Excellent weekend for the A10 as noted on the other thread
SLU hung tight with Auburn! impressive.

Out West, Gonzaga having lost most of their team to the NBA draft, concluded a stretch where they went into the gym of the biggest BCS programs on the coast and took them all down.

What Mark Few has done there is IMO the story of the Quarter Century in College sports. 

The Dude wrote:

Excellent weekend for the A10 as noted on the other thread
SLU hung tight with Auburn! impressive.

Out West, Gonzaga having lost most of their team to the NBA draft, concluded a stretch where they went into the gym of the biggest BCS programs on the coast and took them all down.

What Mark Few has done there is IMO the story of the Quarter Century in College sports. 

No doubt Mark Few is an excellent coach but you want to laud a guy who has never won a national championship as "the story of the Quarter Century in College sports"? Yikes!

A10 goes 4-0 today, including some gritty wins on the road against decent teams like ODU and Charleston.

Shandon had a near triple double for Niagara against St. Bonaventure in their loss, with 6 points, 9 rebounds, and 9 assists.

Georgia Tech was blown out against Ball State at home...have to think Pastner is going to start facing some heat by their fanbase in his fourth year at the helm. Given the job Steve Forbes has done at ETSU (including an impressive 74-63 road win against LSU today) as well as Wes Miller at UNC Greensboro, schools like GT and Boston College definitely have options should they make changes.

St. Mary's also blew out a likely bubble team once again in Arizona State by 40 points. Dayton's resume continues to get stronger as they defeated the Gaels last week. Wondering what their seed ceiling could be...maybe even a third seed if they keep it up.
 

Nicely done Shandon!

One of my favorite stats of all time yesterday.   Arizona State newcomer Alonzo Verge (juco transfer) scored 43 points last night, but managed a +/- of -38.   Don’t think we will ever see that again. 

St. Mary’s totally blew out ASU 96-56, so verge scored 43 of his team’s 56.  Only two other  players on ASU scored a point and their leading scorer, Remy Martin, who averaged over 20 ppg, was scoreless.  Meanwhile, St Mary’s, who I’ve thought was a bit overrated this year, shot 60% from the field including 16-26 from three. 

I guess that’s how you put up a minus 38 while scoring 43. 

Crazy.

Thomas, if it gives North Carolina any comfort, before they waxed the Tar Heels, Gonzaga rolled off wins against Oregon, Arizona and Washington, all road games for the Zags.

America's greatest Coach rolls on.

Thanks for posting T! going to try to catch some of Maryland vs SH. Go Hall!!

Seton Hall beats Maryland, #7 in the polls and KenPom. a Huge win for the Pirates, without their 2 best players.
Seton Hall had two different players who recorded 6 blocks each, not everyday you see that in college hoops.
 

Dude, I don’t pay attention to recruit rankings so can’t speak to them, but North Carolina’s roster is nothing like what we are used to from them.   

Cole Anthony and Armando Bacot are basically their whole team, but as you said they are hurt. 

Their other usual starters include Garrison Brooks, an ok forward (for that level) who gets most of his points on putbacks and garbage. He’s more like 4th or 5th option for a typical North Carolina team. 

Leaky Black is the other usual starter but he’s been banged up.   But he’s also not what we are used to for a UNC starter.  He barely played as a freshman and he’s a 2 guard who is low usage, average on defense, and not a very good shooter.  He should be a 10th man on a typical UNC team.

At the start of the season, they tried Christian Keeling as the 5th starter.  He’s Armel Potter’s former teammate at Charleston Southern (not a high recruit) and the jump to UNC has gone poorly for him. 

Brandon Robinson is the next man up, who is a senior who barely played his first 3 years.   We are not used to UNC relying on seniors who barely averaged 2 ppg over his career - even if he’s having an Antoine Hart-like breakout his senior year.  He may be a former walk on, but I can’t recall.

Justice Pearce is the first forward off the bench.  He’s a William and Mary transfer (not a star recruit) who has been underwhelming for what unc is used to.  He’d have fit much better at a GW. 

The other guard at the start was Andrew Platek, a junior who barely played before this year.  He has proven not good enough.

Since Anthony got hurt and the Platek/Keeling combo has failed,, they have started KJ Smith, a transfer from Pacific who barely played at all last year at unc and didn’t play at all until the last
two games. He seems ok to me from what I’ve seen (better than Platek/keeling) but not what we are used to.  And they tried a freshman named Jeremiah Francis against the Zags who hadn’t played until recently.  Maybe he’ll prove to help.

Basically if North Carolina’s jersey said something else on it, no one would think this roster besides Anthony/bacot is any good.

In fact,  outside of Anthony/Bacot, there is not much on this roster you wouldn’t see on an average A10 team - St. Louis for example, has a better roster without those two unc studs.   The only difference, really, is Roy Williams is a great coach, the bench guys are at least athletic, and then when Anthony/Bacot play they can keep that team afloat. 

I’ll end with a prediction - if Cole Anthony doesn’t return, or return before it’s too late, I don’t think UNC will even make the NIT.  I don’t think their roster is good enough, though maybe Bacot carries them to just enough wins to sneak into the postseason.  If Anthony comes back, though, they should be ok because he’s that good. 


(Obligatory plug - thank draft kings fantasy college basketball for why I have gotten to know UNC so well this year).

Maryland is in the words of Dennis Green, "exactly who we thought they'd be."  A good enough team to potentially go unbeaten at home while struggling against most Top 50-like programs on the road.  Before the consecutive losses to Penn State and Seton Hall (missing their two best players last night), they struggled mightily before beating Illinois by a point.  That's not the #3 team in the nation.  That's not a Top 10 team.  They are just another one of Turgeon's teams at Maryland...good enough to make the dance, not good enough to make the Elite 8.  Turgeon has done a fair-to-good job at Maryland but by no means a great job.  Most Terp fans would say he has done a poor-to-fair job given their lofty standards.

Mark Few has done a great job at Gonzaga but he's sort of like what Bobby Cox did with the Atlanta Braves.  Few has the highest active winning percentage and second highest of alltime.  And yet, his teams over 20 years have zero national championships and just one Final 4 appearance.  (At least Cox has 1 World Series title.)  Few has a higher winning percentage than John Wooden but if you were to take a poll asking which coach was the more successful, Few would receive very few votes.  Early in his tenure, you could point to the small school he was at, not in a major conference, etc as reasons why Gonzaga could only climb so far but Few has built the program to the point where those things are today just excuses for not winning a championship.  There are 7 Gonzaga players in the NBA, only 13 schools can claim more.  That's more than Tom Izzo, more than Jim Boeheim, as many as Tony Bennett, and one less than Jay Wright.  Those coaches have won national championships.  So have Coach K, Calipari, Roy and Bill Self. 

America's greatest coach?  No more so than Sean Miller, Rick Barnes, Dana Altman (speaking of which, Gonzaga's 1 point OT win over Oregon took place on a neutral court; it was not a true road game for Gonzaga), Lon Kruger, Matt Painter and others who have produced consistently winning programs who have gotten close.  Winning a national championship should not be too much to ask before declaring a coach as the greatest.     

Indeed, I was referring to Seton Hall, who beat #7 Maryland without either of the Hall's top two players.
When your Frontcourt is blocking seemingly every Maryland shot around the rim, that can go a long way!