Jesse Baumgartner is an RTC columnist. His Love/Hate column will publish each week throughout the season. In this piece he’ll review the five things he loved and hated about the previous seven days of college basketball.

Five Things I Loved This Week

I LOVED…. seeing Cody Zeller want, demand and pursue the ball with the game on the line against Michigan. Yes, Michigan helped blow this one with a last-minute collapse, but credit Zeller for being aggressive and relentless on the glass in IU’s biggest game to date. Winning in Ann Arbor has been brutal for road teams in the last two years, and Zeller’s fingerprints were all over this comeback – which is exactly what the Hoosiers will need during the next four weeks if they want to cut down the nets in April.

I LOVED…. Mark Few’s honesty about being No. 1 in the nation. After downplaying the accomplishment previously, the Gonzaga coach said this in a Seattle Times story after beating Loyola Marymount in the WCC Tournament — “I was kind of surprised at how many of my (coaching) colleagues reached out to me,” said Few, referring to the No. 1 vote. He smiled sheepishly and said, “I’ve adjusted my thoughts on it.” While it may be up for debate whether the Zags should be there (though at this point, it’s becoming hard to argue), it is undeniably a huge accomplishment for a mid-major program and it’s cool to see Few come to that realization.

I LOVED…. the emotion from Victor Oladipo and Tom Crean after Sunday’s win. What a special moment as they embraced after clinching the title, with Oladipo barely able to hold it together. Yes, it’s just a game – but these guys give a lot of themselves to one area of their life, and it’s special to catch a glimpse of just how much work and effort goes into it.

Victor Oladipo Had a NPOY Caliber Regular Season For Indiana

I LOVED…. While on the same subject, Yahoo! columnist Pat Forde’s great feature on Victor Oladipo’s conflicted relationship with his dad. Definitely worth a few minutes.

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Deepak is a writer for the Big Ten microsite of RTC. Follow him on Twitter for more about B1G hoops at @dee_b1g.

After playing 17 games and beating up on each other for over two months, the Big Ten regular season champion will be determined during the final weekend. Only four teams – Michigan State, Michigan, Ohio State, and Indiana – are in contention for the regular season title, but there are some other match-ups whose outcome will play a huge factor in the seeding for the NCAA Tournament (Minnesota, Illinois) or keep their hopes for a bid alive (Iowa). Let’s review the key games for this weekend.

Trevor Mbakwe and the Gophers need to figure out their issues on the offensive end of the court against Purdue. (AP)

• Minnesota at Purdue (12:00 PM EST, Big Ten Network): Matt Painter should be a candidate for the Big Ten Coach of the Year award because after a rough start during the non-conference season, Painter’s young team has tremendously improved and it may be one of the hottest teams in the league right now. As if winning on the road in Madison wasn’t impressive enough, they almost took down Michigan on Wednesday night in West Lafayette. If Sandi Marcius hadn’t left the game during the second half with an ankle sprain, they may have upset the Wolverines because he was playing terrific defense in the paint against Michigan’s pick-and-roll. Combine their recent intensity along with the emotions of Senior Day in West Lafayette, and D.J. Byrd and company will give the Gophers a tough time on Saturday. The Gophers will enter this game with their own issues on the offensive end as they scored fewer than 50 points against Nebraska on the road. Tubby Smith’s team is a near-lock for the NCAA Tournament but losing two games on the road to finish the regular season against teams that won’t sniff the Dance will hurt their seeding. A loss to Purdue and a 1-1 record in the Big Ten Tournament may put them in the #10 seed range on Selection Sunday. Read the rest of this entry »

David Cassilo is an RTC columnist who also writes about college basketball for SLAM magazine. You can follow him at @dcassilo.

With just one regular season game to go, nothing is decided. It’s another example of how unpredictable this season has been. For Player of the Year, it’s down to Trey Burke and Otto Porter Jr. Both players have carried their teams and made everyone around them better. Then there’s Freshman of the Year, which is down to Ben McLemore and Marcus Smart. They are a couple of players who have been impacts guys from the opening game. And Coach of the Year? It’s Jim Larranaga’s to lose, but lately, it looks like he’s trying to lose it.

The final update of this will run on Tuesday of next week, so make sure to look out for it.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

10. Marcus Smart – Oklahoma State (Last week – NR)
2012-13 stats: 14.9 PPG, 5.7 RPG, 4.3 APG, 3 SPG

I’ve written about Smart so many times this season that I need to give myself a moment to step back and admire how well-rounded he is as a player. His 3.0 SPG are third best in the country. He’s a guy I’ll always want on my team.  This week: March 9 vs. Kansas State

9. Deshaun Thomas – Ohio State (Last week – 9)
2012-13 stats: 19.8 PPG, 6.2 RPG

Thomas and Withey are in the top-10.

Oddly enough, the Buckeyes have played their best basketball when Thomas has played his worst. Still, he’s scored at least 14 points in each game of this four-game winning streak. In most other conferences, he would be the Player of the Year. This week: March 10 vs. Illinois

8. Kelly Olynyk – Gonzaga (Last week – 8)
2012-13 stats: 17.7 PPG, 7 RPG

You would be hard-pressed to find many players that are more efficient than Olynyk. The junior shot 68.8 percent from the field while attempting over 10 shots per game. It will be fun when the rest of the country figures out who he is this March. This week: Regular season over.

7. Cody Zeller – Indiana (Last Week – 7)
2012-13 stats: 16.5 PPG, 8. RPG

It will go down as a disappointing year because of the expectations, but Zeller still improved his scoring and rebounding averages in his sophomore season. The most surprising thing, though, is that there is a Hoosier ahead of him on this list. This week: March 10 at Michigan

6. Doug McDermott – Creighton (Last week – 6)
2012-13 stats: 23.4 PPG, 7.6 RPG

McDermott closed the regular season out in style with 41 points against Wichita State. Although he will probably get a few first-place votes, what ultimately held him back was the struggles of his teammates. This week: Regular season over.

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

Before I go to bed, I always, always, always put my phone on silent. I don’t want to come out of my slumber for any reason, so part of my nightly routine is to flip that switch on my phone before flipping the light off and hitting the hay. Inexplicably, that critical step to setting my phone to silent was missed the other night, and around one in the morning, my phone started buzzing.

https://twitter.com/BobbyBancroft/status/308805192328048640

And kept buzzing.

https://twitter.com/TroyMachir/status/308805349845118976

Then buzzed some more.

https://twitter.com/RobDauster/status/308805700279230464

I’ll be sure to never make that mistake again, especially in March, when old Syracuse tape seems to always be rolling as late night programming.

Victor Oladipo Blowing Our Minds

The Internet has run out of real words to describe Victor Oladipo’s hops. This, coming after he shocked the heck out of Ohio State’s Shannon Scott in transition Tuesday night. Oladipo took off from two steps within the free throw line, put his head level with the hoop and covered what looked like 100 square feet in the matter of a second for the clean swat.

https://twitter.com/jeffborzello/status/309145175312175104

https://twitter.com/natekotisso/status/309145183377838080

https://twitter.com/ESPNDanaOneil/status/309145195872661504

https://twitter.com/eamonnbrennan/status/309145214965149696

https://twitter.com/ShitHoosiersSay/status/309145177447079936

Ben Howland Plays Beer Pong

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

Before I go to bed, I always, always, always put my phone on silent. I don’t want to come out of my slumber for any reason, so part of my nightly routine is to flip that switch on my phone before flipping the light off and hitting the hay. Inexplicably, that critical step to setting my phone to silent was missed the other night, and around one in the morning, my phone started buzzing.

@nickfasulosbn I found Billy Edelin.He’s on ESPN Classic right now.

— Bobby Bancroft (@BobbyBancroft) March 5, 2013

And kept buzzing.

Hahahahahaha RT @bobbybancroft @nickfasulosbn I found Billy Edelin. He’s on ESPN Classic right now.

— Troy Machir (@TroyMachir) March 5, 2013

Then buzzed some more.

Lololol RT @bobbybancroft: @nickfasulosbn I found Billy Edelin.He’s on ESPN Classic right now.

— Rob Dauster (@RobDauster) March 5, 2013

I’ll be sure to never make that mistake again, especially in March, when old Syracuse tape seems to always be rolling as late night programming.

Victor Oladipo Blowing Our Minds

The Internet has run out of real words to describe Victor Oladipo’s hops. This, coming after he shocked the heck out of Ohio State’s Shannon Scott in transition Tuesday night. Oladipo took off from two steps within the free throw line, put his head level with the hoop and covered what looked like 100 square feet in the matter of a second for the clean swat.

Ohmygoladipo.

— Jeff Borzello (@jeffborzello) March 6, 2013

OH-LAH-DEE-PUH

— Nate Kotisso (@natekotisso) March 6, 2013

How does Victor Oladipo do that?

— Dana O’Neil (@ESPNDanaOneil) March 6, 2013

VICTOR OH MY GAWWWW

— Eamonn Brennan (@eamonnbrennan) March 6, 2013

Oladipo say no no no.

— ShitHoosiersSay (@ShitHoosiersSay) March 6, 2013

Ben Howland Plays Beer Pong

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Deepak is a writer for the Big Ten microsite of Rush The Court. Follow him on Twitter for more about B1G hoops at @dee_b1g.

If you weren’t already convinced that the Big Ten is the most competitive conference in college hoops, the games in February should have showed you enough to change your opinion. The games featured buzzer-beaters, multiple overtimes and quite a few upsets over the past 28 days, but March could take it to another level. The obvious questions for each team in March will revolve around its performance in the postseason tournaments, but there are more intriguing questions on our minds about the next month. Let’s address five specific questions that that we will track about some of the best Big Ten teams in March.

Can Trey Burke take his game to another level in March? (AP Photo/T. Ding)

1. Can Trey Burke get back into the conversation for NPOY? Burke is still considered the top guard in the nation and hasn’t fallen out of the conversation for NPOY, but it feels like he has flown under the radar a little bit during February – partly because the Wolverines have had some tough losses on the road to Wisconsin, Michigan State and (yeesh) Penn State, and it also didn’t help his case that Indiana’s Victor Oladipo has repeatedly proven that he may be the best player in the Big Ten. Burke’s scoring average hasn’t dropped but he has taken more shots than he would prefer to keep his team competitive on the road. Burke will have two big opportunities in Ann Arbor soon – against Michigan State and Indiana – to again showcase his game in the national spotlight and prove that he is ready to lead the Wolverines to a Final Four.
   
2. Who is Michigan State’s go-to guy in March? We have seen flashes of brilliance from Adreian Payne and Gary Harris over the past two weeks but can Tom Izzo rely on a forward who hasn’t consistently looked for his offense and a freshman guard during the clutch this postseason? If Payne wants to be that guy, he needs to demand the ball during the final minutes but he hasn’t been that assertive this year. Izzo would love to have Keith Appling be that guy because he already has the ball in his hands during the final moments and can create his own shot off the dribble. The junior guard had an off-night against Indiana (six points) and Ohio State (three points) but the Spartans need him to score 15 PPG in order to make it to the third weekend of the NCAA Tournament. Read the rest of this entry »

David Cassilo is an RTC columnist who also writes about college basketball for SLAM magazine. You can follow him at @dcassilo.

As we hit March, the NPOY race looks like it’s down to four players: Trey Burke, Victor Oladipo, Mason Plumlee and Otto Porter Jr. While it’s almost certain that one of those four will take home the hardware, it’s almost impossible to decide on a clear front-runner. Look around the Internet, and you’ll see each of those players No. 1 somewhere. In a season with no clear-cut best team, a race like this for Player of the Year is fitting. Can’t wait to see how it all plays out over the next 17 days.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

10. Jack Cooley – Notre Dame (Last week – NR)
2012-13 stats: 14.4 PPG, 11 RPG

Cooley has had a lot to celebrate this season. (AP Photo/J. Raymond)

One of the few players from a major conference to average a double-double, Cooley has been a quiet force on an overlooked Notre Dame team. He’s not going to make any top 10 highlight reels, but he is going to be the reason the Irish win games. This week: March 2 at Marquette, March 5 vs. St. John’s

9. Deshaun Thomas – Ohio State (Last week – 8)
2012-13 stats: 19.8 PPG, 6.1 RPG

The Ohio State junior is what he is — a scorer who can do some rebounding. He does both every single night, regardless of defense. Thomas is a really good college player that is close to being a great one. This week: March 5 at Ohio State

8. Cody Zeller – Indiana (Last Week – 5)
2012-13 stats: 16.3 PPG, 8.1 RPG

Zeller has shown a knack for disappearing in big games, and Tuesday’s loss to Minnesota was no different. He went just 2-of-9 from the floor before fouling out with nine points. He can’t do that in March. This week: March 2 vs. Iowa, March 5 vs. Ohio State

7. Kelly Olynyk – Gonzaga (Last week – 9)
2012-13 stats: 17.8 PPG, 6.9 RPG

As Gonzaga appears poised to grab the No. 1 ranking, Olynyk is on a tear. The junior has made at least 70 percent of his shots in his last four games. Regardless of competition, that’s pretty impressive. This week: March 2 vs. Portland

6. Doug McDermott – Creighton (Last week – 7)
2012-13 stats: 22.8 PPG, 7.7 RPG

At a time when his team desperately needed it, McDermott had one of his best games of the season on Wednesday for Creighton. The junior finished with 32 points and 11 rebounds against Bradley. He will need to do that routinely for this team to go anywhere. This week: March 2 vs. Wichita State

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1. It seems that Maryland athletics has had more than its share of controversy regarding how to recognize some of its legends. We discussed the case of Lefty Driesell last week and this week the media focus is on former Terrapin great Len Bias. In this case, the controversy is not around the University of Maryland’s decision on whether or not to recognize him, but instead his old high school where a state senator (also a graduate of the school) wanted to spend $50,000 to erect a status honoring Bias. Despite Bias’ on-court accomplishments the idea has been withdrawn to a combination of controversy honoring a person who died of a cocaine overdose and spending $50,000 of public funds to do so.
2. We will likely never be able to read the full notice of allegations the NCAA sent to Miami, but some details are leaking out including the fact that the NCAA is accusing Nevin Shapiro of “only” providing $170,000 in impermissible benefits between 2002 and 2010. While nearly $20,000 per year is certainly a decent amount of money it falls well short of the “millions of dollars” that Shapiro claimed to have given Miami players over the years (of course, this is coming from someone who perpetrated a $930 million Ponzi scheme). Interestingly more than half of that was spent on trying to get two football players to sign with a sports agency that Shapiro was affiliated with so most of the reported violations involved relatively small sums of money on an individual basis.
3. With Indiana falling at Minnesota on Monday there is a new #1 in Luke Winn’s Power Rankings. As usual Luke has a smörgåsbord of interesting facts and trends, but the two that stuck out the most to us are (1) how much more efficient Victor Oladipo is this year from the perimeter and (2) why Michigan State might be better off getting the ball more to their star freshman guard. However, the most interesting part of the column might actually be the link to TeamRankings’ simulated Bracketology that simulates/predicts the NCAA Tournament seedings based on what it predicts will happen the rest of the season. We are not sure how well this simulator has done in the past, but it might be something worth checking up on over the next weeks if for no other reason to kill some time during the middle of the day.
4. Over the past few years posters of celebrities and the occasional random person have become fairly common at college basketball games, but we were not aware of the origins of the trend before George Dohrmann’s article on the birth of the “big heads”. We never quite understood the use of celebrities to distract shooters unless they are unusual such as the original big head of Michael Jackson. The use of coaches, players, and even the occasional poster of yourself all seem like they would be much more effective. Of course, this is probably some college kid that is trying to figure out which faces have the biggest effect on free throw shooting.
5. We have seen a lot of interesting uniform designs in college sports recently most notably in college football, but it looks like adidas, the company that brought you the atrocious alternate uniforms from Louisville, Cincinnati, and others is planning on bring short-sleeve jerseys to the NCAA Tournament. We still don’t know which schools will wear whatever monstrosity adidas can dream up, but to their credit both Michigan and North Carolina State have come out and said they will not wear the short-sleeve jerseys.

Jesse Baumgartner is an RTC columnist. His Love/Hate column will publish each week throughout the season. In this piece he’ll review the five things he loved and hated about the previous seven days of college basketball.

Five Things I Loved This Week

I LOVED…. Ohio State’s Sam Thompson getting so high on this alley-oop against Michigan State on Sunday that he was literally staring at the rim when he got the ball. That would have been enough, but then he chose to hammer home right on a poor Michigan State defender – just for kicks. Definitely one of the more impressive athletic plays I’ve seen this year.

Sam Thompson is not shy about attacking the rim

I LOVED…. the hilariousness that is Jay Bilas and Bill Raftery on set. In this week’s gift from above, Raftery comically asks Bilas if he’s “ever been ridden” before. Take a look – it’s just too much.

I LOVED…. everyone realizing that Miami can be very, very average – or in this case, downright bad in a loss to a Wake Forest team that was 4-9 in the ACC going into Saturday. If Miami and Gonzaga somehow play their way into #1-seeds, I don’t think it’s overkill to say that they could be two of the more susceptible #1-seeds ever for a first-round upset. And Miami could even be the likelier of the two because of how much they love the three-ball.

I LOVED…. glancing at the Georgetown schedule and having my jaw slowly drop lower and lower as I looked at their defensive efficiency during this very impressive nine-game winning streak. Check it out – since losing to South Florida on January 19, the Hoyas have allowed 47, 51, 52, 56, 63, 55, 55, 66 and 46 points. That’s pretty stingy, and it bodes well for a Tournament run if they can continue mustering enough offense. Read the rest of this entry »

At long last, we have stability atop the RTC25 as Indiana checks in at #1 for the third straight week. The Hoosiers earned a big road win at Michigan State in their only game last week, and are beginning to look like the team that was ranked #1 in the preseason rankings. One player who was thought  in the preseason to be more of a role player rather than a star and legitimate candidate for National Player of the Year is Victor Oladipo. Oladipo has led the way with 19 points and outstanding play this season for Indiana. In looking at the Top 10, there is very little separation between #3 Duke and #10 Louisville in terms of the average ranking (5.33 to 7.44), but then there is a noticeable drop-off between Louisville and #11 Syracuse. It is refreshing to have some parity in the Top 10, especially after last season when at a certain point Kentucky was nearly untouchable.

More good stuff with the Quick n’ Dirty after the jump…

Quick n’ Dirty Analysis.

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