A Whole Bunch of Weekend Tournaments

Well I guess the Gophers at least made it somewhat competitive.  Some other stuff happened around the country too.  Whatever.

COLONIAL CONFERENCE:
The CAA used to be maybe the premier mid-major conference, but alignment can be a bitch and losses of VCU, George Mason, and Old Dominion (all in the top 4 all-time for CAA championships) will do that to you.  There's not a whole lot to love here.  Northeastern beat Florida State and Richmond, while James Madison also beat Richmond.  That's about the list of notable non-conference victories.  You're also looking at four teams tied at the top of the conference at 12-6 so yeah, another crap shoot.

FAVORITE:  William & Mary.  The Tribe grab the #1 seed via tiebreakers, and although Northeastern has a slightly better kenpom rating it's not really that big a deal because I have no idea about this conference anyway.  They also went 5-1 against the three other teams they tied with (which was probably the tie breaker) which really just means they lost to a whole bunch of bad teams.  The Tribe also boast a big time scorer in Marcus Thornton (no not that one.  Or that one) at 19.4ppg, and a guy who I can only assume will be Defensive Player of the Year in Terry Tarpey considering he led the CAA in rebounding (8.4pg), blocks (1.4pg), and steals (1.8pg).  Damn that's impressive.

SLEEPER:  Hofstra.  They finished just behind the mishmash at the top at 10-8 in conference play, and the Pride most interest me because they can score.  They play at an insane tempo, don't turn the ball over, and are a great shooting team all of which means POINTS.  They are 16th in the country in points per game this year, and if you take out the teams which helped their averages beating up on a bunch of bottom feeder teams, while Hofstra is a bottom feeder team (or maybe middle, if I'm feeling generous) the Pride get into the top 10.  Anybody who can score like that has a chance to get hot, and hot is deadly in March.  Also wouldn't hurt to consider playing a little bit of defense.

THE PICK:  Hofstra.  When the conference is as jumbled as this, it seems to best to me to find something that stands out about someone.  Northeastern has those two "good" wins, but closed the season on a troubling skid.  William & Mary went 5-1 against the other top teams, but have the worst defense in the conference.  Delaware has the league's leading scorer but is a mess in every other way, and Wilmington can play D but can't score.  I considered James Madison, who finished out the year winning six of seven, but only one of those wins was against a good team.  Hofstra, along with that offense, tightened up the defense in conference play and is one of only two conference teams (along with Northeastern) to finish in the top 3 in the CAA in both offensive and defensive efficiency in conference play.  Good enough.


SOUTHERN CONFERENCE:
When you take the Davidson out of the SoCon, you weaken the SoCon, who ranks as a bottom nine conference this season per kenpom.  You also make things more competitive and weirder since you don't have one time gallivanting around dominating everyone with all their fancy three pointers.  Three teams ended up with double digit conference wins this year, and two of them enter the conference tournament with 20+ wins on the season overall.

FAVORITE:  Wofford.  The Terriers have been the best non-Davidson SoCon team over the years, making the NCAA Tournament three of the last five seasons and they're in the drivers seat again this year after going 16-2.  They didn't just beat up on conference foes either, as they picked up nice wins over Iona and North Carolina State in the early season.  If not for a terrible loss to Citadel and maybe one other good win they could have been a bubble team.  Leading scorer Karl Cochran (15ppg) was just named SoCon player of the year, and when the Gophers played Wofford last year I featured him as a great chucker.  He's still taking a silly amount of his team's shots (33%) but his shooting and assist levels have reach a point where I can't really call him a chucker anymore.  Just a volume shooter.

SLEEPER:  Chattanooga.  I don't know if it really counts as a sleeper when a team finished 15-3 and one game back, but outside of Wofford, Nooga, and Mercer the rest of this conference is horrendous.  I like Chattanooga because they can control the paint.  Actually their advanced numbers say they don't really control the paint, but they do have two guys who finished in the top 5 in the conference in rebounding, one of which who finished first in blocked shots with 3.3 per game, so it sure sounds like they could control the paint.  One thing they actually are is battle tested, having played four overtimes this year, going 3-1.  They also finished out on a six game win streak.

THE PICK:  Wofford.  No, they're no Davidson, but they're awfully hard to pick against.  The Terriers were in the top 2 in conference play in nearly every metric, and the only team in the top 3 in both offensive and defensive efficiency.  They're the second best shooting team and the hardest team to make baskets against.  Their top competition has serious flaws, and the Terriers have plenty of tournament experience.  Lotta pro-Wofford reasons piling up.


WEST COAST CONFERENCE:
Just like every year in the WCC it comes down to Gonzaga being in, one team being on the bubble (this year it's BYU), and then a whole bunch of spoiler teams out to ruin some other team's day.  This tournament became a lot less important for BYU after they won at Gonzaga last week.  Instead of maybe needing to win it, they probably just need to avoid a bad loss in their opener against either Santa Clara or Loyola Marymount, two teams they swept, and they might still end up ok if they lose that one anyway.  Win that one and then beat St. Mary's?  In, and good, because the Haws/Collinsworth combo rules.

FAVORITE:  Gonzaga.  Everyone always complains that Gonzaga is always overseeded because they don't play anyone, and then usually Gonzaga goes out and gets upset earlier than their seed should dictate.  I could sit here and go through the usual arguments:  tough non-conference schedule, great RPI and kenpom numbers, wins over SMU, Georgia, St. John's, UCLA, Memphis, and BYU with their only losses that BYU one and an overtime loss on the road at Arizona, and they're point to a good if not great team.  But you can make that same argument every year, and every year the same results.  One of these years, Gonzaga is going to have to prove it.

SLEEPER:  Pepperdine.  Not just because Rico Tucker went there, but because of their defense and slow it down tempo could throw a team like Gonzaga off.  It certainly worked against BYU earlier this year, where Pepperdine slowed the game down and shut off the three point line and it worked to the tune of a 67-61 victory.  The only other team to hold BYU under 70 points this season was defensive juggernaut Utah, so that's an impressive feat.  Look at the Waves 10-8 WCC record this year and they swept BYU, split with St. Mary's, and lost by 2 at home and 8 on the road versus Gonzaga.  Their 3-point stifling defense clearly can throw good teams for a loop (#1 in 3pt defense in the country at just 26% allowed) and it could work here, if they can manage to not get upset along the way.

THE PICK:  Gonzaga.  Their nearest contenders, BYU and St. Mary's, have some major flaws, while Gonzaga pretty much appears to be a mostly unstoppable machine (BYU loss notwithstanding), just like every year.  Considering they've won this tournament the last two years, and three of the last four, might as well stick with them.


SUMMIT LEAGUE:
The Summit is a total mess.  First, they have nine teams which is like, come on.  Now it's fine this year because Omaha is still in their transition phase, thus ineligible for the NCAA Tournament thus ineligible for the Summit Tournament.  To add to that, seven of the league's nine teams won between 6 and 12 games.  According to kenpom, however, there is a clear favorite.

FAVORITE:  South Dakota State.  The Jackrabbits, well known to most Gopher fans, rank 108th by kenpom, over 50 spots higher than their closest competition (NDSU).  The tournament is played in South Dakota (though in Sioux Falls, where USD is not located).  They have two of kenpom's top 5 players in the conference in Cody Larson and Deondre Parks, who can both do a little bit of everything.  Tops in both offensive and defensive efficiency in league play, and by a wide margin, in an average game SDSU would outscore their Summit opponents by 17 points.  Granted that number is skewed by some huge blowouts, but it's still impressive.

SLEEPER:  IP-Fort Wayne.  The Mastodons (for real) have a sweet name and went 9-7 in Summit play, but what makes them interesting is a sleeper is that they have a win over each of the three teams ahead of them.  Plus, Mastodons.

THE PICK:  North Dakota State.  Pretty sure this will come down to SDSU vs. NDSU as god has decried, with both teams raining three balls from the sky as they are inclined to do.  If that happens I'm pretty sure SDSU will win since the Bison can't guard against the three at all.  The reason I'm going with NDSU is I don't like how the bracket sets up for the Jackrabbits.  If South Dakota beats Fort Wayne, and they'll likely be favored by 3 or so and have some kind of home court advantage, they'll get SDSU next.  The same Jackrabbit squad they just beat by 16 in Sioux Falls Vermillion.  Good chance SDSU doesn't even reach the championship.


Outside the conference tournaments there is just a ton of relevant action.  I started to list games but I had like, 5 of the first 10 listed and who has that kind of time?  Just hunker down and watch.

Week in Review - 2/22/2010

Well, I gotta give credit where credit is due:  there is very little to complain about in regards to the Gopher hoopsters this week.  A big win over the completely hated dickholes from Wisconsin followed by an absolute destruction of the horribly horrid Hoosiers.  And they've looked great too.  The offense is finally flowing well, and even Westbrook has reigned himself in and begun playing within the flow.  The two best games this team has played all year were the two they played this week.  If they're going to hit a stride now is the time to do it.  Big time games coming up at home against Purdue and then on the road at Illinois this week, and they absolutely have to win at least one and probably both to have a shot at a bid.  Of course, if they had played this way they wouldn't have lost to Indiana, Northwestern, or Michigan and would likely have won at least one of the Michigan State games and we wouldn't have to worry about it.

This is such a depressing year.  Let's just move on.
  

WHO WAS AWESOME

1.  Maryland.  At this point in the season you're rarely going to see a team with three games in a week, but due to a postponement after the great blizzard of "aught-ten" that's what the Terps had this week and they managed a very nice 3-0.  First they beat a tougher-than-expected Virginia squad, then traveled down to NC State and beat the Wolfpack (the same team who beat Wake by 20 this weekend), and then rapped up the week with a buzzer beating home win over Georgia Tech.  The Terps are flying under the radar a bit due to a slow start, but since Professor Dirty Beard, Grievis Vasquez, has shaken off an early shooting slump they are one of the better teams in the country.  Vasquez and Eric Hayes give them a very good, very experienced backcourt, and you know what they say about good guards in March.  The front court might be a little weak, but freshman Jordan Williams is starting to figure it out and has picked up double-digits rebounds in his last three.  Very dangerous team.  I'd hate for the Gophers to have to face them in the second round.

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Kill me.

2.  Northern Iowa.   The Panthers are definitely the team that helped themselves the most over Bracket Buster weekend, going from "probably getting an at-large bid" to "definitely getting an at-large bid" with their win over Old Dominion.  UNI is now 24-3, but didn't have much in the marquee win category.  The beat Siena earlier in the year, but that had been their only win over an RPI top 50 team.  Mediocre wins abounded:  Iowa, Boston College, Iowa State, Creighton, and Wichita State all fell to the Panthers, but the Siena win was the only big victory, and with two losses to sub-100 RPI teams (Bradley, DePaul) they couldn't really feel safe.  Beating ODU now gives them that second big win, and increases their RPI rating to #17, and barring a complete collapse in the final regular season week they should be just fine, regardless of the outcome of the MVC tournament. 

3.  UTEP.  If you're a dork like me and were really curious to see how Conference USA would shake out with Calipari jumping ship, you have your answer:  UTEP is the tops.  Coming into the season there were a bunch of contenders with Tulsa and Memphis the favorites, UAB and UTEP right behind them, and Marshall and Houston the dark horses.  Well, the Miners have staked their claim to #1 after beating Tulsa in Tulsa this weekend, giving them a sweep of the Golden Hurricane.  With Houston sucking and Marshall being meh it's been a four team race, and UTEP has staked their claim to the top by going 4-0 against the other contenders, and even more impressively three of those wins have been on the road.  The Miners still have games left against UAB and Marshall, and have plenty of work to do thanks to a mostly empty non-conference resume, but if they make the tournament they could be a tough out.  They are really balanced and can hurt you both inside and out, and will make somebody work very hard to advance.

4.  Cornell.  When Andy Bernard U lost to Penn two weeks ago it basically killed their at-large chances which would suck because this team can absolutely knock somebody off.  The loss to Penn and their #307 RPI is Cornell's only conference loss, but with a dangerous team like Harvard in the conference, and the Ivy giving their auto-bid to the regular season champion, things can get dicey.  Luckily for everyone who likes basketball, Cornell took care of business this week, winning at Harvard 79-70 (and then following that up by beating Dartmouth).  The loss is the third of the season for Harvard, and with Cornell having swept the Crimson it effectively eliminates them from the race.  Cornell's remaining games are home against Penn (4-5) and Princeton (7-2) and then away against Brown (4-6) and Yale (4-6).  The only dangerous game is against Princeton who is just 1.5 games behind the Big Red, and lost to them by just three last time they met.  Hopefully Cornell can take care of business, because I can't wait to watch them knock off Wisconsin in round 1.

5.  Ian Poulter.  There is enough going on in college hoops right now where we could fill twice as many places with teams that had good weeks, but I can't just ignore the winner of the Accenture Match Play Challenge - which is Poulter this year.  Ian has always had the confidence to be a great player (I believe his quote was something like "There's me and Tiger, and then there's everyone else"), but his game hasn't quite kept up and he's been stuck at that Tier II level.  He's had plenty of success in Europe, with eight wins on the European Tour, but has yet to pick up his first PGA Victory, and he's played well in majors, including a runner-up finish at the British in 2008, but hasn't quite broken through.  Perhaps this win in the Accenture will get him there, as he beat a nice group of players - Justin Leonard, Adam Scott, Jeev Milka Singh, Thongchai Jaidee (who?), Sergio Garcia, and Paul Casey - and the last two wins over Garcia and Casey weren't close.  Guy is a hell of a golfer, hell of a talker, and hell of a dresser (on Sunday he looked like a walking Breast Cancer reminder in a full-pink outfit).  Could it be, dare I say it, the Year of the Poulter?


WHO SUCKED

1.  South Florida.  For all the talk of bracket-busting this weekend, the biggest burst might have been the bubble of the Bulls (how's that for alliteration?).  They weren't anywhere near in just yet, and were probably on the wrong side of the bubble, but would have every chance to play themselves into a bid with games left against Villanova and UCONN.  Winning either of those, while taking care of business against St. Johns, Providence, and DePaul, would leave USF at 10-8 in Big East play and in pretty decent shape.  But, as Gopher fans have seen time and time again, these types of teams are prone to disappointing their fans and the Bulls are no exception, losing at home to St. Johns 74-58 on Saturday and probably killing any at-large dreams.  USF allowed St. Johns to shoot 59% from the floor and were out 30-22.  Add in Dominique Jones shooting 6-18 and their twin towers Augustus Gilchrist and Jarrid Famous combined to shoot 2-10 and you aren't going to win that game very often.  The chances of South Florida coming to the Barn for a first round NIT match up are rising.  Get excited, Gopher fans.

2.  The Colonial Athletic Association.  Going into Bracket Busters weekend, the CAA had three teams fighting for at-large consideration:  Old Dominion, William & Mary, and Northeastern.  ODU would be taking on the top team in the Missouri Valley in Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, W&M would travel to New York to take on Iona, #2 in the MAAC, and Northeastern would welcome Lousiana Tech, the WAC's number three team, to their place.  Overall record:  0-3.  Ouch.  ODU should be ok thanks to their wins over Georgetown and Charlotte and 13-3 conference record, but W&M and Northeastern are in trouble.  The Tribe is in better shape thanks to non-conference wins over Maryland, Richmond, and Wake Forest, but a couple of really bad losses also dot their record (Wilmington, James Madison) and it will be interesting to see how the committee treats them.  Northeastern is in the worst shape despite being tied for first in the conference standings thanks to five losses to RPI sub-100 teams, which is hard to overlook.  Personally, I think both ODU and W&M should get in, but all three teams had a nice opportunity to boost their profile, and all three whiffed.

3.  Siena.  It's kind of tough to tell a team that it sucks after they lose on the road to the 13th ranked team in the country, but the Saints needed to beat Butler if they were going to get an at-large bid and didn't despite having the Bulldogs on the ropes early in the second half.  The Saints had played Butler to a tie at the 16-minutes mark of the second, but Butler went on 16-5 run and never looked back, closing Siena out by the final score of 70-53 and effectively eliminated any chance of an at-large bid for the Saints.  Unfortunately, three major offensive cogs (Ronald Moore, Edwin Ubiles, and Alex Franklin) didn't bother showing up on Saturday, combining to shoot 4-27 (not a misprint) and a 7-7 turnover-assist mark.  Maybe the ten AM start was a bit too early for them on a Saturday.  Siena is still the class of the MAAC and should be able to win the conference tournament and grab a bid that way, but I'm sure it would have been nice for them to not have to.  Way to go, slackasses.

4.  Ole Miss.  This week was basically a clinic in how not to make the NCAA Tournament by the Rebels.  With home games against Florida and Vanderbilt they not only had a good chance to get to third place in the SEC, but they could have done it and grabbed a couple of marquee wins in the process - something their profile is sorely lacking right now.  Of course, they are in the "SUCK" portion of this post, so you can probably guess that they lost both games instead and petty much eliminated themselves from at-large consideration.  This is really too bad, because as much as I complain about the Dayton fans at that Dayton bar in Chicago their is really nothing better than being in a bar dedicated to a team and watching that team get bounced out of the tournament.  Since Dayton is looking less and less likely like a tournament team, we might have to look for someone else, and that bar in Chicago is also an Ole Miss bar (as well as Boston College and Notre Dame).  They might not have a single one of their "teams" make the dance, and then we won't have any fans to laugh at.  Except Iowa fans.  We can laugh at them no matter what.

5.  Cincinnati.  It's time to give up the dream of me cashing on that 200-1 bet, because the Bearcats aren't even going to make the NCAA Tournament, forget about winning it.  After a 0-2 week, they are now 6-8 in the Big East and 15-11 overall and are going to have to go on a huge run to close out the season if they want a chance to reach the big dance.  Two very disappointing losses this week against rival bubble teams (at South Florida and vs. Marquette) are going to make it tough, but Cincy still has every chance to make the tournament.  Their four final games include chances against #3 Villanova, #10 Georgetown, and #8 West Virginia, and I'd bet winning two of those (and their gimme against DePaul) would set Cincy up in pretty good shape for a bid.  Of course, two of those three games are on the road and Cincinnati sucks, so it's more likely they'll close out the year 1-3 and then dip out quickly in the Big East Tournament.  The good news is that they would probably be one of the favorites to win the NIT, so they got that going for them.  Also Lance Stephenson would be an idiot to go pro after this year, which basically guarantees that he will.
 


I'd like to mention one other thing that was awesome, and recommend the book Willie Mays:  The Life, the Legend by James Hirsch.  Let me tell you something, if there is anything you want to know about Mays, this book has it in its 600 pages.  It is very focused, and very detailed, and other than a tendency to drift into mini-essays on the racial issues of the 50s and 60s stays focused on the story of Mays.  I actually wouldn't have minded a little bit more on guys like Marichal and McCovey, but if you are looking for the story of Willie Mays I wouldn't go anywhere else.  Seriously, my appreciation of the guy has gone way up.  Despite all his numbers which I've seen again and again, I never realized how great this guy was.  Hirsch makes it clear that the players, fans, coaches, and media of the day all considered Willie the best player in the world - except of course for the bigots.

Very cool book.  Highly recommended.

Finally, I'm going to debut my own sort of bubble watch thing. It's not fancy, but neither is your mom:


BUBBLE GAMES OF NOTE:

West Virginia @ UCONN -The Huskies looked like they were cruising towards a bid after beating Texas, but hit some road bumps and found themselves on the wrong side of the bubble.  After a successful 2-0 week, including a win over Villanova, they are back in the conversation, and a home win over WVU would go a long way.

And that's it.  So that was pretty anticlimactic.  Ah well, I'm planning on doing a little something like that every day until selection sunday.  But I'm also pretty lazy, so we'll just have to see.

Week In Review: 1/4/2009

God how bad does it suck to be back at work?  This is the worst day of the year, every year.  At least we had a great week for sports.  Basketball teams are kicking off conference play, and we get an awesome string of bowl games including Ohio State finally standing up for itself and winning a BCS game, Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden winning bowl games on the same day, and one of the most entertaining football games I can ever remember seeing in a the Outback Bowl.  Very cool stuff.  Well, except for the Sugar Bowl.  That was so bad I can't even bring myself to list Cincinnati as a team that sucked.  I'm going to give them a pass since their coach ripped their collective heart out - that and the fact they had no chance walking in, totally different talent levels.  Like Minnesota vs. Iowa in basketball (or football, but reversed).

And speaking of the Gophers, that was a good win on Saturday.  They jumped out to a big lead against an inferior team, and although their were a couple of times they almost let the Hawks drift back into it, once they did they put the throttle down again and just never let Iowa (or the crowed, sparse as it was) believe they had a chance.  Obviously it would have been better to just blow them out by thirty, but I have no real complaints.  Good start to the season, but I will feel better once we get to see them play a good team.

I also want to take a minute to mention Devan Bawinkel, who might be the most fascinating player I have seen play since Reggie Holmes.  Did you know that Bawinkel ?  How does that happen?  Don't you have to accidentally get a layup once in a while?  And it's not like this is new.  Last year he attempted 144 shots, 139 of which were from three, and his freshman year he attempted 40, 37 from three.  That means in his career, out of shots, he's only attempted a shot inside the three point line 8 times.  That's amazing.  How do you do that?  Does he ever cross the three-point line on offense?  Ever?  What if there was a rebound that came bouncing to him, but to get it he would have to step forward and cross the line?  Would he do it, or just sit and wait behind the line even if it meant an opponent was going to get the board?  So bizarre.


WHO WAS AWESOME

1.  Freddie Barnes.  Bowling Green lost the Humanitarian Bowl to Idaho by one in a hell of a game, but who cares?  Let's talk Barnes instead, who had an insane game (17 catches for 219 yards and 3 touchdowns) which gave him the record for catches in a single-season in D-I college football with 155 this year (previous record holder was some donk who played for Houston with 142).  You may be thinking, like me, that 155 catches in a season is ridiculous since they only play like 13 games, and you're right - it is completely insane.  It includes a 22 catch performance against Kent State, a 17 catch outing against Marshall, and a 15 grab day against Troy.  Seriously, suddenly the whole "Weber to Decker" thing doesn't seem as ridiculous.  You're probably, again like me, wondering what his pro prospects look like.  According to what I'm seeing, he is projected to go around the fifth round with third round upside due to his size and projection as a slot receiver.  I don't know, I feel like somebody is going to get a steal here.

2.  New Mexico.  I ripped these guys last week for choking on their high ranking and dropping a game to Oral Roberts, but they bounced back in a big way this week with two very good wins - over Dayton and over Texas Tech.  Even though Tech is starting to look a tad overrated and Dayton may always have been, these are still very good wins that are going to shine come selection sunday.  Now at 14-1 with those two wins plus wins over Cal and Texas A&M, New Mexico is nearly a lock for the NCAA Tournament.  If they win their home games in conference and beat crappy teams like Wyoming, Air Force, and TCU on the road, that puts them at 11-5 in the MWC and 25-6 overall - like I said, a lock.  And I finally got to watch them play - this team could make some noise in March, don't sleep on them.

3.  Cincinnati.  You should know by now I am following Cincinnati closely (now at to win the whole thing) so you're going to get frequent updates when things go well or fall apart, and this week was a very good week for the Bearcats.  On Wednesday they pulled out a very nice upset win over UCONN on two free-throws by Lance Stephenson with less than a second left, and they followed it up on Saturday with a win at Rutgers, never an easy place to play.  I've said it here before and I'll say it again - this a good team with a nice inside/outside balance, a lot of depth, a go-to shooter, and a freshman in Stephenson who could be this year's Carmelo Anthony.  If the point guard play works itself out (whether it's Deonta Vaughn sliding over from the two or freshman Cashmere Wright) they are going to be a huge threat in March.     

4.  Oregon.  It pretty much goes against everything I believe in to praise a Pac-10 team, but the Ducks deserve it after going into Washington and sweeping the two schools this week.  The win over Washington State is good, but the win over Washington is great.  The Huskies were ranked 16th and considered the favorite to win the Pac-10, and Oregon came in there and didn't just win, they completely controlled the game and blew the doors off the Huskies.  The inside/outside attack with guards Tajuan Porter and Malcolm Armstead and center Michael Dunigan is working really well right now, even though it will inevitably fall apart because Porter is far too much of a chucker.  Maybe this will be the third place team in the Pac.  Who knows, they all suck but somebody has to finish third. 

5.  William & Mary.  The Tribe has now won ten straight, and this might have been their best week yet with a win at Maryland and then following it up with a road win at league title contender Hofstra.  This now gives W&M wins over not only Maryland, but also Richmond and Wake Forest, and their only losses are to UCONN and a pretty good Harvard squad.  I don't know how many games they'll need to win in the Colonial, but their out of conference resume reads like an NCAA squad.  If you want more info (and some fluff) about these guys and their boring ass Princeton offense, Andy Katz has a piece on the Tribe here.


WHO SUCKED

1.  Case Keenum.  I've resisted putting Keenum in the "awesome" category week after week because despite games like his 536 yard 5-TD performance against UTEP and his 559 and 5 game versus Southern Miss (or any of his other three 500+ yard days or two other five touchdown days) it was easy to dismiss because he plays for Houston.  Houston, if you recall, is the team that runs a system that made David Klingler and Andre Ware stat monsters, so who knows if Keenum was legit, especially since the Cougars didn't really play any top-level opponents outside of a game vs. Oklahoma State (where Keenum put up a more legit 366-3).  Enter Air Force, Houston's opponent in Armed Forces Bowl, and it would appear that Keenum has been figured out and he might just fall in line with that proud tradition of Houston QBs.  In the Bowl (a 47-20 Air Force win), he threw for a season low 222 yards, completing a season low 58.5% of his passes, and tied a bowl record with 6 interceptions after throwing just nine all season.  The good news for Houston fans is that he's only a junior, so he'll be back to rape a bunch of inferior opponents and put up ridiculous video game numbers for another year.

2.  LaSalle.  Whoa did I overrate these guys this year.  I think I picked them at #2 in the Atlantic 10, and they've rewarded my faith by becoming the suckiest bunch of sucks who ever sucked.  Really, in a year where the A-10 is coming up absolutely huge they've done a damn thing, losing every meaningful game and this week bottoming out with an 0-2 week with losses to Cornell (not that bad) and Binghampton (maybe the most embarrassing loss ever).  That was just the Bearcats fifth win this season against ten losses, with two of those wins over non D-I teams and another over 1-11 Maris.  Truly awful.  The Explorers are going to get steamrolled in conference.

3.  Houston.  I believe the Cougars were supposed to be one of a group of team's vying to become the first team to win Conference USA since Memphis's incredible cheating-fueled run, but they have done nothing but torpedo their chances, and this week may have been the straw that broke Tom Penders's back.  Just a real bang-up job this week, losing all three games they played.  The loss to Iowa State is no big whoop, but the loss to Louisiana Tech is kind of an eyebrow raiser and the loss to UT-San Antonio is completely unacceptable.  They've basically eliminated any chance they had of an at-large, short of running the C-USA table, by being a terrible, terrible defensive team (327th in the nation in defending two point field goals).  They do have two big time scorers, including leading D-I scorer Aubrey Coleman at 25.5 per game, and as a team they have a good 1.6 Assist/Turnover ratio, but unless they start playing some defense the CBI is the best they can hope for.

4.  Seton Hall.  Oh, the Hall, such a trendy pick to contend in the Big East (not by me though, you'll see I said they were bad).  They started out 9-1, but had no quality wins and were basically the definition of a paper tiger.  They started out the conference slate with two home games and had chances to win both, but let West Virginia and Syracuse escape with victories, and then followed that up by blowing a good chance to get a quality non-conference victory by losing to Virginia Tech (and giving up 103 points in the process, including 23 in overtime).  They aren't completely horrible, but in a better than expected Big East they're going to have to win every game they should and a few they shouldn't if they're going to get a bid.  As it stands now their best win (and only win vs. a top 100 team) is against Cornell.

5.  College Kickers.  Holy crap are some of these guys awful.  I watched the kicker from Northwestern miss three field goals and the kicker from ECU miss four.  No wonder there are so few good kickers in the NFL - they have nothing to choose from.  Is it really that hard?  It can't be, considering I have no kicking in my background and yet was able to make a 40-yard field goal at the Rose Bowl a couple of years ago.  Yes, that's right, I made a 40 yard field goal at the Rose Bowl.  I still have eligibility.  Brewster -> call me.   


It was quite tough to narrow down the field to just five entities that sucked this week, honorable mentions go to Texas Tech for almost losing to McNeese State and for the whole Leach debacle, Syracuse for losing to a crappy Pitt team, Cincinnati football for getting their big shot and just getting destroyed, Nothern Illinois for getting rolled by South Florida and extending the MAC's bowl losing streak to something like 15, Boston College for losing to Maine (Maine!), Tennessee for having four hoop players arrested for stealing cars with guns and drugs or something (I didn't really read the story), Arizona State and USC for combining to barely score 100 points combined (and USC for being cheaters), Ryan Mallet for being the worst QB ever, Ohio State for failing to beat a bad, bad Michigan team when all they need to do is win the games they are supposed to and wait for Evan Turner to come back, and finally the gopher football team just for existing.

That was depressing.  To cheer you up here is the video of Tiny Gallon exploding the backboard at Gonzaga.  I was watching this live and this was quite unexpected to say the least.

William & Mary Update - A little Reggie Miller too.

I decided to do slightly more research on William & Mary than just listening to random drunk guy at hotel bar, and it turns out, they are awesome.

They were an awesome 15-15 last year, 8-10 in the tough Colonial Conference (yes, it's a decent mid-major, but still) with out-of-conference losses to such prestigious programs like Towson, Navy, and Holy Cross, with only win against a decent team (Drexel).

They are also losing their best player, a guy who led the team in scoring, rebounding, and steals.

They must have an awesome recruiting class.

I also just saw on sportscenter that Reggie Miller is considering coming out of retirement to play for the Celtics. So, my reaction is, Why and Why?

Why come out of retirement at this point? That didn't work so well for either Magic or Jordan, and he wasn't the most athletic of guys in his prime. Second, the Celtics? Really? The team with both Paul Pierce and Ray Allen? What the hell would Miller's role be on that team? Might as well sign Dale Ellis instead. You get a guy who could shoot his ass off in his prime, never won a ring (note: not sure if this is true or not and too lazy to look it up), and won't play a minute for your team.

Conclusion: Reggie Miller is dumb. Or is Danny Ainge? It's like chicken for morons.

EDIT TO ADD: Friday is a funny ass movie. What chain?

Watch Out for William & Mary

So, I'm out in Virginia for work and I'm stuck here so I'm at the hotel bar and some guy starts talking to me. I have nothing better to do, so I talk back, and then the conversation turns to college hoops because it's the only thing I can talk about intelligently.

He's a William & Mary grad, and he told me to watch out for them this year, they're gonna be good.

So consider yourself warned.