College Basketball 2007-2008

[Exile on Waveland]

Lunardi as of yesterday: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/bracketology

 

His four #1s are North Carolina (East/Charlotte), UCLA (West/Phoenix), Memphis (South/Houston) and Kansas (Midwest/Detroit).

 

Not that I would complain, but I don't see what IU's done to deserve a #3 seed at this point. I think there's a good chance they'll get there by season's end as they've been impressive, but their resume leaves a lot to be desired.* Sagarin does have them #18.

 

*As much as I've complained about their schedule, it's not all their fault. They did schedule Kentucky, UConn, at Southern Illinois and ACC/Big Ten Challenge. To this point, though, they've lost by 15 to the best team they played.

[rawaction]

A once great thread is dying a painful death.

 

Anyway, IU at UM tonight. No Basset, again. I'm not feeling great about their chances at a Big Ten title without him. I'm a big fan of Crawford, but they need Basset back soon. Also, Sampson is supposedly telling Gordon to be more aggressive with his shot. I'm curious to see how he responds.

 

There were too many possessions against Iowa where neither Gordon or White would touch the ball. That needs to stop.

 

Bassett's not a huge loss. AJ should be able to pick up some of his shooting ability. Ellis needs to be the primary ball handler. Let Crawford and Gordon play on the wing. Let Ellis run the show.

[Exile on Waveland]

A once great thread is dying a painful death.

 

Anyway, IU at UM tonight. No Basset, again. I'm not feeling great about their chances at a Big Ten title without him. I'm a big fan of Crawford, but they need Basset back soon. Also, Sampson is supposedly telling Gordon to be more aggressive with his shot. I'm curious to see how he responds.

 

There were too many possessions against Iowa where neither Gordon or White would touch the ball. That needs to stop.

 

IU is much, much better when Basset is in there. Even though he's not a true point guard, their offensive flow and ball movement is so much better when he plays(was last year, too). He will evidently have to play through pain all season with bone chips/spurs, which will certainly limit him. His shot has been off since he twisted his ankle, he's not exploding up to shoot and he's often landing on one foot. IU should win tonight, regardless.

[soapy]

A once great thread is dying a painful death.

 

Anyway, IU at UM tonight. No Basset, again. I'm not feeling great about their chances at a Big Ten title without him. I'm a big fan of Crawford, but they need Basset back soon. Also, Sampson is supposedly telling Gordon to be more aggressive with his shot. I'm curious to see how he responds.

 

There were too many possessions against Iowa where neither Gordon or White would touch the ball. That needs to stop.

 

Bassett's not a huge loss. AJ should be able to pick up some of his shooting ability. Ellis needs to be the primary ball handler. Let Crawford and Gordon play on the wing. Let Ellis run the show.

 

I think he's a significant loss. Maybe not "huge", but important.

[Exile on Waveland]

A once great thread is dying a painful death.

 

Anyway, IU at UM tonight. No Basset, again. I'm not feeling great about their chances at a Big Ten title without him. I'm a big fan of Crawford, but they need Basset back soon. Also, Sampson is supposedly telling Gordon to be more aggressive with his shot. I'm curious to see how he responds.

 

There were too many possessions against Iowa where neither Gordon or White would touch the ball. That needs to stop.

 

Bassett's not a huge loss. AJ should be able to pick up some of his shooting ability. Ellis needs to be the primary ball handler. Let Crawford and Gordon play on the wing. Let Ellis run the show.

 

I think he's a significant loss. Maybe not "huge", but important.

 

I think it's pretty damn near huge. However, we don't really know how the injury will affect him. He may come back and be close to healthy, hopefully.

[soapy]

I think it's pretty damn near huge. However, we don't really know how the injury will affect him. He may come back and be close to healthy, hopefully.

We'll see. That's what worries me most; not losing him for a few games, but how it will effect him if/when he does return.

[rawaction]

Granted Bassett is the team's 4th leading scorer, but they have played some of their best ball without him. Gordon, Ellis, and Crawford are better handlers. Ratliff takes his place as the "shooter" and I believe can pick up the scoring slack once he's in game shape. Ratliff's also miles better defensively. Bassett's really icing on the cake (really good icing) for this year's team, whereas last year and next year he will be an absolute necessity.

[Exile on Waveland]

Granted Bassett is the team's 4th leading scorer, but they have played some of their best ball without him. Gordon, Ellis, and Crawford are better handlers. Ratliff takes his place as the "shooter" and I believe can pick up the scoring slack once he's in game shape. Ratliff's also miles better defensively. Bassett's really icing on the cake (really good icing) for this year's team, whereas last year and next year he will be an absolute necessity.

 

Basset is the best ball-handler on the team (1.8 A/TO; Ellis is 1.5, Crawford 1.4, Gordon 0.7). Gordon is in no way a better ball-handler than Basset. Gordon's ball-handling is not great for a guard; he's a fabulous player, certainly, but that's his biggest weakness. Ratliff is a shooter, but he's very limited. He can shoot and defend. Literally, that's it. Basset can do more -- he can get to the lane, handle the ball, run the offense. There's a reason Basset started last year as a freshman and is a starter on this year's team.

[Flames24Rulz]

Bradley-SIU in about 15 minutes on ESPNU. The battle between the two biggest disappointments in the Valley so far. We're at home, so we actually might have a chance to win.

[fiver]

IU up 29-13 with 6 minutes to go in the first half at Michigan....

[dalgreen]

After watching the first half of the first half of the IU/Michigan game and seeing how bad Michigan is, I'm thoroughly convinced that my Illini will only split with Michigan this year.

 

We'll win in Champaign and find some way to lose in Ann Arbor. That matchup might take basketball back seventy years. I'm wondering if either one of the teams will shoot 35% from the floor when they play.

[Flames24Rulz]

The march to a .500 season lives on as SIU beats Bradley 77-64. It's amazing how we can score 70 points, and sometimes close to 80 points at home, and then struggle to score 50 on the road. Unreal.

 

Next two games are roadies @ Indiana State and @ Evansville. If we can win one of those, it'll be a miracle.

[rawaction]

Wow. Michigan is a bad team. IU didn't play defense in the 1st half, and they still couldn't score til some late 3s fell. Eric Gordon will get all the accolades, but DJ White is my conference player of the year right now. 21 and 22 tonight. And yeah, I was probably a little harsh on Bassett. EJ and Crawford combined for 12 turnovers tonight.

[Bruno7481]

Wow. Michigan is a bad team. IU didn't play defense in the 1st half, and they still couldn't score til some late 3s fell. Eric Gordon will get all the accolades, but DJ White is my conference player of the year right now. 21 and 22 tonight. And yeah, I was probably a little harsh on Bassett. EJ and Crawford combined for 12 turnovers tonight.

 

It was at least encouraging to see Bassett dressed and participating in warmups. They mentioned he would have surgery during the offseason. Hopefully he cane make it through the rest of this season and still contribute.

[Butterscup1679666578]

Mizzou might lose to UMKC tonight.

 

If so, I demand they get rid of the basketball program and give the money to good teams (football, wrestling, baseball, volleyball)

[TruffleShuffle]

well hc has their toughest road game tonight, at maryland. we're shooting about 25% from the field, which isn't the way to pull a big road upset. maryland is getting the obligatory home cooking from the refs as well, with fouls in the second half going their way 10 to 2.

[CP_414]

DJ White is a monster. 21 and 22 tonight. Next up is the Illini in Bloomington. This should be fun.

 

Good effort for Purdue tonight. They lost to MSU by 3 in East Lansing.

[rawaction]

Wow. Michigan is a bad team. IU didn't play defense in the 1st half, and they still couldn't score til some late 3s fell. Eric Gordon will get all the accolades, but DJ White is my conference player of the year right now. 21 and 22 tonight. And yeah, I was probably a little harsh on Bassett. EJ and Crawford combined for 12 turnovers tonight.

 

It was at least encouraging to see Bassett dressed and participating in warmups. They mentioned he would have surgery during the offseason. Hopefully he cane make it through the rest of this season and still contribute.

 

Sampson expects him to play Sunday vs. Illinois.

[hawkeyecub]

Hopefully no recruits turn on the Big Ten Network for another hour or so. That was one atrocious half of basketball. 45-17 OSU at the half.

 

After being competitive with Indiana and @ Wisconsin last week I didn't expect this.

[Guest]

Arizona St upsets (At what point does it stop being an upset? They're this year's WSU in the Pac-10.) Arizona in Tempe, 64-59 in OT. Good game to watch.

 

ASU is in first place in the Pac-10 at 3-0 (1/2 game ahead of 2-0 UCLA and 1 game ahead of 1-0 WSU).

[snoodmonger]

Mississippi goes down to Tennessee. Didn't see the game, but according to the game log, they missed a bunch of consecutive shots on one possession at the end of the game and clanked the front end of a one and one to boot. Tennessee won by 2.

[Flames24Rulz]

Arizona St upsets (At what point does it stop being an upset? They're this year's WSU in the Pac-10.) Arizona in Tempe, 64-59 in OT. Good game to watch.

 

ASU is in first place in the Pac-10 at 3-0 (1/2 game ahead of 2-0 UCLA and 1 game ahead of 1-0 WSU).

 

How in the hell did Illinois beat them? And by beat them, I mean by blowing them out.

[SouthSideRyan]

Arizona St upsets (At what point does it stop being an upset? They're this year's WSU in the Pac-10.) Arizona in Tempe, 64-59 in OT. Good game to watch.

 

ASU is in first place in the Pac-10 at 3-0 (1/2 game ahead of 2-0 UCLA and 1 game ahead of 1-0 WSU).

 

How in the hell did Illinois beat them? And by beat them, I mean by blowing them out.

 

ASU's first game of the year. I said when it happened how big a win that was, because ASU was going to become a good team by the end of the year, and it would wind up being a win against a team with a good RPI.

[illiniguy]

Arizona St upsets (At what point does it stop being an upset? They're this year's WSU in the Pac-10.) Arizona in Tempe, 64-59 in OT. Good game to watch.

 

ASU is in first place in the Pac-10 at 3-0 (1/2 game ahead of 2-0 UCLA and 1 game ahead of 1-0 WSU).

 

How in the hell did Illinois beat them? And by beat them, I mean by blowing them out.

Add to that we were playing an up tempo style then that fits our team better. That combined with the fact it was their first game, and it was in Maui, while we had played before against Hawaii adds up to a blow out. It is sad we aren't trying to play at that frenetic of a pace anymore. I think had we won the game we had against Arizona this year would have went a lot differently.

[snoodmonger]

I can't wait for conference season to start. KUs noncon was Duke-ish in its mediocrity. Not entirely our fault, since it was hard to predict Zona, Georgia Tech, BC, and USC would all be this mediocre, but man, we've played a bunch of patsies.