In response to increasing criticism leveled against them (and ESPN), The Post-Standard posted a column attempting to explain its handling of the Bernie Fine case and in particular their decision to hold on to a taped recording that is the closest thing we have to a smoking gun for 8 years. It is an interesting read and look at ethics and the business of journalism. We won’t come out with our thoughts on the matter in this space and will instead encourage you to read it and come to your own conclusion. We will say that the case is more nuanced than some members of the media are making it out to be.
If you are looking for a read through on how the Fine scandal will affect Syracuse as a university your best bet would probably be Penn State. While the Fine scandal does not appear to involve anywhere close to as much of the university administration as what happened at Penn State we would imagine that high school applicants and their families might view both schools less favorably after the scandals. However, according to Penn State’s undergraduate admissions office, applications as of this past Friday are up 4% for the school overall and 2% for the State College campus. Some of this may be due to the current state of the economy where more Pennsylvania residents may be looking to go there with the in-state tuition and solid academic reputation. As the article notes, the true effect on the applicant pool may not be felt until May 1 when applicants are required to give their deposits to hold their spots for the upcoming fall semester.
With the Fine scandal sucking up all the media coverage in the Syracuse area, the news that Fab Melo had received an adjournment contemplation of dismissal (translation: stay out of trouble for a year and the charge will be expunged from his record) for charges stemming from an incident in May where he was accused of damaging the car of his girlfriend at the time. Melo, who had a disappointing freshman season, is off to a slow start again this year as his increased production is more a result of increased playing time rather than a noticeable improvement in his game.
West Virginia filed a motion in Providence, Rhode Island to dismiss the Big East’s lawsuit that had aimed to prevent the school from leaving the conference before the conference’s mandated 27-month waiting period was over. Now this is where it gets a little complicated: the Big East’s lawsuit was essentially a countersuit against a lawsuit that West Virginia had filed in a West Virginia court requesting the ability to leave the conference before the 2012-13 season instead of having to wait for 27 months. In this latest lawsuit (full 133-page PDF here), West Virginia is essentially claiming that the case in Rhode Island should be dismissed because that court has no right to rule over a West Virginia institution particularly when there is a similar case going through the courts in West Virginia.
Temple will be without the services of Michael Eric after he suffered a right patella injury during a practice on November 25. The school expects Eric to miss six to eight weeks while he recovers from the unspecified injury. It is worth noting that he had to sit out 10 games last season after he fractured the same patella. This season, Eric was averaging 10.5 PPG and an Atlantic-10 leading 11.3 RPG. The loss is especially hard on the team, which lacks another player over 6’6″ who isn’t a freshman. If Eric makes his recovery as expected he would miss about one-third of conference play so it is possible that the Owls could still be near the top of the conference as the season winds down.
Entering the season, there was little doubt that Syracuse was loaded. They returned four starters from a team that won 27 games last season; they had two preseason All-Big East performers in forward Kris Joseph (first team) and guard Scoop Jardine (second team); and they welcomed the No. 16 recruiting class to campus.
So it was only fitting that locked in a back-and-forth battle with Virginia Tech on Wednesday, the Orange turned to none of the aforementioned players to give them a lift. Instead of Joseph or Jardine, it was reserves C.J. Fair and Dion Waiters who led Jim Boeheim‘s club to the win after they had trailed at halftime. The duo combined for 21 points in the second half and scored all but three of the team’s points during a 17-3 run that helped Syracuse pull away from the Hokies for a 69-58 win in the semifinals of the NIT Season Tip-Off.
An Improved C.J. Fair Gives Syracuse Another Weapon Off The Bench
But the performance Waiters and Fair didn’t just serve as a coming out party for two of the more underrated role players in the conference, it also highlighted the team’s incredible depth. Depth that could make the difference between a second round NCAA Tournament exit like last season, and the program’s first National Championship since Carmelo Anthony was draped in orange.
Through five games, Boeheim has 10 players who are averaging at least 12.8 minutes per game, and no one on the team — not even Joseph or Jardine — is averaging more than 25.4 minutes per game. Now against the Hokies, only seven players were on the court for more than ten minutes of game time and that may become a trend as the season goes on. It is unlikely that the Orange will stick with a ten-deep rotation, especially as the competition gets stiffer and certain players start to assert themselves, but it is a luxury that any coach would love to have.
Last season only eight players averaged more than ten minutes per game for the Orange, and Joseph, Jardine, Brandon Triche, and Rick Jackson used more than 70 percent of the team’s minutes. The result was a team that started 18-0, but went just 9-8 the reason of the season including a disappointing 66-62 loss to Marquette in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
When the last remaining undefeated Pac-12 team, Stanford, knocked off Oklahoma State on Wednesday night to advance to the championship game of the NIT Season-Tip Off to face the #5 team in the country, Syracuse, we had our Pac-12 game of the week all set up. Let’s preface the rest of this post by saying that we, like most of the rest of the college hoops public, have no expectation that Stanford will win this game. The Cardinal are a young team, still very much in the process of improving, and they’re facing a team that is arguably as talented as anyone in the country on a neutral-site court that will be anything but neutral. Can Stanford beat Syracuse? I point you to Exhibits A, B and C, to show that, sure, anything can happen, but the fact is Cardinal fans should temper their expectations. The goal is to win, but if they play the Orange close, that’s a success.
Josh Owens Will Play A Big Role As Stanford Tries To Attack Syracuse's 2-3 Zone
So, how does the Cardinal go about playing the Orange close? First and foremost, they need to be thankful today for their video coordinator and go to school on Jim Boeheim’s zone. Conventional wisdom says you attack the 2-3 zone by getting into the middle of it and playing inside out. Stanford has two good candidates to man the middle offensively against the zone: senior forward Josh Owens and sophomore forward Dwight Powell. Both are capable passers who can handle the ball a bit when needed, and each can turn around and hit the 15-foot jumper on the rare occasion when they are given space. Either player is also capable of flashing to the baseline when the ball is kicked back out to the guards and either hitting the baseline jumper or putting the ball on the floor and attacking the meat of that lengthy Syracuse zone. However, because of that length (the Orange feature seven-footer Fab Melo in the middle, with guys like 6’7” senior Kris Joseph, 6’9” freshman Rakeem Christmas, 6’10” sophomore Baye Moussa Keita, and 6’7” sophomore C.J. Fair elsewhere along the frontcourt), not only will the windows to get off jumpers disappear quickly, but any shots inside will be challenged.
Brian Otskey is the Big East correspondent for RTC and a regular contributor. You can find him @botskey on Twitter. See bottom of the post for the Official RTC Star System.
Preseason tournaments continue to roll on with the NIT Season Tip-Off championship as well as semifinal action at the Old Spice and 76 Classic along with the Battle 4 Atlantis. Although we don’t know the championship matchups in those tournaments, be sure to check out the finals at Atlantis on Saturday and the Old Spice and 76 Classic on Sunday for those TBD games.
Minnesota vs. Indiana State (at Orlando, Florida) – 12:00 PM EST on ESPN (**)
Trevor Mbakwe Is a Beast Inside
The Golden Gophers escaped an upset-minded DePaul team on Thursday afternoon behind another double-double from Trevor Mbakwe, his fourth in five games. Against an Indiana State team that is better than DePaul, Minnesota must assert itself inside, protect the ball and defend better. Tubby Smith’s team has a huge height advantage over the Sycamores, especially with swingman Rodney Williams standing at 6’7”. The potential is there for Williams to have a huge game given his size and athleticism. Indiana State can rotate taller players in off its bench but Minnesota has more than enough talent in the paint to play well. However, the Gophers can’t afford 17 turnovers and a 1-9 night from three point range again as they did against DePaul.
The major concern for Greg Lansing has to be rebounding the basketball against a team with lots of strength and size up front. Indiana State was out-rebounded and out-shot by Texas Tech but forced 18 Red Raider turnovers and got to the foul line 31 times. The Sycamores shoot 78% from the stripe and must use that to their advantage against a Minnesota team with an awful defensive free throw rate (#249). With sophomore point guard Jake Odum breaking down the defense and finding open players, that shouldn’t be a big problem given Minnesota’s propensity to foul. Indiana State shoots 37.1% from three point land as a unit with Jordan Printy taking the majority of those shots and converting 38.5% of the time. ISU must make threes because it is not going to have an easy time scoring inside against Minnesota’s size.
For the Sycamores to pull the upset, we feel they have to play a zone. Going to a zone is risky when your team has trouble rebounding to begin with but it may be their best bet. If Indiana State can pack its defense in the paint and limit the Gophers inside, that’ll force the Minnesota guards to jack up deep shots, something they’re not particularly good at. Playing a zone also minimizes foul trouble, a huge issue with only three major contributors over 6’8” on the Indiana State roster. It sounds simple but this game should come down to whichever team can execute its game plan better: inside scoring for Minnesota and three pointers plus solid interior defense for Indiana State.
#19 Florida State vs. Harvard (at Atlantis Paradise Island, Bahamas) – 4:30 PM EST on Versus (***)
Brian Otskey is the RTC correspondent for the Big East. You can find him on Twitter @botskey.
Reader’s Take I
Top Storylines
The Realignment Circus Continues: The latest blow to the Big East came just recently as West Virginia was accepted into the Big 12. That leaves the Big East with 13 basketball schools remaining and a handful of others (football schools) desperately trying to flee the sinking ship. Commissioner John Marinatto has said he is committed to holding Syracuse, Pittsburgh and West Virginia to the 27-month notice provision in the conference’s bylaws but one has to wonder if a financial settlement will be worked out in order to expedite the transition and move the conference into rebuilding mode. It’s going to be quite awkward if these three schools remain in the league until 2014. All of the current Big East members should eventually find a stable home in one form or another, but the days of Big East basketball as we know it will soon come to an end. Enjoy the 2011-12 season because it just might be the last year of this remarkable 16-team behemoth.
How Many Bids This Year?: After sending a record 11 teams to the NCAA Tournament last year, can the Big East reach that mark again? That seems unlikely but you never know how things will truly play out. I’d say there are ten contenders for NCAA bids and to make 11 you would need all of those teams plus one of the three New York City-area schools to have a wildly successful year and snatch a bid. The Big East is quite possibly the best conference in the land yet again but 11 NCAA teams is far-fetched. Eight or nine bids this season would seem to be much more realistic.
Can Connecticut Repeat?: The technical answer is yes but it will be extremely tough to do. There’s a reason only two teams have gone back-to-back in the last 20 years. College basketball is as deep as ever in terms of talent and quality teams, plus there’s someone missing from last year’s Connecticut team. Kemba Walker is now in the NBA and, despite Jim Calhoun’s impressive recruiting haul, there is a major leadership void to be filled. This team is stocked with talent but Walker was a one-of-a-kind leader who took complete control in Maui and parlayed that into a way of life for the rest of the season. Jeremy Lamb figures to take control but remember how young this group is. They’ll get better as the season progresses and may even win the Big East but when the chips are down in the NCAA Tournament, they won’t be able to call on Kemba and that’s why I feel they will not repeat.
Calhoun Won't Have His Mr. Everything Around This Season
Cautious Optimism at Georgetown, Villanova and West Virginia: These traditional powers lose a lot of talent and figure to be lodged in the middle of the conference. All three programs return key cogs but the departures of Austin Freeman, Chris Wright, Corey Fisher, Corey Stokes, Antonio Pena, Casey Mitchell, John Flowers and Joe Mazzulla leave more questions than answers. These teams all need someone to step up and become a deep shooting threat while maintaining a low post presence. Guards win in college basketball but you also have to be able to rebound and score inside occasionally. Hollis Thompson, Mouphtaou Yarou and Deniz Kilicli must become better all-around post men if their respective teams hope to make the NCAA Tournament. At 6’7”, 205 lbs., Thompson isn’t one to bang with the big guys but he’s going to have to score in the paint at times. Each team has a nice recruiting class coming in, but it’s up to the returning players to make the ultimate difference.
And so begins the shortest ‘preseason’ in all of sports, the 24 days between the start of official practice — as celebrated by Midnight Madness all across the country on Friday night — and the opening games of the 2kSports Coaches vs. Cancer Classic, on November 7. It’s an astonishingly short window, but all that means is that we’re that much closer to seeing bona fide college basketball on our televisions and in our local arenas very soon. Let’s get you caught up. On Friday night we put together a Storytelling piece capturing some of the excitement around the land as MM tipped off everywhere. Yesterday we put together a list of the 13 best dunks from this year’s proceedings, several of which will have you drooling in anticipation for more. Immediately following this post, we’ll publish the most interesting Friday night clips from several of the blue-blooded programs like Duke, Kentucky, Connecticut, Kansas, North Carolina and several others. Midnight Madness weekend is great because it represents a new beginning — every team is still unblemished and ostensibly has an equal shot at doing something special. Welcome to next year.
During ESPNU’s Midnight Madness coverage Friday night, Andy Katz spent as much time talking football through the lens of conference realignment scenarios as he did discussing his favored sport. Word leaked during the broadcast that the Big Easthad reportedly offered five schools membership to the conference — Houston, SMU and Central Florida in all sports, and Boise State and Air Force in football only. The goal, of course, is to keep the conference’s automatic BCS bid, but each step ‘forward’ appears increasingly desperate for a league that built its reputation on basketball three decades ago and has never really been that significant on the gridiron. As Lenn Robbins writes in the NY Post, the conference doesn’t expect to announce any movement until after the Big East’s basketball media day this week, but we truly feel that grabbing schools without regard for regional ties and rivalries is a shortsighted strategy doomed to ultimately fail. The non-BCS Big East schools very seriously considered walking away from the rest of this madness, and who would blame them at this point?
Aaron Torres writes that this will be a “golden season” in college basketball, and he makes a compelling case for his argument. As everyone here already knows, the number of elite players who returned to college rather than face an NBA lockout, when combined with an exceptional class of incoming freshmen, could produce a quality of depth in the sport that we haven’t seen in a number of years. Torres contends that the last time college basketball was this talented was in 1995-96, at the cusp of the preps-to-pros trend (Kevin Garnett skipped college that year) and featuring upperclassman stars such as Allen Iverson, Marcus Camby, Tim Duncan, Steve Nash, Ray Allen, among others. Let’s hope that the NBA’s eventual collective bargaining agreement makes seasons like this the future norm with a two-and-done rule allowing us to enjoy players for a couple of years prior to moving on to the professional ranks.
Seth Davis gives us answers to his ten burning questions as we head into the 2011-12 season. Starting today, we plan on rolling out our own list of 20 questions over the next several weeks, but we can guarantee you that none of ours will involve Utah State senior superfan, Bill Sproat. We’re honestly not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but the one answer he gives that we can completely get on board with is #7 — which underachieving big man will make a giant leap? The answer to that question is legitimately the difference between his team being a borderline Top 10 to 15 squad and the overall best team in America. Tell us what you think.
Kansasreleased some disappointing news on Friday afternoon just before its Late Night in the Phog celebration. Two more members of its freshman class, Ben McLemore and Jamari Traylor, will join Braeden Anderson as ineligible to play this season because of high school transcript issues (all three attended three different high schools). For a team suffering considerable losses of key personnel from last season’s Elite Eight squad, this is another blow to Bill Self’s aspiration to win an eighth straight Big 12 regular season title in 2011-12. He worked to temper expectations on Friday, especially now that his Jayhawks are down to eight legitimate players and in need of significant improvements from returnees such as Tyshawn Taylor and Thomas Robinson. If Self can outlast Baylor, Missouri and Texas A&M again this year in the Big 12 race, he’ll certainly deserve any postseason COY accolades he gets.
If you are interested in participating in our ATB2 feature, send in your submissions to rushthecourt@gmail.com. We will add to this post throughout the day as the submissions come in so keep on sending them.
General News
USA 112, South Korea 68: “Continuing their domination of Group D play, Team USA secured their third consecutive +30 point win over a Group D opponent Monday as they defeated South Korea 112-68 in the University of Shenzhen’s Main Gym.” (Villanova by the Numbers)
USA 102, Hungary 53: “The USA men’s team upped their World University Games record to 2-0 with a dominant performance over Team Hungary Sunday in the University of Shenzhen’s Main Gym.” (Villanova by the Numbers)
Cal Men’s Basketball Escapes Upsala Basket, 76-74: “A win is a win, right? In an ugly, uneven game, the Cal Bears outlasted Upsala Basket by a slim, two-point margin. Allen Crabbe, Richard Solomon, and Brandon Smith lead the way. To be fair, senior standouts Jorge Gutierrez(ankle) and Harper Kamp (knees) did not play. Both Justin Cobbs and Robert Thurman had rough games, particularly on the defensive end.” (California Golden Blogs)
Fab Melo Helps Brazil Start World University Games 2-0: “Fab Melo and the Brazilian National Team are off to a great start in the 2011 World University Games.” (Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician)
Bruce Pearl Would Like To Sell You His Home: “With his future still up in the air until the NCAA decides just how much his stupidity should be punished, former Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl is divorcing himself from the mansion he purchased a few years ago. The 10,000 square foot home sits on a golf course and can be yours for a cool $2.69 million.” (Kentucky Sports Radio)
Earlier today the match-ups for the 2011 NIT Season Tip-Off were announced. Unlike many preseason tournaments where the team that will advance is already pre-determined in this tournament you actually have to win to advance, which apparently is a novel concept for preseason tournaments. Like most preseason tournaments it features early-round games at a regional host site with a team from each region advancing to a different destination (in this case Madison Square Garden) for the semifinals and finals.
Scoop and the Orange hope to be back at Madison Square Garden
The host teams for the regional sites (November 14-16) will be Syracuse, Oklahoma State, Virginia Tech, and Stanford. Here are the match-ups for each site for the first round (full bracket here).
Syracuse versus Manhattan and Albany versus Brown
Virginia Tech versus Monmouth and George Mason versus Florida International
Oklahoma State versus Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Oral Roberts versus Texas-San Antonio
Stanford versus Fresno State and Colorado State versus Southern Methodist
The winners of the first round games in each region will play against each other with the team and the winner of that game will advance to play in Madison Square Garden for the semifinals and finals (and consolation game for the losers of the semifinals) on November 23 and 25. The losers of the first round games in each region will meet on campus sites on November 21 and 22.
If you are interested in participating in our ATB2 feature, send in your submissions to rushthecourt@gmail.com. We will add to this post throughout the day as the submissions come in so keep on sending them.
General News
Austin Hatch Makes Improvements, Remains Stable: “Austin Hatch’s family released an update on his condition through his CaringBridge page this afternoon. The update is encouraging, indicating that Austin continues to progress and that doctors are slowly reducing his medications to bring him out of the medically induced coma.” (UM Hoops)
Teague and Davis impress at Nike Skills Camp: Some updates on the incoming Kentucky freshmen. (Kentucky Sports Radio)
Fab Melo Has His Very Brief Day In Court: “After getting delayed twice, Fab Melo finally made his first appearance in City Court’s domestic violence court yesterday. According to Fab’s defense lawyer Gary Sommer, Melo is in counseling, though the order of protection preventing him from contacting his girlfriend (ex-girlfriend?) remains in place.” (Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician)
If you are interested in participating in our ATB2 feature, send in your submissions to rushthecourt@gmail.com. We will add to this post throughout the day as the submissions come in so keep on sending them.
General News
Mark Turgeon: Maryland’s Personnel “Not Where It Needs to Be”, May Go Four Guards: “No one doubts that Mark Turgeon is inheriting a not-great situation at Maryland, at least in the first season, but I have to say I didn’t expect him to say as much.” (Testudo Times)
Dwayne Polee transfers to San Diego State: “As you know, Dwayne Polee II, the skinny jumping jack who was Steve Lavin’s first recruit to the St. John’s program, decided to transfer from the Red Storm program to be closer to his sick mother… though the playing time crunch at the wing was also a factor.” (Rumble in the Garden)
Fab Melo Court Case Pushed Back To June 23: The rising sophomore will be in court in a little over a week. (Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician)
Harrison + God’sGift getting ready on campus: “Good news to hear: D’Angelo Harrison has come by the St. John’s campus to work out, and God’sGift Achiuwa is on campus in summer classes.” (Rumble in the Garden)
Scoop Jardine Blogs About Chris Paul Camp, Missed Flights, Bowling: Selected highlights from Scoop’s latest blogs. (Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician)
