e’twaun moore – Rush The Court

Conference Report Card: Big Ten

Brian Goodman — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 13:30:04 +0000

John Templon is the RTC correspondent for the Big Ten conference. We will be publishing a series of conference report cards over the next week for conferences that got multiple NCAA bids to recap the conference, grade the teams, and look at the future for the conference.

Conference Recap

Coming into the season, the Big Ten was considered the best conference in America. Michigan State was expected to be in the Final Four again and Purdue, Ohio State, and Illinois were expected to be among the nation’s elite. Then the season started and the conference slipped a [...]

2011-12 RTC (Way Too Early) Top 25

KDoyle — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 22:36:24 +0000

The 2010-11 season just concluded — we are just as sad as you guys are — but rather than get all nostalgic, teary-eyed, and lament the next seven months without college basketball, let’s look towards the future. That’s right, folks, hot off the presses: the first 2011-12 Top 25. Our assumptions on who is staying/leaving are within the team breakdowns.

North Carolina—The Heels have a whole lot coming back and lose next to nothing. Harrison Barnes looked like the stud he was advertised in the preseason as he developed into Carolina’s top player down the stretch, and Kendall Marshall flourished [...]

The Week That Was: NCAA Tournament Edition

rtmsf — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 04:09:53 +0000

David Ely is an RTC Contributor

What We Learned

It's Foolish To Think That the Big East's 2011 Tournament Record Proves That It Wasn't the Best Conference All Season

The Big East is not overrated; it’s just not as good as it was made out to be. The conference sent an NCAA record 11 teams into the field of 68 and Vegas set the over/under of total wins for the conference at 15.5. This year’s March Madness was supposed to be the cherry on top of an historic season, but instead the tournament has been [...]

NCAA Tournament Tidbits: 03.19.2011

Brian Goodman — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 16:52:23 +0000

Throughout the NCAA Tournament, we’ll be providing you with the daily chatter from around the webosphere relating to what’s going on with the teams still playing.

East

George Mason took out a fizzling Villanova in the first round, and continues to carve its own identity separate from the 2006 Final Four squad. The Wildcats’ season is over, and considering it lost 11 of its last 16 games, including its final six, perhaps it’s for the best. The blistering performance Marquette put on Xavier Friday night sent a big message to its doubters. The Golden Eagles shot 57% on their end, and [...]

Big Ten Wrap & Tourney Preview

Brian Goodman — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 17:00:19 +0000

John Templon is the RTC correspondent for the Big Ten. With action set to tip from Indianapolis on Thursday, get set for the postseason with RTC’s regular season wrap-up and postseason outlook.

Postseason Preview

The Big Ten Tournament should prove to be quite the entertaining tournament. With so many teams on the bubble, every game is going to have a do-or-die atmosphere to it. Three of the four quarterfinal games, excluding the one in which Ohio State is playing, could propel teams to NCAA Tournament at-large bids. Another important matchup to watch is Northwestern [...]

It’s a Love/Hate Relationship: Volume XIV

jbaumgartner — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 01:51:33 +0000

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 digs a rout out west and credits the Thompson men in their handling of Klay’s mistake, and tells the Longhorns and Hokies what he thinks of ’em.

Five Things I Loved This Week

I LOVED..…Rick Pitino saying that there were no hard feelings about the Louisville cheerleader who gave Pitt a chance to tie the game last Sunday by running onto the court and hurling the [...]

Set Your Tivo: 03.01.11

Brian Otskey — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 18:01:51 +0000

***** – quit your job and divorce your wife if that’s what it takes to watch this game live **** – best watched live, but if you must, tivo and watch it tonight as soon as you get home *** – set your tivo but make sure you watch it later ** – set your tivo but we’ll forgive you if it stays in the queue until 2013 * – don’t waste bandwidth (yours or the tivo’s) of any kind on this game

Brian Otskey is an RTC contributor.

Welcome to March, the best month of [...]

Set Your Tivo: 02.26-02.27

Brian Otskey — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 01:22:00 +0000

Brian Otskey is an RTC contributor.

We are now only about two weeks [...]

The Week That Was: Feb. 15-21

jstevrtc — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 20:44:01 +0000

David Ely is an RTC Contributor

Introduction

Monday’s Syracuse-Villanova and Kansas-Oklahoma State games kicked off Judgment Week at ESPN, and TWTW has no idea what that exactly means. Are our opinions (or “judgments,” if you will) supposed to be dramatically altered based on this week’s outcomes? Syracuse’s win over ’Nova doesn’t mean they’re no longer a flawed team that’s capable of looking great one night and mediocre the next. And barring any game-changing injury, you shouldn’t think differently about a squad based on a couple of games at the end of February. You are who [...]

Checking in on… the Big 10

Brian Goodman — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 17:34:55 +0000

John Templon is the RTC correspondent for the Big Ten Conference.

A Look Back

The Big Ten bubble picture is so muddled that it’s not worth even trying to sort through it at this point. Illinois, Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State and Minnesota have all thought they were assured of dancing this season before some difficult events transpired. Right now, the Fighting Illini look to be at the top of the heap, but it’s almost guaranteed that some middling Big Ten team will end up on the outside looking in. Thankfully, the conference will have three [...]

ATB: A Messy Prez Day Weekend

rtmsf — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 09:46:30 +0000

The Lede. What a wild, wild President’s Day weekend it was. The second-, third-, and fourth-ranked teams all took a loss over the weekend to join #1 Kansas from the previous Monday night, the first time that such a thing had happened in a little over seven years. BracketBusters was in full effect across the land, and although there were some interesting games during the event, only a couple of teams actually helped themselves. Over the three days, we saw RTCs ranging from relaxed ambivalence to firecracker intensity, another bizarre diatribe from Jim Boeheim, and a [...]

RTC Top 25: Week 15

KDoyle — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 22:15:08 +0000

Ohio State remains at #1, but it was far from unanimous as a total of four teams—the Buckeyes, Duke, Pittsburgh, and San Diego State—received votes for the top spot. Further down in the poll, Steve Lavin has St. John’s in the poll after a big win over Pittsburgh. QnD analysis after the jump…

QnD Analysis.

Buckeyes fall again, but remain at top—For the second straight week, Ohio State dropped another game, this time losing to Purdue 76-63, but managed to remain in the #1 position. Although Jared Sullinger poured in 25 points, the game [...]

Set Your Tivo: 02.18-02.20

Brian Otskey — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 21:11:35 +0000

Brian Otskey is an RTC contributor.

With only two weeks left in the regular season, [...]

Set Your Tivo: 02.16.11

Brian Otskey — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 20:00:18 +0000

Brian Otskey is an RTC contributor.

It’s a big night all across the college basketball [...]

Checking in on… the Big Ten

Brian Goodman — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 21:00:26 +0000

John Templon is the RTC correspondent for the Big Ten Conference.

A Look Back

All eyes were on Madison, Wisconsin, on Saturday when undefeated and top-ranked Ohio State went into the Kohl Center to play Wisconsin in their toughest game of the regular season. The Buckeyes had a 15-point lead but watched it slip away thanks to heroics of Wisconsin’s Jordan Taylor, which led to a very justified court rush from the Badger fans.

Elsewhere, though, the top of the conference was solidifying its reign. It’s now a definitive three-horse race between Ohio State, Purdue [...]