College basketball 2009-10 running thread No. 1

Frank Haith was angling for the N.C. State job, but I don't think there was much interest from the administration and the fans would have thrown a fit. I think he'd been as good a hire as Lowe, but the N.C. State fans could accept Lowe because he was one of them. It was almost like if it wasn't going to be Calipari or Barnes it had to be an alum, which was silly.

 

If it had been Calipari or Barnes, everything I had related to the school except the sheepskin would have gone in a fire. And I hear you loud and clear on Lowe. He's gotten as long as he has because he was an NCSU guy.

But they should have offered the job to Frank Haith, who at least had recruiting experience and actual college head coaching experience that Sidney Lowe did not possess at the time. What he's done at Miami has been remarkable and, while NCSU isn't what it thinks it is, it is still a better basketball situation than Miami with a little more room for growth.

 

The list of players jumping ship from the Pac 10 early in the last 2-3 seasons is pretty long, but outside of Kentucky, this just seems like a down year for college hoops.

Oz, do you think this Kansas team could play with the team that won the title or any of Roy's teams his last couple of seasons?

 

Here's a good article about Kansas. That team has a ton of talent: http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news;_ylt=ApY0WcIGOeURd9PPvUw7J4LevbYF?slug=jn-kotc011310&prov=yhoo&type=lgns.

I really don't think this season is much different than most seasons this decade. With even the top teams having so many young players, every team is still trying to figure things out at this point. By the end of the year, the cream will rise as it usually does.

 

I watched some of the Me-chicken-Indiana game tonight.

Someone who regularly watches the Big Ten answer this for me.....

Why isn't Michigan better? I would have thought Beilein would have them rollling by now.

And how close is Tom Crean to turning Indiana around?

 

1. Manny Harris' woeful inconsistency and his team's general inability to force turnovers.

2. A long way. Another 2 years minimum. Although losing his best player a few weeks ago didn't help this season, either.

 

In its current form, no. In two months' time, yes. Depends on where KU goes from here, really.

For starters, there's the easy comparison with Collins-Aldrich to Lawson-Hansbrough. Aldrich has been inconsistent much of the season, though, and hasn't played at the level he did last season. If he can regain that form, KU will regain its identity and the chips will fall from there. Funnel it inside out and Collins, Henry, Reed and everyone else will have clear looks outside.

Comparing this KU team to 2008 KU, the cohesiveness of the 2008 team was never in question. Collins and Aldrich both came off the bench -- and when they go into the NBA next season, they will become the sixth and seventh players from that team to be drafted. And Taylor hasn't quite played the Russell Robinson role quite as well as, well, Robinson, who was always the consummate team player. Tough to go against the 2008 Jayhawks when they won the only Final Four where all four No. 1 advanced.

 

Shit, my bad.

I was thinking about Roy's Kansas teams.

 

Those teams that went to back-to-back Final Four to end Roy's career at KU were really two- and three-man teams. The team that lost to Maryland in the Final Four had Hinrich, Collison and Gooden, the team the next season simply lost Gooden. Simien was hurt the year they lost to Syracuse, which is a shame because his game would've been perfect against that 2-3 zone. Miles, Langford, Graves, those guys knew their roles and played them well.

This team is definitely more talented up and down the roster, as opposed to being dependent on one or two guys. I think eight different guys have led the team in scoring this season.

 

An entertaining game on ESPN now between Dayton@ Xavier.
Clock has frozen a few times and officials have been in time-outs for lengthy periods.
Scorer's table getting brow-beaten and Xavier leads 72-66 with less than 2 mins remaining.
Two evenly-matched teams.

 

78-74 Xavier (Final)