Drink, Drank, Drunk

Self Serving Moment
I’m still riding high after seeing this cover image for the book. It’s the first bit of reality that I’ve seen, and I don’t mean that in a bad way at all. The process up until now has been working via emails, phone calls, and inside Word documents. To see something tangible, outside my normal work flow, is incredible.

I did an interview last night and the host asked me about my feelings of seeing it. The only thing I could come up with is that I feel like a proud father.

So deal with it. And click on the link at the right and buy a copy or six.

***

Mason drilled Florida Atlantic last night, 65-39. Perhaps the most notable item from the blowout was the exhale. It was finally easy for the Patriots.

Side note: everybody knows Sammy Hernandez is transferring closer to home. If any of us were smart, we could’ve seen this. Last year Jim Larranaga often repeated a story about recruiting Hernandez. The coach said that when Hernandez arrived in Fairfax, the player asked him if “it was always this cold up here?”

The punch line, of course, belonged to Larranaga, who said “Sammy, it’s 70 degrees. This is warm.”

***

I still love Bruiser and Drexel, but I’m perplexed at the 89-81 loss in overtime to Rider. First, I’m glad to see Chaz Crawford take 10 shots. I don’t even care that eh made five or nine or two. He took 10 shots. But only five for Dom Mejia?

And when was the last time a Bruiser Flint team allowed the opponent to shoot 52% from the field? It’s kind of like The Dub giving up 90 ppg…unheard of…

***

POW: Loren Stokes, Hofstra

ROW: Pierre Curtis, JMU

***

VCU travels to Elon tonight. William & Mary heads to Annapolis to play Navy. The Keeners host Eastern Kentucky. Yawn.

Tomorrow is the real important/big day:

ODU at Marist: Blaine Taylor told me Marist is pumped for this one…couldn’t be a motivational ploy as my eligibility expired in 1991.

Colorado at The Dub: Trask needs to Frampton the Buffs. Badly.

Hofstra at Siena: yes, it is just Siena, but this is more about the statement. It’s a loooonng flight back from Alaska, and my guess is that the Pride are pretty angry right now.

Toldeo at Drexel: This is just-plain a must win. Sounds silly for an OOC November game, but confidence is a fragile thing.

Vermont at Towson: Speaking of confidence…

***

One Year Ago Today…

Perpective is a funny thing. I blogged on this date one year ago that Drexel gagged against UCLA–you remember as well as I do the inbounds pass slipping right through Bashir Mason’s hands.

Nor’Easter was jobbed against Cal. The hoemstanding Bears were whistled for only eight fouls and outshot the Huskies from the FT line 30-2. That was a WOW stat then and remains one now.

Take On Me

Quickly…hit the link at the right and buy the book. There, now that is out of the way.

***

VCU is going to be ridiculously interesting to watch this year, and equally frustrating. The Rams forced 30 turnovers with their up-tempo play but rebounded poorly. Does it matter that much? Not sure. VCU had eight total rebounds at the half last night and hammered Hampton.

Enjoy it for what it is: fun basketball.

Tomorrow, I’ll see if I can dig around Ken Pomeroy or Kyle Whelliston’s sites to see if I can make some sense of the stats.

Double Shot (of My Baby’s Love)

Twin bill today for me, but if you include the radio and my cell phone I’m catching six games. I ventured down I-64 this morning to catch the ODU/Richmond game. Tonight I’ll settle into my seat at the Alltell Pavilion to catch VCU and Hampton. I had Mason on the radio and JMU on the phone. I’ll track Hofstra tonight via phone.

My life is good.

Here’s what I saw this morning, other than ridiculous traffic to the Williamsburg outlets:

1. I know Richmond starts four freshmen, but I must be getting old. Those kids looked about 15 to me. There were four different foods on my Thanksgiving table with more muscle tone than these guys. But Lord, those babies aren’t afraid to chuck it up there.

(Side note: I like their head guy Chris Mooney. He gave bad officiating a good workout. It takes guts to start four kids like that…but those same four kids can’t be playing so many minutes as juniors.)

2. The good: Valdas Vasylius is just plain a man. He has even bulked up a bit from last year. He’s the kind of kid I’ll take on my team any day of the week. Also, Drew Williamson just proved why you don’t look at the boxscore to get the measure of a player. Or, if you do, look at something other than TP. I don’t have it in front of me, but Williamson had something like seven assists and four steals and I think one turnover.

Ken Pomeroy would be proud of me (or file suit), but I think I’m glomming onto the ASCD/TO ratio. (I added charges drawn for a little mystique…).

3. The bad: Both Jonathan Adams and Gerald Lee looked good on the defensive end, but neither is a threat to score. Adams has no semblance of a shot, and Lee just couldn’t Finnish. (HA!) Guys have good games and guys have bad games, but you can also see the big picture if you look. And that is why it was also notable that Abdi Lidonde lokked fairly disinterested.

4. The other: Brian Henderson just makes everyone else look good. He’s in constant motion on offense and bailed out ODU several times today–when there was nobody open, Henderson got open and three passes later the Monarchs scored. At the outset of the second half it was time for him to score, so he buried two threy, hit a layup, and fed Adams for an alley-oop dunk.

Also, Arnaud Dahi is playing very well but it is clear he is also still hurting. File that one away for Valentine’s Day…does the rigor of the season wear him down, or build up strength? I think we’ll know by Bracket Busters.

I’m coming around to why ODU is good: Williamson and Vasylius are the two “kinds of players” I want to start my team with…Dependable guy to handle the ball, and a guy that is capable all over the floor and tough as nails. I can throw a rock into a tree and find a good shooter. Those two kids are what I want. Put a pure scorer on that ODU, like Antoine Agudio, and how freaking good are they?

***

Can you imagine a wrestling match between Vasylius and VCUs Jesse Pellot Rosa? Those two of the strongest and toughest kids I’ve seen.

***

We’ll get into some other stuff later. Mason dropped a heartbreaker, in addition to announcing that the 100 watt smile of Sammy Hernandez is going to transfer. Plus, there’s a pile of losses mounting. I wasn’t concerned. Now, maybe so. But I need to think about it some more.

***

Good for Dean Keener.

***

Yes, I have a southern bias, but you’ll have to live with it. My Hofstra/Nor’Easter trip last year took an entire weekend. Today, I caught a game, am headed for a shower, and then off for dinner and another game.

Like I said, I have a good life.

The Thanksgiving Song

I just cannot bring myself to write with a Thanksgiving theme today. Sometimes there is a thin line between clever and cheesy. A Turkey Day bent would be a big honkin’ slice of Havarti. Even though I will warn you that this is a Buffet Plate entry, let’s move on to the crisis that many believe has become the early season…

***

First, we need to give thanks (oops) to Blaine Taylor and Old Dominion for not allowing the CAA to fall completely off the national radar. The Monarchs’ sound whipping–and it was a sound whipping–of Georgetown in its own dingy gym was the veritable breath of life in a moribund early season for the conference. Since I’m so slow and behind the times, you know the stories and the boxscores and I don’t need to repeat them here.

Two items stand out for my smarter readers:

ODU had a significant win last season at this point, bludgeoning DePaul. They followed that up with a monumental egg against Richmond. ODU’s opponent Saturday: Richmond. I love irony.

Second, This is funny.

***

The Games People Play
This week has been a bit on the upchuck side of things…

Penn 68, Drexel 49
Um, 33% from the field, 25% from three, and 59% from the foul line is not going to beat many people. Bruiser told me they were good last year but couldn’t shoot. My Drexel guys tell me that playing awful in the Palestra happens every year, too. Time warp, anyone? PS–I still like them to win the conference.

Western Kentucky 95, Towson 72
Not a surprising result, but the margin is definitely surprising. I think we’re learning about Towson playing a good team without Gary Neal playing well. Item of note: Tommy Breaux played very well. Put that one in the back of your mind. This game is also why I don’t wager. I actually began to salivate when I saw Towson getting 16 points.

George Mason 55, Hampton 46
I saw this score at the half and knew there was a typo somewhere. Hampton with “22″ was not surprising. Mason with “19″ was very disturbing.

Rider 77, Delaware 67
At home to a team that went about 8-20 in the MAAAAAAAAAAC last season? At least Calvin Cannon was back to lead the Hens in scoring. I really don’t want to pick on these guys all season, but my gosh…

Campbell 100, UNCW 94
The last time UNCW gave up 100 points in a game was February 1993. I looked it up. That’s about 13 years.

Paradise Lost
VCU lost by three to Xavier and by one to Toledo, finishing 1-2 at the Paradise Jam. (VCU defeated the College of Cremins.) That performance was a Hall & Oates special. It also tells you very little about their progress–you can see it there but it isn’t there. And they play well for stretches and not well for others. It’s a guessing game right now.

(Side note to all of this: bless you, Poor Bill Coen. And thanks Ga. State.)

News

Aha!
It may have slipped under some radar screens, but George Mason AD Tom O’Connor has been appointed to chair the Men’s Basketball Selection Committee, beginning in the 2007-08 season. Conspiracy theorists get another data point, but the fact is that O’Connor is a smart and accomplished administrator. Oh, by the way, he is also a former head coach. (Dartmouth and Loyola).

Aha!, Part 2
Hofstra has lost freshman forward Greg Washington for the season. The sinewy 6-10 Washington has been ruled ineligible by the NCAA Initial Eligibility Clearninghouse. (Side note: are you kidding me? What kind of committee is that?) Washington will remain in school and be eligible to compete next season.

The hard part, and something I personally believe has contributed to Hofstra’s slow start, is that Washington practiced and played with the first team since October 15. There is an adjustment period. I just cannot figure out how these committees cannot weed through the paperwork and make a call more quickly than the start fo the season. It’s not like there is no rigor in checking eligibility from the time a kid signs. Oh, wait. That’s right–the NCAA was preoccupied with two stinking feathers in The Tribe’s logo. My bad.

The Big Dodge
There will be games over the weekend and I will be dodging family. It all adds up to the real start of the season.

Blister (in the Sun)

Towson hosts Samford tonight in what is one of those really good matchups nobody notices. First, nobody knows anything about Samford. Then again, why should you? Think some guy in Arizona knows anything at all about VCU?

I only know because I have a very good friend who lives in Birmingham, the home of Samford. He tells me: four starters returning, Princeton offense, lots of experience, preseason pick for champions of the Ohio Valley. I tell him: the only thing I know about the OVC is that Popeye Jones was pretty good in the late 1980s. Oh, and Towson has Gary Neal.

He has a much better argument. Towson has the much better team.

The scary thing is that Dennard Abraham has a hurt thigh and will not play. Likewise, Holden Plack and Jonathan Pease are grounded. (Side note: Every time I read “Holden Plack” I wonder if his parents are JD Salinger fans…)

Anyway, this is the kind of game, in my mind, that Neal scores about 32, Tommy Breaux goes about 12 and 10, and CC Williams gets six assists. Rocky Coleman plays 32 minutes, posting nominal stats but is ridiculously important defending that Princeton offense. I like Towson by about five.

***

Last night Drexel coasted to a 73-37 victory over some lightweight from Florida (motto: we got killed, but it’s cold where you are.) Surprising stat: Chaz Crawford scored exactly zero points against a very overmatched opponent. I didn’t see the game and Crawford may have been just fine. He did have seven blocks and 11 rebounds. But a big bagel ain’t passing muster against the top half of the CAA. (”This ain’t the Califrnia Penal League…”)

Nor’Eastr and Poor Bill Coen went to the Carrier Dome and collected a check and an 81-58 loss. Nothing about it was unexpected and nobody is jumping off bridges yet. Luckily, too, the Red Sox spent $51 million on a plate of sushi. It’s going to take them awhile. Again, I didn’t see one second of the game, but I notice from the box score that the Huskies reeled in 20 rebounds, and six of those were “team rebounds.” Scary stat: Nor’Eastr had 14 rebounds actually grabbed by a player. One player for Syracuse grabbed 13 himself.

***

The other game tonight, or should I say game to watch over dinner that if you watch over dinner you need professional help, is an old fashioned Tech versus State matchup in Georgia. I’ll eat my shoe if the Panthers can pull this one out, but I’m seeing this as a Status Quo game: Tech gets up by 15, State cuts it to about 8 at the half; Tech runs away in the second half, winning by about 18-20.

***

Much more on a big weekend coming tomorrow, since I now have time I didn’t think I had. I’ll get a chance to add some links to what other guys say, too.

More time? On the beach? YOU are the one who needs professional help!

Well, not quite.

I come to you live, from Richmond, Virginia, where my vacation has been postponed due to a sick child. (Think Brent Musberger, The NFL Today, 1978…)

You will find me at Melitos, a Richmond mainstay, at 8:00 on Friday. My career, at least in the Henrico County Men’s B Division, is not over. (Melitos is the restaurant/bar where I meet Stella after every game and convene with friends to come up with half the spew on the blog.)

And now to Irv Cross, who talked to ODU head coach Tom Young on the upcoming season for the Monarchs…..

You Might Think

One day you people are going to listen to me.

Towson 78, Hartford 64
Gary Neal scores 20, but the stats you need to pay close attention to:

Winnie Tubbs goes 15 and 13. Those are Lawrence Hamm numbers. But the Tigers forced just 12 turnovers. Pat Kennedy needs his guys to play defense if Towson is to be as successful as many people believe.

VCU 75, Longwood 63
Eric Maynor with 15 points and six assists. BA Walker with five steals and the Rams force 20 turnovers. Five VCU players in double figures. That bodes well in the post Nick George era, but then again, it is Longwood.

The Dub 88, Belmont 83
This one is actually more impressive than most people believe. New coach, new system, star player gone, guard chooses to transfer, other players hurt, on the road, first game, Cancer moon is in Scorpio…

My man Vladie Kools leads the way with 20; Montez Downey is officially a Name You Should Know. forget the 17 points. Downey led the Hawks in the MP category with 32.

And by the way–when was the last time The Dub scored 88 points without going to overtime?

***

Not sure if I’ll get to check back in before hitting the road and the air and the beach, but you Mason folks enjoy Saturday and the banner hanging ceremony.

Ice Cream and Cake

Did You Really Expect Anything Else?
Mason starts slow on the road and rallies to beat Cleveland St. behind 25 points from Will Thomas. ODU beats Monmouth and Arkansas St. in workmanlike fashion before falling to Clemson. JMU, Georgia State, and William & Mary play well and lose. Hofstra drops one on the road to Charlotte.

Relax. The opening weekend means very little.

Last year The Dub went to Colorado and pulled an ODU. Mason went to Wake Forest and pulled a Hofstra. James Madison went to Georgetown and pulled a, well, a James Madison. Somehow, we all survived.

Honors, Thanks to the CAA
POW: Will Thomas, Mason: 25 and 10 will win you a few awards, but Thomas added five assists, a career high, to his stat sheet. Most impressive: zero turnovers.

ROW: David Schneider, Da Tribe: Well, he’s no Earvin Johnson, but 18 points, nine rebounds, seven assists, and four steals is pretty Magical in your collegiate debut. Plus, I watched his dad play in college.

Side Notes
Uh-oh: Georgia State led the College of Cremins at the half before falling to the Cougars 72-66. I’ve forgotten the actual stat, but the Panthers led at the half of more games last year than not.

Fodder: Monte Ross debuts as a head coach tomorrow night against Marist without Calvin Cannon, who has been suspended for the first two games of the season.

M*A*S*H*: Benny Moss does same tonight against Belmont. Though nobody is suspended, most everybody has some kind of injury, and JD Gardner has chosen to transfer. My guess on ther reasons behind the injury bug: you’re a basketball player sitting on a beach with crutches.

Danger, Will Robinson: VCU opens tonight as well, visiting Longwood. The Farmville, VA school is best known for Jerome Kersey and women’s professional golfer Tina Barrett. I think Michael Tucker the baseball player went there, too.

Rich Man, Poor Man: I’m dubbing him Poor Bill Coen. The gauntlet starts Wednesday when Nor’Eastr travels to the Carrier Dome, or whatever they call that place, to play Syracuse. Luckily they also get to go to BC, UConn, and Pitt. Granted the BC trip is just across town and Boston is very walkable, so maybe I’m overplaying this tough schedule thing.

My Choice: As the only guy with a full frontal lobe and who didn’t attend Drexel to pick the Dragons to win the conference, I must point out that the Person’s Champion opens in the Daskaslackassislasisis Center Wednesday against Gulf Coast Merchant Marines Marathon Oil of Florida A&M.

Basketball Game in Baltimore: Towson faces Hartford tonight. No jokes, no insight. It is November 13. I have to save my good material for January.

FYI…
I’m headed to St. Thomas on Wednesday morning and the laptop stays at home. If I am so motivated I’ll get an update on the Paradise Jam posted from the hotel. But it’s the Caribbean in November. Don’t hold your breath.

Blinded by the Light

So I want to clarify a couple of things I wrote the other day, and I think I can do them quickly.

Camraderie: It’s an odd thing for the CAA. Drexel and Delaware can’t stand each other. Ditto VCU and ODU. You personally have a team you hate, and I guarantee there is someone out there that hates you. But for some reason—and if you think about it, you know the reason—VCU will be pulling for ODU against Clemson; ODU fans will want VCU to knock off Xavier and then Villanova in St.Thomas.

Outside of rivalries CAA teams will be pulling for each other in the nonconference season. (Side note: there is a special place in every CAA fan’s heart for Bill Coen and Northeastern and the juggernaut they call a nonconference schedule.

You don’t see this in the ACC, Big East, or Big Ten. Michigan fans would prefer Michigan State to go 0-28, with the added bonus of Tom Izzo breaking his leg. The only game Wake fans want Duke to win is against North Carolina, and even then they hold out hope for the Bird Flu.

Major conference fans are selfish, arrogant, and rude. They are out for their one purpose and cannot see the big picture. (Of course there isn’t much “rooting” that needs to occur when your nonconference schedule is comprised mostly of home games against the Massachusetts Culinary Institute, but I digress…)

The translation for what it all means is simple for me: fans of mid major teams are better human beings. And smarter, too.

***

The second clarification has to do with the FFFactor. I think I explained that poorly. The FFFactor has nothing to do with actual, on court wins and losses. George Mason, ODU, Towson, or anybody can start the season 10-0 or 0-10 or anywhere in between. W/L is transparent. The FFFactor is the change in how the conference and teams are perceived based on expectations, which are based from a final four run.

For example, Mason starts 5-3 with losses to Duke, Creighton, and Wichita State. In any other year the start is somewhat expected and not cause for concern. There are new guys to replace three senior leaders. It takes time to blend, and besides, there are no bad losses. We’re okay.

Now apply the FFFactor. How does that change your view? How does that change the national view?

Look at it a different way. Drop a pencil on December 20 of last year. You now know that your team made it to the NIT semis, or that George Mason went to the Final Four. Knowing now how it all turned out, would you rationalize things differently?

Presto: the FFFactor.

***

I got to see VCUs “94 feet both ways” approach up close last night. For those that are wondering, don’t expect Loyola Marymount. I’m not even sure you should expect a Nolan Richardson Arkansas team.

But do expect pace and intensity, especially defensively. The Rams did not jack up a pile of threes and frequently worked through offensive sets. The real driver is the defense. They pressed all over the floor, all game long.

They caused 28 turnovers and didn’t force one single 10-second violation. That is your telling statistic. The attack forces guards out of their comfort zone, playing at a much faster pace than they expect. If that isn’t bad enough, they force the big men to do the same. Nearly all of the turnovers were of the latent variety—they came after the actual ball pressure.

VCU gave up a pile of layups, too. I don’t know yet how much that is expected.

Ticket to Ride

Well, well, well. Here we are. Been a bit of a haul this summer, huh?

ODU kicks off the season on Friday hosting Monmouth in its own Cox Classic. We are finally treated to a weekend full of exactly what we’ve all been waiting for: actual, live, college basketball games that count in the standings. I drove out to the moutains of western North Carolina over the weekend, and seeing as it was six hours in the car and I harbor a hatred for the radio, I had some time to think.

I thought about how much I’m rooting for Dean Keener. He’s a stand up guy who makes no bones about his program or his situation. There’s not much to “deserving” anything in sports, but he’s the kind of guy that deserves to see some success.

But I mostly thought about what November and December are going to look like in the CAA, and how that has fed the offseason angst for everyone. I call it the FFFactor. The FFFactor is the unknown impact of George Mason’s Final Four run on the expectations, coverage, and results of everything that occurs this season.
5.
Think of it this way:

1. Mason goes 4-3 in their first seven games. How good/bad is that? Now add the FFFactor.
2. Mason goes 7-0 in their first seven games. How tremendous is that? Now add the FFFactor.
3. Ditto the above for Hofstra.
4. There is a CAA team that is 12-2, 19-4 on Feb. 1. Add the FFFactor.
The top CAA team is 9-5, 14-9 on Feb. 1. Add the FFFactor.

The thing is that nobody really knows. And that is what is stoking many an argument and many a hang-wringing–no matter the results, every single one of us is going to be interested in how that event or result plays out in the national landscape.

And the important thing to remember is that this is good. Very good. It means the CAA is nationally significant. But another adage holds very true as well: what happens in your follow up year is in many ways far more important that what happens in your banner year.

This will truly be a season of waiting, watching, hoping, and anticipating.

The Saturday Slate
College of Charleston at Georgia State
George Mason at Cleveland State
Hofstra at Charlotte
Arkansas State at ODU
William & Mary at Kansas State (am I the only one in the country laughing at this irony?)
JMU at Wake Forest