College Basketball Splinters | February 10, 2010

By Paul Gotham

Saturday goes upside down

Last Saturday gave basketball fans 21 division one games to enjoy. When it was over, seven ranked teams lost to either lower-ranked or un-ranked squads. In each case, the home team won.

Georgetown 103  Villanova 90

Austin Freeman and Jason Clark combined for eight trifectas as No. 8 Georgetown took down No. 2 Villanova. Freeman and Clark scored 25 and 24 points respectively. Greg Monroe was the real story though. The Georgetown center scored 19 to go with six assists and nine rebounds. Monroe does so many things on the floor that contribute to the team. There is not a big man in the college who sees the floor better than the Hoya center.

Illinois 78 Michigan State 73

Demetri McCarney went six of nine from long range, scoring 22 points and adding 11 assists for the Illini. The Spartans were without Kalin Lucas.  Assembly Hall was rocking and Michigan State needed its leader on the floor. Instead, Lucas was on the bench nursing an injured ankle.

MSU went into the game ranked fifth in the nation. Illinois is un-ranked.

Oklahoma 80 Texas 71

Troubled times in Austin – Tommy Mason-Griffin led the way with 24, Cade Davis added as the un-ranked Sooners added to Longhorns’ misery. Texas went on to get crushed by Kansas Monday night. Rick Barnes crew is almost in free fall mode. They have lost five of seven and look terrible doing it (Not that there is any good way to lose five of seven). Monday night, Kansas hooked 22 straight on the Horns. The score of Saturday’ game was deceiving. Oklahoma led by 20 at half. Texas trimmed the lead to eight with 10:00 remaining, but that is as close as the Horns would get.

UNLV 88 No. 12 BYU 74

Just when the Cougars had designs on the top ten, the Runnin’ Rebels knocked them down a notch or two. Tre’Von Willis hit four threes and scored 33 points as UNLV took a 22-point lead at half over their conference rival.  The Rebels dished out 24 assists to nine turnovers. BYU’s Jimmer Fredette scored 21, but was limited to 4-15 shooting from the field.

Richmond 71 No.17 Temple 54

The Spiders turned the tables on the Owls. It is usually Temple that gets opponents out of rhythm. This time it was Richmond breaking the flow. Temple took more shots (53-45) and grabbed more rebounds (32-24), but Richmond did a better job of tickling the twine. The Spiders held the Owls to one three pointer on ten attempts for the game. Temple usually shoots 33 percent from long range and makes six a game. But not on Saturday. The Owls are tenth in the nation holding opponents to 28.5 percent from behind the arc.

Many are touting the A-10 as a conference that could get four teams in the tournament. Last year, Temple, Xavier, and Dayton all went to The Dance. The A-10 finished 3-3 in last year’s tournament. They proved themselves worthy. Richmond with a record of 18-6 might get consideration from the committee.

Georgia 72 No. 20 Vanderbilt 58

Conference road games can be a hazard, and Vanderbilt fell into a hole. Georgia held Vandy to 32.8 percent from the field while shooting 53.2 percent themselves. Georgia is 10-11, but the Bulldogs have now beaten three ranked teams: Vandy, Tennessee, and Georgia Tech along with wins over Illinois, Virginia Tech, and St. John’s.

New York Times features Jim Baron

Jim Baron is accustomed to hard work. The Rhode Island coach is on his third rebuilding project. Baron took St. Francis of Pennsylvania to the tournament in the early 90s. That landed him a job back at his alma mater, St. Bonaventure. Baron delivered the Bonnies in 2000. Now, Baron is working his magic again in Rhode Island. Click here for Pete Thamel’s piece on Baron.

I had a chance to work one of Baron’s camps in the 90s. He is everything the article says and more. While some head coaches coast through camps and let the underlings do the grunt work, Baron was out there teaching the kids every day.

Another credit to Baron is what is missing from the article. He could have chosen the platform to criticize St. Bonaventure for the way they handled his contract. Baron brought Bonaventure to The Dance. Two years later, when it was time for a new contract, the school gave him the wait and see attitude – let’s see how you do this year and we will figure out how much you are worth. Since Baron left Bonaventure, they got slapped with recruiting violations for what his successor did. The program is still trying to rebound. How valuable is Baron now?

Siena taking aim

When Kenny Hasbrouck graduated after last season, many wondered what impact that would have on the Siena program. Hasbrouck averaged 14 points and three rebounds per game. Beyond the numbers, Hasbrouck was the ship’s rudder steering the Saints through rough waters.

Fran McCaffery and Siena have made the transition. The Saints own the nation’s longest winning streak – 15. Alex Franklin leads four Saints in double figures. Ryan Rossiter averages a double-double (14 ppg, 10 rpg).  Senior, Ronald Moore drives the Siena bus. Click here for Kevin Armstrong’s New York Times article on the Siena point guard. Moore leads the nation in assists per game (8.1).

Siena has earned consecutive berths to the tournament and won a game each year. Last year, Siena held a four-point advantage on Louisville with seven minutes remaining before bowing 79-72.

It’s about that time of year

Time to dig through the W-2s and whatever other forms are needed to fill out the taxes. It’s also time for Clemson to collapse.

On December 29th, the Tigers improved to 12-2 with a 70-67 victory over South Carolina Carolina State. Clemson has four wins and five losses since that date.

This should come as no surprise.

Last year, Clemson opened the season winning 16 consecutive. The Tigers finished 23-9.  Two years ago, Oliver Purnell’s club started 10-0 before crashing and burning at 24-10. ’06-’07, the Tigers ran off 17 in a row from the starting line. They finished in the NIT,  going 25-10.

Here’s a suggestion – stop relying on the full court press. Clemson gives teams a steady diet of 94 feet of pressure. That can only work so long. Bad teams succumb to the press. Good teams lick their chops and turn the press into a dunk contest at the other end.

NCAA Tournament

Talk of expanding the tournament is not going away. We have already discussed it. If there is one positive for these talks, it is that the NCAA published this piece outlining the history of The Dance.

I had completely forgotten the tournament grew from 32 to 40 then to 48 before expanding to 64.

I did not know the Final Four used to be played on Thursday and Saturday. I wish they would return to that alignment.

1st Team All Casey

PG Scottie Reynolds – Villanova

SG Jordan Crawford – Xavier

SF Wesley Johnson – Syracuse

PF Al-Farouq Aminu – Wake Forest

C Greg Monroe – Georgetown

2nd Team All Casey

PG – Sherron Collins – Kansas

SG  Matt Bouldin – Gonzaga

SF  Kyle Singler – Duke

PF  Chris Wright – Dayton

C Cole Aldrich – Kansas

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