Patrick Marshall of Bluejay Basketball is the RTC correspondent for the Missouri Valley and Big 12 Conferences.
Current Records and my standings (Last Week)
Texas A&M (13-1) (3)
Oklahoma (13-1) (1)
Texas (11-2) (4)
Baylor (12-2) (2)
Kansas (10-3) (6)
Missouri (12-2) (5)
Kansas St. (10-3) (7)
Oklahoma St. (10-3) (8)
Texas Tech (10-5) (9)
Iowa St. (10-4) (10)
Nebraska (9-3) (11)
Colorado (7-5) (12)
This week for the Big 12 had some ups and downs. Let’s check in on these teams.
TEAM OF THE WEEK
Kansas (2-0 this week)—This young Kansas team is really starting to get it together and have started to win some bigger games. Mario Little finally made his debut for the Jayhawks but almost went out on the court without his shorts on. However, it gets real tough for them before heading into conference play as they take on a hot and hyped Siena team and then hit the road at Michigan St. Kansas gets a little New Year’s gift by getting Jeff Withey (a transfer from Arizona) to play for them, but won’t be able to until December of this year.
Bad Santas.Portland St. 77, Gonzaga 70. Santa Claus made an early visit to the environs of Cincinnati, OH, and Spokane, WA, tonight, but instead of leaving toys and treats for the tots of Xavier and Gonzaga Universities, respectively, he left a couple of lumps of coal and another undisclosed brownish substance in their stockings. AP #7 Gonzaga and AP # 14 Xavier, both coming off of devastating Saturday losses (in different ways), were unable to shake off their hangovers from losses to UConn and Duke and instead dropped home games tonight that sent shocks throughout mid-major America. The more surprising upset of the two took place out west, where Gonzaga was thoroughly outplayed by the scrappier, guttier Portland St. Vikings. PSU was led by 5’6 Jeremiah Dominguez, who hit seven threes for a sick line of 25/6/5 assts. Yes, a guy shorter than you outrebounded all but Gonzaga’s 6’11 Austin Daye (9 boards) and 6’10 Josh Heytvelt (8) in this game. Portland St., who has losses to Hampton and Cal Poly on its resume, never wavered in the face of the superior athleticism and size of Gonzaga. GU, should have come out ready to eat glass in this one, but instead they allowed their heartbreaking loss to UConn over the weekend to mentally affect their play tonight. Would that have happened to UNC? Pitt? Duke? UCLA? Gonzaga needs to get tougher mentally. Butler 74, Xavier 65. Wasn’t Butler supposed to be rebuilding this year? Amazingly, eight of Brad Stevens’ top nine Bulldogs are freshmen and sophomores, whereas XU starts two juniors and one senior. So how is it that Butler was able to come into the Cintas Center and earn a victory in a location where Xavier had won its last fifteen games? Standard Butler-issue hardnosed defense and poise. Butler was able to keep Xavier under control from three (7-24) while also winning the battle of ball control (-7 turnovers) in a tough game that Xavier will regret losing come March. Matt Howard (19/14) and Gordon Hayward (19/10) both provided double-doubles, but the key stat of the game may have been Xavier’s 12-22 from the line. The 198th best FT-shooting team in America didn’t help their cause tonight, several times failing to convert both FT opportunities down the stretch. If Gonzaga and Xavier want to be taken seriously as “high mids” vying for the Final Four, they cannot afford to lose home games like these.
A10 Weekend. The A10 used three televised games on Saturday to announce its presence to America, knocking off an SEC, Big East and Big 12 team in the process (two of which were effectively road games). With the relative weakness of the Pac-10 and SEC this year, the A10 could make a run at a legitimate four NCAA bids this season. Today’s results could go a long way in the Tourney Committee’s minds toward that end. Great weekend for the Atlantic 10.
Temple 88, Tennessee 72. Every outlet in America is making the “Merry Christmas” joke, so we’ll refrain here, but suffice it to say that Temple’s Dionte Christmas stole Bruce Pearl’s cookies and blew up his sled with an explosive game where it seemed as if every shot he threw at the rim was flushing straight through. More importantly, Temple exposed Tennessee’s defense for what it is – simply not good enough to sustain any kind of legitimate run in March. The Owls shot a blistering 55%, led by Xmas’ 35 on seven threes, and it often appeared as if the Vol players had little interest in covering him. The roof nearly came off the place when he hit three trifectas in a row during a personal 1:30 run to blow open the game. Temple, who had not defeated a top 10 team since John Chaney was still on campus, celebrated with a spirited RTC, to which, we say – deserved.
Patrick Marshall of Bluejay Basketball is the RTC correspondent for the Missouri Valley and Big 12 Conferences.
Big 12 Conference Week in Review (Nov. 14-23)
Current Records and my standings:
Oklahoma (4-0)
Missouri (4-1)
Nebraska (3-0)
Kansas St. (4-0)
Baylor (3-0)
Texas (2-0)
Kansas (2-0)
Oklahoma St. (4-0)
Texas Tech (4-0)
Iowa St. (3-0)
Texas A&M (3-0)
Colorado (2-1)
TEAM OF THE WEEK
Oklahoma—Oklahoma has gotten off to a fast 4-0 start behind Blake Griffin and his supporting cast. They survived the Gardner-Webb bug that Kentucky suffered from last year. Griffin scored 35 points and pulled down 21 rebounds to lead Oklahoma to a win. Now they head to New York after holding off Stephen Curry and Davidson in their NIT regional. They get a somewhat favorable matchup against UAB instead of an expected Arizona team.
TEAMS DOING WELL
Nebraska—I actually like Nebraska just for the fact that they are one of the only Big 12 teams that already has a road game under their belt as they made the trip to TCU this week. Though they only had 21 free throws (most came towards the end) against TCU’s 38 free throws, Nebraska survived their first road test and will build some toughness as they continue a somewhat soft non-conference schedule. However, Nebraska won against Arkansas-Pine Bluff but according to Doc Sadler, the Huskers were “outworked.” Maybe next time after the morning shootaround you should keep the players there and let them prepare for the game instead of sending them home.
Missouri—Missouri started the season with a couple warmup games against Prairie View A&M and Chattanooga and then headed to San Juan, Puerto Rico, for a tournament – losing to Xavier, winning against Fairfield and getting a nice win against USC. The bench for Missouri is starting to feel a little comfortable. The Tigers’ high pressure defense caused 20 or more turnovers by their opponents the first three games of the season. Missouri gets a week off before hosting Summit Conference favorite Oral Roberts next Sunday.
Kansas St.-The Wildcats enjoyed a little cupcake city playing against a bad Florida A&M team, a troubled Southeast Missouri St. team and D2 Emporia State, but then took to the road to play against Horizon league favorite Cleveland St. and left with a win—their first true non-conference road win in nearly two years. Kansas St. is enjoying balanced scoring as they have six players averaging double figures in scoring.
Baylor—Baylor’s documented scoring machine has not disappointed as they are averaging almost 95 points a game. In addition to what they already had, Baylor got a new scoring threat in Quincy Acy. The freshman has yet to miss a shot, scoring 18 straight baskets over his 3-game career, breaking a Big 12 record. With an assist for every two baskets, that means the Bears are doing a good job of playing some team ball. They get a warm up with Jacksonville on Monday night before heading to Anaheim for the 76 Classic.
Texas—Texas, for being favored in the Big 12, has been relatively quiet to start the season. They won against Stetson and Tulane to open things up before heading to Maui for the ever popular Maui Invitational. AJ Abrams moving to point guard hasn’t affected his scoring too much as he leads Texas in scoring with 18 pts per game while expected point guard Dogus Balbay finally made his debut. Texas has also had the opportunity to build depth as they have 9 players playing more than 13 minutes a game so far.
Kansas—Kansas welcomed a whole new bunch of players to Allen Field House this week as they played their CBE Classic pod against in-state UMKC and Florida Gulf Coast. As expected, Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich are leading the way for the Jayhawks in scoring.
Oklahoma St.—The cowboys hosted Texas-San Antonio and North Texas as well as Tulsa and Grambling St. with relatively easy wins. The 3-point shot has almost been non-existent as they have been playing a lot of pick and roll basketball. Five players are averaging double figures in scoring per game. Okie St. will have a challenging week ahead as a part of the Old Spice Classic in Orlando.
Texas Tech—The basketball team must have taken some notes from the football team as far as high paced scoring goes as the Red Raiders scored 167 points and opened the record book against East Central Oklahoma. But what is even worse is that they did not have any defense either as they gave up 115 points themselves. You have to kind of feel for Tyree Graham as he played 18 minutes and couldn’t score while everyone else did and mostly in double figures. With that scoring explosion, through 4 games the Red Raiders are averaging 108 points a game. Wow.
TEAMS THAT ARE STRUGGLING
Iowa St.—The Cyclones hosted their own multi-team tournament including UC Davis, Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Loyola Marymount. They didn’t look that great, but with so many new players that is probably expected. However that opening three games was last weekend. After 9 days off, the Cyclones headed to Hawaii for what appears to be a vacation and one game, it will be interesting to see how that works for them before turning around and hosting the SWAC’s Mississippi Valley St.
Texas A&M—Texas A&M struggled with Southland favorite Stephen F. Austin sandwiched in between SWAC opponents Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Jackson St. The game with SFA was tight the whole game and everyone in College Station was holding their breath hoping their basketball team isn’t going to be as bad as their football team was this year. A&M may be undefeated, but at this point looks like smoke and mirrors so they are considered “struggling.”
Colorado—Colorado opened up against Arkansas-Pine Bluff with a great win and everyone in Boulder was tricked into thinking that they had a basketball team this season. Then they hosted Big Sky Conference dweller Montana St. and lost. Whoops. Well maybe that is a good thing for the Buffalos.
GAME OF THE WEEK
Oklahoma vs. Davidson, NIT Tip Off—Davidson and Stephen Curry gave Oklahoma all they wanted in one of the more exciting games of the season so far. The Griffin brothers combined for 41 points and 27 rebounds. Though Oklahoma led by as many as 21 in the game, Davidson crept back in and made it a game to the end. Great foul shooting led to a win for Oklahoma.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Blake Griffin, Oklahoma—As advertised, Blake was just a beast in Oklahoma’s 4 games they have already played. He is averaging 25 points and 20 rebounds a game. That is just ridiculous.
WEEK AHEAD AND GAMES TO WATCH
The Big 12 has played as advertised so far winning the games they are expected to win. This week will be the “Week of Tournaments” where several Big 12 teams will stop playing the cupcakes and play some real competition in the annually known neutral holiday tournaments:
11/24-11/25, Kansas @ CBE Classic (ESPN2 and ESPNU)—Kansas gets a bit of a home court advantage as they play Washington and either Syracuse or Florida at the Sprint Center in Kansas City.
11/24-11/26, Texas @ Maui Invitational (ESPN Family of Networks)—Texas starts off with St. Joseph’s, then either Notre Dame or Indiana and then possibly North Carolina.
11/26-11/28, Oklahoma @ NIT Tip Off (ESPN2)—Oklahoma gets a bit of surprise when they open up in New York against UAB and then will play either Boston College or Purdue.
11/27-11/30, Baylor @ 76 Classic (ESPN2 and ESPNU)—Baylor opens with Providence and new coach Keno Davis, then most likely Arizona St. and then probably St. Mary’s or Wake Forest.
11/27-11/30, Oklahoma St. @ Old Spice Classic (ESPN2 and ESPNU)—A stacked tournament where the Cowboys open with Gonzaga and then either Maryland or Michigan St. If they win both of those, then they could likely be playing either Tennessee or Georgetown.
11/28-11/29, Texas A&M @ South Padre Invitational (Fox College Sports Atlantic)—A&M plays Tulsa and then most likely Illinois.
11/28-11/29, Kansas St. @ Las Vegas Invitational (ESPNU and ESPN2)—Kansas St. plays a struggling Kentucky team and then either Iowa or West Virginia in the city that never sleeps.
11/28-11/29, Texas Tech @ Legends Classic (HDNET)—Texas Tech takes their new found high scoring offense into New Jersey hoping to beat Pittsburgh and then either Mississippi St. or Washington St.
11/29, Colorado @ Stanford (Fox Sports Net)—Two teams seeing if they can be considered a player this season.
11/29, Nebraska vs. Creighton (Fox Sports Midwest)—This in-state rivalry will heat up once again and I will actually be there to see it in person.
Well, if we can get our ESPN Full Court package to work tonight, we might actually get to watch some games… don’t hold your breath on Comcast actually coming through at the casa de RTC, though…
This is a really cool article surveying over 300 D1 schools on various factors – offensive and defensive ideologies, player and coaching pedigrees, budgets, etc.
Memo to new Arizona (interim) coach Russ Pennell – hiring the legendary coach’s grandson as an assistant will not get you the permanent gig.
Just in time for the season, a civil lawsuit was dismissed against Kansas’ Sherron Collins deriving from the accusation that he had groped a woman in an elevator in May 2007.
Injury bug. Va Tech forward JT Thompson will be out 4-6 weeks with a hernia. Tyler Hansbrough appears “extremely doubtful” for UNC’s opener against Penn on Saturday. Ole Miss guard Trevor Gaskinstore his ACL and will miss the entire season.
Nevada’s sticky-fingered trio of Brandon Fields, London Giles and Ahyaro Phillips will be held out of the season opener against Montana St. on Saturday. Not sure why Fields is still suspended, his charges were dropped.
UCLA’s Nikola Dragovic got into a dispute with his girlfriend last week and was arrested for misdemeanor battery. He did not dress during last night’s game against Priarie View A&M.
Tennessee freshman PG Daniel West was ruled academically ineligible to play for the Vols this season, leaving juco transfer Bobby Maze and junior JP Prince as the only two legitimate ballhandlers to run Bruce Pearl’s attack this season.
Georgia Tech senior guard Lewis Clinch is also academically ineligible, but he can earn his spot back on the team after the semester ends. He’ll miss a minimum of seven games though.
Don’t expect any slicing or dicing of the current 16-team Big East arrangement on his watch, says newly voted Commish John Marinatto, who will begin next July 1. He takes over for uber-successful commisioner Mike Tranghese.
More meaningless exhibitions. Stephen Curry (41 pts on 15-19 FGs) appeared rusty in an 84-54 Davidson win over Lenoir-Rhyne. The defending champs, led by Sherron Collins (22 pts) and Cole Aldrich (17/10), handily defeated Emporia St. Wisconsin plowed through a slogfest to win 64-47 over UW-Whitewater. UConn’sJerome Dyson and his 18 pts led the Huskies past UMass-Lowell 82-63. Luke Harongody’s 21/10 helped Notre Dame to an easy win over Stonehenge Stonehill 79-47 last weekend. Pitt’s Sam Young filled the stat sheet with 18/7/4 blks in an 82-30 mauling of La Roche as well on Sunday.
Jeff Goodman gives his version of preseason bracketology, and he also went with the upset over UNC in the finals (Michigan St.). We see ya with your #15 Belmont (over Tennessee) and #14 Portland St. (over Purdue).
RTC correspondent Baker (he covers the A-Sun and the SoCon) has launched his new site, Mid Major Review, which got off with a bang this week with his podcast interview of Belmont head coach, Rick Byrd, and we expect will provide great substance and analysis of the mid-major world throughout the season. Welcome to the blogosphere, MMR.
Patrick Marshall of Bluejay Basketball is the RTC correspondent for the Missouri Valley and Big 12 Conferences.
Predicted Order of Finish:
Texas (27-3, 14-2)
Kansas (24-7, 14-2)
Oklahoma (27-5, 13-3)
Baylor (25-5, 12-4)
Oklahoma St. (19-11, 8-8)
Texas A&M (19-12, 7-9)
Nebraska (18-11, 7-9)
Missouri (18-13, 6-10)
Kansas St. (18-13, 6-10)
Iowa St. (16-16, 3-13)
Texas Tech (15-16, 3-13)
Colorado (14-16, 3-13)
What You Need to Know. Although Kansas won the National Championship last season in dramatic fashion, most of the team won’t be around to try to do the repeat shuffle like Florida did the previous two seasons. However, that doesn’t mean the Big 12 Conference won’t have an exciting season in the wings. The buzz around the Big 12 is that sophomore Blake Griffin from Oklahoma (who passed on the NBA, unlike is KU peers) decided to stay another year at Oklahoma to try to lead his team to a championship. Griffin has already been mentioned for several preseason All-American teams and awards. Texas returns a great nucleus of talent on a team that tied for the conference championship last year with Kansas. Baylor is the biggest surprise coming into the season. Head Coach Scott Drew has brought this disgraced program back from the ashes a few years ago when Patrick Dennehy was murdered by teammate Carlton Dotson and information was later covered up by then head coach Dave Bliss. Baylor made the NCAA Tournament last season for the first time in twenty years. Iowa State and Texas A&M are led by former Missouri Valley Conference coaches, Greg McDermott and Mark Turgeon, respectively. Although Kansas State made a splash back into the national spotlight showcasing Michael Beasley and Bill Walker, they’ll now take a step back into the pack, but with the salaries of their coaches including their assistants, they should be held to high expectations. Nebraska will be playing small ball this year as they do not have a player over 6’8, but it isn’t like they haven’t tried. Missouri is still trying to find its identity and coach Mike Anderson hopes to finally play his type of up-tempo, high pressure defense. Although only in his third year at the helm, Anderson is on the hot seat. Colorado has a lot to build on with mostly freshman and sophomores. Texas Tech got a little head start when legendary coach Bobby Knight passed the keys to his son Pat Knight at the end of last season, while first year coach Travis Ford restarts the Oklahoma State program after the Sutton family was ousted.
Predicted Champion.Texas (NCAA #1). Although Texas hoped DJ Augustin wouldn’t leave Austin for the NBA, he did. The Horns return four of five starters, though, (AJ Abrams, Conner Atchley, Damion James and Justin Mason) and most of the team that made it last season to the Elite Eight. AJ Abrams can hit a shot quickly and from anywhere. He is the top returning scorer in the Big 12 (16.5 ppg). Without Augustin, Texas will be relying on Dogus Balbay to run the point. Unfortunately, Balbay is returning from an injury and played on a Turkish club team with players who received money. However, Abrams is also an option at point guard and feels confident that he can run the team. The frontcourt is solid with veterans James (12/10 last season) and Atchley. Height doesn’t always equal playing ability, but when you have four players on the roster that are over 6’10” (Atchley, Clint Chapman, Dexter Pittman and Matt Hill) they have the ability to be physical underneath. The thing that sets Texas apart from the other Big 12 teams is their NCAA Tournament and coaching experience compared to the other contenders. I expect Texas to take it a step further this year and make a Final Four appearance.
NCAA Tournament Teams.
Kansas (NCAA #4). Some might think that I am crazy for predicting Kansas to finish second in the Big 12 this season with only 2 players coming back with significant playing time (Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich). Kansas will have seven newcomers to the program and some will be expected to be big players right away including juco All-American Mario Little, freshman twins Markieff and Marcus Morris and freshman guard Tyshawn Taylor. Expect that there will be some growing pains. However, Kansas is a beneficiary in scheduling, not only during the non-conference season, but in the Big 12 schedule as well. The Jayhawks are participating in the CBE Classic that has them playing preliminary games at home and the semis/finals in Kansas City which is also basically at home. Then in Big 12 play, they play the North schedule which means that they’ll play at Baylor and at Oklahoma only once, play Texas in Lawrence, while those three South teams have to play each other twice. Playing at Allen Fieldhouse is not an easy task which makes their schedule amenable to success. The Jayhawks will lose some early non-conference games and probably games they should not, but will be solid come conference and post-season time. The main cogs of the team that won the National Championship last year played together as freshmen and struggled early, but turned out to be one of the big stories as the season went along. Similarly to that group, this season I see KU only getting past the first round of the NCAAs.
Oklahoma(NCAA #5). The media has picked Oklahoma to win the conference, Blake Griffin to be POY and Willie Warren to be the ROY. Warren was the leading scorer in the McDonalds All-American game and can seriously dunk. If you want to see some of the talent Warren has to offer, check out this dunk. Along with Griffin and talented freshman Warren, the rest of the team will be full of role players. With so much of the focus on Griffin and Warren, that means that several other players need to step up their play to give Oklahoma additional options along with those two gifted players. One of those players that might make an impact is 6’9” UCLA transfer Ryan Wright. Jeff Capel is a capable coach, but his 3rd year in the conference will keep them from winning the conference. However, expectations are high and I expect Oklahoma to reach the Sweet 16.
Baylor (NCAA #6). Baylor is a team that returns its top eight scorers from last season led by Curtis Jerrells (15.3 ppg). They were the Big 12’s highest scoring team and who could forget the epic non-televised 5 OT game with Texas A&M last season. Kevin Rogers, LaceDarius Dunn and Henry Dugat are scoring machines that provide a depth of experience. A senior-laden team, Scott Drew has built this team from scratch and is creating dividends by making he NCAA Tournament for the first time in two decades. But Baylor will not win the conference because their defense is suspect and their frontcourt will need to improve. However, they tasted the feeling of the NCAA Tournament and got knocked out right away, but it will be different this year and I expect that they will make the Tourney again and at least win one game.
Oklahoma St. (NCAA #7). The Cowboys still have enough in the cupboard to make it to the NCAA Tournament even though they will break in first-year coach Travis Ford. They are a little thin on the inside but return their leading scorer, James Anderson, and 80% of their scoring. Having an up-tempo style that Ford likes to run will help minimize the frontcourt deficiencies. They should do well enough to make it to the NCAAs, but will probably be bounced in the first round.
Texas A&M (NCAA #9).Mark Turgeon in his 2nd year will be able to make one more run with the players that Billy Gillispie left behind before heading to Kentucky. It remains to be seen if Turgeon will be able to recruit the right players to fit into playing in the Big 12. Coming from the Valley, it is a big transition to try recruiting the right players for the large conference schools (note: Bruce Weber (Illinois), Matt Painter (Purdue), Greg McDermott (Iowa St.)). Though I see A&M sneaking into the NCAAs, this team could very well find itself in the NIT next March.
Nebraska (NCAA #12). Nebraska will be playing small ball this year and more in the up-tempo style that Doc Sadler would like to play, but the lack of an inside presence and a weak non-conference schedule will put them squarely on the bubble of the NCAA tournament. This team could realistically have only one loss coming into conference play. It has everyone coming back except for Aleks Maric who was their productive center, but even the newcomers were around the team and know the system as four players redshirted last season. Having the confidence-building games will bring Nebraska into conference play on a high and they’ll benefit by playing in the North division, but they will struggle when they have a stretch of four games against South teams and Kansas. However, the Huskers will surprise some people this year, finish 7th in the conference and sneak into the NCAAs as one of the last at-large bids.
NIT Teams.
Missouri (NIT). The pieces appear to be in place in Columbia for the Missouri Tigers to start making some strides to return to the spotlight again but the depth is not there to run a full court, high pressure defense for Mike Anderson’s system to be completely successful. They will have some success early in the season, but they will be tired by the time they get to conference play and will fall off from the picture. They will be the last team into the NIT.
Kansas St. (NIT/CBI). Michael Beasley and Bill Walker are not there anymore so this team will have some significant challenges to replace those players. They have a somewhat soft non-conference schedule except for the Las Vegas Invitational which will build up their win total, but will fall short in the Big 12 race to be considered for the NCAAs. If they do not do well enough for the NIT, they will be in the CBI for the postseason.
Others.
Iowa St.Greg McDermott is still getting his feet wet in his 3rd year as the roster has had a total turnover in the past two seasons (seven new players last year and another six this year). Like Turgeon, it is hard to tell if he’s getting the right recruits to compete in the Big 12.
Texas Tech. Although Pat Knight received the keys to the team mid-season last year, this team will struggle as they try to find their identity and whether they decide to implement a whole new scheme or keep with what Bobby Knight established and the players that were recruited for his scheme.
Colorado.Jeff Bzdelik is in year two of a total rebuild of this team, as eight players have left the team since Bzdelik arrived in Boulder in 2007. They will probably start several freshman who will be overwhelmed. Their offense is yet to be established as they try to run clock to keep the score in the 50s. There are too many things going against the Buffs from being a factor this year.
Important Games. The Big 12 has a great advantage in that they are key players in several major exempt tournaments this year that they can make a splash in:
Texas—Maui Invitiational
Oklahoma—Preseason NIT
Baylor—Anaheim 76 Classic
Kansas—CBE Classic
Oklahoma St—Old Spice Classic
Kansas St.—Las Vegas Invitational
Colorado (Rainbow Classic)
Missouri (Puerto Rico Tipoff)
Texas Tech (Legends Classic)
Texas A&M (South Padre)
Also some great non-conference matchups as a part of the PAC-10/Big 12 Challenge:
Oklahoma vs. USC (12.04.08)
Texas vs. UCLA (12.04.08)
Kansas @ Arizona (12.23.08)
It is always a chore to get a large conference school to go on the road to play on a smaller team’s home court, but here are the road tests the Big 12 is taking on this year (not neutral site):
Nebraska @ TCU (11.19.08)
Kansas St. @ Cleveland St. (11.22.08)
Iowa St. @ Northern Iowa (12.03.08)
Texas Tech @ Lamar (12.13.08)
Oklahoma St. @ Texas A&M-CC (12.14.08)
Texas Tech @ UTEP (12.17.08)
Iowa St. @ Houston (12.18.08)
Oklahoma @ Rice (12.22.08)
Texas A&M @ Rice (12.31.08)
Colorado @ SMU (01.05.09)
Conference Key Games. These games will decide the conference champ:
Texas @ Oklahoma (01.12.09)
Baylor @ Oklahoma (01.24.09)
Texas @ Baylor (01.27.09)
Kansas @ Baylor (02.02.09)
Oklahoma @ Baylor (02.11.09)
Oklahoma @ Texas (02.21.09)
Kansas @ Oklahoma (02.23.09)
Baylor @ Texas (03.02.09)
Texas @ Kansas (03.07.09)
Neat-O Stats.
4-The number of 20-win seasons in Baylor’s 102-year history.
5-Texas is one of just one of five schools to advance to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament in four of the last six years (Duke, UConn, Kansas, Pitt)
51-4—This is Kansas’ record in the last 55 games dating back to 2006-07 when Kansas lost to UCLA in the Elite Eight. Their only losses since then leading up to their NCAA Championship last year were to Texas, Kansas St. and Oklahoma St. last season.
65 Team Era. The teams in this conference are a combined 268-222 in the NCAA Tournament with 35 Final Four appearances and five National Championships. As the Big 12 conference, their first National Championship was with Kansas last season (the others were as the Big 8, which merged into the Big 12 in 1996-97). The conference’s record in this era is 161-112 (.590), which puts it roughly on par with the SEC as a major conference. Where the league has struggled (until last year, of course) was winning national titles. Only KU in 1998 and 2008 have won championships during this era.
Final Thoughts. The Big 12 will be a top heavy league this year and in some minds might be down compared to years past. It will have four strong teams that will easily make the NCAA tournament and then there is a log jam between 5-9 on who will step up to either make the NCAA or settle for the NIT for the post season. It will be interesting to see if Texas will finally outlive the hype that is given to them each year to make it to the Final Four and be in line to play for the National Championship. Oklahoma is poised to make a run, but if Griffin gets hurt, will they still be able to win games? It will be interesting to see how Kansas does after winning the championship the year before but losing so much to not be considered able to repeat. With 10 of the 12 teams in the conference participating in high profile early season tournaments, the Big 12’s season will be defined on how those teams do in those tournaments. If they are successful, then they will be the talk of this basketball season. If they fail miserably, expect them to get fewer teams into the Big Dance than they have the last few years.
Still trying to get caught up on newsworthy items from the last few weeks…
Coach K, fresh off his gold medal coaching victory with Team USA, says that from now on, he’s going to enjoy wins at Duke more.
Kansas’ best returning player, Sherron Collins, apparently showed up for KU’s Labor Day trip to Canada fat and out of shape. Bill Self was not pleased, benching the point guard for the trip. The good news for Self and KU is that their highly-regarded twin recruits, Marcus and Markieff Morris, were declared eligible to play this season.
Smart, fellas. KU national champions Mario Chalmers and Darrell Arthur got some greenery and some females up in their rooms at the NBA Rookie Transition Program (where the dangers of such issues as greenery and females are ostensibly discussed), leading to a $20k fine for each of them.
Oklahoma freshman Willie Warren has already made an impression with his mouth, apparently.
New Mexico State’s itinerant forward, Herb Pope, will transfer to Seton Hall. He is asking for a medical waiver (the “Tyler Smith Rule”) so that he can play this season. Mizzou’s Keon Lawrence is also transferring to Seton Hall.
Well, that’s disappointing. UNC-Asheville’s 7’7 behemoth Kenny George will likely miss the season after another foot surgery.
Jeff Goodman checks in on Pat Knight as he begins his first full season as the head man at Texas Tech.
Gary Parrish has a nice insight piece on how mid-major programs strategize recruiting against the big boys on the summer circuit.
Not quite the SEC deal, but get ready to see more WAC basketball on ESPN beginning next year
A post today from the most entertaining Syracuse sports blog Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician got us thinking about a couple of seemingly disparate things today.
First, is there any more difficult impossible charge for a college athlete to shed than that of some kind of sexual assault? Similarly, is there any more difficult impossible charge for an institution and the police to prove than that of some kind of sexual assault (eliminating the outright rapes involving DNA, of course)? Usually all that anyone can seem to agree upon is that something happened involving a player and an unnamed woman. How far that something went and whether it was consensual or a simple misunderstanding often involves convolution that would make Robin Lopez’s lafro look stick-straight in comparison.
How Twisted and Convoluted?
We can think of a couple of recent examples where the he-said/she-said repartee ultimately resulted in a slightly uncomfortable exoneration of a player’s name, where everyone sorta shrugs their shoulders, looks around and wonders exactly what the hell happened while simultaneously hoping that it doesn’t impact next year’s team. Kentucky’s Chuck Hayes is but one example. Kansas’ Sherron Collins another. Need we even mention Kobe Bean’s douche d’amour in Eagle, CO? And now we encounter the trio of Syracuse’s Jonny Flynn, Scoop Jardine and Rick Jackson, each of whom was accused of playing a role in a sexual assault on the Syracuse campus last fall. Flynn is arguably Cuse’s top returning player, and Jardine/Jackson are both contributors whose roles should increase next season.
Come On Ladies, It Was Only a Kiss…
Reading through the grand jury account (filtered through the Syracuse Post-Standard’s news report) is a lot like watching hockey on tv – you know the puck is down there somewhere, but you can’t really follow it until it hits something. Depending on who you ask, the accuser is a) not seeking criminal prosecution; b) seeking criminal prosecution; c) is no longer claiming she was a victim of sexual assault; d) is claiming that she was a victim of sexual assault; e) being treated as a pawn amongst her mother and the university. In other words, about as clear as Mudd.
Ultimately there was a grand jury proceeding, and the accuser testified at the hearing. She must have apparently been laughed out of the room due to the fact that, according to the old legal adage that a grand jury will indict a ham sandwich, the accuser’s story did not rise to ham sandwich level. According to Troy Nunes, Syracuse University will continue with its own internal disciplinary proceedings in this matter (on what evidence, we’d love to hear).
Juli Needs to Put the Screws to Jim Again
The other thing that this post got us thinking about was Jim Boeheim’s program in general. We’ve a notion that Boeheim should be called Mail It In-heim for the way he’s been handling the Orange in the years since his only Carmelo-led championship. With his hot MILF wife and his secure ring finger, does Jimmy B. have the drive to push beyond mediocrity anymore (we were going to compare him to Gary Williams at Maryland, but realized quickly that GW deserves his own category of underachievement)?
Consider:
Three of Boeheim’s eleven 10+ loss seasons in 32 years as a head coach have come in the last three years (12, 11, and 14 losses, respectively). Last year’s 14 losses were the most for a Jim Boeheim-coached team EVER.
Before last year, the 1980-81 and 1981-82 seasons were the last period where Syracuse had not gone to the NCAAs in consecutive years. (granted, Cuse got screwed royally in 2006-07, but they were still a bubble team) It could have been three in a row if not for G-Mac’s miraculous Big East Tourney title run in 2006.
In fact, Syracuse hasn’t won an NCAA Tournament game since 2004, its longest streak of such misery since prior to Boeheim’s arrival in 1976.
Boeheim’s winning percentage from 1976-2003 is .743. His percentage from 2004-present is .694, and that includes four bogus NIT wins played in the friendly confines of the Carrier Dome.
Honestly, the only highlights of the last five seasons since the national championship were the 2005 and 2006 Big East Tournament titles. That’s great and all, but it’s not how Syracuse basketball built its name (both of those were Cinderella runs).
Perhaps this is old news for Syracuse faithful, but it really surprised us when we took a look at the numbers. With an eligible Jonny Flynn and Paul Harris in addition to a healthy Eric Devendorf, there is potential for Syracuse to break its stranglehold on an NIT bid this season; but we’re not sure that Boeheim is getting as much from his players as he once did. We’ll definitely be keeping a closer eye on upstate New York this year.
Bad Santas. Portland St. 77, Gonzaga 70. Santa Claus made an early visit to the environs of Cincinnati, OH, and Spokane, WA, tonight, but instead of leaving toys and treats for the tots of Xavier and Gonzaga Universities, respectively, he left a couple of lumps of coal and another undisclosed brownish substance in their stockings. AP #7 Gonzaga and AP # 14 Xavier, both coming off of devastating Saturday losses (in different ways), were unable to shake off their hangovers from losses to UConn and Duke and instead dropped home games tonight that sent shocks throughout mid-major America. The more surprising upset of the two took place out west, where Gonzaga was thoroughly outplayed by the scrappier, guttier Portland St. Vikings. PSU was led by 5’6 Jeremiah Dominguez, who hit seven threes for a sick line of 25/6/5 assts. Yes, a guy shorter than you outrebounded all but Gonzaga’s 6’11 Austin Daye (9 boards) and 6’10 Josh Heytvelt (8) in this game. Portland St., who has losses to Hampton and Cal Poly on its resume, never wavered in the face of the superior athleticism and size of Gonzaga. GU, should have come out ready to eat glass in this one, but instead they allowed their heartbreaking loss to UConn over the weekend to mentally affect their play tonight. Would that have happened to UNC? Pitt? Duke? UCLA? Gonzaga needs to get tougher mentally. Butler 74, Xavier 65. Wasn’t Butler supposed to be rebuilding this year? Amazingly, eight of Brad Stevens’ top nine Bulldogs are freshmen and sophomores, whereas XU starts two juniors and one senior. So how is it that Butler was able to come into the Cintas Center and earn a victory in a location where Xavier had won its last fifteen games? Standard Butler-issue hardnosed defense and poise. Butler was able to keep Xavier under control from three (7-24) while also winning the battle of ball control (-7 turnovers) in a tough game that Xavier will regret losing come March. Matt Howard (19/14) and Gordon Hayward (19/10) both provided double-doubles, but the key stat of the game may have been Xavier’s 12-22 from the line. The 198th best FT-shooting team in America didn’t help their cause tonight, several times failing to convert both FT opportunities down the stretch. If Gonzaga and Xavier want to be taken seriously as “high mids” vying for the Final Four, they cannot afford to lose home games like these.
