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College Hoops Go-Round: December 22

Chris Dobbertean — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:45:51 -0000

2 days ago: Kentucky fans hold up the number 2,000 at the beginning of Kentucky's NCAA college basketball game against Drexel in Lexington, Ky., Monday, Dec. 21, 2009. A win by Kentucky would make it the first team in NCAA history to reach 2,000 wins. (AP Photo/Ed Reinke)

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The story of the Monday night before Christmas was third-ranked Kentucky's 88-44 victory over Drexel. The win was the Wildcats' 2000th in program history, making UK the first Division I program to reach that number.

Two doubleheaders provided holiday cheers to fans in New York and Oklahoma City.

Madison Square Garden hosted the Holiday Festival finals.

Davidson took third place thanks to a 61-52 win over coach Bob McKillop's alma mater, Hofstra.
Cornell took the crown with a 71-66 victory over St. John's.

In Oklahoma City, it was a mixed night for the local teams at the All-College Classic.

UTEP blasted Oklahoma, 89-74, thanks to 27 from Randy Culpepper and a double-double from Derrick Caracter.
Meanwhile, Oklahoma State had little trouble with La Salle, prevailing, 77-62.

In other Monday action

No. 12 Kansas State defeated Arkansas-Pine Bluff, 90-76.
South Carolina rebounded from their loss Saturday to Wofford by smashing Furman, 81-57.
Iowa beat South Carolina State in their first game without Anthony Tucker, 82-69.
LIpscomb looked to have won at Arizona, but another clock review meant that Nic Wise's three attempt at the OT buzzer counted. The Wildcats escaped 83-82.
Dayton took out Appalachian State, 65-49.
Houston had no trouble with the Citadel, winning 81-58.
East Tennessee State looks to be a serious contender in the A-Sun, as they blew out preseason favorite Jacksonville, 93-70.
Weber State defeated Cal State Fullerton, 82-71, in the round-robin tournament at Utah State.
The Aggies won their opener over Ohio Valley champ Morehead State, 79-72.
Northern Colorado pounded San Jose State, 93-69.
Montana knocked off Fresno State in Missoula, 59-56, to cap a big night for the Big Sky.
Portland State wasn't a part of it, however. They fell at Boise State, 69-62.
Pacific dropped a close one at Santa Clara, 54-53.
To compound the Big West's misery, Long Beach State lost at Loyola Marymount, who could very well be competitive in the WCC this season, 85-80.

If you don't see your team's result, click any of the score links. You'll find a rundown of all of Monday's scores on the right side of the screen.

For more on Monday's action, visit Searching for Billy Edelin and SB Nation.

After the jump, I'll take a look at a very busy Tuesday.

The two final big exempt tournaments tip off Tuesday.

The inaugural Diamond Head Classic in Honolulu may be light on ranked teams, but there are plenty of interesting storylines. From my Early Season Tournament preview post,

This first year tournament may lack the star power of the other four ESPN-run events, but it should be one of the most wide open and unpredictable events of the season. In the top half of the draw Matt Janning and Northeastern battle St. Mary's (sans Patty Mills of course), while David Kool and Western Michigan hope to spring a surprise on Kevin O'Neill's rebuilding USC. In the bottom half, two teams who spent about an hour and a half together in the WAC, C-USA's SMU and the Mountain West's UNLV meet, with the Chace Stanback and Derrick Jasper-led Rebels thinking of this event as a coming out party. Another school with big plans for this event finds itself in this half of the bracket, as Andrew Goudelock and the College of Charleston, who hope to win the SoCon this year, open with host Hawai'i.

Considering the Rebels have already been ranked once this season, the Trojans seem to have a point guard in newly-eligible Mike Gerrity and the Gaels are doing pretty well without Mills, this should be a thrilling tourney. Here's the schedule for today's quarterfinals. All times are p.m. ET, unless noted.

Northeastern vs. St. Mary's (ESPNU, 3)
Western Michigan vs. USC (ESPNU, 5:30)
SMU vs. UNLV (ESPNU, 10:30)
Charleston at Hawaii (ESPNU, 1 a.m. ET)

The Las Vegas Classic semifinals take over the Orleans Arena Tuesday afternoon. The marquee games were moved up because BYU will be playing in the Las Vegas Bowl this evening, so now Cougar fans can attend both events. Here's what I wrote about this tourney back in November.

Jimmer Fredette, Jonathan Tavernari and Mountain West favorite BYU face a tough test in the semifinals of this event, as they take on Luke Babbitt and Nevada. (I have the feeling the UNLV fans who don't travel to Hawai'i for their tournament will avoid that game.) While Doc Sadler's Nebraska squad will have a hard time with C-USA favorite Tulsa in the other semifinal. In the undercard bracket, Chicago State faces Eastern Washington, while SWAC contender Jackson State takes on NEC strugglers Wagner.

Only one of the two semifinals is on television.

Nevada vs. BYU (Full Court, 3)
Tulsa vs. Nebraska (no TV, 5:30)

There is plenty of other action on tap for Tuesday, with three ranked Big 12 teams -- including the top two teams in the AP poll -- facing big tests.

No.9 Michigan State visits second-ranked Texas, a team who just knocked off 10th-ranked North Carolina Saturday (ESPN2, 7).
California visits No. 1 Kansas in search of a marquee win (ESPN2, 9). Even though this is a Big 12 vs. Pac 10 matchup, it's not part of the Hardwood Series.
However, 19th-ranked Texas A&M's visit to 22nd-ranked Washington is the final game of that event (FSN, 11). The Huskies lost their first game in the Series, a 99-92 overtime loss to then-unranked Texas Tech back on December 3.

In other televised action Tuesday

Maine visits No. 11 Connecticut (Big East/Full Court, 7) and the Huskies hope the Black Bears won't be as hard to beat as UCF was Sunday.
South Alabama heads to Gainesville to take on no. 18 Florida (SEC on CSS/Full Court, 7), who's looking to rebound after two straight semi-home losses.
Transitional D-I member SIU Edwardsville visits no. 4 Purdue (ESPNU, 8) in what should be an easy W for the Boilermakers.
Cleveland State visits no. 17 Ohio State (Big Ten, 8:30), hoping to pull the upset that escaped them on Saturday in Morgantown.
Loyola (MD) travels to Indiana (Big Ten, 6:30).
Ohio plays at Pitt (Big East/Full Court, 7) in a game that should be a lot more interesting than it appears at first glance.
Winthrop is at Cincinnati (FS Ohio/Full Court, 7:30).
CS-Northridge visits Colorado (FS Rocky Mountain/Full Court, 7:30).
North Dakota heads to Iowa State (Full Court, 8).
Murray State heads to Western Kentucky (FCS Atlantic, 9) in what should be a great contest between Ohio Valley and Sun Belt challengers and in-state rivals.
Seattle at Denver (FS Rocky Mountain/FCS Central, 9) is not an NBA game.

For information on tonight's games that will only be televised regionally, like Marshall at No. 10 North Carolina and Oakland at fifth-ranked Syracuse, visit Matt Sarz' College Sports on TV site.

2009-10 BYU Basketball Preview

sroufe — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:00:53 -0000

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The season may not officially begin until November 13th versus Bradley, but now that Cougar Tipoff is past, preseason rankings and media predictions are submitted, and the football team's conference title hopes have gone the way of the dodo, it seems appropriate to preview the upcoming season. So read the official '09/'10 official prospectus if you haven't done so already and let's begin.

2008-09 Review:
   Record - 25-8 (12-4 MWC)
   MWC Champions - (Regular Season) Title shared with New Mexico and Utah
   NCAA Tournament - Lost in Round 1 to Texas A&M, 79-66

Key Loss:

Lee Cummard, G/F - The Cougars' best overall player for at least the past two seasons. Cummard put up 16.8 PPG and 6.2 RPG last season, twice finished on the MWC First-Team, and was the MWC Co-MVP and an Honorable Mention AP All-American in 2007/08.

Key Additions:

Tyler Haws, G - Prepped at Lone Peak HS (as did incumbent guard Jackson Emery) in Utah County. Arguably, had the greatest high school career in state history. Finished as the Knights' all-time leading scorer (1,772) and won two state titles (nearly three). Haws isn't the best creator but he is an unbelievable finisher. That should work to his benefit during his freshman season as he'll be surrounded with some players (like Emery) with the ability and experience to find him on the break. Haws has the most upside of any BYU guard since Travis Hansen. Of course his dad, Marty Haws was a terrific guard for the Cougars during the late '80's. He has a nice perimeter game that could improve but he is an excellent rebounder for his size. He should see a lot of minutes during his freshman season prior to leaving on an LDS mission next year.

Brandon Davies, F - Just as Haws has tremendous upside, that can be said here as well. Davies is another local product (Provo HS) with major upside. He is very strong and possesses good fundamentals for a big man his age. What he lacks in quickness/agility, he makes up for in strength and efficiency in his footwork/ball control. Davies is a decent shot blocker as well. Again, like Haws, Davies should see some significant action this season and be a huge part of the Cougars' success over the next several years.

Brock Zylstra, G/F - Zylstra is back after serving an LDS Mission. He red-shirted in 2006-07. Zylstra is a smart, athletic wing from Southern California. He should provide some nice depth behind Emery and Haws but likely won't be a key member of the rotation. Zylstra should merit some minutes though, especially early in the season, and figures to play a larger role next season after Haws leaves on his mission and Tavernari graduates.

Logan Magnusson - G/F - Magnusson was one of the key contributors to Salt Lake Community College's team that won the NJCAA Division I National Title last season. (Magnusson played at Dixie State before that.) Magnusson won't provide the Cougars with much offense but is a nice guy to have on Rose's bench - a scrappy wing player with good size that defends well and rebounds aggressively.

Projected Depth Chart and Commentary:

PG - Jimmer Fredette; Lamont Morgan Jr.; Michael Loyd Jr.
SG - Jackson Emery; Brock Zylstra
SF - Charles Abouo; Tyler Haws; Logan Magnusson
PF - Jonathan Tavernari; Noah Hartsock, Brandon Davies
C - Chris Miles; James Anderson

Practice Squad - Tanner Lamb (Snow College, Orem HS); Andrew Johnston (Snow Canyon HS, St. George, UT) and Kyle Rose (Southridge HS, Beaverton, OR and nephew of coach Rose)

It is likely to depend on the opponent whether or not Rose starts Tavernari at the 4 rather than Hartsock (or perhaps Davies). Obviously that isn't his natural position and he understandably has a difficult time trying to defend true PF's in the post. However, he provides some major problems for teams that try to defend him on the perimeter with less mobile big-men. The problem with starting Tavernari at the 3 is that both Abouo and Haws have the talent to merit serious floor time there. It's a nice conundrum and one that should easily work itself out during the early part of the season.

Despite Tavernari's lack of size at the 4, the Cougars post players are as good a group collectively as the Marriott Center has seen in many moons. Miles figures to be improved with experience and is a substantial upgrade over Gavin MacGregor. (Though I hear G-Mac plays a mean trombone.) Hartsock is a year removed from his mission and should be dramatically improved in terms of both conditioning and skill-set. Of course there is Davies as well. And finally Anderson is a solid shot-blocker that isn't a horrific option of the bench when the others get into foul trouble.

The starting guard spots are final: Fredette and Emery. Of course, you know all about Jimmmmer and his crossssover. Some fans are so enamored with the aforementioned move you would have thought Tim Hardaway had transferred from UTEP. Still, Fredette is a fiery competitor, has a knack for getting into traffic and drawing contact and has greatly improved his perimeter game. His status awarded by the media as preseason MWC MVP appears a bit outrageous on its face but he is likely to be the best all-around player on the team this season. Morgan and Loyd each have their strengths (speed) and weaknesses (shooting, size) but are serviceable backups.

Emery, like Hartsock, should benefit exceedingly from having been home from Mexico for over a year now. When he's healthy he is the Cougars' best defender and possibly the best on-the-ball defender in the conference. I'm really looking forward to seeing him play this season. Emery is the ideal player to put beside Fredette as he doesn't demand the ball and Jimmer is so ostensibly pass-second.

Predictions:

BYU has a much weaker non-conference schedule than the past couple seasons that saw them pitted against North Carolina, Louisville and Wake Forest (to name a few). This year they do travel to Utah State, Fresno State, Nevada, Arizona and UTEP however. They also host Arizona State. Utah State lost forward Gary Wilkerson though and Arizona is in rebuilding mode after losing Chase Budinger (who is playing well so far for the Rockets I might add) and Jordan Hill. Nevada has a nice player however in Luke Babbitt and Fresno and Steve Cleveland has a good prospect as well in Paul George. Finally, the ASU game is interesting considering the Cougars actually won in Tempe last December (Andy Katz is a jerk) and the Sun Devils have since lost James Harden and Jeff Pendergraph. Add in the fact that the game is in Provo and the Cougars should win that game.

The Cougars should have a very good record going into conference play. That's 15 games into the season and I see no reason why BYU can't be 13-2 at that point.

In terms of conference play it will be interesting as always. Utah, of course, lost Luke Nevill, Shaun Green, Lawrence Borha and Tyler Kepkay all to graduation. It ought to be a rebuilding year in Salt Lake. UNLV lost Wink Adams, Joe Darger (goodbye faux-hawk!) and Rene Rougeau. Still Lon Kruger added some very nice transfers in Derrick Jasper (Kentucky) and Chace Stanback (UCLA). The Rebels may not be as deep as they've been in recent years but they'll still be dangerous with Tre'Von Willis and Matt Shaw as well. San Diego State also lost some experienced players but the Aztecs have added Kawhi Leonard, a freshman G/F from Riverside, CA. Leonard could have played anywhere and most expect him to impact the MWC immediately.

New Mexico has to be excited for basketball even if they weren't going to be that good right? Well, the Lobos should compete again for the conference championship. Despite losing Tony Danridge and Daniel Faris there remain some nice players in Albuquerque. That includes Phillip McDonald who, like Leonard, had his pick of schools to choose from coming out of high school.

So those are the traditional "powers" in MWC basketball. Wyoming, Air Force, Colorado State round up the rest of BYU's conference schedule but none of those programs are likely to compete for the conference championship this season. Of course the Rams should be improved - Andy Ogide could be either a dud or all-conference.

In summary, BYU biggest competition should come from UNLV. SDSU and New Mexico should also be solid. BYU however appears to have the most experience and the most depth of any team in the conference. Combine that with the Cougars' track record at home and they should actually improve on their 12-4 record from last season. I think they can win 14 conference games and go into the MWC tournament with a 27-4 record.

It's not like I'm going out on a limb here. The MWC Media, Athlon, Doug Gottlieb (ESPN), USA Today and Yahoo! Sports have all projected the Cougars to win the conference with a similar record. Athlon projected BYU to be a 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament and Joe Lunardi has them as a 7 seed. I think those seedings are realistic and attainable for this club. And as we've seen multiple times over the past decade, if the Cougars are finally going to get that infamously elusive tourney win in March, they'll need to be seeded at least as high as 7.

There's a lot to look forward to, especially after the roller-coaster of a football season we've had in Provo. Hopefully, Cougar fans can find some stability in an unlikely (at least in terms of the erratic Tavernari being called "stable") source.

GO COUGARS!!!

Fredette photo via bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com

UNLV Rebel Basketball Preview 09-10

Jeremy Mauss — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:39:13 -0000

UNLV has had some very good success the past few years in hoops with a sweet sixteen appearance in 2006-07, second round appearance in 2007-08, and last year was a step back with only an NIT bid but still had 20 wins. Last year the Mountain West was one of the best leagues last year, but due to teams losing early in the conference tournament --like UNLV-- coupled with some other upsets limited to the league two to spots in the Big Dance.

This year the Rebels are hoping for a bounce back year especially since this is the 20th anniversary of the 1990 National Championship team. This team does have a chance to be good with three transfers and four incoming freshman:

	Pos	Stars	Ht	Wt	RR	Video	Hometown
Oscar Bellfield	PG		6-2	175	5.7		Los Angeles, CA
Brice Massamba	C		6-9	255	-		Henderson, NV
Deshawn Mitchell	SF		6-5	205	-		Howell, NJ
Darris Santee	PF		6-8	198	-		Houston, TX

Derrick Jasper from Kentucky (via Rivals)

Steve Jones from Arizona State

Chance Stanback from UCLA (via Rivals)

UNLV did lose three starters from last year most notably Wink Adams who was their best player. The two returning starters are guard Oscar Bellfield and Tre'Von Willis. Willis averaged 11 points, 4 boards, and just over 3 assists a game. Plus they return four other letterman to round out the returning squad. The team has talent with the recruits and specifically the transfers and if the team can be cohesive then this team --as usual-- will contend for the conference title. One thing is to practice during their transfer year, but actually playing games against non-Rebels will be the key for UNLV.

The early season games will be tough for the Rebels just in Novemver they take on Nevada, Southern Illinois, Louisville, and at Arizona; plus include a game against Kansas State the first week of December. The schedule will be there for a good RPI, but those games will be a test of how quickly the team will get together. The main concern is getting the transfers to be able to play together as a team, and if that can happen then this team is a real threat for the Mountain West crown.