The College Basketball Post

[allen3xis]

Cratsy--nothin online but..

The way yall have came out this year and how well Talor has been has gotten little brothers attention.

He's basically a more athletic and 6'3 version.

UMD and ND are in on him, Hewitt with his local ties with GT and you guys.

 

[tmay407]

Wednesday, January 7[table][tr][th=""]Game[/th] [th=""]Network[/th] [th=""]Coverage Notes[/th] [th=""]PPV?[/th] [th=""]Time[/th] [/tr][tr][td]Michigan at Indiana[/td] [td]

[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]6:30pm[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Davidson at Duke[/td] [td]

[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]7pm[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Louisville at USF[/td] [td]

[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]7pm[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Providence at Cincinnati[/td] [td]

[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]7pm[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Northeastern at Georgia St.[/td] [td]

[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]7pm[/td] [/tr][tr][td]DePaul at Syracuse[/td] [td]

[/td] [td]

[/td] [td]

[/td] [td]7pm[/td] [/tr][tr][td]William & Mary at UNC-Wilmington[/td] [td]

[/td] [td]

[/td] [td]

[/td] [td]7pm[/td] [/tr][tr][td]James Madison at Old Dominion[/td] [td]

[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]7pm[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Marquette at Rutgers[/td] [td]

[/td] [td]

[/td] [td]

[/td] [td]7:30pm[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Morgan St. at Maryland[/td] [td]

[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]8pm[/td] [/tr][tr][td]S. Illinois at Wichita St.[/td] [td]Mediacom-IL[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]8pm[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Indiana St. at Drake[/td] [td]Mediacom-IA[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]8pm[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Northwestern at Wisconsin[/td] [td]

[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]8:30pm[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Gonzaga at Tennessee[/td] [td]

[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]9pm[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Charleston at N. Carolina[/td] [td]

[/td] [td]

[/td] [td] [/td] [td]9pm[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Marshall at Memphis[/td] [td]

[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]9pm[/td] [/tr][/table]

 

[allen3xis]

III watched Roscoe last night. Guess he put on a show.

Latavious Williams appears to be on path to qualify..after Riley's decomittment, III has been after him hard via his HS coach--might difficult to pull himfrom Drew and Baylor, but perhaps this was the surprise.

Xaiver offered Rod Odom--6'8 2 guard. Major programs--Uconn, G'Town probably offer in the spring.

 

[ThaxbyChamblis]

Originally Posted by Ricardo Malta

You're about to do a stretch? I though you was a Country Club, Gated Community type _.

Lemme find out they got you for insider trading or some %#+$. My son got Martha Stewart'ed

Prolly going to jail for Drunk Driving or some %+*@..

You spent to much time in the Bull son, it rubbed of on you

Dude ran up on my chick. I had a few words. He swung and connected. I reacted in self defense. He got sent to the ICU. I get the bid (on top of violation of probation for a prior DUI). He sippin' red kool-aid and mashed potatoes through a straw for 2 months.

Kimbo Kerlew Slice

I'm still wavy and Mike I'ma #$@% you up when I get to Cali

 

[jamesonnt]

Originally Posted by allen3xis

Xaiver offered Rod Odom--6'8 2 guard. Major programs--Uconn, G'Town probably offer in the spring.

Long Island!

Kerlew Slice

Better let them know early on the yard ..

 

[messiahchild]

Originally Posted by JamesOnNT

Originally Posted by allen3xis

Xaiver offered Rod Odom--6'8 2 guard. Major programs--Uconn, G'Town probably offer in the spring.

Long Island!

Kerlew Slice

Better let them know early on the yard ..
-James never fails.

[Young Jeezy] I put on for my city, on, on for my city [Young Jeezy]

-So dude LANDS for the first punch, yet still ends up in ICU. Matta is a straight goon.

 

[seymore cake]

JamesOnNT wrote:

Kerlew Slice

Better let them know early on the yard ..


_ gone come homin singin Beanie Sigel "What'cha Life Like.... MINES IS REAL!!!!"

 

[worldbeefreeg]

Originally Posted by Ricardo Malta

It is what it is. I'm still a hot tempered Jamaican from Granby St in Hartford. That %%%% will never change.

Shottas in Connecticut

Allen, I think in Malta's honor we should throw up a stay up or something in the thread title.

 

[ThaxbyChamblis]

Originally Posted by Seymore CAKE

JamesOnNT wrote:

Kerlew Slice

Better let them know early on the yard ..


_ gone come homin singin Beanie Sigel "What'cha Life Like.... MINES IS REAL!!!!"

All I know is....This _ better not come home w/ braids...Cornrows to be exact.

 

[bigmike23]

 

[jamesonnt]

@ Messiah, Cake.

Nice sig, Dre.

 

[ricardo malta]

Ya'll got me sheddin' e-tears over here

Straight up,ya'll like family "and I looove it!", word to Jeezy.

Real talk though, who sees the Zags gettin' Tennessee a second time? Both these teams are on a decline since that very first week so this is a got'damn toss up game.

And I see Providence starting 3-0 in Big East play, which is damn near impressive, albeit they haven't faced any top dogs yet. Hopefully Cincy turns itaround and gets back to being a bubble team.

South Florida caught 'Cuse slippin' last week so I can't give Louisville the clear nod yet and I actually see Rutgers giving Marquette a game atthe RAC, especially Echenique coming around and being a presence down low.

 

[worldbeefreeg]

Originally Posted by Ricardo Malta


Ya'll got me sheddin' e-tears over here

Straight up, ya'll like family "and I looove it!", word to Jeezy.

Real talk though, who sees the Zags gettin' Tennessee a second time? Both these teams are on a decline since that very first week so this is a got' damn toss up game.

And I see Providence starting 3-0 in Big East play, which is damn near impressive, albeit they haven't faced any top dogs yet. Hopefully Cincy turns it around and gets back to being a bubble team.

South Florida caught 'Cuse slippin' last week so I can't give Louisville the clear nod yet and I actually see Rutgers giving Marquette a game at the RAC, especially Echenique coming around and being a presence down low.

I think this is a must-win for the Zags. They need this if they want to rrestore any credibibillity. A couple weeks ago we were talking aboutthis team being the only one who could possibly challenge UNC and now they are off the face of the map. Tennesee at least will eb able to re-establishthemselves after conference play but I don't know if you can say with the 'Zags.

I think Cinci gets this won over Prov, they should be extra hungry after losing their first conference game, and they are playing at home. It's a greatmatchup because these are the two teams really fighting for that possible 10th playoff spot in the conference.

 

[craftsy21]

Originally Posted by allen3xis

Cratsy--nothin online but..

The way yall have came out this year and how well Talor has been has gotten little brothers attention.

He's basically a more athletic and 6'3 version.

UMD and ND are in on him, Hewitt with his local ties with GT and you guys.

I've kinda just resigned myself to the fact that we won't get him. And good for him really, he deserves to play somewhere that actuallygives a damn about basketball.

I'm still not sold on this PSU team - maybe it's just the years and years of mediocrity that has me down, but we're just doing things with smokeand mirrors for the most part... we're about 1 player away from being a legit tourney team, but we have too much to overcome. Still - i'd be prettyhappy if we were even in the bubble discussion this year.

 

[craftsy21]

Zags need this win more than the Vols... but that may not be enough. I don't understand what the hell is going on out there in spokane... i was thinkingthey might run the table this season and grab a 1 or 2 seed in the dance - now they're looking at their usual 5 or so seed with a tough first round gameand probably a disappointing exit to the dance again, if they don't get this ship righted soon.

 

[seymore cake]

@ that I'm Still Wavy

 

[scuse7]

Stay up Kerlew.

Nice sig Dre.

...

I like Zaga a lot....yet they still drop some easy games. The game is important. They still need to prove something.

 

[jamesonnt]

Gonzaga needs this win bad.

You guys need to check this post - http://niketalk.com/topic/142232/master/1/

 

[tmay407]

* The Aggies have won nine straight -- tied for the eighth longest winning streak nationally -- and are coming off a 57-52 win against McNeese State at home onSaturday.
* The Aggies are 76-10 (.884) at home in the last five years, the second most home wins in the country (Memphis has 81).
* Mark Turgeon's 38-12 record is the second best coaching start in Big 12 history through 50 games. Kansas' Bill Self was 40-10 in 2003-05.
* A&M is 65-19 in the last three seasons, ranking it among the winningest teams in the country in that span.
* A&M is one of just nine schools to win an NCAA Tournament game in each of the last three seasons.
* A&M and Kansas are the only Big 12 schools to win at least 21 games in each of the last four seasons.

Hopefully we can continue on and become one of the elite basketball programs in the nation...

 

[seymore cake]

Hey... Does one of you have a Sprint Connect????

I'm tryna come up on HTC Touch Pro...

Even Kerlew before they take his shoe strings from him... if you can pull some strings (No Pun)

 

[xdahcreator]

cant wait for the game to be on

 

[allen3xis]

[table][tr][td]
January 7, 2009
[font=times new roman, times, serif]The Nation's Top 25 Freshmen[/font]
(So Far)

by John Gasaway
[/td] [td]Printer-
friendly[/td] [td] [/td] [/tr][tr][td]Contact
Author[/td] [td] [/td] [/tr][/table]
By now you've of course heard that this year's freshman class is terrible. No Roses! No Beasleys! No Mayos!

No kidding. It's true that no freshman this year has combined advance hype, prominence in his team's offense, and scoring efficiency the way Beasleydid last year (and Kevin Durant did in 2006-07).

The problem with a lot of reportage in this vein, however, is that it starts from last year's McDonald's All-American team. While there are indeedstories to be told there, it's also true that there are a few hundred freshmen in the country who weren't so recognized.

So my take on this freshman class is a little different. I'm not going to start with a ritual nod toward DeMar DeRozan's slow start. (Though I guessI kind of just did.) Seriously, someone does have to explain DeRozan to me. I'm not really sure what we're supposed to see there even when he doeswell. He appears to be a strange wing, one that neither shoots threes nor rebounds.

Instead I've asked simply: which freshmen have played the best? Answering that question leaves a lot of McDonald's honorees out of the mix.

Mind you, I'm not doubting the obvious talents or future career prospects of, say, a Tyreke Evans (drowning in his own misses at Memphis in roughly thesame fashion that Manny Harris did last year at Michigan). I'm just saying that to me these look like the 25 best seasons so far, irrespective of priorreputations.

One last note. The specter of freshmen getting minutes and using possessions is largely a power-conference luxury (though Tom Crean and Indiana mightdisagree with the "luxury" part this season). Still, when you're talking about 270 teams outside the "major" conferences, there areindeed a number of productive freshmen you may not have seen yet. Let this be your introduction.

Now, let's count them down….

25. Kevin Foster, Santa Clara. Congratulations to Foster, who kicks off this distinguished list for two reasons. First, he's performedquite well as a combo guard while carrying a load for the Broncos on offense that is second only to that shouldered by mighty senior John Bryant. (Note, forexample, that Foster takes very good care of the ball on a team that struggles mightily in that area.) Second and much more importantly, I went to high schoolwith a Kevin Foster.

24. Samardo Samuels, Louisville. Much was expected of Samuels and he's struggled at times, particularly with turnovers. Say this forthe freshman, though: he draws a ton of fouls and shoots an adequate 73 percent from the line.

23. Mike Rosario, Rutgers. Judged alongside his fellow elite freshmen, Rosario hasn't been particularly efficient in his scoring. Thenagain, compared to the recent past in Piscataway, he's practically the second coming of Kevin Love. Between Rosario and Gregory Echenique (who narrowly missed making this list), thefuture suddenly looks a lot better for Fred Hill's team.

22. Travis Taylor, Monmouth. With Taylor and Mike Myers Keitt, the Hawks' offense is more freshman-centric than that of just about anyother mid-major. Of the two new arrivals, Taylor is the more efficient, at least when he's not shooting free throws.

21. Jeffery Taylor, Vanderbilt. My consecutive Taylor streak continues with Jeffery, who would move up about six or seven spaces on thislist if he'd just stop shooting threes (he's 4-of-26). Other than that he's been superb, taking on a featured role in the Commodores' offensethat's almost exactly equal to A.J. Ogilvy's, making 59 percent of his twos and serving as his team's best offensive rebounder.

20. Darryl Bryant, West Virginia. Over the past month Truck Bryant has stepped in at the point for the injured Joe Mazzulla and steered theMountaineers quite capably, albeit with a few too many turnovers.

19. Sylven Landesberg, Virginia. Functions as "the man" in the offense of an ACC team, takes care of the ball, draws fouls withregularity and makes 80 percent of his free throws.

18. Kemba Walker, Connecticut. On paper, Walker's turnover rate is alarming. In reality he's given hints of smoothing out thatwrinkle, coughing the ball up just once over his last 38 minutes. Continued improvement here would move Walker way up this list.

17. Yancy Gates, Cincinnati. Strangely under-hyped, Gates has taken on a featured role for his offense (he's even more likely to shootduring his minutes than Deonta Vaughn is) and scored very efficiently, thanks in large part to voracious offensive rebounding. You'd think we would haveheard more about such a freshman playing for a Big East team.

16. Matt Gatens, Iowa. Forget freshmen. Has there been a better pure shooter in the entire nation, in any class, so far this season thanGatens? He's made 54 percent of his threes and 97 percent of his free throws. If basketball were H-O-R-S-E, Gatens would be the number 1 overall pick thisJune. (Also note that the Hawkeyes are the slowest-paced team in the nation, so ignore Gatens' per-game stats entirely. Please.)

15. Alex Young, IUPUI. Something in the Jaguars' DNA apparently compels them to route an inordinate number of shots and possessionsthrough a single player. Now that George Hill is with theSan Antonio Spurs, that starring role has fallento Young, who really needs to give up on the threes (he's 19-of-67) but otherwise has been a no-turnover scoring machine inside the arc.

14. Murphy Holloway, Ole Miss. Holloway wasn't even the highest-rated recruit in his own class at Ole Miss and his minutes initiallyreflected that. Andy Kennedy's been using Holloway more of late, however, because the freshman functions kind of like a li'l DeJuan Blair: offensiverebounds, made shots, even steals.

13. Darrius Morrow, East Carolina. Morrow had a chance to make a splash over the weekend against undefeated Clemson but fouled out. Thatouting aside, he's been a force of nature on the offensive boards (and, granted, an adventure at the free throw line).

12. Paul McCoy, Southern Methodist. Few freshmen can match McCoy for sheer scoring efficiency, as the first-year guard's made 47percent of his threes and, even more remarkably, 57 percent of his twos. He also sports a very healthy steal rate. I hereby nominate McCoy as the (very) earlyfavorite for the 2012 Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award. (His maincompetition here might be Oklahoma State's Keiton Page.)

11. Seth Curry, Liberty. Forget about his big brother. Seth makes 44 percent of his threes while functioning as the Flames' featuredscorer.

10. Shelvin Mack, Butler. As an AcieLaw-type scoring point guard, Mack has calmly QB'd the Bulldogs to their surprising start in what was supposed to be a rebuilding year.Don't be fooled by low per-game numbers in, well, everything for Mack or his fellow freshman Gordon Hayward (below). Butler games usually have two, maybethree possessions.

9. Courtney Fortson, Arkansas. The honorific of best freshman point guard is pretty clearly a competition between Mack and Fortson. I'dcall it a draw, which is a compliment to both players. Fortson commits too many TOs and is quite literally painful to watch at the free throw line, but hisastounding assist rate (currently sixth in the nation) is a remarkable achievement for a player in the January of his first season. He's also weirdlyeffective on the glass for someone listed under six feet--in the Hogs' upset of Texas, Fortson recorded a 13-10 double-double.

8. Gordon Hayward, Butler. To repeat what I've already observed about Hayward: he's a pure-shooting defensive rebounder. It's a particular profile and pre-back-spasm Robbie Hummel presentsa similar case, but the player that really created the mold here was perhaps Daequan Cook, albeit in a much more prominent role than that allotted to Hayward.

7. Ed Davis, North Carolina. It's tough to categorize a highly-decorated freshman who can't get many minutes because his team iseven more highly-decorated. Be that as it may, Davis gives every indication of achieving insane results on the defensive glass. He will be the foundation ofthe Carolina defense next year and then, most likely, move up to the next level.

6. Andrew Nicholson, St. Bonaventure. Far and away the best shot-blocker on this list. Ed Davis comes the closest and he's not thatclose.

5. Luke Babbitt, Nevada. Against North Carolina on New Year's Eve, Babbitt scored his team's first four points over TylerHansbrough. A McDonald's All-American who chose to stay in his hometown of Reno, Babbitt already takes excellent care of the ball and presents aninside-outside threat to opposing defenses.

4. Jrue Holiday, UCLA. It's always nice when a McDonald's All-American who's not a big man shows some interest in D, andHoliday is already recording steals in bunches. He's also made an unheard-of 64 percent of his twos.

3. Al-Farouq Aminu, Wake Forest. Aminu gives the ball away too often, but when he doesn't he's more accurate on his twos than anybig man listed here. His per-game scoring average would look much sexier if his team weren't so good--the Deacons have a wealth of options.

2. Willie Warren, Oklahoma. I'm baffled by why we haven't heard more about a McDonald's All-American who averages 16 points agame for a major-conference team with Final Four hopes. Warren's been very good from the perimeter and outstanding inside the arc. He's also displayeda knack for assists that's rare for someone who arrived billed as a high school scoring machine. The Sooners are more than Blake Griffin.

1. Greg Monroe, Georgetown. The jury's still out on Monroe's defensive rebounding, but everything else looks magnificent. With thepossible exception of the aforementioned Warren, no freshman in the country brings together heavy usage with high efficiency on offense as well as Monroe. Healso combines three things you rarely see in the same player: good passing, shot-blocking, and steals. Monroe's talents make him the hoops equivalent of aSwiss army knife; his air of preternatural and indeed borderline Taoist calm hasn't been seen from a star freshman since Mike Conley. If he just had a little Blake Griffin-variety rebounding fool in him, yikes.

Who'd I miss? Let me know.

John Gasaway is an author of Basketball Prospectus. You can contact John by clicking here orclick here to see John's other articles.

 

[N41D]

Texas A&M is such an enigma to me right now...

Great record. They've got some decent wins over solid teams... But they aren't blowing out teams that they're clearly better than... I don'tget it...

Why aren't they blowing out SFA, McNeese State, Florida A&M, and such... ?

Guess we'll find out pretty quick... Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Baylor, Kansas, and Texas to open the Big XII season...

 

[philballa09]

Seth at 11?

 

[tmay407]

Originally Posted by Nowitness41Dirk

Why aren't they blowing out SFA, McNeese State, Florida A&M, and such... ?

Guess we'll find out pretty quick... Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Baylor, Kansas, and Texas to open the Big XII season...

My only guess is that the team isn't built to blow people out. (Though that doesn't really make sense, seeing as how we were blowing teamsout last year playing basically the same style of ball.) The defense often forces teams to take a good chunk of time out of the shot clock, while the offenseis slow and often uses the full shot clock. With the way A&M rebounds, there really aren't ever many second chance points scored. It kinda worries meplaying close games against teams like these, especially with Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, and Baylor all on the schedule twice. It's good to see thatwe can close out games though (even against this terrible competition), and don't have to worry as much about terrible free throw shooting as in years past(The Aggies are 35-of-39 (.897) from the free throw line in the last two minutes of "close games," which are defined as games within 10 points. Inthe last seven games, the Aggies are 26-of-29 (.897) in "crunch time.").