Illinois just tipped off against Arizona St, while Oklahoma St beat LSU, Duke beat Princeton, and Marquette got a test from Chaminade earlier today. I'm pumped to see some live college hoops for about the first time this year, so get in here and join the discussion of what you've seen so far in Paradise!</p>
I'm intrigued to see James Harden, the McDonald's All-American who was the jewel of Herb Sendek's class this year, as well as who plays the most minutes at the 1 for ASU. For those who haven't heard, ASU has a certified stud in Jeff Pendergraph, who should truly break out if Duke transfer Eric Boateng can allow him to play more at his natural 4 spot. Pendergraph is still thin, but he's long, athletic, tenacious and hungry to improve. He's banged against the opponent's best big for most of his career, and now will be his coming-out party.</p> Illinois, as is characteristic of Big 10 teams, has plenty of depth, and their bigs will make you pay for taking it into the paint. Shaun Pruitt is a legit5 man, but I want to see more scoring from solid point guard Chester Frazier, as well as a healthy and consistent year from Brian Randle, who is easily one of the most underrated players around. That guy brings his lunch pail to every game, and has deceptive athleticism. Should be a great game, Illini out to an early 10-0 lead.</p>
Wow - I mean, wow. Illini looked just fantastic in the 1st half. All their shots were falling, their D was tremendous, they ran their offense well and passed smartly, and even the young bench crew including Jeff Jordan andMike Tisdale got a lot of time. JUCO wing Rod Alexander played very well, showing his deep shooting range with a pair of triples, and Tisdale could be a sleeping...well, giant. Forgive me that awful cliche. He's a skilled big, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him become a rich man's Nick Smith. I hope Illinois is this good all year - go Big 10!</p> ASU really didn't do much well...</p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Schaddy)</div><div class='quotemain'></p> Wow - I mean, wow. Illini looked just fantastic in the 1st half. All their shots were falling, their D was tremendous, they ran their offense well and passed smartly, and even the young bench crew including Jeff Jordan andMike Tisdale got a lot of time. JUCO wing Rod Alexander played very well, showing his deep shooting range with a pair of triples, and Tisdale could be a sleeping...well, giant. Forgive me that awful cliche. He's a skilled big, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him become a rich man's Nick Smith. I hope Illinois is this good all year - go Big 10!</p> </div></p> I really did not wont to hear this....The Big 11 might be a dog fight.</p> </p>
I thought Oklahoma State-LSU was the best game of day 1. James Anderson is a stud for Oklahoma St. and he's going to fly under the radar for awhile, like Ryan Anderson did last year for Cal. I thought Sutton has a pretty decent team to compete with in the Big-12, especially with no more Acie Law or Kevin Durant to go against.</p> As for LSU, Brady needs to get his players ready to play from the get go. If they show up in the first half or 5-10 minutes of it, they win easily IMO. Their lineup is kinda odd though with Anthony Randolph and Chris Johnson, both are 7 foot enemic poles that have 3 pt range. So they practically have 5 people that can step out and drain a 3 when they play with those guys. LSU might be a team to reckon with in March, but they still got quite a ways to go.</p> </p>
Check the sig for a great quote from Sean McDonough in this game (Duke/Illinois).</p> Did anyone else catch that?</p>
Duke ran the Illini off the court last night. Illinois by far had the size advantage in the post, yet could not capitalize on it. I gurantee you Arizona will be watchingfilm of that game before they head to Chicago on Dec. 8th.</p>
Was I the only one who cringed every time an Oklahoma State player shot the ball yesterday? That had to have been one of the worst shooting performances I've ever seen from a high-major ball club. Even the Illini were horrible for most of the game. The two teams only combined for 38-96 on the night.</p> Trent Meacham, the Dayton transfer, looked great. Him and Brock were the only ones who were making outside shots though, and Weber didn't even involve Pruitt in the offense until the second half. Simply put, if I had to pick one word to describe the Oklahoma State - Illinois game, it'd be "ugly."</p> Duke/Marquette was a straight up dog fight though. Both teams seemed very evenly matched, until the last five minutes when Marquette couldn't hit a basket from two feet away from the rim. Am I the only one who thinks that Dominic James hurts Marquette more than he helps them though? He's become progressively more and more of a hack since his freshman season.</p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (TucsonClip)</div><div class='quotemain'></p> Ill take Arizona's defense this year over their defense from the last 4 years combined.</p> </div></p> IDK, I liked the team with Salim & Frye more than this year's. Zona use to always be high in the nation in scoring but it seems like it's gone down over the last few years, and the biggest reason has to be the D. There has been much fewer fastbreaks because the D is simply horrible, which makes me wonder why they don't play with 2 post players. Seems like they would do a lot better with Walters and Hill in at the same time. Kevin O'Neill hasn't been that great with his rotation so far, hasn't barely gotten Walters or Tangara any burn so far, which is going to kill Zona against Kansas cuz I doubt Jordan Hill is going to be able to stay out of foul trouble.</p> Back to the Maui Invitational, Oklahoma St. kind of disappointed me against Illinois and Marquette. They looked great against LSU, but after the 1st half they went downhill the rest of the tourney. James Anderson didn't look the same in the last two games IMO, he was forcing way too much instead of letting the game come to him. Talking about frosh studs, anyone see that James Harden move where he step fake towards the screen, went right for that monster jam?</p> </p> </p> </p>
