The beauty of following multiple sports is that as soon as your season ends in one, you can throw yourself fully into another. The more pain you experience, the harder you go into the next season. I'm a Pats fan who had a real bad time on Sunday night. Needless to say, I woke up Monday morning thanking God for college hoops.
Over the past week, we've seen one team step above the rest as the favorites to win the title, a few others make a move up or down the ladder of momentum, and some individual performances that made you stop and go "holy crap that guy is good!"
Pitchers and catchers report next week, another great way to pretend 18-1 isn't as bad as it really was, but now is the time for hoops.
The week that was:
TUESDAY
Wake Forest 70, Miami (FL) 68 — In what has to have been one of the most difficult seasons for any team after the passing of Skip Prosser barely more than six months ago, Wake has nonetheless battled to a respectable 13-7 overall record with a 3-4 mark in the ACC after losing a heartbreaker at NC State on Sunday. In this one, promising freshman guard Jeff Teague scored a season-high 27 on 9-of-14 shooting (5-of-6 from three) and backcourt mate Ishmael Smith hit a three-pointer with three seconds left to extend Wake's home-court win streak to 16. They may not be ready to compete at the upper echelon of the conference, but the Deacs under head coach Dino Gaudio are one of the most inspirational stories in the country.
As for Miami, their loss at Duke on Saturday has them on a five-of-six losing streak and they now stand at 10th in the ACC with a 2-5 conference record. If you look at the overall season stats, they don't look so bad. But look at the conference-only stats, and you start to see where the problems are. They are only 10th in three-point percentage at .312 (from an ACC-best .393 on the season as a whole) and are dead last in three-point shooting percentage defense, allowing opponents to hit a ridiculous .417 from long range. They're tied with Wake for the fewest assists per game (10.71), and are last in steals per game at just 4.29.
I'm pretty sure the Hurricanes are on their way to full-fledged collapse already, but if they lose to Florida State on Wednesday we'll know for sure.
George Mason 63, Virginia Commonwealth 51 — The story of this one was the inside dominance of Will Thomas (21 points, 15 boards) and the Patriots over the Rams' frontcourt of Wil Fameni, Larry Sanders, Michael Anderson, and Franck Ndongo (two points apiece and a total of 21 rebounds in 80 total minutes). Another factor was the George Mason defense, forcing the VCU backcourt of Eric Maynor and Jamal Shuler into a combined nine turnovers.
With those factors in mind, these two lessons:
1. Be wary of VCU if they land a strong inside team in the tournament.
2. George Mason is a very dangerous team. They can attack inside and outside. They can score and defend. If they make the Dance, you have to strongly consider picking them in the upset.
Tennessee 93, Alabama 86 — Watching Alonzo Gee and Richard Hendrix combine for 47 points, 21 rebounds, and 5 blocks, I kept asking myself "how the hell are these guys only 1-4 in the SEC?" (They're 2-5 now after this loss and beating LSU on Saturday.) Then Tennessee pulled out in the end, and it became clear: the Tide just don't know how to win. Of their nine losses this year, only two have come by more than 10 points (76-63 at Texas A&M in November and 87-61 to Clemson on New Year's Day). Other than that, it's by two to Belmont, by 10 to Georgetown, by seven to Florida, by four to Arkansas, by seven to Georgia, by 10 to Mississippi State, and by seven in this one.
If both Gee and Hendrix come back for the senior years, when they should get point guard Ronald Steele back healthy, the Crimson Tide are the early favorites for my 2008-09 Preseason Sleeper of the Year candidate. If not, Mark Gottfried might be in for another year of enough talent to win, but not the Ws to show for it.
WEDNESDAY
St. Joseph's 61, George Washington 59 — One of the individual matchups I would most like to see in the NCAA tournament is St. Joe's senior Pat Calathes (18.2 ppg, 8.1 rpg, 46 percent from three) against younger brother and Florida freshman Nick Calathes (15.8 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 6.1 apg). If someone on the Selection Committee could take care of that for me, I would greatly appreciate it.
(Of course St. Joe's has some work left to do before they can qualify as an at-large. At 15-5 overall and 6-1 in the Atlantic 10, they are in position to get the job done. But it's not going to be easy. After last night's big win over Villanova, the Hawks still have a home-and-home with Xavier and road trips to Rhode Island and Dayton.)
Cincinnati 62, West Virginia 39 — It had to kill Bob Huggins to get beat that badly at his new home by the program he led so successfully for so many years. The fact they almost had as many turnovers (8) as they did made field goals (10) probably didn't feel too good. Neither did watching his team hit only 1-of-22 three-point attempts. Oh, and they also got out-rebounded 39-24.
And yet Joe Lunardi has the Mountaineers in the tournament as a 12 seed. Sorry, but I have to respectfully disagree. When you get your ass handed to you that badly at home by a sub-.500 team, you don't get an at-large bid. Call it the "I don't care if you play in the Big East, you can't suck that bad at home" rule.
UAB 88, Central Florida 81 — I'm calling February 16 in Birmingham as the day Memphis loses its undefeated record. Robert Vaden (20.8 ppg, 43.8 percent from three) will be the reason why.
North Carolina Central 67, Coppin State 65 — I know not many people outside of friends, family, and several dozen alumni care about either team, but this win pushed Central's record to 2-23 and was their first road win in 17 attempts. I thought it deserved special mention.
Nebraska 66, Missouri 62 — I gave my little spiel about how Missouri needed some institutional control last week, and Mike Anderson apparently was thinking the same thing. In addition to the injured Stefhon Hannah, Anderson suspended Darryl Butterfield, Leo Lyons, Jason Horton, and Marshall Brown for their roles in the altercation that led to Hannah's broken jaw.
1. Give Anderson credit. You can't have on-court discipline if you don't have off-court discipline. He's taking control of his program, and that's to be commended.
2. And Nebraska still only won by four. Not very impressive there, Doc.
Mississippi 75, Vanderbilt 58 — Good news for Vandy: they shot 100 percent from the free-throw line. Bad news: they only got to the line four times. Combined with the fact nearly half of Vanderbilt's shots were from three-point range (30-of-63) and you have the profile of a team that doesn't penetrate, doesn't attack the rim, and, as a result, can't win against top perimeter defenses. Teams that rely too heavily on jump shots don't win championships — not in the SEC and for damn sure not in the NCAA tournament.
Kansas State 84, Kansas 75 — Though it's obviously an upset when the undefeated number two team in the nation goes down, this one was fairly predictable. The Jayhawks walked into a building on fire in Manhattan, and the duo of Bill Walker and Michael Beasley provided the spark to fuel the upset. (Flaming metaphors!) Of particular note is that Beasley, a terror on the boards and low block, went 4-for-4 from three-point range. On the season, he's now averaging 24.9 points, 12.3 rebounds, 1.4 steals, and 1.8 blocks per game. He's shooting 56 percent from the floor, 74 percent from the free-throw line, and 42.6 percent from three. Somebody in the NBA is going to get a damn fine player in June.
Arkansas 78, Mississippi State 58 — The Hogs are an interesting team right now. In their last three games, they've beaten LSU on the road 68-52, beaten the Bulldogs by 20 in this one, then beat rising Florida 80-61 on Saturday. The last two are arguably their best wins of the season. At the same time, their resume has losses to Providence, Appalachian State (in Little Rock), and a double-drop to South Carolina and Georgia prior to beginning their current three-game win streak.
To some degree, you can pinpoint the inconsistency of the team on the inconsistency of Patrick Beverley. After a very sold first year in which he was named SEC Freshman of the Year, Beverley's shooting has regressed as a sophomore. Not a particularly high-percentage shooter last season at less than 43 percent, Beverley is now down to 39.6 percent. His free-throw shooting has dropped from 81 percent to 65 percent. You just don't see that kind of drop normally, though I haven't found any mention of an injury that might explain it.
The difference over these past few games is that Beverley is finding other ways to help the team win. After just one double-digit rebounding game in Arkansas' first 15, Beverley has gone double-digits four times in the last five games, including 37 combined in the last three. That's a lot of rebounds for a guy 6-foot-1 and generously listed at 180 pounds. With Sonny Weems hitting his shot (better than 50 percent over the last five), Arkansas can pretty much run with anybody.
The schedule is tough from here on out. After hosting Ole Miss this Saturday, the Hogs play five of seven on the road. And it's not an easy five — Tennessee, Mississippi State, Kentucky, Alabama, and the return game with the Rebels. Win at least two of those, plus take care of business at home (Mississippi, LSU, Vandy, and Auburn), and the Hogs shouldn't need another miracle run to the SEC tournament final to make the bracket.
Drake 75, Creighton 65 — Some perspective on the Bulldogs' nobody-in-the-world-saw-this-coming 21-1 start:
Going back to 1906, Drake has had 24 men's basketball coaches. Only two left with winning records at the program, Ossie Solem, who went 37-31 from 1921 to 1925, and the great Maury John, who went 211-131 as coach from 1958 to 1971. Drake's five all-time greatest seasons were all under John, the best of which was 26-5 in 1969, the year John was named national coach of the year.
Drake is 21-1 right now and riding a 19-game win streak. All they need to do is go 5-4 over their next 10 to equal the greatest season they've had in more than a century of basketball.
There's so much more you can write about Drake, it's crazy. For instance, senior guard Adam Emmenecker has gone from playing 11 minutes per game as a junior to 31 this year. His career high for assists was 5. Now he leads the Valley in assists per game at 5.67. There are these kinds of stories all over the Drake roster. I'm telling you — you've got to pay attention to these guys.
Lucky for us, ESPN has done the world a favor and paired the Bulldogs up with Butler (at Butler) in the Bracketbusters series on Saturday, February 23. Now there's a game to look forward to.
THURSDAY
North Carolina 91, Boston College 69 — So I know you probably know this already, but North Carolina and Duke play this Wednesday at the Dean Dome. It'll probably be on TV. You should check it out.
(You can't mess with Duke/North Carolina. You just can't. It's the single greatest rivalry in college sports, and there's no close second. End of discussion.)
(See how dumb that sounds? Do Duke and North Carolina fans really hate each other more than Oregon and Oregon State fans? Or what about BU and BC in college hockey or any of the other hundred-plus rivalries? You can't quantify the animosity between rivals to such a specific degree that you can say one is "better" than the other. Let's just say it'll probably be a really good game and move on.)
Minnesota 77, Michigan 65 — Just how did Michigan get to be this bad? Mitch Albom should write a book about it, call it "How Out of Control Boosters Killed Michigan Basketball" or something like that. There's a bonus for Albom in that the sequel "How Out of Control Boosters Killed USC Football" is only about five years away from being ready to be written.
Western Kentucky 71, Arkansas-Little Rock 47; North Texas 70, South Alabama 68 — I put these together because Western Kentucky/South Alabama is going to be one of those great Championship Week games (assuming seeding holds). Both teams are 10-1 in conference, with South Alabama currently holding the head-to-head advantage. The two play again February 21 at Western Kentucky. The Sun Belt has had some upsets in the NCAA tournament in the past, and both of these teams have the talent to pull it off again. Only one of them will actually get the chance.
Wisconsin 62, Indiana 49 — One of my favorite individual performances of the week was courtesy Wisconsin junior Joe Krabbenhoft. This was the perfect example of a guy playing way beyond his stats. His six points were nice, but the rebounding and passing were exceptional. Of his 12 rebounds, six were on the offensive end, leading directly to 11 Badgers points. He also had five assists and has a better than 2:1 assist-to-turnover ration on the season (64 assists, 29 turnovers). If you look at the stat board, Krabbenhoft isn't going to jump out at you, but he's one of the main reasons Wisconsin has a chance to go deep this year.
Stanford 65, Washington 51 — You have guys like Krabbenhoft who do the little things, and then you have guys like Stanford's Brook Lopez who straight demolish people. He put up 31 points and 13 rebounds with three blocks in this one. Since becoming eligible in late December, Lopez has scored in double digits in all but one of the Cardinal's dozen games. He's averaging 18.9 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 2.1 blocks per game. As an Arizona fan, I'll be glad to see him head off to the NBA next year.
California 69, Washington State 64 — Speaking of great individual lines in the Pac-10, Cal sophomore Ryan Anderson in this one: 27 points on 9-of-13 shooting (5-of-7 from three), with 9 rebounds. He then went out on Saturday and put up 33 and 17 on Washington for a grand total of 60 points (20-of-32 from the field, 11-of-11 from the free-throw line, 9-of-16 from three) and 26 rebounds as the Bears got the road sweep to pull themselves right back in the middle of the Pac. (Pun unintentional, but I'm leaving it in.)
Arizona 80, USC 69 — Pardon the triple foray into the Pac-10, but I wanted to point out that though Arizona pulled this one out thanks to the incredible shooting of Chase Budinger (29 points) and a career-best 23 from Jawann McClellan, Jerryd Bayless was totally outplayed by O.J. Mayo. Actually, Mayo went after Bayless like he had just caught him making a move on his girl. It seemed personal.
FRIDAY
Went to see G Love and Special Sauce at The Pageant here in St. Louis. Good show, though G Love was sick and only played about an hour and a half. Still, dude can play. Plus his bass player (stand-up bass, not electric) had a sick solo. That was awesome. Also, the drummer looks like the kid from Rushmore grown up with dreds.
Princeton 57, Dartmouth 53 — Somehow, this was Princeton's first conference game of the year. How do you make it to February without playing a single game in your conference? Ivy Leaguers think they're so smart. Stupid Ivy League.
SATURDAY
Syracuse 87, Villanova 73 — I've been saying the Orange are in trouble because of their lack of depth, but they are sitting in a very good position at 16-7 and 6-4 in conference. They have a good RPI of 36 and a great overall strength of schedule of six. As long as they don't collapse here at the end, they're in the NCAA tournament with a decent seed. And once you get Donte Green and Jonny Flynn in a tournament setting, who knows how far they can go? This is a dangerous team.
Connecticut 60, Pittsburgh 53 — Talk about your resurgent Big East programs. UConn is one of the hottest teams in the conference, having won five in a row with victories over Marquette, Indiana, Louisville, and Pittsburgh. Their game tomorrow night against Syracuse at the Carrier Dome should be one of the best of the week.
Missouri 77, Kansas State 74 — Ah, the let-down game. True gambling gold.
Rhode Island 82, Dayton 70 — I've been harping on URI forward Kahiem Seawright for a while now, and he's starting to come through. In this game and the win over Richmond on Wednesday, Seawright totaled 27 points and 14 rebounds. He got to the free-throw line 17 times, showing his increased aggressiveness attacking the rim. He also had three blocks in this one.
There are a lot of keys to the Rams' impressive 19-3 start, but Seawright is going to have to continue to force his will for Rhode Island to make a serious run.
Texas Tech 67, Oklahoma State 60 — Let the record show Bob Knight went out a winner. A brief career profile: 1,273 career games, 902 wins, 29 20-win seasons, four 30-win seasons, one perfect season, 28 NCAA tournaments, 3 national championships.
Also, a note to Red Raiders fans: sons have had a fairly decent run taking over for their fathers lately. Two examples: Tony Bennett taking over for dad Dick at Washington State and the Davis transition at Drake. Pat Knight may not be Bob Knight, but that doesn't mean he can't have great success leading the program into the future.
Purdue 83, Illinois 75 — Can I go ahead and claim victory now for picking the Boilermakers as my 2007-08 Sleeper of the Year in my preview column? 18-5 with a 9-1 record in the Big Ten is pretty good for a team with the youngest starting five in the conference, right?
Penn State 85, Michigan State 76 — The Spartans are the worst best team in the country. They play down to their opponents, blow big leads and are inconsistent with their defensive intensity. They can play with anybody when they're on (beat Texas, played UCLA tough), but can also be beat by anybody (Iowa and Penn State are a combined 22-23 and 7-13 in conference). If they get matched up with a team like Davidson or George Mason, State is going down.
UCLA 82, Arizona 60 — When you're looking at that fresh clean bracket, and you're thinking of all the possibilities and all the matchups, find UCLA, then write them into the Final Four. Don't worry about who they play. Don't worry about who's hot or anything like that. Just write down UCLA to the Final Four. They're that good.
UNLV 79, New Mexico 60 — With an RPI in the 20s, you'd think the Rebels would be in good shape if they should fall in the Mountain West tournament. But they don't have any marquis wins (only BYU was in the RPI top 50), which could haunt them, as would losses to UC Santa Barbara (RPI 96) and Air Force (184). With nine games remaining in the regular season, UNLV probably has to win at least seven or eight (including all five home games) in order to survive the upset. They play at Utah tomorrow night.
SUNDAY
Let's just pretend Sunday didn't happen.
MONDAY
Louisville 71, Marquette 57 — Something about playing Louisville must bother Marquette forward Lazar Hayward. Averaging 13 points on 51 percent shooting, he's now combined to hit just 4-of-20 shot attempts for a total of 11 points in Marquette's two losses to the Cardinals. For those gamblers out there, remember that in case these two meet again in the Big Eat tournament.
Saint Mary's 89, Gonzaga 85 (OT) — Both of these teams are going to be on your bracket. If you missed this one, they play again March 1 in Spokane, and then most likely again in the WCC conference tournament final.
Seth Doria is a writer based out of St. Louis. For the only daily column that mixes sports, politics, and entertainment news in one, visit The Left Calf.
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