Around the Country (Nov 16-22)

[HCheek37]

I figured we could use a thread to post opinions and reactions to other games around the country on a weekly format since this season looks to be wide open, there are many teams to keep an eye on.

For this week, we've already seen some upsets Bama/Miss St falling, and alot of top 15 teams challenged (Kansas, Mich St., Kentucky, UConn, etc)

I'll be starting it each week...thanks for the insight and opinions.

[HCheek37]

They looked impressive for a non-ranked team. In fact we might see them move into the Top 25 because of an 'impressive loss'. Duke has them on the schedule at MSG on December 19th and while the Zags didn't receive much hype this year, I definitely feel that they will be the impressive group they usually are.

[Reisen]

Gonzaga looked awesome, and I felt they deserved to win that game, after leading nearly the entire time.

I'm still wondering why Memphis went for a 3 at the end of their game, when they only needed a 2 to tie it. They clearly had the momentum, and I think would have won by 5 or 6 in overtime.

[NYC Duke Fan]

They looked impressive for a non-ranked team. In fact we might see them move into the Top 25 because of an 'impressive loss'. Duke has them on the schedule at MSG on December 19th and while the Zags didn't receive much hype this year, I definitely feel that they will be the impressive group they usually are.

They Are Big !!!

[HCheek37]

definitely agree on your point about memphis, williams had hit the big three earlier but as Jay Williams said on twitter you have to go to the bucket there because it gives you so many more ways to tie it. (Made shot, rebound and put back, foul) instead of a contested 3. Kansas clearly got taken out of their style last night by a gritty Memphis team.

[HCheek37]

Wednesday night games...

Can Cornell beat UMASS for a 2nd road win against bigger conference opponent ?

Butler is only favored by 5 against Northwestern even after NW lost several of their top players.

Lastly we get first looks at big program teams as Florida and Texas open as 20+ pt favorites..

[HCheek37]

Well, Cornell and Butler did pull off the road wins. Impressive...Texas also looked pretty deadly.

We have an interesting schedule today, some day games including a top 25 matchup between Ga Tech and Dayton.

Tonight we have Syracuse vs Cal and UNC vs Ohio St...any thoughts on these games? Cal and UNC are slight favorites

[juise]

And down go the Jackets (http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=293230059) in their first game against good competition. I hope they pick up some momentum (and victories) in their upcoming PR tournament games.

[dukelifer]

And down go the Jackets (http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=293230059) in their first game against good competition. I hope they pick up some momentum (and victories) in their upcoming PR tournament games.

Box score is interesting- Dayton has a kid who played 3 minutes and scored 19 points and had 7 bounds- now that is a production!

[Indoor66]

Box score is interesting- Dayton has a kid who played 3 minutes and scored 19 points and had 7 bounds- now that is a production!

Look again, that guy played 28 mins.

Paul Hewett just cannot get it done. I imagine this will be his last year at Tech - especially in face of the immediate success of Football.

[BlueintheFace]

GMU currently handing it to an overrated Villanova squad that misses Cunningham more than anybody will admit IMO... lets see if the supernova can battle back

[A-Tex Devil]

Well, Cornell and Butler did pull off the road wins. Impressive...Texas also looked pretty deadly.

We have an interesting schedule today, some day games including a top 25 matchup between Ga Tech and Dayton.

Tonight we have Syracuse vs Cal and UNC vs Ohio St...any thoughts on these games? Cal and UNC are slight favorites

Texas is S.I.C.K. sick. They are 2 deep at every position . They remind me a lot of our '97-'98 team - only probably more talented.

If they learn how to play together and Barnes can find a decent 8-9 rotation when the schedule gets rough (and theirs does -- more than any team in the country), they are going to be a tough out. It's possible the 2 best teams are in the Big XII. The two deepest certainly are.

[MulletMan]

Look again, that guy played 28 mins.

Paul Hewett just cannot get it done. I imagine this will be his last year at Tech - especially in face of the immediate success of Football.

Ummm. I don't know if this is a case of "not getting it done". Dayton is a team that returns 4 of 5 starters, and 10 of its 11 top scorers from last year along with a solid NBA prospect in Christ Wright (you know, "that guy" who had the double-double against GT). Tech was actually ahead by 7 late in the game, but UD mounted a furious comeback with D and timely 3-point shooting. I think we may have benefited from the fact that we're experienced and hungry and GT is still learning how all the pieces fit together.

Back to your comment, though, I'd say this is less of GT not getting it done, and an experienced UD team doing what it needed to win a close game.

[Duvall]

Texas is S.I.C.K. sick. They are 2 deep at every position . They remind me a lot of our '97-'98 team - only probably more talented.

Did they get a new team after last season? Who did they add?

[airowe]

Did they get a new team after last season? Who did they add?

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/teams/roster?teamId=251

Avery Bradley was regarded by some scouts to be an even better prospect than John Wall. He should add to an experienced lineup headlined by Damian James and Jai Lucas and sandwiched by (sorry couldn't resist) 6' 10" 298 lb. Dexter Pittman.

And they do have a Melchionni as well...

[A-Tex Devil]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/teams/roster?teamId=251

Avery Bradley was regarded by some scouts to be an even better prospect than John Wall. He should add to an experienced lineup headlined by Damian James and Jai Lucas and sandwiched by (sorry couldn't resist) 6' 10" 298 lb. Dexter Pittman.

And they do have a Melchionni as well...

The thing about Texas is that last year they had decent talent, but the parts didn't fit. They **SHOULD** have those parts this year. Not only is Avery Bradley a stud frosh, so is Jordan Hamilton. J'Covan Brown has been the best freshman thus far and they get Jai Lucas in December.

Pittman was a force by the end of last year and may be the most underrated post player in the country. Damian James can play slashing glass eater and is going to get a TON of open looks. He also doesn't have to do as much as he did last year.

The main issue is going to be PG. Balbay can handle witht he best of them and play D, but he is a Doug Gottleib clone and can't shoot. J'Covan Brown and Jai Lucas are both similar to Nolan. Not necessarily in their game, but in that they aren't natural points and will be asked to play a lot of PG.

Justin Mason who was a glue guy and is a senior may hardly see any minutes this year, which says something about the talent influx.

[BlueintheFace]

Did they get a new team after last season? Who did they add?

Saw them last night. They have the POTENTIAL to be scary good... championship good.

PG: Balbay still there, but junior college commit J'covan Brown is a definite upgrade. Also, you guys might remember former UF PG Jai Lucas. He is the THIRD!! option for UT at PG.

SG: Top5 Freshman Avery Bradley joins sharp shooter Varez Ward and all-around glue guy Justin Mason

SF: Top tier freshman Jordan Hamilton joins UT's best player Damion James

Big Men: Damion James and Big old Dexter Pittman are a year older and might be the best frontcourt in the Big XII (I'd take them over Cole Ostertag and his buddies any day). Gary Johnson comes off the bench at this position too

...and of course they have a Melchionni

WEAKNESS: Coaching. Everybody in Austin knows it and kind of hope that Barnes has recruited enough pure talent to overcome his X's and O's weaknesses...

[A-Tex Devil]

WEAKNESS: Coaching. Everybody in Austin knows it and kind of hope that Barnes has recruited enough pure talent to overcome his X's and O's weaknesses...

I think J'Covan is technically a frosh and didn't play anywhere last year. He has had some issues both academically and with his temper, but seems to be on the right track now. The fact that he worked his but off the last year to get enrolled when he could have just gone the JC route is telling

I'm not as down on Barnes as most folks. His in game "X's" are certainly good IMHO, even if his "O's" sometimes leave something to be desired. But I think one thing he is good at -- developing players -- should be an advantage here. He's going to have a lot of playing time to juggle, and there are guys getting 15-20-ish minutes right now (Mason, Ward, Wangmeme) that may not be in the rotation come February.

What they will have is the ability to put several different lineups on the floor and play much more situationally with minimal talent drop off. Only KU can match the Horns in that department.

[Bluedog]

GMU still up on 'Nova 54-49 with 9:03 to go. Corey Fisher has an interesting line: 1-7 FG, 12-14 FT for 15 pts. Taylor King, by the way, started the game and has 5 pts, 4 rebounds, and 4 fouls.

Edit: Nova now up 56-54 with 7:08 to go...

[BlueintheFace]

GMU up 3 with 1:43 to go. This is a very young GMU team not even picked to win their conference I don't think.

[InSpades]

This is like an early Thanksgiving present to a Duke fan in a Villanova dominated family :).

To Villanova's credit, they are missing 2 of their top players. I'm assuming Redding would normally start, and in his absence they were starting Yarou. Neither of them were available.

They should still be able to handle GMU though.

Or not. Only beating GMU by 1 is still bad I guess though.

[jesus_hurley]

definitely agree on your point about memphis, williams had hit the big three earlier but as Jay Williams said on twitter you have to go to the bucket there because it gives you so many more ways to tie it. (Made shot, rebound and put back, foul) instead of a contested 3. Kansas clearly got taken out of their style last night by a gritty Memphis team.

I think there a couple of reasons a three was taken:
1. You remember E-Will's free throw shooting from last year right? He may have tied the game slashing to the middle but no way in Chapel Hill he'd tie it from the line...
2. Coaching. Pastner is an excellent recruiter. This is his first season as a college head coach.

[BlueintheFace]

GMU down 1 w/ 13 seconds to go. GET TO THE FOUL LINE!!!

[Pernell]

Look again, that guy played 28 mins.

Paul Hewett just cannot get it done. I imagine this will be his last year at Tech - especially in face of the immediate success of Football.

Yeah, I was going to comment on this.

So I guess if he doesn't not only make it to the NCAA's but at least get to the Sweet 16, he may be in trouble. Is this a fair assessment?

[jesus_hurley]

And down go the Jackets (http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=293230059) in their first game against good competition. I hope they pick up some momentum (and victories) in their upcoming PR tournament games.

Some interesting tidbits from the boxscore:
Favors with a double double
GT with 0 blocks
All of Dayton's double digit scorers came off the bench
GT didn't help their cause by shooting 55% from the line

[CMARTZ]

Another top 10 team goes down to the wire.

Villanova takes it by 1.

[Wander]

Back to your comment, though, I'd say this is less of GT not getting it done, and an experienced UD team doing what it needed to win a close game.

You're both right. Dayton is a good team AND Georgia Tech has awful coaching.

[cbnaylor]

I know that this is random, but UNCG (which has Coach K's Roots) looked pretty good against VT. Not to mention that they looked better against Duke than any other opponent Duke has faced so far.

UNCG will be facing Clemson on Friday night and we all know that this will probably be another beat down for this school, but I believe that they will finally get a win against the ACC this year....what do others think.

They still have Clemson, Wake, NC State,and Maryland.

[airowe]

I think there a couple of reasons a three was taken:
1. You remember E-Will's free throw shooting from last year right? He may have tied the game slashing to the middle but no way in Chapel Hill he'd tie it from the line...
2. Coaching. Pastner is an excellent recruiter. This is his first season as a college head coach.

Memphis was down by two at the time the errant shot was taken. No reason a three should have ever been taken...

[jesus_hurley]

I know that this is random, but UNCG (which has Coach K's Roots) looked pretty good against VT. Not to mention that they looked better against Duke than any other opponent Duke has faced so far.

UNCG will be facing Clemson on Friday night and we all know that this will probably be another beat down for this school, but I believe that they will finally get a win against the ACC this year....what do others think.

They still have Clemson, Wake, NC State,and Maryland.

IF they were to get a win this year against the ACC odds are it'll be against State. I'd love to see them beat Maryland though

[RainingThrees]

if Paul Hewitt is mediocre this year is he done at GT? I know he just brought in a big class but they have been struggling in recent years.

[jesus_hurley]

Memphis was down by two at the time the errant shot was taken. No reason a three should have ever been taken...

I agree - but that's where the inexperienced coaching comes into play. Anybody remember if Memphis had any timeouts left?

[cbnaylor]

I think Paul can recruit well but there comes a point where you have to win games with these type of players.

[airowe]

I agree - but that's where the inexperienced coaching comes into play. Anybody remember if Memphis had any timeouts left?

No, they didn't.

[InSpades]

Memphis was down by two at the time the errant shot was taken. No reason a three should have ever been taken...

What's wrong with taking a 3 down by 2? If you assume 50% on field goals and a 50% chance to win in overtime, taking a 2 gives you a 25% chance to win the game. Taking a 3 likely gives you a better chance to win the game. There is obviously more to it but I don't see anything wrong with playing for the win instead of playing for overtime.

[Greg_Newton]

I don't know, going for the win against a superior opponent on their home court is pretty common practice. Plus I don't know know if I'd wanna challenge Cole Aldrich in that situation. I don't know why he didn't take it with a few more seconds though.

IMO, we're going to see a pretty unprecedented amount of parity and week-to-week rebalancing in college basketball this year. There just doesn't seem to be all that much of a difference between a top 10 team and a top 40 team...


Some interesting tidbits from the boxscore:
Favors with a double double
GT with 0 blocks
All of Dayton's double digit scorers came off the bench
GT didn't help their cause by shooting 55% from the line

Favors actually just had 10 and 6... not too impressive. And he was tied for the high scorer for the game for Tech. You'd think that one of their future pros could hit 11 against Dayton...

Also interesting that both teams had 20+ turnovers. Doesn't exactly sound like a sterling example of a well-played basketball game, overall.

[airowe]

InSpades, I agree with you in principle but we're talking about Elliott Williams here. He's not exactly known as a 3 point specialist.

[HCheek37]

Another top 10 team goes down to the wire.

Villanova takes it by 1.

wow did anyone see Scottie Reynolds having 10+ turnovers? We coulda used that about 8 months ago.

i know its easy to be swayed, but how can villanova be a top 5 team, I didn't see anything close to that yesterday. They seem to really miss Cunningham.

Anyone know something different? I'm not sure Taylor King is the answer..

[cbnaylor]

Good, about time.....I finally want to see a non-Duke player not be able to succeed. I know that this might sound a little harsh, but I'm still bitter about the way Taylor King went about the whole situation.

[HCheek37]

I know we have a UNC / Ohio St thread but interesting game last night.

Notes: UNC wins with 20 turnovers, and shoots well from the 3 (7-15). Lastly, for all the hype surrounding Ed Davis (which is probably deserved) he had 4 fouls and ended up with only 7 points.

Cuse also looked really solid, shot the ball very well, and a guy named Scoop came off the bench for 20+. They are considered a 5-7th place team in the Big East and if this is anywhere near their average performance they are gonna be tough in that deep conference.

Elsewhere in the ACC, Miami beat Tulane by 20, looks like a well rounded performance even after a slow start (5 pt lead at half). More impressive was Virginia who was only a 5 pt favorite (or so) against Rider but dominated in winning by 33. No one really dominated from Virginia's side but they played well as a team and sit at 2-1.

[airowe]

How bout some love for UNCW? They looked good upsetting Penn st.

[Olympic Fan]

How bout some love for UNCW? They looked good upsetting Penn st.

Wilmington did look good -- I got to see a large chunk of their victory over Penn State. They'll get a better test this afternoon. Although it was somehow overlooked in the DBR's ACC Roundup, Miami meets UNC Wilmington today at 3 p.m. in Charleston. The winner probably gets South Carolina in the finals tomorrow.

As for Georgia Tech, I'd withhold judgment just a little bit. I don't find it so terrible that a young team should struggle a bit early against a very solid, experienced opponent (and Dayton was ranked higher than GT in the coaches' poll, just behind them in the AP poll).

Free throw shooting might be a concern -- bad FT shooting cost the Jackets several games last year and the early signs suggest it will be a problem this year too.

[jesus_hurley]

I know we have a UNC / Ohio St thread but interesting game last night.

Notes: UNC wins with 20 turnovers, and shoots well from the 3 (7-15). Lastly, for all the hype surrounding Ed Davis (which is probably deserved) he had 4 fouls and ended up with only 7 points.

Cuse also looked really solid, shot the ball very well, and a guy named Scoop came off the bench for 20+. They are considered a 5-7th place team in the Big East and if this is anywhere near their average performance they are gonna be tough in that deep conference.

Elsewhere in the ACC, Miami beat Tulane by 20, looks like a well rounded performance even after a slow start (5 pt lead at half). More impressive was Virginia who was only a 5 pt favorite (or so) against Rider but dominated in winning by 33. No one really dominated from Virginia's side but they played well as a team and sit at 2-1.

Tonight's game between the Cuse and the Sheep should be a good one. I'm interested to see how UNC-CH handles the zone and if their shooting continues to be better then expected. Particularly Ginyard. Which Where will see the most time?

[HCheek37]

Miami currently leads 27-26 at half over UNC-Wilm. They lead 26-17 before a 10-0 run to finish the half

[juise]

I don't know if "exposed" is the right word to use for Cal this early in the season, but if this score holds up (47-28 OSU), they have not had a good showing in New York... at all.

[juise]

Coach Caple's Sooners trail the Maynor-less VCU Rams 61-49 with 12:35 remaining. I hope they can pull this one off. There's no box score on ESPN, so I have no idea whether their big guns are in foul trouble.