09 Nov30 - Low Relief

Volume XIV, No. 4 - 09 Nov 30 - [] Top 25 Ballot

Low Relief

Close results in the Thanksgiving holiday tournaments provide for entertaining viewing, but they don't make for deep impressions for getting a feel for this season. It's mostly Low Relief.

Kansas and Louisville finished up their round-robin play in the HALL OF FAME CLASSIC each with 4-0 records. With no crossover opponents, it may as well have been two separate events that happened to share a double-header in St. Louis. (Declare them co-champs, A and B.)
    Texas cruised to the CBE crown with easy wins over Iowa (85-60) and Pittsburgh (78-62). The Longhorns aren't particularly playing well, either. They're still in "All-Star" mode but have so much talent that they can coast against ordinary opponents. (I guess the promoters got their money's worth from the gate if loyal Hawkeye fans showed up to watch their team finish 0-4 in the event.)

Young Florida had a terrific week. First, the Gators blew away talented Florida State, @68-52. Then, they went to Atlantic City and shocked Michigan State 77-74 (forcing the Spartans into 22 turnovers and 2-for-10 three-point shooting) and won the LEGENDS CLASSIC.
    Kentucky did win the CANCUN CLASSIC, but it couldn't shake 4-3 Stanford in the final and survived 73-65(OT) behind 23p5a from pJohn Wall. The Wildcats have too much talent to be a mediocre team, but whether this is the next Fab Five-type squad that rolls to the Final Four behind its freshman-dominated roster remains to be seen. (Michigan '92-95 never won any conference honors but they made two Final Fours right away. This group might be in that same vein.)

The tournament finals were mostly missed pairings due to upsets, but we did get two hoped-for matchups. Duke handled the athleticism of Connecticut without much problem in its easy 68-59 win in the NIT SEASON TIP-OFF final. pJohn Scheyer(19p5a) had a 10-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio at one point this past week. So far so good. UConn's gJerome Dyson(15p) had no trouble penetrating the lane, but it was tough to finish among the Blue Devils' tall trees in the paint and he wasn't able to get his teammates involved offensively.
    For some reason, Purdue tried to run with Tennessee in the first half of the PARADISE JAM final. They did well just to maintain contact. In the second half, the Boilermakers were much more deliberate and gained control of the game (thanks to 22p from E'Twaun Moore and 20p7r from bRobbie Hummel); but a late scramble from the Volunteers actually gave tWayne Chism(24p6r) a good look at a game-winner at the end. He missed and Purdue escaped with a 73-72 win.

The ANAHEIM CLASSIC (on paper) had the deepest field of all of the preseason tournaments. Butler dropped two of three games (to Minnesota 73-82 and to Clemson 69-70). They beat UCLA 69-@67, but that result was probably the worst of the three. The Bruins are headed for one of the worst years in the history of the program. UCLA (2-4) had already lost to Cal State-Fullerton, and then they were routed by Portland 74-@47 and fell to Long Beach State @79-@68. Yikes. The surprising Pilots also knocked off Minnesota 61-56 in the semifinals as well. West Virginia was the last team standing among a quality group of teams, but their path to victory was Long Beach State-Texas A&M-Portland. Hardly a resume-builder.
    Gonzaga is showing more muscle in the paint on offense and defense and they needed all of it to pull out an overtime win in the finals of MAUI, 61-59(OT) over a game Cincinnati squad.
    Home-state support aside, give Florida State credit for emerging from the solid ORLANDO field with the tournament crown. Their 57-56 win in the final over Marquette was a classic case of one team that's all frontcourt (FSU) against another team that's all backcourt (MU). 7-1 cSolomon Alabi's baseline jumper was the difference.

Oklahoma State won the LAS VEGAS-THANKSGIVING INVITATIONAL as expected (but it didn't have to beat Illinois to do it as the Illini fell to both Utah and state rival Bradley).
    Notre Dame was favored to take the CHICAGO INVITATIONAL CHALLENGE, but home-crowd support pushed Northwestern past the Fighting Irish @72-58 in the semis and NU survived @67-65 in the final over Iowa State. (Quite an accomplishment considering the Wildcats have lost their best player, cKevin Coble, for the season after foot surgery.)
    After beating Siena last week, Temple couldn't sweep its games in The Palestra to win the PHILLY CLASSIC. Instead, St. John's came in and handed Siena another loss (77-68) and then beat the Owls 55-@48 to take the crown.
    Richmond was the surprise winner of the SOUTH PADRE ISLAND INVITATIONAL as the Spiders took out Mississippi State 63-62 and Missouri 59-52.

Oklahoma struggled mightily in Alaska, dropping two of three games in the GREAT ALASKA SHOOTOUT. Washington State took advantage of an easy path and routed San Diego 93-56 in the final.
    Despite losing 82-@86(OT) to host Wyoming, Pepperdine's 2-1 record laid claim to an Unwelcome Guest win in the WV INVITATIONAL-(WYOMING) event.

Undefeated UNLV led by 19 in the second half against visting Louisville, but gave it all back before surviving with a @76-71 win.

With the Thanksgiving tournaments in the books, it's no surprise which conferences dominated. The Big East took 5 major titles COACHES VS CANCER[@Syracuse], ANAHEIM[West Virginia], PUERTO RICO[Villanova], PHILLY[St. John's] and HALL OF FAME-B[Louisville]. The ACC was right behind with 4: NIT SEASON TIP-OFF[Duke], ORLANDO[@Florida State], CHARLESTON[Miami(Florida)] and GLENN WILKES[N.C. State]. Next was the Big 12 (3): LAS VEGAS-THANKSGIVING[Oklahoma State], HALL OF FAME-A[Kansas] and CBE[Texas]. Two each for the SEC {LEGENDS[Florida] and CANCUN[Kentucky]} and Big 10 {CHICAGO[@Northwestern] and PARADISE JAM[Purdue]}. Only one for the Pac-10 {GREAT ALASKA[Washington State]}, Atlantic 10 {SOUTH PADRE[Richmond]} and WCC {MAUI[Gonzaga]}.
    The WCC did claim an Unwelcome Guest title {WVI-WY[Pepperdine]}; and Northern Colorado claimed two for the Big Sky all by itself: RAINBOW and REGGIE MINTON.

Not much left as far as preseason tournament play. The LAS VEGAS-CHRISTMAS CLASSIC (Dec 10-22) features BYU, Tulsa and Nevada. The new DIAMOND HEAD CLASSIC in Honolulu (Dec 22-25) features UNLV, USC, St. Mary's and Northeastern. Those results aren't likely to have much effect on the Top 25.

Despite a shaky week, the Big 10 actually has as good a shot as ever to finally win its head-to-head CHALLENGE with the ACC. They have the edge 6-5 in home games and the league appears deeper from the top down at this point in the season.
    Don't expect the BIG 12/PAC-10 HARDWOOD SERIES to be close. The Pac-10 is down and one of its double-duty teams, USC, has already lost its first game at home to Nebraska @48-51.
    The MWC/MVC CHALLENGE is so spread out that it's hard to feel any excitement about it. The Mountain West (which should win) is up 2-1 so far, but only one game is on tap this week: Missouri State hosting Air Force on Saturday. (Look for things to be 2-2 after that one.)

Ready or not, North Carolina has a big week in store. Tuesday, they host Michigan State in the rematch of last year's national championship game. Then, Saturday, they travel to Lexington to face Kentucky's superfrosh squad. All three teams are having their problems early on, so who knows how things will shake out.

Besides the conference showdowns, we've mostly got State Title grudge matches this week and even some early 1BC conference games.

-- Ron

Key games this week:

Monday:

@Georgetown-MtStMarys(DC/MD),
HALL OF FAME SHOWCASE RndRob on-campus
- (A: @Memphis-Oakland),

Monday-Wednesday:

ACC/BIG 10 CHALLENGE on-campus; (Georgia Tech doesn't play); ACC leads 10-0 all-time
- (Mon: @Virginia-PennSt;
   Tue: @Purdue-WakeForest, @NCarolina-MichiganSt, Northwestern-@NCState, @Indiana-Maryland, @Iowa-VirginiaTech;
   Wed: Duke-@Wisconsin, @OhioSt-FloridaSt, @Michigan-BostonCol, @MiamiFL-Minnesota, @Clemson-Illinois),

Tuesday:

@WeberSt-Utah, @LoyolaMD-MorganSt(BaltimoreMD),

Wednesday:

@Gonzaga-WashingtonSt(WA), UNLV-@Arizona, OklahomaSt-@Tulsa(OK), @Connecticut-BostonU(@HartfordCT), BYU-@UtahSt(UT), @Richmond-OldDominion(VA), NoIowa-@IowaSt(IA), @WeberSt-Utah(UT),
(7P):Siena-@GeorgiaTech,

Thursday:

@RobertMorris-MtStMarys, @Winthrop-Radford,

Thursday-Tue 22 Dec:

BIG 12/PAC-10 HARDWOOD SERIES on-campus; (USC and Washington play twice); BIG 12 leads 1-0
- (Thu: @Texas-USC, @TexasTech-Washington, @ArizonaSt-Baylor;
   Fri: @OregonSt-Colorado;
   Sat: @California-IowaSt, @KansasSt-WashingtonSt, @Missouri-Oregon;
   Sun: Kansas-@UCLA, @Oklahoma-Arizona;
   Wed 16 Dec: @Stanford-OklahomaSt;
   Tue 22 Dec: @Washington-TexasA&M),

Friday:

Florida-@Jacksonville(FL),

Saturday:

@Duke-StJohns, @Kentucky-NCarolina, @RhodeIsland-Providence(RI), @Holy Cross-Massachusetts(MA), @MurraySt-MoreheadSt(KY), @CoppinSt-MorganSt(BaltimoreMD),

Saturday-Wed 23 Dec:

MVC/MWC CHALLENGE on-campus; (Evansville doesn't play); MWC leads 2-1
- (Sat: @MissouriSt-AirForce;
   Sat 12 Dec: @WichitaSt-TCU;
   Sat 19 Dec: @NewMexico-Creighton, @Utah-IllinoisSt;
   Tue 22 Dec: @Drake-SanDiegoSt;
   Wed 23 Dec: @NoIowa-Wyoming),

Sunday:

@Creighton-Nebraska(NE), @Clemson-SCarolina(SC),
BB&T CLASSIC DblHdr @ Washington DC
- (Villanova-@Maryland, @Navy-@GeoWashington(MD/DC)).

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Top 25 - 09 Nov 30 - [] Column

1. Kansas (5-0) [:3vHALL OF FAME-A]
2. Texas (5-0) [2v2:CBE]
3. Syracuse (6-0)
4. Florida (6-0) [2v2:LEGENDS]
5. Duke (6-0) [2v2:NIT TIP-OFF]
6. Purdue (5-0) [3:PARADISE JAM]
7. Villanova (6-0)
8. Kentucky (6-0) [2v2:CANCUN]
9. North Carolina (5-1)
10. Michigan State (4-1)
11. West Virginia (5-0) [3@ANAHEIM]
12. Ohio State (5-1)
13. Gonzaga (5-1) [3:MAUI]
14. Tennessee (5-1)
15. Memphis (3-1)
16. UNLV (4-0)
17. Oklahoma State (5-0) [2v2:LAS VEGAS-THANX]
18. Connecticut (4-1)
19. BYU (5-0)
20. Northwestern (5-1) [2v2vCHICAGO]
21. St. John's (5-0) [v2@PHILLY]
22. Florida State (6-1) [3vORLANDO]
23. Richmond (6-1) [2v2:SOUTH PADRE]
24. Mississippi (5-1)
25. Kansas State (5-1)

Honorable Mention:

Louisville (4-1) [:3vHALL OF FAME-B], Marquette (5-1), Texas A&M (4-1), Portland (4-1), Cincinnati (4-1), Washington State (5-0) [3:GREAT AK], Pepperdine (3-4) [RR3@WVI-WY].