College Hoops 2006-2007

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Duke is not that good of a team this year. I can't believe a bad Indiana team that was playing badly was able to have a last second shot to tie at Cameron.
 
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For now, Butler's 7-0 start would be enough to earn a (1) next to the Bulldogs' name in the AP Top 25 if I still had a vote. Yes, I'm serious. I agree with Jay Bilas: The Top 25 should serve as nothing more than a snapshot of the current state of college basketball, and who has done more to date than Butler? (UCLA, maybe. But where's the fun in that?)

Gonzaga reached the final opposite Butler by snatching the heart out of then-No. 2 North Carolina. The Zags were down 10-0, but from that point on basically dominated the game. That set the stage for a Horizon League-West Coast Conference final -- pretty much what everyone had in their NIT office pool, right?

(OK, maybe next year somebody organizes an NIT office pool. A small one.)

The Missouri Valley is doing what it does best: upsetting higher-profile teams with tempo, toughness, defense and poise. Wichita State beat then-No. 6 LSU in Baton Rouge; Missouri State beat then-No. 7 Wisconsin on a neutral floor; Illinois State beat St. John's; Southern Illinois beat two teams from prime-time leagues, Minnesota and Virginia Tech; and Bradley walloped two Big East teams, DePaul and Rutgers.

(In fairness it should be noted that the preseason glam team in the Valley, Creighton, was upset by Nebraska, but I'd imagine the Bluejays would still trade athletic budgets with the Cornhuskers anytime.)

In fact, the Big East has taken all manner of lumps from supposedly lesser programs: Georgetown lost to Old Dominion; Cincinnati lost to Wofford; Providence lost to Brown; Louisville lost to Dayton; Villanova lost to Xavier; and St. John's and Rutgers have lost to just about everybody. Kind of the opposite of the football zen in the league right now.

There have been many other uprisings against teams from the Big Six conferences that tend to get most of the NCAA bids: Oral Roberts memorably took down then-No. 2 Kansas in Lawrence; Winthrop won at Mississippi State; Western Kentucky won at Georgia. And the Mountain West has been kneecapping Big Six teams left and right: Air Force by 34 over Stanford, by 38 over Colorado and by 14 over Texas Tech; New Mexico by 41 over Colorado and 24 over Kansas State; and San Diego State over California.

The obvious question is why. A few theories:

Neutral courts. Early-season tournaments often afford underdogs a chance to play the big boys on fairly even footing. Ask most mid-major coaches and that's all they ask for: an even shot outside the other team's gym.

The NIT did a wise and wonderful thing by moving its early-round games to at least pseudo-neutral sites. Butler got a chance to play Notre Dame and Indiana at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis as opposed to South Bend and Bloomington. I'd imagine coach Todd Lickliter was grateful for the opportunity.

Now, if we could get the Maui Invitational to open its field to another team from outside the power conferences besides Chaminade, we might see parity make it all the way to paradise.

Experience. In a time when big-time programs so often seem to be permanently young due to early entry to the NBA draft, George Mason was dominated by upperclassmen who knew how to play the game and knew how to play together. Same with many of the giant slayers this year.

Oral Roberts is led by four-year starters Caleb Green and Ken Tutt. Kansas, for all its talent, is led in scoring by a freshman and followed by three sophomores. That disparity had to factor in to the shocker in Lawrence.

Butler's top seven scorers all are juniors and seniors. Air Force's starting five consists of four seniors and a junior. Wichita State's six leading scorers are all juniors and seniors. Winthrop's top five in minutes played are all juniors and seniors.

The difference in experience levels should, theoretically, be an even bigger factor in November than in March. Many teams are trying to work hotshot recruits into their rotations right now, figuring out which combinations work best. Coaches dealing with upperclassmen don't have as many mix-and-match issues at this time of year.

Motivation. This is an age-old issue when overdogs play underdogs, but it's probably more pronounced in the early season than in the NCAAs, when every game is do-or-die. The so-called lesser teams and players have something to prove -- and some of the mid-major schools certainly have a stronger grasp of the stakes in these early games. You think Missouri State, after its NCAA Tournament snub last year, wasn't fully aware what a neutral-court win over Wisconsin would do for its postseason résumé?

The youth basketball star system is bad for college ball, especially the high end. This is not breaking news, and certainly not a new refrain from me. AAU basketball and shoe wars have retarded the progress and warped the perspectives of some players who are wearing the most glamorous jerseys, making them harder to coach. (Which is why the movement to deflate the summer shoe-camp scene is a promising development.)

I'm guessing Lickliter, Wichita State's Mark Turgeon, Winthrop's Gregg Marshall, Western Kentucky's Darrin Horn and Air Force's Jeff Bzdelik don't have to spend an inordinate time attending to inflated and easily bruised egos. Their rosters tend to be populated with solid players who are more familiar with basketball fundamentals than the phone numbers of agent runners.

So you have a few theories to agree or disagree with, but you cannot dispute the results of this first jarring month. Now we'll see whether the Mason Revolution has legs.
Click to expand...

:drool:
 
Dalton said:



I don't believe it. The big 10 is a basket ball powerhouse. House of Power I tell you. Built with bricks and mortar.
Click to expand...

uh huh... the acc has never lost the acc/big10 challange... duke, in fact, is undefeated over the history of the tourney.

only purdue, wisconsin and northwestern won this year. big10 ain't lookin' so big.
 
Ohio State-Wisconsin was pretty intense. Greg Oden has to learn to move around and stop letting other big men push him out of the lane.
 
There's talk around Columbus that Oden is serioulsy considering staying another year. He loves Ohio State. He loves Matta. He loves his team.

I'm sure he would love to be a multi-millionaire too though.
 
I understand why people all think he's going to leave. But he seemed pretty sincere that he wanted to stay at Ohio State longer than just one year before the year even started. And I personally think he's staying.

I know kids say that all the time and leave for the NBA so we'll see what happens when attractive contracts get thrown in his face. But I've always been a little skeptical myself and if I were a NBA GM, I'd surely have a plan that does not involve him leaving early as my top option.
 
nick saban seemed pretty sincere, too...


oden is in the driver's seat. he knows he'll be the #1 overall pick no matter if he comes out this year or next. so my guess is he's just looking to see what teams have the best chances to get the #1 pick before he makes his decision on wether or not to come out.

The 10 worst teams in the league, record wise, are...
10. Sacramento
9. Chicago (via New York :mad:)
8. Portland
7. Boston
6. NO/Oklahoma City
5. Atlanta
4. Seattle
3. Charlotte
2. Philadelphia
1. Memphis

if I were Oden, the only teams on that list I'd want to go to if i had the choice, which he does, are Philly, Boston and Chicago... to maximize his marketability.
 
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The Celtics never get quite bad enough to win the lottery...jeez, they even suck at sucking :(

No upperclassmen playing for my school (UConn) this year, basically whatever they do is just building for next year. Though it would be nice if they did well in March and erased last year's fiasco from my memory. I mean, George Mason? George Mason??? Ugh.
 
If Pierce can remain injured for a while, the Celts could slide right to Odenland.
If he returns soon, they could win the Atlantic Division.
(Of course the difference between the Atlantic title and the #1 pick will be about 3 games)
 
Hewson said:
If Pierce can remain injured for a while, the Celts could slide right to Odenland.
If he returns soon, they could win the Atlantic Division.
(Of course the difference between the Atlantic title and the #1 pick will be about 3 games)
Click to expand...

Well, the Celtics lost another player tonight, so they are heading in the right direction.
 
Brian Scalabrine went down too.

Quite possibly the goofiest and whitest "Token Goofy White Guy" I have ever seen.
 
Goofier than Connor Henry or Jerry Sichting? Wow.

But yeah, he might be.
 
When Connor Henry and Jerry Sichting played, the Celts didn't have token white guys, the roster was usually over 50% white, just ask Spike Lee.
 
Chizip said:
Man oh man I love having a real basketball coach

:bow: Kelvin Sampson
Click to expand...

tell kelvin sampson to stop sending us mail.

really... we get letters from indiana every week. we even got a christmas card with the team picture on it. i don't care. we got one from maryland and hofstra, too, but we know hofstra's coach and maryland had a player from here not too long ago (drew nicholas) so that makes sense, too. sampson sends us motivational quotes from water polo coaches. and i didn't make that up.
 
LemonMacPhisto said:
Brian Scalabrine went down too.

Quite possibly the goofiest and whitest "Token Goofy White Guy" I have ever seen.
Click to expand...

scalabrine would be a very productive player on a good team.

but for best token white guy, my vote will always remain with eric anderson. how many token white guys have their own wikipedia entries? not many, i assure you...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Anderson_(basketball)
 
Headache in a Suitcase said:


scalabrine would be a very productive player on a good team.

but for best token white guy, my vote will always remain with eric anderson. how many token white guys have their own wikipedia entries? not many, i assure you...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Anderson_(basketball)
Click to expand...

Yes, like he was in New Jersey. But under Doc Rivers, everyone is wasted :happy:

I wish I was a NBA fanatic in the '90s:

During Anderson's time with the Knicks he only played at the end of blowout victories. At Madison Square Garden fans would chant his name hoping he would get a chance to play. At the time, he was the only white player on the roster. His career highlight came at the end of a blowout victory during the 1993-94 NBA season where he hit a meaningless 3 pointer at the buzzer and fans celebrated like the Knicks just won a championship.
Click to expand...
 
Hewson said:
When Connor Henry and Jerry Sichting played, the Celts didn't have token white guys, the roster was usually over 50% white, just ask Spike Lee.
Click to expand...

That's true.

And I forgot Kurt Rambis...man I hated Rambis, not as much as Laimbeer, but up there.
 
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