The Chris West Basketball Journal

Nine Years Later: Another Crean Ending

2017-03-16T17:38:00.002-05:00

Just under nine years ago Tom Crean announced he was leaving Marquette. A day later, I wrote what has ultimately become the most widely read post in the history of my blog. And all these years later, each year I still know exactly when Indiana’s season is turning south when I get an e-mail notification that someone has commented on the blog that I stopped updating long ago. That e-mail notification undoubtedly means the same thing each time–someone on an Indiana basketball message board has linked to my old Crean post and a small group of people is essentially proclaiming me to be Nostradamus. And I’ve got one post from the old blog that’s going to be pretty popular for a couple of days.

I get a few smiles when my old blog gets dredged up and a bunch of nice strangers say that I gave a perfect analysis of who Crean is and how his time at Indiana would play out. Like the people linking to it, I’m also kind of amazed that I was so strangely accurate in my forecast. As is true for most people, I get things wrong a lot more than I get them right. But I will admit that when I wrote the Crean post, every opinion that I held about him something that I felt very strongly about. So it’s kind of cool to think that I really did know what I was talking about back in .

I thought with the benefit of nine years worth of perspective that it might be fun to reflect on my old blog post for anyone who might be interested in what I’m thinking today, as a much quieter college basketball fan. This was actually already in the works before Crean’s firing earlier today, but his termination obviously makes it a good time to reopen this topic. I was always fond of bullet points when I was writing the blog, so I’ll stick with that format for my various reflections here:

–I always get a chuckle reading the message board posts that link to my Crean post, as they almost always say something to the effect of "This Marquette fan really got this right." It’s technically fair to say that I’m a Marquette fan. I certainly wrote the post from that perspective, have always liked watching Marquette games, and even had season tickets for a brief time. But I’m actually a UW-Madison graduate and am a pretty die-hard Wisconsin fan. So it’s mildly amusing that my most popular post defines me as a fan of my favorite team’s most bitter non-conference rival.

–Despite that aforementioned rivalry, one thing that my Wisconsin fan friends and my Marquette fan friends have long agreed upon is that it’s highly enjoyable when we get to see a Tom Crean team lose. I think some of my MU friends even faced a bit of a moral dilemma over who to root against when the Wisconsin and Indiana played each other.

–Since I’ve mentioned sympathies toward different schools, I’ll suck up to any Indiana fans reading and note that IU was my second choice school coming out of high school. If not for the lure of in-state tuition, I’d likely be a Hoosier. As a matter of fact, last week I finally wore out the mesh shorts I bought in the bookstore when I toured the campus back in 1995. Or rather, my wife did–I should never have allowed her to borrow such a sacred article of clothing.

–Nine years later, I’m a bit more sympathetic to the Crean hiring than I was when I wrote my blog post. That’s partly because I didn’t understand how low things had sunk at Indiana at the time. Sure, we all knew that Kelvin Sampson’s reign had put a black cloud over the Hoosiers. But when things started trickling out like the story about Eli Holman angrily breaking a flower pot in a meeting with Crean, or Eric Gordon talking about how he had to stay away from his teammates because a number of them were using drugs, the need for a complete overhaul of the program became way more clear. As I wrote at the time, hiring someone clean was the biggest consideration for Indiana. And Indiana definitely hired the most high-profile clean guy they could find.

Furthermore, while there are plenty of negative things to say about Crean, one has to concede that he’s pretty good at rebuilding programs. Consider what he’s done at Marquette and Indiana. At MU, he took a program that was trending more towards a mid-major conference than a power conference. Four years later, he found himself in the Final Four and parlayed that into a spot in the Big East, which at the time was probably the best conference in the country. At IU he took over a program on probation and a roster littered with guys he needed to weed out for the good of the program, and by his fifth year the Hoosiers were the preseason #1 team in the country.

Sure, I think we can all agree that Crean’s personality and shaky basketball knowledge will probably keep him from ever building a consistently great program. He’s got a less than satisfying ceiling. But in terms of public relations and recruiting, it still remains hard to beat him. Even as a guy who pumps his fist in excitement every time I see Crean lose in heartbraking fashion and sprint through the post-game handshake line without looking at anyone from the opposing team, I must concede that if my program was in a dark place, he’d be the first guy I’d call in an attempt to turn things around. He’d be a perfect hire for a lot of schools if you could force him out right when things started to get good again. Unfortunately, that’s not really how the world works.

–My favorite moment of the Crean era? That’s an easy one–Crean’s first Big Ten win–a 2009 home win over Iowa. I didn’t like this moment because Indiana won (my preference was still for Crean losing). I liked it because his reaction to the win was the most Crean thing ever. Here’s Indiana, one of the most storied programs in college basketball history, notching a win (what would ultimately be IU’s only Big Ten win of the season, no less) over an Iowa team that entered the game 2-7 in Big Ten play and would finish just above the Hoosiers as the last two teams in the conference that season. And what does Crean do? He turns it into an impromptu pep rally in Assembly Hall, grabbing the microphone, gleefully addressing the crowd, and shouting to the fans "This is your win!"

I wish I could find archived video of Crean speaking to the crowd. I’m sure it would seem just as ridiculous to me if I saw it today. The best I can do is this video I found of a student TV production recapping the win. That video is amusing in and of itself, as none of the three players interviewed, Kyle Taber, Nick Williams and Malik Story, would be with the team the next season. Taber graduated, but Williams and Story, both freshmen at that point, did as so many other Crean players have and transferred elsewhere at the end of the season.

I say none of this to degrade the experience of IU fans at that game, by the way. I’m sure any small victory felt magnified for loyal fans gritting their way through the dark days of Indiana hoops. But Crean’s amplification of this nice little moment into something completely over-the-top was a great insight into how he runs things. Promote the heck out of any success that you have, and completely downplay the negatives while hoping that everyone just moves on. It works, but I’ve also always found it highly disingenuous. (I'm reminded of how, when he was at Marquette, he was always quick to join the post-game radio show after wins, but after tough losses you could bank on him sending out an assistant to do the talking.)

Ultimately, Crean's tenure at Indiana was not that much different than his time at Marquette--it was just magnified by a higher level of expectations. Crean’s got significant strengths, but they’re very specific. Indiana needed those specific strengths when Crean was initially hired, but the Hoosiers’ needs quickly changed as he got the program out of the gutter. Tom Crean, quite simply, is not a guy you want running your program unless it needs some major fixing. And once he fixed the major problems at IU, Crean was a terrible fit for the Hoosiers.

In the end, I’ll remember him as I saw him at the end of Tuesday night’s NIT game against Georgia Tech–sprinting through a handshake line after a loss without genuinely acknowledging his opponents and hoping that everyone will forget what just happened as soon as possible.

I can’t wait to see what’s in store for him next. And for the fans of whatever school Crean ends up at, please know that even though I’m not blogging regularly anymore, I’m always here for you, happy to lend support through this difficult era for you.

2017 Bracket Breakdown

2017-03-14T07:02:00.000-05:00

It was fun last year, so let’s make this a tradition–once a year I’m reviving the old blog for a day to share my NCAA tournament picks (for those Indiana fans who’ve been checking in on my old Tom Crean post, I might do a bonus update sometime in the near future, as well, since that’s an insanely fun topic for me).

Before I get to the traditional preamble, I need to vent about this year’s selection Sunday. As a Wisconsin fan, I saw the first two games of the tournament announced, stopped paying attention, and spent the remainder of the selection show angrily texting friends about Wisconsin’s 8-seed. And before you start telling me that’s not a thing to be upset about, I’d like to list the Big Ten conference standings for the top eight teams, followed by each team’s seeding:

#1 Purdue (4 seed)

#2 (tie) Wisconsin (8 seed)

#2 (tie) Maryland (6 seed)

#4 Minnesota (5 seed)

#5 (tie) Michigan (7 seed)

#5 (tie) Northwestern (8 seed)

#5 (tie) Michigan (9 seed)

#5 (tie) Iowa (NIT)

If you want to tell me that Wisconsin has some serious flaws this year, you’ll get no argument from me. Nor will I disagree if you point out that the Big Ten has not been its usual splendid self this season. It certainly hasn’t. But I would submit that the seeding of the teams (save for regular season champ Purdue) should not look like a bell curve when you list them out from first to last.

We'll stop there, thought. You don’t want to read the three paragraph angry-fan rant about injustice in the world, and I don’t want to re-read it and get my blood pressure up again. Let’s just say that it was glorious and ended with me offering hugs to Wichita State fans. And let's move on.

On to the traditional preamble, part of which I’m partially disclaiming this year. As always, my ground rules for picking tournament games:

1) Don’t just completely steal my picks (or anyone else’s, for that matter). I don’t mind it personally, but what fun is that for you? Think of it this way–what’s going to be more fulfilling to you: telling the guy in the cube next to you at work that you "totally called" Xavier knocking off Maryland, or telling him that some guy whose picks you followed clued you in that SMU is poised for a long run. Listen to advice from your doctor or your financial advisor, but the NCAA tournament is supposed to be fun. So relax and follow your instincts.

2) Normally this is where I tell you not to go nuts with picking upsets in the first two rounds, and that the NCAA selection knows more than you and has seeded teams appropriately. But this is a bizarre year. Leaving aside that the seedings of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Wichita State and Creighton have me questioning if the selection committee may actually know less than all of us, I can't recall the last time that every team in the field looks reasonably beatable. The overall top seed Villanova has three losses. The other #1 seeds are a one-loss team from a weak conference (Gonzaga), a team that lost its opening conference tournament game (Kansas) and a 7-loss teams (North Carolina).

And it just gets worse as you move down the lower seeds. If ever there was a year when a big number of the top seeds fail to make it to the second weekend and the Final Four is invaded by multiple 7-seeds, this is it. That’s what happens when the entire field of teams can be described by saying "I don’t know, they’re sort of good." This year the only thing I can confidently say about the tournament is that I have even less an idea of what’s going to happen than usual.

So while I’d normally caution you not to make a bunch of bizarre picks and eliminate yourself on the first weekend by picking all of the 3-seeds to bow out early, things are weird this year. So when it comes to your picks this year, let lean into it. Let’s get weird!

3) Have fun and make some picks for goofy reasons. There are 68 teams in this tournament, and unless your name is Jay Bilas or Dick Vitale, you probably haven’t seen all of them. So go ahead and pick Kansas State to win a game because your favorite aunt went there, or pick against Butler because the intern in your office who thinks he knows more than everyone who’s been working there for the past decade goes there. After all, last year wasn’t your pool won by the guy who meant to pick Vanderbilt to win the championship, but mistakenly took Villanova after mixing up the two private schools beginning with the letter V? See, you need some quirks, too.

On to the picks. Some of the formatting is probably off, but hey, cut me a break--I only do this once a year. Winners in bold:

First Four

(16) Mount St. Mary’s vs. (16) New Orleans: I know nothing about any of the 16-seeds playing in the two First Four games. I remember when I was a kid and I was jealous of the kids who went to parochial schools who got to play organized basketball for their school before 8^th grade, when us public school kids finally got to play. So I just sort of naturally associate a school named "Mount St. Mary’s" with basketball. So they’re moving on.

(16) North Carolina Central vs. (16) UC-Davis: Like I said, I know nothing about the 16-seeds. I had a decent law school professor who went to UC-Davis, so that seems as good a reason to pick them as any.

(11) Kansas State vs. (11) Wake Forest: I’m kind of intrigued by Kansas State getting hot in the last few weeks, and in my initial run-through, I actually picked them to win here. Then I remembered that Wake Forest has John Collins and Bryant Crawford, two legit stars. Not to mention UWM graduate transfer Austin Arians, who my pals with Panther season tickets and I spent three seasons making fun of for his oddly short neck.

(11) Providence vs. (11) USC: Andy Enfield of Florida Gulf Coast "dunk city" fame back in 2013 was hired by USC after that epic run. He’s still there, and I still think that the Trojans are a bunch of guys who like to chuck the ball at the hoop as quickly as possible. In fairness, I didn’t see much of USC this year, but I really hated them last year. So I have them losing to a thoroughly uninspiring Providence team.

First Round

East Region

(1) Villanova vs. (16) Mount St. Mary’s: In past years I always dump on Villanova and talk about how I don’t believe in them. Well, I’m a believer now. Take note, college programs—all you need to do to win me over is win a national championship (preferably in a game with a super-exciting ending).

(8) Wisconsin vs. (9) Virginia Tech: As a Milwaukeean, I’m obviously familiar with VT coach and former Marquette coach Buzz Williams. And I’ll be honest—this matchup scares the hell out of me. Williams’ coached teams vacillate between being hyper-motivated and running their given opponent off the floor half the time and looking completely disinterested and unorganized the other half of the time. So while I know that this one won’t be close, I don’t know which way the blowout will go. I hope it goes the right way, or my outrage over Wisconsin getting a low seed is going to look really stupid.

(5) Virginia vs. (12) UNC-Wilmington: So the 5-12 matchup is the popular upset spot every year. But as my high school JV coach taught me way back when I was 15, defense is the one thing that never leaves you. Virginia’s defense isn’t going anywhere, and they’ll get by UNC-W in typically solid fashion.

(4) Florida vs. (13) East Tennessee State: Back when it existed last season, I became briefly enamored with daily fantasy college basketball. And Florida was always impossible to figure out, because every one of its players was good, but not great. Some would look upon that negatively (and indeed, it was awful for daily fantasy purposes). I call it balance and consistency. Florida wins this one, and I have no idea who leads the Gators in scoring in this or any other game.

(6) SMU vs. (11) Providence: If you asked me to describe Providence using one word, it would probably be "eh." The Friars are a complete non-entity to me. They’re so boring after losing their two stars from last year. As for SMU, I’ll just hold off on talking about them for now, because (foreshadowing alert) I’m going to talk a lot about them as I continue through my picks.

(3) Baylor vs. (14) New Mexico State: Have I mentioned that things are going to get weird this year? Here’s my first "let’s get weird" pick. Baylor has great big men, did well in a very strong Big 12 conference, and by all accounts should win this game. But Baylor University’s recent sexual assault scandals make it a pretty unsympathetic institution to root for. And given that my pal Peter got his master’s degree from NMSU, we’re going with the Aggies.

(7) South Carolina vs. (10) Marquette: I hope you like guards, because the big guys on both sides of this game are nothing to write home about. South Carolina defends really well. I didn’t see much of them this year, but every time I saw one of their scores come across the crawl this year, I thought to myself "oh yeah, I keep forgetting that those guys are surprisingly good." Ultimately, I’m giving the local guys the win this year, simply because history tells of that at least one of Andrew Rowsey, Katin Reinhardt, Markus Howard or Sam Hauser will go completely berserk from three-point range. And because I’m a shameless homer.

(2) Duke vs. (15) Troy: Duke is red hot, and some have even argued that they should have been a one-seed. Troy just sounds like the name of a complete douche you went to high school with that’s now attending Duke.

West Region

(1) Gonzaga v. (16) South Dakota State: Kudos to Milwaukee native T.J. Oltzelberger for getting the Jackrabbits to the tourney in his first year at SDSU. You need to save some goals for the future, though, so we’ll save the first tourney win for another year.

(8) Northwestern vs. (9) Vanderbilt: Great nerdy-looking point guard battle here. Vanderbilt has former Brookfield Central star Riley LaChance, who’s shockingly talented for a guy who appears comically undersized next to his teammates. Northwestern boasts Bryant McIntosh, the first Wildcat player to make me sort of like Northwestern since Vedran Vukusic. McIntosh really is pretty great, so we’re going Northwestern here.

(5) Notre Dame vs. (12) Princeton: I actually really like Notre Dame this year—they’re deep, they play well together, and as one of my friends convinced me week or two ago, if Mike Krzyzewski retired tomorrow, the best candidate to replace him out of all the former Duke assistants would probably be Irish coach Mike Brey. But right after the brackets came out, my dad commented to me "Princeton has a good shot at winning that one." It’s entirely possible he’s making that pick based on the play of 1960s Princeton star and former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley. But my theme for the tourney this year is "let’s get weird," and my dad picking an Ivy League winner is as good an excuse as any to get weird this tourney season!

(4) West Virginia vs. (13) Bucknell: West Virginia’s profile rose significantly when they pressed the hell out of then-#1 Baylor and ran the Bears off the court back in January. Less notable was their loss to Baylor a few weeks back. WVU hasn’t lost to any bad teams this year, though, so we’ll move them past Bucknell here.

(6) Maryland vs. (11) Xavier: Melo Trimble probably should have gone pro two years ago (side note--I didn't realize that he's still only a junior until hearing talk about whether he would go pro on a radio interview with Terps coach Mark Turgeon on Monday), as he suffered the classic freshman star fate of sticking around and letting people pick apart his game in order to make him undraftable. Meanwhile, Maryland has a couple of freshmen whose stock will trend in the right direction in the coming years. But for now, I’ll take a Xavier team from a better conference (and yes, it did hurt my soul to admit that).

(3) Florida State vs. (14) Florida Gulf Coast: Florida State has outstanding athletes, but as one ESPN talking head I saw over the weekend said, "I don’t trust Florida State, and I don’t even think Florida State trusts itself." Add the excitement of the 2013 "Dunk City" FGCU team, which I'm going to say (with no evidence to support my point) is the reason that all of the 2017 seniors decided to attend FGSU, and this felt like a wonderful place to pick an odd upset. Note also that there’s a very reasonable chance that the crowd in Orlando turns on FSU if this game gets close.

(7) St. Mary’s vs. (10) VCU: I’ve been telling anyone who’ll listen to me that St. Mary’s is for real this year. Australian center Jock Landale puts up crazy number every night (besides having a completely awesome name), and has a stable of other steady forwards locking down the frontcourt with him. Against a post-Shaka Smart VCU team, that should be enough to move them along.

(2) Arizona vs. (15) North Dakota: Where would you rather live—Tempe or Grand Forks? I rest my case.

Midwest Region

(1) Kansas vs. (16) UC Davis: Fun fact: I strongly considered both institutions for law school. I ultimately concluded that I wouldn’t get into UC Davis and didn’t apply, saving $60 on an application fee. Kansas admitted me, offered me generous aid, and I nearly went there. 17 years later, the warm feelings between me and the Jayhawks continue.

(8) Miami vs. (9) Michigan State: Never pick against Tom Izzo in March. Well, unless it’s last year. Then you should have picked against them. I’m going to say you’re on safe ground picking against the Spartans this year, too. Izzo is still great, but instead of a bunch of well-seasoned stars, this year he’s got a bunch of freshmen (albeit super-talented freshmen) leading the way. Yeah, in the last month they’ve finally gotten just good enough to be kind of scary in the tournament. But Miami coach Jim Larranaga is no slouch himself and is uniquely poised to make his team stand up to the Spartans where others would wilt. Don’t worry—Izzo should be poised to conquer the world again next year.

(5) Iowa State vs. (12) Nevada: Iowa State is my pet team. They always have plenty of Wisconsin natives on the roster (including star forward, Milwaukee Vincent grad and MU transfer Deonte Burton) and they play a super fun up-tempo style. This game is being played in Milwaukee, and if it wasn’t at the exact same time as the Wisconsin game, I’d be out on the corner of 4^th and State on Friday night scalping tickets to cheer on Monte Morris and his pals. This one’s going to be fun, just not if you’re a Nevada fan.

(4) Purdue vs. (13) Vermont: Boilermakers vs. Catamounts is presumably the most unique first round mascot pairing around. I don’t know anything about Vermont, but I do know that I love Caleb Swanigan, and I loved him even more after reading this SI profile about his rocky path to becoming a college hoops star. I can’t bring myself to pick against a kid who overcame stuff like that in the first round.

(6) Creighton vs (11) Rhode Islans: Creighton record before losing star point guard Maurice Watson for the season: 18-1 (and that one loss was to #1 Villanova). Creighton record after losing Maurice Watson: 7-8. Was the seeding committee aware that Creighton lost its point guard back in January? Because a 6-seed for a team that’s gone under .500 over the past two months seems very generous.

(3) Oregon vs. (14) Iona: Ironically, despite their array of colorful uniforms, the Ducks aren’t a ton of fun to watch. They’ve got a really good starting five, though, so I guess there’s that.

(7) Michigan vs. (10) Oklahoma State: I’m sure you’ve heard plenty of times about what a great story Michigan winning the Big Ten tournament was. And despite them beating my Badgers in the championship game I’m not going to crap on that story, because it’s actually a pretty great one. So let’s take a moment to reflect on the fact that the Wolverines walked away from a freaking plane crash, nearly voted to forfeit their first game in the Big Ten tournament, flew to DC a few hours before their 11am opening game against Illinois, beat the tar out of the Illini, and vanquished three more foes en route to winning the tournament. Meanwhile, one of Oklahoma State’s top players is 5'11" Phil Forte, whose photo I can already picture being examined by a bunch of kids in the future as someone tells them "See–I told you. Grandpa Phil really did play college basketball for the Cowboys."

(2) Louisville vs. (15) Jacksonville: Louisville is not actually good (more on that later), but they’re good enough to get by a 15 seed. The gods aren’t ready to reward us with such an early Rick Pitino departure.

South Region

(1) North Carolina vs. (16) Texas Southern: My favorite campus in the country vs. a school located in a place where geographic clues imply to me that there’s presumably a ridiculous border wall about to be erected next to the quad? Get my sharpie so that I can write in "UNC."
(8) Arkansas vs. (9) Seton Hall: Having watched Seton Hall match up against Marquette this year, I cannot understate how good the Pirates’ big man Angel Delgado is. He’s a complete beast. Arkansas has their own beast down low in Moses Kingsley, but I simply saw Kingsley play less this year, so I’m going with the dude from the Big East who you can almost always count on for 15 rebounds.

(5) Minnesota vs. (12) Middle Tennessee State: I’m picking this one mostly because of the steam coming out of my ears when the Gophers snagged a 5-seed while Wisconsin came away with an 8-seed. Starting guard (and noted UWM transfer) Akeem Springs just blew out his Achilles and is done for the year, so there’s a logical reason to pick against Minnesota, as well. But I’m more concerned with balancing out injustice in the world.

(4) Butler vs. (13) Winthrop: I’m going to level with you–for a team that was in Marquette’s conference, I didn’t actually watch a lot of Butler this year. I feel like they're just going to crash and burn next round anyway, so let's eliminate them now at the hands of a Winthrop team that I know nothing about. It's a low-risk way to work in another upset in a year when we're going to see lots of them.

(6) Cincinnati vs. (12) Wake Forest: Every time I would see Cincinnati on TV this year I’d go into the game thinking that they weren’t that great, and then be quickly reminded that they never seem to lose. In any other year I’d probably pick against the Bearcats because head coach Mick Cronin preemptively called the NCAA selection process "rigged" a few weeks back (heaven knows I hate conspiracy theorists). But after my palpable anger when the seeds were released on Sunday night, I find myself kind of liking this Cronin fellow now. The strong run by Wake Forest to close out the season ends here.

(3) UCLA vs. (14) Kent State: I’ll talk later about how UCLA is overrated, but for now, let’s just agree that they’re still good enough to out-talent a Kent State team that snuck in by winning the MAC tournament.

(7) Dayton vs. (10) Wichita State: My gut reaction when I saw this game announced was to think that Wichita State was seeded too low, but to then question how much I really knew about Wichita State. After some digging, I learned that I was right–Wichita State is seeded too low. That’s a shame not just for them, but for a legitimately good Dayton team that shouldn’t have to play the Shockers this early. In a just world, I’d be talking about how great both of these mid-major teams is and how they’ll each make waves in the tournament. But instead, here I am talking about which one will be killed off immediately. So I’m going with a sympathy pick for the team that got hosed. Plus, the Wichita State fans my pal Samip and I befriended at the opening round games in Omaha two years ago were really cool.

(2) Kentucky vs. (15) Northern Kentucky: Fun fact: I visited the Northern Kentucky campus six years ago (back when they were Division 2) and own an NKU jersey and two NKU basketball t-shirts, thanks to an unbelievable clearance sale going on at the bookstore. Less fun fact: As a season ticket holder for a Horizon League team this year, I can tell you definitively that winning the league is a bit less impressive feat this year than usual. Which is to say that the starters for Northern Kentucky are going to be crying in the second half of this one, while the starters for Regular Kentucky are going to be resting.

Second Round

East Region

(1) Villanova vs. (8) Wisconsin: I love the Badgers, but I don’t trust them. It’s certainly possible I’m wrong, but when your second round opponent is the #1 overall seed in the tournament, I don’t see things ending well.
(4) Florida vs. (5) Virginia: I have a friend who’s a big Virginia fan. Loves the team, goes to most games, and knows more about them than 99% of the population. A few weeks ago when Virginia was in the midst of a rough patch, we were talking about their upcoming game against N.C. State and he noted he had randomly seen the Las Vegas line on the game and that betting against Virginia to win by 5.5 would be the easiest way of making money ever. Virginia proceeded to win the game by 15, contradicting everything that my friend said (and making me very happy that neither of us was anywhere near Vegas at the time). But his lack of confidence in UVA’s ability to score still speaks volumes. Take the Gators here.

(6) SMU vs. (14) New Mexico State: I’m not just picking the Mustangs here because I picked a 14-seed to be their opponent. SMU is legitimately awesome. They have no bench and rely almost exclusively on a 6-man rotation of interchangeable guys. But every one of those guys is pretty great. They’re athletic, fun to watch, and while I’m not saying that their team trainer found a cure for cancer earlier this year, I’m not *not* saying he found a cure for cancer. I think other people have caught on to how good the Mustangs are, so they may end up being a trendy upset pick. This mildly angers me, as I was on them months ago.

(2) Duke vs. (10) Marquette: Steve Wojciechowski has decent talent and will be taking on his mentor, Mike Krzyzewski, a coaching legend, who has outstanding talent. Duke wins every metric here. They’re even traditionally better at getting hot from three-point range. Marquette always has a puncher’s chance with their three-point shooters, but that chance is pretty slim in this one.

West Region

(1) Gonzaga vs. (8) Northwestern: In an ironic twist, Northwestern falls here because a weak Big Ten failed to prepare it for the talents of the West Coast Conference champion.

(4) West Virginia vs. (12) Princeton: Fact: Less than a month ago while coaching against Texas, WVU head coach Bob Huggins collapsed during a timeout when his defibrillator went off, shocking his heart back into correct rhythm. He proceeded to briefly talk to team medical staff before shaking off the near heart attack, heading back to the bench, and continuing to coach. So yeah, I’d say he’s not leaving until he’s good and ready.

(11) Xavier vs. (14) Florida Gulf Coast: My "let’s get weird" proclamation puts me in a situation where neither team looks like a realistically good bet to get to the Sweet 16. Xavier is more of a proven commodity, however, so let’s go with the Musketeers here.

(1) Arizona vs. (7) St. Mary’s: As I said last round, St. Mary’s is legit. One problem, though. Their star player Jock Landale who completely overwhelms most opponents? He tends to struggle mightily when he has to play against good big men who can stand up to him. I’m thinking he’s not going to like Lauri Markkanen and Dusan Ristic.

Midwest Region

(1) Kansas vs. (9) Miami: Frank Mason is well-rested after Kansas’ early exit from the Big 12 tournament, and teammate Josh Jackson is even more well rested after his suspension from that tournament game for damaging the car of a KU women’s hoops player. A well-rested KU team wins this on easily.

(5) Iowa State vs. (4) Purdue: Let’s take a look at that Deonte Burton dunk in the Big 12 tournament. I want more of that in my life. Plus, have you heard that the Big Ten isn’t actually all that good this year? Cyclones advance.
(11) Rhode Island vs. (3) Oregon: My pal Austin is a huge Ducks fan. A couple days ago I texted him my condolences on Chris Boucher’s torn ACL closing out one of the most patently unfair senior seasons for any player ever. Austin replied that he thought this development put Oregon’s ceiling at about the Elite Eight. Taking the standard discount for rabid fan expectations, this means Oregon shouldn’t make the second weekend. I actually kind of think they’re going to win this one, but hey, I’m not the expert on the Ducks.

(7) Michigan vs. (2) Louisville: If you don’t think real hard, Louisville looks really good. Then when you look at their schedule, it reveals that they’ve got a 5-7 record against teams that were top-25 at the time the Cardinals played them this season. And one of the wins in that total was against early-season Indiana, which we now know was an overrated garbage team. I looked up that info basically just because it seemed like I needed a better justification for this pick than really liking Wolverine big man Mo Wagner.

South Region

(1) North Carolina vs. (9) Seton Hall: Seton Hall’s trio of junior stars (Angel Delgado, Desi Rodriguez and Kadeem Carrington) make this one closer than anyone expects, but the Pirates ultimately can’t overcome Carolina’s super deep, super talented roster.

(13) Winthrop vs. (12) Middle Tennessee State: I once saw an episode of Bar Rescue that featured a place from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where Middle Tennessee State is located. Let’s just say I have no interest in ever going to Murfreesboro.

(1) UCLA vs. (11) Wake Forest: Let’s get this straight–UCLA is maybe the most fun team to watch in the entire country. Fun does not always equal good, though, and so I think they’ve been overrated for a good portion of the year. The 3-seed they received, though, implies that people eventually caught on to the Bruins’ flaws. I’ve been waiting since December to pick someone to upset them in the tournament, but none of the thoroughly uninspiring first and potential second round opponents is going to get the job done. Plus, for the good of the country, we need to see UCLA play an insanely entertaining Sweet Sixteen game against...

(2) Kentucky vs. (10) Wichita State: Right about now Kentucky’s players are realizing that this is their last shot at a national championship. Not because they’re seniors who’ve exhausted their eligibility, but rather because they’re freshmen who stopped going to class second semester and would be ineligible to play next year. So this game is going to mean a lot more to them, since it's their final chance to shine before going pro.

Sweet Sixteen

East Region

(1) Villanova vs. (4) Florida: I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize for promising that things would get weird, and then making my first game prediction for the Sweet 16 one where both seeds hold, and the 1-seed keeps winning. If it’s any consolation, Villanova is usually the 1-seed that I proclaim to be a sham and have losing in the second round.
(2) Duke vs. (6) SMU: Can we talk for a moment about Grayson Allen’s bizarre career? His first year, he was largely unknown before being forced into action in the national championship game and almost single-handedly stealing the title from Wisconsin. His sophomore year he became arguably the most dangerous offensive player in the country. And now? He’s no longer a starter, stays on the sidelines during crunch time, and is best known for his dirty tactics on the floor. Anyway, enough about Grayson Allen. Duke transfer Semi Ojeleye is leading SMU to victory over his old teammates. Mark it down.

West Region

(1) Gonzaga vs. (4) West Virginia: A few weeks back I heard a few media types talking about how people tend to think that Gonzaga rarely lives up to expectations in the tournament, but that when you actually look at things, they tend to live up to exactly what they’re supposed to do in the tournament. This year the Zags have a stacked roster and are supposed to make a deep tournament run. Presuming that those media types are accurate (and I did not stop to check their research), the Zags should keep moving on.

(2) Arizona vs. (11) Xavier: Arizona isn’t going to let freaking Xavier get in the way of a chance to avenge its December 3^rd loss to Gonzaga. I just wish they’d show next round’s rematch at 10:30pm so that it could feel normal to those of us who like to take in the occasional West Coast hoops game.

Midwest Region

(1) Kansas vs. (5) Iowa State: As noted earlier, Iowa State is my pet team. They also went 1-1 against Kansas during the regular season. So it’s only natural that I’d take the Cyclones to steal one more against a conference rival they’ve proven they can beat. Your square friends are all picking the Jayhawks, because 1-seeds are safe. Safety is for chumps this year, though.
(7) Michigan vs. (11) Rhode Island: I should be freaking out and questioning my sanity for having these teams playing for a spot in the Elite Eight, but I’m not. The higher seeds in their bracket are ones that aren’t going to win your bracket for you, anyway, so I’m happy taking a shot with these two. Let’s go with Michigan for the win here because a) I think a 7-seed going to the Elite Eight still sort of qualifies as getting weird, and b) it will make me feel better about Wisconsin losing to the Wolverines in the Big Ten championship game.

South Region

(1) North Carolina vs. (13) Winthrop: Winthrop may or may not be playing in this game, but given that the toughest potential opponent that the Tarheels could play here is Butler, I'm highly confident that North Carolina won't be challenged here.
(2) Kentucky vs. (3) UCLA: Good God is this going to be fun. I’m working out now just so that I don’t lose my breath just watching these teams run up and down the floor. Besides enjoying the massive point total that this game will produce, it will be fun observing your friends who watch less college hoops than you notice UCLA forward Thomas Welsh try to blend in with everyone and hearing them eventually ask "How did that tall, dorky-looking dude sneak past security and get a UCLA jersey?" Wildcats take this one on the last day when Malik Monk ever feels like he has the upper-hand on Lonzo Ball.

Elite Eight

Midwest Region

(1) Villanova vs. (6) SMU: If you read my earlier comments, you’re probably thinking "Really, Chris–a team that mostly plays just 6 guys is getting this far? Aren’t they going to get tired at some point?" And I’ll answer that fake question that I made up to fit my own narrative with another question: Do you remember what it was like to be 20 years old? I was a worst case scenario at that age: overweight, out of shape, and my only regular physical activity came when they played "Jump Around" at Wisconsin football games and six times per year I had to jump up and down for 45 straight seconds. But whenever one of my buddies randomly asked if I wanted to play pick-up hoops at the rec center? I was running up and down the floor like a crazy person for two hours without ever even thinking about my stamina. So no, I’m not going to worry about some college kids wearing down from playing four basketball games over a two-week period. I think they can handle it.

West Region

(1) Gonzaga vs. (2) Arizona: Right about now is when you should usually start questioning how good Gonzaga is, given that they play in the WCC. But this is a roster that would compete in the Pac-12. And they’ll prove that by taking down the Pac-12 champ.

East Region

(5) Iowa State vs. (7) Michigan: Two of my battles to get to the Final Four involve one and two seeds facing off, so let’s be happy that I effectively lived up to the "let’s get weird!" theme in at least one region (truth be told, I have extreme trouble getting weird). I’m thinking Michigan’s strong end of season run finally ends here, though. Without doing any historical research, a loss in the Elite Eight feels like the usual John Beilein team ceiling. (Note: Don’t read that as a slam on Beilein–top eight is a pretty great landing spot.)

South Region

(1) North Carolina vs. (2) Kentucky: This is a pure odds play. Kentucky's half of the bracket features about four other teams that could end up in this spot without it being totally surprising. I see only one team on North Carolina's side of the bracket (I'm looking at you, Seton Hall) that I think has a legit shot at beating them. So because UNC is so much more likely just to be here than Kentucky is, I'm picking the Heels.

Final Four

Gonzaga vs. SMU: So by now you know how much I love SMU. And you probably know that I want to pick them through to the finals. But they’ve got one fatal flaw: my friend Adam picked them as his sleeper team this year. Each year Adam runs through some weird amalgamation of statistics that he compiles and finds one team that he completely falls in love with. And it has been my experience that while Adam is a really wonderful guy, his statistical models are pure garbage. So while my gut tells me that SMU can do this, my brain tells me that Adam can’t possibly be right about something this big. I’m hedging my bets and picking Gonzaga through to the finals.
North Carolina vs. Iowa State: Logically, UNC wins this game. But two #1 seeds in the finals in 2017? That’s just not right. Iowa State–you’re in the right place at the right time, so I’m saying you win this game. Let’s get weird! Let’s get weird! Let’s get weird!

Finals

Gonzaga vs. Iowa State: Honestly, I wondered how Gonzaga couldn’t take a step back after losing Domantas Sabonis and Kyle Wiltjer, the stars of last year's team. Enter transfers Nigel Williams-Goss and Johnathan Williams, a healthy Przemek Karnowski, and McDonald’s All-American freshman Zach Collins and against all odds, the roster actually got better. We’ve known for close to a decade that Gonzaga isn’t just some tiny mid-major from the Northwest, and this is finally the year that they notch their first national championship to validate their status as a national power and reward coach Mark Few's decision to stick around for awhile (say, what's Dan Monson up to these days?). Plus, I’ll level with you—I’m confused at how I picked Iowa State to get this far. That’s honestly probably not happening. I’m realizing just now that I may have gotten too weird.

Anyway, I’ll be happy for the Zags when they pull this off. But I’ll be sad for the rest of the nation, as we’ll be resigned to at least two years of listening fans of every mid-major program in the country bitterly arguing that their team should be able to do exactly what Gonzaga just did if they just start doing things the right way. Yeah, you have fun with putting that really easy plan together Quinnipiac fans.

Enjoy the games, and enjoy getting weird with the brackets!

Back From the Dead: 2016 NCAA Tournament Picks

2016-03-15T07:06:00.000-05:00

After a few years away, I’ve decided to briefly break my long silence to do one of my favorite things—write up my picks for the entire tournament. Every damn game. Why now, you ask?

One, I missed the old blog and wanted to check in. No, I’m not planning on reviving it or anything, but a quick burst of basketball pontification is probably good for my soul.

Two, I watched a lot of non-local basketball this year. Back when I was blogging regularly I was so busy going to high school games, making sure that I watched every Marquette, Wisconsin and UWM game, and generally keeping up on local stuff that I didn’t get to pay much attention to other teams. This year? Let’s just say I watched a lot of Big 12 games, and that my wife who falls asleep at 9pm has no idea how well acquainted I am with UCLA (which admittedly does me no good in the tournament). So I’m probably more informed about the tourney teams these days than I was back when I was actually writing about things every day. And it would be a crime not to put my picks on the record before the tournament starts.

So I’m back. It’s probably a one-off, so the lucky one or two of you reading this shouldn’t get too excited. Just know that I’m still happily watching plenty of hoops, but that I sadly don’t have time to write an essay about it every freaking day anymore.

Before the picks, here’s my traditional preamble, last posted (gasp—has it been this long?) five years ago:

1) Don’t just completely steal my picks (or anyone else’s, for that matter). I don’t mind it personally, but what fun is that for you? Think of it this way–what’s going to be more fulfilling to you: telling the guy in the cube next to you that you “totally called” Northern Iowa knocking off Texas A&M, or telling him that some guy whose picks you followed got it knew that Arizona had a path that would allow them to go deep into the tourney. Listen to advice from your doctor or your financial advisor, but the NCAA tournament is supposed to be fun. So relax and follow your instincts.

2) Don’t go crazy with upsets, particularly in the first two rounds. The NCAA selection committee knows more than you, and they’ve seeded these teams for a reason. Sure, you’re no fun if you don’t go out on a limb here or there, but picking 14 first round upsets isn’t just bold, it’s stupid. Yeah, you’re probably going to have a friend that picks that miracle 10-seed that made it to the Sweet Sixteen, and he’s not going to shut up about it. He’s probably not talking so much about the 5-seed and the 7-seed that he had in the Final Four who both lost the first day, though. My picks are notoriously and painfully boring, and I make no apologies for that, even though someone always inevitably comments below to complain about my lack of originality and insight every year.

3) Have fun and make some picks for goofy reasons. There are 68 teams in this tournament, and unless your name is Jay Bilas or Dick Vitale, you probably haven’t seen all of them. So go ahead and pick Cincinnati to win a game because you had a really fun weekend in that city once, or pick against Connecticut because a guy in your office who’s a total dick got his degree there. After all, last year wasn’t your pool won by that woman in your office who thought Duke had nice uniforms? See, you need some quirks, too.

Those are the rules. Now on to the picks. Winners are in bold:

FIRST FOUR

Before I get to the games themselves, I’d like to take a moment to personally thank the NCAA for no longer calling these “first round” games and confusing us all about what to call every round of the tournament. Not elevating the First Four over what they are is a huge step in the right direction. It almost makes me fully accept a 68-team tournament instead of a 64. Almost.

On to the games:

Vanderbilt (11) vs. Wichita State (11): Finally, a First Four game that will be delightful to watch! Wichita State is going to be a popular pick because a) they were legitimately awesome last year, and b) Ron Baker and Fred VanVleet are very good players who have seemingly been around forever. But I’m going with Vanderbilt here. The Commodores have under-performed, but I’d put up the talent of Wade Baldwin and Damian Jones as being even better. And Baldwin and Jones are surrounded by more talent. Bonus points for Brookfield’s Riley LaChance playing for the Commodores, though I’m raking some of those bonus points back due to LaChance’s loss of a starting spot and reduction in minutes this year. Come on, Kevin Stallings—play the Wisconsin guy!

Florida Gulf Coast (16) vs. Farleigh Dickinson (16): Fun fact—a few years back when the “Dunk City” FGSU team became national darlings on their super-fun and super-improbable trip to the Sweet 16, I was one click away from fully jumping on the bandwagon with an online purchase of a Florida Gulf Coast jersey. Because that was one of the most awesome Cinderella teams ever. This year the fiscal responsibility that I showed in not buying that jersey is finally rewarded as Farleigh Dickinson reminds us that it’s not 2013 anymore.

Michigan (11) vs. Tulsa (11): I know nothing about Tulsa, but I know Michigan well. The Wolverines are just good enough to be annoying, but not much beyond that. So get ready for at least one more game of announcers talking about how Duncan Robinson transferred from a division three where he didn’t play all that much. I know I love repeatedly hearing that story every time the camera pans to Robinson during any game.

Holy Cross (16) vs. Southern (16): Buzz off, Bill Simmons.

SOUTH REGION: First Round

Kansas (1) vs. Austin Peay (16): I just hope that during this game we’ll hear the crowd chanting “Let’s go Peay!” at some point. That legitimately never gets old.

Colorado (8) vs. Connecticut (9): You’re going to hear a lot of talk about how over-seeded the Pac-12 is this week. I’m not saying that’s incorrect, but that’s not what this pick is about. I like Colorado. But you know how everyone talks about how Michigan State is great in March? How come no one talks about UConn being pretty darn good in March, too? I mean, they always seem to get hot at the right time. And if nothing else, there are few head coaches more fun to watch when they’re excited than the Huskies’ Kevin Ollie.

Maryland (5) vs. South Dakota (12): I’d like to see South Dakota State point guard and former Wisconsin Badger, George Marshall, get a chance to pull the upset here. But Maryland’s starting five is just way too talented for a mid-major to upset.

California (4) vs. Hawaii (13): Cal has a talented senior point guard in the backcourt, two freshman who were McDonald’s All-Americans in the frontcourt, and has been playing very well over the last month or so. I kind of love the Bears—they’re among my handful of favorite teams in the tournament. Hawaii plays in a time zone where it’s impossible to see them, so I have no intelligence on them. But let's be honest--I was picking Cal here no matter who they ended up paired with.

Arizona (6) vs. Vanderbilt/Wichita State (11): I’ve already put forward that I think Vanderbilt wins the play-in game, but both of the potential 11-seeds for this game are flawed teams. Arizona beats Vandy because they’re one of the few teams that can keep up with the Commodores’ athletes. And they beat Wichita State because the Wildcat roster is simply more talented. Arizona is moving on no matter who they play.

Miami (3) vs. Buffalo (14): I could get into analysis of analytics for both teams, or I could just give a dismissive quip about how I’d rather spend a week in Miami than a week in Buffalo. I think I’ll be lazy and go with the latter.

Iowa (7) vs. Temple (10): Unquestionably the toughest game to pick of the first round. Iowa is definitely one of those situations where the sum is better than it’s mediocre (save for Jared Uthoff, who I think is phenomenal) parts. Despite their freefall over the last few weeks of the season, I think the Hawkeyes right the ship and get past a very solid Temple squad. Is this rational? Probably not, but lots of things in the tournament are irrational.

Villanova (2) vs. UNC-Asheville (15): The only thing I know about UNC-Asheville is that that were totally fun to watch a few years back when they had 7’7” center Kenny George who could pretty much dunk without jumping. I’m pretty sure they don’t have anyone that tall anymore, so I’ll go with Villanova here.

WEST REGION: First Round

Oregon (1) vs. Holy Cross/Southern (16): Ducks win big, and as always, reserve forward Dwayne Benjamin finishes out the game looking like the coolest guy in the building.

Saint Joseph’s (8) vs. Cincinnati (9): This sucks. I hate picking against Phil Martelli. He’s a good coach, and Saint Joe’s flew under the radar while having a good season in the A-10. But every time I saw Cincy play this year they were surprisingly solid. So I’ll begrudgingly pick the Bearcats here. Either way, a good team is going home at the end of this one.

Baylor (5) vs. Yale (12): Sometimes you don't pick a game in the tournament because of the game itself, but instead do so taking a long view of the tournament. I actually have seen Yale play and like the Bulldogs a lot. I certainly wouldn't kill you for picking them here. But ultimately, I'm looking ahead to the next round when I want to call an early exit for a Duke team that severely lacks depth. And Baylor's the more likely team to get that job done, so I have to pick them here.

Duke (4) vs. UNC-Wilmington (13): If the sentiment of the state of North Carolina controlled the outcome of this one, Wilmington would roll. Unfortunately, the outcome of this one will be determined much more by Brandon Ingram’s jump shot than how the citizens of the home state of both teams feel.

Texas (6) vs. Northern Iowa (11): Hey, remember when Northern Iowa beat North Carolina and Iowa State earlier this year? You don’t? Well believe it or not, I’m not making that up. Yeah, the Panthers weren’t world-beaters in a down year for the Missouri Valley Conference, but they get up for big games. Don’t worry, Texas fans—while this won’t be Shaka’s year, he’ll take your Longhorns far in the near future.

Texas A&M (3) vs. Green Bay (14): Is this a sentimental homer pick or do I simply disrespect the SEC this much? A little from column A, and a little from column B. But I honestly don’t think that this is an unreasonable upset pick. After all, Green Bay has more talent than it should, given that it has one of the more terrible campuses in the UW system.

Oregon State (7) vs. Virginia Commonwealth (10): Oregon State is a big “meh” for me, particularly with second leading scorer Tres Tinkle likely still sidelined with an injury. But VCU’s up and coming coach is gone, and I’m ready to jump off the bandwagon now. Go Beavers!

Oklahoma (2) vs. Cal State Bakersfield (15): If Buddy Hield releases his half-court shot .1 seconds earlier last Friday, there's a decent chance we're all talking about the Sooners' great run to the Big 12 championship right now. The clock can be cruel sometimes.

EAST REGION: First Round

North Carolina (1) vs. Florida Gulf Coast/Farleigh Dickenson (16): Fun fact—when I was a kid I wanted my parents to let me paint a Carolina blue lane area in front of the hoop in our driveway. Instead, we compromised and I was allowed to paint a small black free-throw line so that I could work on the most boring part of my game. And my parents driveway remained decidedly not weird.

USC (8) vs. Providence (9): No more talented duo in the tourney than Providence’s Kris Dunn and Ben Bentil. USC is one of those crazy teams that is entertaining to watch, but is actually maddeningly inconsistent. I’ll take the talented duo in this one.

Indiana (5) vs. Chatanooga (12): I want to pick a team called the “Mocs,” but IU is going to win at least one to keep me infuriated with Tom Crean's success.

Kentucky (4) vs. Stony Brook (13): Kentucky doesn’t start five lottery picks this year, but they’ve still got more of them than Stony Brook, so I think I’ll take the Wildcats.

Notre Dame (6) vs. Michigan/Tulane (11): Let’s see—two teams that probably shouldn’t be in the tournament versus a Notre Dame team that always seems to be a let-down in the tournament. Geez, can I just pick none of them? I guess I’ll go with Notre Dame, but I’m not happy about it.

West Virginia (3) vs. Stephen F. Austin (14): In isolation, it makes virtually no sense that I own not one, but two West Virginia basketball jerseys. But I assure you that if you hear the story behind why I acquired each of them, both acquisitions make complete sense. Kind of.

Wisconsin (7) vs. Pittsburgh (10): I didn’t see a lot of Pittsburgh this year, but I feel like they weren’t the most consistent team around. I’m probably wildly wrong about that, as I’m basing it on nothing more than never being sure how many points Jamel Artis would score on Fanduel. The Badgers have been pretty good over the last two months, so let’s keep them moving on. And let’s hope I can get out of work early enough to watch the game in Plover on Friday night with some pals.

Xavier (2) vs. Weber State (15): When you have a point guard whose name is phonetically the same to that of a legendary jazz musician, you have to pick that team.

MIDWEST REGION: First Round

Virginia (1) vs. Hampton (16): Remember back when Tony Bennett was coaching at Washington State and everyone thought he was cool because he wore a shirt and blazer with no tie? Yeah, I thought that was a cool look, too.

Texas Tech (8) vs. Butler (9): I could tell you that I put a lot of thought into this game, but let’s be honest—of the two teams involved, I’ve really only seen Butler play, and I can’t pick against a guy with the crafty-old-man-at-the-YMCA game of Roosevelt Jones. That dude is super fun to watch.

Purdue (5) vs. Little Rock (12): Big drum beats Little Rock. (I recognize how lazy and dumb that comment is, and I apologize.)

Iowa State (4) vs. Iona (13): Last year I picked Iowa State for the Final Four, and while traveling to Omaha to attend Wisconsin’s first round game, a friend and I pulled off to a Buffalo Wild Wings in Iowa and had our pick of tables as angry Iowa State fans came streaming out the doors after their surprising first-round loss right as we arrived. The Cyclones won’t be taking anyone lightly this year.

Seton Hall (6) vs. Gonazaga (11): I guarantee you this will be a popular upset pick. Gonzaga’s a perennial tournament team, has just finished a four-episode behind-the-scenes documentary series on HBO, and has two high-scoring forwards, one of whom (Domantas Sabonis) is the son of one of the best basketball players to ever walk the earth. I’ve long referred to them as “Late Night Duke” due to Gonzaga’s status as the easiest team to see on TV if you’re awake past 10pm. But don’t go with the simpletons on this one. The Bulldogs had to win their conference tournament to even be here, and Seton Hall just got done with a very impressive run to the Big East Tournament championship game. The Pirates are the right pick here.

Utah (3) vs. Fresno State (14): My friend Adam, who always has a gambling angle, told me back in November that Utah was his national champion futures bet pick in Vegas. Given Adam’s propensity to be wrong about these things, that should be enough to disqualify me from picking the Utes to win a single tournament. But given the mini-reemergence from senior forward Jordan Loveridge during the last 2-3 weeks or so, the Utes will be a moderately tough out.

Dayton (7) vs. Syracuse (10): Geez, I honestly don’t know on this one. Seeing as I didn’t expect Syracuse to make the tourney, and Dayton always seems to be better than expected this time of year, the Flyers get my nod.

Michigan State (2) vs. Middle Tennessee (15): Did you see Mark Titus’s joke assertion on Twitter that Denzel Valentine wasn’t actually hurt earlier this year, but that Tom Izzo just didn’t want his team to peak before March? That this seemed like a not-completely-insane theory to some people solidifies just how bankable Michigan State is in March.

SOUTH REGION: Second Round

Kansas (1) vs. Connecticut (8): Kansas won the best conference in America this year. UConn is the biggest name in a glorified mid-major conference. Give me the battle-tested Jayhawks.

Maryland (5) vs. Cal (4): My pal Ferd texted me right when seedings came out and told me how Maryland was going to absolutely destroy Cal in this game, basically stating that this was a universal fact. I politely disagreed and added that Cal is one of my favorite teams in this tournament. The Bears are peaking at the right time, and I think Diamond Stone is a total dick after he basically tried to injure Wisconsin’s Vitto Brown earlier this year. And good always triumphs over evil in the end. Suck it, Ferd—Cal’s winning this one!

Arizona (6) vs. Miami (3): I’ve got the winner crossed out three times on my bracket. How do I break down a solid, nondescript Miami team against an exciting Arizona squad? Then I remembered that Miami is coached by the sneaky-good Jim Laranaga. Yeah, I guess I’ll take the Laranaga team.

Iowa (7) vs. Villanova (2): I admit I don’t feel great about this one, but to me, Villanova is like electronica music was in the mid-1990s. You can tell me that it’s the next big thing all you want, but no matter how much you push, it’s just not happening. Villanova can (and should) win the uninteresting Big East every year, as far as I’m concerned. And I’ll still continue to top out my respect for them at the 3-4 seed level. Seeing as I never broke down bought a CD by The Prodigy, I think that's more than ample respect for the Wildcats. But they still lose to an okay Iowa team.

Oregon (1) vs. Cincinnati (9): Am I really picking an Oregon team to win because I think they’re more consistent than the team they’re playing? Good Lord, I think I actually am.

Baylor (5) vs. Duke (4): I don’t love either of these teams, but I see Duke being done in by a) their lack of depth, and b) karma coming back to bite America’s most hated player, Grayson Allen, in some way. I hope Allen tries to trip Rico Gathers, a man who’s built more like an NFL defensive lineman than a college hoopster, and gets appropriately pummeled.

Northern Iowa (11) vs. Green Bay (14): Sorry to any Texans reading this—I know this was supposed to be your big Texas vs. Texas A&M game. But this is a weird year in college basketball, and I actually honestly believe the game I picked could happen. Green Bay’s luck is running out now, though. I can’t be that much of a homer, no matter how surprisingly decent I thought the Horizon League was this year.

Oregon State (7) vs. Oklahoma (2): I’ve pretty much been saying from day 1 that Oklahoma was my favorite to win the national championship. They’ve had a rough last month, but hey, their conference was brutally tough this year. I’m certainly not crossing the Sooners off in favor of an Oregon State team that, along with the rest of its conference brothers, has received way too much respect in the seeding process.

EAST REGION: Second Round

North Carolina (1) vs. Providence (9): Oddly enough, Providence may be the one team in the country with two players more talented than North Carolina’s usual roster of highly recruited players. But top to bottom, the Heels still have more overall talent. And come on—in a year when Donald Trump is inexplicably leading the Republican candidate in the presidential race, there’s no way that a school that is commonly referred to in shorthand as “PC” is making a big tournament run.

Indiana (5) vs. Kentucky (4): This is the best roster that Indiana coach Tom Crean has had. He’d better not get used to it, because if history is any guide, this offseason 2-3 players will announce they’re transferring, one of his assistants will take a job elsewhere, and by the end of non-conference season Indiana fans will begin their annual ritual of linking to my post from when Crean left Marquette and telling me that I’m basically Nostradamus. Man, do I dislike Tom Crean. Oh yeah, and Kentucky is actually playing amazingly well right now.

West Virginia (3) vs. Notre Dame (6): In the frontcourt, Notre Dame has Zach Auguste, a lanky, high-energy guy who looks like he skipped taking his Ritalin yesterday. And West Virginia has Devin Williams, a badass dude whose arms look like they were cut from granite and is the first outstanding player in a long time to regularly sport rec specs. If you think I’m not picking the guy with rec specs, you obviously have never seen a photo of me from my days as a mediocre JV center in high school.

Wisconsin (7) vs. Xavier (2): Part of this is a homer pick on my part, and part of this is, again, my strong skepticism of anything that happened in the Big East this year. Don’t get me wrong—Xavier is no joke, but if you asked me the 2-seed that I’d like to see Wisconsin face, I’d take this year’s Matt Stainbrook-less (man am I sad he graduated last year) Xavier over Oklahoma, Michigan State and Villanova every day. Of course, if Xavier wins this one, I still get to chuckle as I read fans on Marquette message boards electronically high-fiving over a win by one of their conference foes and un-ironically pointing out that Greg Gard has never beaten a higher seeded team in the NCAA tournament. So basically, if this game happens I win no matter what the outcome is.

MIDWEST REGION: Second Round

Virginia (1) vs. Butler (9): I watched a lot of random basketball games this season, and I think I finally get why people say that teams like Virginia, who play sound defense and methodically pound teams into submission are boring. It’s because they are boring if you have no connection to them. Yeah, I get that Tony Bennett’s system wins games, and I get that Malcolm Brogdon has been arguably the best player in the country this year. And if I was a Virginia alum, I’d be making these points until I was blue in the face. Because if I was a Virginia alum, a winning team with an epically great player would be truly exciting to me. Any reasonable person should want Tony Bennett coaching his or her favorite team, because winning is fun no matter how it happens. But as some dumbass fan who just wants to watch something exciting? Sorry—I’m flipping on UCLA and watching Steve Alford force his son to take eight more shots per game than he should en route to losing to a mediocre Pac-12 foe with much less talent. Anyway, Virginia’s not going down early this year—they’re super legit. And frankly, they’re actually much more watchable than usual for the casual fan, even if they’re still not exactly Iowa State-level entertaining.

Purdue (5) vs. Iowa State (4): You know how I just said that Iowa State is entertaining? Incredibly, I didn’t even notice that they were about to be in the next game I had to write about. In terms of teams that I have no connection to, Iowa State was my go-to team to watch this year. They’re an up-tempo team with three Wisconsin natives in their main rotation, they played in the top conference in the country this year, and their star player, Georges Niang, gets less elevation than I do when shooting jump shots. If the Cyclones get hot on any given night, no one short of the Golden State Warriors is stopping them. The Cyclones aren’t always hot, thought, and a veteran Purdue team that is peaking at the right time is just the sort of team that will frustrate them out of the gym. Take the Boilermakers here.

Seton Hall (6) vs. Utah (3): Jakab Poeltl is great and all, and his teammates have finally been helping him out down the stretch, so the logical choice is Utah here. But I just have a gut feeling that Seton Hall keeps playing over their heads. Yep, that’s the sort of crack analysis you’re getting from me.

Dayton (7) vs. Michigan State (2): Izzo in March, yadda, yadda, yadda.

SOUTH REGION: Sweet Sixteen

Kansas (1) vs. California (4): Call this one a fear pick. I’d like to pick Cal, but they’ve got a much less certain path to even get to this game than Kansas (that’s right Ferd—I’m less confident about Cal beating Maryland than I showed in the text that I sent the other day). So out of self-preservation, the Jayhawks are the pick here. But if you're in a pool where boldness counts for something, go ahead--pick the Bears. You could make a lot worse choices.

Miami (3) vs. Iowa (7): Miami is a rock-solid team with no real stars. Iowa is a semi-solid team with one real star (Jarod Uthoff) and another guy (Peter Jok) who can randomly go off for about 27 points on any given night. Am I actually picking Iowa to win because of their talent? Yeah, even I’m confused now.

WEST REGION: Sweet Sixteen

Oregon (1) vs. Baylor(5): Shield your eyes, because the lighting yellow incorporated into uniforms on both sides in this one is going to be utterly blinding. Normally this would be where I would pick Oregon to lose, as I think they’re a 1-seed due to circumstance this year, as no one really jumped out and claimed those four coveted spots. But Baylor? Eh, maybe if Rico Gathers was healthy and playing like his old self, but not with Taurean Waller-Prince having to carry that much of the load and Johnathan Motley's playing time still being inexplicably inconsistent.

Northern Iowa (11) vs. Oklahoma (2): I could justify this one by talking about how a senior-laden team with a star player (Buddy Hield) who took a leap to the next level reminds me a lot of my beloved Badgers last year. And if you’ve spoken to me at all this year, you know that I do believe those things and think that’s why Oklahoma is going far this year. But for this game? Yeah, I picked an 11-seed to get through to this game. I can’t justify taking Northern Iowa any further, no matter who they’re playing.

North Carolina (1) vs. Kentucky (4): All the pundits are talking about how this has the potential to be an outstanding game, and Kentucky is probably North Carolina’s biggest roadblock en route to the Final Four. And as much as I hate to agree with conventional wisdom, I think this has potential to be an outstanding game, and that Kentucky is probably North Carolina’s biggest roadblock en route to the Final Four. Kentucky would almost be a sympathetic team here, given that two of their key players are seniors, and they haven’t just been blatantly out-talenting other teams this year. Then you remember that Kentucky is just taking a short break from its annual tradition of having groups of 18-year-olds hang out on their campus for a year before heading to the NBA (you know, sort of how Skal Labissiere has taken a break from being a useful basketball player until the last 3-4 games of this year). At the end of the day, Brice Johnson’s grabbing 20 or so rebounds and the Tarheels are moving on, even though this one will be every bit as close as expected.

West Virginia (3) vs. Wisconsin (7): Bob Huggins seems like kind of a jerk, but he’s a hell of a basketball coach. His West Virginia team reminds me of his early Cincinnati teams, in that you never think of them as one of the best or most talented teams, but they always seem to be standing around as winners at the end of the game. That’s essentially what happens here. I have them taking out my Badgers, who fought the good fight this year after losing a ton of talent from last year’s team and having to fight through plenty of turmoil caused by Bo Ryan’s scandal-filled exit. But truthfully, West Virginia’s probably my biggest lock to advance to the Elite Eight regardless of who they play here. The Mountaineers are just rock solid, even if you never took the time to notice them.

MIDWEST REGION: Sweet Sixteen

Virginia (1) vs. Purdue (5): Get ready for lots of crotchety middle-aged white guys (like myself these days, I suppose) proclaiming that this game is this round’s best example of basketball “as it was meant to be played.” Two teams that are pretty sound in every facet of the game and who seem to be riding momentum heading into the tourney should be fun to watch. But Virginia actually has the pieces to back up its 1-seed this year, so I see them moving on, no matter how huge and awesome Purdue’s interior players are.

Seton Hall (6) vs. Michigan State (2): I’ve given more respect to Seton Hall than any other Big East team, but there’s only so much respect I can dole out to them. Plus, have you guys heard that Tom Izzo has a pretty good record in March? Yeah, news to me, too.

REGIONAL FINALS

Kansas (1) vs. Iowa (7): Holy crap—I actually picked Iowa to get one game away from the Final Four? The same Iowa that I’m not entirely sure can beat Temple in the first round? Did I mention that I was on some pretty strong painkillers last week? That might have something to do with that insanity. Yeah, going to have to go with Kansas here, even if Perry Ellis underwhelms me in virtually every way. Calm down, Kansas fans--even if you go to the Final Four by default, you’re still going.

Oregon (1) vs. Oklahoma (2): I was all-in on Oklahoma after their second game of the season, and I’m not hopping off now, especially against a 1-seed that inspires some of the least amount of confidence in the history of 1-seeds. The only thing that derails the Sooners is if there’s any truth to my wild, totally unsupported conspiracy theory that Ryan Spangler’s inconsistency is attributable to him fixing games for the mob. But outside of help from organized crime, I don’t see the Ducks advancing.

North Carolina (1) vs. West Virginia (3): I was in college at Wisconsin when Dick Bennett was coach, so I appreciate a solid, workmanlike team that overachieves. West Virginia is a solid, workmanlike team that overachieves, so I appreciate them. But there are limits to how far a solid, workmanlike team that overachieves can go. And the regional finals are where a talented, athletic team will final take out the solid, workmanlike team that has overachieved.

Virginia (1) vs. Michigan State (2): Tony Bennett is a reasonable, rational guy. And it’s a good thing he is. Because just about anyone else in his position would have spent this past Sunday night in the emergency room with a fractured hand from punching a hole in the nearest wall and using a smartphone with their off-hand to send 68 boxes of glitter to NCAA headquarters. That would be an average person’s response to getting placed in the same region as Michigan State for the third straight year, particularly when lots of people think the Spartans deserved your 1-seed this year. And a less well-balanced man than Tony Bennett would probably completely lose his mind after losing to Michigan State again this year, because that’s unfortunately how the game is going to go. But Tony Bennett won’t take this lying down. He’ll keep grinding. And after 2-3 years of him working so methodically that we don’t even noticing how strong he’s becoming, he will end the NCAA as we know it. I have no idea how this will happen, and neither does Tony Bennett right now. But let this be a warning to the NCAA—you’ve been messing with the wrong guy.

FINAL FOUR

Kansas (1) vs. Oklahoma (2): Kansas has beaten Oklahoma twice this year, including a triple overtime game on January 4^th that was probably the best college basketball game I’ve seen in a decade. So really, I could justify picking this one either way—choosing Kansas based on history, or going with the old bit about how it’s really tough to beat a team three times in one season. In the end, I’m going to pick Oklahoma on the theory that they’re due. Kansas is probably a slightly better team than the Sooners, but they’re not 3-0 better.

Michigan State (2) vs. North Carolina (1): A classic NCAA matchup if there ever was one. Both teams are built with the goal of constantly going to the Final Four, and now they’re both here. Ultimately, North Carolina’s depth and athleticism will finally be the one thing that wins out over Michigan State’s March super powers and the all-around greatness of Denzel Valentine.

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

Oklahoma (2) vs. North Carolina (1): I’ve kind of backed myself into a corner here. I don’t like to take the favorite—particularly in a year when there’s no clear-cut best team in the country. So rather than riding a North Carolina team that was one of the two locks for a 1-seed this year, I’m going stick with the team that I said back in November was my pick to win it all. Yeah, they’re not coming into the tourney as hot as a few other squads, and some of the hype has worn off, but that’s a great moment to buy low on a team. Here’s looking forward to Buddy Hield giving us all a goofy grin as he hoists the championship trophy on April 3^rd.

Enjoy the tourney, everyone! You know I'll be doing the same...

Prayers for Homer

2013-11-13T22:47:00.002-06:00

Awful news tonight, as it is being reported that longtime Marquette announcer Steve "The Homer" True is in critical condition after his car was struck by a suspected drunk driver. Homer's a remarkably talented radio personality, and has long been one of my favorite broadcasters. And while I've only met Homer in passing once or twice, my friends who have interacted with him quite a bit more confirm that while he's a great radio broadcaster, he's an even better guy. Given what a beloved member of the local community Homer is, there are undoubtedly thousands and thousands of people out there tonight sending thoughts and prayers to him and his family. Add mine to the list, as well. Here's pulling for you, Homer.

The 2013-14 Season Begins: Wisconsin vs. UW-Platteville

2013-10-31T07:18:00.000-05:00

So basketball season is back. I attended Wisconsin’s exhibition game against UW-Platteville last night, and I want to jot down some thoughts about it. I don’t want anyone to take this as a suggestion that I’m going to be regularly blogging about basketball again. As previous years have shown, I’m way too lazy to do that anymore. (Though I may, from time to time, pen an occasional piece this season for a friend with a more broadly-focused sports blog. More on that if and when it occurs.)

But I still like to crank out the occasional thought, and what better time to do so than after the first game of the season? Seeing as Wisconsin has a lot of new faces this year, I figured I’d skip over making all of the obvious broad game points that everyone is likely making today (Wisconsin looks like it will play more up-tempo this year, the refs are going to call a lot of touch fouls this year, and Platteville hung with the Badgers for way longer than the final score would indicate). Instead, I just want to quickly go down the roster and give my reactions to each of the players after this one meaningless game. Since the roster sheets were ordered by player number last night, that’s the order in which you’re getting my reactions. Like I said, I’m incredibly lazy, so just deal with it. Here are my thoughts on all 17 players (Really? There are that many guys on the roster? When did this turn into UWM?) On the Wisconsin roster:

Ben Brust: It was tough to get excited about Ben Brust, the team’s top long-range bomber, when the Badgers couldn’t hit a three-pointer to save their lives during the first half. Of course, most of those misses didn’t actually come from Brust, so it’s unfair to lay the blame on him for the first half futility, but my mind still wants to do so. In any event, I was mildly taken aback while exiting the Kohl Center when the PA announcer indicated that Brust had led the team with 20 points. It was a quiet 20, most of which came in the second half when Wisconsin was rolling. I suspect that lots of fans are looking at this year’s guard depth and pondering who Brust’s graduation will create opportunity for next year, but it’s probably worth remembering for this year that Ben Brust is still really good.

Jordan Smith: One of two players in street clothes last night, I was impressed with myself for being able to figure out who Smith was prior to looking at my roster sheet last night. I don’t know if he was injured, redshirting, or the equipment manager just forgot to order a uniform for him. I also don’t really care, so long as Smith’s happy, as he’s a walk-on who’s about the 9th best guard on the team.

George Marshall: Marshall was, as expected, one of the first players off the bench. I think I’m going to grow to like him this year. Last season, he was pressed into duty a bit early by Josh Gasser’s injury, and it showed. Given the chance to take the point guard spot and run with it, Marshall was mistake-prone and ultimately ceded the job to Traevon Jackson. In his limited minutes last night, though, he looked much more consistent and, to no one’s surprise, was the most adept of any of the guards at getting into the lane. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that he looks this reliable all year.

Aaron Moesch: The last player off the bench, Moesh pulled in one rebound in his minute of play. That’s about the best you can ask for from a freshman walk-on.

Nigel Hayes: There were two players that jumped off of the page at you last night, and the most prominent one was Nigel Hayes. I’ve been reading during the pre-season about how Hayes and fellow freshman forward Vitto Brown are physically ready to play in the Big Ten. I can confirm that the writers making that point were not kidding. Hayes is every bit of the 6'7", 250 lbs. that he’s listed at. And last night he showed a strong nose for the ball, hauling in offensive rebound after offensive rebound. Hayes is physically gifted and plays extra-hard when he’s on the floor. He’ll see plenty of minutes this year. And by the time he’s a senior, he’s going to be the favorite player of plenty of Badger fans.

Jordan Hill: The lanky freshman saw limited minutes last night, and air-balled a three-pointer. He looked like he belonged, though, and on a team that didn’t have five guards ahead of him on the depth chart, I could certainly see him playing. As things stand, put his name in the back of your mind for now.

Traevon Jackson: I’m always going to be annoyed by Jackson’s weird-looking shot, however he’s quickly developed into a classic Bo Ryan player that makes very few mistakes. Unfortunately, this also makes him one of the least exciting players on the floor, so I didn’t spend a lot of time watching him. However like an offensive lineman in football, if I don’t notice a Bo Ryan player, that probably means he’s doing his job and doing it well.

Duje Dukan: Dukan was the first player off the bench last night. This was partly a function of him likely being a key sub this year, and partly a function of Bo Ryan pulling Sam Dekker after he failed to properly get a hand up on an opposing player’s shot. Either way, Dukan displayed a decent shot, and generally showed much more confidence than he has in the past. While I recognize that the fact that he had mono last year was a major consideration in him choosing to redshirt, I think we can all be happy that he’ll be spending his junior year contributing to a team that can use his talents instead of sitting on the bench behind three firmly entrenched seniors. See--sometimes contracting a pesky viral infection can be a good thing!

Sam Dekker: Hands down, my pick for most improved during the offseason has to go to Sam Dekker’s haircut. I don’t know who his new barber is, but I’d like to give that person a high-five. When Dekker emerged onto the floor for warm-ups last night, he no longer looked like a dopey kid from Sheboygan whose parents cut his hair. Instead, he looked like a guy that you could someday see walking across a stage in a nice suit to shake David Stern’s hand at the NBA draft. His game? I can’t offer anything new there. It’s common knowledge that he’s a special offensive player and that he’s prone to occasional defensive lapses, and that’s still the case. Dekker should again be awesome this year, though, and finally he won’t look like a rube while he’s being awesome.

Josh Gasser: It was outstanding to see Josh Gasser return from his knee injury last night, though it was tough to get a sense of where he’s at. Gasser was never a player known for his explosiveness or remarkable quickness, so Josh Gasser with a knee brace looked remarkably similar to pre-injury Josh Gasser. He did have an impressive moment where he drove the lane and switched hands in the air before banking in a layup, but mostly he was just consistent old Josh. I’m ecstatic to have him back, though, as he’s the team’s top leader and calming influence. It should also be noted that during a timeout where the Jumbotron featured old pictures of all each of the players on the Badger roster dressed up for Halloween as kids, Gasser had easily the best costume. When a 10-year-old boy is willing to dress up as Marge Simpson for Halloween, you should know that great things are coming for him someday.

Bronson Koenig: After seeing Bronson Koenig display his flashy game in high school, I commented to one friend that part of me was disappointed to see him going to Wisconsin, where his flair would be reigned in. That was certainly the case last night, though I was pleased that you could still see some wheels churning in his head, leaving open the potential to see his creativity on display sometime in the future. Koenig looks the part, and spent a fair portion of his time on the floor running the point. He’s definitely the fifth guard in the rotation right now, so it remains to be seen how much floor time he’ll see. But he’ll be more than up to the challenge when he’s out there. He may have to gut out a year of limited minutes, or he may eventually force his way into the regular rotation by season’s end, but either way, get ready to watch his talent fully unleashed next season.

Vitto Brown: The fact that two well-built 6'8"ish freshmen from Ohio joined the Badger roster this year makes comparisons between the two inevitable, so I’m not going to avoid it. Based solely on last night, Vitto Brown looks like Nigel Hayes Lite. His build is slightly smaller, he plays with slightly less tenacity, and he looks slightly more lost and freshman-like when he’s on the floor. I recognize that putting it this way makes Brown sound bad, but the reality is that Hayes is really freaking good, and that Brown is just a half step away from being just as freaking good. That said, of the freshmen expected to contribute this year, I suspect that Brown will contribute the least. He’s going to be a key cog at some point down the road, though.

Evan Anderson: I’ve heard talk that Anderson looked good in the scrimmage that was open to the public over the weekend, and that he may log minutes this year. He was nonetheless the last scholarship player off the bench last night. Nice a kid as he may be, I’m relieved that he still seems unlikely to see meaningful minutes.

Zak Showalter: It will likely be tough for someone as competitive as Showalter to spend his season redshirting, as he announced last week that he would do. He appears to have embraced the decision so far, though, and I cannot think of a player better suited to serve in the “Master of Handshakes” role at the end of the player introduction line at the start of games.

Zach Bohannon: Bohannon rarely looks all that great when he’s on the floor, because he’s typically the least naturally gifted of the players out there. Last night against D-3 opposition that was not the case, and I must admit that he looked pretty awesome. I don’t necessarily think that this will translate into anything during the season, but it did give me pause to wonder just how good Bohannon would look if he regularly played against players that he’s more talented than.

Riley Dearring: When the Badgers recruited a dude named “Riley” from Minnetonka, Minnesota, I just assumed that he was the whitest guy on the planet. Last night I learned that Riley Dearring is actually a black guy, and not a super-pasty white dude that likes to wear sweaters. As to his actual play, Dearing is buried on the depth chart, and along with fellow freshman Jordan Hill, tossed up a three-point shot that failed to hit any part of the scoring apparatus. He looked fine in his limited minutes, though, and is basically just a victim of having a lot of really good players in front of him right now. If he doesn’t redshirt this year, he’ll probably be kicking himself a few years down the road when he realizes that he sacrificed a year of eligibility in order to play a total of 8 minutes of garbage time during his freshman year.

Frank Kaminsky: In discussing Nigel Hayes, I noted that two players stood out last night. Kaminsky was the other one. He was excellent from the opening tip, during a first half when very few Wisconsin players could be classified as “excellent.” He displayed some actual post moves inside, blocked a handful of shots, and even led a fastbreak at one point, finishing strong and converting a layup while getting fouled. To be fair, I suspect that Kaminsky won’t be blocking shots with such regularity once he’s playing against D-1 players, but that doesn’t erase the fact that he was stellar in most ways last night. I’ve never been a giant Frank Kaminsky fan (other than loving the fact that his name makes him sound like a grizzled veteran Chicago cop), but I might just come around on him this year. He won’t be an all-time great or anything, but he’s going to be a key cog this year–and not just by default, as I had originally expected.

So as you can see, I’m enthusiastic about things at first glance. Here’s looking forward to the real games in a few weeks, and to getting my first glimpse at Marquette and UWM in the near future. Finally, the season is upon us!

2013 Tournament Picks

2013-03-18T18:56:00.001-05:00

It has become official--I don't blog anymore. But despite my totally giving up on documenting my basketball activities throughout the year, I'm still posting my NCAA tournament picks on the off chance that someone still wants to read them. I'm bypassing the usual preamble because 1) anyone who is taking the time to read my picks has undoubtedly read some version of the preamble 4-5 times before and 2) I'm lazy. So let's get right to picking games. Winners are in bold, and I'm refusing to use the NCAA's non-sensical nomenclature and will be referring to the round of 64 as the "First Round" because it's completely ridiculous for the NCAA to refer to the four play-in games as the "First Round" Here we go:

Midwest Region

First Round

Louisville (1) vs. North Carolina A&T or Liberty (16): Per usual, I’m not going to waste a lot of time talking about a one seed playing a sixteen seed. The upset has never happened, and I’m not going to be the guy to start picking one now. Let’s just hope North Carolina A&T gets the job done on Tuesday so that Louisville can take on a team with a winning record.

Colorado State (8) vs. Missouri (9): I know next to nothing about either of these teams, but I do know that Ohio State former walk-on sensation turned writer, Mark Titus, likes to make fun of Mizzou coach Frank Haith regularly in his weekly power rankings on Grantland (if you’ve not been reading Titus’s weekly pieces this year, you’ve really missed out on something great). So notwithstanding the fact that I’ve had a few great trips to Tropical Liqueurs near the Mizzou campus, I can’t pick a team whose coach is so openly mocked by the nation’s top college basketball humorist.

Oklahoma State (5) vs. Oregon (12): My pal Austin is a huge Oregon fan, so I’ve paid a bit of attention to the Ducks this year. My knowledge is minimal, but I can confidently say that along with Illinois, Oregon is one of the more wildly inconsistent teams that I’ve noticed this year. In general, inconsistency is a bad thing. But in the tournament, the fact that a team is inconsistent simply means that it has a chance to play at a level way above its seed. So I’m gambling on the Ducks playing to their ability and depriving the country of the chance to really get to know Marcus Smart. The key word in there, though, is “gambling.”

St. Louis (4) vs. New Mexico State (13): My friend Peter got a masters degree from NMSU. And while that’s awesome, St. Louis has two guys from Milwaukee in the rotation. So I’m sticking with the local players over my loyalty to my friend.

Memphis (6) vs. Middle Tennessee State/St. Mary’s (11): Normally I don’t pick the winner of a play-in game to win its first real tournament game. But I was a fan of St. Mary’s star Matthew Dellavedova even before my pal Ferd astutely pointed out how much he looks like Curtis Armstrong, aka Dudley “Booger” Dawson from Revenge of the Nerds. As to Memphis, they went undefeated in Conference USA, which is a) a near-annual occurrence and b) extremely underwhelming. Memphis’s weak conference catches up with them and the Tigers lose here to the best team they’ve played in two months.

Michigan State (3) vs. Valparaiso (14): Valpo won the Horizon League. I had season tickets for their Horizon league foe UWM this year. And at $50 for the whole year, I could still make an argument that I overpaid for those tickets. A Horizon League team isn’t taking down perennial tournament powerhouse. Michigan State walks through this one.

Creighton (7) vs. Cincinnati (10): I thought about just writing Doug McDermott’s name 15 times here, but on second thought, I’m just going to pick against Cincinnati since they were one of the teams that broke out those awful Zubaz-like uniforms last week. And I can’t endorse any team that wears something that ugly.

Duke (2) vs. Albany (15): You’d have to be dumb to pick against a senior-laden Duke team with a 2-seed. I’m not even discussing this.

Second Round

Louisville (1) vs. Colorado State (8): I try to write out most of these picks prior to seeking out any outside analysis, but given that it takes time to write up justification for the winners of 63 games, sometimes I can’t avoid all media. So I know that Alaa Abdelnaby of CBS Sports Network was touting Colorado State as a team that he likes. I’ve always been bitter about the Bucks trading away the draft rights to Tracy Murray for Abdelnaby, so I’m not willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on his opinion of the Rams (I’m sort of re-thinking even picking them over Missouri now). Louisville moves on.

St. Louis (4) vs. Oregon (12): St. Louis is my team of destiny this year (i.e. the team that I think is going to succeed for reasons beyond being good at basketball). Considered to be a talented veteran team coming into the year, the fact that Rick Majerus was forced to take a leave of absence from coaching the Billikens and later died on them could have either brought the team closer together or torn it apart. It appears to have done the former, and St. Louis is a legit 4-seed this year, and not just some random mid-major that everyone’s getting unjustifiably excited about.

Michigan State (3) vs. St. Mary’s (11): Yeah, like I’m really going to pick a team that’s not even guaranteed to be playing in the game that precedes this one to beat the most consistently solid tournament performer of the last decade and a half.

Duke (2) vs. Creighton (7): Doug McDermott is a big, white senior who’s a candidate for player of the year. If anyone knows a thing or two about a guy with that profile, it’s Duke. Thus, the Blue Devils keep McDermott under control and continue on.

Sweet Sixteen

Louisville (1) vs. St. Louis (4): I said that St. Louis was the team of destiny in the last round, and if I’m being straight with you, I don’t know that I truly buy that proclamation. But this year Louisville is that team that I hate dealing with in the tournament. I know they’re good, and I don’t deny that they’ve got a 1-seed for good reason, but there’s something I just don’t buy about them. If I’m going to take a risk on an early 1-seed upset, too, I like the fact that whoever wins this game has to face one of the next two teams that I’m going to discuss. Having a roadblock like that really mitigates the risk in picking this upset.

Duke (2) vs. Michigan State (3): Here’s the round where I usually pick either Duke or Michigan State and give the justification of “There’s no team that’s more regularly successful in March than Duke/Michigan State.” No one else gets that justification–these are the two most solidly-coached, consistently-built-to-make-a-tournament-tournament run teams in the country. I can’t pull that trump card for both teams and have it determine the outcome when they’re playing one-another, though. And Duke has more talent, so I have to go with them (though it hurts my soul a little bit to have to pull the talent card when I’m talking about a team that gets its orders from Coach K).

Elite Eight

Duke (1) vs. St. Louis (4): I’ve called St. Louis my “team of destiny.” Krzyzewski trumps destiny every time.

West Region

First Round

Gonzaga (1) vs. Southern University (16): My friend Jesse noted during the selection show that Kelly Olynyk looks like Jay, of Jay and Silent Bob fame. So that’s sort of fun. Also, fun fact about Olynyk–while he’s in the discussion for national player of the year honors and is being discussed as an NBA lottery pick, the Blue Ribbon Basketball Yearbook didn’t even project him as a starter for Gonzaga this year. Has anyone ever burst onto the scene more decisively?

Pittsburgh (8) vs. Wichita State (9): This one was a tough call. How do you pick against a team whose mascot is the Wheat Shockers? But ultimately, even though this year’s Pitt squad wasn’t amazing, I’m picking them here because I love how tough and hard-nosed Jamie Dixon’s teams always are. The Panthers are probably my favorite non-Marquette team in the soon-to-be-dissolved Big East.

Wisconsin (5) vs. Ole Miss (12): I actually saw a few Ole Miss games earlier this year. Mostly during that one week when Marshall Henderson was getting tons of national attention for being a) a phenomenal basketball player and b) a tremendous douchebag. I like Ole Miss. A lot. I’d pick the Rebels as an upset team against most of the other 5-seeds in the tourney, and all of the 6-seeds. But if we’ve learned one thing during the past week, it’s that Wisconsin is great at taking up-tempo teams out of their game. And that’s what’s going to happen here. Look for lots of crisp passes, triple threat position, and tough rebounding as the Badgers grind one out.

Kansas State (4) vs. Boise State/LaSalle (13): I already picked on play-in winner to advance, and I’m not picking a second here. The Wildcats move on.

Arizona (6) vs. Belmont (11): I’m underwhelmed by the Pac 12, so here’s my virtually unsupported first-round upset pick.

New Mexico (3) vs. Harvard (14): Here’s an interesting thought–six or seven years ago, New Mexico coach Steve Alford and Harvard coach Tommy Amaker were the two most mediocre coaches in the Big Ten. And both have oddly gone on to much success at their new schools. But Alford’s had more. It’s probably easier for him, having scholarships to give out an what not, whereas Amaker has to find semi-smart kids who want to pay their own way to go to school at Harvard and also happen to have some basketball ability. There’s only so much relaxing of academic standards that you can do to make up for that. New Mexico moves on.

Notre Dame (7) vs. Iowa State (10): I’m torn on Notre Dame. On one hand, I think Mike Brey is a solid coach. On the other hand, nothing jumps off the page about the Irish this year. And while I was going to try to get through this matchup without mentioning it, I don’t see how I can ignore that Notre Dame’s neon-green uniforms are utterly embarrassing to pretty much everyone who has ever worn clothing of any kind. So I’m going with Iowa State, which has become a popular option in recent years for Wisconsin high school hoops stars. And yes, Korie Lucious really is still around.

Ohio State (2) vs. Iona (15): The Buckeyes knocked off my Badgers to win the Big Ten tournament, so I think I’m morally obligated to pick them in the first round.

Second Round

Gonzaga (1) vs. Pitt (8): I love it when people who have probably seen Gonzaga play less than 10 minutes this year dismiss them as a fraudulent 1-seed because they play in the WCC. Those hoops gurus who can’t be bothered to stay up past 10pm to watch the Bulldogs deserve to be shown the error of their ways, so I have to pick Gonzaga. (By the way, please conveniently overlook the fact that I’ve seen less than 10 minutes of Memphis this year and have picked them to bow out early because they play in conference USA. Pointing out that inconsistency in my reasoning would be way too embarrassing for me.)

Kansas State (4) vs. Wisconsin (5): This is one of the tougher picks on the board. On one hand, Wisconsin should be able to beat Bruce Weber. I mean, they used to do it all the time. On the other hand, Bruce Weber tends to do well when he’s coaching players that he didn’t personally recruit. I honestly don’t know which way to go, so I’m just going to make the homer call and take the Badgers.

New Mexico (3) vs. Belmont (11): Even if Belmont doesn’t pull of this random upset and Arizona’s sitting there in place of the Bruins, New Mexico’s been getting it done for enough years now that it’s time to start trusting them in March. And so that’s what I’m doing.

Ohio State (2) vs. Iowa State (10): Even before they went on their run in the Big Ten tourney, I was a fan of Ohio State. And when I started reading Mark Titus’s book, my respect for Thad Matta increased tenfold. So the Buckeyes send Iowa State and its gaggle of transfers packing.

Sweet Sixteen

Gonzaga (1) vs. Wisconsin (5): I can give you a lot of justifications for Wisconsin winning this one. Jared Berggren matches up well with Gonzaga’s top player. The Badgers are battle-tested, and have beaten teams that are just as good, if not better, than the Bulldogs. Gonzaga’s up-tempo attack is just the sort of thing that is most vulnerable to Wisconsin’s disciplined approach to the game. But at the end of the day, I thing that a) Gonzaga is simply a better team and b) Wisconsin always seems to have difficulty pulling together three straight well-played games. Here’s hoping I’m wrong.

Ohio State (2) vs. New Mexico (3): Good Lord, I have no idea who to pick here. I like them both, and wish one of them had been in another region. The coin that I just flipped says Ohio State, though, so I’m sticking with that.

Elite Eight

Gonzaga (1) vs. Ohio State (2): Everyone hates Gonzaga as a 1-seed, which is why I have to take them. When everyone else likes to zig, I like to zag (yes, nod your head to that inadvertent play on words by me right there). Seriously, though–when have you ever seen a 1-seed that could be considered a value play? Mark Few says this is his best team ever, and who am I to doubt him?

South Region

First Round

Kansas (1) vs. Western Kentucky (16): I miss the days when Western Kentucky was a mid-major darling instead of a 16-seed. The Hilltoppers were never a 16-seed when Anthony Winchester was playing.

North Carolina (8) vs. Villanova (9): Early in the season, North Carolina was not a tournament-level team. If the Heels had been playing the way they’ve been the last few weeks, they wouldn’t be an 8-seed. Here’s your value play, friends.

Virginia Commonwealth (5) vs. Akron (12): Two years later, it’s clear that Shaka Smart didn’t just get lucky with his first tournament run.

Michigan (4) vs. South Dakota State (13): I’m picking this one solely on the basis of which team’s players’ fathers have logged the most NBA minutes. So we’re looking at a Michigan blowout.

UCLA (6) vs. Minnesota (11): I love this matchup of arguably the two most dysfunctional teams in the tournament. UCLA’s past chemistry problems under Ben Howland are well documented, and it seems like little has changed in Brentwood. As for Minnesota, perhaps the whole team isn’t dysfunctional, but let’s be honest–Trevor Mbakwe is a total jackass. But he’s an insanely talented jackass, so I’m taking the Gophers in an upset.

Florida (3) vs. Northwestern State (14): When Florida beat the tar out of both Wisconsin and Marquette early in the season, I was getting ready for the Gators to walk away with the NCAA championship. I’m backing off a bit after some lesser performances of late, but Florida still gets out of the first round.

San Diego State (7) vs. Oklahoma (10): Picking Steve Fisher is always oddly fun.

Georgetown (2) vs. Florida Gulf Coast (15): I love that people keep doubting Georgetown when they’re completely awesome. I’ll talk more about that later, though, since it’s worthless to justify the reason that a 2-seed will win.

Second Round

Kansas (1) vs. North Carolina (8): It’s a little known fact that I have a huge blind spot for Kansas. I’ve not seen the Jayhawks play an entire game this season, or probably during any of the past three seasons. It makes essentially no sense, as Kansas frequently plays prime-time, nationally televised games, is possibly the greatest program of all time from a historical perspective, and has great uniforms. I should love watching them, but instead I have somehow come to more or less deny their existence. My brain knows that Kansas is one of the top teams in the country, not just because they always are, but because they’ve chalked up a 1-seed this year. All that said, though, I’m ready to do the unthinkable and fully commit to this idea that North Carolina’s is playing like a 4-seed now, but has to be given an 8-seed because they spent the first half of the season playing like a team that was bound to lose in the semi-finals of the NIT. Don’t make me look stupid, Tarheels.

Michigan (4) vs. VCU (5): Look, I think that Michigan has the talent to win this entire tournament. And let’s face it–watching John Beilein-coached teams (particularly one with these athletes) is pure fun. But one of my most frequent hoops-watching pals was friends with Wisconsin native Shaka Smart while growing up. And that’s just the kind of completely irrelevant factor that I just can’t ignore.

Florida (3) vs. Minnesota (11): Minnesota simply isn’t winning two tournament games. The idea that that could happen is laughable. And if I’m wrong about the Gophers actually winning their first game, the alternative opponent is UCLA, for whom two tourney wins is even more laughable. Florida’s in the Sweet Sixteen, and it’s not even a question.

Georgetown (2) vs. San Diego State (7): Dear people that only watch basketball in March and don’t really know that much about hoops: I’d like to introduce you to Otto Porter. I think you’re going to like him.

Sweet Sixteen

Virginia Commonwealth (5) vs. North Carolina (8): If you can’t pick the consistently good mid-major who’s sitting three seeds higher than arguably the greatest college basketball program of all time, I can’t talk to you anymore because you have no soul.

Georgetown (2) vs. Florida (3): We’re getting to the point where it’s tough to justify these things, so I guess I’ll just pick one of the nation’s most prestigious academic institutions over a school from the state with a good percentage of the nation’s most insanely foolish people.

Elite Eight

Georgetown (2) vs. VCU (5): Both great programs with great coaches. It’s a tough call, but I’m going with Georgetown because a) as a fan of Wisconsin, I’m morally obligated to root for the team that is often overlooked due to its decidedly unsexy style of play, and b) if given the choice, I’d rather live in D.C. than Richmond, Virginia (apologies to my family that lives in Richmond, but you have to concede that D.C. is awesome).

East Region

Indiana (1) vs. LIU-Brooklyn/James Madison (16): Even Tom Crean can’t screw this one up.

N.C. State (8) vs. Temple (9): A close friend of mine did grad school at N.C. State. So I’m picking the Wolfpack because of that. Oh, and their ability to stockpile loads and loads of talent.

UNLV (5) vs. California (12): Look, I’m going to level with you–I don’t know anything about UNLV. Yeah, I’ve heard of Mike Moser, but I can’t tell you why he’s great. And if you’re going to pick an upset game, it’s usually a bit less emotionally difficult to make the pick when there’s a gap in your knowledge that doesn’t allow you to credibly make the case for why the favorite should win. So go Cal Bears!

Syracuse (4) vs. Montana (13): I don’t even know what Montana’s school colors are. It’s in Montana, so I’m guessing it involves earth tones. As for Syracuse, they’re so up front with what their colors are that they made one of them their mascot. It’s straightforwardness like that which makes me choose the Orange here.

Butler (6) vs. Bucknell (11): As one of the top mid-majors out there on a year-to-year basis, Butler always runs a risk of being overrated. And the Bulldogs might be slightly overrated, but there’s no denying that Brad Stevens is a basically a genius. And he seems likeable, so I can’t pick his team to lose in the first round.

Marquette (3) vs. Davidson (14): Davidson lost to UWM earlier this season. If you made it to the Klotsche Center to see UWM this year, you recognize how embarrassed Wildcats should be about that fact. And while I recognize that Davidson is significantly better than it was in that one terrible game, I can’t imagine a world where UWM managed to beat a team that Marquette could not. (Fun note: UW-Green Bay went collectively 4-0 against UWM and Marquette this year.)

Illinois (7) vs. Colorado (10): Remember earlier how I was saying that Oregon’s inconsistency made them a decent gamble to pull off an upset? That theory works in reverse, too. Illinois has been the most completely unpredictable team I’ve seen this year. One night they look like they could win the national championship, and the next night you find yourself wondering how they pulled off a winning record. So if you’re looking for an upset (albeit a mild one), you could do worse than picking against the Illini and hoping the horrid version of their team shows up.

Miami (2) vs. Pacific (15): Jim Larranaga appears on a D.C. radio show that I often listen to, and I like him. So, onward goes Miami.

Second Round

Indiana (1) vs. N.C. State (8): As a fan of a team that has beaten Indiana twice this year, I have a sense of what a successful plan to take down the Hoosiers looks like. Here’s a hint–throwing a team of loosely-coached, talented athletes from the ACC at them is the exact wrong approach. The Hooisers advance and it’s not close.

Syracuse (4) vs. California (12): I can’t get excited about either of these teams. So when in doubt, I take the legendary coach that is more or less the nation’s foremost expert on zone defense.

Marquette (3) vs. Butler (6): I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to this game, mostly because I can’t wait to see the looks of disgust on the faces of all of my hardcore Marquette-fan friends as CBS repeatedly re-runs the clip of Rotnei Clarke hitting a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to take down Marquette in the Maui Invitational at the start of the season. I put the over-under on number of times we’re going to see this clip during the broadcast at roughly 35,000. Unfortunately for Butler, the only people that are going to be more perturbed than Marquette fans by the memories of Clarke’s phenomenal shot are the Marquette players themselves. Given that Marquette is fueled by emotion in much the same way that my car is fueled by gas, I can’t fathom a scenario where they lose to the team that beat them on a play that they had to re-live over and over again this year. Marquette wins, and wins angry.

Miami (2) vs. Colorado (10): Miami’s on the scene, just in case you didn’t know it.

Sweet Sixteen

Indiana (1) vs. Syracuse (4): Every part of my body wants to see my grandfather’s favorite team (Syracuse) take down my least favorite human being involved in college athletics (Tom Crean). But I fear that I’d only be picking the upset here because of my thorough dislike of Mr. Crean. And the last thing I want to be is completely irrational, so I’ve got to stick with the Hoosiers, who I suspect are actually a pretty likeable bunch of guys once you get past their leader.

Miami (2) vs. Marquette (3): I’ll let you in a secret–I’m less excited about this Marquette team than any Marquette team in recent memory. I think it’s the lack of star power. No one can deny that Vander Blue had an excellent junior year and is poised for a breakout season as a senior, but neither he nor any of his teammates captures my attention like Jimmy Butler, Lazar Hayward or (to a lesser extent) Darius Johnson-Odom did. (Sorry, Davante Gardner–I was your biggest fan until I had to spend the entire season listening to you scream like you’d just been hit in the knees with a tire iron every time you tossed in a layup while there was a defender within five feet of you.) Miami wins this one, and we can maybe talk about a deeper Marquette run next year if Blue takes home New Big East player-of-the-year honors and incoming freshman Duane Wilson provides as much support as I think he will in the MU backcourt.

Elite Eight

Indiana (1) vs. Miami (2): You and I both know that I’ve been looking for an excuse to pick Indiana to lose prior to the Final Four, and Miami finally gives me a reasonable way of doing so. Let’s talk head coaches for a moment. In 2006, Jim Larranaga took a team from a commuter school in the Colonial Athletic Association to the Final Four, the NCAA’s biggest stage. Now he has power conference players at Miami. As to Tom Crean, I’ll begrudgingly admit that he’s an amazing promoter and recruiter, and seems to be able to motivate his players. But if I’m in a tight game and I need someone who understands basketball, he’s not the guy I want running the show for my team. So gleefully, I’m taking the Hurricanes to bounce the Big Ten champs in a tight one.

Final Four

Gonzaga (1) vs. Duke (2): Holy crap, what have I done? What if everyone is right about Gonzaga having played no tough competition in their mediocre mid-major conference? And I’ve picked them to the Final Four? I can’t take the risk of going any further with this. Any options to take them out? Duke? You mean that team that everyone hates because they’re seemingly always in the top-10, recruit a bunch of all-Americans every year, and has the most well-respected active coach in the game? Yeah, I guess that would be a good team to cop out with.

Georgetown (2) vs. Miami (2): I want to pick both of these teams through to the finals. Miami is the semi-upstart team that snuck up on the traditional powers of the ACC to steal the league’s regular season and conference tournament championships. Georgetown is the perpetually workman-like team (albeit one with a superstar player) that quietly goes about its business and racks up win after win without ever being a trendy pick. In the end, though, Miami flipping the balance of power in the country just feels more fun to me, so I’m going with the ‘Canes (and effectively invalidating my scolding of others for not paying attention to the boring old Hoyas).

Championship Game

Duke (2) vs. Miami (2): Every year when I fill out a bracket, there’s one team that gets to at least the Final Four that doesn’t make sense to me on a macro level. This year, that’s Duke. If you just asked me what teams I thought would make the Final Four and didn’t show me a bracket, Duke probably wouldn’t have been in the first ten teams I named. But then I start picking actual games and this team that I don’t love and find flawed in multiple ways is suddenly in the finals. So as this implies, I’m picking Miami. But in order to make it official, let’s do some actual hackneyed analysis:

Duke and Miami split the pair of games that they played against one another this season. Miami beat the Blue Devils down 90-63 on January 23 in Miami, forcing everyone who wasn’t paying attention to recognize their national relevance. When Duke hosted Miami on March 2, they got revenge on the Hurricanes, winning 79-76. I only watched the latter game. The two most notable things about that game were that a) Ryan Kelly’s 36-point outburst in his return from a lengthy absence due to a foot injury was probably the best individual performance I witnessed all season and b) Duke needed every bit of Kelly’s herculean effort to win that game. We’re in for a treat if we see a repeat of the efforts put forth by both teams in that game. But given that Kelly’s performance was a once-in-a-season sort of thing, my money is on Miami’s high level of play being more repeatable than Duke’s. So Shane Larkin and friends will be taking a championship trophy back with them to Coral Gables.

So there you have it. Check back in a week to tell me how ridiculously wrong I was, and enjoy the tournament!

Marquette vs. UMBC: Watching The Good Half

2012-11-27T07:38:00.000-06:00

Last night’s Marquette vs. UMBC game was a pretty good example of what happens when I don’t have tickets to a game that’s airing on Time Warner Sports. Because my TV service provider is Directv, I don’t have home access to Marquette games that air on Time Warner Sports and must find an alternate way to watch the game. For games like UMBC, this typically means heading to my gym to feign working out so that I can watch the game. This happens because a) my gym has Time Warner, and b) it would be near impossible to find someone to go to a bar with me to watch a terrible non-conference game. So in a weird way, terrible Marquette non-conference games kind of keep me healthy.

The original plan for last night’s game was to watch the first half, since a game against UMBC was bound to be a blowout. But because even a trip to the gym usually involves some laziness on my part, I procrastinated and didn’t make it over until the second half. This was a lucky error on my part, since Marquette was clinging to just a four point lead at the half. The second half (or as I like to call it, the “good half”) saw the Golden Eagles rout their opponents en route to a 79-46 win. Here are the thoughts on what I saw:

1) There was some minor interest by many last night in seeing how UMBC center Brett Roseboro would look. Watching Roseboro rack up his 2 points, 4 rebounds and 5 fouls in 20 minutes, it seems unlikely that he ever would have seen the floor had he come to Marquette. I’m certain that there are plenty of Marquette fans this morning reiterating their praise for Buzz Williams for letting Roseboro out of his commitment during the summer before his freshman year so that he could go to a school where he could actually challenge for playing time. I still can’t join in that praise (and I’ve written more about that here). While I’ll concede that it would have been cruel to hold Roseboro in a situation where he couldn’t compete, the right thing would have been to properly evaluate Roseboro’s talent months earlier and not force him to pass up other opportunities because he was relying on his opportunity at Marquette.

2) Big kudos to the super-fan in the student section last night that kept getting TV time during timeouts due to his blue and gold Mexican wrestling mask. Your attire was impressive even without headgear, but the mask put it over the top. That’s solid crazy fan work if I’ve ever seen it, so keep up the good work.

3) Dear Davante Gardner: While I love watching you casually drop nearly every basketball that you touch through the hoop, and I think your twitter handle is both awesome and accurate (@iGetBuckets_54), if you continue loudly yelling in hopes of drawing a foul every time you shoot a layup, I may start losing my positive opinion of you. Just play the damn game and stop trying to sucker the refs into giving you a foul shot after your baskets.

4) One of my favorite fan message board discussions of every year is speculation about whether whatever walk-on is on the team will earn playing time and contribute. Ninety percent of the time, the answer is a simple “no.” So far this year, Jake Thomas has resoundingly secured his place in the 10% of walk-ons that are relevant. He looked outstanding last night, calmly knocking down threes, and using ball fakes to get past his defenders when the caught on to his shooting ability. Some of Thomas’s playing time is undoubtedly due to the minutes that Marquette has to fill because of the absence of Todd Mayo (and at the moment, Vander Blue, as well), but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s giving the team good minutes. Between his performance against UMBC and his big shot near the end of the Butler game, Thomas is off to as good a start as one could hope for from a walk-on.

5) Jim McIlvaine seems like a guy that I’d enjoy hanging out with, though I don’t love him as an announcer on either radio or TV. He’s too much of a homer (kind of ironic, given that the nickname of his radio partner is “Homer”), and his attempts at humor, while often funny, usually seem forced. That said, I typically enjoy him more on TV (where he was last night), where he tends to be more subdued and less likely to try and work in cheesy exclamations that he’s been saving up for particular moments. Last night’s McIlvaine high point was probably when he and his broadcast partner were discussing the great players from McIlvaine’s high school alma mater, Racine St. Catherine’s, that had played at Marquette. McIlvaine’s self-deprecating acknowledgment that the he was not even the best center named “Jim” from his own high school due to the success of fellow St. Catherine’s alum Jim Chones was particularly amusing (and based on what I know about Chones, correct).

6) As I have discussed with friends, last year I had Juan Anderson slated as the Golden Eagle most likely to transfer next. Based on the combination of how solid he’s looked this year, and the fact that he’s got two more years to continue improving, I’m now thinking of him as the Golden Eagle most likely to get drafted next. Anderson has been my happiest surprise so far.

7) I get that Chris Otule has overcome the absence of one eye and three season-ending injuries, but we’re six games into the season and I’m already getting tired of announcers talking about how inspiring he is. I think Otule is a good guy, and I commend him for working hard to return from all of his injuries, but you’ll excuse me if I’m not overly inspired by his ability to recover.

Back to the TV tonight for some ACC-Big Ten Challenge action before I actually attend some ACC-Big Ten Challenge action on Wednesday. I suspect that Indiana-North Carolina will not disappoint. Enjoy the games!

A Senior Moment

2012-11-14T08:05:00.000-06:00

In addition to today’s thoughts on the Marquette game, I’d like to add quick note on the Duke-Kentucky game. I could spend lots of time (if I had said time) talking about the ridiculous athleticism of Kentucky, or the fact that Duke’s Ryan Kelly is underrated because his last name is not Plumlee, but the thing that really stuck out to me last night was player introductions. In one of the greatest moves of overcompensation that I’ve ever seen, Kentucky’s Julius Mays was introduced not as a senior, but as a "grad student." I’ve since checked the Kentucky basketball website, and indeed, on the team roster he is also listed as a grad student. This move feels like an obvious and pathetic attempt to deflect from Kentucky’s status as the place where a new crop of all-American freshmen go each year to spend a season before they can head to the NBA.

Kentucky forcing every announcer and publication to refer to Mays as a grad student reminds me of a common experience that I used to have in college. Every semester I’d start new classes, and there would usually be that part where the professor or TA had us go around and introduce ourselves by stating our name, major and year in school. Most normal people would say something like "I’m Tim, and I‘m a junior majoring in economics." But every so often there was that one guy who’d instead say "I’m Mario, I'm a biology major, and I'm a second-year student with junior standing." And invariably the next thoughts going through my head would be "Congrats on having lots of AP credits. Just tell us you’re a sophomore or a junior. Explicitly pointing out that you have more credits than most of the students that started school at the same time as you doesn’t make me think you’re smarter–it makes me think you’re an insecure jerk." Much like the info that Mario in English 205 has a higher class standing than usual due to his ability amass credits, the info that Mays is a grad student is irrelevant to me. All I care about is that he’s in his fourth year of basketball eligibility. We commonly refer to that as a senior. Let’s not get cute about it.

So Kentucky, please know that when you note that Julius Mays is a grad student, it doesn’t make me forget that every year you have four high school all-American basketball players who don’t plan on playing more than a year in college and will probably never attend a second semester class. It simply makes me think you’re ashamed of who you are. With that in mind, let’s start calling Mays what his is for basketball purposes–a senior.

Marquette vs. Southeastern Louisiana: The Game I Can't Understand

2012-11-14T08:02:00.000-06:00

I only watched the first half of the Marquette’s close call against Southeastern Louisiana last night. This was partially due to the fact that the game was on Time Warner Sports, I’m not a Time Warner subscriber, and consequently, my only way of seeing the game was to head to the gym (while I have decent lungs, I’m incapable of working out for the duration of an entire college basketball game). It was also partially due to the outstanding slate of games that was on ESPN last night to cap its annual 24-hours of basketball event. Why watch Marquette-Southeastern Louisiana when Duke vs. Kentucky is on?

So what happened that allowed Southeastern Louisiana, a team that was utterly destroyed by Wisconsin on Sunday, to stick around within two points of Marquette until the final three minutes of the game? Based on the first half, I honestly can’t tell you. This was one of the strangest halves of basketball that I’ve seen, as I could not pinpoint the problem. Marquette’s talent advantage was readily apparent. And when one team has such an advantage in ability, there are a few typical ways in which the inferior team can hang in the game. The most obvious is that they get hot from three point range and continue firing up threes as often as possible (the "Athletes in Action" strategy, if you will). This was not happening for Southeastern Louisiana, whose shooting was mediocre. The next option is for the inferior team to get a lot of second chance opportunities. This also was not happening either, as Marquette was doing a good job of cleaning up on the boards. The final thing that I look for is defensive lapses by the superior team, allowing easy baskets to their opponent. This element was also missing, as Southeast Louisiana was having great difficulty getting penetration, and consequently, spent most of the half taking mid-to-long range jump shots (and as noted earlier, they were not hitting at some sort of amazing rate, either). The Marquette defense largely forced the opponent to do exactly what it wanted them to do.

As much as I’d like to sit here today and tell you that Marquette needs to get its act together and start playing better basketball, I’m sort of at a loss for what I’d tell the team it needs to improve on. Of course, that’s undoubtedly why I’m sitting behind a computer recounting my thoughts from last night’s game rather than actually coaching basketball. Here’s hoping that Buzz Williams has a few more constructive thoughts than I do. I’m thinking that he probably does.

Weekend Hodgepodge

2012-11-12T07:18:00.000-06:00

Lots of stuff going on this weekend, between Marquette’s non-opening game debacle on Friday and a trio of games for Wisconsin (vs. Southeastern Louisiana), Marquette (vs. Colgate) and UWM (at South Carolina) on Sunday. Here are a few random points on all of the above:

1) Well, it turns out that the concerns that I expressed about playing a basketball game on an aircraft carrier in the super-humid city of Charleston, South Carolina were well-founded. I won't say that I predicted the cancellation of the Ohio State-Marquette game, because I didn't. I foolishly assumed that the organizers of the game had anticipated the moisture and come up with a plan to make the court playable. Shame on me for thinking any actual engineering was involved. It's kind of pathetic when a dude who's been to the ocean a couple of times has put more thought into the issues involved in a game like this than the actual organizers. I still think that the aircraft carrier games were a cool idea, but after two cancellations this weekend, and stories now leaking out about moisture issues at last year's seemingly well run game between Michigan State and North Carolina, I'd say it's time to leave this idea in the past. A beautiful background is nice, but it’s not worth a guy potentially slipping and shredding his ACL.

2) While gathered at a bar with friends watching Buzz Williams and the rest of the Marquette team and staff furiously wiping down their game floor on Friday night, I overheard several people near me say things like "Look at the Ohio State team just standing around while everyone from Marquette is actually working to try and make this game happen. I'm so proud to be a Marquette grad right now." While I understand that sentiment, I'm not sure I agree with it. The problem with condensation on the game floor was not going to be fixed by just wiping it up, and that was obvious to anyone who took more than five seconds to think about it. It's not as if someone simply spilled a bucket of water on the court and a one-time mopping could clean it up--the water was hovering in the air. The fact that Thad Matta and his team weren't on their knees rubbing towels on the floor didn't make me think that they were prima donnas or that they didn't want to play the game. It merely told me that they were smart enough to recognize a lost cause when they saw one.

3) South Carolina coach Frank Martin’s bow tie continues to be a ridiculous look for him. I like bow ties, but only certain guys can pull them off. Frank Martin has neither the build (his torso is too large, dwarfing the bow tie) nor the personality (bow ties are not for guys who look constantly perturbed) to be a bow tie wearer. I’m not quite sure what Martin looked more like in a bow tie: a second-rate Bond villain, or an the least enthusiastic vaudeville performer ever.

4) UWM should start looking more to the juco ranks if they can keep bringing in players like their all-juco backcourt of Jordan Aaron and Bobo Niang. While heading into the year the Panthers clearly had depth in the frontcourt, their newfound starting backcourt is looking like a strength. Jordan Aaron was borderline unstoppable during the final five minutes of yesterday’s first half. Rob Jeter must be getting excited about being able to throw Paris Gulley into the mix with Aaron and Niang once Gulley returns from injury.

5) One of the great highlights of watching the UWM-South Carolina game yesterday was hearing a consistently irate South Carolina fan in the background of the action. There’s nothing better than when an irrationally angry fan gets seated next to a microphone. I wasn’t able to pick out all of the inane angry rants that this fan was hurling at the refs, but I did hear a number of them. My favorite ridiculous taunt was “Why don’t you go back to reffing the NFL!” I’d bet good money that at some point this guy pulled out the old “Hey ref! Get off your knees–you’re blowing the game!” That’s usually the sad height of comedy for guys that spend most of their time at a game berating the refs.

6) I heard my favorite announcing quote in some time during yesterday’s UWM-South Carolina game. I had to rewind the moment on my DVR to transcribe the exact quote, but it was worth it to hear the color commentator say the following: "You know, in today's college basketball world, we see a lot of coaches playing three and four guards. Very few post guys floating around out there, and if they are, they're usually 6'7" and 6'8". I would have to say that, certainly, Demetrius Harris would qualify as one of those low post guys.” I can’t think of the last time someone used more words to tell me less information.

7) I don’t want to take away anything from UWM’s accomplishments yesterday, as they did go on the road and manage to take a major conference team to overtime after dominating them in the first half (UWM led by 15 at halftime). And that’s awesome. But I’d also be remiss if I didn’t point out that South Carolina finished close to the bottom of the SEC last year.

8) So it appears that in my great telecommunications shift of 2012, I’ve managed to cobble together a situation in which I don’t have access to ESPN3. This was a tad disheartening yesterday when I furiously tried to pull up the Wisconsin-Southeastern Louisiana game to no avail. I’m already considering a few work-arounds, since I can’t live in a world where I don’t have video access to the only games that Evan Anderson will play in.

9) While I didn’t have ESPN3, it was nice of ESPNU to cut into the Wisconsin game during breaks in action in the other games that it was showing on Sunday. Perhaps the happiest sight of the day for me was Mike Bruesewitz in uniform. It’s always nice to see a return from injury, but Bruesewitz’s injury sounded so gruesome and he sounds like such a good guy that this return felt extra good to hear about.

10) The news that Duje Dukan is redshirting this year for the Badgers was surprising, but I suppose it makes some sense. While Dukan put some of the blame on an early fall bout with mono hindering his conditioning, I would have to think an even bigger factor is that there are three senior frontcourt players clearly ahead of Dukan in the rotation right now. There’s going to be a lot more opportunity available upon the graduation of Ryan Evans, Mike Bruesewitz and Jared Berggren. And given that Dukan looked on the verge of gaining some minimal playing time near the very end of last season, playing his last two seasons without three firmly entrenched veterans ahead of him could be a very good thing for him (and the Badgers). Here’s hoping for the best.

11) While I didn’t catch much of the Marquette-Colgate game on Sunday afternoon, a friend did text me from the game to note that the halftime entertainment for the game was the Jesse White Tumbling Team. Nice to see Marquette coming out of the gates strong with the halftime acts this year.

12) Also nice to see solid games from the Marquette players that I typically have tempered expectations for. Juan Anderson seemed to be scoring every time that I saw him, which was nice for a guy that I’d pegged for transferring out due to lack of playing time at one point last year. And Jamil Wilson had a rare good game that I was paying attention to. Wilson’s talent is undeniable, but for some reason he’s one of those guys that always seems to only come up big when I manage to miss a game.

That's it for now. I'm off to order the sports package from my satellite provider so as not to miss any weird games now that hoops season is finally upon us!

Thing's I'm Looking Forward To: Marquette and Ohio State on an Aircraft Carrier (With Bonus Wisconsin Exhibition Thoughts)

2012-11-08T08:12:00.000-06:00

I’m flip-flopping my originally announced schedule a bit, and saving my post on why I’m excited for Sam Dekker’s college debut tomorrow. Why? Because I watched Wisconsin’s exhibition game against UW-Oshkosh last night and would like to update my originally written thoughts to reflect actually seeing him in a game. So today’s post is primarily about why I’m excited for tomorrow night’s Marquette-Ohio State game on the deck of the USS Yorktown. But before I get to that, a few abbreviated thoughts on last night’s Wisconsin exhibition:

1) I broke down and spent $14.95 for a subscription to the Big Ten Network’s online package so that I could see this game (and a couple others) online, as that is the only way to see a few of this year’s Wisconsin games live. The verdict? It’s not terrible if you’re sitting alone and watching on your computer (aside from the persistent shameful feeling that you’re a loser watching a meaningless basketball game alone on your computer). But if you’re at all interested in hooking your computer up to your big screen TV and watching with other people, you’re not going to be happy. I’ve played games of Tecmo Bowl that were more graphically appealing than the blurry, pixilated mess that was on my TV last night.

2) The guy that stood out for me while watching last night was George Marshall, which is good, because George Marshall was the guy that I was hoping would stand out. I’m as upset as anyone about Josh Gasser going down for the year (Gasser tweeted a photo of himself watching the game online from his hospital bed last night–it was positively heart-breaking.), but at least Marshall and Traevon Jackson appear very ready to go.

3) More tomorrow on this topic, but Sam Dekker looked exactly like the coaches have been saying he has all pre-season: good, but with some freshman tendencies. I’ll gladly take that.

4) Evan Anderson took a three-point shot last night. Chew on that for a moment.
Actually, chew on that for awhile, because those are my minimal game thoughts. As promised, I’ll close with my reasons for excitement over tomorrow’s Marquette-Ohio State game:

Though it sort of embarrasses me to admit it, I think this whole trend of playing games on aircraft carriers is kind of cool. I was laying sick on my couch last year when North Carolina and Michigan State opened the season playing on the USS Carl Vinson, and it was a thoroughly awesome TV event. So it enthuses me even more to see Marquette taking on a fun-to-watch Ohio State game to start this year’s season. Making things particularly intriguing for me is the fact that I’ve actually visited the USS Yorktown a few times (I’m no military enthusiast, but when you’re growing up and your family refuses to vacation anywhere other than just outside of Charleston, South Carolina, you’re going to get to see every tourist attraction at some point).

Of course, my visits to the USS Yorktown have placed a whole bunch of logistical questions into my head. How do they cram a basketball court and a bunch of fans onto a deck that ultimately isn’t that huge? How uncomfortable is it for the players getting to the court, given that the USS Yorktown was built with a bunch of 5'7" sailors in mind, not a bunch of wide-shouldered 6'8" power forwards? What are they using for locker rooms, for that matter? And how in God’s name are they going to keep moisture from condensing on the court, given that Charleston is the most humid city I’ve been to in my entire life (though I’ll concede that this issue was on my mind during last year’s game in San Diego, and they somehow pulled it off just fine).

Thankfully, though, I’m not planning the event or attending, so I don’t have to fix any of those concerns. I just have to watch on TV as a game gets played in a beautiful setting.

Now’s normally the part when I’d bid you farewell for the day and tell you to enjoy the game tonight, but seeing as I’m a day ahead, why don’t you just watch It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia this evening. It won’t have the athleticism of a college basketball game, but you’ll probably laugh more.

Things I'm Looking Forward To: An Early Start to the High School Season

2012-11-07T08:06:00.000-06:00

This season, the WIAA state tournament is being held March 7-9. At first glance, that seems unimportant, but to an obsessive basketball fan in Wisconsin, this is huge. Usually, the WIAA tourney coincides with the first weekend of the NCAA tournament. This year, the WIAA tourney is taking place two weeks prior to the opening weekend of the NCAA tournament. I have some friends that will tell you that it’s better when both tournaments are the same weekend, since there’s a certain joy in watching the Milwaukee Vincents and Madison Memorials of the world and then dashing to a bar to check in on college scores. And those friends are wrong. All that happens when you’ve got two tournaments going on at the same time is you can’t watch one of them. Shift the WIAA tournament to another weekend and voila! You’ve got another weekend of basketball watching. That’s a much better result than having one weekend where you’re overextended and can’t possibly watch everything you want to see.

Aside from that obvious point, there are three other things that make this shift perfect. One, the WIAA tournament is being moved back not just one week, but two. Thus, not only is there no conflict with the NCAA tournament, there’s also no conflict with the week when the major NCAA conferences have their tournaments. So mark down three great weekends of hoops in March. Two, because the WIAA tournament is taking place two weeks earlier than usual, we get high school basketball two weeks earlier than usual. I’ll never object to that. And on a third, more personal note, because some of my friends have insisted on perpetually having our annual fantasy baseball draft on the weekend of the NCAA tournament, I’ll finally have a championship Saturday where I can watch high school games instead of spending eight hours at a bar trying to pretend that I know something about baseball.

UW-Milwaukee vs. UW-Parkside: The Season Begins

2012-11-06T07:32:00.000-06:00

The season officially got underway for me last night, as my friend Dez and I (our other fellow-season ticket holders were tied up with other things last evening) headed down to the Klotsche Center to watch UWM take on Division II UW-Parkside in an exhibition game. The game was more hotly contested than expected, with Parkside jumping out to a 15-point lead at the half. The Panthers clawed their way back into the game with pressure defense in the second half, however, and pulled out a hard-fought 68-67 win. I’m unconcerned with that outcome, though, as UWM generally looked solid once they shook off the slow start. Now I’m ready for some regular season action. For the time being, though, thoughts on last night are below:

1) I got everything that I was looking for from the first Klotsche Center experience of the year. I was able to park on the street for free, at the entrance to the gym they took the old-school step of ripping tickets rather than scanning them, and the turnout was actually pretty good for a Monday night exhibition game. Oh, and I nearly got trampled by the team running out to the floor while walking to my seat after grabbing a roster. I think I’m going to like the Klotsche Center.

2) Great uniforms all-around last night. I liked the boldness of the UWM home gold unis, and will definitely purchase a jersey, should the bookstore ever begin selling such items again in the future. As for Parkside, they wore the standard 2012 baggy shorts, but their scoop-neck jerseys looked like they’d been transported straight from 1989. And for the record, I do not consider that a bad thing.

3) UWM had a big hole to fill at the point guard spot with the graduation of Kaylon Williams, arguably the team’s best player last season. I’m happy to say that the point guard spot looks to be in good hands with junior college transfer Jordan Aaron. A completely different player than Williams, Aaron is a small, quick player who likes to get into the lane. He also displayed a nice shooting touch last night, and sealed the game with some clutch free throws at the end. If last night was any indicator, Panther fans are going to really enjoy Aaron for the next two years.

4) I was also impressed with freshman Austin Arians, who received a smattering of minutes off the bench. It didn’t hurt that Arians’ first minute of action saw him involved in a Panther fastbreak play that involved two perfect passes, a dunk, and was so smooth that it looked like it was something out of a Harlem Globetrotters routine. Arians’ biggest weakness? He has a nervous habit of constantly shifting his mouth guard around, which makes him look kind of dumb at times.

5) The Panthers’ top returning player is arguably James Haarsma, who probably only played 15-20 minutes last night. While a lot of people left worried about the near loss to a Division II school last night, I left thinking that Haarsma’s lack of minutes last night was probably just an indicator that Rob Jeter was playing around and trying to figure out his rotation.

6) The Parkside roster is a curious one. Parkside is the state’s only NCAA Division II school, so one would think that it would be a haven for Wisconsin kids who couldn’t quite secure a Division I scholarship. In fact, there are only three Wisconsin natives on the roster, with the bulk of the team made up of players from just across the border in Illinois. And then there’s a guy from Maine and a dude from Arizona. I’m still scratching my head at how they ended up at Parkside, a school whose existence I was completely unaware of when I was a high school senior living just 45 minutes away.

7) It was five minutes into the game when my Dez spotted a guy that we quickly realized was likely to keep us entertained all year. He was alone behind the basket angrily yelling at UWM players to pick up their effort. His pleas were very noticeable in the small confines of the Klotsche Center. Throughout the game, he vacillated between waving his arms to pump up the crowd (undeterred by the fact that no one was paying attention to him) and checking something on the iPad that he was carrying around. There’s going to be some high emotion coming from this guy all year, and I’m glad I’m going to be there to see a lot of it.

8) I’m not quite sure what to say about the alternate uniforms that UWM’s dance team changed into for its halftime performance last night. They looked sort of unfinished, and I felt like I saw a lot more of the members of the dance team than I was supposed to. Not that I’m complaining, but I think we’ve hit a new level for revealing college dance team uniforms.

9) One thing that I’m glad made the move from the U.S. Cellular Arena to the Klotsche Center with the Panthers is public address announcer Bob Brainerd. For years, I felt like Brainerd was probably a guy that took himself a bit too seriously for a moderately successful local sports media personality. But with every overly bombastic announcement of Christian Wolf’s name, I’m starting to understand that when we laugh at Brainerd, he’s in on the joke with us.

10) The winner of the halftime lightning contest was dressed like my best friend in second grade always was. Kudos to Bob Brainerd for noticing this as well, and offering up a " nice sweater" comment over the public address system while announcing the victory.

11) It’s going to be tough to get an earlier foul-out this season than Parkside’s Kevin Senechalle, who picked up his fifth at the 16 minute timeout in the second half.

12) I’m encouraged that this year’s UWM team will be more exciting to watch than recent past versions, mostly because half of the team appears to have no regard for their own safety while taking the ball strong to the hoop.

13) A few years back when Popeye’s Fried Chicken sponsored the Panthers, there was an entertaining promotion where if UWM managed to dunk the ball five times in a game, everyone was entitled to a free meal at Popeye’s. While that deal is long since dead, I’m pleased to report that a similar deal was in place last night. Four Panther dunks was to result in free chips and queso at any local Qdoba. The dunk threshold was not met last night (the team stalled at two), though I’m not overly disappointed. I kind of suspect that if I ever took my ticket stub to any Qdoba other than the one on Oakland Avenue near UWM the day after a UWM win that they’d just look at me like I was making that promotion up.

14) I’m going to admit to not even noticing that Demetrius Harris was on the Panther roster last year. He’s a starter this year, though, and is the most impressive physical specimen on the team. He led the team in points last night (despite an awful foul shooting evening), and I’m confident that he’ll lead the team in rebounding this season. Unfortunately, that rebounding prediction is only partially a compliment, as part of Harris’s big rebounding numbers will be due to the fact that he tends to get lots of rebounds off of his own misses.

15) Seeing as Parkside played well last night, it seems only fair to credit its top players. Forward Jeremy Saffold appeared to be the most talented guy on the roster, though teammate Conrad Krutwig had a big scoring night and was the game’s high scorer. A senior with a receding hairline, next year Krutwig is likely to be a dominant rec league player once his college career is over. His combination of height, youth, and crafty veteran moves will ensure that he’s rightfully first picked in virtually every pickup game that he plays in over the next five years.

16) After the game, Dez and I headed to a nearby bar for a post-game beer. At the bar, we encountered two older gentlemen who had been sitting near us at the game who asked us what the outcome was, as they had left early. Two thoughts on this. One, it was nice to see future me and Dez at the bar. Two, perhaps there’s something to learn from future me and Dez, as they had the good sense to leave an exhibition game early so that they could get to the bar.

One game is in the books, and we’ve got plenty more to watch this week. It’s good to have hoops back. Back tomorrow with another thing that I’m looking forward to this year...

Things I'm Looking Forward To: UWM's Return to the Klotsche Center

2012-11-05T07:43:00.000-06:00

This year, UWM has made the shift back to campus, and instead of playing at the U.S. Cellular arena, will be playing all home games at the Klotsche Center. Before I get to why I like this move, let’s get the negatives out of the way (and there are lots of them). The Panthers were more prominent and accessible to all Milwaukee folks when they were downtown at the U.S. Cellular Arena. A bit of legitimacy feels lost, since the Panthers go from playing at a major sports complex to what feels like an oversized high school gym (indeed, I’ve been to a new high school fieldhouse or two that would rival the Klotsche). Putting games on the UWM campus means parking hassles and a lack of pre and post-game entertainment options for fans. Finally, while this move is presumably aimed, in part, at making games more accessible to UWM student fans, the culture of UWM has never been such that hordes of students are likely to be rushing over from Sandburg Hall to watch a game just because it’s easy to get to.

Wow, that was a lot of negatives.

So then, why do I like the move? I’ll give you three big reasons why:

1) Games at the Klotsche Center are cool.

Last year was my first year as a UWM season-ticket holder. Of the games that my friends and I attended, one of the most memorable was a blowout win by the Panthers over Nebraska-Omaha, a team transitioning to Division I status. The game itself? It was pretty dreadful. But the opportunity to sit only a few feet from the action was outstanding. If you amortize the cost of my season ticket over the entire season, my admission to that game cost under $4. Nonetheless, I still found myself sitting in a location where I could read the opposing coach’s facial expressions, and hear players’ family members yelling words of encouragement. I dare you to show me another Division I venue where you can get that close to the center of things for around the cost of a concession stand hot dog (and not one of those fancy hot dogs with lots of toppings on it, either).

2) The Klotsche Center is currently a more appropriate home for UWM.

Back in 1998, when UWM moved from the U.S. Cellular Arena to the Klotsche Center, I thought the move was brilliant. Then in 2003, when the Panthers abandoned the Klotsche Center and moved back to the U.S. Cellular Arena, I praised this move, as well. These feelings were not as inconsistent as they may seem, once you consider history. In 1998, UWM was a losing team struggling to get anyone to head downtown to watch them. It became ridiculous playing to 800 fans in a 10,000+ seat arena. And rebuilding in an intimate gym on campus where excitement could quickly become infectious was a great idea. In 2001 I had the pleasure of attending UWM’s near upset of Wisconsin at the Klotsche Center, and I have no doubt in my mind that one of the reasons that the Panthers nearly stole a game that day was that Wisconsin had never before had to deal with playing in front of 3,500 excited fans crammed into a tiny gym. I’ve rarely felt that type of electricity in a crowd. Sitting in my Badger fleece, even I nearly started cheering for the Panthers.

Of course, that 2001 game also demonstrated that UWM had reached a point where it was about to the outgrow the Klotsche Center. When the Panthers headed back to the U.S. Cellular Arena in 2003, it was no longer a 3-24 team that had lost everyone’s interest. Instead, it was a winning, up-tempo, exciting team that was guided by Bruce Pearl, a tireless promoter that was constantly working to get fans to games. Going to watch Pearl-led teams was like going to a party, and that party could not be contained in a tiny on-campus gym. UWM peaked with a Sweet Sixteen appearance in 2005, and for the first time in my entire life, I watched Milwaukeans get excited about something at UWM other than the architecture program. It would have been a disservice to both the fans and the program to keep the basketball team hidden away on campus while people, for arguably the first time ever, wanted to watch games.

And now? We’re again in uncharted territory. Unlike the move in 1998, the Panthers aren’t a losing program slinking out of downtown so that they can rebuild on campus. But as anyone who has attended a UWM game or two in the past 2-3 years could tell you, the fact that UWM fields a competent basketball team was doesn’t mean that it was filling the stands at the U.S. Cellular Arena. The simple truth is, games are not as exciting to attend as they were during the Bruce Pearl era. Rob Jeter can deliver a solid team, but he can’t deliver a party, too. And if that means that UWM is struggling to draw more than 2,000 fans per game, then why not give those 2,000 fans a chance to sit in a smaller gym, where their excitement stands a better chance of becoming contagious again?

3) The move back to campus implies some level of commitment to building an on-campus arena.

The moment that the move back to the Klotsche Center hit the news, my first thought was “This must mean that UWM is actually getting serious about the idea of building an on-campus basketball arena.”

That’s a weird jump in logic, but I base it on two key factors. First, UWM recently hired former Ohio State athletic director Andy Geiger to head up the UWM athletic department. Geiger’s tenure at Ohio State coincided with an inordinate number of athletic facility construction projects. While Geiger is 73 years old and only signed on to serve as AD for one year, there would be few people better positioned to get the ball rolling on a major athletic facility construction project.

Secondly, the Horizon League, granted UWM a waiver of a conference bylaw requiring that the home basketball facilities of each member school seat no less than 5,000 people. For a league like the Horizon, which is constantly fighting for prominence, it would be counter-intuitive, absent a strong reason, to excuse a member school from a key rule aimed at ensuring high-quality facilities. This is particularly true in the case of UWM, which had been playing its games at one of the league’s top arenas. Playing at the Klotsche does not further the interests of the conference. Playing at a cool new arena would. Thus, I refuse to believe that the Horizon League would grant UWM a waiver on its arena rules without some type of assurance that UWM is actively pursuing or investigating plans to build an on-campus basketball facility. And I’d love to see a true on campus home for the UWM basketball program. Given that the only other recent home options have been an arena which the NBA abandoned 25 years ago, and the student rec center, I can’t help but think that a new basketball facility would be a big step forward for the Panthers.

Here’s looking forward to kicking off the season tonight. See you at the Klotsche Center!

The Season Is Nearly Upon Us!

2012-11-02T10:27:00.003-05:00

It’s amazing how these things sneak up on you, but it appears that the 2012-2013 season is just about upon us. Next Monday night I’ll be making my way to my first live game of the year, and next Friday Marquette kicks off the season in grand fashion by playing on an aircraft carrier. And an early start to this year’s high school season means that we’ll have more basketball than we can handle before ESPN’s Feast Week even begins. I don’t think I’m alone in my excitement over all of these things.

With the season coming up, one of the most common questions that I get from acquaintances that I run into is “Are you still doing that basketball blog thing?” It’s always sort of tough for me to answer. I do still post thoughts from time to time, but by and large, I abandoned regular blogging 2-3 years ago. It’s not for lack of desire (watching basketball and writing are still two of my favorite pastimes), but I simply no longer have the amount of time necessary to watch a basketball game and form a page worth of coherent thoughts about it every night. Usually I just end up telling people that the blog is mostly part of my past, but that I haven’t had the heart to totally kill it yet.

And while I’d like to tell you that everything has changed this year, the truth is that my efforts are likely to remain about where they have been for the past 2-3 seasons. That is to say, sporadic and random. Part of what drove me years ago when I was doing daily updates was knowing that every day a handful of people like me were sitting in their offices and coming to my blog to read one or two interesting things about basketball before starting their work day in earnest. But when I couldn’t do daily updates anymore (and I simply can’t), there was no reason for those that I had entertained to check in every day, and I no longer felt beholden to anyone. Oddly, being 100% committed to something is easier for me, because I know exactly what I need to do. Only being 50% invested is tougher, because it offers opportunities to slack off (as I have in past years, missing opportunities to write about some great games and events that I’ve seen).

I should probably get to a point, though, after that overly self-important digression. I still plan on checking in on the blog from time to time. Next week, in fact, I’m going old school and posting thoughts every day (mostly because I’ve had a chance to bank a few things over the past week or two). The week will examine four of the things that I’m most looking forward to this season in a series that I’m creatively titling “Things I’m Looking Forward To,” with a brief interruption on Tuesday for my thoughts on the first UWM Exhibition of the year. Here’s my tentative schedule of posts for next week:

Monday: Things I’m Looking Forward To: UWM’s Return to the Klotsche Center
Tuesday: Game 1: Thoughts on the UWM vs. UW-Parkside Exhibition
Wednesday: Things I’m Looking Forward To: An Early Start to the High School Season
Thursday: Things I’m Looking Forward To: The College Debut of Sam Dekker
Friday: Things I’m Looking Forward To: Marquette and Ohio State on an Aircraft Carrier

After that, if something huge happens, I’ll share thoughts. And if I happen to be at a game where a mascot does something that merits recognition of his or her excellence, rest assured that I’ll check in so that others can hear about it. But I’m realistic enough to know that I won’t be here daily, no matter how much I want to be. And that’s probably a good thing.

Here’s looking forward to a great start to the season next week. Happy hoops watching!

Stubling Into the Off Season

2012-04-25T07:21:00.000-05:00

As a college basketball fan, I consider myself blessed to live in Wisconsin. Over the past decade, Wisconsin and Marquette have routinely found their way into the NCAA tournament, and UW-Milwaukee has kicked in a few nice tournament runs as well. So there is rarely a lack of excitement in the basketball world in my fair home state. There is a lot that is good about college basketball in Wisconsin.

This young off season, however, has been a bit of a downer for me. Transfers and premature departures come to most teams during the off season, but the handling of the first (and hopefully only) departures of the off season by Wisconsin and Marquette have left me somewhat disappointed in each of the programs. While I’m normally a positive guy, today I want to take a look at the start of an off season that, so far, has me shaking my head in disappointment.

(Note: I was also disappointed to see that UWM’s Lonnie Boga, who I had pegged for stardom early in his freshman year, announce his intention to transfer after sitting out this year with an injury. However, there seems to be nothing unsavory about that situation–I’ll just miss seeing him play. And saying his insanely cool name.)

So here’s my take on each of the player departure scenarios that raised my eyebrows:

Wisconsin and Jarrod Uthoff

If you’re a Wisconsin fan and you don’t feel at least somewhat uneasy about the way things shook out with the Jarrod Uthoff situation, you’re not assessing things honestly.

I’m a huge Wisconsin fan, and just as huge a Bo Ryan fan. I believe that there’s much more that’s good about the fact that Wisconsin has Bo Ryan as a coach than there is bad. But that doesn’t mean that I have to love everything that Bo Ryan does. And this was one of those rare instances when I couldn’t really defend his actions. Outside of situations where there has clearly been something shady going on (which no one has alleged has been the case here), barring Uthoff from transferring to 26 schools (Big Ten, ACC, Iowa State and Marquette) seems remarkably excessive.

I’ve heard a lot of talk from Wisconsin fans giving excuses for Ryan’s actions. There’s been plenty of discussion about how poorly Uthoff handled the situation. And there’s been assertions that Ryan always intended to take schools off of the banned list, but wanted to ensure a face-to-face meeting with Uthoff about the issue by forcing him to appeal the restrictions on his transfer. For a variety of reasons, I see both of those explanations as flimsy excuses. At best, Ryan acted tactlessly in this situation. At worst, he acted vindictively.

To those that note that Uthoff handled his decision to transfer badly, it is hard to disagree. I understand that Uthoff was anxious to begin his transfer process. And upon his decision to transfer, he was not able to meet face-to-face with Bo Ryan because Ryan was out of town for two weeks, first at the Final Four, and then on vacation. But while a two-week wait to have an in-person talk prior to trying to find a new home and making the transfer news public is not ideal, it’s the sort of minor concession that you make to a coach who has invested a year in you, and who Uthoff himself has said he thought he had a good relationship with.

All that said, I think that Ryan severely overreacted to what was ultimately a small, but unfortunate error in judgment by a college freshman. If nothing else, Ryan should have seen how his actions would be viewed by the public. One of Ryan’s young players impatiently pushed for a release from his scholarship before getting the chance to meet with him. Ryan then restricted that player from receiving a scholarship at a large number of schools, including a handful of schools that Uthoff was likely to be considering. For not paying him the proper courtesy, Ryan effectively decided to drastically alter Uthoff’s future path. The reaction looked both disproportionate and petty, particularly given that the reputation of Uthoff prior to this whole situation had almost universally been one of a good student and person. And I say all of this with a full belief that Uthoff was, at least partially, in the wrong.

As to the assertion that Ryan’s restrictions were put in place to force an appeal (and by implication, a discussion) from Uthoff, I’m not buying it. First, this version of the story came out fairly late in the process. Had Ryan commented immediately that he was willing to consider releasing restrictions, pending a conversation with Uthoff, I’d be a lot more inclined to buy this explanation. But he didn’t. He initially was silent (not a bad approach, I might add). Then he said that he wasn’t sure how to deal with the situation, given the infrequency that he deals with transfers and that other division one coaches that he had spoken to supported his move. The more reasonable version of things only came out during some serious backpedaling. More importantly, Ryan and Uthoff were generally not believed to have a strained relationship prior to the transfer. And when you have someone that you get along with, you don’t force that person into a procedural paradigm in order to get what you want from them. You ask them nicely for what you would like. Ryan forcing Uthoff to appeal in order to ensure a conversation about the transfer is akin to me loaning money to a friend and then taking my friend to court when he’s two days late paying me back. No reasonable person operates that way.

Lost in the firestorm over Ryan denying Uthoff the ability to freely transfer were his actions towards a fellow coach with whom I’d always assumed (perhaps wrongly) he had a good relationship. Virginia coach Tony Bennett had been an assistant coach under Ryan, having stuck around at Wisconsin for a bit after his father, Dick, had retired as the Badgers’ coach. It was reported that Bennett contacted Wisconsin to inquire about speaking with Uthoff. The following day, Ryan restricted Uthoff from transferring to any ACC school, citing the possibility of facing an ACC opponent in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. If you don’t think that Ryan’s ACC restriction was a badly veiled way of barring Uthoff from transferring to Virginia without actually singling out the Virginia program, you’re kidding yourself. It is unfathomable to me why Ryan would act this discourteously towards a former assistant (unless I was always wrong about Ryan and Bennett getting along). Tony Bennett’s not a dumb man, so I presume that he feels pretty strongly offended (as he should) by this slight. And I would think that this will give Bennett a little extra motivation in the future when he comes back to Wisconsin to recruit for his program.

So in sum, Ryan wielded power in an attempt to win an insignificant battle with a 19-year-old player, and treated a colleague with whom he used to work in a less than respectful manner. On the positive side, Uthoff ultimately did get his release to transfer to any school outside of the Big Ten, a much more reasonable restriction. Whether cooler heads prevailed, or Wisconsin succumbed to media pressure, the result is a positive one for Uthoff. It was an awful ride getting there, though. On the positive side, this ordeal did help shed some light on an NCAA rule that is fraught with potential for abuse. As for Ryan, this was not his finest moment, but I’m hopeful that he has learned from it. One needs to have a good-sized ego to be a college basketball coach, but sometimes it is best to keep that ego in check.

Marquette and Aaron Durley

If you’re a Marquette fan and you don’t feel at least somewhat uneasy about the way things shook out with the Aaron Durley situation, then you’re not assessing things honestly.

Admittedly, while I like Marquette, I’m more of a Wisconsin fan. As such, I’m sort of out on an island amongst many of my friends when I express that I don’t think that Buzz Williams is a bad guy. Perhaps I’m naive in buying his persona, but to me he genuinely seems like a hard-working, guy of average intelligence who sometimes acts well before he thinks things out. And to me, the release of Aaron Durley is just the latest example of that.

Buzz Williams’ mistake in the Durley situation wasn’t releasing Durley from his letter of intent. The true mistake was made months earlier when Marquette signed him to the letter of intent in the first place. Reports are that Durley didn’t have an outstanding senior year, likely would have struggled to find court time at Marquette, and therefore might not have been the best fit with the Golden Eagles. I certainly see the logic in the idea that releasing Durley from his letter of intent allows him to find an opportunity that better suits his abilities. But I also believe that to be an overly simplistic view of things. It ignores the fact that five months earlier, when Durley signed his letter of intent and was presumably considered fit to play at Marquette, he relied on that and closed off plenty of other options for himself. That’s a more unsettling way of seeing of things, particularly in light of Marquette’s history with personnel issues like this.

Regarding Marquette’s history, one needn’t look back very far to see two situations which are somewhat analogous to Durley’s release. Two years ago, many eyebrows were raised when Marquette rescinded a scholarship promised to incoming guard D.J. Newbill the summer before he was slated to begin his freshman year. Conveniently (for Marquette, at least), Newbill’s release from his letter of intent amidst strange rumors about him failing to be admitted to the university came the same week that talented Racine native Jamil Wilson announced that he was transferring back home from Oregon to play at Marquette. So suddenly, the team had a scholarship available for Wilson.

Newbill was not the first to leave the program before the year even began. During the summer prior to Newbill’s release, Marquette released incoming big man Brett Roseboro from his scholarship. Roseboro, who had spent the summer before his freshman year in Milwaukee training with his anticipated Marquette teammates, parted ways with mutually with Marquette after it became evident to everyone involved that he was not a player of the same caliber as the others on the roster. He was left with just weeks to find a new school when he was released from his letter of intent in late August.

The common thread in the Durley, Roseboro and Newbill situations is the parting of ways with a player whose talent level appears not up to the level of other options available to Marquette. This was explicit with Newbill, who was literally replaced by another player the week that he was released from scholarship. It was implied with Roseboro and Durley. Though neither had his scholarship immediately given to another player, the implication of the view that both would be better off at a lower-level school was that Marquette could find someone better to fill the open spot.

In the immediate, it’s probably correct that Durley, Roseboro and Newbill are better off not burning a year or two of eligibility at Marquette when they’re not particularly wanted or needed there. However, all three of those players also closed off other opportunities when they committed to Marquette. Newbill’s mid-summer release left him with two months to find a new school. Roseboro, who parted ways in late August, had roughly two weeks to find a new home before most academic calendars began. Both found spots, and Newbill actually thrived during a solid freshman season at the seemingly random destination of Southern Mississippi. But it should come as no surprise to anyone that both Newbill and Roseboro ultimately ended up transferring from the first school that each of them landed at after their respective releases from Marquette. Both had to scramble at the last minute to find a spot from the limited number of schools that had not yet filled their rosters by mid to late summer. And it’s a lot harder to find the right fit when one is severely restricted by both time and scholarship availability.

I respect that when things like this don’t work out, the player is not the only one who loses out. Marquette would obviously like the players that it signs to letters of intent to pan out. But the consequences to the player, whose life path is drastically altered, is a bit more severe than it is for the school, which is merely charged with finding another player to fill its 13th roster spot. The job of being a division one college basketball coach is not just about coaching basketball–it heavily involves evaluating talent and recruiting players, as well. Not doing that part of the job well is a reckless act by a coach and can end up hurting players. And the fact that Buzz Williams has had three such incidents in the past four years suggests to me that he may need to work a bit harder at properly evaluating the players to whom he offers scholarships.

The takeaway from all of this? As I said earlier, I don’t think Buzz Williams is a sinister guy. I think he’s a guy who sometimes lets his own excitement cloud his judgment. I would simply like him to take a hard look at some of the recruiting mistakes that he’s made and take steps to ensure that he stops making the same mistakes. Continuing as he has is detrimental to the players that he ends up releasing, as well as his own program. I won’t deny that he is doing the correct thing by releasing players who will likely never play at Marquette so that they may pursue other opportunities. However, I think praising Williams for doing that is like praising a doctor for getting a diagnosis correct on the second try. Some level of harm is still likely done if you don’t get things right initially.

Things I Meant To Talk About This Year

2012-03-15T08:15:00.001-05:00

What? Just because I haven't written at all this year, you thought that I haven't been attending basketball games and generally obsessing over basketball-related minutia? Well, I have been. And with that in mind, as Tourney Day is upon us, I'd like to share with you five things that I wished I'd taken the time to discuss on the blog this year. Apologies for the length--when you keep things pent up for an entire year, a lot tends to come out at once. Here are those five things, though:

Dekker’s Big Game: In a random stroke of luck, I happened to be in the stands for Sam Dekker’s 58-point game a few weeks back. I had wanted to see Dekker play all year, but a hectic schedule had prevented me from getting to too many random high school games this year. So it was sheer luck that my schedule freed up on Tuesday night when Wisconsin’s top incoming recruit happened to put on a show for the ages at Random Lake. Even aside from Dekker’s scoring barrage, this would have been a great game for a write-up were I actually documenting my game-viewing as in prior years. From the public address announcer playing the Russian National Anthem (something I’m pretty sure I haven’t heard since listening to Nikolai Volkov sing it at a 1980s Wrestlemania) for Random Lake’s Russian foreign exchange student on senior night, to a chat with a local from Random Lake confirming for me there is, indeed, nowhere I’d find a decent post-game meal in Random Lake, there were plenty of amusing things going on.

Dekker’s performance, however, overshadowed everything. He got three-point shots off at will, was a perfect 14-14 on 2-point shots (including two dunks and one of the finest spin-moves I’ve ever seen), and did tons of damage from the foul line. Basically, he was unstoppable wherever he was on the floor. And Sheboygan Lutheran needed their star to be as near-perfect as he was, since Random Lake had about as hot a shooting night as I’ve seen all year. But despite Random Lake’s surprising size (lots more 6-4 guys than I expected from a school of 300 or so) and outstanding effort, Dekker and his teammates (who stepped up to help out quite a bit in the second half) walked away with the win. I’ve watched a lot of basketball, but I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen anything like that before. Nor do I expect to see anything quite like it ever again.

Ryan Evans: Ryan Evans’ transformation during his time in Madison is perhaps best described by an exchange that I had with a friend while watching a mid-season Badger game. As Evans hoisted a 15-foot jumper, my friend groaned, and expressed dismay Evans was shooting that particular shot. As the shot predictably dropped through the hoop, I turned to look at my friend and noted “You haven’t watched much of Ryan Evans this year, have you? He’s borderline automatic from that distance.”

Indeed, Evans as a junior is markedly improved over the younger versions of himself. There are two primary things that I remember from Evans’ freshman season. First, he had possibly the most awkward looking and inaccurate jump shot in all of division one basketball. Had this been two years ago, I’d have reacted just like my friend above did. Second, during nearly every interview that I heard with Bo Ryan that season, Ryan went out of his way (sometimes WAY out of his way) to talk about what a joy it was to coach Evans. As a sophomore, he made modest improvements to his game, but his limitations were illustrated by how he was used at the end of tight games. When the Badgers’ needed a strong defender, Evans was inserted into the game. If taking care of the ball was a bigger priority on any given play, though, teammate Tim Jarmusz was subbing in for Evans.

This season? Evans has been a model of consistency. His defensive prowess remains, his formerly awkward jump-shot has developed into the most reliable thing on a wildly inconsistent team, and he has significantly cut down on boneheaded turnovers and other mental lapses. Aside from not quite having three-point range, Evans has developed into a classic Bo Ryan player, who may not be spectacular at any single thing, but is very good at nearly everything.

Perhaps most the astounding thing about Evans’ transformation into a classic Wisconsin solid-but-unspectacular player is that he’s about the last guy who should have developed into such a smart, consistent threat. From what I recall of Evans’ recruitment, he was a lightly recruited player in high school and likely would not have ended up on Wisconsin’s radar if not for a relative of Evans with ties to the university tipping off the coaching staff. Evans’ experience with organized basketball was limited and Wisconsin was taking a flyer on him in large part due to his athleticism. Guys recruited as athletes are usually fun to have around for a big dunk, but they seldom develop into consistent, reliable players. Evans has not been one to rely on his God-given ability alone, though, and luckily for Wisconsin, the only trait more prominent than his athleticism is his willingness to learn and be coached.

So, Ryan Evans is my favorite guy on Wisconsin’s roster. Steady, reliable, and always looking to get better. I’m pretty sure he won’t be an all-American next year, but I’m also pretty sure I don’t care, so long as he continues to be the one guy that is guaranteed to show up for the Badgers every night.

Buzz Williams Dance: After a hard fought win at West Virginia a few weeks back, Buzz Williams took some heat from West Virginia fans for doing a dance at half-court after the game, en route to an interview. Some have criticized Williams for being disrespectful to West Virginia, while other have praised him for making the game fun.

I come down somewhere in the middle on this one. I think Williams’ dance was disrespectful. It should be obvious to any college basketball coach that dancing at mid-court after a win at an opponent’s home court is not going to endear him to the opponents or their fans. That said, I would bet my life that Buzz Williams failed to give one second of thought to the situation prior to busting out his dance moves. It’s classic Buzz Williams to talk or act first, and then be forced to recognize the implications of his actions later. I suspect that Williams meant no ill will to the WVU team or its fans, and I further suspect that he was genuinely embarrassed by what he had done once he realized how it was received.

In short, I think it’s unfair to paint Williams as a poor sport. At worst, he’s a guy that doesn’t always think situations through. That’s not a great trait, and it certainly led him to do something dumb at West Virginia.. But it’s not nearly as bad as being a person that consciously rubs his opponents’ noses in things. And frankly, having a guy who slips up from time to time due to emotion is a bit refreshing, given that Williams’ predecessor was a man who was constantly over-prepared for every situation imaginable.

Germantown: I wrote an essay which I never posted at the start of the season which had as its basic premise that Germantown was the high school basketball version of the 2008 New England Patriots. The summary version of it is this–Germantown, like the 2008 Patriots, had almost all of the obvious things in its favor: arguably the best collection of talent in the state, a team with more varsity and big-game experience than anyone else in the state, and a collection of players who had been learning each other’s tendencies since grade school. But there’s one extra part of the recipe that both the 2011-2012 Germantown Warhawks and the 2008 New England Patriots both have: they play angry. The Patriots refused to ever take their foot off the pedal against opponents after it was suggested that their success was due in part to illegally spying on other teams’ practices via video. Germantown, which returned the bulk of its prior year’s roster, entered the season undoubtedly upset by losing to Appleton East, due in part to a controversial call in last year’s sectional finals. They’ve been on a mission ever since, and have spent the year crushing all opponents. Germantown is not simply undefeated. Consider the following factiods about the Warhawks:

1) Aside from an 8-point margin of victory over Homestead in early February, Germantown has won all other games this season by double-digits.

2) The Warhawks handed 2011 state runner-up and #4 ranked DePere its only two losses of this season.

3) Germantown’s opening round game of this year’s WIAA tournament by a margin of 62 points.

4) Much of Germantown’s success this season was achieved without 6'9" Indiana recruit Luke Fischer, who spent a significant portion of the season out of the lineup without an injury. Fischer returned about a month ago, and should be in perfect game shape by now.

Germantown still has two tough games left to go (against perennial power Madison Memorial, and presumably against Milwaukee King, another frequent state tournament attendee). And as we saw with the football team that I’ve compared the Warhawks to above, there’s no guarantee that the undefeated juggernaut will win the championship. But if I had to guess, I’d still say that any angry Germantown team will finally be smiling and taking home a gold ball on Saturday night.

WIAA Tournament Potentially Moving to Green Bay: Obviously there has been much talk about the WIAA’s proposed move from Madison to Green Bay for the state boys and girls basketball tournaments. When the possibility of moving the state tournament to Green Bay first came about, there was some pretty clear logic to it. Based on the starting proposal, a deal did not seem workable for either side. On January 12, the UW Athletic Department put out this press release, ostensibly to put pressure on the WIAA by showing the public the inherent reasonableness of its offer. Instead, my reading of the press release gave me a better understanding of why the WIAA would consider moving the state basketball tournament from the city that it has been in since 1920. In short, the UW Athletic Department was giving the WIAA a pretty crappy offer.

The major issue at hand was the availability of the Kohl Center. Key to this availability issue is the formation of a hockey league by the Big Ten Conference, and the league’s plans to have member schools host playoff games at times that would conflict with the WIAA tournament schedule. In order to deal with this conflict, the UW Athletic Department offered essentially two options: 1) The WIAA could have the Kohl Center during years when UW was not hosting hockey tournament games and the Fieldhouse in years when UW was not hosting hockey, or 2) The WIAA could have the Kohl Center free and clear for a Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday tournament format, instead of the traditional Thursday-Friday-Saturday tournament.

One can easily see why the WIAA would reject such a proposal, as the options that it had been presented with were not great ones. Option #1 would leave in question the venue of the tournament until a week or two beforehand, creating uncertainty. It would also open up the possibility of playing games at the outdated Fieldhouse, a major step down from the Kohl Center (I love the Fieldhouse as much as anyone, but we’re past the point where it should be hosting the state’s marquee high school basketball event). Option #2 would ridiculously move the tournament to midweek, leaving students to miss more school and making it more difficult for potential spectators to take off of work. With options like those, I can’t particularly fault the WIAA for looking towards Green Bay, which was making a major push to host the tournament and could offer a newer facility (the Resch Center) on the exact dates desired.

Once can similarly see why the UW Athletic Department would make such an objectively terrible offer. While the university and the city as a whole benefits greatly from having the tournament on campus, the Kohl Center is a UW facility, and UW teams should receive top priority for its use. If UW Athletic Director Barry Alvarez went to men’s hockey coach Mike Eaves and told him that he was moving any Big Ten playoff games that UW would be hosting to the Alliant Energy Center, Eaves would be rightfully pissed off (or at least he should be–Eaves has publically been very accommodating and flexible throughout this whole process). UW has to put its own teams first, which in this case, unfortunately, led it to not be able to make a particularly attractive offer to the WIAA.

All of this changed, obviously, when Barry Alvarez initiated his successful attempt to change the format of the Big Ten hockey tournament, primarily in an attempt to free up the Kohl Center for the WIAA in future years. This move gave the WIAA most of the dates that they were looking for. It also showed that the UW Athletic Department, by affecting a significant change in the structure of how hockey will work in the Big Ten, valued the WIAA. This compromise was a big move by the UW Athletic Department, and one that it should be commended for.

However, based news a few weeks back that the WIAA Board of Control recommended moving its boys and girls basketball tournaments to Green Bay starting potentially as early as next year, it appears this was not enough of an accommodation for the WIAA’s taste. From the articles that I’ve read on this matter, it appears that there are two sticking points: 1) The fact that the UW, while freeing up the desired Kohl Center dates in 2015-2018, did nothing to alleviate conflicts existing in 2013 and 2014, and 2) The fact that, according to the WIAA, the offer on the table from UW contains language that would allow the WIAA tournament to be moved in the event of a conflict with a UW regular season event.

At first glance, it appears that the WIAA is being bull-headed and unwilling to compromise. However, looking a bit deeper, once can see that the WIAA is not averse to compromise. In fact, while the WIAA doesn’t seem to be offering an compromises going forward, it has compromised quite a bit over the past decade. For the past two seasons, the WIAA girls’ tournament has been shifted two weeks earlier so that it may be held at the Kohl Center. Prior to that, there were five years that the girls’ tournament was held at the Alliant Energy Center. And having spoken with a few people that attended the girls’ tournament in those years when it was away from the Kohl Center, the general opinion that I have heard is that the Alliant Energy Center is a vastly sub-par facility for basketball (not to mention that there are few, if any, entertainment options within walking distance). So really, in seven of the past eight years, the WIAA has either shifted venues or dates of the girls’ tournament due to issues with Kohl Center conflicts.

Currently, it appears that UW is sincere in its attempts to free up dates in 2015 and beyond for the WIAA. It is understandable that UW would want an out clause for regular season events, given that it is impossible to know what forces may dictate future season schedules. However it is also understandable, given recent history, that the WIAA would balk at committing to an entity that has displaced the tournament in the past, and can’t give a written commitment not to do so going forward. And that’s before you factor in the reality that the currently proposed deal would require two more years of compromise in 2013 and 2014 before the no-conflict era supposedly starts.

In the end, I believe that this is a sad situation for all involved. Having the WIAA tournaments in Madison is of benefit to everyone involved. UW benefits by bringing tourism money into its community, and having the opportunity to showcase itself for legions of high school students and their parents that pass through the campus. The WIAA benefits by getting to use one of the state’s two marquee arenas for one of its marquee events. I doubt that either one wants to lose the other, but at this point, it seems likely that they will.

As to what I see happening, I think that the tournament will move to Green Bay. And while a great tradition will be lost and some Madison businesses will lose out on some tourism money, life will go on. Green Bay will likely do an outstanding job of hosting the tournament at the Resch Center, and student athletes winning state championships will be no less excited about doing so than they were before. And finally, five years from now, when the WIAA’s contract with Green Bay is up, the tournament will move back to Madison after all of the parties involved truly come to recognize what they lost when the tournament moved.

Enjoy March Madness, and I'll see you again when the feeling moves me...

Wisconsin vs. Michigan State: I'm Upset Enough to Write About This One

2012-01-04T08:00:00.000-06:00

While I’ve made no official comment about it, I think my silence generally has been a pretty good indicator that I’ve abandoned blogging about basketball this year (I’m pleased to note that I’m still seeing plenty of games, though). However, last night’s Wisconsin-Michigan State game got me fired up enough to briefly come out of retirement to jot down a few thoughts. It was an upsetting night (particularly after watching the Badger football team lose by just barely running out of time the night prior), but I think in times like these it is important to clarify who and what you’re upset with. With that in mind, here’s who I’m upset with over last night’s game, and who I’m not upset with.

Those Who I’m Not Upset With:

The Officials: Much as it hurts to say, every indication is that they got the call right. Moreover, they actually deserve some praise for the way that they handled things. First off, while I expect my referees to have a thorough understanding of the rules of basketball, I wouldn’t be offended if I saw a team of refs baffled by what to do when there are two game clocks in the arena that are out of sync. That’s not exactly the same as not knowing what a double dribble is. The fact that last night’s refs made the correct ruling on that issue was impressive. Second, that’s a tough call to make against the home team. There is a school of thought that would say that things were so close, and the video so inconclusive (if one didn’t know the correct rule on the clock issue), you just stick with the call on the floor and let the teams keep playing. And making such a call probably would have saved the referee crew from a lot of verbal abuse last night at the Kohl Center. But as we know now, it would have been the wrong call. So kudos to the refs not only for knowing their stuff, but for having the guts to stand behind the rule book in a tough situation.

Bo Ryan: Bo Ryan went on an expletive-laden tirade after the referees waved off the final basket last night. I’m certain to read tons of internet comments today from people complaining about Ryan’s lack of class, and the poor sportsmanship that he displayed. I couldn’t disagree with those people more. As a fan, I’d be disturbed if my team had a coach that didn’t completely lose it after a moment like that. I pretty much lost it in my living room after they waved the basket off, and I don’t have a full-time job that’s impacted by the outcome of the game. Show me a division one coach that wouldn’t have at least a mini-meltdown over something like that and I’ll show you a terribly uninspiring coach. And sure, Bo Ryan swore a bit during his meltdown. I’m not a particularly big fan of swearing, but your filter kind of disintegrates when you’re in a blind rage, so I can forgive some coarse language. Furthermore, Bo Ryan is far from standing alone in letting some filthy words come out of his mouth on a basketball court.

What also goes unnoticed by those that would criticize Ryan is that once the moment was done, he pulled himself together. He shook hands with the Michigan State team. And if you took the time to watch SportsCenter and see his remarks during the post-game press conference, you wouldn’t have seen a guy ranting about how his team got screwed. To the contrary, Ryan indicated that he’d have to watch the tape later and noted that one of his teams had won a big game in a similar manner at Michigan State a few years back, so this is the sort of thing that can go both ways. He even jokingly ended his comments by stating “What are you going to do? Violence is out of the question.” That’s pretty much exactly what I want from my coach. A guy that won’t hold back in the heat of passion, but can find some perspective once the situation has cooled down. So, major kudos to Bo Ryan for his handling of the controversy last night.

Those Who Angered Me Beyond Belief:

Kohl Center Facilities Management: It’s remarkably embarrassing when your home arena’s game clocks aren’t synced up. Now, I’ll grant you that two-tenths of a second isn’t a difference that would be noticed all that frequently, even if you were specifically checking it. But I’ll make this observation to fellow Badger fans–if this game had been played at the Breslin Center, and Michigan State had won in exactly the same manner, wouldn’t we all be screaming about the incompetence of Michigan State due to their inability to maintain accurate clocks? And wouldn’t we be irrationally speculating about them trying to gain an unfair advantage? I know I would be, so I feel like I should be holding my home facility to the same standard. It was embarrassing enough a few years back before the Kohl Center floor was replaced and television broadcasts kept pointing out that the old floor no longer fit together properly, leading to slightly jagged free-throw lines. But not having all of the clocks set to exactly the same time is pathetic. Let’s hope the Kohl Center pulls it together and gets this (and any other issues that haven’t yet been exposed) fixed by the end of the year.

Fans Who Left the Game Early: I commented to my friend Jesse just before the end of the game that I wanted to see a comeback not so much because I wanted to see a Badger win, but because I wanted all of the fans that started streaming out of the Kohl Center with 50 seconds to go to miss one of the greatest endings of all time. Despite Wisconsin losing, it was a remarkably exciting ending and I feel like that wish came true. I’m very pleased that the Badgers stuck it to some of their worst fans.

Don’t misread my anger here–I’m not one of those uptight people that feels you’re a bad fan if you leave any game early. Wisconsin’s up or down 25 points and you’ve got a big meeting the next morning? Sure, take off with 4 minutes to go–I’ve done it plenty of times myself. I have a life, and don’t always want to waste another 15 minutes on a lost cause. But when fans started bolting to the exits in a two possession game with 50 seconds to go, I was embarrassed. Sure, the outlook at that point is bleak, but a comeback wasn’t inconceivable by any means. You’re saving what–five minutes if you beat the crowd out of the arena and to your car? If you’re going to leave early from a game that’s not totally out of reach because you need to get home at 8:37pm instead of 8:42pm, then perhaps you shouldn’t have gone to the game to begin with. Anyone who left that game at the 50 second mark and didn’t have a medical emergency got what they deserved when they found themselves listening to the game in the car.

So at the end of the night, it was a soul-crushing loss. I’m not exactly excited for the Badgers upcoming road games at Michigan and Purdue, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed for the best. After all, stranger things have happened than Wisconsin coming back from losing their first two home games of the Big Ten season.

See you when I’m feeling moved enough to write again...

Worst. Bracket. Ever.

2011-03-24T09:01:00.000-05:00

It’s fun to tout your successes when you’re right, but I can take equal glee in recounting those times when I’m astoundingly wrong about things. At the moment, it’s a good thing that I can laugh at myself, because if you read my NCAA picks last week, you know how horrifically wrong I got things. Most people have been shaking their heads at how awful their brackets look after the first weekend, but I truly mean it when I talk about how embarrassing my effort was. Both of the teams that I had in the finals are gone, and it’s safe to say that this was my worst attempt ever at predicting the tournament. With that in mind, I’d like to recount the top ten bad calls that I made in my predictions from last week. Enjoy the carnage:

10) Michigan State in the Sweet Sixteen: Apparently you can bet against Tom Izzo in March. Particularly when he has his most disjointed team in years.

9) Belmont over Wisconsin: To be fair, in my comments I did note that this was a calculated risk, as Wisconsin would be blessed with the most amenable bracket possible were they to hold off everyone’s upset darling (which, given my horrific track record on predictions this year, probably means that Butler will give the Badgers a monumental beatdown tonight). On the bright side, my bracket was so horrible this year that I was able to simply sit back and enjoy the win without worrying about my picks (yes, I was already getting crushed on Thursday). And now I get one more weekend of the Badgers.

8) UNLV over Illinois: Picking an 8-seed over a 9-seed is nothing that shocking, but my reasoning for the pick was essentially a total lack of faith in Illinois. Well, if you watched this game, you’d know that Illinois completely dominated the Runnin’ Rebels. My apologies to Mike Tisdale–my lack of faith in you and your teammates was misguided.

7) Xavier over Marquette: Credit to Marquette for getting off to a hot start and knocking off two higher seeded teams on the first weekend of the tournament. I didn’t think they had it in them to win back to back games over very good teams on a neutral court. It’s certainly not something that they were capable of during the regular season. Just over two weeks ago I was vaguely concerned that the Golden Eagles would drop a game to lowly Providence and miss the tournament altogether. And now they’re in the Sweet Sixteen. As for Friday’s game, let’s be thankful that everyone’s in good shape, as we should see lots of running against UNC. And with Marquette finally showing some of the toughness that it seemed to abandon after last season, anything can happen now.

6) Old Dominion over Butler: I pretty specifically said that I thought that Butler was overseeded based on their prior year’s success, played medicore basketball in a mediocre conference, and would lose immediately. The Bulldogs then not only won their first game, but followed it up by upsetting a 1-seed. Yeah, I guess they weren’t overseeded. I just hope that none of these bad things that I said about Butler come back to really bite me when the Bulldogs take on Wisconsin tonight.

5) St. John’s over Gonzaga: Perhaps my recent lack of respect for the Bulldogs is because my schedule no longer allows me to fall asleep to Gonzaga games on the TV in my bedroom. Whatever it is, I sure didn’t expect Gonzaga to beat St. John’s, who by the way, I had in the Elite Eight. Ugh.

4) Georgetown over Notre Dame: This one was supposed to happen tomorrow, but neither team made it to the game. I didn’t love Notre Dame, so I’m not that blown away that the Irish dropped their game on Sunday, but the real shocker was Georgetown being so throughly throttled by VCU. Granted, VCU has completely crushed everything in its path so far, but the smart, slow-down team from Georgetown was supposed to be blowout-proof. Apparently I was a bit off in that reasoning.

3) VCU losing in the First Four: Piggybacking off that last point, I never explicitly stated this, but I fully expected USC to win the play-in game and for VCU to be sitting home on the first weekend of the tournament. All VCU has gone on to do after playing its way in is post a pair of 18-point wins against higher-seeded teams. Sure, no one saw that coming, but it doesn’t change the fact that I was epically wrong. (Side note–best quote of the tournament so far comes from VCU coach Shaka Smart, who after his team’s upset of Purdue responded to a question about next weekend by noting about his point guard Joey Rodriguez “I’m not worried about a letdown. For instance, Joey’s nuts. He wants to win the whole thing.” Credit to the Midmajority twitter feed for making note of this gem.)

2) Syracuse in the Final Four: This was a risky pick, and I knew it. The Orange share a bracket with Ohio State, which is the odds-on favorite and who looked unbeatable this weekend, and North Carolina, a team which appears to be peaking at just the right time. I’ll admit that I never expected Marquette to be the team to take Syracuse out, but seeing as they did, it seems that one of the other stellar teams would have eventually done that anyway. I suppose I should have seen this coming, with Marquette’s signature win of the regular season coming over Syracuse, but I was blinded by the 3-seed.

1) Pittsburgh as National Champions: I think I knew when I was picking this one that it was a bad idea, but I just couldn’t help myself. I love Pitt’s hard-nosed style, and hey, you can’t go wrong picking the top team from the Big East, right? Wrong. I overlooked the fact that while Pitt plays well together, it’s a team lacking star power, something that I must begrudgingly admit is important in March. And while I would still make the case that the Big East is a very good conference, the fact that only two of eleven Big East teams are still playing next weekend, and seven Big East teams lost to lower seeded opponents this past weekend is probably enough for me to concede that I overrated the conference a bit.

Fortunately, the outstanding weekends of Marquette and Wisconsin made up for any personal failures that I may have encountered. Here’s hoping for at least two more nights of excitement from our home teams, though I’d certainly take a few more in the event they’re able to bring home a couple more wins. Enjoy the games this weekend...

2011 NCAA Tournament Picks

2011-03-15T17:18:00.002-05:00

As has become all too apparent over the past three years, I’ve slipped a bit in my older age and have continued my shift from rabid fan to casual fan. But if there’s one thing I’ll never stop doing with the blog, it’s making my NCAA tournament picks. Frankly, I didn’t watch nearly as much televised basketball as I have in years past, so I’m less informed on non-local teams than I should be (including one #1 seed I haven’t seen play a full game all year). But I did just spend a long weekend in Las Vegas enjoying the conclusion of all of the major conference tournaments (side note--it was my first time doing this and suspect that it will be far from my last) and am sufficiently excited for the tournament. I'm no expert, though, and can virtually guarantee that you've got a couple of guys in your office pool with more well-informed thoughts than I have.

Before I get to this year’s picks, though, it’s time for my annual restatement of my general rules for filling out NCAA tourney brackets:

1) Don’t just completely steal my picks (or anyone else’s, for that matter). I don’t mind it personally, but what fun is that for you? Think of it this way–what’s going to be more fulfilling to you: telling the guy in the cube next to you that you “totally called” St. Peter’s knocking off Purdue, or telling him that some guy whose picks you followed got it knew that St. John’s had a path that would allow them to go deep into the tourney. Listen to advice from your doctor or your financial advisor, but the NCAA tournament is supposed to be fun. So relax and follow your instincts.

2) Don’t go crazy with upsets, particularly in the first two rounds. The NCAA selection committee knows more than you, and they’ve seeded these teams for a reason. Sure, you’re no fun if you don’t go out on a limb here or there, but picking 14 first round upsets isn’t just bold, it’s stupid. Yeah, you’re probably going to have a friend that picks that miracle 10-seed that made it to the Sweet Sixteen, and he’s not going to shut up about it. He’s probably not talking so much about the 5-seed and the 7-seed that he had in the Final Four who both lost the first day, though. My picks are notoriously and painfully boring, and I make no apologies for that, even though someone inevitably comments below to complain about my lack of originality and insight every year. (One addendum to this note—while I’d never predict it in a bracket and don’t honestly think it will happen, if ever there was a year that the perfect record of 1-seeds vs. 16-seeds was broken, this would be it. It was a chaotic year, and this is not my favorite group of 1-seeds ever.)

3) Have fun and make some picks for goofy reasons. There are 64 teams in this tournament, and unless your name is Jay Bilas or Digger Phelps, you probably haven’t seen all of them (and in the case of Phelps, even seeing every team isn’t helping him make any sort of useful analysis). So go ahead and pick Oakland to win a game because your favorite cousin from Michigan goes there, or pick against Connecticut because a guy in your office who’s a total dick got his degree there. After all, last year wasn’t your pool won by that woman in your office who thought Duke had nice uniforms? See, you need some quirks, too.

Those are the rules. Now on to the picks. Winners are in bold:

Second Round (Why the NCAA can't just call this the first round is beyond me...)

East

Ohio State (1) vs. UT-San Antonio/Alabama State (16): I’m not going to try real hard on the my explanations for each of the 1-16 matchups, since we generally know how these are going to end, anyway. So I suppose I’ll just say that it amuses me that Dallas Lauderdale looks like he’s about a 42-year-old senior.

George Mason (8) vs. Villanova (9): Villanova, by Villanova standards, was fairly forgettable this year. And seeing as Jim Larranaga is a regular guest on my favorite radio show, the Sports Junkies, it’s easy for me to pick the Patriots here.

West Virginia (5) vs. UAB/Clemson (12): And here’s where the “First Four” games mess things up. If Clemson wins against UAB, I’d take the Tigers in an upset against WVU. If UAB was to somehow pull off a win in its opening game, I’d give this one to West Virginia. I’m feeling like a gambler today, though, so I’ll take UAB/Clemson on the assumption that Clemson will make take out the Blazers. It’s tough to pick a game when you don’t know who will be in it, though.

Kentucky (4) vs. Princeton (13): I like that Princeton has two Milwaukee-area kids (Whitefish Bay’s Jimmy Sherburne and Catholic Memorial’s T.J. Bray), but still can’t take the Tigers over Kentucky’s usual roster of freshman all-stars.

Xavier (6) vs. Marquette (11): Normally my knock on Marquette is that the Golden Eagles are wildly inconsistent—able to knock off the top team in the country on one day and lose to a mediocre mid-major the next. Not this year, though—Marquette is plenty consistent, but simply isn’t all that inspiring. Xavier rolls them in this one, and the Golden Eagles can start their offseason of trying to figure out who’ll step up and be a leader next year.

Syracuse (3) vs. Indiana State (14): I feel it must be noted that if we’re strictly talking nicknames, Orange vs. Sycamores has to rank up there as one of the worst matchups of all time. But hey, at least orange is an attractive color.

Washington (7) vs. Georgia (10): I can’ get too worked up about Pac-10 or SEC hoops this year. Lorenzo Romar’s teams always seem to be good, but also seem to fly under the radar a bit, so give me the Huskies in this one.

North Carolina (2) vs. LIU (15): UNC got a 2-seed, and it doesn’t seem like a travesty? Back in early December I’d have never believed that this would happen. Seeing as things got so much better after he departed, Larry Drew is not looking real good right now.

West

Duke (1) vs. Hampton (16): Duke’s okay now, but I’d give my right arm to see Duke playing with Kyrie Irving like they were at the start of the year. I’m a lefty, though, so it wouldn’t be that big of a sacrifice.

Michigan (8) vs. Tennessee (9): While watching the selection show with a couple of buddies, this was the game that came up on the screen and prompted us all to immediately say “That one’s going to be fun to watch.” With the amount of running in this game, I’m going to be worn out just from watching it. Seeing as this year was a bit of a step back for Tennessee and a huge step forward for Michigan, I’m riding the Wolverines on their way up. And finally, no, I can't even come up with a decent Jeronne Maymon joke right now, and I feel sort of bad about that.

Arizona (5) vs. Memphis (12): Arizona won the Pac-10, yet no one seems to know or care about this. Well, Wildcats, I care. I care.

Texas (4) vs. Oakland (13): The fact that Texas stumbled a few times down the stretch concerns me and I do love Oakland’s nickname (the “Golden Grizzlies”) and jerseys with the players’ names below their numbers. But I just can’t pick against the Longhorns this early.

Cincinnati (6) vs. Missouri (11): I love Yancy Gates, but let’s be honest, I’m taking Cincy here largely because I don’t want to pick against a team that starts a guy named “Cashmere.”

Connecticut (3) vs. Bucknell (14): Kemba Walker has a great sense of timing. He’s a good player who has turned it on to become great when he happens to be in any sort of a tournament that is being seen by the entire country. He did it in the Maui Invitational, he did it in the Big East tournament, and given that the NCAA tournament dwarfs both of those, it’s safe to say that Walker should explode for about 65 points in helping his Huskies take down Bucknell.

Temple (7) vs. Penn State (10): I want Penn State to go out and win this one, mostly because I’m sick of people talking about Penn State like they finished tied with Indiana in the Big Ten. The Nittany Lions wre the 6-seed in the Big Ten tournament, and while that doesn’t mean they had a mind-blowing year, it’s still a fairly good indicator that they don’t suck as much as most people seem to think.

San Diego State (2) vs. Northern Colorado (15): SDSU is 2-2 against teams that were relevant at the times that the Aztecs played them. Not a ringing endorsement, but good enough to pick them over a 15-seed.

Southwest

Kansas (1) vs. Boston University (16): Fun fact—if you’d like to know how derelict I’ve been in my basketball watching this year, I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen a full Kansas game from start to finish all year.

UNLV (8) vs. Illinois (9): This pick says less about UNLV (though they did give 2-seed San Diego State a good run in the Mountain West tourney) and more about my lack of confidence in Illinois. I actually like it when the Illini are good, but they just never reached their potential this year.

Vanderbilt (5) vs. Richmond (12): I dislike Vanderbilt--the basketball team, the institution of higher learning, and probably even the family itself. And while I have a ton of reasons why I’d like to pick against the Commodores, I just can’t bring myself to do so.

Louisville (4) vs. Morehead State (13): I’m always going to pick a Big East team that has stepped up its play down the stretch, particularly when it has a coach who’s been through the tournament a few times in his day.

Georgetown (6) vs. USC/VCU (11): I suppose I understand why it worked out this way, but I find it amusing that the other “First Four” game is being played for a 12-seed, and this one is for an 11. Either way, I already picked the other First Four winner to advance, and I’m not picking them both. So Georgetown moves on.

Purdue (3) vs. Saint Peter’s (14): I know literally nothing about Saint Peter’s, though I’ll make an educated guess that it’s a small Catholic school, probably from the East Coast. I’ll take Purdue to win this one, as I continue to shake my head in disappointment at friends who expected the Boilermakers to completely fall apart when they lost Robbie Hummel to injury before the season. Were you simply unfamiliar with JaJuan Johnson and E’Twaun Moore?

Texas A&M (7) vs. Florida State (10): I’ve liked what I’ve seen out of Florida State when I’ve seen them this year. I’m probably not giving enough weight to Chris Singleton’s broken foot on the ‘Noles chances, but it wouldn’t be the first time that I overlooked an obvious angle on a game.

Notre Dame (2) vs. Akron (15): For a team that finished 14-4 in the Big East, I never found myself looking at Notre Dame and thinking “Wow, that’s a great team.” But that said, you’re doing something right if you go through the most challenging conference in the country and come away largely unscathed.

Southeast

Pittsburgh (1) vs. UNC-Asheville vs. Arkansas-Little Rock (16): I can’t see the words “UNC-Ashville” without thinking of Kenny Gregory, the Bulldogs’ 7’7” center from a few years back. Was there anything more fun that just watching guards lob the ball as high as possible to a giant near the hoop?

Butler (8) vs. Old Dominion (9): I was shocked when I saw Butler as an 8-seed this year. The Bulldogs are on a nice streak now, but they had a stretch late January/early February where they lost four of five games in the Horizon League, a conference that doesn’t exactly strike fear into the hearts of outsiders. I think this year’s Butler team, while decent, is getting a little too much attention based on their Final Four appearance of a year ago and rich history. I like to pick one game each year where I zig when everyone else is zagging. This is this year’s game, as the rubes in your office pool are going to stick with the name they know and just ignore Old Dominion.

Kansas State (5) vs. Utah State (12): No solid reasoning this year—I’m simply taking the number of Utah State t-shirts that I saw while I was out in Las Vegas over the weekend of a sign of something big to come. (Side note—I saw more Utah State and BYU gear in Las Vegas than perhaps any other school this past weekend. I found this odd, as I based on what little I know about Las Vegas and the Mormon religion, I would think it would be a sin for most Utah folks to even enter Las Vegas city limits.)

Wisconsin (4) vs. Belmont (13): I struggled with this one quite a bit, so prepare for me to ramble on about it. While watching games with my friends on Sunday about three hours before the selection show started up, I said to everyone “Who’s that mid-major team that lost 3-4 games all year and won it’s conference championship game by like 40 points? I forget their name right now, but I know we’re going to hear it 8,000 times in the next 3-4 days, since every talking head in the country is going to name them as their sleeper pick.” That would be Belmont. Every year there’s a team that becomes such a popular sleeper pick that it actually becomes so overrated that it is no longer a sleeper. This year, it will be Belmont. And it’s tough to argue—Belmont has a great resume. Little did I know that they would be matched up against my favorite team. And knowing Wisconsin as well as any team out there, their performance at road and neutral sites concerns me. The fact that they laid an egg in their last game of the year against Penn State doesn’t help my perception, either.

On the flip side of the equation, the Southeast region is a great one to be in, and Wisconsin could have some success there. Gary Parrish has picked Wisconsin in his Final Four, and explains his logic here. It’s pretty solid reasoning. As he points out, top seed Pitt is always solid but doesn't have athletes that leap off the page, Florida was unranked not too long ago, and BYU, having lost its leading rebounder, isn’t exactly the same team as it was just weeks ago. So if Wisconsin gets by Belmont, it stands a good chance of going pretty far.

So my thoughts on this are conflicting. I always hate picking the hot sleeper pick, because a sleeper that everyone knows about doesn’t bring as much value. And there’s some risk in picking the sleeper, as I don’t see Wisconsin as a team that will lose right away if the advance past the first round (particularly since I’m projecting Utah State, a 12 seed, as the second round opponent for the winner of this game). But at the end of the day, I come back to two key reasons to pick against my alma mater here: 1) Belmont is the trendy sleeper pick for good reason, and 2) Wisconsin scares the hell out of me when they’re not playing at the Kohl Center. So with great regret, I’m picking Belmont in the upset. It hurts my soul to do so, and I’ll be rooting hard for the Badgers, but I have to concede that I think it’s the right pick to make. I’m horrifically wrong a lot of the time, though, so let’s hope that this is one of those times.

St. John’s (6) vs. Gonzaga (11): There used to be a time when Gonzaga would be a sleeper pick as an 11 seed. Now it just means that the Bulldogs had a somewhat crappy year. I like the way that St. John’s has played down the stretch, and am pleased with the Red Storm coaching staff’s decision to make the “Coaches for Cancer” sneaker gimmick an all season long thing. Just when you thought Gene Keady couldn’t look any more ridiculous, there he is in a suit and some bright white sneakers.

BYU (3) vs. Wofford (14): I’m not sure people know what to think of BYU right now. On one hand, you’ve got people writing them off because of the suspension of Brandon Davies. On the other hand, it’s borderline impossible to not be excited about the Cougars after watching Jimmer Fredette put on a show to the tune of 52 points against New Mexico this past weekend. BYU is either overrated or underrated, but I don’t think anyone (myself included) has them properly rated. But it doesn’t really matter in the first round—they’re still beating a solid Wofford team.

UCLA (7) vs. Michigan State (10): It’s tough to get super-psyched about either of these teams, so I’ll just stick to my general rule that if you have any doubt (and often even if you do have doubt), you don’t pick against Michigan State in March.

Florida (2) vs. UC-Santa Barbara (15): UC-Santa Barbara is the alma mater of a fairly cool guy that I went to law school with and used to talk hoops with from time to time, as well as Steve Czaban, a favorite sports radio personality of mine. That said, I’m still not picking the Gauchos over Florida.

Third Round

East

Ohio State (1) vs. George Mason (8): Remember that game where Ohio State shot over 90% from three-point range against Wisconsin a few weeks back? I sure do.

Kentucky (4) vs. UAB/Clemson (12): I’d be a fool to pick UAB or Clemson here, since they have to win two games to even play in this one. That’s two events that could keep picking them through to the third round to even be a viable option. I like Kentucky’s team, but frankly, even if I didn’t, I’d be compelled to pick them simply for safety reasons, given that I’ve got them playing a play-in game winner.

Syracuse (3) vs. Xavier (6): Syracuse struggled mightily during the middle of the season, but you have to like that the Orange have put things together for a good late-season run. And their 2-3 zone, run to perfection, is the sort of thing that always tends to bother teams that haven’t seen it before.

North Carolina (2) vs. Washington (7): I like that I’m back to looking at North Carolina and thinking “Why wouldn’t they win this game?” Harrison Barnes is finally playing like people expected all along, and things are clicking for the Heels again, so I can’t end their run this early.

West

Duke (1) vs. Michigan (8): If I may make a superfluous jump back in time for a moment, how awesome was the portion of The Fab Five, the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary that premiered on Sunday, where Jalen Rose noted that he thought Christian Laettner was a “bitch” and that Grant Hill was one, too? Great stuff—almost as great as those games between the Blue Devils and the Wolverines in the early 1990s. As to this weekend’s game, I’d put the over-under on total three-point attempts by both teams around 55. And while Michigan is heading in the right direction, Duke’s already where the Wolverines want to be, so I’m moving the Blue Devils along.

Texas (4) vs. Arizona (5): Neither team has been a model of consistency down the stretch, but I’ve just got a feeling about Jordan Hamilton getting hot.

Connecticut (3) vs. Cincinnati (6): UConn is seeded 6 spots higher in the NCAA tournament than they were in their own conference. And interestingly, while seeded three spots lower than UConn in the NCAA tournament, Cincinnati was seeded two spots higher than UConn in the Big East tournament. I’ll take the team that’s trending upward.

San Diego State (2) vs. Penn State (10): Penn State is a team that I think will challenge San Diego State, but the Aztecs have something to prove, and I don’t see them letting down against a mid-level Big Ten team.

Southwest

Kansas (1) vs. UNLV (8): Like I alluded to earlier, I know little to nothing about Kansas, but you pick an upset of a 1-seed this early in the tournament at your own peril.

Louisville (4) vs. Vanderbilt (5): It was supposed to be a re-building year for Louisville, but you wouldn’t know it by watching them late this season. I’ll stick with the hot hand here. Besides, I really hate Vanderbilt.

Georgetown (6) vs. Purdue (3): Let me get something straight—while I’ll defend Purdue against people that thought losing Robbie Hummel would end their season and I am a huge fan of JaJuan Johnson, I stop well short of having tons of confidence in the Boilermakers this year. Georgetown’s style of play would put them right at home in the Big Ten, so I think the Hoyas enjoy a solid win here.

Notre Dame (2) vs. Florida State (10): And the least-exciting (though arguably the best) 2-seed moves on. Who knew Ben Hansbrough would be this good?

Southeast

Pittsburgh (1) vs. Old Dominion (9): Have I mentioned yet that I am a big fan of the way that Jamie Dixon gets his teams to play?

Utah State (12) vs. Belmont (13): Did I really just pick two underdogs to advance to this game? I guess I’ll take Belmont to move into the Sweet 16 because a) as I mentioned earlier, they’ve got a stellar mid-major resume, making them more likely to win if this game actually takes place and b) if they manage to take out Wisconsin, it would at least be mildly validating to have them win another game and prove themselves to be a worthy team.

St. John’s (6) vs. BYU(3): Jimmer and friends, meet the representatives from the Big East. You’re not going to like them.

Michigan State (10) vs. Florida (2): For the record, about a month ago I saw Michigan State’s squad get their doors blown off at Wisconsin. It has been a rough year for the Spartans, and there were doubts that they’d even make the tourney. However, if they can pull a mild first round upset, they get, in my estimation, the weakest of the 2-seeds. And just like they’ve done in the past, the Spartans will again find themselves inexplicably playing on the second weekend of the tourney. Don’t bet against Tom Izzo in March, even when he’s got a weak team and it makes logical sense to do so.

Sweet Sixteen

East

Ohio State (1) vs. Kentucky (4): Ohio State has that rare mix that makes a team special—a bunch of seniors that have been around the block and know how to behave in tough situations, and a super-talented freshman player that’s only going to be around for one year. So Kentucky’s going to have to wait until next year, when they bring in an entirely new crop of one-and-done talent.

North Carolina (2) vs. Syracuse (3): I like both of these teams a lot, but don’t trust either of them. North Carolina started off the year by continuing last year’s epically disappointing play, while Syracuse had a brief free-fall in the middle of the season. But seeing as I spent the past weekend watching North Carolina get down 15 points every day before charging back against their opponents, I’ve got to take the Orange here. It’s nice to be able to get out of a hole, but why jump into one to begin with?

West

Duke (1) vs. Texas (4): Back in February, Coach K was saying that Duke was still trying to figure out how to play without Kyrie Irving. I’m trusting that they’ve figured it out by now. Look for Mason Plumlee to bust out a stellar game at some point.

San Diego State (2) vs. Connecticut (3): When I was in Las Vegas this past weekend, one of the most confusing betting lines of the day on Friday was when I looked up at the board and saw San Diego State vs. UNLV as a pick ‘em (the line had moved to SDSU -1 by the time I got in for one of my few good decisions of the weekend). Now, I know that the Mountain West tournament was being held in Las Vegas, making UNLV the hometown favorite. I don’t care where that game was being played, though—it simply doesn’t make sense to have an unranked opponent getting no points against the #6 team in the country. If my wallet and I learned one thing this past weekend, though, it’s that the folks running Las Vegas are smarter than I am. And if they say that San Diego State vs. UNLV is a coin flip, than I can only imagine what kind of a favorite UConn would be.

Southwest

Kansas (1) vs. Louisville (4): I love the way the Big East is playing right now, but I can’t bring myself to put six Big East teams in my final eight. Yeah, that’s right—I just revealed where I’m going with the rest of my picks for this round.

Notre Dame (2) vs. Georgetown (6): Strictly a feel pick for me. Georgetown always feels like one of those teams that you don’t think is all that great, but ends up being a lot better when you see them on the court. Notre Dame always feels like one of those teams that you think is going to be awesome, but then you feel sort of underwhelmed when their game is over. So based strictly on my program stereotypes, I’ve got to take the Hoyas.

Southeast

Pittsburgh (1) vs. Belmont (13): Nice run for Belmont, but Pitt’s not the kind of team that will allow a mid-major to sneak up on them. In the event that Wisconsin surprises me and powers through to play in this game instead of Belmont, here’s hoping that New Orleans has plenty of ice machines, because there are going to be a lot of sore players at the end of that one.

St. John’s (6) vs. Michigan State (10): I will admit that in many ways it is patently stupid to pick Michigan State to advance to this point. But like I said, logic often gets thrown out with the Spartans. But given that they really shouldn’t be winning either of the games preceding this one, I have to play it safe and knock them out here. Congrats, Steve Lavin—ditching your ESPN gig and getting back into coaching seems to have worked out well.

Regional Finals

East

Ohio State (1) vs. Syracuse (3): Ohio State’s the obvious pick for the best team in this tournament. Three senior leaders, two stellar freshmen, and a bunch of other solid options helping out. This year’s Syracuse squad lacks its usual star power, but has righted their ship down the stretch. You can take two paths when picking late round NCAA tournament games—either play it safe with the favorite, or play some hunches and hope that everything works out. The former is my usual strategy, because let’s face it—you don’t want to be the only one left out in the cold when the team everyone else has picked is hoisting the trophy. But this year I just have a feeling about Syracuse, so I’m playing the hunch. Let’s hope it works out.

West

Duke (1) vs. Connecticut (3): I feel like I was in this position last year—I don’t love Duke, but I just don’t see anyone taking them out in this regional (that logic worked out fairly well last year, by the way). UConn’s the best bet, but the Huskies will have won seven games in a row dating back to the start of the Big East tournament by this point. And while UConn’s good, they’re not so good that I see them ripping off eight straight wins against good teams. So once again, I have to begrudgingly pick Duke through to the Final Four.

Southwest

Kansas (1) vs. Georgetown (6): This one just boils down to logic and blind faith. I love Austin Freeman and Georgetown, but even though I’m totally unfamiliar with Kansas, the Jayhawks must be a #1 seed for a reason. So I’m picking them. Either way, if this game happens is will be a fun contrast of styles.

Southeast

Pittsburgh (1) vs. St. John’s (6): Pitt lost to St. John’s about a month ago by one point. And while that could certainly happen again, Pitt doesn’t strike me as the kind of team that loses to anyone twice.

Semi-Finals

Syracuse vs. Duke: When you go with your hunches, as I did with Syracuse last round, you don’t go small. Duke had their turn last year—now Syracuse is getting a crack at the national championship.

Kansas vs. Pittsburgh: It will warm my heart if two true teams like this without the usual overwhelming superstars make it to the Final Four. Who will win? You may have noticed by this point that I have sort of an irrational love of Pitt’s toughness, so I’m putting the Panthers through to the finals.

National Championship

Syracuse vs. Pittsburgh: It amuses me that I’ve got Pittsburgh and Syracuse, two teams that didn’t even make their own conference tournament finals, in the national championship game. I suppose that speaks to the fact that the Big East is a tough conference, though I think it also is somewhat related to the fact that the Big East contains something like 85 teams. Pittsburgh won during the first meeting, so I’ll take them as a winner again, restoring the nation’s faith in tough-minded team basketball. How old school is that?

So there are my 2011 picks. Happy bracketing, enjoy the best weekend of the year, and I'll check back in when it's all done...

What I've Been Up To Lately...

2011-02-28T16:42:00.002-06:00

Sometimes life gets the best of you, and as I should have learned 2-3 years ago, my life doesn’t allow me the time to blog like I used to. Nonetheless, I’ve failed to share some excellent moments of basketball watching over the last month and a half. So here, in abbreviated form, is a brief account of every game that I have attended in person in the last month and a half. I've been sitting on most of them for a bit, so some of the observations are a bit dated at this point, but I assure you that they were amusing at the time. Good luck on getting through all of this entry.

Wauwatosa East vs. Menomonee Falls (1/14/2011)

Tosa East won the game 69-66, but as with any Menomonee Falls game that I see, most of the questions that I got from friends after this one centered about how star forward J.P. Tokoto played. Tokoto should pay me not to watch his games, because on virtually every occasion that I’ve gone to see Menomonee Falls during the past two years, he has gotten into early foul trouble and been relegated to the bench. This most recent occasion was no different, as Tokoto picked up a couple of quick fouls, drew the anger of his coach, and was relegated to the bench for nearly the entire second quarter. Largely because of this, Tokoto finished the first half without a field goal, before putting up a respectable second half.

My general thoughts on Tokoto based on the few times that I’ve seen him play? Hopefully you’re not looking for anything groundbreaking, because nothing I think is all that different from the volumes that have been written on him. He’s a ridiculous athlete who occasionally makes questionable decisions when dribbling and needs work on his outside shot (though this latter issue has probably been overstated a bit by people who feel a need to pick apart Tokoto’s game). Clearly he’s going to be an asset for whatever college ends up enticing him to campus, but I’m not so sure that he’ll be the immediate game-changer that lots of people are expecting. I like guys with very little downside, though, and Tokoto’s superior athletic ability combined with his purported level headed demeanor and strong work ethic clearly put him in the “low downside” category. So while I’d be absolutely thrilled if either Wisconsin or Marquette acquired his services, I’m fairly certain I’m less worked up about his recruitment than most people are.

On a secondary note, I’m not sure if I specifically made note of it at the start of the season, but you can color me unsurprised that Menomonee Falls has struggled a bit this year. While the current Indian roster is talented, it was readily apparent while watching them last year that their senior class of John Cording, Jonathan Phillips, Adam Rubatt and Conor Cassidy was special. Not one of them was off the charts in terms of basketball ability, but all of them were successful at hoops, and most of them had significant accomplishments in other sports as well (I believe it’s no coincidence that Falls reached the state finals in football last season prior to fielding a stellar basketball team). Simply put, it was a group of winners–and one of the best three such groups that I’ve ever seen, I might add. And while the current Falls players may have just as much (if not more) talent than the departed seniors, they lack those difficult-to-define things that left when their teammates graduated last spring. You just don’t replace a foursome like that.

Marquette vs. DePaul (1/18/11)

I won’t waste a lot of time on this one, as going to it wasted enough of my time. If this game was representative, this year’s DePaul squad may be the worst Big East team that I’ve ever had the displeasure of watching. The Blue Demons actually kept the game close up until 5-minutes were left in the first half. At that point, Marquette went on a short run, and DePaul appeared to basically quit. The 30-point margin of victory for the Golden Eagles doesn’t begin to show how lopsided this game was, which is particularly notable, given that the game was all but tied until late in the first half. It’s rare that I leave a game early, but I did so on that night. DePaul’s effort was simply disgraceful.

Cedar Grove-Belgium vs. Sheboygan Lutheran (1/21/11)

Aside from being required to be out of my house for several hours on this particular Friday night, my reason for making my pathetic hour long drive to Cedar Grove-Belgium High School with my buddy Gus in frigid weather was to get a glimpse at Wisconsin Badger recruit Sam Dekker. My thoughts on Dekker? In many ways he reminds me of Kevin Durant. He’s rail thin (though I would assume that this will change, as it always seems to, when he gets on a college weight program), has a soft touch from the outside, and has a good, but somewhat playful, handle. It’s sort of jarring to see a 6'7" guy on a division 5 team playing primarily on the perimeter (mark this down as the only time I’ve seen a guy who’s four inches taller than anyone else on the floor playing at the top of a zone defense), but Dekker would be miscast playing on the blocks, so his position is appropriate. And of course, from time to time he likes to try and make a spectacular pass, which undoubtedly is what prompts the allusions to Pete Maravich that you’ve undoubtedly read if you’ve followed Dekker’s recruitment (for the record, I find the Maravich references to be a bit over-the-top).

Will Dekker be remarkably successful at Wisconsin? I couldn’t tell you. His height and perimeter skills would seem to make him a perfect fit for the Badgers, but I’m notoriously bad at judging how high school players will turn out. Several years ago, I told anyone who would listen that while Devin Harris was one of the three best high school players I had ever seen, his slight frame would make it advisable for him to redshirt before thinking of trying to play in the Big Ten. Last year I managed to get to a game to see stellar Badger freshman Josh Gasser and came away about as unexcited as I’ve ever been about an incoming recruit. And I’m also the guy that saw some real potential in J.P. Gavinski back when he was at Wisconsin Dells High School. The fact that Dekker plays his high school ball against small schools that rarely have other players anywhere near his skill level makes his game even harder to judge. So while there’s a lot to like about Dekker’s game, you shouldn’t trust any excitement that I currently have, as even I find it impossible to trust myself.

And while I was clearly at this game for little reason other than to see Dekker, I feel it’s only fair to note that his teammate, 6'1" low post player Zac Jensema had roughly 400 rebounds during the game. Okay, that might be a bit of hyperbole, but I honestly wouldn’t be shocked if you told me that Jensema had 20 boards on the night in question. Very refreshing to go to a game and be wowed by someone other than the expected star.

Brookfield East vs. Wauwatosa East (1/28/11)

I always enjoy this match-up for two reasons: 1) Brookfield East is well coached, and while the Spartans may not always have a great record, they always give perennial power Tosa East a tough game, and 2) my buddy Dez is a Brookfield East alum, so we can usually talk one another into going to the game and dredging up our high school memories from our competing alma maters.

There was a third big draw this time around, though, as this game would present me my first chance to see the new Brookfield East fieldhouse. Due to my less-frenzied game watching schedule of late, I had somehow not managed to check out the brand new fieldhouses that opened last season at Brookfield East and their crosstown rival, Brookfield Central. I’ve still yet to see Central’s new facility, but assuming that it’s similar to the one at East, it’s safe to say that everyone in Brookfield should be very happy. The Brookfield East fieldhouse got everything right. The stands are well-built, the area outside of the actual gym is large and well put together, and it’s obvious that there’s abundant room for practices when you picture the fieldhouse devoid of fans (I can readily recall what a pain it was to schedule practice for six teams in my school’s moderate sized gymnasium way back when I was in school). Suffice to say, it’s a good time to be an athletic teenager in Brookfield these days.

As to the game itself, things went almost exactly as I expected, with the disciplined squads from both schools keeping the score low in a hard-fought battle to the end. Tosa East converted a go-ahead layup with 2.5 seconds left on the clock and stole a win from their foes from Brookfield. I walked out of the gym marveling at both the game and the huge flat screen TVs on the concourse outside the new fieldhouse. Both on and off the court, Brookfield East does things right.

Wisconsin vs. Purdue (2/1/11)

This would mark the first time that I’ve actually risked my life to go see a game. As you may recall, Wisconsin hosted Purdue on the night of what people were calling the “storm of the century.” My friend Samip had invited me to the game a week earlier, and I had been excited to go. However, with the forecast calling for 20 inches of snow overnight, I began playing phone tag with Samip early on the day of the game, checking to see if he wanted to cancel our trip from Milwaukee to Madison for the game. Honestly, I was sort of hoping that he would be willing to call things off, as the weather report seemed to indicate that we would be making the worst decision possible if we were to drive to Madison. But Samip was steadfast in his desire to head to the game. Even when he picked me up, I wanted to try and talk him out of going, but in the end, I knew that if I vetoed the trip it would forever make him a more dedicated fan than I am. So rather than allowing him to hold that over me for the rest of eternity, I shut up and to Madison. As expected, our trip to Madison was not particularly noteworthy–the real snow was starting later in the night.

Our game viewing experience was interesting, not simply because of the fact that it was a great game and a huge Badger win, but because Samip, despite being a decade out of college, had managed to acquire his game tickets on Craigslist from a student (I suspect this is mostly because Samip much prefers to stand and yell during games than to sit and clap). So we were among the kids. Normally, this would just make me feel like an old guy (and indeed, it did), but on that night things got a bit more interesting, as the students were chanting at Chancellor Biddy Martin about their desire for a snow day the next day. Just prior to their introductions, the students’ wishes were granted, as cell phones in the section began lighting up and the students around us all began high-fiving. Samip and I could only stand and chuckle as the students’ chant of “Let’s get wasted!” began. Twenty year olds have an odd way of expressing excitement. Meanwhile, I think we were both wishing that we really were still students, facing only a short walk to our old apartments just around the corner from the Kohl Center, rather than two allegedly intelligent adults who somehow had to find a way back to Milwaukee that night.

As you can tell, good as the game was, it was not the key point of the evening, so I’ll jump ahead to the drive home. Simply put, it was treacherous. The roads themselves were not terrible until near the end of the trip, but visibility was awful. Were it not for a long stretch of positioning ourselves behind a large semi truck whose tail lights we could clearly see, I’m not sure if we would have made it back (we saw a healthy smattering of motorists who had ended up in ditches on the side of the road. I’m also fairly certain that if it had been me rather than Samip driving, we’d have been staying in Madison for the next day and a half (if we’d made the trip at all–I’m a remarkably cautious man). As it was, our trip took longer than any of the many that I’ve taken between Madison and Milwaukee over the years, and it’s safe to say that the portion of the trip from Oconomowoc to my home was equal to the amount of time that it usually takes to drive the whole stretch. But Samip had guided us home safely, and I was thankful for that.

As Samip dropped me off and I prepared to trudge through the thigh-high snow in my front yard in order to get to my door, I thanked him for his hard work that night and said something that I think he wholeheartedly agreed with at that point:

“Let’s never do anything like that again.”

Wisconsin vs. Michigan State (2/6/11)

For the first time that I can remember after a Wisconsin-Michigan State game, there simply wasn’t much to be said. Wisconsin dominated the Spartans 82-56. Part of the reason for the Badgers’ dominance on this particular day was the fact that they shot incredibly well, but frankly, the bigger issue was that Michigan State just completely fell apart. It was, oddly, sort of disheartening. As those of you who’ve followed me in prior seasons may recall, though I love seeing Wisconsin beat Michigan State more than any other opponent, part of my reason for feeling this way is that I have greater respect for Tom Izzo than perhaps any other coach in the nation. His teams are consistently tough, and you can be virtually certain that you’re going to get a well-played game when the Spartans take the court. So to see Michigan State fall so mightily in this game (and for much of this season) was sort of sad. You like to beat your most hated enemy, but you really don’t want to beat them so badly that you start feeling sorry for them. Fortunately, I suspect that the Spartans struggles this season are an aberration and that they will be back with a vengeance next year. And when they do return to prominence, I’m hoping for a pair of hard fought, single digit Badger wins. Really, it’s just more fun that way.

The most amusing moment of the drive home (which needed to happen quickly, as you may also remember that this game occurred on the same day as the Super Bowl, which as a Wisconsin resident, I was legally obligated to watch) was the telephone call from the friend from whom I had obtained my tickets for the day. My friend in question is the holder of some excellent seats in the Kohl Center, and was excited at the start of the season to offer me the Michigan State game, as it looked to be the most compelling game on the schedule. I laughed after the game when he called to apologize for really setting me up with seats for a 26-point blowout. The sentiment from him was genuine, but even if it wasn’t the hard fought contest that I’d prefer, I’ll always take good seats to a win over Michigan State.

Wisconsin vs. Ohio State(2/12/11)

Unlike the Michigan State game, where I was sitting in the best seats in the house, I returned to my rightful place in society for the Ohio State game and headed up to the last row in a corner of the Kohl Center with my pal Ferd. I’m okay with that, though, because a) being anywhere in the arena for that game would have been awesome and b) one of the amazing things about the Kohl Center is that I’m pretty sure I’ve never sat in a truly bad seat there.

Ferd and I actually came into these tickets sort of by accident when we bought a four-pack of Wisconsin tickets at the start of the year. Before the season when we were looking to pick our ticket package it quickly became apparent that neither of us had a strong preference for any of the four different packages of games offered by the Wisconsin Athletic Department. Ultimately, I argued that I was fine with any of the Big Ten games (all packages had two conference games and two non-conference), but thought that the UW-Milwaukee game would be the non-conference game of the greatest interest with me. So we bought that package, never thinking that Ohio State would come into the building undefeated and ranked #1 in the country. It’s nice when my love for an in-state team pays off for illogical reasons.

So up to our nosebleed seats we trudged. I won’t recount the game–we all know that watching any team, let along a methodical Wisconsin team, recover from a 15-point second half deficit was pretty amazing. But watching it from the top of the building was a unique experience. As I stated, there truly are no terrible seats in the Kohl Center. From the last row I had an awesome bird’s eye view, I could stand whenever I felt necessary without impeding anyone’s view (as a moderately tall man, this is a constant concern of mine at events), and we were safely far away from the craziness that ensued on the floor immediately after the game (getting caught in a very short and mild crowd avalanche while rushing the court during my student days was one of the more terrifying moments of my life).

As to the post-game furor over the alleged Jared Sullinger spitting incident, I can’t say that I saw how Sullinger made it off the floor, so I can’t speak intelligently about that. What I can say is that while watching the rushing of the court I felt very concerned for Buckeye guard Jon Diebler, who was at mid-court when the Wisconsin students quickly enveloped the entire floor. It took Diebler at least a solid minute to wade his way through the exuberant students to the sideline, and Sullinger’s disturbing allegations notwithstanding, I was pleased to eventually see Diebler make it out of the crowd seemingly unharmed. Heaven knows that was not the safest place on earth to be for an opposing player.

Marquette vs. St. John’s (2/15/11)

There’s just been something very frustrating about watching Marquette all season, and this game encapsulated that feeling very well. St. John’s is a decent team that was playing very well coming into this game. And Marquette, a decent team in its own right, kept things even with the Red Storm throughout most of the game, but wilted at the end. It’s the same type of thing that’s been going on all year–the Golden Eagles simply can’t play 40 minutes of basketball against teams of similar strength to their own. I walked out of this game thinking that something is off about this year’s Marquette team. It’s not a squad that’s short on talent or desire, but I’m left wondering if departed seniors David Cubillan and Lazar Hayward were bigger factors in team chemistry than anyone ever knew. Whatever the story, I’ve watched too many Marquette games this year that, despite the athleticism on the court, left me feeling uninspired (it’s a bad sign when the most notable moment of the game for me was realizing that “Cotton Eye Joe” was no longer being played during the “Dance Cam” segment on the scoreboard). Hopefully the victory on the road over Connecticut not long after this one brought some fire back to the Golden Eagles.

Wauwatosa East vs. Menomonee Falls (2/18/11)

One moment sticks out for me in this game. I saw the most violent collision that I've ever seen in a high school game. A Tosa East fastbreak caused Menomonee Falls' Steve Ross to get tangled up with a backpedaling teammate as both were trying to defend the hoop. This ultimately caused both Falls players to fall into Tosa East's Anthony Carroll, who was streaking down the court at full speed. The game stopped for several minutes as Ross and Carroll, who both received the worst of it, stayed on the ground getting evaluated by the trainer. Fortunately, both eventually returned to the game and neither appeared to have suffered a major injury, but it was a scary few moments.

On a side note, both crowds displayed some of the poorest reactions to injury that I've ever seen. I was appalled at the Tosa East student section booing Ross as he eventually found his way back to his feet and ambled off the floor. That was totally unacceptable. However, I sort of thought that the outrage over the students' behavior displayed by a couple of overzealous fans seated near me in the Falls adult section was a bit ironic, since the duo in question spent the first minute of the injury stoppage yelling at the refs that their foul call on Ross during the play was a terrible call. The call was unquestionably a good one (and not a tough one to make, in my estimation), but that’s obviously not the point. Much like the general rule that you should never boo an injured player, I'd say that if ever there was a time to stop worrying about the game and complaining to the refs about a call, it's when two high school players are writing in pain on the ground and the severity of their injuries is not yet known. I can tell you quite honestly that after the collision that I saw, fouls and possessions were the last thing on my mind in the ensuing five minutes. Simply put, there were a lot of fans in the gym on that night that I felt truly embarrassed for.

Turning to another interesting tidbit from the game, while I won't say why exactly, my experiences at the game that night left me fairly confident that Menomonee Falls’ star player, J.P. Tokoto is going to be heading to Chapel Hill next year. That’s certainly not a guarantee, as I don’t have any inside information, but something that I stumbled upon that night pretty much convinced me how this one is going to end. I suppose we’ll know for certain soon enough, as Tokoto is reportedly planning to announce his decision at the end of this week. And just to be clear, I'd love to be wrong about this one.

As to the game itself, Falls pulled away for the win, extending a bit of a winning streak that they’ve put together. It appears that things may be coming together for the Indians at the right time for them to be a tough out in the tournament, which kicks off this week. As I noted in my earlier game notes from their prior game against Wauwatosa East, Falls is definitely not short on talent.

And with that, you’re now aware of what I’ve been up to for the past month and a half. I’ll try to be back with one or two updates before the end of the year. However as you know by now, it’s probably best not to expect too much from me these days...

Wisconsin vs. Michigan State: Ouch

2011-01-12T07:52:00.000-06:00

Wow, that was a stomach punch. After a week and a half of basketball that included an improbable decisive UWM victory over Butler and a spirited Marquette win over longtime rival Notre Dame, I managed to re-find my focus just in time to watch a Wisconsin-Michigan State game that ended in dreadful fashion (assuming that you, like me, are a Wisconsin fan), as the Badgers blew a 9-point lead in the closing minutes and lost in overtime. I’m not sure what was a worse feeling–the loss, or the realization at the end of the game that I needed to go out and shovel snow in the dark. Such is life. Game points below:

1) I’ve come to greatly respect Michigan State’s defense over the years, so it was a bit disappointing to me to see the Spartans almost immediately allow Keaton Nankivil a wide-open look from three-point range, near the top of the key. Anyone who’s even vaguely familiar with Wisconsin’s recent games knows that Nankivil has been on fire from that area.

2) Obviously people are going to lay a good amount of blame on Rob Wilson for his dunk attempt during the midst of Michigan State’s comeback. And deservedly so. Wilson is a talented, fearless player. And while that’s a great trait to have at many points in the game, it’s not so great near the end of the game when you’re attempting to hold a fragile lead. I question why Wilson, not known as one of the more “safe” guys on the team was even in the game during the final minutes. I understand that he thought he had a good opportunity to nearly seal the game with a dunk in a 2-on-1 situation, but pulling the ball out or drawing the Michigan State defender (who, to be fair, played things perfectly) to him and passing off to a well-spaced Jon Leuer would have been a much better call. It doesn’t take a great basketball mind to see this.

3) I’m not sure what to make of the fact that for the first time in Bo Ryan’s tenure at Wisconsin, he can’t seem to settle on a regular starting lineup. In past seasons, he seemed stubborn almost to a fault with refusing to deviate from the starting lineup that he began the year with (Jason Chappell’s starting role seemed almost ceremonial at times). But this year, I think Jared Berggren is the only player in the regular rotation that hasn’t seen a start. Is this merely because Ryan is becoming more flexible in his old age, or simply because he’s not sure who to trust from game to game? I would hope for the former, but I suspect and fear that it’s the latter.

5) It’s something that I think every time I see a game in East Lansing on TV–I really need to get to the Breslin Center for a game. Rounding out the rest of my top-five arenas that I’ve never seen a game at, but would like to, are: The Dean Smith Center (North Carolina), Gallagher-Iba Arena (Oklahoma State), Phog Allen Fieldhouse (Kansas), and The Carrier Dome (Syracuse).

5) Is it disturbing to anyone else that the two best three-point shooters in Wisconsin’s regular rotation are the Badgers’ starting center and power forward?

6) Big credit to Delvon Roe’s defense on Jon Leuer. Last night was the first time all year that I’ve seen someone make Leuer look that uncomfortable. He was still able to make some moves, but when it came time to shoot, there were no easy looks last night.

7) For all of the great things that I can say about Jordan Taylor–and there are many–I found myself frustrated with him last night whenever the shot clock was running down. I don’t expect him to be able to break guys down and get into the lane like Trevon Hughes could last year, but it seemed to me that Taylor tended to panic a few seconds early, and consequently ended up launching long-range desperation shots with about 5 seconds left on the shot clock. The same thing happened at the end of regulation when he couldn’t quite find a way to crack Michigan State’s defense in time.

8) Losing a game in the manner that it occurred last night hurts. It always hurts as a fan when your team blows a tough-to-overcome lead in the final minutes. But it hurts a little bit more when you’re playing a tough team in a building that’s very tough to win in. And it hurts even more when it’s Michigan State. If history is any indicator, you know that the Spartans are only going to get better as the season goes on, so it would have been nice to steal one early on.

9) I’ve not watched enough televised basketball this year to really get a feel for things, but am I nuts for starting to really like Dan Dakich as an announcer? Obviously, despite his Indiana ties, Dakich is no Bob Knight. But I really like the way that he’s able to describe what will happen next on the floor before it actually happens (and he was on fire with reading tendencies last night). Kudos to ESPN for stealing another coach away and making him into a broadcaster. (And yes, I say that in spite of him completely confusing me when he got the white board in his hand to draw up a play late in the game).

10) I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again–I’m that rare Badger fan that likes Michigan State. Last night’s game is a perfect example of why I feel this way. Wisconsin lost to Michigan State in large part because of the Spartans’ hard-nosed style of play that made nothing easy. In short, Michigan State does the same sort of thing that Wisconsin does. I value the consistency and toughness of both teams. So while I don’t like losing, I’d much rather see a loss to a Michigan State team that wins by out-working you, rather than an Ohio State team that simply out-talents you.

So that’s last night’s game for me in a nutshell. On the plus side, with Monday night officially putting an end to college football, it seems like ESPN is really ramping up the intriguing basketball matchups this week. So I should get a chance to see a few more good games in the coming days. If nothing else, I’ve seen a number of amusing basketball-related television programs in the last few days, so I should have something to get me back to writing a bit more.

Marquette vs. Vanderbilt: Not Quite There Yet

2010-12-30T07:26:00.001-06:00

After a hectic couple of nights (I only barely saw the Wisconsin-Minnesota game, a contest that I had circled on the calendar weeks ago), I finally got the chance to relax in my living room (well, after I took down the Christmas tree) and watch some basketball last night. Marquette and Vanderbilt looked to be a fun one. I’ve been waiting for Marquette to get a big non-conference win, and I have a bit of a distaste for Vanderbilt, so I was looking for the Golden Eagles to lay a major beat down on the Commodores. Unfortunately, that was not to be, with Vanderbilt pulling out a squeaker at the end. But it was nonetheless an entertaining game to watch, with perhaps as many dunks as in any game I’ve seen this year. Game thoughts below:

1) About five minutes into the game, Jae Crowder gave me one of those amusing moments that happens every so often where I think to myself “I didn’t know he could shoot from three-point range” as a guy’s launching a shot. And then .5 seconds later as the ball is missing the rim entirely, I realize why I was surprised to see that particular player shooting.

2) Great to see Joe Fulce on the floor, after questioning just a few weeks ago whether he would ever play basketball again.

3) I’m always perplexed when I see games at Vanderbilt. Who thought that floor would be a good idea? I kind of understand the concept of the raised floor, but I’m at a loss trying to figure out why anyone would think it a good idea to put the benches on the baselines. Given that virtually every other basketball facility has sideline benches and that set up tends to work remarkably well, wouldn’t it seem logical to set up your own facility in this way? I’m all for creativity, but sometimes you just need to conform.

4) Dear ESPN: If in any way true, that was a nice tidbit that your commentators dropped in about Chris Otule wearing goggles because he only has one eye. But as great a factoid as that is, I’d ask that you not share it with Dick Vitale before he calls any Marquette games. The world doesn’t need any more excuses for Vitale to make his old “I only have one eye!” joke.

5) Vander Blue may not start for Marquette, but is there anyone out there that doesn’t think he’s one of the top five players on the roster? He’s come along much quicker than I expected.

6) It was a subtle moment, but there was a great shot in the second half of Buzz Williams on the baseline, where the benches are at Vanderbilt, shouting out a complaint to the referees. In the frame as Williams was yelling were one male and one female Vanderbilt fan, each of whom looked to be about student age. Both fans were calmly sitting in their front-row seats until Williams began his complaint. The look on the face of the male fan quickly shifted to one of anger, as if he was ready to confront Williams about punching one of his family members, or something else way more serious than a traveling call or three-second violation. I can’t do it justice writing about it, and it probably makes no sense if you didn’t see it. But if you happened to catch it while you were watching the game, you probably understand the understated brilliance of this moment.

7) Okay, I’ll admit it–Chris Otule is starting to look like a serviceable player. I still don’t think he has a high ceiling, and I will never think of him as the solid big man that Marquette could really use, but he’s developed some moves and is not totally embarrassing when he’s on the court. And that’s not something that I could have said about him when he was a freshman.

8) There were times last night when I was completely embarrassed to watch Marquette’s defense. There was one notable moment early in the second half when one of Vanderbilt’s guards took the ball 3/4 of the way down the court and three Marquette defenders in the lane just watched helplessly as he slipped by them to effortlessly lay the ball in. I’ve rarely seen such a poor effort on one play from high school players, let alone a trio of decent college players. And then there was the more glaring last possession for Vanderbilt, when the Commodores patience led them to break Marquette down for an fairly easy layup. I’m not sure if the Golden Eagles don’t know what they’re doing or if they’ve gotten tired of the consistent effort that they’ve always given and just aren’t trying all the time. Either way, it was upsetting to see the lapses last night.

9) Watching Marquette not even get a shot off on their final possession really took me back to the Tom Crean days at MU. The only difference being, of course, that if Crean was still at Marquette, this failure would not have been due to a player tripping. Someone would have just dribbled out the clock while over-thinking things.

10) I can’t recall too many non-conference seasons more frustrating than the one that Marquette just completed. The Golden Eagles played four games against big-time opponents and lost all four. Yet none of the losses were by more than five points, and one of them was an excellent effort against Duke, the best team in the country. At some point you’d have to suspect that Marquette will get over the hump and hold on to beat some excellent opponents in Big East play. After all, this is a talented team. But a good team needs to win games, and even though a shift in 14 points in all the right places would drastically alter the season to date, the fact still remains that Marquette has not yet won a game against a name opponent.

So all in all, not the best of nights for Marquette. I still think this team has a few Big East upsets in them. Let’s hope they get a big win soon, though, because it’s tough as a fan to stay patient through all of the near misses.

What He Said...

2010-12-28T10:02:00.000-06:00

Last night I typed up some thoughts on point guard Reggie Smith's decision to transfer from Marquette after just one semester. And this morning I decided that there's no need to post those thoughts after I read something that said everything better I did over at the Anonymous Eagle blog. Very well-reasoned analysis, and in addition, it raises some interesting points that I may look to dig deeper into when I have a spare moment tonight (in addition to my regularly scheduled hoops watching). I love it when someone articulates the thoughts running through my head better than I ever could.

Tuesday Night Hodgepodge

2010-12-22T08:04:00.002-06:00

Last night was a bit of a letdown due to the holidays. I was excited a few days ago when one of my friends asked me if I wanted to check out a high school game (usually it’s me doing the hard work of convincing someone to see a bunch of high school kids play basketball), but ultimately realized that I had too many chores to complete prior to Christmas to head out and watch hoops. Fortunately, I had my television, as well as a Marquette radio broadcast to keep me company as I wrapped Christmas gifts and prepared edible holiday treats in anticipation of the 25th of December. Here are some observations about the things that I saw and heard (and a few that I didn’t) on my night of trying to take in some basketball along with my holiday cheer:

1) As I was headed to the grocery store to buy more poppy seeds for a holiday creation, I was particularly pleased to flip on the Marquette radio pre-game show and hear George Thompson, the longtime former Marquette radio color commentator, filling in with his old partner Steve “The Homer” True last night. Thompson’s propensity for ridiculous comments and generally sounding like a fool always made for interesting radio. Much as I enjoy Jim McIlvaine and the occasional drop-in by Tony Smith, there’s nothing quite like sitting around wondering what the heck is going to come out of George Thompson’s mouth. So it was nice to have him back.

2) Thompson, also a former star player at Marquette, conspicuously disappeared from broadcasts a few years back shortly after his retired number was briefly given to then-freshman Lazar Hayward. I recall Tom Crean lamely trying to talk his way out of this miscue at the time by claiming that Marquette doesn’t retire numbers, it retires jerseys. This would have been a much more believable excuse if a) Marquette had previously made a practice of handing out other numbers from players honored with retired jerseys, and b) Marquette hadn’t additionally retired the numbers 77 and 11 in honor of Al McGuire and the Apollo 11 crew, respectively. Last time I looked, neither Al McGuire nor the Apollo 11 crew wore jerseys. In any event, while there has never been any public confirmation of a rift, it would appear to the casual observer that Marquette has mended fences with Thompson, and that’s good for everyone. Particularly fans who want to listen to a broadcast where they’ll ask themselves multiple times “Did I really just hear someone say that?”

3) In the pre-game, Thompson did not disappoint in terms of ridiculousness, noting that he was looking forward to watching Vander Blue, and inexplicably referring to Blue as “Monsieur Bleu” in a terrible French accent. I still have no idea of what was going through his head on that one, however, I particularly appreciated the quip, as the recipe that I was preparing last night required mass quantities of blue cheese. So I sort of felt like George was directing the broadcast at me.

4) I'm not sure if I should praise Steve "Homer" True's repeated mentions that Mississippi State guard D'Angelo Jackson was from Milwaukee and starred at Milwaukee Pius during high school, or complain that he kept repeating this fact so much. Either way, it was interesting to find out that Jackson had ended up at Mississippi State. Given that he had bounced around from Creighton, to UW-Green Bay and then a junior college before landing at MSVU, I had sort of lost track of Jackson until last night.

5) In addition to listening to the Marquette game on the radio, I took some time out to watch the start of the Ohio State-UNC-Asheville game on TV. My particular desire to watch this game was twofold (aside from just wanting to see a good team play). First, I had not yet gotten an extended look at OSU freshman Jared Sullinger, who has been putting up mind-boggling numbers. Seeing as Kyrie Irving is presumably out for the year now, it seemed it would behoove me to see the new top freshman in the country. Sullinger did not disappoint. Second, I also wanted to get a look at fellow OSU freshman DeShaun Thomas, who I had the good fortune of seeing at the Indiana State High School Championships two years ago, when he was just a junior (in one of the two great events from the past two years that I somehow neglected to write about). I’ll never forget walking into Conseco Fieldhouse and having a friend note “we might want to watch this guy,” after noticing Thomas’s averages of 36 ppg and 16 rpg in the game program.

6) During last night’s OSU game, I briefly reflected on the amusing fact that David Lighty has been at OSU since the magical season of Greg Oden and Mike Conley. It occurred to me last night that someday Lighty (after his own pro career, of course) will be able to tell his grandkids that he played with the best freshman in OSU history. I find it amusing that if you’d told anyone in 2006 that Lighty would be referring to someone other than Greg Oden when potentially making this statement, they’d have looked at you as if you were insane.

7) Since I’m hopping around on topics, I suppose that I should make some comment about the Connecticut women’s team breaking the record for longest winning streak last night, winning their 89th game and unseating John Wooden’s UCLA squads of the early 1970s. I congratulate the Huskies. I don’t care how much of a talent advantage you have–winning 89 in a row of anything is a ridiculous accomplishment. But while I congratulate you and respect what you’re doing, I frankly don’t care much about it. I’ve tried to get into women’s hoops, and it has simply never worked out. As a college freshman, I recall feverishly trying to talk my dorm-mates into getting season tickets to the women’s games at Wisconsin. My main argument? Who could turn down season tickets to anything if they were only $26? I found no takers. Nor would anyone go to a single game with me. A big part of my love of sports is its ability to give me an easy way to socialize with others. And the fact that I can find more takers to watch a Thursday night division three game at Carroll University during a snow storm than I can to attend a single college women’s game with me tells me all that I need to know about the value of women's basketball in my life.

8) I saw nothing of the game, but heard later in the evening that in high school action, Menomonee Falls dropped to 5-5 after a loss to a perennially strong Brookfield Central team last night. Mark me down as unsurprised by the Indians’ struggles to date–it’s something that I’ve been anticipating since the summer. While many will undoubtedly look at Menomonee Falls’ underwhelming start to the year as proof that top recruit J.P. Tokoto may not be all that he’s cracked up to be, nothing could be further from the truth. Falls was overrated to start the year, not because of Tokoto (who is still awesome), but because of the expectations set up by their outstanding team last season. People tend to be blinded by the shine from Tokoto’s star power and forget that Menomonee Falls graduated a remarkable senior class last year. Talented forward Jonathan Phillips took inside pressure off of Tokoto, and the backcourt was dominated by three solid guards who also excelled in other sports and therefore knew what it was like to compete for state championships. It’s rare that a school has a senior class that just happens to be full of winners, but Falls had such a class last year. That’s a bigger deal than most people typically realize. Falls actually does have plenty of talent this year, but it’s tough to replace the intangibles that last year’s seniors brought to the table. So if you want to blame someone for Menomonee Falls starting this year a bit overrated, don’t blame J.P. Tokoto–blame the guys that graduated last year. They'd have had a great team even without their young superstar teammate, and they’re the ones that really created these expectations.

And with that last rant over, I wish everyone a happy holidays. I’m more than likely out until after Christmas, unless something huge happens. Here’s looking forward to conference play after Christmas!