Around the Country- 1/31

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Wulaw Horn

1,000+ Posts
Some games I am watching today (times and chanels in texas)

ND v Pitt- 11:00 AM- ESPN- I like PItt to bounce back in this one and UND to continue their slide. UND is in danger of going to 3-6 in conference, and they have two loseable games next week (one at UCLA). I think they have something like the 250th ranked n/c schedule. They are far from a tourney lock, regardless of the fact that they have a ranking beside their name

Xmen v Umass- 11:00 am ESPNU- I haven't seen X play, they are a top 10 team, I plan to rectify that somewhat today

Michigan at Purdue- CBS- Noon. I like watching Beilein teams play. He looked like a lock to have Michigan back in the tourney- now it looks sketchy at best. Purdue has rebounded somewhat from a bad 0-2 start in the big televen. Two or three of their wins were razor thin and I'm nowhere near sold on them as a sweet 16 type team. Will keep an eye on this.

Oklahoma at ISU- 12:30 Big 12 network. I'm hoping for an ISU win. I'm not expecting it. I might keep half an eye on this game

OSU at Texas A&M- 1:00- ESPN. Simply a must win game for the aggies if they want to make the dance. OSU got hosed by the zebras at Baylor. They might want to win this game for their tourney chances as well- a sweep would really differentiate them from A&M come selection sunday- as I think they will be competing for the 5th big 12 berth (if there is to be one). I don't expect Mizzou to be relevant in that discussion and Baylor, KU, UT and OU are virtual locks I would think.

UNC v NCST- 2:30- ABC- I'm an acknowledged Roy Williams fan, love watching his teams play. This will probably be my backup game for when UT is on commercial after the A&M v OSU game ends (or is non-competitive if that happens)

KSU at Texas- 3:00 Big 12 affiliates. I expect to drill KSU in Austin. I'm goging to be dissapointed if this game is in single digits after we have been playing better after hopefully bottoming out with that disgraceful and embarrassing gnon-effort against OU in Norman.

Baylor @ Mizzou- 5:00 big g12 network. I realize I wrote earlier about Baylor being a virtual lock and Mizzou being NITish. Baylor needs to win this game in Mizzou. I think that place is overrated as an away venue unless you are a kansas or top 10 team. Mizzou fan's a game is pretty good but they can be apathetic and sit on their hands plenty. If Mizzou blows out Baylor by some chance ignore everything I wrote in the A&M breakdown.

SanDiego at Gonzaga- 5:00 pm ESPN2. I wanted to see Zags v ST. Mary's. I watched some and ST Maryl's looked like the better team through 25 or 30 minutes but I fell asleep and Zaggs won by 10ish. Not super pumped about this game, but it's in a weak slot in the day- bears keeping an eye on perhaps

Florida at Tennessee 8:00 pm ESPN. Both teams are well down from past performances over the prior 5 to 10 years, bu this gagme is usually fun.

Cal v USC- 10:30 Fox Sports Net- I haven't seen cal play yet. USC is a bubble team. If I have nothing better to do I might catch this game.


As always, post your thoughts from anything you are watching.

I'll start- UND is looking great right now, they didn't miss to start and when they did harrangodady is crashing the boards. UND just hit thier 6th 3 of the game to go up 20 to 10 on Pitt. This is definately a back against the wall game for the domers and so far they've showed up and acted like they want to be a tourney team at Pitt. As always, one of the most dangerous teams in the game when they hit their shots. Pitt looks like they are still asleep. I expect this game to tighten up and Dixon to get after his guys here at the TO.
 
Just as I gegt ready gto post that Pitt has stemmed the flow on UND's offense and are allover them defensively (cut it to 2 points as UND scored 1 point over a 5 minute stretch) UND reminded you of their dangerousness. Back to back treys and a fast break that's going to lead to 2 FT.

Some might rave about the down low matchup between Harangoady and Blair but I don' tthink either of them have anything on Sexy Dexy. I see little NBA potential in either of those guys (I mean as cornersotne type players, I think all three make a roster and probably make the rotation but they are just guys imo, not impact players or the reason you win).
 
Usually I point and laugh and mock anyone who tells me a mid major team is one of the ten best in the country.

Not that they can't get to the sweet 16 or something, or that they can't beat a mid major team one time, it's just that most of the time it's a lot easier for one of those teams to get up for 5 or 6 games a year when they have cupcakes all throughout their schedule.

It's a lot easier for the zags to get up for St. Mary's one week, memphis 3 weeks later when you are playing crap teams in between.

Well, Xavier is different I think. In watching them for some 5 or 10 minutes they definately pass the eyeball test. I believe they might be the 10th best team in the country. I wouldn't want any part of them in march in a 2nd round matchup if I'm UT (I'm thinking 4/5 would be how that could happen).

X men could play in the big 12 imo. Davidson would go 6-10. X men would go 10-6 in the south, 12-4 in the north imo.

They are good.
 
And now we see what UND looks like when they aren't hitting 11 3's in one half- warmed over dog ****. Pitt just squeezed the life out of UND. Not giving the shooters any room, UND didn't even attempt to shoot their first 3 until 11 minutes in. A 6 point Irish lead became a 12 point deficit in 12 minutes.

UMAss is up 1 on xavier with 8 minutes left. I stand by what I said agbogugt X. They are athletic, can get to the reack, can shoot and play defense. UMASS started out like a house on fire shooting gto keep the game close in the first half, but X clamped down and ran out to about a 10 point lead.

But, the story of the second half has been tournovers. X has turned the ball over 20 times in the first 30 minutes, and UMass has turned that into 25 or 30 points off turnovers. Very easy buckets along the line.

Michigan and Purdue is tight, low scoring and an ugly big televen game. I expecgt it to be a last possesion type of gagme from what I've seen so far.
 
I guess I'm gtalking to myself, so unless anyone else joins the conversation I guess I'm going to stop.

X and Umass are hooked up in a great game. Seeing Umass here I can see how they could beat KU. What I don't get is some of their horrific, head scratching losses. Bogth teams trading shots and big plays. UMass with the dribble drive motion offense of memphis Tripps wants us to run. Interesting. X gegts a stop nad a dunk on the otgher end, and Umass comes back and immediately drills a 3 with 50 seconds left. 1 point x men lead. really good game on the U.
 
Final thoughts from PItt v UND as the domers drop another 10 or so point loss and look more and more like they could be NIT bound:

UND doesn't play good defense at all
Pitt is a much better offensive team then they have been in years past. I could have seen them down 45- 27 and the game being over in years past, this year they withstood tghe run and kept UND in touch until thtey could throttle them defensively.


Now, back to the X-men last minute:

X- ran the clock down to about 15 seconds and missed a wide open three. Umass then missed a wide open three coming back the other way and fouled with 9 or so seconds left. X kid cooly drills both ends of the one and one to make it a three point game.

X, having learned the lesson of the hearbreaker against a 50 year old greg oden in the tourney a couple of years ago decides to foul, but they do it with a lot of time left (8.5 seconds). I'm in favor of always fouling here, but i wait until 5 seconds or so, as an aside.

So far the X kid hit the front end again and Umass called time again. If he hits X is going to foul again and Umass will have gto go for an on purpose miss I'd think.
Cooly drill the second, Umass gets fouled at midcourt by X with 4 seconds left, the umass kid throws up the shot a second later and drrains the 3 (doesn't count) from mid court.

Kid with 3.6 seconds hits the first and Umass calls a TO. Has to miss here, not enough time left.

Good solid coaching job (imo) by the x coach.
 
Umass kid missed (it didn't look like he was trying to though) off the side of the rim and UMASS got a good tip in opportunity, but just a bit strong.

X survives. Good gagme. On to a couple of big 12 tilts now for me, with keepingg tabs on Michigan v Purdue in the second half.
 
I haven't been able to watch basketball today --- or much all year, for that matter --- so I appreciate the running commentary, Wulaw Horn. I wish I had something substantial to add.
 
I don't understand why you count the bucket if you release it and then land on the defensive player for a charge. When a guy shoots and three and gets fouled after the ball is released, they act like it's a shooting foul. They don't say it's an off the ball foul after the shot.
 
Wahoo0

gthat was Oklahoma State and it wasn't half court, it was three quarter court. They hit all 3 ft's and the game went to OT and UT won. that punched our tourney ticket for a lousy UT team (the marcus was hurt and PJ couldn't make grades).

Gtexas off to an absolutely putrid start- we were down 8-1. NOw up 12-10. AJ got his record, only took him eleventy thousand shots to do it (ok that was mean, more like 3 but whatgever).

Sorry for all the random g's sprinkled into these posts, there is something wrong with this laptop I'm using.
 
BTW- fell asleep for a nap and didn't see how Purdue v Michigan got so out of hand but I'm guessing it had something to do with Manny Harris, Michigan's best player getting tossed.

I flipped it over and saw a Purdue guy bleeding all over the place (looked bad) and the crowd was booing harris as he was wakling ginto the locker room. Did anyone see what happened. Did Harris perform a ninja move? What gives.
 
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