Mitch497's Coaching Career (CH2K8)

[mitch497]

Summit League Scoreboard

South Dakota State defeats Oakland, 59–38: The Jackrabbits were all over the defensive side of the ball, holding Oakland to just 14 baskets in the entire game. That's right, 14. And center Corey Petros had six of those - he finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds for the Golden Grizzlies. Despite a poor shooting night themselves, with only 15 made baskets, the Jackrabbits made use of persistent fouling by Oakland, making their money at the free throw line. Zach Hortsman led all scorers with 15.

Western Illinois defeats Southern Utah, 73–39: Southern Utah played their first home conference game of the season and were run out of their own building by an overpowering Western Illinois squad. SUU's shooting woes continued, shooting just 14 of 50 from the floor, eventually emptying out their young bench once the game got out of hand (it was already out of hand when the Leathernecks led by 18 at halftime). Jalen Morgan, a freshman forward, scored a career high 16 off the bench for Western Illinois, who picked up their first conference victory, and third overall, of the season.

IUPUI defeats UMKC, 54–51: IUPUI slid by the Kangaroos to extend their winning streak to five straight games. The Jaguars were believed to perform near the cellar of the Summit, but so far this year they have been quite the opposite. Sophomore center Josh James, who dropped 10 points, 11 rebounds, and 3 blocks on UMKC, has been a revelation, and freshman Leo Svete (9 points) has led the charge at the point. Martez Harrison scored 16 and assisted on 7 for UMKC, but it was not enough.

[mitch497]

Summit League Scoreboard

South Dakota defeats Oral Roberts, 75–62: The Coyotes won their third straight game to open the conference season with a home victory over Oral Roberts. The game was close at half, with Oral Roberts leading by one, but the Coyotes, led by center Tyler Flack (who had 21 points) pulled away in the second half to end with a 13 points victory in hand. Reserve Tyler Larson also led the way at point for South Dakota when starter Brandon Bos left with a non-serious injury. Oral Roberts, once considered a conference title contender, now sits at 0–3 in league play, struggling on all fronts.

UMKC defeats Western Illinois, 74–59: UMKC led early and never looked back, pulling away with a fairly easy home win over Western Illinois. Martez Harrison had 17 points, but didn't have to do it all himself as Shayok Shayok added 17 and 11 thanks to key free throw shooting. Frank Williams, Jr., also had a strong game with 13 points and 6 assists. An ailing Garret Covington played sparingly for Western Illinois, a factor that certainly didn't help their performance. He should be set for their next match-up.

IPFW defeats South Dakota State, 64–58: IPFW recovered from a first half deficit to pull away from South Dakota State and earn the Mastodons their first road victory of the year. The Jacks were missing star big man Cody Larson, and failed to make a large impact on the boards because of it. Joe Edwards shot much better for IPFW than he did Thursday against North Dakota State, scoring 16 on four three pointers. Mo Evans also had 10 points, 6 assists, and 3 steals for IPFW, who seem to be rounding into form.

Southern Utah defeats IUPUI, 65–47: Southern Utah defended their home court and snapped IUPUI's five game winning stretch with a commanding 18 point victory. The Thunderbirds had easily one of their best shooting performances of the year, with players like A.J. Hess nailing 2 of his four three point attempts. Sophomore floor leader John Marshall continues to improve, adding 11 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 steals. Khufu Najee had 17 points and 9 boards for IUPUI, who lost their first conference game of the year.

[mitch497]

Nationwide Wrap-Up: Jan 7, 2008

Two Undefeated Teams Remain

The first week of basketball in the calendar year 2008 has concluded and there are two remaining unbeatens:

#1 Gonzaga: Gonzaga enters conference play unscathed at 15–0. Some worried that an underrated Georgia team may cause the Zags trouble, but Gonzaga responded to those critics by pummeling the other Bulldogs in Spokane, 117–82. It wasn't even close.

Bethune-Cookman: Bethune-Cookman didn't play last week. They open MEAC play with games against Savannah State (3–14) and Hampton (2–9).

Auburn's Run Ends

Auburn had been predicted to finish near the bottom of the SEC in 2008, but the Tigers got off to a miraculous 11–0 start to the year, rising to #6 in the AP Poll. Some criticized the lack of a difficult schedule, and those people would have their concerns proven Sunday as Auburn fells at home to Xavier, 92–90 in overtime. The Musketeers were relentless at attacking the basket, drew a ton of free throws and sent Auburn into SEC play on a negative note.

Vandy For Real?

If nobody saw Auburn coming, Vanderbilt was even tougher to predict. With such a young team, the Commodores were expected to sit in the middle of the SEC pack and work towards a stronger 2009. But instead, Vandy sits at 14–1 with a massive showdown at Kentucky looming. Despite a rather weak schedule, the Commodores, save a loss at home to Wake Forest, have manhandled the competition. Will they stand the test in a top-heavy SEC?

California Rising

As Arizona continues to struggle (going 1–1 to open Pac-10 play), a new challenger has emerged from the Pac-10. Mike Montgomery's Cal Golden Bears, a team led by young talent in the backcourt, see themselves at 11–2 and atop the conference after opening conference play with two wins against USC and UCLA. Cal sits with only losses to Nicholls State and Missouri on its resume, and just broke into the poll at #23. With the Pac-10 being really, really bad, one questions whether the Golden Bears are legitimately good. They may not be tested until the post-season.

College Gameday This Week: Live From Lexington, Kentucky

AT

1/12/08 – #6 Vanderbilt (14–1) at #3 Kentucky (13–2)

[pfeifere1]

Your presentation here is fantastic. I really like the nationwide wrap-up part too. Great start to Summit League play. This is one conference I haven't played with in any college basketball game, so I'm interested to see how this plays out. Keep it up!

[mitch497]

Quote: Originally Posted by pfeifere1

Your presentation here is fantastic. I really like the nationwide wrap-up part too. Great start to Summit League play. This is one conference I haven't played with in any college basketball game, so I'm interested to see how this plays out. Keep it up!

Thank you sir. I'm glad you're enjoying it. I am having fun myself.

I'm a few games ahead of where I last posted, so I'll have a few updates soon.

[mitch497]

Old Country Beatdown: Kentucky Destroys Underdog Commodores

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Rece Davis: Well everyone, we're back in Lexington and wow... this wasn't close. The #1 Kentucky Wildcats come out on top with a massive victory over #6 Vanderbilt tonight. The Commodores were down 27 at half but kept themselves from a blowout when Kentucky put in their reserves in the second half. Thoughts, guys?



Bilas: You know it's bad when the #6 team in the country is losing to reserve players in the second half. Vanderbilt had yet to be challenged, and their young squad wasn't ready for this. I don't know if having Baldwin would have changed much. Maybe a little closer, but the lack of size is what killed the Commodores.

Jay: Yeah, Vanderbilt got killed tonight on the boards. It seemed like every time Kentucky missed a three, they had a guy right there to grab a board. Every single Kentucky player had a rebound. They had tons of offensive boards, and Vanderbilt couldn't stop them. Embarrassing performance by the Commodores.

Seth: Vanderbilt is a very good team, but not a title contender at this point. Maybe this loss will kick them into gear and get them motivated to grow together as a team in the conference season as they play even more difficult opponents.

Rece: Thanks everyone, that's all from Lexington tonight! See you next week on College Gameday.

VAN Top Performers:

Nolan Cressler: 17 pts, 1 reb, 1 ast, 3 stl, 6–14 fg, 2–7 3pt
Damian Jones: 8 pts, 11 reb, 1 ast, 1 stl, 3–7 fg
Josh Henderson: 12 pts, 8 reb, 1 ast, 2 blk, 5–8 fg

UK Top Performers:

Andrew Harrison: 13 pts, 2 reb, 3 ast, 2 stl, 1 blk, 4–7 fg, 3–6 3pt
Aaron Harrison: 12 pts, 4 reb, 1 ast, 2 stl, 5–13 fg, 2–3 3pt
Karl-Anthony Towns: 14 pts, 8 reb, 5–12 fg

[mitch497]

Summit League Scoreboard

IPFW defeats South Dakota, 92–60: It took a little while, but IPFW is finally rounding into the dominant team they could have been, smashing a talented South Dakota team at home (handing the Coyotes their first conference loss of the year). Max Landis was all over the place with 25 points, but once again, Joe Edwards hurt the Mastodons with 10 shot attempts (all threes, only two converted). However, big man Steve Forbes has also shown up lately, dropping 20 points. For South Dakota, reserve Casey Kasperbauer led the way with 18 points, but the starting line failed to produce.

IUPUI defeats South Dakota State, 73–62: IUPUI got back on track with another conference win after a crushing OT loss to North Dakota State. Khufu Najee continued his scoring tear with another 25 points, and Josh James continues to improve as a young big man, dropping 13 points and 12 rebounds. South Dakota State had trouble with the three ball, missing 20 of their 24 attempts and struggling to grab offensive rebounds.

Oral Roberts defeats Oakland, 65–52: Oral Roberts finally grabbed their long overdue first conference win of the year. Kahlil Felder (10 points) and Corey Petros (15 points, 5 rebounds) continued to produce for Oakland, but the rest of the team was completely shut down by the Golden Eagles' strong defense. A balanced effort by ORU's guards had four different starters scoring at least 13 points, and the team hitting over half of their three point attempts.

Southern Utah defeats UMKC, 67–64 in OT: UMKC, fresh off a huge road win over Missouri, blew a first half lead and fell in overtime to an unusually strong-shooting Southern Utah team. Trey Kennedy dropped 19 for the Thunderbirds, who got a ton of production from the bench and from the free throw line. Casey Oliverson was strong, dropping 7 points but blocking three shots and grabbing ten rebounds. Martez Harrison was held to a season low 7 points.

[mitch497]

Nationwide Wrap-Up: Jan 14, 2008

Zags Last Unscathed

Two weeks into 2008 and one more undefeated team has fallen, leaving us with just one:

#1 Gonzaga: Unsurprisingly, the Zags remained undefeated with two more easy wins to open West Coast Conference play and move to 17–0. They had a beatdown of Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles and an easy victory over Pepperdine in Malibu. They host San Diego (8–8) and San Francisco (4–11) this week, with a huge matchup with #4 Memphis looming in two weeks.

Bethune-Cookman was the last undefeated team to fall. They lost to Hampton to open MEAC play.

Villanova Leading Chaotic Big East

The Big East has been a competitive mess so far. Earlier in the season, the conference had two leading contenders with Pittsburgh and Georgetown. Two weeks into conference play, both of those teams are in struggling phases. Georgetown has started Big East play 1–3, with a loss to lowly Rutgers (5–11), and has went from #5 in the AP Poll to #14. Meanwhile, Pittsburgh finally rounded back into form with a win over those same Hoyas, but find themselves with three really weak recent losses (South Florida, Dayton, Lafayette). Villanova, now #5 in the AP Poll, is the only team in the Big East in an even state right now, it appears.

Major Pac-10 Showdown Looming

California jumped into the Top 25 for the first time last week, and they proved they are not a fluke with two more victories this week – going up north and defeating both Oregon and Oregon State (escaping an upset in OT against the Beavers). This week, they will welcome a rebounding Arizona squad into Berkeley for one of the better conference match-ups of the year to date. Will Cal's surprising young roster defeat Arizona's finally-winning experienced squad? College Gameday will be in attendance.

New Challenger Appearing in Big Ten

Northwestern is the only school in a power 5 conference never to appear in the NCAA tournament. That could change in 2008, based on how well Chris Collins has the Wildcats playing. The Big Ten is shaping up to be possibly the strongest conference in the nation, and Northwestern finds them selves jointly in first place with #2 Illinois, after winning their first four games of conference play. With a lineup that starts two freshman and only one senior, the Wildcats have gone 12–0 since a season opening loss to Drexel, beating Virginia, Ohio State, Minnesota, and Michigan in the process. They won't meet Illinois until the end of the month in Champaign.

College Gameday This Week: Live From Berkeley, California

AT

1/19/08 – #11 Arizona (9–6) at #16 California (13–2)