Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Takeaways from Indiana-Georgetown

By Charlie Scaturro

Source: Elsa/Getty Images North America
After watching Georgetown’s impressive showing against UCLA on Monday, everyone figured that we might be in for a serious dogfight when the Hoyas played number one ranked Indiana in the championship game of the Progressive Legends Classic (can we seriously call this a ‘classic’ if no ones ever heard of it before?), and that became clear very early on during last night’s game.

Forget about the fact that the Hoosiers held a slim four point lead at the half or that both teams were on fire from three in the early going, if you watched the way these two teams were competing and flying around the court in the first few minutes of last night’s game you knew this was going to be a slugfest throughout. The electricity emanating from the first few minutes of this game prompted me to say on Twitter that if you weren’t watching this game you didn’t have a soul, and while that might not be the case, those who missed Georgetown-Indiana certainly aren’t college basketball fans (I could argue that people who aren’t college basketball fans don’t have souls, but I digress).

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

One Major Thought on Each Major Conference


This is extremely depressing news, but as of the end of the day on Wednesday, we will be 10% of the way to Selection Sunday. To keep from hyperventilating about that thought, let’s make some observations based on the past week and a half. I’ll hit on one thing from each of the major conferences, and if you don’t consider the A-10 a major conference, you’re crazy.

A-10: Reports of Xavier’s death have been greatly exaggerated.

Saturday, November 17, 2012

The Harsh Reality of the Royce White Saga

By Charlie Scaturro


Source: Nick Laham/Getty Images North America
Your average 21-year-old dealing with anxiety issues as he tries to figure out his place in the world usually wouldn’t be making headlines. But as we all know, Royce White isn’t your average 21-year-old.

Basketball players like White don’t come around very often and they sure as hell don’t last long on draft day. A 6’8’’ 260-pound point forward whose physique more closely resembles that of a linebacker than a basketball player; White’s immense versatility coupled with his size makes for a downright frightening combination on a basketball court. Equally comfortable bulling his way through the paint and crashing the boards as he is handling the ball and dishing to teammates, there’s little doubt that White has plenty of potential to succeed in the NBA. On paper, GM’s around the league were looking at a player who easily could have (and almost definitely would have) been selected in the top five of the 2012 draft had it not been for his anxiety disorder.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

The Joy and Sorrow of College Hoops in November


By: Kerrance James

Let’s start with the Joy:

Thank the good lord that the games are back. It was a miserable 221 days between Kentucky cutting down the nets and Eastern Michigan’s tip-off this past Friday afternoon. Scandals ran rampant from current players at Harvard to former players at Duke and UNC; new stories of future conference realignment over-shadowed the actual off-season conference realignment, thereby guaranteeing that no one will know who is in which conference until February (not without a handy-dandy cheat sheet, at any rate); and we still have no idea whether or not we’ll see Shabazz Muhammad play a game for UCLA this season. But that’s all behind us (except for the Muhammad part) and we can get back to actually enjoying the game.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Thoughts from the 24-hour College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon

By Charlie Scaturro


Source: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images North America

ESPN kicked off the return of college basketball this week with its annual 24 hour marathon of hoops that forces some of us to ignore aspects of our life like work, significant others, sleep, and even basic bodily functions to tune in. Of course, as expected, it was totally worth it. College basketball fans quickly put all of the aircraft carrier nonsense behind them and got back to enjoying games that didn’t have us thinking about condensation ridden courts, high winds, or blaring sun (by the way, has anyone checked on Jim Boeheim and Steve Fisher after those 3-plus hours in the sun on that aircraft carrier? Hope they applied sunscreen liberally and often on Sunday).

Besides the fact that having college basketball games on TV during the middle of the day and into all hours of the night probably reminded some of us of March Madness, there was plenty to take away from the games that were played during the 24-hour period. Here are a few thoughts I had during the marathon:

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Michael Vick’s Ironic Monday Night in New Orleans

By Charlie Scaturro



Although it’s impossible to know what’s going on in Andy Reid’s head as the Eagles struggle through another season that started with great expectations, it’s clear that the pressure was on Michael Vick to deliver this past Monday night against the Saints. Although the media may have sensationalized the situation a bit, there’s no doubt that Vick’s job security as the Eagles starting quarterback was the shakiest it’s been since he supplanted Kevin Kolb three years ago as the Eagles Week 9 game against the Saints loomed. Some even hypothesized that another poor performance would have one of the most polarizing professional athletes of all time sitting on the bench in favor of rookie Nick Foles.

And when you really think about it, how much time does Vick have left? I touched on this in a post a few weeks ago, and at the age of 32 not only is it becoming clear that Vick won’t be getting any better, but it’s certainly possible that his disappointing play this season is signaling the beginning of the end.