Long Beach State beats Michigan!   94-86!!

 

Malik Mack went off for Harvard tonight: 32 points.  I know he wasn't in the picture with Jacoi, Trey, and Christian signing but he looks legit.  Batties from Gonzaga added 7 for the Crimson. 

 

Willard in his first season took Maryland to the 2nd round of the NCAA Tourney.  Bumpy start this year, but basically lost two games by a combined 6 points vs 2 pretty good teams.

Unless you're a blue  blood program that expects a lot more, going to the Tourney year after year, and going to the 2nd round or beyond (5x in 6 years for Turgeon, with 1 Covid no tourney year) should not lead you to lose your job.   Turgeon was 82-50 in The Big10 and  226-116 overall

If you have guys like Turgeon or Willard I'd hang on to them, look what happened to formerly great programs like Georgia Tech, Wake and Georgetown when they thought the grass should be a lot greener like it used to be several decades ago 
 

Last edited by The Dude (11/18/2023 1:32 am)

LOVE this from the Southland Conference

Former GW baller Lincoln Ball and his American Eagles are currently beating Georgetown 57-47 with 8:14 left in the second half. I don’t really care about playing or not playing the Hoyas but it would be nice if there was a city holiday tournament

Agree with Thomas.  Georgetown is taking all sorts of ill advised shots, no rebounding, losing guys on defense etc.  

In addition to Ball, AU also has former GW recruit Greg Jones who got a few minutes in the game. 

This would be two straight losses to AU for the Hoyas.

That is why you foul up 3.  

Also AU wins in regulation if Epps doesn't go nuclear.

Brutal 0-5 day for the A10.  Most of the losses were expected (Dayton to Houston, URI to Wazzu, SLU to Wichita), though the margins were bad.

But then George Mason lost a 50-50 game to Charlotte (KenPom had Mason as a 1 pt favorite) and Fordham lost a 50-50 game by 14 to Abilene Christian (FU was a one point dog).

Mason had been one of the more impressive A10 teams early and Fordham was touted by some as a top team, but also lost to Cornell.

The only undefeated teams left in the league are us and LaSalle (who survived by 1 over Southern Indiana).  We’ve been more impressive, but LaSalle beat a decent Drexel team (who we also beat in the scrimmage). 

We really need the win over Ohio.

- Is Wazzu better than last year? That seems like a bad result for URI even in a loss. Maybe they just played poorly against us in Hawaii because outside of their big the talent appeared comparable to GW. Talk about the ball never bouncing our way, that game was the prime example of that especially at the end.

- Louisville almost beat Texas yesterday. Don't know that a win would have been beneficial long-term for Card fans though they did look better under Payne for at least one game.

- Indiana looks bad so far. Probably not worse than Maryland to start the year but still pretty bad. They are 3-1 but beat three mid-majors by single digits, including a not so good Army team.

- Qwanzi's playing time has continued to dip at IUPUI despite continuing to start. Was hoping he would get more run there.

- William & Mary may never shoot as well as they did against us ever again. They lost by 11 to freaking Lindenwood.

- Hunter didn't play in LSU's overtime win over Wake.

- Jamison tied for the team lead with 13 points as Ohio State easily beat Western Michigan.

- DePaul is somehow still terrible. Losing to Purdue Fort Wayne, Long Beach State, and San Francisco isn't a great way to start although the latter two are probably not bad teams this year in the mid-major world.

- I only caught the end of the second half of the American-Georgetown game but credit Cooley for that out of bounds play to find Epps for the tying 3. AU needed to do a better job denying him the ball and daring someone else to shoot. Committing a foul there might have been tougher based on play design so I get why they didn't. Happy to see Lincoln get quite a bit of run.

- Vermont and Liberty are just very well-coached teams. ML was mentioned the other day when the Catamounts faced SLU and easily beat them. There were rumors that Becker was a candidate for the GW job given his connections to DC, but the allegations surrounding the VT basketball team in past years probably kept him from being a serious contender for the job. No doubt that he can coach though.

- I did actually watch a good part of the second half of Fordham-Abilene Christian. It was a pretty low-level of quality basketball game. Abilene didn't really do too much defensively to make Fordham struggle. The Rams were just that bad offensively, reminding me a bit of the Neubauer days. I mean their offense was rough and they were missing everything. Hopefully last year wasn't an anomaly, because Urgo did a really good job building excitement around the program. The league can't afford them to go back to being the DePaul of the A10.

- Jackson State beat Missouri. Seems like there's always a SWAC team that upsets a high-major school every year.

- South Carolina is 5-0 on the year. The game at their place figures to be a very tough test for a young GW team.

- What happened to St. Mary's? There was a lot of hype about them but they've now lost three in a row (granted to good teams, and yes that includes Weber State who has a stud in Dillon Jones). I think the Gaels are prime example of why it's better to have a team that may have lapses defensively here and there over one that is only defense and struggles to score. Virginia won the championship playing the second way, but I think more often than not it leads to close games/upsets when the other team is making enough shots. Having said that, they are due for some better luck when it comes to making threes (just 26% on the year).

- Could this be it for Ford at SLU? Wichita State has a brand new coach and plays in a comparable conference. A loss isn't unexpected, but losing by nearly 20?
 

Is it now safe to assume that Big John's influence at GTown has finally faded to the point where somebody might be able to bring that DMV area Holiday Tournament/Round Robin idea to fruition ?   The local rivalries/bragging rights involved would undoubtedly add tremendously to the excitement - and the box office - for OOC games.   Not only do you save travel expenses and time away from class, the games would do a lot to hype our area and our programs.   By golly, I'll bet the POST might even deign to cover the games (GTown will be the next to lose local coverage if it continues on its glidepath).    Plus, for the first time in many years, Maryland and GTown no longer are so clearly superior to GW, American, Mason, or Howard.   The BIG SIX in the Capital Classic - a dream come true for any real basketball fan in the area.