The college basketball season is officially underway, and as is typical of the early season, there are already some wacky results, the most shocking being Kansas losing to Oral Roberts Wednesday night. Nobody is happier to see that score than Boston College coach Al Saunders-- losing to Vermont is one thing (and makes Maryland's win over the Catamounts look better), but losing to a vanity university is a whole new level of embarrassing. Particularly at home.
Also in action Wednesday night were North Carolina, playing Winthrop in the preseason NIT, and Syracuse, playing Northeastern before a crowd of several dozen in the Carrier Dome, because Jim Boeheim doesn't like to leave Syracuse in November or December. Both games were on tv here, the Syracuse game a cheesey local cable broadcast, and I spent a bunch of time flipping back and forth between them. Syracuse struggled a bit early, going down 15 at one point in the first half, but got themselves back on track, and won handily. North Carolina's struggles continued well into the second half, and they trailed late before pulling it out.
Thursday night saw my Maryland Terrapins facing St. John's in Madison Square Garden as part of the Coaches vs. Cancer tournament. The Red Storm obligingly turned the ball over approximately nine million times, and the Terps led by 37 at the half. The announcers gamely tried to impart some significance to this beyond "St. John's is really bad," but I watched the game, and what I took from it is that St. John's is really bad.
Still, a nice effort from the Terps, who are somewhat prone to flaking out against inferior competition. The real test will be Friday night's game against either Michigan State or Texas.
Miscellaneous commentary about all three games below the fold.
- Big first half from Ekene Ibekwe, with 22 points (outscoring the entire St. John's team) and 10 rebounds. Of course, he didn't score in the second half, but he added a few more rebounds, and a bunch of blocks. He still looks like a stick figure, but he played well.
- The surprise big showing of the Syracuse game was Andy Rautins, who was on fire for a little while in the first half. Other than that, the returning players looked pretty much the same.
- Tyler Hansbrough is really, really good. He also looks like he's twelve. Other than, you know, being seven feet tall and ripped. I think it's something about the eyes, which are about the size of an anime character's.
- Commentary highlight of Wednesday night: Bill Raftery saying that "Watching Tyler Hansbrough listen is really special." Or, rather, Jay Bilas and Dan Shulman mocking him mercilessly for saying that.
- Highly touted Syracuse freshman Paul Harris palyed well, coming off the bench to score 16 and grab 12 rebounds. Given the hype, I was a little surprised not to see him earlier, but he got plenty of court time, and showed a solid all-around game.
- Maryland's freshman backcourt duo looked pretty sharp, too, but again, St. John's had a lot to do with that. The announcers remarked several times that Eric Hayes is reminiscent of Steve Blake, which is certainly true given that he's a skinny white kid with an unfortunate haircut. He's a little more willing to shoot than Blake, though, and a little less sure with the ball (though I'm probably doing him a disservice by comparing him in his fourth game to Blake as a senior).
- Bambale Osby barely saw the court for the Terps, and didn't do much when he was out there. He also had his hair in cornrows, which I think is significant-- sporting the 'fro against Vermont he outplayed Ibekwe and Gist, while with braids he was a non-factor. I think the lesson here is clear.
That's probably about enough of that. It's November, and none of these games mean very much yet. It's just good to see college basketball on tv again...
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All of my cousins on my mother's side attend(ed) Oral Roberts, defying their Lutheran roots and my own private hope that they would go to a real school and major in something real. Occasionally I feel arrogant for thinking that: it was actually a great school for the oldest one, but the younger two-- I was just aghast.
I'm possibly even a worse person for reconsidering my opinion in light of the recent success of their basketball team.
Er, BC's coach is Al Skinner.
Speaking of upset coaches, Jeff Ruland must be beside himself down at Iona. They lost to Winthrop by 19 in their opener, and lost by 9 to Div. III RI College in an exhibition.
Er, BC's coach is Al Skinner.
Whoops.
Proctoring exams ate my brain.
I'll fix that later.
My youngest brother is a senior at KU.... and he did his freshman year at Oral Roberts (moved back in with my parents after freshman year to regain his freedom). I havn't yet asked him what he thinks of the game.
Maryland-MSU it is. I think the best thing that can be said about this year's Spartans squad is that it's really Drew Neitzel's team. There were definitely deferring to upperclassmen issues in Neitzel's first two seasons in East Lansing.
Not really sure what to make of MSU yet. Beating Texas at MSG is a nice win, but both teams are quite young -- at crunch time the play got pretty ragged at both ends. Raymar Morgan and Maurice Joseph aren't going to make anyone forget about Mo Ager & Shannon Brown, but they have the chance to carve out a space alongside those guys. Much less star quality to this team, but they have the look of a group that can develop into a "tough out" sort of grinder come conference time.
Wow...St. John's is much worse than California U. of Pennsylvania.