Morning Five: Day After Christmas Edition

Posted by nvr1983 on December 26th, 2011

  1. We hope all of you had a Merry Christmas or are enjoying whatever holiday celebration you partake in and if you don’t celebrate any we hope you had a good weekend anyways. If you were one of those attempting to get a last-minute holiday gift over the weekend, we hope you were not trying to get the Air Jordan Retro 11 Concords because apparently they were a very hot ticket item over the weekend with hundreds of people and in some cases over a thousand people lining up at some stores to buy the shoes. Unfortunately, demand appeared to exceed supply as some consumers ended up fighting leading to a handful of arrests across the country. Some readers, who may remember reports of violence associated with the shoes in the 1990s, may have heard about a reported murder with this release of the shoes, which fortunately appears to be false. The shoes, which sold for $180 at stores, appear to be going for 2-3 times as much as that on eBay today. While they are more expensive to purchase online you get to avoid the potential violence. Or you could just wait a week for the next shipment of the shoes to come in.
  2. While Virginia is off to its best start since the 2000-01 season at 10-1, it appears that not everyone on the team was happy as redshirt freshman James Johnson and sophomore KT Harrell have both decided to transfer. The school has not released any information as to why the players are leaving or where they are looking at going, but it is interesting to see that two more members of Tony Bennett‘s first class at Virginia leaving. To date, four of the six members of his inaugural class have left the program. We are not sure if this is a reflection on Bennett’s style of coaching or on the players in that class, but it is something worth watching going forward for the program.
  3. Former Seton Hall player Robert Mitchell sentenced to five years of probation for his role in robbing eight students at gunpoint on March 15, 2010. Mitchell, who has already served a seven-month jail sentence, claimed that he was unaware of the initial intentions of Kelly Whitney, another former Seton Hall player, when the incident took place. Mitchell testified against Whitney earlier this year and although the victims recounted both former players as active participants it was Whitney who was sentenced to a three-year prison term, which he is currently serving, while Mitchell was given the seven months in jail and the aforementioned probation. Whitney, who eventually pleaded guilty, is eligible for parole next fall.
  4. Coming into the season the Big 12 was considered as wide open as it had been in years particularly with seemingly perennial champion Kansas having a down year, but one team that nearly every analyst left out of the conversation was Kansas State. While we are not ready to call them the favorites or even legitimate contenders yet, the Wildcats certainly appear to be better than the sixth best team in the Big 12 as they were rated in the conference’s preseason poll. The Wildcats may not be ready to contend with the big boys (Baylor, Missouri, and Kansas) in the conference yet, but we wouldn’t be surprised if they stay in the top 4 and maybe a bit higher if one of the aforementioned three teams slip a little. In any case, after winning the Diamond Head Classic the Wildcats should be getting serious consideration in top 25 polls.
  5. Xavier put a temporary halt to their post-brawl freefall when they beat Southern Illinois in the 7th place game of the Diamond Head Classic. The fact that Xavier went from being #8 team in the country a few weeks ago to finishing 7th in a very mediocre tournament should tell you plenty about how hard they have fallen. While some of their recent struggles can be attributed to the immediate loss of Tu Holloway, Mark Lyons, and Dezmine Wells (for varying time frames) it also appears like they may be struggling to find their identity and edge after being ripped apart by the media and the public following their fight with Cincinnati and more specifically the post-game comments of Holloway and Lyons. Fortunately, they have plenty of time to right the ship before their season is lost and with Gonzaga coming to town on New Year’s Eve they will have a chance very shortly to reestablish themselves with their entire team back from suspension for the first time since the fight.

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