arinze onuaku – Rush The Court

Syracuse’s Fab Melo To Miss NCAA Tournament Because of an Eligibility Issue

mlemaire — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 20:20:26 +0000

The bad breaks just keep coming for Syracuse and its basketball program. After one of the team’s best seasons in recent history and right as they prepared for the NCAA Tournament as a #1 seed, they learned that starting center and key cog Fab Melo will miss the entire tournament due to an eligibility issue. Melo missed three games earlier this season because of academics, but it is unclear whether this eligibility issue is about academics or something else as the school would not provide any additional details. [Update: It’s apparently about academics and he is also apparently declaring for [...]

Five Teams Nobody Can Quite Get a Handle On…

rtmsf — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 19:58:20 +0000

Zach Hayes is an RTC editor, contributor and bracketologist.

As the pre-Midnight Madness polls trickled out last Friday, it became glaringly obvious to us that consensus was more the exception than the rule. Aside from Duke at the top, teams like Butler and Kentucky somewhere in the middle and a precipitous decline for Purdue following Robbie Hummel re-tearing his ACL, agreement was about as prevalent as a British parliament session. Examining polls from a handful of websites that compiled a top 25 to prepare for the start of practice — ESPN’s Andy Katz, TSN’s [...]

NCAA Basketball 2010: The BCS Version

nvr1983 — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 08:41:27 +0000

With all the talk about the coming 96-team tournament, many in the sports media have forgotten that there is already another ridiculous major college sport championship in place: the BCS. We took you through this process in a post last year, but it’s worth going over again as the blogosphere is ablaze with opinions on changing our beloved NCAA Tournament.

Here are the basic ground rules:

We are following the BCS Football guidelines as closely as possible. Obviously there are some differences. A college basketball team is expected to win more than 9 games (we kept [...]

RTC Region by Region Tidbits: 03.25.10

THager — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 09:39:23 +0000

Each day this week during the regional rounds of the NCAA Tournament we’re asking some of our top correspondents to put together a collection of notes and interesting tidbits about each region. If you know of something that we should include in tomorrow’s submission, hit us up at rushthecourt@yahoo.com.

Midwest Region (Tom Hager)

One of Michigan State’s big advantages may be in their bench production, which has been averaging nearly 25 points per game lately and runs 11 players deep. According to Northern Iowa head coach Ben Jacobson, the decision to sign the contract extension was a no-brainer. He signed a [...]

RTC (Sorta) Live: Sweet Sixteen Day One

jstevrtc — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 15:22:42 +0000

It’s here. We’ve endured the three-day layoff and it’s time for more hoops. We know you already know, but here’s our lineup for today in the order in which they’ll be showing up on our screens:

#1 Syracuse vs #5 Butler #2 West Virginia vs #11 Washington #2 Kansas State vs #6 Xavier #1 Kentucky vs #12 Cornell

Everyone’s been talking about Cornell (and Northern Iowa in the Midwest) — and well they should — but we doubt Butler, Xavier, and Washington will go quietly. That’s how great this tournament has been; because of the achievements of teams like Cornell and [...]

Sweet Sixteen Game Analysis: Thursday Night

rtmsf — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 08:25:51 +0000

Over the next two days, RTC will break down the regional semifinal games using our best analytical efforts to understand these teams, the matchups and their individual strengths and weaknesses. Our hope is that you’ll let us know in the comments where you agree, disagree or otherwise think we’ve lost our collective minds. Here are Thursday night’s games from the East and West Regionals.

7:07 pm – #1 Syracuse vs. #5 Butler (West Region)

We’re starting to worry about this Arinze Onuaku situation. Sooner or later, Jim Boeheim’s team is going to need the 11 points, [...]

RTC Region by Region Tidbits: 03.24.10

rtmsf — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 05:22:33 +0000

Midwest Region (Tom Hager)

Northern Iowa head coach Ben Jacobson was rewarded today with a 10-year deal worth $450,000 a year. He is currently making $289,000 a year. Speaking of Jacobson, apparently the university has more trust in Jacobson than his own son, who originally picked Kansas to beat [...]

RTC Region by Region Tidbits: 03.21.10

rtmsf — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 07:30:10 +0000

East Region Notes (Ryan Restivo of SienaSaintsBlog)

Kentucky performed as a top seed should, winning convincingly, building momentum and taking confidence to Syracuse. Ashley Judd isn’t the only star fan, Grammy-nominated rapper Drake was at Saturday’s game and gave hi-fives to the Kentucky coaches. Cornell is going to [...]

Second Round Game Analysis: Sunday Games

rtmsf — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 09:51:34 +0000

Over the next two days in a series of separate posts, RTC will break down all 16 of the second round games using our best analytical efforts to understand these teams, the matchups and their individual strengths and weaknesses. Our hope is that you’ll let us know in the comments where you agree, disagree or otherwise think we’ve lost our collective minds. Here are the Sunday games.

12:10 pm – #1 Syracuse vs. #8 Gonzaga (Buffalo pod)

In the CBS national game to start the day, everyone will get this very enticing game between Syracuse and Gonzaga. Given [...]

RTC Region by Region Tidbits: 03.20.10

rtmsf — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 08:30:25 +0000

Each day this week during the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament we’re asking some of our top correspondents to put together a collection of notes and interesting tidbits about each region. If you know of something that we should include in tomorrow’s submission, hit us up at rushthecourt@yahoo.com.

West Region Notes (Andrew Murawa)

The West Region is the only region in the tournament without a double-digit seed still alive, but that doesn’t mean it is without some dreamers, as the recent blueprint for the mid-major Cinderella, Gonzaga, takes on Syracuse tomorrow. And Mark Few [...]

Boom Goes The Dynamite: Second Round 03.21.10 Edition

jstevrtc — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 07:00:18 +0000

How’s your bracket? Probably looking pretty sweet if you went to undergrad at St. Mary’s and then took a master’s at Northern Iowa. Have they stopped partying at UNI yet? Or campaniling? Or whatever they do there? And if not, who could blame them?

That was yesterday, though. The Panthers and Gaels will be receiving their Official Cinderella starter handbooks in the mail in a couple of days, so the matter now turns to the Sunday games, and any possible candidates that could join them. Your lineup:

#1 Syracuse vs #8 Gonzaga #2 Ohio State vs #10 Georgia Tech #4 [...]

RTC Region by Region Tidbits: 03.18.10

rtmsf — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 09:15:36 +0000

South Region Notes (Patrick Sellars)

Duke and guard Nolan Smith don’t think they’ll have an easy path to Indianapolis even though all the “experts” agree that Duke has the easiest road to the Final Four of the number one seeds. Smith said, “This is the NCAA tournament, [...]

First Round Game Analysis: Friday Evening

rtmsf — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 05:55:24 +0000

Over the next two days in a series of separate posts, RTC will break down all 32 of the first round games using our best analytical efforts to understand these teams, the matchups and their individual strengths and weaknesses. Our hope is that you’ll let us know in the comments where you agree, disagree or otherwise think we’ve lost our collective minds. Here are the Friday evening games.

7:10 pm – #8 Gonzaga vs. #9 Florida State (Buffalo pod)

This is a very tough game to call, so let’s start with what we know [...]

NCAA Region by Region Tidbits: 03.15.10

rtmsf — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 07:28:25 +0000

East Region Notes (Ryan Restivo of SienaSaintsBlog)

#8 Texas was once the top team in the nation, but now they are reeling. However, a team trending even worse might be their opponent: #9 Wake Forest. Demon Deacon Head Coach Dino Gaudio said Al-Farouq Aminu had an [...]

RTC Bracket Prep: West Region

rtmsf — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 09:43:24 +0000

This is the third of our four quick-and-dirty region breakdowns. This will serve to help the quick triggers who like to fill out their brackets first thing on Monday morning. For the rest of you, we’ll be providing more detailed game-by-game analysis throughout the rest of the week.

Energy Solutions Arena Hosts the West Regional

Region: West

Favorite: Syracuse, #1 seed, 29-4. Jim Boeheim’s Syracuse Orange is the favorite in this region by a good margin. His team has lost their last two games and there are whispers that center Arinze Onuaku may not be [...]