Kansas at USC

Defense won this game that in contrast to popular belief was not officially part of the Big 12 Pac 10 Hardwood Series Challenge.

USC did better in the first half, the Kansas defense shut off their water in the second half and managed to grab the lead. OJ Mayo has some flashy OJ-Mayo-Mania monents early in the game, but then he resorted to wild perimeter shots at the defense closed in on him.

Devon Jefferson was able to provide some offense, but for the most part of the second half USC forgot that the purpose of the game was to score. Partially of course because of the KU defense. And to rub it in even more to USC fans, the game ended with the notorious "Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk, K U" - the game was played at USC's new sold out flashy arena with an LA skyline view.

With Brandon Rush still recovering, someone had to step up for Kansas, and the Alaska Assassin, Mario Chalmers, was the one that ended USC's hopes for a comeback. While Kansas is loaded, with Sherron Collins in the pipeline, and Brandon Rush on the recovery path, it feels like there is something missing from this team, just like last year.

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.

Southern Illinois vs USC

This game showed exactly what I have been talking about when it comes to the Southern Illinois Salukis. This may be a top 25 defensive team, top 25 wrestling team, top 25 hard working team, top 25 over-achieving team, top 25 smartest team, top 25 body building team, top 25 football team, top 25 slugsketball team, but they are not a top 25 basketball team.

Let me describe the Salukis offense in simple terms: Use 20 to 30 seconds of the shot clock while pushing and shoving the opponents, throw the ball at the rim, push all the opposing players out of the way, grab the rebound, and make the layup. I'm sorry but if this is one of the best top 25 basketball teams, I'd rather watch Spelling Bee and Dog and Pony show reruns with Jimmy Dykes on ESPN Classic.

Thankfully the USC Trojans exposed them for the whole nation to see. Enough excuses for the Salukis. They are the premier team of the Missouri Valley (allegedly), they are not a low-major in the RPI #30 conference. They should be playing more basketball and less football/wrestling/slugfest. I'm sure Digger Phelps is going to have a field day with this game - unless he is busy playing ...actor.

Now imagine if half of the teams in the country adopted the Salukis style of play. That would ruin college basketball! Wake up Salukis!

On the other side of the aisle, the USC Trojans were impressive. Tim Floyd did not "Fear the Mayo" as he benched his star recruit, while spinning his decision to the media to save face for the Juice perhaps. Well, his decision apparently paid dividends, not because the two starters played better, but when Mayo and Taj Gibson got in the game, they grabbed the lead and never looked back.

As I have been saying for quite a while now, it was only a matter of time before Devon Jefferson got up to speed, both recovering from his injuries and getting accustomed to the college game. As I mentioned many times, he was a high-school all-star caliber player (he played in one or two of the big four post-season high school all star games in 2005), and he is two years older now, with presumably two years of prep school seasoning. Expect to hear a lot more from Devon Jefferson.

As Steve Lavin pointed out, the Trojans were a different (better passing) team without the Mayo. Daniel Hackett is continuing to emerge as the engine or backbone of the team. Angelo Johnson is another player that can have an impact on the game, as he can shift gears and give opposing defenses a different look.

But perhaps the big Thank You from Trojan fans should go to Charles Coles and the Miami of Ohio Red Hawks who prepared the USC Trojans for this type of a game. While the Trojans looked more jittery against Miami of Ohio, their "training' paid off when they took over the Salukis game and never looked back.

More on this at Trojan Wire, including their piece on Devon Jefferson. Also at Daily Trojan, uschoops.com, and Brendan Loy's Irish Trojan blog.

The Salukis point of view at SIUSalukis.com.

And non-denominational opinions at College Hoops Journal, ArcaMax.com.

San Diego vs USC

You know you are big time when ESPN creates a tournament just for you. I am talking of course about the Anaheim Classic whose raison d'etre was to showcase three OJ Mayo games on the ESPN family of networks.

After 15 years with the Zags, Bill Grier left so that he could take over his own program, and revitalize the San Diego "Chargers" that went downhill after their season to remember that ended in the NCAA tournament. It will be an uphill battle for Grier - and I'm not talking about getting to the SD campus ;-)

His team played quite well and showed promise as they gave the USC Trojans all they could handle, under the bright lights of the ESPN cameras. The Johnson and Jones trio looks promising, and could give other WCC teams headaches during the conference season.

While Floyd's defense was ...comfortably numb during the Mercer game, the defensive Trojans ...broke free during the San Diego game and kept them in check, while waiting for their offense to overcome the San Diego pesky defense. OJ Mayo did not score as many points as before, he took some questionable shots, but when the game was on the line, he was ...money. A couple of times he gave Floyd the ..."what do you want from me" look. At times Floyd looked ...marooned on the bench, and was hoping that Mayo's shoot-athon did not ring the ...division bell with regards to team chemistry. Obviously everybody has ... high hopes for the USC team and it's no secret that USC basketball is ...coming back to life.

Guess the Pink Floyd references and win zero prizes :-)

USC Trojans Fans Challenge

With OJ Mayo officially having his Midnight Madness, I am issuing a challenge to USC Trojans Fans to celebrate the arrival of OJ Mayo by eating mayo while drinking orange juice (OJ). You got OJ Mayo, the least you can do is ...drink in his name!

Now I'm not suggesting that you do this and post videos of it on YouTube or post pictures of doing that on the net. I am not suggesting that! And just to be clear, I am not suggesting that :)

The Mid-Week Repor(t)

One thing I forgot to mention that came up during the FIBA games: Coach Dirty Rat K was the braintrust's 2nd choice behind Greg Popovich who declined. And if you can read between the lines of what the analysts said, it is Jason Kidd who deserves most of the credit for Team USA's smooth sailing, not Dracula K. Okay give Kobe some credit too. The difference between this Team USA and the ones from the previous years should make it clear how important a true point guard is to a team. It's no coincidence that Jason Kidd is undefeated as a member of Team USA! So send the thank you notes to Jason Kidd, not to Dracula K!

Rivals's Andrew Skwara puts on his book reviewer hat as he looks at Dane Bradshaw's new book Vertical Leap: Inside the rise of Tennessee basketball

Everybody's favorite CBS writer Gregggg Doyelll is back with an anti-OJ Mayo mania story. Is there a history between Doyell and OJ Mayo?

Goodman continues to report on the travelling colleges, today's travellers are Villanova, Marquette and James Madison. As mentioned before, the four guard line-up is coming back at Nova! Marquette may also go with a four guard line-up but just like Villanova they have some flexibility with their line-up. James Madison looks to create a stir in the CAA with two impact transfers who were coaches by two "personalities" (Phil Martelli and Bob Knight).

Dick Hoops Weiss chimes in on Calipari's Attack Arrest Shout Attack Arrest offense. Meanwhile things are getting ugly at Duquesne. Mike Davis says his five UAB troublemakers will be disciplined (three of which were transfers and another one was an AAU teammate of some high profile hoopsters). This concludes today's Trouble Repor(t).

ASoB has an interesting piece as they look at the careers of Pitino, Eddie Sutton, Tubby Smith and Billy Gillispie before they took the Kentucky job.

Round-up of some of the latest happenings at College Hoops Heaven, including a tidbit on Jordan's son Jeffrey and his college career.

DeCourcy blogs about Alabama's Ron Steele (whose brother also committed there)

The Big 12 finds a new commissioner after their previous commissioner decided he wanted to be the Tina Fey of the Big Ten Network :)

One last note, yesterday's post title said "Monday Night Hoops" even though it was clearly Tuesday :)


Impromptu 2007-2008 Season Preview Round-up

March Madness All Season has a new 2007-2008 preview piece: Six teams that could from the NIT to the NCAA

Speaking of previews, CHN's Top 144 continues with Bob Knight Tech, Northern Iowa and troubled Duquesne who made headlines for the wrong reasons the last couple of weeks.

Meanwhile the Rivals Top 64 continues with back2back champions the Florida Gators

CAAHoops@Wordpress reviews Lindy's preseason preview of the CAA (Colonial)

From the desk of Publish or Parrish, some 2007-2008 quick-hitters-style preview looking at freshmen, point guards and mid-majors

Looking for more preview stories? You are in luck! Check our Gigantic 2007-2008 preview links

Early bird Monday Night Hoops

New updates at Goodman's blog at Fox Sports: Updates on the labor day trips of Oklahoma, Duquesne and OJ Mayo Mania at USC. Goodman quotes USC assistant Bob Cantu on OJ Mayo: "He was very unselfish and was poised running the point”. Because of flood damage, the Trojans were only able to play one game, which kept Mayo and Jefferson's average high :) Also be sure to read the Random Notes with updates on USC, Minnessota, Jamel White, Leonard Washington and more. More from Goodman as he reports on the off-court trouble at Conference USA (Memphis and UAB - ironically the top two teams of C-USA next season). Infact Conference USA is gonna be tougher this year with Southern Miss expected by preseason pollster to be a top 60 team and of course you can never discount Turnaround Tom's team

It's Publish or Parrish at CBS Sportsline where GP talks about the Memphis Tigers, and he even gives us the Top 5 teams of 2008-2009.

Rivals picks the mid-major conferences to watch for 2007-2008. It's hard to write one of those things without one of the leagues or teams being offended for being called mid-majors but what are you gonna do?

Speakign of Rivals, Skwara's mailbag talks of Washington, South Florida, Oklahoma, LSU, and St John's Red Storm (not Redmen)

CAA Hoops blogger reviews the CAA coverage of the first college basketball preview magazine of the season. If you are wondering which one is that, it is the one that comes in early every year - check your local newsstand or check my magazine reviews from last year to find out which one that would be :)

A link via A Sea of Blue on parallels between the football loss of Michigan by Appi State and the Duke/Kentucky basketball game.

The Top 144 CHN previews continue with Duquense, while the Rivals T op 64 previews continue with the Virginia Cavaliers featuring Iverson-Lite (Sean Singletary)

Still "recovering from their undefeated season", the Clemson Tigers are now under under the DeCourcy microscope. He also reports of a space-eater arriving at Indiana at 350 lbs, and the zebras are already cringing at the thought of coaches and players calling it "a Donaghy call". Well then can eject the coaches and the players, but they can't eject the fans. The signs will be there, the chants will be there, the t-shirts will be there. Get ready zebras, brace yourselves you are the Donaghy genaration!

And something for the football fans, John Clay's Sidelines report has created a list of football games on TV this week, both on network and cable TV. The local channels mentioned are for KY, but you can probably find the games at your local network affiliate and regional FSN channel.

Weekend update (OJ Mayo Mania officially began!)

The OJ Mayo Mania officially began as USC defeated a team in Mexico as part of their Labor Day international trip. Their two touted incoming freshmen, OJ Mayo and Devon Jefferson scored 29 points each. Jefferson is not a freshman-freshman, he spent two years after HS (and his all-star game appearance) in post-graduate schools. USC Trojan fans could be pleasantly surprised if the duo is able to deliver such performance on a nightly basis. And Tim Floyd will need to recruit someone to replace Jefferson in 2008-2009. But hey, it was just one exhibition game! Let's not get too carried away!

2007 NCAA College Basketball Tournament games on DVD!

Recruiting talk at Recruiting Wars

Ole Roy going to the New Hall (of Fame) at CBS Sportsline. The ceremony will be carried on ESPN Classic and NBA-TV. Repeats on NBA-Tv, and a one-hour edit will be broadcast later on on ESPN2.

Apparently Calipari's players took the Attack aspect of the AASAA offense outside the court as they were involved in Beale street drama (fight). With Derrick Rose and high preseason rankings, the spotlight is shining on Memphis and when the spotlight is shining, the microscope also turns on! Gary Parrish reminds us of UAB's recent bar troubles as well. New definition of the AASAA offense: Attack, Arrest, Shout, Attack, Arrest.

Dick Hoops Weiss has an update on Robert Mitchell's transfer from Duquense to Seton Hall. Gonzo was unable to get Shaheen Halloway back as an assistant but he got this transfer in. And he gets a solid player for the scout squad for the upcoming season.

The Big 12 is signed, sealed and delivered to ESPN until 2016. No indepdendant Big 12 TV network but a rebranded co-ESPN syndication (or something like that). Big 12 hoops fans will be thrilled to find out that they are guaranteed three Big 12 games on ESPN or ESPN2 every week.

Speaking of which, the Big Ten Network made its debut on August 30, 2007. Their TV schedule for the next two weeks is here

Not enough college hoops news yet? Well go over to CSTV's News Archives with dozens of stories per week. Dozens for real! Go and check it out! But be warned, their website is dancing with multimedia, almost as bad as ESPN's. Editorial Note: Why do all these clueless people with a web design program at their disposal think they can waste everyone's badnwidth and cpu cycles with an obnoxiously MySpace-like amount of multimedia and bloatware?

Do you have unanswered or difficult college hoops questions? Don't ask me! Ask Andrew Skwara of Rivals

And some sad news about Jameer Nelson's dad


2007-2008 Preview Quick Hitters

CHN's Top 144 previews continue with Duquesne and Miami of Florida

The Rivals Top 64 previews continue with Vandy and Xavier

A Sea of Blue profiles Joe Crawford of Kentucky

Rivals profiles David Lighty of Ohio State. With Oden and Conley in the NBA$, the other touted recruits will get a chance to shine.

OJ Mayo mania, a sneak preview

OJ Mayo mania hits DeCourcy's blog.

Monty returns to Stanford, as an assistant to the AD. Monty being Mike Montgomerry, former NBA coach, TV analyst and Stanford basketball coach of 1800 years.

One blog that you should visit and bookmark is the Zags blog. No, it has nothing to with Gonzaga). Lots of recruiting coverage there as well. And if you want Gonzaga Zags coverage, check La Rev

An early preview of the 2007-2008 Villanova team at College Hoops Heaven. Look out in the Big East as the four-guard line-up may resurface at both Villanova and Marquette.

The CHN Top 144 previews continue with Duquesne, Miami of Florida and Southern Miss.

The Rivals Top 64 previews continue as well, with Southern Miss and Wisconsin. It looks like more and more people are picking Larry Eustachy for a good season. Will he deliver or drink it all way? (that was a no-spin zone zinger)

A Sea of Blue spotlights NYC guard Ramel Bradley. More Kentucky basketball coverage at the The WildCats blog and The Wildcats Thunder

Former Maryland space-eater gets in legal troubles with gun shipments. What? Tired of all the bad news involving athletes? Then visit and bookmark Good News in Sports

Don't look now but the College Hoops Preview magazines are already being published! Lindy's is usually the first out of the gate. Their website lists 21 different covers for the 2007-2008 season

The CAA Hoops wordpress blog informs us that the Cinderella book by M. Litos will be printed in paperback early next year. But if you can't wait until then, you can buy the hardcover right now (Amazon, $16). The book chronicled the 2005-2006 magical mystery tour of the CAA, highlighted by George Mason's dream run to the Final Four. The formal title is Inside the Rise of Mid-Major Basketball.

Speaking of books, for $5 you can get Lute Olson's book, or The Miracle of Saint Anthony's, and for $7 you can get Dean Smith's The Carolina Way. More details here!. I call this the BBB shopping strategy. Buy Buy Buy. Which brings us to...

AASAA: If your 2007 version of Beatle-mania is the Vance Walberg AASAA offense, this blog is for you. AASAA stands for Attack, Attack, Skip (pass), Attack, Attack. As opposed to pass, pass, pass, wait for shotclock to go under 15, pass, pass, pass then shoot a wild three. This I call the ZZZZZ offense :)

Goodman talks about Ron Steele and Duquense.

Dick Hoops Weiss thinks Seton Hall may have found their next assistant coach who was an NBA scout/instructor last season. He also says that Calhoun will go to a junior college (not _that_ Calhoun), and a new summer job for Mo Hicks of Rice.

Recruiting mumblings at Recruiting Wars

2007 NCAA College Basketball Tournament games on DVD!

And a quite note for the college football fans reading this, The Sports Flow blog prepares you for the start of the college pigskin season.

Mid-week report

Every 2007 NCAA College Basketball Tournament game on DVD!

Recruiting updates at Recruiting Wars with Pitino and Majerus adding 2008 forwards, mid-majors, Kentucky and more... Speaking of recruiting, A Sea of Blue shares my worries that Coach K may use his polish heritage to grab the jumping jack polish sensation Oleg Czyz.

Continued coverage of the NCAA war on bloggers at A Sea of Blue. Quick recap: The NCAA kicked a live blogger out of a game because they thought he violated their copyright by blogging live from a game. Read on for all the details.

Goodman blogs on OJ Mayo arriving on the USC campus. The OJ post has generated a lot of discussion among the readers. As expected. He also talks about Izzo getting his MoJo back, and has a feature on Northwestern State. Props to Goodman for giving the mid-majors some love! Yesterday's post at Goodman's talks about the 2007-2008 mascotless Illinois, Nevada's big recruiting get (beating the Thad Matta Express), and big Joseph Jones (JoJo?) returning to Gillispie-less Texas A&M (he had entered his name in the NBA draft).

Lots of updates at March Madness All Season over at CHN, including Mecha-Roberts (Josh McRoberts of Puke) signing with an agent, a Florida guard getting in trouble with the law, San Diego gets a new coach, and lots and lots of other stories!

Thanks to Iktmmedia.com/UK for the link to this blog!

BYU basketball loses a player to ...USC football. The player in question is redshirt tweener (6-5/200) Jordan Cameron, while Wofford gets their point guard Gibson back from the NBA draft.

And a quick Coaching Carousel paragraph: The anti-Tark (Lon Kruger) gets a contract extension giving him $5.2 million over 5 years. Welcome to the millionaire coaches club Mr Kruger! Meanwhile UCLA loses assistant Chris Carlson to San Diego, where he replaced Ben Howland soundalike and lookalike Brad Holland as the new head coach... With all these coaches leaving, Ben Howland may be forced to hire a coach who actually coaches offense! ;-)

Sportsline has a story on Mecha-Roberts signing with an agent. And that is great news. That means Duke is officially losing Josh McRoberts from the 2007-2008. Although some could argue that he was a case of addition by subtraction.

Look who's blogging now here at Blogspot: MC Hammer!

Meanwhile Gary Parrish becomes a book reviewer, as he reviews the book "Vertical Leap" by Tennessee senior Dane Bradshaw. Bradshaw had his first book signing at Long's Drugs. Already 6000 books have been sold. Bradshaw's basketball career may continue in Germany. Bruce Pearl writes the foreword for his former power forward as he looks forward to life after college (ha!) The book is available at Amazon for under $14

The most flexible Father's day gift!, an Amazon gift certificate, ranging from $5 to $5000. This is a simple, yet very flexible way to pick up a Father's day gift.