Luke Winn's College Hoops Blog

261 Luke Winn's College Hoops Blog

27641

Luke Winn

4563 New York NY

http://img.fannation.com/images/layout/profile-headshot.gif NCAAB What We Learned From ... Pitt-Washington State Pitt's Sam Young can produce points in a variety of ways.AP NEWARK, N.J. -- Three things we learned from No. 4 Pitt's 57-43 win over Washington State in Saturday's Legends… <div class="photo_container image_right"> <div class="photo"><img src="http://img.fannation.com/upload/si_blog_post_images/pitt2.jpg" alt="Pitt2" width="298" height="397" /></div> <div class="photo_attributes" style="text-align:right;">Pitt's Sam Young can produce points in a variety of ways. AP</div> </div> NEWARK, N.J. -- Three things we learned from No. 4 Pitt's 57-43 win over Washington State in Saturday's Legends Classic final ... 1. There's a new signature move in college hoops. Joining the Hansbrough Shot-put, the 'Gody Jab, the Steph Curry Rainbow, and the Blake Griffin Spin ... is the Sam Young Pump-fake. As Pitt's best all-around player, and the guy who's been carrying the Panthers while the chunky duo of Levance Fields and DeJuan Blair get into shape, Young has been killing opposing defenders with his pump-fake on the perimeter, then taking long strides to the rim for dunks and trips to the foul line. "We told our guys, 'Stay down. Stay down!' He's got a world-class ball-fake," Washington State coach Tony Bennett said of Young, who went for 12 first-half points (finishing with 15) on Saturday to lead Pitt in scoring. Bennett's warnings didn't actually work, as Cougars were running by Young for much of the evening. Young loves how much players bite on the fake -- "I tell guys, I've got the best pump fake in the business," he said -- but it isn't a move he's used his whole life. He pump-faked sparingly in high school, he said, and then "did it a couple of times by accident when I was freshman [at Pitt]. I was about to really shoot it, and I didn't, and guys just flew out of the picture, and I had a clean lane to the basket. So I started doing it on purpose." The move wouldn't work if Young weren't a legitimate three-point threat. Pitt's biggest weakness is its perimeter shooting, and Young is one of its few players who must be guarded out there: He was 2-of-4 from beyond the arc on Saturday, while the rest of the Panthers were 1-of-9. "I shoot it sometimes," he admits, "just so I can set up [the fake]." <div class="photo_container image_right"> <div class="photo"><img src="http://img.fannation.com/upload/si_blog_post_images/pitt2.jpg" alt="Pitt2" width="298" height="397" /></div> <div class="photo_attributes" style="text-align:right;">Pitt's Sam Young can produce points in a variety of ways. AP</div> </div> NEWARK, N.J. -- Three things we learned from No. 4 Pitt's 57-43 win over Washington State in Saturday's Legends Classic final ... 1. There's a new signature move in college hoops. Joining the Hansbrough Shot-put, the 'Gody Jab, the Steph Curry Rainbow, and the Blake Griffin Spin ... is the Sam Young Pump-fake. As Pitt's best all-around player, and the guy who's been carrying the Panthers while the chunky duo of Levance Fields and DeJuan Blair get into shape, Young has been killing opposing defenders with his pump-fake on the perimeter, then taking long strides to the rim for dunks and trips to the foul line. "We told our guys, 'Stay down. Stay down!' He's got a world-class ball-fake," Washington State coach Tony Bennett said of Young, who went for 12 first-half points (finishing with 15) on Saturday to lead Pitt in scoring. Bennett's warnings didn't actually work, as Cougars were running by Young for much of the evening. Young loves how much players bite on the fake -- "I tell guys, I've got the best pump fake in the business," he said -- but it isn't a move he's used his whole life. He pump-faked sparingly in high school, he said, and then "did it a couple of times by accident when I was freshman [at Pitt]. I was about to really shoot it, and I didn't, and guys just flew out of the picture, and I had a clean lane to the basket. So I started doing it on purpose." The move wouldn't work if Young weren't a legitimate three-point threat. Pitt's biggest weakness is its perimeter shooting, and Young is one of its few players who must be guarded out there: He was 2-of-4 from beyond the arc on Saturday, while the rest of the Panthers were 1-of-9. "I shoot it sometimes," he admits, "just so I can set up [the fake]." 2. Pitt can't afford to let post-trapping teams take DeJuan Blair out of games. The double-teams in Wazzu's Pack-Line Defense are well-known for frustrating big men -- see what happened to Notre Dame's Luke Harangody in the second round of the last NCAA tournament -- but how can't you get Blair, who came into the game averaging 17.0 points, more than one shot attempt in the first half? With about 6:40 left in the first half, a Pitt fan stood up and yelled at Fields, "Hey Fields! Put the ball in the paint! Give it to the big man!" It didn't get much better in the second half: Blair had just one field-goal attempt then, too, as the Cougars continued to collapse on him in the blocks. He found other ways to contribute, grabbing seven-half rebounds (to finish with 10), blocking three shots, and setting high ball-screens to let Fields get in the lane, but still, Pitt needs more than seven points out of Blair to compete with elite teams. The Panthers survived, on Saturday, by getting decent nights out of Young and Fields, and holding the Cougars to just 24.1 percent shooting in the second half. Against a better opponent -- particularly one that could create more of its own offense off of penetration, and had a decent perimeter defender to counter Young -- the result might not have been the same. 3. The next Stephen Curry-esque story might be at Washington State. Sweet-shooting 6-foot-6 guard Klay Thompson, the son of 1978 No. 1 NBA draft pick Mychal Thompson, starred at Santa Margarita High School outside of Los Angeles and desperately wanted to play in the Pac-10. Mychal told Scout.com last April that "USC was [Klay's] top choice. I practically begged coach [Tim] Floyd to recruit him. He wouldn't." That's when, Mychal said, "Tony jumped into the void." Tony is Tony Bennett, who turned out to be the only Pac-10 coach to offer Klay a scholarship. Thompson wasn't regarded as a major prospect until his senior year, when he went from being unranked in Rivals.com's 150 to No. 52; by then Bennett had already won a battle with Notre Dame, Michigan and Nevada for Thompson's services. It makes sense that Mike Brey and John Beilein, two coaches whose offenses rely heavily on the three, were chasing Thompson: He has both extensive range and the ability to shoot over most guards. Thompson, the Cougs' only underclassman starter, was averaging 13.6 points and 5.8 rebounds coming into Saturday's game, including a 19-point and 10-rebound effort againt Mississippi State in the Legends Classic semifinal. He started strong against Pitt, connecting on three of Wazzu's first four baskets, but Panther guard Jermaine Dixon, an underrated on-ball defender, dogged Thompson for the rest of the contest and held him to just seven total points. "They got real physical and tagged [Thompson]," Bennett said. "He didn't get many clean looks [after the hot start], and that's all part of learning." One suspects Thompson has some major scoring nights ahead of him. USC might want to stay on notice. There's a chance the kid is ticked that his scholarship went to Lil Romeo. Pittsburgh Panthers, Washington State

2008-11-30T00:29:26-05:00

2008-12-02T07:34:32-05:00

27481

Luke Winn

4563 New York NY

http://img.fannation.com/images/layout/profile-headshot.gif NCAAB What We Learned From ... Purdue-Oklahoma NEW YORK -- Three things we learned from No. 11 Oklahoma's 87-82, overtime win over No. 10 Purdue in the finals of the NIT Season Tip-Off ... 1. The Boilermakers provided a better… <div class="photo_container image_right"> <div class="photo"><img src="http://img.fannation.com/upload/si_blog_post_images/oklahoma.jpg" alt="Oklahoma" width="298" height="350" /></div> <div class="photo_attributes" style="text-align:right;">Willie Warren and Oklahoma had ample reason to celebrate. AP</div> </div> NEW YORK -- Three things we learned from No. 11 Oklahoma's 87-82, overtime win over No. 10 Purdue in the finals of the NIT Season Tip-Off ... 1. The Boilermakers provided a better template for stopping Blake Griffin than any Sooners opponent has this year ... but just got too foul-happy down the stretch. The most intriguing tactical part of this duel was that Purdue, one of the country's best defensive teams, had no direct counter for Griffin, who is 6-foot-10 and 251 pounds, and was averaging 27.2 points and 18.8 rebounds entering the game. At center, the Boilermakers either had 6-10, 215-pound JaJuan Johnson, whose legs are skinnier than Griffin's forearms; or 6-9, 247-pound Nemanja Calasan, who's a slower and less graceful version of Vlade Divac. Johnson, alone, would get run over by Griffin; Calasan would get blown away. Thus, coach Matt Painter had no other option but to enlist his four-men -- either Robbie Hummel or Marcus Green -- to sag off of Griffin's older brother, Taylor, and try to limit Blake's touches as much as possible. In the first half, this was a relative success: Blake took just six shots, almost all contested, and had just three free-throw attempts, for a total of eight points. He was visibly agitated, and looked, at times, like a whiny freshman rather than a battle-tested sophomore, begging refs to bail him out of trouble rather than finding ways to get open. As Hummel said, "We were trying not to get beat by their superstar," and the Boilers weren't, as they took a 40-36 lead into the break. When Purdue was scouting the Sooners, the scariest segments of Blake Griffin video were the spins: Hummel said he remembered one in particular where Griffin took a post feed on one block, "then spun around his guy on the baseline and reverse dunked." And so their double-teams were not just double-teams, but efforts to take away Griffin's spinning option by sealing off the baseline. Said guard Chris Kramer, "We wanted to make [Griffin] come to the middle, where our help was, because he loves that baseline. Better to make him pass or shoot over us than just jam it in from the block." <div class="photo_container image_right"> <div class="photo"><img src="http://img.fannation.com/upload/si_blog_post_images/oklahoma.jpg" alt="Oklahoma" width="298" height="350" /></div> <div class="photo_attributes" style="text-align:right;">Willie Warren and Oklahoma had ample reason to celebrate. AP</div> </div> NEW YORK -- Three things we learned from No. 11 Oklahoma's 87-82, overtime win over No. 10 Purdue in the finals of the NIT Season Tip-Off ... 1. The Boilermakers provided a better template for stopping Blake Griffin than any Sooners opponent has this year ... but just got too foul-happy down the stretch. The most intriguing tactical part of this duel was that Purdue, one of the country's best defensive teams, had no direct counter for Griffin, who is 6-foot-10 and 251 pounds, and was averaging 27.2 points and 18.8 rebounds entering the game. At center, the Boilermakers either had 6-10, 215-pound JaJuan Johnson, whose legs are skinnier than Griffin's forearms; or 6-9, 247-pound Nemanja Calasan, who's a slower and less graceful version of Vlade Divac. Johnson, alone, would get run over by Griffin; Calasan would get blown away. Thus, coach Matt Painter had no other option but to enlist his four-men -- either Robbie Hummel or Marcus Green -- to sag off of Griffin's older brother, Taylor, and try to limit Blake's touches as much as possible. In the first half, this was a relative success: Blake took just six shots, almost all contested, and had just three free-throw attempts, for a total of eight points. He was visibly agitated, and looked, at times, like a whiny freshman rather than a battle-tested sophomore, begging refs to bail him out of trouble rather than finding ways to get open. As Hummel said, "We were trying not to get beat by their superstar," and the Boilers weren't, as they took a 40-36 lead into the break. When Purdue was scouting the Sooners, the scariest segments of Blake Griffin video were the spins: Hummel said he remembered one in particular where Griffin took a post feed on one block, "then spun around his guy on the baseline and reverse dunked." And so their double-teams were not just double-teams, but efforts to take away Griffin's spinning option by sealing off the baseline. Said guard Chris Kramer, "We wanted to make [Griffin] come to the middle, where our help was, because he loves that baseline. Better to make him pass or shoot over us than just jam it in from the block." Forcing Griffin to go in a certain direction -- given that he was peerless in both size and athleticism -- was not as simple as merely standing in the right place. "They were just grabbing and holding me," Griffin said of the Boilers. "I've gotten that before, but they were a little more aggressive, I guess you could say." What kept Purdue in the game early sunk them in the end, though: What passed, in the refs' eyes, as legal aggression in the first half was not allowed in the second, and while Griffin's touches were still limited in the final 25 minutes -- he was just 2-of-7 from the field in that stretch -- he got the foul line 10 more times. The game finished with a free-throw attempt disparity of 46-to-5 in Oklahoma's favor. Griffin hit two free throws with 52.2 seconds left in regulation to tie the game at 74-74, sending it to overtime, where the Sooners pulled away. 2. Super-frosh Willie Warren saved the day. Blake Griffin finished with 18 points and 21 boards. Taylor, the beneficiary of Purdue's non-stop double-teams on his brother, had 19 points and eight rebounds. But there's no chance the Sooners win this game without Warren's combination of size and speed on the perimeter. The Purdue Way is to play pressure-man defense on the perimeter, flustering opposing guards into making turnovers or taking uncomfortable jumpers late in the shot clock. This usually works -- and it's how the Boilers will win the Big Ten this year -- but not against Warren, who got by Kramer, the league's defensive player of the year, and E'Twaun Moore, a preseason all-conference guard with ease on Friday. Once he had penetrated the first layer of the Purdue D, Warren used his 6-4, 207-poind frame to either score in traffic or get to the free-throw line, where he took just as many attempts as Griffin (13) and made 11, to finish with 22 points. Warren's exhibition was oddly reminiscent of Memphis' Derrick Rose blowing up UCLA's Darren Collison in last year's Final Four -- a powerful guard just having his way with an opponent who, under normal circumstances, would be a standout defender. And it turned out that Griffin had been filling his head with Rose chatter all month: "I keep telling [Warren], look at what Derrick Rose did last year," Griffin said. "[Rose] was a very unselfish player, but at the same time he could go score whenever he wanted. I feel like that's what Willie brings to our team." 3. There's no lock on the Wooden and Naismith Awards anymore. Conventional wisdom was that North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough would pull off a repeat Wooden/Naismith sweep as a senior, but he's off to a slow start with a shin injury, and honestly: On such a loaded Tar Heels team, is there any way he'll be able to put up numbers like Griffin's? Blake's stats have been Beasleyian thus far; his lowest rebound total through six games is 15 (15!) and he's already had monster nights against two ranked teams (Davidson and Purdue). Michael Beasley was hurt in player-of-the year voting because he played on a team that barely made the NCAA tournament. Oklahoma is likely to stay in the top 15 all year long, and earn a top-four seed ... which means Mr. Griffin might just be the favorite for the hardware. Purdue Boilermakers, Oklahoma Sooners

2008-11-28T20:48:24-05:00

2008-12-01T09:04:45-05:00

26781

Luke Winn

4563 New York NY

http://img.fannation.com/images/layout/profile-headshot.gif NCAAB Hoosier Karma Back in October, in his first week of practice at Indiana, new coach Tom Crean told me about a new pregame ritual he planned to institute for his players. Hoosier legend Isiah… <div class="photo_container image_right"> <div class="photo"><img src="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/images/11/25/kelvin-sampson.jpg" alt="Double Click to select a Photo" /></div> <div class="photo_attributes" style="text-align:right;">Kelvin Sampson received a five year show cause penalty.</div> <div class="photo_attributes" style="text-align:right;">AP</div> </div> Back in October, in his first week of practice at Indiana, new coach Tom Crean told me about a new pregame ritual he planned to institute for his players. Hoosier legend Isiah Thomas had spoken at an IU camp over the summer and had told the campers, "If you're good to the game, the game will be good to you." Crean liked that line enough that he had Thomas sign it on a basketball, which was placed in a display case in the Indiana locker room, where it could be tapped by Hoosier players before they took the floor for home games. Thomas, given his fate with the Knicks, may not have followed his own advice once his playing days were over, but this is beside the point; his quote had Karmic overtones, and Indiana was desperately in need of some good Karma. At a program that had been ravaged by former coach Kelvin Sampson's disregard for NCAA rules, Crean was trying to tell the rag-tag bunch he had reassembled that if they played right and acted right, good things might start to happen. <div class="photo_container image_right"> <div class="photo"><img src="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/images/11/25/kelvin-sampson.jpg" alt="Double Click to select a Photo" /></div> <div class="photo_attributes" style="text-align:right;">Kelvin Sampson received a five year show cause penalty.</div> <div class="photo_attributes" style="text-align:right;">AP</div> </div> Back in October, in his first week of practice at Indiana, new coach Tom Crean told me about a new pregame ritual he planned to institute for his players. Hoosier legend Isiah Thomas had spoken at an IU camp over the summer and had told the campers, "If you're good to the game, the game will be good to you." Crean liked that line enough that he had Thomas sign it on a basketball, which was placed in a display case in the Indiana locker room, where it could be tapped by Hoosier players before they took the floor for home games. Thomas, given his fate with the Knicks, may not have followed his own advice once his playing days were over, but this is beside the point; his quote had Karmic overtones, and Indiana was desperately in need of some good Karma. At a program that had been ravaged by former coach Kelvin Sampson's disregard for NCAA rules, Crean was trying to tell the rag-tag bunch he had reassembled that if they played right and acted right, good things might start to happen. The specter of NCAA sanctions was still hanging over Bloomington when I met with Crean in the preseason, and on this issue he was seriously in need of positive Karma. Crean knew that the NCAA had met in the week leading up to Midnight Madness, and that its final decision was coming within the next two months. His opinion on the matter was that Indiana had already suffered enough and done enough -- by firing Sampson and his entire staff, getting rid of the athletic director that hired him (Rick Greenspan), booting off so many troubled players that only two remained from '07-08, and self-imposing recruiting and scholarship penalties -- that no further sanctions were necessary. Indiana deserved to be penalized for hiring a coach who was busted for violating NCAA phone-call rules at Oklahoma, and then letting him do the exact same thing on its watch, but who would the NCAA have been punishing in November 2008? The new regime had nothing to do with the old regime's cheating ways, and Crean and Co. were doing their best to dig out of the rubble. <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/basketball/ncaa/11/25/indiana.ap.ap/index.html">The NCAA's official word came down on Tuesday</a>, released to the media while the Hoosiers were in Hawaii, in the process of receiving <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/basketball/ncaa/men/viewcast/2008/11/25/index.html?contestId=55152&vendorId=200811250535&vendorVisitTeam=271&vendorHomeTeam=535&pageType=recap">a 26-point beating</a> from St. Joseph's in the Maui Invitational. The news was better than the score of that game: Indiana would receive three years' probation, but no additional penalties beyond those self-imposed by the program in 2007. No additional scholarships lost, no additional recruiting restrictions, and no postseason ban (although that was a symbolic victory, given that there's little chance the '08-09 Hoosiers will even finish above .500). Sampson didn't get off as easily: He was hit with a five-year show cause that expires on November 24, 2013, which will effectively keep him out of the college game (if he desires to return) until the 2014-15 season. The golden parachute he received, in the form of a $750,000 buyout from Indiana and an assistant-coaching job with the Milwaukee Bucks, should soften the blow of the NCAA penalty. Former assistant Rob Senderoff received a three-year show cause, which could put his current job as an assistant at Kent State in jeopardy, since it severely restricts his ability to recruit. The biggest impact of this NCAA report is likely to be on Indiana's recruiting efforts. Now that the Sampson incident has been put completely in the past, schools competing for players with the Hoosiers can no longer "go negative" -- by insinuating that they might sign on with a school that would be banned from the NCAA tournament. Said Crean in October, "We're still going through the impact of how irresponsible recruiting can become when you want to paint a picture for a recruit that isn't necessarily real. ... There wasn't a lot of 'Hey, hang in there,' from people in the coaching world, and we get that. But we're going to be aggressive in our way too." On Nov. 13, the second day of the NCAA's early signing period for recruits, Crean <a href="http://iuhoosiers.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/111308aaf.html">announced a six-player class</a> that was ranked fifth in the nation by Rivals.com. Now that they're in the clear with the NCAA -- and can still offer plenty of immediate playing time -- the Hoosiers could land another solid class in 2010, and, if all goes well, even compete for an NCAA tournament bid in 2011. There is hope, on the horizon, that the game will start being good to Indiana once again. Indiana Hoosiers

2008-11-25T16:43:50-05:00

2008-11-25T16:44:06-05:00

2008-11-26T12:45:40-05:00

25822

Luke Winn

4563 New York NY

http://img.fannation.com/images/layout/profile-headshot.gif NCAAB Three Reasons Not to Hate Duke (Or rather, three reasons not to hate on Duke's worthiness as a top-five team, following its 71-56 win over Michigan in the finals of the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic ...) 1.… <div class="photo_container image_right"> <div class="photo"><img src="http://img.fannation.com/upload/si_blog_post_images/p1.duke.jpg" alt="P1" width="300" height="508" /></div> <div class="photo_attributes" style="text-align: left;">Nolan Smith gives Duke speed and athleticism at PG. AP</div> </div> (Or rather, three reasons not to hate on Duke's worthiness as a top-five team, following its 71-56 win over Michigan in the finals of the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic ...) 1. In sophomore Nolan Smith, they now have a speedy starting point guard who can ball-pressure on D and get into the lane on offense. Smith is no virtuoso at the position yet -- the guy he supplanted in the first unit, Greg Paulus, still has better court vision -- but choosing speed and athleticism over experience is already starting to pay off. Duke was plus-18 when Smith was on the floor against Michigan, compared to just plus-four with Paulus (who, it should be noted, is nursing a hand injury). But Smith made enough smart decisions with the ball on Friday to lead the Blue Devils in scoring (with 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting) and dish out four assists against two turnovers. Smith actually considered leaving Duke this offseason. His best friend and former AAU teammate, Michael Beasley, hinted during an appearance at the Final Four that there was a possibility Smith, who was frustrated after his freshman season, might transfer -- not necessarily to Kansas State, since Beasley was soon turning pro, but to somewhere. Then on April 26, Smith's father figure at Duke, assistant Johnny Dawkins, left to take the head coaching job at Stanford. Dawkins was a former teammate of Smith's late father, Derek, on the Philadelphia 76ers. "He was the coach who brought me to Duke," Smith said, "and once he was gone, the question was, 'What do I do?'" <div class="photo_container image_right"> <div class="photo"><img src="http://img.fannation.com/upload/si_blog_post_images/p1.duke.jpg" alt="P1" width="300" height="508" /></div> <div class="photo_attributes" style="text-align: left;">Nolan Smith gives Duke speed and athleticism at PG. AP</div> </div> (Or rather, three reasons not to hate on Duke's worthiness as a top-five team, following its 71-56 win over Michigan in the finals of the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic ...) 1. In sophomore Nolan Smith, they now have a speedy starting point guard who can ball-pressure on D and get into the lane on offense. Smith is no virtuoso at the position yet -- the guy he supplanted in the first unit, Greg Paulus, still has better court vision -- but choosing speed and athleticism over experience is already starting to pay off. Duke was plus-18 when Smith was on the floor against Michigan, compared to just plus-four with Paulus (who, it should be noted, is nursing a hand injury). But Smith made enough smart decisions with the ball on Friday to lead the Blue Devils in scoring (with 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting) and dish out four assists against two turnovers. Smith actually considered leaving Duke this offseason. His best friend and former AAU teammate, Michael Beasley, hinted during an appearance at the Final Four that there was a possibility Smith, who was frustrated after his freshman season, might transfer -- not necessarily to Kansas State, since Beasley was soon turning pro, but to somewhere. Then on April 26, Smith's father figure at Duke, assistant Johnny Dawkins, left to take the head coaching job at Stanford. Dawkins was a former teammate of Smith's late father, Derek, on the Philadelphia 76ers. "He was the coach who brought me to Duke," Smith said, "and once he was gone, the question was, 'What do I do?'" Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski had been occupied with Team USA duties while the situation festered, and another freshman, Taylor King, had already left for Villanova. It took a meeting with Krzyzewski later in the spring, in which Smith remembers his coach saying, "He had all the confidence in the world about me coming back, and he said he was behind me and he supported me. I really needed to hear that." Smith then headed off to Philadelphia, where he honed his point-guard skills in workouts with Beasley and former Texas A&M center DeAndre Jordan, who were both preparing for the NBA Draft. "I was a shooting guard when I came to college," Smith said, "and you can't really change that in one year. I needed the summer to make it work." Now he has the reins of the team -- "and I feel like they trust me as a leader," he says -- and has already made an impact by applying more defensive heat at the top of their man-to-man defense than Paulus could provide. Says junior Gerald Henderson of Smith, "No one else on the team can be a pest on the ball like he can." 2. They have some legitimate size in the post -- even if it's just for 20 minutes a game. Brian Zoubek once looked as if his career was on a tragic path, as a 7-foot bench-dweller whose time at Duke would be marred by injuries. But he said on Friday -- after shooting 5-of-6 from the field for 16 points over two 2K Sports Classic games -- that his foot was now at "100 percent" and his stamina was steadily improving. Even in his current role, giving the Blue Devils two good spurts of post play at the beginning of each half, before being spelled by 6-8 Lance Thomas, Zoubek has had a tangible impact. If 6-10 freshman Miles Plumlee isn't going to be a major part of the rotation -- and it seems that way after the past two games -- then Zoubek is their only low-post regular taller than 6-8. If he stays healthy and limits the pounding 6-8 sophomore Kyle Singler -- their unquestioned offensive star -- has to take by guarding most teams' biggest post bodies, then Zoubek will be a valuable asset. Singler took on the look of a battered hockey defenseman last season, when they had no other defensive options down low. 3. They have the depth to play a nine-man rotation, which could help ward off another late-season collapse. Krzyzewski has been stuck with short benches in years past -- the '05-06 team, with J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams, only had two regular reserves -- but could now make a reasonable squad out of his backups. A team with Paulus at the point, freshman Elliot Williams at the two, senior David McClure at the three, Thomas at the four and Plumlee at the five could probably finish above .500 in the Big Ten. "It's good that those guys have their ego where they should be, so that they have confidence like starters," Krzyzewski said. Most teams become less court-savvy when they sub, but in seniors Paulus and McClure, Duke has the rare luxury of adding experience when it needs to give Smith, Singler and Henderson a breather. Duke, Michigan, Nolan Smith

2008-11-22T00:06:15-05:00

2008-11-22T00:07:18-05:00

2008-11-26T02:15:14-05:00

24701

Luke Winn

4563 New York NY

http://img.fannation.com/images/layout/profile-headshot.gif NCAAB What We Learned From ... Kentucky-UNC Three things we learned from watching No. 1-ranked North Carolina's 77-58 rout of Kentucky on Tuesday night ... 1. Kentucky looks fatally flawed. For Billy Gillispie's sake, I was… <div class="photo_container image_right" style="width: 300px;"> <div class="photo"><img src="http://img.fannation.com/upload/si_blog_post_images/sweep.gillespie.getty.jpg" alt="Sweep" width="300" height="400" /></div> <div class="photo_attributes" style="text-align: left;">Darius Miller had no answers for Billy Gillispie against UNC. Kevin Cox/Getty Images</div> </div> Three things we learned from watching No. 1-ranked North Carolina's 77-58 rout of Kentucky on Tuesday night ... 1. Kentucky looks fatally flawed. For Billy Gillispie's sake, I was hoping last week's VMI loss was an aberration, but in the wake of yet another UK flop, we must be realistic: The Wildcats are tantalizingly close to being a decent club -- they have a few elite players in power forward Patrick Patterson, if the ball ever gets in his hands, and shooting guard Jodie Meeks, if he's in an unselfish mood -- but without a serviceable point guard, they're no better than a middling mid-major. This point-guard problem isn't going to be solved anytime soon. Kentucky's starter at the position, Michael Porter, bless his heart, wouldn't crack the rotation of most teams receiving votes in the Associated Press poll. He was abused by Carolina's Ty Lawson and now has five assists against nine turnovers on the season. Coming into Tuesday's game, Gillispie said, "Michael's not a good enough athlete to be timid. He has to be a guy attacking." Porter didn't attack UNC, and neither did freshman backup DeAndre Liggins, who finished with a deceptively respectable stat line -- seven assists, four turnovers -- but didn't handle the ball in a way that exuded any confidence. There are freshmen capable of running a team from Day 1 -- take a look at UConn's Kemba Walker -- but Liggins is not one of them. He plays like a guy who might need a season to acclimate to the pace of elite college basketball. If only Derrick Jasper hadn't <a href="http://unlvrebels.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/jasper_derrick00.html" target="_blank">run off to Vegas</a>, there might be some hope for this team to contend in the SEC. <div class="photo_container image_right" style="width: 300px;"> <div class="photo"><img src="http://img.fannation.com/upload/si_blog_post_images/sweep.gillespie.getty.jpg" alt="Sweep" width="300" height="400" /></div> <div class="photo_attributes" style="text-align: left;">Darius Miller had no answers for Billy Gillispie against UNC. Kevin Cox/Getty Images</div> </div> Three things we learned from watching No. 1-ranked North Carolina's 77-58 rout of Kentucky on Tuesday night ... 1. Kentucky looks fatally flawed. For Billy Gillispie's sake, I was hoping last week's VMI loss was an aberration, but in the wake of yet another UK flop, we must be realistic: The Wildcats are tantalizingly close to being a decent club -- they have a few elite players in power forward Patrick Patterson, if the ball ever gets in his hands, and shooting guard Jodie Meeks, if he's in an unselfish mood -- but without a serviceable point guard, they're at best an NCAA bubble team. This point-guard problem isn't going to be solved anytime soon. Kentucky's starter at the position, Michael Porter, bless his heart, wouldn't crack the rotation of most teams receiving votes in the Associated Press poll. He was abused by Carolina's Ty Lawson and now has five assists against nine turnovers on the season. Coming into Tuesday's game, Gillispie said, "Michael's not a good enough athlete to be timid. He has to be a guy attacking." Porter didn't attack UNC, and neither did freshman backup DeAndre Liggins, who finished with a deceptively respectable stat line -- seven assists, four turnovers -- but didn't handle the ball in a way that exuded any confidence. There are freshmen capable of running a team from Day 1 -- take a look at UConn's Kemba Walker -- but Liggins is not one of them. He needs some time to acclimate his ballhandling to the pace of elite college basketball. If only Derrick Jasper hadn't <a href="http://unlvrebels.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/jasper_derrick00.html" target="_blank">run off to Vegas</a>, there might be some hope for this team to contend in the SEC. 2. Despite this mess, I can't imagine that Gillispie's job would be in jeopardy this season. UK fans were <a href="http://kentucky.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?SID=888&fid=1383&style=2&tid=120791258&Page=1" target="_blank">rightfully despondent</a> while watching this blowout, and they're turning up the heat on their second-year coach. Losing to the No. 1 team in the nation was completely excusable, but getting outhustled by UNC when its two biggest hustle players, seniors Marcus Ginyard and Tyler Hansbrough were watching the game from the bench, in formalwear? That's inexcusable. All of that said, Gillispie has still put together three straight elite recruiting classes, the latest with beastly big man <a href="http://kentucky.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?Sport=2&pr_key=51353">Daniel Orton</a>, Rivals.com's third-ranked center in the Class of 2009, as the headliner, and built up some coaching cred for salvaging an NCAA tournament bid out of last season's injury-fest. Gillispie has bought himself some breathing room with the UK brass, even if the Honeymoon period with UK fans is over. Watching Gillispie go through a range of facial expressions in the first half on Tuesday -- from the furrowed brow, to the smirk of disbelief, to the serious scowl -- got me thinking about something that athletic director Mitch Barnhart told the Lexington Herald-Leader on Sunday, when he was asked if Gillispie looked more comfortable in his second year on the job. Barhart said: "He's relaxed -- well, as relaxed as he gets. I see him much more relaxed and understanding what it means. If you are in a new job, especially one of this magnitude -- I don't care whether you are the athletic director, the football coach or the basketball coach -- year one is always hard. Year two, I won't say it gets easier, but you know what it looks like. There is no mystery. Less mystery. You have an opportunity to grow into it and feel more comfortable." Maybe the understanding is there, but the comfort? When Gillispie was most comfortable at Texas A&M, where he built the resume that landed the Kentucky gig, he had arguably the nation's best point guard, Acie Law. Now Gillispie has ... well, you've seen what he has. There is no solace in a 28-turnover, 19-point loss. 3. The player UNC fans should be most excited about? Lanky freshman forward Ed Davis. The storyline coming out of this game will probably be the big-time performance delivered by Deon Thompson (20 points, nine boards) in Hansbrough's absence. Thompson was impressive, but I already had a high opinion of him, and just assumed his low offensive numbers (he averaged 8.4 points last year) were more a result of Hansbrough commanding the bulk of the shot attempts in the post. I was more intrigued by what Davis did, grabbing 10 boards to go with nine points in 23 minutes. That followed up a 14-board, 10-point effort in 22 minutes of the Heels' opener against Penn. When I saw Davis at the Jordan Classic in April, he seemed like too timid of a post player to make up for the loss of Alex Stepheson, but Davis has been highly productive thus far. As opposed to his freshman counterpart Tyler Zeller, who's advanced offensively but struggles to rebound, and won't be needed to score once Psycho T comes back, Davis could be a key role player in a Carolina title run. North Carolina, Kentucky

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