Running 2011-12 College Basketball thread

Maryland will be middle of the pack in the ACC this year, at the worst. They get Pe'Shon Howard back soon and Alex Len will be eligible at some point. Those two will take the pressure off Stoglin. The Terps will be fine in ACC play.

 

Strange story out of Oregon involving Dana Altman. The postgame quote page on Oregon's official website had some interesting comments on topics ranging from Virginia star Mike Scott ("All-ACC? I wasn't that impressed. Our defense was poor and we didn't block out well. The way we played that stat line doesn't surprise me. Nice hair, though.") to the pregame meal ("The spaghetti was overcooked.")

http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/42481/altman-unimpressed-with-ducks-spaghetti

Now Oregon is saying their site was hacked and Altman never made the statements.

 

Davidson whipping Kansas (albeit at Kansas City) is reason again why I love college hoops!

 

LSU upset Marquette, contradicting the widely-believed rumor that LSU quit fielding a men's basketball team.

 

Did someone lose a bet?

What the hell is Missouri doing playing AT Old Dominion?

 

As Charlie Sheen would say,

"Winnnnnnning."

13-0.

 

Manipulating the system. As much as Bilas and everyone else at ESPN ripped VCU, UAB and every other mid-major or working the system last March to get an NCAA invite, the BCS conferences are working the system even more so.

The RPI rewards teams for winning D-I road games. As such, you see games like Michigan at Oakland, UNC at UNC-Asheville, Virginia at Seattle, Mississippi State at Detroit, etc. Obviously, it's not something every program does, and it's certainly something programs don't do more than once in a season. But it's an easy way to manipulate the numbers, maybe score a decent win and look better when it comes March in case you need it.

 

Also because Missouri isn't big enough to demand a 2-for-1 deal from most teams, and I say that as a Mizzou fan. Putting the wood to Coppin State every year at home is fine for the record, but I'd much rather see the Tigers play a more challenging nonconference schedule, a la Michigan State, than load up on cupcakes (baby! god I hate Vitale). I'm very much a believer in the theory that you get better by playing better competition, so taking a few lumps early is the price you should be willing to pay for March success.

But, hey, why bitch? The Tiggers are 13-0 — and I remember the last time they had this good of a record. (Damn Nebraska and a Moberly Junior College player Norm didn't recruit.)

 

Nice win by Indiana today.

They'd have to royally fuck up at this point to not make the tournament.

 

Yeah. Smacking the Buckeyes proves they can play with the big boys, and makes up for the pants-crapping against Sparty the other night.

They go 9-7 in league action, 1-1 in the tourney, they're 22-9 and probably a 3-4 seed, somewhere in there.

They'd have to really hit the skids to not get in at this point.

 

The UK win didn't do it for you?