Hoop, Line And Sinker

A weekly column on men's college basketball.

Friday, January 04, 2013

12 Dec31 - Calendar (Turn A)Round (PRECONFERENCE)


Volume XVII, No. 9 - 12 Dec31 : PRECONFERENCE - [] Top 25 Ballot

Calendar (Turn A)Round


UCLA finally put itself on the map with a @97-94(OT) win over Missouri, led by freshman 6-6 gShabazz Muhammad(27p1a) (despite 19 assists from pPhil Pressey). The Tigers did the Bruins a favor by pushing the pace and making the game more "talent vs talent" than about team defense and poise. (PAC-12 teams won't run up and down with UCLA in conference play.)

   
New Mexico edged Cincinnati on the road, 55-@54, thanks to 7-0 cAlex Kirk's game-winning block on gSean Kirkpatrick. The Lobos held the Bearcats to 31% shooting as UC only went 3-for-4 on free throws -- too many jumpshots from the three-guard offense.

   
North Carolina got back in the mix with a @79-73 payback win over UNLV (after last year's shocking upset). Even without bReggie Bullock, the Tar Heels had five players in double-figures in front of the home crowd while the Rebels (who have already disappointed by losing at home to Oregon in the GS-A CLASSIC) struggled from the free throw line (11-for-21).

In the last of the preseason tournaments, Temple's game with Detroit was postponed due to bad weather, putting the crowning of the champion of the GOTHAM CLASSIC on hold until it's rescheduled.

    
Nick Johnson's block of Chase Tapley's drive to the basket saved the day as Arizona beat San Diego State 68-67 in the final of the DIAMOND HEAD CLASSIC. It's the Wildcats' second 1-point win over a ranked powerhouse (Florida) -- that shows you how evenly matched the top teams are this year.

Louisville looked mighty good in its high-quality battle with state-rival Kentucky, @80-77 as bRuss Smith(21p7r3a) and gPeyton Siva(19p1a) showed why they're one of the top backcourts in the nation and fChane Behanan (20p7r3a) had a fine game inside the paint. The Wildcats nearly joined the party (with UCLA and UNC) and played well;
bArchie Goodwin(22p5r5to) has emerged as the clear leader, but he's a scorer not a passer so the UK frontcourt players are still on their own a bit too much.

    
Not much D on display as Gonzaga outraced Baylor, @94-87, as both teams were over 50% shooting and both teams were strong on the outside (gKevin Pangos[31p;7/10 3s] and pPierre Jackson[26p6a7to]) and "inside" -- (both 7-0 cKelly Olynyk[21p4r] and 7-0 cIsaiah Austin[20p8r] like to step outside and take jumpers).

    
Valparaiso's 66-@64 win at Murray State salvaged something in the preseason for the HORIZON. (Only Green Bay's win over state-rival Marquette, Detroit's win over Akron and Milwaukee's win over Davidson constitute any noise that anyone was able to make.) The loss of Butler has definitely sent the league back to 1BC-land.

pVincent Council is finally back on court for 8-4 Providence, but not even 37p from tLaDontae Henton was enough against city rival 4-6 Brown as the Bruins pulled off the @69-68 win thanks to tTucker Halpern's 28p (including the game-winning three-pointer).

In early conference play, BIG WEST: Long Beach State edged Pacific, @67-63. Meanwhile, SUMMIT: North Dakota State got by South Dakota State (despite 26p3a from gNate Wolters) to take early control of the race.

- -

The preseason is done. Despite hiccups, Louisville and Indiana seem every bit the National Champion contenders they were expected to be. Michigan has been even better than advertized with four perimeter players who are a tough matchup for anyone. Ohio State has been fine, but it feels like the Buckeyes are living off last year's rep just a bit. Florida has been solid and Gonzaga has been even better than its solid expectations. Kansas State's win over Florida makes its preseason not so bad after all.

    
Duke's spectacular preseason has been quite the surprise. It still appears that the bench (and the paint) are thin, but Mike Krzyzewski has guided them through undefeated against the toughest schedule. It was supposed to be a rebuilding year at Syracuse, but instead Jim Boeheim has another overachieving squad with the nation's assist leader (pMichael Carter-Williams) and the best sixth man (tJames Southerland) -- Is it any wonder these two coaches are tops on the all-time wins list?

    
Minnesota (deep and physically talented), Illinois (spectacular perimeter attack) and Oklahoma State (featuring standout freshman pMarcus Smart) have been the biggest surprises ... along with the entire MOUTNAIN WEST conference (a phenomenal 40-9 in preseason tournaments and high-profile matchups so far): New Mexico, still undefeated Wyoming, Boise State and Colorado State all have impressive wins.

   
N.C. State hasn't looked like a Final Four contender (but all it needs is an attitude adjustment). Ohio University hasn't looked the part of a Sweet 16 team at all -- maybe the coaching change has meant more than expected (because John Groce is doing just fine with his new team, Illinois). Davidson hasn't been able to break through despite its veteran lineup. Murray State's expectations were down from last year's high, but they haven't shown any splashworthy results just yet.

The BIG 10 has been outstanding in the preseason again this year, taking 5 1/3 crowns. The PAC-12 has improved greatly while the BIG 12 and SEC have been disappointing below the two or three elite squads up top.

    
The MOUNTAIN WEST has played on par with the BCS leagues. The switch by Butler and VCU to the ATLANTIC 10 has had a big impact; those two have contributed largely to the A-10's high profile in the preseason and, conversely, their old leagues (HORIZON and COLONIAL) have plummeted to 1BC status.

    
Only SUMMIT/South Dakota State's win at New Mexico qualifies as a breakthrough win for a 1BC team (and even that wasn't against a ranked BCS team). BIG WEST/Cal Poly-SLO's win at UCLA said more about the Bruins than the Mustangs; so to for NEC/Robert Morris' win over Ohio University. SOCON/College of Charleston's win at Baylor and Georgia Southern's win at Virgnia Tech were solid. IVY/Harvard's win at California salvaged something for the Ancient 8. MAAC/Canisius' win at Temple may say more than it seemed at the time. A-SUN/Mercer's wins at Florida State and Alabama looked better at the time.

Here's how the conferences look after the preseason:


  1. BIG 10 - Tied ACC 6-6 in CHALLENGE. Michigan [2v2:NIT.T-O] (made noise) was undefeated; Illinois [3:MAUI] and Michigan State -- (both with elite wins), Indiana [2v2:LEGENDS] and Minnesota -- (both made noise), Ohio State [2v2:HALL.FAME] and Iowa all were excellent; Northwestern [2v2:SOUTH.PADRE] (made noise) and Nebraska [.3rr4CIPRIANO] (good win) both starred; Wisconsin (made noise) was a winner; Penn State (good win) struggled overall.
  2. BIG EAST - Beat SEC 9-3 in CHALLENGE. Louisville and Syracuse -- (both with elite wins), Notre Dame, Connecticut, Georgetown and Cincinnati [2v2:GS-A] -- (all made noise), Pittsburgh and Seton Hall -- (both with good wins) all were excellent; Marquette (made noise), Rutgers, Providence (without injured pVincent Council), DePaul and St. John's all starred; Villanova was a winner.
  3. ACC - Tied BIG 10 6-6 in CHALLENGE. Duke [3:ATLANTIS] (elite wins) was undefeated; Maryland (good win), and Miami(Florida) and Virginia Tech -- (both with elite wins), North Carolina and Virginia -- (both made noise) all were excellent; Georgia Tech and N.C. State (both made noise) and Clemson all starred; Florida State [2v2:CVC] (good wins) struggled overall.
  4. PAC-12 - Arizona [3:DIAMOND] (elite wins) was undefeated; Oregon (elite road win), Colorado [3:CHARLESTON] (made noise) and Arizona State were excellent; Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA (elite win), California [3:DTV/ANAHEIM] all starred; Washington State was a winner; Washington struggled.
  5. MOUNTAIN WEST - Beat MVC 6-3 in CHALLENGE. Wyoming (made noise) was undefeated; New Mexico [3:PARADISE] (elite road win), and UNLV and San Diego State -- (both made noise) all were excellent; Boise State (elite road win), Colorado State [2v2:LVC-X] and Air Force [2@ALL-MIL] all starred; Nevada was a winner.
  6. ATLANTIC 10 - Charlotte [3:GREAT.AK] (good win), Temple (elite win), Richmond, Butler (elite win) and Dayton (made noise) all were excellent; Xavier (good win), La Salle, VCU (made noise), St. Louis [who lost coach Rick Majerus] (good win) and St. Bonaventure all starred. Massachusetts and St. Joseph's -- (both made noise) struggled overall.
  7. BIG 12 - Kansas [2v2vCBE] (elite win) and Oklahoma State [3:PUERTO.RICO] (made noise) were excellent; Kansas State (elite win), Baylor and Oklahoma -- (both made noise), Iowa State and Texas Tech all starred; Texas and West Virginia -- (both made noise) struggled overall.
  8. SEC - Lost 3-9 to BIG EAST in CHALLENGE. Missouri (elite win), Florida (made noise), Mississippi and LSU were excellent; Texas A&M, Kentucky [rr4BC], Alabama [2v2:2KS] and South Carolina [2v2:HOOPS4HOPE] starred. Tennessee (made noise) struggled overall.
  9. WEST COAST - Gonzaga [3:OS/ORLANDO] (made noise) and Santa Clara were excellent; BYU (made noise) and St. Mary's starred; Loyola Marymount and San Diego struggled.
  10. CONFERENCE USA - Houston and SMU were excellent; Memphis and Tulane -- (both made noise), Southern Mississippi [rr3@LEGENDSconsB] (good win), UCF and East Carolina all starred; Marshall struggled.
  11. MISSOURI VALLEY - Lost 3-6 to MWC in CHALLENGE. Creighton [2v2:LVI-THANX] and Wichita State [2v2:CANCUN] -- (both made noise) were excellent; Illinois State (made noise), Bradley and Southern Illinois starred; Indiana State and Northern Iowa -- (both made noise), and Evansville all struggled overall. Missouri State (good win) was a flop overall.
  12. OHIO VALLEY - Eastern Kentucky, Murray State (good win) and Jacksonville State were excellent; Belmont (made noise on the road) starred; Tennessee State and Morehead State -- (both with good wins) and Tennessee Tech struggled overall.
  13. HORIZON - Illinois(Chicago) was excellent; Loyola(Illinois) and Wright State starred; Valparaiso [.3rr4CIPRIANO] (made noise) was a winner; Detroit (good win) and Youngstown State struggled. Milwaukee and Green Bay -- (both with good wins) were flops overall.
  14. SUMMIT - South Dakota State (an elite road win) and North Dakota State [rr3@LEGENDSconsA] starred; Western Illinois struggled; Oakland and IUPUI -- (both with good wins) were losers overall.
  15. BIG WEST - Cal State-Northridge [rr4@NUCDF] starred; Pacific and Cal Poly-SLO -- (made noise) and Hawaii, Cal State-Fullerton, Long Beach State and UC-Irvine all struggled overall.
  16. SUN BELT - Arkansas State was excellent; Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky starred; South Alabama (made noise) and North Texas struggled overall.
  17. WAC - Utah State was excellent; Louisiana Tech [rr3@CBEconsB] and Texas-Arlington starred; Idaho and Denver struggled. Texas-San Antonio [2@LIBERTY] was a flop overall.
  18. METRO ATLANTIC - Loyola(Maryland) was excellent; Canisius (made noise) starred; Fairfield, Rider and Iona -- (all with good wins), and Niagara and Marist all struggled. Manhattan and Siena were a flop.
  19. AMERICA EAST - Albany was excellent; Stony Brook starred; Boston U (good win) and Vermont struggled.
  20. PATRIOT - Bucknell (good win) and Lehigh were excellent; Army and American struggled; Lafayette (good win) was a flop overall.
  21. SOUTHERN - College of Charleston and Georgia Southern -- (both made noise), Elon and Davidson all struggled. UNC-Greensboro was a flop.
  22. MID-AMERICAN - Ohio University [rr4vNATION], Western Michigan and Eastern Michigan were good; Kent State [.3rr4CIPRIANO] and Akron -- (good wins), and Bowling Green struggled overall; Buffalo was a loser; Toledo was a bust.
  23. NORTHEAST - Robert Morris (made noise) was a winner; Bryant, Wagner and Monmouth (all with good wins) and Long Island struggled; Sacred Heart (with a good win) and Quinnipiac were a bust. (St. Francis[Pennsylvania] was winless.)
  24. ATLANTIC SUN - Florida Gulf Coast was a winner (and made noise); Mercer (made noise on the road, twice) and SC Upstate struggled overall; North Florida was a bust. ({Northern Kentucky} was winless.)
  25. SOUTHLAND - Stephen F. Austin was excellent; McNeese State (good win) was a winner; Northwestern State (good win) and Oral Roberts struggled; Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Lamar (both with good wins) were flops overall.
  26. COLONIAL - Everyone struggled -- including Northeastern (and Georgia State [good win]). Drexel (good win) and Delaware were flops.
  27. BIG SOUTH - Most everybody struggled -- including Winthrop (made noise), Coastal Carolina (good win) and Charleston Southern. Campbell was a flop.
  28. IVY - Revamped Harvard still made noise (but struggled overall); Princeton (good win) and Yale were flops.
  29. BIG SKY - Weber State (good win) and Montana (without injured gWill Cherry) struggled overall. North Dakota was a bust.
  30. MEAC - Savannah State, Delaware State struggled; Norfolk State was a loser. (Hampton and Maryland[Eastern Shore] were winless.)
  31. SWAC - Prairie View A&M and Southern University struggled. Texas Southern was a flop (against a brutal schedule). (Mississippi Valley State and Grambling State were winless.)
  32. INDEPENDENTS - Cal State-Bakersfield struggled. New Orleans couldn't hang.
  33. GREAT WEST - New Jersey Tech and Utah Valley struggled. Houston Baptist was a bust.

- -

Still some out-of-conference stragglers: Duke and Davidson meet in Charlotte (Wednesday) and Kansas hosts Temple (Sunday). Oklahoma State has big week: vs Gonzaga out-of-conference (Monday) and at Kansas State in-conference (Saturday).
     Conference play gets going in full with some nice mathcups: Arizona hosts Colorado (Thursday); Minnesota hosts Michigan State (Monday); Illinois and Ohio State meet in Champaign (Saturday); Pittsburgh and Cincinnati clash in Oakland (Monday); UCLA hosts California (Thursday) and Stanford (Saturday).

-- Ron

P.S. Happy New Year everyone!

Key games this week:

Monday:

@Minnesota-MichiganSt, Gonzaga-@OklahomaSt, Cincinnati-@Pittsburgh, @StMarys-Harvard, @Drexel-StJosephs(PhiladelphiaPA), @MidTennessee-NTexas,


Tuesday:

@Marquette-Connecticut,


Wednesday:

@Duke-@Davidson(NC)(@CharlotteNC), Creighton-@IllinoisSt,
@SanDiegoSt-CalStBakersfield(CA),

(7P):@GeorgiaSt-Drexel,

@Mercer-FLGulfCoast, @Southern-TexasSo,


Thursday:

@Arizona-Colorado, @UCLA-California(CA), @CalPolySLO-LongBeachSt(CA), @Hawaii-CalStFullerton, @Canisius-Fairfield,


Friday:

@Tennessee-Memphis(TN), @RhodeIsland-Brown(RI), @Southern-PrairieViewA&M,


Saturday:

OhioSt-@Illinois, @KansasSt-OklahomaSt,

(2:30P): @GeorgiaTech-MiamiFL,

@UNLV-CalStBakersfield, @UCLA-Stanford(CA), @LaSalle-Penn(PhiladelphiaPA)(BIG_5), @Detroit-GreenBay, @SAlabama-MidTennessee, @Canisius-Marist(NY), @UTValley-NJIT,


Sunday:

@Kansas-Temple, @PrairieViewA&M-TexasSo,



Monday week:

@Cincinnati-NotreDame(BG).


Top 25 - 12 Dec31: PRECONFERENCE - [] Column

  1. Duke (12-0) (@@CHAMPIONS) [3:ATLANTIS] (vBIG10)
  2. Michigan (12-0) [2v2:NIT.T-O] (vACC)
  3. Arizona (12-0) [3:DIAMOND]
  4. Kansas (11-1) [2v2vCBE]
  5. Louisville (12-1)
  6. Minnesota (12-1) (@ACC)
  7. Ohio State (9-2) [2v2:HALL.FAME]
  8. Missouri (10-2) (@@BRAGGIN')
  9. Florida (9-2) (vBIG E)
  10. Indiana (12-1) [2v2:LEGENDS] (vACC)
  11. Syracuse (11-1) (@SEC)
  12. Illinois (12-1) [3:MAUI] (vACC)
  13. Gonzaga (11-1) [3:OS/ORLANDO]
  14. Kansas State (9-2)
  15. New Mexico (13-1) [3:PARADISE] (@MVC)
  16. Creighton (12-1) [2v2:LVI-THANX]
  17. Wyoming (10-0) (@MVC)
  18. Cincinnati (12-1) [2v2:GS-A] (vSEC)
  19. Butler (9-2) (@@CROSSROADS)
  20. Temple (9-2)
  21. Wichita State (12-1) [2v2:CANCUN] (@MWC)
  22. Oklahoma State (10-1) [3:PUERTO.RICO]
  23. Notre Dame (12-1) (vSEC) (@@CROSSROADS)
  24. VCU (10-3)
  25. Georgetown (10-1) (vSEC)

Honorable Mention:

Michigan State (10-2) (@@CHAMPIONS), UCLA (10-3),
South Dakota State (6-5), Boise State (8-2) (@MVC), Xavier (7-5), Canisius (9-4), Tennessee (8-3), Virginia Tech (9-4) (vBIG 10), St. Joseph's (6-4),

Colorado (10-2) [3:CHARLESTON],

Kentucky (8-4) [rr4BC],

California (8-4) [3:DTV/ANAHEIM],

Colorado State (10-2) [2v2:LVC-XMAS],

Florida State (8-4) [2v2:CVC],

Alabama (6-5) [2v2:2KS],

Nebraska (9-4)/Valparaiso (9-4)/Kent State (7-5) [.3rr4CIPRIANO],

Charlotte (11-2) [3:GREAT.AK],

Southern Mississippi (9-4) [rr3@LEGENDSconsB],

Western Michigan (8-5) [rr3@USF],

Ohio University (8-5) [rr4vNATIONS],

North Dakota State (11-3) [rr3@LEGENDSconsA],

Cal State-Northridge (5-4) [rr4@NUCDF],

Northwestern (9-4) [2v2:SOUTH.PADRE],

South Carolina (9-3) [2v2:HOOPS4HOPE],

Bucknell (10-2) [3@2KSconsA],

Texas-San Antonio (4-7) [2@LIBERTY],

Louisiana Tech (10-3) [3@CBEconsB],

Air Force (8-3) [2@ALL-MILITARY].

posted by Ron @ Friday, January 04, 2013