Monday, January 11, 2010

Crazy Weekend in College Sports

Lots of upsets to watch in hoops the last couple of days, highlighted by Notre Dame's win on Saturday. Wisconsin beat Purdue, Georgia Tech defeated Duke, Mizzou took down K-State, and there were a pair of great Big East games in Marquette/Nova and UCONN/Georgetown. Yesterday, Kansas became the latest unbeaten to fall, dropping one on the road to the shorthanded gun totin' Volunteers.

Of course, none of that excitement equaled the news of Pete Carroll's departure from USC. At least for Irish fans, this ends an eight year reign of terror (leaving out Carroll's first season) and makes the upcoming football season even more interesting. Now, we'll just wait and see what kind of sanctions are about to drop (the Trojans are eligible for everything up to and including the death penalty).

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Crazy indeed B&G. Couple of points/observations: What in the world is going on at Oklahoma? Capel seems to be melting down a bit - banning his players from their own locker room and not letting them wear practice gear with any Oklahoma logos. I guess it didn't work as they lost to Baylor for the first time in 33 years by 30 points. Lesson to be learned here is that last year's "hot" coach seems very pedestrian w/o Griffin.
I haven't seen it mentioned but I thought Brey did a good job with end of game management against WVU. Giving the foul with 8 seconds left was textbook and effective (I think Huggins would have something to say about ND being in a position to give a foul with 8 seconds left!).
Last item - What's up with Ebanks? This guy is a projected NBA first rounder and he put up the goose egg on Saturday night.

BlackandGreen said...

Ebanks has been all over the place this year, missing games for "personal reasons" and failing to contribute when he actually sees action. He was worse against Duquesne, shooting 2-10 with just four boards. He's just had two games with double-digit rebounding (though his performance against Seton Hall was great).

Capel is an interesting story as well. Kicking players out of the locker room is a typical coaching gesture (Brey's used it on occasion) but the practice gear thing might be a new one. Don't count him out just yet, as he saw some success at VCU without a star to rely on, but only time will tell where he will lead Oklahoma without Griffin.

Anonymous said...

Hey, Kelvin Sampson let his son wear the Oklahoma jersey and actually let him act like he was on the team. that pretty much opens it up for anyone.........

Keaton McDonald said...

Hey BG...thanks for all you do, I found this site recently and love it! Its good to see the Irish get daily news compared to when they just have a game...

Anyways my question is on Carlton Scott....I heard a little of the story and saw he wasnt in the game....I know he is suspended for now, but any word on how long??

I dont see how we can make a run without him, legs will wear down...

Unknown said...

Someone just posted at ND Nation that Scott is back for the next game. He and Brey talked yesterday. I don't have a link, but I suspect the person is at The Mike Brey show tonight... Good news if true.

BlackandGreen said...

Good to hear. I knew they were scheduled to talk early this week. Didn't say what the root of the problem was, but it sounds like they have come to an understanding.

Hopefully this means we can go to an eight man rotation with Brooks. Coach Brey lavished the praise on Scott's replacement Saturday and mentioned he would have played had Carleton been eligible or not.

Anonymous said...

Scotty Reynolds is a gamer. Pitino has some nerve wearing a white suit! He looked like Al Pacino in Scarface.

biggreen23 said...

Is Irish Nation still taking Brey's bromide for what ails his team. His built-in Tobacco Road DNA refuses to open up his rotation to the young guys. Do you really believe he'll use Brooks when he's never called his number with any meaningful minutes left to date?

I'm glad Carleton Scott and his parents called Brey out on his substitution patterns. If ND is getting beaten consistently on the boards on a nightly basis, he had better use his bigs better. His calling out both his guards to help on the boards will be a recipe for disaster with numbers of possessions and easier transition buckets being minimized--something ND is in dire need of when the 3pt averages are bound to go back to normal in BE play. Forget about a successful perimeter game in mid-season after his 6-man rotation takes its inevitable toll.