The College Basketball season kicks into conference slate of games after the competitive non-conference scheduling. Some teams came out of the non-conference with their heads held high and resumes boosted by big wins and reputation enhanced.
Currently Arizona are the No1 team in the country at 15-0. This could be surprising to onlookers considering the Pac12, only two years ago, had only two entries to the NCAA tournament. This year the Pac12 is a much better conference. Oregon (13-1) have utilised the college transfer system and have a high scoring offence, however, they suffered their first loss on the road at Colorado giving up 100 points in the process. The Buffaloes themselves rise to 13-2 in the conference.
As well as the Wildcats of Arizona who remain the only undefeated team in the conference, there is UCLA (12-4) and California (10-4). Don't sleep on Washington who are 9-6, but always play tough in conference play.
The best conference in America remains the Big10. Critics say it, fans say it and currently there are five teams from this conference in the Top 25; Ohio State, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Iowa and Illinois.
Last night in a conference opener, the Michigan State Spartans hosted the Ohio State Buckeyes, who were an undefeated 15-0. In a barn-burner, the Spartans won 72-68 in overtime. The Buckeyes ended regulation on a 20-3 run to force overtime. Spartans lost Keith Appling to cramps and miss Trice through injury. Buckeyes were led by Aaron Craft who is one of those special College performers, what he lacks in size he makes up for in graft and guile. Craft actually uses his brain, he banked an inbound pass off of an opponents backside to set up an easy lay up.
Year in, year out the Wisconsin Badgers hang around the conference standings. Many predicted the Badgers to have a down year as Bo Ryan rebuilt, however, he has assembled a vibrant group of players and unusually for a Ryan coached side they score heavily. Only four times have they scored under 70 points, they still have stellar defence as a 48-38 road win at Virginia can attest to, yet for Bo to have interior presence instead of being reliant on the three point shot is music to his ears.
The conference is ultra competitive, so expect a team to suffer four, maybe five defeats due to the intense nature of conference play. Yet the reason I mention the Spartans, Buckeyes and Badgers primarily is because they have a mixture of form, coaching and experience. The Spartans have Appling and will be strong once they get healthy, the Buckeyes have the x-factor that is Aaaron Craft and he Badgers gave got Bo, coaching is so important especially in conference play.
The ACC has new blood in the form of Syracuse, Notre Dame and Pittsburgh. Duke, North Carolina and Maryland remain. Duke have prospective overall Number 1 pick in Jabari Parker, but Parker was pulled during the loss to Notre Dame on Saturday. Parker needs to find a bit more resolute nature to his play and find an answer against teams who will attempt to shut him down, as the Irish did. Coach K benched Parker hoping it would motivate the freshman to reflect on his performance. Duke have suffered three losses (Arizona, Notre Dame and Kansas) to ranked squads, no shame in that but losing the first conference game is never a good start.
How about a Cinderella? Although they are currently ranked 9th, the undefeated Iowa State Cyclones (14-0) are the current darlings of the College Basketball fraternity. A mixture of moxie, scoring and coaching has made them the current Big 12 big dogs over the established Kansas Jayhawks with Andrew Wiggins and Perry Ellis and Marcus Smart with the Oklahoma State Cowboys.
Tuesday night (7th Jan) they beat higher ranked Baylor 87-72 in a showcase for the dominance of DeAndre Kane (a senior transfer from Marshall) who has 30 points, nine assists, eight rebounds and five steals. Helped by Melvin Ejim who had 18 points. Two more players along with the aforementioned, average over 12 points a game something Kansas cannot lay claim to. Whilst the Cyclones have no problem scoring they can also defend the ball well by controlling the paint. The Jayhawks meanwhile are struggling with scoring indicated by their four losses all coming by six points or less. That margin of error is costing the Jayhawks in terms of consistency and getting the best out of their players.
Other teams to note: Wichita State (15-0), Villanova (13-1), Creighton (12-2) and Southern Methodist (11-3) coached by Larry Brown, they beat UConn with Shabazz Napier 75-65 at home for a statement win in the American (former Big East) which includes Cincinnati (14-2) and National Chapions Louisville (13-2).
Showing posts with label Wisconsin Badgers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wisconsin Badgers. Show all posts
Wednesday, 8 January 2014
Monday, 25 March 2013
College Hoops Round-up (March 25th)
Whenever Selection Sunday comes around, people tend to knee jerk their bracket picks, myself I tend to do the selection post it and then go back to it after doing some research. Luckily, my final four is still in place after some third round heart attacks.
Most notably Ohio State who had to rely upon the clutch of Aaron Craft and some poor officiating to advance to the regional semi-final to play Arizona. Iowa State will feel hosed following a questionable offensive charge call on Craft when his feet were moving, however the Cyclones clock management cost them as they allowed Craft the ball with 20 seconds to have a shot, and as he showed on the road at Indiana he is ultra-clutch and drained a three point jumper to win the game with 0.2 seconds remaining.
Kansas Jayhawks had an awful first half shooting against the North Carolina Tar Heels, luckily though so did Roy Williams' side as both combined to miss 50 plus shots in the first half. Kansas exploded at the start of the second half with a 23-8 run to end the game before you knew it. At the start, the Tar Heels crammed Jeff Withey for room in the paint, suffocating him for movement but Travis Releford stepped up in second half. This is the Jayhawks key, they have enough playmakers in Withey, Releford, Ben McLemore and Elijah Johnson that someone will step up.
Unlike say Georgetown, Notre Dame and Wisconsin.
All three sides who are seminal names in the College Basketball landscape, yet they all fell to double-digit seeded teams who showed them up to be slow in tempo and stuck in their ways.
Wisconsin lost to Ole Miss, in this instance the Bo Ryan's Badgers can be forgiven as they lost to a team in Ole Miss who had to play hard down the stretch in the SEC to even be considered for the tournament, but a placing in the SEC final where they lost to Florida helped that matter. Led by a vocal Marshall Henderson, who scored double-digits in the second half the Rebels beat Wisconsin 57-46. Wisconsin usually dictate the tempo and make shots from three point range, on this occasion Ole Miss kept up the tempo and the Badgers could not keep up.
Notre Dame have a tradition of being a side who do well week-in,week-out in the Big East and yet come to the Dance they come up short. They lost to #10 Iowa State, the fourth year in succession the Irish have lost to a double digit side, on this occasion it was embarrassing 76-58. For me the Cyclones have the high tempo and great long range shooting to trouble the Irish, and they were my banker first round upset. Don't believe me check my bracket.
Looking at the Notre Dame offensive output of 58 points and a 18 point deficit, this weak offensive output is a staple of Big East play. Whilst I believe Louisville will still win the National title owing to having the best defence, but they have the offensive firepower to explode if need be. Whereas Georgetown Hoyas were overrated and should not have been a 2 seed.
Obviously, losing to Florida Gulf Coast Eagles was a seismic shock of epic proportions, the greatest 15 over 2 seed upset in NCAA history and yet looking back over the seasons of both sides is it really a surprise.
Georgetown average points is 64.6, whereas FGCU average 73.1 which is 49th ranked side in the country. Georgetown's best win all season was a 53-51 win at home to then ranked #5 Louisville. FGCU beat Miami 63-51 in their second game of the season, Miami were ranked top 5 by the end of the season. Georgetown rely too much on Otto Porter Jr who is meant to be a rebounding machine - Porter averages 7.4 boards a game, the team averages 32.9 (247th); the Eagles top rebounder is Sherwood Brown with 6.4 yet the team averges 36.6 (87th) so the team has more rebounds because they shoot more.
The key to the Eagles win was the high-tempo and they got ahead which is always a problem for any Big East side as they then panic and attempt long threes which Big East sides are not renowned for. Gulf Coast play fast and play in space allowing easy dunks and points in the paint, they murdered the Hoyas in transition.
FGCU come from the Atlantic Sun conference, winning the tournament over regular-season champion Mercer 88-75 on Mercer's floor to win the automatic bid. FGCU are tough nuts but want to hang with the best; they beat Miami as mentioned but they also scheduled games against Duke, Iowa State, St. Johns and VCU - all respected teams that they lost to. They themselves have been guilty of complacency losing to Lipscomb (12-18) twice and East Tennessee State (10-22); this indicates a team that if it plays with momentum and now confidence they should not be surprised by their potential and wins, they are on a seven game winning streak (average victory 11.1 points) that started by beating Mercer at home on February 28th, a month later they play inter-state rivals Florida Gators in Dallas Cowboys Stadium.
The beauty of this story involving the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles is that no-one gave them a chance, and that makes it all the more surprising. Florida are an experienced side and Billy Donovan has a few more days to prepare for the four point guard system; a side that have 14 assists a game but they shoot a high field goal percentage of .460, ranked 49th nationally.
This weekend predictions:
WEST: Ohio State over Arizona, Wichita over La Salle - Ohio State to reach Final Four
EAST: Miami over Marquette, Indiana over Syracuse - Indiana to reach Final Four
MIDWEST: Louisville over Oregon, Duke over Michigan State - Louisville to reach Final Four
SOUTH: Kansas over Michigan, Florida over Florida Gulf - Kansas to reach Final Four
I'm sticking with the initial Final Four selections, the only worry will be Michigan State v Duke a close contest and Michigan v Kansas. If the Wolverines back court is consistent and avoids turnvovers, the Jayhawks may have problems but if Withey can control the paint it might be another story.
Follow me on twitter @JamieGarwood
Most notably Ohio State who had to rely upon the clutch of Aaron Craft and some poor officiating to advance to the regional semi-final to play Arizona. Iowa State will feel hosed following a questionable offensive charge call on Craft when his feet were moving, however the Cyclones clock management cost them as they allowed Craft the ball with 20 seconds to have a shot, and as he showed on the road at Indiana he is ultra-clutch and drained a three point jumper to win the game with 0.2 seconds remaining.
Kansas Jayhawks had an awful first half shooting against the North Carolina Tar Heels, luckily though so did Roy Williams' side as both combined to miss 50 plus shots in the first half. Kansas exploded at the start of the second half with a 23-8 run to end the game before you knew it. At the start, the Tar Heels crammed Jeff Withey for room in the paint, suffocating him for movement but Travis Releford stepped up in second half. This is the Jayhawks key, they have enough playmakers in Withey, Releford, Ben McLemore and Elijah Johnson that someone will step up.
Unlike say Georgetown, Notre Dame and Wisconsin.
All three sides who are seminal names in the College Basketball landscape, yet they all fell to double-digit seeded teams who showed them up to be slow in tempo and stuck in their ways.
Wisconsin lost to Ole Miss, in this instance the Bo Ryan's Badgers can be forgiven as they lost to a team in Ole Miss who had to play hard down the stretch in the SEC to even be considered for the tournament, but a placing in the SEC final where they lost to Florida helped that matter. Led by a vocal Marshall Henderson, who scored double-digits in the second half the Rebels beat Wisconsin 57-46. Wisconsin usually dictate the tempo and make shots from three point range, on this occasion Ole Miss kept up the tempo and the Badgers could not keep up.
Notre Dame have a tradition of being a side who do well week-in,week-out in the Big East and yet come to the Dance they come up short. They lost to #10 Iowa State, the fourth year in succession the Irish have lost to a double digit side, on this occasion it was embarrassing 76-58. For me the Cyclones have the high tempo and great long range shooting to trouble the Irish, and they were my banker first round upset. Don't believe me check my bracket.
Looking at the Notre Dame offensive output of 58 points and a 18 point deficit, this weak offensive output is a staple of Big East play. Whilst I believe Louisville will still win the National title owing to having the best defence, but they have the offensive firepower to explode if need be. Whereas Georgetown Hoyas were overrated and should not have been a 2 seed.
Obviously, losing to Florida Gulf Coast Eagles was a seismic shock of epic proportions, the greatest 15 over 2 seed upset in NCAA history and yet looking back over the seasons of both sides is it really a surprise.
Georgetown average points is 64.6, whereas FGCU average 73.1 which is 49th ranked side in the country. Georgetown's best win all season was a 53-51 win at home to then ranked #5 Louisville. FGCU beat Miami 63-51 in their second game of the season, Miami were ranked top 5 by the end of the season. Georgetown rely too much on Otto Porter Jr who is meant to be a rebounding machine - Porter averages 7.4 boards a game, the team averages 32.9 (247th); the Eagles top rebounder is Sherwood Brown with 6.4 yet the team averges 36.6 (87th) so the team has more rebounds because they shoot more.
The key to the Eagles win was the high-tempo and they got ahead which is always a problem for any Big East side as they then panic and attempt long threes which Big East sides are not renowned for. Gulf Coast play fast and play in space allowing easy dunks and points in the paint, they murdered the Hoyas in transition.
FGCU come from the Atlantic Sun conference, winning the tournament over regular-season champion Mercer 88-75 on Mercer's floor to win the automatic bid. FGCU are tough nuts but want to hang with the best; they beat Miami as mentioned but they also scheduled games against Duke, Iowa State, St. Johns and VCU - all respected teams that they lost to. They themselves have been guilty of complacency losing to Lipscomb (12-18) twice and East Tennessee State (10-22); this indicates a team that if it plays with momentum and now confidence they should not be surprised by their potential and wins, they are on a seven game winning streak (average victory 11.1 points) that started by beating Mercer at home on February 28th, a month later they play inter-state rivals Florida Gators in Dallas Cowboys Stadium.
The beauty of this story involving the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles is that no-one gave them a chance, and that makes it all the more surprising. Florida are an experienced side and Billy Donovan has a few more days to prepare for the four point guard system; a side that have 14 assists a game but they shoot a high field goal percentage of .460, ranked 49th nationally.
This weekend predictions:
WEST: Ohio State over Arizona, Wichita over La Salle - Ohio State to reach Final Four
EAST: Miami over Marquette, Indiana over Syracuse - Indiana to reach Final Four
MIDWEST: Louisville over Oregon, Duke over Michigan State - Louisville to reach Final Four
SOUTH: Kansas over Michigan, Florida over Florida Gulf - Kansas to reach Final Four
I'm sticking with the initial Final Four selections, the only worry will be Michigan State v Duke a close contest and Michigan v Kansas. If the Wolverines back court is consistent and avoids turnvovers, the Jayhawks may have problems but if Withey can control the paint it might be another story.
Follow me on twitter @JamieGarwood
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)