That game was horrible. Did you see how many dumb turnovers pitt had? They were just fumbeling the ball for shits and giggles, and on top of that they were missing 8 foot jumpers, and they still could have won the game at the end.

Very frustrating and dont get me started on the way the refs called that bad boy :) I dont see Pitt playing that bad again as that was their game this year where everything went wrong. Glad that got that out of their system now.

I've said this to a few of my friends...Pitt plays a very physical game and if they run into the wrong kind of refs (ones that call everything) in the tourney they are going to be in trouble.

I wouldnt be too concerned. Some kids take longer with that stuff than others. If you are borderline on the trainers test 2-3 days in a row or show mild improvement its usually a "no go".

Your dead on about past concussions though. If he has a history this year, they will play it safe even more.

Unfortunately for Pitt I think your dead on here. I think being at Providence helped a few of those calls though, and im hoping those are the ones that wont be called in the tourney at a neutral site.

My guess is that he had a minor one earlier in the year in practice that we didn't know about and that the latest concussion has caused them to be cautious. His parents seem to be on-board with holding him out, so I'm guessing that the conservative route of treatment is warranted for one reason or another.

Concussion aren't (or shouldn't be considered) minor injuries.

Perhaps that's my opinion alone, but yeah.

You're absolutely correct. It's just that usually, players are able to play again much quicker in basketball than football for obvious reasons.

The confusion lies in the injury that was shown on TV. It wasn't that tough of a shot unless there was another shot earlier in the game or earlier this season that already created some issues that were only compounded by the shot in the Texas game. It just feels like there's something we don't know, but obviously it's not required that we know it.

That happens to Pitt every year it seems like.

I don't know about a history, but apparently his dad said it looked like three blows to the head in the Texas game that might have combined for the concussion. I assume you watched the KU game, but he didn't pass the concussion mental test before that one. But, I mean, with a concussion, they're not going to let you test it out in a contact situation like they might even do for a knee injury.

More recently it's been lack of offense in the tourney rather than foul trouble. 2 years ago it seemed like Gray and Kendall missed every bunny possible against UCLA and last year shots weren't falling against Michigan State. I think that foul trouble this year in the tournament would be a big problem, but I'm more worried that they match up against a team with great guards who can a) draw fouls off the drive and b) score against a Pitt D that has lapses.

How bout that screen on Nolan Smith? Holy cow. Someone has to be back there to call that. Unfortunately, Duke beats Maryland.

Another game, another win for Mizzou. They plastered a KSU team that had won 8 of 9 games coming into last night. They're making it look easy right now.

The 2nd round of the Border War occurs on Sunday. Winner of the game takes the lead in the conference and has the inside track on the #1 seed for the Big 12 tournament. For the record, Mizzou won in Lawrence in 1969, 1979, 1989, and 1999. I'd hate to see a trend like that end in 2009.

I think John Pelphrey is in some serious trouble at Arkansas. He may not get another year. There are real signs he has lost control of his team and may be in over his head. This is worrying. I really like him, but there are LOT of bad signs at this point (well beyond the 1-12 in the SEC problem).

I think he's going to be a good coach, but he was clearly not ready for the step up.

That's what happens when your first 6 choices say no.

Care to elaborate? I honestly hadn't heard that there were behind-the-scenes problems.

Marquette's Dominic James out for year with broken foot - ESPN

Damn shame about Dominic James. That kid is fun to watch.

Mostly rumors, really, but they are coming from reliable sources. Basically, Pelphrey has been inconsistent in his discipline, allowing some players to show up late to practice, indefinitely suspending others, etc. Trouble getting kids to go to class in several cases. A lot of freshman problems because the team is mostly freshmen, but the handling of the problems has led to some other things. There are also people that have seen a player and assistant have to be restrained from each other. Many reports of one particular assistant being a big problem/distraction and affecting recruiting, but Pelphrey is loyal to him to a fault.

Then of course you have the dismal performance on the court since conference season started and repeated recruiting failures, not addressing needs for the future. It is pretty bleak at this point.

Big East has had some tough injuries to good players this season. Hopefully, it won't keep their teams from doing well in the tourney.

Clutch win for Washington tonight against ASU - the Huskies are back to a 1.5 game lead in the Pac-10. One more conference win clinches a share of the conference title.

This season has been a very pleasant surprise after the disappointments of the last 2 years for the program. Looks like Romar may have the program on track to be a yearly Tournament team again.

Interesting old footage. This is from an "ABC Game of the Week" in 1961. Jack Buck is the young announcer doing the game. Needless to say, the situation in the MU/KU game got a bit out of hand........

YouTube - 1961 MU-KU basketball brawl

I love that they get the band to start playing the national anthem to try to calm everyone. Looks like it worked about as well as expected too.


Also, 1961 must have just been the year for fighting in college basketball. UNC and Duke had it out after Art Heyman fouled Larry Brown(yes, that Larry Brown) hard underneath the basket. There's a couple solid punches thrown at midcourt at the 30 second mark. No announcer unfortunately.

YouTube - UNC-dook basketball fight 1961

Washington clinches at least a tie for the Pac-10 crown with their win over Arizona today. A win against WSU or one more loss from both Cal and UCLA will clinch the UW's first outright Pac-10 title since 1953 (they tied for 1st in the conference in 1984 & 1985).

LSU wins at Kentucky 73-70 to win the SEC title. Overcomes 10-point deficit in the 2nd half. LSU is now 25-4, 13-1 in the SEC. First win at Kentucky in 20 years for LSU.

LSU could be a dangerous team in the tournament, not to win, but to make a little run. They lack size inside and have no real bench, but they have some talented starters, play tough defense, and have a couple of real scorers. Given the right draw they could make a run, get past the first weekend, and upset somebody. They are a very tough team.

LSU wins the SEC outright with a 73-70 win at Kentucky, a game-winning three-pointer with nine seconds left.

Who do you trust? The refs? Or your lying eyes?

dear god thats awful

There were a couple other egregious walks in televised games today. Officials nationwide seem to be leaning towards "letting them play" more than ever this year, might be making the refs lazy though.

Darren Collison might be the worst offender at this in the nation, but the "palming" of the ball is getting out of hand

The one at the end of the Duke game was particularly bad and played a big part in the outcome of the game.

Yes, this one was horrible. If you want to blow the whistle for a foul, blow it. But letting the guy walk through defenders across the court? Ridiculous.

"Interesting" call in the UCLA-Cal game right before half time as well today. I'm sure under the letter of the law it might have been intentional, but if they are going to start calling those, then there will be 7-8 a game. Cal coach was pretty pissed and the announcers seemed pretty unanimous that it was a horrible call.

One thing I've always wondered, why are intentional fouls at the end of the game not called intentional fouls? Can there be more intentional than grabbing a player around the waist when he receives an inbound pass? Does the intentional foul in the rulebook relate to a scoring opportunity?

I think it is too much of a judgment call. If a guy slaps someone on the arm, that happens all time time during the course of a game. But when a guy bear hugs a guy at the end of the game, that should be called intentional, and I have no clue why it isn't.

I think when it is called plays a big part of it. The Cal player didn't even attempt to go for the ball, he just sort of tapped Drago as he drove to the basket. Didn't even look up at him, just was looking down and grabbed his jersey.

Bug's description is dead on. The Cal player was pretty much blatantly intentionally fouling Drago. I don't think it was a bad call (by the letter, the call was correct), so much as a bad rule, and bad enforcement.

It's a bad rule because the use of the term "intentional" sets up two things. One, refs judging intent (no refs should have to do that, and particularly not the piss poor refs of the Pac 10). Two, the leeway given refs seem to allow them to differentiate between intentionals like the one committed on Dragovic, and the ones at the end of games, i.e. "strategic intentional fouls". The problem with the rule, of course, is that doesn't define either type as different from one another. As an example, the announcers pointed to just one of these "strategic" late game fouls in the same game and noted that the Cal defender on that play (player fouled Shipp from behind and had no play on the ball whatsoever) was called for a normal foul and that was it. There was about a minute left in the game. And yet that late game foul had less to do with making a play on the ball than the one against Drago. Yet, the first half one was called intentional, and the second was a normal foul.

As the announcers said, that rule should just be removed. There is no real value to having it in the game. Keep flagrants and what not, the overtly physical fouls, but ditch this one, it's just a rule that can cause problems.

BTW, that early intentional pretty much allowed UCLA a seveon-point possession. While it was certainly a key play, I disagree with announcers saying it was "given" to UCLA. Drago still had to make a great physical play to still get the ball in the hoop, and Roll still had to make the three. Only the free throws came "easy", and those are missable as well, of course.

Basically, if Montgomery is pissed about the play, well, how about he teach his players to play some D, and not allow Drago a wide open lane on the baseline, and Roll to be left alone behind the arc?

5 hours until the Border War. Should be a lot of fun.

There's actually a great slate of ranked vs. ranked games this afternoon. Pull up the chips and beer for 6 hours........

12:00 EST #10 Marquette @ #6 Louisville
2:00 EST #8 Mizzou @ #15 Kansas
4:00 EST #9 Michigan State @ #20 Illinois

Ok, I am pissed.

The KU-Mizzou game is nowhere to be found here, not even on ppv (not that I'd do that). CBS has some stupid ass SEC game at 2 and I'm not going anywhere because we've got sleet falling everywhere in a city that can't drive in rain, much less anything colder.

SI

Ah man.. it's on CBS here!

It is listed here: Watch Online tv sports news and entertainment for free at channelsurfing

But, sometimes they show ESPN360 games that are blacked out if your cable company doesn't allow for it.

SI - We have the same issues here occasionally as our CBS station is also the Raycom station and pre-empts games all season. Next week, I'll miss Pitt-UConn 2.

I saw another comment on palming and Sam Young for Pittsburgh was called for palming on 2 straight possessions yesterday.

Rick Pitino's suit is awesome. :)

Interesting- ever used that site before? I might have to try it out. It's the best shot I've seen so far.

SI

channelsurfing is great. Lots of people here have used it. Bookmark it.

I don't use it as much since I moved back to Morgantown, but when I lived in North Carolina, I used it all of the time to watch WVU.

Like I said, the only problem I have ever had is when they put up a link to an ESPN 360 game. ESPN 360 only works with certain cable/ISP companies and I have never had much luck with it.

Good luck, should be a great game. We are playing our best ball of the year, with consecutive wins over UCLA, Arizona, and ASU. I still have to give the nod to the Dawgs, though.

Looks like I may luck out with channelsurfing.

Sure as hell beats that SEC suckfest I'd get otherwise

Thank you much to all :D

SI

woohoo, using channelsurfing.net to watch mizzou/kansas instead of getting stuck with two unranked SEC teams that I couldn't care less about.

While it's just a PAC-10 title, I'd like for UCLA to at least clinch a tie of the title still

what a start for Kansas. It seems they'd be winning no matter what but Missouri is looking ridiculously bad on offense.

Yep.. Kansas looks great, but we are shooting like shit right now.

Time to stop the little stupid stuff. No more out of bounds, no more long falling 3's with 30 seconds left on the shot clock. Keep this lead large- don't do the stupid stuff like in the first game.

Still, we're playing great right now, taking advantage of Mizzou not being able to hit the ocean

SI