jermaine dixon – Rush The Court

RTC Region by Region Tidbits: 03.22.10

rtmsf — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 05:59:30 +0000

Each day this week during the regional rounds of the NCAA Tournament we’re asking some of our top correspondents to put together a collection of notes and interesting tidbits about each region. If you know of something that we should include in tomorrow’s submission, hit us up at rushthecourt@yahoo.com.

West Region Notes (Andrew Murawa)

Lower-seeded teams like Cornell, Washington, Northern Iowa and St. Mary’s advancing to the Sweet 16 surprised college basketball fans all over, but Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim was not among them, saying that “there’s not a big gap” between teams in [...]

Second Round Game Analysis: Sunday Games

rtmsf — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 09:51:34 +0000

Over the next two days in a series of separate posts, RTC will break down all 16 of the second round games using our best analytical efforts to understand these teams, the matchups and their individual strengths and weaknesses. Our hope is that you’ll let us know in the comments where you agree, disagree or otherwise think we’ve lost our collective minds. Here are the Sunday games.

12:10 pm – #1 Syracuse vs. #8 Gonzaga (Buffalo pod)

In the CBS national game to start the day, everyone will get this very enticing game between Syracuse and Gonzaga. Given [...]

First Round Game Analysis: Friday Afternoon

rtmsf — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 02:14:13 +0000

Over the next two days in a series of separate posts, RTC will break down all 32 of the first round games using our best analytical efforts to understand these teams, the matchups and their individual strengths and weaknesses. Our hope is that you’ll let us know in the comments where you agree, disagree or otherwise think we’ve lost our collective minds. Here are the Friday afternoon games.

12:15 pm – #2 West Virginia vs. #15 Morgan State (Buffalo pod)

West Virginia enters the NCAA Tournament as one of the hottest teams in the [...]

NCAA Region by Region Tidbits: 03.15.10

rtmsf — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 07:28:25 +0000

Each day this week during the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament we’re asking some of our top correspondents to put together a collection of notes and interesting tidbits about each region. If you know of something that we should include in tomorrow’s submission, hit us up at rushthecourt@yahoo.com.

East Region Notes (Ryan Restivo of SienaSaintsBlog)

#8 Texas was once the top team in the nation, but now they are reeling. However, a team trending even worse might be their opponent: #9 Wake Forest. Demon Deacon Head Coach Dino Gaudio said Al-Farouq Aminu had an [...]

ATB: Wild Friday Night

rtmsf — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 09:31:37 +0000

What Happened Tonight? On a random Friday night in February when most people were watching the opening of the Winter Olympics and the epic fail of the cauldron-lighting, we very well may have had the wildest evening of the year in the 2009-10 college basketball season. Normally, there’s no reason to even recap games from Friday nights throughout the year, but tonight we wouldn’t be doing our job if we weren’t here. Could both the Game of the Year and the Upset of the Year have been tonight? If you missed it, we’ll try to do our best [...]

Checking in on… the Big East

rtmsf — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 06:38:23 +0000

Rob Dauster of Ballin’ is a Habit is the RTC correspondent for the Big East Conference.

Pitt started the Big East season on fire. They won five straight out of the gates, including a three game road trip in which they took down Syracuse, UConn and Cincinnati. But after a loss to West Virginia in the Backyard Brawl, the Panthers have dropped four of their last five games to fall to 6-4 in league play, just a half-game in front of Louisville and a game in front of South Florida, Marquette, Cincinnati, and Notre Dame.

So what happened? [...]

Checking in on… the Big East

jstevrtc — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:56:30 +0000

Rob Dauster of Ballin Is a Habit is the RTC correspondent for the Big East Conference.

Let me paint you a picture.

Pitt is loaded. They have the Big East player in the post, an all-conference 20 PPG scorer on the wing, and a senior leader at the point running the show. They have depth, balance, quality role players, and one of the most unappreciated coaches in the game.

That was last season.

This season its a different story.

DeJuan Blair is gone. Sam Young is gone. Levance Fields is gone.

Before the season started, the consensus seemed to be [...]

What You Missed While Watching College Football…

zhayes9 — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 23:05:20 +0000

Zach Hayes is RTC’s resident bracketologist plus author of the weekly Ten Tuesday Scribbles and Bubble Watch columns.

With college football crowning another faux-national champion Thursday night in Pasadena, the college sports scene can officially shift its axis to basketball. While a number of college basketball diehards such as yours truly were knee-deep in mid-major box scores and enthralling non-conference tournaments since the season tipped off in mid-November, it’s perfectly understandable for our college football-fan brethren out there to have been entranced in the gridiron scene during this time. For many folks out there, [...]

Checking in on… the Big East

rtmsf — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 23:03:51 +0000

Rob Dauster of Ballin is a Habit is the RTC correspondent for the Big East Conference.

It has been a long time since there was a good college basketball team in the NYC metro area. Unless you consider Storrs, CT, in the NYC metro area.

This season was supposed to be different. Seton Hall had added transfers Herb Pope, Jamel Jackson, Jeff Robinson, and Keon Lawrence to a solid core. St. John’s was bringing everyone back, including one of the most underrated players in the league in DJ Kennedy. Rutgers lost Corey Chandler, but with Mike Rosario returning [...]

Ten Tuesday Scribbles…

zhayes9 — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:56:43 +0000

RTC contributor and bracketologist Zach Hayes will deliver ten permeating thoughts every Tuesday as the season progresses.

1. More than the countless Big East tournament runs at the Garden, or the contention for conference regular season titles on a yearly basis, or reaching upper-echelon status in college basketball playing with no flashy All-American recruits, Jamie Dixon is proving his worth as a coach this year more than ever. Few teams lost as much talent, leadership, and production as senior point guard Levance Fields, dominating big man DeJuan Blair and outside threat Sam Young. The departure of these [...]

ATB: New Year’s Weekend

rtmsf — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 09:17:24 +0000

New Year’s Football? Coulda fooled us, as there were nearly 200 basketball games over the last four days in every corner of America. And here’s the rub — a couple dozen of those games held more value than all those meaningless bowls over the same time period. The bowls are fun for the players and the fans of the teams involved (another reason to tailgate), but they have absolutely no (as in zero; as in 0.00%) bearing on the national title picture in football. At least games like West Virginia @ Purdue and Louisville @ Kentucky and [...]

Checking in on… the Big East

rtmsf — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 04:06:30 +0000

Rob Dauster of Ballin is a Habit is the RTC correspondent for the Big East Conference.

You all were waiting for it. And it finally happened.

You may not have noticed due to the beer and football induced stupor you were in on Sunday, but the Big East had a pretty rough weekend. Louisville, Providence, DePaul, Notre Dame, Villanova, Cincinnati and Marquette all lost as the Big East went 7-7 over the course of Saturday and Sunday. That’s seven losses in two days from a league that had 20 losses over the first month of the season. Throw [...]

RTC Live: Jimmy V Classic

rtmsf — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 23:20:00 +0000

Welcome back to RTC Live, as we are here in MSG for the Jimmy V Classic. In the first game on the night, we get the Georgetown Hoyas squaring off with the Butler Bulldogs. Butler comes into this game having lost two of three out in Anaheim at the 76 Classic, but bounced back with wins over Valpo and Ball State. Georgetown is undefeated, but they have not been tested yet. That will change tonight, however. In the nightcap, Pitt takes on Indiana. Pitt is not your typical Panther team this season, as they are currently [...]

Checking In On… The Big East

jstevrtc — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 23:24:12 +0000

Rob Dauster of Ballin’ Is A Habit is the RTC correspondent for the Big East Conference.

Despite the holiday, loyal readers of RTC may have noticed something missing last week.

Where was Checking in on the Big East? Without BIAH waxing poetic about the happenings within the nation’s biggest conference, how were you able function?

For that, I must apologize. But, you see, it wasn’t all my fault. For starters, the editors at RTC are ruthless. Not only did they have me traveling up and down the eastern seaboard during the busiest travel [...]

2009-10 Conference Primers: #3 – Big East

rtmsf — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:43:28 +0000

Rob Dauster of Ballin is a Habit is the RTC correspondent for the Big East Conference.

Predicted order of finish:

Villanova West Virginia UConn Cincinnati Louisville Georgetown Syracuse Seton Hall Pittsburgh Notre Dame Marquette South Florida Rutgers Providence St. John’s DePaul

Preseason Awards.

Player of the Year. Luke Harangody, Notre Dame Newcomer of the Year. Lance Stephenson, Cincinnati Breakout Player of the Year. Kemba Walker, UConn

All-Conference First Team.

Kemba Walker, UConn Scottie Reynolds, Villanova Devin Ebanks, West Virginia Greg Monroe, Georgetown Luke Harangody, Notre Dame

All-Conference Second Team.

Jerome Dyson, UConn Deonta Vaughn, Cincinnati Da’Sean Butler, West Virginia Wesley Johnson, Syracuse Lazar Hayward, Marquette

All-Conference Third Team.

Lance Stephenson, Cincinnati Corey Fisher, Villanova Jeremy Hazell, Seton Hall Stanley Robinson, UConn Samardo Samuels, Louisville

All-Rookie Team.

Lance Stephenson, Cincinnati Peyton Siva, Louisville Maalik Wayns, Villanova Dante Taylor, Pitt Mouphtaou Yarou, Villanova

What you need [...]