Not Flashy
12.08.04
The Syracuse/Oklahoma State game was a big dud. I don't care how much people want to talk about great defense, the big game last night was a replay of the 2002 NCAA Final between Maryland and Indiana, especially for the first 30 minutes. With all of that talent on the court, someone should have been making plays, but instead it was one unforced error after another. How disappointing was the game? Probably the fact that today's water-cooler talk will center around the Cowboys piling on with two meaningless buckets in the final second.
Two other games had a little more meaning when it comes to the postseason picture. Kent State may be the next mid-major darling, ending Creighton's unbeaten run with a convincing 67-58 win in Omaha. Kent already has two losses, albeit respectable ones at Marquette and at Old Dominion, and they don't have a eye-catching win. So they're going to be big fans of the best teams they have beaten, Creighton and Florida State, the remainder of the season. Two road/neutral wins against top 50 teams would be worth a lot towards an at-large bid.
The Mountain West is looking more and more like a one-bid league for the second time in their six year history. Utah State fell to the Mastodons of Indiana-Purdue-Fort Wayne 64-59 in the night's biggest upset. This hurts the MWC because USU won the Beehive State Championship by crushing both BYU and Utah. Any loss to a school with Indiana or Purdue in their name hurts the post-season profile, but the loss to IPFW is the worst of them all since they will struggling to keep their RPI rank below 300 by season's end. So it makes it that much harder for either Utah-based MWC team to justify the USU game as a "good loss."
Same Ol’ Song
11.22.04
For those who got tired of hearing about how good the ACC was last season, early indications are that you'll get more of the same this year. With Virginia's 78-60 rout of Arizona on Sunday, you had a team that isn't expected to finish in the top five of the ACC beat a team that a few predicted to be one of the five best in the nation.
The big performance came from the Cavaliers' freshman point guard Sean Singletary (15 pts, 8 assists, 6 steals), who's making an early case that he's a significant upgrade at the position from the Todd Billet/TJ Bannister combo of last season. But the big story was how badly Arizona failed at scoring points.
Arguably the nation's best offensive unit last season, the Wildcats were held to their lowest single game total since December 2001, and have been held to less than 40% shooting in two of their first three games. Maybe replacing Andre Iguodala is not going to be so easy. After all, he was the seventh college player chosen in the NBA draft.
One Step Closer
11.01.04
Exhibition season started tonight with seven D1 teams hitting the floor, the most notable of which were New Mexico, Louisiana Tech, and Santa Clara.