chaminade

ATB: pre-Thanksgiving Pass/Fail

CHN — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 04:01:00 -0500

We’re really not in the mood for this tonight, so it’s going to be short/sweet. Either you pass or fail, that’s the deal.
Game of the Night. UNC 102, Notre Dame 87.

Notre Dame. EPIC FAIL. Carolina shot 58% on you. Just. Go. Home.
Tyler Hansbrough. PASS. He’s back (34/5 on 13-19 shooting).
Kyle McAlarney. PASS. 39 pts on 10 threes, many of which seemed from halfcourt. The only ND player who came to play tonight.
Luke Harongody. FAIL. 13/7 and thoroughly outplayed by Psycho-T.
Rest of College Basketball. FAIL. If Carolina is going to play like this…

Preseason NIT. Oklahoma 77, UAB 67 & Purdue 71, Boston College 64.

Blake Griffin. PASS. Another 32/15 and an OU win. POY.
Paul Delaney III. PASS. 23/6 on 10-14 shooting for UAB.
UAB Finishing. FAIL. With 5:09 to go, UAB was ahead. The Blazers scored two more relevant points.
Robbie Hummell and E’Twaun Moore. PASS. 29/11/8 assts combined.
Purdue Down the Stretch. FAIL. A 19-pt lead with 6:30 to go shouldn’t go to two possessions that quickly.

Anything Else?

Oregon St. FAIL. Another close loss 82-79 in overtime. To Montana State.
Arkansas. PASS. A solid win 79-77 at South Alabama for one of the worst SEC teams.
Indiana. PASS/FAIL. A pass for getting another win (there won’t be many more). A fail for barely skating by D2 Chaminade 81-79.

ATB: Fresh Maui Breezes

CHN — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 03:33:02 -0500

Maui Invitational. Texas vs. Notre Dame could be the best game of the first month of the new season. UNC vs. Oregon could be interesting, but won’t be.

Texas 68, St. Joseph’s 50. The Texas defense has been absolutely superb so far this season, holding its three opponents to an average of 46.3 ppg and 29% from the field. St. Joe’s was no different, struggling to find open looks against the long arms and quick feet of the Longhorns. Damion James and AJ Abrams combined for 31/8 for the Horns, who will hook up with Notre Dame tomorrow in a blockbuster contrast of styles (ND is averaging 82.3 ppg).
Notre Dame 88, Indiana 50. This was a complete mismatch from start to finish, as the experienced Golden Domers meticulously picked apart the green Hoosiers in nearly every way possible. Notre Dame shot 51% as it brought back to the fore that Indiana simply isn’t going to be very good this season. Tory Jackson had 21/5/6 assts and Kyle McAlarney contributed 18 (all threes) for the Irish.
UNC 115, Chaminade 70. UNC rode a 67-pt second half to the second-worst loss that host Chaminade has ever suffered in this tournament. Roy Williams kept Tyler Hansbrough on the bench throughout, figuring it best to keep him fresh for what will be a much tougher next two days of games. Danny Green had a career-high 26 pts, while Ty Lawson added 19/6 assts. UNC will play a revived Oregon next, but we guarantee that the Heels will put up more of a fight defensively than Bama did.
Oregon 92, Alabama 69. At times during this game, Alabama appeared to be the least prepared and worst coached team in America. And they were playing a team in Oregon that often appears that way themselves, which should really tell you something. If we had a coconut for every time Bill Raftery or Jay Bilas said the word “terrible,” our living room would smell like Maui right about now. UO hit a blistering 54% from the floor while holding Bama to 36%. In a sidenote, Ronald Steele shot 3-11 from the field and just doesn’t look like the same player he was two years ago (before all of his knee injuries).

CBE Classic. It’ll be Syracuse vs. Kansas in KC tomorrow night for the championship.

Syracuse 89, Florida 83. Florida’s ‘improved’ defense got exposed exploited, giving up 89 points and 52% shooting to the more athletic Orange in an entertaining up-and-down game that featured several nice performances on both sides. Paul Harris contributed 18/11 for the Orange, while Alex Tyus chipped in 24/4 for the Gators.
Kansas 73, Washington 54. KU’s Cole Aldrich dominated the more ballyhooed Jon Brockman by dropping 16/9/6 blks (vs. Brockman’s 7/18 on 2-9 shooting) in the Jayhawks’ blowout victory in the semis of the CBE Classic. The Kansas defense held the Huskies to 29% shooting for the game, and frankly, Washington largely looked out of sorts for much of this game.

Paradise Jammation.

Miami (FL) 80, San Diego 54. The Hurricanes used a 20-0 run from the 18-minute mark of the second half to completely overwhelm San Diego, and their star Jack McClinton didn’t even have a good game (9 pts). We thought this one would be a little closer, but SD came out of this tourney with RPI-booster games against an ACC team and a Big 10 team (Wisconsin), and even though they lost both, it will help their overall resume come March.
Connecticut 76, Wisconsin 57. With 13 minutes to go, UConn was up only two points. The next thing we knew, Wisconsin seemingly turned the ball over about a dozen times in a row (actually, 20 times), and UConn was suddenly ahead by fifteen points. Game over - championship to the Huskies. UConn shot 53% while holding Wisconsin to a mere 37%, led by Jerome Dyson’s 21/4. Tournament MVP Hasheem Thabeet had his moments defensively, altering shots and blocking several others (incl. one utterly ridiculous foul call), but a few of his post moves still looked like a serious work in progress. We’re just not sure that he’s dependable in there yet.

The Stephen Curry Show. Davidson 76, Florida Atlantic 60. Games like this where it was clear Davidson wasn’t completely tuned in are probably going to happen more often as they play an increasing amount of big-time games followed by their “normal” games. FAU hung around for most of this game based on Davidson’s poor shooting (37%), but SuperSteph once again saved the day by drilling nearly everything he put up (13-21 for 39 pts). His tag team partner, Andrew Lovedale, contributed 13/15. We could really be in for a season-long treat in the NPOY race between Psycho-T, Blake Griffin and Stephen Curry.
Upset of the Night. Jacksonville St. 75, UMass 74. Simply an unconscionable loss for Derek Kellogg’s Minutemen. A team like Jacksonville St. who was picked dead last in the OVC by various pundits shouldn’t be able to go into a high mid like UMass and take down the opponent in its home debut. But they did tonight. UMass used a late 15-3 run to take the lead after trailing for much of the game, but JSU’s Jonathan Toles hit a runner with eight seconds remaining to put his team up for good.
Other Games of Little to No Interest.

Arizona 86, Mississippi Valley St. 52. Chase Budinger had 24 and Jordan Hill 19 as Arizona got back on track after last week’s disaster.
Miami (OH) 55, Wright St. 37. Wright St. had three separate 5+ minute scoring droughts in this game.
Wake Forest 62, Winston-Salem St. 31. Can the Deacs guard? Probably not, but they did hold an opponent to its lowest total in 60 years tonight.
Vanderbilt 65, Middle Tennessee St. 57. Vandy held MTSU to only 30% shooting, as AJ Ogilvy led the way with 19/11.
Ohio St. 61, Bowling Green 57. BJ Mullens only had 2/1 in 11 mins of action.
Baylor 76, Jacksonville 68. Baylor struggled a little bit in this one, allowing 52% shooting from Jax. Lacedarius Dunn had 23 pts in the win.
Yale 53, Oregon St. 52. Poor Craig Robinson. Yale beating a Pac-10 team on the west coast is no longer considered an upset.
Towson 61, NJIT 48. Thirty-six Ls in a row now.

On Tap Tuesday (all times EST):

Indiana v. St. Joseph’s (ESPNU) - 1:30pm (Maui Invtl.)
Arizona v. Santa Clara - 5:45pm
Texas v. Notre Dame (ESPN) - 7pm (Maui Invtl.)
Pittsburgh v. Belmont - 7pm
Penn St. (-3.5) @ Penn - 7:30pm
Villanova v. Monmouth - 7:30pm
Florida v. Washington (ESPNU) - 7:45pm (CBE Classic)
Nebraska (-10) v. St. Louis (ESPN FC & 360) - 8pm
Marquette v. Texas Southern (ESPN FC & 360) - 8pm
Davidson v. Loyola (MD) - 8pm
Kansas St. v. Oakland (ESPN FC & 360) - 8pm
UNC v. Oregon (ESPN) - 9:30pm (Maui Invtl.)
Kansas v. Syracuse (ESPN2) - 10pm (CBE Classic)

We’ll See Your Maui, and Raise You a CBE…

CHN — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 03:02:40 -0500

Yep, Feast Week is here, and that means tons of preseason tournament action this week. And to think that some misguided folks still associate Thanksgiving with the gridiron! Let’s take a quick look at the two tournaments starting tomorrow in Hawaii and Kansas City, and leave a comment if you have a favorite memory from one of these tourneys or a particular game you’re really excited about seeing.

Maui Invitational
This is our favorite annual preseason tournament. The Hawaiian shirts, the late start times, Bill Raftery, the high school gym, the raucousness of the fans, the soothing views of the sea as we go to commercial breaks, all of it. Oh, and it’s usually a loaded field, and this year is no different. If things go as expected (and hoped), we’ll have two good games tomorrow (Texas v. St. Joe’s and Oregon v. Alabama) followed by an absolute blockbuster on Tuesday (Texas v. Notre Dame) and Wednesday (Texas/ND v. UNC). And hey, who knows, there’s always the chance that little Chaminade can re-enact its magic from that fateful evening 26 yrs ago against another #1 team from the ACC with the reigning POY on the team. Right?

CBE Classic
Ed. note: we’ve already written a post on the absurdity of the Gazelle Group’s decision to pre-slot the regional hosts (Florida, Washington, Kansas, Syracuse) into the semifinals. Luckily for GG, all four hosts won their regions, thereby avoiding any possible outcry over the inherent unfairness of not allowing an upset winner to ‘advance’ into the semifinals of this ‘tournament.’
Nevertheless, the matchups in Kansas City are fairly good ones. All four of these teams have a good shot at playing March Madness this year. For our money, Florida’s young guns versus Kansas’ would be the ideal final game on Tuesday night.
Semifinal Doubleheader
(November 24 - 7:30 ET)
Syracuse vs. Florida- ESPN2
Kansas vs Washington- ESPN2

Set Your Tivos: Week 3

CHN — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:09:03 -0500

Our third installment of Set Your Tivos brings us what I consider the first legitimate tournament of the season–the Maui Invitational. It’s your yearly chance to see some of the biggest names in college basketball rocking Hawaiian t-shirts or polos. You could argue that I’m just being nostalgic over the most shocking upset in NCAA history (that barely anybody saw live) except that the famous game actually happened a little less than 3 months before I was born. Anyways, onto our weekly countdown. . .

Courtesy: http://www.gizmodo.com
#10: Boston College vs. #10 Purdue, Wednesday at 7 PM on ESPN2 and ESPN360.com: I’m curious to see how one of the Big 10 co-favorites (along with Michigan State and now Michigan) will do against a middle to bottom of the pack Big East team. This game is about getting some respect for the Big 10. If the Boilermakers don’t win this game easily, it could be a sign that we’re in for another season of really bad Big 10 basketball.
#9: Duquesne at #5 Duke; Friday at 3 PM on ESPN and ESPN360.com: It will still be November when they play this game so the Blue Devils should win this game even though they have struggled at times this year. One of the revelations from last week’s Coaches vs. Cancer was that Brian Zoubek may still be a stiff, but he is a tall one. Look for Coach K to try to get Zoubek involved as he may be a key for Duke if they want to advance deep into the NCAA tournament this year. (Hint: Don’t put Duke too far in your March Madness bracket).
#8: Maryland vs. #7 Michigan State, Thursday at 7 PM on ESPN2 and ESPN360.com: This game seems more interesting on paper (program reputation) than it will be on the court (this year’s teams), but I’ll be tuned in to see what Tom Izzo actually has this season. The Spartans come in with a preseason #7 ranking, but got “UNLV-Duke 1990″ crushed by Memphis in their Sweet 16 match-up and have lost their floor general Drew Neitzel. This year’s Spartan team has the potential to make it to Detroit (for the Final 4–I can’t imagine why you would want to go there for any other reason), but they’ll have to step it up several levels from where they were last week (beating Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne by 11 in a game that was as close as the final margin indicates).
#7: UAB vs. #14 Oklahoma, Wednesday 9 PM on ESPN2 and ESPN360.com: This game will be a match-up of potential All-Americans–Robert Vaden and Blake Griffin–although they won’t match-up against each other outside of the occasional switch off a screen. The Sooners looked like they were still basking in the glow of beating America’s sweetheart Davidson when they almost lost to Gardner-Webb although BIlly Gillispie may disagree. The thought here is that if Oklahoma could hold of Stephen Curry then they can do the same against Vaden.
#6: Saint Joseph’s vs. #8 Texas, Monday at 3 PM on ESPN2 and ESPN360.com: Rick Barnes managed to get to the Elite 8 one year after losing national POY and the greatest freshman ever (I disagree with rtmsf) Kevin Durant. Now the question is how far he can get the Longhorns after losing All-American point guard D. J. Augustin. The early game of ESPN’s tripleheader will give us some insight into that. The Longhorns should win this one easily since Phil Martelli’s crew is in rebuilding mode (see their loss to Holy Cross), but the Hawks could show us some weaknesses that the Longhorns may have.
#5: Syracuse at #19 Florida, Monday at 7:30 PM on ESPN2 and ESPN360.com: Jim Boeheim will need big games out of Jonny Flynn and Eric Devendorf to pull off the upset tonight. Despite struggling to put away Richmond last week, the Orangemen have the potential to pull off the upset against Billy Donovan’s young squad especially after the loss of last year’s starting PG Jai Lucas. I’m assuming that the Gators will return to the NCAA tournament, but if they want to have a successful season (Sweet 16 trip), they will have to be able to beat teams of Syracuse’s caliber.
#4: Indiana vs. #9 Notre Dame, Monday at 5:30 PM on ESPN2 and ESPN360.com: Our first look at Tom Crean’s new squad (Bruce Weber has already told us what he thinks of them). Unfortunately this game isn’t at Alumni Hall. It will be interesting to see how the Hooiser faithful react to Crean and his JV squad. I am imaging the scene out of Hooisers at town hall where they vote Norman Dale out before Jimmy Chitwood shows up and saves the day. Unfortunately, I don’t think Eric Gordon can come back to Bloomington with any eligibility to recreate this. Bottom line: The Golden Domers will have something to look forward to after pelting their football players with snowballs after another embarrassing loss.
#3: #6 Pittsburgh vs. Texas Tech, Friday at 7:30 PM on HDNet: I’m guessing that Pat Knight’s boys won’t be putting up 167 tonight unless this game goes to 6 OTs. So far the Panthers have players compared to Shaq (DeJuan Blair) and Lebron (Sam Young) and that doesn’t even factor in Levance Fields, who may be the most important player on the roster. There is no question that Pittsburgh is the better team in this match-up, but I’ll be following this to see just how good the Panthers are and the Red Raiders have had a tendency to come up with big upsets early in the year.
#2: #3 Louisville vs. Western Kentucky, Sunday at 3 PM on Fox College Sports Atlantic: Our first good look at RTC pre-season bracketology national champion against some real competition. The Hilltoppers lost a lot in the backcourt (Courtney Lee, Ty Rogers, and Tyrone Brazelton), but they return a lot of experience in the frontcourt. If the Hilltoppers want to give Rick Pitino’s Cardinals a game they will need JUCO transfer Sergio Kerusch, Motlow State Community College transfer Anthony Sally, and Dejan Cvoro, a point guard from Serbia, to step up. I’m guessing that Western Kentucky will keep it close for the first 10 minutes before Louisville pulls away, but it should still be interesting to see just how good freshman Samardo Samuels is. If he is as good as advertised, Pitino may have a legitimate title contender.
#1: Oklahoma State vs. #11 Gonzaga, Thursday at 9 PM on ESPN2 and ESPN360.com: Mark Few comes into this year with his 2nd highest ranked team ever (7th in the 2005-2006 preseason poll) and one of the most talented teams he has ever had. While the Zags lack the superstar they had a few years ago in Adam Morrison, they are not lacking in talent (Jeremy Pargo, Matt Bouldin, Austin Daye, and Josh Heytvelt). However, as the Zags have steadily moved up in the national conscience andthe regular season polls, they seem to have underperformed in the NCAA tournament. After losing to Cinderella (Davidson) in the first round last year, the Zags are hoping to bounce back and their first big test of the season will be against Travis Ford’s Cowboys. Ford has been quick to keep expectations realistic for his rookie season, but some experts have picked the Cowboys to be a surprise in the Big 12 despite their lack of interior play.