch From Last Night’s Game: Digging deeper into the Wildcats win over Mississippi Valley State. (A Sea of Blue)
• UCLA Basketball Wins a Big One for Coach: Looking back at the Bruins victory over BYU. (Bruins Nation)
• A (Semi) Statistical Recap of USC: Using a “Four Factor” analysis to look back at the Jayhawks victory over the Trojans. (Rock Chalk Talk)

1. It is still a few days before Christmas, but quite a few coaches got early Christmas presents in the form of players making long-awaited debuts. The most notable of these debuts was that of Josh Selby, who more than lived up to the hype as he was the best player on the court in Lawrence on Saturday and hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with 26 seconds left to propel Kansas to a hard-fought victory over USC. While Selby justifiably received the majority of the hype he wasn’t the only notable player making a debut as Jio Fontan was making his debut for the Trojans. Unfortunately for the Trojans Fontan did not has as auspicious of a debut as he stepped on the sideline after catching an inbounds pass following Selby’s 3, which eventually led to the Jayhawks hanging on for a victory. The other notable debut over the weekend was that of Renardo Sidney, who managed to score 12 points in a losing effort for Mississippi State against Virginia Tech.
2. Tonight Duke will play Elon in a game that probably doesn’t mean much to the average college basketball fan, but it will hold a special meaning for Coach K as he will going for win #879, which would tie Dean Smith for 2nd all-time win list. Everyone can appreciate the meaning as how it relates to the Duke-UNC rivalry, but it will also mean something for Krzyzewski on a more personal level after he spent more than a decade trying to emulate Smith to make Duke into a program comparable to UNC.
3. While we are on the topic of Coach K, The Fayetteville Observer has an excellent 3-part series on him analyzing him from all points of view. It is definitely worth your time even if we will all be getting bombarded with about a million pieces on him as he approaches Bob Knight‘s all-time wins record.
4. Earlier this season Len Elmore chimed in saying that he thought that Bruce Pearl should be fired and now Jay Bilas has voiced his opinion and he agrees with the Elmore’s take (Insider only, sorry). So now we know where ESPN’s basketball/legal department stands on Bruce Pearl. We can only hope that someone brings this up when Pearl is being interviewed by Elmore and/or Bilas, but we doubt that the executives at ESPN will let that happen. One more thing about the Bilas column: This is the first time we have ever seen the term “Chillax” on a major website.
5. We are a men’s college basketball site, but we would be remiss if we did not congratulate the UConn women for their 88th consecutive victory tying the record set by John Wooden‘s UCLA team. The Huskies will be going for #89 on Tuesday night at home against FSU.

The Lede.  Did you spend the weekend getting your Christmas shopping finished or watching basketball games?  It was quite a bit of both around the RTC compound, and we learned that should you not under any circumstances expect Tennessee to handle pressure well or question your significant other whether she already has “enough shoes.”  These are hard and fast rules that are inviolate, and the quicker we learn those two maxims, the better off we’ll be.

Your Watercooler Moment.  Help Save Kyrie’s Toe (h/t Beyond the Arc).  In the spirit of the holiday season, Duke fans ask us to dig deep to pray for the return of their superstar point guard Kyrie Irving this season.  Fairly clever, even for a bunch of Dookies (especially enjoyed the Durham… New Jersey… bit).

Season Debuts.  The semester break has started most everywhere and there were several significant and long-awaited debuts over the weekend.

• The most anticipated such debut, of course, was at Kansas where point guard Josh Selby came off the bench and pretty much won the game for his team down the stretch against USC.  His five threes included two in the last four minutes that each time regained the lead for the Jayhawks, the second without which would have more than likely ended the KU 64-game homecourt winning streak.  So we know that Selby is a difference-maker — his offensive scoring punch and playmaking abilities provide a dimension to the Kansas attack that the Jayhawks previously didn’t have.  But does he make KU better?  Keep in mind that from what we saw on Saturday, Selby needs to have the ball in his hands to be effective — he took a team-high eleven shots and handed out only one assist (to four turnovers).  Will team chemistry be affected by this?  How will it play with the juniors and seniors who have been through the wars and earned their places as the team leaders?  We’ll admit that we could be very wrong about this, but something just didn’t rub us the right way about how Kansas played on Saturday.  Maybe it was a one-time adjustment to bringing on the talent of a player like Selby, but we have our misgivings.
• Fordham transfer and USC point guard Jio Fontan also made his debut in the same game as Selby, and his fifteen points as well as leadership were the primary reasons that the Trojans had a realistic shot at knocking off Kansas in Allen Fieldhouse on Saturday.  He only had two assists on this day, and in fact it was his fifth turnover when he stepped on the sideline that ultimately proved the difference, but Southern Cal looked nothing like the same team that Rider destroyed in the Galen Center or TCU punched in the mouth three weeks ago.  Fontan will make a world of difference for the Trojans, and in a Pac-10 that appears to be punctuated with mediocrity up and down the standings, his ability to lead talented big men such as Nikola Vucevic and Alex Stepheson means that USC could surprise some people.

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If you are interested in participating in our ATB2 feature, send in your submissions to rushthecourt@gmail.com.

Top 25 Games

• #2 Ohio State 79, South Carolina 57: “Ohio State once again rode a dominating effort from Jared Sullinger, easily dispatching the cold shooting South Carolina Gamecocks 79-57 this afternoon in Value City Arena. In front of a regional CBS audience, Sullinger blew up for 30 points and 19 rebounds in 30 minutes of action erasing any doubts as to exactly who is the best freshman in the country.” (Eleven Warriors)
• #3 Kansas 70, USC 68: “Winners on the day for Kansas are quite obviously Josh Selby, along with Thomas Robinson, rebounding, the first half defensive effort and surviving.  Losers?  The Kansas offense, taking care of the basketball, free throw shooting and the ability to put away an opponent.” (Rock Chalk Talk)
• Charlotte 49, #4 Tennessee 48: “Fans of offensive basketball would have cringed at times during this game, it was all defense from both teams for most of the game.  Charlotte controlled the tempo of this game, keeping the score low and the legs fresh, and in the last 2:30 minutes, one defense folded and one held serve.” (Green Tinted Glasses)
• Florida 57, #5 Kansas State 44: “Despite all the struggles early in the year, this team has always brought it and played well against good teams, Duke excepted.  Tonight was a different story.  Once the momentum turned against K-State, the team couldn’t find an answer.  It doesn’t get any easier, as the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels will be waiting in Kansas City next Tuesday at Sprint Center.” (Bring on the Cats)
• Gonzaga 68, #7 Baylor 64: “I just sent out about 30 text messages with the same words:  “How did that just happen!?!” What a game.  What a frustratingly, close your eyes, yell, scream, cheer, ridiculous game.” (The Slipper Still Fits)
• #12 Georgetown 99, Loyola (MD) 75: “The last tuneup of the year couldn’t have been any better for the Georgetown Hoyas.  After a week-long layoff while the players were taking finals and being college students, Georgetown came out and destroyed Loyola (MD) 99 – 75.” (Casual Hoya)
• UCLA 86, #16 BYU 79: “One year after an ugly and embarrassing performance in front of Coach, the Bruins redeemed themselves and picked up a much needed victory against the #16 ranked and previously unbeaten BYU Cougars 86-79 in the John R. Wooden Classic (box score). With the win, UCLA notches its first “good” win of the year, and brings the Pac 10 conference a much needed victory.” (Bruins Nation)
• #17 Purdue 65, Indiana State 52: “If you watched it, you saw what I saw- a team that looked rusty and uninspired at times versus a team that really wanted to win, but just didn’t have the firepower to do so.” (Boiled Sports)
• #18 Kentucky 85, Mississippi Valley State 60: “This was one of those games. Most teams, like our orange and white neighbor to the south or red and black neighbor to the west, say that through gritted teeth and a frozen grimace.  But not this Kentucky team.  “One of those games” means the same thing this year as it did last year.  Against notably inferior opponents, Kentucky has off games just like everyone else.  The difference is, off games are a matter of degree, not result.” (A Sea of Blue)

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We’re here to finish off an exciting day of college basketball. As some of you may notice there are still games going on and if you want our thoughts on those games be sure to check back later for our After the Buzzer feature.

• College kids. . .: Before we get into our analysis we should take a moment to remember that we are talking about players who are mostly between 18 and 22 years old and that because we are at or near the end of finals week(s) so even though we are going to be analyzing every game as if it were the final Monday night in April you shouldn’t read too much into any of these games. Having said that. . .
• Baylor Folds: The Bears had it right in front of them. Throughout the  early season the critics have harped on Baylor’s soft early schedule, but today was their chance to make a statement to the nation. The Bulldogs may be struggling and lack the national interest that they usually have at this point in the season, but a win over Gonzaga is always noteworthy no matter how big your program is. With Steven Gray out at halftime with back spasms, Elias Harris out with 6 minutes to go after fouling out, and Demetri Goodson turning the ball over 7 times the Bears should have had this one in the bag, but they let it get away. There is enough talent on this team that they will probably get some big wins in the Big 12 to make up for this loss, but you have to wonder about a veteran-laden team that comes up so small in a big game that was eminently winnable.
• Perry Jones: The one bright spot for Scott Drew’s squad? There was one player who stepped up today and that was uber-recruit Perry Jones. So far this season he has been under the radar with the phenomenal performances of Jared Sullinger and Kyrie Irving, but he has managed to put up solid numbers–13.1 PPG, 9 RPG, and 1.3 BPG–although it has come against lackluster competition. Today he showed us that he can do it against the big boys even if some of them were out for part of the game. If the Bears can get Jones to play more on the inside rather than staying around the 3-point line they could have a dynamic force on the inside that could feed off of LaceDarius Dunn and A.J. Walton to become a potential game-changer and help the Bears make a run in March.
• BYU Stunned: We won’t make too much of BYU’s loss at this point of the year in the opening game of the Wooden Classic to a Bruins team that apparently used the legendary coach as motivation for the game today (at least that’s what they said after the game), but it will bring up the usual questions about the Cougars namely what will they do when all-world Jimmer Fredette is struggling as he did today with 7 turnovers (along with 25 points). They were able to get an excellent offensive effort out of Brandon Davies today, but it was not nearly enough. Fredette’s brilliance will get them pretty far in March, but if they want to make that next step they will need the entire team to step up when he is off his game on both ends of the floor. On a side note, how has UCLA fallen so far in such a short period of time that a victory over BYU in the Wooden Classic would be considered an upset?

Hello, Donnie. Get ready to see head coach Donnie Jones and his Knights of Central Florida in the next Top 25 that comes out in about 48 hours. They knocked off Miami (FL) earlier, 84-78, and are now 10-0. Understandably, your attention may immediately gravitate to Marcus Jordan (15.9 PPG, 2.1 RPG, 3.4 APG), given his famous papa, and he was outstanding tonight with 23 points. The name you also need to know is Keith Clanton (16.7 PPG, 8.8 RPG, 1.7 BPG), their star 6’8 sophomore forward. They’ll next put that undefeated record on the line at Massachusetts on Wednesday.

Save somethin’ for the second half (of the season), big fella. There’s not much else to say about Jared Sullinger, but it’s still fun talking about how ridiculously good he is. South Carolina isn’t exactly long, and they looked like a team feeling the effects of a post-finals week, pre-holiday road trip — they shot terribly (38.3% FG, 42.9% FT), didn’t take care of the ball (15 turnovers) and their defense in transition was non-existent — but 30/19 for the Ohio State big fella is still an outstanding performance. And when he’s hitting halftime buzzer-beating spinning jumpers off glass from near the hash marks, you know what kind of day you’re in for.

An Early Christmas? Perhaps a little post-finals malaise from Illinois? You might drop a clanger of a game every once in a while and get away with it, but 18-55 (32.7%) from the field and 4-17 (23.7%) from beyond the three-point arc wasn’t going to get the Illini by Illinois-Chicago today. The Flames (now 5-7) forced some late Illinois turnovers and UIC’s Darrin Williams took advantage of every late scoring chance he had in helping his team pull off the upset, but the story here was how the Flames removed Illinois’ bigs from the equation. The Illini starting front line had a combined 13 points on 5-16 shooting, and they only got five more points from big guys off the bench.

Making a Point. North Carolina will take the next step forward when Kendall Marshall eats up more of Larry Drew II’s minutes. Drew plays twice as much as Marshall on the average but Marshall has shown to be a better distributor of the basketball, is great at getting into the lane and finding an open teammate, and is a little more comfortable getting physical than Drew appears to be. What do you think, Tar Heel fans? Would you be comfortable with Marshall seeing more time at Drew’s expense? Despite Harrison Barnes’ clutch three to tie it at 76 (his first three of the game and only UNC’s third) Texas just stunned the Heels in Greensboro on Cory Joseph’s stick in the final seconds.

Orange Bawl. From here, Kansas State has officially removed itself from consideration as one of the elite teams in the nation that could conceivably contend for a national title. We probably gave them longer than most people, actually. Losing to Florida in the Gators’ home state (this was an Orange Bowl Classic affair) is no crime, but that the Wildcats can be goaded into some of the shots they took tonight (15-55 or 27.3% FG, and 3-19 or 15.8% from three) shows that they aren’t ready to be considered among the big boys at this time.