When I said at the bottom of yesterday's post that there weren't really any games with bubble implications last night, I was counting Virginia as a lock. After blowing a home game to Florida State last night they're suddenly looking a wee bit shakier. They're probably still in good shape (losing to FSU isn't anywhere near a bad loss), but absolutely need to win at Maryland this weekend or the ACC Tournament is going to be nerve-wracking. Elsewhere Washington avoided a bad loss by smoking USC on the road and Oregon won a bubble elimination game by knocking of Colorado at home. Oregon is still not anywhere near in, but they are still in the conversation. And that's about it.
BIG SKY (saturday):
My third team I root for (behind Minnesota, then Iowa State) resides here in Weber State, and they look solid once again this year. Unfortunately it's a pretty down year in the mountains, with only Weber and Montana having anything resembling good seasons. Not that it really matters, I'm not sure if I can recall the Big Sky ever getting an at-large, and that's not likely to change any time soon.
Favorite: Montana. The Grizzlies win over Weber on Tuesday bumped them a game ahead of the Wildcats and into first place. Not that it really matters, because only six teams make the tournament and the 1 and 2 seeds get byes, so it's win one each and then Montana and Weber face off again.
Sleeper: Eastern Washington. There's not really anything special about the Eagles, but they play at a fast pace and don't turn it over so they'll get plenty of shots. Unfortunately they can't shoot. But what if they could? Think about that.
W's Pick: Weber State. Of course I'm going to pick Weber, but in this case it makes sense. Their best player is point guard Damian Lillard who's second in the country in scoring at 24.5 per game, and he's good enough to take over and bring the Wildcats back to the tournament where we could have Harold Arceneaux part II: Shorter and Whiter.
MID-AMERICAN (monday):
Seems as if every year the MAC is almost a two-bid league. Like, every year either Akron or Kent State is close but they can't get over the hump, and by not over the hump I mean they can't even get themselves on the Bubble. But somehow they always seem to have a team that's close. I don't know, maybe I'm a weirdo.
Favorite: Akron. And, once again, the Zips would be that team this year. Coming into their bracket buster game against Oral Roberts they were 19-7 and 11-1 in league with no real bad losses, and a win over ORU would have probably moved them from off the bubble to the bottom of it. Instead they lost to the Golden Eagles and followed that up by losing two of the next three. They're still the class of the league at 12-3 (pending Friday night's regular season finale at Kent State) and the definite favorite.
Sleeper: Ohio. This was supposed to be a big year for the Bobcats who were returning six of their top 8 scorers plus adding a couple "impact" transfers and some good freshmen. It hasn't quite worked out to be their year, but Ohio is still the best defensive team in the MAC and D.J. Cooper is still around, the point man who was instrumental in leading Ohio to a MAC Tourney win as a freshman, not to mention scoring 23 with 8 assists in their first round upset over Georgetown.
W's Pick: Ohio. I remember Cooper and what he did as a freshman and it wouldn't shock me to see it happen again. Plus, if it wasn't for a couple of bizarre mid-season losses to Eastern Michigan and Toledo the Bobcats would be 12-3 and tied with Akron for first place, not to mention they just pasted the Zips by 24 a week ago.
MID-EASTERN ATLANTIC (monday):
One of the worst conferences, and always one of the worst conferences (never ranked better than 30th in the land according to kenpom.com), the MEAC nonetheless can produce some interesting stuff. Like Reggie Holmes. How could you forget Reggie Holmes? Simply put, the best chucker I've ever seen - and by best I don't mean most skilled, although he did nearly lead the nation in scoring. So that's why, no matter what, I will always partially love the MEAC. That and they have Bethune-Cookman, which is still my favorite name for a college ever.
Favorite: Savannah State. In 2005 Savannah State finished the year 0-28, the first winless D-I team since 1992. A few short years later they set the record for fewest points in a half after scoring just 4 against Kansas State on 1-23 shooting in the second half. Now they're the #1 seed in the MEAC Tournament after going 14-2 this year. Quite the turnaround. Also there's a chance they're not 100% D-I eligible yet so it's actually possible they might not be playing in this tournament in which case they're not really the #1 seed, obviously. I kind of tried to look it up but after searching for like, a minute I couldn't find anything so I quit.
Sleeper: Coppin State. In a league that's just bad you end up with a whole ton of horrid offensive teams. Coppin State is the exception. They rank 53rd in the NCAA in points per game and 124th in offensive efficiency, which may not sound like much but it's the best in the conference by far and only Delaware State is even close.
W's Pick: Coppin State. I don't know, it seems like they always win. Plus they at least shoot the three-pointer well which means they might be a halfway interesting 16 seed, assuming they win their play-in game.
SUMMIT LEAGUE (saturday):
You know who loves the Summit League? All the dorky Gopher fans who have already bailed on the team and have decided to throw all their support behind South Dakota State and their little boyfriend Nate Wolters, just like all those same dorks were all behind NDSU that one year when they made the tournament. Well you know who hates teams like those? Yeah, I do. Screw those nerds. I hate all teams from all states that border this one except Iowa State.
Favorite: Oral Roberts. The Golden Eagles are actually not that far off of the bubble thanks to an RPI of 44 and a 26-5 overall record. It's very doubtful they get a bid even if they make the final but lose, but the Golden Eagles have wins over Xavier and Akron and held tough with Gonzaga and West Virginia. I very much hope they make it because they could give somebody a nice tussle in round one.
Sleeper: Oakland. The Golden Grizzlies (really? Two "golden" teams in the same conference?) had a bit of a fall-off after losing Keith Benson from last year's super good team that somehow couldn't even beat Texas, but they still finished third in the league this year and have Reggie Hamilton back. Hamilton is the leading scorer in the nation while still managing to chip in 5.1 assists per game and he had an absolutely monster Summit tourney last year and had a great game against Texas. He's absolutely capable of carrying this team to a title.
W's Pick: South Dakota State. I'd love to see ORU or Oakland have a chance to take a run at somebody, but because life loves irritating me I'm sure the stupid Jackrabbits will end up making it. At least my cousin will be happy since she's alumni. Unless she went to USD. I have to be honest, I'm not exactly sure. Maybe I'm not the best cousin.
SUN BELT (saturday):
For much of the year Middle Tennessee State was bringing back the memories of when the Sun Belt used to be good with Courtney Lee and Taco Hawk running around for Western Kentucky and whoever used to be on South Alabama doing good things and all that jazz. Then they lost to that same WKU team in the regular season finale, and since WKU's RPI is in the sub-200 range and MTSU had basically zero margin for error, they really better win this tournament.
Favorite: Middle Tennessee. I just said that, dummy, pay attention. The Blue Raiders might not have any "holy shit" type wins, but they did beat Ole Miss, Akron, Belmont, and Loyola Marymount and crushed UCLA (which sounded better earlier in the year, but still). They also rank in kenpom's top 100 for both offensive and defensive efficiency, and you know how many teams can say that? Well, a lot, actually, but not too many from conferences like the Sun Belt.
Sleeper: Denver. If I remember correctly, Denver was the preseason favorite to win the Sun Belt, and after some early season issues they've won their last four to close out the year and finish 11-5, and also beat MTSU in their last meeting.
W's Pick: Denver. Check these stats: The Pioneers shoot 40.1% from three, 11th in the country, and compliment that by shooting 55.9% from two, which is second best in the nation (behind Missouri). They also play at a really slow pace (326th) so if they could just stop somebody they'd be money. I'd really like to see them get in because I think they'd be a fascinating first round match-up.
Plenty of bubble stuff going on this weekend, and that's without even counting the conference tournament stuff. Harvard has a big weekend starting tonight. If they can sweep Columbia and Cornell on the road they'll lock up at least a tie for the Ivy Title, and those two wins might be enough to get them in anyway. Texas has a huge chance to get the giant win they desperately need at Kansas, although that might be too tall an order. Teams like UCONN (vs. Pitt), Memphis (@ Tulsa), St. Louis (@ Duquesne), Kansas State (vs. Okla State), Washington (@ UCLA), Cincy (@ Nova), Miami (vs. BC), Miss State (vs Arkansas), Seton Hall (@DePaul), Oregon (vs. Utah), Virginia (@ Maryland), and Arizona (@ ASU) need to avoid a loss, while Southern Miss is probably fine either way but a win @ Marshall would go a long way. Perhaps the biggest bubble game of the weekend is WVU @ South Florida - the winner is probably in, the loser will need to make a decent run in the Big East tournament.
Also Mrs. W just got back from an early screening of Project X and told me it was like a combination of Superbad, Hangover, and Can't Hardly Wait. She then told me it was a terrible movie. lolwut? Those are like, three of the best movies of all-time, can't possibly see how this would be terrible. I think she might be a bit touched in the head, but don't tell her I said that.
Showing posts with label Reggie Holmes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reggie Holmes. Show all posts
Friday, March 2, 2012
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
A Paragon of Unselfishness
HOLY CRAP YOU GUYS! Guess what? Morgan State played Long Island tonight, and Reggie Holmes scored 23 on 8-17 shooting, but that's not the holy crappish part. The amazingness is that Holmes registered not one, but TWO assists in the game. Amazing!
This single game represents 4% of his 4-year career assist total and is just one shy of his career high (3) which he accomplished in his second career game.
Excellent work Mr. Holmes. We salute you. If there was a college-basketball-reference.com where you could sponsor player pages, I'd have snapped you up along ago to go in the trophy case along with the Mo Sanford baseball reference page (formerly scott stahoviak).
A Win is a Win, or so they tell me
As Shakespeare would say, "Would a win by any other name smell as sweet?" I don't know what that means, but an ugly win is far better than a well-played loss, and the Gophers certainly managed to squeak out an ugly win, no doubt about that.
Although if it wasn't for Lawrence Westbrook, they probably wouldn't have. Simply put, L-Dub was out of his god damn mind last night. If he didn't make every shot he took in the first half it was damn close, and he finished out 11-16 despite a Kingsbury-esque 40-footer he put up and missed towards the end of the second half. And you know what? Dude was so hot that I don't think anybody, Tubby included, had a problem with him putting that one up. A heat check should always be allowed, and he deserved one. Plus, if that goes in the roof on the barn probably gets blown right off.
Other than Westbrook the only other notables last night were Hoffarber and Nolen. Blake continues to shoot it well (3-7 on threes, 11 total poins) and show that he needs just an inch of room to get his shot off, and still plays a better all-around game than I like to give him credit for. Nolen continues to show he's essentially unguardable getting to the lane (6 assists/1 turnover). If only he had either a jump shot or the ability to finish in the lane he would be a top guard in the country. Yeah, you heard me. But he doesn't, so we'll instead have to be happy with an unguardable penetrating guard who will have some excellent games like last night and others where we want to strangle him. Hopefully more of the former.
That's really pretty much it. Nobody else did much of anything. Devoe only played 12 minutes for some reason. Talor Battle played well but didn't go crazy. The Gophers played ok and won. What more do you want? Five more things? Ok, fine, here you go:
1) If you haven't been to Mac's Industrial Sports Bar on the corner of University and Central you should really check it out. The Wings are awesome and happy hour runs until 7. And 25 cent wings on Tuesdays after seven.
2) Nice parking situation University of Minnesota. We have a parking pass, which means we have a reserved spot in a particularl lot. We roll in right at eight last night and there's a sign blocking our lot saying "Lot Full." They oversold the lot (+shitty parking with snow on the ground, but what do you expect from a state so obsessed with snowmobiles?). So Snacks and I jump out of the car and go talk to some poor student who was clearly far too timid. Snacks used a bunch of lawyer talk about how we pre-paid for a space and I just kept pointing to what was clearly an open parking spot and saying "There's a spot right there." I think at the end Snacks broke out the "reservations" bit from Seinfeld and I said something about liberty being a soul's right to breathe and then we moved the sign, parked, and moved on. As we were walking away another car pulled in behind the sign, and I'm pretty sure the poor attendant girl started crying.
3) I have never been prouder of Gopher fans than I was when Clem was given a standing ovation last night. I recognize that a lot of people were doing it more for the team than for Clem, but I didn't hear any boos at all. I expected to because, let's be honest, there are a holy lot of holier-than-thou morons out there, but there weren't any that I could hear. Well done, folks. He, and the entire team, deserved to be honored and respected, and it was done in an excellent way and I enjoyed it immensely. And speaking of immense, I think Melvin Newbern ate Shawn Kemp (I still love you Melvin).
4) I feel really weird and wrong doing this, but I think it's time we start to question Tubby a wee bit. I have two big issues with last night:
5) Finally, I realized I haven't given you an update on Reggie Holmes (Morgan State chucker guy) lately. Since my last Holmes update, Morgan State has played two games; against Towson (W) and against Eastern Kentucky (L). In the game against Towson, Holmes scored just 20 points due to his 6-20 shooting which including a mind-numbing 0-9 from three-point range, all while notching zero assists. In the team's loss to Eastern Kentucky, he hit on his season average almost exactly, scoring 25 on 8-25 shooting, which once again includes a mind-boggling 6-19 from three point range. And once again he managed to tally not a single assist, leaving his season total still at 4 (that's 0.3 assists per game). He has a lot of work to do if he's going to match that career high of 19. And his 222 shots so far this year are now third in all of NCAA Basketball (despite just 41% shooting), which is equal to the amount Westbrook and Joseph, the top two attempters on the Gophers, have taken combined and more than all but two Gophers (Westy and DJ) took all last season.
Whoa.
No wonder he always looks so tired and disinterested.
Although if it wasn't for Lawrence Westbrook, they probably wouldn't have. Simply put, L-Dub was out of his god damn mind last night. If he didn't make every shot he took in the first half it was damn close, and he finished out 11-16 despite a Kingsbury-esque 40-footer he put up and missed towards the end of the second half. And you know what? Dude was so hot that I don't think anybody, Tubby included, had a problem with him putting that one up. A heat check should always be allowed, and he deserved one. Plus, if that goes in the roof on the barn probably gets blown right off.
Other than Westbrook the only other notables last night were Hoffarber and Nolen. Blake continues to shoot it well (3-7 on threes, 11 total poins) and show that he needs just an inch of room to get his shot off, and still plays a better all-around game than I like to give him credit for. Nolen continues to show he's essentially unguardable getting to the lane (6 assists/1 turnover). If only he had either a jump shot or the ability to finish in the lane he would be a top guard in the country. Yeah, you heard me. But he doesn't, so we'll instead have to be happy with an unguardable penetrating guard who will have some excellent games like last night and others where we want to strangle him. Hopefully more of the former.
That's really pretty much it. Nobody else did much of anything. Devoe only played 12 minutes for some reason. Talor Battle played well but didn't go crazy. The Gophers played ok and won. What more do you want? Five more things? Ok, fine, here you go:
1) If you haven't been to Mac's Industrial Sports Bar on the corner of University and Central you should really check it out. The Wings are awesome and happy hour runs until 7. And 25 cent wings on Tuesdays after seven.
2) Nice parking situation University of Minnesota. We have a parking pass, which means we have a reserved spot in a particularl lot. We roll in right at eight last night and there's a sign blocking our lot saying "Lot Full." They oversold the lot (+shitty parking with snow on the ground, but what do you expect from a state so obsessed with snowmobiles?). So Snacks and I jump out of the car and go talk to some poor student who was clearly far too timid. Snacks used a bunch of lawyer talk about how we pre-paid for a space and I just kept pointing to what was clearly an open parking spot and saying "There's a spot right there." I think at the end Snacks broke out the "reservations" bit from Seinfeld and I said something about liberty being a soul's right to breathe and then we moved the sign, parked, and moved on. As we were walking away another car pulled in behind the sign, and I'm pretty sure the poor attendant girl started crying.
3) I have never been prouder of Gopher fans than I was when Clem was given a standing ovation last night. I recognize that a lot of people were doing it more for the team than for Clem, but I didn't hear any boos at all. I expected to because, let's be honest, there are a holy lot of holier-than-thou morons out there, but there weren't any that I could hear. Well done, folks. He, and the entire team, deserved to be honored and respected, and it was done in an excellent way and I enjoyed it immensely. And speaking of immense, I think Melvin Newbern ate Shawn Kemp (I still love you Melvin).
4) I feel really weird and wrong doing this, but I think it's time we start to question Tubby a wee bit. I have two big issues with last night:
- First, these substitution patterns are driving me crazy. The wholesale line changes have got to stop. The team doesn't have two equal units. The second unit is a large step down from the first, and the team invariably loses momentum when he goes with a 5-for-5. If something is pissing you off about the first team, figure out which player(s) are the problem and replace them. Please stop with the line change. Then last night that second unit is playing crappy and loses the lead so Tubby takes a timeout. You'd assume he'd bring back the good players, but he kept that whole group out there again. I don't get it. Here's how you do it:
- PG: Nolen 30 minutes, Joseph 10 minutes
- SG: Westbrook 30 minutes, Joseph 10 minutes
- SF: Hoffarber 30 minutes, Carter 10 minutes (more for Carter against more athletic teams)
- PF: Johnson 30 minutes, Carter 5, Iverson 5
- C: Sampson 25, Iverson 15
- Slipping in a a few minutes here and there for Cobbs and Rodney (and Bostick). That's a good starting place. Having a deep team doesn't mean you have to play everybody a bunch of minutes, especially when it means you lose track of one of your best players and somehow only give Devoe 12 minutes last night. Yes, that's right. Devoe only played 12 minutes.
- The strategy Tubby chose to employ against Battle was baffling, and the team is lucky it didn't backfire any worse than it did. Having the guards switch on every screen instead of just choosing either Westbrook or Nolen and having him attach himself to Battle wherever he went just seemed like it was a huge mistake, and it did in fact lead to two open three-pointers (one of which was a 30-footer) for Battle where nobody was guarding him due to confusion. The switching even resulted in Blake on Battle quite a few times. Luckily neither Battle nor DeChellis picked up on this. If I had been coaching Penn State I would have just run Battle through picks until Hoffarber was on him, then have him reset the offense and go with a 1-4 isolation play - unstoppable. I also think that against a scorer like Battle it's easier for a defender to contain him when they are on him all game and can get into a rhythm.
5) Finally, I realized I haven't given you an update on Reggie Holmes (Morgan State chucker guy) lately. Since my last Holmes update, Morgan State has played two games; against Towson (W) and against Eastern Kentucky (L). In the game against Towson, Holmes scored just 20 points due to his 6-20 shooting which including a mind-numbing 0-9 from three-point range, all while notching zero assists. In the team's loss to Eastern Kentucky, he hit on his season average almost exactly, scoring 25 on 8-25 shooting, which once again includes a mind-boggling 6-19 from three point range. And once again he managed to tally not a single assist, leaving his season total still at 4 (that's 0.3 assists per game). He has a lot of work to do if he's going to match that career high of 19. And his 222 shots so far this year are now third in all of NCAA Basketball (despite just 41% shooting), which is equal to the amount Westbrook and Joseph, the top two attempters on the Gophers, have taken combined and more than all but two Gophers (Westy and DJ) took all last season.
Whoa.
No wonder he always looks so tired and disinterested.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
I thought Hawks ate Gophers (or something)
Wow. That was a brutal team. I don't recall seeing such awful defense ever, not counting if you played Snacks in Coach K College Basketball on Sega Genesis and he was Michigan State with Jamie Feick anchoring the middle. The Gophers shot 53% from the field and 45% from three and should almost be embarassed of those numbers.
I've seriously never seen so many open shots and easy dunks. I have no idea how St. Joe's hung tough with Villanova. Maybe that was "their Super Bowl" kind of game since they are heated rivals, but that team I saw out there tonight was embarrassing. They weren't much better on offense either, particularly in the second half when it kind of turned into an "Imitate Reggie Holmes" contest and passing became little more than a rumor. Even worse, this was Wonderbaby'sTM first ever Gopher game. I hope it didn't turn her off of basketball forever.
Rather than focus on the evil in this world (such as St. Joe's defense), let's just highlight some Gophers who performed well, keeping in mind they were essentially going up against a bunch of cardboard cutouts or those awesomely tight Fatheads. Seriously, I own like 20 fatheads. They're awesome and totally something a grown man should own. You definitely don't need to re-evaluate your life if you own any of them or anything.
- Ralph, who I just dropped in my fantasy league, put up some huge numbers - finishing with 16 points, 10 rebounds, 3 blocks and 3 assists. He had like, seven dunks or something late in the game when St. Joe's went into their ole defense, but prior to that he played a pretty solid game with some nice moves, including an alley-oop that he effed up and accidentally made the layup instead. Now I have to think about picking him back up. F me.
- Colt Iverson is starting to look, dare I say, kind of polished in the post and finished with 11 and 7. I'm terrified he's becoming what I wanted Ralph to be. Although Ralph still has a pretty touch from the perimeter and Iverson looks like he's throwing a hatchet and a hostile injun when he's outside of six feet, so maybe I don't have to worry just yet.
- Blake Hoffbauer definitely deserves mention after putting up a nearly-career high 20 after hitting five of his nine three-point attempts. His shot being back after a rough year last season is overshadowing perhaps the most interesting part of his game; this guy can ball. His other stats aren't that great today (3 rebs, 1 assist, 1 steal, and 1 turnover that was actually Ralph's fault please don't hurt me Ralph I still love you), but the guy is just a heady player. Always around the ball, capable of a ten rebound game, and an excellent assist-to-turnover ratio; I'm just falling for the Hoff in such a big way. Somebody invite me to a kegger at the U so I can get drunk and follow him around and compliment him so much he gets really uncomfortable but he's so polite he won't tell me to F off.
- Devoe can shoot that rock like nobody's business. I think the famous "guy who sits next to us who yells a lot and is a total homer and has almost zero understanding of how basketball actually works" had his crowning achievement today when he yelled at Devoe for shooting a wide open (and I mean wide open, even on a day when everybody was wide open this was wide open) three pointer (which he made) by saying, "No! Get it inside, No!". Oof. This guy would be a psychiatrist's dream.
- Finally, this isn't Gopher related, but I promised I'd follow Morgan State's Reggie Holmes and report on him here and so I must. Also I decided any post that contains a Holmes update will have his picture way up top, so you know the excellence will be broughten - sort of like the Bat Signal.The Bears beat my formerly beloved Manhattan Jaspers today behind 31 from Mr. Holmes on some most excellent shooting (10-17) with four turnovers. Assists = 0, bringing his season totals to 4 assists and 19 turnovers. He's still 15 assists shy of his career high. Stay tuned.
Also here is a picture of Wonderbaby at the game because I know you want to see it.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Gophers win and stuff
Gophers won tonight - and covered the spread - and that's really all that matters. They completely outclassed Morgan State, I was way wrong and glad Snacks made us bet on the Gophers, but there are still some minor alarm bells. Ok, really just one minor alarm bell and that was Kevin Thompson, aka John Thomas Jr., of Morgan State who was able to bull his way inside and register 17 pts and 19 rebounds (9 offensive) before fouling out on a technical that I heard about when I was in the car on the way home.
Thompson is a big, big boy (there's a reason everyone who is me calls him John Thomas Jr.) and he's been a rebounding machine this year and the Gophers are hardly the first team to get shredded by Vin Diesel, but I don't think it's going to get easier in the Big Ten. JaJuan is a better rebounder than Thompson. Morgan, Green, and Roe are better. Leuer is better. Hell, Manny Harris and Evan Turner (sans injury) are probably better. If it was just Thompson having a big board game that might be one thing, but the Gophers are showing a disturbing tendency to get killed on the boards by the other big men. Colt and Ralphie have taken some strides in their offensive games this year, but getting beat to rebounds is going to be a major, major issue if something doesn't change (of course, this is mostly Colt's fault because Sampson is nearly perfect).
But they did win by 30 (and covered the spread) so there's no need to dwell on the negative even though it's probably what will totally derail the season, so instead let me concentrate on two awesome things that happened tonight:
1) I shook hands with Quincy Lewis for the second time in two years, the previous time being approximately 11 years ago. Last time I was some dumb kid hanging out after the game waiting for the players to come out of the locker room so they could sign the back of my "3" sign (and Sammy J and John Thomas tried to escape by using an alternate elevator, but some sweet ass security dude tipped us off - FYI J.T. had an absolutely crushing handshake). This time I was just some dumb ass who saw him walk in and sit by himself (although he was constantly texting - I assume lining up some hoes) who decided to say "Hi Quincy, you rock." It was epic.
After texting some "friends" about this I first received an extremely offensive text back which I won't repeat here, and then a text about how Quincy will now "suck at basketball" and "probably hit his girlfriend with a phonebook" from Bogart. You see, Bogart still blames me for the Courtney James fiasco, because not long before the whole deal broke he and I had the opportunity to shake hands with Mr. James after a game - which we did. Following that exchange, Bogart claimed James was destined for All-American status based on some story about how he heckled a piss-poor Travis Fryman and then shook his hand and the next season he was an All-Star or something I can't completely remember. Bogart talks a god damn lot and I am not really good at paying attention but it was something like that. When the "all-american" thing didn't happen and the "domestic violence" thing did instead, it immediately became my fault. So keep your eyes open for Quincy Lewis related news in the future.
2) I have a new favorite player. But not an a "favorite" for real favorite, but a favorite like "holy crap how is that guy for real" favorite. Reggie Holmes of Morgan State is the most ridiculous player I've seen live since Chris Kingsbury, but with half the talent. The guy is the chucker to end all chuckers. He puts Tajuan Porter, Lester Hudson, Benny Valentine, Scottie Reynolds, Allen Iverson, O.J. Mayo, Jermaine Taylor, Stephen Curry, Josh Akognon, Robert Vaden, and Kris Humphries to shame. He ended up with 26 points tonight, which will raise his season average and I'm sure that's all he cares about, but he took 28 shots (making just 9) to get there, all while turning it over 3 times and notching just one assist (tying his season high).
Seriously, this guy is crazy. His season assist totals by game are 1-0-0-1-0-0-1-0-1 (and yes, he's a guard). His career assist totals (average per game) are 0.3, 0.6, 0.5, and 0.4, and he's never bested a 1-to-2 assist to turnover ratio. Not 2-to-1, 1-to-2.
It gets better. He's averaging 18 shot attempts per game, but hasn't shot better than 50% in any of them. He registered three assists in his second ever college game, and hasn't matched that mark again in his entire four-year career. He once shot 0-6 in just an 8 minute appearance. He once put together a 12-47 shooting streak in a four game span. He's never registered better than a 38% field goal percentage or 37% three-point percentage in a season. And, saving the best for last, in 104 career games, Holmes has had more assists than turnovers exactly 14 times, which is 13.5% of his games with a +/- of I'm drunk.
I love this guy. We are going to be following him very closely the rest of the season and deep into his NBA career. And this will be his official photo:
Thompson is a big, big boy (there's a reason everyone who is me calls him John Thomas Jr.) and he's been a rebounding machine this year and the Gophers are hardly the first team to get shredded by Vin Diesel, but I don't think it's going to get easier in the Big Ten. JaJuan is a better rebounder than Thompson. Morgan, Green, and Roe are better. Leuer is better. Hell, Manny Harris and Evan Turner (sans injury) are probably better. If it was just Thompson having a big board game that might be one thing, but the Gophers are showing a disturbing tendency to get killed on the boards by the other big men. Colt and Ralphie have taken some strides in their offensive games this year, but getting beat to rebounds is going to be a major, major issue if something doesn't change (of course, this is mostly Colt's fault because Sampson is nearly perfect).
But they did win by 30 (and covered the spread) so there's no need to dwell on the negative even though it's probably what will totally derail the season, so instead let me concentrate on two awesome things that happened tonight:
1) I shook hands with Quincy Lewis for the second time in two years, the previous time being approximately 11 years ago. Last time I was some dumb kid hanging out after the game waiting for the players to come out of the locker room so they could sign the back of my "3" sign (and Sammy J and John Thomas tried to escape by using an alternate elevator, but some sweet ass security dude tipped us off - FYI J.T. had an absolutely crushing handshake). This time I was just some dumb ass who saw him walk in and sit by himself (although he was constantly texting - I assume lining up some hoes) who decided to say "Hi Quincy, you rock." It was epic.
After texting some "friends" about this I first received an extremely offensive text back which I won't repeat here, and then a text about how Quincy will now "suck at basketball" and "probably hit his girlfriend with a phonebook" from Bogart. You see, Bogart still blames me for the Courtney James fiasco, because not long before the whole deal broke he and I had the opportunity to shake hands with Mr. James after a game - which we did. Following that exchange, Bogart claimed James was destined for All-American status based on some story about how he heckled a piss-poor Travis Fryman and then shook his hand and the next season he was an All-Star or something I can't completely remember. Bogart talks a god damn lot and I am not really good at paying attention but it was something like that. When the "all-american" thing didn't happen and the "domestic violence" thing did instead, it immediately became my fault. So keep your eyes open for Quincy Lewis related news in the future.
2) I have a new favorite player. But not an a "favorite" for real favorite, but a favorite like "holy crap how is that guy for real" favorite. Reggie Holmes of Morgan State is the most ridiculous player I've seen live since Chris Kingsbury, but with half the talent. The guy is the chucker to end all chuckers. He puts Tajuan Porter, Lester Hudson, Benny Valentine, Scottie Reynolds, Allen Iverson, O.J. Mayo, Jermaine Taylor, Stephen Curry, Josh Akognon, Robert Vaden, and Kris Humphries to shame. He ended up with 26 points tonight, which will raise his season average and I'm sure that's all he cares about, but he took 28 shots (making just 9) to get there, all while turning it over 3 times and notching just one assist (tying his season high).
Seriously, this guy is crazy. His season assist totals by game are 1-0-0-1-0-0-1-0-1 (and yes, he's a guard). His career assist totals (average per game) are 0.3, 0.6, 0.5, and 0.4, and he's never bested a 1-to-2 assist to turnover ratio. Not 2-to-1, 1-to-2.
It gets better. He's averaging 18 shot attempts per game, but hasn't shot better than 50% in any of them. He registered three assists in his second ever college game, and hasn't matched that mark again in his entire four-year career. He once shot 0-6 in just an 8 minute appearance. He once put together a 12-47 shooting streak in a four game span. He's never registered better than a 38% field goal percentage or 37% three-point percentage in a season. And, saving the best for last, in 104 career games, Holmes has had more assists than turnovers exactly 14 times, which is 13.5% of his games with a +/- of I'm drunk.
I love this guy. We are going to be following him very closely the rest of the season and deep into his NBA career. And this will be his official photo:
Seems appropriate.
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