Ole Miss vs Louisville game recap

The awkward Big East - SEC Challenge continued with a double-header and one of the games was of the rather intriguingly unpredictable PitinoVille Cardinals. Ole Miss of course was hot on the heels of the Andy Kennedy "taxicab confessions" incident.

One thing that was evident from that game is that Samardo Samuels cannot jump over a wet kitchen towel while stand-still. This is major ouch for a player that was considered one of the top five incoming freshmen. Ouch! Not to mention not making any adjustments. Perhaps the aura of Derrick Caracter still lingers? :)

But the biggest problem for Louisville is Pitino's stubborness not to "encourage" Edgar Sosa to transfer to an NEC school where he would play 35 minutes per game and take 30 shots per game and be happy. Instead he is trying to transform Sosa into something he is not and cannot be. The side-effects of getting burned by Sebastian Telfair?

The good news is that Earl Clark is awesome with capital A. Even Bob Knight, the grinch who stole the happiness from all of his former players (ouch!), couldn't stop praising Earl Clark's combination of mad skillz and mad understanding of the game.

Ole Miss is promising, perhaps not for this year, but if Andy Kennedy can "survive" the cab-driver "scandal", he could build a solid program at Ole Miss as a Huggins Lite. Although the cab driver "incident" may hint that he is not that much ...lighter.

South Carolina vs Providence

To be brutally honest, this looked like an NIT/CBI game. The good news is that the season doesn't end today, and there's plenty of time and opportunities for both teams to become NCAA-bound.

Providence seems to love drama as once again ended up losing a close game after making a late comeback. They were playing without their beep-beeper (Lavin'ism) (Sharraud Curry is out for another 3-4 weeks), so that gave South Carolina the edge since their beep-beeper (Cincy transfer and South Carolina native Devon Downey) was able to occasionally wreak havoc offensively.

Geoff McDermott woke up late in the game, and South Carolina's Michael Holmes showed promise and potential and some thunderous dunks too.

More in this game at the SEC Talk forums, Whole Hog Sports, and John Clay's Sidelines Report.

West Virginia vs Auburn

FireJeffLebo.com? Does that website exist? :) Not because they were blown out, but four years into his tenure and he still has trouble filling up his roster and he is still playing small ball - not by choice. His team was playing a home-neutral game, just two hours away from home, "hosting" Bob Thuggins and the Beilein Offenders who became Defenders after Huggins stumbled into town.

West Virginia grabbed the reigns (no horses hurt during this phrase) and never looked back. It looked like a glorified Thugineers practice, with all sorts of dunks, three pointers, back-cuts, back-doors, open-doors in the key, and such. Joe Alexander stole the show with his versatility (please don't mention that Woody H. movie) and Alex Ruoff with his "shootability".

It is amazing when you stop and think at what Bob Huggins was able to do in just two seasons. He single-handedly brought back Kansas State back to life, he recruited potentially the #1 NBA Draft pick (okay, he recruited Delonte Hill who brought Beasley with him), and he made them relevant. Then he takes off, takes over Beilein-ball, a team that plays about as diametrically opposed to Thuggins-ball as possible, he turns them into rebounders and defenders, and he is able to adapt and use the Beilein offense principles.

If you set aside the off-court issues, can you not make a case for Bob Huggins at least in the College Basketball Hall of Fame?

More on this game from the Mountaineer Sports Network and Razorback network.

PS> I forgot to mention that some of Jimmy Dykes's comments on the Jimmy V event seemed a bit out of phase as if he was in a different dimension that last few years. Then again we are talking Dog and Pony show specialist Jimmy Dykes :)

Georgetown at Alabama

The first game of the inaugural SEC Big East Invitational (challenge, hardwood series, made for TV, whatever you wanna call it) tipped off last night and the Georgetown Hoyas played a NINO game (NINO = neutral in name only) in the state of Alabama against Mark Gottfried's Crimson Tide.

The game was much closer than the final score indicates perhaps. This was the first game I saw Georgetown this year and I expected a bit more from them. But they did win the game Georgetown style, separating themselves from Bama the last couple of minutes.

In the first half Alabama managed to do something not many teams can do: They forced Georgetown to play faster and go and up and down the court. This worked for Alabama as they were either ahead, tied or just a bucket behind for most of the first half. Georgetown uncharacteristically (wow that's a long word, what does it mean?) turned the ball all over the place. In the second half, especially the fourth quarter, the Hoyas tightened things up and kept turnovers under control and forced Alabama to play at their pace and got a road win.

I was pleasantly surprised by Alabama. I was expected to see a train wreck, but I saw a feisty up and down team. Richard Hendrix would have probably been in the NBA by now if he had committed to North Carolina instead of Alabama - assuming he wanted to jump to the NBA early. With Ron Steele (one of the five most injured players along with Juan Diego Tello Palacios, David Padgett, etc) taking a medical redshirt, the point guard position was nowhere near as stable. But the versatility and athleticism helped carry the team before the game became a half court affair. But even then, Alabama exceeded expectations. So this team perhaps may sneak up on people and bite off some surprising wins along the way!

Georgetown may have not played as good as their perceived ranking, but that doesn't take away from the fact that they have a solid team that could win the National Championship in April 2008. Where do I start? They have a style of play that is an advantage because teams don't see it as often. They have the personnel to run it as well. They also have the talent and athleticism to run up and down (except perhaps Roy Hibbert) but JT3 prefers to play the game the "Pete Carrill right way". And this time around they have Chris Wright on the bench as a very promising backup point guard, so Jonathan Wallace is not alone.

Plus JT3 has been great at picking space-eater versatile wings like Jessie Sapp and incoming freshman Austin Freeman, which is another big plus for their style of play. Then they've got a number of versatile forwards as well, De Juan Summers, V-Mac (Vernon Macklin) and Patrick Ewing. And best of all, they have a true center in the middle, in Roy Hibbert, who can pass and play outside the key as well. Who can stop Hibbert without opening up the perimeter to a barrage of three pointers? That may be the key to defeating Georgetown in the NCAA tourney and for Georgetown to win the NCAA tourney (perhaps).

More coverage of this game by the Hoya Prospectus, Bama Online, Roll Bama Roll, GUHoyas.com, BigEast.org, the Tide Druid blog, among others.