Opening Night: Duke Escapes, Carolina Bores, State Farm Suckout, UCLA Upset, Anthony Davis fills it up

Opening night was full of basketball and everything was business as usual.  We won’t bore you with details, but there is some analysis from last nights games as we try to recover from our Hoops Hangover this morning.

Duke escaped a pretty good Belmont team to win 77-76 in Austin River’s debut in Cameron Indoor Stadium.  Coach K got win 901 (he goes for 902 today against Presbyterian) but it didn’t come without stress.  Duke gave up a 16-point second half lead and had to battle Belmont down the stretch to seal the victory.

It seemed like Austin Rivers tried to do a little too much.  While it was just Belmont and Rivers did have 16 points, he had five turnovers and only two assists.  No doubt K will have him running like a well oiled machine.  Player of the game was Mason Plumlee who wanted the ball all night and played aggressive and in control.

It was an exciting game that I’m sure many tuned into late once the upset alert button was hit, after all, what red blooded, non-Duke fan wouldn’t want to see the nation’s nemesis lose their opener to a team with the nickname Camels.

North Carolina rolled past Michigan State on the water, which is what everyone expected.  Carolina took care of business, showed off a deep bench and spread the ball around to take out Izzo and the Spartans.  Carolina wasn’t spectacular, they just methodically beat a MSU team that seems to be in rebuilding mode in what turned into a pretty boring game.  Not to take anything away from the Tar Heels, they did what they needed to do.

Draymond Green was impressive for the Spartans scoring 13 points and grabbing an impressive 18 boards against a good Carolina front line.  While it was great to see the game on a ship, the atmosphere and the idea behind the game and having it on veterans day were was more exciting than the actual game.

The only thing more boring than the game itself was the State Farm half time shootout.  James Worthy and Brooklyn Decker squared off against a guy who used to play for Missouri who is a recording artist and Psycho T himself, Tyler Hansborough.  Each ‘team’ got two shots from six circles around the net, whoever made the most won.  James Worthy went two for six, Decker tried not to airball every shot, the recording artist guy, who only uses his first initial, shot the ball well and T was his usual void of personality.

There were a ton of things they could have done to make that more exciting, like have three alums from each school play a game of knockout, have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich eating contest or watch paint dry.  The buildup led us to believe it was going to be exciting, or at least cool.  The actual product was void of entertainment.

Number 18 UCLA was upset in their opener, losing69-58 to Loyola Marymount.  UCLA has been an underachiever for a few season now and were supposed to be up-and-comers this year.  Stay tuned, more on UCLA on CHD later.

Kentucky’s Anthony Davis scored 23 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, blocked five shots and had three assists as Kentucky beat Marist.  It looks like Davis is going to live up to the hype.  While it was ‘just Marist’, Kentucky scored an impressive 108 points.  Most disappoint for Kentucky is Terrence Jones.  Once a highly touted forward, he came back for his sophomore season and didn’t even start for UK.  Down the road he may be back in the starting lineup, but he is a kid that everyone expects to do more.

 

 

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College Hoops 2011-12 – opening night viewers guide.

Disclaimer:  Of course we know that there were games all week, but there are 131 games tonight, making this official tipoff night in our eyes.

When you go to a buffet, you need a gameplan.  Avoid the fillers like rice, potatoes and bread  because that is what they resturant wants you to fill up on, the cheap stuff.  If you are at a good buffet, there will be prime rib or crab or both, that’s the expensive stuff that everyone wants to eat.  Then there is everything in the middle.  You might want to check and see if there is something you really want to eat, but you want to focus your buffet experience on the good stuff, the steak and crab.

There aren’t a ton of games to get excited about, but there are a couple of games, an upset or two in the making and a few other things you may want to check out as you overdose on college hoops tonight.

1)  The Carrier Classic (North Carolina v. Michigan State)

This is one of the coolest games every played.  It’s unique, the reason for playing is great and the venue is great as well.  While Michigan State is down this year, North Carolina is up – WAY UP.

That being said, the one superstar Michigan State has is Tom Izzo.  If Carolina is going to get beat, especially outside of ACC play and early in the season, this is the game.  Michigan State is down but Izzo will have them as ready as they can be to play on a ship floating in the ocean.

North Carolina is loaded with five-star recruits in all classes, led by pre-season All-American Harrison Barnes.  Barnes is expected to finally live up to the hype this season as a sophomore as he leads the loaded Heels.

This is a great game because it is Carolina v. Michigan State but the venue actually outweighs the matchup.  This game is being played on a freaking aircraft carrier!  It’s going to be awesome, without a doubt, this is the highlight of the night.

2)  The Upset Special

There aren’t a lot of favorable games for the underdog tonight, but if I was Vanderbilt, I wouldn’t take Oregon lightly (10pm, ESPN 3).  With transfer Tony Woods, super freshman Jabari Brown and Dana Altman’s gritty team this one could see the number seven team in the country fall in their first game.

A couple other good games that wouldn’t really be upsets but should be good contests are UNC Greensboro at Tennessee (ESPN 3, 7:30) and Rhode Island at George Mason (7:30, TV Unknown, Radio 106.7 WJFM).

3)  A Bunch of Cupcake Teams

There are a bunch of cupcake openers that involve schools that you’re definitely not familiar with.  Redlands, North New Mexico State, Fresno Pacific, Claflin, Miles, Dillard, Harris Stowe, McMurray, Le Torneau, Guliford, Cheney, Lake Erie, Less McRae, Suffolk U, Montreat and Ferris St. are just some of the teams going tonight that are little known and won’t be heard from again this season.

4)  Tim Hardaway Jr.

This is most likely the breakout year for UTEP Two STep Jr.  and Son of Dumars.  Everyone hopes so.  We don’t love him yet, but we loved his dad and thought his game was great.  Remember Run TMC?  Remember Dumars?  The one good guy on the Bad Boys?

Dumars sat out last season after transferring from South Florida and Hardaway led the team in scoring in conference.  Let’s hope John Beilein’s offense will showcase the talent of these two spawn of NBA greatness.

5)  The Freshmen.

While most of the Top 25 teams play cupcake-like opponents, this is your chance to see the new freshmen classes.  I recommend ESPN3 if you can get it, you can watch two games at once and switch back and forth.

No doubt, this is the most wonderful time of the year.

 

 

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PSU Mess Update (short)

Will Penn State survive this?  I heard a lawyer’s opinion on a radio show (no link, sorry, not sure which one it was), he suggested that the amount of law suits to come from this could bankrupt the school.  I have no idea, but could this be a school killer?  Hence the ? after 2011.  It probably isn’t, but in case you have been in a cave for the last 14-16 hours, here are the updates.

Joe Paterno is fired.  The University President is fired.  The situation is a mess and could get worse.

 
Watch this at WEEI

It’s everywhere, but I saw someone post this on a message board.

Did Mark Madden actually break this in April?  Were we warned?

You be the judge.

 

 

 

 

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Missouri vs. Kansas – keep the rivalry?

In conference realignment there are winners and losers.  The winners are without a doubt the schools with most receiving a revenue hike with new TV deals and the revenue sharing that comes with it.  The biggest winners and losers are probably the fans.  Old rivalries die and new rivalries are born, but new rivalries take time to develop.

Missouri is finally done hemming-and-hawing it’s way into the SEC, the talk about the Kansas-Missouri rivalry may end up drying up – at least for the time being.  While Missouri had promised that games would still be played in Kansas City (including a possibly basketball tournament).

It looks like Kansas may not be interested in continuing the series, according to head coach Bill Self.

“I don’t think I would be interested in having a once-a-year game like I did when I was at Illinois, playing Missouri.”  Self told the Kansas City Star.

Turner Gill, KU’s head football coach, echoed the same sentiments. ““I don’t see us playing them in the future. I think the rivalry between Kansas and Missouri would be something I think belongs in the Big 12 Conference.”

The bottom line is Kansas sucks in football, so playing Mizzou is another loss.  In basketball, it’s a competitive game and one of the great rivalries.

Is this a case of sour grapes?  hurt feelings?

It seems like Frank Haith and Missouri are willing to keep it going – but Kansas appears disinterested.

Kansas needs to get over the Mizzou exit and keep this series going, at least in basketball.  There comes a point where it isn’t about your feelings, being mad that they left or whatever the case may be.  The list of pros outweighs the cons.  In fact, I’m having a hard time coming up with a con at all.

The pros are good national exposure, great and historic rivalry is continued, good revenue for both schools whether it is a home-and-home or played in Kansas City, it is good for whatever city the game is played in, I’m sure there are others that I’ve missed.

Either way, Bill Self and Kansas need to man up and do everything they can to make this series happen.  If they can’t get it together for whatever reason, then it is what it is.  The powers that be, on both sides need to do everything they can to keep this one going.

 

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The Horrible Mess at Penn State

Disclaimer – I tried to work alleged into this as much as I could.  Please read alleged into everything that is written as it is well known this is a legal case and has not been decided in a court of law.  For the Grand Jury Report, click here.

The Penn State news broke on the weekend. I was out of town and just caught bits and pieces, I wasn’t glued to a TV or a computer and really only knew something had happened at Penn State and it must be pretty serious.

Road tripping it home Monday I was listening to Jim Rome and he went into detail of the case, needless to say I was sickened.  In fact, my reaction, like many people, was “come on, we don’t need to talk about this.”  It is disgusting, depressing and vile.  In fact, nothing good comes to mind when thinking it.

The more I drove and the more I dwelt on it, the more I realized it has to be talked about.

This is not ok.  This is not acceptable.  This is not something that can be swept under the rug… any longer.

Jerry Sandusky, assuming these alleged incidences are true, is a disgusting sub-human being.  I know there is nothing politically correct about that, but he has allegedly committed one of, if not the grossest crimes in our society today.  I have a hard time coming up with anything worse.  The fact we can catagorize it like that means that EVERYONE involved in the cover up was involved in covering up one of, if not the grossest crime in our society today.

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Dear China … this is not hockey

Everyone loves these over seas exhibitions and going to another country to play.  It’s extra time with your team, extra practices, great for recruiting, great for your program.  Are coaches thinking of traveling to China going to start to consider the cost and the safety?

Once again, we see a team in China involved in a brawl at a basketball game.  We only see the fight clip, but it really doesn’t matter.  It doesn’t have a place in basketball.  The refs or coaches or event organizers have to have a fail safe in place to prevent this.  Refs and coaches here get in the way to prevent things from escalating, but I can personally remember very few true basketball fights.

The better question might be, where are the teammates that stop this stuff?  Usually teammates get in the way and stop them but it looks like the whole Chinese team is all in.  They all want to fight.

Technically this is more like a brawl though.  Or WWE.  I haven’t seen that many chairs thrown since the last time I watched dudes who were painted up and wearing either spandex underwear or unitards pretending to hit each other in a scripted ‘battle’.

Either way, the new fight vids are below (via TheBigLead).  If I feel ambitious, I’d love to get someone to translate the commentary by the fans filming it.  Stay tuned, it might happen.


 

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Bill Self for Federal Reserve Chairman! (via Rush the Court)

This is a pretty hilarious video from RushTheCourt.net‘s Morning Five.  (Originally at AndyGreenhaw.wordpress.com)

Apparently Mr. Greenhaw, pictured in the video, works at a bank.  He is firmly entrenched in the middle of the “Occupy Wall Street” Protest/ Rally/ Waste of Time in Denver, Colorado.

He ironically starts loudly professing his love for Kansas basketball and starting the grassroots campaign to get Bill Self appointed Federal Reserve Chairman.  I think Jayhawk fan would be less than happy about that appointment.

The best part of the video is “Missouri has won NO KIND OF CHAMPIONSHIPS OF ANY KIND!”  That’s passion.  Hating on Missouri – even when you are at a political demonstration in the middle of Denver, Colorado.

Either way, this is one hilarious video, I literally laughed out loud at this one.  Just another reason college hoops fans are different and another example of them taking it beyond the next level to show their support.

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16 Hours = College is the ONLY basketball in 2011-12

It looks like the NBA lockout will continue and the season is most definitely in jeopardy.  I don’t care about this as an NBA fan, but we could see college hoops get more attention as the only basketball around this fall and winter.

ESPN TrueHoop’s Henry Abbott (no realation to our own Mike) summed it up when he wrote

“The NBA and its players haven’t just been talking for 16 hours. They’ve been talking for two-and-a-half years.”

They are apparently back at it today…

Now back to your regular scheduled college hoops coverage.

 

 

 

 

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Basketball… is upon us.

October 15 has always been a big day for college hoops fans.  It means practice starts and we celebrate.

There are several things that set college hoops fans apart, but how many fans of any sport show up in droves to cheer on their team at a practice at midnight.

For that matter, what teams show up at midnight[ish] to practice?  College players are as different as their fans.

Old school midnight madness really took place at midnight, and might have been one of the more endearing moments of my early college basketball life.  October 15th was a big deal.  We stayed up late, watched a useless scrimmage, a dunk contest and ESPN jumping from campus to campus.

Then it was just a few schools, now most schools have a midnight madness event.

The best thing about college basketball this season is, it’s basketball. It’s always basketball, but by now we usually are into NBA hype and have been hearing about it for a while.  Instead of hype, we have strife from the Nothing But A(you fill in the blank) which is good for the basketball purist because more people are likley to tune into our game.

College Hoops Daily is back after a season [sometimes life just gets in the way].  Stay tuned for news , views and lots of opinion and accurate predictions.

 

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Get Yours Today! 1976 Indiana Championship Ring on eBay!

This is pretty cool, but I’m a sucker for memoribilia. It can be yours for only $15, 919.76, WITH FREE SHIPPING!  The only thing I don’t like is, you don’t know what player’s name is on it.  It’s a safe bet that it isn’t Quinn Buckner’s ring.  Scroll down for bonus video footage.

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