North Carolina at Duke

North Carolina went environment, and Green paid off for them ;-) An impact performance by Danny Green and some critical interventions by Tywon Lawson in the second half showed that UNC actually has onions, and it's not just "designed wine and cheese" highly ranked prospects and recruits.

This was not necessarily the case with this team earlier this year or last year, and certainly bodes well for their 2008 Final Four chances. Namely, the way they were able to stay with it when Duke made its big push in the second half. And on top of that to be able to have their own run and shut down Duke late in the game and seal the win.

Up until that point, it looked like the Carolina of old, the one we've seen before with these players, would have just fumbled and lost the game as the home team and crowd surged.

Of course that was just a game, but a game of impact as thsi was UNC's best win of the year. Oh did we mention DUKE LOST? ;-) Thank you Tar Heels!

And the classy Dookies, led by the self-appointed infallible Pope of College Basketball coaches showed their class with an epic Chippindales performance on national TV by Speedo guy! Well done, Dookies! You have been ...exposed!

Arizona at Oregon

The return of the Quack Attack! Ernie Kent's booming voice was not the only thing making noise at Mac Court last night as the Oregon Ducks managed to deliver a convincing performance in the first half and keep their at-large hopes alive after beating the "Wise" Arizona Wildcats.

Arizona was playing with both Wise and Brillo-meyer so they have all the pieces back. And that's what makes Arizona's case for an at-large bid. With Nic Wise, or with Wise/Bayless playing, they have a solid at-large record. It's when those two are out of the line-up that they have as 33% record and that's what some people see when they say that Arizona is not in the tourney.

Of course who's in and out depends on the other teams on the bubble, since you don't put records if they are only that good, but you have to put 31 teams in, regardless of how good or bad their records are. The selection committee and the bracketologists cannot simply punt if they can't find enough "worthy" teams.

This puts Oregon up against Washington State, making it a very intriguing #3 vs #6 matchup on Thursday.

Meanwhile Arizona will have to hold their noses and play the play-in game, against 0-18 Oregon State. Now that's a must-win game for the Meercats. Imagine if they lost that game with their full squad! PRESSURE!

And Kevin O'Neill already has an asterisk next to his name, it's the first time in 23 years Arizona did not have 11 or more wins in the conference season. They only have *gasp* eight conference wins (8-10).

Oh this is going to be a dramatic selection sunday for sure!

Louisville at Georgetown

It is rare that a slow scoring game is actually a good game with nice flow and with intensity too. This was one of those. Even though the gameclock was beating both teams after 16 minutes in the first half, the game had a bit of everything, and the regular season Big East title as the grand prize. And the top seed in the Big East Conference Tournament which tips off next week at MSG.

A number of players made plays and had a good game, something that bodes well for both teams in their post-season pursuits. Georgetown has managed despite the issues pointed out by many, to grab the regular season title in the Big East. And it's really great that college basketball has a team like Georgetown, which is what makes it different from all other basketball teams. And you have a player like Hibbert being so unique for a 7-footer. And someone like Jonathan Wallace coming out of nowhere to become one of the most onionized guards in the NCAAs.

PitinoVille is able to hide a lot of problems as long as David Padgett is healthy and someone can make a three or two. The depth and versatility along with the press are big weapons for the Cardinals. But they still have to execute the game plan, instead of rehearsing for the NBA scouts.

If you missed this game, check for it online at CSTV or perhaps it will repeat later in the week at CSTV. CSTV is officially getting renamed to CBS College Sports next week. To coincide with March Madness of course!

North Carolina at Boston College

Hold the Mayo! Bring on the Rice! Hot Rice! Wild Rice! Tyrese Rice! He scored 23 points or so in the first seven or eight minutes of the game. Oh my! He ended the half with 34 points and eight three-pointers made. Oh my!

The good news for Boston College? They were blowing out North Carolina on national TV, on ABC Sports powered by ESPN. The bad news? They lost the game! The good news? They had a guy score 40+ in a wild offensive frenzy. The bad news? They lost the game! The good news? It's a young team with lots of promise for the future. The bad news? The future is not now.

Meanwhile North Carolina had Tywon Lawson come back, and he played more than just a few minutes. He played and played. But it was the collective team onions they showed that allowed them to withstand the Wild Rice three pointer barrage and slowly but steadily chip away at the lead and then go in burst mode and grab a ten point victory from the jaws of a blowout.

Are the newly developed onions the difference between the 2007 UNC team having a meltdown against Georgetown and the 2008 team that may go to the Final Four and have a good chance of one or two victories once they get there? It's too early to tell yet, but this game was certainly promising. An even bigger test will be how they play and how they handle the Duke crowd. We won't have to wait long for that, just six days, the game will be played March 8, 2008, on ESPN's Gameday Primetime showcase, at 6pm pacific (9pm eastern), on ESPN and ESPN-HD.

UCLA at Arizona

Seth Davis made some comments about the future of the Arizona head basketball coach position for the 2008-2009 season and beyond. But in this post we'll just talk about the game.

And unlike ESPN who would like to ask for its money back from Arizona, after Arizona delivered a horrible performance on the Primetime Gameday game at Pauley, CBS Sports got a better bang for their buck.

And if it wasn't for a trio of blatant missed calls by the zebras, Arizona would have walked away with a big home win. A textbook fouling the shooter, a textbook block, and UCLA's two wrestler-forwards playing human pinballs with Budinger were uncalled.

But ultimately the game has to be won on the court, zebras included, and Arizona was a shot away from tying or winning the game. But senior Kirk Walters had a "deer in the headlights" moment and screwed up the last out of bounds play. Lesson learned for coaches: Save a timeout so you can use it to prevent mistakes like that.

UCLA showed once again how they are able to win games they are supposed to lose. Part of it is being allowed to foul multiple times per possession, both on defense and offense. Part of it is the explosiveness of both Westbrook and D. Collison. Part of it is the game-changing savvy of The Beached Whale (Kevin Love). We didn't get a lot of "Laser Love" (credit: Marques Johnson), but Love had his typical now 20+/10+ game. Shipp didn't even need to shoot, and anything else UCLA gets from its four wrestlers (Lorenzo Mata, Keefe, Aboya and LR Mbah-a-Mute) are a big plus but not necessary.

Saint Marys at Gonzaga

The battle for WCC supremacy was entertaining and fun! Up and down, up and down, despite Craig Ehlo ;-) The Zags only lost one WCC game so far, at Saint Mary's and this win gives them the regular season crown, on their own if they win on Monday, and a split if they win and the Gaels lose.

St. Mary's tries and fought hard against the crowd and home-cooking but Gonezaga was just too much to handle. Since the last time I watched the Zags played, they look like a much improved team. They may even win a game in the NCAA tourney again - as the underdog darling they used to be, before they became everyone's favorite Cinderella.

Why did the Zags look good? Depth and versatility! Pargo no longer has to carry the weight of the Zags world on his shoulders. He's got Tuff Cookie Bouldin and Gray to help with ball handling. Meanwhile upfront the team is loaded with different types of players, two athletic and rangy forwards in Daye and the Kansas transfer; a high-energy Lorenzo Mata-Real type in the Saint Joe's transfer (Kuso), two seven footers in Sucre and Foster, and a prodigal son in Heytvelt. But more effective of all is Pendo - the quintessential (not sure what it means, I was told to use it to make this post sound more educated) college basketball player.

But Saint Mary's is no chopped wood! They can play and they have their own depth. They also have played that force mismatches, from Diamon Simpson, to Patrick Mills to the space-eater Samhan, to the video game character coming off the bench ;-)

Both teams looked like at least NCAA bubble teams last year, although the battle for bubble spots will be ferocious this season. The way the WCC conference tourney is setup, these two teams are heading into a clash in the WCC conference tourney final on ESPN. All they have to do is win the semifinal. That's right, the top two teams start the conference tournament in the semifinals! CRAZY!

Washington State at Stanford

This was what we were talking about when it comes to Washington State: Unable to beat a Sweet 16 type team. Every single time they faced a sweet 16 and beyond type team this year, they lost.

And while we can footnote this game since there were Harmeling issues, the Tony "Indiana" Bennett Cougars were blowing out Stanford in the first half. Of course you can't expect Stanford to play like that for two halves, but Washington State was unable to hold on, and they got manhandled by the Lopez twins and lost the game.

Brook Lopez made a lot of money in the second half. He had the impact performance NBA scouts love to look at. His teams was down and out, and nothing was going well. Then Brook Lopez took over and scored and scored and scored until Stanford won the game.

What does this mean for both teams? Stanford has been quietly piling up wins, and despite not having guards to match their front-line, their are able to win games. Their big question is what happens in the NCAA tourney when a team in the second round designs a defensive scheme that attacks their guards? How can they handle it? Can Freddie Washington and Stanford's Kyle Weaver (Taj Finger) help on the perimeter and get the ball to the Lopez twins? If yes, Stanford will play in the second weekend, and has chances of hoping for the third weekend. If not, it's "Hello Rick Pitino" again ;-)

And how about the feisty Cougars? Does this team have a ceiling? Evidence of games played so far points in that direction. Last season's NCAA tourney points in that direction. This season, if you look at their schedule, they are 0-5 against Sweet 16 type teams. They lost to UCLA and Stanford twice, and they lost to Arizona when they were playing with a full squad and looked like a Sweet 16 team.

However, they were able to beat NCAA 1st-round type teams handily and on multiple occasions (USC, Baylor, Zags, Oregon (twice), Arizona State (twice). So as much as Wazoo fans will not like this, it looks like a ceiling to me!. Similar perhaps to the Wisconsin Badgers of Beau Rye-Anne.

USC at Arizona State

Despite the fact that ASU was beaten by the game clock at the 12 minute mark, they were able to put 80 points on the board and get a much needed win against the USC Condoms. Both teams had their "we were supposed to score?" stagnation moments, and the first half was about as exciting as reading the yellow pages while watching paint dry ;-)

But the second half picked up, and there was some excitment, drama, wild runs and swings, and a healthy dose of ...home-cooking that drove Floyd and his band crazy. Yet another physical game - what have they done to my Pac 10? You crazy slugfesters!

This "W" saved the day for Arizona State, and combined with the two home losses of the Cal Bears, it has put ASU in the Top 7. Next week will see a very important game as ASU will visit Oregon, with both teams desperate for the win and hoping to finish the season 50%, which will increase their chances of an at-large bid, since a number of people pay too much attention to the conference record, and not who did you play, where did you play them, who did you beat, and how well did you play.


Beaten by the Game clock
What does "beaten by the game clock" mean? When your points are fewer than the minutes played. For example, if at the end of the first half a team has 19 points, they were beaten by the game clock since 20 minutes were played.

Beaten by the game clock is a sign of a struggling offense and slugfest, because you have to be on pace to score less than 40 points for the whole game in order to be beaten by the game clock. Ouch!

UCLA at Arizona State

Who won this game? The clock did! That's right, 15 (game) minutes into the game, and both teams scored under 15 points! Oh boy! This is the Sad Ten! ASU was able to hold off UCLA, but a blown breakaway dunk ruined any chances the Sun Devils had to stay in the game. From that point onwards it was pretty much UCLA nursing the lead and the game was ZZZZzzZZZzz and over!

There was another sequence with back to back blown dunks on both ends. In fact super-athletic UCLA wing Westbrook missed at least two dunks during this game.

Not that it matters since UCLA got a comfy win. But it was also interesting that former UCLA great and FSN So Cal hoops analyst Donny Mac (Don Maclean) admitted that UCLA gets away with fouls on defense. This is really sad since the zebras are letting them get away with this type of dirty play.

Which is why Ben Howland will be ran out of town faster than you may think once he stops winning :) But will he stop winning? Not as long as he can get away with this "tough" multiple-fouls-per-possession defense :)

USC at Arizona

Revenge is served cold and on ESPN! USC was able to "take back" their home loss against Arizona, in front of an ESPN audience, a rarity for Pac-10 games.

And once again the Arizona Wildcats ruined it for ESPN. As you may recall, earlier in the year, Arizona visited UCLA for the primetime Gameday Saturday spotlight game. And how did Arizona reward ESPN for this? They did not show up. They got 0wn3d, manhandled, ruined, B-ruined!

This time however, they woke up later in the game, and made it interesting enough for some people to stick around as they threatened to make a comeback, but USC was able to hold on and get yet another road win, something that will work in their favor when the NCAA selection committee picks teams and picks seeds and match-ups for the teams.

The other good news for the Condoms was the return of Hackett. Th return of the do-it-all glue guy is big news for USC as they transform from a bubble team into a team that could win games in the NCAA tourney with Daniel Hackett healthy and in the rotation.

On the other hand, Arizoan did not get back their missing piece, Nic "Hoops" Wise. And Nic Wise is the difference between an NCAA team and a bubble team for Arizona. Can Wise return early enough and can Arizona win a game or two with Wise in the line-up, so as not to find itself on the wrong side of the bubble? Arizona had a couple of close calls the last couple of years, but there is no Silver Fox this time around. Getting the benefit of the doubt this year may not be as easy for the Wildcats! But having the #1 SOS and strong showings at Allen Fieldhouse and at Calipari Forum will be in the plus column.

In closing, I have to repeat: What have they done with my Pac-10? It is looking more and more like Big-10! Meanwhile, ACC is going more run and gun, with Pope K implementing a variation of the Phoenix Suns offense, Wake Forest running faster than fast, and Clemson and such.

Notre Dame at Louisville

Flashes of Pitino magic ten years after his back to back NCAA Finals? The Pitino RedBirds scored 32 points in the first nine minutes of the game! That's more than NBA teams score in a 48-minute game! But of course that didn't last for the rest of the game. But barring any injuries, this Louisville team looks like a Final Four candidate. They have a little bit of everything, a point-center in David Padgett, a space-eater in Caracter, an athletic forward in Earl Clark, a do-it-all T-Will, and such. Guards and free throws are their achilles heel, but with T-Will and Padgett able to organize the team on offense, it's not as big of a deal.

Meanwhile the Domers fell behind but were able to make a comeback towards the end of the game and gave the home team a headache! Meanwhile "Gody" is getting bigger and bigger, this time he scored 40 points with his first three career three pointers! "Gody" is a star baby! With a capital A! It's unbelievable!

The good news for Notre Dame fans is that this time around they are going to the NCAA tourney, they don't have to worry about just being left out, or losing half a dozen games in the last possession. They are in! Digger will be singing in March! And given their make-up, they could make it to the Sweet 16, but of course they could also lose in the first round.

Not to be a Debbie Downer to fans out there, but half of the NCAA tourney teams lose in the first round :)

Texas at Kansas State

This was a nicely played game, with some excitement and stars and such. Despite Ron Franklin trying to put everyone to sleep with his monotone sinewave voice patterns, and Fran comparing body parts.

Did Rick Barnes dispel the rumors that he is not as good of an Xs and Os coach by throwing a box-and-one that put Beasley in an offensive straightjacket? We blog, you decide!

Texas showed how their crazy style of play can get them a win against just about any team, but can also cost them a loss against a lesser opponent. It goes with the territory!

Kansas State showed their growing pains. Both Billy Walker and Jacob Pullen have a lot of maturing to do, and first year head coach Frank Martin has to learn how to better be able to deal with such a situation. Not to take anything away from this brilliant first year season though. Billy Walker was 0 from 14 when the game was still on the line. Ouch!

And back to Texas, they will be my #1 when I submit my BlogPoll Top25 vote in a few minutes. Why? You have to wait for the post for the details :)

Tennessee at Memphis

#1 vs #2. Primetime! ESPN Gameday! Dick Vitale! Jay Bilas! Digger Phelps! Reece Davis! Hubert Davis! Erin Andrews! It was an all-star setup for an all-star battle of teams ranked #1 and #2. And the game did not disappoint.

As expected with games of such high intensity, it did not play out as expected, the players were too amped up for the game, and the game was all over the place, from running all over the place like kittens on caffeine, to a grinded out affair.

Ultimately, Derrick Rose was not enough, and the Bruce Pearl Energizer Bunnies out-did Memphis at just about every category.

Memphis exceeded its quota of three pointers made in the first ten minutes of the game, and that spelled doom for their offense, as they fell in love with the three, and were unable to go back to it when they really needed it.

This outcome could play well for both teams. Tennessee gets its first ever #1 ranking in men's basketball, and reaches new heights, and Memphis gets a much needed "reality check" after their close call at UAB.

This exposes Memphis as a candidate for another Elite 8 run, instead of Final Fours and national championships. Not because they lost the game, but how they lost the game. Are we starting to see a pattern? Remember how UCLA dissected the Tigers in the 2006 Elite 8?

Granted, this was just a single game, but perhaps those two teams should consider playing twice a year! Once in the pre-season and once in February! It's awesome baby with capital A!

Oregon at UCLA

If it wasn't for the goofing around of Steve Lavin and Brett Musburger, the first half of this broadcast would have been unwatchable. Unwatchable with capital U! But instead we have Lavin and Musburger being Comedy Central, and Lavin revealing some more details about his exit from UCLA.

But back to the game, this was a typical UCLA comeback game, a slow start, and then grind, grind, grind, tie the game, take the lead, and never look back.

If Oregon was looking for a theme, "self inflicted wounds" would be a good one. Their Mighty Mouse had his good moments, but he also had his trademark disastrous, yes disastrous decisions on offense, leading to turnovers, steals and buckets for UCLA. The type of turnovers that really hurt. Ouch for Oregon!

This means that if Oregon wants NCAA Tourney play, they need to win all three remaining regular season, and get two wins in the Pac-10 tourney against other NCAA or bubble teams. Or perhaps win it all - depending on how all the other bubble teams do.

And yes, the new black Nike uniforms with the "Princess" sparkling letters were a horrible idea. How do they design these? Do they design them in Photoshop and hit print on the cotton printer? ;-)

North Carolina at North Carolina State

The in-state rivalry game never materialized as UNC managed to grab the lead and never look back. Granted it wasn't a cakewalk at first, but the Lawson-less UNC team also played with an injured Neon Deon Thompson, but did not miss a beat. The more Lawson stays out, the better it is for Q (Quinton Thomas). Imagine how good things will be for UNC when Lawson comes back. In fact Ole Roy may even be tempted to play them together for a few minutes.

NC State is finally getting back some of their injured players, but their lack of an ACC-caliber point guard is killing a team that has a number of serviceable and versatile forwards. The chemistry issues seem to be there, not necessarily personnel-wise, but skills and style of play wise.

What did we learn from this game? NC State will be lucky to make it to the new 3rd tier post-season tourney, while UNC is certainly a Sweet 16 team, a likely Elite 8 team, and has good chances of making to the Final Four, and it could also cut down the nets in April 2008.

Syracuse at Louisville

If you love zone defense, this was the game for you! Both teams spent a lot of time zoned out, tried to de-rail the opponents offense. The rosters were a stark contrast, Syracuse on a tight 7-man rotation, while Pitino probably having the deepest roster since he took over the Louisville RedBirds.

Ultimately the depth and the home court decided the game, along with the critically acclaimed point-center who goes by the name of David Padgett. What could kill Louisville in the post-season is their guards. Andre McGee is a backup type, and Sosa is quite unpredictable. Jerry Smith is the most reliable guard, while the only predictable thing from their back-court is the level of energy and enthusiasm Preston Knowles brings to the co(ur)t (Pitino-speak).

Meanwhile Syracuse, now with an improved schedule, has shown that they are not to be counted out, and they won't back down or take no as an answer. And they have the players to do so. From the two Flynnstones (Flynn and Greene), the built-like-a-tank Do-It-All-Paul, and the other four that fill in the blanks. I'm not sure whether they are in and out right now, but barring a collapse, I would be surprised if Syracuse was not included in the field of 65 in March!

UCLA at USC

Who won the battle for Los Angeles? Defense won! That's right, basketball did not win, defense won. And UCLA ended up with a +1 in the win column. This game was supposed to be a premier game, with two of the top freshmen in OJ Mayo and Kevin "Beached Whale" Love. Instead it was an exercise in how to ruin a game with defense. The first one to 50 won.

OJ Mayo had double figures, but in turnovers! Tim "Pink" Floyd insisted on playing five players, and not even giving the rest of the players a sniff (until he got in foul trouble in the first half and needed fouls at the end of the second half). Even though USC played one game this week, the grinding nature of the game wore out the five USC players.

Meanwhile UCLA showed once again why their defense is so good. They foul multiple times per possession. And don't forget the way they screen on offense. Even UCLA great Marques Johnson confessed that the Bruins are "very aggressive" when setting screens and the zebras are not going to call most of them.

Arggg! What have all these slugfest coaches done with my Pac-10? :(


PS> Big props to Marques Johnson for calling the ACC game that preceded the Pac-10 game, the "JV game". Woohoo :-)

PS2> Our thanks to Wake Forest, their players, their fans, their alumni, and everyone associated with Wake Forest for their wonderful victory over the Dirty Dookies. Keep it coming Wake Forest! They win our Duke Slayer Award of 2008!

Washington State at Oregon

We are slightly behind as you can see :) But here we go: The battle of the contrasting style of plays, episode #23405. The run and gun Oregon Ducks hosted the Vulcans of Washington State! The game started faster than we anticipated, but sluggishness took over the second half where it took the Cougars a few centuries to go from 41 to over 42.

Despite all that, Washington State showed once again they are very capable of beating teams outside the Sweet 16. The Nike Ducks are one of the crazy teams of the year, like Texas and Xavier, that can beat almost any team on a good day, and lose to any team on a bad day. And this was not a good day for Oregon.

However, the clock is ticking for Oregon, and with the crunch in the middle of the Pac-10, an NCAA bid will be hard to come by. Unlike the many pundits who dream of 7 or 8 bids for the Pac-10, we would like to point out that the Pac-10 will get 6 bids, unless a team that is not supposed to get an at-large bid makes a run to the tourney final beating a couple of NCAA teams along the way.

Why would we say that? We are a west-coast-bias blog after all. Because unlike conference with unbalanced schedules, where at-large teams can keep on wining over non-tourney teams, Pac-10 plays a true round robin, which means there are not enough wins for seven at-large teams. The only "guaranteed" win is Oregon State. Nothing else is guaranteed. And you don't have to be a math major to realize that there's only 9 wins per week in the conference. That's all! Not enough room for seven at-large bids!

But the Pac-10 tourney could save the day for teams like Cal 420, Arizona State, Washington, Oregon, Wise-less Arizona and Hacketless-USC, especially if they don't finish strong.

North Carolina at Virginia

No Lawson, no final four I'm afraid for UNC. But the good news is that Ty Lawson should be back before the March Madness tourney tips off.

Virginia looked a mess for quite a while, but they re-discovered their mojo and made the game respectable before losing to the Lawson-less TarHeels.

The tweek in the Carolana oafense was Ty Hansbro shooting mid-range jumpers. This was an interesting experiment, not sure if it was by design, or it organically developed during the game, but this could make things more interesting assuming Ty Hansbro is able to consistently hit those jumpers.

It was also interesting to see Ole Roy try to tighten up his rotations to seven players, before foul troubles got Graves in the game. And now you wonder why Roy Williams thought Wes Miller was crucial to the team. At the time, a number of people laughed it up, but Carolina could have surely used a Wes Miller right about now with Lawson and Fraser out due to injury.

What can we say about Virginia? Dave Leiteo had a solid season last year, but what happened this year? He should be safe, but if he picks up the paper and reads that 22 months after the Final Four John Brady was ejected from LSU... Ouch!

Kansas at Texas

This was a big game for the Big 12, and with the added boost of Big Monday coverage on ESPN. Sadly this game is only played once during each regular season, because of the way the Big 12 is structured.

The game did not disappoint. The run and gun Rick Barnes crazies managed to eek out a big home win in front of a home court, facing a deeper and more talented Self-less squad.

Texas, like Xavier and Oregon, are teams of the crazy variety, they have a wide range of play, and because of that, they have higher highs, and lower lows. On the other end of the spectrum we have teams like Wisconsin and Washington State which are operating on a much narrower band and have a higher lows, but also lower highs. And a lower ceiling too.

Kansas is so talented, yet there seems to be something off about this team. Not sure what it is. This is not the same feel as UNC, but with UNC we also get feeling they are missing something (and I'm talking when they had Ty Lawson and Bo Fraser in the line-up way back then).

Jayhawks fans may not like this, but Bill Self may have issues! Granted it's not easy to have post-season success, but he had at least two Final Four capable teams in his four years, yet he only delivered two Elite 8 and two first-round exits to Bucknell and Bradley.

Meanwhile other teams, with less talent, have been able to get back to back final fours, or make it to the final four. As we mentioned earlier in the year, Bill Self may be the next Tubby Smith.