Friday, February 25, 2005
Random basketball thoughts
It's a long wait between those Tuesday and Sunday games. I want to see the Cyclones back on the court tomorrow. I'm not sure how Kansas does it playing Saturday-Monday all year long!
Speaking of Kansas, the players apparently voted to not talk to the media? Give me a break. They've lost 4 games all year and suddenly the media is just too tough to handle. Can anyone say soft? Personally, I think it's a shame that a talent like Simien has to be wasted playing with guys like Miles and Langford. Yes, they've put up great numbers but they're really not leading this team to much this year. Who did they lose last year? Fatass Graves? Miles is a little punk and Langford will disappear for 20 or 30 minutes at a time. I'm curious why Bill Self seems to refuse to sit J.R. Giddens? Do they really not have anyone else? I saw him put up probably ten or more WTF shots in three games last week. Anytime KU needed a basket he took that as a green light to launch a guarded three with 30 seconds left on the shot clock. Clank. He threw up one ridiculous shot like that and Self immediately pointed to someone on the bench. Finally, I thought, but Giddens stayed in the game.
I'm hoping the Shockers can get a big win against Southern Illinois tomorrow. It would be cool to see Wichita State back in the tournament but they've been struggling lately and played themselves out of the tournament barring some big wins. A tie for the MVC should get them in, IMO. Turgeon seems like a good coach and is always honest in his interviews.
Greg McDermott has been getting some run around here as Iowa's next head coach. I don't think it will happen since he is a Steve Alford Clone minus the Sweet Sixteen appearance. Seriously, all he's done is get UNI to the tournament once by winning Arch Madness and underachieve with what was supposed to be a really good Panther team. I think the guy's an ass based on what happened with Morgan in the game earlier this year. Of course the fact that it was a UNI-Iowa/Alford-McDermott lovefest was pretty disgusting. I seriously though the Register was going to run pictures of the two of them fellating each other and call it the most beautiful thing they had ever seen. Maybe I'm going to far with that one.
Moving on.
I like the Big 12 to get 6 teams into the dance. ISU and Texas are the big question marks but I still think ISU wins out to finish 5th and maybe 4th. Texas is a big question mark in my mind. I guess it depends on if they can beat OU at home assuming they beat Mizzou in Austin. A loss at OSU would then leave them at 9-7 in the conference. I think they're in with that mark.
Here is what needs to happen for the Cyclones to finish with the 4th seed in the Big 12 tournament. No, first, here is why they want this seed. There is some sentiment among Cyclone fans that a 5th seed and a first round matchup with Baylor would be preferable. The argument goes that another win would help their standing with the committee. My contention is that an extra day of rest enhances their chances of getting wins that matter (and Baylor isn't one of those). I believe that just stepping onto the court with Baylor would hurt ISU's RPI slightly. Conference standing is one of the most important factors for the committee and sitting in a tie with OU and TT would look a lot better than being a game back.
So, the Clones are two games back right now. They only need to get into a tie with any of the contending southern teams because they own the head-to-head tiebreaker with all of them. First, ISU needs to win out and finish 10-6. Then one of two things needs to happen. Texas Tech needs to lost two of their remaining games. The most likely being @A&M and to OU at home. The third game is @Baylor. It's not inconceivable that they could lose two of those three but that's a lot to ask. The other option is for OU to lose two of their next three. This is the more likely scenario as they play Baylor and then finish @Texas and @Tech. So, basically, we need the team that loses the OU-Tech game to lose another one too coupled with three Cyclone wins. Whew.
It's just my general perception but I think the Big 12 is a better conference this year than last year. It seems that ISU, A&M, Tech, and Kansas State are all better teams this year. Baylor is still struggling, Mizzou sucks this year, and CU is a lot worse but overall everybody has some decent wins. Despite that it looks like Wooldridge and Collier are both on the hot seat.
I think it's a shame what John Chaney did against St. Joe's. If you missed it he put in a "goon" (his words) to play rough and give up some hard fouls. The player fouled out in four minutes and ended a guy's season. Great. I understand you wanted to send a message about illegal screens but that's not the way to do it. You're too good of a coach to go out like that.
I think I'm really going to miss Steve Alford. He was always good for a laugh as he was completely out of touch with reality. There were some great stories about him expecting everything in Iowa City to be free for him and always blaming his players until it became too ridiculous for him to not take some of the blame himself. He had his success against ISU but the Hawkeye's inevitable collapse during the conference season was a sight to behold. We'll miss you, Steve. You'll always be December Champs in our mind.
Speaking of Kansas, the players apparently voted to not talk to the media? Give me a break. They've lost 4 games all year and suddenly the media is just too tough to handle. Can anyone say soft? Personally, I think it's a shame that a talent like Simien has to be wasted playing with guys like Miles and Langford. Yes, they've put up great numbers but they're really not leading this team to much this year. Who did they lose last year? Fatass Graves? Miles is a little punk and Langford will disappear for 20 or 30 minutes at a time. I'm curious why Bill Self seems to refuse to sit J.R. Giddens? Do they really not have anyone else? I saw him put up probably ten or more WTF shots in three games last week. Anytime KU needed a basket he took that as a green light to launch a guarded three with 30 seconds left on the shot clock. Clank. He threw up one ridiculous shot like that and Self immediately pointed to someone on the bench. Finally, I thought, but Giddens stayed in the game.
I'm hoping the Shockers can get a big win against Southern Illinois tomorrow. It would be cool to see Wichita State back in the tournament but they've been struggling lately and played themselves out of the tournament barring some big wins. A tie for the MVC should get them in, IMO. Turgeon seems like a good coach and is always honest in his interviews.
Greg McDermott has been getting some run around here as Iowa's next head coach. I don't think it will happen since he is a Steve Alford Clone minus the Sweet Sixteen appearance. Seriously, all he's done is get UNI to the tournament once by winning Arch Madness and underachieve with what was supposed to be a really good Panther team. I think the guy's an ass based on what happened with Morgan in the game earlier this year. Of course the fact that it was a UNI-Iowa/Alford-McDermott lovefest was pretty disgusting. I seriously though the Register was going to run pictures of the two of them fellating each other and call it the most beautiful thing they had ever seen. Maybe I'm going to far with that one.
Moving on.
I like the Big 12 to get 6 teams into the dance. ISU and Texas are the big question marks but I still think ISU wins out to finish 5th and maybe 4th. Texas is a big question mark in my mind. I guess it depends on if they can beat OU at home assuming they beat Mizzou in Austin. A loss at OSU would then leave them at 9-7 in the conference. I think they're in with that mark.
Here is what needs to happen for the Cyclones to finish with the 4th seed in the Big 12 tournament. No, first, here is why they want this seed. There is some sentiment among Cyclone fans that a 5th seed and a first round matchup with Baylor would be preferable. The argument goes that another win would help their standing with the committee. My contention is that an extra day of rest enhances their chances of getting wins that matter (and Baylor isn't one of those). I believe that just stepping onto the court with Baylor would hurt ISU's RPI slightly. Conference standing is one of the most important factors for the committee and sitting in a tie with OU and TT would look a lot better than being a game back.
So, the Clones are two games back right now. They only need to get into a tie with any of the contending southern teams because they own the head-to-head tiebreaker with all of them. First, ISU needs to win out and finish 10-6. Then one of two things needs to happen. Texas Tech needs to lost two of their remaining games. The most likely being @A&M and to OU at home. The third game is @Baylor. It's not inconceivable that they could lose two of those three but that's a lot to ask. The other option is for OU to lose two of their next three. This is the more likely scenario as they play Baylor and then finish @Texas and @Tech. So, basically, we need the team that loses the OU-Tech game to lose another one too coupled with three Cyclone wins. Whew.
It's just my general perception but I think the Big 12 is a better conference this year than last year. It seems that ISU, A&M, Tech, and Kansas State are all better teams this year. Baylor is still struggling, Mizzou sucks this year, and CU is a lot worse but overall everybody has some decent wins. Despite that it looks like Wooldridge and Collier are both on the hot seat.
I think it's a shame what John Chaney did against St. Joe's. If you missed it he put in a "goon" (his words) to play rough and give up some hard fouls. The player fouled out in four minutes and ended a guy's season. Great. I understand you wanted to send a message about illegal screens but that's not the way to do it. You're too good of a coach to go out like that.
I think I'm really going to miss Steve Alford. He was always good for a laugh as he was completely out of touch with reality. There were some great stories about him expecting everything in Iowa City to be free for him and always blaming his players until it became too ridiculous for him to not take some of the blame himself. He had his success against ISU but the Hawkeye's inevitable collapse during the conference season was a sight to behold. We'll miss you, Steve. You'll always be December Champs in our mind.
# posted by Ben @ 5:44 PM 
