Category: College Basketball (Page 120 of 153)

Pepperdine Head Coach Vance Walberg has stepped down due to family reasons. Why is it always family reasons? You never hear of a steelworker leaving his job due to family reasons. I will believe it if he doesn’t coach again somewhere else. For all of the hoopla and track record of success at the junior college and high school level, it never translated into much success at Pepperdine.

Sout Carolina Head Coach Dave Odom anounced his retirement at the end of the season. Glad to see the Gamecock administration do the right thing and let him go out on his own terms. I guess that would mean he doesn’t want to coach again. Let’s wait and see on this one.

That’s five potential openingsif you throw in San Francisco, Detroit, and Arizona. Oh, that’s right Lute Olsen is coming back next year. I would like to know the Vegas odds on that one.

Here’s my choices for the five openings:
Detroit–Perry Watson comes back
Pepperdine–Gib Arnold
Arizona–Kevin O Neill
San Francisco–Eddie Sutton (still looking for 2 more wins to get to 800)
South Carolina–Greg Marshall (it’s a better fit than Wichita State)

With money escalating in Division I, look for there to be plenty of coaching changes.

This week Tennessee destroyed a higher ranked Vanderbuilt team. Some would call this an upset. Louisville did the same to Marquette. Are either of these upsets? How about Texas Tech winning at home against Texas A & M? Too often the pundits want to call these major upsets, however, when you play at home in league play things are different. I don’t care what league you play in it is always tough to win on the road.

Ask Rhode Island or ButlerThe Rams lost at St. Louis while Butler dropped a road game to Cleveland State. Let me jump out on a tangent for a moment. How about the job that Gary Watersis doing at Cleveland State. He has them undefeated in the Horizon and off to the best start since the days of Coach Kevin Mackey and Mouse McFadden. Albeit, he is doing it with a little more regard for the rules and his players.

He was not a good fit at Rutgers. His roots are in the Midwest and he is best at mining talent out of Michigan and Ohio. Afterall, he was the one who got things rolling at Kent State. Look for the Vikings to put themselves in a poistion for post season play.

Over in St. Louisthe Billikens came close on Saturday against Dayton, but then got over the hump with a win over nationally ranked Rhode Island. Once again it was Majerus at his best. And it looks like Tommie Liddell is finally starting to soak up some of that basketball knowledge.

Getting back to the BCS boys, Bob Knight beat Texas A&M for the third straight time. Change coaches it doesn’t matter the General has your number. Just like Majerus, he is a master of utilizing the talent available and creating strong defensive, fundamentally sound teams.

Big game this weekend in Missouri. It is part one of the Border War. Kansas visits the Tigers and it should be a heckuva game in front of a sell out crowd. If Missouri wins it will be their second home conference win over a ranked team. However, this one will be an upset as Kansas is capable of running the table in the league. They are that good!

Duke lost both meetings with FSU last season, and for a moment it looked like they may lose a third straight, but some clutch play from the otherwise quiet Greg Paulus was the difference in the game. With 2:32 play and Duke up three, Paulus stole a pass and converted the layup to give the Blue Devils a five-point lead. In all, he scored six of his nine points in the final two and a half minutes, leading Duke to a 70-57 victory. The game was closer than the final score would indicate.

Jon Scheyer scored 21 points on 9-13 shooting. It was his second highest point total this season, but he scored his last point of the game with 12:44 to play in the second half. Down the stretch, it was Paulus, DeMarcus Nelson and freshman Kyle Singler who scored most of Duke’s points. (Singler looks like he’ll be a great player, by the way.)

The fifth-ranked Blue Devils are still a young team, but they have more depth than in years past. It will be interesting to see how this team comes together over the course of the ACC regular season.

Writers like stories that fit in a neat little box. That’s why they love to call every team that doesn’t play in a BCS Conference (football league) a “mid major.” However, one size doesn’t fit all and sometimes the shoe doesn’t fit. Now there are teams and leagues taking umbrage to such name calling.

In fact this past week Xavier declined an opporutnity to take part in an article being written by ESPN The Magazine titled “Eight things you didn’t know about a mid-major.” They don’t view themselves as a mid major. Nor should they. Just because they don’t have a football team does not make them less of a basketball program than say Northwestern or Michigan. I have been in the new Cintas Center and I can tell you it is one of the nicest college basketball arenas in the country. It might be the nicest. Their set up is second to none. For comparison sake, it is much nicer than Michigan or Northwestern’s home court. Travel budgets are equal and more importantly, their track record is better.

Xavier has been to the NCAA tournament 16 of the past 21 years. That is a better record than over half of the teams in the so called high major conferences. Also, the league that they play in should never be labeled as mid major as it is by some writers. Lazy writers who don’t know basketball history are the guilty parties. The Atlantic 10 has sent more teams to the NCAA tournament with only one loss since 1988 than any other conference. Oh yeah, St. Joe’s was ranked #1 in the country in 2004. When was the last time Miss. Sate, Oregon State, Baylor, Purdue ranked #1 in the country?

Also, these so called mid major teams are paying just as much for a home game as teams in the Big 12 and SEC. Money talks!!

Two other teams that should never be considered mid major. Creighton has been in the top five of attendance and has been to more consecutive NCAA tournaments than over half of the Big 12. And you know what, I am not even going to mention what Gonzaga has done.

So next time you start talking about this team or that team being a mid major, stop and take a closer look. Don’t just repeat what some lazy writer has said in an attempt to wrap everything with nice, neat bow.

SUTTON UPDATE
Has not won a game at San Francisco and is still 2 wins shy of 900.

The NCAA rejected an appeal for an override of the text messaging ban they put into place last year. My first question is how many of the people on the committee even use text messaging. You are looking at a committee of people consisting of folks who just realized that vinyl records are no longer sold in stores. Let’s get into the 21st century guys….

Once again the NCAA has made it more difficult for coaches to get to know recruits and their parents. The NCAA wants to cut down on transfers, but at the same time take away another avenue to allow coaches to make a more informed decision during the recruiting process. That’s the catch-22.

Also, it takes the power out of a recruits hands. If a recruit doesn’t want to talk to a coach they won’t text them back. Texting also eliminated needless phone calls that can take up too many hours of a recruit’s time.

Way to go NCAA.