Category: College Basketball (Page 110 of 153)

A couple of games caught my eye yesterday. St. Joes upset of #11 Xavier at home may have saved their season. By beating the Muskateers 71-66, they provided a late season marquee win to their resume. At 18-10 and 9-6 they are in the hunt. A win at Dayton and a couple of conference tournament wins will put them in. But they still have work to do.

In the Valley, Wichita State ended a depleted season with Head Coach Greg Marshall being thrown out of the game. Watching it on replay made me even more furious at the officials. He was thrown out for turning around quickly in the coaches box. Not a word was uttered. They ended up losing by four (the number of technical foul shots Indiana State made). Do you think the officials will be penalized for this lack of judgement. Once again a game is taken out of the players hands. Why do officials have such big egos?

In the other Valley game, Missouri State perservered and won their fourth game in a row. Withg rumors swirling about Coach Barry Hinson’s dismissal (and Eddie Sutton’s hiring–didn’t he have a crash a year ago while drunk on the way to the team plane? Then another AD hires him mid-year and he doesn’t show any improvement at USF. Sounds like a good move to me.) Sorry about the tangent…
Missouri State takes on Illinois State today in hopes of keeping their season alive.

Over in the Big South, I watched two great games. Check out this clip of 7’7 Kenny George of UNC-Asheville. If he stays healthy he could be a ten year pro.

In a season that has been plagued by injuries and inexperienced play, Bucknell has regained a little of that post season magic. The Bison who own NCAA tournament wins over Kansas and Arkansas the past two years found themselves down 2 points with under 4 seconds to go in the third overtime of their first round game with Navy.

It was senior John Griffin, who coach Pat Flannery has said is the heart and soul of this team, kept his and the Bisons year alive. He took the inbounds pass and took two dribbles and banked in a shot just inside halfcourt to give Bucknell a two point win.

So look out Kansas, Bucknell isn’t done yet…

Speaking of done, Coach Perry Watson has resigned after fifteen years at the helm of Detroit. Watson, who took a leave of absence around Christmas time due to health reasons, made it official after their opening round loss to Wright State.

Not done yet, rumor has it that Eddie Sutton is all over the Missouri State job. That’s right, another job that hasn’t opened has caught the eye and interest of Sutton. Also, Nolan Richardson is a leading candidate at Arkansas State. I am ordering my tickets for the Arkansas-Arkansas State game right now.

Michael Beasley may have had a double-double against Colorado last night, but it was seniorClent Stewart who stole the show. Check out this pregame. A night to remember.

Ohio State took a huge step towards making the NCAA field with their 80-77 win over Purdue last night. After losing to Minnesota on the road over the weekend they may need three more wins to get in. Fortunately, they have one more shot against Michigan State at home. A win puts them at 10-8 in the Big Ten and in need of at least a first round tournament win.

Thad Matta has done an excellent job with a young team that lacks a true leader. That’s why I think they may miss Mike Conley more than Greg Oden.

Michael Beasley just keeps rolling along. He put up another double-double last night and almost had it at halftime (20-7). He needs just four more to break the record held by David Robinson when he was at Navy. And what amazes me most is that there are some columnists who say he is not the player of the year. They want to vote for Tyler Hansborough. Please!! Take Hansborough off North Carolina and they are still a tourney team. Take Beasley away from the Wildcats and they are barely sniffing the NIT.

Media people can’t hold it against Beasley that he is only a freshman and that he plays at a school with little recent basketball success. Come to your senses people…

According to sources from Fox Sports both Barry Hinson of Missouri State and Mike LaPlante of Jacksonville State will be released at the end of the season. LaPlante in his eigth year makes sense. He has failed to muster consistent winning seasons.

Hinson on the other hand has the highest winning percentage in the league in his tenure behind S. Illinois and Crieghton. He graduates players and wins games, but not enough in this day and age. The last two years he was robbed by the committee of an at-large bid even though his rpi was 22 and 31 respectively. RPI only counts when it helps a BCS school! The lack of a tournament appearance has made this coach expendable.

I have always said I love the profession, but I hate the business. Doing it the right way and winning isn’t always enough.