Flame on!

North Carolina 81 - Marquette 63
Kansas 77 - Richmond 57

These two games were ugly. UGLY. Let us not speak any more about them.

For those who don't follow us on Twitter

If you are seeing stuff about Leslie Visser and how she looked here is what everyone was talking about...

Que rico!

Oh just shoot us already

After the emotional high of Wednesday we were "treated" to the following last night:

Notre Dame 89 - Cincinnati 51
Texas 74 - Oklahoma 54
Oregon 76 - UCLA 59
USC 70 - Cal 56
Texas A&M 86 - Missouri 71
Louisville 81 - Marquette 56

The only game that was remotely interesting was the Kemba Walker just shot you in the base of the skull and you didn't even see it coming game against Pitt. We hope this just means that the weekend will make up for it.

Happy Friday.

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

Geez. The Hoyas may contain basketball-like substance.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ben Hansbrough's yer daddy

Notre Dame 56 - Pittsburgh 51

Well... You allow Notre Dame guard Hansbrough to drive the lane again and again and again (and again) you deserve to lose. Fucking hell it was painful to watch the total lapse of defense against one of the Big East's best players. Let us show you what the conversation was like around here during this game:

"Did Hansbrough just drive the lane and score with little to no hindrance from the Panthers?"

"Yes.

"Hmmm. Ok. Wait, did he just do it again?"

"Uh-huh."

"Hmmm. He is definitely good."

"I don't think it's him more than it's Pitts lack of defense."

"Did he just do it AGAIN? Does Dixon know? I mean is he going to call a time out or something to adjust for this?"

"Guess not. Let's just post now that Pittsburgh lost. I need a drink."

"Get me one too."

Down goes "Da U"

Miami gets out-toughed again, this time by NC State losing 70 to 72 to the Wolfpack. Not that it matters much to Wolfpack coach Sidney Lowe. He's a dead man walking.

Season collapse in slow motion

Nice to meet you, Charlie Brown. My name is Lucy...

TAMU 64 - Kansas State 56

Kansas State fans wish they could quit the Wildcats right now. Since the lofty preseason hype KSU has fallen to earth hard. Without one marqueee win Kansas State is in danger of, well, you know...

They won't say it but we will

Illinois 71 - Michigan State 62

This game marks the beginnings of dissension in East Lansing. Sure, the Spartans only lost by 9 points to the 22nd ranked school in the country. On it's own that is not too bad at all. But if you look at the whole body of work you get an entirely different picture:

* Lost to 8th ranked Connecticut
* Lost to 4th ranked Duke
* Lost to 3rd ranked Syracuse
* Lost to 10th ranked Texas
* Lost to unranked Penn State

* Needed overtime to win against 21st ranked Wisconsin
* Needed overtime to win against unranked Northwestern

Here you see a team that had gotten consistently beaten up by ranked opponents. Things are not as bad as they are over in Manhattan, KS but they are getting close, folks. And why on earth would a team like this stay ranked is anybody's guess. More than likely MSU will get into the dance but hell if they will stay.

Boob tube

Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl admits to ESPN that it's hard to watch his team play on TV...



Yeah, we feel the same way.

Bazinga.

The best laid plans

"(Michigan State is) the team to beat this year. This is the best squad Izzo has had at Michigan State since he bought home the championship back in 2000."
- Jack Jones, Bleacher Report

"...with the talent returning and a stellar recruiting class, there's no reason to believe MSU won't be in contention for a third consecutive Final Four berth. The run put together by Tom Izzo's program since 1999 makes the Spartans, perhaps, the most consistent program in the country."
- Andy Katz, ESPN

Michigan State needed overtime to beat Wisconsin at home and fell to lowly unranked Penn State on the road.

Can the Spartans be fixed? Are they final four material? Or should Izzo have gone to the NBA? There are still some who say MSU is final four material and the Wisconsin game shows it. With a stretch of games that includes Purdue, Ohio State and Illinois we will see just how tournament worthy they are. We'll leave you with a quote from our blog brethren over at Rush The Court:

"The Spartans are the flawed but talented team that they are, and nobody should expect that they’re going to now go on some ten-game winning streak as a result of tonight. They’re just not that kind of a team."

Screen of the day

We here at M2M have always been fans of ball screens. Other sites have dunk of the day and three point shot of the day. Not us. Give us that good old vicious ball screen executed perfectly:

West Virginia 65 - Georgetown 59

Georgetown lost this game more than West Virginia won it. Sloppy, sloppy pass play by the Hoyas virtually gave the Mountaineers this present. And that devastating screen on Georgetown guard Jason Clark by West Virginia forward Cam Thoroughman says it all...

Stop fouling!

We can't figure it out, was Georgetown that bad or Syracuse that good? The Hoyas got absolutely manhandled out there losing 56 to 73. The Orange outblocked Georgetown 4 to 1. Georgetown had twice as many fouls as Syracuse. There were chunks of time where the Hoyas did not score anything because the Orange either stole or blocked the ball. Georgetown coach John Thompson III begged his team on three different occasions to stop fouling Syracuse so he could get the hell out of there quickly.

And now, a special comment from a Syracuse fan...


(HT: Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician)

How could Syracuse lose that game?

Syracuse dominated that first half! WWL, can we have a chart?



Look at that. The Orange demonstrated why they were the 5th ranked team in the country. Pitt was out rebounded, out hustled, out shot, basically any phase of the game you can think of the Panthers were out classed. Then the second half happened...



And there you go. Pittsburgh was allowed to come back and impose their will. This then broke the will of Syracuse, eventually falling 72 to 82.

Always be closing? We're not giving that to the Orange but damn. What happened?

Profiles in Sadness: Iowa

This is quickly looking to be the third straight losing year for the Hawkeyes with losses to UTSA and directional Iowa teams. They have yet to win against ranked opponents and they're staring down a barrel of a gun this Saturday with a Drake team that can run the floor.

Iowa's recruiting has been atrocious, they are being used as virtual punching bags by lesser teams and even the fans are starting to get restless.

But hey, coach Todd Lickliter is back after serious surgery so there is a little hope. We said a little...

The players admitted, though, that there was plenty of frustration about the team's start.

"It's never easy to lose," (junior forward Jarryd) Cole said.

"I think there was a sense of frustration," (freshman guard Cully) Payne said. "We're definitely in a hole."

If the Hawkeyes don't right this ship by mid season the clamoring for a coaching change will most certainly get louder, health issues or not for the Lick-ster.

(Pic HT: Doc Saturday)

Great expectations fall short

Pitt leapfrogging over UConn is unconscionable in our opinion, clearly the Tar Heels and the Huskies are the teams to beat right now. What? Buffalo almost beat UConn? Man, forget that. Buffalo is a better team than people think and would have made it a close game with even North Carolina for about 15 minutes. We're not saying it would be a toss up between UConn and UNC, the Heels would clearly win. But it would be a yummy battle.
- March to Madness, 12/10/08

Mea culpa. We were dead wrong. Georgetown came in and absolutely shellshocked, blasted, plastered, decapitated, PWNDED UConn.

"I hated our body language early. For fleeting moments, [I] liked it, and detested it in the last eight minutes. With eight minutes to go we were down like 12, and I didn't like looking at my team. It's the first time all year I can tell you that. It was just a very, very poor performance for us. Opening Big East game, sold-out crowd, electricity in the gym and for us to perform like that . . . I apologize. I just don't know how we could play that poorly."
- UConn coach Jim Calhoun, 12/29/08

That my friends is a coach saying What The Fuck Happened. We think Calhoun should look at this stat below because not only does it summed up the night but will sum up the Huskies' season:

UConn had 17 turnovers and six assists.

That type of play will get you raped by UNC, Pitt, Oklahoma and ummmm, Georgetown.

Good luck with the rest of the season though. We're gonna put the Hoyas at #2 and Pitt at #3 on our blogpoll ballot. Because we still think Pitt is not that good.

On another note, former Roseanne Barr fuck buddy Tom Arnold is set to star in a sitcom about heckling college basketball players...



Hopefully it is better than the real thing.

Lessons in futility

The New Jersey Institute of Technology hasn't won a game since February 19th, 2007.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- The New Jersey Institute of Technology suffered its 35th straight loss, the most of any Division I team, falling to Penn State 74-47 on Monday in the Philly Hoop Group Classic.

School officials have said that the Highlanders won't go into the official Division I record book because they are in their final reclassifying year and will not be a full member of Division I until 2009-10.


Frustrated, degraded, down before you're done
Rejection, depression, can't get what you want
You ask me how I make my way
You ask me everywhere and why
You hang on every word I say
But the truth sounds like a lie
Live to win, 'till you die, 'till the light dies in your eyes
Live to win, take it all, just keep fighting till you fall