Official 2009-10 College Basketball Thread

[MJ4H]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

The nice thing about basketball is the novelty that these sort of rankings don't matter nearly as much as they actually settle things on the court.

SI

+1 bajillion

[the_meanstrosity]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Does anyone after last night actually think that KU should be rated above Texas? KU has been pretty rough around the edges thus far. Barnes has Texas looking very good even with their occasional offensive struggles. If KU is still #1 after this week, you've got to wonder if the voters are even watching the games.

To be fair, every team has looked a bit rough around the edges at some point. Texas has had some games where they were in a tight game until they went on a run in the second half (USC and Rice). You could argue schedule since Texas' schedule is certainly stronger, but you really can't blame Kansas for that since they had Memphis, Cal, UCLA, Michigan, Tennessee, Temple, etc on their schedule.

I don't have any problem with Texas being #1 as they've earned it with their play. Same can be said for Kansas and Kentucky at times this season. I think it will be a moot point as I don't believe Kansas will be undefeated when they face the Longhorns though. They've got tough road games against KSU, Temple, and Tennessee even before they think about heading to Austin for their match-up against Texas.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

What's up with Kentucky? Tied with Long Beach State at halftime (37-37)?

[the_meanstrosity]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

What's up with Kentucky? Tied with Long Beach State at halftime (37-37)?

Like I said above, every team has some rough edges this year. It's not like this is the first game Kentucky has struggled with a lesser opponent.

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

How did that even happen? He just land wrong coming down or did he step on the other guys foot or something?

Very sad for a senior to go out like that, and his teammate was obviously devastated.

So far as I can tell from the TV feed (I have no interest in watching other views that actually show the fracture), he just landed wrong. Dunno if his knee was locked or not - I would assume so, since normally the release of force when you land comes from the leg bending at the knee joint.

It was odd watching it on TV - play continued down the court for another 10 seconds or so and as soon as the whistle blew, the camera was on the A&M center Davis who immediately crouched over as if in pain under the UW basket. It wasn't clear immediately what was going on, but when they showed another view with Roland on the court, it was pretty easy to deduce that he'd suffered a gruesome injury. All the A&M players were in tears.

It was a good win by the Huskies, but it comes with an asterisk, as it was clear that the Aggies lost focus after the injury and were missing the presence of one of their better players.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Get back with me around 11:00 PM tonight. I'll either be flying high or ready to throw a rock through someone's window. Just don't encourage me to jump if I'm standing on a ledge.

I'll have the PIP going tonight with the Blues game on one and the Mizzou game on the other!

[wade moore]

So, um...

We're in late December.

Most teams have played 9-12 games.

My William and Mary Tribe are #6 in the RPI Rankings.

Completely incredible for those of us that have followed the team for any period of time. We play @ Maryland on 12/30. If we could come away with a win we would be 9-2, with a win against two ACC teams, and multiple top 50 RPI wins... only two losses to top 50 RPI teams... and only our conference games and a bracket buster to go.

I'm enjoying this ride. I am pretty sure it's going to come to a sudden crash at some point, but I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

Top 10 RPI:

W&M's Resume so far:

[Scarecrow]

Wade,

I hate to inform you, but RPI and SOS rankings mean absolutely nothing.

Signed,
The University of Kansas

[the_meanstrosity]

Originally Posted by Scarecrow

Wade,

I hate to inform you, but RPI and SOS rankings mean absolutely nothing.

Signed,
The University of Kansas

I think Kansas would disagree with you. They mean something, but just not till the end of the year. The NCAA committee will use them both some what when seeding teams.

[sterlingice]

Ours will drastically improve once we hit the Big XII season. Heck, it will go up in our next 4 non-conference games. But Bill Self rolled out quite a few cupcakes to start the season for reasons I have yet to fathom for a team picked to contend for a national title.

SI

[MizzouRah]

Mizzou up by 7 at half, GO TIGERS!!!

[sterlingice]

Been a pretty fun game to watch so far, even if the cable here is screwing up due to the ice storm so the signal is getting scrambled.

SI

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by Scarecrow

Wade,

I hate to inform you, but RPI and SOS rankings mean absolutely nothing.

Signed,
Every non-major conference

Fixed

[MizzouRah]

Great game by Missouri tonight.. the freshman Dixon had a great game as did English.

[the_meanstrosity]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Ours will drastically improve once we hit the Big XII season. Heck, it will go up in our next 4 non-conference games. But Bill Self rolled out quite a few cupcakes to start the season for reasons I have yet to fathom for a team picked to contend for a national title.

SI

I disagree. Look at Kansas' schedule this year. On paper, it was considered one of the toughest schedules in the country with UCLA, Michigan, Cal, Memphis, Tennessee, etc. The reason the SOS is down is because UCLA, Memphis, etc all took hits from circumstances outside their control. It's still a solid schedule, but it's not what it was planned to be.

[the_meanstrosity]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

Great game by Missouri tonight.. the freshman Dixon had a great game as did English.

Missouri got a little SOS help tonight with Oral Roberts beating a visiting New Mexico.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Here's how it feels.............



WOOHOO!!!!! To give some perspective, I was married in April 2000. Mizzou had not won a Braggin' Rights game during my marriage. Yikes.

Mizzou really wore down Illinois badly. Their body language halfway through the second half told you everything you needed to know about how tired they were. Great team effort with Dixon outplaying both of the freshman guards on the Illini in place of a sick Zaire Taylor. English was all over the court.

Mizzou looking very good now for a NCAA bid. Last 4 non-con games are all at home and all very winnable. 12-3 with seven straight wins would be exactly where this team needs to be heading into conference play.

Congrats to ORU as well for knocking off previously undefeated New Mexico. Two big wins for Scott Sutton at home. Certainly doesn't hurt Mizzou's RPI either.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by Scarecrow

Wade,

I hate to inform you, but RPI and SOS rankings mean absolutely nothing.

Signed,
The University of Kansas

I know you're mostly having fun, but I'm going to address it anyways ..

I definitely know that RPI and SOS mean beyond nothing right now. But, especially for a mid-major, it CAN mean something in March. And the higher you start now, the less your conference will bring down your final number.

RPI is no guarantee at an at-large birth, but in general a high RPI does a lot to help a mid-major get an at-large birth.

But really, right now, it is a sign that W&M is having one of the best starts to a season ever, and clearly the best start since I've been following them.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by wade moore

I know you're mostly having fun, but I'm going to address it anyways ..

I definitely know that RPI and SOS mean beyond nothing right now. But, especially for a mid-major, it CAN mean something in March. And the higher you start now, the less your conference will bring down your final number.

RPI is no guarantee at an at-large birth, but in general a high RPI does a lot to help a mid-major get an at-large birth.

But really, right now, it is a sign that W&M is having one of the best starts to a season ever, and clearly the best start since I've been following them.

Agreed. For a mid-major, having a high RPI number heading into the conference season is far more crucial than it is for a big conference team.

[MrBug708]

UCLA had hoped Lazeric Jones was going to commit on his visit, but alas, he didn't. He's a JC PG from Chicago

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Here's a look at the latest conference rankings at kenpom.com. Big 12 and ACC appear to have a pretty good size margin on the other conferences as we close in on conference play..........

1 Big 12 Conference .9032
2 Atlantic Coast Conference .9029
3 Big East Conference .8736
4 Big Ten Conference .8628
5 Southeastern Conference .8193
6 Pacific 10 Conference .8018
7 Atlantic 10 Conference .7299
8 Mountain West Conference .7274
9 Conference USA .7180
10 Missouri Valley Conference .6567

[Eaglesfan27]

USC with a solid 67-56 win over UNLV tonight. I love the effort that this team is playing with.

[mauchow]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

UCLA had hoped Lazeric Jones was going to commit on his visit, but alas, he didn't. He's a JC PG from Chicago

I am pretty sure he is coming to Wisconsin....i hope

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by mauboy1

I am pretty sure he is coming to Wisconsin....i hope

Supposedly his coach wont let him take anymore official visits once the season resumes.

UCLA certainly has fallen quite hard. Having to hope a JC coach wont let a player take a visit to Wisconsin so they can land a guard

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

Supposedly his coach wont let him take anymore official visits once the season resumes.

UCLA certainly has fallen quite hard. Having to hope a JC coach wont let a player take a visit to Wisconsin so they can land a guard

My understanding is the Wisconsin trip is happening. It is during the Christmas break. It's the Arizona trip that is probably not going to happen. A trip a couple hundred miles north wasn't going to get in the way of his season anyway.

[Karlifornia]

Seton Hall, down 10 with 50 seconds left, is now down 1 to WVU with 14 seconds left.

[Karlifornia]

Overtime!!

[Atocep]

Watching your team play without a point guard isn't fun. Truck was out there a bit, but with a sprained ankle he couldn't beat pressure with his dribble. WVU played a solid game until the last minute of regulation and then things went to hell.

Seton Hall is a better team than I expected and I'm glad to see the team walk out of there with a win.

I was stunned to see Jeremy Hazell was only 4-19 from 3. It seemed like he had hit at least 7 or 8.

[Swaggs]

Tight win by WVU, but I will take it. These last three wins (over Cleveland State, Mississippi, and now Seton Hall) are the types of games we might have lost in the past 2-years, but we have the depth and length/rebounding to seal the deal this season.

We haven't played a full game, yet, and it is going to be tough with our PGs dinged up, but I'll take 10-0 to start things off.

[mauchow]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

UCLA had hoped Lazeric Jones was going to commit on his visit, but alas, he didn't. He's a JC PG from Chicago

there ya go, he committed today.

chicagohoops.com

[MrBug708]

Yessir. Hopefully he can give us some depth

[Young Drachma]

Rutgers down 74-67 to UNC on the road. Heck of a game by them, they stuck with UNC all game, even though UNC played pretty sloppy.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

Rutgers down 74-67 to UNC on the road. Heck of a game by them, they stuck with UNC all game, even though UNC played pretty sloppy.

Standard game for UNC at this point, I really don't think this team is improving at all. Surprisingly long stretch where they are ice cold, way more turnovers than you'd expect to see, and dear god every big man on the team except for Ed Davis thinks they are the next Dirk Nowitski on offense. I swear every time Tyler Zeller takes an 18 foot jump shot I die a little inside.

Rosario was quite impressive for Rutgers. If he wasn't so cold from 3 Rutgers probably wins the game.

[MacroGuru]

BYU is laying a beat down on Arizona 95-62 right now with 2:30 seconds left....BYU is looking to be a tough team this year...12-1 right now.

[cartman]

So, I might be a massive Longhorns homer, but this is a great story:

Dana O'Neil: Dexter Pittman provides Texas-sized inspiration for Austin kid - ESPN

[Atocep]

Interesting matchup in Morgantown tonight. With Truck Bryant out WVU has a starting lineup of 5 players 6'7" or taller while Marquette doesn't start a player over 6'7"

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Atocep

Interesting matchup in Morgantown tonight. With Truck Bryant out WVU has a starting lineup of 5 players 6'7" or taller while Marquette doesn't start a player over 6'7"

Judging from the boxscore it kind of went like you'd expect from those figures too. WVU had a rebounding edge of 33-20 but also committed 14 turnovers to Marquette's 7. Ironically I guess it was a WVU steal with 0:03 left that saved them in a 63-62 win.

[timmynausea]

That steal at the end was actually on a hail mary for a last second catch and shoot chance. What really saved WVU was a couple of good Marquette free throw shooters missing the front end on back to back 1 and 1 situations with under a minute to go. They blew a 5 point lead. I'll take it, though.

[Swaggs]

I'm not sure what to think of this WVU team.

On the one hand, we have not played a very good, cohesive game all year long. 2-3 players, per game, have played really well all season (Butler and Jones, have been consistent and a couple of other guys have had a good game here or there) and Ebanks has been awesome in the last few games, but we are doing a lot wrong in every game. I think a lot of it is due to, as mentioned above, playing 4-5 guys, that are all small forwards, at the same time and half of them don't understand where they need to be positioned on the floor. Hopefully, with a little more game time and some improved health, we'll start to click.

And, of course, on the other hand -- we are one of a handful of teams that are still lucky/fortunate enough to be undefeated and we have a couple of nice, resume-building type wins already. So, it is tough to complain about performance when the team is winning. I'd still like to see us begin to put teams away better.

I'm really looking forward to the upcoming home schedule. In January through early February, we host Rutgers and then go through a gauntlet of Syracuse, Ohio State, Louisville, Pitt, and Villanova. I'm glad that I'll get my money's worth on these season tickets.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by Swaggs

I'm not sure what to think of this WVU team.

On the one hand, we have not played a very good, cohesive game all year long. 2-3 players, per game, have played really well all season (Butler and Jones, have been consistent and a couple of other guys have had a good game here or there) and Ebanks has been awesome in the last few games, but we are doing a lot wrong in every game. I think a lot of it is due to, as mentioned above, playing 4-5 guys, that are all small forwards, at the same time and half of them don't understand where they need to be positioned on the floor. Hopefully, with a little more game time and some improved health, we'll start to click.

And, of course, on the other hand -- we are one of a handful of teams that are still lucky/fortunate enough to be undefeated and we have a couple of nice, resume-building type wins already. So, it is tough to complain about performance when the team is winning. I'd still like to see us begin to put teams away better.

I'm really looking forward to the upcoming home schedule. In January through early February, we host Rutgers and then go through a gauntlet of Syracuse, Ohio State, Louisville, Pitt, and Villanova. I'm glad that I'll get my money's worth on these season tickets.

Truck being hurt is killing this team. The guy gets railed on a lot, but the offense looks a lot different with him on the floor healthy. Combine that with Casey Mitchell and Mazzula being hurt and we really don't have a healthy guard. We also get Kilicli back from suspension at the beginning of February so this is a team with a lot of room for growth between now and March. 11-0 with Ebanks, Mitchell, Truck, and Kilicli all missing some significant time is better than I would have expected.

The only concern I have based on the team's play thus far is the inability to defend the 3. Way too many open looks in both the Seton Hall and Marquette games.

[Swaggs]

Originally Posted by Atocep

The only concern I have based on the team's play thus far is the inability to defend the 3. Way too many open looks in both the Seton Hall and Marquette games.

I mentioned this briefly above, but in the post-game, Huggs said that they were specifically working with one player (I am pretty sure that he was talking about Flowers) in the previous two practices and in the walk through because he was repeatedly not in the right position when they were in zone defense and his guy had been scoring literally everytime he touched the ball. They hit something like 70% of their 3-pointers in the first half, but Huggs only played Flowers for like 2-minutes in the second half, so I'm guessing

Flowers either needs to "get it" real soon, or his minutes are going to be severely shortened and limited to when they are playing M2M. I think Huggins would like Jennings to start playing more minutes, but he keeps doing stupid things and pissing him off (tonight's example was a turnover and then fouling the guy that stole it on a dunk, leading to a three point play -- immediately followed by him being pulled). And, w/o Flowers or Jennings, we get a heavy dose of Thoroughman, who knows his assignments and plays physically, but has absolutely no offensive game.

[terpkristin]

Pretty stoked to find that the Terps are televised tonight in my area. Living in Virginia, they usually play UVA or Mason or other games I couldn't care less about. Granted, we're playing a team from Virginia (William and Mary, who by all accounts has a good basketball team this year but I still will always hate), which I guess helps.

/tk

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

Pretty stoked to find that the Terps are televised tonight in my area. Living in Virginia, they usually play UVA or Mason or other games I couldn't care less about. Granted, we're playing a team from Virginia (William and Mary, who by all accounts has a good basketball team this year but I still will always hate), which I guess helps.

/tk

Seeing this post makes me smile. I notice there was no follow-up.. ...


I drove up last night to watch W&M completely own the Terps last night. The final score does not do it justice as the Terps got a lot of desperation points at the end. W&M took control at about 7 minutes in and never looked back. The Maryland fans lived up to the billing (horrible, horrible people) and it was great to watch them leave with their tails between their legs.

We are now up to #5 in the RPI with 2 ACC wins and several wins in the RPI top 50/100.

[JonInMiddleGA]

#4 Purdue doing bad things to #6 WVU

[timmynausea]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

#4 Purdue doing bad things to #6 WVU

Yep. I knew Purdue was a good team going into this one, so I'm not shocked. They did a great job pressuring in half court defense. WVU is basically a motion/passing team. Purdue played ultra tight on D to take away passing lanes, trying to force someone on WVU to beat them by taking the ball to the basket. Nobody could get it done.

Between this and the Gator Bowl, it's not been a pleasant New Year's Day for West Virginia.

[Butter]

Anyone tired of New Year's football by the time Florida gets around to destroying Cincy tonight, there is an intriguing non-BCS matchup on The Mtn/CBS College Sports Channel at 9 Eastern time.... Dayton vs. top-25 New Mexico. Dayton has been lurking just under the surface of the top-25 ever since their 2 consecutive losses to Villanova and an apparently underrated at the time Kansas State team.

Should be an interesting battle, New Mexico has a nice offense while UD's calling card for a couple of years now has been a stifling defense. Athletes abound on both sides of the court. Dayton needs another quality OOC win before starting up A10 play in what has been a surprisingly strong pre-conference season for A10 teams, including Temple and Richmond.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Big story breaking in Knoxville this afternoon, with 4 players arrested charged with marijuana, open container, and weapons charges (firearm with an altered serial number).

Starters Cameron Tatum & Tyler Smith, and backups Brian Williams & Melvin Goins. The charges against Smith & Williams are felony variety because of the gun.
Four UT basketball players face drug and weapon charges» Knoxville News Sentinel

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Big story breaking in Knoxville this afternoon, with 4 players arrested charged with marijuana, open container, and weapons charges (firearm with an altered serial number).

Starters Cameron Tatum & Tyler Smith, and backups Brian Williams & Melvin Goins. The charges against Smith & Williams are felony variety because of the gun.
Four UT basketball players face drug and weapon charges» Knoxville News Sentinel

Ugh.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by wade moore

Ugh.

Well, at least it isn't a story that should come as a big shocker.

It's reached the point that I think Pearl probably needs to go unless he can find a way to recruit at least a few players who aren't stoners or just straight up thugs. UT may very well have the lowest character basketball team in D1 at this point and it's been headed in that direction for a while now.

[Swaggs]

Originally Posted by timmynausea

Between this and the Gator Bowl, it's not been a pleasant New Year's Day for West Virginia.

Worst day of the decade.