It’s a Love/Hate Relationship: Volume XII

Posted by jbaumgartner on February 22nd, 2011

Jesse Baumgartner is an RTC contributor. In this weekly piece he’ll review the five things he loved and hated about the previous seven days of college basketball. This week, Jesse is diggin’ the balance at the tops of the rankings, offers up some serious rule changes, wants respect for USU, and says UNC needs to tidy things up a bit.

The Five things I Loved This Week

I LOVED…..Derrick Williams’ unbelievable block with 0.2 seconds left to save Arizona’s memorable win on Saturday. Yes, it was close to goaltending (I thought he just barely got it), but what an incredible I’m-an-All-American-and-we’re-not-going-to-lose-this-stinking-game kind of play. I mean the guy got up 12 feet, and did it by coming out of nowhere. We won’t see many bigger plays this year. Time to pay attention to Tucson, America.

I LOVED……the UA-Washington game for its larger impact. Of all the big conferences, the Pac-10 gets the least attention thanks in large part to their glaring lack of an ESPN contract. Not many people catch the FSN West channels (or the late start times), so when the league is also struggling a bit with quality, things can hit rock-bottom. Well, the Pac-10 had its chance on Saturday with a prime-time game between its two best teams – and they delivered. An up-and-down game with a thrilling finish was just the medicine the league needed. Maybe now they’ll think about, you know, pursuing a better contract with the Worldwide Leader.

A Close Call Ends a Close Game, But the Pac-10 Won (AZ Daily Star/M. Popat)

I LOVED……Tom Izzo going Good Samaritan and helping a stranded motorist out of the snow. Perhaps it’s sad that this is a story, since any decent person should be stopping. But let’s be honest, I’ve driven by people before – we all have. Especially after a bad day of work, and Izzo has now had about 80 of those in a row.

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Ten Tuesday Scribbles

Posted by zhayes9 on February 22nd, 2011

Zach Hayes is an editor, contributor and bracketologist for Rush the Court.

– I deemed Saturday’s Washington-Arizona game appointment viewing with the specific intent of watching Derrick Williams for 40 minutes. I had seen Williams play multiple times this season, but mostly for small snippets against weaker competition in the Pac-10. Williams is an absolutely outstanding collegiate player that flashes moments of brilliance on the basketball court. He attacks the glass with ferocity, can face up or back an opponent down and is outstanding in isolation situations. I’m not sure Williams has the personality or the attitude to completely take over long stretches of a game like Kemba Walker, Jimmer Fredette or Nolan Smith, but nobody utilizes his possessions with more proficiency than Williams. When he chooses to enter another gear, as he did for the majority of the final five minutes of an Arizona win that effectively clinched the Pac-10 regular season title, he’s impossible to contain. If I were the Cavaliers GM – although I shouldn’t assume they’ll win the lottery based on that city’s tortured sports past – I’d snag Williams #1 overall over the likes of Kyrie Irving, Perry Jones, Jared Sullinger or any other entry. You think Williams is a special prospect now, just wait until he’s playing with an NBA-caliber pass-first point guard. His all-around excellence in isolation situations and ability to knock down shots anywhere on the floor are tailor made for the pros. I see him developing into a better David West. The only area Williams needs to shore up is avoiding foul trouble. Arizona must have their superstar on the floor for more than 29.2 PPG in the NCAA Tournament if the Wildcats want to advance. Williams has picked up four or more personals in eight Pac-10 games this year.

Derrick Williams clutch block clinched Saturday's win over Washington

Duke shouldn’t be #1 in the nation. I think most of us agree with that sentiment. Thankfully, we adore a sport where these kinds of things are irrelevant, especially in late February. What bothers me is that most have Duke pegged as a #1 seed over Kansas and BYU, two candidates much more deserving of this honor than the Blue Devils. The Cougars resume is actually incredibly impressive, more so than their MWC brethren San Diego State. The Fightin Jimmers have five wins vs. the RPI top-30 and Duke has two. BYU beat San Diego State, Arizona, Utah State, Saint Mary’s and swept UNLV. Duke’s best win after North Carolina is Kansas State followed by UAB (currently out) and Michigan State (bubble). The Blue Devils have yet to beat an NCAA Tournament team on the road. Sure, this has plenty to do with the fragile state of the ACC, but don’t overlook Duke’s annual resistance to play true road games out of conference. Plus, since when do we provide Duke a scheduling excuse over a MWC team? The overall records are identical. The reason Duke is first in the polls is basically because they didn’t lose during a week they played Virginia and Georgia Tech. Vaulting Duke on the back of those  two wins over the entire body of work of, say, Ohio State and Pittsburgh, is ridiculous enough in itself. Handing them an undeserving #1 seed at this stage in the season is an even worse idea (luckily we still have 20 days till Selection Sunday, so this is largely irrelevant as well, but it sure is fun to debate, no?).

I’m hearing plenty of candidates thrown out there for National Coach of the Year, and none of them are egregious. Coaches like Mike Brey, Steve Fisher, Matt Painter, Jim Calhoun, Steve Lavin and Sean Miller have all done outstanding jobs this season leading their teams to unforeseen heights. To me, the coach of the year is a runaway and his name hasn’t been mentioned: Rick Pitino. I was initially hesitant to buy into the Cardinals, especially after they won all their non-conference games in the comfort of the KFC Yum Center and both Butler and UNLV underachieved relative to expectations. Now that I’ve watched Louisville sweep Connecticut, edge Syracuse and West Virginia, pull off an epic comeback against Marquette and down St. John’s, the magic act Pitino has pulled in the face of tremendous adversity is becoming more and more evident. All five starters from last year’s #9 seed squad left. His top freshman didn’t qualify. His leading returning scorer hasn’t played a minute. Still, by pulling out his old tricks of a relentless full-court press, switching defenses and an abundance of threes, the ‘Ville has jumped from likely NIT team to a #4 seed in my latest bracket. Say what you want about his forays into the back of Italian restaurants or his failed NBA coaching stints, but in case anyone forgot, this season was a definite reminder: Rick Pitino can motivate, prepare and instruct college athletes better than anyone in the business. Read the rest of this entry »

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Saint Mary’s Adds A 31st Regular Season Game

Posted by nvr1983 on February 21st, 2011

In a somewhat unusual move, St. Mary’s announced earlier today that it had added a game at home against Weber State to its regular season schedule. The game, which is scheduled to take place on March 11th, occurs after the West Coast Conference Tournament is finished and before the NCAA Tournament and NIT start. More importantly, it will be played before Selection Sunday, which is on March 13th, and would be factored into both teams’ NCAA Tournament resumes. The addition of an extra game on the Friday before Selection Sunday is nothing new to the Gaels who did something similar back in 2009, when they played Eastern Washington in a game that was added to their schedule just a week earlier after an embarrassing loss to rival Gonzaga in the WCC Tournament. Operating under the assumption that the Selection Committee would see just how good they were when Patty Mills played, the Gaels won by 20. Unfortunately for Mills and SMC, it wasn’t enough to sway the Selection Committee, which relegated St. Mary’s to the NIT where they lost in the quarterfinals.

St. Mary's Seeks to Recapture This Feeling in March (AP/E. Amendola)

Although many observers will claim that this is a similar last-minute attempt by the Gaels to sway Committee members back to their side after they lost back-to-back games against San Diego and Utah State, St. Mary’s SID Richard Kilwein says that is not the case. Instead, he stated that Weber State approached St. Mary’s approximately six weeks ago with an offer for the extra game as both teams had not reached the maximum number of regular season games allowed by the NCAA. Given the long layoff between the end of the WCC Tournament and postseason play, St. Mary’s coach Randy Bennett agreed to the game and a deal was reached late last week. Also, unlike last time, this game will be no cakewalk for the Gaels. In 2009, the Eastern Washington team that they scheduled was 12-17 coming into the game and had failed to even qualify for the Big Sky Conference Tournament. Although this year’s Weber State team has failed to live up to high preseason expectations, they still are a solid opponent at 15-10 overall and 9-4 in the Big Sky, with close losses against BYU (by six points) and at Utah State (by 12 points in a game that was closer than the final margin indicates). If St. Mary’s were to win this game it would certainly provide at least a small boost to their resume before the Selection Committee makes its final decision over the ensuing weekend.

[Update: There is some speculation that Weber State added this game to try to get a medical redshirt for its star point guard Damian Lillard who has only played in 10 games this season. To qualify Lillard would need to have played in fewer than 30% of the team’s games so if Lillard did not play another game this season the Wildcats would need to play 34 games to make him eligible. They are currently scheduled to play 29 regular season games including this one and at most could play in 3 conference tournament games, which would still leave them 2 games short of that goal although they could meet that target if they qualified for one of about a dozen postseason tournaments.]

[Re-Update: It looks like this game allows Weber State to get a medical redshirt for Damian Lillard who broke his foot earlier this season. Our apologies for the earlier incorrect update. The lesson here is never trust an ESPN box score.]

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The Other 26: Week 14

Posted by KDoyle on February 18th, 2011


Kevin Doyle is an RTC contributor

Introduction

If you are a true fan of Mid-Major basketball, then this is the weekend for you. Many fans who find a whole lot of joy in watching teams from the smaller conferences compete, share the common gripe that there is not nearly enough coverage of these teams. Well, at no other point during the season will you see ESPN dedicate an entire Saturday of basketball almost exclusively to the best Mid-Major teams around the nation.

Playing against the same faces within a team’s conference can become monotonous, but the BracketBuster weekend enables 114 teams around the country a brief recess before the final stretch of the regular season and tournament time to play an opponent they would otherwise never play. Although many of these games will have little meaning in the grand scheme of things, there are a select few that have serious implications as several Mid-Major teams partaking in the BracketBuster weekend sit squarely on the bubble.

Brace yourself for a great day of college hoops on Saturday. With so many of the top Mid-Major teams in the country playing—George Mason, Utah State, St. Mary’s, Cleveland State, Old Dominion, Missouri State, and Wichita State—you can bet that at least one of these teams, if not more, will be wearing Cinderella’s slipper come March.

The Other 26 Rankings

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The Cousy Award Committee Changes Its Mind On Jordan Taylor

Posted by nvr1983 on February 17th, 2011

Earlier this month the Basketball Hall of Fame announced its list of ten finalists for the Bob Cousy Award, given annually to the nation’s top point guard, and created a minor controversy when it left off Wisconsin star Jordan Taylor. At the time, the ten finalists appeared to be deserving although some might question Jimmer Fredette‘s passing ability/frequency and Demetri McCamey‘s play recently:

  • Norris Cole, Cleveland State
  • Corey Fisher, Villanova
  • Jimmer Fredette, BYU
  • DJ Gay, San Diego State
  • Brandon Knight, Kentucky
  • Demetri McCamey, Illinois
  • Mickey McConnell, St. Mary’s
  • Nolan Smith, Duke
  • Isaiah Thomas, Washington
  • Kemba Walker, UConn

The Cousy Award committee eventually came to its senses on Taylor

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Morning Five: 02.17.11 Edition

Posted by nvr1983 on February 17th, 2011

  1. We link to Seth Davis a lot not just because we like him, but also because he always comes out with quality content. Yesterday’s mailbag is no exception, as Seth takes a look at how previous national champions did in the often cited Strength of Schedule metric. The answer may surprise you, although we would argue that the SOS reflects the conference that the team plays in rather than the quality of the team itself. Personally I would be interested in seeing how national championship teams were rated by various computer ranking systems entering the NCAA Tournament. [Ed. Note: We should get one of our minions on that immediately.] He also takes a look at Alabama‘s NCAA Tournament chances, the problems on and off the court in Illinois, and why Wisconsin is unable to attract highly rated recruits.
  2. Many of you will remember that Wildcat star freshman/antagonist DeMarcus Cousins was subjected to numerous phone call/messages after his cell phone number was leaked to the public prior to last season’s KentuckyMississippi State game. Cousins responded by dropping 19-14-3 while taunting the MSU fans. This season it appears that Wildcats fans returned the favor by calling Bulldog forward/malcontent Renardo Sidney incessantly in the days leading up to the game. Sidney had a solid if unspectacular game (11 points and 8 rebounds) in a six-point loss. It is worth noting that, until recently, Sidney had his cell phone number posted on his Facebook page that was open to the public, which I pointed out to another one of the co-editors here as being absurdly naive.
  3. With all the geographic rivalries picking up (particularly with the emergence of all these inter-conference “challenges”) there remain a handful of local match-ups that we would love to see happen. One of the most enticing would be a potential IndianaLouisville match-up, since we are sure that fans in the area (the schools are about a two hour drive apart) would be more than able to fill either team’s arena to capacity. When asked about the possibility of this happening, Indiana coach Tom Crean seemed receptive to the idea, but said that it wouldn’t happen next season. With the Hoosiers rebuilding and the Cardinals remaining competitive in the Big East, it would probably be best for Crean to reload with talented recruits before broaching the subject with Rick Pitino, but when they finally sign a deal we imagine that those tickets will sell out very quickly.
  4. As we approach March Madness most college basketball fans will be looking for an under-the-radar star. With the growth of the Internet we already know all about Jimmer Fredette and, to a lesser extent, Kawhi Leonard, who in the past might have filled that role. Surprisingly, this year that role might fall on Arizona star Derrick Williams who, despite having an exceptional freshman season playing for one of the premier programs in the country and leading the top team in the Pac-10, is probably less well-known nationally than the other two (the comparatively dull name undoubtedly plays at least a small role). While Williams still puts up great numbers, his game has also matured as he has learned when and how to take over games. If Williams and the Wildcats continue to play the way they have lately, you’ll be hearing a lot about Williams and his game in the next month.
  5. Finally, even though most of us are getting ready for the NCAA Tournament, the end of the season also has a downside — all the firings. While there are certainly going to be a number of prime positions opening up over the next month or two, we think one of the more interesting ones may be in Utah where current coach Jim Boylen appears to be a lame duck, as the local media assert. In addition to the Utes’ lackluster record (both overall and against BYU), the team has also struggled to attract fans to The Huntsman Center which is certainly galling to the Utah administration, who are subjected to hearing the local and national media banter about “Jimmer-mania”. While Utah is unlikely to return to the heights that it saw when Rick Majerus roamed the sidelines and the local Marriott, it remains one of the premier programs in the Rocky Mountain region and should be a prized step-up for many successful mid-major coaches.
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Inside the Cult of The Jimmer

Posted by rtmsf on February 16th, 2011

Kraig Williams is an RTC contributor.  He lives in Utah and has witnessed the Jimmer Phenomenon closely over these last four years.

The Cult of The Jimmer grows every day. Fredette finds converts not with a door-to-door approach but with word of mouth and YouTube videos. He wins over non-believers with an effortless jumpshot and a quick release that is nearly impossible to defend. Fredette does not wear a suit and tie with a name tag on his breast pocket while converting members. Instead he wears a tank top with his name on the back and the number 32 below, a combo that is often copied on the shirts of 22,000+ fans in the Marriott Center, almost all of whom came to see him play.

The Cult of the Jimmer is Reaching Biblical Proportions

To understand The Cult of The Jimmer, it is important to understand the culture of basketball in Utah. The Beehive State loves its hoops; with the notable exception of Indiana, there are few places that love basketball more. Every LDS church house has a small basketball gym inside. These gyms host scores of underground pick-up games during the year and organized leagues of church ball, the unofficial slogan of which is “The brawl that begins with a prayer.” Utah only has one professional sport, the NBA, where the beloved Jazz dominated the Western Conference for years. Every self-respecting boy who grew up in Utah in the last 20 years dreamed of one day being the next John Stockton or Karl Malone. Even lesser stars like Jeff Hornacek, Byron Russell and Antoine Carr are all revered to this day.

It has been a long time since the Marriott Center has been the place to be seen on the BYU campus, and Fredette is the reason why it is en vogue this season. The arena is full almost every night the Cougars are in town, no small accomplishment for a building that seats 22,700 people. In a year where college basketball has lacked a mainstream superstar, Fredette has filled the void. Locally while the Jazz are floundering in another so-so season, the Cougars have been steadily grabbing the headlines. Fredette has gotten so much national attention that the Salt Lake City’s Deseret News has been doing stories on people doing stories on Fredette, or stories on who is tweeting about Fredette, all of which are warranted by the people wanting to read stories on their newest hero. So few are the dissenters of the cult of Jimmer that they are publically mocked online and nobody bats an eyelash.

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The Week That Was: Feb. 8-14

Posted by jstevrtc on February 15th, 2011

David Ely is an RTC Contributor.

Introduction

What a weekend. We’re still reeling from the Saturday’s chaos in Madison. It’s always a bittersweet day when the final undefeated team in the nation suffers its first loss. Do you think the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers pop champagne and toast themselves every year once that game clock hits 0:00 and their legacy is preserved for one more year? Sure, they aren’t the ’72 Dolphins, but we easily could picture Bobby Knight smirking to himself and lighting a cigar after Ohio State’s loss at Wisconsin. 

What We Learned

Taylor May Be the Most Talk-About Player In America Right Now

Ohio State wasn’t an invincible juggernaut and we already knew that. OSU endured close calls earlier the season against Minnesota, Michigan, Penn State, Illinois and Northwestern. It wasn’t a matter of if Ohio State would suffer its first loss, it was a matter of when some team would rise up and topple the Buckeyes. Cue the Wisconsin Badgers. Jordan Taylor exploded in the second half scoring 21 of his 27 points to lead Wisconsin to a come from behind win and an all-time RTC. But here at TWTW, we’re not as interested in single game scenarios; we focus on the big picture. So in their win, did the Badgers show the nation a blueprint for beating the Buckeyes? The main quality a team needs in order to emulate what the Badgers did against OSU is offensive efficiency. Ohio State is the #12 team in the nation at forcing turnovers, causing them on 25% of opponents’ possessions. Wisconsin values the ball more than any other team in the NCAA, turning it over on just 13.6% of its possessions, and on Saturday the Badgers had just eight turnovers. Of course it doesn’t take a genius to point out that fewer turnovers increases your win probability. But what’s harder to duplicate is the Badgers’ enigmatic guard. Taylor pretty much single-handedly propelled Wisconsin to the upset. Few clubs have a guard capable of putting up that many points that quickly. So while opposing coaches can point to Saturday’s outcome merely as proof that OSU is beatable, it’s difficult to emulate the Badgers’ winning formula. Here’s the best recipe for beating a highly ranked Ohio State squad: schedule the game in Madison. Neither the OSU football nor basketball teams are invulnerable to the powers of Bucky Badger.

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Morning Five: 02.15.11 Edition

Posted by rtmsf on February 15th, 2011

  1. Ohio State’s Jared Sullinger claimed via Twitter over the weekend that a Wisconsin fan spit on him during their RTC on Saturday after the Badgers knocked off then-#1 OSU.  We have no reason to disbelieve his take on what a fan may have done in the aftermath of a huge victory such as that one, but Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan said in his Monday teleconference: “All I know is that we won the game, deal with it.”  Something tells us that Sullinger will remember both spittle and comment in the rematch in Columbus on March 6.
  2. This doesn’t sound good at all, but Florida’s versatile forward Chandler Parsons has been on crutches since Saturday’s win over Tennessee, 61-60.  According to this report, he suffered a deep thigh bruise during that game and it has since started bleeding — the expectation is that he’ll be out of practice several days and quite possibly through next weekend’s game against LSU.  Florida’s fortunes have risen the past few weeks directly in accordance with Parsons’ play — in the five games prior to the UT victory, Parsons had averaged 15/11 as UF went 4-1 over that period and moved to the top of the SEC standings.
  3. We love this column from Seth Davis each year — his annual Book of Finch, a mash-up of several scouts’ opinions on many of the best players in college basketball this season.  You  need to read the entire thing, but here’s a preview:  Finch likes Jimmer Fredette (comparing him to Mark Price) and Perry Jones (best talent in the class), but isn’t high on JaJuan Johnson (no post game) and Renardo Sidney (“no interest” in a “fat kid”).  Awesome stuff.
  4. San Diego State head coach Steve Fisher was reprimanded on Monday by the Mountain West Conference for his comments last week ripping Wyoming for firing head coach Heath Schroyer with a month left in the season.  We tend to agree with Fisher here when he noted that the MWC isn’t the NBA or the NFL.  While nobody around here will fall for the idea of amateurism in college athletics, we really don’t see the advantage that Wyoming earned by making the move when it did.  The Cowboys’ season will be over soon enough — there’s no reason to make such a change in the middle of the year like that.
  5. Syracuse beat WVU last night, but perhaps Jim Boeheim read this piece from Searching for Billy Edelin about SU only having three quality wins this season, because he came tonight’s press conference ready to spar with the assembled media about numerous things.  Seriously, though, his beef wasn’t with the quality win issue as much as what his record is against certain coaches (namely, Rick Pitino) and why the Syracuse media had printed only a snapshot of his career against him.   The whole video is worthwhile, but if you’re short on time, the good stuff starts at around the 3:00 mark up until around 7:30.  Enjoy.

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Come Get Your RPIs, Fresh Out The Oven

Posted by jstevrtc on February 14th, 2011

The NCAA has just released the latest RPI data for D-I men’s basketball. Your top 10:

  • 1. Kansas
  • 2. BYU
  • 3. Ohio State
  • 4. Georgetown
  • 5. San Diego State
  • 6. Pittsburgh
  • 7. Duke
  • 8. Texas
  • 9. Notre Dame
  • 10. Purdue

Two teams really digging those latest rankings: St. John’s at 17, and George Mason at 23. The Patriots are the highest school from a non-Power Six conference. Get the full list of all 345 D-I teams from the NCAA right here.

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