College Basketball 2010-2011 and Tourney

[Darkostar]

I don't know how bad they need they a guy who shoots as much as Joseph does. If he's hot hes great, if not he can really drag the team down. Nolen looked awesome creating foul shots and opportunities for the rest of the team. Really liking how the gophers are looking with some bruisers down low, a speedy penetrator, great outside shooter, and some decent help off the bench.

Yeah, but Nolan can't be their only "penetrator." You have to at least have another threat on the floor.

[Rhom]

Wait... I think there's something wrong with the polls this week. UNC lost twice; but they dropped to number 25! In years past that's always been good for a rise one or two slots in the rankings!

We do have a Tubby sighting though coming in at number 17. Seems like a good place to start for the Gophers.

Marquette has made a game of it with Duke in the CBE classic. The refs in that tourney are allowing a lot more contact than the Maui refs though. On one trip down into the paint, I saw a Marquette guy get clearly fouled 3 times with no call.

And Trisk... if you didn't see the line, Terrence Jones had 29 points, 12 rebounds, 4 blocks, and 3 assists. If you guys have anymore like him just hanging out in the Pacific Northwest needing a place to play ball, we'll take 'em!

Waiting now to see if UK gets Washington or Virginia tomorrow night. That game is at 9:30 my time, so at least I won't have to race home to see it; but it is hard to stay up that late anymore.

ETA: 7:52 left in the game and we have our first flop from Duke called as a charge.

[RedEyedGhost]

I guess what I am saying is that 'all college basketball' includes men and women and Div I through Div III or even NAIA. And if the record for 'all college basketball' matters to you great. If it doesn't, then that is fine too. But don't pretend that men's Div. I is 'all college basketball'. Specify what you mean.

I do think it would be a disservice to the women if UConn sets a record longer than UCLA's and people still go on saying that UCLA has the longest winning streak in the history of college basketball.

And if I were to ask "who is the best Steeplechase runner in College athletics?" The answer would have to be Henry Rono', for his record set in 1978 right? I mean it's a 1:20 faster than Jenny Barringer's record breaker set in 2009; it doesn't matter that she kept breaking her own records, the man was faster so his record is what counts. Right?

I don't really care about separating divisions because there isn't that much fundamentally different across the divisions, the men's and women's game, however, are. Just as in my Steeplechase example I see no point in comparing men's and women's results, I also see no point in comparing men's and women's basketball.

Out in Maui, at least Calipari can hit a free throw even if his teams can't.

I was shocked that the game was as close as it was at the end, but the box score tells the tale - UK was 11/22 on FTs... and I just looked at the box score again and OU was 9/18 so that wasn't it.

I'm going to have to rush home today to catch Oklahoma and Kentucky at 5:30. Thank God they don't have Blake Griffin anymore!

And that was after sitting out a year because of the Clippers' Curse :wideeyed:

Wait... I think there's something wrong with the polls this week. UNC lost twice; but they dropped to number 25! In years past that's always been good for a rise one or two slots in the rankings!

We do have a Tubby sighting though coming in at number 17. Seems like a good place to start for the Gophers.

Gary Parrish had a pretty good take on this week's polls

Dave Mackall of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review is a nice reporter, a great dude and, most importantly, a longtime friend. But his latest AP ballot is bogus, and I can't play favorites with the Poll Attacks, so here we go!

(Details of AP ballots courtesy of PollSpeak.com.)

Associated Press poll: Dave has North Carolina 12th and Minnesota 25th this week despite the fact that UNC is 2-2 with zero notable wins while Minnesota is 5-0 with wins over West Virginia and ... wait for it ... UNC. Ranking North Carolina at all is mostly indefensible (more on this below in this UNC-heavy version of the Poll Attacks), but ranking the Tar Heels 13 spots ahead of Minnesota is insanity. Dave also has Illinois at No. 19 but Texas unranked even though UT just beat Illinois and played No. 5 Pittsburgh to the final minute, and he has San Diego State 10 spots below Gonzaga even though the Aztecs are 4-0 with a win ... wait for it ... at Gonzaga.

In other words, this was not a good week for my man Dave.

But, in the spirit of giving credit where credit is due, he at least put Minnesota on his ballot somewhere.

Jason Franchuk from the Provo Daily Herald in Utah didn't even do that much.

He's the one AP voter who omitted Minnesota from his ballot, and I can't begin to imagine how or why. We can argue about whether the Gophers belong in the top 10 (which is where I have them) or closer to 15th (which is where the AP poll has them), but there is no denying they should be ranked. For whatever reason, Jason thinks otherwise. But he has North Carolina -- that 2-2 UNC team with no notable wins and a loss to Minnesota -- ranked 15th.

Marquette has made a game of it with Duke in the CBE classic. The refs in that tourney are allowing a lot more contact than the Maui refs though. On one trip down into the paint, I saw a Marquette guy get clearly fouled 3 times with no call.

What do think of that court? I think they need a few more ads, it feels a little bare to me.

And Trisk... if you didn't see the line, Terrence Jones had 29 points, 12 rebounds, 4 blocks, and 3 assists. If you guys have anymore like him just hanging out in the Pacific Northwest needing a place to play ball, we'll take 'em!

I saw on ESPN's bottomline that his 29 was the second most ever for a UK freshman, that's damned impressive. You guys have got yourselves another great one... too bad he won't be there to grow with the great class you have coming in next year.

This KSU-Gonzaga game is absurdly sloppy. I am very happy that Dickie V can't handle doing back-to-back games anymore, but I wish they would have just signed Bobby Knight up for both games (of course Duke was playing so I'm sure Vitale requested that game).

[Rhom]

Damn it... I had a response that I had been working on for the last 45 minutes, but my step-daughter just stopped in at my office and played Nickjr on here. When she left, she closed out all the internet windows. :tantrum:

So anyways here are the high points...

1) Washington hit 17-28 from three point range last night. If Kentucky can't defend the arc, it could be an ugly night.

2) Kyle Wiltjer is a huge get for Kentucky. Its tough enough when Calipari is pulling in all the African American kids from urban population centers. When he starts snagging the suburban white kids too... watch out!!!

3) If I knew that my ballot was going to be up for public review, I would like to think that I would exercise a little more care in my selections than a monkey flinging poo at a list of schools.

4) The Sprint Arena in Kansas City had all the subtlety of playing basketball on the side of a NASCAR vehicle.

[RedEyedGhost]

Damn it... I had a response that I had been working on for the last 45 minutes, but my step-daughter just stopped in at my office and played Nickjr on here. When she left, she closed out all the internet windows. :tantrum:

Which browser do you use? FireFox has both 'recently closed windows' and 'recently closed tabs' as options you can click on under history, and it will pull everything back up. I've even resurrected the text of entire post when I accidentally closed a tab.

UK - UW tonight should be a fun game.

KU is looking to set a new record for consecutive wins at home, we tied it at 62 on Friday. Not that that even holds a candle to UK's insane 125.

[RedEyedGhost]

I'm not sure I like that being an intentional foul any time there's an elbow above the shoulders. That was clearly Overton's fault that he got elbowed and there was no "intent" by Liggins to hit him in the face.

Weird rule.

[Rhom]

I'm not sure I like that being an intentional foul any time there's an elbow above the shoulders. That was clearly Overton's fault that he got elbowed and there was no "intent" by Liggins to hit him in the face.

Weird rule.

Agree. That was a hard fought game all around though. They started at breakneck speed and then slowed down due to fatigue/better defense in the second half. Washington is a solid, solid team and from what I've seen of the Pac-10 so far, they should win the league without too many stumbling blocks.

After that exhausting game, I'm not sure how much I'm looking forward to Kemba Walker and UConn. I am a little disappointed though, we played UConn last year in Madison Square Garden and I was looking forward to playing Michigan State in Maui. Either way, this young team is growing up fast.

[Rhom]

I saw on ESPN's bottomline that his 29 was the second most ever for a UK freshman, that's damned impressive. You guys have got yourselves another great one... too bad he won't be there to grow with the great class you have coming in next year.

I think every Kentucky fan is rooting for an NBA lockout. How the hell Calipari conninced Teague, Gilcrest, Dixon, and Wiltjer to actually sign a binding LoI with a lockout on the horizon is beyond me. If I were them, I would have signed a Scholarship Agreement (like Brandon Knight did) that way if the NBA doesn't hold a draft and Jones et al are still there next year, they could go somewhere they don't have to compete for playing time.

However... if the current group can't go to the NBA, all we are losing is Josh Harrelson. And Enes Kanter has an appeal to be heard next week. :stunned: If everyone has to stay and we bring in those four. Watch out!!!! :bowdown:

Yeah, it feels like Knight/Jones is just the new Wall/Cousins.

Looking forward to seeing UCLA play somebody tonight to gauge how tough they may be in league. Washington certainly has to be considered the favorite so far.

Knight can certainly be compared to Wall (Wall's faster/Knight's a better shooter), but Jones and Cousins don't have a lot in common. IMHO.

Honestly, the UK player that Jones reminds me of the most is Jamal Mashburn. A big guy with wing skills. If he can be as successful as Monster Mash, then I will of course be ecstatic!

[Rhom]

Duke could potentially be unreal this year. What is their flaw? They have great senior leadership in Smith and Singler, great size with the Plumlee's, and great newcomers that bring some skill or athleticism with Irving, Dawkins, and Curry.

I think this is exactly right. They aren't scary talented like the Kansas and UNC teams recently, but in a lot of ways I think they have a better balance than most teams in recent memory.

[Darkostar]

Gophers lose a tough one to Virgina, but we had two guys out.

[Rhom]

UConn premeried at number 7 in the polls. I think its warranted, but I'm stunned that they went from unranked to the top 10 in the span of one week.

UNC finally dropped out of the poll, but I'm still somewhat nervous about the game at Chapel Hill this weekend.

[Greywolf2375]

Duke could potentially be unreal this year. What is their flaw? They have great senior leadership in Smith and Singler, great size with the Plumlee's, and great newcomers that bring some skill or athleticism with Irving, Dawkins, and Curry.

What's their flaw? Dick Vitale.

It's nitpicky since they have been much better than recent years, but the bigs need to be better at the charity stripe. Part of this is my own colored perception of what an acceptable FT% is, but the Plumlee's FTs make baby jesus cry.

On a different note, looks like next year you can have one jersey and support up to 60% of the team on the floor - looks like they may have another Plumlee as a PG.

[Rhom]

Mike Decourcy wonders why Cam Newton can play but Enes Kanter cannot. I think its a helluva question.

Enes Kanter might be permanently ineligible because his family, thousands of miles and a culture or two removed from NCAA regulations, did not properly interpret what their son would be allowed to accept from a club while he practiced and competed. Kanter was only 16 years old when all this began, and yet he is being held strictly liable for how his family managed his eligibility. He is derided by many in the media as a “professional,” the word pronounced as though spelled with entirely scarlet letters.

Cam Newton will be permitted to play the remainder of his college football career, whether it’s two more games or through the 2011 season. His family had every reason to fully understand NCAA rules, because Newton already had gone through the recruiting process once and played two seasons at the University of Florida. And yet Cecil Newton has acknowledged attempting to arrange for a payment from Mississippi State in exchange for getting his son to sign there last winter. Cam Newton is being excused on the grounds he did not know about that pursuit.

One family purposefully does wrong, shredding the NCAA’s most obvious rule, and the son prospers and excels.

One family mistakenly stumbles outside the more ambiguous pages of the NCAA’s rulebook, and the son sits with the weight of permanent ineligibility draped across his shoulders.

The level of inconsistency displayed by the NCAA is truly mind boggling.

[RedEyedGhost]

Cam Newton shouldn't be eligible, and it won't surprise me if it is eventually ruled that way five years from now.

I turned on the ASU-Baylor game before our game tonight and the fellating that the announcers were giving Dunn disgusted me. As they were recanting the beating and then recanting and saying it wasn't Dunn's fault that he punched her in the face... classic domestic violence.

Shit REG, we got us a game

It shouldn't have been a game, but we couldn't hit a FT for shit (16-30). Yet we made 32-35 in our first exhibition game, what happened to that team?? Overall I was really upset with how poorly officiated the game was - three times Honeycutt was gifted with a FT after making the shot when he was either not touched or was the player to initiate the contact (including the foul that knocked Markieff out of the game). We also had two players pushed out of bounds in the final minute of the game without a foul being called.

UCLA did come to play and Honeycutt was fantastic, and they should be congratulated on bringing their A game into such a hostile environment. I think that could be turning point of the season for UCLA, and they look to have a lot of talent that should treat them well in conference season.

[Greywolf2375]

wow, right after a comment on how good the officiating has been, UK gets hit with a ticky tack foul. should have been a no call, UNC ball.

[Rhom]

I said that UNC's strength was Kentucky's weakness. We're just really thin up front. Credit where credit is due though, the Tarheels hit their free throws when they needed to. Pretty ridiculous that Kentucky had 4 players foul out.

Ah well, bring on Notre Dame.

[RedEyedGhost]

That was a really fun game to watch, and I'm really glad I recorded it.

I said that UNC's strength was Kentucky's weakness. We're just really thin up front.

And UNC's not? If Zeller goes down UNC's season is over. Roy really needs to get him (and Henson and Barnes and pretty much the rest of the team) in the weight room; I have really started to value weight training for basketball players since we hired Andrea Hudy as our strength and conditioning coach in 2004. Before then it seemed like we were having those nagging injuries yearly (stress fractures and the like), but since she came on the only types of those injuries that I can recall are Mario Little's stress fracture that he had when he arrived on campus, and Jeff Withey's (who has the same body type as Zeller) stress fracture that delayed him from joining the team when his eligibility began last Winter. As worried as Tarheel fans should be about Zeller's body giving out on him yet again he did play great today, but it sure felt like he was called for at least eight fouls (and had a few more blatant no-calls). Speaking of fouls

Credit where credit is due though, the Tarheels hit their free throws when they needed to. Pretty ridiculous that Kentucky had 4 players foul out.

Yeah, four players fouling out without OT is crazy (and Vargas in only 9 mins), but UK really only played 7 players to UNC's 10 so I guess that can account for some of that discrepancy.

I've only watched three UK games this season, but Lamb looked like a completely different player today. He was fantastic! Has he started yet, or was this his breakout game? Or is Calipari using him as a spark off the bench?

[Rhom]

Alright... I've pulled myself back off the ledge. I can rejoin the conversation now.

:crying:

I won't dwell on the UNC game, its certainly an opportunity lost for UK. I make it a policy never to disparage the refs; but if I were to be that kind of guy... :lol:

But that's that. Time to get ready for Notre Dame and then Indiana. As the season goes on, the Cats will need to learn to play even more from the outside-in now that everyone has seen how easy it is to shut down Kentucky when you can get some early fouls.

The appeal on Kanter is even more important now. They have resubmitted it to the original committee instead of the appeals committee. They say there is new evidence to be presented, and nothing new can come before the appeals committee. If I had to guess, the new evidence is the NCAA's recent position that parents and children are not necessarily the same thing.

I've only watched three UK games this season, but Lamb looked like a completely different player today. He was fantastic! Has he started yet, or was this his breakout game? Or is Calipari using him as a spark off the bench?

He's still coming off the bench. I don't know if that'll get switched around or not. He may be able to take Darius Miller's starting spot, but I think Cal like's Liggins' defensive intensity.

[RedEyedGhost]

Warning: I am complaining about officials in this post, a lot.

I tried to get over the horrible officiating in our game against UCLA, but then I saw this on Sunday.

Ben Howland Contacts NCAA About Foul

UCLA coach Ben Howland said Saturday that he spoke with John Adams, the NCAA coordinator of men's basketball officials, about the foul called against Malcolm Lee. in the waning moments of the Bruin's 77-76 loss Thursday at Kansas.

"I gave them my two cents," Howland said. "But the game is over. They won, we lost. We're moving forward now. Bad calls happen it's just unfortunate it would happen at that point in the game where it would decide a game."

We all know why Howland doesn't like fouls being called at the end of games. But a no-call was the reason why it was even close,

out of bounds forcing Reed into an errant pass that leads to Honeycutt's tying 3pointer. We should have been up 3, shooting two FTs with 16.0sec left...

So, Ben Howland can eat a big bag of dicks.

And then we're to last nights game which was quit fun to watch, but Josh Pastner is an ass and needs to stay off the fucking court. Late in the second half Memphis went to a full-court trapping defense, and Pastner is LITERALLY on the court playing defense. I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's illegal -_-

I realize that sounds like hyperbole... lets go to the photos.

one

two

three (even though the quality is shit it's my favorite because you can see his arms spread in a good defensive posture)

Every year we get points of emphasis for the officials, how about they start handing out the technicals, and keep the coaches off the court.

[RedEyedGhost]

This is just awesome!

Men's college basketball has struggled to tip off its season with any fanfare in the midst of November football.

To combat that, four of the sport's top programs -- Duke, Michigan State, Kentucky and Kansas -- have committed to create the Champions Classic, an early season marquee event debuting in 2011 and televised by ESPN.

The first Champions Classic is set for Madison Square Garden in New York, with Duke facing Michigan State and Kentucky meeting Kansas on Nov. 15, 2011.

Year 2 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta will see Michigan State vs. Kansas and Duke vs. Kentucky on Nov. 13, 2012. The third event, Nov. 12, 2013 at the United Center in Chicago, will have Michigan State playing Kentucky and Kansas playing Duke.

He's still coming off the bench. I don't know if that'll get switched around or not. He may be able to take Darius Miller's starting spot, but I think Cal like's Liggins' defensive intensity.

Has he had any games of similar quality?

Love those lights at Freedom Hall! With it supposedly being a "neutral court" for the SEC-Big East Challenge why were the Kentucky boosters allowed to paint the floor? Although I will admit that I love the fact that they painted that on their rivals old floor :lol:

Seton Hall did a great job making a game of this; Arkansas looked like they were going to steamroll them.