It wasn’t really that surprising to see North Carolina yet again sitting at the top in the preseason poll. What was surprising, though, was Kansas’ tumble in the polls to start the year, going from national champion to #23. Heck, even cinderella from last year, Davidson, is ranked higher.

As far as the Big Ten goes, Michigan State, with great depth but a very challenging nonconference schedule, starts the season as the 7th ranked team, and the upstart Purdue Boilermakers cracked the top 10, which is a coup considering just a few short years ago this program was in disarray. Wisconsin is the other Big Ten team to be ranked, with Bo Ryan’s squad tied with SoCal for #21. Ohio State got almost enough votes to jump in but sits in 27th currently.

I didn’t expect the Big Ten to place many teams in there–although I am pleasantly surprised to see the Boilermakers given that much respect to start the season. The problem I think the league will have again this year is that top to bottom they aren’t that great, and these three teams are top heavy, which could again spell trouble NCAA tourney time when the degree of competition they’ve faced isn’t comparable to conferences like the Big East and ACC. Still, you can’t be too unhappy with two teams in the top ten to start the season.

Jeremiah Rivers obviously has the talent, he obviously has the genes (his father is Doc Rivers, former NBA great and now-Boston Celtics coach), but he wasn’t happy. Playing at Georgetown, the depth was choking to Rivers, who as a 6-4 guard, got to play in all 34 games–but not as much as he would have liked to.

Stating that he didn’t feel that Georgetown utilized him as he thought they would, Rivers announced that he is transferring to Indiana under new coach Tom Crean. Although he won’t be able to play this year, he will still have two years of eligibility and will give the Hoosiers a much-needed guard presence that they are strikingly lacking after Eric Gordon and other player’s departures. Read the rest of this entry »

When the Wisconsin players picked their brackets, they probably thought that they would be facing USC in the second round and maybe even bit their nails a bit thinking about frosh phenom O.J. Mayo. That didn’t happen. They faced Kansas State and their balanced attack, but the Wisconsin defense and solid game play was too much for Michael Beasley and company. Read the rest of this entry »

The Michigan State Spartans have proved me wrong. Not like that’s new. Heck, I’ll be proven wrong probably by my six year old by the end of the night. But in this wild and woolly NCAA Tournament, anything can happen, which is about as cliche as…well, any cliche. Read the rest of this entry »

Drew Neitzel had been the scoring option for Michigan State in the past. In the opening round against the Temple Owls, suddenly Neitzel couldn’t find…well, anything. Good thing for him he has teammates now that can score quite a bit. The Spartans took control in the second half against a spirited but outmanned Temple team and won 72-61 in their opening game of the NCAA tournament.

Raymar Morgan scorched the nets for 15 points on 7 of 9 shooting,  and 5 total players scored at least 8 points or more (Neitzel wasn’t one of them) as Michigan State looked very much like the team many thought they should be at the beginning of the season. And guess what, folks? They held on to the ball! I know, huge news! The Spartans only committed 12 turnovers in what can be directly attributed to their success, along with clutch free throw shooting. While I thought they would win the game, I really didn’t think the game would be almost boring to watch in the second half, but that’s what MSU does–execute, execute, execute.

But now they have bigger things to worry about–in the form of the Pittsburgh Panthers. Pitt, who arguably is playing the best basketball in the country over the last week, dismantled Oral Roberts in the first round and is absolutely brimming with confidence. The Spartans will have their hands full with Sam Young and company, and the defensive mindsets of both teams may mean that if one team can go on a scoring streak that it could be the difference in the game. If the Spartans want to win the game, Neitzel absolutely must be better than he was against Temple.

Ugh. The dreaded 5 seed. Sure, it means that your team is worthy of top 25 mention, but ugh…the dreaded 5 seed. Michigan State not only pulled a 5 seed in the South regional of the NCAA tournament, but they also drew the Temple Owls, one of the hottest teams in basketball and winners of the Atlantic 10 conference. Meanwhile, the Spartans have slacked near the end of the season, going 6-6 and taking a humbling loss to Wisconsin after fouling out 4 guys in less than a minute and slowly crumbling to the Badgers in the Big 10 tournament.

So, which team will show up for the NCAA tournament? Read the rest of this entry »

It’s hip to be square. Right? In, Wisconsin’s case, it better be. They aren’t pretty on offense, they do not have a dominant scorer that can take over games, and they’ve gotten by on tenacious defense to earn them a number 3 seed. So….what can you do with that in the NCAAs? Well, more than you think.

Yes, the Midwest regional is stacked. Yes, the Badgers may have gotten a bit of a raw deal when coasting through the Big 10 tournament, ranked six in the polls, and end up with a 3. But that’s what the Big 10 has to prove this tournament–that they can still play with the big boys. Wisconsin may be the conference’s biggest hope to prove all the naysayers wrong.

FIRST ROUND: Cal State-Fullerton

The Titans are in their first ever NCAA tournament, and they boast a pretty high-octane offense, chiming in as one of the more “efficient” field goal percentages in the country. However, when you look at their schedule, they’ve never really played a lockdown team like Wisconsin, and my feeling is that the Badgers will frustrate them early and knock the wind out of their sails in the second half.

SECOND ROUND: Winner of USC/Kansas St.

This is a rather curious call, and while USC seems to be the hip pick of the tourney due to their RPI and strength of schedule, I’ll base this game on that assumption. The Trojans bring in future NBA star OJ Mayo and a tenacity on defense that is similar to UCLA and Wisconsin, but the issue with the Trojans is that they don’t have much depth than their very good starting five. They rebound well, but against the big polar bears Brian Butch, Joe Krabbenhoft, and Greg Stiemsma, I don’t know if it will be enough to overcome the experience and planning that Bo Ryan can give the Badgers. While over 70% of Yahoo! users have picked Wisconsin for this game, it all depends on the ability to shoot the ball well and defend Mayo, who averages over 20 a game.

THIRD ROUND: Georgetown/Davidson/Gonzaga

With the seedings, it will more than likely be Georgetown, who is trying to make it back to  a repeat Final Four. While the Hoyas haven’t normally fared well against stronger defensive teams, their defense as compared to Wisconsin is almost like looking in a mirror. With Roy Hibbert leading the team in the frontcourt, this team can also score–their margin of difference was 12 points per game, and considering they played in the strong Big East, that’s something worth noting. Wisconsin would darn near need to play a perfect game to beat the Hoyas, and considering the experience they bring, I just can’t see the Badgers pulling the upset here, especially considering the weak offense they have shown over the last month.

Yes, they COULD pull the upset, and it may bring a bit more respect (or at least a little, maybe), but going to the Sweet Sixteen is nothing to scoff at; this team is solid, and if they were in an easier regional, I could be talking about them going a lot further, but unfortunately, not only did they get snubbed a bit on the seeding, but they also double-whammied them with the Midwest. Good luck, Badgers, you’re going to need it.

Pitt has been solid for several years in basketball. With Ben Howland taking the team to the next level, when he left in 2004, the reigns were handed to a young Jamie Dixon. While some of the Pittsburgh faithful were a little leery of Dixon’s ability to keep the steam going, the coach held true to his style and game plan. Here, in the midst of a very good Big East conference, the Panthers are now 15-2 overall and dismantled a tremendous #5 Georgetown team at home. This has been done with what some would consider mediocre talent–although I would disagree–I think the Panther team is deep and solid top to bottom. Still, when you consider some of the front runners of the Big East, you can’t turn a blind eye to what this team has done this year, including beating Duke.

Bottom line: not only should Dixon be a near shoo-in for coach of the year in the conference, but he should definitely be in the running for national coach of the year.

Pitt basketball has had its roots in great defense, and this team is no exception–over the 17 game stretch, they give up a paltry 62 points a game. Meanwhile, on the offensive side, the team sports 4 players averaging in double figures, lead by Sam Young and DeJuan Blair.

At 3-1 in the conference, the team is looking solid for the stretch run. With not having to play at G-town and remaining road games at Marquette, Notre Dame, Cincinnati, Syracuse, and West Virginia, the road is not exactly kind, but all of these games are winnable and if the Panthers can at least get a split from these, are in an even better position to win the conference than pretty much any other team at this point.

If that happens and Dixon doesn’t get coach of the year, you can put me at the front of the riot….I can take the teargas.

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”

The Pittsburgh Panthers are sitting at 9-0 and looking to go 10-0 for the fifth consecutive year today versus Oklahoma St. While The Cowboys are a solid 5-3, most people aren’t giving them a shot versus Pitt, mostly due to the fact that the Cowboys consistency hasn’t exactly been that at all, and Pitt has won 26 straight nonconference games at home.

The key to the game is Sam Young, the 6-6 leader for the Panthers who has never scored below 14 this year and is averaging over 18. If he can infiltrate Sean Sutton’s defense, Pitt should cruise to that 10-0 once again. Of course, the knock on Pitt is that while they are going for year #5 to go 10-0, they’ve often been criticized for not playing quality competition and their ranking usually shows that. Even at 9-0, they are only ranked 11th.
History is also not on the side of Oklahoma St., as they have gone 2-20 against ranked opponents in the last 11 years.  When OSU has faced quality opponents this year, the result has been not even close to good–they got stomped by Illinois by 16 and by 30 at Marquette.

Pitt also has the revenge factor in mind, since last year the Cowboys beat Pitt 95-89. Basically, while the Cowboys may come out fired up riding a three game winning streak and having more confidence than ever, Pittsburgh is just way too strong. I see the Panthers winning this by at least 10.