Rico Explodes!

Rico Tucker, who it is safe to say is the best player in the West Coast Conference, exploded all over Montana St last night, scoring 24 points, to go with 5 rebounds and 4 steals. Unfortunately, the rest of his team let the likely player of the year down, and Pepperdine lost 95-89.

Elsewhere, in what can only be described as the greatest mismatch in coaching history, Rick Majerus and St. Louis beat Dan Monson and LBSU 52-48. I'm pretty sure you could give Majerus Iowa and Monson Kansas, and Iowa would come out on top.

Not much action today:

Kansas -2.5 @ USC
Nebraska -2 vs. Ariz State
Texas +10.5 @ UCLA
Texas A&M +3 @ Arizona

Yesterday: 6-7
Season: 69-63

Washington 84, Long Beach State 67

Last night I had the pleasure of checking out the big Washington vs. Long Beach game, thanks to FSN-Northwest, and it was really not all that entertaining.

Washington won by 17, not covering the 22 point spread, but really should have won by about 30, if not for their swiss-cheese like defense and Ben Wallace-like free throw shooting.

It was nice to watch Long Beach, as they had several issues that may be familiar to other fans of a certain formerly Dan Monson led team: Inability to handle a pressure defense they should have been prepared for (18 TOs), running a trapping defense - without knowing where and how to trap the ballhandler (only 5 steals), and a complete and total inability to defend the three (Wash 11-19).

What helped out LBSU, was the fact that I'm not entirely sure Washington knows how to play defense, and their coach made a curious decision to abandon the press. Washington was up 15 midway through the first half, and had been using pressure defense to cause havoc amongst the LBSU guards, and then just went away from it, allowing them to catch up and actually tie the game with about ten minutes left.

I kept waiting for Washington to assert their dominance and destroy the 49ers, but it never happened and that's when I realized - maybe Washington just isn't that good. I know they lost to both Texas A&M and Syracuse in the preseason NIT, but those are good teams, and I didn't take that to mean anything. I know they lost Spencer Hawes to the NBA, but with guys like Jon Brockman, Justin Dentmon, and Quincy Pondexter back along with some good newcomers, I thought they were being underrated as a middle of the road Pac 10 team. It looks like I was wrong. They allowed a team that was shooting 24% from three previously to come in and shoot 55%, and watching the game, the 49er guards were getting to the rim pretty much whenever they wanted. The guards couldn't stop them, and the big men weren't keeping them out either. Washington is lucky that they are such a crappy team, because a team with better guards would have destroyed them last night.

Three other little interesting tidbits from last night's game were:

1. LBSU called a timeout and Monson actually talked to his players. It looks like he's learned and moved on from the whole "call a timeout but then ignore my team and don't tell them how to adjust" school of thought.

2. At one point the announcers called the 49ers a "blue collar" kind of team. That just means they suck - and they do.

3. The announcers also said that Dan Monson "instills confidence in his players." I can't think of a single time that happened ever in his 25 years at the U or whatever it was. In fact, I think he shattered more players' egos than helped them. (see Tucker, Rico aka the Jesus of Basketball).

Additionally, I found some video of recruiting expert Van Coleman talking about the Gophers. It's old, like before Joseph signed, and there's only about a minute of Gopher talk (such as "Minnesota would not have signed Sampson if Tubby wasn't there), but here it is anyway. You have to watch a commercial first, and then he starts talking about Oregon and fat Josh Crittle who we didn't want anyway, but it gets there eventually.

(I had the video right on this page, but it plays automatically when the page loads and that's really annoying. So here's the video.)

Finally, Bogart and I used to bet on college basketball together before opening our separate accounts, and he was nerdy enough to keep track of our all-time record as well as the 2005-2006 season when we bet on every single game where a line was offered. I am very proud to share with you all that in that season we were 1,721 - 1,650 (.511) and for our career together we were 2,862 - 2,715 (.513). I'm also pretty sure I was more like 60% but he was like 42%.

Virginia -14.5 vs. Northwestern
Minnesota +8 @ FSU
Duke -8.5 vs. Wisconsin
Georgia Tech +10 @ Indiana
Northern Iowa PK @ Iowa St
Purdue +10 @ Clemson

Happy Thanksgiving

Good triumphed over evil last night, as Rico led Pepperdine to a 92-81 victory over hated Long Beach State and Dan Monson in overtime last night. Unfortunately, Monson still has some kind of soul-crushing mind control over Rico, as he only managed four points on 1-6 shooting, but added four assists and three steals. It says the attendance for that game was 715. Yeesh.

And I hear Torii Hunter signed with the Angels for 5 years, $80 million. Five years, $80 million for a 32 year old center fielder, who has lost most of the range he once had, is coming off an improbable career year in a contract season, and strikes out twice as much as he walks. Generally, older players who still hold value as they age have one thing in common: good plate discipline. I'm going to go ahead and predict that the last two years off that contract are going to be a killer for the Angels.

Kansas State -2 vs. George Mason
Gonzaga -6.5 vs. West Kentucky
South Carolina -2.5 vs. Penn St
USC -14 vs. San Diego

Yesterday: 7-3
Season: 36-28

Minnesota 84, Army 52

Great start to the season this afternoon. We got there a little late and had to leave a little early because my dad had to get to his big Brats & Shrimp dinner, so I missed some parts of the game, but got most of it. My thoughts:

- Holy Damian freakin' Johnson. Twelve points, 8 rebounds, 4 steals, and 4 blocks in just twenty minutes, and he seemed to be everywhere. He even knocked down two of the three three-pointers he attempted. I don't think I remember seeing him even attempt a three pointer last season [note: looked it up, he took 13]. If he keeps this up, we won't have to worry about the whole lack of depth in the frontcourt thing.

- Spencer looks like he got into better shape and lost a bunch of weight. Seems to pretty much have the same awkward post up moves, and should have no problem leading the team in rebounding this year. I really would have liked to see him be more aggressive against an undersized Army team, but he only took six shots. Also, he looks just like The Todd.

- It was awesome to see signs for Devoe Joseph in the student section. Joseph was allegedly there, but we couldn't find him. Maddog even went over behind the Gophers' bench at halftime on a scouting mission, but was unable to locate him. I can't remember ever seeing signs for a recruit in the student section, or anywhere in the arena for that matter. Either fans are getting smarter, there is more information out there, or we actually are recruiting players that are worth getting excited about. Maybe some of all three.

- I saw Dan Coleman get a defensive rebound in traffic, tip dunk an offensive rebound (with authority), and post up a defender. I still haven't seen him play defense.

- Speaking of defense, I love Tubby's strategy this year. The running offense coupled with a half court press is a great idea on an undersized team. Hopefully this will still work in the Big Ten season. I don't think the press will be quite as effective against Michigan State as it was against Army.

- Army is freakin' terrible. Just brutal. That hot chick in that one section that Snacks talked about was there again, and she brought a friend. I miss the curly haired stat girl from two or three years ago, personally.

- McKenzie scored just two points and took just five shots, but I consider this a positive. We all know he can score, and will almost certainly lead the team in scoring this season, but as I wrote before, I was nervous he was in "showcase myself" mode. Today he looked like he was completely playing in the flow of the offense, just didn't many looks and didn't force it, which is a change from last season.

- Lawrence Westbrook, if he could only get the ball to actually go in, could be a dynamic scorer. He can get to the rim almost at will - yes, again it was against Army, but still. He just struggled getting anything to go down today.

- I know he has an injury, but Blake Hoffarber does not look good. He's injured, which could account for his Shamala level defense out there, but he looks lost, which can't be explained away by the injury. Watching him I was reminded of a middle school kid trying to play high school ball. He just seemed like he wasn't sure of what to do or where to go. I hope it was just because it was his first game, but Snacks continues to tell me that he just plain sucks. It looks like he hit a couple of threes after we left, but since I didn't see it, it doesn't count. Also, my Dad kept calling him Hoffbauer, so until he earns his real name back, I'm going to continue to call him Hoffbauer.

- Speaking of Hoffbauer, a couple of different times I saw him in the game at the same time as Abu Shamala. This cannot happen. I don't think either of those guys can guard anybody, at all, ever. Having one of them in makes the defense bad enough, both in is just begging to get your doors blown off.

- Hey, speaking of getting your doors blown off, Dan Monson had a stellar debut coaching Long Beach State. BYU rolled them 84-34, and they were at home. Fans gotta love that. Funny thing is, BYU isn't even good this year. Yikes. I tried to find reaction on a Long Beach State message board, but shockingly, it's hard to find one that's very busy. I think they need Luscious Harris back.

- A much less satisfying loss would be Pepperdine falling to Oregon 100-70. They tied them in the second half though, so that's something. Rico struggled shooting, going only 1-9, but chipped in with 8 rebounds and 5 assists, showing what an awesome all around player he truly is. If he were a baseball player, he'd be a five-tool guy.

- All in all, despite being actually kind of a boring game, it was a good start to the Tubby era. The team generally looked good, and even though it was just Army, I came away impressed.

Adios and Good Luck

It's official, Bryce Webster will transfer from the University of Minnesota.

Eh. No big deal. He may have ended up developing into a decent Big Ten player, but he certainly looked overmatched last season. This now frees up an extra scholarship for Tubby to fill with one of his guys (Ralph Sampson?)

Webster continues the fine tradition Dan Monson started of recruiting players who can't hang on the D-I level and end up transferring out. At least he's known for something.

Good luck to Bryce wherever he lands. Seemed like a good kid, just not Big Ten caliber.

ALSO: Freakin' Purdue has now added one of the top JUCO transfers in the nation in PF Nemanja Calasan. I'm already sick of Purdue.

Monson is a Little Crazy

ESPN.com has an interview with Dan Monson where he tries to convince everyone he's really happy now.

I won't dig through the whole thing, but Paging Jim Shikenjanski has an excellent post on it Here.

Awesome

Looking over this year's basketball schedule for Long Beach State, they play at Pepperdine on November 20th.

Long Beach State. Who hired Dan Monson.

Pepperdine. Where Rico Tucker transferred to after Dan Monson basically ran him off the team even though Tucker was the best athlete on the team and with some patience and a good coach could have been a very good player.

Rico vs. Monson. November 20th. I hope Rico goes for 40.

Thanks once again to the Gopher Hole for bringing this up.

Long Beach State is Going to Suck

I don't know who the Athletic Director at Long Beach State is, but whoever it is certainly has made some strange decisions. First, despite the team going 24-8 and making the NCAA tournament, he decided not renew the coach's contract. Secondly, he replaced him with the one, the only, the great Dan Monson. Everyone always remembers how Monson's 118-105 career record with Minnesota, despite never playing anyone in non-conference, but don't forget he lead the Gophers to the prestigious NIT three straight years. THREE!

Also, LBSU's top seven scorers from last year all graduated. Good luck Danny-boy.