College Basketball

[Rhom]

My alma mater (Murray State) went out west and played Cal within 5 points. I figured it was just opening game jitters, but it would appear that there may be some more serious problems in the structure of the team.

Kentucky plays Rider today. Ordinarily, I'd laugh this one off (well... under any coach other than Billy Gillispie) but Rider beat Mississippi State under a barrage of 3's and Kentucky has shown a disturbing difficulty defending the 3. It could get interesting today.

[Green Apple Fossoway]

It's good to see Wes playing well, and smiling. He didn't do that very much playing for us. I'm also kind of looking forward to seeing how well we play against Cal on the 5th. Could be interesting. By that time the only other team we'll have faced that could give us any obvious trouble would be Northern Iowa.

[Rhom]

It's good to see Wes playing well, and smiling. He didn't do that very much playing for us. I'm also kind of looking forward to seeing how well we play against Cal on the 5th. Could be interesting. By that time the only other team we'll have faced that could give us any obvious trouble would be Northern Iowa.

He definitely looked good in that game. I'm eager to see how he does moving forward.

The human victory cigar Mark Krebs is in the game with 2 and a half to go in the game, finally Kentucky looks like a top 25 team. Hopefully, the football Cats can play equally well against Georgia today.

[Fez]

While there will always be a place in my heart for Buffalo, especially for football, I've realized that I need to stop living in the past and start supporting my new school, my grad school. Luckily they are another fairly obscure sports school, so I can be the only one talking about them and no one can call me out on anything because they don't know anything about them. Who? George Washington University. The Colonials.

I just got back from the first home game of the season, a blowout win of 94-51 over UMBC. Apparently our 59 first-half points were most the team's had since it got 60 in 1981, so that's cool. Of course from what I can tell UMBC is not a good team, so its not that impressive; though on the other hand I've been told that we were picked to be 11th out 14th in the A-10 this year, so maybe we're not that good either. But we are starting the season 3-0. I don't know much about the A-10 yet except that Xavier is usually the top team, so I'm still learning what our big rivals are and everything like that; I'm having a blast though. I do know that the Colonials have at least made it to the Dance in the past, according to wikipedia our total record is 4-10 and 3 straight appearances (and 1 win) from 2005-2007. Obviously not that great, but better than Buffalo, which has never made it.

Bring on the season.

[Rhom]

George Washington had some pretty solid teams early in this decade (if I've got my years right). IIRC its where God Shamgod played ball. Sorry to burst your bubble of obscurity! :lol:

[Rhom]

I'm watching UNC vs Gardner-Webb on Fox Sports South and I have two thoughts:

1) Way too many empty seats for a program that wants to claim themselves as the top in the country. My apologies REG, I will never list UNC in front of KU again. :bow:

2) A lot of wasted space in this gym. The aisles are at least four feet too wide, you could easily fit another seat on both sides. Then again, that would just expose their fans as the apathetic front runners I've always suspected them to be.

[RedEyedGhost]

1) Way too many empty seats for a program that wants to claim themselves as the top in the country. My apologies REG, I will never list UNC in front of KU again. :bow:

Yep, AFH will be sold out for the most meaningless game. And the seats will be filled unless there's a winter storm. (Although, the bluehairs do leave pretty early during big blowouts.)

[Rhom]

Yep, AFH will be sold out for the most meaningless game. And the seats will be filled unless there's a winter storm. (Although, the bluehairs do leave pretty early during big blowouts.)

That's what I'm used to seeing at Rupp, it was jarring to see UNC wasn't the same.

[Rhom]

I'm not entirely certain that UK's athletics department did their due diligence when agreeing to play in the Cancun Challenge for their holiday tournament this year.

Check out these pictures.

The games are being held in a ballroom at a hotel. The playing floor was laid down on top of the carpet! There are chandeliers hanging above the court!!! Fans are sitting in metal bleachers transported to the site.

Wait... wait... Is that an open bar right next to where the players are entering the court?!!?

:stunned:

At least Stanford and Virginia were roped into this thing too!

[H von T]

Florida beat FSU tonight for the first time in 3 or 4 years. i might have to start paying some attention to college basketball. Michigan State is up next and will give a real reading of how good the Gators could possibly be this season.

[RedEyedGhost]

I'm not entirely certain that UK's athletics department did their due diligence when agreeing to play in the Cancun Challenge for their holiday tournament this year.

Check out these pictures.

The games are being held in a ballroom at a hotel. The playing floor was laid down on top of the carpet! There are chandeliers hanging above the court!!! Fans are sitting in metal bleachers transported to the site.

Wait... wait... Is that an open bar right next to where the players are entering the court?!!?

:stunned:

At least Stanford and Virginia were roped into this thing too!

Why the fuck would any team agree to play in that arena, venue, gym... practice court? My high school's gym had at least four times the number of seats that that place has.

[Rhom]

Florida beat FSU tonight for the first time in 3 or 4 years. i might have to start paying some attention to college basketball. Michigan State is up next and will give a real reading of how good the Gators could possibly be this season.

I watched some of that, Florida looked to have some good players and were out-hustling FSU.

[Rhom]

I don't know if Wall will live up to his hype, but the kid is clutch. In his first five games, he already has one game winner and a pair of free throws with 2.4 seconds to send a game to OT.

The Cats escaped with a win tonight. I'm just glad the team is leaving Cancun and headed back where the arenas are normal.

6-0. The best start for a UK coach since Adolph opened 10-0.

[BLU-RAY]

I don't know if Wall will live up to his hype, but the kid is clutch. In his first five games, he already has one game winner and a pair of free throws with 2.4 seconds to send a game to OT.

The Cats escaped with a win tonight. I'm just glad the team is leaving Cancun and headed back where the arenas are normal.

6-0. The best start for a UK coach since Adolph opened 10-0.

Any review of the Stanford mens' team? I kind of assumed we'd be awful again this year and decent next year, but with the football team playing so well, they've gotten very little hype around campus (and I've been busier than ever). That said, they seem to have given your guys a good run.

[Rhom]

Any review of the Stanford mens' team? I kind of assumed we'd be awful again this year and decent next year, but with the football team playing so well, they've gotten very little hype around campus (and I've been busier than ever). That said, they seem to have given your guys a good run.

Unfortunately. I was relegated to listening on the radio so I can't say too much. From what I could tell, they were a very disciplined team that forced UK to play their game. They played a hard 1-2-2 zone that forced Kentucky to alter the game plan. The point guard in the zone defense apparently had quick hands and forced a lot of deflections. Stanford was hitting their free throws right up until they absolutely had to. They held UK scoreless for the last 5 minutes of the 1st half to go up 6 and then held that lead until near the end of regulation.

They played the Cats tough in a game with a lot of fouls. (Two Stanford players fouled out in regulation.). On top of that, it was a crowd of about a thousand and I'd be surprised if there were more than 100 Cardinal fans there. As I mentioned above, it was certainly not an ideal venue for basketball.

Stanford had a tough team that executed their game plan. In the end, I'd say that UK won on raw talent (and a couple of clutch shots from Bledsoe and Wall). In a Pac10 that appears to be down on first glance, I think they could definitely make some noise.

[add-on]

George Washington had some pretty solid teams early in this decade (if I've got my years right). IIRC its where God Shamgod played ball.

Providence, sir. Providence.

I feel like ASU's near win over Duke says more about Duke than it does about ASU. Sendek is a very good coach and ASU will be decent but I don't think they have anyone like Harden anymore. Duke is just so freaking unathletic like last year but sans Henderson. Too early to say whether Plumlee and the other stiff white freshman post can add much for them.

You and I, we agree.

Once again, all the ESPN pundits are all over Duke's cock, and once again Duke won't get past the Sweet Sixteen. You need good guard play for this kind of thing and Duke has Jon Scheyer.

While I'm currently enjoying Michigan's #15 ranking, today's win over Creighton just managed to point out that this team has the same flaws as last year's. If we can't keep fucking Creighton off the offensive boards, how are we going to handle Purdue? Michigan State? Minnesota? Anybody in the Big Ten? I'm trying to keep my hopes high, but the league is stacked this year and I'm worried.

[Rhom]

Providence, sir. Providence.

Ah... you are correct on that. But I do remember GW having some stout teams.

[Fez]

Ah... you are correct on that. But I do remember GW having some stout teams

.

I wasn't yet paying attention to the team, but looking back at some of their old records, it appears that yes they have had some pretty good teams in the past. Of course our best tournament record ever was reaching the sweet 16 in 1993, so we've never been that great; it gets worse when one remembers that Georgetown is about a mile away, and look how good they always seem to be.

Still I'm used to rooting for mid-majors, so I'm okay with all that. We're 4-0 after 4 games, and you can't ask for more than that. Got Oregon State coming in on Saturday and then George Mason sometime mid-next week, so those should be good. The team seems really good, especially defensively, I think we've held our last two opponents under 30% shooting, but that could just be the (lack of) quality of the competition. Also when he gets hot, Kromah is just awesome to watch, he hit 6 3-pointers in a row in a 2 minute stretch 2 games ago, that was a sight to see.

ETA: Well I just looked it up and I was slightly off, we did hold UMBC to 30% but Princeton did make a little over 40%, we just got off a lot more shots then them and won by 15. Also Kromah had 3 of 3-pointers in a two minute stretch, all 6, plus a couple assists for good measure we're in a 10 minute window; so less noteworthy but still, I was impressed.

[Green Apple Fossoway]

While I'm currently enjoying Michigan's #15 ranking, today's win over Creighton just managed to point out that this team has the same flaws as last year's. If we can't keep fucking Creighton off the offensive boards, how are we going to handle Purdue? Michigan State? Minnesota? Anybody in the Big Ten? I'm trying to keep my hopes high, but the league is stacked this year and I'm worried.

It looks like you should be able to beat Iowa. How's that?

[RedEyedGhost]

I'm going to shamelessly still this data from a poster on phog.net - EvolveHawk -

Rk....School.........Frosh.......Soph........Junior.......Senior......Upper Class

1......Kansas........29.6%.....33.1%.......23.3%......14.1%........37.4%

2......MSU...........10.0%......24.1%.......55.2%......10.7%........65.9%

3......Texas..........32.0%.....12.4%.......18.6%......37.0%........55.6%

4......Nova...........29.2%.....13.0%.......43.0%......14.8%.........57.8%

5......Kentucky......55.0%....17.1%......19.8%.......8.1%.........27.9%

6......Purdue.........19.6%......7.8%.......49.0%.......23.6%........72.6%

7......Duke...........13.7%.....17.7%.......33.7%......34.9%.........68.5%

8......W.Virginia.....26.4%.....16.1%.......29.4%......28.2%........57.5%

9......Tenn..............9.0%.....28.9%.......17.5%.....44.6%........62.1%

10....Syracuse.......21.8%.....26.4%.......28.5%......23.3%.........51.8%

11....N.Carolina......19.5%.....40.4%.......7.5%.......32.6%.........40.1%

Avg.......................24.8%.....19.1%......32.2%......23.9%.........56.1%

Of the top 11 teams UK is by far the "Youngest" team, and we're #2. I know we're young, but with both Sherron and Cole the media sure seems to forget it. If you discount UNC at #11, in the top 10 our scoring is 13.78% younger than everybody but UK. That's crazy.

UK's minuscule 8.1% scoring from their senior class bodes quite well for the future.

And I'm looking at our game @ Tenn with even more trepidation now.