Well the NFL season is over, and now we can all focus on college hoops. Congrats to Tom Coughlin, who become the oldest coach to win the Super Bowl. Remember last March it was Jim Calhoun that attained that feat as he became the oldest basketball coach (at 66 years young) to win the NCAA Basketball Tournament. So when jobs open up this spring, don’t get upset with athletic directors who hire guys with lots of experience.
Talking about an AD that made a GREAT hire in the wake of tons of criticism, congrats to Mike Alden of Missouri. Everyone complained about Frank Haith because of his record at Miami, but Alden didn’t waver, and now we are looking at one of the hottest teams around. Against Kansas last Saturday, they scored the last 11 points to win 74-71. Led by Marcus Denmon (29 against the Jayhawks), this team has great togetherness, plays hard and plays smart…
How about Haith’s old team Miami in the ACC? In his freshman season Reggie Johnson, a 6-10 junior, averaged 13.6 minutes. All he did at Cameron on Sunday was score 27 points and grab 15 rebounds and go 11-of-17 from the floor. The win for Miami is huge as it puts itself back in the NCAA Tournament hunt. The Hurricanes are 14-7 and 5-3 in the ACC and have a strong RPI of 38. Keep this in mind about Miami. Its last five games are Wake Forest, at Maryland, Florida State, at NC State and Boston College. There is a chance they could be favored in all of them. Sunday’s win could lead to great things, as Miami has made the NCAAs just once in the past eight seasons (2008)…
In the SEC, how good and how crazy of an athlete is Anthony Davis of Kentucky? He’s already broken Shaq’s SEC freshman record of 115 blocks. He will be coming to a bad NBA team near you at the end of this year and after leading Kentucky to the Final Four. It is impossible to score at the rim against Kentucky, which means someone is going to have to get hot from outside to beat them. I just can’t see it…
Wednesday brings a great bunch of games, with Georgetown at Syracuse, Duke at North Carolina and then Kansas at Baylor. And then on Saturday, Baylor goes to Missouri. So think about that Baylor schedule this week. You have Kansas and then hit the road to Missouri. After those two games the Bears host Iowa State and Kansas State. So Baylor is basically starting a four-game stretch against four NCAA Tournament teams. When Colorado and Nebraska left the Big 12, it made Big 12 basketball better because it forced a round-robin schedule on everyone. That isn’t easy, and when you have stretches like Baylor is about to start, keeping your kids focused and fresh is the key…
I almost forgot that the two best teams out west go at it on Saturday, when San Diego State travels to UNLV. The Mountain West Conference could possibly get five teams in the NCAA Tournament this year. SDSU and UNLV are obvious, but New Mexico (RPI of 44 and 19-4), Wyoming (RPI of 69 and 18-5) and Colorado State (RPI of 24 and 15-7) are all in the hunt. I am making this prediction now: when the four seed meets the five seed in the first round of the Mountain West Tournament, an NCAA Tournament bid will be on the line. The winner gets in, and in my opinion, the loser might too, but I think it’s a lock that the team that comes out on top in that 4-5 game is hitting the dance floor…
— Bill Frieder
Former Michigan and Arizona State head coach Bill Frieder is an analyst for Westwood One’s coverage of NCAA Basketball. In his weekly blog Boxed Out, Bill scours the box scores to bring you interesting stories from the world of college basketball.
