College Basketball!

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

3) How good is Texas A&M really? I saw them for the first time today and I was not really impressed with the #6 team in the country. However, Jeff Capel is a guy who is going to do good things in Norman.

Okay,I am getting closer to being impressed. 100-82 with all sorts of foul trouble. Plus they were able to harrass Kevin Durant to 9-23 FG shooting.

[JonInMiddleGA]

NCSU led GT by as many as 15 in the first half, by 8 at the half, and by 11 with 11 minutes to go.

The Jackets then scored 18 unanswered points & held the 'Pack without a FG for almost 11 1/2 minutes (from 14:24 to 3:00 left), GT rallies to win by 9.

[lordscarlet]

Go Hoos!

[Wolfpack]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

NCSU led GT by as many as 15 in the first half, by 8 at the half, and by 11 with 11 minutes to go.

The Jackets then scored 18 unanswered points & held the 'Pack without a FG for almost 11 1/2 minutes (from 14:24 to 3:00 left), GT rallies to win by 9.

Amidst all the complaining about the refs on the State board (I can't say myself since I'm out-of-region) there was a general consensus that State hit a wall fatigue-wise beginning at that 11 1/2-minute mark and Tech's press finally paid off. Again, since I didn't see it, I can't say for sure, but it was their third game in six days with two of them on the road sandwiching an emotional victory at home against a hated rival, so it makes some sense. We just don't have the horses (particularly in the backcourt) to sustain this sort of effort. We won almost in spite of ourselves on Saturday because we were blistering the nets and for whatever reason Ol' Roy took pity on us and didn't try to press us for 40 minutes. If Carolina did what Tech apparently did tonight, they'd have run us out of the gym.

[SuperGrover]

If Carolina did what Tech apparently did tonight, they'd have run us out of the gym.

Yeah. I still don't understand Roy's logic there. Why does he despise the full-court press so much?

[Radii]

I think the Duke/UNC game can be summed up nicely by the Fire Coach K thread, so I'll just leave it at that

http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/...ad.php?t=56811

[JonInMiddleGA]

http://sports.myway.com/news/02102007/v0065.html

Gonzaga Basketball Players Arrested After Drugs Found in Car
Feb 10, 1:55 PM (ET)

CHENEY, Wash. (AP) -Gonzaga basketball players Josh Heytvelt and Theo Davis were arrested after police found marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms in their car during a traffic stop.

Cheney Police Cmdr. Rick Campbell said the two players were booked into the Spokane County Jail on Friday night for investigation of drug possession. Campbell said the amount of marijuana was only enough for a misdemeanor, but possession of mushrooms is a felony.

Heytvelt, a sophomore, is a starting forward and the team's second-leading scorer with 15.5 points per game. Davis is a freshman who has not played this season after having shoulder surgery in October.

A Gonzaga spokesman did not immediately return a call Saturday seeking comment.

Campbell said police pulled the car over because its tail lights were not working. Officers smelled marijuana and searched the car, he said, and the players were cooperative.

"It was close to midnight. They needed to have their lights on," Campbell said.

Davis is from Brampton, Ontario, but played most of his high school ball at Lutheran Christian Academy in Philadelphia.

[wbatl1]

Originally Posted by SuperGrover

Yeah. I still don't understand Roy's logic there. Why does he despise the full-court press so much?

He'll use it, but only with experienced teams, because he demands disicpline when using it, and younger teams really struggle with having enough disicpline to play full-court. I've seen him use some sort of full-court press 10 or so times this season, but always in small spurts because he's deathly afraid someone's gonna be stupid and mess it up.

Always remember that Carolina still is only a team of freshmen and sophomores...

[timmynausea]

West Virginia knocked off #2 UCLA today. That makes it 2 years in a row that we've beaten the Bruins.

[digamma]

In honor of Game Day being in Lexington for the UK-UF game tonight, take three minutes and enjoy this tribute to Kentucky basketball...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwlfJXhNXk0

[cartman]

It appears that after the A&M game, Rick Barnes tore into his team, telling them that Kevin Durant can't carry the team by himself, he needs the rest of the team to step up when the opposing team keys on him. I guess the team listened, because this was probably the best team effort in a game for Texas this season, beating Iowa State 78-67. D.J. Augustin was the leading scorer with 31 (Durant had 17) and three guys tied for the team lead with 5 rebounds.

[Kodos]

Alright, IU takes down Illinois for some revenge. Excellent. Even if IU played like crap.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Davis is from Brampton, Ontario, but played most of his high school ball at Lutheran Christian Academy in Philadelphia.

That should set off alarms right there. Probably the most notorious "basketball factory" in the country. We also had a player from there that got kicked out of school after numerous arrests/academic issues.

In other UMass news, we moved into 1st place in the A-10 behind Stephane Lasme's 3rd triple-double of the season. Yeah, the A-10 is weak this year, but Lasme is putting up 13 and 10 with 5 blocks a game and should be getting some national attention.

[Swaggs]

Originally Posted by timmynausea

West Virginia knocked off #2 UCLA today. That makes it 2 years in a row that we've beaten the Bruins.

Big win for the Mountaineers. Our record looked nice prior to this game, but we were lacking a marquee win.

I can't believe that we lost our top four players and five out of the top seven and we are on the cusp of another NCAA bid.

[JeeberD]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

That should set off alarms right there. Probably the most notorious "basketball factory" in the country. We also had a player from there that got kicked out of school after numerous arrests/academic issues.

And UTEP has two players from there and they're model citizens...

[JeeberD]

Dola-

The Miners were heavily recruiting Theo Davis, though. Guess we got lucky on that one...

[MrBug708]

Man, UCLA playe done hell of an ugly game. They are offensively challenged at times and today they were playing without their starting PG and it was obvious how valuable he was. Props to WVU for the win, but I think if they play it nine more times, I think UCLA wins 8 or 9 times. Ah well it's why the games are played.

[Z²+]

All I've got to add is that this Pitt team is dangerous, this looks like the year they finally make it deep come tourney time. Some of the best team basketball I've ever watched, with no stars, but any one of 8 players who can explode on any given night. And Aaron Gray is a beast inside.

[GoldenEagle]

Memphis continues to roll through CUSA. We had our walk-ons in with 5 minutes left in the game tonight.

[kingfc22]

So Duke is going to be down double digits at the half against the Terps right now. If they end up losing that would be 4 in a row. Is there any way they fall out of the Top 25 or is this like FSU in football. No matter how bad they are they will always get votes on name alone?

[terpkristin]

Originally Posted by kingfc22

So Duke is going to be down double digits at the half against the Terps right now. If they end up losing that would be 4 in a row. Is there any way they fall out of the Top 25 or is this like FSU in football. No matter how bad they are they will always get votes on name alone?

Don't know the answer but let's face it, there's another half to play, Terps will choke as always.

/tk

[Swaggs]

Duke has a tough ACC schedule down the stretch, with a lot of away games. It will be interesting to see if they are selected, should they finish below .500 in conference. They have some very impressive OOC wins, so I would think they could make it at .500, or perhaps even one game under, but it would raise some eyebrows for a team that is not in the top half of its conference to get in, even if it is Duke.

[miami_fan]

I would say no just because of the teams below them in the rankings.

18) Alabama (18-6) lost at Ole Miss yesterday

20) Kentucky (18-6) lost to Florida

22) Georgetown (18-5) lost to Duke. Although that was in December, I can see voters hanging on to that.

23) Vandy (16-8) lost to Tennessee

You will also have those that compare Arizona's and Duke's losses to North Carolina recently. Finally I can only see 3-4 teams that the voters would move into the top 25 if they were to drop Duke out.

[tdydynasty]

Originally Posted by Swaggs

Duke has a tough ACC schedule down the stretch, with a lot of away games. It will be interesting to see if they are selected, should they finish below .500 in conference. They have some very impressive OOC wins, so I would think they could make it at .500, or perhaps even one game under, but it would raise some eyebrows for a team that is not in the top half of its conference to get in, even if it is Duke.

They may not win for the rest of the season. Road Game equals guaranteed loss. I would bet my house on it.

[tdydynasty]

Florida and Duke are mirror opposites.

Florida's football and men's basketball teams success, women's basketball failure.

Duke's football and men's basketball teams failure, women's basketball success.

[miami_fan]

Washington is in a tight one with Stanford. Big game for Washington in the Pac 10 and overall. After this, they play Wash St, USC, UCLA at home and have to gone on the road to play Pitt, Oregon St and Oregon.

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

Washington is in a tight one with Stanford. Big game for Washington in the Pac 10 and overall. After this, they play Wash St, USC, UCLA at home and have to gone on the road to play Pitt, Oregon St and Oregon.

Nice win for the Dawgs. The opportunity is still there for the NCAA's for Washington, but they'll probably have to go 4-1 in-conference to close the season, or 3-2 and beat Pittsburgh on the road.

[kingnebwsu]

Not that anyone here cares, but Wright State beat #9 Butler last night at home and are now tied for first place in the Horizon League. Hopefully the tiebreakers go WSU's way and they can host the conference tourney, giving them a good chance of dancing for the first time in 14 years. This has been their best season ever in Division I and I'm hoping they can make it to the dance this year. Last night's game was what college basketball is supposed to be about.

hxxp://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=270412750

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

I would say no just because of the teams below them in the rankings.

18) Alabama (18-6) lost at Ole Miss yesterday

20) Kentucky (18-6) lost to Florida

22) Georgetown (18-5) lost to Duke. Although that was in December, I can see voters hanging on to that.

23) Vandy (16-8) lost to Tennessee

You will also have those that compare Arizona's and Duke's losses to North Carolina recently. Finally I can only see 3-4 teams that the voters would move into the top 25 if they were to drop Duke out.

Bama, Kentucky Georgetown all stay. Duke is out of the AP Top 25, though they are leading the "Others Receiving Votes" category.

[cartman]

Finally, an awesome game from the 'Horns. They have been playing, as a team, very uneven since the 3OT loss to Oklahoma State. The past couple of games they have been playing much better team ball, and not relying on Durant to carry 100% of the load. All 5 starters scored in double digits in tonight's dismantling of Oklahoma State, 83-54.

[timmynausea]

Georgetown is awesome. Looking at WVU's best opponents this year - UCLA, Pitt, Marquette and Georgetown - I think the Hoyas may be the best of that bunch. Jeff Green and Roy Hibbert are way way too good.

[VPI97]

Hokies up 21-15 at UNC...

[WSUCougar]

I'm curious what some unbiased opinions are concerning Washington State. Spare the snide comments, please - no one needs to tell me that the Top 10 is virgin territory for Cougar basketball.

Then again, when has this board ever spared the snide comments? Fire away. But I'm still curious what - if anything - people think about WSU sneaking up the rankings.

[VPI97]

34-30 UNC at the half. Not too disappointed in the VT effort considering the Heels are 14-0 at home this season with an average margin of victory of 30 points.

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by WSUCougar

I'm curious what some unbiased opinions are concerning Washington State. Spare the snide comments, please - no one needs to tell me that the Top 10 is virgin territory for Cougar basketball.

Then again, when has this board ever spared the snide comments? Fire away. But I'm still curious what - if anything - people think about WSU sneaking up the rankings.

I was going to ask why we had not heard anything from the Left Coast about WSU. I can't say that I have seen them play as yet this year. Hopefully that will change in the near future though I am not seeing them any of their games on the local FSN channels for the rest of the year.

[LloydLungs]

Originally Posted by WSUCougar

I'm curious what some unbiased opinions are concerning Washington State. Spare the snide comments, please - no one needs to tell me that the Top 10 is virgin territory for Cougar basketball.

Then again, when has this board ever spared the snide comments? Fire away. But I'm still curious what - if anything - people think about WSU sneaking up the rankings.

I love the way they play. Bennett is an incredible coach. I saw their win at USC and it's one of the few times that Tim Floyd wasn't better than his coaching counterpart across the way.

[MalcPow]

Originally Posted by timmynausea

Georgetown is awesome. Looking at WVU's best opponents this year - UCLA, Pitt, Marquette and Georgetown - I think the Hoyas may be the best of that bunch. Jeff Green and Roy Hibbert are way way too good.

We're looking great right now, but I was almost hoping we'd fly under the radar a little longer. This time last year is just about when the team peaked, but I don't know, Hibbert looks absolutely driven and Green is actually scoring again (was way too tentative at the beginning of the year). They should've beaten Florida last year in the tourney, and they have the talent to beat anyone, but they just looked like they didn't know what to do when the other team made a run early in the season. Now they're finishing teams off and look hungry to not just win but send a message. Hibbert is simply dominating as well because not only is he a size mismatch for almost anyone in the country but he is a phenomenal free throw shooter. If the tourney started today this team would go very deep, but let's see where their attitude is in a month. Green has a ton of talent but he lacks intensity or that killer instinct, and the bench is still very questionable, Thompson is trying to figure out what the heck they have with guys like Macklin and Ewing, and frankly, they both look lost for long stretches of time.

(I'm clearly overly excited though. You know when you're fired up about your team but you're trying to pace yourself so your freaking head doesn't explode? That's where I am... )

[VPI97]

71-67 UNC with four minutes to go. I'd love for us to pull this out just so we can say we went undefeated against both UNC and Duke this year.

[VPI97]

Overtime!

73-73 with UNC missing a game-winning three at the buzzer

[miami_fan]

Terrible play at the end of half by the Tar Heels. Overtime.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Finally! Georgia Tech has ended their road losing streak at 17.

Down 45-40 at FSU with 15:24, the defense stepped up again, holding the Seminoles scoreless for ten minutes to take a 48-40 lead (FSU wouldn't get anything from the field until 3:48 remained). Tech (17-8, 5-6) hits their free throws down the stretch & hangs on for a 62-57 win.

Next up: a trip to Duke on Sunday.

[VPI97]

YES!

81 - 80 VT wins!

Prior to this season, we had not beaten UNC since 1966...now we have two wins against them.

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by timmynausea

Georgetown is awesome. Looking at WVU's best opponents this year - UCLA, Pitt, Marquette and Georgetown - I think the Hoyas may be the best of that bunch. Jeff Green and Roy Hibbert are way way too good.

Did you type that with a straight face?

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by WSUCougar

I'm curious what some unbiased opinions are concerning Washington State. Spare the snide comments, please - no one needs to tell me that the Top 10 is virgin territory for Cougar basketball.

Then again, when has this board ever spared the snide comments? Fire away. But I'm still curious what - if anything - people think about WSU sneaking up the rankings.

How long do you think WSU can keep Tony around? Til ZOna comes a calling?

[Toddzilla]

Originally Posted by VPI97

YES!

81 - 80 VT wins!

Prior to this season, we had not beaten UNC since 1966...now we have two wins against them.

Heh! "Just like football"

[lordscarlet]

Originally Posted by VPI97

YES!

81 - 80 VT wins!

Prior to this season, we had not beaten UNC since 1966...now we have two wins against them.

Congrats. I'm quite nervous about March 1.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by VPI97

YES!

81 - 80 VT wins!

Prior to this season, we had not beaten UNC since 1966...now we have two wins against them.

Congrats. I was sick that night(and yesterday) and didn't see any of the game... I suppose I'm glad that I didn't now. 4 teams in the ACC with 3 losses... what happened to UNC and then everyone else, sheesh!

[Wolfpack]

The ACC is definitely cannibalizing itself right now. Fortunately, the out-of-conference performance was very good this year. Coupled with a lack of serious locks in many other conferences, it's still enabled the ACC to potentially look at upwards of 8 teams in the tournament and it's possible one of them will have a 7-9 record.

[cartman]

Please, please, please let this be true!!!

hxxp://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=2766880

Texas star Durant may not enter draft, father says


AUSTIN, Texas -- Texas coach Rick Barnes is getting annoyed at Longhorns fans chanting, "One more year!" and hoping standout freshman Kevin Durant won't leave for the NBA after this season.

Barnes' message: Let the kid play. That other stuff can wait until after the season.

"It bothers me they say, 'One more year,'" Barnes said Thursday. "Why won't they say, 'Three more years'? I mean, if we are going to do it, let's go for all of it."

Durant, who turned 18 in September, leads the Big 12 in scoring and rebounding and has faced a constant barrage of questions and predictions about his future. The NBA imposed a minimum age limit before last season which prevented him from entering last summer's draft, and many assume he'll leave Texas after this season.

"I don't know if it's going to happen or not," Barnes said. The deadline for underclassmen to enter the draft is April 29.

But he said Durant is getting tired of speculation and questions.

"Couple of weeks ago, he came to me and said, 'If I have to keep answering questions about the NBA, I don't want to do any more interviews,'" Barnes said. "I said, 'Well, you are dealing with people who have no idea what the hell is going on.'"

Durant's father told The Dallas Morning News there's a chance his son could return to Texas next season.

"Kevin is so young. There's not a rush for him to go to the NBA. Right now, we're not even talking about that," Wayne Pratt told the newspaper. "We're talking about winning the Big 12, and Kevin continuing to progress academically."

Barnes noted that some players choose to stay in college in an era of rich NBA contracts. It hasn't happened lately for him. He lost three underclassmen starters to the NBA after last season.

"There is more to it," Barnes said. "Everyone says, 'How can you turn down the money?' Well, other people have. Tim Duncan stayed in college four years. He could have been the first pick after his sophomore year.

"I think you have to look at Kevin and give him some credit, If he thought like everyone else thinks he would think, he wouldn't be at Texas right now. He would be at North Carolina or Connecticut," Barnes said. "He is a guy who is going to do what he thinks is right for him."

Texas (18-7, 8-3 Big 12) plays at Baylor on Saturday.

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by cartman

Please, please, please let this be true!!!

hxxp://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=2766880

I honestly don't remember Tim Duncan's sophmore year very clearly so I am not sure if he was a #1 pick. I wouldl like to see him stay for one more year. Hell I would like to see him stay all four years.