A collegiate obituary for Jacob Pullen

Throughout this season the one thing we have always noticed about the ubiquitous Kansas State guard was his role as peacekeeper between coach Frank Martin and the other players. There were countless times we saw Martin rip apart one of his guys only to have Pullen walk over, pull the kid aside and put his arm on his shoulder, seemingly saying "It's ok, you know what to do so lets do it." Also, the number of times we saw Martin rip Pullen directly? Zero.

The gang over at Rush The Court have always been strong admirers of Pullen. We just wanted to throw our two cent worth in. You'll be missed, Jacob.

The crying game

We already tweeted about this earlier but it was so good it deserved a full blog post. The article, written by Zach Hillesland talks about and explains why college seniors cry when they lose in the NCAA Tournament. What makes this a must read is that he explains this in painful detail...

"The real reason they cry is because they go from feeling like it’s the middle of their careers to knowing it’s the absolute end, all in the span of one 40-minute game. The end brings the wave of emotions that was both built up and suppressed for the past four years. This is the last game I’ll ever play with my friends and teammates. This is the last time I’ll play for my school. This could be the last time I’ll be part of a team. What is next?"

We here have always teased them but we wanted to take a step back and acknowledge the sacrifice they give to their school for the love of the game. As the saying goes most of them will go pro in something other than sports.

The NIT

Otherwise known as that other national tournament...

Hey Seth Greenberg, Virginia Tech is the number one overall seed in the National Invitation Tournament. Who cares about beating Duke, your 21-11 record and your Sagarin rating of 40. Welcome!

Hey Bama, turn that frown upside down. Who cares about beating Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia TWICE with your KenPom ranking of 51. Coastal Carolina awaits.

Hey Colorado, why fret over not being selected to the NCAA Tourney with beating Kansas State (twice) and also Texas. And you have an RPI of 61? Well now you've got your own bracket named after you and Texas Southern in the first round. Congrats!

Harvard, oh Harvard. What haven't you done? Beaten Colorado, you have a 23-6 record, a RPI of 35 and a Sagarin ranking of 63. How about a consolation 6th seed and Oklahoma State in your first game?

If you can make it there you can make it anywhere. Good luck!

Sometimes it just doesn't work out

Stony Brook can wait

The Seawolves have never been to the NCAA Tournament. This was suppose to be their year. After year-on-year improvement and an agreement for ESPN to televise some of their games they were finally ready for the big time. Preseason favorites to win the American East outright and get into the big dance they blew through their conference tournament matchups and went up against Boston U in the finals. Stony Brook led by as much as 14 over the Terriers at one point in the game but Boston U came right back.

Then the unthinkable happens. Stony Brook fouls Boston with the game tied and 2.4 seconds left. The Terriers shoot two and game over. A heartbreaking end to a charmed season. Well, there is always next year.

Sleep in heavenly peace

So really kids, was it fucking worth it?

Bitter? No, why do you ask?

Mmmmm, salty tears

Would you like a little sobbing with your lunch?

Central Missouri women's coach Dave Slifer requested that referees waive a technical foul in order for injured opposing player Cassie Hunt to score in her last game ever.

Five year old boy breaks down after realizing that he will never see Michigan State's seniors play in East Lansing again.

Seniors, man. We'll miss them. Especially in San Diego.

(HT: The Dagger)

And this is why we don't watch Georgetown no mo'

Geez. The Hoyas may contain basketball-like substance.

Steve Fisher presser

After SDSU/BYU's groundhog day:

Obviously Coastal Carolina is f*&ked now

Their 22 game winning streak? Gone.

Kierre Greenwood, their starting point guard? Gone.

Mike Holmes, their starting forward? Gone.

Desmond Holloway, their leading scorer? Gone.

Postmortem: SDSU/UNLV

Submitted without comment. Well, the only comment is that we have so often been where Vegas Girl is now. Good luck, Rebels.

The (other) Orange Revolution

Syracuse Nation is collapsing in on itself:



And by revolution we mean "revolting".

Jimmer Fredette owns the night

BYU 71 - SDSU 58

Somewhere Spenser is laughing. So first, to all the Mormons out there. Chanting overrated to the opposing team actually insults your team. Your basically saying that the team wasn't good enough for that ranking and you beat a not so good team.

Anyways, we know that's a pot-kettle thing. Fredette was Fredette, torching us for 43+ points. And our problems came back to haunt us: poor 3 point shooting, missed shots in the paint. We knew that once the crowd got behind the Cougars when they made a run it could be over. Kawhi Leonard was fantastic as usual, but we needed near perfect performances by Gay and White. 20 and 1 is not so bad. Come Monday we'll probably be ranked #15 which isn't so bad either.

So congrats BYU. For one night we were the center of the college basketball universe. See you Feb 26 and in the tournament (MWC and NCAA).


(Credit: CBSSports.com)

Jackson Emery's a liar

"We believe, looking at our schedule, that we can go undefeated. The kind of confidence that we have in our team is that we can win every game."
- BYU guard Jackson Emery



We're guessing UCLA had some words with Jackson last Saturday. And with UNLV's second helping of lose that leaves SDSU as the lone Mountain West survivor on Ballin' is a Habit's Emery Board. There was a small part of us that was hoping the three teams would go into conference undefeated and have an epic battle royal cage match to the death. C'est la vie.

(HT: Hey Jenny Slater on the vid)

Public Enemy No. 1

The conversation started like this -

Steven: "So what do you think about Larry Drew?"
Gabby: "The UNC guard? I dunno, hasn't been a good start to his season so far."
Steven: "People really hate him."
Gabby: "People hate that whole team right now. North Carolina fans are PETRIFIED of a repeat of last year."
Steven: "No. People are starting to blame him for the Tar Heels bad start."

So we looked. And boy howdy it was not a joke. He has a fan page on Fabebook. Dedicated to showing how horrible of a player he is. There is a petition for a Bench Larry Drew website. He is constantly being ridiculed in the press. In fact the most complementary thing we saw was "between the lines" questioning of whether or not he deserves a scholarship.

Go down and say no more!

The team comparison stats don't look so hot either. So the question is why does coach Roy Williams still play him?

Calipari is laughing

Yes, that is life...

Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl has been a very busy bee this off-season. Yesterday he held a press conference to finally talk about what he has been doing:

1) Lying to NCAA investigators
2) Lying to NCAA investigators with the intent to hide illegal recruiting activities he and his staff were engaged in
3) Covering up lying to NCAA investigators with the intent to hide illegal recruiting activities he and his staff were engaged in

South Carolina Representative Joe Wilson had had some choice words for Pearl in light of these finding. Ultimately the hammer came down on Pearl with a one year recruiting ban for the Vols coach. In addition he has been fined $1.5 million which works out to about a $300,000 per year salary deduction on the life of his contract with Tennessee.

Some feel Pearl should be fired. Some are wondering why the hell not? We feel his 126-46 record may have something to do with that. Good job, coach!

Nooooooo

John "The Wizard of Westwood" Wooden - 1910 to 2010

Won 10 NCAA College Basketball Championships with UCLA
7 of them consecutively
Revolutionized coaching
Never swore even when angry
Married his high school gal
When she passed away in 1985 he never remarried
Almost every single college basketball coach today list him as an influence


And now, he's gone.

We saw a wonderful comment on another site: A great coach but a better person. Our loss is heaven's gain. I would pay to see his eyes when he meets up with (his wife) Nell again.

Yeah, we're tearing up now.

Games watched last night

Not again...

1) Syracuse 75, Georgetown 71

The Hoyas were down 22 points in the second half but had an insane rally bringing it to 70 - 71 with a minute left. Could this be it? Will Georgetown finally win one against the Orange this season? A glimmer of hope? Ah, noooooo.




2) Pittsburgh 58, Marquette 51

Where's winning Waldo? Apparently not at the Bradley Center last night for Marquette. Here you can see the Golden Eagle fans doing their best Elisabeth Kübler-Ross impression.

Erin Andrews takes advantage of 70 year old

She looks so confused with all those screaming kids around her. We would not want our grandmas in that mess. Sad.

Games Watched Last Night

1) Notre Dame at Seton Hall

And that's that. The bad news Irish lose Luke Harangody and yet another game in one night. At least they made Seton Hall happy.

2) Michigan at Minnesota

Nice road win for the Wolverines. As if it matters. At all.

Have you ever felt that you were cursed?

What can you say? Michigan had that game. It came down to one unlucky miss by Wolverines forward DeShawn Sims with 1 second left that gave Michigan State the win, 57 to 56.

Jalen Rose was at the game and at one point he was getting congratulated by friends and fans for his team's likely "win". The next second he was all by himself...