OTL: Bob McKillop guest and the new Indiana Hoosiers coach

Today's Outside the Lines, at 330pm Eastern (1230pm pacific) on ESPN, will feature the new head coaching situation at Indiana, which seems to be annual spring rite these days. Tom Crean is of course the new hire. Also a guest in the segment is Davidson's Elite 8 head coach Bob McKillop. Details here.

Bob Ley presents! More details on Outside the Lines at the OTL page on ESPN.com which is not exactly the world wide leader on the net.

And if you want to enjoy the Davidson March Madness world via blogging, be sure to check the Davidson Basketball blog.

NCAA Tourney Sweet 16 Preview and Predictions, Day 2

If you already read our Sweet 16 Day One preview, then you are ready for Day Two! Day 2 games will be played on Friday. Be sure to check our March Madness TV Listings for airtimes. All times pacific, unless otherwise indicated!


Davidson vs Wisconsin
Wisconsin, just like Washington State, are teams that have a more performance narrow band. They usually beat the teams they are supposed to beat, and lose to the teams they are supposed to. This is good news for Badger fans, unless of course Davidson is indeed playing like an Elite 8 team :)

I would prefer to see the Cinderella story continue, Davidson and Stephen Curry to make some noise and get to the Elite 8, and Bob McKillop to finally get the mass-market respect he deserves.

But I'm afraid that Wisconsin is not going to be "surprised" by the Wildcats the same way the Zags and the Hoyas were. Bo Ryan has the depth and the talent to win this game, one way or the other.


Stanford vs Texas
Oh boy, this is a tough one to get a read on. Texas, like Xavier, are crazy teams. They can beat anyone, and they can lose to anyone. The Stanford guards are really going to have their hands full with DJ Augustin and AJ Abrams, and there's only one Greg Washington on the roster.

The good news for Stanford fans is that they were already able to beat a guard-loaded team in Marquette, and that was with the drama of Trent Johnson getting prematurely ejected from the game.

But unlike the Marquette guards, the Texas guards can shoot from Austin and make the bucket in Houston. And that's where the game is going to be played. Home co(ur)t advantage goes to Texas for sure.

Texas has enough big bodies to bother the Lopez twins on offense and defense, and the struggling Lawrence Hill is going to be tested going up against former Kelvin Sampson signee (the list is getting longer and longar) Damion James.

On the other hand, the Lopez twins are going to clog up the paint on defense, and create havoc in the paint on offense.

Can Stanford limit the three-point makes of Texas? Can they stop the wild runs and fast-breaks? If yes, they have a chance to win the game. Our prediction? Texas wins in a dramatic game.


Michigan State vs Memphis State
Well, well, well, the pundits are picking Izzo State, just like they were picking Pitt to steamroll Izzo State. We didn't, we saw that Izzo would be able to short-circuit the Panthers, and all the pundits (Bob Knight included) were blinded by the fact that MSG is Pitt's second home court as half of their roster is from the NYC/NJ area. We predicted Michigan State would beat Pitt.

And using the same reasoning, we see that Izzo State is really overmatched in just about every position, and unless Memphis has a total collapse on the free throw and the three point line, Memphis will get an easy win over Michigan State.

The development of Kalin Lucas was slowed down because coaches are "loyal" to their older players, in this case, Lucas is the one who should be running the show, not Neitzer and not Walton. But that's another story. Calipari has a lot of options to try to slow down Kalin Lucas, from tiny Andre Allen, to tall Antonio Anderson, along with Willie Kemp and Derrick Rose. Neitzel is an easy cover for most of the Memphis perimeter players.

Raymar Morgan could create some problems but Calipari has options, from Dozier to Anderson to handle him. Michigan State's size inside is not a threat since none of those guys are likely to beat a team or force double-teams. Heck, we may even see Pierre Niles or Hashim Bailey if Izzo goes big and tall ;-)


Villanova vs Kansas
Can you smell it? Can you smell it? We can smell it! No, it's not last week's dinner, it's the upset in the making! It's all about the guards, and Nova has a boatload of them. Guards and three pointers! That will be the undoing of Kansas, and a very disappointing loss for the Bill Self Jayhawks.

They showed this year against UNLV that they can grind better than last year (see Southern Illinois and Kansas NCAA tourney games), but as we saw in the Arizona game, talented guards can give them headaches. And Nova has plenty!

Now how can Villanova make up for the difference in talent inside the paint? With Casseim Drummond out for the season, the "shorties" will have to deal with "Shady", "Chaka Khan", and "Not Elton Brand Jackson", along with "Paul Bunyan". If the Nova Shorties can do enough to minimize the impact of the three big bigs, and contain Shady, and the guards, then we have an upset special!

Does this defy logic? Yes it does! But then again, this is the NCAA tournament. And let's not forget, how many of the NBA playoff results would have been the same if the NBA Playoffs were single elimination games? Even some of the best NBA teams of all time had their bad games and even got blown out on occasion. And with the NBA we are talking about seasoned professionals, not college kids.

Obviously Kansas would win a best of seven series, but in a single game setting, if the Nova guards are on fire, and the pressure weighs on Kansas, and the memories of the two first round exits and Elite 8 appearances cloud their minds, it will be upset city!.

Billy Packer caught on tape MLFing!

As I was watching the repeat of the Davidson vs Gonzaga NCAA game on CBS College Sports, with 37.6 seconds left in the second half, and after coming back from a TV timeout, Billy Packer, who thought he wasn't on the air, said "Pretty Woman" while the camera was focused on Stephen Curry's mom.

Not that there is anything wrong with any of the above, but Billy Packer usually tries to play the "serious analyst" card and criticizes others who make "off topic" comments.

Which explains why the CBS NCAA tourney pool of analysts includes "serious" types, and sleepy play by play guys. Which is perhaps why Gus Johnson is often left out of the second week of games, and notable analysts like Marques Johnson of FSN are not invited.

Davidson vs UCLA

While Bill Walton was getting drunk, front and center, on national TV (WGN), there was a game taking place at the showcase game of the Wooden classic. UCLA started ugly as usual, and then Ben Howland presumably spiked their Gatorade with some Barry Bonds Juice, and the UCLA players started playing much much better.

Stephen Curry was contained, but that didn't stop the barrage of 10+ three-pointers made. Ultimately though the run UCLA made towards the end of the first half and sustained in the early second half was what game them the win. The final score is not indicative of how close the game was. although Davidson was always a step or two behind - they never threatened to retake the lead late in the game.

What is perhaps even more surprising is that the critically acclaimed Bob McKillop's Davidson team has not beaten a ranked team during his long tenure there. Of course that is partially because they play only a few of them every year. Since they are near Duke and Carolina and play them every year, that feels more like a conference game, which reduces the element of surprise since both Duke and UNC are familiar with McKillop and Davidson.

Russell Westbrook stole the show with an impressive showing on both ends of the floor (he was guarding Dell Stephen Curry), and Darren Collison showed some flashes of his old self. Michael Roll (in all honesty a Big West player) slowly tried to make a comeback.

Kevin Love is starting to get exposed! He is no longer playing against little kids in high school, and he cannot out-muscle and out-space-eat them any more. To me, he looks more like a beached whale with passing skills than an NBA Lottery Pick ;-)

The game aired on WGN, with Steve Physioc doing the play by play. Why isn't any Physioc on FSN basketball? Without Marques Johnson to keep him in line, Physioc was all over the place making things up (eg "Davidson scheduled Duke and Carolina after their NCAA Maryland game"). Newsflash: They play them every year!

And why do all the fired coaches end up being analysts? San Diego's Brad Holland was the analyst of this game. If they are so good at figuring out the game, why aren't they still coaching? ;-)

More on this game at Deacon Sports, Posting Up Slog at CSTV, The Olympian, Bruins Nation, NCAA Fan Zone, and Inside UCLA.

Davidson at North Carolina

We knew this would have been an interesting game, but perhaps did not expect it to be so sloppy. But it is the start of the season, and it was an intense game, and a see-saw battle at that. Because of the slugfest at times, it is harder to guestimate and project on Carolina and Davidson.



One thing that was obvious is that Ole Roy and his crew of coaches should never have Quinton Thomas and Marcus Ginyard on the floor at the same time - if they actually want to score points. Neither one is an offensive thread, and having two of them together allows the defense to zero in on the remaining three.

Another interesting observation, the only time UNC had a sustained offensive spark was when they went with one forward, and four wings/guards. This both in the first and the second half. Granted this was just a game, but Deon Thompson and Alex Stepheson did not show much. Perhaps this creates an opening for William Graves?

UNC at times showed signs and shades of the Georgetown meltdown, which of course was the last game they played. Was this just an early season jitters type of thing or is there more to it? Is there something missing from this Carolina team? Why didn't Green and Frasor get more PT since they seem to be more effective?

Dell Stephen Curry got his points, but he was almost Iverson-esque in the number of shots he took to get those points. Davidson was what we expected (for real, not another Coach Green joke). Apart from the smooth shooter in Curry and the heady point guard in Jason Richards, they showed a variety of other players that fill in the blanks. The slugishness of this game made it harder for our Crystal ball to look ahead and project what to expect from Davidson. But the fact that they were in the game from start to finish, and made Carolina earn it the hard way (and just barely at that) is definitely very positive for the Wildcats. But I need to see Davidson again, I was not able to get as much out of it!