College basketball thread...

I know they lost tonight, but how about Cincinnati?

They were absolute dreck last season and are now in the mix in the upper reaches of the Big East, with some big wins besides.

It's a crazy league.

Oh, and Rutgers bouncing 'Nova, too. Road wins are definitely hard to come by -- as the 'Cats found out.

 

Fuckin A, Baylor...fuckin a...

 

They did for one game ... and Indiana State boat-raced them right out of Roberts Stadium.

Evansville's problem isn't their jerseys it's this maddening lack of talent. See tonight. An Indiana State team on the ropes destroyed them by 30 tonight.

 

It cannot be overstated how impressive Keno Davis has been at Drake. If I went back in time and told myself I'd be writing that sentence on, say, MVC Media Day, I'd have bitch-slapped myself, but it's true. Best coaching job I've seen in my short amount of years on the college beat by a long shot.

What Davis has done is recognize the limited talent his team has and created a system to maximize it. The simplistic way of explaining it is he basically spreads five players on the perimeter. There are times when there is no Drake player in the paint on an offensive possession, but since all but the point guard are 35 percent or better 3-point shooters, it works.

Jonathan Cox, their nominal center, follows every miss and crashes the boards well from the wing. As does their erstwhile point guard, who was somehow second in the Valley in offensive rebounds entering the week.

The aforementioned point guard, a kid named Adam Emmenecker who was the epitomy of a mid-major walk-on until this season, has somehow become a great penetrator who draws the defense and kicks it to one of the shooters on the perimeter or takes a shot himself. Drake shoots too well to zone, so you're basically forced to play man-to-man without any help defense. So far, no one in the Valley has solved it yet.

They've also augmented their press with a much-improved half-court zone that's more athletic than years past.

No one in the Valley buys into Drake until they see it, but it's damn impressive. The funny thing is when Drake entered the rankings on Monday, ESPN was talking about them between games of their doubleheader and many of the same arguments cognescenti in the Valley made to disparage Drake were being made by them. Drake's offense is so unorthodox, it would take a very athletic or very disciplined team to beat them.

Davis is a good guy too. Nice to see the denizens of Des Moines getting some glory for once.

 

Took forever to find the box, but in the next game, four days later, PG played 37 minutes, 1-1 from the field, 3 points; SG, 37 minutes, 0-6 from the field, 5-7 from the line, 5 points, in a 58-54 win.

The PG played 40 minutes several times that year. In conference, he averaged 39.5 minutes a game.

 

I also found the box for the five-overtime game. There were 78 missed shots total in the game; dude did not get ONE rebound. On the court for more than an hour, and zero boards.

 

Norm Roberts after his St. John's Red Storm absorbed an 81-57 shit-kicking from Pitt tonight at MSG, "I chose the path we are on. I chose to bring in eight freshmen. I chose to do that for our program and build a foundation," fourth-year coach Norm Roberts said. "We have to take some lumps sometimes. We are playing against not good, great teams. We just have to battle through it."

http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/7713398

So, uh, what's going to happen later in the season when your team goes up against Georgetown and Duke?

 

I don't really want to wade through a thread of this size, but I have a simple question...if a good, kind sir or madam could PM me the response, I'd appreciate it.

In a case like the Baylor game, what happens if, after multiple overtimes, a team can't field five players because of others fouling out? A forfeit?

 

Nope, they just play with however many players they have left. There was a women's game this season, I believe, where a team started with just seven or so players; couple fouled out, someone got hurt, and they finished the game with three or four players on the court. Obviously, I can't remember the details, but that's close.

 

Heard the halftime score was 44-14.

SIU had them down 24-4 earlier this season. At home.

Yikes.

 

There's nothing to replay. The game wasn't on TV anywhere. But Texas Tech-Missouri was on in Dallas. Massive fuck-up on somebody's part.

 

Yeah, you're talking about the Arizona-Oregon State women's game from earlier in the month.

Arizona came in with just six players, then by the end of the game had lost four to fouls. They played with two players into two overtimes, basically by having their guard dribble the ball down and throwing it in to this 6-5 girl whom Oregon State still couldn't stop.

Arizona finally tired out, though, and scored just one point in the second OT.