1. Tar Heel Monthly: Chad Ford wrote an article last week that included a list of the college programs that best prepare players for the NBA. He left North Carolina off the list because Roy Williams‘ “players don’t really seem to get any better the longer they stay in the program.” Adam Lucas didn’t take kindly to Ford’s admittedly tired argument and eviscerated it for all to see. This is what happens when facts are fitted to narratives instead of the other way around. Ford published what was becoming a more and more popular narrative (following Harrison Barnes’ “disappointing” career). Lucas shut him down.
2. Orlando Sentinel: Unfortunately, this was an injury you could see coming. Terrance Shannon‘s strength opened him up to injuries like the one he sustained against Virginia on Saturday. If you’ve watched much of Florida State this year, you’ve seen Shannon’s style. He hurls himself at every rebound, every 50/50 ball; he’s not the most athletic guy on the floor, but he wants it more than anyone else. That recklessness caught up to him on a rebound where Shannon landed wrong and sprained his neck. Losing him will really hurt Florida State’s front line — for one reason, Leonard Hamilton will have to cut down his rotation (or add someone else to the mix, which appears unlikely). Additionally, Shannon provided a huge spark off the bench, which the Seminoles will need to replace.
3. Independent Weekly: This is a terrific article that uses Iron Chef as a metaphor for coaching college basketball. Eric Martin also makes a very good point about what Duke may do without Ryan Kelly. Long story short, look for the Blue Devils to push the pace. Especially at the points without Seth Curry in the lineup (which is only 10 minutes a game, but still), look for Duke to start running. Kelly was built to thrive in the halfcourt, but Amile Jefferson, Mason Plumlee, Quinn Cook and Rasheed Sulaimon are all meant for running the floor. In the second half against Georgia Tech, Martin points out that Duke cut its time per possession 25 percent from the first half. Not coincidentally, the Blue Devils pulled away.
4. Charlottesville Daily Progress: After the Manti Teo incident, Virginia players are watching their backs on Twitter. If they’re to be believed, all reported girlfriends of the Cavaliers are real. Jontel Evans claims to believe Teo (disclaimer: I don’t), but can’t believe Teo didn’t try to Skype with his girlfriend — especially if he couldn’t meet her in person. Evans himself avoids making relationships of any type over social media, but also has a (real) girlfriend at Virginia.
5. Fayetteville Observer: Well it’s gut-check time in Raleigh. The loss at Maryland was OK (Maryland appears to be a solid team and was desperate for a win), but the loss at Wake Forest wasn’t. Wolfpack fans can blame the officials all they want (and the officials did miss two key fouls down the stretch), but the game shouldn’t have been close enough to matter. What should have been a tune-up before NC State‘s first big showdown with North Carolina became the Wolfpack’s first bad loss. The Demon Deacons scored over 50 points in the second half, they intercepted sloppy passes, and they managed to hang on down the stretch. This game is the reason people are scared to pick NC State to improve on its Sweet Sixteen finish from last year.

EXTRA: Former Miami coach Frank Haith is in hot water with the NCAA. The water may be hot enough to get him fired at Missouri with a show-cause to boot.

Chris Johnson is an RTC Columnist. He can be reached @ChrisDJohnsonn. 

Tonight’s Lede. Not Many Games, But A Lot Of Action. You may have looked at tonight’s hoops lineup and come to the quick conclusion that there were bigger and more important things to put on your television this evening. If that’s the case, I apologize for your misfortune, because you missed one of the best pound-for-pound weekday nights of the regular season. In total, 14 games were played. That is not a lot of games – at a glance, it fit the customary boring-Monday-night profile. But it was the ratio of quality to volume that made Tuesday night’s schedule special. We had a big upset in the ACC, a really tight SEC finish, two really nice wins from Big Ten teams of near-equal standing, a shocker in the Big East, and a reaffirmation of everything we already knew to be true about Big 12 basketball. All packaged tidily within the construct of a 14-game schedule.

Your Watercooler Moment. Cardinals Drop Second Straight.

Two straight losses has Louisville reeling as it hits a tough stretch of conference play (Photo credit: AP Photo).

When Louisville fell at home Saturday to Syracuse, college basketball fans nationwide let out a collective sigh. Don’t get me wrong: Beating the No. 1 team in the country is huge news for the Orange, and it might go down as the most important win of any team this season. But for Louisville, once you got past the initial disappointment of losing the No. 1 ranking, it wasn’t all that hard to fathom Syracuse pulling out a win against the nation’s best team. The Orange could, in fact, earn that same honor at some point this season. Michael Carter-Williams is an excellent basketball player. Boeheim’s 2-3 zone has spooked more than a few teams over the last 30-plus years. Louisville would lick its wounds, roll out the nation’s best defense (the Cardinals entered Tuesday allowing 0.81 points per possession) and stomp on Villanova in a vengeful, cathartic rout at the Wells Fargo Center. Instead, the Wildcats picked up a win they badly needed. They forced Louisville into 17 turnovers (up five from its season average), exploited its foul trouble by hitting 22-of-29 free throws and got a huge inside performance from JayVaughn Pinkston. Pinkston’s 11-point, six-rebound line won’t strike you as anything particularly noteworthy, but he was the perfect counter to Louisville’s loaded frontcourt, for a team that’s struggled to get consistent interior play all season long. Until things really spiral out of control for the Cardinals, I’m willing to give them a pass – teams are just as vulnerable (or nearly so) coming off big wins as they are big losses. Saturday’s trip to Georgetown will test Louisville’s mental resolve, not to mention their defensive ability, but unless the Cardinals’ struggles persist into February, Tuesday night’s loss will be remembered more as Villanova’s at-large clincher, or just a really nice moment for a struggling program. It says here that Louisville remains Final Four material. 

Also Worth Chatting About. Court Rushings Becoming Familiar For NC State.

Ten days ago, NC State caught a Ryan Kelly-less Duke team at the right spot and the right time. In a frenzied PNC Arena, the surging Wolfpack – who for the past few weeks fell out of national favor after a couple non-conference losses killed NC State’s preseason hype train – upended the then-No. 1 Blue Devils. Hundreds of jubilant red-clad fans rushed the court (one notable fan wheelchaired his way onto the floor). C.J. Leslie and company basked in the glory. NC State had arrived. The Wolfpack then voyaged to Maryland, where the Terrapins were looking to do unto NC State exactly what NC State did to Duke four days earlier. College Park is no safe haven for traveling ACC teams, and the Wolfpack came up short. The resulting court rushing was debated vigorously on Twitter; but still, it happened. The Wolfpack had come full circle – from the pinnacle of happiness to the victim of another fan base’s joy. NC State had experienced quite enough floor celebrations of late. You could understand coach Mark Gottfried getting fed up with all this emotional noise, both in support of and against his team. The floor-rushing party continued Tuesday night in Winston-Salem. Wake Forest – long the bottom of most every ACC fan’s bar room jokes – actually did something of merit (backhanded compliment? You bet) under third-year coach Jeff Bdzelik by treating the visiting Pack to another RTC. These celebrations were already getting old for NC State. After being court-rushed twice, and having their own fans rush the court just once all in the last week and change, the practice must feel nauseating.

(A note: please do watch the above video. It brings you right into the celebration, with a unique hands-on-deck camera angle)

Tonight’s Quick Hits…

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Brian Otskey is an RTC columnist. Every Tuesday during the regular season he’ll be giving his 10 thoughts on the previous week’s action. You can find him on Twitter @botskey

1. Saturday night’s epic Gonzaga vs. Butler game was everything college basketball is about and then some. The game had all the trappings: two great basketball teams, a national TV audience, a historic venue, two terrific (and classy) coaches, an electric atmosphere, 40 minutes of competitive action, and an indescribable finish to the game. This was college basketball in its purest form. Everything you could ask for in a game. The kind of game you would show someone who has never watched college basketball before. It was the game of the year to date, one that will be nearly impossible to top in the regular season (we know what the Tournament can do). This was a high-level game between two teams that have the potential to make deep runs in March and the top two “mid-major” programs of the last decade. Roosevelt Jones’ game-winner will be the lasting memory from this game but I hope people remember just how well it was played on both ends. In the final minute and a half, I don’t think either team missed a shot in those final 90 seconds and the only mistake was Alex Barlow’s turnover which, ironically, set up the memorable ending. Dick Vitale said it was one of the top five games he has seen since he started working for ESPN 34 years ago. I wouldn’t doubt it. The game was that good.
   

   Butler’s contest against Gonzaga proved to be a top game-of-the-year candidate (AP)

2. An important result from last week in the Big Ten was Wisconsin taking down Indiana on Tuesday night in Bloomington. That’s now 11 straight Badgers’ victories over the Hoosiers and it’s safe to say Bo Ryan owns Tom Crean. Even when Crean was at Marquette, he only won three games against Ryan’s Badgers in their annual intra-state rivalry making him 3-13 against Ryan in his career. “Tommy Basketball,” as Ryan once called him, didn’t have an answer for Wisconsin last week. The Badgers controlled the pace of the game from the opening tip and got physical with the more athletic and talented Hoosiers. Once again, Ryan overcame a talent disadvantage on the road to score a huge victory. He’s one of the best pure basketball coaches in the nation and it shows year after year no matter who is on his roster. Wisconsin let Cody Zeller do his thing in the first half but the Badgers really clamped down on him after halftime. A big key to the win was limiting Jordan Hulls. With Ben Brust glued to him most of the game, Hulls could only manage one three-point attempt. That’s outstanding defense and a great game plan against one of the best shooters in the country. Wisconsin limited everyone not named Zeller to 28.2% shooting, a remarkable accomplishment against one of the best offensive teams in the nation. It was a great win for the Badgers but, unfortunately for them, they followed it up with a road loss to Iowa on Saturday night. Nevertheless, Wisconsin is getting better. Never count out Bo Ryan. Read the rest of this entry »

Jimmy Kelley is an ACC correspondent for Rush the Court. Follow him on Twitter @DevilsinDurham

I spent this past weekend sitting courtside at the 2013 Hoophall Classic. This was my second year spending five days watching the best and brightest in high school basketball take the court at Springfield College’s Blake Arena, just a three-minute walk from the gym where James Naismith first told a group of YMCA athletes all about his brand-new game. There was only one truly competitive game in the entire tournament: Monday’s match-up between Findlay Prep and Montverde, but the value of the tournament is not in the competition. Instead, it is in watching players who are either college-bound or yet to make a decision about where they will continue their careers. This weekend was loaded with future ACC players and it appears that the league will be in fine hands going forward.

Jabari Parker is a Legitimate Difference Maker (AP)

Leading the way for this group was the consensus No. 2 player in the country, Jabari Parker. The future Duke forward lit up Oak Hill for 28 points and did it all in the flow of the game. He knocked down threes, attacked the basket and did everything without forcing the issue or trying to do too much. He looked as though he is still a week or two away from being back at 100 percent but he looked every bit the Duke-style forward that will slide right into the rotation for the Blue Devils next season.

Syracuse fans, who may still be worried about the Big East at this point, can look forward not just to the ACC but to the players who will be joining them over the next few seasons. Two Syracuse commitments impressed the crowd this weekend in Chris McCullough and Tyler Ennis. McCullough is an evolutionary Chris Bosh, a stretch four who can attack the basket with elite athleticism but can also step away and hit a mid-range jumper. He wowed the crowd with a few highlight reel dunks that every Orange fan will enjoy thoroughly over the next few weeks. Just a junior, McCullough will be a problem for ACC defenses if he can improve any aspect of his game over the next few years. Ennis is the future for the Orange at the point guard position. A bigger player, Ennis has great court vision and did some nice things off the ball for St. Benedict’s (NJ) when they used another player as the primary ball-handler. The heir apparent to Michael Carter-Williams, Ennis will fit right in with Jim Boeheim’s schemes and his long wingspan make him a dream for the top of that 2-3 zone.

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Welcome to this week’s RTC Podblast, hosted by Shane Connolly (@sconnolly114). There has been no shortage of big games this week and there will be even more on a blockbuster Saturday this weekend. We review everything and give our takes on who needs to do what, and when. The outline is below.

Remember that our full podcasts (roughly 45 minutes to an hour long) will publish on Tuesdays during the season, while our shorter (~15-20 minutes) podblasts will drop on Fridays with a quick look at the intervening week’s worth of news and action. Feel free to jump around using the outline below.

• 0:00-5:31 – Michigan Bounces Back with a Win Over Minnesota
• 5:31-7:44 – NC State Fails in Follow-up
• 7:44-11:03 – UNLV Putting It Together?
• 11:03-12:21 – Louisville-Syracuse Preview
• 12:21-13:22 – Gonzaga-Butler Preview
• 13:22-14:40 – Missouri-Florida Preview
• 14:40-15:46 – Ohio State-Michigan State Preview
• 15:46-16:28 – Oregon-UCLA Preview
• 16:28-19:36 – Rapid Fire Predictions

Also make sure to add theRTC Podcast to your iTunes lineup so that you’ll automatically upload it on your listening device after each recording. Thanks!

1. Fox Sports Carolinas: After losing at Maryland, there was a surprising amount of this sort of chatter going on among fans in particular. “Does the Wolfpack’s loss invalidate win over Duke?” I think that’s a dumb question. The loss was on the road to a good team desperate for the win. Do NC State‘s players wish they had won? I’m sure. But that doesn’t make the loss any more damning. NC State is probably not the top five team some thought it was coming into the season. But it’s also not the team that struggled to beat Boston College. And nothing about that loss at Maryland took away from the previous win.
2. Washington Post: Speaking of that game, Mark Turgeon was livid with his team’s execution. “There wasn’t one timeout they did what I asked. Not one.” Given Maryland’s recent play on the offensive end, it’s hard to criticize the Terrapins’ coach. My guess is we will see Turgeon settle on a point guard when either Seth Allen or Pe’Shon Howard start running the plays he asks. In the long run it has to be the more offensive-minded Allen, but that may not be for a year or more (think Quinn Cook at Duke).
3. Tar Heel Blog: The arguments surrounding PJ Hairston starting over Dexter Strickland are pretty interesting. Most seem to think Roy Williams has settled on Hairston coming off the bench and providing a spark. This made a lot of sense when he was the guy who might hit four threes or miss a ton of shots, but this year he appears to have really improved his shot selection and in turn his consistency. But until Hairston’s defensive efficiency comes close to matching Strickland’s, don’t expect any major changes from Williams.
4. Soaring to Glory: Boston College needs to win close games if it wants fans to believe it has improved from last season. But the fact that so many more of the Eagles’ games are close this season is a big sign of improvement. This year the Eagles aren’t playing teams close for 30-35 minutes and then getting run off the floor at the end like last season. This year they are competing throughout the game, and also Dennis Clifford is still nowhere close to 100%. No one likes excuses, but it’s hard to win close games without one of your two best players.
5. CBSSports.com: Cool work here from Jeff Goodman and Jeff Borzello. The two talked with four coaches who played Duke about the best way to beat the Blue Devils. The answers are interesting. Every one of the coaches thought Mason Plumlee was the key player, since his offense in the middle opened things up for the shooters outside. Interestingly, they all cited different weaknesses related to defense. One said defensive rebounding; one said guarding ball screens, especially specific to Seth Curry; one said their limited bench; and one implied a shallow defense that you can get by if you can withstand the pressure. Overall, I would agree with all four in that order of importance.

Not to take anyway from a Maryland team that fought hard for the last second win over North Carolina State, but the buzzer beater that induced a court rush is nothing for either side to get worked up about. Before the game, Maryland was a 1.5 point favorite in the gambling world so, if anything, the Terrapins kind of underperformed. If you can’t trust Vegas, can you at least trust Ken Pomeroy? College basketball’s favorite computer gave Maryland a slight edge, giving them a 54.1% win probability right before the tip. Sure, NC State is probably a better team than Maryland, and sure the Wolfpack had a big win against Duke (though this team’s propensity for a hangover game is well-documented), but Maryland was supposed to win this game (albeit narrowly).

Home court advantage matters and in college basketball it’s a huge deal. If Maryland had to go play NC State in Raleigh this season, the Wolfpack would be a clear favorite to win that game. In other words: nobody panic. This game gave us very little in the way of new information.  NC State is still a good team, and, this season, losing to Maryland at home isn’t a bad loss.  This game shouldn’t change the way the public thinks about Maryland, either, but it probably will.

Maryland Was Expected To Beat NC State

The criteria for the NCAA Selection Committee  have encouraged certain tendencies when thinking about teams and their résumés. We know that “quality wins” matter and beating a good NC State team counts towards earning an at-large bid to the Big Dance. While the home court nature of the win is supposed to be accounted for, typically, the committee seems to underrate or outright disregard the role that home court advantage plays in determining a winner. How do we know that NC State qualifies as a good team? Well, rankings in the weekly polls and RPI, of course!  The Wolfpack’s rank in the poll and strong RPI ranking mean that we can rely on the powers that be to overrate the importance of the win. For a Maryland team angling to play in the NCAA tournament, this win carries some nice implications.

The Terrapins fought hard for the win, and the excitement of the team and its fans is completely understandable, but there is a sizable gap in the actual magnitude of this win and the perceived magnitude of this win. Luckily for the Terps, this discrepancy favors Maryland.

Nick Fasulo is an RTC correspondent who writes the column College Basketball By the Tweets, a look at the world of college hoops through the prism of everyone’s favorite social media platform. You can find him on Twitter @nickfasuloSBN.

What were arguably the two most memorable incidents to go down in college basketball the last seven days? On the court, it was certainly the game’s final four undefeated teams falling one by one over a 96-hour span. Off the court, err, on the sidelines, it was Robert Montgomery Knight revealing his age and inability to make out the difference between the shot clock and game clock during the final moments of Kentucky vs. Vanderbilt. The most underappreciated handle on all of Twitter encapsulated it beautifully.

UM loses. It’s been so long since anybody’s gone undefeated that the coach of the last team to do it doesn’t even know what a shot clock is.

— Not Jerry Tipton (@NotJerryTipton) January 13, 2013

C.J. Leslie and his friend Will Privette

To call it heartwarming would be an understatement, but whatever it is, C.J. Leslie’s Saturday afternoon was one he will never forget. First he dropped a game high 25 points as the Wolfpack upset then top-ranked Duke, which led to this photo that should be sold as a 24″ x 48″ poster at the school’s bookstore.

My Boy CJ Leslie after beating up on #1 #duke #DukevNCState twitter.com/WTFjgreen/stat…

— Jonathan Green (@WTFjgreen) January 12, 2013

But even after the final horn sounded, Leslie was still being attentive on the court, ushering a senior student in a wheelchair to safety amongst the sea of red that was stomping all over the PNC Arena court.

Best part about wheelchair dude at the State game? Apparently CJ Leslie picked him up and carried him out of harm’s way.

— Will Brinson (@willbrinson) January 12, 2013

New found respect for CJ Leslie. Picks up a man in a wheelchair, gives him a hug puts him back in his chair then clears a path for his exit.

— Chase Johnson (@MorganChase22) January 12, 2013

Yes, naturally, Will Privette’s act has gone viral. The kid is one of the most sought after interviews in sports media right now, and it’s doing wonders to his social media clout.

Just hit 1,000 followers on Twitter. Wow. This is unbelievable. Thank you to everyone for the love and support. #rollpack

— Will Da Thrill (@Thrill21) January 14, 2013

I’m starting to think @thrill21 & @jakejams_vol3 will get inducted into the NCSU athletics Hall of Fame.

— Jason Jennings (@JasonWFLA) January 14, 2013

Brandon Paul, Anthony Bennett, Jamaal Franklin. Who ya got?

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Joe Giglio dug up an interesting statistic about NC State after it beats one of its Tobacco Road rivals. The Wolfpack are an abysmal 1-12 in conference games immediately following a win over Duke or North Carolina during the last two decades. With NC State’s game at Maryland looming Wednesday night, history seems very ominous for the Wolfpack (interestingly, the Terrapins are responsible for five of the 12 losses).

Is Mark Gottfried’s squad headed for a loss at Maryland? History says yes.

But does the trend hold up for other ACC schools or is it limited to NC State? I looked back through the last 10 years (through the 2002-03 season), and teams have an overall 41-30 record after beating Duke or North Carolina. NC State’s 1-5 mark is by far the worst, and Miami is still an unblemished 4-0. Every other team has beaten the powerhouses at least four times. Maryland’s 13 wins is the most, followed by Wake Forest’s 11 and Georgia Tech’s nine. Now this doesn’t mean NC State is destined for a loss tomorrow night. The Wolfpack have a much better team than in years past. Their poor record may point more to tough games following the wins, but my guess is there is a pretty sizable letdown after a big win like that, especially right over in Raleigh. Regardless of the effect’s statistical significance, NC State should be a lot more worried about the facts that Maryland is the best offensive rebounding team in the conference and is desperate for a good win after limping to a 1-2 start in conference play.

The records of teams and a year-by-year breakdown after beating Duke or North Carolina after the jump.

• Read the rest of this entry »

1. Sports Business Daily: It was only a matter of time for this, but word has leaked that the ACC is looking into a conference channel like the Big Ten Network or Pac-12 Networks. Currently, ACC ratings are actually surprisingly strong in football (although without many huge games) considering the conference’s recent play. But a network wouldn’t be easy to pull off. My guess is that any ACC network would get pushed to the back burner until after the SEC’s network gets distributed.
2. Raleigh News & Observer: Not enough love for Richard Howell‘s performance was given here in the aftermath of NC State’s win over Duke. In the first half the Blue Devils kept things close (and looked like they might run away with the game for a while) thanks to strong work on the boards, but Howell grabbed almost every available board in the second half. He’s one of the strongest players in the league and he’s finally found a way to use his exceptional motor without also fouling. The Wolfpack need Howell to give them more games like that one if they want to finish on top of the league this season.
3. CBSSports.com: Ryan Kelly‘s injury may have opened the ACC race up. The biggest related questions are: (1) Can NC State play with the intensity it played with Saturday on a regular basis; and (2) Can Miami avoid its trademarked losing streaks? Based on the Wolfpack’s first two ACC games, their prognosis is troubling, but the game against Duke was excellent all-around. Miami is a bigger question mark. Its ceiling is decidedly lower than Duke or NC State’s, but it’s also a proven commodity on the road. In the end, look for Duke and one other team to vie for the top spot if Kelly is out of the lineup for more than two weeks.
4. Baltimore Sun: Mark Turgeon is starting to see familiar signs plaguing his point guard. The Terrapins are reeling after two straight losses and have gone from popular darkhorse contender to completely overrated in the span of a week. Now Turgeon is looking at a brutal four-game schedule that is like this: against NC State, at North Carolina, against Boston College, and at Duke. Those are three very losable games (I’d be surprised if Maryland was favored in any of them) with a classic trap game stuck in there too. Now’s not the time for dramatic changes, but Turgeon doesn’t have a lot of choice. The results of these four games will likely determine where Maryland’s postseason will be decided.
5. Daily Tar Heel: And in the inane Letters to the Editor category (from an alumnus no less), we have a letter calling for the firing of UNC head coach Roy Williams. Now, a pessimistic case could be made for Williams’ talent-driven system being disrupted by one John Calipari’s annual raids on the five-star recruit pantry. A much more reasonable argument would see this year as Williams getting burned by Kendall Marshall departing for the NBA early (something few expected) and the Wear twins transferring back home.

Poll Thoughts: There was a lot of discussion about who the new number one team should be after the last of the unbeatens, Michigan, went down over the weekend. The ACC part of the argument essentially came down to the fact that Duke is a very different team without Ryan Kelly on the floor and should be ranked as such. This (essentially a small sample size eye test), to me, is just as good an argument as basing your rankings entirely on resume. The one caveat to such a standpoint is that once Kelly returns, Duke should — assuming he’s at 100% — jump back to its previous standing. This is where the justification is flawed, as voters rarely jump teams near the top of the rankings without a loss. Luckily polls mean nothing but pride for college basketball.

EXTRA: In case missed the Miami-Maryland brick-laying contest, this GIF sums the game up remarkably well.