Minnesota has been the subject of some pretty large lashback from the national basketball “scene”, particularly in the fact that many have

Ralph Sampson III

been claiming that the Golden Gophers should not have made the NCAA tournament as an at-large team but rather that it should have been Penn State.

I agree.

Penn State had a better record, better Big Ten place, and had a stronger nonconference schedule. The Nittany Lions won 9 of their last 15, the Gophers 6 of their last 15. I know there can be all kinds of arguments back and forth, but it is what it is. Minnesota is in, and their prize is a 10 seed and face 7 seed Texas in the first round of the tournament. The Longhorns, who started off 11-2, played choppy basketball beyond that, going 11-9 the rest of the way. Texas owns wins over UCLA, Villanova, and Oklahoma, but also lost to Arkansas and Nebraska.  Texas resembles more of a Big Ten team than a Big 12 team with not a whole heckuvalot of offense. The defense is suspect at best.

Texas is very balanced offensevely, being led by star A.J. Abrams who can shoot from anywhere and can score a lot of points if needed. Damion James is one of the more underrated players in the country, averaging over 15 points and almost 10 boards a game. He will present match up nightmares for the Gophers.

But don’t underestimate Tubby Smith’s ability to prepare for a game. The Gophers certainly have the “sticktuitiveness” to grind this game out and put points on the board, if they can hang on to the ball, which has been a major issue with Minnesota this season. The game doesn’t give much of an edge with location, so it really comes down to just who plays the better game–and in this case, I’d love to be able to say that Minnesota pulls the mini-upset, but I think that James will have his way down deep and lead the Longhorns to a tough victory.

Predicted Result: Loss

Even if Minnesota is able to win a gutsy game, they will likely face Duke basically in their backyard in Greensboro, NC, and that will make a game that is already one-sdied even worse. Sorry, Gophers fans, I am certainly happy for the turnaround in the program, but it is not in the cards for really much at all this go-round.

Kalin Lucas has been having a superb year, and it’s been getting better and better. With 22 points against the defending NCAA Champion Kansas  Jayhawks, he scored in double figures for the sixth straight game, and his all-around game helped the Michigan State Spartans dominate the Jayhawks 75-60 in East Lansing.

Raymar Morgan added 13 and Travis Walton 11 as the only other Spartans to score in double figures. Statistically, the game wasn’t all that different, Kansas shot around 40%, Michigan State the same, and both teams made 5 three pointers. The biggest difference came at the line, where MSU hit almost75% compared to Kansas’57%, nailing 9 more than they Jayhawks.

Michigan State won their ninth in a row and is now 13-2. While Kansas is obviously not as strong as they were last year, this is still a quality win over a decent team, and the Spartans are definitely starting to peak at the right time.  MSU travels to Penn State next in what should be a pretty good game overall.

Illinois had gotten no love. Even though they were 10-1 and were 25th in the RPI poll, the votes in both the AP and USA Today rankings didn’t even make it like the Illini had any business thinking they were good. So when they faced Missouri–ranked 25th–in the annual Braggin’ Rights game in St. Louis and were 4 point underdogs, the Illini must have taken it personal–because they came out with perhaps the most intensity and chemistry for–well at least 2 years.

Demetri McCamey, the super sophomore for the Illini, scored 20 points and lead the charge in the first half as the Illini built a huge lead before half and they cruised in the second half in the 75-59 victory for the Fighting Illini. McCamey finished 20 on 4-6 three point shooting, but he wasn’t the only star–Trent Meachem lead the team in scoring with 23, Mike Davis had 12, and Mike Tisdale had 12 for the Illini.

The win was the ninth in a row for the Illini, who hold a 20-8 edge in the series. While the Tigers went most of the game without their stud Demare Carroll due to an injury in the first half, but it really wouldn’t have made much of a difference–the Tigers were frustrated all night shooting, as they shot a paltry 35% for the night.

Think the voters may put a couple more ballots with the Illini’s name on them next week? Yeah, me too.

Michigan State would have to admit that the preseason hadn’t exactly been kind to them in terms of games versus quality opponents.  Despite beating a decent Oklahoma State team, in facing Maryland and North Carolina, the Spartans had been embarrassed, and coming into the game versus Texas today, they had fallen from preseason #7 to #19.  Going against the fifth ranked team on a neutral court–even though it was in Houston, TEXAS, Tom Izzo’s crew certainly had their work cut out for them.

However, the Spartans came out feisty and fired up, ferociously attacking a talented Longhorn team that boasted both great athleticism and size, and found themselves only down 2 at the break. Texas lulled the Spartans in the second half, leading by as many as six late, but Michigan State showed tremendous heart, and with a three pointer with 20 second left by Durrell Summers, the Spartans walked out of the match up victors. Whew!

In a game where MSU’s star Raymar Morgan struggled offensively, Summers provided a huge game, scoring 14 points, and big man Goran Suton held his own against Texas’ treetrunks in scoring 18 on 7-8 shooting. The Spartans also pressured the Longhorns into 38% shooting while they remained steady from the field–hitting 51% despite going 3-10 from the arc.

Congrats to the Spartans on a huge win!!

Purdue is too young. Baylor has something to prove. Blah blah blah.

Take that Baylor. How does 90 points taste?

To the Purdue Boilermakers, it was a culmination of the hard work and chemistry the team had put together over the entire season. To Baylor, it was a nightmare of epic proportions. The Bears normally play up tempo, and the question was whether Purdue’s slow down approach would take the lead. But Purdue shrugged off their normal game plan and decided to run–and they left the Bears staggering for air.

The Boilers shot 49% from the field, including 42% from three point range, as Purdue only played eight players, but five scored in double figures and 2 had 9 points each. Talk about balance. To boot, the team blocked six shots, which is waaaaaaay out of the norm for this team, but again showed a different dimension that shows how good they really are.  If you had to pick a MVP for the game, I guess you’d have to go with E’Twaun Moore, who had 16 points, 8 boards, and 4 assists. Just another day at the office for the freshman.

Now, however, stands a tall order in the Xavier Musketeers. For the first half, it looked like the Georgia Bulldogs were going to pull yet another upset and be Purdue’s nemesis in the round of32. But Xavier stayed patient, overwhelming the Bulldogs in the second half and taking advantage of slow feet by the weary Georgia team to go to the free throw line 33 as compared to Georgia’s 5 attempts. However, they won’t get the same advantage in playing Purdue on Saturday. If there’s one thing, it may be a bit of fatigue from Purdue just simply because they decided to run with the Bears, but this team is much deeper and solid than Georgia was. If you get a chance to watch this game, or even if you don’t–make time. This will be a great game.

The “Baby Boilers”, which the Purdue Boilermakers have been dubbed with the frosh phenoms leading the way for the team, come into the NCAA tournaments as a six seed, and while they had hoped for better (who doesn’t?), the fact remains that Matt Painter is very happy with what the team has accomplished thus far. The question is: can they do more? Read the rest of this entry »

It still kind of sounds weird for me to say that Bobby Knight is the Texas Tech coach, even though he’s been there quite a while. I still remember him in his bright red sweater, his cheeks just as rosy as his threads, yelling, screaming, pleading for his team to get a call here or there or to simply play defense. And now, we won’t ever be able to see it again. Read the rest of this entry »

Talk about a model of inconsistency. Sure, it’s wonderful that the Tigers came back from a 10-point deficit in the first half against ranked Kansas St to win by three, but is this the real Tiger team? Let’s take a look at a couple of key things here about Missouri which make them one of the most head scratching teams in the country: Read the rest of this entry »

Big 12 basketball usually gives the first thought to Kansas. The Jayhawks have long been the pride and joy of the conference, followed by up-and-down years from teams like Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Missouri.  When one looks at the current standings, a name sticks out like Vanilla Ice in….welll, anything.

But here they are–at 14-2 and 2-0 in the conference, and the latest bracketology has them as a 12 seed. This is a basketball program that has not done well for a long time–so the question is–are they for real?

Well, sorry Bear fans, but no….you’re not.

If you look at the Bears schedule, they haven’t really played anyone of note quite yet. Yes, they beat Notre Dame, Oklahoma St., South Carolina, and you played Washington St. close.

But–other than that, the wins have been against literal nobodies, and they have yet to play a tough game in the daunting Big 12 conference. I applaud coach Scott Drew for at least turning the program around right now, but I have to feel that over the next month, Baylor fans are going to be doing a lot of frowning. They have to play at Kansas, have two games against Texas A&M, 2 against Texas, and 2 against Texas Tech. Not exactly easy by any means.

I’d love to see another team rattle the Big 12 cages like no other, but sorry folks, Baylor’s not it.

I think in order to make things more streamlined and formative, I am going to start doing some frequent posting that encapsulates different items on certain days in order for fluidity to the site. That being said, here is what my schedule will be going forward per conference:

Monday-Big Ten

Tuesday-Pac 10

Wednesday-ACC

Thursday-Big East

Friday-Big 12

Saturday-SEC

Sunday-All others

In these daily capsules, I will have different posts discussing the previous week’s events, news, and future discussions about the teams and conferences themselves (not limiting to specific sports). I will also post on news events as they transpire with my two, or three cents, maybe even a dollar’s worth. For those of you out there that would like to have a discussion on a certain topic, shoot an email my way and I’ll be happy to give it a shot.

Thanks for your support of the site and I look forward to getting started on this!

Tim AKA “The Athletic Supporter”