Posted by Nate Kotisso on December 9th, 2015
- West Virginia came into last night’s “all-Virginia-in-their-name” showdown with the Cavaliers with a sparkling 7-0 record. Things looked good initially with the Mountaineers taking a six-point lead into the dressing room… but then the second half happened. Second halves tend to occur in basketball and on this night, Bob Huggins’ team was not ready for it. The normally slow-tempoed Cavaliers put up 40 points in the final 20 minutes, fueled by London Perrantes’ 13 points for the half. Virginia is also known for its stingy defense, but once again, a major concern for West Virginia was finding any semblance of a functioning half-court offense. Playing a team like the Cavaliers is a good barometer to check where a team is three weeks before conference play starts.
- Consider the following sentence: Oklahoma head coach Lon Kruger is one of the most underrated coaches in college basketball. This is a true sentence but CBS Sports‘ Gary Parrish dives even deeper into why this is a true sentence. He’s been everywhere and he’s won everywhere (sorry, UT-Pan American). He’s taken a fringe top 150 recruit and turned him into the defending Big 12 Player of the Year. He’s also… well, it’s all in Parrish’s column, which is another true sentence.
- If you were to take a closer look at Monday night’s Iowa State win over Buffalo, you’d notice that there were a lot more connections between the two programs than you’d realize. Cyclones point guard Monte’ Morris played his high school ball at Romulus High School in Michigan for newly-minted Buffalo head coach Nate Oats. Iowa State assistant Charlie Henry worked on Oats’ staff at Romulus High as well while fellow assistant T.J. Otzelberger has been friends with Oats since their days working together at Division III Wisconsin-Whitewater. The best thing to emerge from these two teams meeting didn’t happen on the floor but off the floor. Chris Williams, a publisher for Iowa State fan site Cyclone Fanatic, created a GoFundMe for Oats’ wife, Crystal, who is currently battling double-hit lymphoma. The goal was set at $10,000 which covered the cost of medical expenses for Oats’ family. With the help of Iowa State fans, they raised more than $12,000 in just four days. Beyond the game played at Hilton Coliseum that night, Oats, Iowa State and their fans will have a bond that lasts for many seasons to come.
- Texas hasn’t had the best start in Shaka Smart‘s first season in Austin. Texas-Arlington took the Horns to overtime last week but this time, they would not face stiff competition from another University of Texas System team as Texas-San Antonio was outrun by Texas 116-50 at the Frank Erwin Center. Some other incredible stats from this game: the Longhorns led by as many 67 points; they made 65 percent of their field goal attempts; and they were somehow tied with UTSA for one minute and 16 seconds. Anytime the coach can look up at the scoreboard, see that his team is up a bunch and empty his bench as soon as possible is a good might for said coach.
- Hello, my name is Nate Kotisso. At the one month mark of the college basketball season, I am admittedly wrong on most fronts; now, I am free to admit that I was wrong about Kansas State. I pictured the worst basketball atrocities to occur to this team in 2015-16, and while there’s enough time for said basketball atrocities to occur, they haven’t happened as of yet. The Wildcats are 6-1 with a kinda solid win at Georgia last week and an admirable effort in their only loss to North Carolina. With Coppin State coming into Manhattan tonight, it is possible for K-State to go into Big 12 play with potentially nine or more wins. Considering the massive meltdown from a season ago, this is good! Enjoy the goodness while it lasts!
| big 12, microsites, morning 5
| Tagged: Buffalo Bulls, chris williams, iowa state cyclones, kansas state wildcats, lon kruger, monte morris, nate oats, oklahoma sooners, shaka smart, texas longhorns, west virginia mountaineers
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