Gopher Basketball
* It seems that you could make a strong argument that when you gaze back upon Dan Monson’s run at the “U”, the biggest recruit that they missed out upon was Tartan’s Eric Coleman. I don’t dredge this point up to say that Monson was a poor evaluator of talent-no other major conference programs offered Coleman either. And if I recall correctly, one of the posters on here has stated they had heard Monson mention in the spring on Coleman’s senior year that they missed out on him. Coleman seems to be the exact opposite of most of the Minnesota recruits over the past several years-he thrives under the basket, he’s a junior who’s been a three year starter for Northern Iowa, he’s a four year college player who wouldn’t have looked at the “U” as a waystop onto the NBA. I have found myself ruminating several times over the past couple years how different things may have been for the Gophers and Monson had Coleman landed on campus. Of course, this is working on the assumption that the coaching staff would have recognized what Coleman would have brought to the squad that is lacking from others. Coleman is leading UNI this season at 15.5 ppg and 9.5 rpg and in his last game he scored 21 and grabbed 15 boards at Iowa, leading the Panthers to their first win ever at Iowa.
* Since I’m playing the projection game (and also because I know it drives Snoop nuts), let’s say that Monson would have made Kammron Taylor his first priority in recruiting over Lawrence McKenzie and had offered scholarships to Patrick O’Bryant and Coleman over the likes of Kerry Woolridge and Miles Webb. . .plug Taylor in at point guard, Coleman at power forward, and O’Bryant as your center (the past two years) and I’m thinking Monson still has his job.
* I sent some love Purdue’s way last week, and they did not make me look foolish, taking apart an impressive Missouri team at home yesterday. They added Mizzou to a victims list which includes Oklahoma, DePaul, and Virginia, their only loss being against Georgia Tech in Maui. Not only has Purdue emerged as a solid candidate for the #3 slot in the Big Ten, but I imagine they can create some headaches for the Buckeyes and Bucky this year.
* I’ll revisit the Missouri Valley Conference again this week too, to make two points. One, teams from the Big East, Big Ten, SEC, and Gonzaga could not knock off Butler, but a middling team from the MVC (Indiana State) took down the undefeated Bulldogs yesterday. Two, when I was reviewing the MVC website yesterday, I came across a stunning statistic. So far this season, MVC teams have compiled a 41-1 record on their homecourts. 41-1! My first thought on this amazing record is that it goes to show no major conference teams will go onto a MVC team’s home court, but that doesn’t diminish how impressive those numbers are. I would expect that once conference play begins, it will be a dogfight in any arena a team steps into. From what I’m seeing, I think it’s entirely reasonable for five teams to make the tournament from the MVC.
* At the beginning of this season, two coaches who were on a similar hot seat to Monson were Oregon’s Ernie Kent and Notre Dame’s Mike Brey. From the non-conference slate, it looks like these two have no intention of joining Monson in a job search. The Ducks are off to a 7-0 start including a win at Georgetown sparked by 5’6″ freshman Tajuan Porter who’s averaging 21 ppg. Kent is employing a four guard attack similar to what Villanova made popular last year. Notre Dame probably had the best week in college basketball last week, going into Maryland and giving the undefeated Terrapins their first loss and then defeating Alabama at home. Off to a 7-1 start, the Irish look to be formidable in the Big East and may return to the tourney for the first time since 2003.
* I just saw a note on cbs sportsline that Alabama’s Jermareo Davidson has withdrawn from school during the fall semester, but is expected to be fully reinstated in the next few days by the SEC and NCAA, due to the difficult circumstances which he has endured this fall. If you did not hear (and I was quite surprised this has not received more national attention), Davidson was involved in a car accident in November where his girlfriend was killed. Hopefully the NCAA can show a heart in considering Davidson’s situation.
* Seeing West Virginia down in Orlando, I thought they looked pretty good for a team that lost so much of their team-and then I thought, ‘who ever heard of Kevin Pitsnogle or Mike Gansey before they blew up a couple NCAA tournaments ago?’ John Beilien seems like one of those coaches who can mold players who fall outside of the top 100 rankings into a top notch team. Now that the Mountaineers locked up Rich Rodriguez in football, the folks in Morgantown should be set for awhile in their major sports.
* Each week I mention something about the Big Ten, I’ve been a cheerleader of the Missouri Valley for the past couple years, so now it’s time to head a bit further south and comment a bit upon the Big 12. Is there a more interesting conference this year than the Big 12? Half of the teams are featuring new head coaches, with each story line intriguing in its own right. While Missouri, Kansas State, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, and Nebraska accustom themselves to new coaches, the teams in Texas each have something worth paying attention to-Bobby Knight will soon become college basketball’s all-time winningest coach while in Lubbock; Scott Drew continues his campaign to resurrect the Baylor program (so far, so good-the Bears are off to a 6-2 start); Texas A&M is trying to make the leap to elite program status; and Texas features one of the top three freshman classes in the nation, lead by supremely skilled Kevin Durant. Looking for more storylines? Well, in Colorado, they are enduring a lame-duck campaign similiar to what we are suffering through this year, as Ricardo Patton will not be coming back next season. And then you have Kansas, the headline team out of the Big 12 who feature as much talent as any program in the nation, but have been beaten by Oral Roberts and DePaul this year, with fresh memories of first round exits to Bucknell and Bradley looming overhead. I can’t think of another conference where every team presents such interesting plots to follow.
* It looks like it’s a good year to be a son taking over your father’s major college basketball program. At Oklahoma State, Sean Sutton has the Cowboys off to a very nice start with a solid inside-outside combination in Mario Boggan and JamesOn Curry. Meanwhile, as pullmangopher has been informing us, up in Pullman, Tony Bennett has the Cougars off to a 9-1 start, including an upset at home over Gonzaga.
* I saw Seth Davis mention something similar this week in his writings on the Sports Illustrated website, and I concur-the competition has figured out UNC’s Tyler Hansborough this year. When faced with tough competition on the frontcourt, Hansborough has struggled, even with explosive freshman Brandan Wright playing alongside him. Davis mentions he needs to develop a jump shot; when I watch him, he seems to lack some explosiveness, when faced against other top competition. I thought he’d be off to the NBA after this season was over, but I’m not so sure now.
* A funny little tidbit from cbs sportsline’s Gary Parrish. It sounds like the national sportswriters who follow college basketball will really be pulling for Texas Tech to win on the road versus Arkansas this upcoming Saturday. If they defeat the Razorbacks, it seems very likely that Bobby Knight would break the all-time wins record on December 28th against UNLV. If they lose to the Razorbacks, it looks very likely that the national media will be stationed in Lubbock for New Year’s Eve, as on January 1st, the Red Raiders will be at home against New Mexico. I’ve never been, but it sounds like Lubbock’s not the place to be on New Year’s Eve.
* As I type this, I’m watching the LSU-Texas showdown taking place in Houston. I don’t know if this is a special game, but it seems like a great natural rivalry with a great midway point (Houston) that should take place every year.
* A final shout-out to the Minnesota Gophers volleyball team, which lost in the round of eight to #1 Nebraska, after winning the first two games of the match against the Cornhuskers. While the defeat must have been very disappointing, they were great representatives of the “U” once again this season.
* Alright, I don’t care what any of you say, but Justin Timberlake is cranking out some damn good pop songs of late. Following up Sexy Back with My Love, he’s got my feet tapping every time I hear one of his songs. If I was ten years younger and still drinking til I get my fill, he’d have me making a fool of myself on the dance floor.
* Okay, that is it for this week’s installation of the Ramble. . .looking at the next couple weeks, it seems that the schedules for the Gophers and college basketball in general are pretty sparse because of end of semesters. So, I’m going to propose a new twist on the Sunday Night Ramble (which is actually just a rip-off from Bill Simmons and others, but new for me) and that would be a mailbag. Just send your questions to my ez mailbox account and I’ll supply my answer, whether it’s on college basketball or any other topic you choose to ask me about. We’ll see how it goes-if you think it’s lame, I’ll get the idea from the lack of questions in my mailbox or from you telling me ‘this is lame.’ I just thought I’d try something new and see how it goes. Looking forward to reading your questions and until the next Ramble, have a good week.