Thursday's Nuggets - The Mea Culpa Edition
I know. It's Friday, yet this is Friday's nuggets. Long story short, Armin wrote a damn good article and I wanted it to stand alone for more than an hour on Thursday. I was going to post but duty called elsewhere.
Before we go further on this journey, I am calling for the ardent readers who don't make five daily visits to the site (AKA not Sum) to subscribe to the site. How do you do that? In the same box in which you type website addresses, there is an orange icon on the right. Click on it. It will send you to the 'atom.xml' page, and it will ask you to choose a reader for your subscription. When you do that, click "Subscribe Now". All of your wildest dreams will come true. Housekeeping issues are done. Enjoy the post!
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We're going with larger title sizes from here on out. College basketball really is heating up, with a bunch of surprises and a few letdowns. But let's be serious. Nothing has been decided, yet trends are developing.
Mid-Majors
(1) From the mid-major beat, I finally got to watch Virginia Commonwealth (17-3, 9-0 Colonial) in person last night and they are undoubtedly playing the best basketball in the conference. The Rams happened to shoot 60% from behind the arc, but they also outrebounded the Patriots. They make up for their lack of size with speed, quickness, and physical play. Consistency from Will Fameni may determine how far this team may go.
(1a) Speaking of the CAA, Michael Litos, who runs the CAA Hoops blog, has a book that I recommend everyone buys. "Cinderella: Inside The Rise of Mid-Major College Basketball" should be hitting bookshelves in early February.
(2) The ESPN BracketBusters matchups will be announced on Sunday. The top television game is shaping up to Southern Illinois @ either Butler or Nevada. Last year, at this time, the mid-major experts excluding this guy was anticipating Bucknell @ Northern Iowa. While it was a great game, neither team made it past the round of 32 in the NCAAs. The teams in the showcase game may not be the best ones participating.
The Big 6
(3) Is it just me or does Arizona 2007 remind you a lot of Arizona 1997? A very athletic team. Check. Finesse team. Check. Criticized justly for lack of depth and not enough physical play at the defensive end. Check. Good chemistry. Check. We'll see if they defeat North Carolina like they did in regular season of their championship season. One problem: Tyler Hansbrough is no Serge Zwikker.
(4) I'm calling out the once Big East. Balance your scheduling. Now. Until you do, none of you can say, "[insert team] played a Big East schedule". That could mean playing Rutgers, Cincinnati, South Florida, St. John's, and Seton Hall (two of them twice), and not having Pittsburgh or Marquette on the schedule.
(5) Six games into their conference season, the SEC is not what I expected it to be. Vanderbilt, who lost to Furman (at home) and Wake Forest, is 4-2 in the conference following back-to-back road wins against Kentucky and LSU. Georgia is 4-2 as well, with controversial officiating and a Ronald Steele leaner denying the Bulldogs of a dominating 5-1 clip. So much can change in a week. If either of these teams are 8-4 in three weeks' time, color me shocked.
Valuation of Road and Neutral Victories
(6) All are road wins equal? Novices, homers, and conference apologists will say yes, but the truth is far from that. Within conferences, the weakest form of a road win is the away split, whereby both teams win on the opposition's home floor. Within each of those games, the stronger of the road wins is that which is closest to the NCAA Tournament. Additionally, non-conference road wins in November/December do not carry as much power as those in January or February because teams tend to represent their truest product in the months closest to Selection Sunday.
(7) What about *true* neutral court victories? This includes the ever-growing number of early season tournaments played in Maui, Alaska, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Las Vegas (twice). These games should undoubtedly be of great value, as the atmosphere represents the truest comparison to a tournament setting with a neutral court.
I know. It's Friday, yet this is Friday's nuggets. Long story short, Armin wrote a damn good article and I wanted it to stand alone for more than an hour on Thursday. I was going to post but duty called elsewhere.
Before we go further on this journey, I am calling for the ardent readers who don't make five daily visits to the site (AKA not Sum) to subscribe to the site. How do you do that? In the same box in which you type website addresses, there is an orange icon on the right. Click on it. It will send you to the 'atom.xml' page, and it will ask you to choose a reader for your subscription. When you do that, click "Subscribe Now". All of your wildest dreams will come true. Housekeeping issues are done. Enjoy the post!
--------
We're going with larger title sizes from here on out. College basketball really is heating up, with a bunch of surprises and a few letdowns. But let's be serious. Nothing has been decided, yet trends are developing.
Mid-Majors
(1) From the mid-major beat, I finally got to watch Virginia Commonwealth (17-3, 9-0 Colonial) in person last night and they are undoubtedly playing the best basketball in the conference. The Rams happened to shoot 60% from behind the arc, but they also outrebounded the Patriots. They make up for their lack of size with speed, quickness, and physical play. Consistency from Will Fameni may determine how far this team may go.
(1a) Speaking of the CAA, Michael Litos, who runs the CAA Hoops blog, has a book that I recommend everyone buys. "Cinderella: Inside The Rise of Mid-Major College Basketball" should be hitting bookshelves in early February.
(2) The ESPN BracketBusters matchups will be announced on Sunday. The top television game is shaping up to Southern Illinois @ either Butler or Nevada. Last year, at this time, the mid-major experts excluding this guy was anticipating Bucknell @ Northern Iowa. While it was a great game, neither team made it past the round of 32 in the NCAAs. The teams in the showcase game may not be the best ones participating.
The Big 6
(3) Is it just me or does Arizona 2007 remind you a lot of Arizona 1997? A very athletic team. Check. Finesse team. Check. Criticized justly for lack of depth and not enough physical play at the defensive end. Check. Good chemistry. Check. We'll see if they defeat North Carolina like they did in regular season of their championship season. One problem: Tyler Hansbrough is no Serge Zwikker.
(4) I'm calling out the once Big East. Balance your scheduling. Now. Until you do, none of you can say, "[insert team] played a Big East schedule". That could mean playing Rutgers, Cincinnati, South Florida, St. John's, and Seton Hall (two of them twice), and not having Pittsburgh or Marquette on the schedule.
(5) Six games into their conference season, the SEC is not what I expected it to be. Vanderbilt, who lost to Furman (at home) and Wake Forest, is 4-2 in the conference following back-to-back road wins against Kentucky and LSU. Georgia is 4-2 as well, with controversial officiating and a Ronald Steele leaner denying the Bulldogs of a dominating 5-1 clip. So much can change in a week. If either of these teams are 8-4 in three weeks' time, color me shocked.
Valuation of Road and Neutral Victories
(6) All are road wins equal? Novices, homers, and conference apologists will say yes, but the truth is far from that. Within conferences, the weakest form of a road win is the away split, whereby both teams win on the opposition's home floor. Within each of those games, the stronger of the road wins is that which is closest to the NCAA Tournament. Additionally, non-conference road wins in November/December do not carry as much power as those in January or February because teams tend to represent their truest product in the months closest to Selection Sunday.
(7) What about *true* neutral court victories? This includes the ever-growing number of early season tournaments played in Maui, Alaska, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Las Vegas (twice). These games should undoubtedly be of great value, as the atmosphere represents the truest comparison to a tournament setting with a neutral court.
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