Playin' Hoops

[QUOTE=RealWorldSports;49258]Marquette transfer Smith, expected to be eligible today for UNLV, didn't make the trip. The Rebels' only Chicago product, sophomore point guard Reggie Smith, was a late scratch from the team flight. Smith, a transfer from Marquette, expected to become eligible for this game and had it circled for months as his homecoming. But he was taking five classes in the fall semester and not all of his grades were posted in time for him to make the trip. "I knew this was going to happen and I had a 50-50 chance of playing," said Smith, who described his emotions as "crushed."[/QUOTE] Damn lazy professors!

[url]https://www.sj-r.com/firstinprint/x775077372/Father-figures-help-Illini-recruit-Leonard-fulfill-his-potential?photo=2[/url] Working on tomorrow's college hoops and I stumbled across this HS pic of current Illini C Meyers Leonard. Has gone from a nothing frosh season to 13PPG/8RPG this season, but more imporantly, the photo shows he's likely the next Caucasion NBA slam dunk contest winner. Check out that elevation.

Illini senior PG Maniscalco, solid role player, already out with injury. DJ Richardson, starter at PG, hurt his wrist late vs. Northwestern. Reads like he'll play for defensive purposes, but likely not able to shoot well at all. With Nebraska's inability to score already, and now down 2 starters and a rotation guy, under even this low number seems to make some sense. Looks like Bruce Weber is expecting that kind of game. Quote follows: “I hope he’ll be able to give us a little time,” Weber said. “We’ll see how tough he is. Maybe he can’t score with that wrist, but he can still guard and help us. If we win 30-29, it will make national headlines, but who cares?”

[QUOTE=RealWorldSports;49822]Illini senior PG Maniscalco, solid role player, already out with injury. DJ Richardson, starter at PG, hurt his wrist late vs. Northwestern. Reads like he'll play for defensive purposes, but likely not able to shoot well at all. With Nebraska's inability to score already, and now down 2 starters and a rotation guy, under even this low number seems to make some sense. Looks like Bruce Weber is expecting that kind of game. Quote follows: “I hope he’ll be able to give us a little time,” Weber said. “We’ll see how tough he is. Maybe he can’t score with that wrist, but he can still guard and help us. If we win 30-29, it will make national headlines, but who cares?”[/QUOTE] Thanks for the post. Good info here.

Western Michigan real beat up at guard. Played 595 Miami-O strictly as a WMU fade. Wanted to fade Santa Clara today. 4th in 8 days, tired and thin. Best two players out (one has been long term). But Pepperdine has lost 8 straight bt avg of 16ppg and Out of a lot of those by halftime. Just couldn't lay points with them. [url]https://www.mlive.com/broncos/index.ssf/2012/01/ward_latest_wmu_basketball_gua.html[/url] [url]https://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_19832317[/url] [url]https://www.nctimes.com/ap/sports/usd-men-s-basketball-toreros-upend-pepperdine/article_b3a0eecc-5033-5abe-90cf-a6f708d32e63.html[/url]

[QUOTE=RealWorldSports;50514]Western Michigan real beat up at guard. Played 595 Miami-O strictly as a WMU fade. Wanted to fade Santa Clara today. 4th in 8 days, tired and thin. Best two players out (one has been long term). But Pepperdine has lost 8 straight bt avg of 16ppg and Out of a lot of those by halftime. Just couldn't lay points with them. [url]https://www.mlive.com/broncos/index.ssf/2012/01/ward_latest_wmu_basketball_gua.html[/url] [url]https://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_19832317[/url] [url]https://www.nctimes.com/ap/sports/usd-men-s-basketball-toreros-upend-pepperdine/article_b3a0eecc-5033-5abe-90cf-a6f708d32e63.html[/url][/QUOTE] Just my opinion but I think if there is a play on Santa Clara @ Pepperdine it has to be on the home team. Santa Clara has some team issues as I pointed out previously, the coach is turning more towards the young players and this team does not play much defense (allowing nearly 85 points a game in the last 7 games). After such poor performances at home I am unable to see this team putting out a good effort on the road. Pepperdine has had their offensive struggles but are coming off a stretch of playing @SMC, BYU, and @SD where they did at least fight to come back in the second. I think playing against SCU and laying the 3 is the play, in my opinion.

Here are some items of interest for your Saturday college basketball. [url]https://www.oleantimesherald.com/editorial/article_5ed1046c-53e7-11e1-bad6-001871e3ce6c.html[/url] Home court is important in college hoops, but blindly betting the home team won’t win you money. St. Bonaventure is an exception. On December 7th, Bona covered in a close loss at Illinois. That’s the last time a road team has covered in regulation in a game involving the Bonnies. A 6-point overtime win as a 5.5-point favorite at awful Rhode Island is the lone road cover in that time frame. [url]https://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/terps/tracking-the-terps/bal-terps-guard-peshon-howard-out-for-the-season-with-knee-injury-20120210,0,5496514.story[/url] If you were looking to fade Duke today off their miraculous win in Chapel Hill, you’ll want to know that Pe’shon Howard is out for the season after tearing his ACL in practice on Thursday. Howard has not played up to his press clippings, but is significantly better than anyone else Maryland can stick in at point guard. [url]https://www.star-telegram.com/2012/02/10/3726684/big-12-spotlight-texas-am-guard.html[/url] Texas A&M, playing a gritty brand of ball despite being down two key starters, gets both back today. Dash Harris is their point guard and Khris Middelton also returns, which allows everyone else to get back into their more natural roles. [url]https://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/sports/53484224-77/byu-zylstra-harrison-mission.html.csp[/url] Brock Zylstra is the latest gimpy BYU Cougar. [url]https://www.swtimes.com/sports/article_50310b30-53f8-11e1-a244-001871e3ce6c.html[/url] Michael Sanchez is a below-average SEC starter but his injury leaves Arkansas with only three forwards on the roster. The Hogs got belted at Georgia, and it would have been worse if guard Mardracus Wade didn’t go 5 for 5 from outside the arc. [url]https://www.golocalprov.com/sports/lions-beat-the-bears-86-60/[/url] Brown’s point guard Sean McGonagill was the Ivy League ROY last year, and is the Bears their best scorer, assist man, and second in rebounds. They got smoked without him last night. They play Cornell tonight. Cornell played OT last night and since Brown was getting destroyed, their starters didn’t play a ton of minutes. But that may be offset by the long trip from Manhattan to Ithaca for Brown. [url]https://www.trivalleycentral.com/articles/2012/02/09/casa_grande_dispatch/az_national_sports/doc4f3405331149f307803341.txt[/url] Arizona has done an excellent job overcoming injuries with the fine work of some freshmen. Sean Miller’s a good coach. [url]https://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/139123509.html[/url] Don’t be overly impressed by Cincinnati’s crushing of St. John’s, as the RedStorm are a mess right now. But the Bearcats are a deep team that plays hard. Interesting to see if they can overcome “road dog off a blowout win” vs. Marquette, as that is not a productive performance pattern. [url]https://www.foxsportsarizona.com/02/10/12/ASU-notebook-How-bout-a-winning-streak/landing_sundevils.html?blockID=663726&feedID=3609[/url] Trent Lockett is back for Arizona State.

I like studying boxscores for fatigue in short turnaround games. Interesting situation tonight. Brown starters play 196 of 200 mins last night. One sub plays 4 minutes. I don't think I've ever seen that. But could they possibly be tired? They had only 50 or 51 possessions and with "trip" from Penn to Princeton they're probably stayed in the same hotel both Thursday and Friday nights.

Playing the Ivy League Stereotype card, I think the head coach anticipated this and intentionally gave them the extra minutes.

From Thursday's boxes: Miami-FL's two bigs went 4-20 from the floor. Minny holds Northwestern to 9-31 from 2. Cincy only goes 6 deep and all five starters played 40+ minutes. Mizzou 28-42 from 2. USM survives despite ECU's 15-31 from 3. Air Force shoots 50% vs. UNM, loses by 15.