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11/30 ..so my tv
was out last night (and is still out) due to some problem in the
neighborhood.. 24 hours in a row without tv to watch, let alone no
basketball, is brutal.. i actually had to resort to, gasp,
reading.. tonight's feature match is of course
duke at indiana.. duke's first real road
game of the season.. expect indiana
to keep it close, but duke will win.. nothing really more to say
about that.. taking a break from college for a second.. it appears
ruben patterson is losing his mind right before our eyes.. he's
demanding to play 25 minutes a game, which wouldn't be a problem
except for the fact he's not good.. if not, he's demanding to be
traded.. of course the blazers would love to do, but despite
ruben's claims that he hasn't been traded because john nash wants
someone really good back, the only reason he's not gone is because
team's would rather trade for a carton of bird flu then the cancer
that is ruben patterson..if you're looking for this year's most
improved player, it has to be kansas
state's cartier martin.. after three games, martin is
averaging 23 points, 10 boards, and 3 assists per game while
shooting a cool 62% from the floor.. expect another big game from
martin tonight as the wildcats host fullerton.. according to the
spreads, tonight's closest games are all out west.. utah state at
utah, pacific at san francisco and loyola marymount at lbsu are
all within 2 points according to the lines.. the utah game
intrigues me, because it gives us a chance to see where the utes
really stand without andrew bogut.. they've started 3-0 but this
is their first real test..
11/29 ..big event
or whatever you want to call it on tap for this week is the
acc/big ten challenge.. really just a bunch of mostly average,
meaningless games.. but i love anytime college hoops is on tv so i
wont complain too much.. still, it is amazing how complete lack of
star power there is in either of these conferences right now..
sure, you have duke's power combo.. and
then, who?.. dee brown has some name recognition for illinois to
the average fan.. and that's about it.. even guys in the
acc who have put up big numbers for
a few years like caner-medley and eric williams or justin gray are
basically nobody's to the average watcher.. is anyone getting
excited to see shannon brown play?.. no.. this is a bad sign for
espn, and for college basketball, that two of its premier
conferences basically have no stars.. yet this is precisely why
this event matters, and why im glad espn still churns it out
despite the acc's clear superiority.. the more face time for guys
like maurice ager and marco killingsworth and tyler hansbrough the
better.. so at least someone knows about them.. it was a little
harsh for west virginia to
be voted out of the top 25.. yes, they lost three games and yes, i
made strong claims they were overrated to start the season.. but
there's no shame in losing real close games to two top 10 teams
and another legit top 25 team in a week's time.. you like to
reward teams for playing great schedules, not punish them..
wisconsin goes on the road to
face wake tonight.. the most interesting player to watch is the
badgers brian butch.. butch was a very highly touted prospect last
year who did virtually nothing last year (4 ppg, 3 rpg), but has
suddenly found his groove in a major way, averaging 15 and 6 over
four games.. amazingly, this is just one of two road games for
wisconsin until january 10th.. the game i'm most looking forward
to tonight is illinois at unc.. forget the championship rematch
nonsense.. but expect unc to perform better than everyone
anticipates.. how is rajon rondo averaging a freak 11 boards per
game.. he's one of the only guys in the country, despite his 6-1
170 pd frame, that realistically could lead his team in each of
the big three statistics on the season..
11/28
..hope everyone had a nice holiday.. and got to watch
some ball over the weekend.. got a nice plug today
by bill simmons on espn's page 2 regarding adam
stanco's epic top 100 point guards list.. be back
tomorrow with a regular update..
11/25 ..tonight's
big game is of course #1 duke facing
underdog memphis in the
garden tonight.. the blue devils are favored by 5 points, but this
should be a real close game.. duke's biggest advantage is of
course in the middle with shelden williams.. memphis has a big
edge in both athleticism and depth.. calipari will have darius
washington and crew pressuring dockery and paulus.. and he'll have
some nice long-armed guys like anderson and carney jumping out on
redick to disrupt his rhythm.. based on the play of shawne
williams early, it seems like memphis' #12 ranking my actually be
underrated.. this is really a battle between two top 10 teams, as
good as gonzaga/uconn was.. i still think duke will pull this one
out, but the final score will be very close.. a very surprising
result from last night's limited action was
monmouth upsetting missouri
valley stalwart southern illinois..
saluki fans are already worried this will be a rebuilding year..
they shouldn't get that overexcited.. monmouth is one of the
better teams in the nec, and it will take siu a while to adjust to
life without darren brooks.. but what really did in the salukis
was a complete lack of production from their two starting big
men.. after a disappointing freshman season, forward matt shaw is
averaging a paltry 7 points and 5 boards so far.. after monmouth's
win, they go on to face south
carolina in the semifinals of the great alaska shootout
tonight.. the gamecocks are favored by 13.5 points, but it should
be closer than that.. this afternoon's preseason nit consolation
game between ucla and drexel lacks luster, but the best reason to
watch is to check out ucla point guard jordan farmar.. farmar is
coming off a career high 28 points, and is continually improving..
he should have another big day against the dragons..
11/24 ..happy
thanksgiving everyone.. i'm not going to bore you with a list of
generic things i'm thankful for.. but i will take a quick second
to wax politic.. use this day not as a reminder to say token
thanks or even make token charitable gestures, but use this day to
do some true introspection and see if your ideologies, your core
beliefs, are really good for society and the well-being of others
and the less fortunate, or are merely selfish beliefs you hold
because your folks did, it's the easy way to go, and your
self-worth would be shattered if you thought otherwise.. back to
the regularly scheduled show.. how bout
uconn yesterday.. what was
amazing is how they won despite boone and gay (supposedly their
best players) combining for just 18 and 6 boards.. besides awesome
defense by the huskies, the real thing to take out of their win
was the play of freshmen austrie and adrien.. adrien in particular
was awesome, putting
up 11 and 4 in just 12 minutes, and coming up
huge down the stretch.. for gonzaga,
it was another case of raivio getting tired.. last year in the
ncaa tournament his poor shooting 4 of 17, 2 of 11 from three in
two games led to the zags downfall.. same can be said of his 2 of
12 shooting last night.. it's imperative coach few keeps raivio
fresh throughout the season.. did you see that dunk by new
mexico's tony drandridge on sportscenter.. simply sick..
oral roberts bounced back from
a close loss to utah state by
dominating usc.. oru's caleb green is a legit big-time star, and
looks and plays bigger than even his 6-8, 240 pound listing
suggests.. im already looking forward to duke and memphis in the
nit final.. tigers have the type of depth and athleticism that
should really give duke problems.. it will be interesting to see
jj get shots off against so many 6-6, 6-7 long armed bodies
guarding him..
11/23 ..gonzaga's
triple-overtime win over
michigan state yesterday was truly epic.. ager's long range
bombs were awesome, and morrison was unstoppable.. davis and
batista dominated down low.. raivio was money from three, and
pargo continues to impress.. he's playing as well as any freshman
pg in the country right now.. but espn has already done its fair
share hyping last night's game, so lets move on to some of the
lesser discussed scores of last night..
harvard continued a nice start
to the season with a win over holy
cross.. the crusasders are considered the only team in the
patriot capable of winning the patriot league and a top mid-major,
but harvard handled them easy by 15 on the road..
ohio state, considered a fringe
top 25 team, really struggled against butler at home.. barely
winning in ot.. terence dials had his usual big game for the
buckeyes, but it will come down to how much help he gets.. rutgers
really struggled against delaware state down on south padre
island, winning 49-42.. a loss would have been a rare meac win
over a bcs team.. freshman jr inman was the long bright spot for
the knights, scoring 21 and pulling down 7 boards.. in another
indication of how the mvc is pulling away from other so-called
mid-major leagues, creighton went on the road and beat a solid
george mason team by 13 last night.. oh, and it's worth repeating
a million time.. adam morrison, please, for the love of humanity,
shave off the stache.. same speed needs to be taken in getting
gerry mac some high prescription glasses..
11/21 ..today's
about as good a day of college basketball you'll find outside of
the ncaa tournament.. not only do you have the great maui games,
but the overlooked guardians classic has some great ones in
wvu/texas and kentucky/iowa.. texas
is only favored by about 5, but dont expect them to be
challenged.. wvu is probably
overrated after last year's run, but texas is simply the real
deal.. considering how few publications or analysts picked the
longhorns to win it all, they may actually be underrated despite
being ranked in the top 3.. out in maui,
michigan state is slowly
pulling away from chaminade as we speak.. it always boggles my
mind when less talented teams (ie chaminade) tries to push the
tempo against more athletic teams as they are doing right now..
chaminade made state look real bad in the zone, but the spartans
are too rough running or against the man.. the game i'm most
excited to watch is arizona/kansas later tonight.. getting a
chance to see the jawhawk's young guns make their debut is
exciting.. an experienced maryland squad should give gonzaga fits,
and after watching wake struggle in the coaches vs cancer tourney,
the terps are too me anyways, clearly the 2nd best team in the acc
right now.. but the major tv games aren't the only match ups to
note.. old dominion faces wisconsin in an important game for odu's
top 25 legitimacy.. the caa favorite's plan on being a major
player this year, and a good showing against the badgers is
imperative.. the line has that game as a pick'em, but the monarchs
should probably be favored.. another interesting game is dayton
taking a short trip to face miami in oxford.. miami played bama
real tough in tuscaloosa last week, and this game should give us
an indication of whether dayton is ready to compete for the a10
championship after a disappointing 04-05..
11/20 ..gotta love
the early season upsets.. particularly
michigan state going down to
hawaii yesterday.. the outcome isn't
terribly surprising, hawaii has a great home court advantage,
especially in early season non-conference games.. but the wide
margin of the game was surprising.. yes, cramps played a part, but
this is always expected in the hot weather when teams have
traveled so far to get there.. that wasn't the only interesting
result of the day.. bradley's 15 point victory at
depaul was surprising.. sure,
bradley is probably a better team to begin with, but they were
missing two of their starters and were on the road.. the
missouri valley goes into today as the only
conference without a team that's lost i believe.. then of
course you have stanford getting slammed at home by uc irvine..
the cardinal were playing without matt haryasz who sprained his
ankle in practice a couple of days ago.. still, last year the
anteaters played to early season road games against pac10 teams
and lost by an average of 15 per game so the result was still
surprising.. other things to note from yesterday include..
southern miss putting up a pathetic 30 points against denver..
utah state and oral roberts, two potential at-large bubble teams
played not surprisingly to almost a dead heat, with utah state
winning in overtime.. lastly unc just barely scraped by gardner
webb by 3 points.. this close score against a below average team
is probably a sign of things to come for the heels
11/19 ..it's a
great weekend as most teams are playing their first games..
florida definitely deserves credit
for jumping out to 4-0.. granted the coaches vs classic tournament
featured some overrated teams like
syracuse and
wake.. but florida's young guns
showed they have as good a chance as any to mac a run in the sec..
taurean green has been particularly impressive, so much so that i
dont even remember who anthony roberson was.. on the flip side,
gerry mac simply can't shoot straight.. one game is an off night,
two is a bad week, four games is an alarming trend.. 13 for 50
comes out to a nice even 26%.. similarly terrence roberts cant
shoot straight either.. you love his hustle and his hops, but if
he had any sort of touch or range, he'd be an all-american with
that athleticism.. we also learned from the same tourney that
justin gray is a great scorer but really has no business being a
point guard.. and what's with wake's michael drum?.. the kid needs
to stop admiring his follow through and get back and play some
defense.. he's just begging for teams to get easy fast break lay
ups.. today is another huge slate of games with some possibilities
for some bcs teams to go down.. cornell faces penn state after
hanging touch with the cuse last week and should be right their
with the lions.. new big east member depaul hosts an underrated
bradley team led by marcellus sommerville.. expect sommerville to
have a huge game today.. michigan state plays at hawaii in a tune
up before the maui invitational.. hawaii always has a huge home
court advantage and could make this game a lot closer than the
spread says.. another new big east member, marquette, hosts a very
underrated winthrop team who should pose a very hard out for tom
crean's bunch.. finally, perhaps the best game of the day, and one
with serious ncaa implications is utah state against oral roberts..
11/17 ..tonight is
easily the best batch of games on the young season.. watching
duke absolutely destroy
seton hall last night had its
fun for awhile.. would seton hall get 10 points by half.. but now
it's time for some quality games.. and of course by quality, i am
talking about drexel and sam houston state.. poor espn2 having to
televise this game.. but i wouldn't feel so bad, any tournament
organizer that assumes missouri
will win a game at this point is living in the past.. if the
betting lines are any indication, and they always are, tonight's
coaches vs cancer games at the garden should be dandies..
texas tech is favored by 1 over
syracuse, florida by 1 and a
half over wake.. both are very
interesting lines.. flordia, particularly, coming in with so much
youth and so many questions romps on two weak northeast teams at
home and suddenly is favored over a powerhouse acc team.. granted
wake struggled at home, but george mason is a step up from st
peter's and albany.. then again, while florida was romping on some
northeast teams, syracuse was struggling up in the carrier dome..
still, am i the only who cant help but feel this team is due for a
breakout game?.. i mean, gerry mcnamara cant shoot .071% from
three all the times.. or can he?.. amazingly, g-mac's fg% has gone
down each year.. from 40% as a freshman, to 39% to 37%.. maybe, he
really will drop down once again this year.. another solid game
tonight is memphis heading to alabama.. bama is a 2 point home
favorite, but i wouldnt be surprised to see the tigers pull this
one out.. the tide really struggled vs miami (oh) last time out
and memphis is a step up.. richard hendrix was particularly
disappointing, as the heralded frosh had 0 points in 10 minutes of
run, and seemed to be outmuscled down low.. on the other hand,
shawne williams came out smoking for memphis, and had 17 points in
his college debut
11/14 ..for all
intensive purposes, today can be considered college basketball's
real opening day.. the first nationally televised game airs
between duke and boston u.. espn is wasting no time getting their
duke hype machine working.. should be a good ole fashion blow out,
precisely the type of game that should not be scheduled as the
first televised game.. there really needs to be some more
oversight in college hoops about scheduling to begin the season..
lets get some buzz going.. i know the big schools want some easy
games early, but all you need to offer is a little hard cash, and
duke would be playing the spurs if you paid them enough..
interesting discussion on the message board about whether the mvc
is shedding their mid-major status.. now, i write this as someone
who is all about promoting the so-called mid-majors and writing
about the teams that don't get exposure.. but honestly.. to
suggest the mvc has somehow moved beyond the a10 and mwc and cusa
in stature is quite laughable.. and to suggest the mvc is on par
with any of the power 6 conferences is equally as laughable.. dont
get me wrong, the mvc is a highly competitive conference, who from
top to bottom had a quality of play arguably as good as the pac10
and clearly is better than the new cusa.. but until the mvc has
one team, just one, that makes a run deep into the ncaa
tournament, for just one year even, than you simply cannot make
the argument that the mvc has leaped frogged leagues that boast
national powerhouse teams over the past two decades like utah,
unlv, memphis, temple, etc..
11/13 ..today's
slate of games is the biggest of the new season as both the black
coaches association classic & invitational get going today..
kentucky also opens play tonight in the guardians classic, perhaps
the best team to start the season thus far.. perhaps the biggest
upset of the new season is virginia tech losing to bowling green..
this is the 2nd year in a row tech has lost to a mac team at home,
as they fell to western michigan last year.. another surprising
win was wofford over farleigh dickinson.. fdu came in as the
consensus nec favorites, while wofford is considered a decent
southern conference squad.. wofford followed that win with a big
first half against west virginia today (leading 24-19 at half)
before the mountaineers pulled away in the 2nd half.. bad news for
david padgett going down for a few weeks.. having already sat out
a year after the transfer from louisville, padgett was itching to
play.. louisville should still be able to get by for the first few
weeks, and it will give a chance for young brian johnson to get
some pt.. in the long run, the loss shouldn't be that
devastating.. tomorrow night duke faces boston university in the
season's first nationally televised game on espn2.. should be
worth watching to get a feel for duke's young guns and to see how
coach k has set up his rotation...
11/09 ..bad new
for indiana losing dj white for up to six weeks because of a
broken foot.. in his place, sean kline will start.. kline actually
had a very solid year (7 and 4 per game) in 2003-04 before missing
most of last year with injuries.. still, white is the main focal
point of just about everything iu does so the loss will be
problematic.. luckily with the exception of duke on november 30th,
indiana has a very easy schedule until december 10th when they
face kentucky.. it would have been nice for the acc/big ten
challenge to have a healthy white.. in today's games, albany (the
consensus america east favorite) takes on an ncaa tournament team
in oakland.. albany's favore by 3.5 points and should definitely
win this game as oakland lost their two best players from last
year.. florida is favored by 19 (the line has been changing)
against st peter's at home.. i'd definitely go with florida in
this one as they usually roll in non-conference home games..
lastly, syracuse faces cornell in the carrier dome favored by 21..
i picked bethune cookman to cover the spread against the cuse
which they did, but i dont think cornell will tonight.. except
mcnamara to be a much bigger factor tonight than in game one..
11/08 ..the big
day is here.. the first real games of the 05-06 season.. one
complaint i have with college basketball scheduling is the lack of
a grand, media-friendly opening day.. the nba just rolled out its
premier week with some solid nationally televised games.. college
football's first game is always televised, as are all the other
pro sports.. yet, tomorrow the college basketball season
officially begins with cornell playing st francis (pa) and bethune
cookman taking on syracuse.. wednesday's games are equally
unimportant and sleep inducing.. this is simply not the beginning
that college basketball deserves.. it deserves a grand splash,
something to create some buzz.. a big game, in a big packed arena,
with tv cameras, and cheerleaders and bands and the whole deal..
not bethune cookman and not st francis (pa).. in fact, it should
be an official rule of the ncaa's that no team name that includes
parentheses is allowed to compete during the season's first week..
the first game that i care to pay attention to is next monday when
manhattan plays seton hall.. a good chance for a bcs team to get
knocked off..
11/05 ..returning
to my rundown of the high school class of 2002, here is how the
top 10 power forwards looked according to rivals.com.. #1 sean
may, #2 chris bosh, #3 shelden williams, #4 brad buckman, #5
alexander johnson, #6 travis garrison, #7 shavlik randolph, #8 ike
dogu, #9 julian terrell, #10 marques hayden.. within this group of
guys, you see some stark contrasts between ncaa and nba stars and
absolute busts.. more amazingly, forgetting personal success, is
how 6 of the top 7 pf's in the class went to acc schools (buckman
at ut the exception).. the top three of this group have all
developed into stars.. bosh left gt after one year and has shown
great nba potential, may winning a championship with unc, and
williams arguably the frontrunner for national player of the
year.. after that, the next four have had not experienced nearly
the amount of success.. buckman's first two years at texas were
underwhelming, but he finally got a chance to shine last season
averaging 13 and 8.. he really came on late last season, including
an absolutely monster 27 point, 21 rebound game at colorado..
johnson, garrison, and randolph have all been acc
disappointments.. johnson has been an enigma at fsu, showing
promise in 03-04, but actually regressing last season, even
falling out of the rotation by season's end.. garrison has slowly
improved each year at maryland, but he's still a glorified role
player who lacks inside toughness.. randolph of course was a
bitter failure for duke, beset with injuries and a lack of
toughness.. shockingly, randolph might get the last laugh as he's
managed to stay afloat with the 76ers.. from 8 to 10, you have the
full spectrum of success, from diogu who is a potential nba star
for golden state.. to hayden, who had to lackluster years at
kansas state before quitting the program, moving on to d2 washburn
university where he quit the team and left the school before ever
playing a game..
11/03 ..this is an
exciting time in my life.. no nothing's going on in my personal
life, but the nba started this week, which means basketball season
is here.. for most people, it's all about the beginning of spring,
and the rejuvenation of warm weather and summer, but my re-birth
is always dead in the middle of fall.. right when the nba beginns..
because besides lebron and shaq and kobe, it means college
basketball is right around the corner.. and amazingly enough,
opening day of the 05-06 college basketball season is less than a
week away.. granted the first night of games is less than
exciting, but that is not the point.. the point is that for the
next few months, we can all just kick back and watch basketball
almost every night of the week.. and not only can i do it, but i
will do it.. sorry friends.. sorry family.. sorry ladies.. sorry
work.. sorry hobbies.. sorry movies.. sorry concerts.. sorry
reading.. sorry everything.. the next few months are about
basketball.. if you want to talk to me and your conversation does
not involve a round sort of orange ball, then please leave me
alone.. i don't want to hear it..
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