In our attempt to bring you the most comprehensive Championship Week coverage anywhere, RTC is covering several of the conference tournaments from the sites. One of our RTC correspondents is at the ACC Tournament. In addition to live-blogging select games throughout the tournament, he will post a nightly diary with his thoughts on each day’s action. Here is his submission for the 1st round games.
Virginia 68, Boston College 62
Virginia was playing without second team all-ACC Sylven Landesberg, who was suspended by head coach Tony Bennett for the remainder of the season due to academic issues.
Virginia opened a 34-27 halftime lead mostly in part to 6-11 (55%) 3-point shooting, compared to only 3-8 (38%) for BC.
This was a clean, well-played game with both teams combining for only 12 turnovers (UVa – 5, BC-7), but not a thrilling game by anybody’s definition.
Virginia held BC’s leading scorer, Joe Trapani, to 2 points on 0-7 shooting. Maybe he should consider transferring back to Vermont.
BC’s Corey Raji injured his shoulder during the game. “We’ll let the doctors look at it, and hopefully rest will do it.”
Miami 83, Wake Forest 62
Miami starting PF Dwayne Collins was not available for today’s game due to a “stress condition” of his left leg. Redshirt freshman big man Reggie Johnson, from Wake’s backyard in Winston-Salem, got the start in his place, scoring a career-high 22 points. Even without Collins, Miami still outrebounded the taller Deacons 39-34 for the game.
Wake’s 2nd team all-ACC forward Al-Farouq Aminu again pulled a disappearing act, as he has been oft to do. He managed only 11 points on 3-10 shooting and 7 rebounds, a less than stellar performance for a supposed lottery pick. This kid pulls more disappearing acts than Lance Burton. If he’s ready for the NBA, then so am I. Maybe he should spend less time tweeting and more time finding out why he’s slumping. He needs another year of college ball, because he doesn’t have the body or the handle to be effective in the NBA next year.
#12 Miami led 41-27 over #5 Wake Forest at the half. Miami opened the second half on an 8-0 run, extending their lead to 22. Their lead never dropped below 16 points in the second half. Miami was unconscious from the floor, shooting 52% for the game versus Wake’s 35%.
Wake Forest never displayed the ability to keep Miami’s guards, particularly freshman Malcolm Grant, out of the lane. Wake’s usually stingy 3-point defense, which held teams to 32% during the regular season, was torched by Miami for 47% (8-17).
Wake Forest is in their annual end of the year slump, which coach Dino Gaudio can’t explain. “I thought we were tired down the stretch last year, so we changed things this year, going with more time off.” Guess what coach, that hasn’t worked either. Maybe he’ll be able to explain why he doesn’t have a job this time next year.
North Carolina fans never imagined a fall so hard and so fast. Who would have believed that last year’s national champion would be 16-15 entering the 2010 ACC Tournament with hopes of making the… NIT? Well, folks, welcome to every Tar Heels fan’s worst nightmare. UNC enters this nationally televised game versus the Rambling Wreck with its worst season since 2002-03, a 19-16 year and a seventh-place ACC finish. Georgia Tech enters having pretty well manhandled the Heels this year, with two wins over their rival, including a beatdown in Atlanta almost a month ago. Will Carolina have any confidence coming in from the Cameron Indoor debacle last Saturday? Can Tech, coming off a season-ending home loss to Virginia Tech, get off that proverbial NCAA bubble—on which they squarely sit—with a win tonight? Let’s find out together on RTC Live.
Backdoor Cuts is a weekly college basketball discussion between RTC correspondents Dave Zeitlin, Steve Moore and Mike Walsh that occasionally touches on relevant subjects. This week the guys jump the shark with a discussion about college hoops with an Olympic flavor.
MIKE WALSH: I don’t know about you guys, but the Olympics have monopolized the TV in my house since the opening ceremonies. And don’t get me wrong, I love the Olympics – the grandeur, the goosebumps, the medals – but they’ve seriously cut into my college basketball viewing these days. Take tonight, for example. I’m sitting here watching Olympic ice dancing with my wife, and I suddenly became inspired … to not watch ice dancing anymore.
Hopefully Our Olympics Won't Involve Cold War Era Fencing
I’ve got to get some hoops back in my life. With Selection Sunday just out of reach it still seems a little early to argue about who’s in and who’s out of the Big Dance (don’t tell ESPN … Doug Gottleib’s kids gotta eat). St. Joe’s is struggling to find 10 wins, Penn is struggling to find the basket, and Boston U. is struggling to pretend that anyone cares about college hoops when there’s hockey on. So what if we combine the two? What if we add a little Olympic flair to college hoops and hand out pre-March Madness medals?
I even borrowed an outfit from Johnny Weir just to get into the spirit. So wedgies be damned, we’re off to the first ever college basketball medal ceremony!
Men’s downhill: And the gold medal goes to … UNC! Get it? It’s because they won the national championship just last year and now they stink. They’re not even going to make the it to the Dance. Roy Williams has publicly questioned his team’s effort. It’s ridiculous. It’s like Canadians not being able to make ice. Oh wait … that happened too? Well, that’s unfortunate. But fear not Tar Heel Nation, it’s only a matter of time (and a few more blue chippers) until your boys are once again soaring above everyone else like Shaun White.
Curling: I’m not really sure why, but screaming like a maniac seems to be an integral part of curling. That being said, who better to win the gold than Kansas State’s ownFrank Martin? If this guy was screaming, “HARD!” at the top of his lungs at me, well, I’d probably pee my pants, but you better believe I’d be sweeping that ice like a bastard too. The silver medal would be awarded to Drexel head coach Bruiser Flint, mostly because the man’s mouth goes like an outboard motor. Arizona’s Sean Millerrounds out this ear piercing podium.
Skating on thin ice: This isn’t exactly one you want to be on the podium for. For their poor sportsmanship the students at West Virginia barely edged out the student section at Mississippi State for the gold, if only because someone actually hit an assistant coach with their flying projectiles at WVU. The Mountaineers’ fans thought maybe they should get extra rowdy for the big game against rival Pittsburgh, but guess what kids, there’s a big difference between rowdy and reckless. Maybe they’ll cover that in class next semester? As for Mississippi State, they thought they were getting hosed by the refs and the bottles started flying. News flash: bad refs are as much a part of college basketball as jump shots and lay-up lines. Those kids are as big a sore loser as Evgeni Plushenko, and they probably have the matching mullets, too.
What do you guys think? Who would you don with a Rush the Court gold medal? I’ll give you a push like a speed skating relay team, but I’ve got to get back to rooting against the Canadians.
DAVE ZEITLIN: I’ll be honest. Aside from the joy that is afternoon curling, I haven’t gotten too into the Olympics. Perhaps it’s because I can’t relate to any of the sports. I tried skiing for the first time last weekend, and other than the fact I couldn’t stop, let alone carry my skis and boots at the same time, it went really well. And if you want to understand how graceful an ice skater I am, picture a drunk moose walking on a balance beam.
But I like the topic, Michael, and I’m ready to dish out some more medals.
Hello everybody, welcome back to another thrilling edition of Boom Goes the Dynamite. If you haven’t noticed, we’re at the point of the season where every game has a little more intensity, a little more pressure, a little more edginess, as each team tries to attract the eye of the fickle Selection Committee. Whether in an attempt to lock up a high seed or simply to make the darn thing, the next three weeks will present ample opportunities for every team to make its case, for better or worse. As always, we’ll be right there with you throughout the day, checking in on the big games and others of varying importance. While today isn’t a blockbuster day in terms of key games, there are always going to be a good number at this time of year. Below are the ones we’ll be keeping an eye on…
11 AM: Siena @ #13 Butler on ESPN2 – RTC Live
12 PM: Florida @ Ole Miss on CBS
12 PM: Seton Hall @ #8 West Virginia on ESPN
12 PM: Morgan State @ Murray State on ESPNU
1 PM: Louisiana Tech @ Northeastern on ESPN2
1:30 PM: #22 Baylor @ Oklahoma State on ESPN360
2 PM: #17 Texas @ Texas Tech on ESPN
2 PM: Georgia Tech @ Maryland on ESPN360 – RTC Live
2 PM: Xavier @ Charlotte on CSS
4 PM: Illinois @ #4 Purdue on ESPN
4 PM: UTEP @ Tulsa on CBS CS – RTC Live
4 PM: Colorado @ #1 Kansas on ESPN360
6 PM: #2 Kentucky @ #19 Vanderbilt on ESPN
6 PM: #7 Kansas State @ Oklahoma on ESPNU
8 PM: Charleston @ George Mason on ESPN2
9 PM: UCLA @ Washington on ESPN
12 AM: Wichita State @ Utah State on ESPN2 – RTC Live
11:02: And we’re live with another BGTD. Interesting decision by ESPN to keep GameDay at 11 AM with the Siena-Butler game on ESPN2. We already have someone doing a RTC Live for the Siena-Butler game so we’ll focus more on GameDay than we otherwise would. Definitely check out our RTC Live of the game though.
11:07: The ESPN analysts are really going out on a limb saying the Big East Tournament will be the best of the conference tournament. Digger breaks with the group and goes with the Big Ten. Surprisingly Bobby Knight calls out the Big Ten saying the Big East would beat them head-to-head.
11:09: In another surprise, Jay Bilas goes against Coach K by saying that the conference tournaments effectively act as a huge NCAA Tournament and if you win you are into the real NCAA Tournament. Digger agrees with him while Hubert Davis attempts to make a ridiculous argument against the automatic bid saying it penalizes teams like Siena that dominate their conferences, but might choke in the conference tournament. Personally I think if you’re that good you can earn an at-large bid with your play throughout the season. Knight holds the coaching fraternity party line saying that he wants to expand the tournament. Translation: Nobody gets fired ever.
11:15: Just flipped over to ESPN2 where the announcers were comparing Gordon Hayward to Mike Dunleavy Jr. I’m not sure if they are talking about their games or the way they look. Where is the college basketball Spike Lee who will call out these announcers for comparing the two only because they are white guys who look fairly similar? For the record their games are pretty similar. Feel free to call me out in the comment section. . .
11:20: Knight wants “The Committee” to get an ex-coach on there (like him?) and the team’s last 18 games. I have no idea how he decided on 18. Why not 20? The other talking heads rip the RPI. Davis wants to take the strength of schedule component out of the RPI and wants to use an “eye test” to replace it. I’d like to see Professor Davis come up with a quantitative way to come up with the “eye test” score.
News out of Chapel Hill indicates that Tyler Zeller will be returning to action for UNC today at Boston College after sitting out a month with a stress fracture in his right foot. By now, everyone is familiar with the Tar Heels woes this season, which will most likely end in the NIT assuming they manage to win two of their last five games (yeah, it does sound crazy that they could actually finish below .500 and not qualify for the NIT). However, when Zeller injured his foot just prior to the Heels game against Clemson, they were 12-4 and #9 in the country despite a shocking (at the time) loss to Charleston. Following Zeller’s injury the Heels were blown out by the Tigers losing 8 of 10 games and reached a point where Roy Williams compared this season to the earthquake in Haiti.
Carolina Really Needs This Guy Right Now
With the loss of Ed Davis and Travis Wear for the rest of the season, the Heels could use Zeller on the inside even if his game and minutes will be a shell of what they were earlier in the season. While we don’t agree with Williams who said of his team, “There’s no doubt in my mind that I’m still confident [Ed. Note: We're not exactly sure what that phrase actually means] we can go on a run and be in the [NCAA] tournament,” UNC fans could use a bit of good news and seeing Zeller have a solid return should give them hope for next season when they return most of their team except for Marcus Ginyard and Deon Thompson while they add a solid recruiting class that is headlined by Harrison Barnes.
We know that Kentuckycrossed the finish line first in the quest to reach the 2,000-win plateau back on December 21st, but the race for second has become pretty tight, as well. Kansas started the season in third position in total wins with 1,970 victories and have added 25 so far this season. North Carolina started the season with 1,984 wins, just four behind Kentucky, but have only added 14 this year. We’re fairly sure you’ve already done the math on this, but we’ll go ahead and tell you that the score going into this weekend currently stands at UNC with 1,998 and Kansas with 1,995.
Each team’s remaining regular season games are as follows:
No, Coach W. You only need two.
North Carolina
Tomorrow 2/20 @ Boston College
Wednesday 2/24 vs Florida State
Saturday 2/27 @ Wake Forest
Tuesday 3/2 vs Miami (FL)
Saturday 3/6 @ Duke
It's now down to five, Coach.
Kansas
Tomorrow 2/20 vs Colorado
Monday 2/22 vs Oklahoma
Saturday 2/27 @ Oklahoma State
Wednesday 3/3 vs Kansas State
Saturday 3/6 @ Missouri
It’s true that the Duke/North Carolina rivalry produces amazing games no matter what the teams are ranked, but one would have to admit that UNC’s chances in Cameron Indoor in the regular season finale is not likely to work out for them, so that leaves four games to win two. KenPom has a grim outlook for the Tar Heels, though. His calculations predict that UNC will win only that game against Miami on 3/2 and finish the regular season with 1,999 wins, meaning that they’d have to pick up a game in the ACC Tournament to get to 2,000 victories this season.
Whether they’re second or third, Kansas has the chance for a truly memorable close to the regular season, as you can see. If they win out — and that’s even tougher than it looks, with that schedule — they’d be celebrating win #2,000 in that final game against Missouri. KenPom’s Kansas page predicts the Jayhawks will win all five of them, with their toughest challenge obviously coming in the last game (predicted 63% chance of winning) against Missouri. What a wave of momentum to launch Kansas into the post-season, though, if they can pull it off: the #1 ranking, a win on senior night against rival K-State, and then the program’s 2,000th win to finish it against another huge rival at Missouri.
Both programs have some bigger issues on their minds right now, but what do you think? Kentucky’s already taken the Win, but as far as the the Place and Show positions in the Race For 2,000 — will Kansas win five games before North Carolina wins two?
Syracuse Survives. #3 Syracuse 72, Connecticut 67. Widely considered the undercard for another rivalry game later in the evening, this one was utterly predictable for about the first 28 minutes. Isn’t this close to the pattern you assumed, as well? Connecticut would keep it close for a half, a Syracuse run somewhere in the middle of the second half would put it away, and the announcers would lament for the duration about UConn’s disappointing season and the effects of the loss of Jim Calhoun while the home viewers got their refreshments ready for Duke/North Carolina. Sound about right? Connecticut played their role perfectly until there were 14 minutes left, the score 50-34. The Huskies got themselves back in it with a fantastic 17-4 run over a six-minute period, and Jerome Dyson (19/8/5/2 stls) completed the comeback with a three-pointer to tie it at 65 with 2:38 remaining. You’ll hear a lot about a controversial time-out that was credited to Syracuse at this juncture, and who knows. Eyes belonging to supporters of each team will see it differently, but it’s our stance that it wouldn’t have mattered in the end. Connecticut still had a Dyson three in the air to take the lead with 22 seconds left at 67-65, but it was Kris Joseph (14/6/2 stls) who pulled down the rebound and managed to hit his next four free throws to help the Orange finish it. The big questions from this game: is Syracuse one of the top four teams in the nation (i.e., deserving of a one-seed)? Did Connecticut show themselves to be one of the top 64? As concerns the Orange, the answer is yes, and their status as a presumptive #1 seed is not news. That probably wouldn’t have changed even with a loss. As far as Connecticut goes, it’s more an issue of a golden chance squandered. They have seven games left and stand at 14-10 and 4-7. This would have been the ultimate signature win, and it would have come on a night when other bubble teams around the country also hurt their own causes. As it stands, just to get to .500 in the conference race, UConn has to go 5-2 over a stretch that includes four road games — and they haven’t won on the road all year (0-6). And that would only have them at 19-10 and 9-9 going into the Big East Tournament. They have one more chance for a win that would give the NCAA committee something to think about: this Monday at Villanova. Lose that one, and it’s Big East Tournament or bust.
Boeheim Hasn't Had Many of These Looks (AP/Kevin Rivoli)
Carolina is Cooked. #7 Duke 64, North Carolina 54. This game had little of its usual luster given the troubles that Roy Williams’ Tar Heels have endured in recent weeks. UNC came into this game having lost three in a row, and six of seven, and the conventional wisdom surrounding this game was that Carolina needed to win both Duke games (and a whole bunch in-between) in order to have enough of a resume to make the NCAA Tournament for the seventh straight year. Didn’t happen, and wasn’t ever going to happen. Sure, the game was close for 34 minutes of action, but eventually the better team started making their shots, and as soon as that happened it was lights-out for the home team tonight. Jon Scheyer led the Dookies with 24/5/4 assts and Kyle Singler added 19/9, but the game was an ugly affair, as both teams shot the ball in the low- to mid-30s in terms of percentage. The difference was marginal, as Duke did things just a little better than Carolina, whether it was rebounding (+11), taking care of the ball (-4 TOs) or hitting their long-range bombs (9 vs. 5). A few questions came to mind in this one as we once again watched UNC struggle to put up points. First, who decided that Larry Drew II (11/4/4 assts) is the go-to guy? LD2 chucked fifteen shots at the rim, making only four (and 1-8 from three), and often times it appeared that he really believed that the best available play was to call his own number. By the same token, how Ed Davis (4/5/6 blks) only gets four shot attempts (making two) is beyond comprehension. Drew in fact took more shots than his entire starting frontline of Davis and Deon Thompson (10/4 on 3-7 FGs), both of whom have more offensive abilities in their kneecaps than Drew does. It was reported today that Roy Williams made a horrible analogy comparing his team’s struggles this year to the disaster that killed nearly a quarter-million people in Haiti, but it seems that he may want to spend a little more time explaining to his players what a good shot actually looks like rather than making silly comparisons about what will likely be his first non-NCAA Tournament season in his coaching career (when eligible).
Roy Could Use This Guy Back (credit: Robert Willett)
The Wacky A10. Dayton 75, Charlotte 47 Despite holding the A10 lead alone coming into this one, Charlotte was a popular pick to be the most likely team out of the top five in that conference to be left out of the NCAA Tournament, failing an Atlantic 10 Tournament title. They didn’t help their cause tonight. Rather, Dayton helped their own. Chris Wright just exploded for a career-high 30 points and fueled a 23-7 run over the first part of the second half for which the 49ers had no answer. Dayton was up by only three at the half, 30-27, but Wright had no intention of letting this one stay close, accounting for 15 of Dayton’s first 18 points of the second half with three three-pointers, two dunks, and a pair of free throws. All is not lost for Charlotte, who now stands in a three-way tie with Richmond and Xavier at 8-2 in the conference; there are four other teams (including Dayton) within a game and a half of those leaders in a conference race that’s going to be a thriller to the very last.
North Carolina’s Travis Wear was seemingly gaining confidence and comfort with his role on the current UNC squad with every game in which he appeared as the season progressed. Through a combination of his own progression as a player and some team injuries, Wear had worked his way up to being Roy Williams‘ first or second option off the bench. That’s going to have to wait, now, since Wear went up for a rebound during practice on Tuesday and came down on a teammate’s foot, spraining his left ankle badly enough to where he will not play against Duke on Wednesday. Imaging showed no fracture, but he’s said to be out indefinitely.
The hits just keep coming for the Tar Heels. (AP/Julie Jacobson)
We’re guessing, though, that “indefinitely” in this case won’t be very long. We’re assuming this is a simple inversion sprain (where the ankle “rolls” and the bottom of the foot goes inward) as opposed to the slightly more serious eversion sprain (where the bottom of the foot goes outward as the ankle gives way). We know there’s no fracture. That said, Wear is looking at several days of what doctors (and eighth-grade health class teachers) call RICE therapy. That is: Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation. Put less elegantly, Wear will stay off the ankle, ice it down, wrap it up in something like an ACE, and keep that baby on a couple of pillows as he watches practice or chills in his room. Throw in some anti-inflammatories, a couple of tricks from the UNC medical staff — make no mistake, these trainers and team docs are a crafty bunch — and some exercises to get back the flexibility and strength to the area, and we bet Wear will be good as new in no time.
You know what else helps injuries heal? Winning. We’re wagering that if UNC pulls off a stunner against Duke tonight and then grabs another win at home against North Carolina State this Saturday, that ankle will feel immediately better. We’re not saying Wear is milking the injury at all. We’re saying that if UNC reels off a couple of big wins and is suddenly back in the NCAA Tournament conversation, he’ll want to get back as quickly as he can to help.
Either way, this means Heels like Deon Thompson, William Graves, and Ed Davis will have to play a few more minutes and avoid foul trouble, or a couple of Travis Wear’s fellow freshmen — specifically John Henson and Travis’ brother David Wear — have just become more important to the Tar Heel cause.
Want to know what’s wrong with UNC this year? One ACC coach laid out all of the dirty laundry about Roy Williams’ team in an interview with the Washington Post. Since the coach was speaking as someone who had faced Carolina once already this season, and the article came out Saturday morning, this means that it was one of the following four: Seth Greenberg (Virginia Tech), Paul Hewitt (Georgia Tech), Oliver Purnell (Clemson), Sidney Lowe (NC State) or Dino Gaudio (Wake Forest). Lowe lost to the Heels in their only game and Gaudio still seems too new to make those kinds of statements about that program, even anonymously. That leaves Greenberg, Hewitt and Purnell, and our money is on Greenberg. For some reason it just sounds like him (and the WaPo probably has a closer relationship with him than the others).
Florida State announced on Sunday that they will be vacating wins from ten sports that involved 61 athletes accused of academic misconduct during the 2006-07 academic year. Most of the news will focus on football coach Bobby Bowden losing 12 wins from his career total, but of interest to us is that the basketball program will lose all 22 of its wins from that year as well — one from the ACC Tourney, and two from the NIT.
Based on everything that Isiah Thomassays here about his lack of interest in the LA Clippers job, we fully expect him to see him stalking the sidelines (and the interns!) at the Staples Center next season.
NCAA 96: a voice of reason on expansion of the NCAA Tournament from an unlikely source, the Commissioner of the Big Ten, Jim Delaney. The key takeaway from his discussion with TSN is ‘let’s learn more about this.’ Exactly. The more time spent talking to stakeholders as well as THE FANS is simple but seemingly missing from this idea — it helps to remove avarice from the equation and gives reasoned consideration to the premise that just because an idea will be profitable makes it a good thing.
Pat Forde writes that if the COY award were handed out today, there would be no doubt who should win it – Jim Boeheim. He won’t get any argument from us. Syracuse received 83 votes in the preseason AP Poll (good for 31st) and 111 votes in the ESPN/Coaches Poll (25th). The Orange are now 23-1, leading the Big East Conference, and could potentially be Boeheim’s best team ever. That’s right. Look through this list and find a better team. It’s hard to do.
Thursday Night Doldrums. There weren’t a lot of great games on paper tonight, and it turned out to be the case in reality as most of the marquee games were average at best. We’ll break down the biggest two games, and just highlight the others.
Purdue Didn’t Choke, But Kelsey Barlow Did. #7 Purdue 78, Indiana 75. The one exception tonight was this game in Bloomington between the surging Boilermakers and the home Hoosiers. These two teams went back and forth for thirty-eight minutes before a 5-0 run keyed by Robbie Hummel (21/7) and E’Twaun Moore (14/5/3 assts) put Matt Painter’s team in position to win at IU for the first time since the 90s. Indiana had a shot to tie the game at the buzzer, but Verdell Jones III’s (22/6/4 assts) shot from around 40 feet missed the mark, and Purdue won its fifth straight game prior to the big showdown with Michigan State next Tuesday. JaJuan Johnson had a big night with 21/7, and as we’ve discussed in this space before, when the big man is putting in the work, Purdue is a much better team. He’s gone for 18/8 a night during the Boilers’ five-game winning streak; in the previous three-game losing streak, he put up an average of 6/5. Obviously Matt Painter and his guards want to keep Johnson happy. As for Indiana, their second-consecutive loss on the final possession stings, but it’s further evidence that Tom Crean’s team isn’t all that far from competing in the Big Ten. We’d suppose that one year from now IU will be winning these close games. Final note: starter Kelsey Barlow will undoubtedly be suspended as soon as Matt Painter sees the below image (taken in the final moments of the game). Brilliant move, that one.
When Will Kelsey Barlow's Suspension Begin?
Dud in Durham. #9 Duke 86, #19 Georgia Tech 67. This was fairly close until three minutes left in the first half, at which point the Blue Devils turned up the defense a couple of clicks and began to separate themselves from the Yellow Jackets. The one thing Tech couldn’t afford was to let Duke hit a three at the end of the half and make it a double-digit lead, so when Jon Scheyer found Kyle Singler in the corner for a trey as the buzzer sounded, you didn’t need a Magic 8-ball to predict the Jackets’ second half. Georgia Tech got in early foul trouble and never came close to finding a rhythm against the Devils, who looked comfy at home as usual. You would never have known that it was the Yellow Jackets who came in with the nation’s fourth-best defense (holding opponents to 37% shooting per game). Duke shot holes through that with tremendous ease, and got big games they needed from Singler (30/5 on 9-17 shooting) and Scheyer (21/7 assts), not to mention a helpful 11 boards from Lance Thomas in a performance that was frankly better than their current #9 ranking.
College basketball fans over the age of 20 undoubtedly remember the 1997 Kansas Jayhawks, a team that was 34-1 (its only loss coming on the road at rival Missouri) heading into its Sweet 16 match-up against a 21-9 Arizona team. That Jayhawk team was coached by Roy Williams (back when he was known for his inability to win the big game) and featured Jacques Vaughn, Raef LaFrentz, Scot Pollard, and a talented sophomore named Paul Pierce. Coming into the game the Jayhawks were heavily favored with good reason having compiled that record despite having Vaughn sit out most of their non-conference schedule with an injury.
As you know things didn’t work out Roy’s Jayhawks. That night Lute Olson and the Wildcats pulled off one of the great upsets of the decade. In retrospect, looking at the talent on the Arizona team it shouldn’t have been that shocking since the underdogs had the eventual tournament MOP (Miles Simon) along with future NBA stars (Jason Terry and Mike Bibby). Still at the time the result shocked the nation. Despite a valiant effort from Pierce who had 27 points (on just 13 FG attempts) and 11 rebounds, the Jayhawks needed a flurry of late 3s to cut into the Wildcats lead. After Bibby hit a couple of late free throws to extend the lead to 3, the Jayhawks were forced to attempt several desperation 3s to try and force OT.
When LaFrentz’s 3 from the corner fell short Roy Williams was dealt one of the most devastating losses of his career. To this day, many Kansas fans still have a hard time getting over the game. Ironically Roy may have had the one player capable of hitting a 3 to earn a trip to the Final Four sitting on his bench. . .
Thoughts and prayers from the RTC family to Samford head coach Jimmy Tillette, who collapsed on the bench Saturday during a game versus UNC-Greensboro. He was in the process of being airlifted to UAB Hospital in Birmingham Sunday afternoon, and was in stable condition, so that’s good to hear.
You may have heard about this on Saturday, but Michigan’s Manny Harris was held out of the Wolverines’ game against Purdue by John Beilein for “unsportsmanlike conduct” during a practice last week. Of course, Michigan got rung up by the Boilermakers without Harris in the lineup on Saturday, but what did he do? Word out of Ann Arbor is that he may be held out of the Michigan State rivalry game on Tuesday night as well, which suggests a fairly serious offense (beyond throwing a wayward elbow, per a UM message board). For what it’s worth, Fab Fiver Jimmy King says that he doesn’t know the specifics, but that Harris needs “to understand that the coach is the man and ultimately you’re the player so you can’t go against the coach regardless if you feel you’re right.” That sounds fairly specific to us, and suggests a lot Harris did something more than throw a ‘bow.
Tyshawn Taylor got himself into more Facebook hot water last week after posting that he wanted to transfer out of Kansas last Wednesday night (if anyone has a screenshot of this, send it to us). His FB account was deleted soon thereafter, and Bill Self spent part of his Friday press conference refusing to talk about it. Whatever the case, Taylor put up numbers of 7/5 in thirteen minutes of action against Iowa State on Saturday.
So what’s wrong with North Carolina? BP says it comes down to their three-point shooting and defense. The three-point shooting is understandable, as Will Graves appears to be the only reliable threat from distance, but the defense is a little perplexing given all the size and length there is on that team. Maybe Roy should consider actually slowing the game down a bit to utilize his interior strength?
That rule about the invisible charge-restriction area under the basket? The NCAA Coordinator of Officiating, John Adams, thinks it’s working fine. We absolutely agree that the Shane Battier Rule is a great thing for the game, but we’re not still not clear on why we can’t just put a dotted line down there to make it clearer where the zone starts and ends.
Black Wednesday in RTP. A bit of hyperbole here, as we make reference to Black Sunday (March 11, 1979), the infamous day when both UNC and Duke lost NCAA second round games on the same afternoon. Still, tonight’s surprising losses by both Carolina and Duke to the two ‘other’ schools in the traditional Big Four represent the first time in nearly seven years that they both lost conference games on the same night. How on earth could this have happened? Are big scary red/black aliens shaped in Deacon and Wolf form landing tonight to take us all away? Will tears of blood flow from the sky as God weeps for us? Will high-profile recruits clown Uncle Roy? These are all good questions for the people of central North Carolina to be asking tonight, so we’re here to help them make sense of it all. (ed. note: what? NC State wasn’t shipped out to somewhere like Pembroke in the late 80s?)
NC State Exorcised Their Devils Tonight (N&O/Ethan Hyman)
NC State 88, #6 Duke 74. There were a lot of shocking parts to this game, but by far the biggest shocker was the knife-through-butter ease by which NC State repeatedly shredded the Duke defense. The Devils have held their opponents to 41% from inside the arc and 28% from beyond it all season long, but the Pack paid that no mind, shooting a red-hot 58% for the entire game and hitting five timely threes on a reasonable twelve attempts. Even the expected collapse that everyone thought was coming immediately after halftime (and Nolan Smith’s ridiculous catch-and-shoot trey just before the buzzer) never materialized. Instead it was NC State that appeared to have the confidence, pushing their lead back out into double-digits and answering the Devils each and every time they cut the lead to eight. The night belonged to NCSU’s Tracy Smith, the 22d birthday boy who could seemingly do no wrong, dropping 23/5 on 10-12 FGs on a variety of post moves and drives to the hole. The Duke defense, one of the very best in the nation coming into tonight, seemed bewildered and confused by Smith all night long, almost as if he’d been left off the scouting report. Coach K’s group allowed over a point per possession for just the fourth time all season, and at 1.23 PPP tonight, it was easily their worst performance of the year. Something tells us that their level of effort on that end will not go unnoticed by Krzyzewski. With the win, NC State moves to 2-3 in the ACC race, and would you believe that the leaders of this conference are Virginia (3-0) and Maryland (2-1)? Is it too early to start calling the ACC the Pac-10 East with its nuttiness so far this year? Final thought: nice RTC, State students. And, deserved (start at 2:50).
Wake Forest 82, #23 UNC 69. Freshmen? No, I don’t think so. Wake’s C.J. Harris and Ari Stewart were impolite guests in their first visit to the Dean Dome as collegians, to say the least. In the first half, Wake cajoled UNC into questionable shot selection while taking good ones themselves and went into halftime with a three point lead. When UNC came out quickly early in the second and almost immediately made it just a one-point deficit, you got the feeling that Roy Williams had indeed gone into his magic bag and come up with a speech that would now put things right. You could feel that UNC had finally shown up and that they — the ranked team, at home — would redeem themselves, take advantage of the young Deacon guards, pull out a win, and SURELY avoid a three-game losing streak, something that’s never happened here under Roy Williams. It cannot happen here under Roy Williams. Right? RIGHT? Well… it just did. Harris and Stewart looked like anything but frosh in the second half right about the time UNC started getting their legs under them. First, almost halfway through the second half, it was Stewart. A three. Then another. Then ANOTHER. That last one is in caps because it was from about 22 feet, finishing the triple of triples that came in a span of a minute and 26 seconds. About a minute later, it was Harris, drilling two straight from the same spot on the left. Those five threes were courtesy of assists from four different players. At that point the Deacons’ lead was 15, and the Tar Heels were done. A couple of minutes later Ish Smith — a terror tonight, with 20/7/6 on 9-17 shooting — drilled another three for the official dagger. A team on which each player knows and cherishes his role is a dangerous thing, and that is this Wake Forest team — at least, it was tonight. Aside from the aforementioned guards providing the outside threat, Smith distributes well and is a heady senior point guard. Al-Farouq Aminu, whose 13/11 we haven’t even mentioned, is a fine interior defender and rebounds like a maniac. Chas McFarland might not take many shots (1-3 tonight), but he gets to the line and hits the boards (ten against UNC) and anchors the defense inside with Aminu. And they seem to be buying in to what Dino Gaudio is teaching. Sure, the Heels didn’t have Ed Davis, and this might have been Wake’s best outside shooting night of the season. But this is North Carolina. At home. What can you say about this team at this point? Is Roy about to lose them? It’s been an incredible three-year run. But sometimes after such a period of sustained success, when hard times arrive it can be easy for a young team to fold. They’re 12-7 and 1-3 in the ACC, have twelve games left, with seven of them away. A split does not get them in. The Heels have six days off, and it’s a good time for it. They have a lot to think about. It’s soul-searching time.
WOW. 284 of the 345 Division I college basketball teams are in action on Saturday, and an inordinate number of those games are being broadcast on TV somewhere. We all know what happened last week — an upset-lover’s dream, with a wave of surprising results that started about halfway through the day and kept rolling through Sunday night. And then we had the equally compelling performances by Villanova’s Scottie Reynolds on Monday night and the Robbie Hummel/Evan Turner show on Tuesday. What will this weekend bring? If you check the schedule, many of these match-ups are pretty intriguing, with quite a few highly-ranked teams heading into the home lairs of some squads that really need wins (Purdue at Northwestern comes to mind, where we’ll be courtside with RTC Live). There are some excellent early games of which we’ll be keeping track, starting off with an incredible (not to mention VITAL for both teams) A-10 game involving Dayton at Xavier at 11 AM ET. How about a little bit of #5 Syracuse visiting #9 West Virginia at noon? Maybe you’d prefer a couple of angry ACC teams coming off of losses with #18 Georgia Tech traveling to Chapel Hill to say howdy to #13 North Carolina at 2 PM ET? Well, whatever hoops we can find (and as I say, it is everywhere this weekend), we’ll be live-blogging it here for most of the day, not to mention we have two OTHER RTC Lives we have in store in addition to the aforementioned Purdue/Northwestern: Arizona at Oregon at 4:30 PM ET, and Portland at Saint Mary’s at 10 PM ET. We’ll be here starting at about 11 AM for the first game, so get that refresh-button finger warmed up and join us — and better yet, let us know what you’re watching and what’s on your mind. See you in a bit!
11:00: So here we go with Dayton at Xavier. What a rivalry, and what a way to start the day! This is something like the 4,286th meeting between these two schools (OK, actually 115th, I think). Both teams are currently undefeated in the A-10, and this one would REALLY look good on the ol’ NCAA Tournament resume’.
11:10: I’m sitting here wondering what sort of high-flying exploits Dayton’s Chris Wright will have on display. It’s also fun to watch Dayton coach Brian Gregory on the sideline; he’s a high-energy guy, not that Chris Mack’s not. Gregory is one of those coaches where, if you’re just talking basketball with him, you want to ask him, “Hey, are there some lines I can run for you? Could I do a couple of miles out on the track?” In other words, he’s a good motivator.
For the second straight season, UNC’s Tyler Zeller will miss a substantial chunk of the college basketball season. Fortunately for Roy Williams, the Tar Heels are loaded on the inside again. Unfortunately for Roy, Ty Lawson is not walking through that door. Playing in a deep Tar Heel rotation, Zeller had managed to put up 9.6 PPG (on 56% FG) and 4.6 RPG, but his production had tailed off in the last few games after a strong start. It appears that this might have been an injury that Zeller tried to play through before it forced him to miss UNC’s blowout loss at Clemson on Wednesday. While the Tar Heels will miss Zeller, they are deep enough on the inside not to be affected by the loss as much as many other teams would. The injury does mean that Zeller will almost definitely return to Chapel Hill for his junior season, which is probably be a good thing for him since he is a 2nd rounder at best at this point, but it does raise questions about his future having suffered serious injuries in both of his seasons as a collegiate so far.
There are some REALLY good games on tonight and many of them will be somewhere on the tube, so we figured tonight we’d step up with a special edition of our weekend live-blogging feature. To start off, we’ll be checking on Boston College at Duke (ESPN), Pittsburgh at Connecticut (ESPN2), and Cincinnati at St. John’s (ESPN-U), and we’ll branch out to other networks as well throughout the night. We want to know what you’re watching, as well. Keep hitting that refresh button and we’ll see you in the comments section. It’ll all start off momentarily…
7:03 pm ET: Wow, where to start? This is a ridiculous night of hoops. SO many games on, which is why we’re here. The first thing I notice is the wardrobe symmetry between play-by-play man Rece Davis (?!?) and Bobby Knight. Both in the v-neck sweaters. Is it good when Bobby Knight is influencing your wardrobe choices? I guess Rece can make it work.
7:07: Yeesh. Not exactly a good trip for Nolan Smith. A missed dunk and then a missed 10-foot jumper from almost behind the backboard. Meanwhile, over on the Big Ten Network, Minnesota is keeping up with Michigan State early; MSU has a 24-21 lead at the under-4 TVTO. I’m especially fired up for this UConn-Pitt game. Can Pitt continue this ascent after being basically forgotten about in the early part of this season? Up on the Huskies early in Storrs…
7:20: UConn looks like a YMCA club team. They’re straight up on defense, if you can call it that. At this point they seem severely uninterested. Pitt has guys moving on offense without the ball, talking on defense, etc. That’s how you build an early ten point lead on a team in their own house.
7:23: Maybe that Jerome Dyson dunk will get UConn going. UConn’s strategy is obvious, and that’s to run Pitt into the ground. UConn scored on four straight possessions so it looks like they’ve finally shown up mentally. But what’s this? Interesting score…South Florida up at home on West Virginia 23-12 over on ESPN 360 with about 7:00 left in the first. Virginia has an early lead on Georgia Tech and BC just got a NICE dunk by Reggie Jackson to go up one on Duke.
Backdoor Cuts is a college basketball discussion between RTC correspondents Dave Zeitlin, Steve Moore and Mike Walsh. This week the unathletic threesome decide to live vicariously through their unborn sons. You don’t want to miss it.
MIKE WALSH: Papa Zeitlin is handing me the keys to the column this week. Like a teenager with a learner’s permit, I’ll try not to crash this thing into the neighbor’s mailbox.
Speaking of teenagers, (Creepiest. Segue. Ever.) have you guys seen the SportsCenter commercial where LSU football coach Les Miles recruits a new anchor? Granted, collegiate football and hoops are different beasts, but it made me wonder what it would be like to be blue chipper with his pick of colleges. Being that my athletic abilities never made it out of the shallow end of the Walsh family gene pool, I’ll have to live vicariously through my kids someday. So I might as well figure out where they’re going to be playing college hoops now, before they’re even a twinkle in my eye, right?
Here’s the question: What college basketball coach would you feel most comfortable entrusting your kid to? I’ll give you both a minute to let the dry heaves caused by the mere thought of parenthood subside, and then we’ll go on from there … everyone with me?
For me, I think the job of coaching little Carlos would go to Mark Few. His basketball chops have raised Gonzaga from the ranks of the mid-majors to a perennial tournament threat. He’s not getting a ton McDonald’s All-Americans from year to year, but his results are always Super Sized. On top of the Xs and Os, Few seems to be a stand-up guy. When the Zags’ second leading scorer and top rebounder Josh Heytvelt was arrested in 2007 on drug charges, he didn’t see the hardwood for the rest of the season. Think that would happen to the Big Man on Campus elsewhere? Athletes being held accountable for their actions? Absurd!
So that’s it, my kid-to-be-named-later is headed to the Pacific Northwest. And if he could get a nickname like Sasquatch or Bigfoot, that would be awesome too.
Where are Zeitlin Jr. and Mini-Moore headed?
DAVE ZEITLIN: First of all, it’s a little scary we are all now closer to being a parent than from our days in college. But I’m ready for it. I plan on giving my son a musical crib toy that plays Gus Johnson clips over and over for his first birthday (Do they make those? They should.) and then working on bounce passes at least eight hours a day from the age of two on. My kid will either hate me but then become a star athlete in spite of me or reject the sport until a voice tells him to build a corn field — which will in turn bring him closer to the sport I love and also to me after I die. Isn’t that how it works? (I’m just kidding, by the way. Please don’t take my son away before he’s born, Child Services. Also, Lauren, don’t read this.)
Each week RTC will posit a That’s Debatable question or topic that is relevant to the world of college basketball. Sometimes whimsical, sometimes serious, we’ll post the thoughts from our core editing crew (in 200 words or less), but we’ll also be expanding to include our contributors and correspondents as appropriate throughout the season. We also invite you, the readers, to join us as we mull over some of the questions facing the game today. Feel free to send us your takes and/or leave them in the comments below.
This Week’s Topic: If you haven’t noticed, it’s 2010. What New Year’s Resolution would you offer to someone associated with college basketball this year?
Zach Hayes – editor/contributor, RTC
Kentucky’s DeMarcus Cousins should make it his New Year’s Resolution to cool his jets during games. Whether it’s pouting on the bench, complaining about a whistle or letting his emotions nearly cause a riot one minute into a rivalry game, Cousins can prove a detriment to his team’s ultimate goal if he continues to let his bipolar attitude impact his play. We know that Cousins is a damn good player, a double-double machine that complements teammate Patrick Patterson down low and who put up an 18/18 against Louisville this past Saturday. Unfortunately, he should have been tossed before compiling those numbers when his forearm shiver caught Louisville’s Jared Swopshire in a bout of frustration going for a loose ball. More than once coach John Calipari has had to babysit the unstable Cousins rather than focus on coaching. If the emotional freshman can channel his intensity flying for rebounds and finishing with authority rather than throwing elbows, Kentucky could be on their way to the ultimate prize.
John Stevens – editor/contributor, RTC
My resolution is for John Calipari, and that’s for him to promise never to say that this Kentucky team is “lucky to be 15-0,” and that they “really should be 9-6,” like he was quoted as saying yesterday. He’s made statements similar to that one a couple of times earlier this year, too. That’s a pretty playful little move. I don’t think it’s true, and I don’t think Coach Calipari thinks it’s true. There’s no need for this self-abnegation. Yeah, he’s got to keep his team humble and in check, but with the talent he has on that team (and some of the opponents they’ve faced at home), I don’t think anyone thinks the 15-0 is a matter of luck. And let’s be honest, it might not get this good again. In addition to losing seniors Perry Stevenson and Ramon Harris, in all likelihood, Kentucky will lose Patrick Patterson, DeMarcus Cousins, and John Wall next year. They’ll still be fine next year, especially if Calipari goes out and recruits like he usually recruits. So, Coach, we all understand that you have to stay hungry and humble and get your team to think as such, but you don’t have to tell us that it’s luck that you’re not 9-6. Lehigh is 9-6. You’re not Lehigh. And by all means… enjoy it while it’s here!
rtmsf – editor/contributor, RTC
I’m going to offer a resolution to everyone’s favorite awshucks-ter, Roy Williams. It’s nothing new, but the down-homey thing is really starting to grate on people me. We all know that you’re a super-competitive and fiery coach who wants nothing more than to stick it to Coach K, Chicken Wing Gary, the KU fans who still harp on you leaving seven years later, World Wide Wes, the old bag who cut you off on the way to practice, etc. There’s nothing wrong with it. Drop a few more F-bombs during games and throw a few more loudmouth fans out of the building. Embrace who you are. Let. It. Out. The stress of keeping all that hostility inside of you can’t be good for the soul, and who knows, it might even make you more human (and therefore, likable). We can’t imagine you’d win any more games than you already do now, but what fun is winning it all every five years if you can’t cock around like a cross between Tiger at the Encore XS and Don Draper’s liver?
Jimmer Fredette Eviscerates Arizona. BYU 99, Arizona 69. It was a Jimmer Fredette kind of night in the desert tonight, as he torched the home team Arizona Wildcats for 49 points from everywhere on the court, setting a new BYU player and McKale Center record in the process. Fredette said afterward that he “had a good stroke,” and that’s the understatement of the decade, as he hit 16-23 shots (along with seven boards and nine assists), including 9-13 from three and 8-9 from the line to end up with the record in 36 minutes of play. More importantly, BYU served notice to the national media (ahem…) that the Cougars deserve consideration for the top 25 as they now sit at 13-1 with the sole loss at rival Utah State nearly a month ago. Arizona had been skating by with recent home wins thanks to Nic Wise’s heroics last week, but BYU left no doubt tonight as to who the superior team in this game was. A fifteen-point lead only continued to grow after the half as Fredette’s jumpers rained from everywhere on the court. What’s even more interesting is that BYU continues to play well and win games while getting almost nothing from their other “star” Jonathan Tavernari, who had two points and five rebounds tonight in 22 minutes of action. His numbers this season (9/5) are way down versus last year (16/7), which might explain why Fredette is feeling the need to pick up the slack (82 pts the last two games). If Dave Rose can get his other star player’s confidence back, BYU will absolutely be a team to watch coming out of the Mountain West this season.
32? Try 49!! (Reuters/Lucy Nicholson)
RTC Live. North Carolina 81, Rutgers 67. Would you believe that with 2:11 to go in this game in Chapel Hill tonight that the score was 71-67 with the home team barely hanging on? Luckily for UNC fans, Dexter Strickland’s three from the corner with 2:01 remaining gave the Heels just enough breathing room to salt the game away, and Carolina hit FTs for the last ten points of the game and the final margin. Still, Roy Williams was hopping mad afterward, unhappy with just about everything about this game, not least of which was what he felt was poor decision-making throughout… including the decision to shoot the game-clinching three by Strickland mentioned above: “I hated the shot, but it went in and talent took over above coaching and intelligence,” Williams said. Sixteen turnovers (including seven by the PG duo of Strickland and Larry Drew II) undoubtedly contributed to Williams’ ire, as many times those TOs could have extended a lead in the first half but instead led to a fast-break bucket by Rutgers. Mike Rosario led the Scarlet Knights with 22/3 assts on 10-21 shooting, but it was his 1-9 from deep that really hurt their comeback attempts (the whole team was miserable from outside, going 3-23 from three). Despite Strickland’s career-high night in points and assists (18/4), our third on-site viewing of Carolina this year revealed many of the same problems that we saw a month ago. Point guard play isn’t consistent and as such, the fortunes of this year’s Carolina team will largely depend on just how dominant the big men can be inside and on the boards. Against most teams, they’re good enough to rely on that aspect of their team; but the ACC is a different animal, and early games against Clemson, Georgia Tech and Wake Forest will test their mettle.
Hello everyone, we’re back from the holiday break and heading into New Years week with a pretty good match-up in Chapel Hill, NC, tonight between Rutgers and UNC. This game will be simulcast on ESPN2 tonight, but we hope that you’ll join us for an interactive experience like no other while you’re watching the game on television. The Heels come into tonight’s game sitting at 9-3, a record that makes UNC seem worse than they are considering that the three losses were to #2 Texas, #3 Kentucky and #5 Syracuse (two of which were road games). Roy Williams is working through a number of new faces in his lineup but there’s clearly a bevy of talent at his disposal and we fully expect his team to be at or near the top of the ACC standings by March. As for the visiting Rutgers Scarlet Knights, Fred Hill’s team comes in at 9-2 but even he will admit that their schedule has been less than impressive thus far (#346 according to KenPom). Things aren’t looking up with the recent news that sophomore forward Gregory Echinique (13/8) will miss the remainder of the season with an eye problem, but the one player Hill has at his disposal who is capable of dropping thirty on any defense in America is Mike Rosario. The 6′3 sophomore guard had a great summer overseas, and he comes into this game averaging 18/5 while shooting 38% from deep. Given UNC’s lackluster three-point defense this season (34%), Rosario is definitely someone to watch tonight. We hope you join us for another exciting edition of RTC Live, this time from one of the great venues in all of college sports, the Dean Dome in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
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2010 conference tournaments | Tagged: acc tournament, al-farouq aminu, boston college, clemson, corey raji, derrick favors, dino gaudio, Dwayne Collins, georgia tech, javier gonzalez, joe trapani, larry drew II, malcolm grant, miami (fl), nc state, reggie johnson, roy williams, sidney lowe, sylven landesberg, tony bennett, unc, vermont, virginia, wake forest | 
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