Men's Basketball
Hoops Week in Review
By Tony Gerdeman

This edition of the Hoops Week in Review is dedicated to the National Invitational Tournament--it's national and by invitation only!

Recapping the Buckeyes' Week

The Buckeyes had a bye in the Big Ten Tournament, so I guess we could count that as a win. Then on Friday, they met Michigan State and things weren't as easy as they were on Thursday. The Spartans won 67-60 thanks to repeated open shots from Drew Neitzel, who scored 28 points and went 6-12 from behind the three-point line. Kosta Koufos led the Buckeyes with 19 points off of the bench. The loss cost the Buckeyes a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

Buckeye of the Week

No.

Additional Buckeye Thoughts

Were the Buckeyes snubbed? No. The selection committee doesn't snub teams--teams snub teams. You miss the Tournament for a reason. With "only" 65 slots available, you have to play your way into the Tournament, not keep from playing your way out. And the Buckeyes just didn't play their way in--and they definitely played their way out. When you need wins down the stretch, that's generally because you didn't do enough during the middle of the season when you should have.

David Lighty took a season-high 14 shots in the Michigan State game on Friday. He only made five of those shots, but it was nice to see some aggression from Lighty. The last two weeks have been positive for Lighty and he has scored above his average each of the last three games. It would be nice to see this progression carry over to the start of next year, rather than going dormant and showing up again in March like the last two years.

Kosta Koufos has come off the bench now in each of the last two games. The first time it was to allow Matt Terwilliger start on Senior Day. This last time it was in order to give the team a kick off the bench, and it worked. Koufos scored 19 points in 31 minutes and went 8-13 from the field, including 2-3 from three. For much of the game, he was the team's best option on the floor. However, as his offense has continued, his rebounding has left him. Koufos hasn't had more than six rebounds since the 2/24 Wisconsin game, which was six games ago. And with 7'13" Kenny George coming, we're going to need Koufos to be as big as ever.

Through portions of this season, it appeared that the Buckeyes weren't having fun. This makes me wonder if there is even any excitement about playing in the NIT. They can say one thing, but it will be interesting to see what the body language says.

Big Ten Week In Review

Wisconsin 3-0 last week: wins over Michigan (51-34); Michigan State (65-63) and Illinois (61-48); 29-4 (16-2) on the season.

Purdue 0-1 last week: a loss to Illinois (74-67); 24-8 (15-3) on the season.

Indiana 0-1 last week: a loss to Minnesota (59-58); 25-7 (14-4) on the season.

Michigan State 1-1 last week: a win over Ohio State (67-60) and a loss to Wisconsin (65-63); 25-8 (12-6) on the season.

Ohio State 0-1 last week: a loss to Michigan State (67-60); 19-13 (10-8) on the season.

Minnesota 2-1 last week: wins over Northwestern (55-52) and Indiana (59-58) and a loss to Illinois (54-50); 20-13 (8-10) on the season.

Penn State 0-1 last week: a loss to Illinois (64-63); 15-16 (7-11) on the season.

Iowa 0-1 last week: a loss to Michigan (55-47); 13-19 (6-12) on the season.

Illinois 3-1 last week: wins over Penn State (64-63), Purdue (74-67); and Minnesota and a loss to Wisconsin (61-48); 16-19 (5-13) on the season.

Michigan 1-1 last week: a win over Iowa (55-47) and a loss to Wisconsin (51-34); 10-22 (5-13) on the season.

Northwestern 0-1 last week: a loss to Minnesota (55-52); 8-22 (1-17) on the season.

Big Ten Notes

So Wisconsin is your Big Ten Tournament Champions. All hail the Badgers. The Badgers are living proof--and have been for over a decade now--that smart players playing good defense wins games. Lots of them. Fundamentals are so poor in basketball right now that fundamental teams actually stand out and thrive. Of course, when the time comes for them to meet somebody just too superior athletically, they'll have issues. But there's no reason this fundamental approach can't be taken on by teams with superior athletes. Right? I mean, it seems simple, doesn't it?

After five conference wins this season, the Illini won three games in the Big Ten Tournament by beating Penn State in the first round, upsetting Purdue in the second round, and then beating Minnesota in the semis. Obviously, the Minnesota upset of Indiana helped, but Illinois' performance in the Big Ten Tournament probably frustrated the Illini fans more than it excited them.

Speaking of Minnesota, they beat Indiana on an incredible finish after playing some of the most idiotic basketball I've ever seen. Stupid fouls as the clock is winding down should be a death blow. It's bad enough Indiana gets calls as it is--but don't just give in to them. But in the end, it didn't matter because Grant Hill hit Blake Hoffarber with a perfect baseball pass and Hoffarber hit the shot over John Pelfrey for the game winner. And then Thomas Hill cried like a baby.

So which Big Ten team has the best shot to make it to the Final Four? Definitely not Michigan State. I'll be surprised if they get one win, and there's no way they're getting past Memphis is the regional semi-finals. Indiana has a better shot than Michigan State, and they would have to beat UNC in the second round. All of Indiana's prospective opponents can tend to disappear in random games, with UNC being the exception. Indiana has the talent to play with the Heels, but they also have the "ability" to lose to Arkansas in the first round. I like Wisconsin's chances. The biggest obstacle being USC. The Trojans can beat anybody in the country when they're on. But Wisconsin just doesn't allow other teams to be "on". I don't like anybody in the Midwest bracket significantly more than I like Wisconsin, aside from Kansas. But I also like Purdue. I would love to see Purdue against Duke in the regional semis. I think Purdue has as good of a shot to make it to their regional finals as Wisconsin does.

Game of the Week

Boise State 107 - New Mexico State 102 (3OT). With Boise State leading 52-36 with 13:47 remaining in the game, I'm guessing nobody thought they'd still have nearly 30 more minutes of game to play. But New Mexico State came storming back, eventually taking the lead. They had a 71-70 with under 20 seconds to play when Boise State forward Reggie Larry was fouled and went to the line to shoot two. He airballed the first and then made the second to send the game to overtime. The first two overtimes were never separated by more than four points. However, Boise State started the third overtime on a 5-0 run, which enabled them to play from ahead for the remainder of the game. Boise State's last six points came from the free throw line, where they went 6-7 down the stretch. New Mexico State had four starters play more than 40 minutes, with three playing over 50 minutes. Reggie Larry led the Broncos with 31 points and 16 rebounds in 48 minutes.

Team of the Week

Georgia. Could there be any other choice? After winning just four conference games during the regular season, the Bulldogs won all four of their SEC Tournament games, on their way to winning the SEC Tournament Championship. And of course the most amazing thing about all of it was that the Bulldogs had to play twice on Saturday because of a tornado Friday night--and their first game on Saturday went to overtime against Kentucky. In fact, their first two games of the SEC Tournament went to overtime, but they did have an entire day off to recover from the first game.

Player of the Week

Boise State forward Reggie Larry. Larry was named the WAC Tournament MVP for his weekend performance, and for good reason. In three games, Reggie Larry averaged 26.7 points and 10.3 rebounds, playing 38.7 minutes per game. He shot 50% from the field, and was 5-9 from behind the three-point line.

Some Things Without A Category

Prior to the Ohio State-Michigan game, John Saunders called the SEC a "very tough conference". If you still don't think there's a bias against the Big Ten, then here's your answer, Fishbulb.

I believe it was during the halftime of the Ohio State-Michigan State game when ESPN went to bonus coverage of a close game. The situation was that one team was up by a point and the other team had the ball with a few seconds to play. Digger Phelps was asked what he would do in this situation, and he said "foul". And everybody else on the set with him was like, "Foul!? Are you an idiot?" You see, Digger had confused who was ahead. He was suggesting that the team leading should foul. He later apologized for his embarrassing gaff. Now this wouldn't have been so painful had Jim O'Brien not used this very strategy a few years back! Am I misremembering this? I recall O'Brien telling his team to foul in a situation where they weren't losing in order to get the ball back so the Buckeyes would have the last shot. Maybe the game was tied at the time, but talk about having a loser's attitude. Maybe that's how they play in Croatia, but this is America!

You know you have too much airtime to fill when you start seeing ESPN folks arguing that the NCAA selection committee needs to implement a BCS-type of system to select the field of 65. This is reason number 879,214 why ESPN is hilarious. They desperately need arguments, so they just start making them up. "We've got 48 segments to fill, we need more arguments!" "I've got it! Let's argue FOR the BCS!" "Brilliant!!" They need to replace the "S" in "ESPN" and make it "A" for the "Entertainment and Arguing Programming Network".

While watching Clemson this weekend, I came to the realization that they are the new Maryland. They have 6'8" athletes that jump around and hurt people, they've got a little white dude that makes crazy shots, and they'll probably end up ruining my bracket just like Maryland used to.

In Summation...Not even North Carolina gets invited to the NIT…It’s very exclusive…Like a country club with “Budget” in its title…”Come join Budget Acres, with a new seven-hole golf course and a dead body on display”…Drew Neitzel is open more often than whomever Morgan Trent is covering at the moment…I wish Gus Johnson had done the play-by-play of the Minnesota-Indiana game…”Here’s the toss, Hoffarber…ZUPPSTADAAAAAAHHH!!!...”…Wisconsin has the best shot of the Big Ten teams of going to the Final Four…Which isn’t saying much…Georgia is living proof of just how tough the SEC is…I want to see video of Skip Bayless arguing with himself…And I want it to end up like the Jim Everett-Jim Rome confrontation…Clemson is the new Maryland…Maryland is the new NC State…NC State is the new Clemson…And just a reminder, the NIT is national—that means the entire nation!

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