NCAA Tournament Storyline – Greg Monroe

Georgetown bigman  Greg Monroe is the centerpiece of one of the many compelling storylines heading into the NCAA Tournemnt. The 6-foot-11 sophomore paces the Hoyas as a team.  When he is on, they are competing.

Monroe’s primary strength is catching the ball in the high post, pivoting and looking for an open teammate.  If the opposition plays him straight-up, Monroe utilizes his dribble and attacks the basket, where he is tough to stop.  When Monroe is doubled, he not only passes the ball, but he consistently gets it to the cutters when they have an uncontested layup, which is an undervalued commodity in college basketball.

Greg Monroe is the best passing big man in the country, no question, which makes him a mismatch against most teams. Especially when the NCAA Tournament comes around.  It’s awfully hard to defend a style of play that you’re not familiar with, which Georgetown’s 11-1 nonconference record proves.

Chris Wright, Austin Freeman and Jason Clark are good players, but Monroe is the lynchpin to a Hoya run in the NCAA Tournament.  The only question is whether or not Monroe will make a commitment to playing like an elite player.  He needs to demand the ball, and lead his team down the stretch.

America loves the NCAA Tournament, and everyone will be watching.  Monroe was the No.1 ranked H.S. player in the country last year, so he has the opportunity to leave the legacy many anticipated for him when he signed with the Hoyas.  Georgetown doesn’t necessarily have to win a championship for that to happen, but he needs to have a dominating couple of games and the Hoyas need to be playing in the Elite Eight if Monroe is going to be remebered as leaving a noticeable impact on the national level.

Of course, this might not be Monroe’s last season on the college level.  Draftexpress.com has Monroe going No. 13 in its mock draft.  Personally, I hope he comes back, as he is one of my favorite players to watch.  However, if he doesn’t, he is running out of games to leave his legacy.

Weekly Hoops Forecast – 2/15-2/21

Whoa, another new feature.  Going to try to do this weekly, on Monday, from here on out.  Premise is simple – highlight the big games.  Go inside for the games and times.

Running the Floor – Swatting Tournament Expansion

New feature. Sporadically (as with everything on this unorganized, shitty blog), I will provide links to what others are saying about college basketball topics, leaving the one I wish to opine on for the end, as it makes for a cleaner format.  Feel free to discuss any topics in the comment section.

No. 25 Ole Miss travels to Lexington

The Ole Miss basketball team, while shorthanded, has an opportunity to make an impression with the national media and NCAA Tournament selectors tonight when they play No. 4 Kentucky.

Kentucky’s freshman guard John Wall might receive most of the national recognition for the Wildcats, but the Rebels – sans freshman Reginald Buckner – will have to focus on shoring up their post defense, which was exploited by Arkansas Sunday night.

Top 25: Syracuse, Cincinnati Rise (11/25)

A couple of brief notes on the two Big East teams that jumped a combined 29 spots in my poll:

- I did not expect Syracuse to be able to replace three starters and still be better than they were the year before.

- Andy Rautins has made improvements in his game. He still has a killer stroke, but he has also become more of a facilitator and a better defender.

- Wesley Johnson and Scoop Jardine can take this team deep in the tournament.  After seeing the way the Orange man-handled North Carolina, I am embarrassed to have left them out of my preseason poll.

- On the other hand, I am glad I included Cincinnati through the semifinals of the Maui Invitational.

- Deonta Vaughn and Lance Stephenson make up a dynamic backcourt, and neither has played as well as I thought they would.  Stephenson will grow as a player and Vaughn will raise his shooting percentage and the Bearcats could play deep into March.

- Yancy Gates is having a great tournament, averaging 16.5 points and 11.5 rebounds.  He needs to be able to have performances like this consistently if Cincinnati plans on competing for the Big East title.

Also, some housekeeping before I present the Top 25.  I will post these sporadically, not regularly.  It will be whenever I have some free time, so there are no real rules to this.  Also, I included a note or two with each team. I will not do this on every poll but more likely every two or three.  Nothing groundbreaking, but I figured they might interest the one or two readers that will see this post.  Top 25 follows the jump.

Taking a Hit: Mississippi State Drops Opener, Augustus Complains

The Bulldogs won the SEC West and contended for a National Title – in the preseason.  Of course, justdays after I slot them into one of my valuable Final Four slots, they lose at home to Rider by 14.  The loss in itself should not hurt them dramatically.  Rider is respected as a tough-out this season, as they were ranked 19th in the preseason CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25.  After the victory over MS State, they were moved up to ninth. 

The loss won’t hurt the Bulldogs as far as their tournament chances are concerned. Their RPI shouldn’t take a major hit, unless Rider sucks it up this season.  The only real issue that could come out of this loss is Kodi Augustus’ toxic attitude (from AP recap).

“This is Rider,” Mississippi State forward Kodi Augustus said. “[We're] preseason ranked No. 18 [in the AP] in the country. We’re not supposed to lose our first game, home opener. Wow. It’s crazy

“I talked to my dad.  He said we got outcoached. I don’t know. But I looked at it, I only played 15 minutes the whole game. Yeah, I’m [upset], but like I said, I can’t do nothing about it. I played all those minutes the exhibition games and then you come and play me 15 minutes? Wow!”

My thoughts after the jump.

The Season is Upon Us – Preseason Predictions

It is an exciting time for college basketball fans as the Friday marks the first set of games for mostuniversities.  Ohio State, North Carolina, Syracuse and California tipped-off on Monday as part of the 2K Sports Classic, but the rest of the college basketball world will begin their official play this weekend.

The first games between teams currently ranked will not commence until Thursday, November 19, but hoops action is good action as we all know that somebody will fall in the first week.  The 19th will provide fans with three barometer games including (4)North Carolina at (17)Ohio State, (25)Syracuse at (12) California and (22)Dayton vs. (20)Georgia Tech at a neutral site in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

I know the first batch of games have already been played, but I’m going to post my preseason Top 25.  Feel free to predict the Final Four in the comments section, and if somebody correctly slot the four teams, some kind of present will be produced.  Without further ado, here are my rankings, with notes accompanying the Top 10.

Rick Pitino, Not a Disciplinarian

Midnight Madness is anticipated by college basketball fans every year.  Fans can finally hear the sound squeaky shoes and start to anticipate the opening tip.  Practice officially begins tonight, and perhaps nobody is happier than Rick Pitino.  The Louisville coach has had a summer to forget with the extortion-attempt-turned-abortion-scandal and now that fall has come into bloom, Pitino is still in the news.

Last weekend, two Lousville players – sophomore Terrence Jennings and senior Jerry Smith – were arrested after a confrontation with police.  Allegedly, the two players were at a party early Sunday morning (see: late Saturday night).  Police officers were working at the party, with shirts that had “Police” clearly printed on them.  

Calipari Addresses One-And-Done Issues in Interview with Blog

The Big Lead is one of the best blogs as far as securing interviews with high-profile media members and more recently, athletes.  They went beyond the call of duty in landing a Q&A session with Kentucky coach John Calipari.  Among other things, the controversial coach discussed the biggest issue facing college basketball coaches when it comes to recruiting – the one-and-done player.  Calipari outlined a four-step plan that he believes the sport should target in order to fix the problem. (sic)

1. Work with the NBA to give our student-athletes the same option as their classmates who play baseball enjoy. That sport’s players are allowed to either go straight to Major League Baseball from high school or, if they do commit to a college or university, are then required stay at least two years.

2. Eliminate the summer recruiting period all together and bring the game back to the high school level where educators can be more involved in the process which would help scale down summer basketball. I would still leave April and September long weekends open for AAU events (especially Labor Day) where AAU basketball could still have events to showcase and evaluate players against one another.

3. The elite players in the game today are eligible, through the NCAA to receive loans to pay for insurance policies. My suggestion is that those same players also be eligible to receive loans up to a certain amount for the school year. Those loans would be paid back upon graduation or when they receiving a pro contract and would be paid back by the athlete

4. I would allow time with our own players in the summer. If there’s no July recruiting, we should be able to conduct practices with our enrolled students, who are in summer session. We’d get an hour a day, four days a week to work with the players in groups of four.

My thoughts follow the jump.

Kansas’ First Opponent–The Football Team

Kansas sophomore guard Tyshawn Taylor was taken to the hospital after being involved in a skirmish between the basketball team and  the football team in the student union, as first reported by Lawrence Journal-World

Taylor dislocated his left thumb and early reports have him missing 3-4 weeks, which would bring him back before the Jayhawks hit the court for their season-opener on Nov. 3 against Fort Hays State.

Kansas head coach Bill Self told FOXSports.com Taylor will wear a splint for about 10 days and he will probably not take part in Kansas’ version of Midnight Madness on Oct. 16, the first official day of practice.