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19 Dec 2011

Weekend ACC Basketball Recap: December 19, 2011

While the big news of the weekend was Syracuse defending its #1 ranking on the road against North Carolina State, there were plenty of other noteworthy results.

On Saturday, Miami survived a double-overtime thriller against Florida Atlantic, 93-90.  The big news for Miami was the return of Center Reggie Johnson, who made his season debut after undergoing right knee surgery in June, and filled up the box score: 15 points, nine rebounds, five blocks and five assists.  Three other players chipped in 15 points or more for the Hurricanes, led by Kenny Kadji’s 21 points.  With the win, Miami nudges up to 6-4.

Surprisingly, the next closest game of the day on Saturday was #5 North Carolina’s 97-82 victory over Appalachian State.  To be fair, the Tar Heels jumped out to a 16-point lead at halftime and coasted to the win.  Tyler Zeller scored 31 points and added 10 rebounds.  North Carolina is now 9-2.

In other Saturday games, Clemson improved to 5-4 by defeating Winthrop 60-40.  Virginia Tech defeated Campbell 85-60 to get to 8-3 overall.  It should also be noted that future ACC member, #15 Pittsburgh, defeated South Carolina State 69-55.  The Panthers are now 10-1.

On Sunday, the ACC went 4 for 4.  The big game was Virginia’s 67-54 road victory over Oregon.  The Ducks went into the game with a 6-2 record, with losses to only BYU and Vanderbilt.  But the Cavaliers continued their good early season performance by holding Oregon to 42.6% shooting.  Virginia also dominated the boards, capturing a 39-24 edge.  Mike Scott led Virginia with 17 points and 13 rebounds.  Virginia is now 9-1 on the season and poised to move into the top 25.

Florida State improved to 8-3 with a 77-61 victory over Loyola Marymount.  Once again, the ACC team dominated the boards as the Seminoles crashed the boards for a ridiculous 49 to 32 edge.  The teams helped those numbers by shooting below average, 49 for 123 between the two teams.  Bernard James led the Seminoles with 17 points and 12 rebounds.

In other Sunday action, Wake Forest defeated Gardner-Webb 67-59 to get to 7-4.  And how about those Boston College Eagles, who got their fourth win on the season with a 20-point romp over Bryant, 75-55.  That’s two wins in a row.

Posted by acaffrey in ACC only, Basketball and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
18 Dec 2011
1 Comment

#1 Syracuse Picks Up Win AT North Carolina State

In a preview of future ACC basketball games to come, the #1 Syracuse Orange traveled to North Carolina State on Saturday and left with an impressive 88-72 victory.  With the win, Syracuse assures itself of retaining the #1 ranking for at least another week.  More importantly, this team showed the country that it can respond well to adversity in a fairly hostile environment.  As the 2011 portion of the 2011-2012 schedule comes to a close, this Syracuse team is absolutely legit.

Of course, the big news leading up to the game was that Syracuse was playing its first true road game.  For whatever reason, media types do not hesitate to hammer on Syracuse for not playing enough “true road games” in December.  Perhaps the reason is that most Syracuse fans react as if their grandmothers were accused of being terrorists.  It is perfectly logical that a Big East team would hold back a bit on the out-of-conference scheduling because of the grueling nature of the Big East schedule.  That makes the Syracuse early season schedule a legitimate discussion point when weighing a December Syracuse squad against already battle-tested squads.  It is the nature of the beast more than a media conspiracy.

But the win over North Carolina State should put some of this debate to rest.  Syracuse was punched hard by North Carolina State hard in the first portion of both halves.  North Carolina State jumped out to a 12-4 lead to begin the game.  At the beginning of the second half, North Carolina State went on a crowd-fueled 17-3 run to start the second half.  The Wolfpack shot better than Syracuse, out-rebounded Syracuse, and had a 21-10 assist advantage.  And they still lost by 16.

The difference between the teams is that Syracuse’s 2-3 zone is manned by players who bring a defensive intensity that has not been matched in several years.  Syracuse forced 18 turnovers and was outstanding in converting them into points.  The Orange relied on turnovers and three-point shooting to go on a 20-0 run in the first half.  The Orange relied on turnovers and penetration with the dribble to finish the game on a 38-22 run.

As has become the pattern, Syracuse’s depth was also a significant factor.  While Brandon Triche was suffering from an off night, super-sub Dion Waiters stepped in to lead the team with 22 points.  Meanwhile, subs CJ Fair and James Southerland added 22 more points off the bench and used their length on the defensive end.  Meanwhile, senior starters Scoop Jardine and Kris Joseph scored 37 points, went 5 for 10 from three-point range, and added 9 rebounds.  You never know who is going to step up tallest for Syracuse.  When Triche and Fab Melo can have pedestrian games and it does not matter, that is impressive.

For North Carolina State, they will have to take solace in playing the #1 team closely for substantial portions of the game.  Senior guard CJ Williams certainly did his part, going 9 for 13 from the field en route to a career-high 25 points.  Point guard Lorenzo Brown led the team with 13 assists and 6 rebounds.

Posted by acaffrey in ACC only and tagged , , , ,
15 Dec 2011

ACC Hoops to Go to 18 Games in 2012-2013

The ACC has decided to switch from 16-game model to an 18-game model.  According to the ACC’s official website:

“Our member institutions have been talking about this increase for awhile and knowing our league will be expanding to 14 in the future, we’ve decided to move to an 18-game conference schedule next year, regardless of our membership number,” said ACC Commissioner John Swofford. “The additional conference games create a more equitable schedule and we’ve received significant feedback from our fans for more conference games.”

This will apply to both men’s and women’s basketball.

The questions are already being raised as to whether this is a good move or not.  Some are concerned that this will lead to Duke scaling back its ordinarily challenging out-of-conference slate.  Naturally, there must be a quantity reduction with this move.  So the only real question is whether and how it impacts the quality of the out-of-conference scheduling.

Again, this change will apply without regard to whether Syracuse and Pittsburgh are part of the ACC.

Notably, the Pac-12 has already implemented the 18-game schedule for its 12 teams.  Of course, when it had 10 teams, the 18-game slate allowed for a true round-robin.  The Pac-12 did not have to add games when it expanded by two teams.

In the end, until the league can get up to 16 teams (we’re looking at you Notre Dame), 18 games will be a bit cumbersome.  But, with 16 teams and two 8-team divisions, playing each team in your division twice and 1/2 of the teams in the other divisions works out to a very nice…. 18 games.

Posted by acaffrey in ACC only, Basketball and tagged , ,
14 Dec 2011

Slow Week for ACC Hoops

In case you have not noticed, this is a very slow week for college basketball.  This includes the ACC.  Presumably, the players are concentrating on final exams as the semester comes to a close at most colleges and universities.

There will be a brief respite from the respite tonight as Maryland (5-3) hosts Florida International (3-6).  For Maryland, the season started out rough with a 3-3 start.  The low point was certainly a 26-point loss to Iona.  Yes, THAT Iona.

However, Maryland has rebounded with a decent stretch of performances.  Maryland stayed with unbeaten Illinois, only losing by 9 points.  The Terrapins used that gutsy performance to proper them to a victory over Notre Dame in their next outing.  And, soon enough, the Terrapins will get Sophomore Pe’Shon Howard back from his broken foot.  As a Freshman, Howard averaged about 20 minutes a game.  Although he only averaged 5.4 points per game, his assist to turnover ratio was nearly 2:1.  Maryland could use his ability to distribute the ball.

Coach Mark Turgeon’s debut season has been a bit rocky, but all is not lost.  The middle-of-the-pack in the ACC is wide-open.  Other than Boston College, just about any team could end up finishing in 5th or 6th place.  While that probably will not be Maryland, time will tell.  A win tonight would keep the positive momentum going.

Posted by acaffrey in ACC only, Basketball and tagged , ,
13 Dec 2011
5 Comments

Boeheim Was Right: It’s ALWAYS About the Money

When does Jim Boeheim get HIS apology?  Well, he gets at least one of them today.

Jim Boeheim was criticized by some members of the media, and certainly taken to task on this forum, for his pointed statements regarding Bernie Fine accusers Bobby Davis and Mike Lang.  Recall that Boeheim was forced to apologize for saying that it was all about the money. When Boeheim finally apologized for those statements, the sentiment was that Boeheim should not have interfered with the alleged victims’ pursuit of justice.  After all, saying it was about the money disregarded the possibility that these time-barred claims were being advanced solely to prevent future harm.  The heartfelt apologies by Boeheim certainly did the trick in removing the focus away from Boeheim.

But we were all wrong.  Or at least those who criticized Boeheim were wrong.  It turns out that the accusers were always after the money all along.  ESPN is now reporting as follows:

Two men who say they were sexually abused by a former assistant basketball coach at Syracuse University are announcing that they are suing the school.

Bobby Davis and Mike Lang say they were molested by former assistant coach Bernie Fine when they were children. He has denied the allegations. A third man also has accused Fine. The U.S. attorney’s office is investigating.

The two men have hired Gloria Allred to handle their case.

So, there it is.  Despite having an amazingly unique opportunity to advance the interests of those abused in all of society, and despite Syracuse University firing Bernie Fine, that is not enough for the accusers.  Instead, it is time to “cash in.”

As it turns out, Boeheim was right.  So the Confidential apologizes.  You were right.  You probably still should not have said it.

But you were right.

Posted by acaffrey in ACC only, Basketball, Uncategorized and tagged , ,
13 Dec 2011

The Confidential’s Basketball Top 30 for December 13, 2011

With over 300 teams in college basketball, the top 25 is just not enough anymore.  Here is the Confidential’s Top 30 for December 13, 2011:

  1. Syracuse (10-0).  Although Syracuse has not faced the same level of difficult opponents as some of the other elite programs, they have beaten Florida, Stanford, and Va Tech.  Big test at North Carolina State on Saturday
  2. Ohio State (8-1).  Losing to Kansas is nothing to be embarrassed about.  Doing it without your best player (perhaps the best player in the nation) makes it all the more reasonable.  Wins over Duke and Florida.
  3. Kentucky (8-1).  Again, losing to undefeated Indiana is not the end of the world here, especially for a team that has beaten North Carolina and Kansas.
  4. North Carolina (8-2).  There is no reason for a two-loss team to be this high in the standings.  But the rest of the undefeated teams have played far weaker schedules.  Wins over Wisconsin and Michigan State already.
  5. Duke (9-1).  Not many teams can lose by 20 and still be ranked in the top 5.  But Duke has beaten Kansas, Michigan, and Michigan State.
  6. Louisville (9-0).  Undefeated, but not the best grouping of wins.  Vanderbilt is decent though.  They get Memphis this weekend.
  7. Marquette (9-0). Like North Carolina, they have a win over Wisconsin.  Unlike North Carolina, no notable wins anywhere else.  Mississippi is probably the best.
  8. Kansas (7-2).  Losses to Kentucky and Duke hurt, but the Jayhawks already have wins over Georgetown, UCLA, and now Ohio State.
  9. Missouri (9-0).  The Tigers are undefeated and have wins over Villanova, Notre Dame, and California.  Not too shabby.
  10. Florida (7-2).  Like Baylor, Florida has 7 mediocre wins.  Unlike Baylor, they tested themselves in road losses to Syracuse and Ohio State.  Why punish the team that tries?
  11. Baylor (7-0).  Not going to reward Baylor for slotting them ahead of a team that schedules harder and has the same resume of wins.
  12. Xavier (8-0).  They have wins over Vanderbilt, Purdue, Butler, and now Cincinnati.  Unfortunately, having to play short-handed the next few games is not going to help.
  13. Georgetown (8-1).  Wins over Alabama and Memphis give Georgetown the edge over Big East foes.  Only loss is to Kansas.
  14. UConn (8-1).  Loss to UCF remains a head scratcher, but the Huskies now have wins over Harvard, Arkansas, and Florida State.
  15. Pittsburgh (8-1).  Loss to Long Beach State is even more curious, but Pitt is rebounding nicely.  Wins over Tennessee and Oklahoma State are good starts.
  16. Wisconsin (8-2).  Losses to UNC and Marquette hurt, but Wisconsin has rebounded with a win over UNLV.  We’ll learn more when Big 10 play starts.
  17. Indiana (9-0).  Win over Kentucky, last-second or otherwise, is that chip to merit a ranking.  Next up?  Notre Dame.
  18. Michigan State (8-2).  Rebounded nicely from the losses to UNC and Duke.  Wins over Florida State and now Gonzaga.
  19. Illinois (10-0).  Only test so far is Gonzaga.  Maryland is not the usual Maryland.
  20. Murray State (10-0).  Win at Memphis is nice.  They also have a win over Dayton.
  21. Mississippi State (9-1).  Nice wins over West Virginia, Arizona, and Texas A&M.  The loss to Akron is hard to explain though.
  22. Vanderbilt (6-3).  Losses to Louisville and Xavier are excusable.  Cleveland State???  What is going on in Ohio?
  23. Harvard (9-1).  Handled pretty easily by UConn.  The win over Florida State is the big one.
  24. Michigan (7-2).  No shame in losing to Duke.  Virginia was winnable, but ultimately a loss.  Best win is over Memphis.
  25. UNLV (7-2).  The win over North Carolina was huge.  The loss to Wisconsin on the road is understandable.  Looking forward to game against Illinois.
  26. Stanford (8-1).  Wins over North Carolina State and Oklahoma State.  Only loss was after giving Syracuse a run for its money in New York City.
  27. Alabama (8-2).  Losses to Georgetown and Dayton.  Wins over Wichita State and Purdue though.
  28. Northwestern (7-1).  Drubbed by Baylor, but nice wins over Seton Hall and Georgia Tech.
  29. Virginia (8-1).  Only decent win is over Michigan.  Time will tell on the Cavs.
  30. Mississippi (8-1).  Very bad loss to Marquette.  Decent wins over Miami and Drake.

If the season ended today, all of these teams could be in the Big Dance.  We will see how it plays out though…

Posted by acaffrey in ACC only, Basketball, Rankings and tagged , , , , , , , , , ,
11 Dec 2011

Hoops Recap: Sunday Improvement for the ACC

Yesterday, the ACC struggled to a 3-3 record among current conference teams.  Sunday got much better as the league went 4-0.

Florida State improved to 7-3 with a 75-60 over North Carolina-Greensboro.  The Seminoles’ defense did the job, allowing only a 35% shooting percentage.  However, the offense struggled to the tune of 26 turnovers.  Overall, Florida State has a balanced attack, with none of the 9 players to get action to exceed 30 minutes.  Michael Snaer led the way with 14 points.

Virginia Tech also improved to 7-3 with its 73-60 win over Norfolk State.  The score was a bit misleading, as CBS noted:

The Spartans (6-4), who have quality victories over Drexel and Texas Christian and lost to Marquette by just two points, kept the game close throughout and cut the lead to 65-59 on Chris McEachin’s 3-pointer with 2:58 left in the game. But Virginia Tech’s Dorenzo Hudson hit a free throw with 2:05 left to make it 66-59. After McEachin missed a 3-pointer for Norfolk State with 1:40 to go, Eddie put the game away, draining his final 3-pointer with 1:07 remaining to push the Hokies’ lead back to 10.

But the Hokies were able to fend off this surprisingly tough foe, led by Jarell Eddie’s 24 points.

In its final tune-up before hosting Syracuse on Saturday, North Carolina State defeated North Carolina Central, 65-60.  The Wolfpack held a 10-point lead at halftime, but were never able to put away the Eagles.  C.J. Williams led the way for North Carolina State with 21 points.  Credit the team board work too; although no individual put up gaudy rebounding totals, North Carolina State held a 41-30 advantage in that category.

Finally, the ACC’s day was so good that even Boston College nabbed a rare win.  The Eagles were able to defeat Stony Brook soundly, 66-51.   Patrick Heckmann came off the bench to lead Boston College with 18 points.  With the win, Boston College improves to 3-7.  A win is a win is a win.

Posted by acaffrey in ACC only, Basketball, Game Review and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
11 Dec 2011
1 Comment

Hoops Recap: Saturday Not Kind to the ACC

Although future ACC member Syracuse was able to win and likely grab onto to #1 in the next polls, the current ACC did not fare as well–splitting its 6 games on Saturday.

Actually, another future ACC member, #15 Pittsburgh, did its job with 74-68 win over 6-3 Oklahoma State.  As is typical, the Panthers were outstanding defensively and on the boards.  The Cowboys were held to 40.9% shooting and were outrebounded 37-23.  Ashton Gibbs led Pitt with 17 points, while Lamar Patterson was a box score stuffer with 12 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists.  With the win, Pitt moves to 9-1.

And #7 Duke certainly did its part, defeating a surprisingly tough Washington Huskies squad, 86-80.  Although the Blue Devils opened strong with a 14-point halftime lead, Washington made it interesting late.  This was particularly impressive as the Huskies had been in New York all week, starting with a Jimmy V Classic loss to Marquette.  But credit Duke for starting strong and doing enough at the free throw stripe down the stretch to win.  Duke had 7 players play 20 minutes, and 6 of them contributed at least 8 points.  Austin Rivers led Duke with 18 points, allowing Duke to get to 9-1.

Similarly, #4 North Carolina was able to fend off upstart Long Beach State, 84-78.  This one was the opposite of the Duke game, with Long Beach State controlling the first half before succumbing to the Tar Heels talent advantage in the second half.  While the knee-jerk reaction is to wonder how North Carolina was not able to destroy a 4-5 team from California, recall that Long Beach State upset Pitt on the road and only narrowly lost to Kansas too.  The North Carolina quartet of Harrison Barnes, John Henson, Reggie Bullock, and Tyler Zeller scored 78 of North Carolina’s 84 points.  But credit Kendall Marshall too–he dished out 16 assists, the fourth time this year he has had 14 assists or more.  North Carolina is now 8-2 on the season.

In a test game for Wake Forest, they lost to Seton Hall on the road, 68-54.  The Demon Deacons were unable to stop Herb Pope, who scored 26 points and grabbed 14 rebounds for the host Pirates.  While nobody was expecting a win over 9-1 Seton Hall, this game  certainly was not one where Wake Forest was going to be overmatched from a talent standpoints.  Overall, Seton Hall figures to little more than a middle-of-the-pack Big East team.  But that was still too much for Wake, which falls to 6-4.  Wake Forest was led by Travis McKie’s 17 points.

In another ACC-Big East matchup, West Virginia handled Miami, 77-66.  Bob Huggins’ Mountaineers were coming off a win over Kansas State on Thursday, but had enough in the tank to defeat the visiting Hurricanes.  Truck Bryant led West Virginia with 27 points, including 5 three-pointers.  Miami was led by Malcolm Grant’s 17 points.  Although the early season started with great promise, the Hurricanes have now lost 4 of 5 in this very tough stretch of non-conference games.  Fortunately for Jim Larranaga, the difficulty eases up a bit before conference games start.

Clemson provided the third loss for the ACC on Saturday, falling to 7-3 Arizona, 63-47 in Tucson.  For the 4-4 Tigers, a trip to 7-3 Arizona was always going to be quite a test.  Unfortunately, only Andre Young was able to score effectively, as he led the Tigers with 17 points.  The team as a whole shot 31.7% from the field–which will never get it done.

Finally, Georgia Tech defeated Savannah State, 65-45.  While the Yellow Jackets deserve credit for being willing to travel to an in-state opponent of this caliber, this was never going to be much of a contest.  Brandon Reed and Daniel Miller combined to go 12 for 13 from the field, as Savannah State was simply overmatched.  With the win, Georgia Tech gets to 6-4.

Posted by acaffrey in ACC only, Basketball, Game Review and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
10 Dec 2011
1 Comment

Future ACC Member Syracuse Wins, Looks to Jump to #1 in Hoops!

While nobody knows when Syracuse (and Pittsburgh) will be joining the ACC, the Confidential is pleased to note that the Orange are starting to make a larger percentage of their noise on the court these days.  As the Bernie Fine issue fades into the background, the Orange moved to 10-0 on the season with an 85-50 win over George Washington.  Most importantly, with the win, Syracuse is primed to jump to #1 in the polls Monday.

The reason why Syracuse is likely to move to #1 is that the two teams ahead of them in the rankings, Kentucky and Ohio State, both lost on Saturday.  Meanwhile, the 4 teams behind Syracuse–Louisville, North Carolina, Baylor, and Duke–are unlikely to leapfrog a Syracuse team that has beaten Virginia Tech, Stanford, and Florida on the young season.

Once again, the Syracuse depth was too much for an overmatched opponent.  10 different players logged at least 13 minutes for Syracuse and each of them scored at least 4 points.  No starter was in double-figures in scoring; however, super-sub Dion Waiters scored 19 points–including an incredible dunk in transition.

In addition to Syracuse’s depth, the defense continues to be outstanding.  The Orange held George Washington to 30.6% shooting, including 16.7% from three-point range.  Syracuse had 11 steals, 8 blocks, and forced 18 turnovers.  Syracuse came into the game leading the nation with 12.44 steals per game.  They are in the top 10 in the nation in blocks.  Oh, and they are averaging nearly 80 points per game.  The season is young, but they are simply off to an outstanding start.

While it is too early for the ACC to take full credit for Syracuse being #1, if it cannot be one of the current ACC teams, at least it is a future ACC team!

Syracuse's Fab Melo (51) and CJ Fair (5) team up for the block (AP Photo/Kevin Rivoli)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more game photos, click here: (AP Photo/Kevin Rivoli)

Posted by acaffrey in ACC only, Basketball and tagged , , ,
09 Dec 2011
1 Comment

Another Hoops Loss for Boston College

The Boston College Eagles dropped to 2-7 with a 64-57 loss to the Providence Friars on Thursday evening.  About the only good news is that Boston College were not blown out by the hosts.  After all, Providence is 8-2.

It is no secret that the Eagles were going to have a rebuilding season.  CBS noted as follows regarding the turnover between last year’s Eagles win and this year’s Eagles loss to Providence:

Only two players who scored against the Friars last season played for BC in this year’s matchup. After losing 10 letter winners from last year, the Eagles’ top four scorers Thursday were all freshmen.

That is a lot of turnover.  All in all, it is not surprising that Providence avenged last year’s loss.

The issue here is just how bad the start of the  season has been for Boston College.  The Confidential certainly gets that losing 10 players means starting over.  However, with the exception of this loss, just look at the teams that have beaten Boston College on the early season:

  • Holy Cross (3-6) by 18
  • UMass (7-3) by 16
  • St. Louis (8-1)  by 11
  • New Mexico (6-2) by 8
  • Penn State (6-4) by 8
  • Boston University (4-5) by 14
  • Providence (8-2) by 7

While not an embarrassing slate, this is far from the competition that other major conference school teams are facing in tournaments.  And yet only 9 teams in the 6 major-conferences (70 total teams) are under .500.  At 2-7, only Utah has a worse record among the major conference teams.  This is the time of year for these teams to feast on lesser opponents before failing victim to the brutal conference schedule.

But perhaps the REAL issue is that there is a reason to be hopeful.  The Confidential can think of several reasons why Eagles’ fans should keep the faith:

  1. Perhaps the Eagles are road warriors, as Providence was the first road game and the closest margin of loss!
  2. The loss margins are on the improve.  Setting aside the Boston University debacle, there has been consistent improvement in the margins of loss.  And, really, the margins of loss have not been that bad.  Better teams have been blown-out by much more this year.
  3. There may not be any final four teams on the schedule, but there are no patsies either.  A lot of midmajors that will be making some noise in March.
  4. The best thing about freshmen is that they become sophomores, Al McGuire once said.  When you have 10 freshmen, you have 10 future sophomores

So, while there are few reasons to cheer right now, there is no reason for utter despair.  In fact, Boston College fans need only look to their football season.  After starting 1-7, the Eagles rallied to finish 4-8.  If the basketball team can show that much growth in the final portion of the season, there will be much reason for optimism heading into 2012-2013.  That does not help today, but should not be forgotten.

 

 

Posted by acaffrey in ACC only, Basketball and tagged , , ,

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