The Week In Hoops

2009-02-11T16:16:36-05:00

The Week In Hoops

2009-02-09T09:15:15-05:00

2009-02-09T18:55:10-05:00

KUChamp08

Mission 699130

5 MU fans are trash...stay on your side of the state line in KC please! 4277088

2009-02-11T16:16:36-05:00

LongtimeMUfan

Liberty 702343

MU fans are trash...stay on your side of the state line in KC please!

16 Hmmmm.... calling MU fans "trash" is kinda trashy don't you think? 4305474

2009-02-09T18:55:10-05:00

KUChamp08

Mission 699130

5 MU fans are trash...stay on your side of the state line in KC please! 4277088

2009-02-11T16:15:38-05:00

LongtimeMUfan

Liberty 702343

MU fans are trash...stay on your side of the state line in KC please!

15 Hmmm, calling MU fans "trash" is kinda trashy don't you think... 4305410

2009-02-10T13:44:38-05:00

lilmizzy

Somerset 700382

14 DETROIT!!PISTONS!!! 4287915

2009-02-10T13:43:56-05:00

lilmizzy

Somerset 700382

13 DETROIT!!PISTONS!! 4287912

2009-02-09T13:12:26-05:00

http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/284/75/thumb/kansas_50.gif 63 KS

RockChalk

Olathe 28581

2 Some of those same "so-so" teams also beat MU! Oh and get ready for another loss at home tonight...ROCK CHALK! 4270987

2009-02-10T12:43:26-05:00

steelersfan32

Danville 589084

Some of those same "so-so" teams also beat MU! Oh and get ready for another loss at home tonight...ROCK CHALK!

12 One of those so-so teams just beat KU. The Big 12 is terrible. 4286965

2009-02-10T12:20:19-05:00

TurboFIB

Chicago 571892

11 This is rediculous. ND has ZERO chance of making the tourney. They don't belong and will be lucky to make the NIT. 4286557

2009-02-10T11:46:00-05:00

PittIan

Cheltenham 647340

10 haha. New Mexico vs. Utah. Thats awesome. 4285784

2009-02-10T09:32:43-05:00

Gaines

Cary 149073

9 Thank you, Madmexak, you gave me my best belly laugh in a long time. Maybe when New Mexico OR Utah actually contend for going deep in the NCAA Tournament, they'll get more coverage. The Mid-Atlantic region gets the most coverage because it happens to be where the best teams are. Going roughly from south to north, Clemson, Wake, UNC, Duke, Georgetown, Lousiville, Marquette, Villanova, Pittsburgh, UConn. Notice, that covers 9 of the current top 14 teams in the country, including the 4 best. That nugget comes from the Sagarin Ratings. I used that computer poll so you can't complain about "media bias". Like Bonnie and Clyde robbing banks "because that's where the money was", these teams get the predominant coverage because they are money in the bank. NM and Utah are not. 4282693

2009-02-10T08:13:16-05:00

MADMEXAK

Wasilla 101195

8 I'm so sick and tired of hearing about North Carolina and Duke. Although I live in Virginia, I wish you sports services would cover more West Coast college sports. I would prefer to hear about a good New Mexico vs Utah game than hear how great the Tar Heels Blue Devils game was. Start doing your job and covering the whole country, just not the mid atlantic. 4281875

2009-02-10T08:10:19-05:00

MADMEXAK

Wasilla 101195

7 I could care less about North Carolina and Duke, I wish you sports services would cover more West Coast College sports. I live in Virginia, but I get sick and tired of hearing about and seeing North Carolina and Duke all the time. Give me a good New Mexico vs Utah game any day. 4281843

<div class="photo_container image_center" style="width: 615px;"> <div class="photo"><img title="UCLA Notre Dame" src="http://www.si.com/2009_images/notre-dame.jpg" alt="UCLA Notre Dame" width="615" height="357" /></div> <div class="photo_attributes" style="text-align:right;">Notre Dame's woes continued with a loss at Pauley Pavilion this weekend/Getty Images<br /></div> </div> <h3>THE MOST IMPORTANT THING WE LEARNED THIS WEEK</h3> <p><strong>Two of the conference season's biggest collapses didn't happen because of bad luck. There are more reasonable explanations for the woes of Notre Dame and Baylor.</strong></p> <p>One cannot help but feel for the Irish, which once upon a time was 12-3, ranked 12th, and had the nation's longest home winning streak. That time seems much farther in the past, now, than its actual date of Jan. 12. Since then <strong>Mike Brey</strong>'s boys, who were thought to be Big East contenders and perhaps Final Four darkhorses, have been battered beyond recognition, falling in successive league games Louisville, Syracuse, UConn, Marquette, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. Rather than taking a reprieve this weekend, Notre Dame flew to Los Angeles to face UCLA, and experience the feeling of being drubbed on a different coast. The Irish lost by 26 at Pauley Pavilion. They're 12-10 and have little chance of making the NCAA tournament. What went wrong, exactly? There's a two-part diagnosis:</p> <p>1. The 'Gody (aka <strong>Luke Harangody</strong>, last season's Big East Player of the Year) told the <em>Chicago Tribune</em> after the UCLA game, "We're not fighting at all. We're not the team we were last year." Strangely enough, the Irish's offense, in terms of its efficiency -- at 1.161 points per possession -- is nearly equal to that of last year's figure, when they tied for second place in the Big East. Where they're not fighting is on defense, where they've dropped from allowing 0.924 points per possession last season (ranking 42nd) to allowing 1.001 points per possession this season (ranking 161st). Their undersized lineup simply cannot defend in the lane, allowing opponents to make 47.6 percent of their two-point attempts. And Notre Dame is the rare team that's porous while never gambling for steals: It ranks 343rd out of 344 D-I teams in turnover percentage, taking the ball away on just 14.8 percent of opponents' possessions. There's very little fight in the Irish's zone <em>or</em> its man-to-man.</p> <p>2. Notre Dame's change from being an average defensive team to an atrocious one can't be explained by the only loss from last year's rotation, current Golden State Warrior <strong>Rob Kurz</strong>. It can be explained, however, by the fact that its rotation for much of the season has only included one major contributor off the bench, senior <strong>Luke Zeller</strong>. Just 20.2 percent of the Irish's overall minutes have come from their bench, a 2.7 percent decline from last year, when they looked sluggish in both the Big East and NCAA tournaments. They currently rank 336th nationally in bench minutes, which means they were bound to become one tired bunch by February. Was it any surprise they hit a wall?</p> <p>Baylor's skid of five straight Big 12 losses, which began on Jan. 24, has drawn less attention than Notre Dame's implosion, but the Bears are squandering an equal amount of potential. Many pundits, myself included, thought Baylor might challenge Oklahoma for the Big 12 title, or at the very least be a good sleeper pick in the NCAA tournament. Few teams have the backcourt depth and athleticism that<strong> Scott Drew</strong>'s club does. But they, like the Irish, are now in jeopardy of missing the NCAAs altogether. Their two-step diagnosis happens to be similar:</p> <p>1. The Bears should have acknowledged, in the offseason, that they blew a shot to make a tourney run in 2008 by not playing defense. They had the nation's 15th-most efficient offense and its 105th-most efficient defense, and were scorched by a defensively tough Purdue team in the first round of the NCAAs. What they've done, unfortunately, is come back in '08-09 and play exactly the same way, ranking 15th in offensive efficiency and 108th in defensive efficiency. And all the while, they've made themselves more susceptible to a collapse, because ...</p> <p>2. The Bears' bench minutes have declined from 32.8 percent last season to 23.0 percent this season, which means that as the season goes on, they're likely to give up even more easy baskets. They might be able to claw their way into the NCAAs because of a friendly backstretch to their Big 12 schedule, but will they -- like Notre Dame -- have any energy left come March?</p> <h3>SI.COM'S STARTING FIVE</h3> <p><br /><em>(Wearing <a href="http://www.ocregister.com/articles/lakers-radmanovic-morrison-2302401-kupchak-brown">Vans to practice</a>, just like everyone's favorite role model, <strong>Vladimir Radmanovic</strong> ...)</em></p> <p><strong>1. Chavis Holmes, G, VMI:</strong> Not a bad week for Mr. Holmes after <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/tim_layden/02/04/vmi/index.html?eref=sircrc">making an appearance in SI</a>. He scored 26 points in a win over Winthrop on Wednesday, then had 25 points, 11 rebounds, six steals and four assists in a won over Gardner-Webb on Saturday.</p> <p><strong>2. Wayne Ellington, SG, North Carolina:</strong> The Heels have been three-point-happy of late, and Ellington led the charge with seven treys for 34 points (and nine rebounds!) against Maryland on Wednesday. He hit four more on Saturday against Virginia, to finish with 20 points, six rebounds and six assists.</p> <p><strong>3. Lester Hudson, SG, Tennessee-Martin:</strong> <strong>Blake Griffin</strong> has only broken the 30-and-10 mark twice this season. Hudson did it twice last week, against Austin Peay (30 points, 10 boards) on Thursday and Tennessee State (34 points, 10 boards, eight assists) on Saturday.</p> <p><strong>4. DeJuan Blair, PF, Pittsburgh:</strong> If Blair keeps playing like he did against Notre Dame two weeks ago (23 points, 22 boards) and DePaul last week (32 points, 14 boards) he'll be in the running for first-team All-America honors.</p> <p><strong>5. John Bryant, C, Santa Clara:</strong> He quietly puts up numbers that match the Griffin-Gody-Blair club, but few folks notice what's happening in the non-Zaga portion of the West Coast Conference. Against San Diego on Thursday, he scored 23 points and grabbed 20 rebounds; against St. Mary's on Saturday, he had 21 and 15.</p> <h3>THE ONE GAME YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT</h3> <p><br /><strong>Wednesday, Feb. 11: North Carolina at Duke, 9 p.m.:</strong></p> <p>There's no chance -- or at least it seems like no chance -- <strong>Tyler Zeller</strong> will be back this week for UNC. The freshman 7-footer, who broke his left wrist in the Heels' second game, had initially been expected to take a medical redshirt this season, but returned to practice in a limited fashion last Wednesday and Thursday. According to coach <strong>Roy Williams</strong>, that doesn't mean Zeller is available: "Don't ask me this week [about Zeller]," Williams said. "There will not be a decision, and we'll look at it down the road." The thinned-out Heels can certainly win without Zeller, though; <strong>Tyler Hansbrough</strong> has never lost in Cameron, and the way Carolina has played over the past week, he seems likely to improve to 4-0 lifetime in the Dukies' lair.</p> <h3>YOUR MONDAY MOMENT OF ZEN</h3> <p><br />A dunk so good it can make you completely ignore the fact that the nation's No. 2 team only beat Colorado, at home, by five points:</p> <p> <object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="425" height="344" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /> <param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/IuyOcVeAuuI&hl=en&fs=1" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="344" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/IuyOcVeAuuI&hl=en&fs=1" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed> </object> </p>

Luke Winn

New York 4563 48521 <div class="photo_container image_center" style="width: 615px;"> <div class="photo"><img title="UCLA Notre Dame" src="http://www.si.com/2009_images/notre-dame.jpg" alt="UCLA Notre Dame" width="615" height="357" /></div> <div class="photo_attributes" style="text-align:right;">Notre Dame's woes continued with a loss at Pauley Pavilion this weekend/Getty Images<br /></div> </div> <h3>THE MOST IMPORTANT THING WE LEARNED THIS WEEK</h3> <p><strong>Two of the conference season's biggest collapses didn't happen because of bad luck. There are more reasonable explanations for the woes of Notre Dame and Baylor.</strong></p> <p>One cannot help but feel for the Irish, which once upon a time was 12-3, ranked 12th in the AP poll, and the owner of the nation's longest home winning streak. That time seems much farther in the past, now, than its actual date of Jan. 12. Since then <strong>Mike Brey</strong>'s boys, who were thought to be Big East contenders and perhaps Final Four darkhorses, have been battered beyond recognition, falling in successive league games Louisville, Syracuse, UConn, Marquette, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. Rather than taking a reprieve this weekend, Notre Dame flew to Los Angeles to face UCLA, and experience the feeling of being drubbed on a different coast. The Irish lost by 26 at Pauley Pavilion. They're 12-10 and have little chance of making the NCAA tournament. What went wrong, exactly? There's a two-part diagnosis:</p> <p>1. The 'Gody (aka <strong>Luke Harangody</strong>, last season's Big East Player of the Year) told the <em>Chicago Tribune</em> after the UCLA game, "We're not fighting at all. We're not the team we were last year." Strangely enough, the Irish's offense, in terms of its efficiency -- at 1.161 points per possession -- is nearly equal to that of last year's figure, when they tied for second place in the Big East. Where they're not fighting is on defense, where they've dropped from allowing 0.924 points per possession last season (ranking 42nd) to allowing 1.001 points per possession this season (ranking 161st). Their undersized lineup simply cannot defend in the lane, allowing opponents to make 47.6 percent of their two-point attempts. And Notre Dame is the rare team that's porous while never gambling for steals: It ranks 343rd out of 344 D-I teams in turnover percentage, taking the ball away on just 14.8 percent of opponents' possessions. There's very little fight in the Irish's zone <em>or</em> its man-to-man.</p> <p>2. Notre Dame's change from being an average defensive team to an atrocious one can't be explained by the only loss from last year's rotation, current Golden State Warrior <strong>Rob Kurz</strong>. It can be explained, however, by the fact that its rotation for much of the season has only included one major contributor off the bench, senior <strong>Luke Zeller</strong>. Just 20.2 percent of the Irish's overall minutes have come from their bench, a 2.7 percent decline from last year, when they looked sluggish in both the Big East and NCAA tournaments. They currently rank 336th nationally in bench minutes, which means they were bound to become one tired bunch by February. Was it any surprise they hit a wall?</p> <p> </p> <p> </p>