Off the Glass

Michigan spoils top ten matchup, makes ESPN execs cry

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:59:26 -0500

(AP Photo/Gerry Broome) By Tim Fiorvanti I was all set to jet out of work today, hop on the LIRR, and enjoy two great games of basketball at Madison Square Garden. But John Beilein, as he's done to me several times the past couple of years, ruined my day. His Michigan Wolverine squad upended #4 UCLA 55-53 in much the same way that Beilein's West Virginia teams have won games in the past. By keeping their tough games close, and by having players who show no fear in the final seconds. It would be unfair to classify a Duke vs. Michigan game as boring or as a definitive blow-out. In fact, I'm very interested to see the Wolverines face another talented squad and how they'll fare. It doesn't have the same luster as a UCLA vs. Duke game (or even a Southern Illinois vs. Michigan consolation game in terms of intrigue, as far as seeing how they might recover from a tough loss against a comparable opponent), but there's a chance that Michigan could really prove something tonight. As a Notre Dame fan, I'm legally barred from having a rooting interest in anything Michigan, but if they pull off another stunner tonight, I'm unlikely to shed a tear for Coach Krzyzewski and his Duke squad. What to watch for Friday night 10:00 PM No. 1 North Carolina at UC Santa Barbara 6:00 PM La Salle vs. No. 2 Connecticut 5:00 PM No. 4 UCLA vs. Southern Illinois 7:00 PM No. 5 Duke vs. Michigan ESPN 7:00 PM Akron at No. 6 Pittsburgh 10:00 PM No. 9 Notre Dame at Loyola Marymount 7:00 PM No. 12 Memphis at Seton Hall 8:30 PM No. 13 Tennessee at Middle Tennessee State 1:00 PM Southern Miss vs. No. 16 Miami (FL) 5:00 PM Chattanooga at No. 20 USC 7:00 PM Winthrop at No. 21 Davidson 8:30 PM Iona vs. No. 22 Wisconsin Locally 8:00 PM Bryant University at Columbia

Seton Hall scores big win for Big East

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:01:43 -0500

The Pirates scored a big-time win for head coach Bobby Gonzalez with a 63-61 win over No. 19 USC in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off Thursday night. This brings up a valid debate. If you're a diehard fan of one Big East team, are you generally happy with other another Big East team's success? The natural inclination is to say no. But in November and March, I'm at the ready with pom poms for all Big East teams not my own. I think some rivalries excluded (You almost ALWAYS want to see your team's rival lose), Big East supporters should fully support the other squads in the league. This year more than ever, the overwhelming consensus around the nation is that the Big East is the most superior conference in the country. Just look at the rankings. The more wins a team such as Seton Hall, which was picked to finish 13th out of 16 teams in the preseason coaches poll, can notch over teams such as USC, the merrier. The Hall outscored the Trojans 35-18 in the second half behind Jeremy Hazell (17 points) and Eugene Harvey (16 points). Seton Hall's John Garcia and USC's Taj Gibson both pulled down 18 rebounds. Other Big East scores: Providence 111, Sacred Heart 87; West Virginia 86, Longwood 54.

Texas Tech drops 167 points

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:23:09 -0500

Things are going swimmingly in Lubbock, Texas, right now. The Texas Tech Red Raiders, under the tutelage of Pat Knight, defeated East Central University 167-115 last night. It's quite a nice appetizer for the fans, who are getting pumped for this weekend's big game against Oklahoma State on the gridiron. Mini-Knight's boys led 77-57 at halftime, which would amount to a pretty high-scoring game in the Big Ten. They went on to drop 90 in the second half to finish with 167 points and smash the school record of 128, set in 1994. They actually broke the record with 7:43 left in the game. East Central University, by the way, is in Ada, Okla., the town at the center of John Grisham's recent foray into nonfiction (which is worth a read if you're into the whole murder-mystery genre). It's also the hometown of Jeremey Shockey. Anyway ... less book club, more stats ... The Red Raiders didn't break the Division I NCAA record for most points in a game. That honor goes to Loyola Marymount, which defeated U.S. Int'l 186-140 Jan. 5, 1991. The Red Raiders' 90 second-half points failed to bump Long Island from the record books. That's right ... LIU scored 98 in the second half of their 179-62 win over Medgar Evers College in 1997. That game holds the record for biggest margin of victory (117). I'm sure they're very proud. Texas Tech shot 59.3 percent from the field (67 for 113), including 52 percent behind the arc (13 of 25). They hit 20 of 29 free throws, which is surprisingly low amount given the score. East Central, however, made 32 of 45. No defense? Maybe, but the Raiders did finish with 18 steals. Officials Alan Spainhour, Tim Ebersole and Brent Hampton were hopefully given Friday night off. Texas Tech's Tyree Graham, sadly, went 0-for-5 and finished scoreless -- the only man in the 24-player box score to do so. At least he led his team in assists (six). Ten Texas Tech players scored in double digits, with Trevor Cook leading the way with 20 points. The mean, median and mode of those 10 scorers you'll have to figure out on your own.

Local Female Basketball Recruits Flocking to St. John's

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:10:46 -0500

By Marcus Henry The St. John’s women’s basketball program took another step toward becoming a national player as coach Kim Barnes Arico announced the signing of St. Michael Academy (Manhattan) standout wing Shenneika Smith yesterday. Smith, rated a top-10 prospect by most recruiting experts, averaged 20 points and 11 rebounds for St. Michael last year. "Shenneika is the type of player that will make an immediate impact on our program and will help take St. John’s basketball to another level,” Barnes Arico said. “The future of our program is very exciting and I can’t wait for Shenneika’s arrival on campus. She is an All-American caliber player.” Smith is a super fast wing player who should fit in nicely with what Barnes Arico wants to do. But Smith isn't the only local standout St. John's has inked. North Babylon standout Eugeneia McPherson signed with the Red Storm last week. Mary Louis (Queens) sharpshooter Amanda Burakoski also signed a letter of intent with St. John's. The 6-0 senior led Mary Louis to a NYS Federation Class A championship in 2007.

Season-ending injury falls UNC's Tyler...

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:10:28 -0500

Zeller. Sorry to get your hopes up, everyone. Especially you Duke fans. Can't let your heads get too big this early. Rather unfortunate for the Tar Heels. Tyler Zeller had 18 points in North Carolina's opener against UPenn, and he appears to be a rather talented big man. Here's wishing you a speedy recovery, Mr. Zeller. Always regrettable when someone goes down this early into a freshman season. -- Tim Fiorvanti

Fordham ends 35-game skid

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:36:40 -0500

By Tim Fiorvanti Congratulations are in order for the Fordham women's basketball team, who broke a 35-game losing streak Wednesday night against Manhattan. Maybe they can go on a run similar to the one that Colorado State had at the end of last season. Check out the semifinals of Coaches vs. Cancer tonight on ESPN, with the #10 Dukies taking on the Southern Illinois Salukis, and #4 UCLA taking on John Beilein's Michigan Wolverines. Everyone seems to be looking forward to the Duke/UCLA match-up, which is certainly a pretty huge deal this early in the season, but both teams should be careful of looking beyond SIU and Michigan, because they are no pushovers. (AP Photo/Tony Ding)

Wildcat basketball ... not making a comeback

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 09:42:43 -0500

I know this is a bit late, but in case you missed it, here's the footage of Tuesday night's RIDICULOUS end to the Arizona-UAB game in the NIT Season Tip-Off tournament in Tucson, Ariz. The Wildcats, as most people know, are playing under interim head coach Russ Pennell after Lute Olsen called it quits after 24 seasons in October. In their second game of the year, the Pennell's boys fell to the Blazers, 72-71. Why? The Wildcats inexplicably fouled the Blazers -- on purpose -- with less than 30 seconds left and the score tied at 71 ... TWICE!!! If you don't want to sit through the entire seven minutes on YouTube, the fouls occurred at the :12 and 3:50 marks on the video, by freshman Kyle Fogg and sophomore Jamelle Horne (sorry guys), respectively. You'll also want to see ESPN capturing the reaction of one Wildcat fan (at 4:55), which pretty much sums it all up. It's shocking and hilarious that after one mental breakdown and three and a half minutes to digest why committing a foul in that situation is not advisable, they'd do the exact same thing again. The second one was called an intentional foul, allowing UAB to hit one of their free throws and get the ball back to ice the game. Perhaps the funniest part? When you go back and watch the first foul again, it's the guy who committed the second, game-losing foul that's consoling the guy who committed the first foul. I wonder if Horne admitted in the press conference afterward that he wasn't aware that overtimes are often used to break ties in men's college basketball. At least they have Chase Budinger, right?

One snowy night in Queens...

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:12:49 -0500

Note: Sorry for flooding the blog with St. John's. Starting tomorrow I'll try to be more fair and balanced. Really! By Tim Fiorvanti It was a dark and stormy night. A consistent snowfall blanketed the entire campus, but could not cover the excitement of the student body. They were anticipating a game against another top-25 opponent. But this was different. Not only was this team 15-0 and the #9 team in the country, they were traitors. It was Boston College, who, along with Miami and Virginia Tech, had announced that they were leaving the Big East for the greener pastures of the ACC after the 2004-05 season. The effects on basketball were not quite as dramatic, but the fracturing of the Big East on the football side rocked the conference to its core. It was only appropriate, then, that the game took place on campus, in bandbox Carnesecca Arena rather than the World's Most Famous Arena.* A freshman at the time, I filed into the arena with a couple of friends, and as we settled down into our seats on the wooden bleachers, there was a genuine excitement filling the room. We spotted Lou sitting courtside, and a small chill ran down my spine. St. John's had started the season off quite poorly. Losses at St. Francis, Niagra, Illinois St, and Hofstra didn't do much to help, but the Red Storm proceeded to knock off two ranked opponents at home (#17 NC State and #21 Pittsburgh). Coming out of the locker room, it was easy to see the short-handed Red Storm feeding off the energy of the crowd. Most of them had never played in front of such a crowd; they were young and generally inexperienced. Off-the-court issues dating back to the Mike Jarvis era limited this team to an 8-man rotation, and it certainly wasn't a team with 8 scholarship players. There were three standouts on the team; Freshman Eugene Lawrence, who would go on to be a solid 4-year point guard; Daryl Hill, arguably one of the best St. John's players of the last decade who failed to elicit draft attention due to ongoing knee trouble that would catch up to him his senior year; and Lamont Hamilton, who did garner a bit of mid-season attention, but dealt with knee problems of his own. On this night, they showed what a full-strength St. John's team could have been.

Johnnies go down in Boston

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:40:39 -0500

By Tim Fiorvanti If an NCAA men's basketball game was only 30 minutes long, St. John's could be a top 25 team. As has been the case during the majority of the Norm Roberts era, the Red Storm stayed competitive with Boston College, even holding a 57-56 lead with eight minutes left, before falling apart in the final minutes and ultimately losing 82-70. How did it happen? St. John's (2-1) shot 45% from the field, but were hurt by a poor night from beyond the arc (4-15) and an abysmal 10-17 (58.8%) from the free throw line. PG Malik Boothe struggled to stay on the court for long stretches, getting his third foul early in the second half. This forced the Red Storm to let freshmen guards Quincy Roberts and TyShwan Edmondson run the offense, before putting the ball in the hands of sophomore Paris Horne, who contributed 14 points and 3 steals in 18 minutes. The Eagles (3-0) got their biggest contribution from, who else, Tyrese Rice, who put up 28 points, 9 assists, and 5 rebounds. But the biggest story last night for BC was Joe Trapani, who absolutely crushed St. John's in the final ten minutes of the game, finishing with 19 points. The good news that St. John's can take from this game is twofold. They got a surprisingly good start out of sophomore forward Sean Evans, who threw in 14 points and 6 rebounds of his own, while looking dominant during stretches. The other big plus coming out of their loss to BC is that they looked very competitive. St. John's has six games left before starting their Big East Conference schedule. All six games are at home, as they take on Howard, St. Francis, NJIT, Bethune-Cookman, Marist, and Miami. In theory, St. John's should be able to win all six, with their most challenging opponent being Miami, who embarassed them 66-47 last year at Miami. If they really want to stay competitive this year, St. John's has to avoid losses to teams like Marist, Niagra, Hawaii, Tulane, Illinois St., and Hofstra, all teams they have lost to in the past three years that good teams should be able to handle. ----- Stay tuned for a BC vs. St. John's story from a couple years back later today on the blog. It's about the last Big East meeting between these two teams, and it's the game in which my passion for the college game really took hold.

'Cuse survives scare from Spiders, 76-71

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 07:21:02 -0500

Payback! Not really. My first impression of an Orange victory this season came at the expense of my alma mater, the Richmond Spiders, everybody's favorite Cinderella team that became the first No. 15 seed to advance past the first round of the NCAA tournament in 1991 with their win over, yup, No. 2 Syracuse. The 'Cuse have beaten the Spiders twice since that upset, including once in the NIT in 2002. For Richmond, a win over unranked Syracuse in November was not going to go down as one of the team's greatest wins, but it could've done wonders to help spoil the Orange's bid for their first NCAA appearance since 2005. Big East teams vying for a NCAA bid simply cannot slip up against lesser opponents in November. An 11-7 conference record would be considered a decent achievement for one of the Big East's upper-tier, but not upper-echelon teams (errr ... we'll break down the difference between a tier and an echelon later) such as Syracuse. That means it only takes a loss in the conference tournament, a loss to a challenging non-conference opponent and a silly November or December loss to give you 10. Any more than that is sometimes is a scary number on Selection Sunday while going up against mid-major teams with 26-5 records. But on to the game, which seemed to emulate UConn's performance the night before. A sloppy first half bailed out by a virtuoso performance by the guards in the second. Syracuse fans will have to deal with some of the untimely mistakes from Jonny Flynn and Eric Devendorf this season, but when those two catch fire -- it's a thrill to watch. Devendorf did his damage beyond the arc while a slashing Flynn proved too quick for what proved to be a porous Spiders defense in the paint when it mattered most in the waning moments. Flynn also nearly posterized the Spiders' backup Aussie center, Josh Duinker (pronounced, ironically, "dunker"), but his throwdown clanged out. It really had a chance to be one of college basketball's dunks of the season. I was impressed with big man Arinze Onuaku, who shot 8-for-11 for 17 points and collected seven rebounds. The big fella is listed at 6-9, 275, and he appears to be more sculpted than big-boned. The Spiders, clearly, had no answer for him. Fans of old-school Big East hoops should look forward to to the matchup between Onuaku and Pitt's DeJuan Blair Jan. 19 at The Pete in the 'Burgh. That will be a treat. Orange forward Paul Harris may be the key to their season. They'll really need the junior (coming off a 15 and 8 season) to have a big year to give this team a little bit of everything. Tuesday, however, he gave them an uninspiring night and finished with seven points and five boards. If he can produce this year, the Orange shouldn't have a problem qualifying as one of at least nine teams Big East that make it into the tourney. It'll have to survive some frustrating moments from their backcourt along the way, the the rewards should out-weigh the grief come March.

Price's absence felt in 43-point UConn win

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 07:17:17 -0500

Excuse me? Yes, the No. 2 Huskies ran the Hartford Hawks out of the XL Center last night with a 43-point win. Yes, much of that had to do with the stellar play of UConn's three other talented guards, who combined to score 60 points. But, without Amityville's A.J. Price, who was nursing a sprained ankle, UConn played a pretty dismal 28 minutes of basketball before putting a hurtin' on the Hawks, 99-56, Monday night in Hartford. The Hawks endured that 3.1-mile trip back to campus wondering what could have been. You wouldn't know it by the score, but I imagine coach Jim Calhoun was not impressed with him team's overall effort. Price's absence, which led to the Huskies' early exit from the NCAA tournament last year, was a key reason why the team looked so ugly in the first half and minutes into the second half, when the Hawks pulled to within a point of the Huskies, 45-44. As deep as the Huskies are this year -- and they'll get deeper in a month with the addition of Stanley Robinson and, possibly, Ater Majok, Price's absence hurt and it showed. Against a good team, UConn could have easily found itself down 10-15 points early in the second half as it played without their floor general from Long Island. It also didn't help that UConn couldn't manage any semblance of an inside game from big man Hasheem Thabeet and power forward Jeff Adrien. Thabeet, in case you missed it, made this bold assertion to ESPN the Magazine a few weeks back. Yikes. Thabeet, who dropped 23 and 17 in the Huskies' opener and is boasting more of an offensive repertoire this season, proved he's still no Hakeem The Dream. The Power Nap, we'll call him, was relatively quiet with nine points and eight rebounds. Adrien, meanwhile, finished with 12 points and 15 rebounds. This game, however, was all about guard play and UConn is lucky it has plenty of it. Kemba Walker was impressive in his first start with Price out and finished with 21 points. Craig Austrie finished with 21 and Jerome Dyson added 18. UConn didn't play up to its No. 2-ranked billing, but it still nearly hit triple digits without their point guard, which says plenty. I'm looking forward to their Dec. 20 match-up against the Zags -- two could-be trendy Final Four picks in 2009. Other quick notes on the game: - Great to sit down and watch UConn for the first time this year -- thanks to SNY -- and get treated to Jim Calhoun's patented 90-second substitution immediately. I didn't even have to wait a game -- or a half -- to see it. It's classic Calhoun. With the Huskies down 1-0, Calhoun was so heated with his team's play, he subbed out Dyson, Thabeet and Austrie and threw in a bunch of rookies with 18:31 left in the first half. - Thabeet followed up his first block of the game at 11:22 in the first half with his first side-splitting fall to the ground in the paint a second later. In this case, as replays showed, he was tripped, but sometimes the big Tanzanian falls inexplicably. He'll average about .8 of these per game, so keep your eyes peeled. Something about a 7-3 man falling that far to the floor is just awesome. Around the Big East, not too many surprises. The Johnnies, who were sadly only four-point favorites over Cornell -- ever heard of it?-- won, 86-75. Pittsburgh shut down a Miami (OH) team that challenged UCLA last week, 82-53. Pitt, thanks to their terrifying defense, is definitely it this year. Other scores: No. 18 Georgetown 71, Jacksonville 62; No. 18 Marquette 106, Chicago State 87; No. 23 Villanova 107, Fordham 68; DePaul 75, Albany 64. Tomorrow night I'm pleased to check out my SPIDERS of Richmond take on the 'Cuse on ESPN. Will the Spiders party like it's 1991?

UConn's Kemba Walker impressive

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 07:02:49 -0500

A tender ankle for starting point guard and Amityville product A.J. Price gave freshman Kemba Walker (Rice High, Bronx N.Y.) his first career start in his second career game at UConn. Walker, known for his quickness, showed it early with a slashing drive to the bucket 2:44 into the contest, but otherwise had a quiet first half and didn't assert himself too much on the offensive end. He picked up his second foul with 6:36 left in the half and was given the hook by coach Jim Calhoun, who rarely lets players see halftime with a third foul. In the second half, things changed dramatically for Walker -- and just in time for the struggling Huskies. Walker hit back-to-back 3s with about 11 minutes left to extend UConn's lead to 65-49 and cap a 12-0 run. Walker, who was the tournament MVP for Team USA at the U-18 FIBA Americas tournament this past summer, also wowed the crowd with a steal and a five-second, 80-foot mad dash for a finger roll finish with five minutes left. Dude's quick. Walker finished 6 of 11 from the floor for 21 points in 29 minutes and will give coach Calhoun something to think about when Price returns to the floor. Walker could even join him in the starting five, as the Huskies should be content with their three-guard lineup until swingman Stanley Robinson re-joins the team in mid-December. Robinson may not even start right away, giving Calhoun four talented guards (Price, Dyson, Austrie and Walker) to rotate in and out of his three-guard set against the smaller teams during UConn's pre-Big East schedule. If Walker continues to perform like he did Monday night, one has to wonder if he would give players like Louisville's Samardo Samuels a challenge for Big East Rookie of the Year honors. The Huskies' depth at guard, however, will eventually work against him.

Mixed Bag for Local Women's Teams

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:56:10 -0500

By Marcus Henry Last year was a struggle for the three local Division I women's basketball teams. Hofstra and Stony Brook experienced severe growing pains, while the St. John's women posted an 18-15 record and advanced to WNIT quarterfinals. Two of the three locals lost, but there were several positives. St. John's topped Northeastern 70-52, Hofstra fell to Iona in a close one, 61-57, and Stony Brook lost a home game to Quinnipiac, 59-45 and on the road at Michigan State, 73-42. On paper there doesn't seem much to write home to mom about, but if you look a little closer each team had something to hang its hat on. For St. John's, its big guns in Monique McLean and Kelly McManmon scored 13 points each. More importantly the Red Storm's frontcourt duo of Joy McCorvey (15 points, 12 rebounds) and Coco Hart combined for 23 points and 19 rebounds. The Red Storm has always been a small team, but if they can get anything close to that effort on a consistent basis, they could be in for another nice season. Hofstra's tight loss to Iona shouldn't be taken too hard. Iona was a WNIT team last season and has most of its top players returning. It's worth noting that Iona knocked off West Virginia, 52-44, the very next day. Joelle Connelly led the way with 17 points and 10 rebounds and Sam Brigham added 12 points. Prized center Jess Fuller had just six points and six rebounds, but had a bit of foul trouble. Stony Brook's losses to Quinnipiac and Michigan State, which is ranked in some polls, shouldn't have come as a shock. The Seawolves have a roster full of underclassmen and don't have a lot of height. The biggest positive of Stony Brook's first two games was that their quickness was a factor. The Seawolves forced 24 Michigan State turnovers. Quinnipiac had 27 giveaways. If the Seawolves hope to avoid a terrible start, they will have to find some offense.

Stony Brook Men Start Season on Positive Note

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:42:21 -0500

By Marcus Henry Most people -fans, officials, media- agree, this is a different Stony Brook team. Yes, I understand they defeated a Maryland-Eastern Shore that started two freshmen and a sophomore. Yes, they didn't exactly light up the scoreboard in their 60-44 win. But Stony Brook won going away. The Seawolves haven't enjoyed many of those type of wins the last few years. No Desmond Adedeji (suspended 6 games for a DWI arrest) and Stony Brook still emerged victorious. What was probably most impressive was that three freshmen led the way in the win, including Tommy Brenton who had eight points and 16 rebounds. Former UK high school standout Danny Carter led the Seawolves with 11 points. It's only one game so there's no need to start planning any victory parades yet, but the positive vibe coming from this team is encouraging. With an upcoming schedule that includes home games against Wagner, American, Lehigh and Hofstra and road games vs. Lafayette, Columbia and NJIT, there's no reason to think Stony Brook can't get off to a hot start.

For the insomniac NCAA basketball fan in you

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 13:50:40 -0500

By Tim Fiorvanti Do you need to fill your nearly insatiable desire for college basketball on TV? You're in luck! ESPN has your solution, or as close to it as is humanly possible. 23 consecutive hours of college basketball-themed programming across the ESPN family of networks composed of: - Begins with a midnight tip-off tonight (technically Tuesday) between UMass and #15 Memphis, and ends Tuesday night at 9 pm pitting Kentucky against #1 UNC. - Games in 5 different time zones and teams from 14 different conferences. - 9 live games - 33 total hours of coverage - Four classic matchups on ESPN Classic tonight to get you warmed up: * 1999 Kentucky @ UNC (4 pm) * 2004 Duke @ UNC (6 pm) * 2008 Tennessee @ Memphis (8 pm) * 2008 NCAA Championship Game: Kansas vs. Memphis (10 pm) In this writer's humble opinion, however, the proper warm-up would be settling into a comfortable chair next to your radio (or internet radio for all of you technophiles), tune in to 1130 AM, and enjoy the NIT Season Tip-Off first round match-up of St. John's and Cornell at 9:30 pm. I'm sure Mr. Best will be, and I wish his Big Red luck in Boston tonight. Also, nice story by Arthur Staple on St. John's vs. LIU from Friday. Sorry, have to get these SJU posts/mentions in while they're still undefeated and relevant (at least in my mind)