We don’t put any much stock in Exhibition Games, because, well, they’re exhibitions. But maybe we should – last year, Findlay defeated Ohio St. and Grand Valley St. beat Michigan St., and both of those teams had worse seasons than expected (OSU in particular – NIT). Someone should do a correlation on this. Anyway, here are some exhibition tidbits for the discerning fan…
Syracuse 76, Cal St. LA 55. Jonny Flynn led with 13/6 assts, as Cuse celebrated the returns of Andy Rautins and Eric Devendorf from injuries. Red Flag – SU was 10-26 from the foul line.
Florida 108, Warner 49. Alex Tyus led the way with 16/14, in a game that was a clear mismatch from start to finish.
Patrick Marshall of Bluejay Basketball is the RTC correspondent for the Missouri Valley and Big 12 Conferences.
Predicted Order of Finish:
Creighton (27-4, 15-3)
Southern Illinois (25-6, 14-4)
Bradley (22-8, 12-6)
Illinois St. (22-8, 10-8)
Drake (21-10, 10-8)
Indiana St. (17-13, 7-11)
Wichita St. (15-15, 6-12)
Northern Iowa (15-15, 6-12)
Evansville (14-15, 6-12)
Missouri St. (13-17, 4-14)
WYN2K. Last season, Drake was predicted to finish 9th in the league and ended up having a dream season, winning the conference and the conference tournament, only to be knocked out by Western Kentucky in the first round of the NCAA tournament in a thrilling game. Most coaches from the Missouri Valley after a successful season jump ship and embrace the hype of their ability to move up into the major conferences – Steve Alford (Iowa at the time), Bruce Weber (Illinois), Matt Painter (Purdue), Greg McDermott (Iowa St.), Mark Turgeon (Texas A&M) and now Drake’s head man, Keno Davis. Davis jumped at the Providence job 26 days after taking Drake to its first NCAA Tournament in many, many years. The question that needs to be asked is whether Drake was that good or if the Valley was down last year. It was probably a combination of both. In the past, the Missouri Valley Conference has had multiple teams make the NCAA Tournament and the known teams in the conference will be making their return. Creighton has been in the postseason (NCAA or NIT) a conference-record eleven straight seasons and Southern Illinois last year broke their six-year streak of getting into the NCAA Tournament. Creighton has a ton of experience coming back whereas Southern Illinois is going back to their roots of tough defense and a solid floor general. Drake will not reach the same level as last year as they have their third different head coach in as many years. If Drake didn’t have the year they did last year, the story of the Valley would have been Illinois St. First year coach Tim Jankovich (who was an assistant at Kansas) was able to take advantage of the recruits of former coach Porter Moser and led this team to an unbelievable season themselves, but got destroyed on national TV in the Missouri Valley Tournament Championship game by Drake (79-49) and that was probably what kept them from being considered for the Big Dance. Valley Preseason Player of the Year Osiris Eldridge will be back to try to lead the Redbirds to another successful season. After getting to the finals of the inaugural CBI postseason tournament, Bradley is a tested team with experience that will make some noise this year. Former Creighton assistant and second-year head coach Kevin McKenna has started to turn the Indiana St. team around and will show improvement. Gregg Marshall is still trying to have the same success with Wichita St. that he had at Winhrop, but still has a lot of work to do. Northern Iowa gets out of the gate a ltitle behind with several injured players, one suspended for the first three games and one waiting until semester’s end to become eligible. MVC cheerleader and resident little man Barry Hinson is out at Missouri St. and did not leave a lot behind. Evansville is Evansville, although they have the advantage of returning all five starters from last season.
Predicted Champion.Creighton (NCAA #9). Creighton is the obvious choice as they have eight players returning that played 12 or more minutes a game. They also led the nation in bench scoring last year and there is enough talent on this team that the two players leading the nation in scoring off the bench without receiving a start (Booker Woodfox and Cavel Witter) may still not start this season. P’Allen Stinnett is the Jays’ POY candidate that can amaze and wow people with his athleticism, but will need to be a leader this season and play with emotion like he is known for (keeping it contained to keep from bugging officials and unnecessary fouls). Justin Carter comes in from the JUCO ranks as a scorer who may be able to step into the starting lineup sooner rather than later. The frontcourt may be a little suspect since they only have three players over 6’8 but it appears they have been to the weight room and if they make the impact as expected, they will solidify this team. Coach Dana Altman plans to have the high-pressure full-court defense back in motion this year to create turnovers. The veteran coach, the returning player experience and the ability to play high-pressure defense is what will cause Creighton to rise to the top. Also having eleven straight 20+ wins in a season is a streak that this team will not want to break. This team should be able to get to the NCAA Tournament and win a couple of games to continue to build this program. Here’s POY candidate P’Allen Stinnett rising up for a dunk.
NCAA/NIT Teams.
Southern Illinois(NCAA #13). SIU had a high-profile non-conference schedule last season due to recent success, but came up short in justifying their hype. Fortunately, the Salukis still have a high-profile non-conference schedule, but at the expense of playing marquee home games and instead going on the road to try to regain their notoriety. They have the opportunity to be the featured team with the likes of Duke, Michigan and UCLA by being a part of the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic if they win their home regional and advance to New York. They are also part of the John Wooden Tradition game against St. Mary’s. So the opportunities are there to be back in the spotlight for the Valley. SIU will be led by senior point guard Bryan Mullins who was the Valley Defensive Player of the year and a solid leader. The supporting cast is hyped as SIU’s best recruiting class ever and they had the opportunity to go to Canada over Labor Day to get familiar and some early playing time. However a little blow came after the Canada trip when 3-point specialist Joshua Bone (at least he has seemed like that every time I have watched him) had a tough trip and decided to leave the team once they returned. That is one less player with experience. So there will be a bit of a learning curve this season for Southern Illinois, but their tradition and fan base will keep them in contention and they should have enough to make it back to the NCAAs after settling for the NIT last season.
Bradley (NIT). People reading this who are knowledgeable of the Valley probably think I am crazy for having Bradley ranked so high compared to their own views and what other publications have written. However, it was three short seasons ago that Bradley was in the Sweet 16. Like it or not Jim Les has developed quite a program with Bradley. Last season because of injuries, suspensions and other various reasons, the actual starting lineup that was expected to be on the floor didn’t occur very much, but last year’s team was a solid team. Being able to be a part of the initial CBI basketball tournament gave them the chance to play longer than most Valley teams and an opportunity to improve in areas for this season. With the trio of point guard Sam Maniscalco, guard Andrew Warren and forward Theron Wilson provide a good starting group of players that if the newcomers gel could make some noise. However, Bradley probably does not have enough firepower to win the Valley this season, and are otherwise borderline in making the NCAA tournament so they probably will be in the NIT.
Illinois St. (NIT). The Illinois St. defense was a stalwart last season as they were 11th nationally in points allowed per game (59.3). Osiris Aldridge will be looked upon to continue his conference leading scoring along with the additions of transfers Champ Oguchi (Oregon) and Landon Shipley (Austin Peay). The Redbirds’ frontcourt will be decimated to start the year as forwards BrandonSampay and Bobby Hill are expected to be out until January due to injuries. So this team will just be starting to gel under a cupcake non-conference schedule and these players will be coming back once conference season starts. It may take a while for this team then to adjust to the higher level of play and integrating these players back into the lineup which will keep Illinois St. from returning to the Big Dance this season. The non-conference slate that has an RPI average of 215 is well below standards of the Valley and will not jump onto anyone’s page as an at-large team for the NCAA Tournament. Unless they win the conference tournament, it is the NIT for them.
Drake (NIT).Mark Phelps takes over the Bulldogs and has now been tasked with high expectations after last year’s remarkable season. Gone is the point guard, Adam Emmenecker, who really made things gel for Drake last season. However they return “Bucky” Cox who likes to shoot threes more than play inside and All-MVC pick Josh Young at guard. Keno Davis did not go too deep into his bench last season so a lot of players come in inexperienced. Also, Davis did not really talk to players extensively and sort of let the players play their game. On the other hand, new coach Phelps is more of a talker, telling the team the things they need to do that may take some adjustment. Both the coach and the team like the 3-ball so that will help the team stay on a common ground, but the moving back of the 3-point line will affect them if they live and die by the three. The Bulldogs are the hunted and not the hunters this season and will suffer through a year of transition and will probably settle for the NIT this season. In the meantime, Drake fans will still have this to remember…
Others.
Indiana St. This team took a hit when its leading returning scorer Marico Stinson unexpectedly left the team and the university, but is on an upswing with a solid coach. Look for them to make some noise next season.
Wichita St. Only one returning starter and several new players will still try to find an identity while Gregg Marshall tries to look like he is not mad at the world.
Northern Iowa. UNI gets out of the gate a little slowly with injuries and players missing from the team that won’t be able to play right away. With coach Ben Jacobsen on the hot seat, he cannot afford to have another mediocre season after what Greg McDermott did with the team before Jacobsen’s tenure. It may show the recruiting or coaching ability is not there.
Evansville. This team is still rebuilding as half the team is still freshman and sophomores though they have an advantage of returning all five starters. However, they will need a lot of help inside and that is not there yet.
Missouri St. The most exciting thing Missouri St. fans have to look forward to is the new $67M JQH Arena.
RPI Boosters / Key Games.
The key to this conference getting multiple bids is to have success against BCS and high mid-major teams. Unfortunately, home games for the Valley teams are far and few between.
Missouri St. @ Auburn (11.14.08)
Bradley @ Florida (CBE Classic) (11.16.08)
Southern Illinois @ 2K Sports College Classic vs. Duke and Michigan/UCLA, but of course have to get out of their regional to get to New York. (11.20-21.08)
Missouri St. vs. Arkansas (11.22.08)
Wichita St. @ Old Spice classic vs. Georgetown and Maryland, Michigan St., or Gonzaga. (11.27-30.08)
Northern Iowa vs. Marquette (Chicago Invitational) (11.28.08)
Northern Iowa vs. Auburn (Chicago Invitational) (11.29.08)
Indiana St. @ Depaul (11.29.08)
Drake vs. Vanderbilt (Cancun Tourney) (11.29.08)
Wichita St. @ Texas Tech (12.03.08)
Creighton @ St. Josephs (12.06.08)
Indiana St @ Louisville (12.06.08)
Bradley @ Michigan St. (12.07.08)
Creighton vs. Dayton (12.10.08)
Indiana St. @ Purdue (12.13.08)
Evansville @ North Carolina (12.18.08)
Southern Illinois v. St. Mary’s (12.20.08) (Wooden Tradition)
Creighton vs. Depaul (in Vegas possibly) (12.23.08)
Drake and Northern Iowa also benefit from a state law requiring Iowa and Iowa St. to play both Valley teams each year which adds and extra large conference school to their schedule.(ed. note: apparently this is a myth… thanks, readers)
Then you have the key conference games that will decide the conference champ.
Creighton vs. Southern Illinois (01.14.09)
Bradley vs. Illinois St. (01.29.09)
Southern Illinois vs. Creighton (02.14.09)
Drake vs. Southern Illinois (02.25.09)
Creighton vs. Illinois St. (02.26.09)
Drake vs. Bradley (02.28.09)
Neat-O Stat. Home Sweet Home. The Missouri Valley Conference is known for defending its home court. Southern Illinois is 92-6 in overall home games since 2001-02 and is 61-2 against conference opponents at home during that same period. During that same period, Creighton is 97-17 at home. Since Creighton opened the Qwest Center in 2003-04, the Jays are 66-13 at home. These are just a couple of examples of why major conference teams don’t want to visit Valley schools.
65 Team Era. The MVC is a multiple-bid league, having before last season gone a decade between single-bid years (1998 to 2008). In the 24-year history of this era, the league has only gotten one bid seven times, and even got as many as four in the high-water mark of 2006. Despite an average seed of #10.2 over this period, the Valley has gone 22-45 (.329) and put seven different teams into the Sweet 16, including S. Illinois in 2007 and both Wichita St. and Bradley in 2006. What’s more, in the last six years, MVC teams play teams tough, losing by an average of 6.1 pts in their knockout games (only one double-digit loss in 14 games). We see 2008 as a one-year blip, and have no reason to believe the MVC won’t continue to put numerous teams into the Dance and have them succeed.
Final Thoughts. If Creighton plays to its potential they could easily run away with the conference and have a chance to make some noise in the Big Dance. The 2-5 spots will be a dog fight between the established Southern Illinois and the questions of the one-year wonders of Drake and Illinois St. Bradley will stick its nose in and cause a little disruption in the league similar to what Drake did last year and could be the big surprise. If the Valley teams can win their high-profile non-conference games, the league will be recognized again as a powerful conference. No significant wins by the Valley in the non-conference could unfortunately put them in obscurity for another season. However, I say to look for the Valley to be a multiple-bid league once again this season and to make an impact on the college basketball world.
Ok, we’ve got some information flowing in tonight this weekend…
The production values on these things are unbelievable, considering they’re still just glorified practices… from Georgetown…
How about Tom Crean’s first Hoosier Hysteria (Indiana)…
It looked like a great time at the Kennel (Gonzaga) on Friday night…
From Michigan State – a nasty 360-degree left dunk from Durrell Summers…
The original venue of Midnight Madness (Maryland)…
Here’s some K-State footage… what happened to that Beasley kid?
How about a little George Mason love with Michael Jackson in the background…
Dunk you very much at UConn…
Some Mackey Madness at Purdue…
Here’s an excerpt from Corey Johns, our America East correspondent, at UMBC Sports Blog with a description of their festivities on Fri. night.
Then came the dunk contest. Freshmen Brett Burrier (6-6), Jake Wasco (6-9) and Chauncey Gilliam (6-2) and junior Matt Spadafora (6-4) all took the floor for the contest. The first round Spadafora was the only one to
make both dunks sending him automatically to the finals, and the next guy was up to fan vote, and they choose Chauncey Gilliam.The finals were set and Spadafora hit is first one sending the crowd in an uproar thinking he won it right there, but Gilliam made and even more impressive shot making the crowd even crazier. With the second shot at a dunk Spadafora barely missed hitting the back of the rim and shooting the ball back out. Gilliam went on the court with the contest on the line. He ran up did a 360 hook tomahawk dunk for the win and a floor storming performance as some fans and both the men’s and women’s team’s picked him up and carried him around as he celebrated.
Josh over at Big Ten Geeks, RTC’s Big 10 correspondents, was kind enough to allow us access to some live-blogging he did last night while watching the BTN coverage…
Live-Blogging Midnight Madness in the Big Ten
Josh here, from Big Ten Geeks, blogging the Midnight Madness festivities from…my living room. But hey, I have the Big Ten Network in HD, and if you’re not one of the 12 or so households that receive the network – no fear! – I’ll be here to give you the rundown. Looks like we have Wisconsin, Purdue, Indiana, Minnesota, and Michigan State on tap.
…Jim Jackson just compared Wisconsin to the New England Patriots. I hope Marcus Landry has strong knees.
…Lots of dancing at the Night of the Grateful Red. Each of the players has a silly dance routine with a cute co-ed (dance team members? Does Wisconsin have a dance team? Does Bo Ryan coach that too?). Some are…better than others. Jared Berggren gave a rythmically-challenged dance to Vanilla Ice.
…Man, Wisconsin has a lot of tall white guys. Bo certainly has a type.
…Wisconsin fans hope Jason Bohannon has a better outside shot this season than pop-and-lock.
…Am I alone for thinking Bo Ryan bears a striking resemblance to Jon Voight? Everytime I see him, Coach Kilmer’s voice pops in my head.
…Yes, Bo danced again this year, but it wasn’t as good as last year’s Soulja Boy routine. But how can you top that?
…The festivities are tipping off in Mackey Arena. Purdue has a Mission Impossible theme going.
…Chris Kramer – not a dunker.
…BTN cuts away from the dunk competition as super-athlete Lewis Jackson starts his routine. That’s just bad scouting.
…Hey, Kramer threw one down, and it appears he’s worked his way into the finals. Well, hey, Purdue figures to rely on outside shooting anyways.
…JaJuan Johnson takes home the crown. No LewJack highlights to be seen. Color me disappointed.
…Coach Tom Crean figures that IU will shoot a lot of 3s this season. The talent certainly seems to be on the perimeter.
…Flipping over to ESPNU. It’s ex-Big Ten coach Bill Self with a blue microphone. He looks like he’s lost some weight.
…Scrimmage at Purdue. A lot of defense being played for a scrimmage. The Boilers will be tough to score on this season.
…Wild prediction time: LewJack will supplant Chris Kramer as the starting PG by the end of the season. He looks good out there.
…A lot of growing pains at Indiana. The fans are still figuring out how to cheer their coach. Right now, they’re adapting the classical two-syllable chant (“Mich-ael Jor-dan” clap clap clapclapclap) to an elongated “To-om Cre-ean.” Err, needs some work. A modest proposal: why not go with the two-syllable “TomCrean!” clapclap, or the “U-S-A! U-S-A” three syllable cheer (“Coach Tom Crean! Coach Tom Crean!”)?
..Out to the Barn now. You really have to like what Tubby’s done in a short time at Minnesota. I’m sure Billy Gillispie is a great coach, but I can’t help but feel that Kentucky chased away a good one.
…Announcers are debating whether or not Blake Hoffarber should come off the bench. Please – no! The Hoff needs minutes! It would be a mistake to relegate the best returning scorer to anything less than significant minutes.
…Why is Minnesota showing old footage of Flip Saunders runing some globetrotter-type drills?
…Every time I flip over to ESPNU to check out non-Big Ten festivities, I just get Andy Katz arguing with Adrian Branch in a studio. Madness!
…Cut to the Breslin Center, which is having a flashback night to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the 1979 championship season. Izzo hints that we might see some crazy 70s hair, mustaches, and short shorts. Hopefully Goran Suton does not partake in that last one.
…Minnesota scrimmage time! The Hoff is on the bench and…Tubby calls a timeout? He can’t help himself, he’s always got to be coaching.
…IU scrimmage time! Yeah, the Hoosiers will be short this season. Either Tom Crean is mic’ed up, or he’s just really loud. Chastising players for a lot of bad shots.
Well, that does it for the BTN’s Midnight Madness coverage. Fun night for the fans, and it means that the season is just around the corner.
From Greg Miller at S. Illinois –
Even though they’re coming off their first non-NCAA Tournament season since 2001, the 2008-09 Salukis had a good crowd on hand at the SIU Arena for this year’s version of Maroon Madness (despite it being a high school football Friday night). It was the first chance to really get a look at a big group of newcomers that have been highly touted as the best recruiting class in SIU history. From my perspective, a lot of them showed some serious potential. Kevin Dillard (2008 Illinois Mr. Basketball) didn’t score much, but his ball-handling skills show he will be able to help Bryan Mullins out a lot at the point this season. Ryan Hare is an explosive wing out of Chicago who can get the rim quick. Torres Roundtree put on a well-rounded display. He threw down an alley-oop from Mullins, drove hard to the rack for an easy lay-up and also did a good job running the break and finding the open man at the other end. He will be a welcome addition to the backcourt. Didn’t see a lot from fellow McCluer North alum Anthony Booker. But size alone, he is a monster. A legit 6’8 that will definately be able to bang in the Valley. Justin Bocot was a pleasant surprise. After sitting out last year with academic problems, Bocot is back and has some serious offensive game. He showed the ability to get the rim and knock down the long three (depsite having a knuckleball shot). All in all, it was a showcase for the freshman. And they showcased some skills. The one thing that remains to be seen is if these young ‘Dawgs can play that Chris Lowery-defense that has made SIU famous. Here is a link to some interviews from SIU Media Day and highlights from tonight’s Maroon Madness.
It’s been 193 days and nights since the Kansas Jayhawks walked off the floor with a national championship trophy held high above their heads. In the interim, we’ve debated draft stock, analyzed the new three-point line and otherwise provided the daily filler that keeps and justifies your rapt attention on this site (ahem). But now it’s time to get back to business. It’s time to start traveling on the long road to the Final Four in Detroit. It’s time to start listening for the squeaks of sparkling new Nikes on the hardwood, coaches making excuses as to why their players just aren’t ‘getting it,’ and various media idiots luminaries blather on about the strengths and weaknesses of the AASAA offense (present company excluded, of course). As of tonight, each of the nation’s 343 teams has a dream – a dream of one kind or another – whether it’s simply advancing a round or two in their conference tournament, making the Big Dance for the first time, or actually cutting down the nets at the national championship.
So let’s get it rolling tonight, with the inappropriately named Midnight Madness celebrations (who actually celebrates at Midnight anymore?), and the warm blanket security that college hoops is, once again, on the horizon.
We’ll be bringing you coverage of some of the celebrations tonight, as we get information from them around the country. ESPNU and the Big Ten Network are providing television coverage (although we don’t get either channel). If anyone goes, send us in some photos and/or videos!
Here’s a partial list of some of the most notable events.
What the hell is going on out there in the nation’s midsection? Just three short days after Savannah St. laid a second-half egg against Kansas St. to the tune of four pts in the second half (25 total for the game), Rick Majerus’ St. Louis squad put up a blistering twenty points last night in its game against George Washington. This total of sixty-nine points (49-20) set a new record for offensive futility in the shot-clock era of D1 basketball. Let’s take a quick look at the Billikens’ stats:
14.6% shooting (7-48 from the field)
5.3% 3FG shooting (1-19)
50% FT shooting (5-10)
0.35 pts per possession
leading scorer (Bryce Husak) came off the bench for 5 pts
SLU missed 23 straight shots at one point in the game
“I thought GW played tough on defense. We had some issues. You have to credit GW for playing very well. We have some issues in terms of our offensive proficiency,” Majerus said. “I tried to keep coaching the game. Sometimes you miss. We are a team that has some issues. That is why we are practicing [Friday]. We did miss some good shots, yes. Anyone can look at us and see we don’t have height, we don’t have depth.”
What gets us is that St. Louis really isn’t that bad of a team. Their record is 9-6 with a win over Southern Illinois to their credit, and their RPI ranking is #144, which puts the Billikens in the range of Maryland and Oklahoma St. Still, their offensive output is troubling in their six losses – 58, 56, 40, 39, 53, 20. We realize their tempo this year is among the slowest in the nation (#336), but clearly something isn’t being communicated well between Majerus and his players. SLU was 20-13 last season and returned four starters, so what’s up? [insert joke here about Majerus spending more time eating than coaching]
Game of the Day. #4 Kansas 76, Arizona 72. The four-days-early game between Kansas and Arizona in the inaugural Big 12/Pac-10 Hardwood Series was everything a college hoops fan could have hoped for in such a meeting between two powerhouse programs. It had stars making plays (Budinger and Rush), tightness throughout (no team had a greater than 4-pt lead in the second half), a tantalizingly close halfcourt buzzer-beater, and an overtime just to fuel the early season intensity. Our thoughts: 1) Brandon Rush (17/8) looks great for a guy who blew out his ACL a mere six months ago. He hit his first shot off the bench, took care of the ball, made both of his threes, and even threw down a couple of dunks in the OT to seal things. 2) Arizona showed a toughness we haven’t seen in a while. After getting down ten early (22-12), we expected the Wildcats to pack it in and take their 20+ pt beating while the Phog was rocking – but that didn’t happen. Instead, Arizona clawed back to tie the game at halftime, and led the game deep into the second half. We’re not sure that happens last year. 3) Chase Budinger’s (27/6) potential is mesmerizing – he always seems to be playing better than he actually is playing. For example, he hit six threes tonight, but only shot 10-23 from the field. 4) Arizona may be playing tougher, but they’re still playing dumb with the ball. 25 turnovers (14 by their starting guards) at Allen FH won’t cut it – given that stat, it’s amazing they had a chance to win the game in regulation. 5) Kansas is just scary when it comes to the talent they can put on the court. No surprise there, but this is a 30+ win team that could win the national title if things break right for them.
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Other Games We Saw. NC State 69, #25 Villanova 68. The finals of the Old Spice Classic championship was another close game with a particularly insane ending. After battling toe-to-toe for most of the game (the biggest lead by either team was 7 pts), it appeared that Villanova was going to take the prize when Dante Cunningham tipped in a missed shot with 2.2 seconds remaining to give Nova a 1-pt lead. NC State then passed the ball length-of-the-court to Gavin Grant, who stepped behind the three-point line and was fouled in a ticky-tack call on the shot attempt by Cunningham with 0.4 seconds on the clock. Grant made two of three to put NCSU up by one, so it was then Villanova’s turn to throw the ball to the other end in hopes of a miracle. And they damn near got it – knowing they only had time for a tip, Villanova made two tips at the basket (the second attempt was very close and got off before the red light illuminated, according to our Tivo slo-mo) and neither dropped. Still, it was an exciting ending to a competitive game. Courtney Fells led the way for NCSU with 21, but it was a balanced attack from the Wolfpack (Grant & Hickson – 15 each; McCauley – 10) that led to the win. Villanova was paced by freshman Corey Fisher’s 21 pts, but special notoriety should go to Casiem Drummond, who with 17 rebounds singlehandedly kept numerous possessions alive for the Wildcats.
USC 70, #18 S. Illinois 45. This game completely shocked us – not just the result but the margin of victory (SIU’s worst loss in seven years). The usually disciplined Salukis couldn’t get anything to drop (eFG% = 38%), while the Men of Troy, led by Davon Jefferson (20/5), simply could not miss (eFG% = 65%). We’d watched two or three USC games already this year, and each time they looked uninterested, umotivated and overall underwhelming. Not tonight. Perhaps it had something to do with OJ Mayo’s benching (for what reason, Tim Floyd?), but the takeaway is that USC outclassed a reliably good team in every possible way tonight. Randal Falker is the only player who showed up for SIU, producing 17/12 for his efforts.
After 12 seconds of hand-wringing and almost twice as much debate, the first regular season Blogpoll is out. Make sure to tip your local bloggers for this public service. The complete ballots (we’re up to 11 bloggers now!) are located here.
Justifying Our Ballot. We moved UCLA into the #1 spot and dropped Kansas from there simply because we watched both teams play several times this week and just feel like something is off with the Jayhawks. Maybe it’s Brandon Rush not back yet, maybe we’re just seeing things. But for now, we think UCLA is the better team. Memphis and Indiana also impressed us more than KU, so we moved them ahead also (and we expect UNC to do so tonight). Similarly, we watched parts of all three Oregon games over the weekend and felt they were underrated at #10. Same goes for Duke (up to #13 from #20) and Stanford (#15 to #12). The only other teams we dropped were simply a spot or two in order to make room for teams we watched play and thought deserved the higher rankings. The first few weeks will be like this, as we work to adjust based on expectations v. performance.
Two Left Out. The two teams we voted for on our ballot who were left out were #20 Syracuse and #25 Gardner-Webb. What can we say, we’re a sucker for those kickass Orange unis. And we made a vigorous pitch for the inclusion of GW as a symbolic #25 (similar to what App St. got in the AP poll for football after beating Michigan), but nobody was listening.
Early Season Creep. Obviously, this early in the season there isn’t going to be a lot of movement unless someone loses, but we’re seeing a little bit of creep in either direction with a few teams. The top seven teams are the same, but clearly the bloggers took Michigan St.‘s exhibition loss to Grand Valley St. into account by dropping the Spartans from #8 to #13 (interestingly, we only dropped MSU one spot on our ballot). Oregon, Indiana, Duke, Stanford, Davidson and VCU were rewarded with slight bumps up the list, while Marquette and Mississippi St. were downgraded for, um, what exactly (it wasn’t us!)? NC State (grrrr…) and Southern Illinois entered the blogpoll in place of A-Sun upset victims Kentucky (who still shockingly had two blogpoll votes) and USC.
Where’s the Argument? We added the Standard Deviation column (Std Dev) this week to show where bloggers were having significantly disparate opinions on teams. A high number (> 5.0) represents substantial variance between how the bloggers ranked a team. A low number (< 3.0) represents consistency in the strength of the ranking. So here are the teams that bloggers are having the most trouble getting a handle on.
Michigan St. (stdev = 7.39; range = 6 to NR)
Stanford (6.04; 10 to NR)
Indiana (5.53; 4 to NR)
Gonzaga (5.52; 10 to NR)
NC State (5.36; 12 to NR)
The top 4 are tight, though. Kansas has the lowest collective ranking among Memphis, UNC, UCLA and itself at #7 in one ballot.
Memphis (stdev = 0.81; range = 1 to 3)
Kansas (1.19; 2 to 7)
UNC (1.21; 1 to 5)
UCLA (1.60; 1 to 6)
It’ll still be a few more weeks before we get a good sense of who the favorites will actually be this season.
UNC is #1, yet UCLA garnered more first-place votes (12-10).
9 of the top 10 match the online Blogpoll – the one difference is that coaches like Indiana more than Marquette. Fwiw, so do we. (come on blogpollers! We should represent the non-MSM contrarian voice!)
Did the coaches go with the “name” programs over Calipari’s squad at #1? Interesting that the bloggers voted Memphis a solid #1 while UNC/UCLA were left behind.
Only one coach agreed with us that Kansas is preseason #1 (Bill Self?), although we aren’t predicting KU to win it all.
Buy:Oregon (mighty mite Tajuan Porter!), Gonzaga (magic mushroomania), Texas (hey mr. DJ put that record on…), S. Illinois (you sexy mother Falker!), Davidson (spicy Curry), VCU (Eric Maynor alone is worth more than five votes).
Sell:Duke (anxiously awaiting the Brian Zoubek experiment), USC (Young+Pruitt > Mayo+Jefferson), NC State (folks, they were 5-11 in the ACC last year!!), Alabama (no Steele = no chance).
Conference breakdown (top 25, all 54 teams receiving votes): Pac-10 (6, 8), Big East (5, 8), ACC (3, 6), Big 12 (3, 5), SEC (3, 6), Big 10 (2, 5), MVC (1, 2), CUSA (1, 1), WCC (1, 1), Colonial (0, 3), WAC (0, 3), A10 (0, 2), Mountain West (0, 2), Horizon (0, 1), Southern (0, 1).
Word to the Colonial and WAC with three teams each receiving votes even though none are in the Top 25.
Is there any value in this meaningless poll whatsoever? Some. Last year the top 6 (and 8 of the top 10) in the preseason coaches poll finished in the top 11 of the final poll (before the NCAA Tournament), and every team in the final top 11 had been ranked somewhere in the top 25 before the season started. Additionally, all four F4 teams were ranked in last year’s preseason top 8 (#1 Florida, #4 Ohio St., #5 UCLA, #8 Georgetown).
Only six of the preseason top 25 last year didn’t make the NCAA Tournament (#7 LSU, #12 Alabama, #16 Washington, #18 Connecticut, #20 Syracuse, #23 Creighton), so that’s fair evidence that the coaches (at least last year) have a bit of a clue. Note we said only a bit.
Tough week at Pepperdine. First, their top returning player Kingsley Costain was dismissed from the school; now they don’t have anywhere to practice due to the insane fires in Malibu.
Now that Maryland has instituted a new alcohol awareness program, what’s the over/under on some Terp like James Gist getting a DWI? Or maybe it’ll be our favorite tool, Gus Gilchrist? He committed to the Terps over the weekend and will play next season.
Maybe Purdue’s Gordon Watt should transfer to Maryland now – he was kicked out of Purdue for a DWI last week.
In a nice gesture, the ACC renamed its Scholar-Athlete award in honor of Skip Prosser.
BYU extended head coach Dave Rose‘s contract through 2011.
Beginning next year, the Preseason NIT will guarantee each participant four games at on-campus sites, even for those teams that lose in the first two rounds.
We hadn’t seen this yet, but ESPN announced its College Gameday sites a week or two ago. We cannot wait until Jan. 26 – Creighton at S. Illinois.
Thankfully, Myles Brand says there will be no expansion of the NCAA Tournament anytime soon.
Raymond Felton didn’t help Roy after all – Iman Shumpert chose Georgia Tech over UNC and Marquette.
Andy Katz has a really interesting article about Kevin Love asking the Wizard of Westwood (who turned 97 Sunday) for advice. We like this kid already.
Thad Matta is hobbling around after back surgery this summer.
More Preseason Chatter –
ACC Media Days – the Research Triangle schools came in 1 (UNC), 2 (Duke), 3 (NC State) in the preseason conference poll.
Katz explains why Calipari opted to stay in Memphis over taking the NC State job two years ago.
DeCourcy gives USC some love for tough scheduling (even though they’re going to lose all those games), while he rates crosstown rival UCLA #1 in his poll.
STF gets us up to speed on what the mid-major conferences are bringing to the table this year.
SEC Hoops:TGTBTD chooses Jamont Gordon over Chris Lofton for SEC POY. Interesting…
Final thought – believe it or not, the Colorado Lady Buffaloes actually have a Brittany Spears and a Whitney Houston on their squad this season. Coke dealers in Boulder are already calculating their profits.
An absolute ton of newsworthy stuff to catch up on from the weekend…
2008 #1 player Greg Monroe committed to Georgetown after his visit there this weekend. It couldn’t have had anything to do with that now-ubiquitous Jerry Rice dance, could it? “Hoops” Weiss has the definitive take on how Monroe will impact the Hoyas. Above the Rim writes that Duke (who was hot-n-heavy for Monroe) isn’t used to losing out on these guys.
Lots of Midnight Madness and practice coverage from the weekend…
Huggins taking over the reins at his alma mater. (there’s an amusing wmv file floating around where Huggins is giving a speech to some WVU booster club – it’s longwinded and rambling, but the DerMarr Johnson payoff is funny)
A general roundup of MM from Lexington to Lawrence.
Sad news that former Georgia star and current surgeon Alec Kessler died of a heart attack last weekend.
Injuries, suspensions and dismissals:
Gonzaga’s Josh Heytvelt was reinstated on Friday but will miss the first week of practice due to shroom farming foot pain.
Louisville’s Juan Palacios injured his ankle and may have to redshirt his senior season.
Brandon Rush reports that he’s on target for his Dec. 1 return to Kansas.
Georgia suspended three players for not attending classes, including top two scorers Takais Brown (9 games) and Mike Mercer (15 games). Seriously, fellas? SEC Hoops:TGTBTD has the take on how this will affect the Bulldogs.
Northwestern’s best player Kevin Coble is taking a leave of absence to be with his sick mother.
Ball St. coach Billy Taylor booted two more players off the team, making a total of six since he was hired in August.
More Preseason goodies:
Gary Parrish and Ben Howland converse about whether the Pac-10 will have the most first round picks ever this year.
Pitino bitches about the difficulty of the unbalanced league schedule Louisville is being forced to play.
MMAS continues its comprehensive review with its non-BCS top 25.
Seth Davis asks us 20 questions, then he answers them.
