Stanford vs Texas Tech

The last remaining "official" game of the Big 12 Pac 10 Hardwood Series Challenge was played last Saturday in Dallas. There were a few more "unofficial" games in the series, but Stanford just barely won and sealed the victory for the Pac-10.

Brook Lopez is back, and that's what Stanford fans have been waiting for. As it is common with the Lopez twins, they are "friends of foul", but in the second half Brook showed his offensive skillz.

Texas Tech is really the same old story, but with a twist: Bob Knight and his prized pupil (Coach Ratcase Krapola-K) have "embraced" the zone defense. What is this world coming to? Knight wants to recruit Knight players to play the "right way" (Knight way) and there's only so much Pat Knight can do to "soften" the blow. The good news for them is that the state of Texas is loaded with talent and the Knight brand still has some appeal in Big-10 states.

Stanford's biggest issue are its guards. Anthony Goods is probably the only Pac-10 level guard in their line-up. Mitch Johnson is probably a second-string point-guard type but he has been handed the keys at Stanford. The rest of the Stanford guards are also of the second-string variety, which allows teams to focus on the Lopez twins and Lawrence Hill (if/when he plays well). With Brook Lopez back, the onus is on the guards to deliver. And if the other guards can provide some offense, Mitch Johnson is not going to be a liability. If Goods and Hill can hit outside shots and the Lopez twins dominate inside, the team can even make a Final Four run with Johnson as their point guard. In an ideal scenario that is. Most likely scenario? Sweet 16? One and done?

Texas at UCLA

In a rather exciting game, the two time-out-eating coaches faced off, and the "mad scientist" Rick Barnes emerged with a W in his first ever visit as a head coach at Pauly. Kevin Love had his worse game as a college player, which followed his second worse game against GW. Tonight Kevin Love looked more like HBO's Fat Actress than an NBA lottery pick ;-)

Texas almost lost the game falling victim to the "too much too early" theory of ESPN's and Vermont's Tom Brennan, but unlike Texas A&M, they did not fall apart in the second half, and made enough clutch shots to get the big road W. Kevin Durant who???

DJ Augustin, Damian James, Connor Atchley, and the rest of the Longhorns toughed in it out and persevered when the Bruins came out of the gate strong in the second half. Bruins fans may be happy that Josh Shipp hit clutch three pointers, Lorenzo Mata-Real is becoming more and more of a basketball player, and Mike Roll made a brief guest appearance. But without a solid game from Kevin Love, and without a consistent outside shooter, the UCLA team was exposed. While a loss is a loss, this was not a particularly bad loss for UCLA, as the Longhorns had been steamrolling the competition up to now.

Texas A&M at Arizona

A tale of two halves is a good way to describe this game. And as ESPN's Tom Brennan likes to say Texas A&M went up by too many too early. A 32-12 Texas A&M lead, combined with the Lute Olson uncertainly made it look like Arizona was about to have another "North Carolina" game (they got blown out at McKale in 2006-2007 by UNC). The Arizona Meerkats of the first half were replaced by the Arizona Wildcats of the second half (what did Kevin O'Neill put in their gatorade?)

But Texas A&M came down to earth, and Arizona (and the home crowd) woke up, with Bayless leading the way. Bayless and Budinger were the main scoring threats, but the team got some contributions from McClellan (who continues to under-perform), Jordan Hill and Nic "sleek" Wise, and some intangibles from Bret Brielmaier.

A&M looked like a Final Four team in the first team, with a four-pack of serviceable big men, and a variety of guards and wings. Mark Turgeon came into a really great situation, and Kentucky fans can rejoice by looking at what Billy G was able to build at A&M. But we suspect that was not the average performance of A&M, and the second half was a below average performance. So if you average them out, then perhaps we have the average A&M performance. Certainly it is no shame to lose to Arizona at McKale, although the way they lost, going from a 20 point lead to a 10 point loss may raise a few eye-brows. Then again, Arizona does that quite often, so don't blame the Aggies.

The game was announced by the balcony duo from The Muppet Show, Barry Tompkins and Dan Belluomini (and I say this as a compliment of sorts) :)

Oklahoma at USC

Devon Jefferson in the first half, and OJ Mayo in the fourth quarter were too hot to handle for the Oklahoma State Sooners, and USC won this defense-intensive game. Despite the hard defense, the game was more watchable than the final score may indicate.

Regular readers of this blog knew how good Devon Jefferson was months ahead of time. The rest, found out this week after two solid games against the Southern Illinois wrestling team and the Oklahoma Dookies.

Austin Johnson, strep throat and all, single-handedly brought the Sooners back in the game in the second half, but then Tim Floyd spun a web around him, and took him out, just like he did with touted physical specimen freshman Blake Griffin. Keith "Moose" Clarke had his moments on offense, showing potential if he continues to work and improve his game.

So what did we learn from this game? USC is for real, as we had predicted, and despite the diva moments from OJ Mayo, the team plays defense for real. The Oklahoma Sooners are a team mending and blending, with a new coach and players, and has the potential of getting an NCAA bid, but they have to earn it the hard way. In a worse case scenario they'll probalby be invited to the inaugural College Basketball Invitational (CBI), aka not-good-enough-for-the-NIT.

Oregon at Kansas State

They must have put something in the water they hand out at the inaugural Big 12 Pac 10 Hardwood series, because both games so far ended in overtime and in dramatic fashion. The prodigal freshman was going against the Quack Attack. Who prevailed???

The game started fun, fast and furious, until both coaches "zoned out", and used zone defenses to slow the opponent down. This worked in slowing down the game to almost a crawl and having a low first half score.

The second half was exciting however, with the teams going back and forth. Michael Beasley once again showed his "mad skillz", although some could point out that he was jumping over shorties, not players his own size, length and athleticism. But Fran Frachilla (who blogs and surfs in a swimsuit? (just testing to see if you are reading this Fran :)) has appointed Beasley the #1 pick of the 2008 NBA draft, and why not? He might be the next Kevin Garnett or Melo. Can you afford to not pick him over yet another guard or wing? Thankfully I don't have to make that decision, but NBA GMs will have to :)

I had my reservations with this season's Quack Attack, because Aaron Brooks was the glue that held last season's team together as a seasoned four year veteran college point guard. That's why I haven't given the Ducks much vote love in the BlogPoll Top 25 bloggers poll.

But after watching them for the first time this season, I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, they do have their issues, in that they lack size, but they are a versatile team with a capital T. Space-eater Jo Catron is no longer just five fouls off the bench, he has improved his game in many aspects, and showed he can have impact in the paint on the offensive end. Marty Leunen continues to be the all-around player that was advertised, but he seems to have added more toughness as showcased by his four-rebound effort at a critical time of the game while going against three Kansas State players. The Mighty Mouse may be a liability because of his size, but he is a game changer because of his size, speed and shooting. Bryce Taylor is another player that has improved his game from last year. And while Mailk Hairston, just like his other overrated teammate Joe Crawford at Kentucky, failed to meet their lofty expectations coming out of high school, he is also another solid experienced player in the rotation.

Kansas State could have easily won the game, if they could hit their free throws (they went 0 for 3 in three one-and-one attempts, essentially 0 of 6). They also made some freshman mistakes as expected, but they also showed some poise. While this team is not yet a top 25 team, there is a lot of potential as Billy Walker continues to get up to speed, and the newcomers get more acclimated to D1, and Frank Martin finds more ways to take advantage of having Michael Beasley in his line-up.

Despite the loss, this was a good game for Kansas State, although obviously a W would have been even better. Needless to say this was a good road win for the Mighty Tiny Ducks, in front of an ESPN audience.

The (Big 12 Pac 10 Hardwood) series is now tied 1-1, with Oklahoma playing USC as we speak, and ten more games are coming up in the next few games. What's different in this series is that some tams are playing more than one game, namely Arizona, Stanford and USC (assuming the Kansas at USC game is part of the series). This presumable was set up as such so that all 12 Big 12 teams would play in the hardwood challenge.