Boom Goes the Dynamite: 02.21.09 Edition
Posted by rtmsf on February 21st, 2009
It’s BracketBuster Saturday, and we’re back with another compelling edition of Boom Goes the Dynamite. We don’t know how it is where you live today, but it’s rainy and chilly here at the RTC Western Compound, which means it’s a great day for huddling up on the couch, firing up the three tvs, ordering up some pie and watching hoops all day. There are some pretty strong games on the slate today, starting with Butler v. Davidson early and finishing with BYU v. UNLV late. Settle in and feel free to make your own observations in the comments section.
12:08pm. Oh no, Steph Curry’s mom is NOT at the Davidson game today!!!! Who will the cameras show in the crowd?!?!!? Oh yeah, Dell’s there. Ok. Whew.
12:10pm. Wonder how ESPN decides who gets to host these games? Seems like a pretty big decision considering Butler and Davidson are so tough at home, and the loser could drop a seed line or two based on this game. Curry doesn’t like quite as quick as normal so far – the ankle is probably a little tender.
12:17pm. Our new uber-intern sent over some interesting news today – looks like Patrick Patterson might go for Kentucky today against Tennesee (coming up at 1pm), and surprise of all surprises, the NCAA is investigating USC with respect to recruiting Daniel Hackett. His dad is the strength and conditioning coach at USC (which is legal, btw).
12:30pm. There are a couple of other BB games that started at 11am, and the most interesting one is Northeastern at Wright St., which is on ESPN2. NE is leading by six right now, while CAA sibling ODU is crushing Liberty and Seth Curry.
12:46pm. How many games this year have we watched Davidson only to hear some announcer talking about Steph Curry having an “off” game. It would be nice if he’d just come out and blow up one of these nationally-televised games. As it now stands, he’s 1-10 and 0-6 from three.
12:50pm. Interesting stat from Brad Nessler there – that if Curry continued his 30 ppg pace for another season-plus at Davidson, he could conceivably catch Pete Maravich’s all-time scoring total record. Of course, Pistol Pete did it in three years, but that would be a phenomenal record to approach. We’ll see if we can figure the math and get back on that.
12:52pm. Early afternoon bubble watch. Miami is smoking BC in S. Florida at halftime (up 12) and ND is also up 12 at halftime on Providence. These are both pretty much must-wins, although Notre Dame needs it a little more than Miami.
12:57pm. Somehow three of the top four CAA teams drew road games in the BracketBusters event. So far, the CAA looks good. VCU only lost by one at Nevada last night, and Northeastern is finishing off Wright St. ODU already won, and it’ll be very interesting to see what George Mason can do at Creighton later this evening.
1:02pm. Wow, Doug Gottlieb just eviscerated Jay Williams as to why Georgetown was going to make the tournament. He must have thought he was back on that motorcycle there. No inside presence? Except the best freshman big in the country, Greg Monroe. We get his point about frontcourt depth, but we’re with Gottlieb here – we think Georgetown makes a run to get to 9-9 in the Big East.
1:06pm. We’ve got some 1pm games starting here, incl. Bruce Pearl’s orange blazer at Kentucky (speaking of bubbles), Buffalo at Vermont on the deuce, and the second half of ND-Providence on ESPN FC. Oh, and did we mention Gus Johnson is in Lexington today. Oh yes.
1:11pm. Thanks CBS for showing me a graphic telling me that UK is on a 5-0 run in the last 3:20… or, to start the game. Brilliant.
1:18pm. Ok, here’s the deal on Curry catching Maravich. Curry had 2414 coming into today. Maravich ended with 3667 pts. If we assume eight more games this year (three regular season; three SoCon Tourney; two NCAA Tourney), and 35 games next year, that’s 42 games. He’d have to average 29.84 over that stretch to pass him. Since he’s averaging 29.0 already this season, this is eminently possible should he stick around another season. That would be fairly cool to track next season – let’s hope he returns.
