Men's Basketball
Hoops Week in Review
By Tony Gerdeman

This edition of the Hoops Week in Review is dedicated to the good folks at the National Invitational Tournament. Thank you for making postseason basketball worth watching for once.

Recapping the Buckeyes' Week

The Buckeyes went 2-0 last week with NIT wins over California and Dayton.

Game One

The Buckeyes dominated the boards early on and got out to a 12-point halftime lead. They extended that lead in the second half on their way to a 73-56 win. Othello Hunter led the Buckeyes with 16 rebounds, including seven on the offensive side.

Game Two

With a Final Four berth on the line, the Buckeyes struggled early, trailing by one at the half. In the second half, however, Ohio State took over, outscoring the Flyers 44-32 on their way to a 74-63 victory. Brian Roberts scored 20 points for Dayton, as did the rest of the Flyers’ starters combined. Kosta Koufos led the Buckeyes with 21 points.

Buckeye of the Week

Kosta Koufos. Koufos averaged 19 points and 5.5 rebounds per game last week. He was an amazing 17-21 from the field and 2-3 from behind the three-point line. Over his last four games, Koufos is 32-46 (69.6%) from the field, which is extremely good for a guy that isn’t married to the paint.

Additional Buckeye Thoughts

Evan Turner scored 11 points against Dayton—it was the first double-figure scoring output for Turner since he scored 15 points against Purdue on March 4. Turner was aggressive going to the basket and was effective again. Even though his scoring is down, he has still managed at least two assists in twelve consecutive games—something that not even Jamar Butler has managed to do.

Speaking of old scoring friends coming back for a visit, Jon Diebler scored 10 points in a game (Dayton) for the first time since February 17th. The NIT seems to be helping Diebler rebuild some confidence. Despite an 0-5 performance from the field against California, he has gone 3-5 from the field in the other two NIT games, including 2-4 from three in both games. Even though some may be down on Diebler’s play this season, a positive finish could spell wonders for next season.

Also, once again, the Ohio State Buckeyes are the last team standing in Ohio and the Big Ten. Everybody else in the state and in the conference is home playing Wii Golf and eating hotdogs. Proof, once again, that there is only one standard bearer in the state and in the conference, and it is The Ohio State University. Eat it suckers.

Big Ten Week In Review

Wisconsin 0-1 last week: a loss to Davidson (73-56); finished 31-5 (16-2) on the season.

Purdue finished 25-9 (15-3) on the season.

Indiana finished 25-8 (14-4) on the season.

Michigan State 0-1 last week: a loss to Memphis (92-74); finished 27-9 (12-6) on the season.

Ohio State 2-0 last week: wins over California (73-56) and Dayton (74-63); 22-13 (10-8) on the season.

Minnesota finished 20-14 (8-10) on the season.

Penn State finished 15-16 (7-11) on the season.

Iowa finished 13-19 (6-12) on the season.

Illinois finished 16-19 (5-13) on the season.

Michigan finished 10-22 (5-13) on the season.

Northwestern finished 8-22 (1-17) on the season.

Big Ten Notes

Wisconsin guard Michael Flowers fancies himself a defensive stopper. After the Davidson game, he may want to stop fancy-ing himself altogether. Stephen Curry scored 33 points in a 73-56 win over the Badger and was in control for the entire game. It was Curry’s second-best shooting game of the Tournament.

Michigan State lost to Memphis by 18 points last week. It was a valiant effort that saw the Spartans outscore the Tigers 54-42 in the second half. Of course, if we just focus on the second half, we may overlook the hilarious fact that Michigan State was down 50-20 at the half. It was so funny, in fact, that John Calipari admitted to laughing during his halftime speech. I assume it went something like this: “Hey guys, this thing isn’t over…HAHAHAHA…I’m just kidding. It’s totally over. If a few of you want to go back to the hotel, feel free. In fact, I’m gonna go grab a High Life and I’ll meet you back on the floor in about fifteen.”

Indiana recently went after Washington State head coach Tony Bennett to take their semi-vacant job, but Bennett told them he didn’t like them like that. So now Indiana has to continue to look. How bad is it at Indiana when a coach at Washington State tells you no. Everybody said that the Pac 10 was the best conference in basketball this year, yet Bennett doesn’t want to leave a school that’s hard to win and recruit at, for a school in a “down” conference, in one of the most fertile recruiting territories in the country. I’m guessing Indiana fans would just chalk it up to fear of competition.

Indiana’s interim (and perhaps future “by default”) head coach Dan Dakich has kicked Armon Bassett and Jamarcus Ellis off of the team for missing team meetings and for missing a mandatory punishment run the next morning. Don’t expect them to be off the team for long, however, as the new coach will certainly reinstate them with the full support of the classiest athletic department in the business. Assuming, of course, they get a new coach. I’m guessing Bassett and Ellis are trying to be added to the search committee. I’m sure former Baylor coach Dave Bliss would take Indiana’s call.

Game of the Week

Kansas 59 – Davidson 57. It wasn’t hard to pick the game of the week, because there was really only one good game played last week. Stephen Curry was only 9-25 from the field and 4-16 from the three-point line, and Davidson still nearly pulled it out. In fact, they had a lead late, but Kansas finished the game on a 12-6 run. Davidson did have the final possession, but a game-winning non-Stephen Curry three-point attempt went wide.

Team of the Week

Memphis. If Memphis plays this week like they did in the first half last week, nobody will beat them. As was mentioned earlier, Memphis had a 30-point halftime lead against Michigan State. They also had a 21-point halftime lead against Texas. I think the only people that watched the second half of those games were either Memphis fans, or people who were too lazy to change the channel.

Player of the Week

Memphis point guard Derrick Rose. Against two of the more ballyhooed point guards in the country -Michigan State’s Drew Neitzel and Texas’ D.J. Augustin- Rose proved himself better than both. In two games last week, Rose averaged 24 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists per game, while only committing three turnovers total. His performance was reminiscent of the way Mike Conley Jr. blew up on a mega stage, though Rose has always been perceived as a one-and-done player. Oh, how did Neitzel and Augustin play? They went a combined 6-26 from the field. Rose? He was 17-26 from the field.

Some Things Without A Category

This has been the least entertaining NCAA Tournament that I can ever remember. March Madness? Hardly. Try March Mehdness. Every game last week was the same story. One team would go up by 13-17 points. The other team would cut it to six points in the second half. Then the lead would get back up to 15 points and it would stay around that number. It was very boring. And yet, we may have gotten our best Final Four ever.

As everybody knows, this is the first time all four Number One seeds have made the Final Four since the field expanded to 64. Props to finally getting it right, Mr. Committee Man. Still, there’s something wrong with a format where you have actually achieved your goal, and at the same time, you have produced the least impressive Tournament in a long, long time. Further proof that a season-long playoff—as in college football—is better than one that lasts three weeks or so.

UCLA big man Kevin Love could just have easily been Player of the Week this week, because he was the best player on the court in both of UCLA’s games last week. (Of course, they did only have to play Western Kentucky and Xavier.) For the week, Love averaged 24 points, 12 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 blocks per game. He was 17-25 from the field. People doubt his game will translate to the NBA at the same level—and it won’t. But there will always be a place for a smart player with talent. Especially when you consider that there’s always room for so many idiots with talent.

As boring as the Tournament has been, that definitely does not apply to Davidson’s Stephen Curry. Watching Curry run around looking for shots is almost as fun as watching him actually shoot. He’s relentless and has the quickest release since George Steinbrenner. Watching him, I tried to think of who he reminded me of, and I came up with three different players--but all from the same team. His quickness reminded me of Isaiah Thomas; his shooting was reminiscent of Joe Dumars; and his ability to heat up, was Vinnie Johnson all over again. So despite being the son of perhaps the greatest shooter in Tecmo Basketball history, Stephen reminds me of the most evil backcourt in NBA history. And to think that I used to like this kid. Unbelievable.

Lastly, I am so sick of hearing people gush about Tyler Hansbrough’s effort and how he “out-efforts” everybody at the expense of talking about how talented he is. The dude is a great player! He’s athletic, he’s got great touch around the basket, and he’s incredibly intelligent. Sure he gets away with more than anybody should, but even when he’s playing “straight”, he’s still nearly unstoppable. So why not just give some credit to his ability for a change and stop slobbering on his hustle—which is something that anybody can do.

In Summation...This year, “One Shining Moment” will be literal…The Buckeyes won two more games than the rest of the Big Ten combined last week…If that’s not proof of domination, I don’t know what is…During John Calipari’s next halftime speech, he’s going to resort to prop comedy…Assistant coach Carrot Top will finally feel useful…Tony Bennett wants you to stop calling him, Indiana…He doesn’t even pick up when he sees your area code…Dan Dakich kicking players off of his team is like a step-mom kicking her former husband’s kids out of the house and then saying, “You just wait until your new dad gets home!”…Derrick Rose’s draft stock is sky-rocketing…Eric Gordon’s draft stock is also rocketing, but not so much skywardly…And probably not so much sidewardly…But then, I’m pretty biased…The only people that watched entire Memphis games last week were Tigers fans and folks who couldn’t find their reaching brooms…And yes, there was quite the overlapping in those two populations…Could you imagine if the BCS’ goal was for the best teams to win…I’m guessing we’d still end up playing the SEC though…Kevin Love is the lazy man’s Tyler Hansbrough, but with less desire.

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