Official 2010-11 College Basketball Thread

[duckman]

:confused:

#2, #3, #14, & #16. It's no Big East but not that weak. I think the bottom 6 teams (not sure what to make of Baylor and K-State) ae justr very close to each other and thus there are a lot of 3 and 4 win teams.
I guess top heavy is a better description. I'm used to seeing more tournament probable teams.

[panerd]

Whatever. 43-16 free throws, almost 3 to 1. Sorry that doesn't usually happen, even to pressing teams.

[digamma]

Harvard at Princeton on ESPNU on Friday. Harvard has never finished in the top two of the Ivy League. This could be the year.

[Butter]

The refs are all just jealous of Mike Anderson's enormous coaching talent.

[Butter]

Drew continues to demonstrate what can happen when you are a good recruiter with no coaching skills. Unbelievable.

If you would like more proof of this, just watch a University of Dayton basketball game sometime this year. A real coach would have this team in the top 25, easily.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Whatever. 43-16 free throws, almost 3 to 1. Sorry that doesn't usually happen, even to pressing teams.

We've had teams in the past couple of years that have adjusted much better to the officiating on the road than this squad. It was pretty bad last night, but that's the way the road is.

The same style of play that causes havoc and nearly impossible conditions for the road team in Mizzou Arena due to home-leaning officiating is the same style that can be rendered useless given a heavy home officiating bias when we're on the road.

I'm also reminded of a Norm Stewart quote after these last couple of games:

"We’ve got a lot of shooters, but we don’t have many makers. We need more makers."

[Logan]

Whatever. 43-16 free throws, almost 3 to 1. Sorry that doesn't usually happen, even to pressing teams.

The foul calls were 26-20.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

The foul calls were 26-20.

I'm going to assume you didn't watch the game. OSU players were leaving their feet and getting bailed out by the officials. MU players were leaving their feet and got nothing. Leaving your feet is always a bad thing, but it's worse when the other team is getting free throws for bad plays while your team does the same (because they assume they'll get the same treatment) and doesn't get the same calls. That situation created the huge discrepancy on the FT line.

[jbergey22]

On the year Mizzou has a FTA/FGA of 33.3 which is 276th in the nation. While they are allowing a FTA/FGA of 39.6 which is 209th in the nation.

On the other hand Oklahoma State has a FTA/FGA of 42.9 which is 61st in the nation while fouling at a rate of 47.7 which is 307th in the nation.

According the their stats on the year it appears Missouri is not a team that takes the ball to the hoops and draws many fouls. Being that Oklahoma State is one of the worst in the nation at allowing Free Throws Missouri should have focused more on the inside than jacking up 18 3s.

I didnt watch the game so I have no idea how good or bad the refs were but after looking the season stats its understandable on why Missouri is getting outshot at the FT line.

A lot of times in games in which one team leads by a lot in the 2nd half the FT attempts can be misleading. I am sure Mizzou was fouling at the end on purpose and had to play over aggressive to try and get back in the game.

Of course this also plays along with the theory that the refs are out to get Mizzou as their yearly FT attempts/FG attempts would show.

[Logan]

I'm going to assume you didn't watch the game. OSU players were leaving their feet and getting bailed out by the officials. MU players were leaving their feet and got nothing. Leaving your feet is always a bad thing, but it's worse when the other team is getting free throws for bad plays while your team does the same (because they assume they'll get the same treatment) and doesn't get the same calls. That situation created the huge discrepancy on the FT line.

Forgive me for not taking your word for it.

[molson]

Big win for Syracuse at UConn to snap a four game losing streak. The big east schedule is brutal but the upside is you get a ton of chances for quality wins. There is a margin for error there.

But the buzz before the game was about an "internet rumor" that three Syracuse players were involved in point-shaving and that ESPN was "working on the story". The rumor blew up and the originator posted an apology (after changing his username).

Originator of Syracuse point-shaving rumor offers apology | syracuse.com (http://blog.syracuse.com/orangebasketball/2011/02/originator_of_syracuse_point-s.html)

Jardine, Waiters play under the dark cloud of unfounded Internet rumor | syracuse.com (http://blog.syracuse.com/orangebasketball/2011/02/jardine_waiters_play_under_the.html)

At some point there has to be some kind of backlash about the state of college sports "insiders" on the internet doesn't there? Maybe someday, everything won't immediately be considered credible just because it's on the internet somewhere.

[Poli]

What about the greatness of Tennessee? :p
Well, we haven't played the great powers of Presbyterian, either. I guess you got me on that. I'll tell Tennessee to stop scheduling Villanova, Pitt, and UConn. You guys start scheduling...SEMO or Arkansas State or SLU.

[Poli]

FTR, I roommate never piped up even in the end when Mizzou was surging. I should text him to see how he's doing. :)

[MizzouRah]

Well, we haven't played the great powers of Presbyterian, either. I guess you got me on that. I'll tell Tennessee to stop scheduling Villanova, Pitt, and UConn. You guys start scheduling...SEMO or Arkansas State or SLU.

Let's see Missouri is ranked 29th in strength of schedule.. Tennessee is 24th.. pretty even schedule thus far if you ask me.

[jbergey22]

Let's see Missouri is ranked 29th in strength of schedule.. Tennessee is 24th.. pretty even schedule thus far if you ask me.

Where are you getting this?

Ken Pomeroy has Mizzou at 83rd, Tennessee at 16. Jeff Sagarin has Mizzou 80 and Tennessee 14.

If you wanted to go by something as useless as the RPI Mizzou is 93rd and Tennessee is 1st.

[MizzouRah]

NCAA Basketball Power Ratings - NCAA BB Team Strength of Schedule Power Rating (http://www.teamrankings.com/ncb/rankings/?rat=strength-of-schedule&cat=team)

Am I looking at the wrong site?

I do see Tennesse is ranked #16 in RPI and Missouri is #28.

[Poli]

What he said.

[MizzouRah]

Where are you getting this?

Ken Pomeroy has Mizzou at 83rd, Tennessee at 16. Jeff Sagarin has Mizzou 80 and Tennessee 14.

If you wanted to go by something as useless as the RPI Mizzou is 93rd and Tennessee is 1st.

Where are you getting this?

I see Tennessee #18 and Missouri #33 through 2/2

[Poli]

CBS Sports RPI has Tennessee's SOS #1, Mizzou 69.

NCAA College Basketball Rankings - CBSSports.com (http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/rankings/rpi/index1)

I only know this because I have to rub it in my roommate's face every time he talks about Mizzou. I could really care less. Living in a house with with black and gold everywhere, a man in orange has to stand up for himself.

[MizzouRah]

..and since you always have to give your thoughts on anything Missouri, the strength of schedule is Mizzou 74.67 and Tennessee 78.33

I'm not talking about rank of schedule.

[Poli]

RealTimeRPI.com Men's College Basketball Rating Percentage Index (RPI) Ratings - A leading sports ratings and resources community on the Internet (http://realtimerpi.com/rpi_Men.html)

Tennessee 1, Mizzou 71.

[Swaggs]

SOS Numbers

Real Time RPI: Missouri (#71), Tennessee (#1)
RealTimeRPI.com Men's College Basketball Rating Percentage Index (RPI) Ratings - A leading sports ratings and resources community on the Internet (http://realtimerpi.com/rpi_Men.html)

Sagarin: Missouri (80), Tennessee (#14)
USATODAY.com (http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/bkt1011.htm)

[MizzouRah]

CBS Sports RPI has Tennessee's SOS #1, Mizzou 69.

NCAA College Basketball Rankings - CBSSports.com (http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/rankings/rpi/index1)

I only know this because I have to rub it in my roommate's face every time he talks about Mizzou. I could really care less. Living in a house with with black and gold everywhere, a man in orange has to stand up for himself.

yeah.. I don't give two sheets either.. just giving you a ribbing.. you should expect that from me.. :)

[jbergey22]

Where are you getting this?

I see Tennessee #18 and Missouri #33 through 2/2




http://www.kenpom.com/

USATODAY.com (http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/bkt1011.htm)

[Poli]

:)

[jbergey22]

NCAA Basketball Power Ratings - NCAA BB Team Strength of Schedule Power Rating (http://www.teamrankings.com/ncb/rankings/?rat=strength-of-schedule&cat=team)

Am I looking at the wrong site?

I do see Tennesse is ranked #16 in RPI and Missouri is #28.

Im not sure that you are looking at the wrong site. I suppose each site has their different opinion. Personally, I tend to put more weight into Sagarin and Pomeroy over other sites and I especially like Pomeroy. His ratings tend to pick up on underrated and overrated teams quicker than most.

I find the RPI pretty much worthless.

[MizzouRah]

Im not sure that you are looking at the wrong site. I suppose each site has their different opinion. Personally, I tend to put more weight into Sagarin and Pomeroy over other sites and I especially like Pomeroy. His ratings tend to pick up on underrated and overrated teams quicker than most.

I find the RPI pretty much worthless.

Are you messing with RPI-Fan? :D

We would kick the crap out of Tennessee anyway.. no need to keep arguing.
:lol: :devil: :cool:

[Poli]

:p

We ain't Harris-Stowe.

[jbergey22]

Are you messing with RPI-Fan? :D

We would kick the crap out of Tennessee anyway.. no need to keep arguing.
:lol: :devil: :cool:

;)

Id probably agree. You Mizzou fans are such diehards its kind of fun shooting the shit with you.

I wish I still cared as much about the Gophers as the Mizzou fans do about their team. Its just hard to get excited about them when they cant ever get in the top 4 in the Big 10 and football is even more brutal to cheer for them.

[MizzouRah]

:p

We ain't Harris-Stowe.

and we ain't Chattanooga :D

[MizzouRah]

;)

Id probably agree. You Mizzou fans are such diehards its kind of fun shooting the shit with you.

I wish I still cared as much about the Gophers as the Mizzou fans do about their team. Its just hard to get excited about them when they cant ever get in the top 4 in the Big 10 and football is even more brutal to cheer for them.

A long time ago, I sported the maroon hat with, "Minnesota" on the front of it because I loved watching them play basketball.

Haven't followed them since getting out of the Marine Corps years ago.

[jbergey22]

Ohio State has been playing like they need a loss lately. They havent been near as impressive over the past 2-3 weeks other than the Purdue route.

[Thomkal]

Coastal Carolina has basically clinched the Big South conference after beating Liberty tonight. They now hold a 2 game lead over Liberty and nobody else is close after that. They also hold the second longest winning streak in the country currently (watch out Ohio State. we are coming for you!)

[RedKingGold]

This is college basketball. We have a season ending tournament to determine the champion. Who gives a fuck about rankings?

[jbergey22]

This is college basketball. We have a season ending tournament to determine the champion. Who gives a fuck about rankings?

Probably a lot of people. We need something to talk about before the tournament. Personally, I enjoy the rankings part of it as seedings/bubble watches are important this part of the year.

[mauchow]

Ohio State has been playing like they need a loss lately. They havent been near as impressive over the past 2-3 weeks other than the Purdue route.

They go to Wisconsin soon, where they haven't won since Bo Ryan has been there....

[JonInMiddleGA]

North Carolina Tar Heels' Larry Drew II leaves team, source says - ESPN (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=6089805)
In a jarring February development, North Carolina point guard Larry Drew II has left the Tar Heels team and will transfer, according to a source close to the situation.

The source did not cite a reason for Drew's decision to transfer but did say the junior left campus Thursday, roughly 48 hours after recording nine assists in 19 minutes in North Carolina's 106-74 victory over Boston College. The source also said Carolina's coaches were aware of Drew's decision.

Drew has essentially shared the point guard position this season with freshman Kendall Marshall; he lost the starting role to Marshall in mid-January.

As a result, Drew's playing time, scoring and assists have dropped from last season -- minutes down from 28.8 to 22.8 per game, scoring from 8.5 points to 4.4 and assists from 5.9 to 3.9. However, he's had some of his better floor games during the Tar Heels' last three games, all victories, racking up 19 assists and only two turnovers while playing fewer minutes than Marshall.

Drew, the son of Atlanta Hawks coach Larry Drew, was a lightning rod for fan criticism last year, when Carolina failed to earn an NCAA tournament berth.

If he transfers to another Division I school Drew will have to sit out a year and have one season of eligibility remaining.

[Radii]

Well I can't say I'm sad about that after badmouthing him in nearly every single post I've made in the basketball threads for the past two years. I think I did say something nice about him last week though, something about how he seems to be playing much better in his new more limited role. Roy stuck with him way longer than I thought he should have as the starter. If he's leaving because he got benched or didn't like how he was being used, well, fuck him, he never earned any playing time, he was just PG by default for awhile after Lawson left.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Well I can't say I'm sad about that after badmouthing him in nearly every single post I've made in the basketball threads for the past two years.

I'd be lying if I said you weren't the very first person who came to mind when I read this :D

[Balldog]

Ohio State has been playing like they need a loss lately. They havent been near as impressive over the past 2-3 weeks other than the Purdue route.

I've watched every game this year and they seem to be getting a little bored, especially when teams try to milk the clock. Northwestern, Michigan, and Penn State slowed the game way down and they weren't able to get after it. Also Lighty is shooting like his normal self and teams are making Diebler put it on the floor.

I think they may sneak by Minnesota this weekend then lose to Wisconsin next weekend and Purdue the following week. The losses will be good for them though.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

This is college basketball. We have a season ending tournament to determine the champion. Who gives a fuck about rankings?

This. It would be fantastic to win a conference championship, but Mizzou fans don't have to look far back to find times where we turned on the NCAA Tournament on Thursday/Friday and there was no Mizzou logo being shown. Just get into the tourney and then take your shot. It's a beautiful thing and I'm glad we're at the point where we're back in the tourney regulars again.

The rest is just fun banter.

[panerd]

This. It would be fantastic to win a conference championship, but Mizzou fans don't have to look far back to find times where we turned on the NCAA Tournament on Thursday/Friday and there was no Mizzou logo being shown. Just get into the tourney and then take your shot. It's a beautiful thing and I'm glad we're at the point where we're back in the tourney regulars again.

The rest is just fun banter.

Totally agree. Mizzou "fans" like to bitch that Pinkel can't win the big games and "only" wins 9-10 games a season. They are upset that Anderson can't win the big 12. I can remember storming the field in the early 90's when we beat Iowa State on a last second field goal. I can remember not being selected for the NIT and Quin's teams getting blown out at the Hearnes Center. I will take Pinkel/Anderson 7 days a week.

[MizzouRah]

Totally agree. Mizzou "fans" like to bitch that Pinkel can't win the big games and "only" wins 9-10 games a season. They are upset that Anderson can't win the big 12. I can remember storming the field in the early 90's when we beat Iowa State on a last second field goal. I can remember not being selected for the NIT and Quin's teams getting blown out at the Hearnes Center. I will take Pinkel/Anderson 7 days a week.

Totally agree!

Although Quinn did have a nice run in 2002 :)

[MrBug708]

It did help when you faced Lavin and his ability to knock off #1 teams :)

[Scoobz0202]

What's going on out in Washington? The Huskies dropping three straight to Oregon, Oregon State, and Washington State.

[MJ4H]

Pelphrey has had more than enough chances. I really hope this is the last season of this experiment.

[cartman]

Just got home from the UT-Texas Tech game. The final margin was a comfortable 76-60, but Tech did get within 6 with about 11 minutes to go. But Texas reestablished themselves and dominated the rest of the way. Yet another opponent held to under 40% from the field. In the 8 conference games Texas has played so far, only one team shot more than 40%, and that was Texas A&M who shot 41.5% in the game in Austin.

[Chief Rum]

What's going on out in Washington? The Huskies dropping three straight to Oregon, Oregon State, and Washington State.

I haven't been watching specifically, but I would guess it's a combo of the cold streak top scorer Isaiah Thomas is on, and the fact injuries have forced him into a PG mode.

[MizzouRah]

We get our payback on Colorado!

[Radii]

Larry Drew Who? Kendall Marshall has the most assists by a Freshman in UNC history and the most assists in a conference game ever by a UNC player today. 9 points/16 assists and only 3 turnovers. Brilliant performance by Marshall in another blowout win 89-69 over Florida State.

I still don't have high expectations going into Cameron on Wednesday, but UNC has now won 10 out of 11, and has put themselves into a position to be playing for first in the conference.

[dawgfan]

What's going on out in Washington? The Huskies dropping three straight to Oregon, Oregon State, and Washington State.
They've looked a step slow and the less motivated team in each of those games. Isaiah had a great run there at PG after Gaddy went down, but in the last 3 games he's been a turnover machine and his ability to draw fouls when driving the lane has decreased. The defense has taken a step back too, with guys a step slow on rotating and getting beat too often with backdoor cuts.

Aside from IT, the team is really lacking in guys that can create off the dribble. They have a pretty good inside scorer in Bryan-Amaning and a lot of great spot-up shooters in Suggs, Wilcox and Ross (and to a lesser extent Gant and Holiday), but Overton is the only other guy that is able to penetrate the lane and he's too often out of control. Holiday has developed somewhat of a midrange game and his shot is much improved, but he makes too many bad passes as a Senior, and his defense, long his strength, has taken a step back recently.

The team has a lot of talent and should make the tournament (if they don't, it would be a huge under-achievement), but they are missing the steady hand of Gaddy more than I thought they would.

[Radii]

I heard this mentioned during the game today by the announcers, and the AP writeup on the game mentioned it as well (http://www.accsports.com/wires/201102069778/marshall-leads-no-23-unc-past-fsu-89-69-.php):


Drew walked out, issuing a statement without even a word to his teammates while relying on his father - Atlanta Hawks coach Larry Drew - to tell coach Roy Williams in a phone call.

Man up, fuckwad, god damn. Teammates find out about Drew transferring on twitter, and his coach finds out because his dad calls and tells him. What a complete piece of shit.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Found this comment from Phil Pressey pretty amusing........

"I'm gonna take it just like any other game," said Phil Pressey, one of four Tigers who will play in Lawrence for the first time. "It's really not that big a deal to me."

This young man's about to get a rude initiation at Allen Fieldhouse.

[sterlingice]

I'm ready for Big Monday tonight :)

SI

[mauchow]

Badgers #1 on kenpom offense ratings putting them at #5 on the list overall after the complete dismantling of msu yesterday. Big week for the badgers now though. @ Iowa and then they host Ohio St on Saturday.

[DataKing]

Hmmm...I want to talk some smack, but I am not feeling terribly creative today...

[MJ4H]

The media is finally starting to open up on Mr. John Pelphrey. We may be nearing the end here.

[Swaggs]

Pitt @ WVU tonight.

One of Pitt's best players is out with an MCL injury, so hopefully we can steal one here and fortify our tournament resume. I'm pretty sure our current stretch of games is about as tough as we had on the run to the Final Four last year (@ #12 Nova, #4 Pitt, DePaul -- outlier, @ #13 Cuse, vs #7 Notre Dame, and then @ #4 Pitt again).

In any case, we need to win probably a couple of those games against ranked teams and then hopefully win the two remaining games that we'll be favored in (DePaul and @ Rutgers). Then we close, at home, with #9 UConn and #15 Louisville.

If we make the tourney, with the short bench we've had most of the season, Huggins will probably have done a better job than he did last season with the FF team.

[sterlingice]

Fun, fun game in Lawrence so far

SI

[MizzouRah]

Good start for MIZZOU!

[miami_fan]

Listening to Bob Knight is making the Tiger-Jayhawk game a struggle. I love the info but man is his voice just irritating.

[jbergey22]

Missouri seems to be fine on offense but what is with their defense tonight? Kansas can score at will.

[MizzouRah]

Well.. the game has turned into a sleeper for Mizzou fans. Goodness... that is just one team I cannot stand. :)

[sterlingice]

Sorry, but goodnight on this one for Mizzou. We'll meet again in Columbia in a couple of weeks and that's going to be a crazy game. No one's winning that one by double digits.

SI

[Swaggs]

Tough loss for the Mountaineers. Pitt really outhustled and out-physicaled us on the boards in the second half. We have had a lot of close losses of late, but they are starting to add up.

[Atocep]

Tough loss for the Mountaineers. Pitt really outhustled and out-physicaled us on the boards in the second half. We have had a lot of close losses of late, but they are starting to add up.

Can't wait for next season to get here. I really don't enjoy watching this team play. I'm not a fan of Casey Mitchell's attitude or watching Truck throw up stupid shots and it'd be nice to have a guy that can knock down shots somewhat consistently. Going to really miss Flowers and Mazzulla though.

This team should squeeze into the tourney but I don't see it doing much once it's there.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Boy, if you tell me that Mizzou shoots 55% from the field and only has 8 turnovers, I'm pretty sure we're going to win that game. Impressive shooting by KU. Sometimes it just doesn't pan out. Time to get back in the saddle with 4 of the last 7 at home and 3 winnable road games left to go.

[Swaggs]

Can't wait for next season to get here. I really don't enjoy watching this team play. I'm not a fan of Casey Mitchell's attitude or watching Truck throw up stupid shots and it'd be nice to have a guy that can knock down shots somewhat consistently. Going to really miss Flowers and Mazzulla though.

This team should squeeze into the tourney but I don't see it doing much once it's there.

I kind of agree with you and I'm excited to see what the new guys are going to look like, but I think we could really struggle next year. I haven't heard any rumors of Pepper leaving lately, but if he does (and I don't know why he would, as he should have a ton of playing time from here on out) we are likely looking at Truck, the Turk, and KJ as the returning players ready to go at the beginning of the season.

I love Coach Huggins, but it is hard to imagine us cashing in any less off of a Final Four appearance than he did this and last year. I'm still holding out hope that he is going to dump Eric Martin and hire a coach than can bring a player or two (in the late signing period) with him next season.

[Butter]

Badgers #1 on kenpom offense ratings putting them at #5 on the list overall after the complete dismantling of msu yesterday. Big week for the badgers now though. @ Iowa and then they host Ohio St on Saturday.

Chance for Wisconsin to take down two #1 Ohio State teams in Madison this year. They already got football done, now it'll be Saturday for basketball.

Stakes a bit lower for this one, though, but it still should be a fun atmosphere.

[Poli]

Well.. the game has turned into a sleeper for Mizzou fans. Goodness... that is just one team I cannot stand. :)

Roomie wasn't home last night...but I didn't hear much out of him after the first half via text.

What makes this "rivalry" worse is the connection I have to KU with Brandon Bourbon...so I'm to "play" the role of hated KU fan even though I really don't have any allegiance to them outside of Bourbon.

[Poli]

and we ain't Chattanooga :D
A straw poll might reveal people have heard of Chattanooga.

[the_meanstrosity]

Roomie wasn't home last night...but I didn't hear much out of him after the first half via text.

What makes this "rivalry" worse is the connection I have to KU with Brandon Bourbon...so I'm to "play" the role of hated KU fan even though I really don't have any allegiance to them outside of Bourbon.

What's your connection with Brandon? Same home town? I'm looking forward to seeing Brandon play next fall. He and James Sims could be a nice one two punch if Kansas can shore up their offensive line woes.

[MizzouRah]

Boy, if you tell me that Mizzou shoots 55% from the field and only has 8 turnovers, I'm pretty sure we're going to win that game. Impressive shooting by KU. Sometimes it just doesn't pan out. Time to get back in the saddle with 4 of the last 7 at home and 3 winnable road games left to go.

Our defense is horrible on the road.

[MizzouRah]

Roomie wasn't home last night...but I didn't hear much out of him after the first half via text.

What makes this "rivalry" worse is the connection I have to KU with Brandon Bourbon...so I'm to "play" the role of hated KU fan even though I really don't have any allegiance to them outside of Bourbon.

LOL..

[MJ4H]

Amazing. The local television station has decided not to carry the Arkansas basketball game tonight at Mississippi State, calling it a "programming decision."

I think there is some major power play like stuff going on behind the scenes for this kind of thing to happen.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Amazing. The local television station has decided not to carry the Arkansas basketball game tonight at Mississippi State, calling it a "programming decision."

I think there is some major power play like stuff going on behind the scenes for this kind of thing to happen.

When will the Mike Anderson watch begin?

:D

[Lathum]

Amazing. The local television station has decided not to carry the Arkansas basketball game tonight at Mississippi State, calling it a "programming decision."

I think there is some major power play like stuff going on behind the scenes for this kind of thing to happen.

what are they showing instead?

[MJ4H]

Whatever's normally on ABC at the time.

edit: now they have changed their mind and are airing it. I'm sure they got quite a shitstorm over their previous position.

[Lathum]

Whatever's normally on ABC at the time.

Not sure what the issue with that is, I can't ever recall a major network showing a regular season sporting event over its usual programing.

[MJ4H]

In all my years of following Arkansas sports, this station has never not aired a game they had the option to televise. Believe me, it is highly unusual. And now they've come to their senses and are airing it.

[Lathum]

In all my years of following Arkansas sports, this station has never not aired a game they had the option to televise. Believe me, it is highly unusual. And now they've come to their senses and are airing it.

Interesting. I guess that is the difference between living in a city like New York or Seattle and living in SEC country.

[MJ4H]

When will the Mike Anderson watch begin?

:D

It's worse than that. Some of these guys are after your whole team:

Hogville needs to adopt Missouri for the rest of the season (http://www.hogville.net/yabbse/index.php?topic=390115.0)

[Radii]

Not sure what the issue with that is, I can't ever recall a major network showing a regular season sporting event over its usual programing.

Yeah that's crazy talk. We get ACC basketball delivered by Raycom Sports (now The ACC Network") during prime time slots during normal weekly programming... well, at least one night a week every week from December to March going back as far as I can remember. During last Tuesday's UNC/Boston College game, NCIS aired at 2:30am and NCIS:LA aired at 3:30am, both pre-empted by college basketball. If a local affiliate decided not to air a Duke or UNC or NC State or Wake Forest game that was scheduled to air I'm pretty sure whoever made that decision would not work there by 9am the next day.


EDIT: I should point out that I got many ACC basketball games in Atlanta this way as well when I lived down there. Though I *think* the affiliation was with the CW and not with CBS, but it would still pre-empt Gilmore Girls or whatever ;)

[JonInMiddleGA]

EDIT: I should point out that I got many ACC basketball games in Atlanta this way as well when I lived down there. Though I *think* the affiliation was with the CW and not with CBS, but it would still pre-empt Gilmore Girls or whatever ;)

Since virtually no one ever watched the CW affiliate here, pre-emptions were kind of a moot point ;)

Your last bit hits squarely on what I was going to say though, the thing that's unusual in many markets is the Raycom affiliate being a major network affiliate. It's more common for them to be on 2nd tier stations although it's not that hard to find exceptions.

In this case of Arkansas, it's one of the more unusual places for television in a number of ways & this is one of them (for example, Ft.Smith/Fayetteville being almost unique because of the way the stations have such geographically defined audiences even in the cable era). Having bought spots in the syndicated packages there, I know that they're pretty lucrative for the stations & that one would even consider pre-empting for anything short of the last episode of Friends or something similar is very shocking to me. MJ4H's thought about there being something going on behind the scenes strikes me as very realistic.

[tarcone]

Thought I would pop in and tell you guys that 10 win Iowa is beating #10 Wisconsin at half. :)

[Radii]

Well that was quite a half.

[General Mike]

Pandemonium in Piscataway, part 3

[Logan]

No shit, that was unbelievable. Rutgers knocks off #10 Villanova on a Jonathan Mitchell 4 point play with 0.8 seconds left, 77-76. Down 10 with under 3 minutes left.

[General Mike]

No shit, that was unbelievable. Rutgers knocks off #10 Villanova on a Jonathan Mitchell 4 point play with 0.8 seconds left, 77-76. Down 10 with under 3 minutes left.

I don't know how I'm going to sleep tonight. It's just one game, and I know we are quite a bit aways from being a tournament team, but it's a great feeling.

[Logan]

There's just nowhere near enough talent until next year (and that will take some time to grow into) but these guys are playing good schools very tough, and finally cracking through and getting a win against a top program is an important part of the process.

[mauchow]

Thought I would pop in and tell you guys that 10 win Iowa is beating #10 Wisconsin at half. :)

An UGLY win for the Badgers... I will take it though after that AWFUL first half shooting display.

Iowa's BBall program should be turning it around most definitely. Some good players there, Tarcone.

[Radii]

Grats to Duke. You knew they'd make a run in the second half but it just came way way too early. After the hot early start Duke did a great job of forcing Kendall Marshall to shoot inside and not letting him find open guys for baskets instead. Marshall shot 2-11 and doesn't quite have that in his game yet it appears. Bullock missed 3 wiiiide open 3's in a key stretch in the second half when Duke was making a big run that stood out too. And of course the inability to stop Smith and Curry.

A couple weeks ago I would have assumed Duke would win by 20+ at their place. I'm not happy by any stretch but its definitely a silver lining that they're able to compete. Hopefully the Tar Heels will get back to rolling through the rest of the ACC leading up to the rematch. At Clemson Saturday is going to be tough though.

[tyketime]

Not surprisingly, Duke made excellent adjustments at half-time, and completely shut down the two major advantages from the first half (inside scoring & transition baskets). It's disappointing that Roy didn't make a counter-move. The Heels seemed lost for much of the second half. Of course, I'm very pleased the game was competitive. But they actually had me believing at half-time that they could pull this one out. Silly me...

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Article detailing some of the changes we'll be seeing with March Madness coverage this year.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/2011-02-10-tournament-cable_N.htm?csp=34sports&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+UsatodaycomSports-Hiestand+

[tyketime]

What the hell is this truTV? I'm really getting sick of these damn networks throwing games on obscure networks (hint hint cable companies - be prepared to be charged MORE for them in following years; hint hint cable subscribers - be prepared to be charged MORE for them in following years).

Edit - I just looked it up. This used to be CourtTV. There's a name from the past!

[Radii]

UNC has ... a huge stretch coming up, at BC, vs FSU, at Duke, at Clemson. They played the closest thing to a complete game today that I've seen, but still I think 2-2 over the next 4 would be great.

3-1 after an ugly game against Clemson today. At Clemson an ugly win is perfectly acceptable though.



In other news, Wisconsin leads Ohio State by 5 with under 3 minutes to go.

[MizzouRah]

No more undefeated teams.

[Radii]

Grats mauboy, great win for Wisconsin.

[mauchow]

An incredible win after being down 15 in the second half. Jordan Taylor, this year's Bob Cousy snub and next year's Bob Cousy Favorite absolutely took over. If you watched this game you may think holy crap he made the most ridiculous shots but that's what he's been doing all season. The offense runs around him in the final 10 seconds of the shot clock...he's excelled in that position all year long.

The Badgers definitely needed that one and I was telling other fans that if the Badgers can win that one and then just limit the rest of their season to one or two losses we could POSSIBLY sneak into a 2 seed but surely a 3 seed if they don't get royally screwed like they have in the past.

Strangely enough the Badgers could have easily won 4 of their 5 games they lost (Illinois game was never really in reach, Badgers couldn't make a thing early). They had the lead late in those games, except PSU but still had a shot, and just could not close. This game was the opposite of those games, Badgers had to come back and then they also closed. And here's a big FUCK you to Dickie V who has absolutely no idea what he's talking about, saying that the Badgers had no chance to come back due to their offense. Dickie has been around long enough to know better than saying something like that.. especially in Madison.

And hats off to Ohio St. Those guys are real good. I was somewhat shocked to see Lauderdale did not play after sitting down after he started the game. Obviously Matta knows what he's doing for the most part but with Diebler shooting trey's with a big lead got me wondering if they should have been trying to work the ball underneath with DL and Sullinger. Whatever. I'm happy. :) Ohio St should stay #1 or only fall to #2. It shouldn't matter a whole lot in the end though as they'll still get a #1 seed.

[Thomkal]

No more undefeated teams.

Coastal Carolina now has the longest winning streak in the country! They are getting some serious buzz right now-front sports page article in USA Today, mentioned in Sports Illustrated this week. Might crack the Top 25 next week. Of course they may not hold the winning streak for long as they travel to rival Winthrop tonight. They have not beaten the usually good Eagles in Rock Hill in five years, and they of course were the ones who knocked out Coastal in the Big South tourney last season. They are having a down year, but are coming off a 3 game winning streak and we beat them by 8 here at home earlier this season. But our leading scorer didn't play in that game, so here's hoping he makes all the difference...

[cartman]

Texas stays unbeaten in Big 12 play, holding off a tough Baylor squad 69-60. Lacedarious Dunn got unconscious in the 2nd half, and just went off the last 10 minutes of the game. The lead got cut to 4 at one point, but Texas was able to get a couple of key stops and hit the majority of their free throws down the stretch.

[whomario]

Cleveland State Guard Norris Cole had a 40/20/9 games today, hope they make the tournament as from what little i´ve seen the guy is great to watch (and has season averages of 20.3/5.6/5.3)

[JonInMiddleGA]

Of course they may not hold the winning streak for long as they travel to rival Winthrop tonight.

But they did. Congrats.

[Thomkal]

But they did. Congrats.

Thanks! Yeah it was scary for a while, down 8 at half, but came back to score 41 in the second to eek out the win. Glad to be past that hurdle, its likely the only big one left till the Big South tournament.

[Logan]

For the Mizzou guys...Keon Lawrence was kicked off the Seton Hall team yesterday.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

For the Mizzou guys...Keon Lawrence was kicked off the Seton Hall team yesterday.

Saw that this morning. Kid had SO many chances. He was a very good player, but the demons in his past just kept him from reaching his full potential. Sad to see.

[mauchow]

Congrats to Kansas for holding onto the #1 spot for a day. A week actually, I guess. Pullen had an amazing game.

It was somewhat expected to see a close game wit KSU possibly winning but not this possible 20 pt blow out even if they are missing one of their players.

[mauchow]

It's a 16 pt game right now. I'd like to see Douchebags (ksu coach) reaction if Kansas made it a game again and pulled out the win. I may pay money to see that.

[Logan]

You're the #1 team in the country...you're representing it well by getting shellacked by 16...you convert an alley oop, so it's time to scream in the face of your opponent and earn a technical. Awesome.

[MizzouRah]

You're the #1 team in the country...you're representing it well by getting shellacked by 16...you convert an alley oop, so it's time to scream in the face of your opponent and earn a technical. Awesome.

Exactly..

It's a great night.....

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

KSU needed that game badly to get back into the running for a NCAA tourney spot. It'll be interesting to see if they can win the games down the stretch that they need to win to get back on track given their rollercoaster level of play thus far.

[Thomkal]

And sadly the winning streak is over for Coastal Carolina. :( So close to making the top 25 for the first time in school history and they lose to a 8, now 9 win Gardner-Webb team at home. Now they will really have to win the Big South tourney to get in to the NCAA's.

[panerd]

I guess this is probably mostly for Mizzourah and MBBF but did anyone else catch the Doug Gottlieb nonense during the Mizzou-Texas tech game last night. That had to have been the worst idea in the history of televised sports. Sure... minimize the game to half the size so I can watch him direct the game. Wow ESPN is really becoming a joke.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I guess this is probably mostly for Mizzourah and MBBF but did anyone else catch the Doug Gottlieb nonense during the Mizzou-Texas tech game last night. That had to have been the worst idea in the history of televised sports. Sure... minimize the game to half the size so I can watch him direct the game. Wow ESPN is really becoming a joke.

It was pretty painful. I'm hoping that 'great' idea dies after that debacle.

[MizzouRah]

I missed the game :( sounds like that was a good idea. :)

[jbergey22]

Im unclear as to why Ohio St was replaced by Kansas in the #1 spot in the first place. Didnt even realize it until I came into this thread and seen it mentioned.

Lets see Ohio St loses by 4 at one of the toughest places to win at in college hoops while Kansas gets beaten badly on their home court and are 2nd in their own conference??? I would have left Ohio St #1 but if I had to choose a different team I would have chosen the team that beat Kansas on their home court.

Voting=Stupid

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Just an addition to what Panerd was commenting about. There were several ESPN experiments this week that ended up being spectacular failures. I don't know who the brain-child was that thought up all this crap, but it didn't go well at all. I've seen reports that they received tens of thousands of negative e-mails on these changes.

Hopefully we've seen the last of ESPN's ill-conceived skycam - The Dagger - NCAAB* - Yahoo! Sports (http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/blog/the_dagger/post/Hopefully-we-ve-seen-the-last-of-ESPN-s-ill-conc?urn=ncaab-321951)

[Thomkal]

And sadly the winning streak is over for Coastal Carolina. :( So close to making the top 25 for the first time in school history and they lose to a 8, now 9 win Gardner-Webb team at home. Now they will really have to win the Big South tourney to get in to the NCAA's.

And it just gets worse for Coastal. Not only did they have their winning streak broken, they lost their starting point guard for the rest of the season with a torn MCL. And on top of that-their leading scoring Holloway has been ruled temporarily ineligible and cannot play. No one is saying what's going on with this, but Coastal is appealing to the NCAA and depending on how serious it is, the issue could be resolved in a matter of hours, or could take several days/weeks. And if Holloway is ruled ineligible, it may put their entire season in the dumpster. :(

Coastal is now down to 8 players, 7 scholarship and one walk-on yet still managed to score 90 points and beat non-Big South conference team North Carolina Central by about 40.

[cartman]

I think Texas is going to be in a fight today at Nebraska. The Huskers have played very well at home, and this will be a final chance for them to stick it to Texas before heading to the Big 10.

[Radii]

Three top 10 upsets so far today, Nebraska over Texas, St Johns over Pitt, and WVU over Notre Dame. Mizzou gets their first road conference win finally against Iowa State.

I feel like I'm being punished for something sitting here watching Boston College/UNC. UNC broke 20 with 40 seconds left in thehalf, BC didn't score for over 7 minutes and didn't hit 20 until there were 7 seconds left in the half. 21-20 tar heels, the lowest scoring totals for both teams in the first half all season. UNC is shooting 33%, Boston College 28%. UNC is even making it worse by shooting under 50% from the line(2-5). Surely the second half will be better.

[General Mike]

Rutgers down 1 at Syracuse with 4 minutes left

[Radii]

UNC leads 45-32 with 7:30 left. They make one jumper and one free throw t he rest of the way, barely hanging on for a 48-46 win. This is the lowest point total in a win for UNC ever in the Dean Dome. Ah well, a win is a win.

[General Mike]

Rutgers down 1 at Syracuse with 4 minutes left

tough loss in OT. Damn refs and their 41 to 15 free throw disparity

[MrBug708]

You do realize that a FT disparity is no indication of whether or not the refs called a good game, right?

[RedKingGold]

The Big East is stacked this by year. Ive been following the conference more and more over the past five years, but this is the best top to bottom its been in awhile.

As a follow up, so far today:

St. John's upset #4 Pittsburgh, 60-59.
West Virginia upended #7 Notre Dame at Morgantown, 72-58.
#9 Georgetown is up by "only" 8 points over second-to-last in the Big East South Florida midway through the second half.
#14 Villanova escaped Chicago with a 77-75 overtime victory over DePaul (1-13 record in the Big East).
#20 Syracuse eeked out an overtime win over unranked Rutgers, 84-80.

There really are no easy games in the Big East this year. The conference tournament is going to be verrrry interesting.

[General Mike]

You do realize that a FT disparity is no indication of whether or not the refs called a good game, right?

Umm, when they don't call a foul in OT to keep Syracuse's center in the game, and then the same thing happens 20 seconds later and our center fouls out, they called a bad game. If you watched the game you would know it was an abortion.

[Swaggs]

I had a great time at the WVU/Notre Dame game today. We took our 18-month old (and he was generally haywire the entire time, as per usual), but we got lucky while walking him around the concourse and won $100 of lottery tickets and, I think, probably sealed up an NCAA bid (unless we totally flake out) with the win.

[Lathum]

Huskies lost a heartbreaker to Arizona today. Romar is quickly becoming a great recruiter who can't coach.

[Young Drachma]

Nice win by St. John's, Lavin has them back.

[MrBug708]

Huskies lost a heartbreaker to Arizona today. Romar is quickly becoming a great recruiter who can't coach.

Romar had some good in-game adjustments. I think he can coach, I don't think he can teach

[sterlingice]

You do realize that a FT disparity is no indication of whether or not the refs called a good game, right?

No, but I think it's usually correlative much more than people want to admit. Yes, if there's an outside shooting team vs some inside bangers, there will be a disparity. However, you're going to have to work really hard to convince me that a 30 FT difference is a fair game.

SI

[Chubby]

Umm, when they don't call a foul in OT to keep Syracuse's center in the game, and then the same thing happens 20 seconds later and our center fouls out, they called a bad game. If you watched the game you would know it was an abortion.


If you had watched say, any, of Syracuse's previous games you'd know it was friggin' sample size.

[Lathum]

Romar had some good in-game adjustments. I think he can coach, I don't think he can teach

I think the two go hand in hand.

what I have seen from them, especially this year, is we blow out teams less skilled and athletic then us based on out talent. Then when we play against well coached teams with higher IQ players we struggle. And almost all those teams have less talent, WSU, Oregon and OSU. We should be beating those teams by double digits, not losing to them.

Look at the results against the better teams on the schedule. Lost to KY, lost to MSU, lost to A&M, lost to 'Zona. But I bet we win by 40 against Seattle U Tuesday night ( I hope so, I'll be there)

[MrBug708]

No, but I think it's usually correlative much more than people want to admit. Yes, if there's an outside shooting team vs some inside bangers, there will be a disparity. However, you're going to have to work really hard to convince me that a 30 FT difference is a fair game.

SI

Possibly. In the UCLA-SJ game, St Johns was getting beat to the basket and they were hammering UCLA and sending them to the line. UCLA didn't play the best ball under the basket on the defensive side and St. Johns had a layup drill it seemed. Depends on how you play and how hard you play.

[MizzouRah]

I think Texas is going to be in a fight today at Nebraska. The Huskers have played very well at home, and this will be a final chance for them to stick it to Texas before heading to the Big 10.

What else do you see in that crystal ball?

[General Mike]

Nice win by St. John's, Lavin has them back.

Will he have them back next year when he loses everyone?

[Swaggs]

St. John's will struggle next season, just due to the physical jump it takes for freshmen to play in the NCAA. But, as long as they have Gene Keady on the bench, they are going to be pretty strong. He is one of the best tacticians around -- it is hard to believe he agreed to come back.

[mauchow]

who's #1 after those slew of top 5 losses??

[Radii]

who's #1 after those slew of top 5 losses??

Ohio State clearly right? I am starting to wonder if there are any more slipups anywhere if San Diego State or BYU could get 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Ohio State clearly right? I am starting to wonder if there are any more slipups anywhere if San Diego State or BYU could get 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament.

After losing to Purdue today? I'm guessing Kansas or Duke is #1 when the polls come out, with Ohio State #3.

[dawgfan]

I think the two go hand in hand.

what I have seen from them, especially this year, is we blow out teams less skilled and athletic then us based on out talent. Then when we play against well coached teams with higher IQ players we struggle. And almost all those teams have less talent, WSU, Oregon and OSU. We should be beating those teams by double digits, not losing to them.

Look at the results against the better teams on the schedule. Lost to KY, lost to MSU, lost to A&M, lost to 'Zona. But I bet we win by 40 against Seattle U Tuesday night ( I hope so, I'll be there)
I definitely think Romar is a better recruiter than tactician. I think Romar scores well as a recruiter, and pretty good as a developer of talent. But his in-game strategies are not top-notch - his staff definitely misses having Ken Bone and Cameron Dollar around. Romar will need to think carefully this off-season about the make-up of his staff.

All that said, as someone that's been a life-long Husky fan, I think he's earned an incredibly long leash given what he's done for this program. I think he's clearly the best Husky coach in the modern era, better than Harshman, and ranking right up there with Hec Edmundson (though really hard to compare given the vast differences in eras).

I know that his success has spoiled some fans who now expect to see this program getting to the Final Four, and while of course I'd love to see that as well, as long as he's getting to the Tournament nearly every year and competing for the conference title, I'm good with him.

[Radii]

After losing to Purdue today? I'm guessing Kansas or Duke is #1 when the polls come out, with Ohio State #3.

oh shit, i was working and completely oblivious, I should have known to look at the scores for today.

1. Kansas
2. Duke
3. Ohio State
4. San Diego State
5. Texas
6. BYU
7. Pitt

?? I have no idea!

[sterlingice]

It kills me that we don't see how good Purdue might have been because of Hummel's injury. Definitely would have been a top 5 team.

SI

[MrBug708]

oh shit, i was working and completely oblivious, I should have known to look at the scores for today.

1. Kansas
2. Duke
3. Ohio State
4. San Diego State
5. Texas
6. BYU
7. Pitt

?? I have no idea!

...Arizona?

[panerd]

...Arizona?

Kenpom has them #16. The PAC-10 just isn't very good this year. (He actually has Washington higher than Arizona)

[MrBug708]

Kenpom has them #16. The PAC-10 just isn't very good this year. (He actually has Washington higher than Arizona)

Yeah, UW exposes the one flaw in efficiency rankings: the team that 1) blows everyone out in its wins but 2) can't win a close game and loses more than a few of those.

[JonInMiddleGA]

oh shit, i was working and completely oblivious, I should have known to look at the scores for today.

Honestly, I wasn't sure if you knew about that or not. I'd almost guarantee that we'll find impassioned arguments that tOSU is #1 regardless of the loss today, I wondered whether you were making the first one.

[Radii]

...Arizona?

They're #12/#13 in the polls this week. Why would they jump to the top 7?

[Radii]

Honestly, I wasn't sure if you knew about that or not. I'd almost guarantee that we'll find impassioned arguments that tOSU is #1 regardless of the loss today, I wondered whether you were making the first one.

I think you can make a reasonable case for any of the current top 5 teams at this point. I don't have a passionate argument for or against any of them, I see what you were saying though, I know some people do :)

[Butter]

Don't understand why Kansas is above Texas. Based on the quality of teams lost to though, I would still put Ohio State at #1. Their 2 losses have come to the other 2 Big Ten teams to not lose at home all season, and both were top 20 teams when they lost. Texas has the Nebraska loss now, and Kansas got creamed by K-State.

Not only that, but it took Herculean single-game performances by players on each of the teams that beat OSU to win the games. E'Twaun Moore with 38 points, and Jordan Taylor with his unconscious 2nd half. Even so, the Wisconsin game could've been had, but no one was beating Purdue yesterday.

[Lathum]

I know that his success has spoiled some fans who now expect to see this program getting to the Final Four, and while of course I'd love to see that as well, as long as he's getting to the Tournament nearly every year and competing for the conference title, I'm good with him.

I don't expect a final four. What I do expect is to beat teams we should beat and at least win some of the games we play against equal competition. Especially with the athletes we have. Our best wins shouldn't be against UCLA and Arizona at home.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Don't understand why Kansas is above Texas. Based on the quality of teams lost to though, I would still put Ohio State at #1. Their 2 losses have come to the other 2 Big Ten teams to not lose at home all season, and both were top 20 teams when they lost. Texas has the Nebraska loss now, and Kansas got creamed by K-State.

Not only that, but it took Herculean single-game performances by players on each of the teams that beat OSU to win the games. E'Twaun Moore with 38 points, and Jordan Taylor with his unconscious 2nd half. Even so, the Wisconsin game could've been had, but no one was beating Purdue yesterday.

Agree with both points. Texas deserves to be above KU and OSU should be the #1 team.

[jbergey22]

Don't understand why Kansas is above Texas. Based on the quality of teams lost to though, I would still put Ohio State at #1. Their 2 losses have come to the other 2 Big Ten teams to not lose at home all season, and both were top 20 teams when they lost. Texas has the Nebraska loss now, and Kansas got creamed by K-State.

Not only that, but it took Herculean single-game performances by players on each of the teams that beat OSU to win the games. E'Twaun Moore with 38 points, and Jordan Taylor with his unconscious 2nd half. Even so, the Wisconsin game could've been had, but no one was beating Purdue yesterday.

You nailed it!

[sterlingice]

Agree with both points. Texas deserves to be above KU and OSU should be the #1 team.

I agree three. See we can agree on things :D

SI

[Marmel]

I'll give Pitt the #1 ranking. When you have a few teams (and this week I would say there are 5) worthy of the #1 ranking, I look at who they beat on the road. Pitt has the best 2 wins that I can see (at Nove, at G'town).

Everybody is going to lose games, so comparing who you lost too doesn't tell me much. But who you beat, and specifically, who you beat on the road, tells me a lot.

[yacovfb]

So for everyone who thinks that Texas should be above Kansas (I don't necessarily disagree) do you also think that Pitt should be above Texas? Pitt beat Texas at a neutral site and beat UConn (who Texas lost to by 1 in OT) by 15. They've got the same number of Big East losses :) If you're going by more recent history, losing by 1 to St. Johns isn't as bad a loss as losing to Nebraska.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Coaches poll has Duke #1, Kansas #2, Ohio State #3, SDSU #4, Texas #5.
Looks about right to me.
NCAA College Basketball Polls, College Basketball Rankings, NCAA Basketball Polls - ESPN (http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/rankings)

[Butter]

Everybody is going to lose games, so comparing who you lost too doesn't tell me much. But who you beat, and specifically, who you beat on the road, tells me a lot.

I would agree with the last statement. But comparing the losses and who they are to speaks to a consistency of play that should be present in the top teams. You could have 2 teams, both with 10 top-100 RPI wins, but if one loses to 3 teams with a sub-200 RPI and the other doesn't, I think that can tell you a lot.

[Butter]

Coaches poll has Duke #1, Kansas #2, Ohio State #3, SDSU #4, Texas #5.
Looks about right to me.

Figured that Duke would end up with the #1. Really, basketball rankings are so much less meaningful than football ones, that it's not worth getting worked up about. I wonder if Duke would net a #1 seed in the tournament though? I would almost have to think not, if we were comparing current resumes.

Lot of basketball left to be played.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I wonder if Duke would net a #1 seed in the tournament though? I would almost have to think not, if we were comparing current resumes.

I would think the four #1's (today) are Duke, KU, tOSU, and either Texas or Pitt.

Worth noting that Duke got a little over half the #1 votes from the coaches, Texas got zero #1 votes while Pitt got four #1 votes, that's the bit that has meaning thinking Pitt is probably the fourth #1 seed ... IF we were picking them today, which isn't happening. But pondering it did kill a good 90 seconds of my day, so it's all good :)

[Radii]

I'll give Pitt the #1 ranking. When you have a few teams (and this week I would say there are 5) worthy of the #1 ranking, I look at who they beat on the road. Pitt has the best 2 wins that I can see (at Nove, at G'town).

I'll take Texas' wins over Kansas and Texas A&M on the road if that's the qualification.

[Marmel]

I'll take Texas' wins over Kansas and Texas A&M on the road if that's the qualification.

I can't argue with that, but it is close either way. I think you would agree it certainly should not have been Duke. :D

[dawgfan]

I don't expect a final four. What I do expect is to beat teams we should beat and at least win some of the games we play against equal competition. Especially with the athletes we have. Our best wins shouldn't be against UCLA and Arizona at home.
Well, as someone that lived through the Russo, Nance and Bender years, I'll take Romar's superior athletes and at times frustrating coaching over the probable alternative.

And on the subject, I wouldn't put Saturday's loss on Romar's coaching...

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Fun night of basketball thus far tonight. Hogs upset UK. Providence nearly pulls the upset.

Continue to be totally baffled by how bad Baylor is. How a coach can so poorly lead a team with Dunn and Jones on his squad is beyond me. I don't think anyone thought they'd win at Mizzou Arena as it's one of the toughest places in college basketball to get a win, but they just got thumped and didn't even look like they were interested in the game.

KSU/Nebraska game is going down to the wire on ESPNU.

[jbergey22]

Maybe Dunn isnt the player/leader he is made out to be. Baylor has obviously thrown in the towel for this year, the loss at home to Texas Tech is pretty good evidence on that.

Still with the 68 team tourny they have a decent shot of getting in if they can turn it around.

[Swaggs]

Providence's Marshon Brooks scored 52 in the loss against Notre Dame, which is apparently the Big East single game record.

Also, Cincy knocked off Georgetown. They are probably close to locking up a spot.

It looks like the Big East is going to get 10 bids this season (unless Cincy and West Virginia totally flop in these last few games and in the BE tourney) and Marquette is really the only BE team that is in play (barring a miracle run in the tourney).

[MizzouRah]

Nice win for K-ST especially how good Nebraska has played at home this year.

[panerd]

Fun night of basketball thus far tonight. Hogs upset UK. Providence nearly pulls the upset.

Continue to be totally baffled by how bad Baylor is. How a coach can so poorly lead a team with Dunn and Jones on his squad is beyond me. I don't think anyone thought they'd win at Mizzou Arena as it's one of the toughest places in college basketball to get a win, but they just got thumped and didn't even look like they were interested in the game.

KSU/Nebraska game is going down to the wire on ESPNU.

Drew reminds me of vintage Quin Snyder basketball. Big time recruits, no coaching, no discipline, no heart, but they pull one out of their ass every once in a while and everyone thinks they are good.

[MizzouRah]

Wisconsin beats Michigan on the last shot of the game... I really love how competitive college basketball is.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Maybe Dunn isnt the player/leader he is made out to be. Baylor has obviously thrown in the towel for this year, the loss at home to Texas Tech is pretty good evidence on that.

Still with the 68 team tourny they have a decent shot of getting in if they can turn it around.

Dunn is an amazing player. You don't get to the point of being the Big 12's all-time leading scorer by having average skills. He often has to make plays for himself due to lack of any real motion in the Baylor offensive scheme.

[bjack83]

i kno im off topic but i was trying to get some one's help with FOF im new here and i had some questions about the game sorry in advance

[Logan]

bjack might not be game for you.

There's a separate FOF forum.

[jbergey22]

Dunn is an amazing player. You don't get to the point of being the Big 12's all-time leading scorer by having average skills. He often has to make plays for himself due to lack of any real motion in the Baylor offensive scheme.

Well he is 497th in college hoops in offensive rating while taking percentage wise the 26th largest shot ratio in college hoops and by your account his team is underachieving. You need to look at the veteran players along with the coach when a team starts playing below expectations. Its always easy to blame the coach but if you have poor leadership within the team the results are basically the same.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Well he is 497th in college hoops in offensive rating while taking percentage wise the 26th largest shot ratio in college hoops and by your account his team is underachieving. You need to look at the veteran players along with the coach when a team starts playing below expectations. Its always easy to blame the coach but if you have poor leadership within the team the results are basically the same.

Dunn is just doing what the coach tells him to do, which isn't much. I'm guessing you haven't watched many Baylor games. A coach usually chews a player if he's not doing what he wants. That doesn't happen. Even if Dunn is providing poor leadership as you imply, he's got a coach who has no idea how to rectify that situation.

This isn't exactly new information here. Drew has a reputation in the B12 for a total lack of coaching ability. The only thing that allows him to cover that up is that he can recruit with anyone.

[jbergey22]

He must be doing something right as the Baylor hoops program is in the best situation it has been in since 1950. If you wanted to call him a cheater or something like that Id have an easier time believing that over saying he cant coach when he has taken a program that was almost dead 8 years ago and turned it into what it is now.

Sounds more like has he crossed some bridges in the Big 12 that he shouldnt have been crossing.

Didnt Baylor just make the Elite 8 last season?

And I dont agree that coaches "usually" chew their players when they arent doing what you want. Part of coaching is knowing how to handle your players and some players are not responsive to being "chewed" out. That is old school Bobby Knight theory of coaching which can hurt a situation as much as it can help a situation.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

He must be doing something right as the Baylor hoops program is in the best situation it has been in since 1950. If you wanted to call him a cheater or something like that Id have an easier time believing that over saying he cant coach when he has taken a program that was almost dead 8 years ago and turned it into what it is now.

Sounds more like has he crossed some bridges in the Big 12 that he shouldnt have been crossing.

Didnt Baylor just make the Elite 8 last season?

Well, he is know for some pretty dirty recruiting (somewhat surprising given his college roots with his dad), but that's another story.

He's resurrected the program solely due to his recruiting ability. As I mentioned previously this year, the talent he brings in makes up for his horrid coaching. I can't even imagine how good that team could be with a good X's and O's coach.

They did make the Elite 8. That's the one year that they've performed anywhere near their talent level.

[jbergey22]

Yes so much talent Baylor has had that they have had 1 NBA draft pick in Drews entire term.

If I didnt know any better I might think you had it out for the Baylor program;)

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Yes so much talent Baylor has had that they have had 1 NBA draft pick in Drews entire term.

Some would argue that Drew has cost players a shot at the NBA because they weren't developed properly. A good coach helps a player to realize his potential.

[jbergey22]

Some would argue that Drew has cost players a shot at the NBA because they weren't developed properly. A good coach helps a player to realize his potential.


Hard to believe he has had any success with how crappy he must be as a coach. Even the Gophers were getting players drafted when they were winning 4-5 big ten games.

It the time frame Drew has been coaching Baylor, Texas has had 10 players drafted.

[muns]

As I mentioned previously this year, the talent he brings in makes up for his horrid coaching. I can't even imagine how good that team could be with a good X's and O's coach.

This makes no sense at all. Clearly there are always going to be guys that know more about X's and O's but at that level its not some crazy amount that makes him unqualified for the spot.

Besides there are 4-6 other coaches on that staff, and if he doesnt know X's and O's the way people want him to, then he is going to surround himself with someone or some people he trusts that will sit next to him on the bench that will get in his ear about stuff.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

This makes no sense at all. Clearly there are always going to be guys that know more about X's and O's but at that level its not some crazy amount that makes him unqualified for the spot.

Besides there are 4-6 other coaches on that staff, and if he doesnt know X's and O's the way people want him to, then he is going to surround himself with someone or some people he trusts that will sit next to him on the bench that will get in his ear about stuff.

Just can't disagree more. It's borderline incompetence. Watch a Baylor game. There's no real offense. On defense, it's a straight 2-3 zone on every possession. It's very passive and not remotely effective when compared to other teams that run a similar offense.

As for the other staff, you also could not be more incorrect. He surrounds himself with recruiters. It's great for the recruiting trail, but doesn't help him a lick on the court. As mentioned before, this isn't a big secret in B12 country. Baylor figures they at least have a good recruiter which acquires the talent to surprise on occasion. But there won't be any consistency in results as long as he's the coach.

[jbergey22]

B12 country=Mizzou B ball fan and his friends sitting around the NCAA tourny last year having a few cocktails and trying to figure out why Baylor is still playing while the Tigers are enjoying the show?

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

B12 country=Mizzou B ball fan and his friends sitting around the NCAA tourny last year having a few cocktails and trying to figure out why Baylor is still playing while the Tigers are enjoying the show?

Not sure why that would be the case. Anyone who judges the talent level of a team based on how far they advance in the NCAA tournament obviously doesn't understand the volatility of a single-elimination tournament.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Looking forward to the Mizzou-KSU game this morning. It's a pretty intense divisional matchup as-is, but Jacob Pullen and Jamar Samuels decided to ratchet it up a bit last night. They were on the local sports segment last night and said that Mizzou "plays like an elementary school team" and are "dirty players".

Ah, conference rivalries. :)

[jbergey22]

Not sure why that would be the case. Anyone who judges the talent level of a team based on how far they advance in the NCAA tournament obviously doesn't understand the volatility of a single-elimination tournament.

And I will choose "One thing having nothing to do with the other" for 500 Alex.

[panerd]

And I will choose "One thing having nothing to do with the other" for 500 Alex.

I know you have hard on for trying to discredit MBBF all the time but you really show little knowledge of the big 12. Ask Cartman or Sterlingice or Cuckoo if you don't want to hear it from the Mizzou fans, Drew is not a good game coach. We love it because their talent is scary and they don't perform but it is pretty much a fact among those who follow the big 12 that he is not a good game coach and his players are very undisciplined.

Mizzou had a coach just like him named Quin Snyder who always had monster talent but could rarely put anything resembling an organized team together on the floor. And before you quote last season's elite eight run by Baylor perhaps you should look at Mizzou's elite eight run back in 2002 where they had #1 quality talent never played well but put together a string a great games in the NCAA tournament.

[jbergey22]

I know you have hard on for trying to discredit MBBF all the time but you really show little knowledge of the big 12. Ask Cartman or Sterlingice or Cuckoo if you don't want to hear it from the Mizzou fans, Drew is not a good game coach. We love it because their talent is scary and they don't perform but it is pretty much a fact among those who follow the big 12 that he is not a good game coach and his players are very undisciplined.

Mizzou had a coach just like him named Quin Snyder who always had monster talent but could rarely put anything resembling an organized team together on the floor. And before you quote last season's elite eight run by Baylor perhaps you should look at Mizzou's elite eight run back in 2002 where they had #1 quality talent never played well but put together a string a great games in the NCAA tournament.

You would be correct in that I dont watch Baylor unless they are on ESPN Monday nights or something like that but I have a hard time believing he is as crappy as MBBF makes him out to be. He took them from nothing to the elite 8. They are so talented they have had 1 NBA draft choice in his entire term. Baylor is in the best situation they have been in for 60 years. Its easy to say he sucks as a coach but the results certainly arent showing it.

And why I get a kick out of MBBF is when he says things like "As mentioned before, this isn't a big secret in B12 country." As if the members of Big 12 nation are privy to some top secret information that us normal folks arent.

It would be like you telling me something about Bo Ryan and me totally discrediting it because it is information only us in the Big 10 country know about.

[MrBug708]

I know you have hard on for trying to discredit MBBF all the time but you really show little knowledge of the big 12. Ask Cartman or Sterlingice or Cuckoo if you don't want to hear it from the Mizzou fans, Drew is not a good game coach. We love it because their talent is scary and they don't perform but it is pretty much a fact among those who follow the big 12 that he is not a good game coach and his players are very undisciplined.

Mizzou had a coach just like him named Quin Snyder who always had monster talent but could rarely put anything resembling an organized team together on the floor. And before you quote last season's elite eight run by Baylor perhaps you should look at Mizzou's elite eight run back in 2002 where they had #1 quality talent never played well but put together a string a great games in the NCAA tournament.

What monster talent did he have? I can only remember Kareem Rush

[panerd]

You would be correct in that I dont watch Baylor unless they are on ESPN Monday nights or something like that but I have a hard time believing he is as crappy as MBBF makes him out to be. He took them from nothing to the elite 8. They are so talented they have had 1 NBA draft choice in his entire term. Baylor is in the best situation they have been in for 60 years. Its easy to say he sucks as a coach but the results certainly arent showing it.

And why I get a kick out of MBBF is when he says things like "As mentioned before, this isn't a big secret in B12 country." As if the members of Big 12 nation are privy to some top secret information that us normal folks arent.

See but I disagree with you on your last paragraph. I know a shitload about Nebraska and Colorado and Texas Tech that I would expect nobody to give two shits about that follows Duke or UCLA or Florida. Just like they would know about NC State or Arizona or Vandy where I might know the coach or the team's record. I think you are a big ten fan right? So you could talk about Indiana overperforming or Tubby Smith up in Minnesota and I would assume you would have a lot more knowledge. Like I said maybe Cartman or Sterlingice will chime in but it really isn't a newsflash that Drew isn't good on the coaching side.

[panerd]

What monster talent did he have? I can only remember Kareem Rush

Sure. Not even biting here and it could be argued that Kareem Rush was actually Norm's recruit. Again I will defer to SI and Cartman to take a side on Mizzou's talent under Quin but thought that a guy who had Lavin as a coach for so long would appreciate the parallels between Mizzou, UCLA (the last decade or so), and the current Baylor situation.

[MrBug708]

I understand the parallel very well, UCLA underachieved with a lot of NBA talent on the squad

[jbergey22]

See but I disagree with you on your last paragraph. I know a shitload about Nebraska and Colorado and Texas Tech that I would expect nobody to give two shits about that follows Duke or UCLA or Florida. Just like they would know about NC State or Arizona or Vandy where I might know the coach or the team's record. I think you are a big ten fan right? So you could talk about Indiana overperforming or Tubby Smith up in Minnesota and I would assume you would have a lot more knowledge. Like I said maybe Cartman or Sterlingice will chime in but it really isn't a newsflash that Drew isn't good on the coaching side.

I usually take it with a grain of salt. Its hard for me to watch the team Im cheering for and be completely unbias in how I see that game unfolding. You are going to be a harsh critic on a team you dont like. It would be easy for me to say Bo Ryan underachieves come NCAA tourny time therefore he is an overrated coach when in reality he gets the most out of his talent every single year.

Ive seen the talent you guys talk about in Baylor for the past 3-4 years but you must realize that this is a program not used to winning and they are playing in a conference that is loaded with talent. Its not as if he is taking a talented team and going 9-7 in the WAC. Its still the Big 12 where most of the programs have a ton of talent.

[panerd]

I understand the parallel very well, UCLA underachieved with a lot of NBA talent on the squad

See I don't measure talent by NBA because I think Quin may have actually destroyed a lot of their NBA chances. I look at Norm's recruits who were considering Mizzou and maybe Iowa State or SLU and then Quin's like Linus Klieza who were considering North Carolina or Thomas Gardner who was offered at Kansas or Jimmy McKinney who was considering Kentucky and Oklahoma. Seemed to be a huge jump in talent.

Looking back at Mizzou's '04 recruits on rivals apperently UCLA offered to Marshall Brown, Kansas offered to Kalen Grimes, Texas offered to Glen Dandridge, and Michigan and Arkansas offered to Jason Horton.

Mizzou's game just started with KState so I will check back later but I would call that talent.

[MJ4H]

The top secret information that the big 12 has is watching baylor's games.

[sterlingice]

Sure. Not even biting here and it could be argued that Kareem Rush was actually Norm's recruit. Again I will defer to SI and Cartman to take a side on Mizzou's talent under Quin but thought that a guy who had Lavin as a coach for so long would appreciate the parallels between Mizzou, UCLA (the last decade or so), and the current Baylor situation.

Now maybe my memory is a little fuzzy, but Quin always seemed to have really highly regarded recruiting classes and then did very little with it. He badly underachieved and the meme was that he was like a mini-crapper version of Coach K. Basically, he could recruit and just expected to have the best 5 guys out on the court so he could tell them to just go play basketball and they would beat the other team. Only he didn't have that elite level of talent and it turns out Coach K actually can coach- he doesn't just expect the team to roll the ball out on the court and his better players will always win the game.

I think Drew is a bit like that. However, I think it's a little too early to write that on his Big XII gravestone. He did a phenomenal job recruiting and taking the team back from the murder and coverup under Dave Bliss. And it turns out that if you can out-recruit teams, that talent will definitely help you beat the lesser teams in the country if you have that kind of talent. He's brought in quite a few 4-star guys and even some 5-stars (Dunn, Jones, and has another one next year in Quincy Miller)

Scout.com: Football Recruiting (http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=9&c=8&toinid=362&sspid=-1&yr=2011)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baylor_Bears_men%27s_basketball_seasons

That's the kind of talent Baylor hasn't seen in years, if ever. I mean, I looked on their wikipedia page and the last time they had 3 tourney appearances in a few year stretch (and if they close the season strong this year, they will have 3 in 4 years) was the 1940s.

So, I guess there are a couple of questions this encompasses:

1) Has is been mostly by recruiting and do his recruits underperform?
Well, despite having quite a few good players, I went back through the scout lists and didn't see Baylor on any top 25s except in 2005. That said, I bet they had a lot of 25-50 teams which should be good for consistently getting into the tournament. Now, I suppose they're getting to that point but when you have some of your best recruits as upperclassmen (Dunn), you shouldn't be fighting a spot, you should be fighting for a pretty high seed (see: Iowa State's couple of really good years with Pfizer, Tinsley). So I think that's where the criticism is coming from. And it's warranted- there's no way they should be fighting for a seed this year- they were expected to challenge for the top of the conference. Now is that because expectations were too high- I don't think so. They went NCAA-NIT-NCAA the last 3 years so I think you could expect this senior class, led by Dunn, to do well and go far in the NCAA tournament.

2) How good can Baylor be?
This is the ultimate question when talking about a college coach, where the field is not level like in the pros. Of course, in college, half of the job is recruiting. So if you can recruit but not "coach", that still has a lot of value. The Mark Mangino years for Kansas- that's probably their ceiling as a football program for a very long time. They don't have top notch facilities, only play in a 45K stadium (as opposed to 100K), have to compete with an elite basketball program (competing for dollars within the school), are from college that isn't particularly big as colleges go (maybe 30K), and it's a college that doesn't have a disproportionately large endowment to pull money from (ala Oklahoma State). Yes, he was crooked and I wasn't sad to see him go, but you can't deny that what he did was the ceiling for a KU football coach because anyone who would do that well would bolt for another, better job in an instant.
Now how about Drew and Baylor? Is this their realistic ceiling? Any elite coach isn't going to stick around for very long and most wouldn't even give them a chance if they're a hot small school prospect. I don't think he's a total abortion as an Xs and Os coach- but he is below average. I think this season, he's lost his team somewhat and that's a factor as much as that he's a below average game coach. There's a factor we haven't talked about much but it's pretty darn important. So when you put that together with the other factors, it's a problem.
That said, you definitely keep him around for another season or two and keep re-evaluating because, if I'm Baylor, I'm not sure how much better I can do.

SI

[mauchow]

Quick question for whoever wants to answer...

List the top three teams with the best ROAD record in Big Ten Play over the past ten seasons?

[sterlingice]

Wisconsin, Michigan State, and Illinois?

SI

[Radii]

Wisconsin, Michigan State, and Illinois


+1. Had anyone but mauboy asked the question I would have listed Michigan State first, but given that I'll even agree with the order you dropped the names. ;)

[sterlingice]

That and the talk of Wisconsin over the last couple of pages. I just picked those three because across the last decade, those are probably the 3 winningest Big 10 programs. Maybe an Ohio State or Purdue gets in there. But those are my best guesses.

SI

[MrBug708]

See I don't measure talent by NBA because I think Quin may have actually destroyed a lot of their NBA chances. I look at Norm's recruits who were considering Mizzou and maybe Iowa State or SLU and then Quin's like Linus Klieza who were considering North Carolina or Thomas Gardner who was offered at Kansas or Jimmy McKinney who was considering Kentucky and Oklahoma. Seemed to be a huge jump in talent.

Looking back at Mizzou's '04 recruits on rivals apperently UCLA offered to Marshall Brown, Kansas offered to Kalen Grimes, Texas offered to Glen Dandridge, and Michigan and Arkansas offered to Jason Horton.

Mizzou's game just started with KState so I will check back later but I would call that talent.

I know the measure is hard to figure out, but I think this is a bad measure. You can look at any top kid and say "Look at that talent that was destroyed", even if they went to a great program/coach. For all we know Marshall Brown (who?) and Kalen Grimes were going to be busts no matter where they went. When you look at who Steve Lavin had (for am majority of the time), you had Baron Davis, Matt Barnes, Jerome Moiso, Earl Watson, Jaron Rush (Lavs gets a pass on him), Ryan Hollins, Jason Kapono, and Dan Gadzuric. And that was not counting the talent that didn't get him to the Elite 8, which included Charles O'Bannon, Toby Bailey, JR Henderson, Kris Johnson, and Cameron Dollar.

[mauchow]

I just took a half hour of my time to figure it out...

Illinois and Michigan St each share 3rd place with an overall record of 40-43 since the 01-02 season.

Wisconsin is 41-41 since then.. If the Badgers can miraculously win their final two road games that will at worst tie Ohio St at season's end. :) Doubtful, but one can hope.

And Ohio St makes the big run this year to go from 4th to 1st. They now have the lead and the only winning record in Big Ten play away from home with a record of 42-40 in the past 10 seasons.

[sterlingice]

Yay. My guesses were halfways decent :)

SI

[bronconick]

How did Jimmer not end up at Duke? He's got that whiny ass look on his face any time the whistle blows perfected.

[Karlifornia]

SDSU with two losses, both against BYU. Man, the Cougars shot the lights out today, and Fredette was even a bit off.

[mauchow]

It will be very interesting to see where SDSU and BYU's seeding ends up. I'm thinking if they both make the MWC Championshp Game, that the winner of the that gets a 2 seed and the other gets a 3. If SDSU doesn't make the title game they may slip to a 4..?

[Chief Rum]

Fun game to see in Pauley today so far. Back and forth, lots of athleticism on the floor between UCLA and Arizona. UCLA's up by 10 at the half, but I know Arizona's going to come back and this one will go down to the wire.

Last game in Pauley before they close the doors for good and start the long awaited renovation that is expected to keep basketball out of Wooden's palace for a year and a half.

[sterlingice]

What the heck is going on in Boulder today?

SI

[MizzouRah]

Not a good loss by Mizzou today and they had KST in early foul trouble.

Horrible officiating across the board for both teams made it quite a painful game to watch.

KST is playing well though and I hope they make it into the tourney.

[MrBug708]

Great win for UCLA today, but I fully expect us to lose one if not two games up in Washington

[Radii]

What the heck is going on in Boulder today?

SI

holy crap. I saw Texas up by 15 in the first half and didn't look again, wtf!

[cartman]

What the heck is going on in Boulder today?

SI

Texas couldn't buy a basket for about 15 minutes in the 2nd half. In 26 possessions, they shot 1 for 18, while Colorado (especially Alec Burks) got hot and went on a 13 of 18 tear.

[JonInMiddleGA]

And another (number) one bites the dust ... VT 64-60 over Duke

[digamma]

Harvard loses to Yale by 1 and no longer controls its own destiny to win the Ivy League outright in the regular season. If they sweep Penn and Princeton next weekend, and Princeton beats Penn the following Tuesday, Harvard and Princeton would play a one game play-off to determine the bid.

The back to back Penn-Princeton thing will be tough.

[digamma]

In other news, GT lost to NCSU today. Word among the Tech faithful is that Hewitt will be given his walking papers prior to the ACC tournament. Going to cost a booster a lot of coin.

[miami_fan]

Fun game to see in Pauley today so far. Back and forth, lots of athleticism on the floor between UCLA and Arizona. UCLA's up by 10 at the half, but I know Arizona's going to come back and this one will go down to the wire.

Last game in Pauley before they close the doors for good and start the long awaited renovation that is expected to keep basketball out of Wooden's palace for a year and a half.

Cool story from the game.

LOS ANGELES -- The great-grandson of the late John Wooden scored UCLA's final basket in the last men's game to be played at historic Pauley Pavilion before it closes for renovation.

Tyler Trapani, a junior walk-on who seldom sees any playing time, made a layup from the left side after teammate Jack Haley Jr. airballed a 3-point attempt with 25 seconds left Saturday.

In the Pauley Pavilion finale, John Wooden's great-grandson made the final hoop for UCLA in a fitting sendoff, writes Ramona Shelburne. Story


The Bruins defeated No. 10 Arizona 71-49 to tie the Wildcats for first place in the Pac-10.

Trapani made the basket in front of several Wooden family members, including the coaching legend's son Jim and daughter Nan. Wooden died at 99 in June.

"When I got the ball, it was instinct to put it back up," he said. "I knew I was close to the basket so I put it back up as fast as I could."

UCLA coach Ben Howland had tears in his eyes at the way the game ended.

"I was thinking about Coach," he said of the man who led the Bruins to 10 national championships. "It was so fitting Tyler hit the shot. It fell right in his hands. There's something going on there, I really believe it."

Wooden got to see Trapani play the final minute of UCLA's game at the 2009 Wooden Classic in Anaheim, one of his relative's few appearances in a game.

"It's an emotional day," Trapani said. "Just being out there is something I'll never forget."

[Thomkal]

More info on the Coastal Carolina NCAA potential violations came out in the New York Times of all places recently. A former player that had his scholarship taken from him by Coach Ellis has filed a formal complaint that Coastal's leading scorer, Desmond Holloway, received improper gifts such as clothing to lure him into playing here. Depending on when the NCAA views this taking place, Coastal could be in big trouble as they were just getting off a 2 year probation for problems in other scholarship sports.

So with everything that has been going on with the injury to their starting point guard, the removal of one player from the program, and now this, it was no surprise really that Coastal had lost its last two games including an embarassing buzzer beater that made ESPN SportsCenter highlights. But they found partial redemption yesterday in beating Charleston Southern in the Big South regular conference finale.

The win solidified their hold on the Big South regular season title meaning at least the first two games of the conference tournament will be played here. And who do they play in the first round? The very same Gardner-Webb team that snapped their then longest winning streak in the country. Argh.

Edit: Oh meant to add the link to the Times story here. Eye on N.C.A.A. Tournament, Coastal Carolina Finds Trouble - NYTimes.com (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/25/sports/ncaabasketball/25coastal.html)

[JonInMiddleGA]

Cool story from the game.

Cool indeed. Here's linkage that includes the post-game presser with a tearful Howland, a clip of the basket itself, and the kid who seemed to still be in shock about the whole thing.

Tyler Trapani, John Wooden's Great-Grandson, Scores Final Basket At Pauley Pavilion - From Our Editors - SBNation.com (http://www.sbnation.com/ncaa-basketball/2011/2/27/2018017/tyler-trapani-john-wooden-great-grandson-final-basket-pauley-pavilion)

[Matthean]

MSU really isn't doing itself any favors in trying to make the tournament.

[miami_fan]

Just saw the highlights of Pitt- Louisville. Crazy scene at the end of regulation.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Think your team(s) had a tough year?
Centenary men's b'ball : 1-29 (finally won on Thursday)
Centanary women's b'ball: 1-23

[Wolfpack]

In other news, GT lost to NCSU today. Word among the Tech faithful is that Hewitt will be given his walking papers prior to the ACC tournament. Going to cost a booster a lot of coin.

The win probably didn't do much for Sidney Lowe's chances to survive, either. I was at the game and pretty much watched State bounce between winning the game and trying desperately to give it away for much of the contest. Lowe's finally got talent in the program, no doubt, but the execution is still leaving a helluva lot to be desired. When the best-looking player on the floor at times wasn't your prized freshmen or your stud senior post player, but was a 7'1" stiff from Australia who had spent most of the season up to the Carolina home game nailed to the bench, you know something's gone amiss with the plans.

[Lathum]

Terrible, terrible loss at home for UW against Wazzou.

[MizzouRah]

Does anyone do a FOFC March Madness bracket?

[Lathum]

Does anyone do a FOFC March Madness bracket?

There are a few that pop up. Usually a free yahoo one, a pay one done by Gottimds friend, and a bunch of NCAA Tourny related games.

[Lathum]

Just saw the highlights of Pitt- Louisville. Crazy scene at the end of regulation.

Is there anything gayer than male cheerleaders?

Just listening to it on Mike and Mike, apparently Pitino called the kid later in the day and told him not to worry about it, classy move IMO.

[tyketime]

Is there anything gayer than male cheerleaders?

You wish you were the male cheerleader on the left! ;)
http://funnyhub.com/content_images/5659_2830_straight-male-cheerleader.jpg

[molson]

Just saw the highlights of Pitt- Louisville. Crazy scene at the end of regulation.

I couldn't count how many times I've seen fans or cheerleaders (or bench players and coaches) start to run onto a court or field before the game's over. These people have apparently never watched or attended sporting events before. Maybe they should have a green light go off somewhere when a game is REALLY over, for all the people that can't tell just from watching the game.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Boy, Texas fans have to be dealing with deja vu all over again. Another late season collapse in the works. It'll be interesting to see how they handle the road finale vs. Baylor.

[Young Drachma]

BYU's Davies dismissed from team - NCAA - SI.com (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/basketball/ncaa/wires/03/01/2060.ap.bkc.t25.byu.davies.suspended.0524/)

Hmm...wonder what he did to violate the school's honor code.

[molson]

BYU's Davies dismissed from team - NCAA - SI.com (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/basketball/ncaa/wires/03/01/2060.ap.bkc.t25.byu.davies.suspended.0524/)

Hmm...wonder what he did to violate the school's honor code.

I'm surprised we don't have "insider" info on that yet - but I imagine the BYU honor code is pretty strict. I mean - how many university honor codes have their own wiki page:

Brigham Young University Honor Code - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigham_Young_University_Honor_Code)

[Young Drachma]

I'm surprised we don't have "insider" info on that yet - but I imagine the BYU honor code is pretty strict. I mean - how many university honor codes have their own wiki page:

Brigham Young University Honor Code - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigham_Young_University_Honor_Code)

Harvey Unga was dismissed in football for having pre-martial sex with his girlfriend who was also a BYU student. So you figure it's either that or drinking, but if he were drinking you'd figure it'd be with teammates and not by himself and so...process of elimination?

Still talk about bad timing.

[Lathum]

Why on earth would anyone go to college if they cant drink or have pre martial sex?

[BYU 14]

I'm surprised we don't have "insider" info on that yet - but I imagine the BYU honor code is pretty strict. I mean - how many university honor codes have their own wiki page:

Brigham Young University Honor Code - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigham_Young_University_Honor_Code)

The honor code office is always tight lipped about this, it will eventually be leaked from somewhere else, but I would guess sex. It is also likely that this is not his first issue depending on the magnitude. It is also likely the HC office hasn't completed their investigation yet as he is still in school, but has been dismissed from the team, which means it was likely Rose's decision.

This hurts BYU, as it takes away a good inside presence who can play D and rebound.

I know the kids are aware of what they are signing, but the strictness of the honor code still annoys me at times, but that's another rant.

[Young Drachma]

Why on earth would anyone go to college if they cant drink or have pre martial sex?

Or snitch when they find out people do it. Though I guess one would have to be pretty stealthy to get away with said things in a place where people are clearly inclined to tell on you when you do something wrong. Though the thing is, Davies is LDS and grew up in Provo. So it's not like he didn't know the score when he signed.

[molson]

Why on earth would anyone go to college if they cant drink or have pre martial sex?

I bet both are more fun when you're not allowed to do them.

[MrBug708]

Why on earth would anyone go to college if they cant drink or have pre martial sex?

Believe it or not, some people don't go to college to get laid or drink.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Believe it or not, some people don't go to college to get laid or drink.

And that's where we get serial killers.

[MJ4H]

Lots of talk from people with "solid" sources that Pelphrey is gone no matter how our season ends and we have a "grand slam" hire willing to take the job. Doug Gottlieb said something similar (though without the grand slam waiting in the wings part) on the radio last night.

Finally might be nearing the end of this disastrous experiment. Would be over the moon if we can hold on to all of our players (current and recruits) and get a grand slam hire.

Probably just getting my hopes again, though.

[Thomkal]

More info on the Coastal Carolina NCAA potential violations came out in the New York Times of all places recently. A former player that had his scholarship taken from him by Coach Ellis has filed a formal complaint that Coastal's leading scorer, Desmond Holloway, received improper gifts such as clothing to lure him into playing here. Depending on when the NCAA views this taking place, Coastal could be in big trouble as they were just getting off a 2 year probation for problems in other scholarship sports.

So with everything that has been going on with the injury to their starting point guard, the removal of one player from the program, and now this, it was no surprise really that Coastal had lost its last two games including an embarassing buzzer beater that made ESPN SportsCenter highlights. But they found partial redemption yesterday in beating Charleston Southern in the Big South regular conference finale.

The win solidified their hold on the Big South regular season title meaning at least the first two games of the conference tournament will be played here. And who do they play in the first round? The very same Gardner-Webb team that snapped their then longest winning streak in the country. Argh.

Edit: Oh meant to add the link to the Times story here. Eye on N.C.A.A. Tournament, Coastal Carolina Finds Trouble - NYTimes.com (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/25/sports/ncaabasketball/25coastal.html)


Well Coastal managed to survive against Gardner-Webb. Leading by just one at the half in a back and forth battle, the Chants would never be behind again, winning by 9 points. They got some good news when #2 seed Liberty was upset and #5 seed Winthrop, who would have played Coastal next in a rematch of last year's tournament final that Coastal lost got beat by #4 seed VMI. So a much better matchup in the next round. Unfortunately NC-Asheville, the last team to beat Coastal is still alive in the other bracket and the likely opponent in the Finals if Coastal makes it.

[muns]

Lots of talk from people with "solid" sources that Pelphrey is gone no matter how our season ends and we have a "grand slam" hire willing to take the job. Doug Gottlieb said something similar (though without the grand slam waiting in the wings part) on the radio last night.

Finally might be nearing the end of this disastrous experiment. Would be over the moon if we can hold on to all of our players (current and recruits) and get a grand slam hire.

Probably just getting my hopes again, though.

Are you buying the Mike Anderson chatter/rumors?

[MJ4H]

I don't buy it as the "grand slam" hire. I think it's a possibility, yes, but not a probability. I think that was Gottlieb just guessing.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Are you buying the Mike Anderson chatter/rumors?

Here's the problem with that. Last year would have been a great time to get him. They could have got the Pressey brothers to transfer over. Next year, Mizzou has basically everyone coming back from what is likely to be a 25+ win team. Next summer would be another good window to take a shot at Anderson with several seniors graduating. This would be the worst time to pursue him if Arkansas chose to do so.

[panerd]

Are you buying the Mike Anderson chatter/rumors?

Would be a quite a fit. Move to a lower prestige basketball conference with less talent. Most coaches do this. Mike Krzyzewski is thinking about taking the Mizzou job once Mike Anderson leaves. :rolleyes:

[MrBug708]

Would be a quite a fit. Move to a lower prestige basketball conference with less talent. Most coaches do this. Mike Krzyzewski is thinking about taking the Mizzou job once Mike Anderson leaves. :rolleyes:

Heh. Lemme get this straight

Anderson leaving for Arkansas = Coach K leaving for Mizzou

Maybe it's the whole fan base that is dilusional

[muns]

Would be a quite a fit. Move to a lower prestige basketball conference with less talent. Most coaches do this. Mike Krzyzewski is thinking about taking the Mizzou job once Mike Anderson leaves. :rolleyes:

You do realize that Anderson did coach there for 17 years, and did help win a title there right???

All I was doing was asking a simple question if he was buying the rumors or not. I'm not saying its a done deal or even that he would even think about it, however there are clearly other factors here to consider than your simple observation of a lower conference and less talent.

[panerd]

Heh. Lemme get this straight

Anderson leaving for Arkansas = Coach K leaving for Mizzou

Maybe it's the whole fan base that is dilusional

You are a one trick pony.

[panerd]

You do realize that Anderson did coach there for 17 years, and did help win a title there right???

All I was doing was asking a simple question if he was buying the rumors or not. I'm not saying its a done deal or even that he would even think about it, however there are clearly other factors here to consider than your simple observation of a lower conference and less talent.

I decided to quote your post instead of MJ4H because he gets a little too fired up and takes things too personally. His sources have faltered numerous times so I just find the latest "source" amusing is all. Sorry for making you think it was aimed at you.

[MJ4H]

This isn't my source. And I've only cited a personal source once, and he was not wrong.

The other times you have complained about my sources, I was quoting a television news station that said "sources have told us."

[Lathum]

You are a one trick pony.

who never drank or got laid in college.

i kid i kid

[MJ4H]

GottliebShow - people in Ark are freaking out. I never said it has happened, just been told by more than 5 coaches he has to dance to stay

Well, he ain't dancin'. Even the NIT is a stretch.