international basketball – Rush The Court

Morning Five: 07.17.13 Edition

rtmsf — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 12:01:43 +0000

We’re more than officially in the dog days of summer but only the truly committed scribes work all summer covering the sport we love. Seth Davis is one national commentator who came out of his slumber this week to report from Las Vegas with a Hoops Thoughts column on Michigan’s Mitch McGary. The rising sophomore took the college basketball world by storm last March, going from a role player to a key cog for John Beilein’s national runners-up, but as McGary explained to Davis: “So far I’ve only cracked the glass. Next year I’m trying to break through it.” The [...]

Morning Five: 05.23.13 Edition

rtmsf — Thu, 23 May 2013 12:01:29 +0000

The Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA Draft lottery for the second time in three years on Tuesday night, which means that the team that selected rising superstar Kyrie Irving #1 overall in 2011 will get a chance to pair another potential star next to him. Will it be Kentucky’s Nerlens Noel, Kansas’ Ben McLemore, Georgetown’s Otto Porter, Indiana’s Victor Oladipo, or some other prospect who hasn’t yet risen up the draft boards? Whoever it is, and this is a solid mock with explanations from NBADraft.net, keep one thing very much in mind. If you redrafted the 2010 NBA Draft right [...]

Morning Five: 08.13.12 Edition

rtmsf — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 11:31:28 +0000

The buzz throughout the sport over the weekend was directly attributable to the Friday release of the latest in CBSSports.com‘s Critical Coaches series, this time squarely taking aim at the perception of the coaches responsible for the most wrongdoing within the game. In other words, who is perceived as the biggest cheater(s) in college basketball? The results at the top — Kentucky’s John Calipari (36%) and Baylor’s Scott Drew (34%) — are completely unsurprising in that fan perception in this regard probably isn’t markedly different than those of the coaches, but in reality you probably could have simply switched out [...]

Morning Five: 08.09.12 Edition

rtmsf — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 11:31:00 +0000

International basketball has a number of differences from the US game, ranging from the legal goaltending rule to the trapezoidal lane to a much higher tolerance by officials of cheap shots during game action (see: Anthony, Carmelo vs. Argentina). While Team USA’s core group of players has gotten used to FIBA rules by now, Bill Self’s Kansas Jayhawks are learning on the fly while they’re touring around Switzerland and France. According to this Lawrence Journal-World report, in KU’s first game on Tuesday night, Swiss forward David Ramseier lost his s#&% after a technical foul call went against him in the [...]

Morning Five: 06.19.12 Edition

rtmsf — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 11:31:09 +0000

Mike Brey has built Notre Dame into an annual fixture in the Top 25 during his tenure in South Bend, and the three-time Big East COY who has led the Irish to six straight 20-win seasons will be rewarded with long term job security as a result. Reports indicate that the school on Tuesday will announce a 10-year extension to Brey’s contract, ostensibly keeping him at the school well into his 60s (he’s currently 53). It’s a proactive move by Notre Dame brass who are looking to shore up a winning program that has arguably been more successful than its [...]

Morning Five: 09.02.11 Edition

jstevrtc — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 10:19:54 +0000

Yesterday we mentioned the piece by SI.com’s Andy Glockner listing five teams that finished near the bottom of Ken Pomeroy’s luck statistic and why they should be in for some better fortune in the upcoming. Who, you may ask, finished dead last in that stat? Who was the unluckiest team in college hoops in 2010-11? The answer: the same team that finished last in luck in 2009-10! In fact, they did it under two different coaches. On Tuesday (not sure how it got by us), Mr. Glockner examined what exactly the luck statistic is and how this squad can avoid a three-peat of [...]

Team USA Finishes Fifth at World University Games: Notes On Player Performances

rtmsf — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 22:55:02 +0000

Team USA came out of the World University Games in Shenzhen, China, with its pride intact after sporting a 7-1 overall record, but because of an untimely loss over the weekend in the quarterfinal round versus Lithuania, they will leave Asia without a medal. The twelve-man roster comprised of some of the best returning players in the college game finished fifth in the tournament despite sporting a 28.2 PPG scoring margin over its eight opponents. The Americans did not earn a chance to play the top two finishers — Serbia (gold) and Canada (silver) — although the team that [...]

Morning Five: 08.22.11 Edition

rtmsf — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 11:00:06 +0000

The best Team USA can now finish at the World University Games in Shenzhen, China, is fifth place after a close weekend loss to Lithuania, 76-74, in the tournament quarterfinals. We mentioned a couple of weeks ago that the Americans would have to produce from outside, given their lack of relative size on the interior, and through the round-robin, that’s exactly what they did (41.7% from the three-point line coming into the quarterfinals). In the loss against Lithuania, though, Team USA combined to shoot an icy 5-30 from three (0-14 in the second half), and missed all five of its [...]

Georgetown Gets Shanghai’d in China

rtmsf — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 18:03:19 +0000

Update: with video! WOW.

Crazy story from Beijing surfacing today involving the Georgetown basketball team while on an 11-day exhibition tour of China. According to published reports, the Hoyas were playing a local team called the Bayi Rockets in a physically intense game that witnessed a total of 39 first half fouls. Georgetown had been whistled for a ridiculous 28 of those, many of which had players from both sides jawing with each other and officials hustling to maintain control of the game. At the 9:32 mark of the fourth quarter, forward Hu Ke committed [...]

Morning Five: 08.18.11 Edition

rtmsf — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 11:00:23 +0000

USC point guard and best returning player, Jio Fontan, flew back to Los Angeles on Wednesday due to an injury he suffered on Tuesday night during an exhibition game in Sao Paolo against a professional team, Mogi Das Cruzes. According to reports, he landed awkwardly on his knee on a drive to the hoop and was removed from the game immediately thereafter. X-rays taken in Brazil were negative, but the injury was deemed serious enough that Fontan was sent back to the US rather than try to get an MRI in Rio de Janeiro, the Trojans’ next stop on their international [...]

Morning Five: 07.11.11 Edition

rtmsf — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 11:00:17 +0000

In a somewhat shocking turn of events at the FIBA Under-19 World Championships in Latvia, Team USA lost 79-74 Friday to Russia in a quarterfinal game where the Yanks simply could not throw the ball in the ocean from outside the arc (0-9). Nor, apparently, could they defend it, as Russia dropped 12 threes on its end, making it virtually impossible for a team lacking much of an inside presence to win the game. The American team regrouped to throttle Poland on Saturday before finishing the tournament by beating Australia, 78-77, Sunday to take the fifth place trophy (USA’s worst [...]

Morning Five: 06.20.11 Edition

rtmsf — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 11:00:21 +0000

From the In Case You Missed It file, late last week we published a piece analyzing the weird NCAA/Kentucky/John Calipari love triangle that occurred as a result of the school honoring Cal’s 500th win last season. If you were on vacation or otherwise pre-occupied last week, the synopsis goes like this: Everyone is aware that the NCAA has vacated 42 of Calipari’s wins at UMass and Memphis because of the use of ineligible players (Marcus Camby and Derrick Rose). Recently, though, the NCAA learned from a “rival fan” that Kentucky’s official media materials still included the 42 wins as a part [...]

Morning Five: 04.28.11 Edition

rtmsf — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 12:00:11 +0000

We didn’t get to this on Wednesday, but Seth Davis checked in this week with a piece analyzing the offseason coaching carousel thus far. There’s not much there to quibble with, as it’s been a relatively quiet year in this regard. We completely agree with his take that Tennessee hiring Cuonzo Martin was a very smart play, while Missouri going after (and getting) Frank Haith was perhaps the most questionable. At the mid-major level, Richmond’s Chris Mooney and VCU’s Shaka Smart choosing to stick on the banks of the James River was the most surprising (how often will runs like [...]

Morning Five: 07.01.10 Edition

rtmsf — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 03:26:14 +0000

Happy Fiscal New Year, everyone. We hope that your 2010-11 is filled with great financial security and hoops hysteria.

Here’s some somewhat dated news, but it didn’t seem to get much attention until this week, which is that Mississippi State’s Renardo Sidney evidently sees himself as a 1-and-doner when he finally gets to play this coming season. Sidney tweeted during last week’s draft the following: “NYC #2011 Believe dat.” The big man who sat out the entire 2009-10 season over concerns with his eligibility certainly has the ability to become a top prospect, but he may want to check next year’s [...]

Morning Five: 11.16.09 Edition

rtmsf — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:18:34 +0000

Northwestern head coach Bill Carmody said today that his star Kevin Coble’s foot bones are “out of alignment” due to an awkward landing last week and, barring an unforeseen diagnosis today, he will need surgery and have to miss the 2009-10 season. When it rains it pours, we guess, as Carmody also confirmed that senior guard Jeff Ryan was also done for the season after tearing his ACL in the Wildcats’ home opener on Friday night. Although Ryan isn’t a scorer, he provides necessary depth in the backcourt. Carmody isn’t taking the ‘blessing in disguise’ approach even though Northwestern will [...]