Category: College Basketball (Page 123 of 153)

Gonzaga continues to make their quest of obliterating the mid major moniker, but the biggest surprise comes from their same league. St. Mary’s, led by Aussie Pat Mills are off to a 12-1 start with impressive win over Oregon. Illinois State is 10-3 behind new head coach Tim Jankovich and has already knocked off Wichita State on the road.

With the Missouri Valley taking a step back, look for the Mid American Conference to fill the void. Akron and Kent State are both 10-2, while Ohio U is 8-4. Miami is once again the darkhorse.

Sam Houston State and Stephen F. Austin are both 11-1 and have beaten Big 12 opponents on the road. Steve Alford has New Mexico off to a 12-2 start, while Lon Kruger has UNLV rolling along at 11-3. New Orleans is 11-2 under a first year head coach.

Finally, in the Horizon League Butler and Valparaiso are out of the gate at 12-1 and 10-3 respectively.

Keed an eye on George Mason out of the Colonial. They have talent, experience and the generalship of Jim Larranaga that could having them making noise in March.

What does a great non-conference record mean? It used to be the formula to get to the NCAA tournament. As Jim Valvano used to say when he was at North Carolina State. Win your non conference games (it didn’t matter what cream puffs you played) and then go 7-7 in conference play and you would go to heavan (NCAA tourney). Things have changed, however, and with the expansion of the number of teams and sizes of the conferences teams have to do a little better than .500. Just ask Jim Boeheim at Syracuse…

I rundown each conference and let you know who loaded their pre-conference schedules with cupcakes and how they will do in league play. Also, there are a number of coaches who are on the hot seat and need to have a good run in their respective leagues.

ACC
North Carolina has gotten off to a great start and is one of only 5 undefeated teams left. Injuries could bring them back to earth, but it is safe to assume that Roy Williams has enough talent for a deep NCAA run.
Clemson, Miami and Duke are all out of the gates with only one loss. That’s good news for Frank Haith as he will have to have a good finish in conference play to keep his job. All three teams had will be early departures in the tourney. The big surprise is Boston College. After a number of departures Al Skinner has the Eagles playing well and looking to make some noise in the league.

On the second tier you have Virginia. They have a player in Sean Singletary who can carry them. Look for them to be the surprise of the league.

Atlantic 10

Rhode Island and Dayton are both sailing along with only one loss. Both teams have beaten their Big East opposition and are well placed to get at large bids. UMass and Xavier are right behind with wins over Big !2 and Big 10 opponents respectively. This could be the year that the conference gets 5 teams in the NCAA tourney. Don’t sleep on Duqeusne. Ron Everhart has taken a combination of junior college and transfers to mold the best team the school has had in 30 years.

Two coaches on the hot seat are John Gianni at LaSalle (only one winning season) and Fran Dunphy at Temple. It has been close to 30 years since Temple has missed the NCAA tourney two years in a row. Also, Bobby Lutz at Charlotte needs a good conference finish to make the administration forget about his interviewing at South Alabama last year.

Big 12

Kansas and Texas look like the teams to beat. The Jayhawks have talent and experience and could get the monkey of Bill Self’s back. This is a final four team if it stays healthy. Texas is young, but DJ Augustin has picked up where Kevin Durrant left off and is one of the best guards in the college basketball.

Do you think Mark Turgeon is happy? Not wanting to go into rebuilding situation anymore, he inherited a Texas A & M team that has the second most talent in the league (next to Kansas). The surpirse of the league is the Baylor Bears. Scott Drew has the Bears back from oblivion and challenging for a bid. The other surprise is Nebraska. Doc Sadler has loaded up on cupcakes, but then pulled off a win over Oregon to pad the resume. I think the Bears will stay hot while the Cornhuskers will fade in conference play.

Two coaches on the hot seat. Bob Knight is always on the hot seat and therefore must win at a higher rate than most coaches. Sean Sutton needs to make the NCAA tourney or the Sutton era will end in Stillwater.

PAC-10
Tony Bennet has the Cougars of Washington State rolling again. The competition has not been that great, but they did beat Gonzaga. No matter, they will still continue to win once they hit league play. UCLA has weathered more injuries than any other team and still Bew Howland’s squad continues to win. When they get healthy watch out.

On the second tier is Stanford and Arizona State. Herb Sendek continues to work his magic. Do you think Wolfpack fans wish they had him back in Raleigh?

Coaches on the hot seat are Ben Braun and Jay John at Cal and Oregon State. John lost two assistants in the off season and continues to struggle at the once legendary program.

SEC

Who would have believed that the only two undefeated teams in the league would be Ole Miss and Vanderbuilt. Andy Kennedy has the Tide rolling. He has brought that toughness that he learned at Cincinnati under Bob Huggins. I’ll bet they wish they had him back right now. What more can you say about the job that Kevin Stallings has done with the Commodores. He has meshed in foreign players with the right American players to build a team that could make a deep run this year.

Tenn, Florida Georgia, Auburn and Arkansas all have one to three losses. Look for Tenn to stick and win with the leadership provided by Chris Lofton. Florida is young, but talented. They know how to win and will only get better. Arkansas, Auburn and Georgia will fade as their non-conference schedule didn’t prove a thing. That is not good news for Jeff Lebo who is on the hot seat at Auburn.

Two other coaches on the hot seat are John Brady and Billy Gillespie. I don’t think either coach will lose his job, but I would start worrying about the fans.

Big 10

Michigan State and Indiana have risen to the top, but Wisconsin is right behind them. After losing an exhibition game to Grand Valley State, the Spartans are off to their best start in twenty years. Indiana has added depth in the backcourt with AJ Ratliff returning. This should enable Kelvin Sampson to pressure a little bit more. Bo Ryan has the Badgers poised for another run at the conference title after upseting Texas on the road.

Tubby Smith has Minnesota playing well against lesser competition. Once conference play starts I think they will start to fold. However, the league is not as good as it has been and they could end up with only four bids this year. The sleeper is Purdue. Matt Painter is playing with a lot of young guys and building for next year. Right now that may come sooner that you think.

Coaches on the hot seat are Ed Dechellis at Penn State. That is if they care enough about basketball to make a change.

Big East–

Coaches on the hot seat run the gambit. Norm Roberts at St. John’s inherited a mess from Mike Jarvis, but has failed to make any serious headway. Jim Calhoun at UConn and Rick Pitino at Louisville will struggle in the league due to a lack of talent. These are two hall of fame coaches who will have to pull out evry trick in the book to have a chance at finishing in the upper half. Their assistant’s are the ones on the hot seat if they don’t deliver better players.

The younger generation of Big East coaches have their teams ready for a title run. Jamie Dixon has Pitt playing with an ingrained toughness, as does Tom Crean at Marquette. John Thompson at Georgetown and Jay Wright have their squads wining in a finesse way. And Mike Brey has Notre Dame plodding away to a 10-2 record.

Look for the Hoyas and Panthers to battle it out to the end. Villanova, Marquette, UConn, West Virginia and Notre Dame should all end up in the NCAA’s.

Two coaches were relieved of their duties this past week. Scott Skiles of the Chicago Bulls and Jessie Evans of the University of San Francisco. In the NBA, teams change coaches in mid stream all of the time, but in college it is becoming just as common. After starting 4-8 it was announced by the athletic director (Debra Gore-Mann) at USF that Jessie Evans was taking a leave of absence.

Please Ms. Athletic Director, call it what it was. He was forced out!! In his place steps Eddie Sutton. Let me preface my comments by first saying that I like Eddie Sutton and that he has always been good to me. Also, he is one helluva coach. Only two wins away from 800 signifies that he is one of the best in the profession. However, he was forced out at Oklahoma State after getting into an accident while he was intoxicated. I understand that he admitted a drinking problem, but he was, afterall, on his way to meet his team to fly to a game in the middle of the afternoon.

Coach Sutton was given a second chance by his alma mater, Oklahoma State, after he was dismissed from the University of Kentucky for NCAA violations. I am all for forgiveness and second chances, but let’s be realistic for a moment.

Does he really deserve another chance? I don’t think so!

The hypocrisy of college athletics has shown through again. Instead of setting and example for young student-athletes, this athletic director decided to say that the most important thing is winning. If that is so, then why shouldn’t we pay the players just like the NBA does. (That’s a topic for another day.)

The next time a college athletic director stands up and says we are all about education and the welfare of the student athlete. Ask them why their actions don’t say the same thing. Actions have always spoken louder than words.

Oh and by the way I hope Coach Sutton gets to 800 and beyond. Also, that someday athletic directors and presidents tell the unadulterated truth.

As we near the end of the non-conferecne season there I would like to take some time to identify some teams who I think are for real and others who did a great job scheduling. Scehduling has become an art. With so much money to be made playing a home game it is easy to see why the going rate for a guarantee game has averaged out to $75,000. You figure it out. It makes more sense to play at home and pocket $100, 000 (after expenses) than it does to go play on the road. The added benefit is a padded record.

The following is a breakdown of the top 6 BCS conferences and their schedules:

Conference Home game Away Game Neutral Courts
Big East 120 31 38
Big 10 86 24 26
Big 12 110 31 32
ACC 109 30 37
SEC 103 29 38
Pac 10 80 30 14

Percentage wise the winners and losers are the Big East (only 16% of their games on the road) and the Pac-10 (24% of their games on the road). Of course, when you lose four home games like Cincinatti did it doesn’t help you down the road.

With so many home games it is no wonder that every team in the ACC, Big 12, SEC and Pac 10 have winning records. Shame on you Cincinnati, Depaul, and Michigan for not protecting your home court better.

Prospects—

North Carolina, Kansas and UCLA have emerged in my book as the teams to beat when it comes to March. The Tarheels have great toughness led by Tyler Hansborough and excellent leadership by Ty Lawson. UCLA has battled injuries early and seems to be getting healthy as the conference season looms. However, the experience of the upperclassmen at Kansas makes them my favorite to cut down the nets. With a senior and junior dominated roster they appeared poised to get the monkey off Bill Self’s back.

Suspects–

Miami and Clemson are off to unbeaten starts, but have no big wins in the bunch. Remember this was was the Clemson team that started off so well last year and then crumbled when they got into conference play. I don’t think the collapse will be as bad this year, but don’t make resevations for San Antonio if you are a Tiger fan.

One loss teams that are making noise are led by Rhode Island. Jim Baron has fashioned this team in his own image. A tough street fighter from Brooklyn they have already chalked up three wins over Big East teams. St. Marys went half way around the world to get one of the best guards in the colledge basketball. Patrick Mills has led the Gaels to a 10-1 start and looked poised to knock off Gonzaga at the top of the West Coast Conference.

Also, hats off to a special father and son. Homer Drew has the Valparaiso Crusaders off to a 10-2 start while playing in a new conference. His son Scott has the Baylor Bears back in contention for a NCAA bid while starting the season off 9-1. After the mess he inherited he has plugged away and brought the program back from the dead.

The Blue Devils had their way early against Pittsburgh in Madison Square Garden. However, some halftime adjustments by Pitt Head Coach Jamie Dixon proved to be the undoing for Duke. They stormed back from a 15 point deficit to beat the Dukies by one. In doing so they remained unbeaten and handed Duke thier first loss of the season.

Coach Dixon should be proud of the toughness displayed by his team. They battled back time and again until they got to the top of the mountain. Even though they have replaced their nucleus from a year ago, they still appear to be a team to be reckoned with on the national level.

Could this be the year they break into the Final Four?

Miami Coach Charlie Coles has done it again. After knocking off Xavier and Mississippi State they traveled to Champaign and beat Illinois in their own house. The timeless wonder of Coach Coles!!

Another statment that the MAC will get multiple bids this year..