The Hoops HD Report: December 18th

Posted on December 18, 2017 by David Griggs

It has been a huge week for the Big Twelve.  Eight of the ten teams are receiving votes in the Top 25, and six are in the rankings.  We discuss what a big year it’s been for the conference so far, and how teams like Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Iowa State are off to much better starts than we expected.  We go through all of the multi-bid leagues and discuss how the Pac Twelve has struggled, how Villanova has earned the #1 ranking, and how Tennessee deserves a lot of respect despite a losing effort against North Carolina.  We also discuss who we think the coach of the season is so far in each conference.  All that, and much more!

 

And for all you radio lovers, below is an mp3 version of the show…

Posted in Hoops HD Report, Podcasts, Videocasts | 1 Comment

Here’s the Story of the Hurricanes: HoopsHD takes a trip to Miami-GW

Posted on December 18, 2017 by Jon Teitel

2 undefeated teams in DC in mid-December: what in the wide world of sports is going on here?! Syracuse came to town to face 8-0 Georgetown and escaped with a 86-79 OT win after the Hoyas blew a 13-PT 2nd half lead. However, HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel opted to check out 8-0 Miami as they traveled to Foggy Bottom to face GW, and the Canes did not disappoint in a 59-50 road win. There are only a handful of remaining undefeated teams in the nation and the “U” is 1 of them, so please enjoy the photo essay below.

The game was advertised as a “whiteout”, but there is only so much of a home-court advantage you can enjoy in mid-December when the student body is busy with final exams and heading home for the holidays:

  

Despite the non-sellout there were still plenty of celebrities in attendance, including a Celtics Hall of Famer up in the rafters:

3 of the other ones who stood out were CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer (who demonstrated from his courtside seat during a TV timeout that he is much better at conducting interviews than giving them), former Hurricane Sheldon McClellan (who now plays for the Wizards under his legally-changed name of “Sheldon Mac”), and veteran referee Ted Valentine (aka “TV Teddy”):

My favorite fan in the stands was this guy.  I usually hate people who go to games while wearing the hat/shirt of a team who is not playing in the featured event, but if you are a Hurricane-hater then a Seminoles jacket makes a strong statement:

I was expecting pizza in the media room but instead we got doughnuts: since I am starting a new low-carb diet I restricted myself to 4 of them (not pictured because I ate them all).  The 1st half was all Miami: they did it outside with DJ Vasiljevic (who made a pair of threes) and inside with Dewan Huell (who seemed to grab every available rebound and converted a variety of shots from inside the paint). Their freshman backcourt diversity was also intriguing: Lonnie Walker IV is a 6’5’ McDonald’s All-American from Pennsylvania with fantastic hair, while Chris Lykes is a 5’7” kid with goggles who went to high school a few miles away at Gonzaga (hence all the purple-clad people in the stands), and both of them made a 1st half 3 to help the Canes build a 32-15 halftime lead.

GW changed its entire defense in the 2nd half by putting on a full court press and employing a 2-3 zone, which completely disrupted Miami’s 3-PT shooting: they came into the game shooting 40.3 3P% but went 0-8 from behind the arc in the 2nd stanza. The Colonials’ shooting was not much better: 30.2 FG% for the entire game, which included an airball 3 from Arnaldo Toro (who set a career-high with 13 REB) and an airball FT from Jair Bolden (which seems impossible as he is shooting 78.6 FT% this year). Toro did not do much after that but Bolden got his head straight and proceeded to make a pair of jumpers and a pair of threes to keep his team in it. Yuta Watanabe only had 9 PTS on 3-12 FG but apparently Shohei Otani is not the only 23-year old Japanese-born athlete of note in the US because there were 2 separate Asian camera crews who wanted to speak with the SR SG after the game:

There was terrible 3-PT shooting on both ends as the 2 teams combined to make only 9-39 3PM, with the worst offender being Walker (1-7). However, when he stopped putting up bricks he looked like the best athlete on the court: he had a huge follow dunk (http://collegebasketball.nbcsports.com/2017/12/16/video-miamis-lonnie-walker-skies-for-ridiculous-putback-dunk), a drive/nifty scoop, an alleyoop layup off a pass from Anthony Lawrence, a REB/putback, and a breakaway dunk in the final minutes to seal the 59-50 win.  GW came up big on the boards with 17 offensive REB but simply could not stop Huell when they were on defense: he camped out in the paint all afternoon and finished with a double-double of 15 PTS and a career-high 12 REB:

In the postgame press conference I asked Miami coach Jim Larranaga if he embraced being 1 of the only undefeated teams in the country or if he just took it 1 game at a time:

He said that he does not care about being perfect and that from day 1 their main concerns have been rebounding/defense because young guys tend to spectate rather than go after every loose ball. He also stated that he was surprised that Bruce Brown Jr. played because the initial diagnosis in early-December was that he would be out for 3 weeks with a left hand injury.

I asked GW coach Maurice Joseph if he thought that the Canes were 1 of the best teams in the nation since he has already faced a slew of top-50 teams during the past 30 days (Florida State/Xavier/Kansas State/Penn State):

He responded that they are a very good young team who will continue to get better and he was proud that his team was able to hold Miami to 20 PTS under their 79.2 PPG average.

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Bracket Projections: Monday, December 18th

Posted on December 18, 2017 by David Griggs

For Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day, and a rundown of all the rest of today’s action – CLICK HERE

Understand what you are looking at below.  It is a CHECKPOINT of CURRENT MERIT, and not a prediction of what I think things will look like on Selection Sunday, nor is it an assessment of how good I think the teams actually are.

With that being said, there are teams that are not even in the bracket that I fully expect to make the NCAA Tournament.  I think they will win enough big games to get there.  It’s just that up until now, they haven’t.  Louisville, Cincinnati, SMU, USC, Marquette, and even Saint Bonaventure are among teams that did not make this projection that I am expecting to make the field in March.

OTHERS CONSIDERED: SMU, Cincinnati, San Diego State, Marquette, Saint John’s, UCF, Louisville, Texas Tech, Ohio State, USC, Houston, BYU, Saint Bonaventure, Providence, Utah, Western Kentucky, Oregon, UNLV, Old Dominion, Wyoming, Northwestern, Nebraska, South Carolina, Colorado, Mississippi State, UCLA, Georgia Southern

OTHER NOTES:

-Temple has wins away from home against Auburn, Clemson, Old Dominion, and South Carolina.  Those are all solid teams, and that is a high number of wins against solid teams away from home.  They have two rough losses against La Salle and George Washington, but the home loss to Villanova isn’t that bad.  I don’t they’re good enough to end up as a protected seed and don’t expect to see them anywhere near the #4 or #5 line in March, but for now they’re off to a great start.

-I expect Alabama to move up between now and the end.  I like Loyola Chicago’s team, and it wouldn’t surprise me to see them land inside the bubble, but they have a thin margin for error given the league that they play in and getting blown out at Milwaukee in their last game didn’t help the complexion of their profile.

-Florida has some great wins that indicate they could be a solid protected seed.  They’ve also lost three out of four to teams that are nowhere near a protected seed.  They’re kind of hard to place, but a lot of teams at this juncture are hard to place.

-Speaking of Florida, Clemson picked up a big win over the weekend and they’re suddenly looking pretty good.  They have just one loss on the year and a few decent wins to go along with that bloated record.

 

COMMENTS FROM OTHERS AT HOOPS HD

– From Chad: Grambling is on the APR list and not eligible for postseason play.  #StupidPuppet

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Under the Radar Game of the Day: Northeastern at Kent State (and other Highlighted Games)

Posted on December 18, 2017 by Chad

Northeastern at Kent State, 7:00 PM Eastern, espn3

After opening the season with wins over Boston University and non-D1 Wentworth, the Northeastern Huskies dropped four straight games, including going 0-2 against Utah State and Furman in their exempt event (the non-bracketed portion of the PK80 tournament).  Three of the next four scheduled games were against teams that were among the best preseason rated Under the Radar schools — Harvard, Bucknell and Vermont.  The Huskies entered that stretch at 2-4 overall and left it at 6-4, sweeping those three and defeating Cornell as well.  At least three players scored in double digits in each of the wins, showing that this team has depth and talent capable of making some serious noise in the Colonial this season.

Tonight, the Northeastern Huskies head back out on the road, travelling to Kent State.  The Golden Flashes, who won last year’s MAC Tournament before falling to UCLA in the Round of 64, are off to a slow 5-5 start on the season including a loss at Wright State this past weekend.  Danny Pippen did have a double-double in the losing effort, scoring 11 points and grabbing 11 rebounds.  The Golden Flashes need to turn things around a bit as they head towards conference play, while Northeastern is looking to continue their hot streak, in what has all the markings of a game that could come right down to the wire.

 

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-BOISE STATE AT SMU.  Both teams have good records, and Boise has picked up some pretty solid wins, but they have to keep that up if they want to land inside the bubble.  Neither team is in the position of being able to put it on cruise control.  Both teams are solid and it should be a fun game to watch.

-UT ARLINGTON AT CREIGHTON.  UTA is a good team, and although I’m not expecting them to pull off the upset at Creighton, I also don’t think it is entirely outside the realm of possibility.  Whatever slim at-large hopes they have depends on it.

 

BUY GAMES

-Houston Baptist @ Michigan State
-Omaha @ Kansas
-Charleston Southern @ Florida State
-Northern Illinois @ Maruqette
-Fort Wayne @ Indiana – Fort Wayne pulled off the win in Fort Wayne last year
-Nicholls @ Tulane
-IUPUI @ Gonzaga
-Texas Southern @ TCU
-North Dakota State @ Arizona
-Tennessee State @ Texas

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News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Sunday, Dec 17th

Posted on December 17, 2017 by David Griggs

NEWS AND NOTES

-I say this every Sunday morning, but yesterday was a crazy day!

-For Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day between Delaware and Delaware State – CLICK HERE 

-Wichita State didn’t lose on their home court, but they lost in their home city to an unranked Oklahoma team who sprinted out to a comfortable lead early and then never gave it up.  It was a tremendous showing by the Sooners and it was yet another example of a top ten team going down at home.  At least mostly at home.  Oklahoma should be in the rankings after that.  They appear to be cruising to the top half of the bracket come March.  I’m more impressed with the Sooners than disappointed in the Shockers.

-Xavier, another top ten team, trailed by 22 in the second half to unranked East Tennessee State who came out of nowhere with an incredible effort.  Xavier finally woke up and came storming back to overcome a huge second half deficit as well as a 7-point deficit in the final three minutes to escape with the win.  We almost saw ANOTHER top ten team go down at home to an unranked team.

-Now, to be fair, two of the top ten teams who went down yesterday were Notre Dame and Florida, who are no longer top ten teams and who after yesterday may not even be top 25 teams.  Notre Dame took on an Indiana team that was NIT-tacular at best, and ended up losing in rather sub-NIT-tacular fashion when the Hoosiers were down three and got fouled, then missed the freethrow, but got the rebound and made the layup.  Notre Dame had a chance to tie and force overtime on a mid-court shot that almost went down, but they again pick up a loss to a team that doesn’t appear to be a tournament team.

-Florida fell to Clemson in another exciting game.  Last season Clemson lost eight games either in overtime or on the final possession to tournament teams, and just out of habit I was expecting them to end up losing this game as well.  But, they didn’t.  They picked up a HUGE neutral floor win against a Florida team who I think will get their ship turned around over Christmas break, but for now has shown quite a few flaws.

-Kansas needed a 3-pointer in the final seconds to pull out a win at Nebraska in an exciting game that seesawed back and forth.  It was an electric atmosphere, but then again that’s the way it always is when Kansas plays anyone in a true road game.

-Seton Hall fell to Rutgers in what had to be the most satisfying win for Rutgers in years.  They improve to 10-3 on the season and while the vast majority of those wins include buy games at home, it now includes a win over a rival who was ranked.  Rutgers also gave Michigan State a bit of a squeeze when the two met up a few weeks ago, so Rutgers may be to the point to where they can beat solid tournament teams at home.  That’s an improvement.  I don’t mean that facetiously, although I hope our colleague and host Chad Sherwood takes it that way!

-Florida State fell to Oklahoma State in the second half of the Orange Bowl Classic.  Both games were one point games, and both resulted in a surprising unranked team knocking off a ranked team.  We did not expect much out of the Pokes, but at 8-2 with a neutral floor win over a previously unbeaten Florida State team, we need to start taking them seriously.

-Cincinnati finally picked up a big win and changed the complexion of their resume for the better.  They went out to UCLA and absolutely ran away with that game.

-UNC Greensboro pulled off the biggest UTR upset of the day with their win at NC State.  UNCG clearly looks like a SoCon frontrunner and it will be interesting to see what the committee does with them if they blow through that league.

-Stephen F Austin improved to 10-1 on the year with their win at LSU, who is improving but hasn’t quite graduated to the level of good yet.  Still, SFA should finish the season with just two or three losses, if that.  They go to Mizzou next, and the remaining game is winnable.

-Georgetown appeared to have Syracuse put away, but the Orange came back, forced overtime, and picked up a huge win.  Everyone had been picking on Georgetown for their weak schedule, and rightfully so.  Their profile now consists of a weak schedule and a loss to a decent team.

-Northwestern REALLY had to sweat out DePaul, but ended up pulling out out.  The Wildcats just don’t seem to have it this year.  At least, not yet.  This is noteworthy moreso because of how damaging the loss would have been, not how good the win was.

-Northern Iowa, who had been having a fantastic season, played a back and forth game with Iowa State for about 30 minutes, and then were blown out in the final 10 minutes.  The loss doesn’t sink them, but a win would have REALLY helped them and opened up their margin for error a bit more.

-Saint Bonaventure and Rhode Island both avoided losses to really good UTR teams in Vermont and CofC.  In the case of the Bonnies, it took a buzzer-beating 3 to pull off the win in neighboring Rochester. Those may turn out to be halfway decent wins for them.

-Middle Tennessee faced Auburn in Birmingham, and simply did not show up for the first thirty or so minutes of the game.  They fought back to at least make the score respectable, but it was a decisive and impressive win for an Auburn team that isn’t getting a lot of attention, but only has one loss and some fairly good wins on their resume.

-Oregon got a VERY nice road win at Fresno State, which may not have people jumping up and down, but Fresno will not lose many home games and will likely be a top 75 team, so the committee will give the Ducks quite a bit of credit for this one.

 

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-VANDERBILT AT ARIZONA STATE.  Vandy is off to an atrocious 3-6 start and Arizona State has looked like a top five team so far.  Nothing about this game suggests that it will be close.

-NORTH CAROLINA AT TENNESSEE.  North Carolina is not afraid to play on the road out of conference, and they’re not afraid to play in games that are tough to win.  This is a road game against a ranked Tennessee team that’s having a much better season than we expected.  It’s a great OOC opportunity for both teams as well as a great showcase game.  Right now UNC is looking like a protected seed, and Tennessee is looking like they could end up wearing white in the Round of 64.

-IONA AT SAINT JOHN’S.  The Johnnies are having a fantastic season so far.  Iona has struggled, as has the entire MAAC, but Iona appears to be struggling less than everyone else.  They’re probably overmatched in this game, but it should still be a fun one.  It usually is whenever two NYC teams get together.

-UC SANTA BARBARA AT USC.  This is the litmus test.  This is the game that if UCSB can win then they’ll have something on their resume to point to and say they belong inside the bubble if they blow through the Big West but trip in the conference tournament (which we often see in that league).  USC on the other hand is just trying to get things turned around.  They certainly don’t need to hit the panic button yet, but they look nothing like a top ten team, which is where they were ranked when the season began.

 

BUY GAMES

-Central Connecticut @ Boston College (the Lee Delvecchio Classic)
-Stony Brook @ Providence
-Savannah State @ Baylor
-Prairie View A&M @ Houston
-Radford @ Nevada
-LMU @ Washington

Posted in Daily Rundown, News and Notes | Comments Off on News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Sunday, Dec 17th

Under the Radar Game of the Day: Delaware at Delaware State

Posted on December 17, 2017 by Chad

Delaware at Delaware State, 8:00 PM Eastern, dsuhornets.com

We love rivalries here at HoopsHD, so we would be remiss if tonight’s Battle of the First State was not our highlighted Under the Radar Game of the Day.  Delaware State enters this game with a record of 2-9, still searching for the school’s first D1 win of the season.  Their closest game was actually on the road in a six point loss at East Carolina.  Simon Okolue had 14 points while Artem Tavakalyan came off the bench for 20 and 8 boards in that loss.  Tavakalyan went for 13 ad 7 last time out at Duquesne, making him the player that opposing defenses will need to be certain to focus on.

The Blue Hens of Delaware enter tonight’s contest at 4-6, and are looking to break a four game losing streak.  They notably hosted Notre Dame last weekend, losing 92-68.  The Blue Hens were led by Kevin Anderson who scored 21 points to go with 7 assists.  Ryan Daly has been a double-digit scorer in all but one game so far this season.  The Blue Hens will need both of them and their teammates to step up tonight against the rival Hornets, as Delaware tries to expand its all-time 13-4 series lead.

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