The Big 10 didn’t exactly have a banner year in terms of the NCAA tournament, although it was better than what many had predicted. But with 30 picks in the NBA draft for the first round, the conference posted 3 players that were taken, with Eric Gordon being the number 7 pick for the Los Angeles Clippers, Kosta Koufos taken 23rd by the Utah Jazz, and D.J. White being taken 29th by the Detroit Pistons. Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

Now that’s an impressive number. You can say what you want about the overall performance of certain conferences like the Big 12, Big East, SEC, and what not, but you can never say that Big Ten fans take a backseat to any one–as it was recently announced that the Big Ten won the nation’s conference attendance title for the 32nd straight year.

By school, the Big Ten paced five universities among the country’s top 25 in average attendance, with two programs among the top 10. No other conference placed more than four teams among the top 25. Wisconsin led the Big Ten contingent, ranking seventh nationally with an average of 17,190 fans per game. Indiana rated No. 9 with 16,876 patrons per outing. Other conference programs among the top 25 included No. 11 Illinois (16,618), No. 12 Ohio State (16,587) and No. 17 Michigan State (14,759).

Way to go fans! You certainly prove your loyalty year in and year out. (No matter how bad your teams can be at times–yes, I am looking at you, Illinois…:)

Ahhh, the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. Such history.

Such a ridiculous pairing of two conferences.

Sorry guys, but this is heads and above my least favorite thing that the Big 10 does. Not because I feel like they shouldn’t play against tough teams, but the fact that this is a “match up” of two conferences battling against each other, there’s never much to the overall scheme of things–the ACC usually kicks the crap out of the Big 10, much in part because normally the Big 10 has 1-3 very good teams, while the ACC generally has a deeper conference that can compete from top to bottom, which makes all the difference in the world when you consider the cavernous difference from top to bottom in Big 10 basketball.

So, enough of my soapboxing, here are the games:

Monday, Dec. 1: Wisconsin at Virginia Tech

Wednesday, Dec. 3: North Carolina vs. Michigan State (from Ford Field), Indiana at Wake Forest, Michigan at Maryland, Florida State at Northwestern, Penn State at Georgia Tech 

Actually, I am not reaaaaaaally going to complain too much about these games, even though the Penn State-Georgia Tech and the Illinois-Clemson games are mismatches overall. But the Duke-Purdue and MSU-North Carolina matchups will be awesome.

Not that it was really any surprise. I talked about this months ago (as did about every blogger who discussed Indiana basketball), and it was just the icing on the cake. Eric Gordon is going to the NBA.  Even though he was getting a class coach in Tom Crean and perhaps could better himself in the draft, Gordon is not taking the risk of injury or perhaps falling off in his game and making the bolt out of the Big Ten.

I’m outta here!! 

I like Gordon as a player and as someone who was able to take the reins of his team as a freshman. Yes, D.J. White was Big 10 player of the year, but it was by no way his team–Gordon had every bit to do with the success that Indiana maintained until Kelvin Sampson went over his minutes on his cell phone and had to leave.

But is he really ready? It was apparent that after Sampson left that Gordon was trying way too hard, and his shooting percentage was pathetic near the end of the season. He looked frustrated and out of place in the NCAA tournament, and if he gets into some pretty nasty environments in the NBA, will he survive? I mean, I can see Michael Beasley and O.J. Mayo being great in the NBA now–but I believe that’s very much due to the maturity of their game–I just don’t see that with Gordon–if he was good enough to make it now, I think that despite Sampson being gone, he would have played on and continued to dominate the level that you have to be competent at before you go against the Chris Pauls and Deron Williams’ of the world. He is a good player, but his depth as to what he can do against the athletes must improve or else he could go the way of Damon Bailey.

But–I could be wrong–but I guess I just look at it that you can’t teach size, and guys that are slick forwards/either 3 or 4–and centers–a la Greg Oden–should be the ones that go to the NBA early if they can show the ability in that nominal first year in college. However,  guards are a totally different situation–the mentality and what not is so different than anything else. I just don’t see Gordon competing at the level he needs to now to move on.

I apologize for the delay in posting–I’ve been fighting some ickiness in the change of seasons, but you don’t want to hear about that. If you do, email me and I’ll give you the gory details.

So Indiana has a new coach–Tom Crean. The man who brought Marquette back to national prominence is now taking his success in the Midwest to Indiana, and brings with him a great reputation, and for Indiana, they certainly need that reputation. The University already had taken so much flak when they originally hired Kelvin Sampson, and that did not work out so well, now did it? Read the rest of this entry »

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.

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 »

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 »