Vanderbilt
01/22/2012The Commodores will struggle with capable frontcourts. They struggle late in close games. They struggle on the defensive end. They are, in other words, the sameVanderbilt Commodores we’ve come to know and love in each of the past three seasons. Their recent improvements created the notion that this team had turned some vague corner, that it was finally ready to assume the top-10, Final Four-worthy preseason expectations foisted upon them.
Instead, on Saturday, we saw the team that led us to doubt that status in the first place. Vandy yielded a 12-point second-half lead, allowed Mississippi State to score 1.14 points per possession and got vastly outrebounded on both ends of the floor. In the end, even with very good chances to win the game — particularly the final shot in regulation, which ended up being an uncontested four-foot shot for Festus Ezeli (which he missed) — Vanderbilt just couldn’t make the key defensive plays.
Almost February Update
Okay so with Pittsburgh and Green Bay losing.. get to watching basketball ! I am begging you guys to watch a few games so we can argue in Vegas on some spreads and teams. Nothing set in stone here, but here are my early thoughts on teams and games I have watched.
Teams that I think are under the radar but will be a handful in March:
Alabama: This team has solid inside and outside presence. They have that toughness moxie that I love and they have a coach who I think is underappreciated right now in Anthony Grant.
Texas: I saw this team play Kansas (1/21) and they are getting better by the day. Their guards are becoming aggressive and attacking and their bigs look athletic and at times angry.
Cincinnati: This team.. I want to hate them as they are the usual crop of thugs that Cincinnati seems to staff their roster with.. but this team is different. I get the irony, given the fight, but this team has that raw aggression and street attitude of other Cinci teams, but with more discipline and control. Kilpatrick makes far better decisions than previous lead guards. I think Cronin has some receptivity to coaching aligned with an attitude that we can NOT lose and this makes this Cinci team very dangerous.
Temple: This is a really good team and they get their two best bigs back in early February. If they can stay heathy and fold them in then this team could easily make a deep run in the tournament.
Other notes: I just don’t see the Iona thing. Machiado gets mentioned a lot but I watched that team and I was unimpressed or at least.. UNDERimprssed. I may add New Mexico to that list. They returned everyone, win games, have Alford, but somehow leave me unimpressed when I see them.
I am impressed with the guards of Murray State. Real deal. Not sure I will bet on them, but they play as a team and they have TWO shooters who can light it up. Creighton and Wichita State are the real deal. Very good teams.
I just can not get my head/hands around how to rate Illinois, Memphis, Notre Dame, or St Marys. For some reason, I have an inability to formulate an opinion on them worth betting on. I might add Georgetown to that. They are so hot and cold, up and down, high scoring and low scoring. They are so young, though, I need them to find their identity.. quickly.
I worry that Purdue, Wisconsin and West Virginia are typical of their teams, but with just a TAD less talent than years past.
I have to overcome my bias with Vanderbilt and Minnesota. I hate them and their coaches but they may be getting better at the right time.
I think teams that could surprise moving forward are Setan Hall, NC State, Virginia, Dayton.
Teams I love but spreads may temper my enthusiasm.. Kansas State, UNLV, Florida and Indiana.
I think I like the “states” in most March matchups including Michigan State, Miss State, and Florida State.
Teams I kinda like but I need more input on include Marquette, Virginia, San Diego St. and Michigan.
Some teams I think I dont like but I am not set include Louisville, Xavier, and any PAC 12 team.
Vanderbilt Andy Katz Blog article Jan
Vandy has a chance to do something special under Kevin Stallings. It has endured the necessary adversity to find itself during the course of a season and is still in position to achieve its goals. The heart of the Commodores’ SEC schedule remains, including two February games against national title contender Kentucky.
Vandy was missing its toughest, and most irreplaceable, player early in the season, as big man Festus Ezeli had two issues: a six-game suspension for receiving extra benefits and an injury.
The Dores were humbled in a home loss to Horizon League contender Cleveland State. Respectable overtime losses to Xavier and Louisville followed, as did less respectable losses (Indiana State).
They have been finding their form since, winning eight in a row. The most impressive of those wins was a 74-57 triumph against Marquette in Milwaukee; the Eagles were supposed to be the tougher team, but Vandy got in their grill and delivered a knockout.
The Commodores enter a three-game homestand as the second-hottest team in the SEC outside of Kentucky, with games against Mississippi State on Saturday, Tennessee on Tuesday and then on Jan. 28 against Sun Belt leader Middle Tennessee.
The Dores are tied with Kentucky at 4-0 for first in the SEC. Before the season, the Commodores expected to be the Wildcats’ strongest competition in the league race.
“We’ve finally gotten consistent practice time,” Stallings said. “If you can’t practice, you can’t get better. Since Christmas, we’ve had the core group of guys practicing.”
Ezeli was out. Lance Goulbourne and Steve Tchiengang were limited while recovering from concussions. John Jenkins had a sprained ankle. Those may sound like excuses, but a team that had been fragile in the past couldn’t afford that many disruptions.
Ezeli has played in eight of the 18 games. The Commodores lost only one — Indiana State.
“He’s huge for us defensively,” said Stallings. “If you look at how we are now versus early in the season, it’s drastically different. We’ve gotten better on the defensive end and a lot better on the boards. We’re nowhere near where we can get to offensively. Defensively and rebounding has taken a big turn for us.”
Ezeli and Tchiengang have the ability to play physical, which helped the Dores dominate the inside against Alabama in a win on the road Thursday.
Jeffery Taylor can be a lockdown wing defender. He can also make timely shots. Jenkins has always been the team’s best shooter. Brad Tinsley has had his moments but is streaky. The overall bench production needs to improve. But there is enough in play, and there’s certainly enough experience, for this team to establish itself as the second-best team in the SEC.
Having Ezeli healthy has changed this team. He’s not a shot-blocker, but he’s a presence in the paint, one Vandy could not do without. When he’s in the lineup, the Commodores’ toughness quotient increases.
“People are quick to call us soft or whatever,” Stallings said. “I would venture to say if you asked teams we’ve played, we’re not soft.”
There are still plenty of games to play in the SEC, but the evidence is mounting that the Dores are remedying the issues that plagued them early in the season
Cincinatti Dana Oneil Jan
Sean Kilpatrick is the most critical piece of the Cincinnati puzzle.
Not long ago, Kilpatrick was the epicenter of trouble. It was his comments on a Cincinnati radio show that reportedly lit the fuse to what would become the ugly brawl between Xavier and the Bearcats. Kilpatrick said he didn’t believe Tu Holloway would even start for Cincinnati, a nasty enough dissing to get Holloway’s tongue wagging during the game and ultimately, mayhem to ensue.
Now he’s the epicenter of the Bearcats’ turnaround. Cincinnati has won 10 of 11 since that ugly fight, losing only to St. John’s on a buzzer-beater. In those 10 games, Kilpatrick is averaging 17.7 points and kept the Bearcats afloat while Yancy Gates served his suspension.
It was Kilpatrick who hit the game-winning 3 against Connecticut, Kilpatrick who sunk a career-high 27 to beat Georgetown, and Kilpatrick whose 40 percent shooting from the arc will be absolutely critical against top-ranked Syracuse on Monday.
Memphis Dana Oneil January
Memphis is in trouble.
The good news for the Tigers: Conference USA is once again Conference USA, a hodgepodge of average teams.
The bad news for the Tigers: Memphis isn’t Memphis. This team has been something of an enigma all season, loaded with talent but equally bogged down with foolish play and lack of focus.
Now just when things looked better, Adonis Thomas is lost for the season. It’s not a small blow for a team that hasn’t really shown an ability to handle adversity.
Memphis remains the best team in C-USA, but with challengers in the form of UCF and Marshall, this isn’t going to be easy for Josh Pastner.
Dana Oneil Miss State Jan
Mississippi State is Mississippi State.
Which is to say loaded with talent but entirely annoying.
The Bulldogs lost to rival Mississippi on Wednesday night, getting beat up on the inside by Reginald Buckner. This despite having what should be their own formidable pair in Renardo Sidney and Arnett Moultrie.
It is vintage Mississippi State, winning enough games to turn people into converts and then losing one to exasperate those same bandwagon jumpers.
Dana Oneil Xavier January
I’m tempted to say this with authority and move it up a section but I’ll reserve final judgment until next week, after the Musketeers play at Dayton and host Saint Louis.
But I feel pretty confident saying that Xavier has shaken off its post-brawl cobwebs for good. X has won four in a row, winning by an average 15.5 points per game. Equally impressive, the Musketeers have won with Tu Holloway being more distributor than scorer. The guard has just 29 points in those four games (he was shut out against Fordham) but has 30 assists.
The wildly unpredictable Atlantic 10 is wide open for the taking. I’d pencil Xavier in as the taker.
Dana Oneil (ESPN) SDSU Jan
I’ll admit I was impressed but still a little skeptical about the Aztecs after they beat UNLV. It was a terrific win but in such a tight game, it was hard not to wonder how much the home-court advantage buoyed San Diego State.
Now we know.
The Aztecs took their Show on the road on Wednesday night, to the Pit, one of the toughest places to play in all of college basketball, and promptly dug themselves a 10-0 hole.
San Diego State emerged from New Mexico with a 75-70 victory, a win that is maybe more indicative of how legit this team is than the victory against UNLV.
Team Efficiency splits 2012 Wisconsin Georgetown Baylor
As of games played on Tuesday Jan 10, only four teams are at the 30+ level: Ohio State (34.37), Syracuse (32.34), Kentucky (31.16), and Wisconsin (30.48).
I’d say that makes the Buckeyes, Orange, and Wildcats pretty good bets for an Elite Eight run or better, but you can’t trust Wisconsin no matter what the stats say. Twice in the past five tournaments the Badgers have gone into the tournament with a 30+ efficiency split. Two other times they were over 25. They have yet to make it out of the Sweet 16, and didn’t even get there twice. Until Bo Ryan shows his style can actually get the job done in the Tourney setting, I’m viewing their potential with a heavy dose of skepticism.
I said you can’t trust Wisconsin. Same goes with Georgetown. In 2007, their efficiency split was 35+ and they made the Final Four. In 2008, it was 30+ and they lost in the second round. The past two years, it was 25+ and 18+ and they got bounced in round 1. This year the 11th-ranked Hoyas are at just past 21. So even if they end up a 3- or 4-seed, beware of some serious upset potential.
Baylor is on course for a possible one seed, but their 23.83 efficiency split would be by far the lowest of any top seed in the past five years. In fact, only one two seed has had a lower split, and that was the 2010 Villanova team that got upset in the second round.
Team Efficiency ratings history and why it matters
Ill put up 2012 tourney team stats in separate articles tied to those teams. This is a general explanation this guy gave of why it matters:
In the five years I’ve been tracking this, no NCAA tournament team with an efficiency split over 30 or more has lost in the first round. (Efficiency split is a team’s offensive efficiency minus its defensive efficiency.)
* Of the 26 teams who have entered the tournament over the past five years with an efficiency split of 30 or higher, 22 have made at least the Sweet 16, 17 have made at least the Elite Eight, 11 have made the Final Four, and four have won the title (with two others losing in the title game).
* On the flip side, of the 78 teams that have come into the tournament over the past five years with an efficiency split under 10, 71 of them lost their first game and only one has made it out of the second round. That was VCU, which somehow found its way into the Final Four with an 8.8 split. The next lowest to make it out of the first weekend was last year’s Butler team that made it to the championship game with a split of 15.
power of the efficiency split. (Note: It’s actually adjusted efficiency from KenPom.com.)
For 2012, As of games played on Tuesday (JAN 10) only four teams are at the 30+ level: Ohio State (34.37), Syracuse (32.34), Kentucky (31.16), and Wisconsin (30.48).
NC Strickland out for year torn ACL Jan 21
North Carolina junior Dexter Strickland will miss the rest of the season after tearing his right anterior cruciate ligament in Thursday’s win at Virginia Tech.
The 6-foot-3 guard had started every game for the eighth-ranked Tar Heels, averaging about eight points and shooting a team-best 57 percent while thriving in transition. He was the team’s top perimeter defender and doubled as the No. 2 ballhandler behind point guard Kendall Marshall. He was also the fastest player on the team.
Sophomore Reggie Bullock or freshman P.J. Hairstonare the most likely candidates to pick up minutes and are better perimeter shooters, though neither has Strickland’s defense, ballhandling or speed in the open court.
- Sophomore guard Reggie Bullock will probably move up to the starting shooting guard slot, but he tends to look for his outside shot more than Strickland, who usually earned most of his 7.5 points per game in transition (which was why he was shooting a team-high 57 percent from the floor). Bullock’s defense has steadily improved this season, but it will have to be more of a focus with Strickland out.
- If Bullock moves into the starting five, the onus will be on freshman P.J. Hairston to return to his sparky ways off the bench. After some big games early, the sharpshooter has made only 4 of 21 shots in his past four games.
It also could force freshman point guard Stilman White into a bigger role behind Marshall. The 6-footer is averaging less than a point in about four minutes per game. More than likely, though, Marshall, who is averaging a team-high 31.2 minutes, will need play more in tight games — something he got used to once he became the starter last season. Which mean he will have to continue to stay healthy, and out of foul trouble.
Kansas State Suspension (Henriquez) Jan 19
Kansas State coach Frank Martin has suspended junior forward Jordan Henriquezindefinitely for conduct detrimental to the team.
Martin said Thursday that he and Henriquez will meet sometime next week and discuss his status. In the meantime, Henriquez will not practice with the Wildcats (13-4, 2-3 Big 12).
The 6-foot-11 Henriquez had two points and two rebounds in 8 minutes in Kansas State’s 84-80 victory over Texas on Wednesday night.
Henriquez has played in all 17 games this season, starting six, and is averaging 7.1 points and 5.1 rebounds in 18.9 minutes.
Duke
Bilas December:
The Blue Devils are the only legitimate challenger to North Carolina in the ACC. Duke has played the toughest overall schedule in the country to this point, and has played very well against it. Duke can score, and has very good spot-up shooters on the perimeter and a capable threat in the post with Mason Plumlee.
To be a champion, though, this team has to improve its overall defense. Right now, Duke is not an elite defensive team and has been unable to generate offense from its defense. To date, Duke has been a team that has been forced to generate half-court offense rather than transition baskets. While the Blue Devils don’t pressure the ball as well as in seasons past, they can still play really good team defense and can really rebound. Duke has to do a better job of staying in front of the ball and limiting opponents to one contested shot per possession.
In addition, very few Blue Devils players can create their own shot or drive the lane. And, Duke has to communicate and execute better in late-game situations. This is a very capable team, but it cannot rely upon super athleticism or talent this season.
Syracuse
Bilas December:
I really liked Syracuse’s chances to reach the Final Four before the season began and have seen little to dissuade me from that notion. The Orange have depth, size and good guard play, and do a really good job defending. Coach Jim Boeheim believes his team is not quite there yet, but acknowledges that this team will have a real chance.
When I watch Syracuse play, it is clear that its defense is really solid. The Orange are in the top five in the nation in steals percentage and blocks percentage, and those numbers are magnified by the fact that opponents are forced into so many bad and questionable shots.
The key issues for Syracuse are decisions and ball movement. The Orange are at their best in transition and can blow you away with how quickly they convert from defense to offense. That makes them difficult to press, because you don’t want your press to create transition opportunities for them. Syracuse needs to do a better job of executing in half-court sets and not settling for jump shots — right now, Syracuse is not spending nearly enough time at the free throw line.
The key players are Brandon Triche and Dion Waiters. Triche needs to realize that he can be, and perhaps should be, the Orange’s best player; Waiters has to assert himself consistently as a star performer. If those two can “take over” in the team context, look out.
Belmont
Bilas January: This team is good, and has been there before. Just making the tournament will not be as big of a deal to this team. Belmont wants to win a game, and this team has a legitimate shot to pull it off. Rick Byrd is an outstanding coach who gets his teams to run, and to play efficiently on the offensive end while keeping opponents off balance on the defensive side of the floor. Belmont has lost six games, but five of those losses were on the road to good teams. The efficiency ratings for Belmont’s regular players is very impressive. This team does not make mistakes; you have to beat them.
San Diego State
Bilas The Aztecs don’t make free throws at a high rate, which could bite them in the NCAA tournament, and they are not a great offensive team, but they guard you and force tough shots. With a healthyXavier Thames running the point, San Diego State can beat people in March. However, this team is not as good as last year’s Kawhi Leonard-led Aztec team.January:
Harvard
Bilas January: Harvard runs a very effective motion offense and has quality players at every position. As far as Ivy League clubs, this team may not be quite as good as Cornell was two years ago, but this is a team capable of winning one or two games in the tournament. Keith Wright is a terrific interior big and Kyle Casey is one of the more versatile players in the country. Harvard is balanced, unselfish and talented.
Cincinnati
Watched this team several times. I want to like them this year. Clearly their record will make this clear. Their guards are gunners, but they are very solid with the ball and generally make good decisions. Their forwards are extremely athletic and plenty of them. Cronin has inside out forwards, outside only, and shoot and go get it. Plenty of options. Down low they are huge. Gates and kid from Africa are gernourmous.
If they are focused and trying hard.. they will be a very very hard team to beat and could seriously beat down others. They do rely on the 3 alot, though… watch them more.
January ESPN: Cincinnati’s offense is fairly simple — some dribble weave, some dribble drive rubs off cuts, some two-man game isolated ball screens — but the spacing is good and the team makes the extra pass. While the Bearcats struggle on offense with Justin Jackson (starting due to injury) or Cheikh Mbodj (back from injury) at the 4, they rebound better and defend better when they are big. On the other hand, Parker changes the team and I would expectGe’Lawn Guyn to make the Bearcats even better when he returns. Cincinnati will likely struggle with West Virginia, as not one of its guards can handle Kevin Jones. On the other hand, its four-guard attack and ocassionally deliberate pace may give the Bearcats a shooter’s chance against Syracuse on Monday.
Wichita State
Big Ten bodies here. This team has the bodies. Starting lineup has guards are 6’4 , and 6’5, center Stutz is 7’0 andForward Hall is 6’8 230. I saw them play Creighton and it was a battle. Their center got in foul trouble and they had to go to a much smaller lineup. They did trap and run full court defense. Hall is an absolute stud in the post. He wants it and if he gets it will do something with it. Think poor man (not too! poor) Ken Faried.
Their guards looked really big in this game. They had great inside out play and they can hit the 3.
Keep in mind that this team won the NIT last year and beat Nebraska, VTech, Charleston, Washington St, and Alabama in the process.
Bilas Jan: One of the things I like most about the Shockers is that they tend to play better and tougher on the road than they do at home. And as you probably know, NCAA tournament games are played away from home. This is a tough team that has experienced, quality players. Joe Raglandis in his second season, and leads the Shockers in scoring. Toure’ Murry is the best defender, David Kyles the best athlete and Garrett Stutz the best post defender. This is an NCAA tournament team.
Creighton
One thing about Creighton is that they have beefy size. McDermott is 6-7 but 210 and Echinque is 6-9 but 270. They bring 6’11, 6’7 off the bench. They are also athletic. These are not stiffs. Wragge (6’7) comes off the bench and they say he is the best shooter on the team. This team had an awesome mix of inside-out, power basketball, motion offense, and 3 pt shooting.
Creighton really plays sound defense and they get after it.
Dont forget this team barely lost in the CBI championship game. They beat Davidson, UCF, and Oregon along the way. Not March Madness, but good tournament experience. In this game, unbelievable atmosphere and they were not intimidated.
St Marys
Good defense, plenty of scorers. Interesting take I have here.. in that I cant seem to figure out why, but this is my favorite St Marys team ever. They have two really good guards (shocker) and 2 good subs. They can all shoot the 3 and create. It will be hard to stop their scoring. They lightly apply pressure in transition but mostly they run good ball movement sets. Their bigs are good defensively if not slightly undersized but they are good ball control bigs. Especially Jones. He is crafty and has just enough skill to score to keep a defense honest but mostly likes to kick it out for guards to shoot.
They do a good job of defensive transition.
Seems to me they will be in every game. I am not sure they would win but they will keep it close. I will say that they seem clutch in this game. When they need a shot, they are hitting it. Can they get the shot? I think the write-up on the BYU game is a little snapshot of this team… it says – BYU.. “couldn’t keep up with the quicker, more aggressive Gaels.”
Bilas January: The Gaels have an outstanding transition game, and have two terrific players in Aussie Matthew Dellavedova and Rob Jones, the transfer from San Diego. Saint Mary’s ran Gonzaga out of the gym last week, and there are no weak links on this team. Dellavedova is a star, and nobody on this team makes errors of omission. The Gaels do not turn the ball over, they spread you out, they run opportunistically and they defend well enough to keep them in it to let their efficient offense win it.
Bucknell
Team was fun to root for against Syracuse, but anyone with a set of good bigs and uses them will beat them good. Bucknells main player is a 6’11 skinny guy who isnt horrible. They also have quite a few decent guards. Its the forwards they clearly lack. They lost by 12 to Minn (70-58) down 2 at half and Vanderbilt (80-68) down one at half and by 19 to Syracuse (80-61) – 17 at half. They are patient on offense and they can all shoot. Against Syracuse they could not hit a shot at all even though they had open looks.
This team lost in the tournament last year to UConn (81-52) and were down 17 at half.
Tennessee
Watched them play KY. What an interesting team. Remind me of Texas in that they are really just starting to develop. They also just added a top 20 prospect in the form of 6’8 forward. New coach, Martin, has them really playing resilient and tough defense, they get a little handsy at times on defense.
Inside, I love their hustle and toughness..
Bottom line is that I really liked this team. Most of their loses have come at the hands of solid teams, but I am stunned at a few of their loses. Im not sure how this team loses to Austin Peay. They have moxie and swagger that you would expect from a Gene Keady coaching tree coach. I think that they may struggle to score.. I want to watch them again and I expect them to make a run at an at large.
Murray State
Guards will attack and jump into the body of bigs. Canaan will shoot from the exit door and make it. He is not to be taken lightly as he can create and score the most awkward shots. Close game, I think he is money. Their offense seemed to be to spread the floor, attack off the dribble (which they do well) and then crash the boards big time. Their bigs were active but underwhelming to me. They hustle and move including a kid with a huge fro (like the style). They were without their best big in this game Ivan Aska. He will be back in 1 month (start of February).
I want to not like this team.. but I cant. They have a few flashy and quick guards who can break you down and score. Only thing I did notice in this game was, despite decent defense, their overplay led to several back door scoring opportunities for Tenn Tech.
Temple
I saw them play Texas without Scootie Randall and Micheal Eric – their two primary bigs. They STILL looked fine verse Texas. Their guards are really really solid and big. Averaging 6’5. I think anyone with smaller guards may struggle a bit with their guard length. I also think that they will dominate the glass in most games. Iwant to double check this, but they have good athleticism all over and rebound well. Once they do rebound, they like to run and they run very intelligently. This team will not be turning the ball over a lot so if a team feasts on TO’s they will starve verse Temple. Inside, they were fine … not overwhelmed at all.
Vs Duke.. announcer said that to do damage against them, you have to drive. Said they are not quick side to side.. interesting.. Also, in this game Myles Plumlee had a great game. I think that could be true if Temple plays a really good big. Their bigs are serviceable, but they aren’t dominant (and both their hurt bigs did NOT play in this game). Side note on the bigs, they clearly outrebounded the bigger duke team.
I dont want to forget last year in the tourney where this team gutted out a win verse Penn State and then lost in double overtime to SDST. That team lost their starting center a month before the end of the season. This team, which is better, gets one BACK with a month left in the season.
Florida
Florida is really aggressive on offense. You need someone that can break them down to be successful and even then look out. This is a very good defensive team, especially on the guards.
Offensively, man I dont love them here, but they are better then they have been. Against man defensive, they line everyone up outside the arc and try to dribble penetrate. This usually amounts to a 3pt shot. I think this team will be very hard to predict scoring. If they can dribble by you, they will score. If you force them into 3′s, they may murder you if they are hot or lay an egg if they are not.
LAst year, they won by 28 against a decent team who they shut down defensively and scored balanced. I would guess a very similare score this year. 79 – 51. Were winning 43-19 at half. SEcond half was 36 – 32.
Texas AM
December 2012 – Billy Donovan broke them down.. Very good fast break team.. They really get out in transition if they can and if they dont have it then they run their deliberate offense deep into the shot clock. Their games have been low scoring because if they don’t have it.. they really run their offense. They are also so good defensively, that it is hard to shoot fast against them.
Pretty awful offensively. They had no one in this game who could break down people from Florida. They tried to run every offensive set through Middleton.
This team just doesnt have the right athletes for me to care. They have a lot of 6’8 and this leads them to cover smaller people defensively but doesnt give them much of an advantage on offense. First hoop in this game EIGHT minutes in.
I have to see what their new coach does with them, but I am not sure they even make the tournament and if they do they are a fairly strong opportunity for a loss.
Wisconsin
I am sure George will have a lot of notes on Wisco but M played them today and beat them pretty handily! Go Blue!
Jan 8 Cinderella pick article Xavier
Not sure if the brawl has damaged their chances to make the dance by throwing them off the mental game, but here is the article’s suggestion:
Xavier hasn’t reached the deep waters that Butler has. The Musketeers have been less consistent as Gonzaga (but only slightly). However, they have become the biggest presence in what I would consider the seventh power league. The Atlantic-10 can ball. Temple’s proved it. Saint Joseph’s has proved it. Richmond is proving it. And the X-men lead them all, even through a rotation of head coaches (Pete Gillen, the late Skip Prosser, Thad Matta, Sean Miller).
Now it’s Chris Mack’s turn to lead the school to its first Final Four berth. The talent is there, as evidenced by their top-10 ranking a few weeks back. The team is as tough as anybody. My problem is that under Mack, the toughness seems to have run amuck (a brawl with crosstown rival Cincinnati will show that just a bit). If they can reign in the “thuggish” attitude, this program has the capability to make more deep runs in March.
Jan 8 Cinderella Pick Article Butler
Butler is now the gold standard for “Magical March” stories. Going to back-to-back national championship games gives you more than street cred. It gets you attention and, possibly, higher recruits. And don’t sleep on the Horizon League for competition. Cleveland State, UW-Milwaukee, and Valparaiso aren’t exactly the Big East, but they will test your resolve.Now we get to see how Brad Stevens handles the success of the last two years. So far this year … not so much. But didn’t we say the same thing about them last year, too?
The last line is a good reminder to all of us. -Wardo
