College basketball 2009-10 running thread No. 1

Bad chemistry,

Chris Wright and Jessie Sapp came to blows in the lockerroom at halftime of the Duke game. The team was never the same after that.

Now Sapp and Summers are gone, two guys who clearly didn't buy into the system, and the chemistry is much better

 

That may have been the best shot of the night. Everyone at Littlejohn going nuts, lights mostly out, Andy Katz can't get through an interview with Trevor Booker because of the crowd and noise ... and there's Oliver Purnell, calmly gulping down a bottle of water, watching everyone else go crazy.

Good for Oliver. He has performed something pretty stout at Clemson.

Between the turnovers and the complete lack of heart that Chapel Hill displays, that was still shocking. That Roy Williams was trying to draw up plays for the starters when he pulled them early in the second half was wrong. Don't draw up plays ... at times like that, the game is mental, not Xs and Os. Seriously, Roy ... THAT'S what you should get red-faced over, not a couple of blown passes or plays on a grease board.

Duke played very well in the second half after letting Boston College push them around the first 20 minutes.

And while it figured that Tony Bennett would get things done in Charlottesville, did anyone (hello, Big Circus) see him getting it done this soon?

 

I did not. I'm firmly in the Bennett camp now (not that I was ever really against him). Having said that, I'm not saying it's "done" yet. Pete Gillen and Dave Leitao and Jeff Jones had some flashy wins, too.

I'm loving the results so far - it's their first 2-0 start in the league since the Junior Burrough era. And I love the way he's getting them, although he can't expect every opponent to shoot 27 percent from the line. To go up against Gani Lawal, Derrick Favors and Zack Peacock with a frontcourt of Mike Scott, Jerome Meyinsse, Assane Sene and Will Sherrill and come away with a W takes some coaching (although my expectations for Scott are quite high).

Having said that, he's only two games into his ACC career. Let's not start sucking each other's dicks quite yet.

 

I like now having ESPNU because I get to see a few more Mizzou games than in years past. And I hate ESPNU... because I get to see a few more Mizzou games than in years past.

Epic chock job in Lubbock, followed by a gritty OT period. Doesn't help when this Roberson kid decides to not miss from the 3-point line. I've seen prettier shots in Special Olympics basketball

 

I saw something tonight in the Ole Miss game that I have never seen in a lifetime of watching basketball. Rebs were up two with 11 seconds left and had the ball out of bounds under their own basket with 5 ticks on the shot clock. Eneil Polynice, who was going to throw the ball in for Ole Miss, noticed a defender was turned away from him, so he bounced the inbounds pass off the Georgia player's back, caught the ball inbounds and scored a layup to clinch their win. Absolutely unbelievable.

 

I went to one of those nights, too, when back in Pittsburgh for a summer wedding. Might have even been standing next to you near the doorway. The moment I spotted "Nebraska" on the roster, I immediately had an interest in the kid because I knew I would see him play KU twice. I don't recall seeing him that night, but I did see McGhee and quite a few Pitt guys who have really impressed with three Big East road wins already.

Also, it was great to read the past three pages and not see KU mentioned once. Because that means the Jayhawks took care of business tonight, winning 84-72 at Nebraska despite trailing 12-1 to start. It's progress, but they need to figure out how to get more production out of Aldrich. If he's active enough to get 18 rebounds against Tennessee, he ought to be active enough to have more than five field goal attempts. The consistency's just not there this season.

 

That may have been the case. All I'm saying is the stuff that needed to be discussed hadn't the first thing to do with drawing it up. Unless Roy was doing nothing but writing down the points he was trying to hammer home to the starters (he was angry enough ... he got redder than the road unis for either Maryland or NCSU).

Good idea by Roy, but it wasn't enough. Not even close.

 

Dunno if anyone is getting carried away, Moddy. But Dave Leitao got out of there pretty quick, the Cavs aren't exactly overflowing with talent on the roster - though it's likely that a coach like Tony Bennett can squeeze every last drop out of it before all is said and done - and picking up a road win (albeit over NCSU) and a home win over a ranked team is a nice, nice start.

Doesn't mean they won't crash back to Earth in a month. But I think the point is that few thought UVa would do even this much.