Weekend Preview - December 12th

Syracuse continues to pick up good non conference wins with an 85-73 victory over Florida. The zone wasn't at its best on Thursday night, but they kept Florida out of the paint, away from the foul line, and they racked up plenty of steals and turnovers. Not that it really would've mattered. The Syracuse offense was on display last night, particularly the frontcourt, where Rick Jackson put on a show. 21 points and 11 rebounds, seven of them offensive, but perhaps more importantly, the Florida frontline was shut down all night long, forcing the Gators to live by the three. That reliance on the three point shot, combined with Florida's inability to get a stop, cost them the game. Syracuse has as good a resume as anyone in the conference right now... but they haven't played anyone with the athleticism on the perimeter to punish the zone off the dribble. They will face that against Nova, WVU, and UConn and G-Town to a lesser extent. Stay tuned.

Fridays are traditionally pretty lame in college basketball (except Vandy vs. W Kentucky might be fun) so we'll just skip ahead to what appears to be a loaded Saturday slate. A Top 10 confrontation is about all that's missing from this weekend's games. Let's take a look:

Saturday, December 12th

Game of the Day:

Georgetown @ Washington: At some point in December I'm going to unveil my first Top 25 rankings, and I'm not exactly sure where these teams belong. Washington can be a Top 10 team, but if a fast, efficient offensive team like the Huskies can't outscore Texas Tech, what are they gonna do against Top 10 teams? The Hoyas could also be a Top 10 team... if Greg Monroe plays with the same intensity he had against Butler. My conclusion: I need to see one more monster game out of Monroe before I believe he is going to demand the ball like an offensive star should. If he doesn't, UW is more than talented enough to push the tempo and put the ball in the bucket consistently.

Pick: Washington 85, G-Town 70

Others:

Marquette @ Wisconsin: Fun crosstown matchup between two surprising teams this year (although Wisky's come back to Earth a bit).

Ohio St. @ Butler: Would be a much better matchup had Turner not gotten hurt.

Purdue @ Alabama: This game screams "trap game" at me. Be ready, Boilers.

Kentucky @ Indiana: Same as above, but to a much lesser extent.

Oklahoma @ Utah: Both teams could use a good win... heck, OU's been on life support for the past three weeks.

St. Mary's @ Oregon: I write this more because St. Mary's has been on fire as of late and has a realistic shot at making a run at an at-large bid.

Mississippi St @ UCLA: Man, if UCLA was actually good, they would've had some really fun early season games...

Texas A&M @ New Mexico: Extremely, extremely underrated game. Both are good teams and fairly evenly matched when you throw in the home court advantage.

Siena @ Northern Iowa: Mid-major matchup of the night.

Kansas St @ UNLV: Good Mountain West teams taking on tough competition at home... I sense a theme here.

Sunday, December 13th:

Game of the Day:

Cincinnati @ Xavier: This is the best I could do. Not that it won't be fun, it's just that it might be a little... slow. Cincy's in no hurry to push the tempo, and Xavier isn't going to blow them away either. The rivalry factor and the home crowd will keep it close for Xavier, but Cincy's the better team. Xavier has three losses and all three teams are as good as or worse than UC. I'll take the Bearcats.

Pic k: Cincinnati 64, Xavier 58

Others:

Villanova @ Temple: Big Five games always seem to be competitive if not close, and Temple is one of the better A-10 squads this year.

Rhode Island @ Boston College: On second thought... nevermind. BC lost to Harvard. Not worth talking about.

Thursday, Dec. 10th in College Basketball

John Wall shows us once again why he's a special player. With the Wildcats struggling to score down the stretch, Wall put his team on his back, scored 12 of the final 15 points for UK, and led them to a 64-61 victory over UConn. Wall seems to live for these big moments, and down the stretch he was basically unstoppable no matter who Calhoun put on him. Kentucky still has turnover problems (Wall especially), they still can't shoot from the outside, they still have issues executing in a halfcourt set... but they're 9-0 and they've beaten some pretty good teams in road venues (and let's face it, MSG was primarily UConn fans last night). The Huskies weren't bad yesterday but they found ways to shoot themselves in the foot, whether it be inopportune turnovers or giving up offensive rebounds. I'd like to believe this is a top 10 team, but they need more consistency out of Jerome Dyson in order for that to happen. Top 15, Top 20 seems more reasonable at this point.

Meanwhile, Wisconsin fell in overtime to Green Bay, as the defense that gave Nolan Smith and Jon Scheyer fits was non-existant (48% shooting, 9-18 from three for GB). For the 2nd game in a row Nova gave up over 85 but simply out-scored their opponents. They have a TON of weapons and are incredibly difficult to shut down. Kansas clubbed another nobody and the other ranked teams took care of business. And Oral Roberts stunned Missouri on a last second lay-up, dealing a big blow to the Tigers. Here's what's up tonight:

Game of the Night:

Syracuse v. Florida: The SEC/Big East Two Day Event/Challenge Thingy continues with a very intriguing matchup. This young Gators team has handled everything thrown at them so far and has looked really good doing so. This team has four guys scoring in double figures and and has been superb defensively. The same could be said for Syracuse (by the way, this seems to be a theme. Team loses key player, team focuses on defense, team is actually better. See Gonzaga another example) but the Orange offense is more focused around one guy, Wesley Johnson. It will be interesting to see how this offense operates when Johnson is not shooting 60% from the floor. It's going to happen eventually, and why not against a defensive-minded team that has some size? I'll take Florida in a 2nd straight minor upset.

Pick: Florida 75, Syracuse 70

Others:

DePaul v. Mississippi St: Actually might be a decent game.

Colorado v. Colorado St: Yay for rivalry games between two irrelevant teams.

Wednesday, Dec. 9th in College Basketball

So Greg Monroe comes out of his shell. The Georgetown big man showed how he can take over a game, going 9 of 20 for 24 points as G-Town beat Butler 72-65. Monroe looked for his shot, which in turn opened up good looks for guys like Austin Freeman. And Chris Wright didn't even play that well. If Georgetown can consistently work from the inside out, they will be successful because there's few guys in the country who can man up Monroe. As for Butler, inconsistency continues to plague Matt Howard, and Butler can't afford to have their best big man scoring and in foul trouble, particularly against a good defensive team like the Hoyas.

Also... how about another solid win for Illinois? They should be a Top 25 team despite some ugly losses. A bad loss for Pitt, who just looks lost offensively. And Kansas State continues to pile up decent wins. They'll get their shot at Texas and Kansas, but for now they've got to deal with UNLV on Saturday. Let's look at what's up tonight.

Game of the Night:

Kentucky v. UConn: Good times. If UConn was having issues on the boards vs. Duke, they're going to have all kinds of problems keeping UK from grabbing 15+ offensive rebounds. It's a shame, because the Huskies are a very good defensive team and if they can slow the game down like UNC did in the 2nd half vs. UK and make the Wildcats execute in a halfcourt set, they have a very good chance at winning this game. In fact, this game may go down in a similar fashion as the UNC-UK game... except UConn has the guards to punish Kentucky on the perimeter and avoid long droughts like the Heels had. The Huskies shoot better than they did against Duke and come out with the upset.

Pick: UConn 77, Kentucky 73

Others:

Duquesne @ West Virginia: Am I the only one who thinks the Dukes can give WVU a game? Yea probably.

Villanova @ St. Joseph's: Same as above... no wait, I saw St. Joseph's play. Nova's gonna blow them out.

Michigan @ Utah: Very important game for both teams. Michigan is by no means a lock for an at-large spot in the tourney.

Tuesday, Dec 8th in College Basketball

Nothing major happened last night, unless you count Texas kicking Long Beach St.'s butt, so let's get to tonight's action:

Game of the Night:

Butler v. Georgetown: Part of the Jimmy V Classic at MSG, this matchup features two top 20 opponents that really haven't done a whole lot this year to give me any confidence in them. Butler in my opinion shouldn't even be a top 25 team. Losses to Clemson and Minnesota have looked worse since they've happened, and Butler hasn't been all that impressive in their other wins. I guess the Bulldogs' style of play lends them to ugly wins, but still.... The one time I saw Georgetown this season was their one point win vs. Temple. Monroe has been solid, if unspectacular, and Chris Wright has looked good offensively, but they really haven't played anyone, and Butler will probably be their biggest test on both sides of the court this season. Butler's two losses have been against athletic teams, and I'm not sure Georgetown really fits that mold. I'll take the Bulldogs to get a solid win.

Pick: Butler 62, Georgetown 56

Others:

Vanderbilt @ Illinois: Coming off the big win at Clemson, the Illini will have some momentum when Vandy rolls into town.

Dayton @ George Mason: Important game for both teams in terms of at-large hopes.

Indiana @ Pitt: The 2nd half of the Jimmy V Classic.

Xavier @ Kansas St: Both top A-10 Programs going on the road to hostile environments. Plus K-State's not getting a ton of national attention, which could change quickly.

Arizona St @ BYU: One of the few feel good stories of the year for the Pac-10 faces a challenging road game.

Dec. 5th Weekend Recap

Well, Kentucky certainly justified their Top 5 ranking. UK went on a 28-2 run in the 1st half against UNC and held off a 2nd half comeback to come out on top 68-66. The Wildcats looked as good as anyone in the country in the 1st half. John Wall runs the break as well as anyone in the country, has tremendous quickness, and finishes well at the rim. He also has great passing skills and consistently finds the open man. The UK defense left the Heels completely inept in the 1st half, not allowing UNC's perimeter guards to get the ball inside. In the 2nd half, Wall and UK were sloppier and UNC were able to slow the game down and get the ball inside to Thompson, Davis, and Zeller, and they whittled the lead down. However, Kentucky was able to hold on for the win behind Wall and Patrick Patterson's 19 points. Big win for this young team, and while they still need to play consistently well for 40 minutes, UK definitely established themselves as a great team and potentially a title contender.

In other weekend basketball news, Evan Turner went down hard after attempting a dunk and will be out 8 weeks with 2 broken vertebrae. That's a big hit to a team who IMO was hovering right around top 10 territory and was trying to establish themselves as a force in the Big Ten. Turner is the guy that makes their offense go and is really the only guy that can create a shot by himself. Without Turner, Ohio St will struggle to stay at .500 in Big Ten play until Turner comes back, and they also have non conf games against Butler and West Virginia to deal with. Props to NC State for beating Marquette and Wake Forest for going into the Kennel and taking down Gonzaga in a very hostile environment. No props to Penn St, who managed 42 points and 3 of 15 shooting from Talor Battle in a loss to Temple, and Oregon, who lost by nearly 40 to Missouri.

On Sunday, UCLA actually gave a valiant effort for once but never really threatened the #1 team in the nation. Kansas shot poorly (except for Xavier Henry) and wasn't their best but got big contributions from Henry (16 points on 4 threes) and Markieff Morris (19 points in 21 minutes) to win at Pauley Pavilion. Number 3 Villanova hit 11 first half threes and 16 overall to drown Maryland. The Terps were on fire as well (52% from the field) but they couldn't keep up with Nova, partially because they gave up 20 offensive rebounds. Clemson beat rival South Carolina, Boston College nipped Miami in the first ACC conference game of the year, Portland lost again to a weaker mid-major (not good for their at large hopes) and OU beat a struggling Arizona team.

Just a preview of what's to come. In the next few weeks I will be debuting my first Top 25, Bracketology, and Bubble Watch. I'm not sure how often I'll be able to do this this year, but if I have the time, why not? Plus it will be a good review of the early non-conference season. Until then, I'll continue with the daily updates and try and keep you aware of the big picture in college basketball. Because in this blog, we are always focused on March.