Category: College Basketball (Page 125 of 153)

The past couple of years the Missouri Valley Conference has gotten most of the publicity amongst the Mid Major Conferences. HOwever, this year two other leagues are making early season rumblings about becoming a multi-bid league. Watch out Jim Boeheim! Your Syracuse Orangemen might actually have to win a league title to get into the NCAA tournament this year.

The Atlantic 10 is off to a great start. Rhode Island is 10-1 with three wins over Big East schools. Xavier is 8-1 with a pair of wins over Big East opponents. Dayton is 7-1 with a win over Miami, Holy Cross and Louisville. All on the road. UMass and Charlotte are right behind with 6-2 records. Also, Charlotte has a win over S. Illinois.

The most surprising league is the Southland Conference. Sam Houston and Texas-Arlington are both 8-0. Stephen F. Austin is 7-1 while Central Arkansas is off to a 8-2 start. The conference has already beaten Texas Tech and Oklahoma on the road.

The significance of these two leagues performance has been that they have won big games on the road. Unlike the BCS leagues that play 80% of their non-conference games at home and the other 10% on neutral courts.

The list of unbeatens and winless teams shrunk this week as Delaware got off the snide and Butler dropped their first game. There are only 16 teams left without a blemish on their record. It is not surprising that teams like Duke, North Carolina, Kansas and Texas are still undefeated, but who would have guessed that Sam Houston State and Texas Arlington would be rolling along at 8-0. The significance of this is that they don’t have the luxury of buying home wins. It is much tougher when you don’t have any built in wins in your schedule.

Also, it is a little surprising that Vanderbuilt and Ole Miss are the only undefeated teams in the SEC.

The list of teams stil looking for that first win has shrunk to 5. Ball State and Furman being the most notable. After giving head coach Tom Parotta a contract extension for garnering 7 wins last year, Canisius has started off 0-8 and will be hard pressed to match last year’s success.

Butler fell from the list of the unbeatens as they lost a conference road game to Wright State. WSU Coach Brad Brownell proves once again why he is one of the best and most underrated coaches in the business. After taking the Raiders to the NCAA tournament last year and graduating the league MVP he has put together another squad that will challenge for the Horizon League title.

Other upsets of note were a combination of three road teams going into hostile environments and pulling off the win. Rhode Island traveled to Syracuse and beat the Orangemen in the Carrier Dome. Last year Jim Boeheim complained about being snubbed from the NCAA tourney, but a loss at home will kill you every time. Jim Baron has Rhode Island off to a 10-1 start and this win proves they could be a team to be reckoned with down the road. Stephen F. Austin and Dayton went on the road to Oklahoma and Louisville and pulled out wins. Dayton’s win is significant for two reasons. First it kept Rick Pitino from getting win #500. Second, it gave coach Briand Gregory a signature win prior to A-10 play. Gregory is on the hot seat and wins like this will help him get a much needed extension.

New coach Tim Jankovich led his Illinois State Redbird to a win over Cincinnati.

Hats off to the upset winners on Saturday.

Arizon head coach Lute Olson has announced that he will take a leave of absence for the rest of the season. His personal problems turned out to be a troubled marriage as he has filed for divorce. That is news I am glad to hear. So often personal issues involve illness. I hope this tremendous coach and person is back on the bench next year.

Alex Legion announced earlier in the week that he was leaving Kentucky. Now he is having second thoughts. While he is working it out his teammates will take on 15th-ranked Indiana without him. As Pat Reilly put so well, “you’re either in or you’re out.” Choose and let’s get on with it…Coaching sure has changed. Twenty years ago that player would have been gone the minute he opened his mouth….Do you think Adolph Rupp would have kept him in the Bluegrass State? I don’t think so!!!

Connecticut Head Coach Jim Calhoun was reprimanded by the Big East office after making comments regarding the officiating of his team’s game with Northeastern. Calhoun was given two technicals and ejected for laughing at a call. Official Wally Rutecki called the first technical on Calhoun for using profanity while correcting one of his players….Are you kidding me!! An official who is paid $2000 for a little under two hours of work should be concentrating on what is going on out on the floor, not on the bench..

Talking with several coaches over the past couple of days has given me a new perspective on power run amock. Without any checks and balances the officials in college basketball have given more technicals to date than in any previous season.

Since when is it illegal to yell at your players. I guess this is a new sensivtivy training for officials. After 25 years of coaching I can tell you that officials need to get better at calling the plays on the court and forget about the bench. If you don’t believe me ask Jay Wright at Villanova after the horrendous call that cost him a game against North Carolina State. Oh, that’s right he can’t comment.

Finally, as Coach Calhoun questioned, “how did the official know it wasn’t gas that I had on the bench when I laughed?”

Once again I call upon the NCAA to make the officials attend a post game press conference to answer any questions. That way they will think twice prior to broad personal interpretations. And I am not talking about blocks and charge calls.