POSTERIZED: The Torye Pelham 1-2-3

Pelham 123 was a crappy remake of a 40's action movie. Even Denzell Washington and John Travolta couldn't make this train-wreck of a movie watchable.

Luckily, Southern Mississippi's Torye Pelham is no train-wreck. But if you try to get in his way, he'll turn you into one.

Peep the video.



Not one, not two, but three #POSTERIZED dunks from the senior forward.

The Golden Eagles are currently 10-2 and their only losses are to a hot Denver team and the currently undefeated Racers of Murray State. I wouldn't be surprised if we start hearing more about this team as C-USA play picks up. And I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing more highlight-reel dunks from Pelham if guys keep trying to get in his way.

(H/T @Sam1NEWski)


But was it as good as these?

Keith Gabriel, VMI vs. Old Dominion, 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
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



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Did DJ Newbill do Southern Miss dirty?

From the outside, you'd think that the Southern Mississippi fan base and administration would be mad at DJ Newbill.

Newbill had a terrific freshman campaign, averaging 9.2 ppg and 6.2 rpg for the Golden Eagles as a 6'4", 205 lb guard. Newbill, who was without a scholarship as late as mid-July in 2010, started all 32 games and played over 30 mpg. Not bad for a late-addition to your program.

But Newbill will not be finishing his career at Southern Mississippi. He announced earlier this week that he would be transferring to Penn State and new head coach Pat Chambers to finish out his career, sitting out the 2011-2012 season per transfer rules.

"D.J. will make an immediate impact on our program with his toughness, basketball IQ and work ethic," Chambers said in a statement. "It's great to get a Philadelphia kid that is passionate about Penn State basketball and wants to be here. We are very confident he will show that a Philadelphia player can have great success and an outstanding career at Penn State."


Like I said, its easy for USM to be mad at Newbill. Here's a kid that was given a chance by Larry Eustachy that jumped ship to a bigger program after one successful season and just 32 games with the Golden Eagles. From the surface, it looks like Newbill is ungrateful, that he's just another spoiled, selfish athlete out to get his.

Saying that ignores the reason that Newbill was forced to go to Southern Miss in the first place.

Back in March of 2010, Newbill -- a Philly native -- signed with Marquette. He called it his dream school. But three months later, when a former top 100 recruit and Wisconsin native named Jamil Wilson decided he wanted to return home to finished out his collegiate career, Buzz Williams needed a scholarship. Newbill, who had signed a Letter of Intent, was the one on the chopping block. Marquette used some cover story about Newbill's academics and cut ties.

Now, as I explained in detail in this post from a year ago, I don't necessarily have a problem with Newbill being cut. It happens. What I do have a problem with is the LOI system that locks a player into a school but allows the school to drop the player when someone better comes along.

Newbill got screwed by the system.

For a Philly native that had chosen to go to college in the state of Wisconsin, I think its safe to say that attending college in Hattiesburg, MS, was not exactly his first choice. But at the time, he didn't exactly have many options. Eustachy offered him a lifeline, if you will; an opportunity to continue his education while playing a high-level of collegiate basketball.

Newbill took advantage of that opportunity, but with a chance to return to his native Pennsylvania, play for a guy that cut his teeth in Philly in Chambers, and get the exposure that the Big Ten brings, it only makes sense Newbill made the jump.

Did Southern Miss get screwed? Probably. Did they get taken advantage of? I'm sure some can make that argument, and I wouldn't necessarily disagree.

But can you really be mad at Newbill? If it wasn't for the hypocrisy of the LOI program, he never would have been in that position.
Continue reading...

POSTERIZED: UTEP decides not to box-out DJ Newbill

Third-place Southern Mississippi got a much-needed C-USA victory against second-place UTEP last night 64-51. The Golden Eagles moved to 8-4 in the conference and the Miners dropped to 7-3. Both teams still sit behind 8-3 Memphis in the standings.

The game was close throughout the first half, but So. Miss outscored UTEP by 16-points in the second-half. One of the reasons was because of second-chance points.

Southern Miss-freshman DJ Newbill finished with 15-points and 16-rebounds to record his sixth double-double of the season.



It's a shame they don't keep statistics for style points, because Newbill may very well have logged a triple-double.

But was it as good as one of these?:

POSTERIZED - Scotty Hopson, Tennessee
POSTERIZED - Justin Brownlee, St. John's
POSTERIZED - Tyrone Johnson
POSTERIZED - Travis Leslie, Georgia
POSTERIZED - Terrence Ross, Washington
POSTERIZED - Justin Tubbs, East Tennessee State
POSTERIZED - Harrison Barnes, North Carolina
POSTERIZED - Andre Roberson, Colorado
POSTERIZED - Durrell Summers, Michigan State
POSTERIZED - Phillip McDonald, New Mexico
POSTERIZED - Kyle Kuric, Louisville
POSTERIZED - Anthony Nelson, Niagara
POSTERIZED - Cory Joseph, Texas
POSTERIZED - Will Sheehey, Indiana
POSTERIZED - Tom Pritchard, Indiana
POSTERIZED - Shay Shine, High Point
POSTERIZED - John Holland, Boston
POSTERIZED - Keith Gabriel, VMI
POSTERIZED - Travis McKie, Wake Forest
POSTERIZED - Jefferson Mason, Minnesota State (D-II)
POSTERIZED - Tyler Johnson, Fresno State
POSTERIZED - Justin Williams, UNC-Ashville
POSTERIZED - Derrick Williams, Arizona
POSTERIZED - Hollis Thompson, Georgetown
POSTERIZED - Darnell Wilks, Cincinnati
POSTERIZED - Rodney Williams, Minnesota
POSTERIZED - Darius Johnson-Odom, Marquette
POSTERIZED - Darrius Garrett, Richmond
POSTERIZED - Travis Cohn, Jacksonville
POSTERIZED - Ramon Galloway, South Carolina
POSTERIZED - Terrence Jones, Kentucky
POSTERIZED - Justin Tubbs, East Tennessee State
POSTERIZED - John Williams, UNC-Ashville
POSTERIZED - Kevin Smith, Richmond
POSTERIZED - Mitchell Watt, Buffalo
POSTERIZED - Chandler Parsons, Florida
POSTERIZED - Kenny Gabriel, Auburn
POSTERIZED - Paris Horne, St. John's
POSTERIZED - Travis Leslie, Georgia
POSTERIZED - Laurence Bowers, Missouri
POSTERIZED - Drew Gordon, New Mexico
POSTERIZED - Tony Mitchell, Alabama
POSTERIZED - Jeffery Taylor, Vanderbilt
POSTERIZED - LaMarcus Reed, UT-Arlington
POSTERIZED - Marcus Morris, Kansas
POSTERIZED - Jared Cunningham, Oregon State
POSTERIZED - Langston Morris-Walker
POSTERIZED - Chris Wright and Juwan Staten, Dayton
POSTERIZED - D.J Stephens, Memphis
POSTERIZED - Derrick Williams, Arizona
POSTERIZED - Reeves Nelson, UCLA
POSTERIZED - Kendall Marshall and John Henson, UNC
POSTERIZED - Terrence Jones, Kentucky
POSTERIZED - Rodney Williams, Minnesota
POSTERIZED - Joe Jackson, Memphis
POSTERIZED - Shay Shine, High Point
POSTERIZED - Harrison Barnes, North Carolina
POSTERIZED - Kent Bazemore, Old Dominion
POSTERIZED - CJ Fair, Syracuse
POSTERIZED - LeBryan Nash
POSTERIZED - Rodney Williams, Minnesota
POSTERIZED - Travis Leslie, Georgia
POSTERIZED - Terrence Jones, Kentucky
POSTERIZED - Marcus Jordan, Central Florida
POSTERIZED - Lorenzo Brown, NC State
POSTERIZED - Tai Wesley, Utah State
POSTERIZED - Trent Lockett, Arizona State, and Derrick Williams, Arizona
POSTERIZED - Brandon Paul, Illinois
POSTERIZED - Jordan Hamilton, Texas
Continue reading...

Charles Carmouche lifts Memphis to a win at Southern Miss

Memphis, playing without suspended forward Wesley Witherspoon for the second straight game, got a bit of veteran leadership from an unlikely source on Wednesday night.

Charles Carmouche, a junior guard that is only at Memphis because his previous school -- New Orleans -- is going to Division III, hit a three off of a terrific pass from Joe Jackson with 1.2 seconds left on the clock to give Memphis a 76-75 win over Southern Miss and move the Tigers to 3-1 in league play.



"I told them we are going to shoot a three regardless," Memphis head coach Josh Pastner said after the game. "We are going for the win. We will not shoot a two pointer. We drew up a play, we were going to do a hand off, pistol action we call it, with Joe [Jackson] and Will Barton. I said Charles, go to the other wing. I told Joe you're either going to hand off to Will for a three or skip it to Charles."

"And, by golly, Charles, what a big shot, what a great pass by Joe. I am so proud of our players."

"Joe found me," Carmouche said. "I was wide open, I had to take the shot and I just shot it with confidence."

Its a huge win for the Tigers. The Golden Eagles blitzed the Tigers early, jumping out to a 29-11 lead on the road. This Memphis team has come under a lot of fire early in the season for some poor performances, but they didn't show an ounce of quit tonight. They got the lead down to 11 at the half on a buzzer beating three by Jackson.

In the second half, Chris Crawford came alive, scoring all 12 of his points after the break, and a 16-4 run capped by a Will Barton three with 3:16 left to go up 69-66. Memphis would eventually go up five points, but Southern Miss responded with an 9-2 run of their own, taking the lead after back-to-back jumper from RL Horton in the final minute.

There was some confusion late. Memphis had to foul after a missed jumper from Carmouche with 6.7 seconds left and Gary Flowers tried to step to the free throw stripe. Horton was supposed to be shooting, and after the refs corrected it, Horton hit one of two to set up the exciting final play.

For Larry Eustachy, this loss had some added disappointment as he falls to 0-14 against Memphis in his seven year tenure in Hattiesburg.

This is a different Memphis team these past two games, as they previously beat Marshall by 16, the same team that knocked off West Virginia tonight.

With Witherspoon returning from his two game suspension tomorrow, the question that Memphis fans must now ask is whether or not he is a necessary piece.

Whatever the case, the Memphis team that has been on the court the past two games is the one we all expected to see this season.

(h/t to @mastermania1 for the video)
Continue reading...

Good news for DJ Newbill

You'll probably read DJ Newbill's name on this site more times this summer than throughout his entire collegiate career.

If you remember, Newbill is the kid that got the boot from Buzz Williams and Marquette when Jamil Wilson decided he wanted to transfer back to the state of Wisconsin. Since a 6'7" former top 100 recruit is more desirable than a 6'3" combo guard, Newbill was shown the door.

Regardless of your feelings on Marquette's decision (you can find ours here), I think we all hoped that Newbill, who hadn't done anything wrong, would be able to land on his feet.

Well, he has.

Newbill announced he will be headed to Southern Mississippi yesterday. According to the Philly Inquirer article that broke the news, Newbill will compete immediately for a starting spot with the team. Southern Miss is expected to be fairly decent this year as well, competing for that second spot in C-USA behind Memphis.

Newbill won't be alone in heading down to Hattiesburg either. Dwayne Davis, who graduated high school in Philly and committed to Morehead State but never gained eligibility, is a buddy of Newbill's and will be joining him there.

Continue reading...

Larry Eustachy Gives Back. Apparently, He Doesn't Bring In $12 million

By now, everyone has seen the video of Jim Calhoun's outburst at a freelance "reporter" who asked the UConn head coach if he would consider giving back any of his salary to help with Connecticut's budget deficit (we wrote about it here). Jodi Rell has spoken out against Calhoun, and now two state legislators have spoken up, saying that they believe Calhoun should be disciplined for the outburst.

Maybe what they say about southern hospitality is right.

On Friday, Southern Miss head coach Larry Eustachy announced that he would be giving back $25,000 to the school to help it through these difficult economic times (h/t The Quad). Said Eustachy (to the Clarion Ledger):

This season has been very frustrating, not only for the coaches and fans, but also for the team. I apologize to the administration and fans for this year’s results and will continue to work toward the success of the Golden Eagle program. The university, fans and administration have been so supportive. I am part of the Golden Eagle family and I want the team and program to succeed more than anyone else does. To that end, until I can turn around the program I have told the administration that I do not want a contract extension and I will donate part of my compensation package back to Southern Miss to help during these difficult economic times. I want to win a championship at Southern Miss and I know that we can do it.

If you think you recognize the name Larry Eustachy, you probably do - he's the former Iowa State coach (and national coach of the year as well as two-time Big XII coach of the year) who resigned after photos surfaced of him partying with some Missouri students the night after his Cyclones lost in Columbia, MO. While he seems to have conquered his alcoholism, improving the Southern Miss basketball program has been a much different story.

Larry Eustachy has turned his life around after that fateful night in 2003.
You can't say the same for the Southern Miss basketball program.
(Photo credit: southernmiss.cstv.com)

In his fifth season at USM, the Golden Eagles are just about where they were his first year. Sitting at 14-14 and just 4-10 in C-USA does not exactly lend one to believe that Eustachy is in the midst of making this program competitive with Memphis. To be fair, he won 20 and then 19 games in the two season before this, but he has yet to take USM to any postseason tournament.

So I ask you - why is Eustachy giving back $25,000? His salary is $380,000 a year, which means he isn't exactly living in a card board box (the money he is giving back isn't a part of his salary, rather a bonus based on ticket sales and incentives). Is it because he genuinely believes that he does not deserve the money? Is it because he genuinely wants to help out the Southern Miss community? Is it because he is trying to get his name in the news for something positive in case he is too lose his job at USM?

I don't know, but I will say this: no matter who you are, $25,000 is a lot of money to give away, so Eustachy must really believe that it is a smart decision. Continue reading...

9/9 - Some Links, Some News

-This probably won't surprise anyone, but Derrick Caracter isn't actually attending Oklahoma City University of the NAIA. It appears that Caracter will be enrolling at Southern Mississippi, where he will have to sit out a year before he is eligible to play. While I'm happy that Caracter has a chance to play D1 basketball again, I don't see how he is going to put in the effort of working out, staying in shape, and going to class when he is not playing for a year when he could barely do that while playing.

On the other hand, Southern Mississippi is coached by Larry Eustachy, a guy who knows a thing or two about second chances. He was the coach of Iowa State that was caught drinking at a frat party after playing a road game at Missouri. Well, he landed at Southern Mississippi and hopefully he can get through to Caracter. If he does, Southern Miss could be pretty good in 2009-2010, as they also landed Angelo Johnson, a transfer from USC.

-Look at this amazing piece of investigative journalism (sarcasm alert): college athletes that play big time sports for big time schools get (gasp) accepted into schools as "special admits" (kids that are expected to need tutoring and extra attention to graduate) at higher rates than normal students. Seriously though, look at this chart, the numbers are pretty crazy. In 2004-05, 95% of the freshman football class at California were special admits, 94% at Texas A&M.

-Kansas's Morris twins, Markieff and Marcus, were both declared academically eligible for the season, and will begin taking classes this week (class officially started August 21st). Hopefully, Markieff's legal troubles will be solved by then.

-VCU's Eric Maynor had an infected toe, which kept him out of the teams three exhibition games during their trip to the Bahamas. He'll be healthy by the time the season starts, but Maynor sitting out allowed his two sophomore backups to get experience playing with the first team.

-Adam Gore, a senior starter and returning all-Ivy performer for Cornell, tore his acl and will be out for the season, which is a huge hit to Cornell's chances of repeating as Ivy League champs. Gore did the same thing to his other acl in the first game of the 2006-07 season.

-UConn recruit Ater Majok, a 6'9" athletic, power forward, will not be eligible until at least December. Apparently, his high school, the American International School in Sydney, Australia, will not release his transcript until the rest of his classmates finish their semester as well, which means that UConn could not turn over all of his paperwork to the NCAA Clearinghouse. Since it is already the third week of classes in Storrs, it is very unlikely that Majok will be able to get eligible and enroll in classes in time to start the season with the Huskies.

-Texas point guard recruit Dogus Balbay was suspended for the first game of the upcoming season. From 2004-2006, he played in 11 games for a professional team in his native Turkey. The NCAA suspended him on a 1-for-1 basis, and he was deemed eligible in March of last year and sat out the team's final 10 games.

-Southern Illinois junior guard Josh Bone has decided to transfer, and will leave the school in December at the end of this semester. Continue reading...