Conference season is just around the corner, right after the Holiday Tourneys finish. Not likely to be any undefeated teams left by Jan 1. Duke, Kansas, and Texas A&M have taken a loss recently, while Villanova continues to be undefeated. They probably will ascend to #1 in this weeks poll. Arizona State is rapidly taking on a dark horse look. They went to Phog Allen and beat KU, they previously had beaten Xavier at home. Bobby Hurley of Duke fame is their coach. SEC might not be a Kentucky walkover, Gators and the Aggies are looking pretty strong. Big 12 is still likely to be KU, Texas has a pretty good team but also pretty young. ACC is Duke, UNC, Miami and ND. Big East is 'Nova. Big10 is no doubt Mich State. No big games this week that I could find.
Ohio State has had to take some lumps in the last couple years. New coach Holtman from Butler is on board and I really like his demeanor. He has scrambled to have enough players to scrimmage and that is a tough nut to crack. So far with two key players from last year, and three new recruits, he has done very well. We lost several games due to only playing one half and losing the second half. Turnovers have been an albatross on our back. We have wins over Wisconsin and Michigan. Currently, we are currently 8-3 and have several mid majors to play this month. An upcoming test with North Carolina. If we can establish some defense and get down to single digit turnovers, I think we might be a surprise team in the Big Ten this year.
You've already played 2 Big10 games? That's early. Crossroads Classic is this weekend. ND, Purdue, IU and Butler at Bankers Life Field House. IU/ND Purdue/Butler
Terry, I just read when Andy Katz has picked us to be in the NCAA tournament. It was so bad last year, I gave up trying to watch the Buckeyes! The early conference games are unusual and this is due to changing the number of conference games to be played. A lot of basketball down the road.
New AP Top 10. Top 10: 1. Villanova 2. Michigan State 3. Wichita State 4. Duke 5. Arizona State 6. Miami 7. North Carolina 8. Kentucky 9. Texas A&M 10. Xavier Big leap up the poll by Arizona State
I've watched ASU a few times. Hurley has them playing on fire. The P12 race should be an interesting one.
Tarheels have a great team as usual and they have an upper classman in Joel Berry to provide leadership. The next big game is Ohio State on the 23rd. They come to South Bend in early January for what should be a very big game.
I almost hate to bring up the Ball's ...but I see an article on ESPN that says that the Ball brothers might sign with a Lithuanian team. Ugh...I doubt if this will end well. The younger kid is reportedly the most talented but he's a HS dropout now, and the other kid is the one who got caught shop lifting. I mean how far off will Lavar go to ruin his kids lives. No education, playing in a crap league in Europe as teeanagers who will be in an area not just with a foreign culture but probably very few English speakers. I actually feel bad for these kids. http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/21741604/liangelo-lamelo-ball-serious-talks-lithuanian-basketball-club
Watched a lot of Texas/Michigan last night. I'm begining to wonder if Shaka Smart was a good hire. That team didn't do much very well. Bamba who reportedly will be a top 5 pick in the NBA draft is so thin that the Mich bigs bumped him around all night. Plus he thinks he's a 3 point shooter. It's not looking good for the Longhorns unless we find some guards who can shoot, anybody who can shoot.
I have never seen a team change up for the negative as much as UF this season. Went from averaging 100 points per game and leading Duke by 15 with 10 to go to losing to Duke, FSU and Loyola-Chicago and not able now to score out of the 60s... It's a head scratcher.... UF will be a much stronger team however when they get the inside presence of John Egbunu back in Jan.
Arizona State is #1 in the eSpn power rankings, nobody saw that coming but of course this is only Dec. Purdue is another team quickly making it's way up the rankings. Saw that Xavier was down to East Tenn State by 22 at the half...wow. But they came back in the 2nd half and beat them by a couple, finished the game on a 24-7 run. Rick Barnes is also seemingly doing fairly well in his 2nd year at Tenn, Vols had a shot at beating UNC. TCU is another team off to a good start, this is former PItt coach Jamie Dixon's second year. He had some very good teams at Pitt. SEC looking very competitive this year.
I see where Ft Wayne blistered the nets last night over the Hoosiers. That is the second loss to an in-state opponent this season. Indiana had just recently beaten Notre Dame? Hoosier fans have to be a little bit upset. Any thoughts Tim or Sid?
It doesn't bode well for Notre Dame, who also has lost to two in-state schools, including the team who lost last night by 20 to Fort Wayne. As far as Indiana, it always was thought to be a rebuilding year. Looks like the construction workers took the night off. :shock: IU now is being called the "Whosiers" by the local media. :roll:
I don't know anything about Fort Wayne of course, but I think in college basketball that there is a lot of parity amongst good teams across the country. So a team like IU which might be a good team but then not good enough to have a bad night vs a team like FW who gets hot against them. I think that is what happened to ND vs IU, the Irish are a good team but not good enough to not play well and still beat IU esp making critical mistakes at the end of regulation and OT. Both of which had they played it right would have resulted in a win. The good thing about college basketball you can lose 10 games or so and still have a shot at the NCAA's and if you get in and get hot who knows. That's why we see so many years where mid-majors team(s) end up in the sweet 16 or more. I do think Archie Miller is a very good coach who will get IU turned around to being one of the best Big 10 schools, but it's a process. Shaka Smart finding that the process can take a few years, Longhorns escaped last night at home vs Tenn State. Texas fans getting antsy in his 3rd year that not enough progress is being made.
Ohio State has been a bit of a surprise thus far. Holtman has done an outstanding job putting together a very young team and some new blood in his initial recruiting efforts. We play Citadel this evening and that should be an easy win for the Buckeyes. (9-3) December 23 we will meet North Carolina in the CBS Sports Classic in New Orleans. That will be a very tough game for us, but it will tell me how much this young team has progressed. Hopefully, we can stay in the game and not get blown away. We had a chance to beat both Clemson and Butler at home but gave up double-digit leads in both games in the second half. Our turnover numbers are improving and so is our defense.
Basketball is a sport where a quick turn around is possible if you can get a good coach and a few players who are playing very well. 1 great player can really carry a team a long way. Speaking of 1 player carrying a team. Keep an eye on Trae Young at OU. The kid is on fire, and he's a true freshman.
LaVar Ball announced that he is starting a new league for HS graduates who don't want to go to college, salary range will be 3K to 10K per month. I don't like the guy but somebody needed to do that and hopefully get it going with good coaches and everything that will allow kids to play for pay if that is what they want to do. The NBA has the G League but I don't know if they can take the right out of HS kids like this league will do. http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/21827823/lavar-ball-wants-start-league-high-school-graduates