College Hoops

Here's a guy to tab: Mike Moser, UNLV. Watched him the other night when they beat North Carolina. 16 points, 18 rebounds. Incredible rebounder. Incredible rebounder. Boards translate to the next level kids. UNLV has had a great program the last five years. This year too.

Rick Majerus has loaded up the Saint Louis ship with his kind players and it's really start to pay dividends. 6-0, in the top 25. I caught snippets of a couple of their games this weekend. They really play a beautiful game. Fundamentally sound offense. Almost every bucket I saw came off 15 seconds of crisp old school motion offense, where the shooter was either shooting a wide open jumper or laying the ball in. I read an article Majerus a while ago, mostly describing how he's both a genius and the meanest person ever routinely calling his players MF'ing C*n**. But he knows his way around a court and develops players to do what he thinks is right.

With the start of the season, I forgot about all the little things that I hate about the college game. Then I saw 15 guys take fake charges that were called and I remembered what I hated the most. Yes, it punishes the shitty players. That's good. But there's still way too many bad charge calls. And they have to institute that little half circle box like the NBA.

Aaron Craft from Ohio State is such a monster. He's the best point guard in the Big Ten, and one of the three best in the country. He's so dominant defensively. Check out the Billy Donovan quotes about Craft after they lost to Ohio State last week. What a beast. I'd love to work out with him.

Hey Wake Forest, you guys sucks. And it serves you right. That's what happens when you hire a shitty coach and fire a hell of a guy. Although Coach Gaudio wasn't setting the world on fire, he was getting good players and going the NCAA tournament. Bizdelik is a joke. I wrote about how mad I was about that hire somewhere in my past writing two years ago. If I can link it, I will. Possibly the worst, unimaginative hire ever. But have fun being irrelevant this year again Wake.

Feel for Ben Howland and UCLA. See this kinda shit pisses me off: UCLA goes to 3 straight Final Four's. Wow. They produce guys like Kevin Love (1 year but who cares), Russ Westbrook, Darren Collison, Josh Shipp (Player, 3 Final Fours, No NBA), Aaron Afflalo, and whoever else I am missing. These guys were tough as nails, and won with defense and skill. Then Jrue Holiday comes in and people in his camp, and bloggers and writers start jabbering about how Howland is too tough and too defensive oriented and won't let him play in the offense. Now they can't get the right guys to come. They're stuck with 400 pound idiot Josh Smith, who someone is in worse shape than he was last year. And Reeves Nelson, a tatoo sleeved malcontent whose probably on the run for meth possession and robbery. Amazing how quick things turn. Losing Scott Duncan from the staff really hurts too.

Wouldn't want to get stuck guarding Missouri's Marcus Denomon in a pickup game. God, can that guy get to the rim, and shoot. Beast.

This Kentucky train is gonna be hard to stop.

Great guy to watch: Indiana State's Jake Odum. All league last year as a freshman. Very creative passer. Pushes the ball hard and leads his team. Indiana State is a nice team. Potential tournament team again this season.