snoodmonger

recent pic of Clemson recruit on his myspace page: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v604/snoodmonger1/2366500308_200b873557.jpg http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/

I thought Montgomery would be an intriguing candidate for the Hoosiers.

ben braun out at cal

I don't have a problem with him leaving. It's more that he clearly deferred to UNC while he was here, and I often wonder if that cost us a NC along the way. I also thing it was completely shi**y of UNC to can Doherty right when we were headed to the FF, knowing it would create a distraction for us.

Well I'm not all that biased in his favor. I think his loyalty to UNC affected the way he recruited at Kansas, and despite his phenomenal record, we could have been much better. It pisses me off that the restrictions he set on himself as a KU coach (he wouldn't recruit east of the Mississippi, largely to avoid crossing swords with Dean/UNC) no longer apply as the UNC coach. (He heavily recruited T. Releford, a Kansas native, and continually pursues people in our neck of the woods.) That said, he is a great coach. His teams are always prepared. He does a great job with big men. And his system is fun to watch. In-game coaching isn't his strength, though it's not a weakness, either. I think the great recruiting coaches are often caught in a catch-22. If they win, it's because their players are better. If they lose, it's because they can't coach.

Maybe they ranked them by most recognizable names. Williams, Calipari, and Huggins are mediocre coaches. The first 2 just get great talent. Huggins is a great motivator. My top 5 would be Howland, Ryan, Miller, Bennett, Izzo. I don't necessarily disagree with your top 5 (although any attempt at ranking coaches is pretty arbitrary), but the bolded seems pretty suspicious to me. The single most important thing a college coach of an elite program does is recruit. Getting great talent is part of what makes them great coaches. Similarly, motivating players is a big part of being a good coach. But even if you narrowly define coaching as only strategic in-game decisions, execution of a system, and managing practice drills, as it seems you're doing, then whether or not a coach recruits well or motivates well is irrelevant to whether or not they're good coaches, and you haven't provided any reasoning to support your argument that they're mediocre. It's not that I necessarily disagree with you - it's actually that I'm interested, because I've never thought of any of those guys as mediocre, and I'd like to hear why you think they are. It's probably worth saying that I'm not being a smartass here - I'm genuinely interested in this, because my knowledge of of the ins and outs of coaching is limited. People who say Roy Williams isn't a great coach are being idiotic. His teams run their system to perfection. The one rap on him/his teams is that, when they're disrupted from their system, they have trouble recovering. TH provides a nice safety valve for that this year, though. I also think he doesn't emphasize defense as much as he should. However, overall Roy is one of the top coaches in the game, and if I were building a program, he'd be one of my top candidates.

Isiah Thomas or Jim Harrick to IU?? =P~ Isiah Thomas to IU would be hilarious.

You bolded the wrong part. True. that is relevant. I just read somewhere that Ryan has never beaten a team higher than a six seed. Anyone know if that's true?

Ok, looks like that's the best I'll get out of you. :D Pomeroy interests me no doubt, but I'm confused by some of his metrics. From what I can tell he leaves out such things as difficulty of opponents and such when rating teams. Maybe I'm just not quite understanding the metrics (I'm no math whiz) but it seems like he ought to be taken along with things like RPI and Strength of Schedule. I think it does. At least, by my caveman understanding of math it does. http://www.kenpom.com/blog/index.php/weblog/ratings_explanation/

Honestly, I think Wisconsin or MSU will be in the Final Four at the rate things are going. They're two of the best-coached teams in the nation and have enough talent and firepower to match up with teams like Kansas, Memphis, Davidson, and Texas. You have to admit, they've been impressive. No, neither is a stretch. I did find this interesting, though. For as much crap Self gets for his coaching abilities (and as much praise Ryan gets) you wouldn't expect the following numbers.

You know, for all the crap I've given the Big Ten, they do have a realistic chance at two EE teams.

not sure why you think this, but okay. the unc-wazzu game will be verrrrrrrrry interesting. unc was the #3 fastest-paced team in the country (out of 341 d-i schools), while wazzu was #336. this is about as big a contrast in style as you will ever see. Don't get me wrong. They're good, and they deserve their one-seed. But I'm down on the ACC, and I think UNC will struggle with physical, athletic teams. Like all Roy Williams teams, I think they'll also struggle with "system" teams like Wazzu.

I still think UNC is overrated.

lol, "start"? I hate the matchup against Wisconsin, but things are falling into place. Gotta lock down Scotty Reynolds next week.

Varnardo is awesome. I love shot-blockers.

I'll certainly be rooting for them over Wisconsin. Not Kansas, though. This man is wise.

They're still down 2, right?

I'm not sure who I want to win this Davidson game. I really don't want to play Georgetown in the EE (assuming we beat Nova), but I think we might match up better with them than Wiscy. And if Davidson wins, that basically opens it up for a game against the Badgers.

I would have Curry's babies.

I love his game, even though he A.) goes to Texas and B.) boned OU He seems like a guy that will go in the mid-first round and then surprise people. He's definitely not a two, and he's not going to be a four, so he's kind of pigeonholed role wise. I don't think he can defend on the perimeter well enough to guard twos either, but he'll always rebound well and he can hit a jumper from anywhere on the floor, but he's not an off the dribble shooter, so he can't be a first option on offense. I think if you put him on a fastbreaking team with a good offense, he'll do well. Now that I say that, he reminds me a lot of Shawn Marion, with a little extra bulk and a lot less defense. Given his shooting touch, I'm surprised how poor a FT shooter he is.

I wonder if Damion James will go pro this year. I like his game. And that Abrams three reminded me that Collison from UCLA is shooting over 50% from three this year. Yikes. That's amazing.

good god. If i said the Big Ten was the greatest conference in the world and was jilted by not getting all 11 teams in, could we move on. It's the end of the second round, and you guys are still bitching about your crappy teams not getting a shot to flame out in the first round.

WVU players rip the Dukies in the post-game. Classy? No. Awesome? You better believe it. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/sports/ncaabasketball/23duke.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

I thought UCLA got a ton of calls, but aTm didn't play smart toward the end. They didn't even have the seven-footer in the game at the end to block shots. And the way they were shooting FTs, who knows if they would've made 2 there. Still, you like to see better officiating across the board. The KU game was terrible, too, though in a different way. Fouls left and right.

UCLA was getting away with murder down low all night. That last play looked clean though. I stand corrected. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v604/snoodmonger1/532752.jpg