Posted:
#1
November: 67-48 (+17.8 units)
February: 27-27 (-6.0 units)
Overall: (+17.5 units)
Random Crap:
-Charlotte size in the backcourt looms as a major issue tonight. Losing Mayfield hurt, but the Niners are big and physical on the perimeter. Not sure how well the small Butler backcourt (Dunham, Barlow, Alridge) deals with it. The 'Dawgs have been awful against pressure all year, so I fully expect Major to bring heat early & often. No Smith inside hurts a bit defensively against a team that really only wants to score in the paint. He's also the only pick & pop option in the screen-n-roll with Clarke.
-Illinois has played to the level of the competition all season, and I'm not sure what changes in that regard tonight. Consecutive wins over Indiana and @ Minnesota supersede my concern for the revenge angle. As I mentioned in the first meeting, Purdue is a tough matchup for the Illini because Painter can go small with the three guards, Byrd, and Hammonds, effectively mitigating Illinois' typical perimeter advantage.
-This Oregon State team is beyond frustrating. The individual pieces indicate an upper-level PAC-12 team, but they still refuse to buy in on the defensive end and there are way too many lapses in concentration at various points in the game. That said, if you can bother Motum, the Wazzu offense is just brutal to watch. OSU has length for days with Moreland and Collier inside, and Nelson has been on fire the last few games. When OSU brings some effort on the defensive end - and with revenge tonight, I suspect they will - this team is really impressive.
-Colorado State is just an amazing team to watch from a basketball purist's perspective. Hornung & Iverson are my favorite duo in college basketball. Relentless, tenacious, any other adjective you want to throw out there to describe guys who play at full throttle at all times. Green & Eikmeier give CSU a stable, veteran guard duo that refuses to play at the pace of the opposition. HUGE game tonight in Fort Collins, where CSU hasn't lost since November of 2011. If you recall from the first meeting at Viejas, CSU fell behind by a considerable margin but made a major comeback to push the game into OT. SDSU had no answer for Hornung/Smith/Iverson inside and was fortunate to sneak away with a win. Different story tonight in the rematch at Moby. The Athletic Department has planned an "Orange-Out" in which CSU will wear some sort of retro orange jersey from its Colorado A & M days. Atmosphere will be tremendous and I have very little confidence in SDSU being able to withstand it with Xavier Thames still out of the lineup
-Not worth going into detail on the UNC-Duke game because every blustering blowhard at ESPN has already "covered" the game in painstaking detail. It's also nowhere near the best rivalry in college basketball right now, but I digress. UNC refuses to cover the 3-point line. Freshman point guard at Cameron. Fast pace. Unless Bullock & Hairston AND someone else have big games for UNC, this probably won't be all that close. If Ryan Kelly was playing, I'd say Duke by 25+
-I can't emphasize enough the importance of Kabongo's return to Texas. This team defends better than any Rick Barnes team in recent memory but has lacked a facilitator who can control pace and serve as an offensive threat. Enter Kabongo, who is lightning-fast with the ball and excels in an open-court game. Iowa State will be more than amenable to such a pace and runs the smoothest sets of ANY team in college basketball. Hoiberg has implemented an NBA-style offense and filled it with savvy, smart, high-IQ basketball players. I anticipate this being one of the more entertaining games of the night.
-Such is not the case in Bloomington, where Tim Miles is going to do his absolute best to turn the Nebraska-Indiana matchup into an unwatchable heap of burning crap. For a frame of reference, see Nebraska's game in Ann Arbor a few weeks ago. The big question is whether Indiana brings a big defensive effort after its recent 3-game gauntlet. If so, Nebraska doesn't break 50, and the Huskers' brutal pace should keep IU under the 70-point mark.
-The record doesn't show it, but Danny Hurley is doing a helluva job at Rhode Island. These guys play harder than anyone in the A-10, which is quite a statement considering the routine efforts of VCU, Butler, Saint Louis, George Washington, et. al. Other than UMASS, the Rams have been in every conference game this season. More importantly, however, they catch Dayton is a downright wicked spot tonight. The Flyers capitulated in epic fashion on Saturday against Temple and have the rematch with Xavier on Saturday at UD Arena. I don't need to elaborate further on the significance of the X-UD game.
-Illinois State is finally looking like the team it was expected to be based on preseason projections and non-conference results. The inside-outside duo of Carmichael/Brown has turned the Redbirds from a high-volume shooting team into one that picks apart defenses in the halfcourt. Big rivalry game here with Bradley and I question the type of effort we get from ISU after it FINALLY climbed the Creighton hurdle late Saturday night in Omaha. The Jays ended ISU's season in overtime of the MVC championship last year and also took this year's first matchup in Normal...but ISU should still be ready to play tonight after choking away the first meeting two weeks ago.
December: 52-61 (-7.6 units)
January: 55-45 (+13.3 units)February: 27-27 (-6.0 units)
Overall: (+17.5 units)
Random Crap:
-Charlotte size in the backcourt looms as a major issue tonight. Losing Mayfield hurt, but the Niners are big and physical on the perimeter. Not sure how well the small Butler backcourt (Dunham, Barlow, Alridge) deals with it. The 'Dawgs have been awful against pressure all year, so I fully expect Major to bring heat early & often. No Smith inside hurts a bit defensively against a team that really only wants to score in the paint. He's also the only pick & pop option in the screen-n-roll with Clarke.
-Illinois has played to the level of the competition all season, and I'm not sure what changes in that regard tonight. Consecutive wins over Indiana and @ Minnesota supersede my concern for the revenge angle. As I mentioned in the first meeting, Purdue is a tough matchup for the Illini because Painter can go small with the three guards, Byrd, and Hammonds, effectively mitigating Illinois' typical perimeter advantage.
-This Oregon State team is beyond frustrating. The individual pieces indicate an upper-level PAC-12 team, but they still refuse to buy in on the defensive end and there are way too many lapses in concentration at various points in the game. That said, if you can bother Motum, the Wazzu offense is just brutal to watch. OSU has length for days with Moreland and Collier inside, and Nelson has been on fire the last few games. When OSU brings some effort on the defensive end - and with revenge tonight, I suspect they will - this team is really impressive.
-Colorado State is just an amazing team to watch from a basketball purist's perspective. Hornung & Iverson are my favorite duo in college basketball. Relentless, tenacious, any other adjective you want to throw out there to describe guys who play at full throttle at all times. Green & Eikmeier give CSU a stable, veteran guard duo that refuses to play at the pace of the opposition. HUGE game tonight in Fort Collins, where CSU hasn't lost since November of 2011. If you recall from the first meeting at Viejas, CSU fell behind by a considerable margin but made a major comeback to push the game into OT. SDSU had no answer for Hornung/Smith/Iverson inside and was fortunate to sneak away with a win. Different story tonight in the rematch at Moby. The Athletic Department has planned an "Orange-Out" in which CSU will wear some sort of retro orange jersey from its Colorado A & M days. Atmosphere will be tremendous and I have very little confidence in SDSU being able to withstand it with Xavier Thames still out of the lineup
-Not worth going into detail on the UNC-Duke game because every blustering blowhard at ESPN has already "covered" the game in painstaking detail. It's also nowhere near the best rivalry in college basketball right now, but I digress. UNC refuses to cover the 3-point line. Freshman point guard at Cameron. Fast pace. Unless Bullock & Hairston AND someone else have big games for UNC, this probably won't be all that close. If Ryan Kelly was playing, I'd say Duke by 25+
-I can't emphasize enough the importance of Kabongo's return to Texas. This team defends better than any Rick Barnes team in recent memory but has lacked a facilitator who can control pace and serve as an offensive threat. Enter Kabongo, who is lightning-fast with the ball and excels in an open-court game. Iowa State will be more than amenable to such a pace and runs the smoothest sets of ANY team in college basketball. Hoiberg has implemented an NBA-style offense and filled it with savvy, smart, high-IQ basketball players. I anticipate this being one of the more entertaining games of the night.
-Such is not the case in Bloomington, where Tim Miles is going to do his absolute best to turn the Nebraska-Indiana matchup into an unwatchable heap of burning crap. For a frame of reference, see Nebraska's game in Ann Arbor a few weeks ago. The big question is whether Indiana brings a big defensive effort after its recent 3-game gauntlet. If so, Nebraska doesn't break 50, and the Huskers' brutal pace should keep IU under the 70-point mark.
-The record doesn't show it, but Danny Hurley is doing a helluva job at Rhode Island. These guys play harder than anyone in the A-10, which is quite a statement considering the routine efforts of VCU, Butler, Saint Louis, George Washington, et. al. Other than UMASS, the Rams have been in every conference game this season. More importantly, however, they catch Dayton is a downright wicked spot tonight. The Flyers capitulated in epic fashion on Saturday against Temple and have the rematch with Xavier on Saturday at UD Arena. I don't need to elaborate further on the significance of the X-UD game.
-Illinois State is finally looking like the team it was expected to be based on preseason projections and non-conference results. The inside-outside duo of Carmichael/Brown has turned the Redbirds from a high-volume shooting team into one that picks apart defenses in the halfcourt. Big rivalry game here with Bradley and I question the type of effort we get from ISU after it FINALLY climbed the Creighton hurdle late Saturday night in Omaha. The Jays ended ISU's season in overtime of the MVC championship last year and also took this year's first matchup in Normal...but ISU should still be ready to play tonight after choking away the first meeting two weeks ago.
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