Official 2007-2008 College Basketball Thread

[Butter]

I was really impressed by Clemson's inside game last night. But the thought occurred to me after the game... endings like that are why UNC is UNC and Clemson is Clemson. Until Clemson can get a couple of close endings like that to go their way, they will not be taken seriously as a basketball contender.

Horrible play by Potter, but the kid is young, and if Clemson can put that effort into their other ACC games, he'll have a chance to make it up later on.

Why oh why can't Oliver Purnell teach his teams to shoot free throws?

[Butter]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

Next Wednesday night, 2 ranked A-10 teams meet (a rarity these days) as Rhode Island visits Dayton in an untelevised game thanks to the A-10's horrific TV contract with CSTV.

In a surprise turnaround, this game is going out nationally on CSTV tonight at 7PM.

#17 Dayton vs. #22 Rhode Island. Tune in for some high quality basketball, and to see one of the best guards in the country, Dayton's Brian Roberts.

[cartman]

Great game at the half in Columbia. Texas is up 2 on Mizzou. It has been a 3 fest so far. The team that cools off from behind the arc is going to be the one that loses this one.

[MrBug708]

Game of the week going on in Pauley right now (I'm stuck at work 300 yards from Pauley) and UCLA is taking it to #4 WSU right now. I'm still rather confused on how Texas beat UCLA but it happened. The UCLA-WSU game is very boring to the average fan, but it's a hell of a game if you like defensive slugfest. UCLA is top 10 in defense and WSU sits at #1 currently

[cartman]

Mizzou came out hot after halftime, and never let up. They just haven't missed at all in the second half.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by cartman

Mizzou came out hot after halftime, and never let up. They just haven't missed at all in the second half.

That performance is what was expected of Mizzou at the start of the season. Mizzou has very good talent that just hasn't performed anywhere near expectations thus far. With that said, Augustin and Abrams should have never played 40 minutes against Mizzou. Terrible coaching by Barnes to play those guys the whole game. They were severely gassed in the last 10 minutes of the game.

Mizzou has a road game at Iowa State on Wednesday. If they can take care of business there, KU comes calling next Saturday in what would be a big early season matchup between the rivals in Columbia. I've seen more than one KU player commenting on the Texas loss at MU. KU won't be taking anything for granted.

[BishopMVP]

For those who don't feel like watching ESPN fellating Duke yet again, or don't have access to a TV, there's more exciting A-10 action available tonight. UMass travels to #14 Dayton in a matchup between two good, exciting, inconsistent teams, and there's free video through http://daytonflyers.cstv.com/sports/...011508aab.html It's never too early to start looking at some non-BCS teams that'll be in the NCAA's.

UMass led by Chris Lowe, as quick a PG as any in the country, Ricky Harris a scoring machine and Gary Forbes who should be drafted 2nd round this summer. Plus we've got Matt Bonner's bigger, less talented brother, a white guy from Vermont and a 6'9 170 pound man from Africa (maybe Senegal?)

Dayton is led by Brian Roberts, who you might remember from scoring 30+ in their blowout of Pitt, but is missing top freshman Chris Wright, which could hurt because our interior defense is easily exploited (but hey, so is our exterior defense!)

Seriously, there will probably be 180+ scored tonight, and whichever team is shooting well will win.

[Butter]

I'll publicly wish B-MVP good luck to his team tonight. I'm just hoping for a great game. Wouldn't surprise me at all if Dayton lost. UMass has had some close calls against some very good teams.

[BishopMVP]

36-31 UMass at halftime after 2 3's in the last minute, including a 30-footer for Forbes at the buzzer. We were up like 21-7 early until Dayton started playing better defense and out rebounding went to shite again. Boards are 29-17 Dayton, and they're 1-11 from 3, doubt that'll last.

[Butter]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

Boards are 29-17 Dayton, and they're 1-11 from 3, doubt that'll last.

How about 4-25?

I didn't really mean the good luck thing, you guys were supposed to roll over!!!

Good win for UMass. Dayton will have a rough time not making it 2 losses in a row, visiting Xavier next on January 24th (next Thursday). But X loses by 19 to Temple, so who the heck knows.

[BishopMVP]

3-14 is slightly better, but like we said pregame, whichever team shoots 3's well will probably win.

You guys should at least stay Top 10 in RPI, and this will be huge for us at bubble time.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Halftime in Atlanta, UNC leads GT 48-46.

edit: 63-60 GT with 12 minutes left.
edit again: Big sequence there (maybe, if UNC doesn't wake up & GT doesn't turn into GT) as the Heels got three cracks at the basket down by four and had the ball underneath but couldn't get it inbounds & turned it over on a five second call. Tech by 6 with 10:25 left ... oops, Ellington finally hit a three, now 66-63 with 10:13 left.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Tied 76-76 in Atlanta with 6 minutes to play.
edit: Carolina by 2 with 5 1/2 left, and now the ball too. And Tech's leading scoring tonight just fouled out

I gotta tell you, the talent gap that GT is suffering from is just stunning to really see after years of being competitive. In the long run losing this game would probably be the best thing for Tech since Hewitt is badly outmatched in pretty much every aspect of the game & needs to be the next guy to become a former GT employee.


edit: 81-80 Carolina with 2:25 to play ... and a steal but Tech misses a 3 and a pair of put back attempts.

[Radii]

UNC just flat out does not play defense. Tech is shooting well and hustling but its just inexcusable for this game to be coming down to the end like this.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Radii

Tech is shooting well and hustling

I really like Peacock's effort in particular. But the fact that a (former?) walk-on like Causey is playing so many minutes tonight speaks volumes about the overall situation.

Meanwhile, this is the softest interior defense I've seen from a top team not playing a run & shoot style.

[JonInMiddleGA]

FuckFuckFuck. Two cracks at it down by one but it won't go.

And the officiating damned sure knew which team was wearing which color jersey for a big part of the night and at crucial times.

[Radii]

I thought that was a foul at first but on the replay it really looked to me like he was just going up wildly to try to draw a foul and actually didn't draw contact at all.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Teams that just come out and go at Carolina, instead of thinking too much about their history or their current ranking, are going to be able to stay right with them. In their current mode, especially defensively, I can't see UNC getting past the Sweet 16.

edit: Meanwhile, that game (plus seeing the 93 conference title game on ESPNClassic earlier this evening) sure brought back some memories didn't it?

[Radii]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

In their current mode, especially defensively, I can't see UNC getting past the Sweet 16.

I think this is very likely accurate. They better learn to play some D fast. I think the Frasor injury is a bigger deal than most people realize as well.

[GoldenEagle]

UNC survives another. When will their luck run out?

[mckerney]

Indiana coming to town, should be fun. Hopefully Al Nolen will be able to D up Gordon and Hoffarber can keep hitting 3's at a 60% clip.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by GoldenEagle

UNC survives another. When will their luck run out?

If they don't get their shit together they won't beat Miami on the road Jan 23. If they do get their shit together even a little I can see them losing one random ACC game in addition to splitting w/ Duke and that's it... we'll see. Clearly I'm not very happy right now though, or very confidant. but I felt like this in 2005 too. that was different, that was in December, not January, and that team had more talent. But there's some similarities too.

[Wolfpack]

Originally Posted by Radii

UNC just flat out does not play defense.

Are you trying to make me feel even worse about Saturday's game than I already do?

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Wolfpack

Are you trying to make me feel even worse about Saturday's game than I already do?

Not on purpose! NC State is just in shambles But, so is Ga Tech. Bleh. It was in Chapel Hill after a scary game vs Clemson. I bet UNC blows out Maryland Saturday too.

[Wolfpack]

Shambles I don't think is quite strong enough. I think we're looking at Titanic-hitting-iceberg level destruction at this point. Maybe Hindenberg-explosion level. Or both. Shambles somehow implies you can rebuild what you've got. I don't see that this year for this team. I do think we are going to find out in an awful hurry whether Lowe's got the chops to coach major college basketball if he can turn this mess around. The internet hordes are already getting out the longknives.

[Butter]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

3-14 is slightly better, but like we said pregame, whichever team shoots 3's well will probably win.

You guys should at least stay Top 10 in RPI, and this will be huge for us at bubble time.

It just bothers me that UMass has gotten us at UD Arena 2 years in a row. Only X owns us quite that much. And we get no return trip this year for revenge. Not that I really think we'd do any better in Amherst. Ford had a good gameplan for defending Roberts. We had a good counter to that gameplan, but just couldn't hit the shots given to us. We also completely ignored the inside game, which hurt. We got a couple of inside guys in foul trouble, and then went about hoisting as many 3's as possible.

Checking realtimerpi.com, we fell to 11th. You were close.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Nutty stuff in the Big 12. Mizzou falls at Iowa State after their big win against Texas. Texas A&M gets pounded on the road at Texas Tech. Damn road games.

[mckerney]

Disappointing finish in The Barn. After having a slight lead late, Gophers drop game 65-60 to Indiana. Did a good job of forcing turnovers on defense, but missed too many free throws to get the W.

[Johnny93g]

Hoosiers played awful, but did just enough to edge Minny. Very impressed with the Gophers defense, forcing so many turnovers. Very unimpressed with the Gophers offense. Other then Hoffarber(sp?) noone scared me at all.

it's a road win in the Big Ten, and that's all that matters. Indiana is now 15-1. Go Hoosiers!!!

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Johnny93g

Hoosiers played awful, but did just enough to edge Minny. Very impressed with the Gophers defense, forcing so many turnovers. Very unimpressed with the Gophers offense. Other then Hoffarber(sp?) noone scared me at all.

it's a road win in the Big Ten, and that's all that matters. Indiana is now 15-1. Go Hoosiers!!!

The Gophers don't have any big scoring threats outside of Hoffarber when he's hot, though McKenzie can sometimes put up points if he gets going. Thankfully we've got a couple guys coming in next year. One of their Juco signees is supposed to be a scorer and Ralph Sampson III could hopefully provide a good inside threat.

[digamma]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I really like Peacock's effort in particular. But the fact that a (former?) walk-on like Causey is playing so many minutes tonight speaks volumes about the overall situation.

The "overall situation" is simply the point guard situation. Since the 2004 National Title Game team, Hewitt has had two point guards leave early and one not show up on campus after being drafted by the Yankees. The two who left were first round draft picks and Austin Jackson was a top 50-100 recruit. If Crittenton stays (as almost everyone thought he would) this is a top 25 team--they were a 20 win team last year.

Mo Miller has improved over the first half of the season. I'm optimistic that he will continue to improve. It is probably too late to save this year--the toughest schedule Tech has played in a decade didn't help that, but with Lawal and Miller, plus Iman Shumpert coming in next year, I think it is too early to write off Hewitt.

Now, I'm not saying everything is rosey. The senior class has been a huge disappointment. Anthony Morrow hasn't played a lick of defense in four years, and I think that permeates throughout the team. Hewitt hasn't had a good second assistant since Cliff Warren left, and that has hurt too.

[digamma]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I really like Peacock's effort in particular. But the fact that a (former?) walk-on like Causey is playing so many minutes tonight speaks volumes about the overall situation.

The "overall situation" is simply the point guard situation. Since the 2004 National Title Game team, Hewitt has had two point guards leave early and one not show up on campus after being drafted by the Yankees. The two who left were first round draft picks and Austin Jackson was a top 50-100 recruit. If Crittenton stays (as almost everyone thought he would) this is a top 25 team--they were a 20 win team last year.

Mo Miller has improved over the first half of the season. I'm optimistic that he will continue to improve. It is probably too late to save this year--the toughest schedule Tech has played in a decade didn't help that, but with Lawal and Miller, plus Iman Shumpert coming in next year, I think it is too early to write off Hewitt.

Now, I'm not saying everything is rosey. The senior class has been a huge disappointment. Anthony Morrow hasn't played a lick of defense in four years, and I think that permeates throughout the team. Hewitt hasn't had a good second assistant since Cliff Warren left, and that has hurt too.

All in all though, I'm willing to give Hewitt next year with an experienced point guard before calling for his head.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Big rivalry game in the Big 12 this weekend with undefeated KU heading to Columbia to face Mizzou. Any other good games on this weekend?

[Butter]

I only know of 2 involving my favored teams... Ohio State-Tennessee on CBS Saturday at 3:30, I believe. Then, Clemson-Duke Saturday at 6 PM on ESPN.

Both may well be blowouts against my teams, but Clemson got screwed at Duke last year, so might have some extra motivation in that one.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by digamma

the toughest schedule Tech has played in a decade didn't help that,

{scratches head}

I really don't feel like (through 16 games) that this year's schedule is particularly any tougher than the same span in '02-03, 04-05, or even 06-07.

[Radii]

UNC-Maryland tomorrow which hopefully won't be interesting or worth watching at all.

[digamma]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

{scratches head}

I really don't feel like (through 16 games) that this year's schedule is particularly any tougher than the same span in '02-03, 04-05, or even 06-07.

In my mind, there are two differences between this year's schedule and those schedules: fewer RPI buster type games and more road and neutral games. This season even the bad teams Tech has played have, for the most part, been of pretty good quality. Second, Tech has gone on the road to Tennessee Tech, Georgia State, Georgia and Vanderbilt, in addition to playing three pretty good teams in a neutral site tournament. The schedule is tougher top to bottom, in addition to playing the marquee games against Indiana and Kansas.

(By comparison, last year Tech opened against Morehouse, Elon, Jackson State and Georgia State all at home.)

[rjolley]

Good game on ESPN #21 Villanova 40 - 42 Syracuse 16:00 2nd.

[Radii]

UNC fans boo the team off the court and into the locker room after a lazy, no defense, lackluster half against Maryland. Maryland is outhustling, outrunning, and outplaying the Heels so far. 41-35 Maryland at the half.

I really don't care what happens in the 2nd half, or that UNC is still undefeated(for now), if I had a top 25 vote I am not sure I'd put this team in the top 10 based on their performance and effort so far. Maybe 9th in between Washington State and Indiana.

[MJ4H]

booing the undefeated, #1 team in the country.

hahahaha i dont want to hear another word about arkansas fans. EVER.

[Radii]

yeah i'm sure it comes across badly, but honestly, this team has so much talent, they just aren't hustling. I don't expect an undefeated season, I know that's virtually impossible. But two games in a row where the level of effort and intensity on defense is near zero is simply not ok.

[Radii]

USC/UCLA are tied w/ 5 minutes left to go as well

[Radii]

UNC/Maryland tied at 80 with 43 seconds to go. Maryland ball w/ a 15 second differential between shot/game clock.

[Dr. Sak]

As much as I want UNC to lose, i just cant root for Maryland.

[terpkristin]

w00t w00t w00t w00t w00t w00t



*does happy dance*

*realizes she's too klutzy to do that without risking injury to life and limb*

*internal happy dance*

You know, this season's been rough, we're pretty young and just have had some bad luck and bad games. I'll take what I can get.

/tk

[Radii]

Uh, two pretty terrible calls to give UNC two more times with the ball at the end to tie. Doesn't matter, Maryland wins.

Good game, terps. You guys played great and earned it. Hopefully this is a wake up call for UNC. Apparently barely beating a sub-.500 team on the road isn't enough to convince you to play some fucking defense, maybe losing at home will do it? If not, this team won't even make the Sweet 16. I really, really don't think this is a top 10 team right now. Not even close. Hopefully this loss triggers a good performance at Miami but I dunno, I kinda expect another loss at this point.

[bhlloy]

UCLA goes down to USC again! Great afternoon for Memphis and Kansas.

[Radii]

USC beats UCLA 72-63, and #9 Texas A&M is down by 9 to Kansas State in the 2nd half as well.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

UCLA goes down to USC again! Great afternoon for Memphis and Kansas.

Great game by USC, and if any player cares about Player of the Game awards, Davon Jefferson should be pissed at Chevrolet. There are a lot of reasons for UCLA's loss today, but he was by far the biggest reason. Aboya couldn't handle him, and two other options, Mata and Luc Richard missed the the second half of the game with injury (and obviously, Love had to guard Gibson and probably couldn't stay with Jefferson either).

Oh, not that I would deign to give Coach Howland advice in his own trade, but having Aboya play Jefferson straight and up close was just stupid. Make Jefferson prove he can hit the outside shot. Don't just let him ole his way to the basket.

Oh, and as long as I have you here, coach, when you get four fouls on the other team's team leader and point guard and you have two super quick guards like Collison and Westbrook, you better damn well tell them to gun right at him.

IMO, Jefferson is the best player on this team, not Mayo.

[JonInMiddleGA]

GT finally wins a conference game, although they tried to blow a 16 point lead before holding off VaTech. And the recently discussed former walk-on Causey blows up for 30 points on 7 treys.