Thanksgiving weekend usually provides some fantastic college basketball, and this year was no exception. Hopefully, you caught some of the action in between heaps of mashed potatoes, turkey and cranberry sauce, not to mention some good football as well. But, in case you missed it all, here’s a recap of the weekend’s best action.
NIT – Season Tip-Off
Madison Square Garden has proved to be a home away from home for the Dukies in recent memory. It seems as though they play at least once there every season. This year’s NIT Tip-Off saw a championship game between top-seeded Duke and #2 seed Connecticut, a rematch of the 1999 NCAA Championship game, and the 2004 Final Four. This was also the most combined wins for any opposing head coaches in NCAA history! Coach Krewzcerewski with 838 (now 839) and Calhoun with 809! Connecticut had won the previous two meetings, but that streak ended on Friday as Duke bested the Huskies, 68-59. This game started fast with both teams pushing the tempo and getting to the rim at will. But, what looked like a promising game turned out to be quite a dud. Duke dominated in just about every category, with both teams shooting below 40% for the game.
For all of Duke’s nay-sayers (this guy included!) they actually look pretty good early on this season. I had thought that without a true PG they might struggle, but they have a lot of “play-makers” and Scheyer seems comfortable in his role of creator on offense. However, I still hate them…and Kyle Singler needs a new fucking hair-do. Is he auditioning for the Monkees??? They will need to shoot better, but that’s never been a problem for Coach K teams. I expect them to be a contender all season and then choke in the tournament as their recent history suggests.
Legends Classic
This pre-season tourney brought us another great early season matchup, and also another National Championship rematch. Michigan State, #2 in the country entering the weekend faced off against Florida for the first time since they met for the 2000 National Championship won by the Spartans and Mateen Cleaves, Morris Peterson and the Flint, MI crew. Friday’s matchup, (not televised! What?!) would not be so kind to the Sparties as they fell to Billy Donovan’s Gator squad.
Michigan State had their chances in this one, but mostly turned in a sloppy effort. The Gators spread out their scoring nicely with 5 in double figures. The Gators got a last-second 3 from Erving Walker from way deep to go ahead with just under 2 minutes left. The Spartans would get two good looks at three to tie but missed both. This was a closely contested contest, but another game filled with some sloppy shooting. Look for both of these teams to be players come March. Michigan State will likely drop a bit after the loss, but did put a spanking on Massachusetts in the consolation game.
76 Classic
The biggest story from this tournament is the suckyness of UCLA. The Bruins look terrible early on this season, very underwhelming athletically and really not bringing any top-tier talent to the court. What happened to Ben Howland’s team? They’ve lost some good young talent to the NBA in recent years but I did not expect them to be this bad in 09-10. Prize recruit Tyler Honeycutt is out with an injury which has probably hurt a bit, but it’s always dicey if you’re counting on a true freshman anyway.
UCLA was waxed by upstart Portland(!) in the quarterfinal game, 74-47. Whoa! Portland admittedly looks good, but I doubt anyone expected that. UCLA then went on to lose a squeaker to Butler 69-67, and then added another loss to Long Beach St 79-68. Not a good weekend for the Bruins.
Old Spice Classic
This Orlando based tournament brought arguably the best games, albeit from some unsuspecting teams. The semi-finals brought Michigan (#15 in the country heading into the weekend) vs Marquette and Alabama vs Florida State. Michigan’s Manny Harris is an early season contender for the Naismith award and is as electrifying a player as you’ll find in college basketball this year. Following a just-missed triple double performance against Creighton, Harris and the Wolverines fell to the Golden Eagles in the semis. Michigan looks like a decent squad, though perhaps a tad overrated at #15. I see them as a team that may bounce in and out of the top 25 this season, but Harris is a player to watch. They lost their next game to Alabama as well.
Marquette looks to have another good squad this year led by Lazar Hayward in the post. Florida State, however, edged them in the championship game, 57-56.
In other weekend news, Purdue looks good this year, having already beaten a good Tennessee team and should move up from their #6 ranking on Monday.
Kentucky also looks good under Calipari and super-frosh John Wall looks to be as-advertised if not better in the early season.
Louisville lost to UNLV in a squeaker and will likely drop some in the rankings, though I expect them to be a premier team in the Big East which should enjoy another monster season as a stacked conference.
#12 Butler (can you say overrated), #19 Clemson, #20 Illinois, #21 Maryland, #22 Minnesota and #25 Oklahoma all suffered losses over the holiday weekend. Expect most if not all of those teams to drop out of the top 25 come Monday.
W2W4 This week!
MON-
Nothing of note.
TUE 12/1 –
Purdue vs. Wake Forest (Big Ten/ACC Challenge)
Maryland vs. Indiana (Big Ten/ACC Challenge)
Michigan State vs. North Carolina (Rematch of last year’s title game!)
WED 12/2 –
Illinois vs. Clemson (Big Ten/ACC Challenge)
Minnesota vs. Miami (Big Ten/ACC Challenge)
Boston College vs. Michigan (Big Ten/ACC Challenge)
Duke vs. Wisconsin (Big Ten/ACC Challenge)
Florida State vs. Ohio State (Big Ten/ACC Challenge)
THU 12/3 –
USC vs. Texas
SAT 12/4 –
Providence College vs. URI (biggest game of the year!)
North Carolina vs. Kentucky (good game, nothing on the match-up mentioned above!)
St. John’s vs. Duke (is St. John’s even still in the Big East? WTF happened to the Red Storm? Long gone are the good ol’ days of Mike Jarvis and Felipe Lopez)
Looking forward to another good week of college basketball.
Stay classy. Go Rams!
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