Adam Glatczak writes the "Wednesday Onions" column for CollegeHoopsnet.  Bookmark the "Wednesday Onions" homepage and come back each week!

Onions

“Rams very well could be an NCAA team this year, but they need to win games like this.”

This was written about Rhode Island last week in this very column referring to a Las Vegas Invitational game coming up against Miami of Florida. It was not referring to a game against Lubbock Christian, and maybe it should have been.

We were all set to have some fun at the Rams’ expense after losing to Lubbock Christian in the Las Vegas Invitational on Sunday. But then, the Chaps went out and did it again, beating a darn good Bradley team on the road! And this is all from a team that is considered in the middle of the pack in an NAIA conference!

Lubbock Christian was certainly brought in just as a filler in the Las Vegas Invitational, which, like so many preseason tourneys, has been gutted by the NCAA’s ridiculous 2-in-4 rule. And yes, we know it’s funny that the Las Vegas Invitational takes place on campus sites and we know Lubbock Christian sounds like it should be Texas Tech’s prep school. (Maybe Bob Knight’s been improving the basketball in this Texas town more than we ever knew…). But this is an incredibly impressive run on the road against Division I schools by this tiny college, maybe better in quality wins than Alaska-Fairbanks’s winning their own tourney last year and likely the best since then-Division II UC Riverside won the eight-team Chaminade Christmas Classic in 1988 by beating No. 4 Iowa in the finals on Christmas Day with 21 three-pointers.

So who the heck are these guys? We did a little checking, and actually the Chaps are in the Sooner Athletic Conference, which is one of the top NAIA conferences. Oklahoma Baptist, Oklahoma City, Southern Nazarene and the University of Science and Arts at Oklahoma (that’s USAO, to you) all have appeared in the NAIA Division 1 title game in the past eight years, and Oklahoma City was a Division I school as late as 1985, when it was in the then-Midwestern City Conference (later Midwestern Collegiate and now Horizon League). It isn’t a bad league, probably not far below, say, the Mid-Continent Conference in the quality of play.

LCU did move to 4-2 after the wins over Rhode Island and Bradley. Oh, and guess what URI, Bradley and the University of Texas of Permian Basin now have in common? That’s right, they’re the only two teams to lose to Lubbock Christian so far in 2003. That’s bad for the Atlantic 14 (name changed for truth in advertising) Rams and MVC Braves, especially since 2002-03 was Texas-Permian Basin’s first year of basketball ever. Wow.

You can’t overreact to these losses too much, though. Rhody went out two nights later and won at Miami (Fla.), and Bradley was unbeaten before playing Lubbock Christian. Don’t even start on the “they overlooked them” excuses, all congratulations have to go to Lubbock Christian on two impressive wins. Forget their division classification, the Chaps deserve a few top 25 votes for those two road wins.

-Sunday was just a strange day of results. In addition to the LCU upset, Utah barely won at Stony Brook, and Butler didn’t have it easy against Quincy. Northeast Conference favorite Quinnipiac fell to 0-2 in the Florida International Tip-Off Classic, while Montana State won the FIU tourney several thousand miles from its campus. Yale lost to Coastal Carolina in the finals of the Marist Classic, less than a week after the Elis gave Connecticut all it could handle. Virginia had problems with Mount St. Mary’s, and Division II Virginia Union rolled over Norfolk State.

Another Division II school winning that day was Alaska-Fairbanks, which bludgeoned St. Mary’s 71-47 in the Top of the World Classic. Remember the Nanooks? Last year they shocked everyone by winning the title in their Top of the World Classic over seven D-I schools. This year, UAF “only” won two of three games to finish third in the tourney, losing to Dick Bennett’s Washington State team in the semis. Along with bombing St. Mary’s in the consolation game, Fairbanks also ripped Texas-San Antonio in its opener, so this year was another strong effort by the host school. Also, congrats to Rice on winning the tourney this year. The Owls won all three games by 14 points or more, and early on it’s looking like Rice and Nevada may wage quite a war for the top spot in the Western Athletic Conference.

-Don’t let that score fool you: Duke’s 67-56 win over Detroit was more of a battle than the score reflects and a tougher game than the Blue Devils ever bargained for. Much like Dayton did last year in an early season game, Detroit went into Cameron Indoor Stadium and took it to the supposedly impenetrable-at-home Dukies. Duke did not lead ONCE until more than three-fourths of the game had been played. The Titans were poised for all but a few minutes in the second half, and after that game and a beating of Western Michigan (which blew out USC by 18 in its opener) Perry Watson’s team looks like it’s going to be more of a pain in the Horizon League than many expected this year. As for Duke, it looks like another of those years where the Blue Devils will be a top 10 type team, but they certainly aren’t a Final Four shoo-in.

By the way, one stat stood out from this game. Personal fouls: Detroit 28, Duke 13. Nothing like a little home cooking in the season opener.

-Speaking of Dayton, the Flyers were extremely impressive in their opener at Pepperdine. The Waves aren’t a bad team, but UD simply looked more refined, not at all like a team playing its opening game. Dayton only lost one starter from last year’s team, but between the perception that Brooks Hall was the soul of that team (maybe or maybe not true) and the loss of coach Oliver Purnell, the Flyers slipped below the radar in the preseason hype circles. Now, UD is 3-0 heading into the Maui Classic final against Hawaii, and it may not be long before this squad does get a well-deserved ranking.

Also, if you get a chance to watch a Pepperdine game this year, do so. At least once and probably more, you will see an athletic play that will leave you just shaking your head in amazement. The Waves have some of the better athletes and best dunkers you’ll find anywhere in the country. Against Dayton, Terrance Johnson caught an alley-oop pass with one hand and slammed it home while being fouled, a play admired even by us fluddy-duds who see too much showboating and me-me-me play. Johnson is only 6-4 and is primarily a perimeter player, but when necessary, he can throw it down as well as anyone. Now it’s a matter of whether or not Paul Westphal can blend this freelancing bunch into a cohesive and consistent winner.

-Did Jay Bilas fall asleep during the Hawaii-Santa Clara game Monday night at the Maui Classic? Not to take cheap shots at the guy, but he sure didn’t add much to the broadcast and usually sounded genuinely disinterested when he did say something. He can be excused a little because it was an incredibly ugly game, but an analyst ought to be able to say something to make it interesting for the viewer. Bill Raftery was able to. I’m already thinking the three-man announcing team with Bilas, Raftery and Sean McDonough is a bad idea. Bilas is a good game analyst (not crazy about him in a studio) but either he felt dominated by “The Governor” or just isn’t interested unless it’s top 25 teams playing. Give him his own games-besides, Raftery is just too good to need help, anyways.

On the other hand, ESPN college football analyst Mike Gottfried deserves credit for how he handled what could have been perceived as a clunker Tuesday night. Gottfried was on hand for a midweek game between North Texas and New Mexico State. He is usually ESPN’s No. 1 college football analyst, usually calling SEC games, so he had every chance to spend much of the night degrading the two Sun Belt teams and constantly reminding everyone that they weren’t as big, fast, strong, etc. as the “big boys.” Instead, he took the game seriously, was very complimentary of both teams and sounded like he truly enjoyed it. It was gracious of him just to be calling the game (usually these games get a network’s fifth or sixth broadcast team), and he deserves even more respect now for his work that has always been excellent anyways.

-One more ESPN note: terrible, terrible decision by the network to cut away from most of the final three minutes of the Dayton-San Diego State game Tuesday night to show the opening minutes of Michigan State-Kansas. There truly ought to be jobs on the line for making a move that stupid.

My opinion has nothing to do with preferring to watch one game or the other. I don’t care how big a game is (MSU-KU was a highly anticipated battle of top five teams), it is standard television etiquette across the board, in all sports, that you DO NOT cut away from the end of a close game that is being nationally broadcast to show the beginning of another. If the two games and their time slots had been reversed, my opinion wouldn’t change. In areas of local interest it is one thing (it happens with the NFL all the time), but nationally it is totally another. When ESPN left, the Flyers and Aztecs were in an exciting 1-point game that had every look of going down to the wire. When they came back, there was less than a minute left and viewers were robbed of seeing most of the developments down the stretch. Classless precedent set by ESPN, and you can almost be assured that if indeed the two games were being shown in opposite time slots, this never would have happened. What’s next? Maybe Flyer and Hawaii fans should be worried about missing the second half of tonight’s Maui title game for a rerun of “Playmakers.”

-Kansas needs to make the Jayhawk logo a little bit bigger at center court. In fact, it should be turned sideways, and then it could just be used for the court dimensions. That would be not only creative but also downright revolutionary for the school that was once coached by the guy who invented the game. Sorry, I absolutely love the KU bird logo, but that court just looks hideous. The old one was much classier looking. Oh, and can Kansas go more than three years without changing its uniforms? Please? Most schools with tradition like KU have a classic look and leave the threads alone.

-One reason to like Bob Knight is because it looks like he’s one of the few coaches in the country who still teaches offense as much as defense. Most hoopheads know that Knight’s teams have always been known for tough, man-to-man defense. That used to distinguish his teams more than it does now, because so many coaches have decided to focus on the defensive end so much (Ben Howland, Bill Self and Kelvin Sampson are a few who come to mind). The difference is that Knight teaches offense differently from the rest. Whereas many of today’s coaches’ offenses are made up of the dreaded set plays or are even altogether freelance. Knight still teaches his players to run the motion offense, which in addition to requiring unselfishness and being more fundamentals-based, also makes players learn how to make decisions in a team frame of mind. That forces them to learn the game, not just to know how to make moves or improvise when a set play is broken up. Offensive mistakes are just as unacceptable as defensive errors. It’s obvious the players are well-coached on both offense and defense, and that advantage has been undeniable early in the season. So many games so far this year have deteriorated into battles of who can have the shorter scoreless droughts (I’m sick of hearing analysts talk about defense being ahead of offense at this point of the season-tell us why! It wasn’t this way 10 years ago) but Texas Tech has simply looked much more prepared offensively early in the season. Yes, the Red Raiders have some nice athletes, but they are also obviously just better all-around players right now.

-On that same thought, it’s still pretty amazing how ugly things have been early this year. While a few teams (Dayton is one that stands out) have come out of the gates smoking, many teams just look awful. Turnovers are rampant, and missed shots are the majority rule.

So why is it taking teams so much time to get the bugs worked out early in the season? After all, it’s not like these opening games don’t count, and you didn’t see this ugliness years ago. Again, we’re not at practices everyday, but as mentioned above, it does seem to have a lot to do with the lack of emphasis on offense nowadays. Some of the decisions being made when teams have the ball on offense are just atrocious, and you have to wonder how coaches can accept such bad offensive play. They scream when their guys allow uncontested layups, but you don’t see them going after guys as often when they make lousy offensive decisions. The excuses about newcomers having to blend in and roster turnover only go so far-if a team is missing good shots, that’s one thing, but when it’s making stupid turnovers and taking god-awful shots, that’s completely another. After a month of practice, there’s no excuse for jacking up threes from 25 feet out or continually throwing away passes on fast breaks.

-It was good to see Xavier honoring Jamal Walker last week at halftime of the Musketeers’ game against Oakland in the BCA Classic final. Walker was one of my favorite players when he was at XU from 1987-91. He was an exciting, flashy point guard who, unlike so many points today, focused more on penetrating and passing than scoring. His “sauce” only was displayed when necessary, not to showboat, and he was a part of some of the greatest Xavier teams in history, including the only Musketeer team to ever make the NCAA Sweet 16 (1990). That squad had Derek Strong, Tyrone Hill and Aaron Williams, all long-time NBA players, and they were a blast to watch. Two of the best hours I spent this offseason was watching tape of a game from Jan. 2, 1990, between Loyola Marymount and Xavier, a 115-113 Muskies’ win. Those were some fun teams.

-Finally, just couldn’t let this slide without commenting on it. San Francisco defeated Ohio State, 76-65, in a game Friday night at USF’s War Memorial Gym. After the game, Buckeyes coach Jim O’Brien, who was ejected from the game, said "I've never coached in a game where we have been treated (by officials) with the lack of respect we were treated with in this game."

Jim: not to be insensitive with your voice problems and all, but now you know exactly how it feels when the Arkansas-Pine Bluffs, Coppin States and Tennessee-Martins of the world play the guarantee games at the likes of the Oklahomas, Mississippis and your own Ohio State. Funny how that can work both ways. Whether the officials stunk or not, some of us might say this game was just a case of poetic justice.

Audibles

You start to get worried when you receive an email titled “Bill Self has something to tell you.” I was afraid that somehow Coach Self had been given something I wrote and had thrown me on the “idiot writer” heap with the rest, but alas, after reading the email, sent by Michigan State fan Mike A., it was just the Kansas sports info dept. typed comments from Self’s press conference before the Jayhawks’ game with the Spartans Tuesday night. Among Self’s statements were that “obviously they (MSU) are one of the very most talented teams in the country. They are deserving of their pre-season ranking based on what they did at the end of last season and who is coming back.” Obviously, he WAS indeed speaking to me, though I didn’t know it at the time. It was a good chuckle, though, and honestly, I think Izzo’s comments after the narrow escape over Bucknell (Bucknell!) about this MSU team being his “softest ever” were nothing but a motivational tactic. Really, Tom, how do you know this is your softest team EVER after one game? He’s been known to make such statements before; you have to give him credit, he doesn’t babycake his players to the press, though sometimes one wishes he were just a tad more complimentary of the opposition, too.

Incidentally, Self did say this about the “soft” comments at his press conference: “his (Izzo’s) definition of soft is not necessarily what the average human being's definition of soft is. Soft to Tom is when three guys aren't out on a loose ball. He will never have a soft team by any means." Exactly.

As for Bucknell, 1-17 on free throws is just unacceptable in any case but especially for a smaller school trying to pull an upset. Something tells me the Spartans would’ve pulled it out some way even if the Bison had been perfect on FTs, but when you don’t have the athletes, you have to be better in the areas you can control, like being secure with the ball and shooting. Many smaller schools can’t do those things nowadays, and that’s why you’re seeing less and less big upsets in college hoops.

P.S.: My bad, found this error myself. I called Chuck Davis of Alabama “Chuck Smith” last week. Error here, certainly should’ve remembered correctly considering he played so well against Pitt in MSG. Also gives me a well-deserved answer for my rhetorical question asked last week about “Chuck Davis” really playing for Alabama last year? The answer to that is no, he didn’t.

Games you can’t or won’t watch but should

Ah, Turkey Day, where the only tradition in my relatives’ family that parallels eating the bird is the dash after the meal for prime sleeping spots in the living room in front of the football games on TV. Never been the biggest turkey eater, so it’s always funny to be the only one awake watching the games while everyone else is snoring away after a morning of deer hunting in Wisconsin and a turkey meal. It’s a priceless tradition. Seriously folks, enjoy the holiday with family if you can. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

For those who don’t remember or don’t know, this column lists games that are usually outside the list of traditional hyped games for a week. They may be listed because of upset potential, quality of teams that few know about, entertainment value, or out of sheer selfishness. Dick Vitale may not be at them, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be worth watching.

Wednesday

Lubbock Christian at Northeastern. How could it not be? If the Chaps play close to like they did against URI and Bradley, the Huskies better look out.

Colorado at Cal Poly. After shocking Cal, can the Mustangs pull off a second straight win over a name opponent? After getting beat by Pepperdine, will CU lose to a second straight non-name opponent on the road?

BYU at California. This one could well have seeding ramifications at tourney time.

Seton Hall at Alaska-Anchorage. Almost as good of a Thanksgiving tradition as football is the chance to see the Division II Seawolves in a late night game on TV.

Troy State at LSU. The Trojans sprung for 140 points in their opener against the Oakwood Ambassadors. YES! Not that Oakwood is a litmus test of whether you’re Final Four material or not, but TSU could be back in the NCAAs in March.

San Diego State vs. Chaminade, Dayton vs. Hawaii at Maui Classic. I don’t care if it’s the Maui “Invitational” now, when I started watching it in the late 80s it was the Maui Classic, and I like that name better. Didn’t think we were going to forget about Chaminade and its super win over Villanova, did you? Great to see the Silverswords make some noise in their tourney. As for the title game, Flyers have been more polished of late, but it’s been kind of fun watching the Rainbows’ second half improvement in their two Maui games.

Saturday

Wake Forest at Yale. Surprisingly, Skip (named for his avoidance of Gonzaga at the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic) Prosser is making a return trip to Yale after hosting the Bulldogs last year. This game looked juicier before the Yalies lost to Coastal Carolina…

Boston U. at Boston College. Call this one the Beanpot of college hoops. Always have to love city rivalries, and if I may add an editorial comment about a possible city rivalry in my homestate, it would be awful nice if Marquette would have the marbles to start playing crosstown rival Wisconsin-Milwaukee. I don’t and never will buy this argument that certain teams have nothing to gain from these type of games.

George Mason at Iona. Just two solid upper division teams in mid-level conferences.

St. John’s at Stony Brook. This wouldn’t have made it a week ago, but the Seawolves’ close loss to Utah coupled with the Johnnies’ loss to Fairfield indicates SJU better be careful here.

Alabama at Providence. There’s a lot of talk about the Friars early on this year. A win like this, while not a be-all, end-all, certainly won’t hurt the cause.

Eastern Washington at Washington. Eagles beat the Huskies last year and should’ve beaten Oklahoma before folding down the stretch last week (they then were steamrolled by South Carolina State).

N.C.-Wilmington at East Tennessee State. Both nearly beat ACC teams in the NCAAs last year, and both will win 20 games this year. Two good squads.

Sunday

Rhode Island at Syracuse. Orange has an edge in this one playing at home. Reminiscing time: 15 years ago, URI upset the Cuse in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, back when they had those stylish light blue unis with gold trim and the names on the back below the numbers. For some stupid reason, the gold is gone, and until Rhody brings it back, they won’t beat Syracuse again.

Stanford at Rice. This could be one of the must-see non-conference games of the season. After winning the College World Series last year, it would be sweet to see the Owls end an NCAA tourney drought that is at 33 years and counting.

Michigan vs. Butler. The Bulldogs have been rather shaky in the early season, so the Go Blue may be catching them at just the right time. For a program like Butler that doesn’t get chances like this often, that figures.

Monday

Notre Dame at Marquette. This one will be on ESPN, but it harkens back the old independent days of both schools, when the two were rivals.

Tuesday

Illinois vs. North Carolina. OK, I’m no fan of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. I think it’s overkill TV, especially since we’re subjected to mostly mediocre games and classics like Northwestern-Florida State when maybe the network broadcasting it could spend some of that money hooking up a school like Butler with a good TV non-conference game against, say, one of the teams in these leagues. This game, though, intrigues me, because I want to see how good UNC really is.

Wichita State at Manhattan. Tasty matchup, although Shockers not beating Boston College was a mild disappointment.

Saint Louis at West Virginia. Two teams that will be pests in their conferences this year, one a former Atlantic 10 school, the other a future Atlantic 14 member. SLU fans will love those home-and-homes with Duquesne and Fordham. Yes, that is sarcasm.

Holy Cross at Boston College. Another local rivalry. HC won last year’s meeting on the way to a 26-5 season.

BYU at Boise State. Hopefully this will be better than the two schools football meeting this year, when BSU had a 28-4 lead in the 3^rd quarter. BYU doesn’t play a big name schedule, but it sure is a difficult one.

Adam Glatczak writes the "Wednesday Onions" column for CollegeHoopsnet.  Bookmark the "Wednesday Onions" homepage and come back each week!