NBA: Joakim Noah benched by ...teammates!

A darling of the world of college hoops in the last couple of years, Joakim Noah was He was benched by his own teammates! (Fox Sports story). That's right benched by a unanimous vote by his own teammates!

Apparently Noah had a confrontation with an assistant coach (Star Tribune). The blogosphere is also buzziing about this story, see the SEC Talk boards, MySpace Sports (they have Sports?), Larry Brown Sports, and Rosen's blog.

The ultimate NCAA team is not so team-friendly in the NBA! First head coach Billy "The Diva" Donovan has a long and winding saga about his coaching future, first non-interest interest in Kentucky, then non-interest interest in the Orlando Tragic. Now his star pupil and ultimate team player mixes it up with an NBA assistant coach. Oh dear!

Florida at Ohio State

The best way to describe the game is this: Someone emptied two baskets of kittens on the basketball floor and let them run all over the place. The game was all over the place, both teams being loaded with very "green" but talented and promising players.

This was Florida's first game outside the state and it showed. After a hot start, the Gators cooled off and played like a young team playing its first hostile road game. You can't really blame them. You couldn't possibly expect this team to walk into Value City Arena and take over the game.

The biggest talent at Ohio State continues to be the coach, Thad Matta. With a loaded squad of talented freshmen and a few experienced players of seasons past, there is no doubt that Matta will turn this team into a steamroller by mid-February. Sure there are questions, for one who will be the backup point guard when the team needs one and will Diebler or someone else be able to be a consistent outside shooting threat?

Oh yes, this was a rematch of the 2007 NCAA Final, we almost forgot to mention that. And there's good reason we almost forgot that: Because it's a rematch in name only. Sure the coaches are there (almost), and some of the players are there, but the majority of the impact players of the 2007 NCAA final from both teams have either graduated or playing professionally.

Vermont at Florida

To borrow a phrase from their old coach-turned-TV-analyst, Vermont was the statue in this game, as the young Gators overpowered them with their talent, depth, quickness, occasional defense, and shooting.

While the Gators are obviously not going to three-peat this year, don't be surprised if this foundation class of Billy Donovan ends up winning another NCAA championship before they graduate. They are a young and untested team, but this nine man rotation is among the most versatile in the NCAA. They have it all, a speedy mini-me point guard, a tough combo guard, two very versatile wings in teammates Calathes and Parsons, a very promising big man in M. Speights, and two versatile forwards in Jonathan and Werner. So this team can play big, can play small, can play, and can play very fast.

Of course their growth is not going to be a bed of roses, they are going to have their ups and downs, and the downs may be more than the ups when the SEC conference season begins. Billy "the diva" Donovan did a good job in "shielding" them during the early schedule, and for good season since they are so young and inexperienced in D1 hoops.

Vermont played one of those games that mid-major teams have to play that I call "lambs to the slaughter" games. The good part for mid-majors is that occasionally they get a win, the bad news is that the wins are rare in these type of games.

So what did we learn? Not much about Vermont, but the Florida Gators are talented, versatile and inexperienced.

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