Morehead St up 10 on UK....very early

23-11 MSU

Tonight was rough to watch. This is definitely the least cohesive unit Cal's had at UK in his four years, at least at this point in the season. I'm starting to worry, but it's a long year.

Strange happenings with Harrow. Without him, I'm not sure UK has much wiggle room depth-wise, but make no mistake, the guys they do have are all going to get better.

Very similar to the 2010-11 team that really got better as the year went on. In January and even early February, they still looked shaky. By mid-March, they were one of the best teams in the country.

With the SEC going to a single division with 14 teams, I could honestly see things being just like football in hoops.

The league may have 3 top 10-15 teams and another 2-3 in the top 30-40. The bottom of the league is absolutely terrible and may have multiple 20-loss teams.

Vanderbilt, Mississippi State, Auburn, South Carolina are all terrible. Texas A&M and Georgia are slightly better, but not by much.

Good win for Michigan over Pitt tonight. Pitt is a good team, top 15 IMO. Michigan didn't play particularly well. So it was nice to see them in a game where they aren't shooting the lights out and still find a way to win over a quality opponent.

Butler came back down to earth tonight after the scorching shooting against North Carolina. Rotnei Clarke still connected on 6 of 13 threes, though. His backcourt partner, Kellen Dunham, on the other hand, went oh-for, which certainly hurt the Bulldogs' scoring. Brad Stevens' group will be a very tough out by March, though. There's a lot of experience there and too good of shooting.

John Groce did a hell of a job getting Illinois prepared to win it all in Maui. Impressive for his first few games as Illini head coach.

reclegend22;1326814 wrote:Butler came back down to earth tonight after the scorching shooting against North Carolina. Rotnei Clarke still connected on 6 of 13 threes, though. His backcourt partner, Kellen Dunham, on the other hand, went oh-for, which certainly hurt the Bulldogs' scoring. Brad Stevens' group will be a very tough out by March, though. There's a lot of experience there and too good of shooting.

John Groce did a hell of a job getting Illinois prepared to win it all in Maui. Impressive for his first few games as Illini head coach.

I think he took a top assistant Dustan Ford with him. Dustan's dad Geno a historic coach at Cambridge and Dustan began his coaching career at Jackson...at age 25 he was the best coach we've ever had. Incredible motivator. Kids played their asses off for him.

Ironman92;1326924 wrote:I think he took a top assistant Dustan Ford with him. Dustan's dad Geno a historic coach at Cambridge and Dustan began his coaching career at Jackson...at age 25 he was the best coach we've ever had. Incredible motivator. Kids played their asses off for him.

Sounds like he and Groce make an excellent team then and should hit the motivational speaking circuit. SportsAndLady has shared some pretty cool stories here about Groce's intensity and passion while Groce was at Ohio.

^^ford too...dude was a fucking maniac in practices, the players loved it. Cool guy too.

Good to see groce doing well this early..not many u of I fans were too thrilled with the hire. I have a lot of clients in Chicago I've been telling all year they'll be thrilled with groce, can't wait to talk to them monday lol

Vandy has 15 points with 14 minutes left. Down 38-15 to Marist. Yikes.

Vandy and Mississippi State are brutal. The bottom 5-6 in the SEC are God-awful.

SportsAndLady;1327230 wrote:^^ford too...dude was a fucking maniac in practices, the players loved it. Cool guy too.

Good to see groce doing well this early..not many u of I fans were too thrilled with the hire. I have a lot of clients in Chicago I've been telling all year they'll be thrilled with groce, can't wait to talk to them monday lol

Ford coaching high school basketball was worth the price of admission. His passion is greater than any I have ever seen....his faces were priceless

Oregon and Vegas in an old-fashioned shootout on The Strip. The score -- Oregon 73 to 72 with 2:34 left -- is not at all reflective of the pace at which this game has been played during long stretches. The Runnin' Rebels' Katin Reinhardt is in a zone and launching bombs from Fremont Street.

E.J. Singler, Kyle's little brother, has also developed into a very dangerous outside shooter.

Creighton - Wisconsin has been pretty entertaining. Jared Berggren is dominating. That is not a sentence I ever expected to type.

No. 17 UNLV drops one at home. While it's hard to tell how the season will eventually unfold for Oregon, the Ducks were picked to finish seventh in the Pac 12. So not exactly a good result tonight for the Rebels, who had won 20 straight regular season games at home prior to tonight. As I said, though, if there was a positive tonight for Vegas it was the coming out party of freshman guard Katin Reinhardt. He finished with 18 and hit four straight threes to end the game.

I imagine UNLV will bounce back. A lot of talent there.

And Villanova loses again. This time to LaSalle.

wildcats20;1329036 wrote:And Villanova loses again. This time to LaSalle.

You can't blame Jay Wright for the loss. Lionel Simmons is a beast.

Watched the Nova-LaSalle game earlier today. It was a really good game with an OT finish. Interestingly enough, Nova beat LaSalle in OT last year. You have to wonder about Wright's job after last year's fiasco.

Gonzaga is legit. They are a top ten team. The Bulldogs have so much length, versatility and great outside shooting. Elias Harris, Przemek Karnowski and Kelly Olynyk form a dynamic front court. All three average double figures, with Harris the front-runner for West Coast Player of the Year and Olynyk a seven-foot freshman with deep three-point range. They absolutely handled a very good Davidson team tonight in the Old Spice Classic title game.

Point guard Kevin Pangos was unreal shooting the ball in the second half. He's indisputably the best shooter that side of the St. Louis Arch and has one of the best floaters in all of college basketball. Pangos has been likened to Steve Nash, but there's a lot of Mark Price in the kid in the way Pangos moves, splits the defense to get to the basket, shoots from deep and the overall fundamental soundness of his game. He's a terrific player.

Marquee games this week...

N.C. State at Michigan
North Carolina at Indiana
Michigan State at Miami
Ohio State at Duke
Cal-State Northridge at UCLA
Kentucky at Notre Dame
Marquette at Florida
Oregon State at Kansas
Syracuse at Arkansas
Baylor at Kentucky
Oklahoma State at Virginia Tech
Alabama at Cincinnati
St. Joseph's at Creighton
San Diego State at UCLA

Look for Michigan, if the Wolverines are hitting from the outside, to run NC State out of the gym.

Really looking forward to Indiana hosting the Tar Heels in Bloomington. If Hulls, Watford and Co. are in a rhythm, it could be a funeral.

I sound like I want the Big Ten to win. Wow. I assure you I don't. But go Hoosiers.

Ben Howland back on suicide watch after UCLA loses its second game of the year, this time to Cal Poly. The same Cal Poly that ranks 301st in points per game, 314th in rebounds per game, and 306th in FG%, with a 1-2 record coming in. UCLA was up by 18 when Cal Poly went on a 34-14 run. Earlier in the year, UCLA beat UC Irvine by one in overtime.

I'd fire Howland this morning if I were Dan Guerrero

New AP Poll; Indiana #1, Duke #2. Six B1G teams in this week's poll:

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/rankings

B1G 3 out of top 4 is fucking awesome.