Sunday, March 21 (all CBS)
12:10pm - Syracuse vs. Gonzaga
2:20pm - Ohio State vs Georgia Tech
2:30pm - Maryland vs Michigan State
2:40pm - West Virginia vs Missouri
2:50pm - Wisconsin vs Cornell
4:50pm - Pittsburgh vs Xavier
5:00pm - Purdue vs Texas A&M
5:15pm - Duke vs California
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 the way this year is winding up, it wouldn’t surprise anyone if the Orange without their big man Arinze Onuaku found itself on the short end of the score around 2:30 pm today. But we still have faith in Syracuse even without the talented center and we think that Jim Boeheim’s team is too good to fall short of the Final Four this early. The primary problem that the Zags are going to have is one they didn’t have to worry as much about with Florida State, and that is in stopping the powerful SU offense. With offensive scoring threats at all five positions, Syracuse is in a far more advantageous position than FSU was (with their limited offense) when Gonzaga caught fire on Friday — if the Zags want to get into a shootout with Syracuse, that’s not likely to end well for them. Still, with the way the Big East has had so many early round troubles, and the WCC looking great with St. Mary’s already in the Sweet Sixteen, we’re not ready to dismiss the Zags based on that alone. The Syracuse zone is likely to be something that Mark Few’s team has not seen with such athletes all season, so even with their ability to put the ball in the hole, we hesitate to think the Zags can consistently score on it.
The Skinny: Gonzaga will push the Orange, but we still like this team to advance and make a serious push for the national title in coming weeks.
2:20 pm – #2 Ohio State vs. #10 Georgia Tech (Milwaukee pod)
You might not see it on their faces, but the Buckeyes are smiling. Northern Iowa’s removal of Kansas puts Ohio State in the driver’s seat in the Midwest region. That said, there’s still no way Thad Matta and Evan Turner are going to let the rest of that team look past their opponents and assume an open road to Indianapolis. Good thing, because Georgia Tech showed us that they’re not just made up of Derrick Favors and Gani Lawal and a bunch of suckers. The Yellow Jackets shot 2-10 from the three point line but balanced that by holding Big 12 player of the year James Anderson to a 3-12 shooting night, 0-6 from beyond the three-point arc, and an overall 11 points. But the most impressive aspect of Georgia Tech’s performance on Friday night — by FAR — was the fact that they went to the free throw line 25 times — and hit 24 of them! It wasn’t just Lawal and Favors. Tech played nine players, and eight of them shot at least one free throw. Evan Turner isn’t just the player of the year in his conference, though — he’s likely the national POY, so the Tech task is that much tougher. Turner wasn’t himself in their first round game against UCSB, going 2-13 and posting only nine points (though he did contribute 10 boards and five assists). He’s looking to break out, and knows he’ll have to be at his best. Lawal and Favors, though, will be looking to get Dallas Lauderdale, Jon Diebler, and Turner in foul trouble early and open poke some holes in that OSU front line.
The Skinny: You probably don’t want to go with our Midwest picks, since yesterday we took Kansas and Ohio. It’s not exactly going out on a limb to say that this will be a great second round game, but that stat line of Turner’s shows you that he can play such an important role on the team even when he’s not scoring. For Tech to win, they’d have to turn in a similar performance at the free throw line, keep Turner under wraps and coax him into a supporting role again, and cool down Jon Diebler. That’s a tough trifecta to pull off. We don’t see it happening. But we didn’t see Northern Iowa dismissing Kansas, either.
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.
West Region Notes (Andrew Murawa)
The West Region is the only region in the tournament without a double-digit seed still alive, but that doesn’t mean it is without some dreamers, as the recent blueprint for the mid-major Cinderella, Gonzaga, takes on Syracuse tomorrow. And Mark Few knows that his Zags won’t be intimidated by the importance of this game. But in order for them to get the job done, they’ll need to figure out the Orange zone.
In a Washington Post poll of nearly 500 people, 66% of voters believe that Saturday’s Northern Iowa vs. Kansas game was a bigger upset than George Mason vs. Connecticut in 2006.
UNI’s Adam Koch might have had the quote of the night with his reaction to what Pat Forde called one of the ultimate no-no-YES shots in tournament history: “”Honestly? It was ‘Oh God,’ ” Koch admitted. “I wasn’t sure. But if anybody’s going to shoot it, Ali’s going to do it. And Ali’s probably going to make it.”
Maryland’s Landon Milbourne said that he expects the Terps to play a different style against Michigan State. In addition to pushing the tempo, Maryland may also look to apply full court pressure.
Michigan State is anything but healthy going into tomorrow’s game. Not only are Kalin Lucas and Chris Allensuffering from foot injuries, but Delvon Roe is still suffering from pain in his knee.
According to Cleveland.com’s Doug Lesmerises, Georgia Tech is much more talented than your average 10 seed or 12-loss team, led by potential first round pick Derrick Favors.
The big thing from the past week.Big Ten season ends in three way tie. Exciting as the seesaw race was all year, it ended in melodramatic fashion as both Purdue and Michigan State hung on after Ohio State had already won out several days prior. The Boilers and Spartans took care of business, beating teams they were supposed to beat. Michigan State racked up back to back banners, but the big story is that this was the first title for Purdue since 1996. Now to see how many teams can go to the dance based on their performance in the Big Ten tournament. Four Big Ten teams are in the top 25: #5 Ohio State, #6 Purdue, #11 Michigan State, and #13 Wisconsin.
Power Rankings (final)
Ohio State 24-7, 14-4
Purdue 26-4, 14-4
Michigan State 24-7, 14-4
Wisconsin 23-7, 13-5
Illinois 18-13, 10-8
Minnesota 18-12, 9-9
Northwestern 19-12, 7-11
Michigan 14-16, 7-11
Iowa 10-21, 4-14
Indiana 10-20, 4-14
Penn State 11-19, 3-15
Big Ten Tournament – Indianapolis – March 11th-14th
First Round
#9 Iowa vs. #8 Michigan – March 11 – 2:30 ET – ESPN2 – This game could really go either way. The first game was a 14-point victory for Michigan at home, whereas the second game was a two-point victory in OT for Michigan on the road. For Michigan, Manny Harris and DeShawn Sims both had at least 20 in each game, so look for that to continue. For Iowa, Aaron Fuller played well in the first game, but went crazy for 30 in the second game. Matt Gatens was absent in the first game, but exploded for 21 in the second game. Michigan comes in having lost four of six games while Iowa has lost the past five of six games. Iowa should do well inside in this game, but I think Michigan has finally figured out that they can’t rely totally on threes, so I am going with Michigan in this one.
#10 Indiana vs. #7 Northwestern – March 11 – 4:55 ET – ESPN2 – This game will most likely go to Northwestern. It is just too difficult to win two games against the same team within a week’s time, especially for a team as inconsistent as Indiana has been all year. The big thing Indiana has going for itself in this game and for this tournament is that they are essentially the home town team, especially if they are able to fill Lucas Oil Stadium with Indiana fans. If not, I think Northwestern has too much John Shurna and too much Michael Thompson for IU to handle. I also think Northwestern will make the adjustments on Jordan Hulls to stop his flurry of threes.
#11 Penn State vs. #6 Minnesota – March 11 – 7:30 ET – I am going with Minnesota in this one. They have really come on strong to close out the season, winning four of their last six games, including a 35-point drubbing of Iowa. Both of the matchups between these teams during the regular year were close victories for Minnesota, so I expect this one to be close because it is on neutral ground, and I wouldn’t expect either of the team’s fans to come out in droves. Penn State will need Chris Babb to have a big game along with Talor Battle and David Jackson, while Minnesota needs a consistent performance from Westbrook, Sampson, Hoffarber, and Johnson. The X-factor for Minnesota is Devoe Joseph who struggled in both contests. If he can step up then Minnesota wins easily; if not they will win in a close battle.
***** – 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 2012
* – don’t waste bandwidth (yours or the tivo’s) of any kind on this game
#12 Ohio State @ #11 Michigan State – 12 pm on CBS (****)
Kalin Lucas Leads the Spartans Against OSU
The Buckeyes blew a golden opportunity to advance in the Big Ten standings when they lost at home to Purdue last week, but they have another great chance this afternoon against possibly the best team in the conference. They are still only one game behind the Spartans in the standings, and if they can beat Michigan State on the road, they are once again in the running to win the Big Ten title. In addition to potentially deciding the conference champion, Big Ten player of the year honors may also be on the line, as Evan Turner will try to wrest the POY award away from Kalin Lucas. Both players have suffered injuries this year, but appear to now be at 100% for this game. With Turner in the lineup, the Buckeyes are a completely different team with his ability to create shots for himself and find open players. They rank #13 in offensive efficiency, and are third in the country in two-point field goal percentage, so the Spartans may have a tough time defending them (MSU is #41 in defensive efficiency). These teams play different styles, as OSU uses a guard-heavy lineup and three of MSU’s top scorers are forwards, so I expect the Spartans to exploit the Buckeyes in the paint. Among Ohio State’s top four scorers, no player is taller than Turner at 6’7, so Raymar Morgan and Draymond Green may tryto carry their team at home. Michigan State is 13-1 at home this year, and shoots over 53% from inside the arc, so look for the bigger team to take one step closer to a Big Ten title.
#3 Villanova @ #19 Pittsburgh – 12 pm on CBS (****)
If somebody told you two weeks ago that entering the Villanova vs. Pitt game, one of these teams would be coming off a loss and the other was in the midst of a four-game winning streak, that wouldn’t surprise too many people. What does surprise fans is that the losing team is Villanova, while the Panthers seem to be firing on all cylinders. Pitt had lost four of their five games from January 20 to February 3, but now has wins over three quality teams since that slump, with victories over Seton Hall, West Virginia and Marquette. These teams have not met since their classic last year in the NCAA Tournament, when Scottie Reynolds sent the Wildcats to the Final Four with a last second shot. Reynolds has carried his great play into this season, and shoots 49% from the field, an impressive percentage for a smallish guard. Pitt’s Ashton Gibbs, on the other hand, had no points in their last game against Marquette, and will have to be a contributor for the Panthers to have a chance in this game. This contest may come down to Villanova’s unbalanced play, as they rank fifth in offensive efficiency but are #68 in Pomeroy’s defensive rankings. Their points per game is also deceiving, as they only rank 45th in field goal percentage, so look for the Panthers to at least give Villanova a run for their money at home.
Statement Wins. It was Super Tuesday tonight, and two teams came into this evening with a little something to prove to America on national television. Or at least, that’s the way it looked from our perspective. Two black-and-gold colored teams — Vanderbilt and Purdue — played with meaningful purpose, as if to overcome the perception (right or wrong) that they were the weaker sister in the games tonight. Memo to those teams residing in Nashville and West Lafayette: message received, loud and clear.
Purdue With Statement Win in E. Lansing (Kevin Fowler)
#6 Purdue 76, #10 Michigan State 64. We’re a little tired of harping on this because, frankly, it’s too easy. But once again Purdue got a strong performance from their center JaJuan Johnson, and once again they won the game. Since Matt Painter called out everyone on his team except Robbie Hummel and E’Twaun Moore three weeks ago, the Boilermakers (led by JJJ’s additional production) have reeled off six straight wins. And while those six wins included a trio of B10 dogs, they also included a home game against Wisconsin and road games at Illinois and tonight at the Breslin Center — not exactly the easiest three teams from which to come out of a slump. Robbie Hummel (15/5/5 assts) and E’Twaun Moore (25/3/6 assts) continue to hold up their end of the bargain for Purdue, but the addition of JJJ to the offensive repertoire instantly turns the Boilermakers from a top twenty team into a top five team. Now it’s Michigan State who is slumping, and as Tom Izzo put it, the Spartans haven’t “checked in three games” and the fact that Purdue shot a scorching 57% for the game in East Lansing illustrates his point. The last three games have been the three worst defensive performances for MSU all season long, and shooting in the low 30s (32% tonight) in two of those contests does not help matters. Obviously, the loss of Kalin Lucas has a lot to do with this. Even though Lucas played tonight (12 pts in 29 minutes), it was clear that he was still gimpy out there, and as the point man in Izzo’s tough-nosed M2M defense, his presence at full strength is a factor that cannot be measured just in numbers. Still, after holding what seemed to be a commanding three-game lead in the Big Ten standings a mere week ago, the Spartans with this loss are now tied with Illinois at 9-3 and only a half-game ahead of Purdue and Ohio State (both 8-3), setting up a fun final three-plus weeks of the regular season for the conference crown.
Vandy Dominated the Vols Tonight (Jae S. Lee)
#24 Vanderbilt 90, #12 Tennessee 71. Mismatch. Vandy stormed out of the gates to a lead of 19-4 en route to a seventeen-point halftime lead, soon to be outdone by a twenty-seven point difference in the mid-second half. Jimmy Dykes said it early and often, but Vandy was simply the more poised team tonight. They were quicker to move their feet, hungrier for loose balls, and generally played like the Vols were trying to steal something out of their pockets. Vandy’s Jeffery Taylor exploded for a career-high 26/7/3 assts (including a perfect 12-12 from the line), and Jermaine Beal added 20/4 stls. It’s probably coincidental that tonight’s game represented the most depth Bruce Pearl has had at his disposal since the New Year’s incident and yet the Vols played their worst game, but it’s worth noting that the same edge with which UT beat #1 Kansas and six SEC teams was sorely lacking tonight. Tennessee leading scorer Scotty Hopson has a tendency to let his offensive game impact his entire performance, and that was once again the case tonight as his 4-14 shooting seemed to make him invisible everywhere else. Vanderbilt moves to 7-2 in the SEC East, while Tennessee fell to 6-3, but it is the guys in orange who have the unenviable trip to Lexington on Saturday for Gameday against the second-ranked Wildcats. For UT to have any chance whatsoever, Bruce Pearl will have to tap into that ‘behind-the-eight-ball’ reserve he found when #1 Kansas visited Knoxville five weeks ago.
***** – 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 2012
* – don’t waste bandwidth (yours or the tivo’s) of any kind on this game
These two teams have taken different directions since their meeting on January 27. In that game, the Commodores shot over 50 % from the field (including 57 % from the three-point line) in Tennessee’s only home loss of the season. The Volunteers responded with close wins over Florida and LSU, as well as a win over South Carolina on Saturday. Vanderbilt has now lost two of their last three games, including a recent 14-point defeat at Georgia, who is still below .500 on the year. The difference for the recent trends is that Vanderbilt has given up at least 70 points in the last six games, while UT has surrendered fewer than 56 points per game since the loss at Thompson-Boiling Arena. For the entire season, Tennessee has played much better defense, with a defensive efficiency ranking of #9 (Vanderbilt is ranked #63 according to Ken Pomeroy). Both teams score in the high 70s per game, but the Commodores could use some more help from A.J. Ogilvy, who scored just six points on 2-8 shooting against Georgia. The Volunteers may be the hotter team, but Vanderbilt has already figured out how to beat UT and has the luxury of playing at home, where they are undefeated on the year. The winner of this game will be right behind Kentucky in the SEC standings, but the loser will essentially be eliminated from a top seed in the SEC tournament, so look for this game to be played at maximum intensity.
Illinois @ #13 Wisconsin – 7 pm on Big Ten Network (****)
With the Big Ten so packed at the top of the conference, each matchup between the league leaders could see huge gains or losses in the conference standings. Depending on what happens in tonight’s Michigan State vs. Purdue game (previewed below), Wisconsin could share the Big Ten lead with a win or fall to fifth place with a loss. Michigan State is the only two-loss team in conference play, but Wisconsin, Ohio State, Illinois, and Purdue all have three losses, so the conference title is still up for grabs. Wisconsin was predicted to finish seventh in the Big Ten this year by some experts, but has recovered from Jon Leuer’s wrist injury with wins in four of their last five games. Illinois, who has come out of nowhere to join the Big Ten leaders, has won four games in a row, but they have played Penn State, Indiana, and Iowa before their upset against Michigan State. They will now begin a crucial stretch in which they play much better teams in Wisconsin, Ohio State, and Purdue. If they have any hopes of a Big Ten title, the Illini will have to win at least two of those games. RTC will be live at this game, with some interesting matchups to look out for. Illinois averages 74.2 points per game, but the Badgers rank fifth in points per game and defensive efficiency. Illinois’ recent win raised some eyebrows in the Big Ten, but the Badgers don’t beat themselves (#1 in fewest turnovers per game) and don’t lose at the Kohl Center, so look for Wisconsin to win this one and make another run at a Big Ten title.
Blowout Weekend. On paper, it looked to be a dog of a weekend, and for the most part it turned out that way. Among nearly 150 games, you’re bound to find some good ones, but among the Top 25 there were twelve games where the favorite won by 10+ points and of the six “upsets” involving ranked teams, even three of those were blowouts the other direction. Maybe everyone knew that the sports world’s focus would be on the Super Bowl, so they figured they’d save some drama for the rest of the month. Whatever the case, we’re expecting some much better games this week during ESPN’s self-described Rivalry Week.
Game of the Weekend. Illinois 78, #5 Michigan State 73. For the second consecutive weekend, ESPN got lucky in that the best marquee matchup of teams happened to coincide with their Gameday game. In a wild Orange Krush environment in Champaign on Saturday night, it was Demetri McCamey who brought the noise with a 22/11 assts night that included six threes, every one of which seemed to be of the timely variety. Perhaps his biggest of the night was with less than a minute to go, a shot that effectively put the game away from the Illini. MSU got a huge night from Draymond Green (17/16), but it seemed as if the Spartans lacked a little of their usual poise with their star point guard acting as an assistant due to his ankle injury (18 turnovers, six from his replacement, Korie Lucious). It didn’t seem to bother the Illinois students who RTC’d afterward in a questionable display for a program of that caliber. The win puts Illinois in a virtual tie with Wisconsin, Purdue and Ohio State just one game back in the loss column behind MSU, but we’re not sold on the long-term viability of that team as much as the others. Still, they were the better team on this night, largely due to McCamey’s heroics, and we’re thankful that the Big Ten race has now gotten a lot more interesting.
Orange Krush Fail (AP/Heather Coit)
Notable Upsets This Weekend. The theme here? Home teams.
Oklahoma 80, #10 Texas 71. It was Wayman Tisdale Day at Oklahoma, and the Sooners used the inspiration from the sweet-shooting big man and musician to jump out on the reeling Longhorns behind 20/10 from Cade Davis and 24/5 from Tommy Mason-Griffin. The Horns once again looked indecisive and like a team without on offensive identity in this one, and it didn’t help that they were a putrid 10-27 from the foul line. Can Texas find their mojo in time for a visit from #1 Kansas on Monday night?
UNLV 88, #12 BYU 74. This was a good old-fashioned asskicking, as UNLV jumped out to a 47-18 first-half lead and never looked back. Tre’Von Willis had a career-high 33 points as his team hit their first nine three-point attempts and effectively walloped the Cougars from their perch atop the conference. BYU star Jimmer Fredette had 21 points, but he worked for it on 4-15 shooting. The MWC might have three teams that are NCAA-worthy this year if you include New Mexico in that mix.
Richmond 71, #17 Temple 54. It was Richmond that appeared to have one of the nation’s top defenses (and offenses!) on this night as the Spiders moved into a four-way tie in the loss column by torching Temple. The Spiders shot 58% from the field and held Temple to just 32% behind Kevin Anderson’s 29/5/3 assts on 11-17 shooting. With the Pac-10 looking like a one-bid league, could the A10 be a four-team league this year including some combination of UR, Temple, Rhode Island, Xavier, Dayton and Charlotte?
Another weekend means that the RTC crew is back with another thrilling edition of Boom Goes the Dynamite. This weekend’s games are not as strong as you might expect for an early February weekend, but that just means the rest of the month is going to be stuffed to the gills with great matchups. Still, any Saturday that has a total of 147 games on the slate is going to have quite a few goodies. Here are the games that we plan on trying to keep an eye on today…
12 PM: #2 Villanova @ #7 Georgetown on ESPN – RTC Live
12 PM: Xavier @ Dayton on ESPN2
12 PM: #6 West Virginia @ St. John’s on ESPNU
12 PM: Wake Forest @ Virginia on ESPN360
1:30 PM: Mississippi State @ Florida on ESPN360
2 PM: #10 Duke @ Boston College on ESPN
2 PM: #19 Temple @ Richmond on ESPNU
4 PM: #16 Wisconsin @ Michigan on CBS
4 PM: California @ UCLA on CBS
4 PM: #9 Texas @ Oklahoma on ESPN
4 PM: #17 Gonzaga @ Memphis on ESPN2
4 PM: #12 BYU @ UNLV on Versus
4 PM: #20 Baylor @ Texas A&M on ESPN360
6 PM: South Carolina @ #14 Tennessee on ESPN
6 PM: San Diego State @ #15 New Mexico on The Mtn.
6 PM: Seton Hall @ #22 Pittsburgh on ESPN360
9 PM: #5 Michigan State @ Illinois on ESPN
10 PM: Tulsa @ UTEP on ESPN2
10 PM: Nevada @ Utah State on ESPNU – RTC Live
We’re sure you know how the drill works — we’ll update accordingly throughout the day as we try to test the limits of our televisions’ channel-changing mechanisms — and we hope to see you around in the comments.
12 noon: Here we go. JStev to start out with you here, then rtmsf will guide you through the latter part of the day. Pretty good slate of early games, as you can see above. Looks like the ESPN Gameday guys are split on the evening game, with Digger the only one taking the Illini.
12:04: Also, as you can see from the link above, we have a man at Georgetown vs Villanova for RTC Live. Man, it looks like DC got walloped by this storm. I’ll be checking in quite often on Xavier at Dayton over on ESPN2. since we have live coverage in DC. I’m also thinking WVU at St. John’s could get interesting on the U.
12:13: I wasn’t aware of this 72-hour stretch for Villanova. AT Georgetown and then AT West Virginia. Yeesh. If they win both of those, it’d be hard to begrudge them the number one spot in the rankings, if Kansas/Texas on Monday is even CLOSE. Who was the last #1 to get demoted to #2 without losing? I think it was a Kentucky team in like 1986 or 1987, with Arizona taking #1. Verification pending…
12:20: Dayton has come out on fire at home against Xavier, already up by ten. They’ve hit 7-13 and 3-5. I was courtside at Dayton vs Creighton to start the season and let me you, folks…I was impressed by the passion brought to the table by the Dayton fans. I’ve seen many games in many places from media seats this year, and Dayton’s fans were some of the loudest. You know what? So were Xavier’s. One of the great things about A10 basketball. SO many great rivalries.
12:30: It’s obvious that Brian Gregory has made it clear to his team how important this game is. They are OWNING the Muskies right now. They’re on fire from everywhere on the floor. They have five times the assists (5-1), double the rebounds (14-7), and Xavier doesn’t have an assist yet. Five minutes left in the first half and Dayton is up 31-17.
The Michigan State blog that’s not a Michigan State blog, Sparty & Friends, reminds us that a mere ten years ago, a certain talented MSU point guard also went down with an ankle injury that forced his team to grow up without him. Mateen Cleaves missed twelve games for the 1999-2000 Spartans, and when he came back, MSU won its second national title. Kalin Lucas is more of a scorer while Cleaves was more of a distributor, but the comparison is interesting. One necessary distinction, though, is that Lucas likely will not be out very long (1-3 games).
WVU’s president Jim Clements said that he was “appalled and embarrassed” by the fans’ behavior in their game against Pitt on Wednesday night, which included someone throwing a coin that hit a Pitt assistant coach just under his eye. He promised better security, but there are limits to what can be policed in these situations. Honestly, despite what Gary Parrish wrote yesterday, we’re not convinced that college basketball is on the brink of a major incident between athletes and fans any more than we were ten or twenty years ago. We have trouble believing that the student section fervor is any worse, and it may actually be better. People have always thrown things, and fans have always been obnoxious.
Arizona reportedly will self-impose sanctions as a result of a violation during Lute Olson’s tenure in the summer of 2008. The violation involved a letter on Olson’s letterhead sent to boosters asking for donations for an AAU basketball tournament called the Arizona Cactus Classic. The proposed sanctions will not include a postseason ban, but it will include the loss of a scholarship and less recruiting trips.
Luke Winn’sPower Rankings this week find K-State moving into the top five despite the loss at home to Kansas last weekend, but he missed one thing in his lead about the horrific still photos. While the two he chose were obviously very scary, they weren’t nearly as horrific as this one. And we say that completely wishing it weren’t true.
Dan Levy at The Sporting Blog lays out his guidelines for when it is appropriate for fans to taunt their opponent in light of the unconscionable decision by the Colorado student body to use the “overrated” chant in a game they were clearly going to lose (see below). Come to think of it, can we just retire the “overrated” chant altogether? When you’re winning the game, you’re marginalizing your team’s big win by using that chant; and when you’re losing, well, you shouldn’t be chanting anything at all when you’re losing.
You probably already knew that Michigan State star Kalin Lucas sprained his ankle in the game against Wisconsin on Tuesday evening, but yesterday MSU officials confirmed the important news that there was no broken bone in his foot. As of now, he’s listed as day to day but he’ll be re-evaluated after treatment today to determine if he might be back for Saturday’s game against Illinois.
Minnesota forward Royce White has officially retired from basketball as he formally withdrew from the Minnesota program on Wednesday. You’ll certainly recall White’s bizarre YouTube announcement that he was quitting basketball in mid-December, and it was clear that not all was right with the budding impresario. A tough week gets tougher for Tubby smith, who lost Al Nolen to academic problems on Tuesday.
This is an internal link, but we want to make sure everyone sees it who comes here. Have you wondered who some of the teams are that would be invited to the NCAA Tournament if they stupidly expand it to 96 teams? Check out our analysis for the answer to that. If you’re not as appalled as we are that the likes of Alabama and Boston College would be part of the field, then you’re a better person than us.
Impressive. The February 27 Gameday matchup between #2 Syracuse and #3 Villanovahas already sold out the Carrier Dome (34,616), and it will set a new record (breaking SU’s own 2006 makr) for the largest crowd to ever see a college basketball game in an on-campus arena.
Mike DeCourcy thinks that the three most likely teams to run the conference table will be the MEAC’s Morgan State, the Horizon’s Butler, and the MAAC’s Siena. Cornell in the Ivy is another obvious choice, but they do have to visit Harvard, and of course #1 Kansas has a tough road game coming up at Texas on Monday night.
RTC contributor and bracketologist Zach Hayes will deliver ten permeating thoughts every week as the season progresses.
This week’s Scribbles column will look ahead to a couple months down the road in Indianapolis, where 65 deserving teams will be whittled down to just four, and to that blissful Monday night in April when one lucky group will be dancing at mid-court to the tune of One Shining Moment. In my estimation, there are ten squads with a promising-to-slight chance of hoisting a 2010 National Champions banner during their home opener next season. I’m here to tell you those ten teams, why they have hopes of winning a national title, what’s holding them back, and the most realistic scenario as I see it come late March or beginning of April. These teams are ranked in reverse order from 10-1 with the #1 school holding the best cards in their deck.
10. Duke
Why they can win it all: Their floor leader and senior stalwart Jon Scheyer is the steadiest distributor in all of college basketball, evident from his incredibly stellar 3.28 A/T ratio and a 5.6 APG mark that ranks third in the ACC and 23d in the nation. Scheyer is also a deadly shooter coming off screens when he has time to square his body to the basket, nailing a career-high 39% from deep to go along with 44% from the floor overall. Duke is also a tremendous free-throw shooting team as a whole and Coach K has the ability to play a group of Scheyer-Kyle Singler-Nolan Smith-Mason Plumlee-Lance Thomas that doesn’t feature one player under 70% from the charity stripe. Duke also features a ton more size in the paint than during previous flameouts in the NCAA Tournament. When Singler plays small forward, Coach K can rotate Miles and Mason Plumlee, the glue guy Thomas, rebounding force Brian Zoubek and even Ryan Kelly at two positions with no player under 6’8. You’d be hard-pressed to find a more efficient backcourt in the nation than Scheyer and Smith. And it’s widely known that exceptional guard play is the ultimate key to winning in March.
What Makes Duke 2010 Different than Duke 2006-09?
Why they won’t win it all: Depth could certainly be an issue for the Blue Devils’ chances of raising their first banner since 2001. Andre Dawkins has fallen almost entirely out of the rotation and Coach K has started to limit Mason Plumlee’s minutes during important games. Also, Brian Zoubek’s tendency to immediately step into foul trouble limits his availability. It wouldn’t shock me to see Duke play Scheyer, Smith and Singler 40 minutes per game during their time in the NCAA Tournament. That could cause those key players, who rely primarily on their jump shot, to lose their legs and start throwing up bricks. Kyle Singler isn’t quite the superstar he was last season, either. Singler’s numbers are down across the board — scoring, rebounding, FG%, 3pt% — and he’s been dealing with a nagging wrist injury that may not improve in the weeks and months ahead. Duke also lacks the athleticism of teams like Kansas, Kentucky, Syracuse and Texas. They could struggle with quicker guards like John Wall and athletic rebounders of the Damion James mold.
Likely scenario: I see Duke reaching the Sweet 16 as a #2 seed where they fall to a more athletic, quick group of guards that can explode to the rim and draw fouls. Duke may have height, but most of that height just isn’t a threat offensively by any stretch of the imagination. Eventually getting into a jump shooting contest could be the Blue Devils’ downfall if two of Smith, Scheyer and Singler go cold.
9. West Virginia
Why they can win it all:Da’Sean Butler is one of the best players in the nation when the chips are on the table. If the Mountaineers need a big shot to keep their season alive, Butler will demand the basketball and more than likely deliver. He’s downed Marquette and Louisville on game-deciding jumpers and led the second half charge against Ohio State. West Virginia is also supremely athletic and Bob Huggins’ teams always crash the boards with a tremendous ferocity. No contender can match the height across the board that West Virginia touts other than Kentucky. Huggins has experimented with lineups in which all of his players are 6’6 or taller, including 6’9 Devin Ebanks acting as a point-forward and 6’7 Da’Sean Butler capable of posting up smaller two-guards. Sophomore Kevin Jones is an incredible talent and a rebounding machine (7.7 RPG) that hits 55% of his shots from the floor and 44% from deep. West Virginia has the luxury of any of their forwards being able to step out and drain a mid-range jumper, from Ebanks to Jones to Wellington Smith to John Flowers every once in a full moon.
Ebanks is the X-factor for West Virginia
Why they won’t win it all: Let’s face it: Bob Huggins doesn’t have exactly the best track record when it comes to NCAA Tournament success. Huggins hasn’t reached the Elite 8 since 1995-96 with Cincinnati and only one Sweet 16 in the last ten years. In 2000 and 2002, his Bearcats lost just four games all season and yet didn’t reach the second weekend of March both times. Most also question whether the Mountaineers can hit outside shots on a consistent basis. They’ve struggled mightily in the first half of Big East games and can’t afford to fall behind against elite competition in March like they did against Dayton last season. Point guard play is a prudent question for West Virginia, as well. Joe Mazzulla is a quality perimeter defender and a capable distributor, but he’ll never be the offensive threat he was two seasons ago due to that shoulder injury. Darryl Bryant can certainly catch a hot streak shooting-wise, but in all honestly he’s more suited as an undersized two-guard. Bryant is averaging just 3.6 APG in 25+ MPG of action.
Likely scenario: I’m still fairly high on this team. I love Butler at the end of games and Ebanks can do anything for Huggins — from score to rebound to run the point — and Kevin Jones is one of the most underappreciated players in the Big East. In the end, I see a clankfest from outside ultimately costing West Virginia their season. And for all their rebounding history, the Mountaineers are in the mid-60s in the nation. The Elite Eight seems like a proper place for their season to conclude.
8. Texas
Why they can win it all: No team boasts better perimeter defenders than Texas. Anyone that watched Dogus Balbay completely shut down James Anderson in the second half Monday night knows he’s the best perimeter defender in the nation, even stronger than Purdue’s Chris Kramer. Avery Bradley came in with the reputation as an elite defender and he’s certainly lived up to that billing. Even J’Covan Brown off the bench is a capable defensive player and Justin Mason is a plus defender. When Dexter Pittman stays out of foul trouble, Texas boasts a legitimate shot-blocking presence that can negate quick guards on the rare occasion they slip past Balbay or Bradley. Texas is also the deepest team in the nation and Rick Barnes has the capability of playing 10 or 11 men on any night if he feels the need. The preserved minutes could pay dividends in the form of fresh players come March. Damion James should also be on a mission come March as a senior. He’s never reached a Final Four during his Longhorns career and came back for a fourth year in Austin to accomplish that very feat.
Tuesday Night Hoops. Tonight’s games weren’t all that compelling from the perspective of must-see TV, but we learned a few things. Such as… don’t ever underestimate a Bo Ryan-coached team (that rings a bell…), John Wall is happy as a clam, and Wes Johnson should save the flips for the Winter X Games coverage.
Bo Ryan Can Coach a Little Bit. #16 Wisconsin 67, #5 Michigan State 49. Could there be a better blueprint for the basketball philosophy of Bo Ryan and the Wisconsin Badgers than this game? Clock control, care of the basketball, good shot selection, and tough defense. The Badgers didn’t come with any secret weapons or snazzy new game plans, here. Just the same recipe for success they’ve employed for years, now. In fact, they’re still without Jon Leuer and had to play without Trevon Hughes for a big chunk of the first half because of some early foul trouble. Jason Bohannon (19/4/2) and Jordan Taylor (17/4/4) amped up their games to fill the void, both playing all 40 minutes, and accounting for half of their team’s field goals. The most impressive number you can take from this one is found in the turnovers column; Wisconsin is the BEST in the nation when it comes to taking care of the basketball, averaging only 9.4 turnovers/game coming into this one. The Badgers gave it up only five times on Tuesday night (they’re down to 8.4 a game) while forcing MSU into 13 of their own. Kalin Lucas going down with a pretty ugly sprained ankle in the second half didn’t help on that front, either; more details on that injury after imaging is done on Wednesday. The win moved Wisconsin to within two games of the Spartans in the Big Ten, and both squads have four home and four away games remaining. For additional information, RTC Live was at the game tonight.
Wisconsin Punished MSU Tonight in Madison (Steve Apps)
Scary Situation Involving Wesley Johnson.#4 Syracuse 85, Providence 68. Coming into the game most fans viewed this as seemingly inconsequential, but the most important moment of the college basketball season may have happened with 11:56 left in the first half in Syracuse this season when uber-transfer Wesley Johnson went up to throw down an alley-oop, but got flipped by Brian McKenzie who was underneath his flight path. For a second everyone watching both in the Carrier Dome and on television had flashbacks to Travis Roy. Fortunately for Johnson, Jim Boeheim, and college basketball fans everywhere Johnson was able to get that extra half of rotation and land on his back rather than his head. He talks about it here. [Ed. Note: This is why we stay on the floor. Or is it our single-digit vertical?] After a rough stretch that saw the Orange struggle to take a 3-point lead into half, Syracuse rebounded behind a strong effort from Kris Joseph (career-high 23 points) and Arinze Onuaku (season-high 20 points) to lead the Orange to their best start (22-1) in school history.
The Obama Curse. South Carolina 68, #1 Kentucky 62. First the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid, next Martha Coakley’s Senate race, now Kentucky’s short-lived reign at #1. Just hours after President Obama had telephoned the Wildcat team to congratulate them on reaching the top ranking and raising over a million bucks in their Hoops for Haiti telethon, UK got lit up by South Carolina’s Devan Downey in Columbia to give the Gamecocks their first-ever win over a #1-ranked team. Much like the president over the course of the last year, John Calipari and his team tonight learned the hard way that it’s considerably tougher playing the game with a giant blue target on your back. Now, about this Downey kid. Last weekend he was spectacular in a shoulda-been-win at Florida. His one-on-five dribble drive to get through the entire Gator defense and make a running bank shot to give his team the lead was legendary. Tonight he had three of those. Or at least it seemed like he did. What we do know for a fact was that there was nobody on the Kentucky defense who could stay in front of the guy (can anyone in America?), as he sliced, diced, and spiced his way through Wildcat defenders for 30/5/3 assts like Heidi Montag’s plastic surgeon with a scalpel in his hand. He didn’t shoot well (9-29 FG), especially in the first half, but when it counted, it was Downey who appeared to be the best player on the floor (real estate shared tonight by at least three lottery picks). UK’s superstar guard John Wall did his best to bring the Cats back late in the game, as Downey and he went mano a mano, but his 19/4 was too little, too late, and the result is that there will be another new #1 team next week. So what can we take from this loss by Kentucky? Well, we wrote last week that there was a large disconnect between Kentucky as top team in the human polls and Kentucky as a top 10-15 team in the computer numbers. But the two areas that concerned us — three-point defense and forcing turnovers — weren’t the root cause of tonight’s loss. The defense was good enough (.941 PPP holding SC to 34% from the field and 25% from three), but it was the Cats’ second-worst offensive performance of the year that made this happen. The stat ESPN kept quoting was that Kentucky’s freshmen were scoring all of the second-half points, but what it really should have said is that DeMarcus Cousins (a dominant 27/12/3 blks) and John Wall were putting in the work. Fellow freshman Eric Bledsoe (4/5 assts) is a helluva player in his own right, and he had the only other two second-half points, while UK’s junior all-american, Patrick Patterson, was completely forgotten the entire game (five points on four shots). When Calipari’s offense is clicking, Kentucky puts four or more players into double-figures; tonight it was only two. If Kentucky has aspirations to reach the top spot again this season (and we think they do), the key to making that happen will be impressing upon the youngsters to get more touches to one of the most versatile and efficient players in America, Patterson. When all three of he, Wall and Cousins are clicking, few teams have the ability to match that kind of firepower. Final note: beautiful, well-executed RTC by the Gamecock students — security can put up all the yellow tape they want, but RTCs on nights like tonight can’t be suppressed (start at the 1:20 mark).
Call 1-866-rtc-wins For Our Tip Hotline. And there are no unbeatens left. Just a quick aside, but three weeks ago we posted an article examining when we thought were the most likely games the four remaining unbeatens would lose. 3-1 ain’t bad. The lone miss we had was Kansas’ stumble at Tennessee a couple of weekends ago, and we’re ok with that.
***** - 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 2012 * - don’t waste bandwidth (yours or the tivo’s) of any kind on this game
#5 Michigan State @ Michigan – 7 pm on ESPN (***)
This rivalry game has a different meaning for these two schools, as it could be the difference between a #1 or #2 seed for Michigan State, while Michigan is fighting for its postseason life. UM coach John Beilein refused to call the game a must-win, but he obviously thinks so as he lifted Manny Harris’ recent suspension in time for the game. Harris, Michigan’s leading scorer at 19.2 points per contest, will need to have a performance similar to his effort against UConn if Michigan has a shot to win this game. The Spartans, who have won eight games in a row, are a well-rounded team. Led by guard Kalin Lucas, they have one of the highest shooting percentages of any team in the country. They are also exceptional at rebounding and play consistent defense, holding opponents under 65 points in their last three games. Although most fans will tell you the Spartans are top ten team, Ken Pomeroy has them ranked 16th and the RPI ranks them at #14. If they blow out the Wolverines in Ann Arbor, they will at least make some progress towards advancing in the computer ratings.
#11 Kansas St. @ #24 Baylor - 8 pm on ESPN360 (****)
Tonight's Game of the Night (AP/Charlie Riedel)
This is tonight’s only matchup between two ranked teams, and it should be a good one. Not many people saw KSU’s loss to Oklahoma State coming, but now they will try to avoid their first losing streak of the season. The Wildcats are 16-3 and ranked #11 in the latest poll, but the Bears are 15-3 and are playing at home where they are 10-0 this season. Baylor features a few impressive players in LaceDarius Dunn, who averages over 19 points per game, and Tweety Carter, who ranks third in the nation at 6.7 assists per game. Lost in the mix is Quincy Acy, a sophomore who leads the country in field goal percentage at an outstanding 71%. As a team, Baylor ranks fifth nationally in field goal shooting, while the Wildcats rank 69th. On Saturday, the Wildcats went over seven minutes without a field goal in the loss to OSU, and they will lose again if Jacob Pullen is held below his season average. Both teams are struggling right now following their 13-1 starts, as Baylor has gone 2-2, while KSU has gone 3-2 since. Tournament seeds and conference standings are on the line, and look for Baylor to give the Wildcats a second consecutive loss. With a game against Kansas on Saturday, are the Wildcats in the midst of a three-game losing streak?
Once again we find ourselves with another stacked weekend of college basketball. 142 games in Division I today, and quite a number of those are somewhere on the tube. It’s getting interesting. Some of the big names are starting to come back to the pack a little, and some teams we’d all forgotten about are starting to put some wins together. We’ll be here all day, watching it, commenting on it, enjoying it. We’d like to know what you’re watching and what you think of it all, too, which is why we’re back with another version of BGTD today. We’ll start off checking out Michigan State vs Minnesota and Villanova vs St. John’s, and head for points south and west after that. We’ve even got a man on the ground for RTC Live at the latter game, there, as well as a few more spots today. By all means, join us for a bit. We’ll kick it off in about 10-15 minutes!
12:11 PM ET: Greetings from us to you on this big hoops day. JStev here, starting it off with you. My goodness, Villanova sure has wasted no time in jumping on the Johnnies. Up by seven early and they’ve already forced SJU into five turnovers. We’re just now at the under-16 TVTO. Over on the Big East Network we have Georgetown/Rutgers, with the Hoyas trying to avoid a letdown after their impressive performance at Pittsburgh a few nights ago. Against Rutgers at home that should be no problem, and I’m thinking G’town will have quite a jump in the polls, come Monday. Hoyas up by three early, and Rutgers is already standing straight up in their zone. Minnesota has also shown up early and taken a quick nine-point lead against Michigan State…and ladies and gentlemen, say hello to MR. GUS JOHNSON on the call on CBS. I’ve found my primary game.
12:28: Gus Johnson could comment on the progress of a slug slithering along a rain gutter and, if you heard it, it’d be the most exciting thing you did that day. We’ve said that — or something similar — about a gazillion times on this site and it’s always the truth. He’s showing you why in this game, even this early. Minnesota’s kept their lead in this one despite a little comeback from MSU. Still up seven under seven minutes to play. Dwight Hardy has come out on fire, hitting 5-6 against the Hoyas, and the Johnnies have looked like a different team in the last ten minutes. They’re up by TEN on ‘Nova, now! It’s physical, and if St. John’s wants to have a shot at pulling this off, they better be ready to grind it out against Villanova. They’re glad to bang it out with anyone.
12:46: Great point by Doris Burke as they go to commercial in the ‘Nova/SJU game. When it comes to pulling an upset, you can’t expect to play on an equal footing in ANY aspect of the game. You have to OUT-do your opponent in EVERY aspect of the game. You can’t just hustle as much as them, you have to OUThustle them, etc. That seems like an obvious point, but I bet coaches out there have a harder time getting that across to their teams than you might think. Oh, and Scottie Reynolds just hit a running bank shot off glass that was so gorgeous it almost brought tears. It’ll bring him millions of bucks. Soon.
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, college basketball truly begins when a football champion is crowned and conference play heats up, when Rece and the gang show up on our TVs every Saturday morning at 11 AM and the bubble begins to take its early shape. For those people, you sure missed plenty of exciting hoops action. To get you caught up in what has gone down thus far on the hardwood, here’s a summary for your enjoyment, divvied up into the six major conferences and all the rest:
ACC
What we’ve learned: There was much back-and-forth debate entering this season whether Duke or North Carolina represented the class of this conference. After two solid months of play, it’s fairly evident Duke has separated themselves from their bitter rival as the class of the ACC. While the Tar Heels may top Duke skill-wise up front, Carolina simply does not boast the backcourt to even contend with the Dukies’ tandem of Jon Scheyer and Nolan Smith. The primary knock on Duke heading into this season was point guard play with Elliot Williams transferring to Memphis. As a true sharp-shooting 2-guard who creates his shots coming off screens in Redick-like fashion, could Scheyer handle the responsibility of running the Duke offense? The answer has been resounding in the affirmative: 19.7 PPG, 46% FG, 92% FT, 43% 3pt and an otherworldly 4.8 A/TO ratio that currently leads the nation. Another key to Duke’s early season success has been Coach K’s willingness to adjust his defense to fit his roster. Rather than employing the normal Duke on-ball pressure attack, Krzyzewski is utilizing more of a sagging defense that plays into the frontcourt depth Duke enjoys with six players that receive time at 6’8 or taller.
Scheyer Has His Devils Looking Great This Season
What’s still to be determined: After Duke and Carolina (and let’s not go overboard following the Heels loss to Charleston, they’re still clearly the second best team in this conference), who will emerge as the third contender behind the top two dogs? An ever-shifting proposition, the current edge probably goes to Florida State despite their utter lack of point guard play. The Seminoles are one of the tallest teams in the nation and have a few capable long-range shooters that get open looks when defenses collapse on Solomon Alabi and Chris Singleton. Plus, they’re off to a head start with a December win at ACC foe Georgia Tech. Plenty of folks think Clemson could be that team behind powerful big man Trevor Booker, but they lack a second scoring option and I can’t stop thinking back to their collapse at home to an inexperienced Illinois squad. It would be unwise to count out Gary Williams, and the jury’s still out on Virginia Tech and Miami due to their soft schedules, so I’ll give the current edge to Wake Forest as that third team. The road win at Gonzaga’s on-campus arena stands out, Ish Smith has turned into a fine point guard and Al-Farouq Aminu has as much pure talent as anyone in this conference.
NCAA Locks: Duke, North Carolina.
Likely bids: Clemson, Florida State, Wake Forest.
Bubble teams: Georgia Tech, Maryland, Miami (FL), Virginia Tech.
Make other plans for March: Boston College, North Carolina State, Virginia.
Big East
What we’ve learned: The NCAA picture is shaping up quite similarly to last season when Louisville (regular season champion), Pittsburgh and Connecticut all received #1 seeds. There will be much back-and-forth debate about whether the top three teams this season — Syracuse, West Virginia and Villanova -- holds the edge in this conference, but does it really matter? Right now you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t think Kansas, Texas, Kentucky and Purdue are the likely #1 seeds (of course plenty could change, we have two months of games left), while those top contenders in the Big East are likely all on the second seed line. Even of greater importance though is the obvious revelation that Jamie Dixon can coach basketball. You wouldn’t be alone if you counted out Pittsburgh following a near-loss to Wofford, a 47-point output at home vs. New Hampshire and a second half butt-kicking at the hands of Indiana, but those losses came without their most athletic player, Gilbert Brown, and their best defender, Jermaine Dixon. Those two have returned to action with the most improved Big East player Ashton Gibbs (who recently broke the all-time Pitt record for consecutive free throws made) as a fearsome trio that has carried the Panthers to road wins over previously-undefeated Syracuse and fringe-top 25 Cincinnati. If Dixon is able to coax his Panthers into a NCAA Tournament team after losing such enormous production and leadership in Sam Young, DeJuan Blair and Levance Fields, there is little debate on his merits as National Coach of the Year.
Cal’s hustle and glue guy Jorge Gutierrezwill be out of both Bear games this week (vs. UCLA and USC) with a sprained right knee that he suffered in a game against Stanford over the weekend. Along the same lines, UCLA’s Jerime Anderson will be benched in the Cal game for missing a rehab session, meaning that Tyler Honeycutt will get the first start of his career.
Former Wolverine and current Domino’s Pizza CEO David Brandon will take over as the new Michigan AD. We know there’s a joke here somewhere.
The first Korean to ever earn a D1 basketball scholarship, Maryland’s Jin Soo Choi, is returning to his home country to pursue basketball opportunities there.
The last time Northwestern (10-2) and Michigan State (10-3) met the Wildcats pulled out a stunning 70-63 victory on the road. Of course the two leading scorers in that dramatic upset were Kevin Coble and Craig Moore, neither of whom will be on the court this afternoon. Instead the Wildcats are led by point guard Michael Thompson – one of the most underrated players in the Big Ten, forward John Shurna and freshman Drew Crawford. #11 Michigan State was supposed to be the class of the Big Ten this season, but the Spartans have struggled a bit early in the season against good competition. They come into the game 10-3 on the season and are led by all-everything point guard Kalin Lucas – who has earned the ire of his coach Tom Izzo – along with two excellent forwards in Raymar Morgan and Draymond Green. #25 Northwestern lost its Big Ten opener in a thrilling game against Illinois, so the Wildcats need to bounce back against a Michigan State team that is making their conference debut. It should be an excellent game, and we hope to see you drop by.
Illinois guard Alex Legion will leave his second team in three years as he has plans to transfer from Illinois during the semester break. The former Parade All-American clearly exhibits a disconnect between his actual talent level and his production, as the 6′5 junior guard with a career 32% shooting percentage and 3.8 PPG average just hasn’t been able to find a comfortable home in his college career. Mike DeCourcy points out that Legion’s second go-round on transferring mid-season has cost him up to as many as fifty games over the life of his career.
Kalin Lucas: suspended by Tom Izzo. No legal or school issues involved, but it’s clear that Izzo is trying to send a message to his team’s captain (and his team) that they’re not performing up to expectations.
Iowa’s Anthony Tucker has pleaded guilty to public intoxication. He’ll pay a little less than $200 in fines and is working toward reinstatement on his team given the requirements of the university’s student-athlete substance-abuse policy.
Here’s Luke Winn’s early warning signs column on which teams are likely overrated and underrated via the nonconference schedule. It’s a great article and very enlightening, but the point about Kentucky is apparent — the young UK players aren’t taking lesser teams as seriously as they should (until last night, gulp). That could be very different by February, however.
Damion James Makes an Early Case for POY. #2 Texas 79, #9 Michigan State 68. Four days and two games against top ten opponents for Rick Barnes. No sweat, right? Texas passed yet another difficult test prior to the winter break by imposing their hellacious perimeter defense into 22 Michigan State turnovers and allowing the future Big 12 all-time rebounder Damion James to put up 23/13 on 10-18 FG in a statement victory at home. The dynamic defensive duo of Dogus Balbay and lengthy freshman Avery Bradley confused star point guard Kalin Lucas (3-11 FG and 2:6 A:TO ratio) all night while also forcing guards Chris Allen and Korie Lucious into a combined nine turnovers of their own. In a key stretch late in the second half, reserve forward Gary Johnson drained a difficult shot and forced two consecutive Michigan State miscues around the halfcourt line that were converted into easy buckets. But the real story is the utter dominance of Damion James. He’s now been clearly the best player on the floor against two national title participants in a matter of four days, making a case ahead of Sherron Collins, Cole Aldrich and Craig Brackins for the favorite to win Big 12 POY (and perhaps more). Texas also received four treys from freshman Jordan Hamilton and did most of their damage with center Dexter Pittman on the bench with foul trouble. One could certainly make a case for the Longhorns as the #1 team in the land. They play Kansas, right?
Texas is Good Enough to Do the Florida Twin-Title Thing
Down to Seven Unbeatens.Arkansas 66, Missouri State 62 (OT). The undefeated run came to a bitter end in Fayetteville for Missouri State as the enigma that is the Arkansas basketball team edged the Bears in overtime. Regulation ended in crazy fashion with a wide-open Caleb Patterson layup at the buzzer to send the game into overtime. With 18 seconds left in the extra frame, three-point mastermind Rotnei Clarke nailed a clutch trey and then sealed the game with two free throws afterwards. Missouri State struggled from the field all night, shooting just 32% from three and 31% overall in a rare positive showing for the Razorback defense. Kyle Weems led the way for the Bears with 24 points.
Cal Challenges Kansas for a Half.#1 Kansas 84, California 69. Maybe the Pac-10 is improving? The much-maligned league got three wins over BCS conference teams in the same evening; and considering that coming into tonight’s games, the league was a combined 6-20 against the other five power conferences this season, three more wins in a single night is something to be excited about. This was not one of those three wins. For about twenty-five minutes tonight, though, Cal hung right there with the nation’s #1 team on its home court, but eventually the superior talent of KU won out, as the Jayhawks hit a scorching 73% for the second half and used a 15-3 run to open some distance and ultimately put the game away. All five Kansas starters scored in double figures, led by Sherron Collins’ 17/5 and Cole Aldrich’s 10/10/5 blks. Patrick Christopher had 21 for the Bears, picking up for the struggling star Jerome Randle (3-15 FG), who had trouble finding open looks against the Jayhawk defense (including seven turnovers).
Texas Tech Loses More Than a Game.#19 Washington 73, Texas A&M 64. UW got 25/13/3 blks from Quincy Pondexter, who is putting up all-america numbers this year, but more importantly the Huskies’ defense was superb, holding A&M to 30% shooting and handling the Aggies on the boards (+10). The overarching story of this game, though, was the terrible injury that TAMU guard Derrick Roland suffered when he came down awkwardly and broke his leg after jumping under the basket in the second half. Those who saw it live compared it to the gruesome broken leg that Joe Theismann once endured on national television a generation ago. If you’re the type of person who does not handle seeing injuries well, you probably shouldn’t make the jump today (we put the video up, but you don’t have to watch it; seriously, it’s bad).
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2010 ncaa tournament | Tagged: arinze onuaku, ashton gibbs, brad wannamaker, brian zoubek, bryan davis, cal, california, chris kramer, coach k, cornell, dallas lauderdale, dante jackson, derrick favors, devin ebanks, donald slaon, donald sloan, duke, e'twaun moore, evan turner, gani lawal, georgia tech, gilbert brown, gonzaga, greivis vasquez, jajuan johnson, jamal boykin, jason love, jeff foote, jermaine dixon, jerome randle, jim boeheim, joe mazzulla, jon diebler, jon leuer, jon scheyer, jordan crawford, jordan taylor, jordan williams, justin safford, kalin lucas, keaton nankivil, keith ramsey, kenny frease, kevin jones, khris middleton, kim english, kyle singler, landon milbourne, laurence bowers, louis dale, louisville, marcus denmon, mark few, mark turgeon, maryland, matt painter, michigan st, mike anderson, mike montgomery, missouri, ncaa tournament, nolan smith, ohio st, patrick christopher, pittsburgh, purdue, robbie hummel, robbie hummell, ryan wittman, siena, syracuse, terrell holloway, texas a&m, thad matta, theo robertson, trevon hughes, utah state, wellington smith, west virginia, wisconsin, xavier | 
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