Davidson put up a valiant effort against Wichita State in Saturday's BracketBuster game, but wound up losing 91-74. While they didn't get the victory, the Wildcats got the upperhand in the "Monsterous Dunk" category.
Chris Czerapowicz, a sophomore guard from Sweden, threw down a huge #POSTERIZED jam during Davidson's final comeback push.
And to think, I thought Sweden was only known for producing beautiful women...
But was it as good as these?
Darius Miller, Kentucky vs. Ole Miss, 2/18
Darrion Pellom, Hampton vs. Maryland-Eastern Shore 2/15 (DotY Candidate)
Trency Jackson, Northwest Florida vs. Chipola, 2/15
Kwame Alexander, Cal St. San Bernadino, 2/12
Weekend Recap, 2/10 - 2/12
Kyisean Reed, Utah State vs. Louisiana Tech, 2/9
Joshea Singleton, Bucknell vs. Colgate, 2/8
Kelsey Barlow, Purdue vs. Ohio State, 2/7
Markel Brown, Oklahoma State vs. Iowa State, 2/7
Roscoe Smith, UConn vs. Louisville, 2/7
Weekend Recap, 2/2 - 2/5
Jamaal Franklin, San Diego State vs. TCU, 2/4
Michael Carter-Williams, Syracuse vs. St. John's, 2/4
Kwame Alexander, Cal State-San Bernardino vs. Cal State-Dominguez Hills (D-II), 2/3
Bradley Beal, Florida vs. South Carolina, 2/2
Doug Anderson, Detroit vs. Valparaiso, 2/2
Thomas Robinson, Kansas vs. Oklahoma, 2/1
Markel Brown, Oklahoma state vs. Texas Tech, 1/31
Royce White, Iowa State vs. Kansas State, 1/31
Savalace Townsend, Arkansas-Pine Bluff vs. Grambling State, 1/28 (DotY Candidate)
Weekend Recap, 1/25 - 1/29
Tony Wroten Jr., Washington vs. Arizona State, 1/26 (DotY Candidate)
Ronald Roberts, St. Joseph's vs. Dayton, 1/25
Markel Brown, Oklahoma State vs. Missouri, 1/25 (DotY Candidate)
Larry Nance Jr., Wyoming vs. San Diego State, 1/24
Dion Dixon, Cincinnati vs. Syracuse, 1/23
Victor Rudd Jr., South Florida vs. St. John's, 1/17 (DotY Candidate)
C.J. Fair, Syracuse vs. Pittsburgh, 1/16
TrayVonn Wright, North Dakota State vs. South Dakota, 1/14
Bandja Sy, New Mexico State vs. Utah State, 1/12
Kenny Hall, Tennessee vs. Mississippi State, 1/12
Dezmine Wells, Xavier vs. Duquesne, 1/11
Kadeem Batts, Providence vs. Louisville, 1/10
Karam Mashour, UNLV vs. CS-Bakersfield, 1/6
Tony Snell, New Mexico vs. Houston Baptist, 1/3
Tony Mitchell, Alabama vs. Georgia Tech, 1/3
Trevis Simpson, UNC-Greensboro vs. Miami, 1/2
Orion Outerbridge, Rhode Island vs. Boston College, 1/2
Sam Thompson, Ohio State vs. Indiana, 12/31
DeShon Minnis, Texas Tech vs. Southeastern Louisiana, 12/30
Keith Gabriel, VMI vs. Old Dominion, 12/22
Eric Etherly, Loyola (Md.) vs. Kentucky, 12/22
Chris Evans, Kent State vs. Texas-Arlington, 12/21
P.J. Hairston, North Carolina vs. Texas, 12/21
Robbie Hummel, Purdue vs. IPFW, 12/20
Robert Brown, Virginia Tech vs. North Florida, 12/19
Tony Mitchell, Alabama vs. Kansas State, 12/17
Torye Pelham, Southern Mississippi vs. Ole Miss, 12/17
Quincy Diggs, Akron vs. Florida A&M, 12/17
Anthony Davis, Kentucky vs. Chattanooga, 12/17
Langston Galloway/C.J. Aiken/Ronald Roberts, St. Joseph's vs. Villanova, 12/17
Terrence Ross, Washington vs. UC-Santa Barbara, 12/16
Jared Cunningham, Oregon State vs. Howard, 12/15
Raheem Appleby, Louisiana Tech vs. McNeese State, 12/14
Tony Mitchell, Alabama vs. Detroit, 12/12
Vander Blue, Marquette vs. UW-Green Bay, 12/11
Ronald Roberts, St. Joseph's vs. Creighton, 12/10
Dion Waiters, Syracuse vs. George Washington, 12/10 (DotY Candidate)
Victor Oladipo, Indiana vs. Kentucky, 12/10
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Georgia vs. Georgia Tech, 12/10
Vander Blue, Marquette vs. Washington, 12/6
Terrence Ross, Washington vs. Marquette, 12/6
Deville Smith, Mississippi State vs. West Virginia, 12/3
Terrence Jones, Kentucky vs. North Carolina, 12/3
Tony Mitchell, Alabama vs. Georgetown, 12/1
Anthony Marshall, UNLV vs. UNC, 11/26
Michael Kidd-Glichrist, Kentucky vs. Portland, 11/26/11 (DotY Candidate)
Markel Brown, Oklahoma State vs. Virginia Tech, 11/25
Rodney Williams, Minnesota vs. DePaul, 11/24
Thomas Robinson, Kansas vs. Duke, 11/23
Stan Okoye, VMI vs. Ohio State, 11/23
Kyisean Reed, Utah State vs. Southern Utah, 11/19
Ra'Shad James, Iona vs. Western Michigan, 11/18
Alandise Harris, Houston vs. Arkansas, 11/18
Sam Thompson, Ohio State vs. Jackson State, 11/18
Tony Mitchell, Alabama vs. Wichita State, 11/18
Eric Griffin, Campbell vs. North Carolina A&T, 11/18 (DotY Candidate)
Olek Czyz, Nevada vs. Pacific, 11/17
Chris Watson, Pikeville vs. Mountain State, 11/16
Ray Willis, North Carolina Central vs. Wagner, 11/16
Mike James, Lamar vs. Ohio, 11/15 (DotY Candidate)
Quincy Acy, Baylor vs. San Diego State, 11/15
Deniz Kilicli, West Virginia vs. Kent State, 11/15
Chris Evans, Kent State vs. West Virginia, 11/15
Tony Mitchell, Alabama vs. Oakland, 11/14
Isaiah Brown, East Tennessee State vs. Virginia Tech, 11/12
Michael Lyons, Air Force vs. Army, 11/11
Dezmine Wells, Xavier vs. Morgan State, 11/11
Jeremy Lamb, UConn vs. Columbia, 11/11 (DotY Candidate)
Andre Drummond, UConn vs. CW Post, 11/4
Moe Harkless, St. John's vs. CW Post, 10/26
Continue reading...
Saturday, February 18, 2012
POSTERIZED: The Scandinavian Slam |
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Tuesday's Shootaround: Two upsets and a buzzer-beater |
Davidson 80, No. 11 Kansas 74: See here.
LSU 67, No. 10 Marquette 59: See here.
Southern Miss 64, Arizona State 61: The Golden Eagles did everything they could to hand this game to Arizona State.
USM dug themselves a 30-21 hole in the first half by missing seemingly every shot they took. After battling back to take the lead, they got Torye Pelham -- who had nine offensive rebounds in the game -- ejected for fighting with Ruslan Pateev. Then after rebounding to build up a double-digit lead with just 1:33 left on the clock, USM decided to miss free throws and turn the ball over, allowing Arizona State to tie the game with 5.0 seconds left. Luckily, Darnell Dodson was there to bail them out:
Continue reading...
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Bubble You Pleasure, Bubble Your Fun |
The major conference tournaments will be starting over the next three days, and seeing as the bubble is obscenely weak this year, the majority of the bubble determination is going to come in the form of middle-of-the-pack major conference teams playing each other in their conference tournament's early rounds. Be sure to check back here daily for complete analysis of everything bubble over the next week.
Sweating it out (record, RPI, SOS, top 50, top 100, road): Who has already lost?
- St. Mary's (25-6, 45, 160, 2-3, 3-4, 8-3):
Best Wins: Providence, Utah State, San Diego State
Worst Losses: Portland, Santa Clara
See here for St. Mary's analysis.
- Creighton (26-7, 39, 106, 3-2, 9-4, 8-4):
Best Wins: Northern Iowa, Dayton, George Mason
Worst Losses: Drake, Wichita State, Arkansas Little-Rock
What is going to doom the Bluejays is their early season losses to Arkansas Little-Rock and Nebraska. Both were on the road to top 100 RPI teams on shots hit in the last 10 seconds. In back-to-back games. If this profile read 28-5, 11-2 against the top 100 and 10-2 on the road, we would be saying much different things about the Bluejays. They are probably on the outside looking in right now.
- Davidson (25-7, 69, 165, 1-4, 1-4, 10-2):
Best Wins: West Virginia
Worst Losses: Citadel, Charleston (twice)
Davidson is out. I am giving them a courtesy post because I love Steph Curry. See here for more Davidson analysis.
Today's Bubble Games: Nothing too important on the bubble schedule.
- Cincinnati (17-13, 72, 32, 4-9, 7-11, 4-7) vs. DePaul
Best Wins: UNLV (road), UAB, Georgetown (twice), West Virginia
Worst Losses: South Florida, Seton Hall
Cincinnati was all set to put themselves into great position to earn a big. They were 17-11, 8-8 in the league, with just South Florida nd Seton Hall on their schedule. They then proceeded to lose both games, all but taking themselves out of bubble consideration. They probably need to get to the semi's, going through UConn, if they want a serious chance at dancing (you will notice a theme today).
- Georgetown (16-13, 49, 4, 4-9, 7-12, 3-7) vs. St. John's
Best Wins: UConn, Memphis, Syracuse, Villanova
Worst Losses: Seton Hall, St. John's
Georgetown, like Cincinnati, was set to make a serious run at a bid after they knocked off Villanova in Philly. They had four top 20 wins and no losses outside the top 100 (Seton Hall is 100). Until they played St. John's, where they blew a 15 point second half lead before losing in overtime. Again, a trip to the semi's is probably the minimum they need, beating Marquette and Villanova on the way there.
- Notre Dame (16-13, 73, 37, 3-11, 5-12, 3-8) vs. Rutgers
Best Wins: Texas, Louisville, Georgetown
Worst Losses: St. John's
Notre Dame is another team with just one bad loss, but they don't have enough good wins to justify getting into the dance right now. I think both ND and G'Town are good enough to be an NCAA tournament team, but both were just decimated by the rigors of the Big East - G'Town because of their inexperience and lack of depth, and ND because of their lack of size inside. Semi's or bust, baby.
- Butler (25-4, 18, 99, 2-1, 12-2, 12-3) vs. Cleveland State
Best Wins: Xavier, UAB
Worst Losses: Loyola IL, Wisconsin-Milwaukee
The only reason I am putting Butler here is because of what will happen if they lose the Cleveland State (very possible, they swept CSU by a total of four points, one of which was a buzzer-beater in OT). Butler is a lock, and is they lose, someone's bubble will burst.
Continue reading...
Monday, March 9, 2009
Stephen Curry Headed to the NIT |
We may have just seen Davidson guard Stephen Curry's last meaningful college basketball game. Why? Because his Davidson Wildcats lost to Charleston last night 59-52 in the Southern Conference tournament semifinals.
Curry was held to just 5=18 shooting and 2-11 from three, finishing with 20 points. The Wildcats were still able to open up a lead as big as 12 in the first half, heading into the break up 29-20. But Charleston came out guns ablaze in the second half, going of a 20-4 run to take a 40-33 lead that Davidson was never able to recover from. 
Davidson, last year's tournament darlings, will be headed to the NIT in 2009.
(photo credit: Angela Lewis/AP)
By all accounts, Davidson has almost no shot at earning an at-large bid to the dance. No team from the Southern conference ever has. So do they stack up?
The Wildcats have a decent RPI (67) and a terrible SOS (176), but that is to be expected from a team that plays in a low-major conference. The bigger issue is that they have only played six games against the RPI top 100, losing four (Duke, Purdue, Butler, and Oklahoma). Their only wins came against NC State, whose is number 100 (according to RealTimeRPI), and West Virginia, who played without Alex Ruoff and had an injured Joe Mazzulla play the first five minutes.
The bottom line is that, like it or not, the Wildcats are not an NCAA tournament team. They needed to win their conference tournament to have a chance at a berth.
They didn't.
Which means that we will not be seeing March's golden boy in this year's dance.
Continue reading...
Monday, February 9, 2009
College Basketball Week In Review: Some Big Names On The Wrong Side Of The Bubble |
What We Learned This Week: Notre Dame is done. Finished. Finito. They have lost seven games in a row and are currently sitting at 12-10 and 3-7 in the Big East. Their RPI is atrocious (81). They are 2-9 against the RPI top 50, and their two wins are against Texas and Georgetown (both much less impressive now then they were two weeks ago). Yes, I know their seven game losing streak has all been against RPI top 50 teams, but it isn't who they are playing that has me convinced.
It is how they are playing.
Cincinnati is not a good team offensively. They are ranked 91st in offensive efficiency by KenPom. They've only scored more than 71 points twice in Big East play, but one of those times was when they put up 93 on the Irish.
UCLA, on the other hand, is a good team. KenPom has them at sixth overall. I know the game was played out west, but in a must win situation against the Bruins on Sunday Notre Dame didn't to show up. They got down big early in the game, Luke Harangody had five points and one board in 25 minutes, and eventually lost by 26.
Look at the rest of Notre Dame's schedule: they still have games against Louisville, Villanova, and at West Virginia, Providence, and UConn. And the Big East tournament. Even in an absolute best case scenario, they are still much more than likely going to finish the season with at least 13 losses. And that's assuming that they somehow make a miraculous turn-around in the next three weeks.
Notre Dame does not have near a strong enough resume to get an at-large bid with 13 losses.
Who else is in trouble?:
TEAMS OF THE WEEK:
Ohio State and Memphis
Ohio State went 2-0 this week, knocking off Purdue in OT and Minnesota. The Buckeyes have now won four straight in the Big Ten and look to be emerging from the mess that is the middle of the league (ninth place is two games behind second place). The biggest reason for the Buckeyes resurgence is their biggest player. OSU has finally figured out how to use BJ Mullens. The big fella has scored in double figures in nine of the last ten games, averaging 12.2 ppg, 5.8 rpg, and 1.3 bpg during that span. The Buckeyes perimeter quartet of Evan Turner, Jon Diebler, William Buford, and David Lighty (when he gets healthy) is as good as anyone, and with Mullens playing well, if Jeremie Simmons and PJ Hill can continue to provide solid minutes (meaning not turning the ball over, playing defense, and getting the scorers the ball where the can be effective) at the point, the Buckeyes have a shot to make some noise in the dance.
Before the Gonzaga game, I was talking to a co-worker about Memphis. He said "Memphis is my permanent dark horse", mainly because the Tigers are always in the mix at the end of the season. I had kind of written them off at the start of the year after watching them struggle to score without a true point guard. But after seeing them dismantle, Gonzaga on Saturday night, I realized how right he was. This year's Memphis team might be Calipari's best coaching job. Why? Because this is a team that doesn't have a true point guard and doesn't have a true shooter, but looks to be headed for another top 4 seed in the dance.
While they are not the same team offensively as last year (how could they be losing Derrick Rose and CDR), they are just as good, if not better, defensively. They attack the glass on both ends. They have a ton of long, athletic guys that can guard a number of different positions. Bottom line, this is an intimidating team to go up against. They don't need to be great offensively to win games. And by switching Tyreke Evans over to the "point", Cal has turned these guys into a team that can score 65-70 points against good competition, which is more than enough for them to win.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK:
Toney Douglas, Florida State
I touched on this a bit in the comments section of the BlogPoll post, but Florida State has put themselves into great position to not only make a run at the NCAA tournament, but to make a run at finishing amongst the top four in the ACC. The play of Toney Douglas is a huge reason for that. Douglas scored 21 in a win against Georgia Tech on Thursday, but followed that up with a much better performance on Saturday. With the Seminoles down 19 with 14 minutes left, Toney Douglas took over. FSU finished the game on a 23-4 run over the final nine minutes, and Douglas had 12 of those 23 points. More important than that is what the win means for FSU's tournament hopes. The 'Noles still have a brutal schedule to play (@ Duke, @ Wake, @ BC, Va Tech twice, Miami, and Clemson again), and getting this win on the road against a top 10 team like Clemson goes a long way to establishing credibility with the selection committee.
MATCH-UPS OF THE WEEK: It is rivalry week on ESPN, so there are going to be a lot of great games on during the week.
2/9 - West Virginia @ Pitt: Won't be a lot of offense in this one as whoever wins the battle of the boards will win the game.
2/9 - Kansas @ Missouri: Both teams are relatively unproved in the Big XII.
2/10 - Marquette @ Villanova: Arguably the two best back courts in the Big East.
2/11 - Syracuse @ UConn: Without a healthy Onuaku, the 'Cuse has their work cut out for them on the inside.
2/11 - UNC @ Duke: Round 1.
2/11 - Xavier @ Dayton: The A-10's best both lost this weekend.
2/12 - UCLA @ Arizona State: Darren Collison and James Harden are two of the best at their positions.
2/13 - Villanova @ West Virginia: Two teams with the exact opposite mentalities.
2/14 - Florida State @ Wake Forest: Quiet Saturday as this is the only game between ranked teams. These also happen to be the two biggest teams in the country.
Continue reading...
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Thursday Morning Shootaround |
Duke 79, Davidson 67: It was a tale of two halves for Steph Curry. In the first half, he was very tentative with the ball and didn't hit a shot until there were nine minutes gone. Duke's defense had a heck of a lot to do with that. They switched every screen involving Curry - on the ball or off the ball. Basically, Duke wasn't going to let Curry beat them with the three. It worked, as Curry struggled in the first half getting open looks and finished the game just 1-8 from deep.
Duke used a 13-4 run towards the end of the first half to open up a close game and take a 37-24 lead into halftime. They pushed that lead out to 25 before Steph Curry brought Davidson back.
The other day I wrote an article questioning whether Steph Curry was overrated. One of the things I mentioned in that column was that Curry is such a smart basketball player, and he proved that tonight. One thing I have noticed from Steph is that he has the ability to adjust to what the defense is giving him. Against Duke, he wasn't getting looks from three because Duke was switching everything. So he started attacking the basket.
As I said, Curry didn't score until there were 11:00 left in the first half, but went for 29 points in the last 31 minutes of the game. He only hit one three, which means that the rest of his 26 points and 9 field goals came from inside the arc. He did hit a couple step backs, but for the most part all of his damage was done by getting into the lane and finishing at the rim (he even threw down a pretty nice dunk in traffic).
I know, I am talking way too much about Steph. But the reason is that Duke is such a fundamental, well-balanced team that nothing ever stands out in their wins. For example, if UNC blows a team out, you most likely are going to say "they ran the other 
team off the court". If UConn does, you are probably going to talk about how "they dominated the paint with blocks and dunks".
With Duke, you say "they played great team basketball"?
I guess you have too, because that is basically what it was. When it is all said and done, they did a really good job on Curry defensively without letting anyone else on the Wildcas get it going (Lovedale did have 15, 7, and 4 blocks). Duke also stopped turning the ball over. I remember they showed a stat about 12 minutes in that said Davidson had 11 turnovers and Duke had 10, but Duke only turned it over twice the rest of the game, which just happened to be the same time that they started to bust the game open.
Kyle Singler and Jon Scheyer both played outstanding last night. Singler finished with 21 points, 6 boards, and 4 assists while Scheyer led Duke with 22 points.
Gonzaga 89, Tennessee 79 OT: So the 'Zags sweep the season series with Tennessee, but it didn't look like it early. After Gonzaga jumped out to a 6-0 lead, Cameron Tatum caught fire, scoring all of Tennessee's points in a 14-1 run. They eventually would push the lead to 31-16 before Mark Few made a change.
Few switched the 'Zags into a zone defense, which really just threw off Tennessee. The Vols do a lot of things well on a basketball court. They have some excellent athletes, they play tough defense (especially in the full court), they play hard, they go after loose balls. But one thing they don't do well is pass and move without the ball. Their offense is predicated on being able to isolate against your man, break him down off the dribble, and either score or find the open man. Against a zone, you lose the ability to isolate your man. So when the 'Zags went into a zone, the Vols looked lost offensively. There was almost no ball movement and no cutting.
It wasn't just the zone, however. Gonzaga finally started knocking down some jump shots. Matt Bouldin had one and Steven Gray two more as Gonzaga eventually closed the gap to 40-33 at the half.
Tennessee scored the first five of the second half, but Gonzaga pretty much controlled the game the rest of the way as they outscored Tennessee by 22. It wasn't just the play of one person either. Everyone on the court stepped up and started playing better, which brought back reminders of why I picked the 'Zags to reach the Final Four.
Three guys I want to make note of on Gonzaga. First, Jeremy Pargo finally stopped turning the ball over in the second half after turning it over five times in about the first 15 minutes. He actually played very well in the second half, as he was finding the open man and running the team. Perhaps the best thing he did was defer to Matt Bouldin, who played the best game I have ever seen him play. He finished with 26 points and 5 assists, but he made so many big shots and big plays down the stretch. Austin Daye finally woke up from his christmas hibernation. Daye, who had struggled in Gonzaga's last three games, looked to be having another sub par game in the first half with just one field goal, but he really found his stroke in the second half. Daye ended up with 20 points, 8 boards, and went 3-4 from deep. Heytvelt added 15 and 12.
For Tennessee, other than Tatum, Wayne Chism was their lone bright spot. He finished the game with 15, 19 boards, 3 assists, and 2 blocks. Tennessee seemingly dodged a bullet as well when Tyler Smith hurt his knee in OT but eventually returned.
This win was huge for Gonzaga, because now they can claim a sweep over the second best team in the SEC (Razorbacks bandwagon - jump on it) and look to be in much better position to hold on to an at-large berth.
The rest of last night's college hoops:
Continue reading...
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Wednesday Lay-up Lines |
There are two really good games to pay attention too tonight. The first is Davidson heading to Cameron Indoor to take on Duke. Now, I think Davidson is going to get manhandled in this one. Duke's defensive pressure is as good as anyone in the country's, and I just don't see Curry being able to go off, especially if they put Gerald Henderson (not sure if that is who it will be, but I would expect that it would be Henderson) on him.
So why do you want to watch this game? Because Mark Jackson, Jeff van Gundy, and Mike Breen will be announcing it.
Wait a second... Does anyone actually care about this publicity stunt ESPN is pulling? To be honest, I am just thankful that Dickie V won't be announcing the Duke-Davidson game. I love Dickie V; he is like a crazy uncle that won't stop ranting and raving at a family reunion. You accept him for what he is, appreciate his passion for the game (which is unrivaled), and realize that he really seems like a good person (Jimmy V foundation, cure for "CAN-suhh", etc).
But I don't think I would have been able to deal with Vitale doing a game between his favorite team (the Dookies) and his favorite player (Steph Curry). Would have been too much.
So am I going to watch him do the NBA game? Doubtful. As much as I would love to watch the guy with a 34-60 career record in the league wax poetic about how kids shouldn't leave school early while he analyzes a game that will be no where near exciting enough for him (seriously, what is Dick Vitale if he isn't excited and screaming?), I think the Gonzaga-Tennessee game will be much more enticing (look at the segue ... who needs journalism school).
The game between the 'Zags and the Vols is as close to a must-win for both teams as you can get, but moreso for Gonzaga. The 'Zags right now are not a lock for an at-large berth in the NCAA tournament if they were too, say, lose out on both the regular season and conference tournament titles to St. Mary's. Beating Tennessee for the second time this season, this one on the Vols home court, would go a long way towards changing that. For Tennessee, the fact of the matter is that the SEC is looking pretty weak right now, and in order to secure their spot in the tournament, they don't want to lose twice to the same team in the same year.
The rest of the nights games:
Continue reading...
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Is Steph Curry Overrated? |
Our friends (yes, we consider them friends) over at Rush the Court had a great article on Sunday pouring over and breaking down Steph Curry's numbers over the last two and a half seasons. They came up with these numbers:
The first chart shows Curry's career numbers against four different levels of competition. Notice the drop off against the BCS+Gonzaga.
This chart shows his performance against the BCS+Gonzaga in a year-by-year breakdown.
This is how they interpreted the numbers:Although Curry is still able to get his against quality competition (25.7 PPG in BCS + Gonzaga compared to 24.2 PPG versus all other teams), he becomes significantly less efficient in doing so. His field goal percentage drops from 49.1% against non-BCS competition to 40.4% against BCS-level competition. The numbers become even more interesting when you look at Stephen’s numbers year-by-year against BCS-level competition.
Now if you read this blog, you know we enjoy stats and number crunching, but only to a certain extent. We've said this before, but at some point you need to actually watch the games and the players to see what is really happening.
While Stephen has been able to continue to increase his scoring against BCS-level teams each year, his field goal percentage has dropped precipitously this year. This could merely be the result of a couple of off-shooting nights (even MJ had his bad games), but it is more likely related to the increased load being placed on Curry as the team’s new point guard with the departure of Jason Richards, who led the nation in assists per game last year. However, despite having Richards shouldering the ball-handling load last year Curry’s shooting percentage was significantly lower in BCS games than it was in his games against non-BCS games.
What does all this mean? Aside from the obvious, that BCS teams are better than non-BCS teams, it raises the interesting (and controversial) argument that Stephen Curry may not be good as the hype suggests. He is certainly capable of putting up big numbers, but so were many other great college players who never were able to translate their game to the NBA.
Back to the point, I don't want to say the guys at RTC are wrong for questioning Curry, but, well, maybe I am. Hear me out.
Davidson is not supposed to beat the likes of a Georgetown, or a Wisconsin, or an NC State. Why? Because they simply do not get as much talent into their program as those big time schools do. Calling the Southern Conference even a mid-major conference could be a stretch. The past two years, Davidson has had at most three guys that you could make a case for as high-major talents: Jason Richards, Andrew Lovedale, and Curry. This year, it is just Lovedale and Curry.
When Davidson plays other teams on their level, the rest of the guys on their roster become a threat. Will Archambault, Bryant Barr, Steve Rossiter - these guys are good Southern Conference players. But when they are going up against a team like Purdue, the Boilermakers really don't have to worry about the rest of the roster doing much damage. In other words, Southern Conference teams need to factor in the Wildcats role players when they game plan against Davidson. BCS schools do not need to. They can game plan entirely around how to stop Steph, knowing that they will be able to slow down the rest of the Davidson team by putting one guy on them playing help defense.
So not only is Curry going up against better coaching, better teams, and better athletes when he faces the BCS schools, he is facing a defense that can gear entirely towards stopping him. Purdue might be the most well coached team in the country defensively, they might have the best defensive player in the country (Chris Kramer), and they had a week to prepare for Davidson knowing they didn'
t play another good team for 10 days. It shouldn't really be a huge surprise that they were able to keep Curry in check (I'd be willing to put a large sum of money that Bobby Riddell, the senior/former walk-on that has been getting minutes with Chris Kramer slowed by injury, spent at least four or five practices playing the role of Steph Curry).
To make matters worse, this year he is playing out of position. Let's get this straight. Curry is not a point guard. Plain and simple. He can play the point, but that doesn't mean he is a point guard. He is a scoring guard that is at his best when he is coming off of screens and either looking for his shot or looking the drive. He just happens to also be a very good passer.
This problem gets magnified when you consider the lack of talent around him. If you put Curry on, say, Oklahoma, he could be an effective point guard. All he would need to do is get the ball up the court (which he can do) and then get the Sooners into their offense (which he can do).
But playing for this Davidson squad without Jason Richards, he needs to be able to bring the ball up, get the Wildcats into their offense, but he is their entire offense. What Davidson does offensively is have Curry bring the ball up and then let him create, either 1-on-1 or using a ball screen, without giving the ball up. Or they have him pass to a wing and then run him off of a number of different screens. Regardless of what they do, it is rare that Bob McKillop calls a play for someone other than Curry.
So when Davidson faces the better teams in the country, not only is Curry playing out of position, facing better players, and facing defenses that focus more on him, he is acting as the entire Wildcat offense for 40 minutes. No matter how good of shape you are in, that is going to take a toll on your legs by the end of the game, which is just about the worst thing that can happen to a shooter.
So the question remains is Steph Curry overrated? Actually, I believe he is. That's not to say that I don't love him or don't think that he is a first team all-american (I think he may actually the best player in the country). But the media has been blowing him up and talking about him non-stop ever since he went on that tear in the NCAA tournament last year. It is the Tyler Hansbrough effect - when a player becomes a media darling and spends a significant amount of time in the spotlight, the worldwide leader and other media moguls will beat it to death.
Don't get me wrong, Curry deserves all the attention he is getting. He really is a great story. The son of one of the best NBA shooters of all-time gets looked over by all the high-majors, goes to a small school in North Carolina, and proceeds to torch everyone in the country from the first day he sets foot on campus. Add to that the fact that he genuinely seems like a good kid and a nice guy, and you have the worldwide leader's dream.
No matter how good of a player Curry is, at some point (and we have reached this point) his hype is going to surpass his skills as a player.
So the next logical question is will he be a pro? I actually think he will, although I doubt he will be a star. RTC compared him to JJ Redick, which is a fair comparison, although I believe Curry has more pro potential than everyone's favorite poet. Redick was more of a pure shooter in college than Curry. JJ did develop a little bit of a penetration game, but he still relied heavily on coming off of screens for a catch-and-shoot three.
Curry, on the other hand, is a much better all around player than Redick was. He is more athletic, he has a better handle, he is a much better passer, and he is better at getting to the basket. He is also a better defender than JJ.
That doesn't mean, however, that Curry is going to be a great pro. He is not a point guard, and although he has grown since he's been at Davidson and is now listed at 6'3", he is still not near the ideal size for an NBA two. But the kid is a smart player, understands the game so well, and is as good of a shooter as you will ever see. I can see him having the type of career that Jannero Pargo or Eddie House is having. He's never going to be a star, but I can absolutely see him being an instant-offense kind of guy off someones bench.
I love watching Curry play as much as LeBron does, and I really am rooting for the kid to make it in the league, I just don't see him having the physical tools to become a star. But hey, Eddie House just won a ring with the Celtics, and Pargo is making $3.5 million a year over in Russia right now.
Not a bad life if you ask me...
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Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Wednesday Morning Shootaround |
Well, Jimmy V Week is over. Hopefully the V Foundation made some money during this past week, other wise I think Dick Vitale's head might explode. If there is one thing that Dickie V cares about more than college hoops, it is ending "CAN-SUHH".
All kidding aside, the speech my Jimmy V at the ESPY's still and always will give me chills. And the work that Dickie V and the rest of the V Foundation does to raise money is more than impressive. But as Dick said in his speech last night, sports is a distraction from real life, so without further ado let's jump into last night's games, starting with the Jimmy V Classic.
Other games of note:
The rest of the country should take notes on how WVU defended Curry. They put bigger, longer guys on him (John Flowers, who is 6'7", and Devin Ebanks, who is 6'9") and they switched every ball screen. They were physical with him once he got rid of the ball and attacked him on the defensive end, especially with Da'Sean Butler and Flowers, who continually posted Curry up. Curry finished the game with 27 points, but shot 9-27 from the floor. He also had 10 assists, but turned it over eight times. In all the games that I have watched Curry play, this was the first time he ever seemed to be frustrated and forcing the issue. Easily the worst game he has had in a very long time. But you want an idea of what kind of player Curry is? In the last five minutes, he scored 13 of Davidson's 14 points, including knocking down four jumpers, three from beyond the arc. The last two came on back-to-back possessions to erase a four point WVU lead.
One last thing about Davidson - other than Curry, the rest of this team plays scared. I mean, they gave up 29 offensive rebounds. 29. West Virginia is long and has some athletes that are going to the rim aggressively, but is it really that hard to throw your body in front of somebody? If Davidson had limited WVU on the glass, they would have won this game by 20, damn Curry's off night.
West Virginia came into this came beat up. Joe Mazzulla played six minutes in the first half, then came out for good because of a shoulder injury while Alex Ruoff never even got off the bench (except for once, when it looked like Huggins called his name to sub, then changed his mind 10 seconds later). Losing those two really hurt the Mountaineer's offensive rhythm. They are more of a swing it around and find a mismatch on 
the perimeter kind of team as it is, so without Mazzulla and Ruoff, there was no ball movement, and most of the second half was someone driving, throwing up a tough shot, and West Virginia getting one or two offensive rebounds before losing it or scoring.
Once Ruoff and Mazzula are healthy, WVU is going to be good. While they are never going to be running the Princeton offense, at least with Mazzulla in there, Huggins will have someone to run the team and distribute the ball, while Ruoff will be able to spread the floor with his shooting. But even with those two in the line-up, the Mountaineers are still going to the attacking the offensive glass. I liked what I saw out of freshman Devin Ebanks last night. He is as raw as they come (did you see him dribbling when he led that fast break in the first half?) but he is a great rebounder that can finish around the rim (two straight double-doubles with 17 boards). I also really like Da'Sean Butler's game. He reminds me a bit of Caron Butler. He can post you up or knock down a jumper and he is a good defender and a great rebounder, especially on the offensive end.
But even with all of that, their season is going to come down to defensive rebounding - will Texas learn to box out? Their front line is huge and goes six deep, but for a group of guys as big and talented as they are, they get beat of the offensive 
glass too often. Against UCLA and Villanova, the 'Horns were so much more effective and built up their leads when they were able to control the defensive glass (see UCLA first half/'Nova down the stretch).
Some last thoughts on the 'Horns: when Dexter Pittman gets into shape, he is going to be a terror for Big XII teams. He is already big and strong, but has proven that he is a pretty nimble guy (he had a block last night where he came from the other side of the lane to block a dunk while managing to catch an elbow to the face by the shooter). Clint Chapman and Gary Johnson would start on just about any other team in the country. Varez Ward and Dogus Balbay are both going to be good, but they must become better decision makers. Ward needs to learn what a good shot is, while Balbay needs to make smarter passes.
Villanova, like West Virginia, is going to be good and should not worry too much about this loss. Dante Cunningham looked like an all-american against the very good Texas front court as he finished with 23 and 12, but the Wildcats got next to 
nothing from their three guards. Scottie Reynolds, Corey Fisher, and Corey Stokes combined for 21 points, 17 off their average. Justin Mason is a phenomenal defender and had Scottie Reynolds locked down throughout the game. If Cunningham keeps playing like he has, giving 'Nova that inside presence, they are going to be fine because that back court is too talented to consistently play like they did last night.
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Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Tuesday Lay-up Lines |
Jimmy V Week ends tonight with the Jimmy V Classic in MSG. The first game of the night pits Davidson against West Virginia. Davidson's Stephen Curry is averaging 31.3 ppg and 6.4 apg. On Saturday against NC State, Curry scored 44 points for the second time this season (crazy stat - NC State came into the game allowing 53.8 ppg, which Curry almost scored himself).
West Virginia is not going to stop Curry. If you take away the game against Loyola where they face guarded him with two guys, Curry is averaging 36.5 ppg and put up 44 in the two games against major conference opponents. So unless Huggins wants to throw two guys on Curry, you are not going to stop him. For West Virginia to win, they are going to need to do what Oklahoma did and shut down the rest of his team. The Sooners held Andrew Lovedale (14 and 10 per) to just 10 points and 8 boards on 4-12 shooting, but those numbers look much better than the way he played. He was completely ineffective against the Griffins inside and ended shooting face-up jump shots the entire game. Against NC State, Lovedale went for 12 points and 9 rebounds (7 offensive), but overall was much more active and effective than he was against the Sooners.
The other thing the 'Neers need to do is to make life as difficult as possible for Curry. Be physical with him. If he is cutting or coming off of a screen, give him a good bump. Hold his jersey when he is trying to move. Give a hard, but clean, foul in the early going to set the tone. If he is bringing the ball up offensively, have someone defend him 94 feet so he has to work to get the ball up. Attack him on the defensive end. Basically, what they need to do is go back to the film of the Elite 8 game against Kansas, where the Jayhawks kept throwing bodies at Curry until he finally wore down at the end. If the Mountaineers can get Curry tired or frustrated (which is much, much easier said than done because the kid is in marathon runner shape and is as collected as any college player I've ever seen), it will make their lives a lot easier. WVU probably needs to hold him to 30 if they want to win. Think about that for a second. It is considered a success if you hold Steph Curry to under 30 points.
On the other side of the ball, West Virginia is coming off of two pretty good wins at Mississippi and against Cleveland State. Da'Sean Butler has filled the role of go-to scorer very nicely and Alex Ruoff is shooting the ball as well as ever (both average right around 14 ppg). The big thing for WVU in this game is going to be their aggressiveness going to the glass, especially on the offensive end. They have a ton of guys that are about 6'8" and athletic (Devin Ebanks, Wellington Smith, John Flowers, Kevin Jones, even Butler). They must take advantage of that athleticism against the Wildcats.
The nightcap in NYC is Texas against Villanova. Villanova is as beat up as any team in the country. Shane Clark and Dwayne Anderson are coming off of injuries, and big man Casiem Drummond has decided to leave the team to transfer. But they still have three great guards in Scottie Reynolds, Corey Fisher, and Corey Stokes. Reynolds is the best scorer of the bunch, but his point production has dropped off this year. He is averaging more assists and fewer turnovers, as he seems to be accepting of the fact that he has more talent around him this year.
I see two keys to this game for 'Nova. This first is that they are going to need one of the Corey's to step up and knock down some shots. Against a similar UCLA team, Justin Mason was all over Darren Collison through out (he did have 22 and 5 assists, but it took 22 shots and he had 6 turnovers). I look for Rick Barnes to do the same thing to Reynolds.
The other key is the rebounding battle. Texas is huge up front, and Villanova is not all that big. Texas built up a double digit lead against UCLA because they were able to control the glass, but the Bruins came back when Alfred Aboya got O-board after O-board. Dante Cunningham is a talented and athletic guy, and he, along with the rest of the Wildcats, are going to need to be all over the offensive glass.
It will be interesting to see what Texas does defensively. Tough defense forcing bad shots and turnovers has been their MO this year, and I don't expect that to change. The biggest thing for Texas is that they need to remember that they aren't a jump shooting team outside of AJ Abrams, and maybe Connor Atchley. Guys like Damion James and Mason need to focus on attacking the rim, where Texas is going to be bigger and more athletic that Villanova.
The rest of the night's games:
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Thursday, September 25, 2008
No. 20 Davidson: 2008-2009 Team Preview |
2007-2008 Team Record: 29-7, 20-0 Southern (1st)
Key Losses: Jason Richards (12.7 ppg, 8.2 apg), Thomas Sander (7.5 ppg, 4.8 rpg)
Key Returnees: Stephen Curry (25.7 ppg, 4.5 3's, 44%), Andrew Lovedale (6.8 ppg, 5.4 rpg)
Newcomers: Ben Allison, Frank Ben-Eze, Aaron Bond
Knowing nothing about the upcoming season, if I were to tell you that the media darling of the 2008-09 college hoops season played for a school in North Carolina, how many teams would you guess before you came to Davidson? 10? Unless you have lived under a rock for the last six months, then you are probably fully aware of the year that Stephen Curry had. 25.7 ppg, good for 4th in all of college basketball. 128 points (32 ppg) in four NCAA tournament games, leading Davidson to within a Jason Richards 25 footer of the Final Four with one of (maybe the) greatest NCAA Tournament performance of all-time.
Curry can score. There's no arguing that. He is the best shooter in the country, but is also quick and athletic enough, with a good enough handle, to get to the basket (although he was still more effective last year catching and using a pump fake or jab step then using the bounce). It will be very interesting to see Davidson and Curry play this year. On the one hand, they lose one of the best point guards (and NCAA's leading assist man) Jason Richards, who no doubt set up Curry on a huge number of his three's. But on the other hand, Curry now has a chance to showcase his point guard skills to the NBA. He's been getting good reviews during the off-season, and I expect him to impress people with his ability.
It's not as if Curry will be by himself, however. Senior Andrew Lovedale is an athletic, 6'8" big man who really came on towards the end of the season. He should be a force in the Southern Conference this year. 6'7" junior Stephen Rossiter should start along side Lovedale, but two freshman, 6'10" Frank Ben-Eze and 6'9" Ben Allison, should play a lot of minutes. With Curry moving over to the point, junior Bryant Barr (who has one of the best nicknames I've ever heard, the White Lobster - h/t Loose) should slide into the shooting guard position. Barr is an excellent spot up shooter, and can get hot in a hurry (as evidenced by the three straight three's he hit on Kansas in the Elite 8). The starter at small forward will probably be Max Paulhus Gosselin, who started there last year. At 6'6", Gosselin is a defender and rebounder who gives Davidson some toughness. Will Archambault, who is a similar player to Gosselin (less of a defender, more of a scorer), will see minutes off the bench.
Outlook: As I said before, it will be very interesting to see this Davidson team, and specifically Stephen Curry, play this year. Once again, Head Coach Bob McKillop has scheduled a monster of a non-conference schedule (NIT Preseason tourney, Winthrop, NC State, West Virginia in the Jimmy V classic, at Purdue, and at Duke), so by January we should have a pretty good feel of how good this team will be. Although they may not go 23-0 in Southern Conference play again, I would expect more conference titles, and maybe a win or two in the Dance.
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