Roundball Chatter
Each week I'll talk about the sport I love, college basketball:
•Watching Kentucky play down in Chapel Hill on Wednesday night, there were several obvious factors in its struggle. There was a lack of execution on the offensive end as the Wildcats were out of sync early. There is a lack of perimeter talent. Jodie Meeks has to understand good shot selection as he put up too many questionable attempts. Kentucky must cut down on turnovers, which often led to fast break points you can afford to give up the ball over 50 times in two games! The Wildcats also need to find a distributor to do a better job getting Patrick Patterson the ball down low. Kentucky needs to find better angles to get the ball inside to the super soph. Eventually coach Billy Gillespie may have to go with talented diaper dandy DeAndre Liggins out of Chicago on the point. My friends, Gillispie will get into the head of his players, get them to improve on the defensive end and make adjustments. I still feel Kentucky will beat a lot of people and make it to the big dance, keeping its streak of consecutive trips alive.
•How good is North Carolina going to be when Tyler Hansbrough and Marcus Ginyard come back? The Tar Heels were impressive and the best player in America was on the sidelines wearing a suit! That shows how important guard play is and North Carolina has one of the premier tandems in Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington. Hall of Famer Roy Williams was thrilled when that duo, along with Hansbrough and Danny Green, passed on the cash from the NBA to return to Franklin Street. Deon Thompson is getting better and better and the defense against Kentucky was impressive.
•You know that Duke is a pretty good team. Why? How many clubs across America would like to have a leader like Greg Paulus in their line-up? My friends, Paulus is now coming off the bench and contributing for Coach K's squad. The move gave Nolan Smith the opportunity to run the club as a starter.
•Keep an eye on Rhode Island's Jimmy Baron. He is one of the nation's premier outside shooters, and he also plays for his dad, former Notre Dame assistant Jim Baron. If you want to know how good the Rams shooter is, going as Krzyzewski. Baron put on a clinic in the second half at Cameron Indoor Stadium, but Duke survived the scare.
•Villanova coach Jay Wright had to be shaking his head over early injury news. Senior guard Dwayne Anderson was sidelined with a stress fracture in his left foot. That came after senior forward Shane Clark had arthroscopic knee sugery that cost him some time. Clark played on Wednesday in the win over Niagara, which was good news for Wright. Plus, Wright's team still has Scottie Reynolds and excellent guard play.
•Mississippi coach Andy Kennedy received his second dose of bad news when the team lost another key member of its backcourt. Junior starting guard Eniel Polynice will miss the remainder of the season following knee surgery. Previously sophomore guard Trevor Gaskins, an SEC All-Freshman pick a year ago, was lost for the year after suffering an ACL tear in his left knee. The Rebels will now rely on point guard Chris Warren, junior David Huertas and sophomore Zach Graham in the backcourt.
•How strong is the coaching fraternity in the ACC. There are seven active coaches with at least 300 career wins, the most of any Division I league. The list includes Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams, Gary Williams, Al Skinner, Oliver Purnell, Leonard Hamilton and Seth Greenberg.
•There were a number of early-season shocks, but one of the biggest came in Salt Lake City, Utah during the first week of the campaign. Southwest Baptist, a Division II school from Bolivar, Missouri, went out west and stunned the Utah Utes. The three-pointer, even with the line pushed back, is the great equalizer. The Bearcats hit 16-of-32 trifectas while the Utes were four-of-12. It was Southwest Baptist's first win over a Division I school. Coach Jim Boylen of Utah was not happy after that loss, baby! VMI handled Kentucky, 111-103 in a surprise similar to the Gardner-Webb stunner in Lexington last season. Mercer, which stunned USC in OJ Mayo's debut last season, knocked off Alabama. Northeastern won at Big East member Providence. Portland upset Washington & Rockhurst beat Loyola-Illinois & Oakland knocked off Oregon in overtime.
•South Carolina's three-guard attack suffered a blow when Brandis Raley-Ross suffered a sprained knee that will sideline him for several weeks. Raley-Ross teamed with Devan Downey and Zam Fredrick to form a talented trio for the Gamecocks.
•Congratulations to John Calipari, who became the winningest coach in Memphis history with 221 victories. He moved past former Tiger guard Larry Finch, who led the program from 1986-1997. Calipari's milestone W came at the expense of one of his former players, current UMass coach Derek Kellogg. The Tigers rolled to an 80-58 victory as part of ESPN's marathon.
•I am so thrilled to be honored by the College Basketball Hall of Fame. The induction ceremony is this weekend in Kansas City and it is such a great feeling to be in the same class with so many talented people involved in the sport I love. Going into this year's class are Charles Barkley, Danny Manning, Billy Packer, Arnie Ferrin, Jim Phelan and Nolan Richardson. To hear those names and to be enshrined with them gives me goosebumps.
