All is well now that hoops is here! Three MAC teams are featured in the 24-hour extravaganza. Tune in at 8 a.m. for the pajama-slamma-jamma at the MAC Center. Should be fun: quit your jobs, call in sick, fake an accident--it's the best total basketball fix until the first round of March Madness.
I'm taking off tomorrow: definitely want to see Miami-Memphis, St. John's-St. Mary's, CMU-Hawaii, take a quick nap to be up for the BobbyMorris/KSU game, then spot check until the evening's OSU-UF, and MU-Duke. After that, whatever my constitution will allow.
Quote:2010-11 College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon
Schedule for ESPN family of networks (all times ET)
Midnight Miami at Memphis ESPN/ESPN3.com
2 a.m. St. John's at St. Mary's ESPN/ESPN3.com
4 a.m. Central Michigan at Hawaii ESPN/ESPN3.com
Preview-- Whether you're on the East Coast or the West (or somewhere in between), this is a tough time for college basketball. Even this early in the Marathon, the sweet lull of sleep will be beckoning you. So why stay awake in the middle of the night for a matchup between a mediocre MAC school and a rebuilding Hawaii team that was just 10-20 last season? How about Trey Zeigler, an elite recruit who spurned a handful of top schools to play for his father, Ernie Zeigler, at CMU? Trey isn't good enough to immediately put the Chippewas on the national map. After all, Central Michigan lost to Montana State early Sunday morning despite Zeigler's impressive scoring night. But the younger Zeigler's project -- making CMU relevant during the next three or four years -- has already begun, and the Chippewas' date with 2-0 Hawaii is no different. Worth a look, even if you don't suffer from insomnia.
6 a.m. Stony Brook at Monmouth ESPN/ESPN3.com
8 a.m. Robert Morris at Kent State ESPN/ESPN3.com
Preview:-- RMU's near-miss against Villanova in the first round of the 2010 NCAA tournament did two things: Set the stage for coach Mike Rice to take a vacant Rutgers job this offseason, and reminded college hoops observers that the Colonials have won the NEC the past two seasons for good reason. That's going to be a tougher task in 2010-11; not only did Robert Morris lose Rice, but also a trio of forwards that anchored the front line and gave Villanova so many issues in the first-round tournament loss. How will the Colonials handle the transition to Division I's youngest head coach (Andy Toole)? Kent State is one of the MAC's several early favorites, so Robert Morris will have to find the answer to that question quickly. It certainly got off to a promising start with this weekend's 55-30 win over St. Peter's. The Colonials' defense held the Peacocks to six -- yes, six -- field goals.
10 a.m. Northeastern at So. Illinois ESPN/ESPN3.com
Noon Oral Roberts at Tulsa ESPN/ESPN3.com
2 p.m. La Salle at Baylor ESPN/ESPN3.com
4 p.m. Virginia Tech at Kansas State ESPN/ESPN3.com
5:30 p.m. Dick’s ( 
)Sporting Goods NIT Season Tip-Off: Marist at Villanova ESPNU
6 p.m. Ohio State at Florida ESPN/ESPN3.com
6 p.m. State Farm Women’s Tip-Off Classic: Baylor at Connecticut ESPN2/ESPN3.com
7 p.m. Legends Classic: Detroit at Syracuse ESPN3.com
7:30 p.m. O’Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic: Miami (Ohio) at Duke ESPNU
Preview-- Duke's nonconference schedule is usually among the most intelligently constructed in college basketball. The Dukies usually avoid true road games, play the occasional top team at a neutral site and tune up for the tougher matchups (like its two big CBE Classic tilts next week) by feasting on inferior opponents at home. Such is the case with Miami (Ohio), who won't test the Dukies in front of the Cameron Crazies on Tuesday night. So why watch? How about Kyrie Irving, who took exactly one game -- Duke's easy win over Princeton on Sunday, when Irving dished out nine assists along with his 17 points -- to show why many think he could be the best point guard in the country this season. He alone is worth the price of admission.
7:30 p.m. St. Joseph's at Penn St. ESPN3.com
8 p.m. Butler at Louisville ESPN/ESPN3.com
8 p.m. North Dakota at Wisconsin ESPN3.com
9:30 p.m. Dick’s Sporting Goods NIT Season Tip-Off: Belmont at Tennessee ESPNU
10 p.m. South Carolina at Michigan St. ESPN/ESPN3.com
11 p.m. O’Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic: San Diego State at Gonzaga ESPN2/ESPN3.com
11:30 p.m. Dick’s Sporting Goods NIT Season Tip-Off: Nevada or Pacific at UCLA ESPNU
Dam! Why did I have to go and get married? That whole divorce thing is just gonna be a real mess. 33 years down the drain but I guess it will be worth it.
I feel your pain, H2O. I'm lucky to have a wife that a) will tolerate my basketball and golf addictions because she's glad it isn't football and b) will be gone or sleeping for 3/4 of the day. Life is good.
Your wife lets you watch TV? Awesome, does she let you stay up late too?
(11-15-2010 08:56 PM)Liam9903 Wrote: [ -> ]Your wife lets you watch TV? Awesome, does she let you stay up late too?
Liam, I'm guessing you are either not married, or not happily married.
LOL no I'm married...and watch a lot of games on my computer.
i get to watch the first half of the first game before having to head to work, then school. no bball for me until 5pm
(11-15-2010 08:23 PM)axeme Wrote: [ -> ]I feel your pain, H2O. I'm lucky to have a wife that a) will tolerate my basketball and golf addictions because she's glad it isn't football and b) will be gone or sleeping for 3/4 of the day. Life is good.
I really can't complain- she's sent me off rock climbing for weeks at a time with her blessing ( although I think there was a big life insurance thing involved) and keeps telling me to drop a couple grand on a really good guitar. I'm really all that holds me back.
If I get her the first two seasons of Criminal Minds on video before the hoops start she won't even KNOW I'm watching hoops.
Watching Miami(FL) and Memphis I was again reminded of the type of players we get in the MAC: about 2-3 in. shorter, or slower, or without the great reach. UM is a bottom of the ACC program (and gave Memphis all it could handle on Memphis's floor) but they get the high major players, and you can see the difference.
Still, a very good mid-major could beat either with a sound game: neither was very disciplined and were content to run and gun and get lots of possessions and let their athleticism rule the day. I'd be surprised if Mem. dominates CUSA in the same way they have in recent years. I imagine they will take more losses in conference.
CMU-Hawaii was great game. MAC fans are going to get really tired of Ziegler and Jackson: two freshmen guards who are both terrific. Everyone knows about Ziegler, but Jackson is a super-quick guard from Cleveland who is a pure ball thief. Chip fans have to be really excited about this duo. And I love the skinny Brazilian (Coimbra?) out there firing ridiculous 3's. And hitting them. What is he, about 6'8" - 6'9"? Long skinny arms, that's quite a shot.
Ziegler turned it over with about 5 sec. left and tried to do too much at times, but CMU does not have great depth and was not able to stop Hawaii from penetrating. The Chips had a lot of chances. They came back from 5-6 pt. deficits a number of times to take the lead but couldn't hit the big shot in the last minute.
Interesting tidbit I'm sure none of you know: Did you know that Trey Ziegler was a top 35 recruit who chose to play for his father, who is the head coach at CMU! The reason I know this is because the announcers said it, oh, every time Ziegler touched the ball. All game long. "There's Ziegler, the top 35 recruit now playing for his father instead of UCLA bringing the ball up..." "Ziegler comes out of there with the ball, chose to play at Central Michigan instead of UCLA so he could play for his father..." This went on from the start of the game to the last minute.
St. John's-St.Mary's was an interesting game. Steve Lavin not off to the start he wanted, and St. J's is in for a long season in the BE. I was surprised St. Mary's looked as strong as they did after they lost the big man Omar Samhan last year and that great Aussie guard Mills the year before, but they have reloaded.
Monmouth-Stony Brook hasn't gotten my interest. Tip off in Kent in under an hour!
Watched the game during my workout. Ziegler struggled from the outside but he can absolutely take to the hole.
I liked that the refs let 'em play. Couldn't have been MAC refs.
(11-16-2010 07:02 AM)axeme Wrote: [ -> ]CMU-Hawaii was great game. MAC fans are going to get really tired of Ziegler and Jackson: two freshmen guards who are both terrific. Everyone knows about Ziegler, but Jackson is a super-quick guard from Cleveland who is a pure ball thief. Chip fans have to be really excited about this duo. And I love the skinny Brazilian (Coimbra?) out there firing ridiculous 3's. And hitting them. What is he, about 6'8" - 6'9"? Long skinny arms, that's quite a shot.
Ziegler turned it over with about 5 sec. left and tried to do too much at times, but CMU does not have great depth and was not able to stop Hawaii from penetrating. The Chips had a lot of chances. They came back from 5-6 pt. deficits a number of times to take the lead but couldn't hit the big shot in the last minute.
Interesting tidbit I'm sure none of you know: Did you know that Trey Ziegler was a top 35 recruit who chose to play for his father, who is the head coach at CMU! The reason I know this is because the announcers said it, oh, every time Ziegler touched the ball. All game long. "There's Ziegler, the top 35 recruit now playing for his father instead of UCLA bringing the ball up..." "Ziegler comes out of there with the ball, chose to play at Central Michigan instead of UCLA so he could play for his father..." This went on from the start of the game to the last minute.
St. John's-St.Mary's was an interesting game. Steve Lavin not off to the start he wanted, and St. J's is in for a long season in the BE. I was surprised St. Mary's looked as strong as they did after they lost the big man Omar Samhan last year and that great Aussie guard Mills the year before, but they have reloaded.
Monmouth-Stony Brook hasn't gotten my interest. Tip off in Kent in under an hour!
Interesting that you mention Zeigler. Did you know he was a top fifty recruit who was sought by a number of bigtime hoops schools like UCLA but chose to go to CMU and play for his dad?
What happened to de facto MAC champ OU? If they are as advertised (albeit by Bobcat fans mostly) the MAC is in big trouble.
A bit disappointing to see Rod Sherman in street clothes today (concussion). With so many new faces, he is the glue that holds the Flashes together. I don't think Kent fans were worried about wins and losses in November anyway, but the new players will have to come together a bit faster if we are to win many OOC games. Really struggling right now to get any flow into the offense which is the thing Rod does.
(11-16-2010 08:54 AM)H2Oville Rocket Wrote: [ -> ]What happened to de facto MAC champ OU? If they are as advertised (albeit by Bobcat fans mostly) the MAC is in big trouble.
forgive us for having one bad game against a solid mid-major team. i guess you can just write us off now and then your team can take over...oh wait...yours is the team who's been blasted out of the gym in both of its games. ok, i understand now why you're talking smack.
To be honest, it’s waaaaay to early in the season to call anyone else’s baby ugly.
The aren't any MAC teams going to be on the national radar this season because no teams returned enough starters. All the better teams are going to be works in progress well into the season. And all are capable of losing to worse than good Summit League teams. Relax. It's a long season. There are going to be some ups and downs, except for the teams that will mostly have just downs. Some great new talent in the conference, though!
Flashes able to erase a 14 point deficit and dominate the 2nd half to win 62-59. I don't like playing without Sherman, but maybe it was a good thing as we saw a bunch of freshmen on the floor today who found a way to get it done. Greene with another double-double. We actually have two days off before game #5 on Friday.
Time for me to check out of the marathon for a while. Some good games later this afternoon, though! I may actually sleep at some point.
(11-16-2010 09:20 AM)axeme Wrote: [ -> ]A bit disappointing to see Rod Sherman in street clothes today (concussion). With so many new faces, he is the glue that holds the Flashes together. I don't think Kent fans were worried about wins and losses in November anyway, but the new players will have to come together a bit faster if we are to win many OOC games. Really struggling right now to get any flow into the offense which is the thing Rod does.
Thought we say a bit of the post Rod Flashes today. Great to see them gut out a win without their ROCK. KSU still a work in progress and the immaturity seems to show up at the worst possible time, but I’ll take 3-1 (with a three point loss) at this point.
Just caught the end of the Northeastern-SIU game. Crazy finish in OT. NE misses a shot, SIU rebounds, official calls TO for SIU with 2.6 left, but SIU had no TO's left. Lowry argues that no one called TO and you can't see on the replay who might have done it, but offical says he heard someone call TO. Could have been the guy with the ball or maybe a NE player. At any rate, T on SIU for the illegal TO, NE sinks 1 and wins it 63-62. Very tough loss for SIU, but NE looked like the better team, although I only saw the last 8 minutes or so.
That's six straight games that have all come down to the wire.
(11-16-2010 09:50 AM)bobcat_backer Wrote: [ -> ] (11-16-2010 08:54 AM)H2Oville Rocket Wrote: [ -> ]What happened to de facto MAC champ OU? If they are as advertised (albeit by Bobcat fans mostly) the MAC is in big trouble.
forgive us for having one bad game against a solid mid-major team. i guess you can just write us off now and then your team can take over...oh wait...yours is the team who's been blasted out of the gym in both of its games. ok, i understand now why you're talking smack.
Defensive much? A lot of OU fans have been yapping, so when a team comes into The Convo and punches them in the mouth, they're gonna have to hear about it. There were some common aspects to the Delaware game: Poor halfcourt offense, bad defense, poor shooting. Oakland was able to take advantage, and until that changes, Ohio's really going to struggle against good teams.