Boom Goes the Dynamite: 03.14.09

Posted by nvr1983 on March 14th, 2009

Welcome back to the weekend edition of Boom Goes the Dynamite. First off I’d like to commend rtmsf for his strong work on yesterday’s BGtD. You guys really have no idea how exhausting it is doing a full day’s worth of this is and he managed to do it with only a short break although it almost caused me to give up working on the site after being forced to endure the American–Holy Cross game yesterday. As he outlined in his After the Buzzer post last night/this morning, there are 12 conference championship games today. For the sake of maintaining our sanity and having enough energy in the tank for our huge March Madness preview, we’ll be taking multiple shifts but we promise to coordinate it so you won’t miss anything during our handoffs.

6:00 AM: Yes. That’s actually the time I’m starting this thanks to a “short nap” that ended up going from 9 PM to 5 AM. Obviously my posts will be infrequent in the early morning hours, but I’ll be passing along some news and links to you before the games start at 11 AM. The New York Times has been stepping it up with their college sports blog “The Quad” recently and has an interesting post on Louisville‘s Terrence Williams and his pre-game ritual of the giving himself a pep talk during the national anthem. Before anybody thinks this might be a Chris Jackson Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf situation, it should be noted that Williams actually stands during the anthem and is supposedly talking about family members that he has lost and asking that everyone on the court avoids injuries. Of course, we can’t verify this, but if we have any lip-readers in our vast legion of RTC readers, we would love hear your take on this particularly if you have seen this is in person.

7:00 AM: Before I head out for a few minutes to take care of some errands like stocking up on groceries for the coming storm where I probably won’t leave my apartment for 3 weeks. I thought I would pass along one of my favorite things we are doing at RTC right now. We enlisted the help of our correspondents and got them to send us their favorite March memories. We narrowed down the submissions to the 16 best entries and are counting down to #1, which will be revealed on Wednesday (the day before the tournament starts). I’d encourage you to check out the entries we have so far and keep on coming back throughout the day to see what they selected as their favorite March memories and then chime in with your memories on those moments.

8:45 AM: Ok. False alarm on that grocery run. Apparently Costco doesn’t open until 9:30 so after this post I’ll be on a short break. So today’s RTC East breakfast is brought to you by Flour Bakery and consists of their Bobby Flay-slaying “Sticky Buns” and a twice-baked brioche. Here’s a quick run-down of the games (title game in red–there’s a lot of red) that I will be focusing on today:

Early Games

UMBC vs. Binghamton at 11 AM on ESPN2 for the America East title
Memphis vs. #3 Tulsa at 11:35 AM on CBS for the Conference USA title

Afternoon Games

Mississippi State vs. #16 LSU at 1 PM on ESPN2 and Raycom in the SEC semifinals
#6 Michigan State vs. Ohio State at 1:30 PM on CBS in the Big 10 semifinals
#1 UNC vs. #22 FSU at 1:30 PM on ESPN and Raycom in the ACC semifinals
Tennessee vs. Auburn at 3 PM on ESPN2 and Raycom in the SEC semifinals
Maryland vs. #8 Duke at 3:30 PM on ESPN and Raycom in the ACC semifinals
#25 Illinois vs. #24 Purdue at 4 PM on CBS in the Big 10 semifinals

Evening Games

#23 Arizona State vs. USC at 6 PM on CBS for the Pac-10 title
Baylor vs. #15 Missouri at 6 PM on ESPN for the Big 12 title
Temple vs. Duquesne at 6 PM on ESPN2 for the Atlantic 10 title

Late Night Games

San Diego State vs. Utah at 7 PM on Versus for the Moutain West title
Morgan State vs. Norfolk State at 7 PM on ESPNU for the MEAC title (Periodic score updates for this one)
Buffalo vs. Akron at 8 PM on ESPN2 for the MAC title
#5 Louisville vs. #20 Syracuse at 9 PM on ESPN for the Big East title
Jackson State vs. Alabama State at 9 PM on ESPNU for the SWAC title (Periodic score updates for this one)
Utah State vs. Nevada at 10 PM on ESPN2 for the WAC title
Cal State-Northridge vs. Pacific at 11:59 PM on ESPN2 for the Big West title (This one is questionable)

10:55 AM: Ok. I’m back from my extended Costco run and have enough food to last me through the week. A quick summary on the early games. In the America East, Binghamton is a 5-6 point favorite (depending on your gambling establishment of choice). Honestly, I’m surprised that they aren’t bigger favorites since they come in at 22-8 while UMBC comes in 15-16 and the game is at Binghamton. It could be interesting though as they split the season series in the regular season with Binghamton winning the last game of the regular season at home against UMBC 71-51. I’m guessing the America East commissioner is rooting for UMBC to avoid the embarrassment of the CBS announcers having to explain why the conference’s regular season leading scorer (D.J Rivera) was left off the all-conference team. In Conference USA, Memphis is a 14-point favorite against Tulsa. Memphis might be playing for a #1 seed even with their ridiculously easy schedule. We’re hoping this game is more like the first time they met (a 55-54 Memphis win) rather the last time they met (a 63-37 Memphis win). I have a sneaking suspicion that it is going to be more like the latter, but we’ll be following it anyways to get a last look at Memphis before CBS’s new Billy Packer rips the NCAA selection committee for putting them over a Big East team.

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| boom goes the dynamite | Tagged: acc, akron, alabama state, albany, american, arizona state, atlantic 10, auburn, barack obama, baylor, ben affleck, big 10, big east, big west, bill simmons, billy gillispie, billy packer, bj mullens, bob ryan, bobby frasor, boom goes the dynamite, boston university, bruce pearl, buffalo, cal st northridge, carmelo anthony, cbs, chad ford, chester frazier, chris bosh, chris drury, chris jackson, clark kellogg, colin cowherd, craig robinson, dan patrick, danny ainge, danny ferry, danny green, darko milicic, derwin kitchens, dionne warwick, dj rivera, donte stallworth, doris burke, duke, duquesne, dwayne wade, ed davis, edgar sosa, emanuel mayben, eric devendorf, erin andrews, espn, evan turner, f lee bailey, faye dunaway, florida state, fsu, garrett temple, geena davis, gerry mcnamara, greg anthony, gus johnson, hank gathers, hartford, harvey milk, holy cross, howard stern, illinois, jack arute, jack edwards, jackson state, jameer nelson, jarvis varnado, jason alexander, jeanine edwards, jeff bagwell, jeff goodman, jerome jordan, jim craig, jim nantz, jj redick, john leclair, joy behar, julianne moore, karl ravech, keith dambrot, kentucky, kodi augustus, korvortney barber, kristof ongenaet, kyle singler, larry drew II, laura schlessinger, lawrence borha, lebron james, louisville, lsu, luke nevill, mac, mahmoud abdul-rauf, maine, marcus thornton, mariel hemingway, marisa tomei, mark titus, martin luther king jr, martin st louis, maryland, matt painter, matt spadafora, meac, michael chiklis, michael lewis, michael wilbon, michigan state, mike eruzione, mike slive, mississippi state, missouri, morgan state, mountain west, nevada, new hampshire, nolan smith, norfolk state, ohio state, olympia dukakis, pac-10, pacific, paul kariya, paul reiser, preston knowles, pti, purdue, raja bell, reggie fuller, rich flemming, richard pitino, richie williams, rick carlisle, ryan amoroso, ryan russillo, sam cassell, san diego state, Scott Van Pelt, sec, seth davis, shane battier, shaun green, stephen king, stony brook, swac, syracuse, temple, tennessee, terrence williams, tom izzo, toney douglas, tony kornheiser, trajan langdon, ty lawson, tyler hansbrough, tyreke evans, uconn, unc, unlv, usc, utah, utah state, vermont, vin baker, wac, wayne chism, wayne ellington, west virginia, william buford

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Boom Goes the Dynamite: 03.13.09

Posted by rtmsf on March 13th, 2009

Hello hoops fans, and welcome to our first weekday version of your favorite semi-live journal, Boom Goes the Dynamite. We’re still feeling the effects of that six-overtime Goliath of a game last night, but we’re caffeinated and ready to rock with you all day while we move through what is traditionally the best day of the conference tournament weekend. It’ll be hard to top what we saw yesterday, though. Here are a few of the games you should be tracking; as you can see, today is an absolute blockbuster:

ACC – UNC vs. Virginia Tech – Noon, Maryland vs. Wake Forest – 7pm, Duke vs. BC, 9:30pm
Patriot – American vs. Holy Cross – 4:45pm
Big 10 – Michigan St. vs. Minnesota – Noon, Illinois vs. Michigan – 6:30pm, Purdue vs. Penn St. – 9pm
Big East – Louisville vs. Villanova – 7pm, Syracuse vs. West Virginia – 9pm
Big 12 – Baylor vs. Texas – 7pm, Oklahoma St. vs. Missouri – 9:30pm
Mountain West – San Diego St. vs. BYU – 9pm
Pac-10 – Arizona St. vs. Washington – 9pm, USC vs. UCLA – 11:30pm
SEC – Florida vs. Auburn – 9:45pm

Another couple of PSAs before we get started. Be sure to check the site throughout the weekend, as we’ll be doing these BGTDs each day, in addition to a revised bracketology on both Saturday and Sunday, all leading to a liveblogging of the Selection Show on Sunday. We’ll also be putting up the information for RTC’s Second Annual Bracket Challenge later this afternoon.

12:20 pm. Let’s get started here. UNC looks flat so far against Virginia Tech, and they should, given that Ty Lawson is over on the bench sitting next to Roy Williams. He is dressed, though, so it wouldn’t surprise us if his Big Toe makes an appearance. That crafty Roy – always using the element of surprise. Or something like that.

12:27 pm. Over at the Big Ten, Minnesota is leading Michigan State 22-20 in a high-scoring game. Yes, we said high-scoring and Big Ten in the same sentence. Wow, ESPN is already re-showing the Syracuse-UConn game on ESPN Classic. Tivo time. If these two games get worthless, we’re definitely moving back over there.

12:33 pm. They’re really hyping that game from last night – looks like they’re going to show the whole thing on ESPNU at 3pm. Getting back to business here, Virginia Tech looks poised right now, playing like a team that wants to keep playing in March should be playing. Carolina looks a little flat, but the question will be whether they can still make a patented run with Lawson sitting.

12:42 pm. Most of the ACC people are annoyed with the conference tournament being in Atlanta this year, but we think it’s refreshing that it’s not in the same old tired venue of Greensboro or Charlotte again. The home-state advantage that Carolina gets in those two building is ridiculous. Speaking of advantage, it looked like UNC was about to make a run until Va Tech came down and hit two consecutive threes. Ed Davis is going to be a player someday. He has really nice touch around the rim, and his per-40 rebounding average is in the 15 rpg territory!

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| boom goes the dynamite | Tagged: acc, ad vassallo, american, aubrey coleman, big 10, big 12, big east, billy gillispie, boom goes the dynamite, danny green, deon thompson, ed davis, florida, holy cross, houston, jackson state, jarvis varnado, jimmy dykes, jodie meeks, kalin lucas, kansas, kentucky, louisville, lsu, malcolm delaney, manhattan, marcus thornton, memphis, michael porter, michigan state, mike belotti, minnesota, mountain west, oregon, pac-10, patrick patterson, patriot league, pittsburgh, prairie view a&m, roy williams, rpi, sec, seth greenberg, south carolina, swac, syracuse, trent johnson, ty lawson, tyler hansbrough, ucla, uconn, uf, unc, virginia tech, wayne ellington

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Patrick Patterson Returns: A Reprieve for Gillispie?

Posted by nvr1983 on March 12th, 2009

Several Lexington TV stations are reporting that Kentucky‘s 1st team All-SEC forward Patrick Patterson (18.4 PPG on 61.5% FG and 9.2 RPG) has decided to return for his junior year. This obviously bolsters Kentucky’s chances of making the NCAA tournament next year particularly in the dreadful SEC. The Wildcats other star, Jodie Meeks, still has not announced whether or not he will be returning for his junior season, but perhaps Patterson’s decision and the fact that he will at least have one competent teammate will make him decide to spend another year in Lexington.

: Patterson in happier times

Perhaps the bigger news for Wildcat fans is the impact that Patterson’s decision will have on the job status of Billy Gillispie, who according to some reports was potentially looking at joining the growing ranks of the unemployed. However with Patterson’s (and potentially Meeks’s) return along with Patterson’s recent support of Gillispie, this might be enough to help Gillispie keep his job although that won’t stop Wildcat nation from continuing to call for his head.

| nba draft | Tagged: billy gillispie, jodie meeks, kentucky, patrick patterson, sec

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Daily Obituary: 03.09.09

Posted by rtmsf on March 9th, 2009

Team: Kentucky Wildcats

Record: 19-12 (8-8)

Preseason Expectations: The Wildcats fell into the “others receiving votes” category in both the AP and the ESPN/USA Today polls. But in a year most people predicted the SEC to be weak, Kentucky was predicted to finish third in the SEC East by most publications, and were considered a good bet to be in the NCAA tournament come March. A distant glimmer from AD Mitch Barnhart saying the Wildcats would accept an NIT bid.

Best Wins: Kentucky won the Las Vegas Invitational at the end of November, and had to beat Kansas State (74-72) and West Virginia (54-43) to do so. But there most impressive win is obviously their 90-72 victory in Knoxville over Bruce Pearl and co. If you were hiding under a rock during that game, Jodie Meeks dropped 54 points on the Volunteers. They beat Tennessee again in late February, 77-58.

Worst Losses: Allowing VMI to score triple digits in a 111-103 loss on in their opening game was not the start that Billy Gillispie was looking for. But their worst loss came just five days ago when they had a chance to strengthen their tournament resume and got beat by a scuffling, rudderless Georgia team at Rupp Arena.

Where it ended: Right after their second victory of Tennessee, it looked like Kentucky was in a great position to make it to the field of 65 as they sat 19-8 (8-4). But just four days later the ‘Cats got embarrassed on the road by South Carolina (77-59), which started the four game losing streak they are currently on which includes uninspired losses to LSU, Georgia, and Florida. Now a deep SEC tournament run is the only thing that will save them.

What went wrong: It should be impossible to finish just 8-8 in the SEC with two players as good as Meeks and Patrick Patterson, but the Wildcats did a darn good job of it and their lack of a point guard is to blame. Darius Miller, DeAndre Liggins, and most recently, Michael Porter, have all tried their hand at the position with mixed results. In fact, no one on Kentucky averages more than 3.1 assists per game and only little used reserve Landon Slone carries an assist/turnover ratio better than 1.2/1. Sloppy play and rookie mistakes plagued the ‘Cats all season and have cost them down the stretch.

What’s next: A lot of analysts seem to think that if Kentucky fails to make it to the NCAA tournament, they could lose both Patterson and Meeks to the NBA which would be a crippling blow to Gillispie. Kentucky has four prospects signed for next year, including five-star center Daniel Orton, but no one outside of Lexington thinks that three-star GJ Vilarino will come in and save the team at the point position. Kentucky’s best hope is to put on the full-court press for uncommitted stud Eric Bledsoe and hope that Meeks and Patterson stay around another year.

—————————————————————————————————-

Team: Virginia Tech Hokies

Record: 17-13 (7-9)

Preseason Expectations: The Hokies were predicted to finish sixth in the ACC but received no love from the national polls and were left out of everyone’s top 25. But, they were a trendy sleeper pick at the beginning of the year if they could get improvements from sophomores Malcolm Delaney and Jeff Allen.

Best Wins: In the middle of January the Hokies traveled to play a streaking Wake Forest team that had just earned the No.1 ranking, and thoroughly outplayed the Demon Deacons, weathering a late rally to hold on for a 77-71 victory. Their only other victory of note came in late February when they beat Clemson 80-77 in Blacksburg and get Hokie fans talking about the tournament.

Worst Losses: For Seth Greenberg and his team, it really depends on how you define “worst”. This team wouldn’t even be on the bubble if it hadn’t been for some heart-palpitating, last second losses. The team lost to Xavier in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Puerto Rico Tipoff 63-62 on a 60-foot buzzer beat from Dante Jackson. Just 10 days later they got beat by Wisconsin 74-72 when Trevon Hughes hit an improbable runner in the lane with less than one second left. Then, at the end of January, they lost to BC by one point (67-66) on a Rakim Sanders put back with less than one second left as well. The team also had bad losses to Seton Hall, Georgia, and Virginia, but those three heartbreakers are what they will remember if they are playing in the NIT this year.

Where it ended: One might say in ended when Sanders hit that put back, because since then, the team is just 3-6, and although they have beaten Clemson and North Carolina State over that time, playing well down the stretch counts, and the Hokies have lost their last three games, albeit all to ranked teams. The Hokies don’t have the worst RPI (59), but they are the No. 8 seed in their conference tournament, and even if they do make it past Miami, that means a date with No. 1 seed North Carolina in Greensboro…Good Luck!

What went wrong: Virginia Tech is a very hard team to figure out. You could cite end of the game execution and focus as to where they went astray with those three back-breaking losses because if they didn’t lose those games, we would be talking about a 20-win team. But really they went wrong when their big three (Delaney, Allen and A.D. Vassallo) started disappearing in key games. For example, in losses to Wisconsin, Georgia, and Florida State, Allen had two, eight, and six points respectively. In losses to Xavier and Duke, Vassallo had four, and seven points respectively. And, in their past three losses, Delaney has shot a combined 10-40 from the field. If those players had stepped up in crucial moments, this season would have gone differently.

What’s next: Seth Greenberg must be getting frustrated. Every year, the Hokies are so close, and yet fail to come up big down the stretch. But, assuming that both Allen and Delaney will be back for their junior seasons, the Hokies are in good shape. They lose their leading scorer in Vassallo, but they only lose one other player, and Cheick Diakite is a non-factor. Greenberg has also been successful on the recruiting trail. He has signed a solid, well-balanced, five-man class that features all three-star players. With added depth, and continued improvement, the Hokies should be a tournament team in 2010.

| 2009 ncaa tournament | Tagged: ad vassallo, billy gillispie, cheick diakite, daily obituaries, daniel orton, darius miller, deandre liggins, eric bledsoe, jeff allen, jodie meeks, kentucky, landon slone, malcolm delaney, michael porter, mitch barnhart, patrick patterson, seth greenberg, virginia tech

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03.03.09 Fast Breaks

Posted by rtmsf on March 3rd, 2009

Hey all, its your faithful intern here trying to bring you the best reading material from across the interweb. You may not have noticed, but there was no Fast Breaks yesterday, so today’s will be longer and will dip into yesterday’s stories as well…Enjoy!!

The Washington Post questions the legality of Under Armour’s relationship with Maryland and Lance Stephenson.
Jim Calhoun just can’t escape his infamous press conference, now legislators are getting involved.
Terrence Williams isn’t just a versatile forward. Apparently, he is also the team comedian.
Shawn Siegel has his new version of Bracketology out.
Its been just two days but that is just enough time for Jeff Goodman to take a look at the bubble twice, and the second one is here. Apparently Florida State and Tennessee fans don’t need to hold their breath anymore, and Notre Dame can start looking at the NIT
Former Syracuse star Damone Brown was busted as a part of a cocaine ring.
Andy Staples of SI takes an interesting look at how Jim Calhoun‘s salary stacks up against some other CEOs in business.
Seth Davis answers his mail and takes a peek at Top 10 candidates for coach of the year, although personally I don’t know how you can select Arizona‘s Russ Pennell.
You think Robin was the best sidekick ? Let’s see how these college basketball sidekicks measure up.
While the UCONN men are looking to stay atop the polls, the women finished up their regular season undefeated.
Bizzaro Joe Lunardi takes his March 2nd look at what his namesake has in his newest bracket.
No matter what URI head coach Jimmy Baron says, it will be tough to make a case for URI in the tournament if they don’t win the A-10 tournament.
St. Mary’s can thank their lucky stars as they will welcome back star guard Patty Mills just in time for the WCC tournament…Look out Gonzaga.
Uh-oh. Former UK player Mike Casey threw head coach Billy Gillispie squarely under the bus in a recent interview.

| fast breaks | Tagged: arizona, billy gillispie, damone browne, fast breaks, florida state, fsu, gonzaga, jeff goodman, jim calhoun, jimmy baron, kentucky, lance stephenson, maryland, mike casey, nit, notre dame, patty mills, rhode island, russ pennell, seth davis, st mary's, syracuse, tennessee, terrence williams, uconn

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State Of The Big Blue Nation: Mood Indigo

Posted by jstevrtc on March 2nd, 2009

(OR, Why Rick Pitino Is Like School On Thanksgiving)

John Stevens is a featured writer for Rush The Court.

Kentucky basketball fans are wondering if they might have built their new state-of-the-art basketball practice facility on a Native American burial ground.

: (photo credit: Kentucky.com)

As if the Wednesday night emasculation at South Carolina and yesterday’s home-court disappointment against LSU weren’t enough, two pieces of news are currently at the forefront of the collective mind of the Big Blue Nation, as Kentucky fans are known. First, it looks like Louisville Cardinals head coach Rick Pitino has decided to take a giant crap on any good will he had left in the non-Louisville part of Kentucky by profiting off of one of the worst moments in Wildcat basketball history. We’ll get to that in a moment. Second, in addition to the growing possibility of watching this year’s NCAA tournament from their dorm rooms, this weekend the team and their supporters have had to deal with this now well-publicized incident in which sophomore forward A.J. Stewart, sick of watching from the pine as his team loses more games than they should, told everybody where they could go a few days ago and actually quit the Wildcat squad for about 24 hours after the aforementioned South Carolina loss. He’s obviously been reinstated by his team, since he played in the home loss to LSU yesterday.

Reinstatement or not, Kentucky fans have to be wondering — what on EARTH have we done to deserve all of this?

“This” all started two years ago, specifically when Tubby Smith decided he’d had enough of (whether warranted or not) the second-guessing in Lexington and hit the road for Minnesota, which might have well been any place, as long as NCAA Tournament bids and occasional Sweet Sixteen appearances are acceptable goals there. If you recall, it was at this time that the one coach in the country that just about every Kentucky supporter considered their Heir Apparent, Florida’s Billy Donovan, flirted very seriously with the Kentucky job before actually accepting the same position with the Orlando Magic…only to back out on THAT commitment 48 hours later to stay at Florida. At that moment, Kentucky fans had to know — something was up.

Enter Billy Gillispie, not exactly the program’s first choice but a good selection for them since he had earned the reputation as the New Resurrector after his stints at UTEP and Texas A&M. He made friends early by ensuring that the Tubby Smith-recruited Patrick Patterson would still attend UK, but then dropped games to the likes of Gardner-Webb and San Diego (both at home), causing much head-scratching. Despite a tough season with injuries and personnel-juggling, Gillispie’s first UK team battled back, made the tournament (and it looked bleak for a while), and Gillispie won co-Coach of the Year honors in the SEC. About twelve seconds after their first-round loss, Kentucky fans were looking forward to the next season, knowing it would be better once everyone was healthy and some new bad-ass recruits came into the fold. The Billy Donovan snub was virtually forgotten.

One of those players returning to health in that off-season was versatile point guard Derrick Jasper. Having gotten over all the physical and mental hurdles that come with microfracture surgery of the (left) knee, the 2008-09 edition of the Wildcats was his to lead. Jasper was poised to be the floor general of one of the storied programs of college basketball. It was to be “his” team. But instead, in a move that nobody saw coming, after a mere two years of living in Lexington — citing “homesickness” — Jasper bailed on his chance to lead the program, choosing relative obscurity over an amazing opportunity. He transferred to UNLV and left Kentucky high and dry with point guard problems that Gillispie hasn’t been able to solve with junior Michael Porter and freshman DeAndre Liggins. How big was this loss? Considering that the point guard handles the ball 60% of the time for any given team, is it a coincidence that Kentucky is 338th out of 341 Division I teams in turnovers per game? Probably not.

: Only 1 of these three remains at UK. (photo credit: daylife.com)

Then came the home loss to VMI earlier this year, an inexcusable loss given the Gardner-Webb debacle from the year before and the alarming talent disparity between the two teams. With that loss still stinging, a few games later (in a game Kentucky still won), Liggins refused to re-enter a close game against Kansas State in a protest about playing time. For a day or so it looked like Liggins’ status with the team was tenuous at best, but (just like what’s happened with the current A.J. Stewart situation) the players voted to reinstate him. This had to remind Kentucky followers of the Alex Legion strangeness from the previous season; Legion was a prize recruit with a nice outside shot, and who they were going to count on for some serious point production…but he didn’t even make it to Christmas in his first year at UK, leaving because he (and his mom) felt he wasn’t getting enough PT. And now — this weekend’s situation with Stewart.

Kentucky fans are left wondering what has happened to the culture in their program. Their obvious Heir Apparent in Billy Donovan declined to return even though he had been groomed for the job since the Pitino years; with inexcusable losses to comparatively talent-bereft teams (and not too many surprising wins) Billy Gillispie is starting to look like a good example of the Peter Principle; some important players have jumped ship, seemingly preferring oblivion over recognition and opportunity, and others choose unproductive ways to protest lack of playing time; and despite having two lottery picks on the team and some hard-working young role players, the Wildcats find themselves sliding down the bubble’s surface this season and are giving the tournament selection committee every reason to leave them off the bracket two weeks from now with these stretch losses. This is a program that didn’t exactly weep when Tubby Smith left town; I’m not even saying they’re wrong about that, since after Smith’s 1998 title run with the Wildcats, he never returned to the Final Four in his next nine seasons — would UNC, Kansas, Duke, or UCLA fans put up with such a streak these days? — but keep in mind that, for unknown reasons, Billy Gillispie hasn’t even signed his contract at UK even though he’s basically got two seasons under his belt, now. Many folks in Lexington wonder if he should even bother, with UK’s performance this year, even if the team slips into the tournament somehow. And to make matters worse, if Kentucky fans have to watch this tournament without their Wildcats for the first time in 17 years, this is the time of year that a certain shot by a certain former Duke player gets played over and over again…

Oh, but if only that were the end of it for the Big Blue Nation.

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| rtc analysis | Tagged: a.j. stewart, alex legion, billy donovan, billy gillispie, boston celtics, brad pitt, christian laettner, deandre liggins, derrick jasper, duke, florida, gardner-webb, kansas, kansas state, kentucky, kentucky fans, louisville, lsu, michael porter, minnesota, ncaa tournament, patrick patterson, rick pitino, rivalries, san diego, south carolina, texas a&m, tubby smith, turnovers, ucla, unc, unlv, utep, vmi

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03.02.09 Fast Breaks

Posted by nvr1983 on March 1st, 2009

We have a weekend full of links for you today as I was sort of busy over the weekend. On Saturday there was the RTC Live from Storrs, CT on Senior Night/Day, which was followed by RTC Aftermath that recapped the event. On Sunday, I was busy running Boom Goes the Dynamite and making some new friends from Duke (see the comment section).

Nolan Richardson made a rare return to Arkansas (suing the university for racial discrimination doesn’t win you many fans in the administration). He was there as part of a celebration of the 1994 championship team. Fortunately for all involved, he received a warm welcome from the crowd. Even though I am not an Arkansas fan I miss Richardson’s “40 minutes of hell”
850 The Buzz has a nice set of interviews with some of the athletic directors in North Carolina talking about how the economic downturn is affecting them.
Kyle Whelliston does another excellent job analyzing the mid-majors this week.
John Gasaway takes a look at the luckiest and unluckiest teams in college basketball.
Jeff Goodman takes a deeper look at Butler freshman Gordon Hayward and calls him the best-kept secret in college basketball.
John Perotto examines how LSU has been able to have so much success this year.
Gary Parrish tells us how the expectations at Kentucky may have Billy Gillispie on the hot seat. We’ll have more on this later today.
Bobby Knight may have some company pretty soon and we are not talking about Coach K or Jim Calhoun. Instead, we are talking about Philadelphia University‘s Herb Magee who passed Kentucky icon Adolph Rupp for 4th on the NCAA career win list on Friday night.

| fast breaks | Tagged: adolph rupp, arkansas, billy gillispie, bobby knight, boom goes the dynamite, butler, coach k, duke, fast breaks, gary parrish, gordon hayward, herb magee, jeff goodman, jim calhoun, kentucky, kyle whelliston, lsu, nolan richardson, philadelphia university, RTC Live

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ATB: Kevin Stallings Doesn’t Think Jeannine Edwards Asks Bad Questions

Posted by rtmsf on February 18th, 2009

ESPN Ruins Gillispie-Edwards Part III. If you read our post on this today, you know that we sorta saw this coming. As much as ESPN tried to officially act that the blogosphere doesn’t exist, they undoubtedly knew that the biggest attraction of tonight’s games was the potential for another icy conversation between Jeannine Edwards and Billy Gillispie. So short of a major blowup by Gillispie, the game producers weren’t about to let that happen. Instead they gave us the amiable Vandy coach, Kevin Stallings, who wasn’t about to berate Jeannine Edwards for her questions. Thanks, WWL.

Update: The Nashville Tennessean reported today that Edwards made the decision to “cut her losses” by interviewing Stallings instead of Gillispie. Avoidance – the classic, tried-and-true female strategy.

Vanderbilt 77, Kentucky 64. As for this game, Kentucky is now in serious trouble of missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1991. With Patrick Patterson on the shelf because of a sore ankle, UK only had one offensive weapon, and Jodie Meeks’ 26 wasn’t enough as UK dropped to 18-8 and 7-4 in the SEC. In a normal year for the SEC, they’d be in good shape, but this league is shaping up as a 3- or 4-bid conference, and UK’s RPI is hovering in the 60s with games still looming at South Carolina and Florida. We figure UK needs to go 4-1 the rest of the way to remain squarely in the conversation. Anything less and it’s SEC Tournament run or bust.

Purdue 72, Michigan St. 54. Purdue got Robbie Hummel back for this game, and Purdue is a much better team when he is on the floor. The Boilermakers held MSU to 33% shooting from the field, and it was clear early in the second half that Tom Izzo’s squad wasn’t going to make a comeback in this one. MSU is really capable of laying gigantic eggs on occasion, even now that they have all their pieces back, and we’re not sure what that means for the Spartans come March, but it’s probably not a good thing.

Some Other Games on a Quiet Tuesday Night.

Clemson 93, Maryland 64. Clemson dropped 59 on the Terps in the second half behind Trevor Booker’s 11/14, including at least one jaw-dropping follow slam. The Tigers moved into a five-way tie for second in the ACC (all with 4 losses).
Marquette 79, Seton Hall 67. Wesley Matthews had 24/4/4 assts in a game where Marquette only woke up in the mid-second half to put Seton Hall away.
Creighton 89, Evansville 84. Creighton has gotten itself in position to become the second MVC team into the Tourney (the bracket matrix has CU on the brink) with their seventh straight win.
BYU 73, New Mexico 62. Jonathan Tavernari had 22/7 as BYU kept the pace with San Diego St. at 8-3 in the Mountain West.

On Tap Wednesday (all times EST).

Miami (FL) @ Florida St. (ESPNU) – 7pm. Key bubble game in the ACC race.
Alabama @ Florida – 7pm. Must-win for the Gators at home.
Georgetown @ South Florida (ESPN360) – 7pm. Speaking of must-wins, Georgetown can’t afford a Marquette showing here.
Notre Dame @ West Virginia (ESPN360) – 7pm. Who wants to make the NCAA Tournament, third edition.
Penn St. @ Illinois – 7pm. PSU’s dwindling NCAA chances could really use an upset here.
Citadel @ Davidson – 7pm. If Curry doesn’t play, Citadel could give DC a game here.
Drexel @ George Mason – 7pm. A key game in the CAA for two teams trying to catch VCU and Northeastern (one game ahead).
Providence @ Louisville (ESPN2) – 7:30pm. Despite being 8-5 in the Big East, PC’s RPI is not impressive (#69), so they need this game desperately.
Georgia Tech @ Wake Forest – 7:30pm. Can Georgia Tech win its second game of the ACC season against the only team it’s beaten so far?
Tennessee @ Ole Miss (ESPN360) – 8pm. UT can’t afford another bad loss.
NC State @ UNC (ESPN360) – 8pm. NC State is playing better, but don’t expect an upset here.
Virginia Tech @ Virginia (ESPN360) – 8pm. Can UVa pull another upset at home?
South Carolina @ Mississippi St. – 8pm. Key bubble game in the SEC between two surprise teams.
LSU @ Arkansas – 8pm. Can the Hawgs pull another home upset against a ranked team?
Ohio St. @ Northwestern – 9pm. NW has proven tough at home, OSU had better bring its best game.
Oklahoma St. @ Texas Tech (ESPN2) – 9pm. What a terrible nationally-televised game.

| after the buzzer | Tagged: after the buzzer, atb, billy gillispie, espn, jeannine edwards, kentucky, michigan st, purdue, robbie hummel, tom izzo, vanderbilt

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Game Night: Billy Gillispie vs. Jeannine Edwards

Posted by rtmsf on February 17th, 2009

Other than Michigan St. @ Purdue tonight (and really, who wants to watch that?), the games tonight are quite pedestrian. So piggybacking a report from SportsbyBROOKS yesterday (via Deadspin) that the root of the frosty relations between Kentucky capo Billy Gillispie and ESPN sideline reporter Jeannine Edwards goes back to her refusal to enjoy consensual carnal relations with go out with him, we feel compelled to comment on such a weighty matter.

(photo credit: sportsbyBrooks)

You may recall our first inkling of their tiff on January 27 when UK played at Ole Miss. Gillispie was unhappy with his team and thought Edwards’ question was particularly bad, so he told her so.

Then last week during the UK-Florida game at Rupp, Gillispie seemingly mocked Edwards as he pretended to not hear her question before telling her that she “would know better than” him when it came to, you know, basketball… stuff. We even wrote at the time that maybe there was more to his condescension than met the eye.

So what’s the story here? The easy answer is that, yeah, Gillispie is peeved that Edwards denied his amorous advances, but as any female aged 18-50 who lives in the Lexington area knows, Billy Clyde isn’t exactly the kind of chap who takes the word “no” to heart. And that of course assumes he can even remember it. No, Gillispie has beef with Edwards, but that’s probably because he’s a chauvanist men’s basketball coach who doesn’t respect her position rather than any particular incident involving dating her. Come on, ladies of Lexington… you gals who frequent Harry’s after games and have fallen into the Gillispie Fly Trap – feel free to chime in here.

Nevertheless, sideshows sell and so we come to tonight’s UK @ Vanderbilt Jodie Meeks game, and guess who is scheduled to once again be the sideline reporter? Yep, Ms. Jeannine Edwards. Is there any question that ESPN’s halftime interview split ratings will be the highest of any game all season long?

Of course, if Vandy somehow does something interesting for the first time in the history of that school, maybe ESPN will avoid this whole sordid mess by interviewing Kevin Stallings instead. Wouldn’t that be rich?

| media matters | Tagged: billy gillispie, espn reporters, jeannine edwards, kentucky, media matters, vanderbilt

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ATB: Define “Game Face,” Mr. Calathes

Posted by rtmsf on February 11th, 2009

First, Some News & Notes.

UCLA’s Drew Gordon may be slowed down by back spams in the Bruins’ next game at Arizona St. on Thursday night.
Pat Forde shows which schools are basketball-philic through an interesting analysis of attendance and success this season.
We give approximately a 1% chance that this girl is actually Duke forward Miles Plumlee’s girlfriend, and approximately 0.01% chance that she goes to school at Duke. Everybody knows all the Dookies do their chasing of tails over at Carolina (with good reason).

: No Way She’s From Duke (photo credit: Uncoached)

Getting Down To Business With Rivalry Week.

Kentucky 68, Florida 65. This was the game of the night, by far. For a while it appeared that Nick Calathes’ “game face” (according to Jimmy Dykes) was going to carry the Gators to their eighth victory in nine tries against UK, but Jodie Meeks’ (23/5) ridiculous nearly-falling-down-then-recovering three from the left elbow, followed by Calathes’ (33/7/3 assts) “choke face” missing all three of his FTs (the last intentionally) that would have tied the game, ensured that wouldn’t happen. UK staved off what would have been another devastating home loss, and kept their NCAA hopes alive for a couple more weeks, whereas Florida is probably still ok unless they go on a severe drought (not impossible with this mentally fragile group). But several other interesting things happened in this game. First, Patrick Patterson was carried off the court midway through the second half with what appeared to be a sprained right ankle, and there’s no word on his status yet, but if he’s out for any significant amount of time, UK could be in serious trouble in the short term. Second, the call where Walter Hodge was ejected for stepping on Perry Stevenson’s arm in what was clearly (to us) an accidental mis-step was a clear example of the Aubrey Coleman Effect – a month ago he would not have been thrown out of the game for that “offense.” Finally, does any coach in American despise a sideline reporter as much as Billy Gillispie does Jeannine Edwards? Seriously, the contempt is palpable. In recent weeks, he’s spot-analyzed her question (conclusion: bad), pretended not to hear her and made a snide reference to she “would know better than him.” What’s wrong, Billy G – did Ms. Edwards turn you down for a date at Harry’s? (to be fair, Edwards is painful to listen to, but it just seems as if Gillispie has an elevated distate for her questions)

Michigan St. 54, Michigan 42. MSU gave one of its strongest defensive efforts of the year, holding its rival Michigan to 35% shooting and 17% from three on its home floor tonight. This was especially true because UM, who had lost six of its last eight, really needed a signature late-season win to showcase along with its early season victories over Duke and UCLA for the NCAA Tourney Committee. MSU’s Delvon Roe had 14/10 as he continues to make his way back from multiple offseason knee surgeries – if he, along with Goran Suton, Raymar Morgan and an assorted cast of Spartans, are completely healthy come March, this is a different team than the one we saw UNC emasculate at Ford Field back in early December.
Villanova 102, Marquette 84. Seems like a long time ago when Marquette was undefeated in the Big East, doesn’t it? Props to whomever we read today that predicted Villanova (not Marquette) would end up in the top 4 of the Big East Tourney (Katz? Goodman?). In a statistical oddity, Villanova hit between 54-59% of every shooting category, which is largely a good thing (except FTs, of course). The Cats hit 13 threes en route to 59% overall to score 100+ pts for the second consecutive game. Scottie Reynolds (27/4) and Corey Fisher (21/4) did the most damage, but this game was an offensive player’s paradise – nine players hit double figures. Marquette was led by (who else?) Jerel McNeal’s 23/4/7 assts, but the Golden Eagles suddenly look like a team with severe limitations defensively. They get a two-game breather before the crucible hits.

Other Games That Caught Your Fancy.

Florida St. 68, Virginia 57. Is there a Dave Leitao watch yet? If not, when will there be? Does 60-55 (24-33 ACC) over four years cut it? Regardless, UVa lost its eighth consecutive game, and FSU solidified its standing in third place in the conference (tied at 6-3 with Clemson).
Providence 77, South Florida 62. PC avoided the fate that befell Marquette at USF, and in so doing, continues to gum up the works in the second tier of the Big East for schools like Syracuse and Georgetown.
Texas 99, Oklahoma St. 74. UT easily avoided its first four-game losing streak in a long time by putting four players in double figures, led by AJ Abrams’ 20,and holding everyone except James Anderson (35 pts) down for OSU.
Clemson 87, Boston College 77. In a game that would potentially define the relative directions of both of these teams, Clemson played a strong second half behind Terrence Oglesby’s 21 pts (6 threes) and came away with a road win to go to 6-3 in the ACC. RTC Live was there.
Minnesota 62, Indiana 54. The Gophers avoided a letdown loss they couldn’t well afford behind reserve forward Paul Carter’s 22/6 off the bench. No other Gopher hit double figures.

| after the buzzer | Tagged: after the buzzer, atb, aubrey coleman, billy gillispie, corey fisher, delvon roe, drew gordon, duke, espn reporters, florida, goran suton, injuries, jeannine edwards, jerel mcneal, jodie meeks, kentucky, marquette, michigan, michigan st, miles plumlee, nick calathes, pat forde, patrick patterson, raymar morgan, scottie reynolds, ucla, villanova, walter hodge

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