February 25, 2010 –
by Brendon
I happened to catch about 10 seconds too much of some ESPN show this morning and saw that Mississippi State was Joe Lunardi’s last team in the NCAA Tournament field as of today. I try to avoid Lunardi’s thoughts on brackets, because it can be disinformation. Among experienced bracket projectors he is sub-mediocre. But on this I feel the need to comment.
Mississippi State, huh? I know the record is pretty — 20-8 overall and 8-5 in conference — but has anyone bothered to check who Mississippi State has beaten? The Bulldogs’ only win over a top-50 RPI or Pomeroy team this season was a 69-55 victory over Old Dominion in South Padre Island, Texas, on Nov. 28. Their next best wins are two against rival Mississippi. In its three games against top-25 teams, Rick Stansbury’s squad has lost to Richmond on a neutral court, Kentucky at home and Vanderbilt in Nashville. All three games have been close, but all three were losses. Oh, and MSU has also lost four times to teams outside the RPI top 100: Rider, Western Kentucky, Arkansas, Alabama. Read More »
Posted in SEC
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Tagged Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Joe Lunardi, Kentucky, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Old Dominion, Richmond, Rider, SEC, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Western Kentucky
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January 13, 2010 –
by Brendon
Kentucky 89, Florida 77: With 5:13 left in Gainesville on Tuesday, Kentucky and Florida were tied at 72, and the O’Connell Center was in full voice. Over the last five minutes, though, Kentucky proved to have too much size and too much athleticism for a solid Florida team, going on a 17-3 run to put the game away.
|
Poss |
PPP |
eFG |
Turn |
Off Reb |
FTR |
| Kentucky |
72 |
1.24 |
0.564 |
0.139 |
0.389 |
0.143 |
| Florida |
72 |
1.07 |
0.441 |
0.139 |
0.364 |
0.250 |
Kentucky remains one of two unbeaten teams nationally thanks to an overwhelming amount of top-of-the-line talent. They come in pairs. First, there are the two potential freshman All-American point guards in John Wall and Eric Bledsoe. Wall had an off shooting night, missing 6-of-7 threes, but he still scored 19 and dished out six assists. The less-heralded Bledsoe scored a game-high 25 on 10-of-13 shooting, including three 3-pointers. He also had three steals. Read More »
Posted in Game of the Night, SEC
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Tagged Dan Werner, Darnell Dodson, DeMarcus Cousins, Eric Bledsoe, Florida, Florida State, John Calipari, John Wall, Kentucky, Michigan State, Patrick Patterson, Richmond, SEC, Syracuse
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December 10, 2009 –
by Brendon
Games between evenly matched teams are not very common in November and December, which is why Wednesday’s matchup between Connecticut and Kentucky was so interesting. Close games eliminate some of the static that comes between us and the data in a blowout. How much would he have played if it were close? Would he really have taken that shot in a tight game? Close games get rid of the need for such speculation.
In Kentucky’s 64-61 win over UConn at Madison Square Garden, we learned several things — or had them reinforced, depending on your perspective. The first relates to the types of shots each team likes to take, the second to the problems with Connecticut’s offense against good teams and the third to a contrast in depth. Let’s start with the advanced box.
| Team |
Poss |
PPP |
eFG |
Turn |
Reb |
FTR |
| Kentucky |
69 |
0.92 |
0.414 |
0.202 |
0.357 |
0.172 |
| Connecticut |
69 |
0.88 |
0.461 |
0.289 |
0.441 |
0.275 |
This point was pounded home by the television commentators, but it’s rare to see a college basketball game in which the 3-pointer had so little effect. The two teams combined to make just 4-of-18 3-pointers. Neither team attempted a 3-pointer on even 20 percent of its field-goal attempts. The national average is 32.5 percent.
The lack of 3-point attempts and makes is not a departure from how these teams usually play. Connecticut has not finished in the nation’s top 300 in 3-point-attempt rate since Ken Pomeroy began keeping these statistics for the 2003-04 season. This season, none of the 347 Division I teams come in lower than UConn’s 17.4 percent 3-point-attempt rate. So, 3-pointers on 11.8 percent of attempts is right in line. Read More »
Posted in Big East, Game of the Night, SEC
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Tagged Ajou Ajou Deng, Alex Oriakhi, Ater Majok, Big East, Connecticut, Darius Miller, Darnell Dodson, Duke, Eric Bledsoe, Gavin Edwards, Harry High School, Jerome Dyson, Jim Calhoun, John Calipari, John Wall, Kemba Walker, Kentucky, SEC, Stanley Robinson
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November 18, 2009 –
by Brendon
In retrospect, it was bad planning that I chose Arkansas-Louisville rather than the game that followed it, Memphis-Kansas, as the first game of the new season on which to take possession-by-possession notes. Still, there’s nothing as useful as taking possession data by hand to give me a good sense of a team and its players.
As it turned out, Arkansas’ lack of depth caught up with it in the game’s final 15 minutes, and Louisville’s 3-point shooting and ball-hawking defense ended the competitive phase of this game. The 96-66 Louisville victory, while lacking the last-second drama of the nightcap of Tuesday’s doubleheader, still left plenty of interesting conclusions to glean.
Let’s start with the basic tempo-free team box:
|
Poss |
PPP |
eFG |
Turn |
Reb |
FTR |
| Arkansas |
76 |
0.87 |
0.422 |
0.211 |
0.262 |
0.293 |
| Louisville |
75 |
1.26 |
0.568 |
0.132 |
0.390 |
0.178 |
For a team with just six scholarship players thanks to a bevy of suspensions, Arkansas did a pretty good job of taking care of the ball against Louisville’s zone press. Julysses Nobles had just two turnovers in 38 minutes as the point guard facing most of the heat from the Cardinals’ seemingly endless depth of aggressive guards. It was big man Mike Washington’s careless play — six turnovers — in just 28 minutes — that accounted for more than a third of the team total (16). The senior center was called for three travels and had two shots blocked in Arkansas’ first 21 possessions. Read More »
Posted in Big East, Game of the Night, SEC
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Tagged Alcorn State, Appalachian State, Arkansas, Big East, Earl Clark, Edgar Sosa, Jared Swopshire, Jerry Smith, John Pelphrey, Julysses Nobles, Kansas, Kentucky, Kyle Kuric, Louisville, Marshawn Powell, Memphis, Mike Washington, Preston Knowles, Reginald Delk, Rick Pitino, Rotnei Clarke, Samardo Samuels, SEC, Stefan Welsh, Terrence Jennings, Terrence Williams, UNLV, USF, Western Kentucky, Yinka Dare
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November 15, 2009 –
by Brendon
In sum: It wasn’t a pretty weekend for the SEC West against small Northeast programs. After Auburn nearly fell to Niagara on Friday night, Mississippi State did lose to Rider. A day later, Cornell knocked off Alabama in Anthony Grant’s debut. As a whole, the league went 8-2, and, in the most highly anticipated game, Kentucky defeated Morehead State behind terrific play from freshman Eric Bledsoe and junior Patrick Patterson.
Team of the week: Mississippi. There is great popular support behind Andy Kennedy getting the Rebels to break through and make the NCAAs in this his fourth season, and their opening performance won’t weaken that support. Chris Warren was back and healthy. He didn’t shoot well (1-for-7 from deep), but he did have seven steals in a 92-64 win over a decent Arkansas-Little Rock team. Mississippi forced 22 turnovers and, as a result, attempted 22 more field goals than the Trojans. Senior DeAundre Cranston scored 21 points in just 21 minutes. Read More »
Posted in Reviews/Previews, SEC
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Tagged Alabama, Alcorn State, Andy Kennedy, Anthony Grant, Arkansas, Arkansas-Little Rock, Auburn, Chris Warren, Cornell, DeAundre Cranston, Eric Bledsoe, Georgia, Indiana, Jarvis Varnado, Kentucky, LaSalle, Louisville, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Missouri State, Morehead State, Niagara, North Carolina State, Ohio State, Patrick Patterson, Providence, Rick Stansbury, Rider, Rotnei Clarke, Ryan Thompson, SEC, South Carolina, St. Mary's, Tennessee, UAB, UCF, Vanderbilt
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November 13, 2009 –
by Brendon
The best games on Saturday’s slate give us looks at two teams expected to be among the best mid-majors this season as well as a two-time defending conference champion attempting to bring its shooting form south of the Mason-Dixon against an opposing coach making his debut with a new school.
Creighton at Dayton (1 p.m. ET): I feel comfortable calling this the best matchup of the weekend in terms of the quality of the two teams. The problem is injuries. For Dayton, guard Rob Lowery is out, greatly diminishing the Flyers’ backcourt depth. Creighton will be without starting forward Justin Carter. The 6-foor-4 senior has a torn MCL. Casey Harriman and Chad Millard, who are expected to be key cogs in a small Creighton frontcourt may also be out.
Have I diminished the spectacle of this matchup enough yet? Let me rebuild it. Even without those players, this is a game featuring the coaches’ preseason pick to win the Atlantic 10 and finish second in the Missouri Valley. Read More »
Posted in Mid-Majors, Reviews/Previews, SEC
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Tagged Alabama, Alex Ruoff, Anthony Grant, Atlantic-10, Booker Woodfox, Brian Gregory, Casey Harriman, Chad Millard, Chris Wright, Chris Wroblewski, Chuck Davis, Cornell, Creighton, Dayton, Geoff Reeves, Ivy League, JaMychal Green, Jeff Foote, Jermareo Davidson, Josh Dotzler, Justin Carter, Kenny Lawson, Larry Sanders, London Warren, Louis DAle, Luke Fabrizius, Marcus Johnson, Mark Gottfried, Mid-Majors, Mikhail Torrance, Missouri Valley, P'Allen Stinnett, Penn, Princeton, Richard Hendrix, Rob Lowery, Ryan Wittman, SEC, Senario Hillman, Steve Donohue, VCU, West Virginia
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November 4, 2009 –
by Brendon
2008-09 in review: It’s not a stretch to write that the SEC experienced the worst season of any major conference this decade with its showing last winter. The league played such a weak non-conference schedule and played so poorly out of conference that four 20-win teams didn’t get a bid to the NCAA Tournament — Florida, South Carolina, Kentucky, Auburn — and no one really complained. In mid-February, the first three of those teams looked like they had a pretty good shot at dancing, but Florida finished 2-4, Kentucky finished 1-5, and South Carolina finished 3-4. Those four teams combined for just six wins in 23 games against top-50 teams.
If it wasn’t for Mississippi State’s — umm, not sure “stirring” is the right word — successful run to the SEC title, the SEC would have gotten just two teams into the NCAAs. Even with the third bid, not a single SEC team got a seed better than No. 8, and none were left standing once North Carolina pulled away from LSU on the first Saturday of the tournament. The SEC’s NCAA Tournament Conference Score of 0.33 was the worst of any major conference this decade.
What shouldn’t be lost in all of the negativity is the bounceback from LSU. In his first season as head coach, Trent Johnson leveraged Tasmin Mitchell and Marcus Thornton into the Tigers’ second SEC West title in four seasons. The Tigers have won 14, 5, 6 and 13 conference games in the last four seasons — you gotta love consistency. Read More »
Posted in SEC
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Tagged 2009-10 season preview, Alabama, Alex Tyus, Alonzo Gee, Anthony Grant, Arkansas, Auburn, Billy Gillispie, Brendan Knox, Brian Williams, Bruce Pearl, Chris Johnson, Daniel Orton, Darnell Dodson, David Huertas, DeMarcus Cousins, Dennis Felton, DeWayne Reed, Dominique Archie, Eric Bledsoe, Florida, Frankie Sullivan, Garrett Temple, Georgia, J.P. Prince, Jeff Lebo, Jodie Meeks, John Calipari, John Jenkins, John Wall, Jon Hood, Kenny Boynton, Kentucky, Kevin Stallings, Korvotney Barber, LSU, Lucas Hargrove, Mark Fox, Mark Gottfried, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Murphy Holloway, NCAA Tournament Conference Score, Nick Calathes, Patrick Patterson, Quantez Robertson, Rasheem Barrett, Renardo Sidney, Rick Stansbury, SEC, South Carolina, Tasmin Mitchell, Tay Waller, Tennessee, Trent Johnson, Tyler Smith, Tyreke Evans, Vanderbilt, Wayne Chism, Zam Frederick
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March 19, 2009 –
by Lukas
In my East and South regional previews, I noted that I considered Wisconsin the bracket-buster in that section of the bracket. I did this a bit tongue-in-cheek as bracket-busters tend to be teams from small conferences and combine very low national exposure with double-digit seeds. I went back and researched all the non-power-conference teams seeded No. 12 or worse that won in the last five years to see if I could glean any insight into what characteristics, if any, these bracket-busters or the teams they defeeated had in common.
The nine major upsets were as follows:
2008 – No. 13 Siena over No. 4 Vanderbilt
2008 – No. 13 San Diego over No. 4 UConn
2006 – No. 14 Northwestern State over No. 3 Iowa (not the Northwestern Wildcats as was the call)
2006 – No. 13 Bradley over No. 4 Kansas
2005 – No. 14 Bucknell over No. 3 Kansas
2005 – No. 13 Vermont over No. 4 Syracuse
2005 – No. 12 UW Milwaukee over No. 5 Alabama
2004 – No. 12 Manhattan over No. 5 Florida
2004 – No. 12 Pacific over No. 5 Providence Read More »
Posted in Mid-Majors, Pac-10, Reviews/Previews, SEC
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Tagged Alabama, Bracket Buster, Bradley, Bucknell, Cleveland State, Connecticut, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Manhattan, March, Michigan State, Morgan State, NCAA Tournament, North Dakota State, Northwestern State, Oklahoma, Pacific, Portland State, Providence, Robert Morris, San Diego, Siena, Stephen F. Austin, Syracuse, UW Milwaukee, Vanderbilt, Vermont, Wake Forest, Xavier
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