Wednesday was not a good day for undefeated teams in college basketball. Both #4 Louisville and #13 Indiana lost their games, leaving only Syracuse, Baylor, Missouri, and Murray State as the undefeated teams in the top 25. (Keep in mind that Murray State has not played any high ranked teams, and won’t for the rest of the season so it is tough to tell how good they are) Baylor barely slipped by #14 Mississippi State in the final seconds of a close match.
#1 Syracuse, #2 Ohio State, & #3 Kentucky all won by more than 20 points, and with Louisville losing just their first game, they will most likely still remain in the top 8. #9 UConn rode Jeremy Lamb’s 22 points to a slight win over USF. As much as I hate to admit it, UNC will most likely move up to the 4th rank and Duke & Baylor will round out the next two spots, due to their weak upcoming schedule.
There is much debate over whether or not college athletes should be receiving multi-year contracts, or if they should stick with their one-year renewable scholarships that they have now. Many schools have objected to this new NCAA ruling, which means it will be put on hold until they can reach an agreement. There are pro’s and con’s to each side.
Players- Even if they are injured on the field, or they fail to produce the highest numbers, they will still be able to attend school with their original financial help. This means, if there is a freshman star quarterback, the team will still need to cover the costs of the sophomores, juniors, and seniors, even though they are not playing.
Teams- These are mostly cons. They are stuck with players even if they have bad conduct issues, bad performance, as long as they can obtain the minimum GPA. Players have all the power, they can leave and opt out at any time for professional leagues.
I don’t know if it will go through but the board of the NCAA seems to be pushing it pretty hard. It would not be implemented for at least another year or two but it’s a good thing to think about.
UConn Freshman star Andre Drummond gave red-shirt freshman Michael Bradley the best gift ever this season. Since Drummond is using UConn basically as a stepping stone to his NBA career, he has decided to forego his scholarship, and remain on the team as a walk-on. He basically took the scholarship from Bradley because he is a much better player. However, Bradley does not have much to work with. He is an orphan who grew up with very little. People were constantly accusing Drummond of “taking a scholarship from an orphan”, but since they were trying to resolve this without the media, they both had to remain silent, and just accept the verbal abuse.
With Bradley sidelined with an injury for now, he can only sit and watch his team move up in the rankings. Drummond will most likely go this year in the draft, barring any injuries of course. He is 6-11 and can score and rebound better than most at his size. As soon as he gets stronger, he will be a force in the middle.
University of Southern California Quarterback Matt Barkley has decided to forego the NFL draft and complete his senior year next season. He would have most likely been a top 10 pick and had the potential to make millions next year for whichever team needed a quarterback after Andrew Luck gets chosen. I can go along with this decision for the sole fact that I respect his chase for a national championship after being royally screwed the last two seasons because of Reggie Bush and others taking bribes.
Hopefully Barkley can go through his final season the same way he did this season—on top. He threw for 3,528 yards, 39 touchdowns, and only 7 interceptions. If he keeps up with this pace, he could go down as the best quarterback in the elite school’s history. The Trojans (insert condom reference here) will most likely be pre-ranked in the top 3 teams next season, and he will almost certainly be the front-runner for the Heisman (even though their pick doesn’t always win.. See Andrew Luck)
Just over a month in and there have already been a few different #1 teams in the country. There have also been many players who have stepped up, or fell off the radar. I thought it would be fun to vote on who has been the best player in the NCAA ( I only did ranked teams players). If you are unsure, do not just vote for North Carolina players because I’m pretty sure thats what everyone in the coaches poll does…
Previously unbeaten Xavier lost their first game Sunday against Oral Roberts… Wait, What? Oh yeah, 3 of their best players are suspended because of their brawl against Cincinnati last week (in case you somehow missed it) so they lost against a team with “Oral” in their name… Since these 3 didn’t play, I don’t see Xavier dropping far below their previous rank of #9, just as Ohio State remained near the top even though they lost a game last week when they didn’t have Sullinger, who got hurt again on Saturday. In my opinion he is the most dominant player in college right now, when he is healthy that is. I hope they drop below UConn who should climb a little bit higher with another win on Sunday.
On Saturday night, Syracuse almost felt the curse of the #1 but somehow held on against North Carolina State, which would have been a huge upset once again. #19 Illinois lost but I wouldn’t be surprised if they stay in the top 25 since it is their first loss, even though they have not played anyone that tough. #21 Alabama and #25 Vanderbilt both lost, which will most likely move both of them out of the top 25 come Monday morning. Every other team that played and should have won, did win. Unfortunately, that includes the Tar Heels.
As I’m sure most are aware, there was a bench clearing brawl with just seconds left in Saturday’s Xavier vs. Cincinnati NCAA basketball game. The game was very physical in the first half, and both coaches were warned during halftime that actions would be taken if it didn’t stop. With just under 10 seconds left in the game, a player from each side started pushing and shoving, which led to Yancy Gates throwing the basketball at a Xavier player along with several punches, one which drilled Xaviers Kenny Frease directly in the face sending him to the floor. That wasn’t all Frease got. While he was on the floor attempting to get up, Cincinnati’s Cheikh Mbodj decided to kick him in the face. The fight eventually ended and the game was called with just under 10 seconds left. Yancy Gates received the longest suspension, six games, while the others got anywhere from one to four games.
What I find most disturbing is Cheikh’s Mbodj’s actions. What a coward. You can see in the video he pretty much had nothing to do with the fight and the only thing he can think to do is kick the guy in the face while he’s down. There is absolutely no room in sports for things like that. That guy is a complete coward and should be suspended longer than anyone else involved. An Ohio prosecutor also said he is considering bringing charges against some players involved.
This brings me to the other two players would made absolute idiots of themselves during their postgame press conferences. Xavier guards Tu Holloway, and Mark Lyons. When asked about the fight they replied by saying “That’s what you’re going to see from Xavier and Cincinnati, we got disrespected a little bit before the game, guys calling us out. We’re a tougher team. We’re grown men over here. We’ve got a whole bunch of gangsters in the locker room — not thugs, but tough guys on the court. And we went out there and zipped them up at the end of the game.”
How stupid can two kids that attend Xavier University be? Apparently pretty stupid. The only reason most of these “gangsters” are able to attend these schools is to play basketball, not do what they did back on the streets. Yes, Yancy Gates deserved the six game suspension, but it should not have been the longest suspension handed out from this mess. Just because of their stupidity and unprofessional manners, both Tu Holloway, and Mark Lyons should be severely punished. It was a disgrace that this happened in the first place, but then when they are given a chance to show remorse they acted like the thugs they truly are and referred to themselves as gangsters and basically said Cincinnati had it coming. That’s class at his finest. Both schools ought to send those gangsters a message and show them that their actions are not acceptable by suspending the players involved for a minimum of 10 games.
It was a weekend full of upsets in college basketball. And it wasn’t just me feeling upset that Duke and North Carolina both won. #1 Kentucky was upset by unranked, but undefeated Indiana at the buzzer. Probably the most exciting game of the year so far in my opinion. #2 Ohio State was also upset by #13 Kansas. It should be mentioned, however, that the Buckeyes were playing without the best player (in my opinion) in the league due to back spasms. I think they will still be ranked near the top once he is back and well.
Usually, I wouldn’t comment on a team like Xavier that no one cares about, including myself, but if you watch the news at all, you should know what happened. A bench clearing brawl, including everyone that could reach an opposing player, ended a blow out by #8 Xavier of Cincinnati before the game was even over. The only thing that was missing was Ron Artest running into the stands and punching fans in the face. I am willing to bet that Artest (or as he now likes to be called Metta World Peace??) is laughing like hell remembering his ‘glory’ days with the Pacers.
I know it is getting old but there’s not much going on yet today. It turns out that all 8 people who accused former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky are going to testify. So much for his theory about it being a hoax. Unless all 8 people came up with the same idea and same exact story this guy is pretty screwed. If he really thinks what he did is okay then he should go to hell anyways. Now that they will be under oath his lawyer will have his shot at poking holes in their stories. Be prepared for this to be the only thing on ESPN during that trial, so you may want to get your sports news here (@BostonSB) because I will be staying away from that one. Hopefully there is a good game or something on that day that will be more interesting than listening to an old man talk about his “precious moments” with little boys. Come to think of it, WNBA games seem more interesting, and that’s saying a lot.
The Kentucky Wildcats remain on top of the Coaches Poll for men’s basketball after slipping by UNC on Saturday. A last second block sealed the win as they proved that having all-stars doesn’t mean anything (See Miami Heat for details). However, because they lost against a number 1 seed and they have the best overall line up in college basketball, they remain at #6.
Duke dropped from #4 all the way down to #5? Wait a minute, how do they only drop one spot after getting smoked by #2 Ohio State 85-63, you ask? Because they are the Blue Devils. No one will count them out of the top ten even if they lose the next 3 games because of their constant dominance of unranked teams. Seeing as they don’t face another ranked team until the Tar Heels in February, you can expect to see them up here for a while.
These next 4 weeks are kind of on the dull side for most NCAA teams with Christmas tourneys and non-conference games (With the exception of Ohio State vs. #13 Kansas this Saturday). Therefore, many teams will not be changing position unless they somehow get upset by their random opponents. Let’s hope that UNC and Duke are some of those teams…
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