NCAA Basketball Review

Duke’s Return to the Top of College Basketball

Every season Mike Krzyzewski’s Duke Blue Devils are expected to make it to the Final Four, but when they beat Baylor this year to make it to Indianapolis it was the first time in six years. An experienced Duke team led by John Scheyer, Kyle Singler, and Nolan Smith are the only #1 seed in this year’s Final Four defeating Arkansas Pine-Bluff, Cal, Purdue, and Baylor in convincing fashion. Scheyer, a senior guard, has led the team in points with 18.2 per game., but juniors Singler and Smith have been right behind him averaging around 17 points per game all season.  Senior Center Brian Zoubek has provided Coach K with a force in the paint that can rebound and defend down low giving the team a balance they’ve lacked in the past few seasons. When the ball tips off in Indianapolis Duke will be the favorites to win it all when they take on Bob Huggins’ West Virgina.

Butler Makes History in Route to Elite 8

The amount of upsets this year’s NCAA Tournament has featured shows how the gap between college basketball’s elite programs and the rest of the country is shrinking. The strongest case for this phenomenon in the tournament could have been on display last night in Salt Lake City when the Horizon League’s Butler Bulldogs defeated the Big East regular season champs Syracuse 63-59. Butler punched their first ticket ever to Elite 8 thanks to inspired play by sophomore forward Gordon Hayward and senior guard Willie Veasley.

The Bulldogs have never sent a player to the NBA in the school’s history. The university outside of Indianapolis has been gaining steam since making the tourney for the first time in 35 years in 1997. The Bulldogs made two previous Sweet Sixteen appearances in 2003 and 2007, but have never been this close to a Final Four berth. Their opponent will be #7 nationally ranked Kansas State, who will be coming off a double overtime victory of Xavier. Butler will no doubt be the underdog against the Wildcats, but that might just be a role that suits the Bulldogs. Should be a great game.

Armon Bassett and Ohio Destroy Georgetown

I don’t think anyone would have been surprised to hear that the first round match up between #3 Georgetown and #14 Ohio was a blow out. However, the fact that it was the Bobcats who actually spanked the Hoyas on Thursday 97-83. Storied Georgetown coach John Thompson worked the game as commentator while his son and current Hoyas head coach, John Thompson III, failed to inspire his team to compete with a team that barely made it into the tournament. The Bobcats’ junior guard Armon Bassett led the team with 32 points and etching his name into school folklore forever. In retrospective, Bassett’s breakout performance should not have come as a surprise with the Indiana transfer scoring at least 25 points in Ohio’s previous four games. Basset and the Bobcats will take on 6th ranked Tennessee on Saturday. The Volunteers had a tough time with San Diego State on Thursday surviving 62-59, so they might have their hands fill with red hot Ohio.

Marquette Fighting Way Into March Madness

After the trio of Jereal McNeal, Wes Matthews, and Dominic James left Marquette last year, few picked the Golden Eagles to do very much in 2010. Today, head coach Buzz Williams has his team almost a lock for the NCAA Tournament this year and going into their final regular season game against Notre Dame at home. The Golden Eagles are 9-1 in their last ten games and are coming off a complete thrashing of Rick Pitino’s Louisville Cardinals 69-48 at the Bradley Center last Tuesday. Finishing February with three consecutive away overtime victories over Cincinnati, St. John’s, and Seton Hall showed the kind of grit and determination Marquette has. Not one of Louisville’s players scored in double digits against on Tuesday night in Milwaukee. Sophomore guard Darius Johnson-Odom went 4-6 from behind the arc scoring 22 points to lead Marquette. A victory over historic rival Notre Dame on Saturday could give the Golden Eagles the confidence they need to do well in both the Big East Conference Tournament and NCAA Conference.

Duke Looking Good Heading Into March

A lot still can happen from now until the NCAA Tournament kicks off, but Coach K’s Duke Blue Demons (23-4) are in good form. Ranked #6 in the country, Duke outlasted a formidable foe last Sunday night in Virgina Tech (21-5) 67-55 in Durham, North Carolina. The three-headed attack force of Kyle Singler, Jon Scheyer, and Nolan Smith are a handful for any team in the country. Senior Brian Zoubek has dominated the boards at times this season and if he can play up to his potential in the tournament count on Duke to make a good run at the Final Four. The Blue Demons plays good defense, shoot the ball extremely well, can penetrate when they need to, and are very experienced. Duke has lost this season to Georgetown, NC State, Georgie Tech, and Wisconsin all on the road. Tonight the Blue Devils host Tulsa, travel to Virgina on Sunday, take on a solid Maryland team in College Park, and finish the year up at home against rival North Carolina. If the Demons can finish out the year winning they could have some serious momentum going into the ACC Tournament. The next three weeks will be huge for the blue and white of Duke.

Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim Shares Secret of Success

Jim Boeheim has the Syracuse Orangemen off to a 22-1 start this season at age 65 and looks to have his players poised to make a deep run in the Big Dance this year. Boeheim doesn’t credit his longevity in coaching to a obsessed work-around-the clock approach, but to the balance he’s found between his life outside of basketball and his life within the game. Boeheim told SI’s Paul Daugherty that he watches crime drama shows like CSI and NCIS to relax at night during the season and makes sure he spends time with his family and in the off season he makes sure he sees friends and plays a lot of golf. Often we associate college coaches with the crazy hours they put in all year long and the little time their families get to see them. Boeheim told SI that he’s been able to be on hand for all his daughter’s events as she grew up by not allowing basketball to hinder his ability as a father. In the present day conditions of college sports where you have coaches like Urban Meyer burning out before he hits 50, it makes you wonder if coaches aren’t better off mimicking Boeheim’s approach to the job.

Michigan State’s Kalin Lucas Shows His Worth

Growing up in the state of Michigan only made it sweeter for Kalin Lucas when the Michigan State guard hit the game winning shot against heated rival Michigan. The Sterling Heights, MI born junior saw something in the Wolverines defensive set up and suggested to MSU head coach Tom Izzo that they give him the ball and let him attack the middle of the defense. Izzo allowed Lucas do the coaching and it certainly paid off. The Spartans were down 56-55 with when Lucas and his team mates returned to the floor in front of rambunctious crowd Tuesday night in Ann Arbor. Lucas darted into the center of the floor confusing three blue and gold defenders and nailed a mid-range jumper to put the Spartans ahead 57-56. The 2008-09 Big Ten Player of the Year looks to have the Spartans making another deep run in the Big Dance and perhaps Coach Izzo will let him call a few more plays as well in the future.

Top Teams

Texas, Kentucky and Kansas are still in the top of the college basketball standings right now, at least according to the ESPN rankings. It’s one of those interesting years these. I mentioned this several weeks ago, noting that the Texas football team had a phenomenal year and that their basketball team is also doing well. Texas isn’t known as a basketball powerhouse, but this year has been good. Further down on the list, the Tennessee Volunteers were able to jump up from 20 to 10 because they beat UConn, which dropped from 11 to 23. But Tennessee is having a lot of trouble right now, with several players who have been suspended and the hearing about the suspension hasn’t been set yet. It’s an interesting time for college basketball, and we’ll get to enjoy the biggest game of the year.

Wainwright Leaves DePaul

Jerry Wainwright has been fired from the job of coached the DePaul Blue Demons. There was hope that he would be able to turn this team around again this year, but it hasn’t happened, certainly not in the Big East games that they absolutely need to win. There is a lot of talent on the team and he’s a good coach. But it just wasn’t working out for them anymore and he wasn’t able to bring them the kind of success over the last few years that had been hoped for. It wasn’t a good fit any longer. The assistant coach Tracy Webster will take on the job of coaching this team for the rest of the season, we assume. Wainwright told reporters at a news conference that he was certain that the team would be able to make it back into real success with just a couple of changes. Hopefully he’s right and this was the first step towards that big jump.

Top 3 Teams Again

Kansas, Texas, and Kentucky. Those are the top 3 teams in college basketball right now. It’s going to be interesting to see how these teams are able to push forwards. With North Carolina having a lot of trouble getting into the groove this year. I’m not sure whether there were a lot of changes this year for them or what the deal was but it’s going to be extra exciting to see them attempt to make the cut before March Madness. When you look at your bracket in a few weeks, you will most likely see these teams and all of the Final Four teams from last year. It’s hard to imagine any team falling too far in a given year. One of the big surprises right now is that Duke is ranked at #5, and they are looking to make a big push into the late parts of the tournament. It’s not clear that they would make it to the Final Four, but at least you’ll get to see them in the tournament again, playing up to their potential.