Some notes for your weekend of debauchery…

• It’s harder than it looks, huh?  Former #1 recruit Brandon Jennings was supposed to become a trailblazer by going to Europe rather than Arizona for one year.  According to this Washington Times piece, he’s averaging 5/3 in a mere 17 minutes per game.  As for his peers who matriculated at US colleges, they’re not exactly tearing it up either.
• Gary Parrish points out an interesting stat about Stephen Curry’s shooting vs. BCS and non-BCS opponents this year.  Definitely something to keep an eye on (although this is consistent with Curry’s 41.1% shooting against Georgetown, Wisconsin and Kansas in the NCAAs last year). 
• From the completely shocking and out of character department, Jim Boeheim is upset with the terms of Eric Devendorf’s suspension from Syracuse. 
• John Wooden would like to see the rims raised to some point less than eleven feet high. 
• Kentucky all-time assists leader Dirk Minniefield was indicted in Houston for engaging in a fraudulent real estate scheme.
• Here’s a pretty good piece on Dick Vitale’s vocal cord problems – we love to rip the guy’s partisanship, but we’ve never wavered on his passion and love for the game. 

Arizona sophomore forward Jamelle Horne is making a name for himself in the desert this season for more than just his boneheaded play against UAB a month ago (see below video for a refesher on that particular abomination).  

He’s averaging 8 ppg and 4 rpg as a starter, but his most recent newsworthy moment came after Wednesday night’s game vs. San Diego State.  From the Tucson Citizen:

Arizona sophomore forward Jamelle Horne apologized for a flippant comment he made about a wager he made against former San Diego area high school teammates in UA’s 69-56 win over San Diego State.  “I want to apologize for my comments last night and say that no wager took place,” said Horne, in a statement through the school’s sports information office.  “I understand that sports and gambling do not mix.  In an effort to be funny after a tough game, I made a poor choice of words and now realize that I should choose my words more carefully.”

The wager in question was supposedly a dinner bet.  There’s no word yet as to whether if, in a similar bet with Mike Davis, he was heavy on UAB when he made his foolish intentional foul to give the Blazers the victory a few weeks ago. 

You may recall last week that we looked at how the power conferences (ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Big East, Pac-10, SEC) were doing halfway through the non-conference schedule this year.  We generally concluded that the ACC and Big East are currently at the top of the heap, and the SEC in particular should be booted out of the group.

What Mid-Majors Play For

But what about the mid-majors?  As important as the non-conference slate is for the BCS schools in terms of seeding and whether five or six teams are invited to the Big Dance, it’s even more important to the mid-majors who are fighting for simply a second or third bid and assuredly will see their conference RPIs drop once conference season begins.  So today we take a look at evaluating the mid-majors’ performance thus far, keeping in mind the dual criteria for success that we established last week – considerable success against your peers and domination of your subordinates.  We’ll add a third criterion for these mid-majors, which is a reasonable showing against your superiors (the power conference schools) as well.  So let’s take a look at the W/L numbers thus far (through 12.11.08):

It seems clear to us right off the bat that the Mountain West (ranked #7 by both Sagarin and Pomeroy) has the best overall profile thus far.  While it has struggled with its BCS record (.214), its measure in that category is only significantly worse than two conferences – the A10 (.355) and the WCC (.411) – in that regard.  But the MWC has absolutely dominated its peer conferences (.704) and its underlings (.900) as if it were a power onference-lite (watch yourselves, SEC).  It’s overall non-conference record is also outstanding for a mid-major, at 49-22 (.690), bettering its peers by a considerable margin (#2 – Missouri Valley – .583).

For the next best mid-major conference, we’re split between the Missouri Valley, Atlantic 10 and Conference  USA.  The A10 has a solid 11-20 (.355) record against the big boys, whereas the MVC (.176) and CUSA (.263) do not, but the MVC has performed significantly better against its peers (.583 vs. .357/.500, respectively).  All three conferences have pretty well owned their subordinates this year.  So how to distinguish the three?  Let’s go with the top-heavy theory.  According to Sagarin, the A10 has six teams in the top 100, the MVC has five, and CUSA has four.  Good enough for us.

There’s a pretty clear delineation between these top four mid-majors and the others – WCC, Horizon, MAC, WAC, Colonial, but we’re not going to try to distinguish from among this group because it’s largely too close to call based on the above data.  As it currently stands, it will be a struggle for any of these five conferences to put a second team into the NCAA Tournament this year (St. Mary’s needs to keep that in mind).  Nevertheless, we do want to point out a few interesting observations that we had along the way.

• The MAC is 0-16 against power conference schools.  You’re not going to be a mid-major very long playing like that.  The Colonial is barely any better.
• The WCC is a respectable 7-10 against the power conferences, but lays an egg against the low-majors (9-12).  We have to believe this shows just how top-heavy this conference is (w/ Gonzaga and St. Mary’s).
• The Horizon needs to play more games against D1 opponents – we can’t believe they’ve only played 12 games against the low majors (6-6).

We’ll check back in on this when we get to the end of the non-conference schedule, because at that point with few exceptions, conference positions are relatively static.

Game of the Night. Gonzaga 74, Washington St. 52. This game, more than any other thus far this year, proves to us that Gonzaga is for real.  More than the Maryland blowout one day after the Terps pounded Michigan State.  More than the Tennessee win where the Zags held the high-scoring Vols to 36% shooting.  No, while all you guys were sleeping on the east coast, the Zags were laying waste to their in-state nemesis in a rivalry game whom had frustrated and annoyed and outworked them in victories the last two seasons.  Not this time around. Take a look at the gametracker below.  Wazzu hung in there for a half, only going into the locker room down 32-29.  After a quick post-halftime bucket, Gonzaga then went on a 15-0 run followed by another 10-4 run (totaling 25-4 for the mathematically challenged) to completely eviscerate the Cougs on their home court.  What was the difference?  Once again, the Zags played some serious defense.  They held WSU to only 33% shooting from the field and a paltry 2-19 (11%) from three while grabbing seven steals and hitting ten threes on the other end.  The Zags are currently 9th nationally in defensive FG% (34.7%) and 8th in defensive pts per possession (.80), and they’ve done so against the current RPI #2 schedule in the nation.  Josh Heytvelt continued his renaissance with 22 pts, Austin Daye added 14, and Jeremy Pargo contributed 11/10 assts for the Zags.  We were all over this team a year ago, but we didn’t realize the extent of Heytvelt’s injuries – now that he appears to be nearly 100% back, this team is legit.

Upset of the Night. Charlotte 70, Mississippi St. 64. Can we just go ahead and establish the SEC as a two-bid league this year?  When a 2-6 team can come into the house of (supposedly) one of the better SEC West teams (6-2 prior to tonight) and run out to a 24-pt lead and never really be threatened, something is seriously wrong with the league.  We’re certain RTC’s SEC correspondent Kurt Wurth will have something to say about this next week.

Mushing Eric Devendorf.  You’ve probably heard by now that the Syracuse Judicial Board decided to boot guard and key cog Eric Devendorf out of school for “punching” a woman in the face on Nov. 1.  Devendorf will probably get reinstated on appeal, but if you read the comments at Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician, you’ll learn about “mushing” someone who might be a little too amorous on the dance floor (and what Devendorf may have allegedly done to this woman).  Great stuff.  Check it out.

Other Games You Really Care About.

• St. Peter’s 51, NJIT 38. 42 in a row.  NJIT actually led 20-19 at the half.  Short-lived.
• Xavier 78, Ohio 56. Terrell Holloway returned from his foot problem to lead XU to its second-best start ever.  Now they prepare for the Crosstown Shootout on Saturday at Cincy.
• Indiana 66, TCU 56. We have to admit, Indiana is better than we thought they would be.  We didn’t think they would win games like this one.
• Oklahoma 78, Maine 52. Blake Griffin continues to slow down a little – only 22/10 tonight.
• California 72, Utah 69. Nope, we can’t figure either of these teams out, but Cal is starting to make us think they’re finishing top three in the Pac-10 this year.  Jerome Randle hit a three to win the game with six seconds left.
• Butler 87, Bradley 75. Butler moves to 8-0 with a solid win over an MVC foe.
• Creighton 77, Dayton 59. Dayton takes its first loss in a tough way, getting thumped by Creighton and their 13 threes, five of which came for Booker Woodfox, one of the best names in CBB this year.
• Arizona 69, San Diego St. 56. A close game became not close as UA scored the last 11 pts of the game behind Jordan Hill’s 25/14.
• BYU 94, Boise St. 56. BYU rode a 61-pt second half to a humiliation of Boise, and remained unbeaten as a result.

On Tap Thursday (all times EST):

• Miami (OH) (-14.5) v. Wisconsin-Milwaukee (ESPN FC & 360) – 7pm
• Villanova (-10) v. St. Joseph’s (ESPN2) – 8pm
• Kansas St. (-5.5) v. Southern Mississippi (ESPN FC & 360) – 8pm

We have a lot of links to get through despite rtmsf’s best efforts to cover for me so I’ll get right into the links. . .

• Seth Davis making the case that college basketball’s regular season is more meaningful than college football’s regular season. While Seth has ventured over to RTC on several occasions and left kind words, I don’t agree with him here. The BCS is far from perfect, but that doesn’t mean its regular season is diminished. Having said that, the fact that the college basketball regular season is relatively less important than the college football regular season doesn’t mean that college football is superior to college basketball.
• Several other big sites have noted that Bruce Pearl’s ex-wife opened up a nail salon in Knoxville named “Alimony’s Hair & Nail Salon”, but only RTC provides you with the reason she is his ex-wife (3rd pic on the video tour).
• Mike Gundy has nothing on Jimmy Patsos.
• Eric Devendorf appears to be in trouble. You would think that the Kelvin Sampson fiasco last year would have taught people to avoid using cell phones and text messaging if they are going to do something bad. [Ed. Note: RTC does not endorse violence against women or text messaging]
• I’m sure most of you have heard about Rodney Rodgers and his unfortunate ATV accident that left him paralyzed. I still remember watching him at Fleet Center as a key part of the 2002 Boston Celtics Eastern Conference Finals team (acquired along with Tony Delk in the Joe Johnson trade–doh!) and it’s still shocking to know that he’s paralyzed now.
• It’s never too early to prepare your bracket. Prepare all you want, but that freshman girl down the hall who drinks a little too much on the weekends and only remembers the “cute” players on your school’s basketball team is still going to kick your ass in March anyways.
• Comparing this year’s top freshman to Victoria’s Secret models. To be perfectly honest, this list makes no sense at all, but you probably won’t notice once you get to the diaper dandies counterparts.

Scrolling through the news feeds again today we came across an article stating that Kansas freshman forward Markief Morris received 20 hours of community service for his assault of a Wisconsin woman with a plastic BB gun in a university courtyard last summer.  From the AP report:

Campus police said shots were fired from a room in Jayhawker Towers. The 47-year-old woman was hit in the arm and slightly injured. Officers seized a 3-foot-long black Airsoft rifle and medium-sized plastic bag of BBs.

Nothing Says Manly Like a BB Gun and a Dead Sparrow

Normally we wouldn’t have put this up as a stand-alone post because it’s simply not newsworthy enough to warrant it.  But that begs the question – why isn’t a kid shooting someone with a BB gun newsworthy enough?  The answer is because it seems to happen all the damn time!  The newsworthy part of this story is that athletes shooting people with BB guns is such a frequent occurrence that it’s become passe to report on it anymore.

Checking ourselves, we counted at least 3 other incidents in the past eighteen months where a big-time college basketball player was involved in a BB gun shooting situation.  Here’s that list:

• Al-Farouq Aminu, Wake Forest –  arrested in April 2008 for shooting a BB gun at a woman in front of her home
• Ryan Reid, Florida St. – suspended in June 2008 for “fooling around with a BB gun,” whatever that means
• David Lighty, Ohio St. – pled guilty to misdemeanor assault for shooting a 55-yr old man with a BB gun in June 2007

What is the attraction of athletes with these toys – seriously, it’s like Kobe Bryant at a Colorado resort or Gary Williams at a Buffalo Wild Wings – they just can’t seem to help themselves.  The urges are too strong.  The little voices inside won’t release them from their torturous grasp.

Besides, when will these guys learn?  You don’t shoot people!  You shoot flaming teddy bears and creepy female mannequin heads!  (god we feel very caucasian right now…):

Ray Floriani of College Chalktalk is the RTC correspondent for the NEC and the MAAC Conferences.  He attended the Jimmy V Classic in Manhattan last night. 

NEW YORK CITY –  A few notes from last night at the Jimmy V at the Garden. Stephen Curry is unselfish. Ok, he took 27 (44%) of his team’s 61 shots. He did hand out 10 assists and looked for his teammates as much as possible. Curry is a rare talent and when a basket is needed, Bob McKillop wants the ball in his hands. Down the stretch he thrilled the 14,000-plus crowd to one those vintage performances that will be discussed for some time. Curry hit four big shots in the final five minutes. One brought his Davidson team within one, two tied it and finally a big trey that gave the Wildcats the lead for good. Curry ended the night with a game high 27 points but was most gratified with his team’s 68-65 victory. At 9 of 27 from the floor he missed his share of shots. But he won over a new legion of fans and the admiration of media members covering his game live the first time.

photo credit: Sipkin/NY Daily News

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Don’t Give Up, Don’t Ever Give Up. We’re old enough to have watched the Jimmy V speech live in 1993, and it remains one of our two or three favorite speeches we’ve ever heard.  As someone whose own family has been impacted by the scourge that is cancer, we’re very supportive of this annual Classic and the Jimmy V Foundation, which has raised over $80M to fight cancer in the fifteen years since its inception.  We have no doubt that these dollars are helping, as many forms of cancer are becoming much more manageable and treatable; but there is still much left to do, and we can only hope that someday in the next generation we’ll all be watching the Jimmy V speech together and wonder in muted awe how such a disease could have taken so many lives.  So oblige us… give the speech one more viewing this year, and think about ways you can help, whether it’s time, money, karma or prayer.

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News & Notes. It’s a light night here at RTC, so we’ll throw in some overdue links.

• TBL wonders why the media continues its enamoration with Tyler Hansbrough (and his alter-deity Tim Tebow).
• Here’s Vegas Watch’s ACC preview.
• Oklahoma St. starting center Ibrahimi Thomas has been dismissed from the team.
• Iowa freshman guard and leading scorer Anthony Tucker was suspended indefinitely.
• Dan Hanner’s 10 things to do as a college hoops fan.  We’re sitting at seven.
• Memphis’ Tyreke Evans celebrates his RTC honorable mention as FrOY through the first quarter of the season.

Tyreke Evans Celebrating RTC Honorable Mention

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Believe it or not, we’re already one-quarter of the way through the regular season.  Most teams have played seven or eight of their allotted 28 regular season games, and as we head into the next two weeks of semester finals, things will quiet down a bit.  Thus, now is a good time to stop, take a look back at the first month of the season, and reflect as to some of the things we think we’ve learned through the “getting to know us” portion of the schedule.  Here’s your 2008-09 First Quarter Report.  (all stats and records through Sun. Dec. 7th)

Top Storyline. Nothing could be finer than to be from Carolina.  Right now, the top storyline is whether anyone can stop the North Carolina Tarheels before April 6th in Detroit.  There’s no need to go over all the impressive stats in this space again (check here instead), but suffice it to say that UNC has looked absolutely dominant through its eight games, and the reigning NPOY has only played in half of them.  It’s an absolute lock that UNC will hit ACC play undefeated and it’s very difficult to envision a scenario where the Heels drop more than a couple in league play by March Madness.  The storyline from here on out will be if any other team(s) develop to the point where they can realistically challenge UNC.

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