Pitt Basketball: Grueling Big East slate starts with 7 in rankings
The Big East Conference set a record when eight of its teams, or half of the conference, were ranked in The Associated Press poll in the first week of December. Seven teams remain ranked in the top 25 and two teams are receiving the most votes of unranked teams as conference play begins.
The Big East has been criticized for being too big since it realigned to a 16-team conference in 2005, but for the first time since the realignment, the league can boast of more quality depth from top to bottom, which figures to make the upcoming 10 weeks some of the most interesting and intense competition in years.
"I've said all along it's going to be the best conference in the history of basketball," said Pitt coach Jamie Dixon, who is preparing his team for its Big East opener tomorrow at Rutgers. "I can't go back on that. I kind of thought it would happen this way when the conference realigned. The teams were going to build each other up. It's not a surprise and I think it's going to continue to grow."
Pitt, Connecticut, Notre Dame, Georgetown, Syracuse, Villanova and Louisville are ranked in the top 25. Marquette and West Virginia are 26th and 27th and could crack the rankings soon.
The Big East sent a record eight teams to the NCAA tournament in 2006, and, given the rankings and the number of teams currently ranked high in the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI), there is speculation that the number could grow even larger this season.
Pitt's seniors were freshmen in 2006 when the Panthers were tied for fourth in the league standings. That year, Connecticut and Villanova entered the Big East tournament ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in Division I, but neither team made it past the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament.
Georgetown is the only team from the Big East to make it to a Final Four in the past four years, and the league has not boasted a national champion since Connecticut in 2004.
Several teams have a chance of changing that this season. The Big East had four teams in the top 11 in the AP poll that was released yesterday. Connecticut is No. 2, Pitt No. 3, Notre Dame No. 7 and Georgetown No. 11.
Georgetown upset Connecticut last night and plays Pitt Saturday. Rutgers, after opening with Pitt, travels to face Connecticut Saturday.
The schedule has very few breaks whether you're at the top of the league or the bottom.
"We all talk about it in the locker room and among the other players in the league that we know," Pitt sophomore Gilbert Brown said. "It brings a whole new atmosphere to the game. We're now known as the toughest conference, or one of the best conferences. It makes us want to go out there and prove every game that we're one of the best teams and the best conferences, too."
Pitt senior Levance Fields said the Big East always has been tough since he has been playing, but he acknowledges that the caliber of competition has increased this season.
"Obviously, we've been hearing about it," Fields said. "Everyone has been talking about the conference, but we're taking it one game at a time. Rutgers is our first game and that's what we're focusing on."
In addition to dealing with the start of the Big East schedule, Pitt is facing the daunting task of playing for the first time in 10 days when it visits Rutgers tomorrow. The Panthers, who won Dec. 21 at Florida State, returned to campus Friday after a four-day Christmas break.
On Sunday, Dixon brought in referees and simulated a game to get his players used to the idea of competing at a high level again. The team will practice on campus today before departing for New Jersey this afternoon.
Brown said the team has been increasing the intensity in practice in anticipation of what figures to be a meat-grinder of a Big East schedule.
"We're stepping it up another level," he said. "We're trying to get ready to prove that we're one of the better teams, if not the best team, in the conference. The Big East brings out another level of basketball. It's another level of competition."
NOTES -- Pitt is No. 1 in the Ratings Percentage Index for the first time. The Panthers also are No. 8 nationally in strength of schedule. ... Sam Young and Shavonte Zellous of the women's team are two of 30 seniors nominated for the Lowe's Senior Class award, presented annually to a Division I athlete in nine sports. Pitt is one of four schools to have a player nominated from the men's and women's basketball teams.
(c) 1997 - 2009 PG Publishing Co., Inc. All Rights Reserved.
DU basketball is youngest team in nation
DENVER - You might say the University of Denver men's basketball team has found the fountain of youth.Despite being absent from the NCAA's Top 25 rankings, the Pioneers earned a No. 1 ranking this season - for the youngest team in college basketball.
"I've coached teams that have been No. 1 in the country in scoring defense. I've coached teams that have been No. 1 in the country in 3-point shooting accuracy, you know, foul shooting," said DU's head coach Joe Scott. "I think it's harder to coach a team that's the youngest in the country."
With no seniors, two juniors, three sophomores and eight freshmen on the roster, the team's average age is 18.9 years old, which is more than a quarter of a year younger than any other team in the nation.
"Young guys are coming along and they're making it easy for me to lead, you know," said junior Nate Rohnert, a forward. "I'm just trying to show them what Denver basketball is really about. Kind of show them how we do things and where we want to take this program."
At 21 years of age, Rohnert's teammates refer to him as the grandpa of the team. He's the only junior in the Pioneers' starting lineup.
However, if they can keep the core of the team together, in a few years they could lead the college ranks in a different category: experience.
(c) KUSA-TV - a division of Multimedia Holdings Corporation. All rights reserved.
Arkansas-Monticello Improves to 6-0
MONTICELLO --- The University of Arkansas at Monticello men's basketball team picked up its sixth straight win in as many games, defeating Champion Baptist 106-52 at home.
The win marks the first time in UAM men's basketball team history that a team won its first six games of the season.
In the win, UAM (6-0) used 52 percent shooting to seal a comfortable win over Champion Baptist (1-13) for the second time this season. The Tigers shot 37 percent in the first half, but improved its number to 44 percent in the second half, but UAM's 49-23 lead at the halftime break was too great to overcome.
Senior Bernard Seymour (Biloxi, Miss.) led all scorers with 25 points and seven rebounds. Seymour was 10-of-13 from the field, while also racking up one three-pointer and four free-throws.
Following Seymour was senior Deron Brown (Paris, Ky.) who had 15 points after shooting 6-of-10 from the field and 3-of-5 from behind the 3-point line. Brown also added five assists and four steals to his totals.
Junior Derek Easter (El Dorado) became the first Weevil of the season to record a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds in the win. Easter also racked up three blocked shots and five steals.
Rounding out the double digit scorers was sophomore and returning Gulf South Conference West Division freshman of the year D'Angelo Dean (Cincinnati, Ohio), who saw his first action of the season. Dean racked up 10 points in only 18 minutes of play.
The Weevils entered the game as the 23rd ranked team in the nation and will look to improve that ranking this weekend with games against West Florida and Montevallo in the Montevallo Classic.
UAM plays Montevallo Friday at 7:30 p.m. and West Florida on Saturday at 4 p.m.
(c) 2008, Arkansas Business Limited Partnership.
UCLA focused on the smaller deals
March 24, 2007
The Orange County Register, Calif.
SAN JOSE, Calif. - How many layups has Acie Law IV made for Texas A&M? A hundred? Two hundred?
Which one will Law remember, long into his middle age? Simple. The one he managed to miss at the end of the loss to Memphis on Thursday.
And then how many times did the Aggies block out a rebounder, on their way to the third seed in their regional? Again, it's as moot as trying to figure out whether the Aggie War Hymn begat the Yogi Bear Theme Song, or vice versa.
A&M let Memphis have the final two offensive boards of the season, and, surely, it finalized the Aggies.
That is what made UCLA coach Ben Howland so snippy, on the interview podium here Friday; that is why Kansas coach Bill Self gathered his assistants and asked, "What should we be doing?"
An NCAA Tournament that wallops every loser in the intestines saves its most vicious punch for this game. The Eight Game.
Kansas and UCLA play in the West Regional final on Saturday. Winner goes to the Final Four, loser gets left at the station. It is the toughest game of the season to win.
It might just come down to the last detail.
Self took Tulsa to the doorstep against North Carolina in 2000. He got Illinois there, next to Arizona, in 2001. Three years later, Self's Kansas team surged and retreated and lost to Georgia Tech in overtime.
"All three games turned out to be one-possession games," Self said. "Each time we had the ball with a chance to win or tie in the last 20 seconds. Every possession matters. That's why we stress it, from Oct.15 on. One missed assignment, one bad screen, setting up your man just one time, it could be the difference."
That is why Howland calls the tutorial timeouts he does, regardless of the clock, when he sees a Bruin stray on defense.
That is why his video sessions drag so painfully, even after decisive victories.
Saturday's game could get away from either team, but don't expect it. Expect the noise to gather when the clock starts galloping in tenths of seconds, and expect tired bodies to thump and gasp and stretch when somebody tees up that Atlanta shot.
Who will make it? History favors both, and neither.
Kansas hasn't lost since Feb.3, a three-pointer at home to A&M. It is capable of bombastic runs, having beaten Oklahoma State by 30, Boston College by 18, Kansas State by 27.
"It's crazy what they've done," said Donny Daniels, the UCLA assistant coach. "They're beating people by 18 points a game."
Their three-point percentage (39.6) is higher than their opponents' field goal percentage (37.3). They win the boards by seven per game. They force 17 turnovers per game. Their fourth big man, Darnell Jackson, averages 5.1 rebounds in 15.3 minutes per game.
"They have great people coming off the bench and they play great defense in the half-court, like A&M does," Daniels said.
The easy parallel is Memphis last year, since the Bruins shook down the Tigers in this very game, 50-45. It isn't valid. Memphis hadn't been tested in a couple of months, and some of its players were eyeing the pros. "The moment was too big," recalled Coach John Calipari later.
Kansas seems more engaged, following consecutive first-round losses to Bucknell and Bradley, and it has beaten Kansas State, Kentucky and Texas twice in this month. It might be beaten Saturday, but not surprised.
The game might come down to Brandon Rush matching up with Arron Afflalo, each team's leading scorer and top defender.
Or whether the Bruins "bigs" can avoid fouls and contend with Jackson and Darrell Arthur coming off the bench - some strong Thursday minutes by James Keefe encourage the Bruins there.
If someone needs to step outside of the structure and make winning plays, that team will likely be Kansas.
"Sometimes coaches can overcoach or overmanage," Self said. "Our strength is that we have guys who can make plays - put the ball in their hands and they can force help."
But the Jayhawks might not have an answer for the irresistible Darren Collison, who, by the minute, gets better at driving and deciding. His blossoming, and Josh Shipp's health, are the two improvements over last year's UCLA.
There's also the UCLA "red" post double-teams that have enveloped everybody. "They make you think there's a passing lane and then take it away," Self said. Can Arthur, Jackson, Julian Wright or Sasha Kaun handle it? Wright (77) is the only one with more than 15 assists this season.
Stir in a swarming Bruins crowd, and give it to UCLA, 66-63, or something like that. Won by a Collison drive or a Josh Shipp pull-up or an Afflalo "three."
That is the substance of the house Howland has built, with unceasing devotion to one nail, one brick. Then one nail, one brick.
One play.
(c) 2007, The Orange County Register (Santa Ana, Calif.). Distributed by Mclatchy-Tribune News Service.
Duke closes season with familiar feeling
CSTV U-WIRE) DURHAM, N.C. -- Greg Paulus and the Blue Devils cannot be blamed for getting a feeling of deja vu as the buzzer sounded on their season Thursday night.
It was the same situation in which Duke had found itself on the first Thursday in February at Virginia. Just like in the Blue Devils' season-ending loss to VCU, Paulus' last-second 3 fell harmlessly to the floor, resulting in a heartbreaking loss for Duke.
The two images of Paulus -- devastated after losses to two Virginia schools -- encapsulate Duke's season and stand as the bookends to a tumultuous six weeks that eventually ended with the Blue Devils' earliest exit from the NCAA Tournament in 11 seasons.
The overtime loss to the Cavaliers started a four-game losing streak that pushed Duke into the middle of the ACC standings. The loss to the Rams in the first round of the NCAA Tournament capped a second four-game losing streak -- this one pushing the Blue Devils into a long offseason.
"This is the hardest loss I've ever had," freshman Jon Scheyer said after the VCU game. "Obviously, it's not an easy way to lose at any point in the season, especially not in the last game."
It is fitting that Duke's struggles in the final moments of that game ended its season prematurely. All year long, an inability to pull out close games defined the Blue Devils.
"We just didn't do the tough things down the stretch," junior DeMarcus Nelson said last Thursday.
Nelson could have been talking about any of the 11 games Duke lost this season, the most defeats for a Blue Devil team since 1996 -- which was also the last time the team failed to win a postseason game.
In every loss -- even the four games Duke dropped by double digits -- the Blue Devils had their chances in the final 10 minutes. But offensive droughts and a lack of timely defensive stops cost Duke repeatedly.
The offense had shouldered the blame throughout much of the season, as field goal droughts at inopportune times cost the Blue Devils in games against Marquette and Virginia among others.
In the final four games, however, it was the defense that let Duke down. After giving up 59.0 points per game through the first 29 contests of the year, the Blue Devils allowed an average of 83.8 points in the final four games of the season.
In its postseason losses to N.C. State and VCU, Duke was particularly incapable of coming up with stops at the end of the game. The Wolfpack scored on every possession in overtime in its 85-80 upset of the Blue Devils in the first round of the ACC Tournament, exploiting Duke's lack of depth on the interior.
The Rams, meanwhile, scored on their final five possessions to knock the Blue Devils out of the NCAA Tournament. VCU point guard Eric Maynor scored six of those points, including the game-winning jumper with 1.8 seconds left.
Maynor, like Sean Singletary before him, came through in the clutch when Duke could not.
The Blue Devils, however, would not have been in that situation if they had not surrendered a 13-point lead. In fact, Duke had let a 13-point lead slip away in the loss to Virginia, as well. For the season, the Blue Devils lost four games in which they held a double-digit lead.
"We have to put teams away and protect our leads," sophomore Josh McRoberts said after the Virginia loss in February. "We were up [13] at some point and we let them back into it. When you put yourselves in that position, bad things are going to happen, and that's what happened to us."
Many of Duke's struggles can be attributed to the team's youth. Nelson was the only upperclassmen to receive substantial playing time, and the team relied heavily on its freshman class. Although that inexperience showed in some of the season's most crucial moments, the Blue Devils plan to build upon this year's foundation for 2007-08 -- starting with the memory of their most painful defeats.
"You hope that everything you do that didn't turn out as well as you would have liked, you can use as a source of motivation," head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "Our kids have always been wanting to get better, so we use an experience like this. And it hurts. When you lose in the last few seconds, after playing so hard all game, it's not an easy thing to forget. I think we should use it as a motivation to get better, so that's what we'll use it as."
Copyright 2007 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
Double Underdogs: Vanderbilt, Washington State in unlikely NCAA matchup
"It's a great matchup for fans of good basketball," Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings said. "Maybe we don't have the national profile, and maybe Washington State doesn't, but we know how to play a good game."
The present is pleasant for both schools and much better than the past.
Washington State hasn't won two games in the same NCAA tournament since 1941 and in fact, the Cougars had won just once since then before beating Oral Roberts on Thursday.
Vanderbilt has reached the round of 16 three times in the past 20 years but such moderate success barely gets noticed in the powerful Southeastern Conference, where the Commodores frequently are an afterthought in the national picture.
Yet third-seeded Washington State (26-7) finished second in the Pac-10 this season and earned a consistent Top 25 ranking under first-year coach Tony Bennett. The Cougars then handily won their opening-round matchup, surging ahead of Oral Roberts after halftime with the same formula of tight defense and steady offense that fueled the Cougars' surprising rise.
The sixth-seeded Commodores (21-11) also had little trouble against George Washington, because of their remarkable defense. Vanderbilt held its opponent without a field goal for stretches of 6 1/2 minutes and 11 1/2 minutes in the first half alone in a 77-44 rout.
The teams have vast differences in personnel and style -- but at least two connections. Stallings made a pilgrimage to Green Bay, Wis., to study under Tony Bennett's father, former Washington State coach Dick Bennett, when Stallings first became a head coach at Illinois State in 1994.
And Vanderbilt's Shan Foster played in a memorable high school game in Louisiana against the Cougars' Ivory Clark.
"It was a great game, but we won," Foster said. "(Clark) actually scored all of his 33 buckets on me. I fought, too. I had 27."
The most compelling matchups Saturday should occur when Vanderbilt has the ball. Derrick Byars, the SEC's player of the year, will team up with Foster in an attempt to solve the tightly packed Washington State defense that stymied Pac-10 opponents all year long.
The Cougars had two strong defensive games against UCLA's Arron Afflalo, another mid-sized swingman with a stellar outside shot and the ability to penetrate. But Washington State realizes Byars is an unfamiliar challenge.
"Any time you're the player of the year in a conference with so much talent and athletes like the SEC has, obviously he's a great player," Washington State forward Robbie Cowgill said. "We're going to have to do what we did (against Oral Roberts) -- make it a team deal to get him stopped."
And Washington State has no problem with that type of teamwork. The Cougars defense was outstanding throughout their remarkable regular season -- but even when they made the Top 25 and attracted attention for their diverse roster, Washington State didn't get caught up in its own hype.
"We've always been in the very back of the Pac-10 in terms of media attention," Cowgill said. "We didn't come in (to Washington State) thinking we were going to be under all the lights and the glamour, and that's fine with us."
"They're a hard-nosed group of kids," Bennett added. "As freshmen and sophomores, they had to eat a lot of dirt. They're tough-minded, and there's a fire burning within. You need that to have success at this level."
Stallings says much the same about his players. The Commodores hadn't finished higher than third in the SEC East until this season, when Stallings built a quiet contender around unselfish swingmen Byars and Foster.
"We don't worry about outsiders and all the speculation," Byars said. "We just worry about the guys that's in that locker room. ... I just know (Washington State) had a monster season out there in the Pac-10. They're as good a team defensively as we've seen all season."
Akron 66, Kent State 64, OT
March 4, 2007
KENT, Ohio (AP) -Jeremiah Wood's layup with 1.5 seconds left in overtime gave Akron a 66-64 win over Kent State and the Mid-American Conference East title on Sunday night before a raucous crowd that included Cavaliers star LeBron James.
Wood, who finished with 17 points, grabbed a strong pass from Nick Dials underneath and rolled in his shot as the Zips (24-6, 13-3) bounced off their bench in celebration.
But the party nearly crashed quickly when Kent State's Omni Smith threw up a 65-foot heave that grazed the net as the horn sounded.
Cedrick Middleton added 17 points and Dials 14 for Akron, which won its first division crown since 1998 and clinched the No. 2 seed in next week's MAC tournament in Cleveland. The victory gave the Zips their most wins since going to Division I in 1980-81 and enhanced their NCAA tournament resume in case they don't win the MAC tourney title.
Smith had 16 points and Mike Scott added 15 and 12 rebounds to lead the Golden Flashes (20-10, 12-4), who shot a season-worst 35 percent from the floor.
A dunk by Kent's Haminn Quaintance brought the Golden Flashes, who overcame a 10-point deficit to force OT, within 62-61 with 22.5 seconds left. After Dials made two free throws to put Akron up by 64-61, senior Armon Gates drained a 3-pointer with 10.4 seconds left to tie it.
Dials rushed the ball up the floor, drove the right side and whipped his pass in the lane to Smith for the game-winner.
Akron led its hated rival almost from the outset and took a 46-36 lead when Dru Joyce, James' high school teammate and best friend, drained a 3-pointer with 6:42 left. But the Golden Flashes, urged on by a home crowd that never gave up, ran off 11 straight points to take a 47-46 lead on Sullinger's basket with 3:44 left.
The Zips went back up by five when Dials hit an off-balance layup despite Akron coach Keith Dambrot's pleas to slow it down.
Scott then hit a layup, and after fouling out Joyce on a drive, Smith dropped a free throw to make it 52-50. He missed the second but Akron's Nate Linhart was called for a travel and Scott tipped in a miss with 10.4 seconds left to tie it 52-all.
Akron had one last chance in regulation, but Middleton's layup was blocked by Quaintance with one second left.
James arrived early in the first half and as he walked toward his seat, the NBA superstar was stopped by a Kent State police officer who awkwardly asked to see his tickets. James had barely sat down when he got Joyce's attention and began coaching his good friend from the stands.
As it turned out, the Zips didn't need much help early on.
Kent State started cold from the floor and stayed that way, shooting just 18 percent from the field in the first half.
However, they were only down by 10 points after playing their worst half of ball this season.
Scott led the Golden Flashes with seven points on 3-of-5 shooting, but the rest of Kent State's lineup was 3-for-28.
AP NEWS
The Associated Press News Service
Copyright 2006-2007, The Associated Press, All Rights Reserved
|
