Fifteen days ago, North Carolina went to Atlanta for an ACC tilt against Georgia Tech. The Tarheels looked slow and listless, shot 27.6% from the field, hit only two of their 12 three-pointers (16.7%), and gave up 13 steals to the Yellow Jackets while answering with only five of their own. It was a clanger of epic proportions, especially for a program so consistently loaded with talented players. Professional pundits, bloggers, neutral fans and even some die-hard UNC backers chose that night as their jump-off point from the North Carolina bandwagon, and seemed proud to proclaim their disembarkment publicly.

Was Everybody Too Quick To Bury Roy and the Tar Heels?

The pollsters agreed. The Monday before the UNC vs GT game, the Heels received 31 points and six points in the AP and ESPN/USA Today coaches’ polls, respectively. The day after the game, UNC was down to two points in the AP and zero in the coaches’ poll. They only had one game the following week, and that was the continuation of their home winning streak against Clemson. The rankings from last Monday showed them netting a mere two points in the coaches’ poll and nothing in the AP. The lack of votes isn’t surprising, considering just the one game, but people still seemed reluctant to give UNC much credit for their two wins this week, chalking up the win at Miami (FL) as a result of Miami’s propensity for losing close games, and blaming Saturday’s victory over North Carolina State on a Wolfpack team that appeared uninterested in anything basketball-related that afternoon. In the three wins since being drilled by the Yellow Jackets, people have found reasons to deny UNC full credit for the victories, their minds still poisoned by the game in Atlanta.

Read the rest of this entry »

David Ely is an RTC Contributor

Get ready college hoops fanatics. Get ready for the stampede of casual fans that are about to crash the sports bars once the NFL season comes to a close. They’ll have to find something for their sports fix and they’ll turn to college basketball. So be prepared for people asking things like, “Who’s that big guy for Ohio State? He looks pretty good.” Or “San Diego State’s in the top five? Really?!?” Just try to smile and nod at those fools. No need to let them ruin the season’s stretch run.

What We Learned

TWTW Loves Jimmer and Kawhi, But Prefers E'Twaun and the Boilers Traveling to Columbus This Week

Even with SDSU and BYU squaring off on Wednesday, TWTW feels that if there’s only one game you watch this week, make sure it’s Purdue at Ohio State, tonight at 9pm ET. Matt Painter’s squad is one of our favorites and TWTW thinks they’re a good bet to pull off the upset. Purdue rebounded from back-to-back losses at Minnesota and West Virginia to grind out a win over a plucky Penn State squad and then took care of business against reeling Michigan State. It would have been easy for the Boilermakers to fold at the first sign of trouble this season. They have the built-in excuse of Robbie Hummel’s injury, and no one really believed they could sustain their early-season success once they hit the meat of their schedule, but seniors JaJuan Johnson and E’Twaun Moore wouldn’t let that two-game losing streak turn into a prolonged swoon. Johnson scored 25 points in the win over PSU, while Moore poured in 26 against the Spartans.

Read the rest of this entry »

If you are interested in participating in our ATB2 feature, send in your submissions to rushthecourt@gmail.com. We will add to this post throughout the day as the submissions come in so keep on sending them.

Top 25 Games

• #15 Wisconsin 69, Indiana 60: “When you head up to the Kohl Center, a place Bo Ryan’s Badgers were a staggeringly good 146-11 and had won 31 of 32 heading into this one, you best bring your A game.And you know what? Indiana did just about that this evening.” (Inside the Hall)

Other Games of Interest

• Virginia Tech 74, Maryland 57: “Virginia Tech blitzed the Maryland Terrapins in the opening minutes of Thursday night’s game in College Park to the tune of a 12-0 lead and never looked back, en route to a 74-57 win.” (Tech Hoops or Testudo Times: Part 1 and Part 2)
• UCLA 86, Cal 84: “Bruins win 86-84 on a Reeves Nelson (24 points) putback tip of a TH miss by blowing by Allen Crabbe, who had just tied the game on a 3. Maybe if he wasn’t too busy celebrating after his shot, he would have boxed out. The end.” (Bruins Nation: Part 1 and Part 2)
• UF 45, Auburn 40: “Making 15 of 53 shots was enough for the Gators on Thursday night as Florida defeated Auburn 45-40. The Gators (14-4, 3-1) never controlled the game against the Tigers (7-11, 0-4) until the final minutes. Instead, Florida spent the game shooting jumpers in the first 10 seconds of the shot clock and hoping that their talent would beat Auburn’s total lack of talent. Auburn helped the Gators cause by shooting 18-48 (37.5 percent) and only attempting eight free throws and missing seven. That made Florida’s 10-14 performance at the line an outstanding performance.” (Alligator Army)
• Santa Clara 85, Gonzaga 71: “I’ve been scratching my head for a good half hour now after Gonzaga’s loss to Santa Clara this evening at the Leavey Center.  I’m truly left in wonderment about how that loss just happened.  Santa Clara was on a pretty steep downswing.  They’ve had some abysmal losses, some routs, and a coach that many think will be out soon.  Gonzaga entered winners of nine in a row, had garnered some quality victories and seemed to have a recipe for success all lined up to serve to the Broncos.” (The Slipper Still Fits)
• Xavier 79, St. Bonaventure 55: “For twenty minutes, the St. Bonaventure faithful had reason to believe. But hope can prove itself to be a fleeting object. Tu Holloway tallied 22 second-half points as the Atlantic 10-leading Xavier Musketeers rallied for a convincing 79-65 victory over the St. Bonaventure Bonnies at the Reilly Center, Wednesday night.” (Pickin Splinters)

Read the rest of this entry »

If you are interested in participating in our ATB2 feature, send in your submissions to rushthecourt@gmail.com. We will add to this post throughout the day as the submissions come in so keep on sending them.

Top 25 Games

• #2 Ohio State 68, Michigan 64: “William Buford led four Buckeyes in double figures with 19 and Ohio State survived a prolonged field goal drought by hitting 11/14 free throws over the final 8:37 to outlast Michigan 68-64 tonight in Crisler Arena.” (Eleven Warriors or UM Hoops: Player Interviews)
• #5 Pittsburgh 72, #19 Georgetown 57: “What is there to say about tonight? Everything that could have went wrong for Georgetown ended up happening in a soul-crushing demolition by Pittsburgh. The Hoyas came out in front of a capacity crowd, and save for five minutes in the second half, seemed to be the only 13 guys that didn’t want to be in the building. Losing 72-57 at home on ESPN is demoralizing enough, but to do so in such a listless way is all the more disappointing. We didn’t play offense, we didn’t play defense, we didn’t rebound, we didn’t hit free throws, we just existed. In my six plus years as a Georgetown fan, I have never seen a game this depressing.” (Casual Hoya)
• #7 Villanova 88, Louisville 74: “t was a long day for the Cards in the bright lights of Philly.  After starting off hot, Nova’s adjustments in the second half to prevent open three point looks proved to be our downfall.  Most of us knew the crazy hot shooting couldn’t last, and the real world caught up to us in a brutal stretch that put the game out of reach.” (Card Chronicle)

Read the rest of this entry »

If you are interested in participating in our ATB2 feature, send in your submissions to rushthecourt@gmail.com. We will add to this post throughout the day as the submissions come in so keep on sending them.

Top 25 Games

• #4 Syracuse 61, Seton Hall 56: “Syracuse beat Seton Hall 61-56 in a game that was not decided until the 0:16 mark of the second half. Separated by a single point, 20-19 Syracuse, at the half, the Orange spent the first seven minutes of the second half on an 18-9 run that secured them a double digit lead. Though they survived several pushes by the Pirates over the next eight minutes, the Pirates had one last, sustained push that translated into an 11-2 run that cut the Orange lead to two, 55-53 with just over two minutes left. The Orange hung on, outscoring the Pirates 6-3 over the last two minutes, to secure the win.” (Villanova by the Numbers)
• Colorado 89, #7 Missouri 76: “I know as an Internet sports fan, I’m supposed to full of remorseless rage when my team loses to a team that, to date, had been its lesser in just about every way.  Colorado came into this game having gone just 3-4 versus Top 200 teams and played near-atrocious defense most of the year.  But yesterday in Boulder, they dictated the pace, didn’t start fading until about 30-32 minutes had passed (when they intentionally slowed the tempo), and even then had enough trick shots in the bag to keep their distance against a Mizzou team that was finally getting it together.  I said in the preview that Colorado tends to jump up and play great against heavyweights a few times a year, but they hadn’t done it to Mizzou in a while.  Well … now they’ve done it to Mizzou.” (Rock M Nation)
• Georgia 77, #10 Kentucky 70: “I offer no superlatives in this game for Kentucky.  None.  Kentucky did not play well, and I don’t feel like patting anyone on the back.  Georgia deserves significant praise, particularly coach Mark Fox, for executing a perfect game plan against the Wildcats.  Georgia was simply outstanding, and I am very impressed by what they did against us.” (A Sea of Blue)
• West Virginia 65, #11 Georgetown 59: “This sucks.  There is no sugarcoating what happened today in the Verizon Center.  The Georgetown Hoyas, as recently as December 29, were a top 10 team in the country.  They finished the hardest out-of-conference schedule in the nation at a sparkling 11-1, including road wins at Missouri, Old Dominion, and Memphis.  Since conference play began 10 days ago, this team has been an unmitigated disaster.” (Casual Hoya or Glide Hoyas)

Read the rest of this entry »

If you are interested in participating in our ATB2 feature, send in your submissions to rushthecourt@gmail.com.

Top 25 Games

• #1 Duke 82, Butler 70: “There is absolutely zero belief in moral victories on this end, as Butler lost to a team who was better than it was and who, in crunch time, played better than it did. There are several reasons why that happened – which will be brought up in a bit – yet there were some positives to come out of losing to the Blue Devils in a contest that was within a couple possessions both ways for most of the day.” (Victory Firelight)
• #9 Villanova 71, St. Joseph’s 60: “The Hawks of Saint Joseph’s held the lead over the Wildcats of Villanova for the first 4:30 of the game, relinquishing the lead briefly to regain it at the 13:53 mark. They would hold it for only 30 seconds more before releasing it for the last time. For the next 33 and half minutes the question was only by how much the Wildcats would win. The answer turned out to be 11, as Villanova won 71-60 and ran their Big 5 record to 2-0 for 2010-11.” (Villanova by the Numbers)
• #10 Georgetown 68, Utah State 51: “No matter how thrilling and enjoyable Tuesday night’s win against Missouri was, I will take a game like today every single time.  After a back and forth first half, the Hoyas came out of halftime and tore the Aggies apart, winning 68-51 in Washington, DC. Chris Wright was the best of Run DMV The Holy Trinity our dynamite three guards that have yet to be named.  Wright attacked the basket time and time again, getting easy layups while scoring 21 points on 9 shots.  He added 4 steals and 2 assists.  No other Hoya was in double figures, but 5 other players had 6 points or more.” (Casual Hoya)
• #12 Minnesota 71, Cornell 66: “The Gophers pulled out a 71-66 win Saturday night over the Cornell Big Red. That’s the good news. The bad? The  Gophers again played no perimeter defense, had just occasional consistency on offense, and shot free throws at a 59 percent clip (26-44). It wasn’t pretty. At all.” (The Daily Gopher)
• UNC 75, #14 Kentucky 73: “For Kentucky, this is a tough, brutal loss.  Speaking as a Kentucky fan, my disappointment on losing this game could be measured on the Richter scale.  I know we played well enough to win, and a gritty effort by Doron Lamb and DeAndre Liggins now goes by the boards.  I know that this is sometimes how basketball goes, but right now, I am absolutely inconsolable.  This is a game Kentucky should have won, and frankly deserved to win.  Alas, we did not.” (A Sea of Blue)
• #16 Syracuse 65, NC State 59: Breaking down a lackluster performance by the Orange. (Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician)
• #18 Purdue 66, Alabama 47: “It’s funny. We were ribbed the other day during the Va Tech game via Twitter about “Purdue’s vaunted offense” and how we were wrong to have taken issue with people like John Gasaway and other MSM types. Sure, Purdue’s offense isn’t blowing people away, but they won that night and they won again today. It’s always fun to have your team’s offensive prowess mocked… while they’re still winning. Matt Painter trademarks are pressure defense and smart play. The Boilers, while sloppy at times today, used their suffocating defense and their plenty-good offense to win today’s game with the Crimson Tide, 66-47.” (Boiled Sports)
• #23 Illinois 73, #24 Gonzaga 61: “Stop me if you’ve heard this before.  Another big time, nationally televised game; another big time, nationally televised Gonzaga flop. It has truly become an abysmal trend that Gonzaga can’t shake.  There is going to be a lot of finger pointing after this game so I’ll go ahead and fuel the fire.” (The Slipper Still Fits)

Read the rest of this entry »

As part of our on-going attempt to bring you the best college basketball coverage on-line, we are introducing a new feature where we give your our thoughts after each set of games over the weekend. We’ll be back later tonight for the late game analysis.

1. Illinois is back: Illinois might have missed the NCAA Tournament last year, but this year they should be a Sweet 16 team and have an outside shot of making the Final Four. Much like Florida, who actually made the NCAA Tournament last year, the Fighting Illini did not that much in terms of new players (freshman Jereme Richmond is the one major addition with 9.0 PPG and 4.4 RPG), but unlike the Gators they have made significant strides this year. A convincing win at Gonzaga along with solid wins against Maryland and UNC should help ensure that Bruce Weber gets back to the NCAA Tournament agian barring a major me)ltdown in the Big Ten.
2. Demetri steals the show: Kyrie Irving may be dominating the headlines in the early season and he might be the best point guard in the country already, but Demetri McCamey isn’t far behind. The Illinois senior has been nothing short of sensational this season as he has averaged 15.3 PPG (on 52.3% FG and 51.6% 3-point shooting) and 7.8 APG (2nd in the nation) thus far. He has also shown the leadership ability that Bruce Weber expects coming up big in big games so far against Texas, Maryland, UNC, and Gonzaga. The Fighting Illini may not win the loaded Big Ten this year, but because of McCamey they will have a chance in every game they play this year.
3. Is Syracuse a top 10 team?: Syracuse may have escaped yet again, but I can’t believe that anyone would be buying this team after what we have seen this season. They will probably still be a top 10 team next week, but they have been underwhelming so far as they have yet to play a legitimate NCAA Tournament team yet, but have struggled with a 3-point win at home against William & Mary, a 3-point win against Michigan, a 4-point win against Georgia Tech (lost to Kennesaw State by 16), and a 6-point win at home against NC State (lost to Wisconsin by 39). Simply put, Jim Boeheim cannot be looking forward to their game against Michigan State on Tuesday. If the Orange don’t improve significantly before that time, I would expect the Spartans to rebound from their loss against Duke and expose the Orange.
4. Steve Donahue is getting it done at BC: Boston College might not threaten Duke this year, but things are looking good in Chestnut Hill where new coach Steve Donahue has the Eagles playing solidly. Outside of an early loss to Yale (perhaps he thought he was still at Cornell), the Eagles only loss has been against Wisconsin. The Eagles also piled up wins against Texas A&M, California, and Indiana before beating an undefeated UMass team today. The Eagles don’t have a “star”, but the combination of Reggie Jackson, Joe Trapani, and Corey Raji provide them with a solid nucleus and they have a good group of role players who can contribute on any given night (like Josh Southern tonight with 16 points on 7/7 FG and 7 rebounds). Look for the Eagles to compete for a NCAA Tournament spot in the weak ACC this year.
5. Who is in charge of scheduling?: Who is in charge of planning these big in-season match-ups? I understand that it is hard to do too much because every school has a lot of committments and there are a ton of sports, but why would you schedule Duke-Butler, a rematch of the national title game against the SEC title game? I’m not going to blame the people who “run” college basketball for scheduling against Oregon-Oregon State because nobody expected that to be for a BCS title game bid, but the SEC title game has essentially been a game that is a direct bid for the BCS title game. Even if it was scheduled on this date was scheduled well ahead of time ESPN should have been able to adjust the time to give the game the attention it deserves.

If you are interested in participating in our ATB2 feature, send in your submissions to rushthecourt@gmail.com.

Top 25 Games

• #18 Purdue 58, Virginia Tech 55 (OT): “Purdue relied on JaJuan Johnson to score 50% of their points as the otherwise icy-cold shooting Boilermakers clawed out an OT win in Blacksburg. The win clinched the Big Ten/ACC Challenge for the Big Ten for the second straight year.” (Boiled Sports)
• #20 Texas 76, Lamar 55: “Texas’ 76-55 win over Lamar didn’t exactly go according to script, but the Longhorns were good enough in spurts to pull away for the comfortable final margin. Texas enjoyed a pair of 9-point runs in the first half to take a 9 point lead at intermission, then opened up the second half on a 14-4 run to put the game out of reach.” (Burnt Orange Nation)
• #21 BYU 77, Creighton 65: “It is foolish to think that we just sort of zombie through the non-conference season and expect to be able to hit the reboot button once conference season comes around.  These early games are where you define your teams.  They were what defined the Bluejays last season. With the disasterous non-conference performance, that bled into conference season.  Nothing really changed.   Don’t think that adding one player will erase all of that.” (White & Blue Review)

Read the rest of this entry »

After a weekend full of some smaller tournaments we are getting set for Feast Week. We will be all over the US covering games out in Maui as well as Kansas City and much of the rest of the US so be on the watch out for RTC all over the country. If you are interested in participating in our ATB2 feature, send in your submissions to rushthecourt@gmail.com.

Top 25 Games

• #9 Purdue 82, Oakland 67: “Purdue came out very lethargic tonight against a punchy and prepared Oakland squad. E’Twaun Moore had a huge night with 26 points and was 4/5 beyond the arc. The Boilers were simply deeper and when Oakland tired down the stretch, Purdue pulled away and won 82-67.” (Boiled Sports)
• #11 Syracuse 63, William & Mary 60: “I was high up in the stratosphere while Syracuse was scaring the crap out of all of you in their 63-60 survival against William & Mary. I won’t pretend to know how to recap this one so I leave it up to you guys” (Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician)
• #18 Georgetown 82, NC State 67: “Georgetown went down to Charleston, South Carolina on Wednesday wondering who would fill in for Julian Vaughn after he had spent the early part of the week in the hospital.  Would it be Nate Lubick, Jerrelle Benimon, or Henry Sims?  Or would no one show up?  Well the Hoyaswere able to get three quality performances from Vaughn, but also saw the emergence of the previously disappointing Sims.  The junior from Baltimore put together his best performance in a Georgetown uniform on Friday.  He capped that performance with an MVP-level game today as Georgetown defeated NC State 82-67 to win the Charleston Classic.” (Casual Hoya)
• #21 Virginia Tech 92, UNC-Greensboro 70: “All in all, this was the perfect tonic as VT heads to the 76 Classic starting this Thursday in Anaheim.” (Tech Hoops)

Read the rest of this entry »

1. It looks like this whole Bruce Pearl ordeal just got a whole lot more interesting as the SEC suspended the Tennessee coach for the first eight games of SEC play. The suspension means that Pearl will not be able to coach the Volunteers in their SEC games between January 8th and February 5th nor will he be able to coach them during practices in the hours preceding/following those games BUT (emphasis intended) he will be able to coach against UConn and Jim Calhoun, someone in a bit of hot water with the NCAA, on January 22nd, and against Kentucky and John Calipari, someone who always appears to be at the edge of the hot water with the NCAA, on February 8th. Pearl still has to go in front of the NCAA infractions committee in early February. Some pundits are calling for Pearl’s head (figuratively, we think), but Pearl himself does not think it will be such a big deal.
2. The other piece of big news over the weekend was the NCAA clearing Josh Selby to play for Kansas this season. They suspended Selby nine games, of which he has already missed three, for receiving $5,757.58 (or $4,607.58 if you believe Kansas) in impermissible benefits. Of course, some Kentucky fans are up in arms about Enes Kanter being ruled permanently ineligible for taking $33,033 (technically a little over 51 games worth if it was matched to Selby’s suspension) from his Turkish club, but it appears that the NCAA is differentiating between taking money on the side and being a professional.
3. There’s some important injury news to get to, as two teams were hit hard this weekend. NC State will be without the services of Tracy Smith, who led the team in scoring (16.5 PPG) and rebounding (7.5 RPG) last season, for three weeks after he had to undergo arthroscopic surgery on his left knee on Friday. Smith’s absence will only put more pressure on beleaguered head coach Sidney Lowe (can that be his new title: “beleaguered head coach?”). Meanwhile, a few hundred miles up the Atlantic coast, new coach Kevin Willard will have to search for more scoring from his Seton Hall team as gunner extraordinaire Jeremy Hazell will be out for 4-6 weeks with broken bone in his left wrist.
4. Over the weekend, Michigan brought back three-fifths of the Fab 5, which according to the NCAA never existed, to Crisler Arena. Jalen Rose, Jimmy King, and Ray Jackson were all on hand for the Wolverines’ rout of Gardner-Webb. Juwan Howard was not available as he is currently “playing” for the Miami Heat (8.3 minutes per game in four appearances this year). Chris Webber…well, according to the NCAA, Chris Webber never attended the University of Michigan. At least not for a few more years.
5. Coming into the season we knew that UNC freshman Harrison Barnes would face unrealistic expectations. Now, we didn’t expect him to go 0-for-12 as he did against Minnesota on Friday, but our expectations were significantly lower that his hometown paper (see the headline).