Re: College Basketball 2012-2013

[bukie]

Seth Davis at SI interviewed John Groce:

 

SI.com: Heading into your game last week at home against Indiana, you guys had lost six out of your last seven. Then you're down by eight points with three minutes to play against the No. 1 team in the country. How did you pull off that win?

 

Groce: It was interesting because Indiana shot over 50 percent from the field, over 50 percent from three, over 90 percent from the foul line. So they made shots. It was a heck of a game. From Day 1 I've been talking to our guys about staying engaged, even though we've had a couple of three-game losing streaks. Even when we were losing, I thought we were playing well. We did some good things against Michigan State and Wisconsin -- we just didn't win. Everyone around us was like, "Man, they're struggling." Trying to put almost a cloud over us. We refused to allow that to happen, and I think that's a big reason we were able to play as well as we did.

 

SI.com: Explain to me the play that resulted in the winning basket.

 

Groce: It's a 4-2-2-4 screen. Big, little, little, big. We ran it two times before that during the game. D.J. Richardson made a three the most recent time with about four minutes to go. They didn't want him to make the same shot on the play, and they got busted up on the switch. Grif [Tyler Griffey] read it, realized two guys went with D.J. on the cut and slipped to the basket. He made a basketball play, and [brandon] Paul made a great play on the pass.

 

SI.com: The thing I loved about the play is that you didn't call time out beforehand. That's because you didn't have any left. If you had a time out, would you have called it?

 

Groce: Maybe, because we had that in our package. I have a sheet, like a football offensive coordinator, that says, here's what we'd like to run from zero to 2.9 seconds fullcourt. Here's what we'd like to run from three seconds to 4.9 fullcourt. All the way up to about 10 seconds. Since I didn't have a time out, I felt like I just wanted to give them something they know that they felt comfortable with.

 

SI.com: Isn't that an argument in favor of not calling time out even if you have one left? I think coaches call time out too often in these situations.

 

Groce: You know what's interesting, when I was at Ohio, we had a game where the other team missed a free throw, we outlet to D.J. Cooper, who was our best decision maker by far. He was coming up the court so I didn't call time out. We set a ball screen, they switch it, he missed the three at the buzzer, and we lost. So in the media room it's, why didn't you call time out? Then three weeks later, we play Miami (Ohio) at home. The same thing happens, except they make the shot. So now it's a quick inbounds, I have timeouts left, I don't call it, D.J. throws it across the floor to Tony Freeman and he buries a three to win the game. Now all of a sudden I'm a genius.

 

SI.com: There has been a lot of talk lately about why scoring is down in college basketball. I've been advocating for things like a 30-second shot clock and cleaning up physical play. Do you think this is a problem, and if so, what would be your solution?

 

Groce: I don't know if it's a huge deal for me personally. I watch some of the NBA games with the 24-second shot clock and some of those games are low scoring. To me, the biggest culprit is the skill level of the players. We need to continue to find a way in our country to develop the skill levels of kids and feeder programs at a young age. I'm talking about basic shooting, passing, dribbling. That's where I would start.

 

SI.com: You told me last summer that you were committed to playing really fast, uptempo basketball at Illinois. It seems like you guys play fast but not really fast. Are you still committed to that style?

 

Groce: We've had to adapt to our personnel. Do we play faster than probably most teams? Probably. But are we on steroids like we were in year three and four at Ohio when we were playing nine players and beating you down the court every time? We're not at that level yet. The one thing I've tried to do is coach to my personality and what I believe philosophically, and I just prefer for us to be in fullcourt attack mode. It fits me better.

 

SI.com: That picture of you and your son after the Indiana win made the rounds on Twitter Thursday night. It was an amazing picture. But why wasn't he wearing a shirt?

 

Groce: That was my wife's idea. Our coaches' wives are really close. All the boys came to the game with no shirts on and they painted the I-L-L on their chest. He was so excited. He loves the game, plays on Saturday, practices Wednesdays. He watches our guys and tries to emulate everything they do. He wears their jerseys. He's really into it. I didn't see the picture until late that night. It was funny, though, because he got up in the morning and he goes, "Daddy, how do I get this orange 'I' off my chest?" I said, "Conner, you need to see your mother on that. She's the one who put it on there."

 

 

Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-basketball/news/20130210/fast-break/#ixzz2KblbiJuK

[UMFan83]

Indiana retains #1 in a very split AP poll. They get 26 1st place votes, Duke gets 20, Miami 17, Michigan gets 0 but is 4th, followed by Gonzaga who got 2 votes.

 

Michigan St. is 8th, Ohio State 13th, Wisconsin hits a fluke miracle half court 3 and jumps into the poll at 20 (sorry still bitter :)), Minnesota drops out of the top 25 to 26th, and Illinois gains votes but is only 35th overall. Florida somehow drops from 2nd to 7th and Kansas drops all the way to 14th.

[bcl412]

How about Illinois and Minnesota play well enough to both be ranked at the end of the season even with losses to Iowa, Iowa finishes 10-8 and the Big 10 gets 8 in?

[UMFan83]

Top of the ESPN poll is quite different. Duke is #1 and more decisively than Indiana in the AP (18 first place votes). Indiana is #2 with 6 first place votes, follow by Gonzaga (1), Miami (5) and Michigan (1)

[Exile on Waveland]

Yeah, I think they have a decent chance at 7-11, and would belong over an 8-10 Iowa team.

 

I think 8-10 would make Illinois a lock and 7-11 pretty much should. I defy someone to have a better bubble team resume.

[brinoch]

Yeah, I think they have a decent chance at 7-11, and would belong over an 8-10 Iowa team.

 

I think 8-10 would make Illinois a lock and 7-11 pretty much should. I defy someone to have a better bubble team resume.

 

I agree that 8-10 should get them in. But it would be better to be 9-9. 9-9 in a stacked Big Ten with a couple of very good wins provides some insulation against weird crap happening with conference tournaments and the random automatic bid from a terrible team.

[UMFan83]

Just looking at their remaining schedule to see what is likely

 

vs. Purdue

@ Northwestern

vs. Penn St

@ Michigan

vs. Nebraska

@ Iowa

@ Ohio State

 

That's not bad at all, despite 4 road games. If they take care of business at home and take 1 of the 4 road games, they're in no matter who the wins are against.

[hawkeyecub]

Yeah, I think they have a decent chance at 7-11, and would belong over an 8-10 Iowa team.

 

Without a doubt. I don't think it's an either/or though.

 

Iowa needs to be 9-9 to have a chance and I think they would need at least 1, maybe 2 in Chicago in that case. At 10-8 they should be in but with the poor RPI they probably need to avoid a bad loss in the opener. 10-8 would mean winning at PSU and Nebraska with home wins over Purdue, Nebraska, Minnesota and Illinois and a loss at IU. Doable but 9-9 is more likely.

 

The RPI is so dumb. It's ridiculous that they don't use some kind of composite of RPI, Pomeroy, Sagarin, Massey, BPI or whatever if they really want to stick with the RPI. It's Iowa's own fault their RPI is that bad but it's almost entirely due to playing teams in the low 200's-300's rather than low 100's-high 200's.

[CubInOK]

Texas Tech is ranked 253 in Pomeroy ratings. And they're not the worst rated team in the Big 12.

TCU sure played like it tonight. How do you score 11 points in a half?

[UMFan83]

Texas Tech is ranked 253 in Pomeroy ratings. And they're not the worst rated team in the Big 12.

TCU sure played like it tonight. How do you score 11 points in a half?

 

Ask NIU

[snoodmonger]

Texas Tech is ranked 253 in Pomeroy ratings. And they're not the worst rated team in the Big 12.

TCU sure played like it tonight. How do you score 11 points in a half?

 

Ask NIU

 

Or KU.

[Cubswin11]

Lunardi's "Bracketology" currently has the following BIG teams in. Seeds next to name.

 

Indiana (1)

Minnesota (6)

OSU (4)

Wisconsin (5)

MSU (3)

Michigan (1)

Illinois (11)

[CubInOK]

Lunardi's "Bracketology" currently has the following BIG teams in. Seeds next to name.

 

Indiana (1)

Minnesota (6)

OSU (4)

Wisconsin (5)

MSU (3)

Michigan (1)

Illinois (11)

Anyone who has Virginia in right now should not be taken seriously. Don't ask me how Pomeroy has them 19.

[SouthSideRyan]

Joe Lunardi should never be taken seriously. He is one of the worst out there at projecting a bracket, and has never beaten NSBB who puts all of 2 weeks effort into it.

[Exile on Waveland]

The guy is a maroon. I mean, we all hate the "doesn't watch games/lives in mom's basement" meme . . . but listen to him and you really must wonder if he watches games -- or, if so, comprehends what he is watching.

[CubInOK]

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/bracketology

 

Palm has those same 7 teams, but Illinois is a 7 seed.

[abuck1220]

palm HATES iowa state. loves the b10 though.

[bukie]

Palm is a weird, arrogant RPI freak. Even though his site has the wrong RPI values.

[Formerly Snayke]

I was watching the 2008 NC last night and CBS listed Chris Douglas-Roberts's major being "sport & leisure management." That has to be phony.

[snoodmonger]

I was watching the 2008 NC last night

Why would you do that to yourself?

[pitchcs]

I'm thinking Illinois in the 8/9 game as of now.

[bukie]

Just as a heads up, I'll run the selection committee thing again this year, but I am going to be extremely limited on time during the day due to new career, so any tabulations and discussions I create would be at night. And probably late, at that.

[Formerly Snayke]

I was watching the 2008 NC last night

Why would you do that to yourself?

 

Obviously the end result is horrible (it would have been horrible regardless) but it's also ridiculously entertaining.

[CubInOK]

I was watching the 2008 NC last night and CBS listed Chris Douglas-Roberts's major being "sport & leisure management." That has to be phony.

What did Rose major in?

[SouthSideRyan]

Just as a heads up, I'll run the selection committee thing again this year, but I am going to be extremely limited on time during the day due to new career, so any tabulations and discussions I create would be at night. And probably late, at that.

 

Works perfectly for me.