Here Comes Chief Illiniwek

Two points are the only thing standing between Illinois and an undefeated season. The difference came in a home loss to Clemson, who is a team looking mighty frisky as they head into ACC Conference play. Illinois hasn’t been at the same level since Bruce Weber started coaching his own recruits instead of Bill Self players. Things may have turned the corner after Illinois’ victory at Purdue last night. Purdue didn’t deserve to win the game, but we’ll get to that in a second.

Senior PG Chester Frazier is Illinois’ engine. He keeps the team’s offense running and is a smart heady player. Center Mike Tisdale has great range for a 7’1” player, but it bothers me that he doesn’t use his height to score inside and pound the glass. Mike Davis is a PF on everyone’s radar, but he needs to be more assertive. Alex Legion has offensive ability from the perimeter, although he needs to rein in his game a little. Surprisingly they were the more composed team in overtime and pulled away from Purdue. A scheduling quirk has them take on Michigan in two of their next three games, which should help indicate more of their March value.

With all that said about Illinois, it was Purdue who gave the game away. Their foul shooting was so bad that Chris Dudley was jealous. We can jump on JuJuan Johnson’s case for bricking the game-winning foul shot with a second left, but Purdue shouldn’t have even been in that position. 55% is not an acceptable percentage for a top ten ranked team. Robbie Hummel needs to be more aggressive. He can’t take just seven shots. Johnson was better, but his touch around the basket was sub-par. I felt it had to be one of those games that Etwan Moore took over. When he was attacking the basket and not settling for the outside shot, he was very effective. This goes down as a highly disappointing loss for Purdue after smacking around Davidson ten days ago.
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Hoyas Stop Tha-Beet

I’m happy that Georgetown beat UConn on Monday night because I hate UConn. It was a close game for the first 25 minutes. Greg Monroe is a beast as you know, although he got himself in some foul trouble. Thompson III basically subbed him in and out as an offensive/defensive situation. Monroe had a really nice sweeping hook, but he had trouble with Hasheem Thabeet’s size. I like Chris Wright a bunch. He likes taking the big shot. He has that confidence already and is going to be big in the tourney. Austin Freeman also had a couple nice dipsy-do layups.

Georgetown’s Princeton offense caused UConn some problems. Monroe came out to the three point line and made a couple. Like with the Gonzaga game, it brought Thabeet out of the paint. Thabeet had a good amount of blocks but was ineffective scoring in the first half. The Huskies weren’t too impressive in general. Any time they made a run, Gtown came back with a big shot. The only person who showed up for UConn was Jeff Adrien. He was the big banger inside as usual.
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New Year, Same Story for Marquette

I was able to catch the second half of Marquette/Tennessee game on Tuesday in the poorly organized SEC/Big East Invitational on Tuesday night. It seems as if Marquette has the same problems they've had the last four years. They have the trio of Dominic James, Jeremy McNeal, and Wesley Matthews. Matthews is my favorite player of the bunch, possibly because his expectations were never as high as the other two. A player I'd take on my team any day, Matthews does all the little things, makes his foul shots, and having decent range. I've never liked James' decision making and his shooting is inconsistent. Jeremy McNeal is a nice slasher who has seemed to improve his outside shot, but he took himself out of the Tennessee game with silly fouls. The team lacks the consistent outside shooter and a real low post option. I wouldn't be too worried about them in March. The Big East Schedule should eat them up.

There wasn't much noticeable on the Tennessee side other than insertion of Bobby Maze to run the offense. It'll be interesting to see how Maze handles himself in the rematch against Gonzaga and the in-state battle against Memphis. Wayne Chism was more offensive minded and showed nice range. The Vols have been guard dominated over the last few years, so Chism needs to step up.
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The Jimmy V Classic - When Curry Goes Cold...

The Jimmy V Classic is the last of the major college basketball events at MSG during the fall. This year’s duo of games pitted Davidson against West Virginia and Texas against Villanova.

Stephen Curry was doing a much better job at running the offense than he'd shown against Oklahoma, but he couldn’t find his shot. Other than some scoring from Andrew Lovedale and tough team defense, Davidson wasn’t bringing much else to the table. West Virginia lost Joe Mazulla to a shoulder injury in the first half and Alex Ruoff wasn't suited up, so they weren't able to take advantage of Curry's poor shooting. The question still boiled on the surface. How can Davidson win when Curry doesn't shoot well??

Somehow Davidson managed to hang around and Curry went off in the last few minutes, making all four shots with three from distance. I don't see that happening against other teams who score more prominently than West Virgina. It's the same problem they would've had in last year's NCAA tournament, but Curry was scorching hot and it wasn't an issue. This would all apply next March as well. Davidson has two more chances to prove themselves on a national stage. They face Purdue, a team known for it's perimeter defence, and Duke. Duke's scoring would be too much to handle if Curry's cold, but they should be able to hang with Purdue. We'll check back in with West Virginia once they have their full complement of players back.

Other than A.J. Abrams, Texas doesn't have much for outside shooters. Damion James was pulling the trigger late in the game and hit his shots, but he was cautious earlier on. I'd definitely try to zone these guys up. Justin Mason had a better handle than I expected him to have, but he's extremely hesitant to shoot from the outside. It would be worth opponents pressing them to see how well Mason can handle it. Dexter Pittman is strong on the inside. He finished well around the rim, but Nova didn't have size to deter him. Gary Johnson is also unafraid to play big inside. His foul shooting is rather mediocre, however, which presents an issue for anyone who constantly attacks the rim. Texas' foul shooting was rather poor all around. They shot 11 of 24 from the charity stripe. Wow! Conor Atchley is a waste without Augustin running the pick and roll. Zero points and rebounds are embarrassing statistics from him. Clint Chapman is a sack of shit and plays like a huge pussy despite his size.

Nova struggled to run their offense. It's nice to see Dante Cunnigham has refined his game and is now the team's best scorer in his senior year. He's become a nice post threat, reminding some of Kurt Thomas, but he might struggle against bigger physical players. Scottie Reynolds was highly disappointing. Corey Fisher was in the game with Reynolds a lot, which should free up Reynolds off the ball, but Jay Wright continued to have Reynolds bring up the ball. Corey Stokes started strong, but faded in the second half. Without Reynolds scoring, someone needed to step off, and Stokes was unable to do so. I could see these guys getting killed by a more physical team because they don't have the all around skill level to overcome that. Their #15 ranking was purely a result of a mediocre schedule.
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Oklahoma Can Be Stopped!

I'm big advocate of the triangle and two when you're facing a team has one good player. USC used this strategy when facing Oklahoma on Thursday night. They straight shut down Blake Griffin. They held him to only 6 rebounds, with only one on offensive end. He had to work really hard in he first half of the game for any points. Oklahoma can get shut down with that defense. Austin Johnson had an amazing first half. Oklahoma got lucky as hell that they were shooting well from the outside, which forced USC to come out of the zone more in the second half. USC started off with some pretty hot shooting. Taj Gibson wasn't as strong on boards as I thought he should be. DeMar DeRozan is ok, but he wasn't impressive. USC ran a nice flex offense. They had a lot of jumpers coming off curl moves. After their disappointing start to the season, it was nice to see them showing a little backbone.


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ACC - Big Ten Challenge

December always pits the Big Ten against the ACC, with the ACC reigning supreme ever year. The Big Ten tried to make it more of a competition this year, but still fell a game short. It didn't help that they got blitzed in the games involving each conference's three best teams. I happened to catch parts of Wisconsin vs. Virginia Tech, Miami vs. Ohio State, Duke vs. Purdue, and North Carolina vs. Michigan State. As we did with Feast Week, here are some quick hit thoughts:

• Wisconsin's offense looked extremely pedestrian at times during the first half. They lack a #1 scoring option and at times are too passive offensively. They might gel a little better as the season progresses and the players get more familiar with their new roles. You know they'll always defend and rebound.
• I still like Marcus Landry as a player. I wish he was a little more aggressive offensively because he has a turnaround move on the baseline and solid jump shot. He does, however, turn the ball over more than a big man should.
• A.D. Vassalo can fill it up and Victor Davila has nice athleticism, but otherwise I don't like that much about Virgnia Tech. I'll evaluate you them more throughout the ACC season
• Ladies and Gentlemen, Jon Diebler has rediscovered his three-point shot. He still has pretty terrible shooting consistency for a guy who has the Ohio state high school scoring record.
• Lance Hurdle is a nice second fiddle to Jack McClinton, but he couldn't take over when McClinton was thrown out.
• As was stated before, Purdue needs to find an inside game and an aggressive penetrator before we take them seriously.
• Duke played pretty well, but let's not crown them just yet. And I absolutely hate they slow the play down in the last ten minutes to let the other team back into the game.
• North Carolina is the best I've seen them play with this group of players. I'm legitimately afraid of them. They have so many productive guys to put on the floor.
• As long as Lawson stays healthy, no one is beating Carolina. The guy is the engine and they've shown what they can do without a healthy Hansborough.

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