Tim Abromaitis has never had knee problems.
Every athlete goes through the typical aches and pains that come with being a college basketball player -- banged knees, twisted ankles, sore backs -- but Abro had never missed time because of knee problems. Which is why, when his right knee gave out has he came to a jump-stop in a 2-on-2 drill in practice on Friday morning, the severity of his injury was shocking. No one saw this coming. And now, one of the best kids is all of college basketball may finish his collegiate career on the bench in street clothes.
"Going on the court [at practice], it felt like one of those first four games where it's just waiting to get back out there," Abromaitis told the South Bend Tribune. "I kind of had to remind myself that it's done for the season.
"I'll eventually come to grips with it, I guess. I don't know if there's any technique to getting used to it."
The injury is a crushing blow for the Irish. Already in a rebuilding year, Notre Dame will now be forced to face the rigors of the Big East schedule without their leading scorer and best player. Abro's minutes will likely end up going to freshman Pat Connaughton, another 6'6" shooter that has played well in the first seven games of his career. Scott Martin and Jerian Grant are going to be expected to boost their scoring, while sophomore point guard Eric Atkins will continue his transition to becoming the star for this team.
If there is a silver lining to the suspension that Abro had to deal with earlier in the year, its that Notre Dame has had to play without Abro.
The question now becomes whether or not Abro will apply for a sixth-year of eligibility. This is his fifth-year in college. He redshirted his sophomore season, a decision that was actually the cause of his four-game suspension earlier this year as he played in two exhibitions games. If Abro, who already has two degrees from Notre Dame, does decide to return for a sixth-season -- which isn't a guarantee at this point -- there is no indication of whether or not the NCAA will actually clear him.
Its a shame to see a great kid and a good player have his college career ended this way. Abro deserved better. Life is just unfair sometimes.
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Trevor Mbakwe tears his acl: We knew this was bad as soon as it happened.
Mbakwe crumpled awkwardly to the ground during the second half of Minnesota's loss to Dayton in the Old Spice Classic finals. He had to be carried off the court and spent the remainder of the game in tears on the bench with his knee wrapped in ice. He even tweeted from the locker room "Lord please get me through this."
All of a sudden, all the depth that Minnesota had in their front court is gone. Colton Iverson transferred to Colorado State, Mo Walker is still battling a knee injury that ended his freshman season and Ralph Sampson is battling a sprained ankle. That leaves redshirt freshman Elliott Eliason up front. I would say that Minnesota will be forced to play at a faster pace now, but they are without a point guard this season thanks to a number of transfers.
One year ago this week, Minnesota was in the top ten after a dominating performance at the Puerto Rico Tip-Off Tournament. My, how things have changed.
"My family and I would like to thank everyone for their support," said Mbakwe in a statement.
"Trevor's done everything we've asked him to do in his time here at the University of Minnesota. He's been through an awful lot," said Gopher head coach Tubby Smith. "That says a lot about his toughness to be able to recover from the things he has already endured. He had a knee surgery before (at Marquette) and for it to happen a second time, you hurt for him, but you know he's a guy that has the will power and has been through it before and can recover again."
Michael Eric reinjures his knee: Temple fans will be waiting with baited breath over the next week as the status of their team's starting center is reevaluated.
Eric injured his right patella in practice on Friday. Its the same knee in which Eric fractured his patella in February of last season, an injury that caused him to miss the final ten games of the season. Without Eric, the Owls have almost no interior presence. The 6'11" senior had been averaging 10.5 ppg, 11.3 rpg and 2.0 bpg while replacing Lavoy Allen up front.
Erik Murphy tears his meniscus: Florida's starting power forward suffered the injury last Thursday in practice and sat out the Gator's game against Stetson on Friday. Its unclear how much time he is going to miss, although Billy Donovan has speculated that it can be anywhere from a week or two to a couple of months.
Murphy is a major loss for Florida. His ability to shoot the ball from the four spot really spread the floor for the Gators and opened up the paint. It allowed them to use pick-and-pops in the half court and created space for penetration from Florida's talented back court. No Murphy will be a major blow heading into Friday's trip to Syracuse.
Harrison Barnes is fine: We all saw North Carolina's loss to UNLV in Vegas over the weekend, which means we also all saw the nasty fall that Barnes had in the second half. He rolled his ankle in the process and immediately headed for the bench, where he sat with his head down for the next couple of minutes. He left the arena on crutches, but that appears to have been a cautionary move, as he was off of the crutches when the team left the airport the next day.
Stephen Van Treese reinjures his knee; Rakeem Buckles returns to practice: After being healthy for just two weeks, Van Treese was injured in practice over the weekend. The timing was good, at least. Rakeem Buckles has been cleared to return to practice and should be back on the court within a week or two.
Travis Wear cuts foot while snorkeling: Exactly what it says. He needed five stitches.
Continue reading...
Monday, November 28, 2011
Hoops Housekeeping: Tim Abromaitis, Trevor Mbakwe with serious knee injuries |
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
The NCAA whiffs by suspending Tim Abromaitis |
This post can also be found at Beyond the Arc.
Tim Abromaitis did absolutely nothing wrong.
He listened to his coaching staff and did what was best for his team, his education and his career. He trusted them when they told him that he could redshirt a season after playing in two exhibition games as a sophomore. He believed them, because that is what you are supposed to do when you are a college athlete. You're supposed to trust that your coach will make the right decision for you, especially when that decision has to do with the minutiae of the NCAA Rulebook.
And for that trust -- for doing what he has been trained to do as an athlete -- Abromaitis was rewarded with a four game suspension to start the 2011-2012 season. You see, the NCAA allows freshmen to take part in exhibitions and then redshirt that season. That's not the case for sophomores, junior or seniors, but Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey misinterpreted the rule when he opted to use that redshirt on Abromaitis.
So technically speaking, in the NCAA's eyes, Abromaitis used up his eligibility last spring. He played all of 40 minutes in 12 games as a freshman, took part in those two exhibitions as a sophomore, and was an all-league player as a junior and senior. Four seasons, four years of eligibility. If the NCAA went by the letter of the law, Notre Dame would not have their leading returning scorer available this season. In that sense, Notre Dame and Abromaitis caught a break.
But the fact that we have to say that a player in this situation caught a break is a sign of just how screwed up the NCAA is.
There is so much wrong with the NCAA as an organization. Conferences are aligning themselves based on the wishes of the television network that broadcasts their games. The people that run college football's national title system are so corrupt they make Bernie Madoff blush. Its the worst kept secret in the world that players at major football and basketball programs are on the take. College basketball recruiting is the wild west, with paydays as high as six figures being tossed around for kids that will spend seven months on campus. And with all the money being generated through these television contracts to watch these college kids play football and basketball, the athletes themselves aren't even getting full cost-of-attendance scholarships from their universities.
And with all of that going on, the NCAA still manages to find the time to stick it to an academic all-american that earned his bachelor's degree and his MBA in four years because of a couple of throwaway minutes he played in an exhibition -- not a game, an exhibition -- that didn't count back in November of 2008 when his coach misinterpreted a rule that doesn't make sense in the first place.
Eventually something has to change in this organization, right?
Or do they think that by handing out ridiculous punishments to one of the few kids that actually embodies the ideal of "student-athlete" they are making a statement?
Somewhere, I think Jay Bilas' head just exploded.
Continue reading...
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
How former teammates Tim Abromaitis and Greg Mangano went from unheralded recruits to members of Team USA |
There is an argument to be made the UConn has been the best basketball program in the country over the last 12 years.
In that time frame, Jim Calhoun's club has won three National Titles and made four Final Fours. Throw in two more Elite 8's and another Sweet 16, and UConn has made it past the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament seven times in the last dozen seasons. Now toss in the four Big East Tournament titles, the five Big East regular season titles and the 16 players that have been selected in the NBA Draft in that span, and you have a program that has dominated in the best conference in the country despite having to completely rebuild their roster twice in the last five years.
What makes the UConn program's success all-the-more impressive is that Calhoun has been able to consistently stock his roster with talent despite coaching in an area without a natural recruiting base. In other words, the Huskies have to bring in players from around the country because high school basketball in Connecticut is, generally speaking, not overloaded with that kind talent.
Rarely do you see Connecticut natives playing major minutes for the Huskies.
That's not to say there isn't talent in the state. This season the Huskies will actually have two contributors that grew up in the Nutmeg State -- Tyler Olander, a sophomore returner that started the national title game, and Andre Drummond, the nation's best post recruit that hails from Middletown. Drummond played AAU ball with Kris Dunn, the top point guard in the Class of 2012 and a New London native currently committed to Providence.
Players of that caliber tend to be the exception, however. Not the rule. Connecticut puts out their fair share of scholarship players, but they aren't necessarily national names. Usually you get a mix of guys that excel at the mid-major level -- kids like TJ Robinson, a product of Kolbe Cathedral in Bridgeport that averaged a double-double for Long Beach State as a junior -- or that can contribute as a role player at the high-major level -- think Olander, who only played seven minutes in the title game after starting.
No one expected much more than that out Tim Abromaitis or Greg Mangano.
They certainly didn't expect those two to be the reason Connecticut was one of just two states to put multiple players on the USA's World University Games team.
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"Everyone thought he was a Patriot League or Ivy League kid," Kevin Kehoe, the head coach of the Connecticut Gold AAU program, told me over the phone. "Nobody thought he was a Big East kid."
"They said he was crazy for going to Notre Dame."
Early on in his college career, the doubters appeared to be correct. As a freshman, Tim Abromaitis saw the court just 12 times, playing a whopping 40 minutes and scoring all of 20 points on the season. Those numbers didn't budge during his sophomore year as Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey opted to redshirt him, which only made the people that criticized his decision to play in the Big East look that much smarter.
And while it appeared, on the surface, like Brey was trying to atone for a mistake on the recruiting front, using the redshirt was a calculated move. You see, Notre Dame was loaded in the front court in the first two years Abromaitis was in South Bend. The name that everyone is going to recognize is Luke Harangody, who was one of the most productive big men in the last decade. But kids like Rob Kurz, Zach Hillesland, Ryan Ayers and Luke Zeller were all talented and experienced players that happened to play the same position as Abromaitis, clogging up the depth chart.
The redshirt season was as much about maximizing Abromaitis' eligibility as it was about him needing the season to improve.
That said, spending a year working on his game and on his body did have some impressive results. Abromaitis has developed into one of the best shooters in the league, knocking down 42.9% of his threes while averaging 16.1 ppg and 15.4 ppg the past two seasons.
"It was huge," Abromaitis said of his redshirt year in a phone interview last week. "When I first heard Coach Brey say he thought it would be a good idea for me to sit out the year and get a redshirt, its not the thing you want to hear because you want to be out there playing and contributing."
"But in the long run, I can’t say I regret it at all, because I was in the weight room and I was out on the court for extra workouts pretty much every day. Once my junior year came and I was playing right away, it felt like I had taken three years off, so I was just ready to go and felt so much better as a player. I was just confident in myself."
That confidence was a direct result of the amount of time he spent working on his game as the redshirt season afforded him an opportunity to fine-tune and develop his skill-set. His breakout junior year (which was his sophomore season, Notre Dame lists players not by eligibility but by grade) caught fans and media around the country off-guard, but those that know Abromaitis weren't surprise. The expected it.
"You just knew that Timmy was going to do whatever it took," said Kehoe, who coached Abromaitis and his brother in AAU and remains very close to the family. "God didn’t bless him with unbelievable athleticism, but he did bless him with a work ethic."
Hard work has never been an issue for Abromaitis. This is the same kid that got the keys to the gym from his high school athletic director so he could get in 6:00 am workouts before going to class. This is also the same kid that graduated from the Mendoza College of Business at Notre Dame in three years with a degree in finance and a 3.73 GPA. Last year, he finished up an accelerated MBA program with a concentration in corporate finance. As a fifth-year, he's taking it easy and simply enrolled in a full load of graduate courses as an unclassified graduate student.
That's probably fair. It took him less time to graduate and earn an MBA from Notre Dame than it took me to get my bachelor's degree.
"I think it started from my family and my brother," Abromaitis said when I asked him where he got his work ethic. His brother played at Yale and his father played for UConn and then the New Jersey Nets. "Even before high school. Its something that I’ve always [taken pride in]."
"Its something that Notre Dame really prides itself on too. We’ve had a lot of guys here since I’ve been here that were kind of in my situation. [Success] didn’t come for them right away and they weren’t these highly touted guys, but working hard just got it done for them. So I’m kind of following their lead with that."
Abromaitis is starting to reap the benefits of that hard work. In addition to making the Team USA's World University Games roster, he's been named all-Big East the past two seasons, making the third team in 2011. He's got an outside shot at winning Big East Player of the Year as a senior if he has a big season and is a virtual lock for a long career in Europe if he can't latch on with an NBA team when he finally leaves school. Perhaps most impressive is that he's been a two-time academic all-american first-teamer and won the Big East scholar-athlete of the year award in back-to-back seasons, the first athlete to do that since Emeka Okafor of UConn in 2003 and 2004.
He hasn't just transformed his game to that of an NBA prospect. He's educated himself to the point that every Wall Street firm in the country will come calling when his playing career is over.
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Greg Mangano knew he wanted to go to Yale.
It wasn't a lifelong dream, mind you. In fact, it wasn't until he realized that he could turn basketball into an Ivy League education that the idea of being a Yalie started to grow on Mangano. He's a native of Orange, CT, which is a 15 minute drive in rush-hour traffic from Yale's New Haven campus.
"Once I got into the process of looking into schools and everything, it was eye-opening that I had the opportunity to go to a school like Yale," Mangano said in a phone interview last week. "When I was a kid, not so much. A lot of that was just because I’m from here. I always thought it was just a little to close to home for me to go, and I wanted to get a little further away."
"When Yale [...] told me that I could play there if I wanted to, [...] I just figured that was kind of an opportunity that you couldn’t turn down. As much as I would love to play basketball for as long as I can, something could happen tomorrow [to end my career]. I just figured having an education to fall back on was just as important."
Mangano committed to Yale early -- before he had even started his senior year at Notre Dame HS in West Haven -- so he is not sure what kind of offers he would have received. The summer after his junior year is when Mangano really started to garner attention from Division I programs, and he chose Yale, an Ivy League school that doesn't offer athletic scholarship, over about 20 other low- to mid-major programs that had offered him a full-ride.
One of those programs that offered a scholarship? Davidson, right in the middle of the Seth Curry years. That should tell you what being a Bulldog meant to Mangano.
Like Abromaitis, Mangano's collegiate success didn't come immediately. He played limited minutes off the bench as a freshman before becoming a stalwart in the rotation as a sophomore, but it wasn't until last season, as a junior, when everything clicked for Mangano. With Yale losing their three leading scorers from their 2009-2010 team, Mangano but the squad on his back. He averaged 16.3 ppg, 10.0 rpg and 3.0 bpg while shooting 36.6% from long range while leading the Bulldogs to a third-place finish in the Ivy.
"He's really good," Yale assistant coach Jamie Snyder-Fair said. "I don't know if he is going to get drafted, but he's got a shot to make an NBA team. He's 6'10", he blocks shots, he can handle it a little bit on the perimeter, he can shoot from anywhere on the court, he’s pretty athletic."
"He had some monster rebounding games last year, and he rebounds the ball above the rim. He doesn’t let the ball come to him, he goes and he gets the ball every single time."
Mangano was good enough last season that he decided to declare for the NBA Draft without signing with an agent. He didn't get any workouts with NBA teams -- most knew that he wasn't going to be keeping his name in the draft -- but he had a number of teams call and inquire about him. Making Team USA increased the buzz and helped to raise Mangano's national profile, but he will be facing an uphill battle in an effort to get drafted. Even with Jeremy Lin of Harvard making the Golden State roster, few, if any, NBA scouts are looking at the Ivy League for NBA prospects.
Without playing on national TV every night, its difficult to establish your name on the NBA's radar.
"I think the goal for us is to try and get him invited to Portsmouth next year," Snyder-Fair said.
Before that happens, Mangano has a season to play with the Bulldogs. And if he is to be believed, the time that he spent with Team USA has made him a better player. Frankly, its not all that surprising. I'd imagine playing against some of the best players in the country for two three-hour practices every day at the USA basketball facility in Colorado Springs will do that. As will getting coached by Brad Stevens, Matt Painter, and Cuonzo Martin for six hours every day.
Mangano said that he "definitely" took the coaching advice to heart and improved some of his fundamentals. But that's not the most important thing he learned with Team USA.
"I learned how to consistently play a lot harder than I was playing," Mangano said. "Its not that I wasn’t playing hard last year in the Ivy League or out of conference games. It was just out there, playing against the kind of caliber kids I was playing against, if I didn’t pay as hard as I possibly could on every possession, [I got] exposed."
"They are just stronger, quicker, faster, more athletic than the people I have been playing with so to make up for that I just had to play hard."
The end-game for Mangano is, he hopes, the NBA. Its the goal of every kid that touches a basketball growing up. But as of now, his attention is focused squarely on the team's sitting in front of him in the Ivy League standings. Yale brings back the league's most dominant player and four starters from a team that finished in third last year and split with Harvard. So where is the hype for the Bulldogs?
"There are articles posted in our locker room right now. There’s no question about it I take offense to [people ignoring us]," Mangano said. "I had the same issue last year as well. While I received some honorable accolades personally, for a team that lost our captain and our senior leader last year, to finish the year in third place as a team that was picked fifth or sixth I think speaks a lot about the team that we have, myself and the team surrounding me. And none of them got recognized, for second team or even honorable mention. I thought that was a little disrespectful."
"But I think that’s good for us. It's something to motivate, and if some guys need that extra motivation, it's right there for them."
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Mangano and Abromaitis have a history.
Not only did they play together for a summer with the Connecticut Gold AAU team, but Jason Abromaitis, Tim's older brother, played at Yale and still returns upon occasion to play in open gyms.
"I knew him pretty well, being another Connecticut kid," Mangano said. "It was nice when I saw the roster and the list of people that got invited that he was going out there. We had kept contact over the years."
There was more to it than simply knowing another player on the team. For Mangano and Abromaitis, it was a point of pride. It gave them bragging rights. For every AAU team and every state in the country, the Connecticut Gold was the only program with two alumni wearing the red, white and blue at the World University Games.
"We definitely brought up a few times that we were the only state and the only AAU team that had two guys that knew each other before and came from the same team," Abromaitis said. "It was definitely kind of cool to think about that because you don’t think of the Gold as a national powerhouse team."
The Connecticut Gold program is no stranger to sending players to college. In the 20 years that Kehoe has been running the program, over 150 players have gone on to play some level of college basketball. Some end up at big-time programs -- Jeff Farmer played at La Salle and Northeastern, Jeff Viggiano was a starter at UMass, Joe Trapani was all-ACC for Boston College the past two seasons. Most just meander their way through the college basketball underworld -- like one BIAH writer who happened to play a measly two-and-a-half seasons at Vassar.
But the Gold is far from what you would consider a big-time AAU team. They don't even have a sponsorship from a shoe company.
"I would like to say yes," Kehoe said when I asked him if there was a Connecticut Gold way, "but I don't know if we had the blueprint or we just followed [the kid's] lead. Did we make them follow what we believe? Did we morph the kids we brought in? Why didn't they choose the big-time AAU programs?"
"I'm not ready to say we have the blueprint. It was just finding the right people that were committed to being good."
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Tim Abromaitis and Greg Mangano are nothing but under-recruited over-achievers.
And I don't mean that maliciously. I mean that as a compliment.
"Coming into college, I don't really know what I was expecting in terms of basketball and playing time and scoring and wins," Abromaitis said. "I knew that Coach Brey was a great coach and was someone that could develop me. I just trusted that and kept working hard."
"I wouldn't say that I surprised myself, but I don't know if I was fully expecting to have the level of success I've had."
Part of the reason that recruiting is such an inexact science is that its impossible to measure how badly a kid wants to be good. If a player has all the physical tools in the world -- height, length, strength, speed, leaping ability -- but he doesn't has the desire or the discipline to spend hours upon hours in the gym developing his basketball skills, he'll never reach his full potential as a player.
On the other hand, you have the kids that aren't quite as physically gifted squeezing every drop of potential out of themselves by spending every waking hour perfecting the details -- getting the correct footwork on a new post move, creating that extra six inches of space that will allow them to get a shot off, doing those extra squat reps to get their lower body strong enough to hold position.
That's the difference. That's what set Abromaitis and Mangano apart. That's why they were able to go from kids that were an afterthought on the recruiting trail to representing their country at the World University Games.
Continue reading...
Monday, July 19, 2010
Tim Abromaitis and Eric Atkins arrested over the weekend |
Over the weekend, 44 people were arrested by South Bend police after they were called to break up a fight and discovered a house party. Of those arrested, two were Irish basketball players -- rising junior and leading returning scorer Tim Abromaitis and incoming freshman Eric Atkins.
Apparently, the party was for a junior defenseman on the Notre Dame hockey team that had turned 21, and it sounds like quite a party. From the South Bend Tribune:South Bend police said they were dispatched to the neighborhood at 1:41 a.m. on the report of about a dozen people fighting, throwing punches near the corner of Washington and Eddy streets, one block north of Jefferson Boulevard.
Look, I know underage drinking is illegal. I know that running from the cops is generally a terrible idea. I get that when there are a dozen people brawling in the street, its been taken too far.
Upon arrival, officers heard glass breaking from the back of the residence and immediately called for more units. South Bend police said pandemonium began to occur, with numerous men and women jumping out of windows and off the roof of the residence.
Excise Police officers arrived at 1:53 a.m., according to a news release, and 15 or more South Bend police officers left their patrol beats from across the city to assist and catch people who were fleeing, police said.
But come on.
This is college. And these are college kids. They just so happen to be bigger, stronger, taller, and faster than your average college kid. That doesn't mean they are any smarter or make better decisions than the rest of their classmates.
Think back to your time in college, whenever that was. How many times did you drink while underage? How many parties did you go to that were busted up by the cops? How many times did you run from that house to avoid the cops? How many times did a fight break out at a college party? If the biggest issue your athletes have is that they attend house parties and do some underage drinking, then as a coach you don't have all that much too worry about.
Having said that, Abro and Atkins still deserve to be punished. They got caught doing something they weren't supposed to be doing. It doesn't matter if everyone else is doing it, underage drinking is against the law. But in this instance, that punishment should be handled in-house.
Anything more than some extra suicides, some water and ball duty, and maybe a benching or two early in the season would be too much.
Continue reading...
Monday, December 7, 2009
12/7 - College Hoops Week in Review |
What we learned this week: Duke is good, some might even go as far as saying they are really good. We learned that when they beat down UConn in the Garden the day after Thanksgiving. But after watching the Blue Devils lose to a well-coached Wisconsin team, the Blue Devils are still a ways from being great. The biggest issue, believe it or not, seems to be their front line. The last two games, Duke has struggled against good, mobile big men. Jon Leuer had 17 points and 7 boards for Wisconsin, while Sean Evans went for 17 and 6 in the win over St. John's. At the Villanova-Maryland game yesterday, I was talking about Duke and an interesting point was brought up. At the end of games, Coach K is still going with his small line-up - the three guards, Singler, and Thomas. I understand that he may have needed shooters against Wisconsin and ball-handlers against St. John's, but it seems that this group is the five he is most comfortable with.
When John Wall and Patrick Patterson are playing like they did in the first half against UNC, the Wildcats are going to be very, very hard to beat. Remember, this is a UNC team that ran over Michigan State on Tuesday, and the Heels looked utterly and completely outclassed in the first half. John Wall is just about impossible to stop when he has a head of steam in transition. And if you do manage to slow him down, he is a good enough, and more importantly willing enough, passer to find an open shooter. Even with the excellent play of Daniel Orton in the early going, UK won't be at full strength until DeMarcus Cousins finds the maturity necessary to play at this level (he had a melt down on the bench after picking up his fourth foul on Saturday) and Eric Bledsoe gets better at protecting the ball, but it may not matter.
Notre Dame has a real shot at making the tournament this season, and a big reason for that is the play of forward Tim Abromaitis. The 6'8" forward, who had been coming off the bench, started again Central Florida on Saturday and went for 31 points. He is shooting an absurd 49% from three while taking almost 5 per game. Their may not be a more potent scoring duo in the front court that Abro and Luke Harangody.
Washington was supposed to be the flag bearer for the Pac-10 this season, but they have been struggling mightily of late. They struggled through early season wins agaist Wright State, Belmont, Montana, and Cal St. Northridge, and lost on the road to Texas Tech. A big reason has been the sub-par play of Abdul Gaddy. It is almost unfair to judge a freshman critically, but a huge reason that Washington had such high expectations in the pre-season was that Gaddy was expected to be play an integral role in the Huskies uptempo offense. The Pac-10 seems destined to get at most three, and more likely just two, teams into the tournament simply because the league's RPI will be so low as a result of the overall struggles early in the season.
It seems to be a pretty safe bet that the Big Ten, Big XII, and Big East will compete all season long for the right to call themselves the nation's best conference.
CO-GAMES OF THE WEEK: Texas Tech 99, Washington 92 OT
Texas Tech jumped all over Washington in the first half, taking advantage of lackadaisical defense from the Huskies for open jumpers and easy run outs. But in the second half, Washington tightened up, using a 10-2 run to tie the game at 60 with 13 minutes left. The two teams went back and forth until Isaiah Thomas hit a three to give Washington an 80-78 lead with 1:36 left. On the ensuing possession, Tech's Mike Singletary hit a jumper to tie the game. After both teams missed a shot, Thomas threw a difficult pass to Quincy Pondexter that was deflected. It ended up in Elston Turner's hands, who threw a pump fake to get Brad Reese in the air and draw a foul with 4.8 seconds left. Turner would end up missing both free throws, and Mike Singletary would take the rebound, dribble the length of the court, and throw up an 18 foot runner from the wing. He would hit the shot and the Tech students would storm the floor, but after replay review by the refs, the shot was called off.
Mike Singletary's runner at the buzzer was waived off.
(photo credit: Bleacher Report)
The overtime was just as exciting. The two teams would trade the lead a couple times before a Nick Okorie lay-up with just over a minute left gave the Red Raiders a 91-89 lead. On the ensuing possession, John Roberson would make a steal and go in for an uncontested lay-up for a four point lead. After Isaiah Thomas air-balled a three the next time down the floor for U-Dub, the game was all but over.
Illinois 76, Clemson 74:
With 8:09 left in the first half, Demetri McCamey picked up his third foul pinning him on the bench for the rest of the half. Clemson would take advantage of freshmen DJ Richardson and Brandon Paul, using their press to make a 23-6 run to end the half. The Tigers would go up as much as 23 points early in the second half before Illinois started making their comeback. The Illini trimmed the lead to 61-46 before scoring 17 straight points, taking a 63-61 lead with 8:55 left in the half. Clemson would get the lead back with three minutes left on lay-up from Brian Narcisse.
Mike Tisdale scored on a lay-up to take the lead back before a three pointer from Tanner Smith put Clemson up 74-72. After a DJ Richardson free throw cut the lead to one, Tisdale scored on a short jumper with 41 seconds left to give Illinois the lead for good. Tisdale would pick up a block on the defensive end, and after Brandon Paul hit one of two free throws, Demontez Stitt would miss a tough, but makeable, lay-up as time expired, giving Illinois the win.
Also good this week:
PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Corey Raji, Boston College
Corey Raji was BC's best player in the Eagles 2-0 week. In their win at Michigan in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge on Wednesday night, Raji scored 17 first half points to help BC build a lead that the Wolverines were never able to overcome. On the night, Raji finished with 24 points and 9 boards. Raji was just as important as the Eagles handed the Hurricanes their first loss of the season in the ACC opener for both teams. Raji finished with 17 points a 9 boards, with 7 of those rebounds coming on the offensive end. Remember, both of these wins, both of which will prove to be valuable come Selection Sunday if the Eagles are are on the bubble, came without the Eagles best player Rakim Sanders, who is sidelined with an ankle injury.
Corey Raji led the Eagles to wins over Michigan and Miami.
(photo credit: Bleacher Report)
For the week, Raji averaged 20.5 ppg and 9.0 rpg (with 11 of those 18 boards coming on the offensive end) while shooting 18 for 27 (66.7%) from the floor.
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TEAM OF THE WEEK: Wisconsin Badgers
The Badgers went 2-0 on the week, but their big win was their upset win over Duke in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. The final was 73-69, but Wisconsin never trailed in the game. Up by as much as 11 in the second half, Wisconsin was able to respond every time Duke made a run. Duke cut the lead to 40-38 early in the second half, and Wisconsin responded with a 9-2 run to open up a 49-40 lead. After two Kyle Singler free throws made it 53-52 with 10:47 left in the game, Wisconsin's defense ratcheted up, holding Duke to just two points over the next six minutes as they opened up a 65-54 lead with just over four minutes left. Then when Andre Dawkins hit three straight threes down the stretch, Wisconsin hit their free throws down the stretch to seal the win.
Trevon Hughes celebrates during the Badger's win over Duke.
(photo credit: Scout.com)
This win was more significant than just upsetting Duke. For the first time, the Blue Devils lost in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. The win also sealed the first time the Big Ten would win the challenge.
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MATCH-UPS OF THE WEEK:
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