The Dude wrote:

25 points on just 12 shots  for Jamison Battle powering  7-1 Ohio State as they beat his old team Minnesota. 

He was also very visibly glaring at the Minnesota bench several times during the game. I get that there were a lot of emotions during the game, but that seemed so unnecessary/over the top unless he left MN on bad terms. Not sure who he was trying to stick it to.

If I'm the Gophers, I'm offering everything I possibly can to Niko Medved to see if he's willing to return home from Colorado State. Ben Johnson has so clearly not been the answer for multiple years now. It was fun to watch Battle get it going offensively, but he's still a bad defender dating back to his time at GW. Johnson never drew anything up to go at him and put him in foul trouble. Garcia could have easily had 40 with a better coach. Ohio State does appear to pass the eye test though after an unexpected down year last season.
 

WOW.... Pikiell strikes Gold again.  Wow. 


Dylan Harper, the No. 2 prospect in the 2024 class and the top uncommitted senior in the country, announced his commitment to Rutgers on Wednesday

-- giving the Scarlet Knights two of the top three recruits in the country

To put the commitments of Harper and Bailey into context, before this class, Rutgers had landed just six total ESPN 100 prospects since the ESPN men's basketball recruiting database began in 2007.

Only one player was ranked inside the top 50: Mike Rosario, who was No. 16 in 2008.

 And now the Scarlet Knights have commitments from two of the top three seniors in high school basketball.

Last edited by The Dude (12/06/2023 7:43 pm)

Well, in this case having both his dad and his brother play for the University before him was the deciding factor

But also.....wow.

Things are getting a little uncomfortable for Coach Carm in Albany. Wasn't long ago that some here were calling him "boy wonder" and mentioning him as a good candidate to replace CC. 
His performance the last 4 seasons (throw out the Covid season) is similar to Mojo's here, just not as dramatic. Like Mojo, Carm inherited a solid program (that JC built up) only to digress each year. This year's team is a total disaster. Like GW, Siena has a pre-conference cupcake schedule stacked with low level teams with mostly home games. Unlike GW, they aren't winning those games. Like GW, Siena is no position to buy him out/ fire him at this time (assuming they gave him an extension previously).
 

Rhode Island got spanked today at College of Charleston   Down by 20+ and lost by 15. And Charleston is about 2/3 as good as they were last year. Not a good A-10 game.

Also, have to wonder  if Archie Miller  was worth it. The program has shown zero progression in his two years. You’d at least think they’d be showing improvement, but these  last two losses - to Brown and Charleston were ugly. Thinking this guy is a $2.5 million a year fraudster so far - and that goes for both recruiting and coaching.

Think we made the right choice taking an up amd coming hungry coach who clearly outworks Miller, a retread  who failed miserably at Indiana.

Last edited by Alum1 (12/10/2023 11:13 pm)

An incredible road win by Chicago State over Northwestern a week after they beat Purdue! Seems to be an unusual number of upsets this season.

No doubt about taking every win you can get, further case for that:

One night after UNLV upset No. 8 Creighton and Chicago State shocked No. 25 Northwestern, Marquette (9-2) got all it could handle from a Summit League program in its third season removed from Division II 
 The Golden Eagles, who were a 25 1/2-point favorite according to , led by one point with three minutes left, and the Tommies (6-5) kept it competitive until the final seconds.

The Archie Miller experiment continues to disappoint. Tanked by Delaware tonight now 5-6  for the season and on a four game bender. Now 14-28 in his year and an half at RI.  That’s about $200K per win for the little guy. Ouch.

Notable Results - 12/16/23

Former Player Tracking

Jameer Nelson Jr (TCU): 11 points on 3/4 3-PT in a 20 point win over Arizona State. The Horned Frogs outscored the Sun Devils by 24 after halftime. His teammate Peavy finished with a triple double (13 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists).

Jamison Battle (Ohio State): 14 points in a 7 point win over UCLA. Battle has scored 9+ points in every game this season for the Buckeyes. This game was another where neither team could make 3s apparently (a combined 2/24).

Tyler Brelsford (Bryant): 11 points in a 101-93 double overtime win over Towson. Caught a bit of the game towards the end. Brelsford has a goatee now. I hadn't watched him in a long time so that was surprising.

Chase Paar (Towson): 4 points, 6 rebounds off the bench against Bryant. Chase also has a big tattoo on his arm now, which also caught me off guard.

Qwanzi Samuels (IUPUI): 6 points, 9 rebounds in a home loss against Lindenwood. IUPUI is awful, but it's nice to see Samuels lead the team in rebounding although he's just 1/13 from 3.

Hunter Dean (LSU): 11 points, 5 rebounds in an 11 point loss to #19 Texas. Hunter played more minutes than Baker despite coming off the bench. He also made his first career three in college - congrats to him!

Conference Notes

- The Louisiana Tech - SLU game was crazy. SLU held on to win 75-74 at home after nearly blowing a 10 point halftime lead. Ezewiro made his debut after previously sitting out due to transfer rules and played a sizable role (17 points, 5 rebounds). Terrence Hargrove had 11 of his 13 points in the final 30 seconds of the game, including a game tying three pointer and a separate buzzer beating three. The more absolutely absurd stat is that Louisiana Tech finished with ZERO turnovers for the game. That feels like an impossible feat.

- Dayton beat Cincinnati 82-68 and should be in contention for an at-large at this point. The Flyers went 28/30 from the line and Cincy couldn't get it going from deep (6/25).

- St. Joe's absolutely crushed Iona 83-58, and the game wasn't even that close. Maybe I should be buying the Hawks a bit more. They've certainly looked good since the Texas A&M-Commerce loss, but their reliance on three point shooting (60% of attempts from there today) still suggests high variance. I think it could cost them in a few games that they might regret in conference play but they have a better squad than I expected coming into the year.

- Richmond beat Charlotte 64-56 behind a balanced attack from the Spiders. 4 starters finished in double figures, but neither team could get it going from 3 (a combined 13/52).

- UMass beat West Virginia 87-79. The Minutemen nearly blew a 15 point halftime lead as WV caught fire from 3 in the second half. UMass had a freshman in Robert Davis Jr who had six threes in the game.

- George Mason beat Loyola (MD) 62-54. Haynes did not play after the sit-out transfer rule was overturned by the court. The only notable thing I could find is that one of Mason's players Amari Kelly stomped on a Loyola player and was thrown out of the game. He should probably be suspended for that.

- Delaware defeated URI 67-56 as Alum1 mentioned above.

- South Florida topped Loyola Chicago 77-64. The Ramblers were outscored by USF 42-26 after halftime. Ouch.

- St. John's easily beat Fordham 77-55. The Rams went 15/59 from the field which won't get it done against most teams. Joel Soriano went off against his former team with 20 points and 10 rebounds.

- Davidson beat D3 Lynchburg 98-63. The Wildcats made 18 threes in the game.

- VCU beat Temple 87-78. JoeBam made his debut with 11 points off the bench. Unsurprisingly, he took the second most shots despite playing just 19 minutes. The Rams are also getting Bairstow back next game so they'll be dangerous come conference play.

- Miami (FL) edged La Salle 84-77. I think the Hurricanes are a tad bit overrated this year, but credit Fran Dunphy. The Explorers fought hard throughout the game and Dunphy just continues to show what a good coach he is. That team wouldn't be 8-3 under most coaches with the roster they have.

- #15 FAU pulled away from St. Bona 64-54. The Bonnies were within range until the under 8 timeout of the second half but the Owls closed strong. Noel had 3 points off the bench.

OOC Opponents

- South Carolina edged Charleston Southern 73-69 despite KenPom forecasting SC to have the biggest win of any team on the day. Charleston S also recently had a coaching change so that was pretty surprising.

- UIC beat Western Michigan 89-68. The Flames had 30 assists in the game and shot 14/28 from 3.

- Hofstra won against Norfolk State 74-58 thanks to a strong second half effort. The Pride will continue to be a good win for GW. Tyler Thomas is a scoring machine.

Other Teams

- Chicago State beat Valparaiso on a late 10-0 run and may be the best team in Chicago (only half joking).

- I also watched the end of Notre Dame-Georgetown. Ish Massoud made a late three for the Hoyas to give them the win, but I otherwise found him unspectacular. Not sure how much we missed by not landing him. He's a streaky shooter who looked below average defensively.

- Indiana State is dangerous. The Sycamores are 10-1 and have been quietly going under the radar a bit. They could make some noise in March if they qualify for the tournament.

- Georgia Tech beat Penn State 82-81 behind a BS foul that didn't exist. Still, Tafara had an impressive breakout game for GT with 20 points and 6 rebounds off the bench. He had only scored 17 points total for the season going into the game. Ndongo had 19 rebounds as well for the Yellow Jackets.

- James Madison is 10-0. The Dukes are just one of four undefeated teams left in the country (the others are Houston, Oklahoma, and Ole Miss).
 

From the department of statistical oddities.

Kansas St was ranked 46 on KenPom and was playing #62 Nebraska.  Nebraska won 62-46 making it the only time in history two teams have scored their exact Ken Pom rankings against each other in a game.