Louisville will be one and done in the tourney. They can't score and now that jones is gone too? I don't like their chances whatsoever
Louisville looking much less up tempo then the early season edition who waxed Indiana at the Garden in the Jimmy V Classic doubleheader back in early December. #9 Utes fall at Oregon by 11 while Michigan upsets #24 Ohio State. Over the weekend a pair of "winning losers" : University of North Carolina: Duke gives UNC a lesson on how to pay tribute to a respected rival on his passing. Playing their first home game since, UNC promptly drops the ball by deciding to 'honor' Dean Smith with Roy Williams making a spectacle out of himself, standing up with "four fingers" raised as if he were employing a game managing move on the spot when he was actually "four corner voguing" for the benefit of the UNC faux wine-and-cheese crowd. The cheesy stunt focused on Smith's "Four Corner" offensive set, a tedious stall that necessitated a change in the rule book with the installation of a game clock. This 'bottom line' stunt that was once employed in '79 at Duke prompted the Blue Devil fans to cleverly start chanting "we want basketball!" There certainly could've been a number of more appropriate ways to honor Smith's memory. Saturday's scripted antics (against a fairly disinterested Georgia Tech team, 1/2 of whom mailed it in) brought to mind the odious 'scoring record' caper by UConn woman's coach Geno Aerola on behalf of Nykesha Sales. And to put a wrap on this, Williams then decides to drop it down yet another notch by going into "shit storm mode" during the post-game presser and petulently whining about the UNC fans sitting on their hands. *snicker* …poor UNC, they can't seem to even win for losing… Iona College: while maybe not-as-obvious, some eyebrows were nevertheless raised involving a game Friday night between 23-6 Iona and 5-22 Marist. Apparently quite a few observers (both locally and from around the country) weighed in with some strong accusations regarding some shady 'point spread' shenannigans that might've taken place down the stretch (Marist covering); a point spread that suspiciously dropped just before game time minus any last minute player scratches. From ESPN: http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/conversation?gameId=400601222 Start the post-season tournaments already. Oh, wait a minute, how could I forget?!!!! 2:00 to go, the Zags tied with St. Mary's show their #1 seed, never-to-be-defeated mettle to put away the 'squeaky clean' Gaels. Fortunately, there still are some 'good stories' still out there on the college basketball landscape! No rest however for the weary as next up for the Zags are the San Diego Toreros* (not to be confused with the Aztecs of San Diego State Univ.). What you may ask is a Toreros? Torero comes from the Spanish term toro, the bull, and from the word torear, to fight bulls. All of the contestants in the ring are called toreros. Torero is a general term describing a bullfighter and signifies courage, honor and fidelity. USD Student Athletes, like the Torero, represent a willingness to stand alone in the ring and accept the challenge. So, it looks like we have the bullfighters squaring off against the bullshitters! Did you know? Before 1961, the Univ. of San Diego nickname was the Pioneers!!!
I don't want to whine about the refs but i9t wasn't close to evenly called. Okafor's injury was severely overblown, he was fine after he came back in. did the same things he always does which is bully his way to the basket. duke shot far fewer FGs and Carolina dominated inside yet duke had a million more FTs. w/ K out of TOs he got 3 extra w/ the "clock malfunctions". and the awful miss call on the game tying bucket by Jones then the awful non call on paige(who was mugged all night). The game was handed to duke but time to move on, you have to expect that when you play in Cameron. they will always get the benefit of the doubt, I could live w/ the fouls but the shady clock stuff was nonsense. Carolina is getting better, nice bounceback win vs. ga Tech. their issues have been injuries and illness. Congrats to duke, they found a way. The Heels should have been able, to find a way even through all the nonsense. I am glad they put the game behind them quickly, that's a good sign. if they can get healthier heading into March this team can go a long way.
This is so odd, suspended last week but didn't miss a game, comes back and plays then after game gets dismissed. very strange.
joe- without following the game in question, I am assuming the point shaving allegations are surrounding missed free throws from Iona? If that's the case I am a little skeptical of the allegations because in this day and age teams are horrendous at free throws. day after day college teams play games that are closer than they should be because kids can't make free throws. So I am hoping its just the case of that. Having said that- I would not be surprised if there is point shaving going on, especially at that level- the "mid-major" & below conferences. The NCAA is creating a recipe for disaster by essentially allowing the power conferences to do whatever they want, coinciding with the one-and-dones and the increase in internet betting. The smaller conference players have no future in the NBA and see players from the big conferences, getting whatever they want for the very short time they are in school. These kids know each other very well. A kid at say Iona, may have a high school teammate that was recruited by a Kentucky or N. Carolina, his friend might tell him the type of "perks" he is getting. Meanwhile the Iona kids are stuck in school and without an NBA future they more desperate to get in on some action ($$).Point shaving is a great option for them and we all know basketball is the easiest game to shave points. I wouldn't bet on the lower level conference games if someone gave me money to do so.
Good post and I hear you regarding the 'Derrick Coleman FT syndrome' that takes place in crunch time - some guys shouldn't be on the charity stripe at the end and coaches usually look to arrange their personnel accordingly. In the case of Iona-Marist, many questioned why Iona coach Tim Cluess(less) was allowing the the ball to be put in the hands of a 52% FT shooter up 7 in the last 2:00 minutes of the game; this in addition to a sudden slew of inexplicable turnovers and offensive fouls during crunch time. Iona with even a modicum of prudent ball management should not have had to escape by the skin of their teeth against a measly 5-win team in a small conference that is already having a down year even by their modest standards. Iona is an offense first, no defense team. To allow a team to come back from the offense end (given Iona's lousy defense) isn't as suspicious as much as an offensive team suddenly shooting themselves in the foot repeatedly while in possession of the ball (supposedly their strength) again against a team that on paper didn't have the roster talent to hang with them.
I'm having dinner tomorrow night with Derrick and PJ Carlesimo. I'll mention that "syndrome" to him! Him missing the front end of that 1 and 1 was one of my worst moments in sports up to that part of my fandom. I knew when he missed it we were done. And he played a GREAT game as a freshman, one of my favorite Cuse players ever. _
And why would I, a non-Syracuse alum, pull that out off the top of my head? Because I thought the same thing as you: this is going to cost them and sure enough it did. And I wasn't crazy about a Big East team handing away a title that it had in hand, especially to psycho Bobby. Always brought to mind the "FT" story told by Larry Bird, i.e. about "the one that got away" because of a missed FT which prompted him to commit to shooting a gazillion FTs at the end of every practice, no matter how tired he was. From there, the proof was in the pudding - Bird thereafter was pretty much good money on the FT line with the game on the line.
Syracuse in those days was always a terrible FT shooting team, sort of like Carolina the last couple of years. It wasn't just DC
Yeah, as much as I liked Coleman, he was lazy and never really worked on his game, especially after he got to the pros. I thought that Net team was going to dominate until Petro was killed in that car accident. That was a good team with a great coach. And then is all fell apart. Was listening to Karl Malone interviewed the other day and he said the two most physically gifted big men he ever played against were Coleman and Chris Webber but both were lazy and never worked hard to perfect their craft. What a shame. _
I would agree and that's one of the (number of) things that I didn't like about Boeheim, i.e. the way I processed that game at the time: that he'd let it slide with Coleman whereas a Knight would've had Derrick going the extra mile in that regard. Then again I could've also imagined Coleman saying "the hell with this tyrant" and checking out of Bloomington in short order….."Helllooo, Coach Boeheim!"
I'm still perplexed why Seikaly didn't call a timeout while the ball was slipping through the net. It was like he was in shock and the clock just ran out giving us no shot at a heave at the basket. Still Coleman hits the front end of that 1 and 1...? _
Couldn't be happier with the way Villanova is playing. To have this kind of a record in a conference in which 60% of it's teams is going ot qualify for the NCAA Tournament is astounding.
I have always, and I mean ALWAYS been an admirer of Rick Pitino. I have NEVER seen him lose control of a team like this, with the exception of his time with the Celtics.
Here is an interesting Statistic: Kansas has scheduled MORE games against the RPI Top 50 (14) than Gonzaga has scheduled against the RPI 150+ (13) Kansas has scheduled FEWER Games against the RPI 150+ (3) than Gonzaga has scheduled against the RPI Top 50 (5)
