Official 2007-2008 College Basketball Thread

[miami_fan]

This is a fun game to watch. Well if you don't have a rooting interest.

[Chief Rum]

Actually, I have a rooting interest, and this game is terrific.

[Chief Rum]

BTW, Augustine is incredible.

[MrBug708]

AJ Abrams seems like he's been an upper classman at Texas since TJ Ford was there
Props to Texas for hanging in there. For a bit it looked like UCLA was about to pull away and now they are trading baskets

[MrBug708]

F you Connor Atchley

[MrBug708]

Nevermind

[MrBug708]

Ah Luc!

[cartman]

WOOT! Texas wins by 2!!! Kevin who???? ;)

That was an awesome early season game. I really thought that UCLA was going to win this one going away. I guess there might be life post-Durant for the Horns.

[MrBug708]

*sigh*

Good Game Texas

[Radii]

That was a hell of a game. Congrats to Texas.

[Chief Rum]

Great game. Texas deserved their win. One of those games where if it goes one minute longer or one minute less UCLA coulda won it. And two minutes more or two minutes less, it would have been Texas still. Lots of back and forth.

It would be fun to see these two teams meet again in the NCAAs.

[IMetTrentGreen]

pwn.

In other news, Kevin Love is fucking awesome. I'd trade three OJ Mayos for one of him.

[MrBug708]

I'd trade Josh Shipp for DJ myself :)

[IMetTrentGreen]

If Texas gets Gary Johnson back to shore up their rebounding and interior scoring issues, they could aim for another 1 seed. I knew they'd be better this year but damn. Didn't see this one coming.

[GoldenEagle]

Movin on up....

[MrBug708]

No reason why Memphis shouldn't be #1 entering the tournament this year

[Radii]

No reason why Memphis shouldn't be #1 entering the tournament this year


A #1 seed, or #1 in the nation? (asks a curious UNC fan ;) )

[GoldenEagle]

A #1 seed, or #1 in the nation? (asks a curious UNC fan ;) )

I doubt we have the SOS to be #1 overall. CUSA has been sucking and looks like it will get locked in somewhere in the 12-18 range in conference RPI.

[MrBug708]

Memphis should have no more then two losses going into the tournament and I think will end up with a #1 seed

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

WOOT! Texas wins by 2!!! Kevin who???? ;)

That was an awesome early season game. I really thought that UCLA was going to win this one going away. I guess there might be life post-Durant for the Horns.

The above comment shows just how much of a football school Texas really is. Any Big 12 fan would tell you before this season that Texas has a ton of talent. It's embarrassing to the basketball program that they have to run ticket promotions for a team that's generally a top 15 basketball program.

[cartman]

I think they have a hard time drawing people to the Erwin Center because Quin Snyder also coaches there.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I think they have a hard time drawing people to the Erwin Center because Quin Snyder also coaches there.

I believe that. :)

[IMetTrentGreen]

Snyder's games are at the convention center.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Thought I'd pass on the Pomeroy ratings page for those that don't know about it. It's a great tool that is pretty accurate in predicting results for games based on your team's current play. The index has a rating similar to the RPI where it ranks the teams in a power ranking. Also, if you click on any of the team names, it shows your team's schedule with a prediction of what that team will do in each game. For example, Missouri is currently 5-3 but is rated in the 30s. Pomeroy predicts a final record for Missouri of 21-10.

http://www.kenpom.com/rate.php

[dawgfan]

Washington projected to go 10-20? Uhh, OK - I know they've struggled a little bit to start the season, but damn. And I'm not sure how they calculate their totals, but they project 2 conference wins, and yet in their prediction column only show a projected win over Oregon State at home.

I'm going to say, fun little tool, but I'm not going to take it too seriously.

[cartman]

He's picking Texas to go undefeated in the game-by-game predictions, but 28-3 in the overall season. All but the two Big 10 games were 70%+ confidence in his picks.

[hoopsguy]

I'm pretty confident that Wisconsin is not going 16-2 in the Big Ten this year. Similarly, I would be surprised if Illinois sweeps Ohio State, who is projected to be 8-10 in conference play.

I love Pomeroy's stuff; I just think it is a little early in the year to rely on this data as much more than a curiosity.

[cartman]

I'm going to say, fun little tool, but I'm not going to take it too seriously.

I love Pomeroy's stuff; I just think it is a little early in the year to rely on this data as much more than a curiosity.

WAY TO SHATTER MY DREAMS, GUYS!!!!!


;)

[sterlingice]

He's picking Texas to go undefeated in the game-by-game predictions, but 28-3 in the overall season. All but the two Big 10 games were 70%+ confidence in his picks.

KU's in the same boat. Only predicted to lose to Texas but 28-3 overall. Then again, there is the disclaimer:
" **Projected record is based on chances of winning, and therefore may not conform to the cumulative game-by-game predictions. This accounts for the unexpected results that will inevitably happen during the season."

SI

[MrBug708]

That Memphis - USC game was a great example of a team full of me first players with coaches who seem to just let them do what they want.

[IMetTrentGreen]

I hate OJ Mayo. Watching that idiot go 8-24 for the next decade is too much for take. I hope nobody drafts him.

[IMetTrentGreen]

KU's in the same boat. Only predicted to lose to Texas but 28-3 overall. Then again, there is the disclaimer:
" **Projected record is based on chances of winning, and therefore may not conform to the cumulative game-by-game predictions. This accounts for the unexpected results that will inevitably happen during the season."

It also probably doesn't account for Rush and Collins being hurt.

[Radii]

That Memphis - USC game was a great example of a team full of me first players with coaches who seem to just let them do what they want.

That was just nasty to watch.

[GoldenEagle]

That Memphis - USC game was a great example of a team full of me first players with coaches who seem to just let them do what they want.

It was a bad game to watch, but I am not sure how you can say Memphis plays selfish basketball. Who do you think is me first on Memphis? Derrick Rose just made Freshman mistakes. I would hardly say Cal lets anyone do what they want. When a player makes a mistake, they are out of the game. Sometimes I think you just shoot off at the mouth without thinking about what you are typing.

Last night, the game was played with The Rock ball. It effected our shooting and it hard to hold on to.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Georgia Tech currently trails Georgia State 22-21 with just under 9 minutes left in the first half. And looks bad in the process.

Paul Hewitt keeps inching his way closer & closer to the unemployment line.

[Swaggs]

I'm pretty confident that Wisconsin is not going 16-2 in the Big Ten this year. Similarly, I would be surprised if Illinois sweeps Ohio State, who is projected to be 8-10 in conference play.

I love Pomeroy's stuff; I just think it is a little early in the year to rely on this data as much more than a curiosity.

Hush!!!

WVU is #1 and Pomeroy predicts them to win out. :)

[JonInMiddleGA]

GT-GSU going down to the wire, Tech just 6 seconds away from a defensive stop with a 4 point lead with 2:01 to play & an idiot gets a technical foul for banging around too aggressively.

The thing that bothers me is that Hewitt didn't put his butt on the bench for being so damned stupid, and no I really don't care if he has been the leading scoer on a piss poor night.

edit to add: Tech wins it 72-67, but damn that was ugly.

[Butter]

It was a bad game to watch, but I am not sure how you can say Memphis plays selfish basketball. Who do you think is me first on Memphis? Derrick Rose just made Freshman mistakes. I would hardly say Cal lets anyone do what they want. When a player makes a mistake, they are out of the game. Sometimes I think you just shoot off at the mouth without thinking about what you are typing.

Last night, the game was played with The Rock ball. It effected our shooting and it hard to hold on to.

Ah yes, who can forget the old EXTREMELY DEFENSIVE ABOUT MEMPHIS BASKETBALL posts from G.E.? Glad they're back.

[Groundhog]

St Mary's Aussie freshman PG Patty Mills is named the WCC player of the month for the undefeated Gaels.

He's averaging 16.3ppg 2,8rpg, 4,8PG, and 2.5spg.

St Mary's now hang an Aussie flag up in their arena due to the 3 Aussies on the roster.

[WSUCougar]

WOOT! Cougs take down the Zags in a key early test. If nothing else, beating them two years in a row is a definite sign of the leaps and bounds our program has made under the Bennett Dynasty. :D

[GoldenEagle]

Ah yes, who can forget the old EXTREMELY DEFENSIVE ABOUT MEMPHIS BASKETBALL posts from G.E.? Glad they're back.

A person is not allowed to defend his team after an irrational comment that has no basis at all?

[JonInMiddleGA]

WOOT! Cougs take down the Zags in a key early test. If nothing else, beating them two years in a row is a definite sign of the leaps and bounds our program has made under the Bennett Dynasty. :D

A combination of work & insomnia caused me to watch that one, pretty good game I thought. Only the second time Gonzaga has lost in that building (if I understood the announcers right)

[Desmond]

I'm not gonna pretend like I follow college basketball all, but i've watched 3 games in the last 2 nights, Memphis/USC, UCONN/Northeastern and Nova/LSU and the level of play is bordering on atrocious. When did the college game get this bad?

[Groundhog]

I tend to have more fun watching teams one tier down from the Memphis/USC/Duke/et al level.

[Chief Rum]

I'm not gonna pretend like I follow college basketball all, but i've watched 3 games in the last 2 nights, Memphis/USC, UCONN/Northeastern and Nova/LSU and the level of play is bordering on atrocious. When did the college game get this bad?

You should have watched UCLA-Texas, and you would have been much more delighted with the general quality of play.

[Desmond]

As soon as I post Villanova goes on an amazing run. Down 21 with 8 minutes left and they cut it to 1 now with just under a minute left. It's exciting at the very least.

[Desmond]

Holy crap. I don't think I have ever seen a team play as bad as Villanove did for the first 30 minutes of this game and then to just turn it on and obliterate LSU over the last 10 minutes. Oh my.

[Butter]

Felt bad for that LSU kid that fouled out... he was near tears after the game.

[GoldenEagle]

It is still early too. Also, in that USC/Memphis game, they were playing with an awful synthetic ball called "The Rock". This was the one used in the NBA a few years back that they got rid of all together. I think that contributed to the sloppiness of the play.

When teams run man to man against Memphis, the Tigers are capable of putting on a show that anyone would be impressed with. I think anyone will tell you they are the most athletic team in the country. The problem is, no one will play them in man to man.

You saw a ton of bad shots from Memphis against USC. They saw the 32 triangle and had no clue what to do. Cal is not the best X's and O's coach on the fly. Instead of getting the ball into the high post and then feeding it outside when everyone collapsed, we just took bad shots.

[Butter]

Dayton at Louisville 2 PM Saturday on ESPN2.

Should be quite a game. At least I hope it is. Dayton is currently hosed by not getting a single vote in the coaches poll, but a win here would earn some respect. Louisville looking for revenge after UD beat a depleted Louisville team in Cincinnati early last season. Dayton with 2 of the top players in the country no one's heard of: Brian Roberts (a dynamic shooting guard who sometimes plays the point), and forward Chris Wright, Dayton's first top-50 recruit in years who has already been named A-10 Freshman of the Week twice in the early going. Louisville has some very good players as well. Should be an intense game!

[Wolfpack]

Looks like the honeymoon for Sidney Lowe is pretty much over as State suffered its second embarassing loss of the season tonight, 75-69 at ECU. At least one loon over at the State board is already calling for Lowe to be fired. Most, however, are directing their venom at AD Lee Fowler for even having State play at ECU to begin with. (It should be noted that the hate for Fowler amongst the internet fanbase is very deep to begin with and this sort of thing just sets the haters off like striking a match in an ammunition dump.)

Clearly, however, there is some sort of malaise in the team because they've generally played well below expectations in most of their games this year (see the crushing blowout at Michigan State last game). I don't know what's wrong and how to fix it (unlike the armchair coaches infesting the State board at the moment), but it does seem like the team bought into the hype and just thought they'd show up and win their games and it's apparent they are not nearly as good as they thought they were.

I had thought this team was still the third-best team in the conference (distantly behind Duke and Carolina), but it's rapidly become obvious that this team is going to be a bubble team this year at best. Maybe 7-9 or 8-8 in the ACC and that's if they don't let these consecutive disasters ruin them. The season could very well get away from them if they take any more losses before conference play even begins.

[Radii]

I had thought this team was still the third-best team in the conference (distantly behind Duke and Carolina), but it's rapidly become obvious that this team is going to be a bubble team this year at best.

I assumed the same, and the talent surely is still there. Perhaps they will still be able to compete with Clemson for 3rd in the conference. The ACC seems pretty weak this year to me despite some predictions talking about 6 and 7 NCAA Tournament teams, it still wouldn't suprise me to see State put it together enough to at least get 4th and get a tournament bid.

[kingnebwsu]

Wright State beats #13 Butler 43-42! Big win for WSU, and it gets us back into play for the conference title. Butler is scary good this year and I'm just glad WSU survived a nail-biter. The arena felt like March, not December. Hopefully Wright State can carry the momentum into the tough non-conference schedule and then into the huge conference games that loom in January & February.

hxxp://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=273422750

GO WRIGHT STATE RAIDERS!!! :D

[miami_fan]

Dayton at Louisville 2 PM Saturday on ESPN2.

Should be quite a game. At least I hope it is. Dayton is currently hosed by not getting a single vote in the coaches poll, but a win here would earn some respect. Louisville looking for revenge after UD beat a depleted Louisville team in Cincinnati early last season. Dayton with 2 of the top players in the country no one's heard of: Brian Roberts (a dynamic shooting guard who sometimes plays the point), and forward Chris Wright, Dayton's first top-50 recruit in years who has already been named A-10 Freshman of the Week twice in the early going. Louisville has some very good players as well. Should be an intense game!

I'll go out on a limb and say Dayton gets at least one vote in the coaches poll.

[JeeberD]

UTEP swept their biggest rival tonight, beating NMSU 79-78 in Las Cruces. Junior SG/SF Stephon Jackson had a career high 36 points and is now averaging 25.9ppg for the season. The Miners are 5-2 now and looking quite solid. Our rebounding is still very suspect, though, so we're probably still a middle of the pack CUSA team.

[Butter]

I'll go out on a limb and say Dayton gets at least one vote in the coaches poll.

It was Dayton's first true road win against a top-25 team in over 20 years. Which actually surprises me, even as a UD fan. Dayton has never been a good road team, so 3 straight road wins against quality opponents is really an important benchmark for this team and this coach. Hopefully, we can take the next 3 games at home against marginal opponents, and head into our home showdown against Pitt at 10-1 and having cracked into the top 25. Pitt @ Dayton will be Dec. 29th on ESPN2, our only other ESPN appearance this year.

[BishopMVP]

It was Dayton's first true road win against a top-25 team in over 20 years. Which actually surprises me, even as a UD fan. Dayton has never been a good road team, so 3 straight road wins against quality opponents is really an important benchmark for this team and this coach. Hopefully, we can take the next 3 games at home against marginal opponents, and head into our home showdown against Pitt at 10-1 and having cracked into the top 25. Pitt @ Dayton will be Dec. 29th on ESPN2, our only other ESPN appearance this year.Thanks to the resigning Linda Bruno's :D wonderful TV contract, can't you make another appearance on like ESPNU if you make the A-10 Championship game?

A-10 is really up this year. Xavier and Dayton leading the way at the top, but teams like Rhode Island, Duquesne, Fordham, St. Joes and a (very inconsistent and unpredictable) UMass that was supposed to be rebuilding all having a shot at post-season play. Even the bottom-feeders like St. Bonaventure are out of the 300's in the RPI.

Wednesday night, Xavier hosts Cincy on ESPN2 and UMass goes to BC on ESPNU with a chance for 2 more good wins.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Some interesting conference RPI numbers now that most teams are reaching the 10 game mark (where the RPI actually starts to fall into place)........

#1: ACC
#2: Big 12
#3: Pac 10
#4: Big East
#5: Big Ten
#6: SEC
#7: Atlantic 10
#8: Missouri Valley

The two conference that are obviously major movers thus far are the Big 12 and the SEC. The SEC was the #1 conference in the RPI ratings last year. This year, they have slipped to 6th, putting them at the bottom of the major conferences. Conversely, the Big 12 was the #7 conference in the RPI ratings last year, even finishing behind the Missouri Valley Conference at #6. This year, the Big 12 sits in the #2 position in the RPI ratings.

Once conference play begins, the RPI ratings for the conferences don't change a whole lot as the teams beat up on each other. So the teams in each conference have 4-5 more non-conference games to establish themselves before the grind of conference play begins.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Dick Vitale to have throat surgery. Expects to be out until February. Wish him the best on a speedy recovery. He can drive people nuts at times, but he's still a great ambassador to the game.

http://espn.go.com/dickvitale/071218lettertofans.html

[miami_fan]

Dick Vitale to have throat surgery. Expects to be out until February. Wish him the best on a speedy recovery. He can drive people nuts at times, but he's still a great ambassador to the game.

http://espn.go.com/dickvitale/071218lettertofans.html

Here here! As much as the man drives me nuts during a Duke game, I hope he gets back soon.

[JeeberD]

Tee hee, it's good to see CUSA own that douche Gillispie. Especially since the pussy has gone on record saying he'll never schedule UTEP...

[Butter]

#1: ACC
#2: Big 12
#3: Pac 10
#4: Big East
#5: Big Ten
#6: SEC
#7: Atlantic 10
#8: Missouri Valley

Woo! A-10, bitches!

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

New bracketology up for those that might be interested in seeing where their teams stand.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/bracketology

[Radii]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/bracketology


Hah, love this early season stuff. Since only one ACC game has been played(Boston College beat Maryland), BC is an 11 seed with the ACC's automatic bid for being 1st in the conference.

[Karlifornia]

Going to my first game of the season..Stanford/Santa Clara tonight. Brook Lopez returns from academic suspension. Let's go Cardinal!

[Butter]

UNLV falls apart down the stretch against Arizona. Arizona didn't lead all game until late, and take it 51-48. UNLV looked barely coached... nice job, Lon Kruger.

[BishopMVP]

A-10 up to 6th, ahead of the Big 10 in the current RPI. Unfortunately we still have St. Bonnie and LaSalle, but 4 Top 20 teams looks nice.

UMass added a win @BC to go along with the one @Syracuse, and gets Houston at home Jan 2 and plays at the #1 RPI team, Vanderbilt, before conference play gets underway.

Partly due to the pace/style we use (think Pitino's Kentucky teams that pressed and shot 3's) this team is schizophrenic from half to half, so it could all disappear, but it's been great so far for what was supposed to be a rebuilding year.

[Radii]

Pitt's up on Duke with 3 minutes left, looks like a good ending to an otherwise crappy game.

[Radii]

Impressive last 3 minutes from both teams, Gerald Henderson absolutely took over for Duke and was perfect until that last posession, overtime! GO PITT!

[Radii]

CLUTCH. DOWN GOES DUKE!

[Butter]

Pitt comes to Dayton on December 29th on ESPN2 at 8 PM. The game is already sold out (13,500 seats at the UD Arena). I was too slow to get tix, dammit!

The Dayton fans haven't had a reason to really get up for a game like this in a long time. I am not sure the last time we had a top 10 team visit UD Arena in non-conference (we had St. Joseph's come here that year they went 32-1 or whatever it was in A-10 action). When the fans are into a game, UD Arena is one of the toughest places in the country to play.

Hopefully, the Flyer players will be up to the challenge. Should be an absolutely terrific game!

[JeeberD]

Hey Dark Cloud, your Cowboys are going down tonight!

[Chief Rum]

At least a couple good matchups today. Memphis and GTown right now. Florida State and Ohio State (even if neither team is the same). And I get to watch UCLA-Michigan, although that "should" be a blowout until Bielein has a chance to really get his imprint on that program (it should be noted Bieliein's teams beat us the last two years in WVU).

[GoldenEagle]

Memphis beats Georgetown by 14. I am not sure if we will be ranked #1 when the polls come out, but I bet the gap between Memphis and UNC is very small.

[JeeberD]

Hey Dark Cloud, your Cowboys are going down tonight!

And I was right. The Miners beat Wyoming 79-73 in the final of the Sun Carnival Tournament in a game which featured 78 free throw attempts. Stefon "DJ" Jackson had another huge game with 33 points, so he should still be in the top 5 in the nation in scoring. Our downfall this year, though, is going to be our lack of reboudning and our hot/cold three point shooting...

[Chief Rum]

Heh...Michigan State over Texas tonight. It all comes full circle.

MSU beats Texas, which beat UCLA, which beat MSU.

Thank God we don't have the BCS for basketball.

[Radii]

Memphis beats Georgetown by 14. I am not sure if we will be ranked #1 when the polls come out, but I bet the gap between Memphis and UNC is very small.

Excellent win for Memphis.

[Scarecrow]

You might not heard of this kid, but he's doing pretty good: Michael Beasley
<table class="tablehead" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tbody><tr class="stathead"><td colspan="11">2007-2008 Game Log</td> <td colspan="3" align="center">Rebounds</td> <td colspan="5">
</td> </tr> <tr class="colhead" align="right"> <td align="left">DATE</td> <td align="left">OPP</td> <td align="left">RESULT</td> <td>MIN</td> <td>FG</td> <td>FGA</td> <td>FTM</td> <td>FTA</td> <td>3PM</td> <td>3PA</td> <td>PTS</td> <td>OFF</td> <td>DEF</td> <td>TOT</td> <td>AST</td> <td>TO</td> <td>STL</td> <td>BLK</td> <td>PF</td> </tr><tr class="oddrow" align="right"> <td align="left">11/9</td> <td align="left">Sac St (http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/ncb/clubhouse?teamId=16)</td> <td align="left">W 94-63 (http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=273132306) </td><td>31</td> <td>12</td> <td>20</td> <td>7</td> <td>11</td> <td>1</td> <td>2</td> <td>32</td> <td>12</td> <td>12</td> <td>24</td> <td>4</td> <td>8</td> <td>2</td> <td>4</td> <td>3</td> </tr> <tr class="evenrow" align="right"> <td align="left">11/11</td> <td align="left">Pitt. St. (http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/ncb/clubhouse?teamId=90)</td> <td align="left">W 76-66 (http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=273152306) </td><td>29</td> <td>12</td> <td>19</td> <td>5</td> <td>7</td> <td>1</td> <td>3</td> <td>30</td> <td>6</td> <td>8</td> <td>14</td> <td>3</td> <td>2</td> <td>1</td> <td>0</td> <td>5</td> </tr> <tr class="oddrow" align="right"> <td align="left">11/17</td> <td align="left">W Illinois (http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/ncb/clubhouse?teamId=2710)</td> <td align="left">W 77-64 (http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=273212306) </td><td>32</td> <td>10</td> <td>16</td> <td>7</td> <td>11</td> <td>1</td> <td>2</td> <td>28</td> <td>8</td> <td>14</td> <td>22</td> <td>2</td> <td>1</td> <td>2</td> <td>1</td> <td>2</td> </tr> <tr class="evenrow" align="right"> <td align="left">11/22</td> <td align="left">G Mason (http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/ncb/clubhouse?teamId=2244)</td> <td align="left">L 87-77 (http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=273262306) </td><td>25</td> <td>13</td> <td>20</td> <td>3</td> <td>3</td> <td>1</td> <td>2</td> <td>30</td> <td>4</td> <td>6</td> <td>10</td> <td>0</td> <td>3</td> <td>0</td> <td>1</td> <td>4</td> </tr> <tr class="oddrow" align="right"> <td align="left">11/23</td> <td align="left">C Florida (http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/ncb/clubhouse?teamId=2116)</td> <td align="left">W 73-71 (http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=273272116) </td><td>36</td> <td>11</td> <td>17</td> <td>6</td> <td>8</td> <td>2</td> <td>3</td> <td>30</td> <td>4</td> <td>9</td> <td>13</td> <td>0</td> <td>4</td> <td>1</td> <td>2</td> <td>2</td> </tr> <tr class="evenrow" align="right"> <td align="left">11/25</td> <td align="left">@Rider (http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/ncb/clubhouse?teamId=2520)</td> <td align="left">W 82-69 (http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=273292520) </td><td>34</td> <td>5</td> <td>11</td> <td>2</td> <td>4</td> <td>1</td> <td>1</td> <td>13</td> <td>2</td> <td>8</td> <td>10</td> <td>1</td> <td>1</td> <td>1</td> <td>0</td> <td>3</td> </tr> <tr class="oddrow" align="right"> <td align="left">11/29</td> <td align="left">Oregon (http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/ncb/clubhouse?teamId=2483)</td> <td align="left">L 80-77 (http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=273332306) </td><td>36</td> <td>10</td> <td>17</td> <td>3</td> <td>6</td> <td>1</td> <td>4</td> <td>24</td> <td>1</td> <td>11</td> <td>12</td> <td>1</td> <td>1</td> <td>1</td> <td>3</td> <td>2</td> </tr> <tr class="evenrow" align="right"> <td align="left">12/4</td> <td align="left">@N Dame (http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/ncb/clubhouse?teamId=87)</td> <td align="left">L 68-59 (http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=273380087) </td><td>36</td> <td>8</td> <td>20</td> <td>3</td> <td>5</td> <td>0</td> <td>3</td> <td>19</td> <td>3</td> <td>10</td> <td>13</td> <td>1</td> <td>5</td> <td>1</td> <td>3</td> <td>1</td> </tr> <tr class="oddrow" align="right"> <td align="left">12/9</td> <td align="left">California (http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/ncb/clubhouse?teamId=25)</td> <td align="left">W 82-75 (http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=273432306) </td><td>31</td> <td>7</td> <td>13</td> <td>5</td> <td>7</td> <td>0</td> <td>1</td> <td>19</td> <td>4</td> <td>7</td> <td>11</td> <td>2</td> <td>4</td> <td>3</td> <td>3</td> <td>3</td> </tr> <tr class="evenrow" align="right"> <td align="left">12/17</td> <td align="left">Florida A&M (http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/ncb/clubhouse?teamId=50)</td> <td align="left">W 87-60 (http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=273512306) </td><td>25</td> <td>7</td> <td>16</td> <td>10</td> <td>12</td> <td>0</td> <td>2</td> <td>24</td> <td>5</td> <td>5</td> <td>10</td> <td>1</td> <td>2</td> <td>0</td> <td>2</td> <td>2</td> </tr> <tr class="oddrow" align="right"> <td align="left">12/22</td> <td align="left">Win Salem (http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/ncb/clubhouse?teamId=2736)</td> <td align="left">W 90-48 (http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=273562306) </td><td>23</td> <td>14</td> <td>22</td> <td>9</td> <td>13</td> <td>3</td> <td>4</td> <td>40</td> <td>5</td> <td>10</td> <td>15</td> <td>1</td> <td>2</td> <td>1</td> <td>3</td> <td>2
</td></tr></tbody></table>
Scored almost as many points as the entire Winston-Salem (Cigarette U) did last night. 11 double-doubles in 11 games including 2 super double-doubles (20+ pts and 20+ rebounds). Glad he said he was staying to get his degree instead of the one and done .

[IMetTrentGreen]

No. 10 Michigan St whooped No. 5 Texas. Game wasn't as close as the final score. Having seen MSU play a few times I was shocked how well well they played throughout. The team that played last night could win it all, if they can do it for 6 straight games.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I bet the gap between Memphis and UNC is very small.

I bet you're glad you didn't bet ;)

Last week (poll on 12/17)
AP 1st place votes -- UNC 48, Memphis 19, Kansas & Texas 2 each, G'town 1
USA Today 1st votes - UNC 24, Memphis 4, KU, G'town & Texas 1 each
AP gap was 62, USA Today gap was 17

This week (poll on 12/24)
AP 1st place votes - UNC 47, Memphis 24, Kansas 1
USA 1st place votes - UNC 23, Memphis 6, KU 2
AP gap is 34, USA Today gap is 15

Basically those who were UNC believers still are, while Memphis picked up the stray votes that went elsewhere.

edit to add: Not to say that the gap isn't relatively small, but it isn't particularly smaller than it was before this week either, as Memphis basically became a solid #2.

[MrBug708]

Memphis - Zona game is going to be interesting

[mckerney]

Woohoo! Tubby is 1 win away from reaching last seasons total and has Minnesota in the "Also recieving votes" category with 1 ESPN/USA Today voter having the Gophers at #25!

[Radii]

Basically those who were UNC believers still are, while Memphis picked up the stray votes that went elsewhere.

I'm a bit suprised at that, with UNC struggling a bit vs Nicholls State and Memphis beating Georgetown last week. I guess UNC is completely locked in at #1 until they lose now.

[dawgfan]

UW gets a nice road win today, taking out LSU 73-65. Things started off badly and they were down 41-27 at the half, but they stormed out of the break on fire and took control of the game midway through the 2nd half.

Granted, LSU isn't a great team this year (maybe not even a good team) but it was a big win for the UW in a few ways:

- The UW has struggled mightily on the road the last few years - a win like this, even considering LSU's current status, should be a big confidence booster;
- Quincy Pondexter has his biggest game of the year; Pondexter has to become a key guy for this Huskies team if they expect to compete in the Pac-10 this year;
- A big comeback win like this on the road could be the kind of breakthrough this team needs going into Pac-10 play to feel like they can compete and battle out of tough situations

I don't expect this team will win the conference or anything, but there is enough talent here that they have a shot at finishing in the upper half and securing an NCAA tourney invite. And I'd love to see them knock off WSU and hand them their first loss of the season - this win gives me more confidence they could pull it off.

[MrBug708]

If Memphis wins tonight, they could go the rest of the regular season without a loss

[whomario]

Wisconsin with a big road win at Texas. Butch was great, Flowers with 3 terrific plays to win the game, first he takes a key rebound away from Abrams, then hits the winning 3 with about 3 seconds on the clock, then stole the ball on the inbounds and threw it up in the air while flying out of bounds and clock expires . Why didn´t Texas call a timeout, they had a couple remaining, no ? Texas basically played 6 guys with 4 starters playing 36+ minutes, definitely a good thing that Johnson was now cleared to play ... Was a good game with a great ending.
Vanderbilt survives a big scare by Tennessee-Martin, up 2 with just over a minute 2 play, 92-85 at the end.

[JeeberD]

Good game in El Paso tonight between the 9-2 Miners and the 11-2 New Mexico Lobos. Too bad it's not on TV anywhere.

UNM up 9-8 early on...

[Butter]

Dayton scrapes by with a 2OT win over 10-2 Akron in their first game as a top-25 team this year. A nail-biting game to watch, but good to pull out the W.

Next Wednesday night, 2 ranked A-10 teams meet (a rarity these days) as Rhode Island visits Dayton in an untelevised game thanks to the A-10's horrific TV contract with CSTV.

Also give a shout to BishopMVP, as UMass continues to do the A-10 proud, taking down a good Houston team last night. Hopefully Dayton, URI, UMass, and Xavier can push the A-10 to 4 NCAA bids this year.

[Radii]

Clemson is good. And they match up extremely well against UNC. UNC is completely worthless when Lawson isn't on the court(Frasor's injury is a big one for this team's title hopes). And, like last year, if you can get UNC to stop running and get them in a half court set, you basically win if you're a top 30 team or so.

[RedKingGold]

Nice comeback by Nova today after a dissappointing opening BigEast loss to DePaul. I'm sure it'll be up-and-down all year and we'll have another early exit this season.

[Radii]

if you've got fox sports, UNC/Clemson tied with 45 seconds left.

[Radii]

Dear lord, Clemson comes out in a zone and UNC burns 30 seconds off the clock essentially standing behind the 3 point line confused.

[Radii]

Good D by Clemson, Ellington has to take a bad 3, Clemson gets a chance to win it with the ball w/ 15 seconds left.

[Radii]

oh my. Clemson got it into the post, got a tough fadeaway though, then two putbacks miss... OVERTIME.

Please dear god let UNC come out and put this away in the first couple minutes. Though really, they're lucky to be in OT at all. Clemson really opened it back up for Carolina by being horrible at the line down the stretch.

[CU Tiger]

We cant compete against UNC now.
Our arrows have meet and passed, UNC on the rise, Clemson on the descent.

[Radii]

We cant compete against UNC now.
Our arrows have meet and passed, UNC on the rise, Clemson on the descent.


I hope you're right but I'm not about to agree yet. Booker fouling out is huge, but Clemson has been playing well on offense all night and causing just enough havoc when UNC tries to run to get them out of control a bit...


regardless, this is a better Clemson team than last year. Hopefully they keep it up(after these last 3 minutes at least :P ) and give the ACC a 3rd threatening team this year.

[Radii]

dear god what a game. please miss these free throws buddy!

[Radii]

HOLY SHIT ELLINGTON.

[CU Tiger]

Good game Tarheels....So close...

[Radii]

Damn, incredible game. great, great game. Clemson had some chances to put it away(FTs in regulation) and failed but they had those chances b/c when UNC went on some runs early Clemson withstood them and came right back.

Going for the steal on that pass that led to the game winning shot is only ok if you get the ball :P Potter probably should have just challenged Ellington and make him take a much more difficult shot.

whew, that was a serious quality road challenge for the #1 team, and Clemson is a very good team. Also, that was one of the best individual performances i've seen in a long time, Ellington was so huge all game since Clemson shut down Hansbrough so well. 36 points, 5/8 from 3, 9/9 from the line.

I'm exhausted after that one.

[Butter]

I was really impressed by Clemson's inside game last night. But the thought occurred to me after the game... endings like that are why UNC is UNC and Clemson is Clemson. Until Clemson can get a couple of close endings like that to go their way, they will not be taken seriously as a basketball contender.

Horrible play by Potter, but the kid is young, and if Clemson can put that effort into their other ACC games, he'll have a chance to make it up later on.

Why oh why can't Oliver Purnell teach his teams to shoot free throws?

[Butter]

Next Wednesday night, 2 ranked A-10 teams meet (a rarity these days) as Rhode Island visits Dayton in an untelevised game thanks to the A-10's horrific TV contract with CSTV.

In a surprise turnaround, this game is going out nationally on CSTV tonight at 7PM.

#17 Dayton vs. #22 Rhode Island. Tune in for some high quality basketball, and to see one of the best guards in the country, Dayton's Brian Roberts.

[cartman]

Great game at the half in Columbia. Texas is up 2 on Mizzou. It has been a 3 fest so far. The team that cools off from behind the arc is going to be the one that loses this one.

[MrBug708]

Game of the week going on in Pauley right now (I'm stuck at work 300 yards from Pauley) and UCLA is taking it to #4 WSU right now. I'm still rather confused on how Texas beat UCLA but it happened. The UCLA-WSU game is very boring to the average fan, but it's a hell of a game if you like defensive slugfest. UCLA is top 10 in defense and WSU sits at #1 currently

[cartman]

Mizzou came out hot after halftime, and never let up. They just haven't missed at all in the second half.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Mizzou came out hot after halftime, and never let up. They just haven't missed at all in the second half.

That performance is what was expected of Mizzou at the start of the season. Mizzou has very good talent that just hasn't performed anywhere near expectations thus far. With that said, Augustin and Abrams should have never played 40 minutes against Mizzou. Terrible coaching by Barnes to play those guys the whole game. They were severely gassed in the last 10 minutes of the game.

Mizzou has a road game at Iowa State on Wednesday. If they can take care of business there, KU comes calling next Saturday in what would be a big early season matchup between the rivals in Columbia. I've seen more than one KU player commenting on the Texas loss at MU. KU won't be taking anything for granted.

[BishopMVP]

For those who don't feel like watching ESPN fellating Duke yet again, or don't have access to a TV, there's more exciting A-10 action available tonight. UMass travels to #14 Dayton in a matchup between two good, exciting, inconsistent teams, and there's free video through http://daytonflyers.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/011508aab.html It's never too early to start looking at some non-BCS teams that'll be in the NCAA's.

UMass led by Chris Lowe, as quick a PG as any in the country, Ricky Harris a scoring machine and Gary Forbes who should be drafted 2nd round this summer. Plus we've got Matt Bonner's bigger, less talented brother, a white guy from Vermont and a 6'9 170 pound man from Africa (maybe Senegal?)

Dayton is led by Brian Roberts, who you might remember from scoring 30+ in their blowout of Pitt, but is missing top freshman Chris Wright, which could hurt because our interior defense is easily exploited (but hey, so is our exterior defense!)

Seriously, there will probably be 180+ scored tonight, and whichever team is shooting well will win.

[Butter]

I'll publicly wish B-MVP good luck to his team tonight. I'm just hoping for a great game. Wouldn't surprise me at all if Dayton lost. UMass has had some close calls against some very good teams.

[BishopMVP]

36-31 UMass at halftime after 2 3's in the last minute, including a 30-footer for Forbes at the buzzer. We were up like 21-7 early until Dayton started playing better defense and out rebounding went to shite again. Boards are 29-17 Dayton, and they're 1-11 from 3, doubt that'll last.

[Butter]

Boards are 29-17 Dayton, and they're 1-11 from 3, doubt that'll last.

How about 4-25?

I didn't really mean the good luck thing, you guys were supposed to roll over!!! ;)

Good win for UMass. Dayton will have a rough time not making it 2 losses in a row, visiting Xavier next on January 24th (next Thursday). But X loses by 19 to Temple, so who the heck knows.

[BishopMVP]

3-14 is slightly better, but like we said pregame, whichever team shoots 3's well will probably win.

You guys should at least stay Top 10 in RPI, and this will be huge for us at bubble time.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Halftime in Atlanta, UNC leads GT 48-46.

edit: 63-60 GT with 12 minutes left.
edit again: Big sequence there (maybe, if UNC doesn't wake up & GT doesn't turn into GT) as the Heels got three cracks at the basket down by four and had the ball underneath but couldn't get it inbounds & turned it over on a five second call. Tech by 6 with 10:25 left ... oops, Ellington finally hit a three, now 66-63 with 10:13 left.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Tied 76-76 in Atlanta with 6 minutes to play.
edit: Carolina by 2 with 5 1/2 left, and now the ball too. And Tech's leading scoring tonight just fouled out :(

I gotta tell you, the talent gap that GT is suffering from is just stunning to really see after years of being competitive. In the long run losing this game would probably be the best thing for Tech since Hewitt is badly outmatched in pretty much every aspect of the game & needs to be the next guy to become a former GT employee.


edit: 81-80 Carolina with 2:25 to play ... and a steal but Tech misses a 3 and a pair of put back attempts.

[Radii]

UNC just flat out does not play defense. Tech is shooting well and hustling but its just inexcusable for this game to be coming down to the end like this.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Tech is shooting well and hustling

I really like Peacock's effort in particular. But the fact that a (former?) walk-on like Causey is playing so many minutes tonight speaks volumes about the overall situation.

Meanwhile, this is the softest interior defense I've seen from a top team not playing a run & shoot style.

[JonInMiddleGA]

FuckFuckFuck. Two cracks at it down by one but it won't go.

And the officiating damned sure knew which team was wearing which color jersey for a big part of the night and at crucial times.

[Radii]

I thought that was a foul at first but on the replay it really looked to me like he was just going up wildly to try to draw a foul and actually didn't draw contact at all.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Teams that just come out and go at Carolina, instead of thinking too much about their history or their current ranking, are going to be able to stay right with them. In their current mode, especially defensively, I can't see UNC getting past the Sweet 16.

edit: Meanwhile, that game (plus seeing the 93 conference title game on ESPNClassic earlier this evening) sure brought back some memories didn't it?

[Radii]

In their current mode, especially defensively, I can't see UNC getting past the Sweet 16.

I think this is very likely accurate. They better learn to play some D fast. I think the Frasor injury is a bigger deal than most people realize as well.

[GoldenEagle]

UNC survives another. When will their luck run out?

[mckerney]

Indiana coming to town, should be fun. Hopefully Al Nolen will be able to D up Gordon and Hoffarber can keep hitting 3's at a 60% clip.

[Radii]

UNC survives another. When will their luck run out?

If they don't get their shit together they won't beat Miami on the road Jan 23. If they do get their shit together even a little I can see them losing one random ACC game in addition to splitting w/ Duke and that's it... we'll see. Clearly I'm not very happy right now though, or very confidant. but I felt like this in 2005 too. that was different, that was in December, not January, and that team had more talent. But there's some similarities too.

[Wolfpack]

UNC just flat out does not play defense.

Are you trying to make me feel even worse about Saturday's game than I already do?

[Radii]

Are you trying to make me feel even worse about Saturday's game than I already do?

Not on purpose! NC State is just in shambles :( But, so is Ga Tech. Bleh. It was in Chapel Hill after a scary game vs Clemson. I bet UNC blows out Maryland Saturday too.

[Wolfpack]

Shambles I don't think is quite strong enough. I think we're looking at Titanic-hitting-iceberg level destruction at this point. Maybe Hindenberg-explosion level. Or both. Shambles somehow implies you can rebuild what you've got. I don't see that this year for this team. I do think we are going to find out in an awful hurry whether Lowe's got the chops to coach major college basketball if he can turn this mess around. The internet hordes are already getting out the longknives.

[Butter]

3-14 is slightly better, but like we said pregame, whichever team shoots 3's well will probably win.

You guys should at least stay Top 10 in RPI, and this will be huge for us at bubble time.

It just bothers me that UMass has gotten us at UD Arena 2 years in a row. Only X owns us quite that much. And we get no return trip this year for revenge. Not that I really think we'd do any better in Amherst. Ford had a good gameplan for defending Roberts. We had a good counter to that gameplan, but just couldn't hit the shots given to us. We also completely ignored the inside game, which hurt. We got a couple of inside guys in foul trouble, and then went about hoisting as many 3's as possible.

Checking realtimerpi.com, we fell to 11th. You were close.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Nutty stuff in the Big 12. Mizzou falls at Iowa State after their big win against Texas. Texas A&M gets pounded on the road at Texas Tech. Damn road games.

[mckerney]

Disappointing finish in The Barn. After having a slight lead late, Gophers drop game 65-60 to Indiana. Did a good job of forcing turnovers on defense, but missed too many free throws to get the W.

[Johnny93g]

Hoosiers played awful, but did just enough to edge Minny. Very impressed with the Gophers defense, forcing so many turnovers. Very unimpressed with the Gophers offense. Other then Hoffarber(sp?) noone scared me at all.

it's a road win in the Big Ten, and that's all that matters. Indiana is now 15-1. Go Hoosiers!!!

[mckerney]

Hoosiers played awful, but did just enough to edge Minny. Very impressed with the Gophers defense, forcing so many turnovers. Very unimpressed with the Gophers offense. Other then Hoffarber(sp?) noone scared me at all.

it's a road win in the Big Ten, and that's all that matters. Indiana is now 15-1. Go Hoosiers!!!

The Gophers don't have any big scoring threats outside of Hoffarber when he's hot, though McKenzie can sometimes put up points if he gets going. Thankfully we've got a couple guys coming in next year. One of their Juco signees is supposed to be a scorer and Ralph Sampson III could hopefully provide a good inside threat.

[digamma]

I really like Peacock's effort in particular. But the fact that a (former?) walk-on like Causey is playing so many minutes tonight speaks volumes about the overall situation.


The "overall situation" is simply the point guard situation. Since the 2004 National Title Game team, Hewitt has had two point guards leave early and one not show up on campus after being drafted by the Yankees. The two who left were first round draft picks and Austin Jackson was a top 50-100 recruit. If Crittenton stays (as almost everyone thought he would) this is a top 25 team--they were a 20 win team last year.

Mo Miller has improved over the first half of the season. I'm optimistic that he will continue to improve. It is probably too late to save this year--the toughest schedule Tech has played in a decade didn't help that, but with Lawal and Miller, plus Iman Shumpert coming in next year, I think it is too early to write off Hewitt.

Now, I'm not saying everything is rosey. The senior class has been a huge disappointment. Anthony Morrow hasn't played a lick of defense in four years, and I think that permeates throughout the team. Hewitt hasn't had a good second assistant since Cliff Warren left, and that has hurt too.

[digamma]

I really like Peacock's effort in particular. But the fact that a (former?) walk-on like Causey is playing so many minutes tonight speaks volumes about the overall situation.


The "overall situation" is simply the point guard situation. Since the 2004 National Title Game team, Hewitt has had two point guards leave early and one not show up on campus after being drafted by the Yankees. The two who left were first round draft picks and Austin Jackson was a top 50-100 recruit. If Crittenton stays (as almost everyone thought he would) this is a top 25 team--they were a 20 win team last year.

Mo Miller has improved over the first half of the season. I'm optimistic that he will continue to improve. It is probably too late to save this year--the toughest schedule Tech has played in a decade didn't help that, but with Lawal and Miller, plus Iman Shumpert coming in next year, I think it is too early to write off Hewitt.

Now, I'm not saying everything is rosey. The senior class has been a huge disappointment. Anthony Morrow hasn't played a lick of defense in four years, and I think that permeates throughout the team. Hewitt hasn't had a good second assistant since Cliff Warren left, and that has hurt too.

All in all though, I'm willing to give Hewitt next year with an experienced point guard before calling for his head.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Big rivalry game in the Big 12 this weekend with undefeated KU heading to Columbia to face Mizzou. Any other good games on this weekend?

[Butter]

I only know of 2 involving my favored teams... Ohio State-Tennessee on CBS Saturday at 3:30, I believe. Then, Clemson-Duke Saturday at 6 PM on ESPN.

Both may well be blowouts against my teams, but Clemson got screwed at Duke last year, so might have some extra motivation in that one.

[JonInMiddleGA]

the toughest schedule Tech has played in a decade didn't help that,

{scratches head}

I really don't feel like (through 16 games) that this year's schedule is particularly any tougher than the same span in '02-03, 04-05, or even 06-07.

[Radii]

UNC-Maryland tomorrow which hopefully won't be interesting or worth watching at all.

[digamma]

{scratches head}

I really don't feel like (through 16 games) that this year's schedule is particularly any tougher than the same span in '02-03, 04-05, or even 06-07.

In my mind, there are two differences between this year's schedule and those schedules: fewer RPI buster type games and more road and neutral games. This season even the bad teams Tech has played have, for the most part, been of pretty good quality. Second, Tech has gone on the road to Tennessee Tech, Georgia State, Georgia and Vanderbilt, in addition to playing three pretty good teams in a neutral site tournament. The schedule is tougher top to bottom, in addition to playing the marquee games against Indiana and Kansas.

(By comparison, last year Tech opened against Morehouse, Elon, Jackson State and Georgia State all at home.)

[rjolley]

Good game on ESPN #21 Villanova 40 - 42 Syracuse 16:00 2nd.

[Radii]

UNC fans boo the team off the court and into the locker room after a lazy, no defense, lackluster half against Maryland. Maryland is outhustling, outrunning, and outplaying the Heels so far. 41-35 Maryland at the half.

I really don't care what happens in the 2nd half, or that UNC is still undefeated(for now), if I had a top 25 vote I am not sure I'd put this team in the top 10 based on their performance and effort so far. Maybe 9th in between Washington State and Indiana.

[MJ4H]

booing the undefeated, #1 team in the country.

hahahaha i dont want to hear another word about arkansas fans. EVER.

[Radii]

yeah i'm sure it comes across badly, but honestly, this team has so much talent, they just aren't hustling. I don't expect an undefeated season, I know that's virtually impossible. But two games in a row where the level of effort and intensity on defense is near zero is simply not ok.

[Radii]

USC/UCLA are tied w/ 5 minutes left to go as well

[Radii]

UNC/Maryland tied at 80 with 43 seconds to go. Maryland ball w/ a 15 second differential between shot/game clock.

[Dr. Sak]

As much as I want UNC to lose, i just cant root for Maryland.

[terpkristin]

w00t w00t w00t w00t w00t w00t

:) :) :)

*does happy dance*

*realizes she's too klutzy to do that without risking injury to life and limb*

*internal happy dance*

You know, this season's been rough, we're pretty young and just have had some bad luck and bad games. I'll take what I can get. :)

/tk

[Radii]

Uh, two pretty terrible calls to give UNC two more times with the ball at the end to tie. Doesn't matter, Maryland wins.

Good game, terps. You guys played great and earned it. Hopefully this is a wake up call for UNC. Apparently barely beating a sub-.500 team on the road isn't enough to convince you to play some fucking defense, maybe losing at home will do it? If not, this team won't even make the Sweet 16. I really, really don't think this is a top 10 team right now. Not even close. Hopefully this loss triggers a good performance at Miami but I dunno, I kinda expect another loss at this point.

[bhlloy]

UCLA goes down to USC again! Great afternoon for Memphis and Kansas.

[Radii]

USC beats UCLA 72-63, and #9 Texas A&M is down by 9 to Kansas State in the 2nd half as well.

[Chief Rum]

UCLA goes down to USC again! Great afternoon for Memphis and Kansas.

Great game by USC, and if any player cares about Player of the Game awards, Davon Jefferson should be pissed at Chevrolet. There are a lot of reasons for UCLA's loss today, but he was by far the biggest reason. Aboya couldn't handle him, and two other options, Mata and Luc Richard missed the the second half of the game with injury (and obviously, Love had to guard Gibson and probably couldn't stay with Jefferson either).

Oh, not that I would deign to give Coach Howland advice in his own trade, but having Aboya play Jefferson straight and up close was just stupid. Make Jefferson prove he can hit the outside shot. Don't just let him ole his way to the basket.

Oh, and as long as I have you here, coach, when you get four fouls on the other team's team leader and point guard and you have two super quick guards like Collison and Westbrook, you better damn well tell them to gun right at him.

IMO, Jefferson is the best player on this team, not Mayo.

[JonInMiddleGA]

GT finally wins a conference game, although they tried to blow a 16 point lead before holding off VaTech. And the recently discussed former walk-on Causey blows up for 30 points on 7 treys.

[MrBug708]

Gah...I hate that school and it's damn horse

[LloydLungs]

IMO, Jefferson is the best player on this team, not Mayo.

Absolutely no question about that. Jefferson is a beast. Mayo is fluff. Are you telling me Chevy gave the POG to Mayo? Geez.

[Chief Rum]

Absolutely no question about that. Jefferson is a beast. Mayo is fluff. Are you telling me Chevy gave the POG to Mayo? Geez.

Yup. And right after the announcers spent a minute talking about the great game Jefferson had. Just laughable. They award POGs to each side. On UCLA's side, Love got it with 18 points/12 boards, so he was a good pick. On USC's side, they put up Mayo, noting he scored 2 points in the first half and jumped it up 16 points in the second half. Got it. So you gave it to the guy who only showed up for a half, instead of the top scorer in the game, and the guy who pretty much keyed the entire victory for SC? Yeah...

I know CBS was billing this as Mayo vs Love, but, really...

[sterlingice]

USC beats UCLA 72-63, and #9 Texas A&M is down by 9 to Kansas State in the 2nd half as well.

I was listening to that KSU-A&M game on the radio. Kansas State was just clicking on all cylinders, kindof like Mizzou over Texas. It wasn't so much what A&M or Texas was doing to lose but what the winning teams did to blitz them.

SI

[MrBug708]

Zags hanging tough as Few is coaching circles around Cal

[miami_fan]

A light bulb went off in the Tigers' collective head. We can't shoot threes for shit and we have better athletes than the Zags. Maybe it would be a good idea to take the ball to the hole.

[sterlingice]

Another KU game that's already over at the half.

As I said a few weeks ago, I wish we had a better non-conference schedule as there's just not much standing in the way of us going 13-3 in the Big XII or better this season.

(and I say that knowing full well that we could lose in Manhattan later this week for the first time in about 25 years)

SI

[Wolfpack]

I heard the final of that one and thought it must be quite galling for Nebraska fans to have KU flog them in both football and basketball.

On a more personal note, State wins a nailbiter at FSU to get to 2-3 in the ACC. Season saver? Perhaps, but they are likely to get run off the floor in their next game against Duke the same way they got pounded by Carolina and Clemson.

Oddly enough, State is apparently the best team in Florida as they won all three games in the Old Spice tournament in Orlando, beat Miami last weekend (though the game was in Raleigh), and beat FSU today.

[Logan]

Great win for Rutgers tonight at Pitt! Back to back wins against ranked teams for the second time in school history, with the first being my freshman year (01-02). Shot lights out from the field including 64% from 3 point range.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Tennessee rebounds from the disappointing loss at Kentucky to rout Georgia at home. Lofton had 7 threes en route to a 21 point halftime lead & then the Vols basically coasted home 85-69.

[Chief Rum]

http://www.wsaz.com/news/headlines/14329462.html

Actually not trying to dogpile here. I just saw a great joke on a BRO from this story.

Someone in this story thread said "Tim Floyd claimed the drugs are his!", and it made me spit me milk up. :)

In all seriousness, nice win tonight for the Condoms at Mac Arena. That's a tough place to win, and the LA schools went up there and swept Oregon in a building it was 25-2 in the past two years.

[Chief Rum]

BTW, UCLA dominated Oregon State tonight on the road. Even though OSU isn't so hot (they're probably the only team in the Pac 10 that doesn't have a chance to get into a postseason tournament), this was a good win for what UCLA has been showing recently.

The good news for the Bruins (and awful news for everyone else) is that it is stunningly clear that no matter how good you thought he was doing in November, Kevin Love is clearly getting better. No team can afford to put one guy on him. Oregon and Oregon State did this the past two games, and he had 42 points and 38 rebounds in the two games.

Second bit of good news--Collison, a preseason All American, finally looks like he is back full from the knee injury he suffered at the start of the year. He has been smoothly running the offense, playing shutdown quick D and getting into the lane whenever he wants to.

Now if UCLA can get healthy (still missing The Prince and Roll), we can really get on a roll, which is what Howland's teams tend to do in February on.

I'm not a big fan of Cinderellas this year. There are some really good teams and I want the best at the Final Four. I want to see Kansas vs North Carolina, and (again) Memphis vs UCLA sometime during the tourney. And Tennessee, Indiana, Washington State, Texas, Duke, etc. I think it could be a great tourney.

[Karlifornia]

BTW, UCLA dominated Oregon State tonight on the road. Even though OSU isn't so hot (they're probably the only team in the Pac 10 that doesn't have a chance to get into a postseason tournament), this was a good win for what UCLA has been showing recently.

The good news for the Bruins (and awful news for everyone else) is that it is stunningly clear that no matter how good you thought he was doing in November, Kevin Love is clearly getting better. No team can afford to put one guy on him. Oregon and Oregon State did this the past two games, and he had 42 points and 38 rebounds in the two games.

Second bit of good news--Collison, a preseason All American, finally looks like he is back full from the knee injury he suffered at the start of the year. He has been smoothly running the offense, playing shutdown quick D and getting into the lane whenever he wants to.

Now if UCLA can get healthy (still missing The Prince and Roll), we can really get on a roll, which is what Howland's teams tend to do in February on.

I'm not a big fan of Cinderellas this year. There are some really good teams and I want the best at the Final Four. I want to see Kansas vs North Carolina, and (again) Memphis vs UCLA sometime during the tourney. And Tennessee, Indiana, Washington State, Texas, Duke, etc. I think it could be a great tourney.


Brook Lopez' NBA career will last longer than Kevin Love's.

[sterlingice]

I'm not a big fan of Cinderellas this year. There are some really good teams and I want the best at the Final Four. I want to see Kansas vs North Carolina, and (again) Memphis vs UCLA sometime during the tourney. And Tennessee, Indiana, Washington State, Texas, Duke, etc. I think it could be a great tourney.

I would much rather face North Carolina than UCLA. The Bruins are the one team that really scares me when matched up against us. This is not to say a game against North Carolina or Memphis or another one of the really good teams would be a walk in the park- it's just that we match up worst against UCLA.

SI

[Chief Rum]

Brook Lopez' NBA career will last longer than Kevin Love's.

You expectin' a fight, funboy? I don't see anything in my post above about Love's NBA potential.

I think Lopez could have a longer NBA career than Love as well. Although I think it's just as likely Love has a longer NBA career as a plugger, while Lopez has a shorter career with better results.

[Butter]

Dayton set to drop from the top 25 this week, as about 2 weeks ago, 2 of their top 4 players went down with broken bones in their feet. And it showed in blowout losses at Xavier, and at Richmond. The loss of 2 top scorers has allowed opponents to just double their All-American guard candidate, Brian Roberts, leaving virtually no one capable of scoring significant points left open on the floor.

The dream season is slowly turning into a nightmare. The Flyers and their fans just haven't gotten any luck for nearly 25 years now. :(

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Stefhon Hannah, arguably Mizzou's best player, got hit in a bar altercation Sunday morning. Fractured jaw will basically put him out for the season.

As a sidenote, I know that kids are going to go to bars, but is it too much to ask for them to avoid problems?

[cartman]

The midseason top 30 for the Wooden award has been released. So far, no one has really pulled away from the pack. Should be an interesting vote for the winner this year, if things hold to form.

Name Cl. Ht. Pos. School
D.J. Augustin So. 6-0 G Texas
Michael Beasley Fr. 6-10 F Kansas State
Jon Brockman Jr. 6-7 F Washington
Chase Budinger So. 6-7 F Arizona
Mario Chalmers Jr. 6-1 G Kansas
Stephen Curry So. 6-1 G Davidson
Chris Douglas-Roberts Jr. 6-7 G Memphis
Wayne Ellington So. 6-4 G North Carolina
Shan Foster Sr. 6-6 G Vanderbilt
Eric Gordon Fr. 6-4 G Indiana
Jamont Gordon Jr. 6-4 G/F Mississippi State
Malik Hairston Sr. 6-6 G Oregon
Tyler Hansbrough Jr. 6-9 F North Carolina
Luke Harangody So. 6-8 F Notre Dame
James Harden Fr. 6-5 G Arizona State
Roy Hibbert Sr. 7-2 C Georgetown
Chris Lofton Sr. 6-2 G Tennessee
Kevin Love Fr. 6-10 C UCLA
Derrick Low Sr. 6-2 G Washington State
O.J. Mayo Fr. 6-5 G USC
Raymar Morgan So. 6-7 F Michigan State
Demarcus Nelson Sr. 6-4 G Duke
Tyrese Rice Jr. 6-1 G Boston College
Brian Roberts Sr. 6-2 G Dayton
Derrick Rose Fr. 6-3 G Memphis
Brandon Rush Jr. 6-6 G Kansas
Sean Singletary Sr. 6-0 G Virginia
Jason Thompson Sr. 6-11 F Rider
D.J. White Sr. 6-9 F Indiana
Sam Young Jr. 6-6 F Pittsburgh

[miami_fan]

As a sidenote, I know that kids are going to go to bars, but is it too much to ask for them to avoid problems?

You limit this to just kids?

[JeeberD]

The Miners are giving #1 Memphis all they can handle out in Tennessee today. Twelve minutes to go and the Tigers are only up three...

[JeeberD]

Memphis is shooting 10-25 FTs so far in the game... :eek:

[MrBug708]

UCLA - Arizona today. The game might actually mean something too, well if Arizona can manage to win

[JeeberD]

Five minutes to go, Joey Dorsey has fouled out, one timeout left for Memphis, and it's all tied up at 57...

[JeeberD]

62-60 Memphis with two and a half to go...

[MrBug708]

Joey Dorsey is the dumbest player in college basketball, I'm convinced of it.

Go UTEP!!!

[Eaglesfan27]

Jeeber, what channel is that on?

[JeeberD]

Some channel called CSS that I don't get. Having to listen to the audio on-line...

[JeeberD]

Goaltend on the Tigers. 63-62 Tigers with 1:15 left...

[JeeberD]

ESPN is doing the occasional look-in, apparently...

[JeeberD]

65-62 Tigers, 29.2 seconds left. Rose shooting free throws...

made the first.

Edit: made them both.

[MrBug708]

Gah

[JeeberD]

And it's pretty much over. Missed free throws and layups in the final minute will kill you... :(

[JeeberD]

70-64 final. Damn. I'm SO fucking tired of moral victories. Both in football and basketball we haven't been able to pull out the big win in YEARS. :mad:

[MrBug708]

Cursed them by posting here Jeebs

[Warhammer]

Before anyone questions the Tigers after this, remember that Tony Barbie recuited many of the Memphis players and knows Calipari and the Tigers well since he was an assistant with them for so long.

[JeeberD]

Barbee :)

[MJ4H]

Arkansas with its second straight convincing win over a team they were expected to struggle with. After one of the better halves of basketball in years, Arkansas had a halftime lead of 46-21 over the Florida Gators. Second half wasn't as dominant, but good enough and Arkansas wins 80-61. This is a good sign.

[MrBug708]

Damn that was beautiful. UCLA just put a beatdown on both Arizona schools this week. If they play like that the rest of the year, no team is going to touch them.

:):):)

[Eaglesfan27]

Damn that was beautiful. UCLA just put a beatdown on both Arizona schools this week. If they play like that the rest of the year, no team is going to touch them.

:):):)

Yeah, it was disgusting how well they played. I had to turn it off with about 12 minutes to go as it was obvious that Arizona was done.

[cartman]

Texas had a hangover to start the game from the beatdown they got at A&M earlier in the week. It was 31-17 early on for Baylor. But Texas finally settled down, and pulled back to being four down at halftime, and pulled away in the second half to win 80-72.

This team is hard to get a read on this season. They have two marquee wins, vs. Tennessee and at UCLA, but got blown out at Mizzou and at A&M. On another front, D.J. Augustin is in contention for the Wooden award, which if he can win, would be three Texas players winning it in the past five seasons. Not bad for a football school. :) Rick Barnes has done a hell of a job here since he arrived.

[MrBug708]

Yeah, it was disgusting how well they played. I had to turn it off with about 12 minutes to go as it was obvious that Arizona was done.

Not to sound too cliche, but the loss to USC was the best thing that happened to them. It's a shame it was to USC, but a loss to the crosstown rivals is probably what has jumpstarted them of late.

[GoldenEagle]

Joey Dorsey is the dumbest player in college basketball, I'm convinced of it.

Go UTEP!!!

You hate Memphis for some reason, I'm convinced of it.

[MrBug708]

You hate Memphis for some reason, I'm convinced of it.

When UCLA was watching our game (against Bradley on Thursday), I know they were hoping they wouldn't play us," Dorsey said. "We saw them at the Garden, we saw the looks on their faces, and it looked like they didn't want to play us again. ... We know we can play on the road. It's not a bother to us."

He's an idiot

[rjolley]

Penn State with an upset of #7 Michigan State in State College, 85-76.

Watched parts of it. A very intertaining game. If their young players continue to develop, Penn State could cause trouble in the next couple of years. They just have to stay healthy.

[Dr. Sak]

Penn State with an upset of #7 Michigan State in State College, 85-76.

Watched parts of it. A very intertaining game. If their young players continue to develop, Penn State could cause trouble in the next couple of years. They just have to stay healthy.

It's a shame they lost Claxton for the year.

[Arles]

Just got back and saw Arizona got smacked by UCLA. The Pac-10 is looking like a pretty rough conference this season. UCLA, Stanford, WSU and Arizona all look like formidable tourney teams with USC as a dark horse.

[Chief Rum]

Yeah, it was disgusting how well they played. I had to turn it off with about 12 minutes to go as it was obvious that Arizona was done.

It took you watching 28 minutes of game time to figure out Zona was done? I knew they were done in the first five minutes. :)

[GoldenEagle]

He's an idiot

But an excellent basketball player who is the centerpiece of the #1 team in the country.

[JeeberD]

I don't know if I would call him "excellent". He can't hit free throws, and he allows horrible centers like Victor Ramalho to get under his skin and foul him out...

He is a very good rebounder and shot blocker, though.

[GoldenEagle]

I don't know if I would call him "excellent". He can't hit free throws, and he allows horrible centers like Victor Ramalho to get under his skin and foul him out...

He is a very good rebounder and shot blocker, though.

Without him, Memphis would not be where they are at. When Dorsey fouls out, the games are always much closer. The majority of his fouls are "help" fouls. He is also called for a ton of touch fouls, while he continually gets hacked but rarely does he draw fouls.

[MrBug708]

I'd love to face Memphis in the tournament again. I'm sure Dorsey will call Kevin Love overrated :)

[Radii]

Pretty awesome finish in the Wake Forest/NC State game. tie game w/ 5 seconds left, NC State misses a 3 but a dunk putback with 0.1 seconds left on the clock seals a 2 point win for the wolfpack. After duke and unc there is a giant jumble of teams with 3 and 4 losses in the ACC. The latest bracketology has only 4 ACC teams in the tournament(UNC/Duke/Clemson/Va Tech), so how those teams in the middle shake out is going to be really important down the stretch.

[Radii]

ogodogodgodsdlkjfsadlfjsafs Lawson holding his ankle after an awkward fall.

[Karlifornia]

Damn that was beautiful. UCLA just put a beatdown on both Arizona schools this week. If they play like that the rest of the year, no team is going to touch them.

:):):)

Stanford will give UCLA a game down in Pauley if Mitch Johnson plays a decent game. Stanford can out-D UCLA.

[Radii]

Ty Lawson has a sprained left ankle. It is currently heavily iced, he may not return today. UNC led FSU 8-3 with 15 minutes left in the first half. If Lawson is out for an extended period of time, lets see how bad it is.

Hopefully he is ok, but if he and Frasor are both unavailable... *shudders at the thought*

[Radii]

Lawson is officially out the rest of this game now, with the Duke game coming up Wednesday. To emphasize UNC's awesomeness without Lawson on the floor... FSU just forced a shot clock violation.

[MrBug708]

Stanford will give UCLA a game down in Pauley if Mitch Johnson plays a decent game. Stanford can out-D UCLA.

lol

[Radii]

FSU Forward Ryan Reid gets stuck after an offensive board w/ like 8 seconds left and takes, and makes, the first 3 pointer of his college career to send the game to OT.

I have no idea what to make of the OT situation. UNC is pushing 20+ turnovers but has FSU in massive foul trouble. I think it may come down to whether FSU gets hot from 3 or not.

[Karlifornia]

lol

That's some hard-hitting analysis.

[Chief Rum]

That's some hard-hitting analysis.

Okay, here's some.

They can hang with the Bruins on D. Stanford has a better scoring defense and a very good FG% defense. Stanford has a deep rotation of players to throw out there, and the Lopez twins dominate inside defensively with their athleticism.

What Stanford has in athleticism on the inside, the Bruins more than make up with in physical strength, inside depth and fundamentals. Other than Mbah a Moute, no one inside is going to wow you athletically, but they all know how to play positional defense. And the coaching staff is one of the best defensive-minded staffs in the country, which put together a gameplan at Maples that completely took one twin out of the game and limited the other one. Westbrook and Collison are two of the best pressure guards in the country and UCLA leads the conference in steals and rebounding margin.

And it's unlikely Stanford can hang with the Bruins on offense. Which the Bruins proved by beating them at Maples--going away. The Lopez twins will cause problems inside, as they can do. And Stanford is also fundamentally sound defensively. But the Bruins aren't a power inside team, other than Love. They are an outside team first and a transition scoring team off of a ballhawk defense, and that's a bad matchup for Stanford, which lacks the perimeter athleticism to stay with Collison or Westbrook and the length to get in the face of Shipp or Mcah a Moute. And the presence of Love--and how he has continually been popping out for threes as well--is going to keep Robin Lopez from helping out as much as he normally does.

I think Stanford is a very good team and they will come into Pauley and give the Bruins a good game. Plus, the game is a ways away, so who knows what the teams will be like at that point. But I anticipate Stanford will lose by about 10-15 points.

[Karlifornia]

Okay, here's some.

They can hang with the Bruins on D. Stanford has a better scoring defense and a very good FG% defense. Stanford has a deep rotation of players to throw out there, and the Lopez twins dominate inside defensively with their athleticism.

What Stanford has in athleticism on the inside, the Bruins more than make up with in physical strength, inside depth and fundamentals. Other than Mbah a Moute, no one inside is going to wow you athletically, but they all know how to play positional defense. And the coaching staff is one of the best defensive-minded staffs in the country, which put together a gameplan at Maples that completely took one twin out of the game and limited the other one. Westbrook and Collison are two of the best pressure guards in the country and UCLA leads the conference in steals and rebounding margin.

And it's unlikely Stanford can hang with the Bruins on offense. Which the Bruins proved by beating them at Maples--going away. The Lopez twins will cause problems inside, as they can do. And Stanford is also fundamentally sound defensively. But the Bruins aren't a power inside team, other than Love. They are an outside team first and a transition scoring team off of a ballhawk defense, and that's a bad matchup for Stanford, which lacks the perimeter athleticism to stay with Collison or Westbrook and the length to get in the face of Shipp or Mcah a Moute. And the presence of Love--and how he has continually been popping out for threes as well--is going to keep Robin Lopez from helping out as much as he normally does.

I think Stanford is a very good team and they will come into Pauley and give the Bruins a good game. Plus, the game is a ways away, so who knows what the teams will be like at that point. But I anticipate Stanford will lose by about 10-15 points.


Not bad, Chief...

You may remember the game at Maples last year, when Stanford came back and won. In that game, they had two perimeter scorers that could (and did) take over at the end of the game. Lawrence Hill was one, and Anthony Goods was another.

This year's game at Maples was Brook Lopez' third game back from injury, and Hill was still in some sort of offensive cocoon that he hopefully stepped out of against Wazzu. The team has taken a long time to adjust to Brook being a black hole, and stay active on the offensive end.

I won't deny that UCLA's overall talent level is much, much higher than Stanford's. I just think Stanford is going to be a difficult team to blow out. It's easy for a team like UCLA to blow out Arizona when Arizona decides to not play defense, because the Bruins can match UofA's athleticism.

And I don't think UCLA will shoot 56% from three again...or least I hope not ;)

[Chief Rum]

Not bad, Chief...

You may remember the game at Maples last year, when Stanford came back and won. In that game, they had two perimeter scorers that could (and did) take over at the end of the game. Lawrence Hill was one, and Anthony Goods was another.

This year's game at Maples was Brook Lopez' third game back from injury, and Hill was still in some sort of offensive cocoon that he hopefully stepped out of against Wazzu. The team has taken a long time to adjust to Brook being a black hole, and stay active on the offensive end.

I won't deny that UCLA's overall talent level is much, much higher than Stanford's. I just think Stanford is going to be a difficult team to blow out. It's easy for a team like UCLA to blow out Arizona when Arizona decides to not play defense, because the Bruins can match UofA's athleticism.

And I don't think UCLA will shoot 56% from three again...or least I hope not ;)

Oh, yeah, never forget that game last year. Brooks had, what, 10 blocks? And that's where Love makes a difference. Love has (by most scouts I have read) the best "hands" and hand strength and control than anyone who has come into the college game in some time (at least for big men). Basically, he's the opposite of Kwame Brown in that respect. He can receive unexpected passes inside and score them without any fumbling or wasted motion. Although he also has an array of post moves and range out to the three point line, he has scored a bunch of points inside this way and by simply being the stronger and more determined player under the glass. And then there is his range. Love has been popping out more and more. Lopez got those blocks last year by sitting and waiting for Collison, Shipp and Aflalo to come inside. What were they going to do, dish it to Aboya or Mata? They took unwise shots inside and Lopez absolutely punished them for it, as he should. But he won't be able to do that this year, because he knows they will find Love and Love will score if he leaves him. And Love is going to take him outside and clear out the middle (so Lopez #2 better be ready). And that's the reason I think last year's game doesn't apply quite as well anymore.

As for this year's earlier game, you're right about Lopez just coming back, but the Bruins were also in transition. Collison had only been back from his knee injury for about six games and he wasn't what he was last year or what he is now at that point. Right now, he's close to the All American status he got in the preseason. Past four games, he has a 6:1 assist to turnover ratio and averaged about 20 ppg (skewed a little by 33 against Oregon State, but even without about 17 ppg). Also, we had just lost Roll (again, and he probably won't be back for the game at Pauley either), and it was James Keefe's first game back from what had been an anticipated redshirt year. So UCLA wasn't really in tip top shape for that game at Maples either (and they still aren't with Roll out, and Mbah a Moute--ankle--and Mata--wrist--seemingly picking up nagging injuries every freakin' game).

As for Hill and Goods, the issue for them is that Mbah a Moute, if healthy, is pretty much the perfect defender for Hill, as he has the length to bother his perimter shots and the athleticism to stay in front of him on drives. Goods likely draws Shipp (who goes to Hill of Mbah a Moute is hurt), which is a matchup Stanford can score a little from--but if Shipp also outscores Goods does it do you match good? And Westbrook and Collison will be trying to tie up Mitch Johnson's quickness, but you know one of them will be keeping tabs on Goods while on the floor, and that is a tougher matchup for Goods driving (although he should be able to shoot over them, which would be harder against the longer Shipp).

I doubt we will shoot that great from three again, but it's true you guys don't really seem to have anyone who can get in Shipp's face when he starts launching those threes from beyond NBA 3-pt range, and he just killed you guys with those at Maples. And if you overplay to Shipp, you leave yourself wide open for drive and pull ups from Collison and Westbrook, both of whom have become very good at that.

I think with two fully healthy teams and a good gameplan, Stanford would have a good chance if the second game were at Maples, rather than the first. Unfortunately, the schedule didn't work out for Stanford, and this second game is in Pauley. That's the last factor we have to consider. That's not an easy place for anyone to go into and win.

Heh, heh, fun talking Pac 10 ball, ain't it?

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I went to the Mizzou/Kansas State game this past weekend. I got to see the much-hyped duo of Bill Walker and Michael Beasley. After watching them for the first time in person, I'm pretty sure I've never seen a more immature, self-serving duo than those two players. They gloated when they were ahead and pouted when they managed to blow a 15 point second half lead. In the paper the next day, readers were greeted by these post-game comments......

"There's nothing they (MU) did to win this game." - Bill Walker after MU beat KSU 77-74

"We thought that they were going to lay down when we were up 15. Obviously, they didn't want to go down." - Michael Beasley

I'll be happy when these two players move onto the NBA where this type of behavior is acceptable.

Mizzou heads into Lawrence tonight on Big Monday. Should be fun. First game was a 6 point win for KU.

[Wolfpack]

Pretty awesome finish in the Wake Forest/NC State game. tie game w/ 5 seconds left, NC State misses a 3 but a dunk putback with 0.1 seconds left on the clock seals a 2 point win for the wolfpack. After duke and unc there is a giant jumble of teams with 3 and 4 losses in the ACC. The latest bracketology has only 4 ACC teams in the tournament(UNC/Duke/Clemson/Va Tech), so how those teams in the middle shake out is going to be really important down the stretch.

What was awesome about that play was the fact that McCauley was the one who inbounded the ball to Grant, then ran the 94 feet to make the putback. We now know how much time it'll take him to run 94 feet as a result. (not a bad 40 time, actually, given it came at the end) :D

[Warhammer]

I don't know if I would call him "excellent". He can't hit free throws, and he allows horrible centers like Victor Ramalho to get under his skin and foul him out...

He is a very good rebounder and shot blocker, though.

Dorsey is the most important player on the Tigers team.

If any other position has an injury or has foul troubles, they have another player come off the bench to replace that player. With Dorsey, there is no other player on the bench that can come in and give you his production.

[Radii]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=3230071


CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- North Carolina coach Roy Williams was pessimistic Monday about injured point guard Ty Lawson's status for the game against No. 2 Duke.

"I don't feel real good about him playing," Williams said during the Atlantic Coast Conference's weekly media teleconference.

Williams said he wouldn't know Lawson's status for the third-ranked Tar Heels' game Wednesday night game until after practice Tuesday.


from another article on espn about it:


Simply put, Lawson is probably the least dispensable player on any of the national title contenders.

glad to see that my doom and gloom(and sick to my stomach feeling that won't seem to go away whenever i check espn) isn't overreacting.



I have a feeling that this is about to be one of the biggest letdowns/disappointments in the duke/unc rivalry history. unless you're a duke fan, that is.

[Dr. Sak]

As much as I'd love for Duke to beat UNC...it would be tons better if they were at full strength. That way the Heel fans don't have any excuses ;)

[cartman]

Breaking news out of Lubbock is that Bob Knight has resigned, effective immediately. WTF?

hxxp://www.nbc5i.com/sports/15217104/detail.html

[Radii]

Breaking news out of Lubbock is that Bob Knight has resigned, effective immediately. WTF?

hxxp://www.nbc5i.com/sports/15217104/detail.html

well that brightens my day! Good f'ing riddance.

I wonder why though, really odd.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

well that brightens my day! Good f'ing riddance.

I wonder why though, really odd.

It shouldn't be terribly surprising.

1. He's looked tired for a couple of years now. His attack of the fan base after his 900th win showed just how frustrated and grumpy he's become. He's just ready to fish and shoot his friends on hunting trips at this point.
2. By stepping out now, he gives his son the team at a rebuilding point rather than a position where expectations are high. It will be interesting to see how much rope his son gets after a couple of years.

[Radii]

It shouldn't be terribly surprising.


I understand the logic of getting his son involved as head coach sooner, but under any circumstances, someone like Knight stepping down with no notice in the middle of the season is highly suprising IMO!

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I understand the logic of getting his son involved as head coach sooner, but under any circumstances, someone like Knight stepping down with no notice in the middle of the season is highly suprising IMO!

I guess people in B12 country have seen this coming at some level, especially with his behavior this year. You could just tell that he was getting really bored with the grind of coaching. I think he enjoys the actual game still, but the rest of the stuff was really wearing him down. Over the past year or so, he'd just hang up on the weekly B12 coaches conference call when he got bored or didn't like the question. They'd play it each week on the radio here in KC just for the comedy of it all. The focus on the 900th win milestone only made it worse.

[sterlingice]

Mizzou heads into Lawrence tonight on Big Monday. Should be fun. First game was a 6 point win for KU.

You were right, it was fun (j/k) ;)

SI

[JonInMiddleGA]

#7 Tennessee trailed #22 Florida 48-44 at the half, in Knoxville no less.

Final: Vols 104 Gators 82

Down 52-46 with 17:57 to play, UT had an 11 point run to take the lead and then turned it into a rout by taking a 9 point lead with 3:55 to play and finishing on a 16-3 run.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

You were right, it was fun (j/k) ;)

SI

Just too much inside. We've got three big men coming in for next year that should give us some inside depth and rebounding depth, but that didn't help us Monday. :)

[Groundhog]

Watched the replay of Gonzaga-St. Mary's last night. Boy did Gonzaga get screwed by the refs down the stretch, but heck of a game anyhow. All the Aussies contributed to the win for St. Mary's, but none more so than Patty Mills who had a great game (including a big time steal and layup in crunch time).

[JetsIn06]

Anyone watching Duke UNC right now?

[Radii]

hah, yes.

[JetsIn06]

Tough to keep up the discussion because the game goes so fast, but that was a nice three by Duke.

[Radii]

so as predicted UNC's backcourt looks completely incompetent, but the big men are so dominant inside that its still close. Guess it will probably come down to whether or not UNC's big men can continue a 2:1 rebounding edge all game, or whether duke will force Thomas/ginyard/Graves(if he doesn't foul out in the first half) into 20-25 turnovers.

[Radii]

Definitely pleased to only be down 5 right now after that run by Duke. I'm also pleased to see that so far UNC is on pace for under 20 turnovers.

[Radii]

Roy needs to bench Quentin Thomas and let Ginyard run the offense IMO for the rest of the game.

[Radii]

Congrats to Duke.

[JonInMiddleGA]

http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/uga/stories/2008/02/07/gahumphrey_0207.html

Athens -- Georgia basketball player Billy Humphrey was arrested Thursday morning for underage possession of alcohol, according to Athens-Clarke County Police.

Humphrey, 20, was on 18 months probation for a felony weapons charge after a knife was found in his dorm room in November. A condition of that probation was that he avoid trouble with the law.

Police charged Humphrey with underage possession and failure to obey a traffic control device. He was booked in Athens-Clarke County Jail at 2:12 a.m. Thursday and released at 3:45 a.m. on $1,000 bond.

Team spokesman Tim Hix said coach Dennis Felton had just been informed about the arrest and was trying to locate Humphrey about 9 a.m. Thursday. A message to Humphrey's attorney, Kim Stephens, was not returned.

The arrest appears to have violated the terms of Humphrey's probation. He was also placed on a one-year probation by the UGA Student Judiciary.

Humphrey originally ran into trouble with the law on Nov. 13 when UGA Police searched for marijuana in the dorm room Humphrey shared with former teammate Mike Mercer.

No marijuana was found, but police found a knife with a blade of more than 2-1/2 inches in length in Humphrey's closet. That's considered a weapon in the state of Georgia and Humphrey was arrested for having it on school property.

Because it was a felony charge, Humphrey was immediately suspended from the basketball team per athletic department policy. He was reinstated a week later after being accepted in a pretrial diversion program. His record was to be expunged upon completion of his probation provided he stayed out of trouble.

At the time, Felton said, "Billy's a good kid, he made a mistake and he's sorry about it. I don't believe he'll ever let that mistake happen again."

Humphrey, a 6-foot-2 guard from Dacula, is second on the team in scoring with a 13.2 points average. He scored eight points in the Bulldogs' 67-59 loss to Vanderbilt on Wednesday at Stegeman Coliseum.

Humphrey's arrest Thursday continues a trend of tumult for the men's basketball this season. Originally thought to be a season of great promise, Felton announced the suspension of three players for a combined total of 30 games the day before preseason practice was to begin. The suspensions were for failure to comply with the school's academic responsibility policy.

Two of those players -- senior power forward Takais Brown and junior guard Mike Mercer -- eventually were dismissed from the team for unspecified team rules violations. They were the leading returning scorers from the previous season.

The Bulldogs lost another player when junior center Rashaad Singleton quit the team the day the team on Jan. 3. He was unhappy with playing time.

[hoopsguy]

IU's Gordon banks a three from 25' out with :25 seconds to play to tie the game. Illini Pruitt miss a foul shot with 4 seconds left, and it is now in OT.

Pruitt stinks - he was just blocked in OT. Hoosiers up three, Illini losing composure. And I'm preparing to light myself on fire.

[JetsIn06]

GREAT game between Xavier and St. Louis decided with 0.1 seconds left. Great end of game performance by one of the St. Louis players.

[JetsIn06]

IU's Gordon banks a three from 25' out with :25 seconds to play to tie the game. Illini Pruitt miss a foul shot with 4 seconds left, and it is now in OT.

Pruitt stinks - he was just blocked in OT. Hoosiers up three, Illini losing composure. And I'm preparing to light myself on fire.

Watching this now. 30 seconds left

[hoopsguy]

And Pruitt misses two more with a tie game with 2.2 seconds left. And then gets away with his "I'm terrible, let me foul a guy shooting from 80 feet, and hope the ref doesn't call it" play.

I'm now heading to the garage to search for the gasoline can.

[Dunleavy]

"omg they are throwing beeds" :rolleyes:

[hoopsguy]

This has been one miserable basketball season for the Illini. The foul shooting is beyond embarrassing. Second straight year that I have hated our seniors. Good to see FR McCamey get major minutes and shine like he did (7 3's, 29 points is 11 above previous high). I wish Bruce had pulled the plug on this season and played the kids over the last month because this year has been a lost cause since they lost at home to some sectional Tennessee school.

[Johnny93g]

Great win for the Hoosiers. Bruce Weber is classless.

I don't get how the Illini don't have more Big Ten wins. Those kids have talent. 2 wins so far doesnt add up for me.

My Hoosiers are now 19-3, 8-1 in the Big Ten. Hoping they put together a little winning streak down the strech. We got a few battle with Michigan St. coming up which will decide the conference championship.

[Chief Rum]

Another big win for UCLA, beating the Cougars up in Pullman.

The Cougars are tremendously talented, but they have had some rough go's of late. They really need to win against USC on Saturday.

[Butter]

How much longer does Bruce Weber get in Champaign? Illinois hasn't been this bad in a while.

As a Dayton fan, I'm not all that sad to see it, considering that Trent Meacham transferred from us to Illinois after his freshman season. Call it the "Eric Gordon" factor.

[Ryno]

How much longer does Bruce Weber get in Champaign?

At least as long as Ron Guenther is AD, and probably until Weber decides to retire. Recruiting has really picked up and the future is looking a lot brighter. Next year might be a little bumpy too unless someone steps up into a leadership role, but I fully expect top 20 finishes for a long time starting two years from now.

[Butter]

Will the fans wait through another .500-ish or worse season?

[hoopsguy]

Great win for the Hoosiers. Bruce Weber is classless.

I don't get how the Illini don't have more Big Ten wins. Those kids have talent. 2 wins so far doesnt add up for me.

My Hoosiers are now 19-3, 8-1 in the Big Ten. Hoping they put together a little winning streak down the strech. We got a few battle with Michigan St. coming up which will decide the conference championship.

Only a deluded Hoosiers fan could watch what happened with the Eric Gordon saga, observe the continued violations by Sampson, and conclude that Weber is the one that is classless. I'm astonished that the same fan base that used to crow about their integrity with Bob Knight as coach can make statements like this.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Only a deluded Hoosiers fan could watch what happened with the Eric Gordon saga, observe the continued violations by Sampson, and conclude that Weber is the one that is classless. I'm astonished that the same fan base that used to crow about their integrity with Bob Knight as coach can make statements like this.

I'd agree that Sampson and the Indiana program are certainly not a role model for most programs, but Weber didn't even bother to shake hands with Gordon. A head coach, no matter how much he may have been screwed, should be the bigger person and shake a man's hand after a game. It really doesn't take that much to do something that simple.

[hoopsguy]

Will the fans wait through another .500-ish or worse season?

I think it depends on what portion of the fan base you are questioning. The Chicagoland group is considerably more restless than the downstate Illinois people, as far as I can tell.

As Ryno noted, the Illini have already landed a bunch of incoming HS players. 4 stud JRs and the best 2 SOs in the state of IL. All of these guys should be Top 100 and a couple are likely to be 5 star guys. So the recruiting woes that haunted Weber, and play a big part in the problems you see this year, seem to have been addressed.

However, this year and potentially next the Illini have to pay the bill on the recruiting failures of Weber's first few years. He swung and missed on a ton of players beyond the well-publicized Eric Gordon. Just as 2nd-best hands lose you a lot of money in poker, so it also is with recruiting when you don't have time to recover on secondary targets because they have already committed elsewhere. The impact of a recruiting miss is so much bigger in hoops than football, for a number of fairly obvious reasons.

[Mr. Wednesday]

Also, don't forget that Alex Legion will be available starting either mid-December or January of next season.

[hoopsguy]

I'd agree that Sampson and the Indiana program are certainly not a role model for most programs, but Weber didn't even bother to shake hands with Gordon. A head coach, no matter how much he may have been screwed, should be the bigger person and shake a man's hand after a game. It really doesn't take that much to do something that simple.

I would vehemently disagree if you had used Sampson as the example here. Gordon is far from clean in this either, although obviously there was a ton of pressure on a 17 year old kid as this went down.

That said, Gordon commits to Illinois and maintains after Sampson is hired that he is on-board with the Illini. News reports emerge that he is spending time meeting with Sampson and Indiana, but when contacted he tells the Illini that there is nothing to worry about. Indiana does not notify Illinois that they are recruiting a verbally commit in their own conference, something that has been a no-no in hoops as compared to football. Gordon actually teams up with Derrick Rose for several games over the summer between his junior and senior year with the idea that he is helping recruit him to play at Illinois. Then, right before signing day, Gordon flips over to Indiana.

Should Illinois have seen it coming? Plenty of people did, but from the coaches perspective they were in contact with the kid and the other university involved and were lied to repeatedly. I'm not sure that if I was in Weber's place that I would shake Gordon's hand either. If I was, it would be strictly to avoid the negative PR associated with failing to do so.

If you want to criticize Weber for his in-game coaching this year, his past recruiting failures, or his insistence in giving responsibility and minutes to seniors who don't deserve them then I'm onboard for that discussion. But I'm not inclined to be sympathetic to poor Eric Gordon.