How bad do you think Seth Greenberg needed that win?

Click here if you have been living under a rock.

A finger lickin' good game

Louisville 62 - Pitt 59 OT

So yeah yeah the Panthers lost against the Cardinals how will this affect Pitt's bid for a #1 seed in the tournament blah blah. The real story here was in the final seconds of the game. Score 60 to 57 in overtime the Cardinals stole the ball from Pitt and drove the length of the court ending with a slam dunk making it 62 to 57. Thunderous applause erupted from the Yum Center. A Louisville male cheerleader who mistakenly thought the game was over ran out onto the court, grabbed the basketball and threw it up into the air.

Only there was 1.5 seconds left on the clock. Louisville was assessed a technical for the cheerleader stunt. Now the CBS cameras were trained on that cheerleader for 10 minutes while the referees were assessing the technical. The announcers (including Gus Johnson) were saying "if Pitt wins this game because of what that cheerleader did he is in trouble!". The look on his face was priceless. Clearly uncomfortable but trying to be cool about it. Pitt shot two free throws making the score 62 to 59. They got the ball but alas was unable to score ending the game.

That was classic. Go Louisville.

UPDATE: Video of the whole sordid affair heyah.

Steve Fisher presser

After SDSU/BYU's groundhog day:

Dance, little monkeys!

One of the many many reasons why we love college hoops. Thank you Northern Iowa. And fuck you to these guys.

The Don

Colorado 91 - Texas 89

Surely we have made our meaning plain. We mean to avenge ourselves upon you, Coach Barnes. We deprived your team of offense and with 10 minutes left to go in the game we mean to deprive you of your win. But, we wanted you to know first who it was who had beaten you. Boulder, motherfucker.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend

If you can't make out the this sign shown in Blacksburg, VA it says "NOLAN SMITH POY?? FREDETTE ABOUT IT!! NOT IN JIMMERICA"

Nice. Virginia Tech's season is on the line and all they can think about is BYU.

We did it to you again!

BYU 80 - SDSU 67

That was eerily similar to last month. We need auto type for this: Once again we were victims of our own poor 3 point shooting and the inability to convert opponent turnovers into points. Add to that the embarrassing way we handled a loss on national television by throwing trash on the court. At this point we have serious doubts if we can win in the 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament.

Alright, we have a bet we need to pay on -

We love you Jimmer. You're the best. Mormons own us. We suck.

BYU vs. SDSU - The Rematch

So, there was this. Yeah, that ended badly. Let's hope today goes better. We already gave instructions on how to beat Fredette. We have Gus on our side. And they say coach Fisher is a student of history. The world shall know the truth in a few hours.

Go Aztecs.

DOMA - Defense of Marquette's Acceptance

Overtime, baby...

So they say that the Golden Eagles really needed a signature win to get into the tournament. Ummm, does this count?

Exactly, citizens. The Selection Committee needs to accept that.

We love this commercial

Coaches dancing to a funky song. It's not crazy, it's college basketball.

Did you really think you could win?

Notre Dame 94 - Providence 93

This game had all the trappings of another Notre Dame blowout until the final 3 minutes 54 seconds when then the Friars turned on the turbo drive. They managed to close a 10 point deficit in a matter of minutes but the Irish turned to one of the most lethal combos in the Big East to pull their asses out of the fire...

The Ben (Hansbrough) and Tim (Abromaitis) show once again took the wind out of an opponent's sails scoring 60 points in this contest. Yes, that is nearly 2/3rds of Notre Dame's total output. We repeat, two people were responsible for that. And those two girls went home sad.

Arizona State fans are relaxed

Seen during the Arizona State/Washington State cripple fight.

Musketeers brought something heavy to the deal

Xavier 100 - La Salle's morale 0

Ok, La Salle did score 62 points. But does it really matter? Xavier rained threes on the Explorers early and did not let up until midway through the second half. La Salle was inept from ANY range (34% FG shooting, 23% 3PT shooting). Just to bring home how breathtaking the Musketeers domination was last night just take a look at this chart. Shhhhh.... Don't speak, citizens. Just look....



And the fans. Cruel cruel fans. Their bloodlust was insatiable. Something straight out of Gladiator we tell ya. In the end it means absolutely nothing for Xavier. But it was morbidly fun to watch.

Jim Boeheim strikes again!

"I think that's all bullshit, you know. All that stuff, it's all bullshit. We could play next week and get in the same game next week and lose. We could have ten of these in a row and win them, then get in a tournament and have one and you lose it. It's all bullshit."
- The Syracuse coach responding to a question about if tough games help his team

We agree with The Crazy One by the way.

Full audio heyah. And it's bullshit, but in a good way.

Renardo Sidney is an idiot

So everyone has probably heard that before the Miss State/Kentucky game last week Wildcat students got a hold of Bulldog forward Sidney's phone number and left harassing messages. The gang at Rush The Court discovered that Sidney actually had his phone number for public consumption on his Facebook page prior to that. Who does that? Really?

That fat kid has issues. Which means he's perfect for the NBA.

Fighting the battle of who could care less

Syracuse +5. Meh.

Will you never rest
Fighting the battle of who could care less
Unearned unhappiness
That's alright I guess

Can anyone tell us what these two teams were playing for last night?? They both are getting into the dance. They both are getting the same seeding. A loss by either team would not change this. Couple that with sloppy sloppy Big East style play and you had a game that, well, was just a game. The final minute could not make up for it. That's alright we guess.

Poll positioning

So the always amusing Gary Parrish is talking about how all these top 10 losses would (or should) affect the AP/Coaches poll this week and we came across this...

Now we appreciate it. Not saying there are a few of us here who aren't thinking about it. But look guys, if you were to think about all those teams ranked above the Aztecs (Duke, Ohio State, Kansas, Pittsburgh and Texas) can you truly say the following: "SDSU would beat any of those teams if they played them in San Diego."

We can't. We can't even say right now that we could beat BYU this Saturday. And that's all it comes down to. If Team A is ranked above Team B then it is assumed that Team A would beat Team B. To be honest there are a few teams ranked below us that could beat us at home.

It's about managing expectations and not getting caught in the whirlwind of excitement. Just be cool people. Five days and counting.

Tramp stamp

Seen during the USD/St. Mary's game. Oh those Catholic girls.

It's a party in West Lafayette

Purdue 76 - Ohio State 63

Maybe Buckeyes forward Jared Sullinger can listen to some Miley to console himself on the ride home. It wasn't that Ohio State was playing badly, it was that Purdue just played a little bit better with a home crowd. If this was a tournament game on a neutral court the Buckeyes probably would have won this. Good game nonetheless with lots of great plugs on the upcoming game this Saturday.

Maybe White people are just nervous

So everyone has been giving Missouri guard Kim English kudos for how calm and poised he was when he saw graffiti on campus calling Black History Month "Nigger Month".

We want to take a different view that maybe people are deep down inside thanking him for being the placated house Negro instead of the uppity field Negro, who would have taken a gun and shot every single White person in sight.

Before you citizens get your panties in a bunch just remember that we are a bunch of rainbow coalition contrarian bastards. We never tow the line here. Unless the line makes irrefutable sense.


Cheers...

Don't mess with Texas. Unless you're Nebraska.

In a day of upsets who could have seen this coming? The Cornhuskers owned the team we said should be #1 until the last couple of minutes of the game. The Longhorns strength allowed them to come back in it but it was a little too late.

Well, one person knew Nebraska would win...

Pittsburgh dislikes this video

St. John's 60 - Pitt 59

What is with the Johnnies and Madison Square Garden? First we were saying they were lucky beating West Virginia at home, then they turn around and make MSG a house of horrors for all opponents. In a game that folks all but gave Pitt the win, the Red Storm hung tough and beat the Panthers at their own game with vicious defense. Then with the game on the line and 11 seconds left this happens...



Yeah, we are putting St. John's as a BUBBLE BUT IN at this point.

Oh, this is just awesome

Some random Spanish dude on CBS a few nights ago...

(HT: The Dagger)

Survival Saturday

There are two games we are particularly interested in today's ESPN Bracket Buster madness -

Utah State at St. Mary's: Both teams lost to horrible opponents this past week. Because of this (and also the lack of quality opponents down the stretch) we feel that both teams are currently looking at a BUBBLE BUT OUT situation. Another loss would be curtains for either team.

UNLV at Colorado State: We think that UNLVGirl said it all this week about the slumping Rebels. Colorado State has gotten attention but no real quality wins. While UNLV isn't exactly quality at this point it certainly will make a strong case for the Rams to be in the Tournament. The Rebels just needs some wins period to keep their hopes alive.

A dreaded "L" for any of these teams by end of day will cause some of these players to take out their frustrations in new and interesting ways...

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.

Something we thought we would never see

Kansas State and Michigan State having to play-in to the tournament!



(Courtesy CBSSports.com)

Temple beats up on Richmond for damn tacos

Temple 73 - Richmond 53

Tacos... The Owls put on a clinic and embarrassed the Spiders just so students could get free tacos at the local Qdoba Restaurant. The NCAA Selection Committee will remember this, Richmond:

Temple - IN
Richmond - BUBBLE BUT OUT

You funny guys

No sport allows the viewing public to focus on the face and head of players as much as basketball does.

Think about it: Hockey, football, baseball and lacrosse all require helmets. Even water polo and wrestling requires some sort of head-gear. Soccer is played on a field that's damn-near a quarter-mile long. Nobody watches tennis or bowling. But in basketball, viewers can see every part of a players face.

(From our brethren over at Ballin' is a Habit)

A boring Wednesday

Although it's rare, sometimes we will take a look at the schedule of games for a particular day and yawn. Yesterday was one of those days:

* Georgetown and Connecticut? UConn wins there, no surprises.
* Michigan and Illinois? Does it matter who wins at this point?
* Oklahoma State and Texas? You kidding me? There were probably fools in Vegas who bet on the Cowboys though.

So in the meantime enjoy the pic. We'll be back later today for something more substantive. Maybe.

By the way, we can't believe ESPN would show a game featuring St. Mary's and San Diego but not a single SDSU game. What up with that?

USD beats St. Mary's 74 to 66

That's going to hurt SDSU's RPI.

Baby March to Madness is pooping in his sleep.

Welcome to the night shift.

Jason King is wrong

Normally we would not say that. King is the man when it comes to college basketball journalism. But in this article he basically explains that the reason why the Big East is not successful come NCAA Tournament time is because their conference is so tough.

Excuse us?

Shouldn't the reason be why they are successful is because their conference is so tough? If your point Mr. King was to explain why the Big East rarely has teams in the Final Four don't point to the conference. Point to the individual schools and their performances (or lack thereof) come March Madness. This makes no sense. It's like a heavyweight boxer saying the reason why he lost the title was because his previous opponents (which he won against) were so much stronger. We'll let that sink in...

Yeah. We're confused here. But we can give Jason a mulligan. This time.

Jay Wright is excited

Villanova wins, barely...

This game was closer than what anyone could have thought it would be. If we were coach Wright we would be pissed that after bullying the Pirates in the paint for most of the contest (seriously, Seton Hall players were being pushed around and falling down all game) the Wildcats only win by 3 points. Three points for all that effort? That's all we get fuckers?!

So maybe after the euphoria wears off of getting a road win and coach Wright reviews the tape that smile will disappear. And he'll rip into Villanova for not finishing Seton Hall off.

You knew this was coming

SDSU coach Fisher was chastised by the Mountain West for calling shit like he saw it in the firing of former Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer:

"For a coach to be fired with six weeks to go in the season is inexcusable," Fisher said. "We talk to our players about commitment, not cutting and running, and yet when things go south a little bit, often our administrators say, 'What do we do to please our biggest donor or the perception standpoint?'"

We still felt that he should have been fired, but agree that the timing left much to be desired.

Bill Self: This is a beatdown

Kansas State 84 - Kansas 68

They said that KSU would need to play for their tournament lives and boy howdy did they. Kansas State played a perfect game on both offense and defense although guard Jacob Pullen needed to score 50% of the Wildcats total offensive production for them to win the game.

On the Kansas side there were looks of absolute shock. Like "Wow, is this is really happening? Weren't we ranked #1 just 6 hours ago?!" We were actually surprised the Jayhawks allowed themselves to get smacked like that.

And it looks like we may get our wish with Texas being ranked #1 next Monday.

A weakness in Jimmer Fredette's game

Someone came up to one of us a week or so ago and said the following:

"Ok, so I watched a couple of BYU games and yeah that Fredette guy can ball real good. But what I really noticed is that he whines a LOT. He always gets mad when he doesn't get a foul call."

Now this person has an east coast bias (her team resides in the Big East Conference). So we somewhat dismissed it because we're in love with Jimmer just like most people, as long as he is not playing us. But then we came across this:

Fredette let the officials know how he felt about their handling of the (Utah) game's very physical affairs. Before Fredette could attempt his free throw to complete the three-point play, umpire Mike Reed advised BYU coach Dave Rose to remove his point guard from the game, in light of his vocal unhappiness and increasing frustration level.

Well then. Some chinks in the armor are developing. And we shouldn't have been quick to dismiss what that woman was saying. So hey TCU and Colorado State, heed this well. Ok, maybe only Colorado State.

ESPN fail

Yup, we know that the Worldwide Leader scoreboard widget on our site is down. 'Tis not us, something is wrong in Bristol.

UPDATE: Yeah, we are going with CBS. Fuck the WWL.

From Bono to the Syracuse Basketball team

You've got to get yourself together, you've got stuck in a moment and now you can't get out of it.

Good luck tonight with West Virginia.

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.

It's a new dawn, It's a new day

Sing it loud and proud Badgers fans...

So everyone predicted it, references were made to the Wisconsin/Ohio State football game last year and now it is here. There are no more undefeated teams as the Buckeyes lose to Wisconsin, 67 to 71.


Now now kids.

When all was lost with Ohio State up big in the second half Wisconsin came storming back big time. The Kohl Center is a rough place for visitors. We feel that Texas should be #1 on Monday (even after their close win against Baylor) but the pollsters will pick Kansas.

The night shift

Games we are watching tonight:

SDSU at UNLV - 8 pm
Pittsburgh at Villanova - 9 pm

Kiss kiss, bang bang. Who you got?

Update: Geez Louise why does San Diego State give us heart palpitations?

Ed Hightower strikes again

Syracuse lost this game because of Hightower, plain and simple. The Orange were down by 3 with 28 seconds left, had the ball with a driving layup and was fouled. What would you call it when an Orange player clearly establishes his position in the paint, was trying to make the shot and a Cardinal player flies across the lane and nearly tackles him?

Ref Ed called it a jump ball with possession going to Louisville.

And then you get Louisville 73 - Syracuse 69. Nice.

(Internet) surfing in the USA

First, Ohio State will fall to Wisconsin at the Kohl Center. Everyone, everyone, and we mean everyone is predicting that. This is what we call a "Justify Your Existence" game for the Buckeyes.

Next, a fantastic article over at Rush The Court on our beloved Aztecs -

The Aztecs are not a great shooting team, whether from deep or from the free throw line. As a whole the team shoots 34.2% from three, a below-average mark compared to the rest of the nation. And from the charity stripe, they’re even worse, hitting just 67% of their freebies, good for #222 out of 345 teams.

Yes, it was a pro-SDSU article, but we are sticklers for the truth. And this killed us at BYU and can kill us at UNLV or versus BYU again. Does Fisher even drill them on this?!?!

Finally, over at the now mandatory Luke Winn's Power Rankings we have this: San Diego county Jack in the Box restaurants have been giving customers free delicious curly fries each time SDSU holds an opponent to under 50 points a game. And the players are using that as an incentive -

Following an 85-53 win over Utah, SDSU forward Brian Carlwell told the San Diego Union-Tribune the fries had been motivation for late-game defense. With the Utes sitting on 43 points, Carlwell told his teammates, "They can't score these seven points in seven minutes. We got to get these fries."

We don't know whether to be amused or alarmed. But I guess we should thank SDSU alum and Jack in the Box CEO Linda Lang.


Thanks, Linda. Have a drink on us.

The south shall fall again

Alabama hurt themselves today...

We can't believe we are about to say this about an SEC contest but that was exciting, close game. Alabama has a curious case of being good but not being able to make the tournament. There was a part of all of us who were rooting for the Tide to beat 24th ranked Vanderbilt because doing so would STILL not get them in.

But that all changes now with the 81 to 77 loss at the hands of the Commodores. Oh well, fun while it lasted.

Game 2: Duke sweats, then has Curry

Duke 79 - North Carolina 73

If you were to watch the first 25 minutes of this contest you would have said the following:

"Man, North Carolina is gonna roll over Duke in their own house."

At one point North Carolina was leading by 16 points. But then Blue Devil guard Seth Curry went OFF for 15 points in a span of 10 minutes. If it wasn't for Stephen little brother we would have been looking at a rare loss for Duke at Cameron Indoor.

You know, Steph reminds us of Jimmer...

Game 1: Syracuse stumbles (again)

Georgetown 64 - Syracuse 56

First of our double header. Wow, what can we say? This game was a lot closer than we thought it would be (up until the last 3 minutes). We seriously thought that with Georgetown's recent struggles and with Syracuse's recent upswing the Orange would basically run the Hoyas out of the Carrier Dome. Not so much, huh?

Thirty Two

San Diego State / Utah game recap:



Now honestly, we don't really care that we beat Utah by an ungodly amount of points. We still have UNLV in Vegas on Saturday and coming up on Feb 26 we have BYU at home. And the only way we can beat BYU is to play like we played last night. That's it. End of discussion.

That's not a foul. Where's the blood?

For all of you who don't believe that basketball is a contact sport.

(HT: Ballin' is a Habit)

Welcome Back, Kotter

Maybe Bruce Pearl should stay away from coaching Tennessee in games permanently. From start to finish Kentucky controlled this contest especially on the boards. Couple that with the Volunteers inability to buy a shot makes for a not so sweet return and a 12 point loss.

We better stop our commentary here before Brandy Pearl says we are crucifying another Jew.

You go home now!

After compiling an impressive 49-68 record and regularly getting shellacked by opponents Wyoming gave their head coach the boot last night. Heath Schroyer is officially out.

And to think we actually gave them a little love last week.

Beyond the Arc's Mike Miller gives a wonderful explanation on why no one will ever want that coaching gig. From a sucky city to apathetic fans people tend to leave, not come to Laramie. Good luck with that one, Cowboys.

I'm gonna ride you like a f'ing pony!

So stop us if you heard this before. Two basketball players were arrested for drinking and driving...

Yeah, run of the mill stuff. What makes these Sioux Falls University players a bit different in their shenanigans is what happened after the drinking -

Police say seniors Eric Tisby and Matt Malloy were causing trouble at a convenience store on Western Avenue, when the clerk asked them to leave.

"The two guys were causing some problems in the store, the clerk went to kick them out, and they started arguing back and forth," said Officer Sam Clemens with the Sioux Falls Police Department.

"Malloy then jumped on his back and Tisby then punched him several times in the face," said Clemens.

Tisby and Malloy have been suspended indefinitely and will be sitting on the bench.

Guess you have to find some way to entertain yourself in South Dakota.

Exclusive: Gus Johnson to call SDSU/BYU game Feb 26

That's right, citizens. We already gave the guidelines on what would make this game epic. Let's hope that happens but if not it will still be awesome.

Go Aztecs.

A prediction...

Wisconsin is going to beat the fuck out of Michigan State.

Not a prediction: Gus Johnson is going to be calling that game. Joy.

James Madison loses game on travel call

Virginia Commonwealth 70 - James Madison 66

So, there was a travel call on James Madison with less than a minute left which cost the Dukes possession and the game only down by 2 at that point. And let's just say the Dukes were none too happy. We couldn't make out much but here is what we did make out:

Fucking Ref! Fuck!

Now now kids. You know what they say about profanity.

2-3 Zone don't matter if you can't score!

Syracuse 72 - USF 49

One thing we noticed is that South Florida properly defended against Syracuse's vaunted 2-3 Zone with aggressive cuts and screens. But none of that matters if you can't put the damn ball into the bucket... Oi vey.

College Station is stunned

Baylor 76 - Texas A&M 74

Baylor demonstrates that a #16 ranking doesn't mean much...

Just browsing around

Seen around the internets...

From our brethren over at Ballin' is a Habit:


No offense to the gang over at Ballin' (hey, we use to be involved in the short lived college basketball blogpoll together), but guys quit smoking that rock! For the very reasons that you explained Jimmer, Jackson and the vicious beat down UNLV received from the Cougars in Vegas is the same reasons why this game will be even worse. We're telling you, UNLV is going to run into a buzz saw in Provo. And of course we're gonna watch.

Luke Winn's SI Power Rankings:


Shit, who you telling Negro?! We've been screaming this fact again and again and again. It was the death of us in Provo and has caused near death experiences against Colorado State and IUPUI. Sigh. At least someone else noticed. We need a drink.

Here's a thought

If Brigham Young and San Diego State keeps this up for 5 more games then the rematch on CBS February 26th will be for:

A) First place in the conference
B) A higher seed in the NCAA Tournament
C) Revenge by SDSU or ownership by BYU

We don't know much about the Cougars but it won't be easy for us. With games at UNLV and against New Mexico we have our work cut out of us. But it's gonna be a crazy party in any event. Go Aztecs.

Michigan State loses to Regina High School

There comes a point as players when you have get your team together and scream "C'mon, man!"

And as fans you have to plead with your team "C'mon, man!!"

We think the Spartans are BEYOND that point. Iowa? 8-13 Iowa?

C'mon, man.

An ode to Renardo Sidney

You're the one for me, fatty
You're the one I really, really love
And you will stay
Promise you'll say
If a teammate gets in your way
You're the one for me, fatty
You're the one I really, really love
And you will stay
Promise you'll say
If a teammate gets in your way
A-hey

All over Missi State
Some fights and some brawls
All over Missi State
Some improper benefits y'all
Oh

You're the one for me, fatty
You're the one I really, really love
And you will stay
Promise you'll say
If a teammate gets in your way
You're the one for me, fatty
You're the one I really, really love
And you will stay
Promise you'll say
If a teammate gets in your way
A-hey



Now give some love to your boy, R-Stans!

We beat Kentucky! I'm gonna hug my PAWG!

Ole Miss guard Trevor Gaskins getting some congratulatory snow bunny love...

(Seen during last night's Kentucky/Mississippi upset)

The (other) Orange Revolution

Syracuse Nation is collapsing in on itself:



And by revolution we mean "revolting".

Not exactly how we wanted to be known

Question: So who is San Diego State?
Answer: Oh, that's the team Jimmer Fredette hung 43 point on.

Man we hate the NBA

So here's the story. St. John's uses Madison Square Garden for their home basketball games. This is usually the arena where the New York Knicks play. So security for St. John's games are usually the same guys who work Knicks games.

St. John's beats Duke (remember that?), which was momentous for the Red Storm. The kids are happy. They want to run on to the court to celebrate with their team. No biggie, right? Happens all the time in college hoops.

Well, the MSG security bozos have a rule to not allow fans to come on to the court before/during/after NBA games. And most dumb NBA fans know that so it never happens. Security was unprepared for this at the college level. So what do they do when the fans start pouring on to the court?

They start subduing kids by means of asphyxiation...

Stay classy, MSG security.

(HT: Rush The Court)

Hammer meets nail

Texas 69 - TAMU 49

Well then. Maybe we should give more credit to the Longhorns. From the opening tip off Texas mercilessly pounded A&M. The Aggies couldn't even come close enough for people to start saying "Hey, it looks like they are staging a comeback!"

Wait a sec. Looks like we are getting a tweet from the Big 12 Commissioner now...



Ok, so where were we? Oh yeah, the Longhorns own the Aggies plain and simple.