Official 2007-2008 College Basketball Thread

[SuperGrover]

Originally Posted by Noop

I thought the refs were going in UNC's favor. Hansbrough travelled all night basically and a few charges where called blocking fouls. I have no horse in this race but it did seem like UNC was getting most of the calls.

dook had three team fouls in the second half until intentionally fouling end game. hansbrough, who averages 10.7 FTA per game and is the ACC all-time FTA leader, shot 0 FTs with 21 FGA. On the season, he gets 1 FTA per every 1.23 FGA. using season averages he would've shot 17 FTs. He shot 0.

I don't think UNC got screwed because the refs didn't call anything. However, I don't see how anyonce could claim UNC had an officiating advantage in the game. The numbers simply don't back it up.

There were 24 fouls in the game until 4 late intentional fouls, 3 by dook and 1 by UNC. The 24 were split evenly between UNC and dook. It was a very fairly called game...it's just that nothing was called.

[Radii]

It was a well played, hard fought game by two great teams that wanted to win for many, many reasons. There were just no egregious calls, no way or reason to make the refs the story. So why bring the refs up is my point.

I really, really should have saved this rant for a non-UNC game. I've been stewing and steaming over random irrelevant referee bitchfests for much of the season, honestly in games where *I* don't have a horse in the race, shoulda gone off on one of them instead. Maybe I will still, I need to get pissed off on the internet more often.

[Noop]

I am giving my objective opinion. It did seem like UNC was getting all the calls maybe I was to busy looking at the waitress's at Hooters to notice it was an even slipt. As for Hansbrough not getting fouled alot well thats simple to explain because everytime he got the ball the defender kept his hands up and did not jump to block any of his shot of attempts.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

It's rather refreshing

Heh...

Worried, though, we'll become the new Duke (not the type of basketball power I want UCLA to become). Of course, I don't think we have gotten a ton of calls before this week (at least not more than normal), so thinking so is probably overblown a bit.

Bad ref call or not, that was one hell of a shot by Shipp.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

Love the no-call on the Duke player trying to jump into Hansbrough for 3 FT's. I hate when players rely on referees instead of trying to hit a shot.

UMass wins, locks up the #3 seed for the A-10 tournament. They should be in now, but let's get a couple more wins in AC to seal it. This is a team that can do some damage against #4/5/6 seeds.

AC?

Only AC acronym I am aware of stands for "air conditioning".

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by INDalltheway

I like watching this UNC team. Hansbrough definitely has grown on me. You really have to respect how hard he plays. His putback with about 2 minutes left was so expected. I knew when the scrum started that he would end up with the ball and score it. Sure enough, that's what happened.

Now you like Hansbrough? Sheesh, you change your mind like John Kerry!

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by Radii

But he's working harder than anyone else on the court on either team every single play.

No disrespect to Hansbrough, but there's no way he's outworking Jon Brockman. Tyler Hansbrough may have more talent than Jon Brockman, but there's no way he out works him on the basketball court.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

AC?

Only AC acronym I am aware of stands for "air conditioning".

Atlantic City, New Jersey, where the A-10 tournament is being held. The poor, poor, New York man's version of Vegas. Silly west-coasters.

[INDalltheway]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Now you like Hansbrough? Sheesh, you change your mind like John Kerry!

I think it had something to do with him not getting all the silly calls going his way last night! Honestly, I think you talked a little sense into me in regards to Hansbrough and Love.

The officiating was not bad at all last night. They didn't turn the game into a constant foul fest. They didn't decide the games and let the players do it. Besides being overly emphatic on their calls, I had no problems as an outsider watching this game.

[cartman]

Woot! Texas beats Oklahoma State and wins the Big 12 regular season title by virtue of their win over Kansas, and gets the #1 seed for the Big 12 tourney next weekend. A.J. Abrams was ice cold the whole game, going 1 for 14 before hitting a two and a three in the final couple of minutes to seal the win.

[INDalltheway]

Congrats to Wade.. W&M knocked off VCU to get one game closer to that automatic bid..

[Dr. Sak]

Just got home from Penn State...I was 5 rows off the court to see Penn State knock of Indiana in OT. Penn State did it without their top 2 guys (injured) and started 4 freshman and 1 junior.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by INDalltheway

Congrats to Wade.. W&M knocked off VCU to get one game closer to that automatic bid..

I'm likely going to start a whole thread about this, but this is incredible.

Prior today in our 20+ history in the CAA (not sure exactly what year we joined, but it was around 85) we have had three CAA Tourney wins. Period. That's it.

We've had THREE this weekend by a combined 5 points.

Now we play tonight on ESPN for a chance to go to the NCAA Tourney. We are one of 5 teams that have been playing Div I basketball for 50+ years and never made the tourney (Army, The Citadel, Northwestern, and St. Francis of New York are the others).

[MJ4H]

Win or lose, I love John Pelphrey. Here is what he did after our team failed to get back on defense on one trip down the floor (put his foot through the sign on the scorers table).

[Klinglerware]

Looks like Amaker is running a pretty loose ship at Harvard:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/sp...02harvard.html

Assuming the allegations of improper contact are true, I wonder why Amaker would need to do this--I would think that Amaker could attract recruits to Harvard simply because he is a rather high profile coach (by Ivy League standards anyway).

The other thing that piqued my interest was his recruiting strategy. The class he assembled was by all accounts impressive (again by Ivy standards). The problem was that many of the recruits are still inadmissable per Ivy rules (some of the recruits still do not have the required GPA/SAT minimums). It seemed rather risky to put so many eggs in that basket knowing that some of them may not be admitted, now it looks like Harvard may have to scramble to fill their recruiting slots.

[Butter]

Amaker learned about cheating from the best.

[SuperGrover]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

Amaker learned about cheating from the best.

Kind of a stretch no? I hate dook more than anyone but K hasn't been implicated in anything other than Maggette-gate and his involvement in that was probably minor at best.

[Arles]

Jeez, Arizona is laying the beatdown on poor Oregon State as it's 59-21 at halftime. Oregon State is putrid, but the numbers are sick for Zona: 71% from the field and 8-11 from 3-point land with OSU shooting 26%.

It's one thing to have this as a mismatch non-conf game, but to have a score like that in a major conference tourney is rediculous.

[bhlloy]

Originally Posted by Arles

Jeez, Arizona is laying the beatdown on poor Oregon State as it's 59-21 at halftime. Oregon State is putrid, but the numbers are sick for Zona: 71% from the field and 8-11 from 3-point land with OSU shooting 26%.

It's one thing to have this as a mismatch non-conf game, but to have a score like that in a major conference tourney is rediculous.

I was at this game (wife had free tickets, and all we really wanted to see was Cal-Washington), and left after it was something like 35-12. Arizona just couldn't miss from outside. What was really sad was that OSU's defense was trying so hard, and Arizona would just pass around the oncoming defender and drain the wide open three. That, and nobody on OSU wanted (or could ever hope to get) any piece of Jordan Hill inside. Most of the crowd was cheering for OSU, but it was a complete slaughter out there. The 10 year old girls teams they had on at half time of the first game wouldn't have been any worse on the defensive end.

[MrBug708]

Wooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Fab Five Class to UCLA!
------------------------------
Sources told FOXSports.com that new LSU coach Trent Johnson plans to honor signee J'mison Morgan's request and will release the senior big man from his Natonal Letter of Intent on Tuesday afternoon, effectively paving the way for Morgan to land at UCLA.

[MrBug708]

A rumor going around that Kansas had an ineligible player this year

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

A rumor going around that Kansas had an ineligible player this year

So I could end up getting the results to my tournament pool overturned?

[sterlingice]

There's some stuff out there about Darrell Arthur's high school fudging his grades and making him eligible for games when he was there.

That said, I'm not sure how that affects Kansas as it happened before he got there and was cleared by the NCAA Clearinghouse to play in college.

SI

[MrBug708]

If he doesnt have the grades and are removed, he isn't eligible

Then again, Morgan is from the same HS

[Groundhog]

If that turns out to be the case, it would be a real shame. If a team isn't aware of the problem and nor is the NCAA until after the fact, it would really suck if the team had to forfeit their championship.

Even so, maybe I shouldn't have thrown away my losing receipt for the bet I put on Memphis.

[MrBug708]

Alex Stephenson is transferring from UNC

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

Alex Stephenson is transferring from UNC

I guess Hansbrough sticking around for another year didn't make Stephenson too happy.

[MrBug708]

His dad is also sick

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

If he doesnt have the grades and are removed, he isn't eligible

Then again, Morgan is from the same HS

Considering ESPN, CBS, CNNSI, and Fox Sports haven't even picked up the story, I'm guessing this isn't going to make any waves. It's a he said-she said thing where a fired math teacher is airing student records illegally and everyone else is denying it was done. In the end, it was something that happened in high school before he came to Kansas. So I think it's safe to assume Memphis isn't suddenly going to get awarded the title or something silly like that.

Hell, even the LJ World, the local Lawrence paper, has dropped it off the front page of the website and they'll keep anything about KU near the top of the page. So, yes it couldn't beat out "Bike paths proposed at Wells Overlook", "Journalism student overcomes personal demons to finish degree", and "LHS special education teacher receives Bobs’ Award".

There do seem to be a lot of stories about NCAA basketball scandals on those pages right now but they're about Indiana and OJ Mayo.

SI

[wbatl1]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

Alex Stephenson is transferring from UNC

Do you have a source for this? This has floated around as a rumor for the last month or so, but I haven't seen any credible evidence to date. While it would not suprise me a great deal if he did transfer, I would be disappointed.

[wbatl1]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

Alex Stephenson is transferring from UNC

Originally Posted by wbatl1

Do you have a source for this? This has floated around as a rumor for the last month or so, but I haven't seen any credible evidence to date. While it would not suprise me a great deal if he did transfer, I would be disappointed.

And now, it is official.

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by wbatl1

Do you have a source for this? This has floated around as a rumor for the last month or so, but I haven't seen any credible evidence to date. While it would not suprise me a great deal if he did transfer, I would be disappointed.

Eh, the guy on BRO mentioned that he heard that Alex was thinking of transferring and posted on IC, Of coruse, he was blasted for it but now IC is in total denial mode that they had any knowledge of it. I'm not sure why he is transferring based on playing time, Roy brought in a bunch of 3's masquerading as 4's and AS is a 5.

Oh well, there loss is UCLA's gain

[wbatl1]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

Eh, the guy on BRO mentioned that he heard that Alex was thinking of transferring and posted on IC, Of coruse, he was blasted for it but now IC is in total denial mode that they had any knowledge of it. I'm not sure why he is transferring based on playing time, Roy brought in a bunch of 3's masquerading as 4's and AS is a 5.

Oh well, there loss is UCLA's gain

Yea, the reason I was suspicious in the first place was my inherent distrust and dislike for those message boards. However, the UNC release cites his family's health issues as the reason for the transfer, and I truly believe that it is a major factor. He left the team for a week in early Jan. to go home when his father was having an especially difficult time. And, in a feel-good story, UNC was able to pay his way as well due to NCAA rules.

[MrBug708]

Indeed. His dad doesn't have a life threatening sickness, just is sick and Alex wanted ot be closer to him

[Radii]

Originally Posted by wbatl1

Yea, the reason I was suspicious in the first place was my inherent distrust and dislike for those message boards. However, the UNC release cites his family's health issues as the reason for the transfer, and I truly believe that it is a major factor. He left the team for a week in early Jan. to go home when his father was having an especially difficult time. And, in a feel-good story, UNC was able to pay his way as well due to NCAA rules.

That is disappointing, he was showing some signs of developing into a pretty nice player and had put together a few nice games towards the end of the year.

[wbatl1]

Originally Posted by Radii

That is disappointing, he was showing some signs of developing into a pretty nice player and had put together a few nice games towards the end of the year.

Concur, and he also was one of the good-guys on the team.

[timmynausea]

Five star recruit Devin Ebanks committed to WVU today over Memphis, Texas and Rutgers. That gives Huggins 3 top 150 recruits (on rivals) in his first class at WVU.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by timmynausea

Five star recruit Devin Ebanks committed to WVU today over Memphis, Texas and Rutgers. That gives Huggins 3 top 150 recruits (on rivals) in his first class at WVU.

Heh...better WVU than Memphis. They are already ridicously talented. Yes, I know this is silly to say being a UCLA fan.

[Swaggs]

Great news on Ebanks.

Hopefully Joe Alexander will opt out of the NBA draft and return for his senior season, which could be pretty special for the Mountaineers.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

If he doesnt have the grades and are removed, he isn't eligible

Then again, Morgan is from the same HS

Originally Posted by Groundhog

If that turns out to be the case, it would be a real shame. If a team isn't aware of the problem and nor is the NCAA until after the fact, it would really suck if the team had to forfeit their championship.

Even so, maybe I shouldn't have thrown away my losing receipt for the bet I put on Memphis.

Update: crazy talk debunked. What? A sensational Dallas paper and a teacher with an axe to grind turn out to be false? So all the premature speculation about KU giving up the trophy was wrong. There's a shocker.

ESPN - Ex-Jayhawks F Arthur's high school grades cleared by Dallas district - Men's College Basketball

Don't get me wrong. There still might have been some silliness with his grades but that never happens with athletes. However, as I said, nothing was going to come of it.

SI