Marquette at Louisville

Life is not fair! A coaching change and the NBA sirens could not break the band, but unfortunately an injury broke the band, and the James Matthews McNeal Band will not be able to finish their careers together, as Dominic James is out for the season.

And bravely they fought and they were oh-so-close to stealing this game. Stealing the game they could, partially because Louisville was unable to capitalize on their size and depth.

Pitino is still paying for his Sebastian Telfair gamble, because as an over-reaction to Telfair, he picked Edgar Sosa and decided to stick with him for four years, instead of bringing in a new point guard.

Both Earl Clark and T-Will are very gifted basketball players, however Earl Clark needs to reign in his wild three-point shooting. Wild because they rarely go in and they bounce all over the place.

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.

Tom Crean taking over Indiana? What about Marquette?

A number of places are saying that Tom Crean is close to taking over the Hoosiers! Also at AOL Fanhouse. Is this for real or an April fool's day joke?

A joke was for sure the lame duck Dan Dakich "firing" two of his players on his way out, booting Jamarcus Ellis and Armon Bassett off the team. What are they smoking/eating/drinking in Bloomington?

For upcoming reactions from the Marquette world, be sure to check the Cracked Sidewalks blog.

This would be an interesting development as another Jud Heathcote tree guy would be replacing Kelvin Sampson, also a Heathcote guy. Meet the new Godfather of college hoops! Also under his wing are Gonzaga, and of course Michigan State, and by association, Tulsa, and such :)

If that is indeed the case, the Marquette opening would be an intriguing situation, as a Big East job. Who would Marquette go after? Would they stay in the Heathcote tree and go after CBI Play-off coach Doug Wojick of Tulsa?

The story is all over the net, including the Herald Times, ESPN, and TSN.

Oh my! Crazy coaching carousel, where are you taking us next???

Update!
Andy Katz is reporting on the ESPN2 Gameday that the Wright State coach was the next option after Tom Crean at Indiana. Katz also points out that there is no natural successor to Tom Crean, as former pupil Darren Horn has just taken over South Carolina, to replace the retiring Dave Odom and hoping to become the next Andy Kennedy success story.


Update II
CSTV's Insider Brian Curtis was quoted as reporting to CSTV's College Sports Tonight that Tom Crean will be getting a 10-year deal with an average of $2.5 million per year.

Can I get the Indiana job and get fired the next day? The buyout alone would make me an instant millionaire :) And then a multi-million dollar book deal to write about "My glorious day at IU" ;-)

Louisville at Marquette

The little guy was down with the flu and without D. James anywhere near 100%, Marquette did not have a good chance against the pressing defense of Rick Pitino. That, and it seems that this year Louisville has Marquette's number.

With a full compliment of players, and the players playing under control, the Louisville Cardinals look like a good team. But with the injuries and such, we really don't know which Louiville team will show us every game. We are definitely going to put Louisville in the top 25 when we submit our vote later tonight.

Marquette has its work cut out for it, and their style of player, and dependence on little guys makes the team more unpredictable than a team who has a more balanced or more traditional line-up. We've seen this pattern with a number of other teams, like Texas and Xavier, etc, etc.

So where do we go from here? Marquette needs to have a healthy D. James before anything else, while Louisville has to show up and beat Goergetown in the high profile ESPN Gameday Primetime game on Saturday. Georgetown is a team that you have to beat, they won't surrender the game (@Pitt game excluded). So that would be a good test for both of those teams.

The Maui Final: Duke vs Marquette, a preview

Yes, it's revenge time for the Dookies, and a chance for another big win and big media "cred" for the Marquette Golden Warrior Eagles! Duke vs Marquette, NEXT, on ESPN! Well, by next, I mean 7pm pacific (10pm eastern) tonight (Wednesday, November 21, Thanksgiving Eve). Today is a jam-packed day on TV, so be sure to check our TV schedule.

Duke is heading into the game after a satisfying win over the Fighting Illini, while Marquette comes in after dismantling Sutton State, and receiving defensive praise from the one and only Shark the Tark (ok, Tark the Shark).

The local newspaper, the Honolulu Advertiser previews the game, while the Marquette-Scout page notes Coach K's praise for the Golden Eagles. More on this from Cracked Sidewalks (a Marquette blog). More previews at the NCAA Men's BBall blog.

Meanwhile this Madden guy picks Duke to win. I pick and want and wish for Marquette to win! Go Golden Eagle Warriors! More on this game from Worlds Sports News and Draft Express.

If you can't wait for the 2009 Maui Invitational, CSTV's Hangtime slog (not blog, but slog, as in sports + blog = slog) reveals the 2009 field. The 2009 field will be part of the 2009-2010 season. Which teams are participating? Check their slog to find out!


Xs and Os
Both teams are deep and athletic. Neither one has a dominant inside presence, but Duke's gets the edge inside on the offensive edge. The guards and the wings are more or less evenly matches with one exception that could be the game changer: the little guys: Can the Dookies keep Dominic James and David Cubillan in front of them, especially if they play together? And which Marquette defense will show up? The one that dismantled Oki State and earned Tark the Shark's praise or the one that made Chaminade players and fans happy?

On the other side of the court, will Coach K try to create mismatches with Marquette's little guys? DeMarcus Nelson is a potential mismatch waiting to happen. As Doug Gottleib stated on the air a couple of days ago, Duke may be an even better team without Greg Paulass (not a typo). And if Coach RatCase wants to create a mismatch he could try Demarcus Nelson, Gerald Henderson and Nolan Smith (or Scheyer) as the three guards, and try to post up Cubillan or James.

This has the potential of a highly entertaining instant classic game since both teams are not shy about running, however, game pressure and bright spotlights might turn this into a more grinded out affair with lots of fouls and jittery play without much flow. But I hope not!


NCAA Tournament DVDs
Looking for the perfect gift for the basketball fan? We have dozens and dozens of suggestions for you: pick and chose from the 2007 NCAA Tournament DVDs produced by NCAA On Demand. You don't need to squint on a 6-hour VHS tape to celebrate your team's success in the NCAA. You can instead proudly showcase it on your big screen TV with an official NCAA DVD-quality DVD! (Oh dear, this reads like an infomercial!)

Marquette at Chaminade

Tom Crean was sporting a "lobster" sun tan, while he was flirting with the idea of a four-guard line-up according to the preseason Funniest Announcer Trio of 2007-2008 of Bill Raftery, Jay Bilas and Shawn McDonut (intentional sp?). This was supposed to be a glorified early morning practice for Marquette...



... but instead, they got a really good workout, and showed the coaching stuff some things they need to work on. Obviously you can' sprout new inside players overnight, but they can make adjustments both offensively and defensively.

The Fighting Chaminades had a very solid game and sent a message to all other Division II teams that they mean business. Given today's performance, will they be able to get a win? Perhaps not tomorrow where they'll face the loser of LSU vs Oklahoma State, but on Wednesday they likely play the loser of Princeton vs Arizona State. That increases their chances of a win!

My hope is for a final of Marquette vs Duke and the Marquette Golder Warrior Eagles beat the smug out of Duke for the second year in a row :-)

More on this game at Marquettte fan blog Cracked Sidewalks.

Also, during half time we had Tom Brennan's interesting statistical prediction: UCLA will not make it to the Final Four because very few teams have gone to three in a row in the "modern era" (since the 70s).

Also visit SportsNation at ESPN.com to vote for the biggest college basketball upsets of all time. Among the five nominees are Chaminade vs Virginia, Jimmy V beating Houston.