SBNation.com - NCAA Basketball From Our Editors

John Wall Needs A Nickname

2009-12-10T15:29:17Z

Dan Shanoff took a stab at nicknaming John Wall this morning over at The Sporting Blog. It did not go well:

Maybe he is one of those players that is so good, he doesn’t need a nickname. But I’m going to try, in honor of the pop star of the moment: “Ga-Ga.”

Because that’s what people go when they watch Wall play.

Cringe.

And it’s “Gaga,” not “Ga-Ga,” assuming he is naming Wall after the eccentric female pop music superstar.

So yeah, we need something better. Something befitting of a player who is so dominating, they gave him the No. 1 … twice. Hmm … No. 11 … 11 … Spinal Tap comes to mind. Yes. Spinal Tap. We could name him after one of their songs from the “Smell the Glove” album.

Sex Farm? Cups and Cakes? Ohh … how about The Love Pump? Yeah, I like Love Pump.

Or, you know, John Wall works too. Just don’t call him Ga-Ga, please.

Is John Wall Bad For College Basketball?

2009-12-10T15:09:20Z

What, you say? The same John Wall that electrified the Madison Square Garden crowd in a thrilling win for Kentucky last night?

That’s what SB Nation’s college hoops blog Searching For Billy Edelin writes.

Tonight Wall put up 25 points along with six steals in a fantastic win over UCONN, all part of an electrifying atmosphere at MSG. The problem here is Wall has come in to poop on his peers for one season, all with the intent of peacing to the pros come springtime, forgetting that college basketball even exists.
[…]
We’re relying on 17- and 18-year-old players to generate the majority of excitement and hype for this great sport. You know there was another explosive point guard on the floor tonight? His name was Kemba Walker, a sophomore. Nobody seemed to care. After being ignored by his teammates for the first 25 minute of the game, Patrick Patterson showed he’s one of the country’s best big men. But he’s a junior, which is so “out” this season. Why aren’t we looking to market the players we know are in this relationship for the long run?

A little curmudgeon-y, but certainly understandable. We’re talking about a college basketball fan that would rather see college basketball players there longer. I get that.

But here’s the problem: there is no “long run” in college basketball. Even a four-year senior stays for just four years. College hoops has always been a stepping stone for the game’s best, whether they stay one year or four.

So let’s sit back and enjoy the great basketball players play and develop in their formative years. One year of John Wall or Kevin Durant in college basketball is better than zero.

ESPN Struggles To Broadcast Kentucky-UConn Game

2009-12-10T04:11:28Z

Currently, No. 4 Kentucky and No. 14 UConn are battling each other in an entertaining game -- a game with John Wall prominently involved -- at Madison Square Garden, no less. It's a great matchup of two college basketball powerhouses, playing in prime-time, and did I mention John Wall? Sounds like a fun game, doesn't it? Want to tune in and watch? Great! Just turn to ESPN ... oh, wait ... signal seems to be out. Again.

Yes, in one of this young season's better matchups, the Worldwide Leader has already dropped the video feed twice, leaving Dan Shulman and Dick Vitale to essentially act like they're calling the game on the radio. And fans ain't happy.

Our own Chris Dobbertean: Oh goody...this broadcast has become "Theatre of the Mind."

apayne1170: Is this espn or CBS college sports? Come on

sethkjolly: Dear ESPN, please don't give me Dickie V as the radio guy if you're going to give me technical difficulties with the picture.

The weather in New York City is fine tonight, and, ya know, it's New York City, media capital of the world. So what could possibly be the reason for this?

Tuned into ESPN to watch a little Kentucky-Connecticut. John Wall is apparently so amazing that he causes the cameras to malfunction.

Makes sense to me.

Harvard Beats Boston College For Second Straight Season: Two Ivy Bids A Possibility?

2009-12-10T02:36:41Z

Every BC fan's worst nightmare came true Wednesday night when the Eagles lost to Harvard at home for the second straight season, this time by a 74-67 score. Jeremy Lin, the guy responsible for the shot of the year, once again was a thorn in BC's side, scoring 25 on the night (to go with the 27 he hung on the Eagles last season).

But I'm not here to talk about the Eagles. The boys over at BC Interruption do a fine enough job on that front. I'm here to bring up the crazy notion that maybe, just maybe the Ivy League could put two teams into this year's field of 65.

Last season, the Crimson's win came when they were 7-6, and smack in the middle of a campaign that ended up 14-14, with a losing mark in the Ivy. This season, the Crimson are 7-2, with the two setbacks coming in a close game at UConn Sunday, and a three-point defeat at the hands of a much-improved Army squad back on Nov. 23. They have to be considered a threat to claim the Ivy regular season crown, and the Dance ticket that goes with it.

As for preseason favorite Cornell, all they've done so far this season is match the Crimson's 7-2 record, with wins over the SEC (at Alabama), Atlantic 10 (at Massachusetts, at home to St. Joseph's), and CAA (at Drexel).

It should indeed be an interesting season in the Ancient Eight, a league that has never had two teams make the Tournament in the same season.

Is Butler Getting Undue Respect?

2009-12-09T19:01:01Z

I'm all for mid-majors crashing the national picture in college basketball. It's one thing that makes the game so great, and what decent person doesn't root for the little guy at least a little bit?

But I'm also for teams earning their spot on the national landscape, because nobody likes it when someone is given something they don't deserve. So I ask this - does Butler really deserve all the respect it's getting in the polls?

Butler's been ranked pretty much the entire season, despite now having three losses after last night's loss to Georgetown and only one good win (at Northwestern). As Jay Williams points out on Twitter, Butler hasn't exactly gotten it done against signature competition recently.

Butler is really struggling against elite competition. After Tuesday’s loss, the Bulldogs are just 1-7 against top 25 opponents.

In light of that, why is Butler essentially being treated as "the mid-major program that has ARRIVED," like Gonzaga? Gonzaga actually beats other ranked teams regularly. Butler doesn't. No shame in that, but maybe it's time to slow down the hype machine.

(Butler fans, take solace. At least you aren't a flash in the pan like Portland).

Sometimes, The Rules Shouldn't Matter

2009-12-08T19:06:18Z

Sure, Miami’s player had his feet set, had good position, and you could argue this was a charge.

But when a player— a college player, no less — does something so unabashedly badass, you’ve got to let that count, right? Especially when it’s as close a call as that was. Like, “tie goes to the runner,” here. Or maybe “tie goes to the guy that just destroyed his opponent’s self-worth.”

On the playground, they wouldn’t call a foul, they’d just stop the game:

Wait wait wait… he got him like that? Pshh… That’s the winner. Game over.

Thankfully, though, BC wound up winning the game, 61-60. Consider justice served.

(HT: BC Interruption)

A 96-Team NCAA Field Would Be Tough To Bracket

2009-12-08T17:00:16Z

Mike DeCourcy writes over at The Sporting News that the NCAA is talking about expanding the men's basketball tournament again.

Oh goody.

Honestly, the real discussion should be about dropping the odious Opening Round game to get the field back to an even 64, not to add spots that will likely be filled by mediocre power conference teams who can't even earn a .500 record in their leagues. What is this? Bowl season?

The current format works perfectly. In essence, the champion has to win three four-team tournaments, of varying levels of difficulty, over three consecutive weekends, to claim the title. Adding in 32 more teams means that the big boys would get the advantage of sitting until the second round, significantly hampering the underdog factor that draws people to the event year in and year out.

It seems the motivation may very well be money. It turns out that after the Final Four in April, the NCAA can opt out of the final three years of that monstrously big TV contract they signed with CBS back in 1999. That could open the door for ESPN, who already dominates college basketball coverage (see Ryan Hudson's commentary on early season tournaments). The cable giant will already take football's BCS off the broadcast airwaves next season, and March Madness is a property Bristol has long wanted in its portfolio. You can bet they'll pay significantly more than CBS to do so.

So, if tournament expansion is in the cards, when do we get a football playoff?

Portland's Top 25 Pit Stop Is Officially Over

2009-12-07T16:06:09Z

Thanks for playing the Top 25 game, Portland. Now please report back to college basketball obscurity.

The No. 25 Pilots lost to Idaho by 20 points last night, after losing at home to crosstown rival Portland State on Wednesday. The Slipper Still Fits, the SB Nation blog for Portland's conference rival Gonzaga, says it best.

If you want to see a blueprint for how to become irrelevant in one week, just look at what the Portland Pilots have done. After finally securing a top 25 ranking for the first time in 50 years, the Pilots choked away a comfortable lead against Portland St, and then followed that up by laying an egg in Moscow. While the Idaho loss is galling because of the final score, the Portland St. loss at home is the most stunning. You just can't simply lose games like that if you want to be in the hunt for an at-large bid come March.

I know channeling Jim Mora is totally cliche, but I can't help it. At-Large Bid? We're talking about an At-Large bid? You kidding me? At-large bid? I just hope we can not lose a game by 20 points to a team that lost to Texas Southern.

UK Phenom John Wall Leaves Game With Injury

2009-12-05T19:00:02Z

Kentucky leads North Carolina in the second half, but Wildcat fans are more than a little nervous right now because their star freshman -- the impossibly gifted John Wall -- just left the game and headed to the locker room. Wall came off the court limping, but CBS hasn't reported anything yet and it's difficult to say whether Wall was suffering from a cramp or something more serious like a knee injury.

Expect a prayer vigil over at SBN UK blog A Sea Of Blue until we know more.

UPDATE: You can come down off that ledge now, Kentucky fans: It was indeed just cramping. Wall returned to the game, although did appear to still be gimpy.

Did Texas Tech Just Win The National Championship, Or Did They Beat The No. 12 Team In Early December?

2009-12-04T14:17:13Z

Mute the computer and pretend you have no idea what date it is or what happened in college hoops last night, then watch this:

OK, fine, that little experiment is flawed. But seriously, Texas Tech stormed the court after beating the 12th-ranked team in the nation last night. I know there is no hard-and-fast rule when it comes to court-storming, but I’m pretty sure a December 3rd win, regardless of opponent, doesn’t justify it.

Although, granted, this is the biggest non-conference win of the Pat Knight Era and I'm probably just a bitter old man. So go crazy, Red Raiders. PEW PEW PEW!

Dereck Whittenburg Fired By Fordham During Jimmy V Week

2009-12-04T01:14:18Z

As Eamonn Brennan mentioned here in the From Our Editors section on Wednesday, it's Jimmy V Week on the ESPN family of networks. To commemorate this now annual event that shows how there are some things in life that are bigger than basketball, Fordham fired their head basketball coach, Dereck Whittenburg.

You know, Dereck Whittenburg, the player whose miss led to the most famous moment of Jim Valvano's coaching career. Warning: Billy Packer is the color commentator.

Sure, the Rams started the season with one win in five games, and they only won three times all of last season. And just yesterday, Fordham's brightest young player, sophomore guard Jio Fontan, announced that he was leaving the program. And while all the signs pointed to further struggles in Whittenberg's sixth season at the school (and the Rams did struggle, winning only 69 games in the coach's tenure), would it have hurt to hold off on this decision for another week?

The schedule gives a clue as to why Fordham moved when it did. The Rams have home games Bowling Green on Saturday and Stony Brook on Tuesday. Better to fire the coach when a new hire can provide some buzz that may lead to ticket sales. Assistant Jared Grasso will take over at Rose Hill, and it will be up to him to breathe new life into the program for the rest of the season.

Thou Shalt Not Heckle The No. 1 Team In The Country

2009-12-03T22:17:11Z

... especially if you are 0-9 in the SWAC and are pocketing $75k for one of those early-season guarantee games.

According to the Lawrence Journal-World, during a ho-hum early-season cupcake game for No. 1 Kansas against Alcorn State, an Alcorn State assistant coach decided to taunt Kansas' preseason all-American Sherron Collins. Alcorn State was actually leading 4-3 at the time and maybe thought they had a shot of getting to within 30 points of Kansas by the end of the game, so they were fired up. I dunno.

Either way, it didn't work.

The 5-foot-11 Collins, who was knocked to the floor under the south goal, was being helped up by an Alcorn State player when Collins said he heard something shocking from an ASU coach.

“When I was on the way up, the assistant coach was like, ‘Don’t help him up,’’’ Collins said.

“I was like, ‘What?’

“I didn’t go over there (to confront the unnamed coach). I just told him, ‘This is our house.’ Then I shot a shot from the sideline and heard him say, ‘You got nothin’.’ I looked back and said, ‘All right, it’s time.’’’

Time to get rolling.

The Jayhawks completed a 36-0 run — one point shy of the NCAA record for most consecutive points in a game, which was 37 by Utah State in a game against Idaho in 2006.

Kansas eventually won the game 98-31. Nicely done, coach.

It's easy to blame the coach for thinking that, as the assistant coach of an 0-9 team in a terrible conference, it was the appropriate time and place to taunt the best player on the best team in the country. But I'll choose to blame testosterone instead. What can I say, it makes you do some weird stuff sometimes.

When Duke Loses, Everybody Wins

2009-12-03T14:26:54Z

So last night, for the first time in the history of the modern world (or 10 years, technically speaking), the Big Ten defeated the ACC in the annual college basketball matchup between the two power conferences. The pendulum finally swung in the other direction…

But on a night when the ACC had to concede power to a rival league, UNC senior guard Marcus Ginyard captured the thoughts of Duke haters everywhere:

Big Ten can have this challenge. Duke loses, we all win…

Exactly. Duke’s loss may have buried the ACC’s chances in the challenge, but hey, things happen, right? The ACC will recover, and besides, for people that don't like Duke there's nothing better than watching Coach K, Jon Scheyer and co. writhe on the sidelines during the last few minutes of a loss.

Really, it mitigates more than just a defeat for the ACC. Do you have the flu? Are you studying for exams? Just got fired? Reeling from a bad breakup? Currently incarcerated? Well Duke lost last night.

If you hate Duke, today is a good day.

The City Of Portland Eats Its Own

2009-12-03T05:22:37Z

No. 25 Portland is ranked for the first time in more than 50 years after beating UCLA and Minnesota last week. They figured to get a reprieve tonight and a chance to prove city dominance when they took on cross-town rival Portland State Vikings. Instead, they got beat, ensuring that their first stint in the Top 25 since 1959 would be a short one. Adding insult to injury? Scoring eight points and grabbing five boards for the Vikings was Jamie Jones, who formerly played for Portland before transferring.

The biggest upset of all? Learning that Portland and Portland State are not in the same conference.

Uh Oh: Jimmy Valvano Speech Time

2009-12-03T00:12:06Z

If you're watching ESPN right now, this video is probably redundant to you, but in case you're one of those people that occasionally changes the channel to something non-sports-related -- oooh, look at you, with your fancy "diverse interests" and "awareness of the world around you" -- here's a copy of the video for good measure. It's the network's yearly presentation of Jim Valvano's stirring speech at the 1993 ESPYs.

First one to cry loses:

Oof. Gets me every time. (And how bad would it be to be the guy in charge of the 30 seconds notification?)

Tom Crean Wants Indiana Fans To Be Politely Obnoxious

2009-12-02T21:31:44Z

This video, via Yahoo!‘s The Dagger, comes from after Indiana’s loss last night to Maryland:

Apparently, fans chanted “pussy” at Greivis Vasquez as he took free throws late in the game, which did not sit well with head coach Tom Crean. In College Park, MD, that’s a greeting Terps fans use for the players they actually like. But hey, Midwestern folk are supposed to be more polite. Of course, they can still be obnoxious, according to Crean:

We gotta find a way to be obnoxious without being vulgar. Because we’re too good for that.

Big Ten-ACC Challenge: The Midwesterners Might Finally Win One

2009-12-02T14:26:57Z

The Big Ten might finally win one of these things. No, really. So far in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, the conferences have split victories with Penn State, Purdue and Northwestern winning for the Big Ten and Maryland, UNC and Virginia Tech emerging victorious for the east coast. So, tonight will decide which conference gets to say it was the best when the season mattered the least.

There are five games — whichever conference wins three of them wins the Challenge. The slate:

— Illinois @ Clemson, 7:15pm on ESPN

— Boston College @ Michigan, 7:30pm ESPN2

— Minnesota @ Miami, 7:15pm on ESPNU

— Duke @ Wisconsin, 9:15pm on ESPN

— FSU @ Ohio State, 9:30pm on ESPN2

The Big Ten should be favored in three of those (Minn, OSU, Michigan). And if you don’t care about the Challenge, you should at least watch the Michigan game anyway. They’re highly entertaining.

UPDATE: Nevermind. The Canes are actually favored over Minnesota by 3. The whole Challenge could rest on that thriller in Miami, seeing as the other four appear likely to go the way of the favorites.

Hey, The Big Ten Isn't Completely Horrifying Anymore!

2009-11-30T23:36:51Z

That's the word from Basketball Prospectus numbersmith John Gasaway, who crunched the digits and realized that the Big Ten has been markedly faster in 2009-10 than in any recent year thus far. The league will slow down once conference play starts -- Big Ten conference games often look like each coach is trying to out-slow the other -- but for someone who watches a lot of Big Ten college hoops, this is still very encouraging.

Of course, the next question is "If the Big Ten is so boring, then why do watch it?" Well, cigarettes are terrible for me, but I still smoke those. Perfect analogy! Your point is invalid.

How Can The NCAA Keep Prospects From Playing Overseas? The Homesick Factor!

2009-11-30T15:55:50Z

Okay, so maybe a throwaway line by Derrick Rose about Brandon Jennings isn’t a fair entry point for a larger soliloquy on how the NCAA plans on coping with prospects that choose to play professionally overseas instead of going to college.

But couldn’t you just imagine some NCAA marketing guy reading this quote and thinking “That’s it. Let’s emphasis the close-to-home factor to keep kids in school!”

The Bulls guard recently addressed Jennings’ decision to skip college and play professionally in Italy last season.

“I miss my family too much,” Rose said. “It was hard going away for college to Memphis, about an eight-hour drive, and he went all the way overseas. So big ups to him.”

In Rose’s case, going to Italy would have mean moving far away from all the people who helped him cheat on the SAT. But from the NCAA’s perspective, at least Rose’s need to stay close to home kept him in school, unlike Jennings, who got away last year. So the NCAA at least has that going for it.

Brittney Griner - A GIRL! - Dunks

2009-11-25T19:04:00Z

Before Tuesday night, there had been just six woman to dunk in a regulation collegiate basketball game. Now, thanks to Baylor's Brittney Griner, there have been seven.

As The Sporting Blog points out, it wasn't her first time, and it certainly won't be the last dunk for the freshman. Now, in your best Bill Walton voice: "Throw it down, big woman!"