Nice road win for Stanford over UCONN.

Napier had a tough night, going for just 12 points on 4-for-13 shooting. There's no doubt that poor percentage from the field led to Napier deferring to take that last-second shot attempt to win the game, but I'm sure he regrets not taking it. He had an open look to from about 25 feet, which is well in his range. Why he passed it off in that instance to a guarded teammate even further away from the basket is puzzling.

Azubuike24;1554685 wrote:Yes, obviously. That was the point of the post.
.

Really? So that is why you said Cuse was legit, and OSU the book is still out? Uh..ok. lol Especially considering Cuse schedule thus far really isn't any better than OSU. Luv how you talk out of both sides of your mouth at times.

The Cuse has FIVE wins over quality teams. Minnesota, California, Baylor, Indiana and St. John's. Combined record 41-12. I'll bet all of those end up being top 75 wins, if not top 50.

3 of their other 5 wins are over teams who could contend for NCAA spots out of their league (Fordham, Colgate and St. Francis).

So, lets see you compare OSU's schedule to that. Calling their schedules "similar" is a joke...

Yes, it's early, but SOS has Cuse at 19 and OSU at 87. They also play Villanova in 2 weeks, another OOC game that will have them facing a top 20 opponent. They also play Eastern Michigan, who again, isn't great, but will likely finish top 125 or so and contend in the MAC.

Furthermore, of the top 4 unbeatens, Arizona, Wisconsin, Syracuse and Ohio State, only the Buckeyes have really done nothing.

Wisconsin, SOS 7, wins over St. John's, Florida, Marquette, Virginia, West Virginia and St. Louis
Syracuse, SOS 19, wins over Baylor, California, Indiana, Minnesota and St. John's (still play Nova)
Arizona, SOS 37, wins Over San Diego State, Michigan, Duke and UNLV
Ohio State, SOS 87, well, you know who they have played...Ohio, Maryland, Wyoming and Marquette

Lol. Syracuse and OSU have had similar schedules. Ive heard it all now.

Laley23;1555299 wrote:Lol. Syracuse and OSU have had similar schedules. Ive heard it all now.

It's good to have CBF back...

Azubuike24;1555215 wrote:Furthermore, of the top 4 unbeatens, Arizona, Wisconsin, Syracuse and Ohio State, only the Buckeyes have really done nothing.

Wisconsin, SOS 7, wins over St. John's, Florida, Marquette, Virginia, West Virginia and St. Louis
Syracuse, SOS 19, wins over Baylor, California, Indiana, Minnesota and St. John's (still play Nova)
Arizona, SOS 37, wins Over San Diego State, Michigan, Duke and UNLV
Ohio State, SOS 87, well, you know who they have played...Ohio, Maryland, Wyoming and Marquette

IDC about Wisky (Fla win is questionable because of all they were missing) or Zona. Never brought those up. SOS at this point in time means nothing. Currently 'Cuse' has one win over a ranked team, Baylor. Cal, IU, Minny and St. Johns are questionable teams. Baylor is pretty decent and as mentioned, the only ranked team on their schedule.

And back to your comment. You said 'Cuse" was legit...OSU questionable. Then basically said no one stands out about anyone else currently. So which is it? I can admit after looking more closely that 'Cuse does have a better schedule to date. But even at that, its not that great and certainly doesn't make them anymore better than anyone else. And the St. Johns game was their first official road game as well. OSU win over Marquette on the road, and how they did it is easily a better win. St. Johns lost to Penn St.

Anyway, bottom line is as said, no one is legit or above anyone else at this point in time. I think most people agree across the board, there are a number of teams that just about even at this point in the season. A lot of parity. So saying one is "legit", and one isn't...especially after agreeing there is parity, is ridiculous.

All I said was Syracuse has showed "me" they were legit by watching them play and their schedule. I've only probably watched 3 Ohio State games, but they have yet to do so. Most of that is due to their schedule.

I'm not sure what was so hard to understand by my post.

Home wins don't mean much. Home losses mean a lot.

Road losses don't mean much. Road wins mean a lot.

Duke - UCLA has been a good one early on.

Duke needs to attack zone better and stop shooting the nba three. They can get a full two feet closer. Driving me crazy

With all the talk about Ohio State and other teams' SOS and whatnot, here's my two cents in tl;dr format.

1. With the Marquette game being canceled last year, they played nothing but garbage and the one big game with Duke, it seemed. And still wound up a #2 seed that made it to the Elite 8 (and if you go by highest-seed wins, the Elite 8 is where you'd pick them to be eliminated...it was to a 9 seed, but a 9 seed good enough to also beat the bracket's 1). When you play in one of the top conferences and have a ton of league games against NCAA tournament (or borderline NCAA) teams, you don't have to play a murderer's row beforehand.

2. This was a team looking for an offensive identity with the departure of their only consistent scorer from last year. So far, they've shown that their defense can carry them to reasonably dominating performances against okay/decent teams and if their offense is also working, they can be dominant overall. The early season has been mainly about getting guys who didn't play much or at all last year (Della Valle, McDonald, Loving) into the system and finding that offensive identity. I'd prefer a few more challenging opponents, but if it works for the team, it works. It worked last year and so far, it's working.

3.They've suffered no setbacks against lesser-tier foes (looking at you, UNC!) and haven't even had any true close calls like Duke (vs Vermont) or Michigan State (Oakland). Even the games where they played sub-par and struggled, they still wound up winning by double digits with 10 being their weakest win.

SOS means nothing to me unless it's getting March and we're talking about the merits of two 19-11 teams for one of those last 12-seeds. The only thing that concerns me is that, overall, the offense still isn't where I'd want it to be consistently and they've let blah teams like Delaware stick around for way longer than they should. Delaware was especially annoying as you had too much standing around and too much forcing stuff up. The sort of lazy, complacent stuff that can't be seen around when the actual B1G season starts where you only hope it's a team coasting against teams they know they can handle and not the sort of problem that will rear its head off and on throughout the season.

Heretic;1555839 wrote:With all the talk about Ohio State and other teams' SOS and whatnot, here's my two cents in tl;dr format.

1. With the Marquette game being canceled last year, they played nothing but garbage and the one big game with Duke, it seemed. And still wound up a #2 seed that made it to the Elite 8 (and if you go by highest-seed wins, the Elite 8 is where you'd pick them to be eliminated...it was to a 9 seed, but a 9 seed good enough to also beat the bracket's 1). When you play in one of the top conferences and have a ton of league games against NCAA tournament (or borderline NCAA) teams, you don't have to play a murderer's row beforehand.

2. This was a team looking for an offensive identity with the departure of their only consistent scorer from last year. So far, they've shown that their defense can carry them to reasonably dominating performances against okay/decent teams and if their offense is also working, they can be dominant overall. The early season has been mainly about getting guys who didn't play much or at all last year (Della Valle, McDonald, Loving) into the system and finding that offensive identity. I'd prefer a few more challenging opponents, but if it works for the team, it works. It worked last year and so far, it's working.

3.They've suffered no setbacks against lesser-tier foes (looking at you, UNC!) and haven't even had any true close calls like Duke (vs Vermont) or Michigan State (Oakland). Even the games where they played sub-par and struggled, they still wound up winning by double digits with 10 being their weakest win.

SOS means nothing to me unless it's getting March and we're talking about the merits of two 19-11 teams for one of those last 12-seeds. The only thing that concerns me is that, overall, the offense still isn't where I'd want it to be consistently and they've let blah teams like Delaware stick around for way longer than they should. Delaware was especially annoying as you had too much standing around and too much forcing stuff up. The sort of lazy, complacent stuff that can't be seen around when the actual B1G season starts where you only hope it's a team coasting against teams they know they can handle and not the sort of problem that will rear its head off and on throughout the season.

All of this is agreeable. However, the point of my ORIGINAL POST was that, Ohio State hasn't played anyone and thus, hasn't shown much once we're talking about the Sweet 16 or further, per se. Are they without a doubt top 16? Yeah. Could they still end up with a top seed with this schedule? Sure. That wasn't the point. Heck, Marquette may not even make the NCAA Tournament. Same with Notre Dame.

Willie cauley steins hair..wtf?

SportsAndLady;1556222 wrote:Willie cauley steins hair..wtf?

Dyed it before the Baylor game. WTF is right. As long as he keeps blocking 7 shots a game I don't care what he looks like.

Dude from Belmont had 4 threes in 9 minutes.

Worst team defense in the Top 25.

GOONx19;1556227 wrote:Dyed it before the Baylor game. WTF is right. As long as he keeps blocking 7 shots a game I don't care what he looks like.

Dude from Belmont had 4 threes in 9 minutes.

Or finishes oops like that one right there. Holy shit

I thought UK played one of their best games today.

Their defense is a work in progress. It's absurd they switch all of their screens. I don't care if WCS can guard a PG and Poythress can guard a center. It's a TON of pressure to constantly have to play assignment defense like that for 30 seconds and never miss a cut or a switch. Veteran teams who are smart are going to slow the game down and just pick that apart for lay-ups or open threes. Belmont did it to perfection in the first 10 minutes.

They need to play more like they did with Davis and Noel. Let WCS protect the rim and pressure more outside. Young, the Harrison's and Poythress (not Randle, he's too slow/lacks effort on D) can switch all day but bringing WCS out to the top of the key is just dumb. It causes way too many unnecessary fouls by guards and Randle on the inside after they get beat.

Florida State beats UMass. Unbeatens down to 11.

Azubuike24;1556269 wrote:I thought UK played one of their best games today.

Their defense is a work in progress. It's absurd they switch all of their screens. I don't care if WCS can guard a PG and Poythress can guard a center. It's a TON of pressure to constantly have to play assignment defense like that for 30 seconds and never miss a cut or a switch. Veteran teams who are smart are going to slow the game down and just pick that apart for lay-ups or open threes. Belmont did it to perfection in the first 10 minutes.

They need to play more like they did with Davis and Noel. Let WCS protect the rim and pressure more outside. Young, the Harrison's and Poythress (not Randle, he's too slow/lacks effort on D) can switch all day but bringing WCS out to the top of the key is just dumb. It causes way too many unnecessary fouls by guards and Randle on the inside after they get beat.

Hell of a game against a team who has lost to Denver and South Dakota St. this past week.

Michigan State looking very impressive in second half vs Texas today. Payne put on a show today.

Belmont's PG missed the last 5 games.

He returned today. They lost 3 of those 5.

To think they won't be in the NCAA's in March is crazy. Best team in the OVC by a long shot...

I'll keep saying it... Payne is a beast. Can hardly run today and still just dominated the game.

Mulva;1556328 wrote:I'll keep saying it... Payne is a beast. Can hardly run today and still just dominated the game.

He really worked Cameron Ridley. Ridley is another Derrick Nix, Josh Smith or Davante Gardner. Immense talent, but won't ever be elite without getting into better shape. If he could be on the floor more than 20 minutes a game he would be an elite player.