January 2009 - Posts
Move over Jodie Meeks. Make room Stephen Curry. Ben Woodside, you have company.
Ryan Toolson officially joined the high-scorers club. The Utah Valley senior scored 63 points in a four-overtime win Thursday against Chicago State.
Yes, 63. Sure, he played 60 minutes, but … wow. Considering only 20 other D-I players have scored more than 60 points in a game, that’s damn impressive.
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The Southeastern Conference is fed up with this basketball bashing. It’s time for some new blood!
Mark Gottfried and Alabama parted ways Monday. Georgia and Dennis Felton did the same Thursday (an SEC tourney title bought Felton an extra half-season). At this rate, Auburn’s Jeff Lebo may need to get his résumé ready.
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Maryland coach Gary Williams has had better weeks.
His Terps are 13-7 and have lost five of their last seven games, including a 41-point thrashing by Duke over the weekend. Worse yet, he’s at odds with a Maryland senior associate athletic director, which is adding fuel to the growing discord among some Terrapin fans who want Williams out.
The question now is what will be done with Williams?
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It’s almost like Coach K knew this was coming.
A couple of weeks ago, Duke’s coach was lamenting that his Blue Devils weren’t being feted by the local media for being the nation’s No. 2 team. They were 13-1, but behind Pitt. When Wake Forest upended UNC and Pitt lost, the Deacs went to the top spot.
And now? Duke is No. 1. For the 111th week in school history. Only UCLA has been atop the polls more often.
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Leave it to Craig Robinson to help bring about some change in the Pac-10.
After partying it up in Washington D.C. Tuesday for his brother-in-law inauguration, Robinson flew into California and led Oregon State to a stunning 69-65 win at Cal.
That sets up a huge game Saturday in Seattle between UCLA and Washington. The winner will be all alone atop the Pac-10.
If you didn’t know, hoops on the West Coast is becoming quite the show.
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Trouble keeps finding the defending champs. The last time was an eligibility question.
This time, all it took was a greeting.
Kansas coach Bill Self was in Springfield, Mo. last week to watch highly touted prospect John Wall. Afterward, he reportedly went up to Wall and complemented him on his game.
The problem with the whole thing stems from the NCAA’s rules surrounding when Self said hello.
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Tired of parity in sports? Wishing for a good ‘ol dominant team to run roughshod over the opposition? Look no further than the Connecticut women’s basketball team.
No, the Huskies aren’t the defending champs (that’s Tennessee). But this season is shaping up as a year in which the Huskies are taking everyone to the woodshed in record fashion.
Monday’s 88-58 thrashing of No. 2 North Carolina was a pitch-perfect display of hoops. And it came in Chapel Hill, where the Tar Heels had won 31 consecutive games.
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Determining how many people will attend Barack Obama’s inauguration is an inexact science. A million? Two million? About the only certainties are that it’ll be a star-studded event.
Oh, and at least one Beaver will be there. Guess that means Craig Robinson will skip Tuesday’s Pac-10 coaches’ conference call.
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Scoring more than 40 points in a college basketball game is no small thing. A point a minute? That’s some work.
When someone hits 50, the accolades start pouring in.
And when someone scores 54 points on just 22 shots against the reigning SEC champs on national TV and breaks a 39-year-old scoring record at the NCAA’s premier basketball program, well, there’s just one word for it. Ridonkulous.
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Jodie Meeks shot his way into Kentucky’s record books and gave the SEC a much-needed boost Tuesday night. Scoring 54 points will do that.
We knew Meeks could score. The 6-4 junior opened the season with a 39-point effort in a loss to VMI, dumped 46 on Appalachian State in December and entered Tuesday night’s game against No. 24 Tennessee as the nation’s fifth-leading scorer (24.2).
But this was as good of a shooting performance as you'll ever see.
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The SEC may have the national champs in football, but the conference is hurtin’ in hoops. It doesn’t appear to have any Final Four contenders and barely half of its 12 teams appear to be NCAA tournament contenders (four seems more likely).
Whether one goes by the RPI or kenpom.com’s rankings, the SEC is well behind the other five BCS conferences – and unlikely to rise anytime soon.
It opens up the door for the Mountain West to supplant the Missouri Valley as the best non-BCS conference.
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Wake Forest’s 92-89 win against North Carolina Sunday night was an impressive display of athleticism and non-top offense. Not sure there’s been a better basketball game this season.
The only downside? We may not see the two play again.
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It’s amazing what a good coach can do. Just look at the Pac-10.
UCLA (12-2) continues to thrive under Ben Howland. Herb Sendek’s turned Arizona State (12-2) into a Final Four contender. Heck, Craig Robinson’s even made Oregon State (6-6) into a decent team – still not great – and earned plaudits from his brother-in-law.
But Mike Montgomery at Cal has turned the most heads.
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It’s amazing how time gets away from you. Vacation, other duties at work piling up, no Internet at home, etc. – and just like that, it’s been nearly two weeks since my last post.
So I’ll open the new year with a first: Pitt reaching No. 1 in the AP poll for the first time.
Being No. 1 in January doesn’t bring home a title, but it is a nice achievement for Dixon’s squad, and a little surprising the Panthers had never been there before.
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