Five Day Forecast

True or False: Two weeks from today conference tournaments will be underway. (True)
True or False: 17 days from today is Selection Sunday. (True)
True or False: Three weeks from today (Thursday 2/24), the Maaaadness will be in full swing (minus the first 4 play in games on that Tuesday). (True)
True or False: We are not excited. (False - see, you always have to throw a false in there to keep people honest)

With that in mind, Daily Onions needs to make sure we have clear eyes (and full hearts) leading into the month of March. That's why Daily Onions (along with the First Lady) will be taking a brief trip to "Camp David" (aka Florida), for some R and R. The blog will most likely be quiet until next Tuesday, unless Jimmer scores 100 in a game, Jim Boeheim invites the local media and all Big East officials over to his house for dinner, or CBS/Turner announces that the team of Gus Johnson and Bill Raftery will be announcing the Final 4.

Before we go though, we want to give you a heads up on everything you should be paying attention to over the next five days (in chronological order).

Thursday

-NBA Trade Deadline - 3pm ET: We've already had two blockbuster deals this week with Carmelo coming to NY (27 points in his debut Wednesday night, as predicted by Daily Onions) and Deron Williams heading to.......'New Jersey' (SNL Governor Patterson voice). East Coast! Guaranteed there will be some lower level deals made on Thursday, but not sure there is enough movable firepower for another "Boom Goes the Dynamite" deal.

-Miami Heat at Chicago Bulls: A possible Eastern Conference Championship preview at the United Center. Two MVP candidates in Lebron and Derrick Rose. Joakim Noah in his second game back after missing 30 games with an injury. TNT in the building. In the words of 1991 Dunk Contest Commentator Magic, "It's gonna get exciting!" Bulls need a win after dropping one at Toronto on Wednesday night.

Guaranteed: Huggy will have his boys fired up for Pitt (AP)

-Backyard Brawlers: West Virginia at the Oakland Zoo. WVU is coming off a nice win over Notre Dame, while Pitt is coming off loss at St. John's. Odds are Pitt gets a W here, but if WVU is to pull another upset, good news is their fans won't be able to storm the court.

Saturday (I feel like Ahmad Rashad during "Rewind" on Inside Stuff)

-Your Mother's a Hoya: Syracuse at G-town, where the Orange will try to avenge an earlier home loss. Hmm, that's sounds familiar. Hoyas PG Chris Wright injured his wrist in Wednesday's loss to Cincy. Could be trouble in G-town.

Jimmer has played well on the road this year

-Jimmer Mania: In the most anticipated MWC game since....the last time the Cougs played San Diego State, #7 BYU travels to the Saint Diego (discovered by the Germans) to take on the fourth ranked Aztecs. Unfortunately, Gus Johnson won't be on the call for CBS, but this is the second game of a triple-header, so there should be signs of Raftery and Gus throughout the afternoon. Pretty crazy that one of these teams could be a #1 seed come tournament team, and both should be at worst a top 3 in a region.

-Cats and the Gators: And the silver spoon (too much?). Kentucky hosts Florida in the third game on CBS this afternoon. Luckily the Cats are at home. They lost AGAIN on the road in SEC play on Wednesday night (by 1 pt at Arkansas). Remember how Daily Onions has been telling you all along that UK can't win tight games? Make sure you keep listening. For what its worth - Kudos to CBS for a great lineup today. If you aren't on vacation, there is no reason you shouldn't be on your couch from 12pm-6 pm EST to watch these three games.

Sunday

-Three games tickle our fancy today. Pitt at Louisville (fun Big East game at the Yum); Purdue at Michigan State (Are the Spartans going to be hitting their March stride?); Maryland at UNC (Tarheels need to take care of business at home. Their final two games are at FSU and home against the Dukies).

-Bracketology: No, not with Lunardi. We're talking Accenture Match Play Golf. Who is your Final Four (hope it doesn't include Tiger). Final Day of play wraps up today, and should serve as a good primer for what a bracket of 64 looks like.

Big Monday

-Notre Dame hosts Villanova in the first game. Wildcats could use a victory, and a win on the road at Notre Dame would be a nice way to wind down the conference schedule. In game two, K-State will try to pull off another upset on Big Monday (beat Kansas two weeks ago). This time will be a little tougher, as they'll be on the road in Austin......Austin, Massachusetts.


That's all you need to know for the next five days. Now make sure you pay attention to what happens. There will be a quiz on Tuesday.

Orange You Glad...

That all of the Carmelo trade speculations are finally over with, and he's back in orange and blue? Or how bout that the 'Cuse avenged an earlier home loss to Villanova, with an ugly, Big East-style victory in Philadelphia last night.  Two orange themed topics, and Daily Onions has lots of thoughts on both.

-With the win over #14 Villanova, Syracuse beat its sixth Top 25 opponent of the year.  That's tied for most in the NATION with Texas. For all the experts that bang on 'Cuse for the scheduling or lackluster wins, take note of that stat.

-Syracuse now has wins on the road at St. John's (a place where Pitt, ND and G'town lost), at UConn (when the Huskies were ranked #7) and at Villanova. Not too shabby.

-Scoop Jardine is one of the most frustrating players to watch. The majority of the time he makes poor decisions, and has been nicknamed "The Momentum Killer" by a former Daily Onions roommate and loyal reader. With that said, Scoop hit some big shots last night, leading the 'Cuse with 20 points on 7-11 shooting. He did have 5 turnovers though, and kept the "getting called for a charge" streak alive as well. I guess you just need to take the good with the bad, even if the bad is painful sometimes.

-In this week's stat you wouldn't expect: Scoop Jardine leads the Big East Conference in total assists. In this week's stat you probably would expect: Scoop Jardine is second in the Big East Conference in total turnovers.

With Melo back in NY, do the Knicks get alternate Orange jerseys?

-On to Carmelo, who took a lot of heat (not Jay Cutler heat, but some heat) on the Twitterverse, blogosphere, interweb nation last night, in regards to how much the Knicks gave up for him.

-First of all, Carmelo Anthony is currently a Top 10 player in the NBA. Period.

-People are saying, "he's only made it out of the first round of the playoffs once." That is true - and he made it to the conference finals where the Nuggets lost to the Lakers. You know who also only made it out of the first round once with his original team in the Western Conference? Kevin Garnett. He then got traded to the Celtics, had some other pieces put in place around him, and since then he's got to the Finals 2 out of 3 years, winning one of them.

-Just in case you forgot, as a freshman, Carmelo led Syracuse to a National Championship.

-With that said, the Knicks have zero bench right now. Their starting lineup will be Amare, Carmelo, Lance, Chauncey Billups and Turiaf. Off the bench you have Toney Douglas, the Williams brothers, Shawne and Sheldon (no relation), Bill Walker, Andy Rautins and Roger Mason, Jr. In other words, the pupu platter. In a year and a half, the Knicks could be in the running for a Chris Paul or Deron Williams, making their own Big Three. Until then, depth will be a concern.

-Will Sheldon Williams have "She. Williams" on the back of his jersey to distinguish from Shawne Williams?

-Overall, Daily Onions thinks the Knicks had to make this deal. Anytime you have the opportunity to get a top 10 talent, you need to do it, and that's the bottom line.

Big Monday turned out to be a big night for Syracuse nation. One of our favorite sons is returning to New York and will be wearing orange and blue once again. We also went on the road and beat one of our Big East rivals. Not bad, not bad at all.

The Weekend That Was

We're #1! Wait, who is? That is the question this Monday morning. Over the weekend, #2 Texas lost at Nebraska, #3 Ohio State lost at Purdue, and #4 Pitt lost at St. John's. Throw-in the fact that #1 Kansas got spanked at K-State last Monday, and you have a week where the top 4 teams went down. Next in line is #5 Duke, who after a slow start, disposed of Georgia Tech by 22 points last night. So who deserves the #1 ranking at this point in the season? To be honest, who cares. Let's just rank the Top 5 teams as one group, and list them alphabetically. In our opinion, this is what the Top 5 should look like: #1 Ohio State, #2 Duke, #3 Pitt, #4 Texas, #5 Kansas. We'll see in a few hours if we are correct.

Guess Who's Back? Back again... Johnnies are back, tell a friend. Kudos to Steve Lavin, his hair gel and the rest of the St. John's basketball team. Once upon a time, back on January 4th, we alerted Daily Onions nation to the situation (no Jersey Shore reference intended) at St. John's. Lavin had the kids playing well, and they were coming off opening conference wins against West Virginia and Georgetown. We were hesitant to put both feet on the bandwagon at that point because of a brutal January schedule. We'll the Johnnies survived, and their recent list of wins have included a pummeling of Duke a few weeks ago, wins over Top Ten teams UConn and most recently Pitt, and overall they've won 6 of their last 7 games. With four games remaining, St. John's has a legitimate shot to finish the season 20-10 overall and 12-6 in the beastly Big East. That noise you hear is Steve Lavin's name being etched in the Big East Coach of the Year trophy.

Elsewhere: West Virginia got a "we should be in the tournament" win on Saturday, beating #7 Notre Dame by 14. There were reports that the win would be redacted after the student section stormed the court (as they did after beating Purdue earlier this season), but the Big East will keep the win with the Mountaineers. But seriously, stop storming the court guys. Just go burn some couches or something. Other notable games in the Big East included Villanova and Syracuse both needing overtime to take care of DePaul and Rutgers respectively. Nova and Cuse square off tonight in Philly on Big Monday.

Block heard round the....Pac-10: Exciting finish in Tuscon, as #13 Arizona nipped Washington 87-86, to extend their win streak to 8 games. The Huskies got a good look in the lane with about three seconds left, but super sophomore Derrick Williams had an emphatic "Return to Sender" block to save the potential game winner. Believe me, its worth the watch.

Jimmer Mania: It was a ho-hum day at the office for Jimmer on Saturday, dropping 23 points on TCU, as the Cougs cruised to a 79-56 victory. Trap game for the Cougs on Wednesday night as they host Colorado State, but they'll have their eye on the showdown Saturday at San Diego State. The last time these two teams met, Daily Onions had a running diary of Jimmer mania. Take a look to prep yourself for this weekends rematch.

9 Things I Like About NBA All-Star Weekend

With Selection Sunday just over three weeks away, we step aside from the college game and focus our attention on NBA All-Star Weekend. Ever since we were a little onion, this weekend has been one of the favorites of the year. Granted, there have been some low quality All-Star weekends throughout our time, but with NBA interest level near an all-time high, there are plenty of reasons to get excited for the festivities in Los Angeles. Here are nine reasons why we are excited.  

9. Never Say Never: Just when you thought you couldn't get anymore Beiber in your life, you stand corrected. Beibs will take the floor on Friday night as part of the Celebrity Game. Some of the other celebrities and sports legends participating include Jimmy Kimmel, ESPN's Bill Simmons, Scottie Pippen, BJ Armstrong, A.C. Green, "Phil" from Modern Family, and Rob Kardashian (will we ever have a Kardashian-free event?). 

8. MeloMania: If you weren't sick of all the Carmelo Anthony trade rumors before, good chance you will be after this weekend. There are already reports that there will be a meeting between Carmelo and NJ Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov to discuss the on again off again deal that would bring Melo to NJ/Brooklyn. By the time All-Star weekend is over, there will only be three days until the trade deadline. Question is, a week from now will Melo be in New Jersey, New York, or Denver?

A young Ray-Ray at UConn (ESPN)

7. Big East Domination: Even when writing about The Association, Daily Onions can figure out a way to get some (Big) East coast bias in there. Of all the players competing in the Rookie/Sophomore game and the All-Star game on Sunday, the Big East has the most alums with 7 - Wes Johnson, Melo, Wesley Matthews, DaJuan Blair, Ray Allen, Dwyane Wade* and Greg Monroe (*Marquette wasn't in the Big East when Wade was in school - we'll take it anyway). Surprisngly, The Pac-10 is next with a sneaky group of 6 - Kevin Love, Russell Westbrook, Landry Fields, James Harden, Taj Gibson and Jrue Holiday) The SEC is third with 6 players, thanks to the trio of Kentucky rookies (John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins and Eric Bledsoe). Let's hope Cousins doesn't get in a fight with any of his Rookie teammates tonight. 

6. Big Three: No not that Big Three (Heat). No not that Big Three (Celtics). I'm talking about Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith being our tour guides throughout All-Star Weekend. Throw in a little bit of Steve Kerr, Reggie Miller, Kevin Harlan and Marv Albert along the way. A+ as always from the TNT NBA announcing/pre-game crew.

Fields and Rautins at FW (Getty)

5. Landry Fields Forever: Donnie Walsh is currently being arrested for robbery, (bad joke alert!!) because he STOLE Landry Fields with the 39th pick of the 2010 Draft. Some wondered if Fields would even make the Knicks roster when he was drafted. Fast forward 8 months, and Landry (Lance?) has started EVERY game for the Knicks, and is the front-runner for Rookie of the Year (pretend that this is Blake's 2nd year - even though he'll win ROY this year). Regardless, Fields is averaging 10 and 7, is smart (Stanford), good sense of humor (see videos of him trying to sell his jersey at Modells, and singing w/ Youtube sensation Keenan Cahill), and has a Daily Onions-approved bromance with Andy Rautins (out of the 'Cuse). 

4. Dunkaroos: The Dunk Contest is a like a bad relationship. When its going well, things are awesome. When it's bad, its a train wreck and you don't know why you put the time into it. The best, most nostalgic part of this relationship was the 1991 Dunk Contest. My brother and I recorded the contest and probably watched that VHS 50 times over the next year. That contest included Dee Brown pumping up his shoes and covering his eyes; Shawn Kemp being the freak of an athlete that he once was, pre-weight gain and 9 children; Sexy Rexy Chapman who figured out every possible way you could throw the ball up to yourself before dunking it; Kenny "The Jet" Smith who bounced the ball from the foul line between his legs, with his back to the basket; Blue Edwards....freakin' Theodore "Blue" Edwards from the Utah Jazz, was in the contest even though he looked like he should have been a full back; Kendall Gill (Chicago Comcast Sportsnet) and Otis Smith (current Magic GM); and Kenny Williams of the Pacers, who looked like he showed up for an adult-league run at the local Y, and not the NBA Dunk Contest. (For the record, all of these players' jerseys would be prime "Hoopster" gear). You had Magic Johnson screaming "It's gonna get exciting!!" every three minutes, and it truly was exciting, and it truly was the main event of the weekend. Vince Carter, along with Dwight Howard and Nate Robinson were able to pump some life into the contest over the years as well, but this year it will be all about Blake Griffin. 

3. Quick to the Point: To the point no fakin'. The five best PGs in the league will (obviously) be a part of the All-Star game on Sunday (Derrick Rose and Rajon Rondo on the East; Westbrook, Deron Williams and Chris Paul on the West). It will be interesting to see who Doc Rivers goes with down the stretch for the East - his own guy, or the guy everyone else voted into the starting rotation. Throw in the mini-rivalry between Rose and Rondo that has blossomed (2009 Playoffs, Team USA) and things should be fun to watch. On the West, Paul gets the start, but he's also banged up. I'm betting that Westbrook or Williams will be running the show come crunch time.

Look out below when Blake is around (AP)

2. East Lineup Combinations: With 4 Celtics (Paul Pierce, Rondo, Kevin Garnett and Allen) on the East roster, as well as the Big Two and a Half (LeBron, Wade and Chris Bosh) from the Heat, Rivers has the opportunity to make things awkward. How bout throwing the four Celtics on the court, along with one of the Heat players.  Maybe the Celtics ice them out of the offense, don't help them on defense, pass the Heat player the ball and then run to the opposite corner so he has no one to pass to, etc. Another interesting combo would include the "College? No Thank You" lineup which features LeBron, Garnett, Amare, Dwight Howard and Derrick Rose (Rose only went to Memphis for one year, and that year was wiped off the record books anyway). 

1. Blakeapalooza: Just like the three-day music fest in Chicago, this palooza includes three days of the Blake Show. Friday night, Griffin will play in the Rookie Challenge; Saturday he plans on touching the ceiling of the Staples Center before throwing one down in the Dunk Contest; Sunday he'll be in the main event with the big boys. Over under on ridiculous Blake dunks from the weekend: 26 (I'll take the over).

Daily Onions Final Four Projection

Back on December 21st, Daily Onions announced our first 2011 Final Four team, which was THE Ohio State University. The prediction was made after ten games, and is still looking pretty strong. Now, almost two months later, we are already to project our next team for H-town (Houston, where the Final Four is this year).

After 25 games, Daily Onions is projecting the Duke Blue Devils to be in the Final Four. Now, without the injury to Kyrie Irving, we probably would have projected this about 3 months ago. But Irving was arguably their best player, so we needed more time to see who Duke was without him. Here's why we believe in the Blue Devils:

Daily Onions thinks Smith and Co. will cut down nets and return to the Final 4.

-Mr Smith: As in Nolan Smith. The senior guard has nudged his way into the National Player of the Year conversation, along with Jimmer (Jimmer Mania....ahhhhhhhh) and Jared Sullinger. Not only is Smith leading the team in scoring and assists, but he's been the emotional leader on the court as well. He was the reason the Blue Devils were even in the game against UNC last week, and then willed his team (with some help from Seth Curry) to a comeback win over the Tar Heels. It's great that Nolan is doing this in the regular season, but he showed he can do it when it counts too. During last year's run to the National Championship, Smith was the South Region's Most Outstanding Player, and was also named to the All-Final Four team. Kid's got it.

-Depth and Experience: Nolan Smith is a senior, Kyle Singler (preseason All-American) is a senior, and the Plumlee brothers both have two solid years of experience in the post. Throw in a couple of guys that come off the bench (all of which saw significant minutes last year) and you have a nice looking rotation. Duke legitimately plays 8 guys, 7 of which average more than 17 minutes a game. In the rotation you have a pure sharp shooter in Curry, a big man in Ryan Kelly that poses and inside/outside threat, a dependable back-up point guard in Andre Dawkins, and a couple of energy guys in Thornton and Hairston.

-National, World Championship Coach: We've mentioned this before, but we'll say it again. One of Coach K's greatest accomplishments has to be what he has done to turn around USA Basketball. Getting that many egos to play hard, to play together, to win a gold, and then following that up with a World Championship with what some called "The B Team" this past summer, was truly amazing. Oh yeah, 4 National Championships at Duke isn't too shabby either.

-Turn It On: I'm starting to believe that Duke has the capability to "flip the switch" and turn things on when needed, similar to how the Lakers and Celtics have been able to in previous NBA seasons. I think how they responded to the embarrassing loss at St. John's was pretty impressive (winning at Maryland, then two games later coming from behind to knock off UNC). Between Coach K, and the leadership of Singler and Smith, I just think they have the potential to put together 4 straight wins when its needed, to get to Houston.

Two teams selected as Daily Onions Locks for the Final Four. THE Ohio State University and Duke. Not sure we'll be able to select any more prior to the bracket being announced, but these two we are sure of, regardless of who stands in their path.

Happy Valentine's Day from Daily Onions

To Daily Onions loyal readers, random Google alert folks that have stumbled upon our site, and friends of re-Tweets and Facebook posts that clicked to see what we were all about:

We love you, and Happy Valentine's Day.

Rick Jackson hopes to deliver Valentines and a 'W' vs. WVU

I could think of no better way to spend Valentine's Day then by being with four of my favorite people (Bill Raftery, Jay Bilas and Sean McDonough and of course the First Lady of Daily Onions) for Big Monday. Even better, tonight's game features one of my loves, Syracuse basketball, against a team that is near and dear to the heart of many of my closest friends, West by God Virginia.

Hearts and cupids aside, Daily Onions is declaring this a "must win" for Syracuse. They've dropped three in a row at the Carrier Dome and have lost five of their last seven games. The Orange can't take the Mountaineers lightly. A scrappy WVU team will enjoy their return trip to the Dome, a place 11 months ago they beat Washington and upset Kentucky to advance to the Final Four. After WVU, the Cuse hosts an improved Rutgers team, before playing two on the road against Georgetown and Villanova. They finish the year at home against Big East winless, DePaul. Safely, I'd say Cuse goes 2-2 in that stretch, which means a win against WVU would hypothetically get them to 10 wins in the conference.

While we're at it, if Rick Jackson can get back on the double-double train, Kris Joseph can take more than 6 shots and Scoop can make better decisions, that will make this Valentine's Day even better.

Wishing you and your loved ones a happy V-tines Day,

Daily Onions

The Weekend That Was

Same ole Song and Dance: The majority of the weekend could have been easily predicted because it seems like it was the same ole story in a lot of instances. For example:
-Kentucky loses a close conference game on the road, 81-77 to Vanderbilt. The Wildcats have lost five of their six conference road games. Luckily they only have two more.
-Syracuse proves to be one of the most inconsistent teams in the country. In their four point loss at Louisville, the Orange went from being up 7 with five minutes left in the half, to being down 10 at the half, to being down 20 just five minutes into the second half, to fighting all the way back to draw within three points with 1:30 to play.
-Pitt proves itself once again as the team to beat in the Big East. Without one of their best players (Ashton Gibbs), the Panthers went on the road and beat Villanova, 57-54. Pitt now has a two game lead in the conference, ahead of Notre Dame (the only team that's beat Pitt in conference).
-Jimmer shoots, scores and BYU wins. This time it was the Cougs over Utah 72-59. Jimmer had 23 points, including a stretch of 12 straight in the second half.
-Random fact from the Big East that probably doesn't mean much: UConn, Syracuse and Villanova are a combined 2-7 in their last 9 games.

Bo Knows South Jersey; the beach is that way

NBD: No Big Deal for the acronym challenged. That's what Daily Onions is saying about THE Ohio State University's first loss of the season at Wisconsin. Yes, the Buckeyes did have a 15-point melt away at the Kohl Center, which might cause some concern. But let's be real. No college team has run the table in 35 years. A few losses in the regular season will probably do more good than harm. Also, the Badgers play VERY well at home and Ohio State won't play in a hostile environment like that come mid-March.

Best Quote of the Weekend: After knocking off number one OSU, Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan was asked where this win ranked in his career. Ryan answered by saying that he'd evaluate the win in 20 years when he is retired and vacationing on the shores of Southern New Jersey. For those of you that don't know, that is the birthplace of Daily Onions. So yeah, we live where Bo Ryan vacations.  I wonder if he watches Jersey Shore?

The Association: A few thoughts from the pro game.
-Its safe to say the Celtics > Heat. With Paul Pierce scoring 1 point....yes, like one free throw (he went 0-10 from the field), Boston was still able to beat the Heat for the third time this season. No matter who earns the top seed in the East, a trip to the NBA Finals still goes through Bean Town.

DC coaching up the Young-sters on the Sixers

-It's a Dougie Revolution in Philadelphia. I'll admit that I was not high on the Doug Collins hire for the Sixers this off season. But DC is coaching the boys up. Many coaches and other sources around the league are saying that the Sixers are playing as hard as anyone every night they step on the floor. Its starting to show on the scoreboard, as the Sixers took down the Spurs, who own the best record in the league, on Friday night. They followed that up with a "Taking Care of Business" 20 point win at Minnesota the next night. Those noises you hear in New York are not only "We Want Melo" chants, but also groans that the Sixers are just a game and a half back of the Knicks for the 6 seed.
-If you had February 12th in the "DeMarcus Cousins will get in an altercation with a teammate" pool, you win! The ticking time bomb finally went off over the weekend and got into things with teammate Donte Greene (Cuse alum), because Greene didn't pass him the ball on the final play of a 2 point loss on Saturday night. Waaaah, Waaaah. Grow up, DeMarcus (Without Cousins, the Kings snapped a 5-game losing streak on the road in Phoenix).
-Bo Ryan isn't the only coach with a soft spot for Jersey. Pacers interim coach, Frank Vogel, a South Jersey native, is now 7-1 since taking over the team two weeks ago. They are also currently the 8th seed in the East.
-Random fact from the NBA that probably doesn't mean much: Indiana fired Jim O'Brien two weeks ago after a loss to the Chicago Bulls. Jerry Sloan of the Utah Jazz stepped down on Thursday, after a loss to...the Chicago Bulls. This week the Bulls have the Bobcats (already replaced a coach this season) and the Spurs (Pop ain't goin' nowhere), so the coaches are safe.

Things Fall Apart

Shout out to my high school freshman year Honors English class in today's title. A little Chinua Achebe references for the literature buffs. Daily Onions wants to show its more than just basketball. I'd say its 99.9% basketball, and 0.1% of random mentions.

So, what exactly fell apart last night in the college hoops world? Where to start? North Carolina, Villanova, Syracuse?

Let's begin close to our heart. Syracuse and Georgetown. One of the classic rivalries in college basketball. After a back and forth first half, in which Cuse took a two point lead into the locker room, there was more of the same in half number two. Coming down the stretch though, it seemed like the Orange were taking control of the game. The surprise was that they were doing this with Rick Jackson on the bench in foul trouble. Daily Onions favorite CJ Fair did what he does, 12 points and 5 rebounds, while Baye Mousa Keita patrolled the middle of the lane (4 points, 4 rebounds, 5 blocks) with Jackson out. With about five minutes left, "I'm Sorry" came back into the game with Cuse holding a slim lead. From that point on, it was all Hoyas. G-town ends the game on a 14-3 run (two touchdowns to one field goal), and that's that. It seemed like the game just evaporated before the Orange's eyes. And with the loss, they've dropped three straight at the Carrier Dome.

Less than an hour later, off the NJ Turnpike, the Rutgers-Villanova game was coming to end. With 4:28 left in the game, Nova's Corey Fisher drained a 3 pointer to give the Cats a 67-54 lead. Time to head for the exits right? Not so fast, my friend (Corso, Lee). Four minutes later, James Bell drained a 3 pointer to give the Cats a 75-70 lead with 17 seconds left. Let's leave now, beat the traffic, all Nova has to do is make some free throws. Nope. A three by Rutgers made it 75-73 with 11 seconds left. They foul Corey Fisher with 9 seconds left. Fisher, a NJ native and a 79% FT shooter, could seal the game with two makes. He makes one. As a Villanova fan, you have to think, "That's ok, we are still up three with 9 seconds left, there is no way we should lose this game in regulation. At worse, we go to OT." Hmm, not quite. Rutgers makes a three with 0.8 seconds left.....and gets FOULED! Now, when you watch the replay the call is definitely questionable. It looks like there was some contact on the elbow, but that play probably doesn't get called just as much as it does. Jonathan Mitchell makes his free throw, and the Rut pulls off their biggest win of the Mike Rice Era.

Right around that time, down in Durham, North Carolina, arguably the best rivalry in sports was underway, Duke vs. North Carolina. Blue Devils were the preseason favorite, but with an injury to their top player, they've shown they are beatable. UNC has started to turn things around recently, winning 7 of their first 8 conference games.  But this game was at Cameron Indoor, so most experts were picking Duke to win this one. Three minutes into the game, the score was 10-2. North Carolina. At the half, UNC led 43-29. Just like everyone expected. Dukies, have no fear because you got two guys by the names of Nolan Smith and Seth Curry. Smith went for 34, and Curry went for 22, as they combined for 21 made buckets. The comeback, granted it was at home, shows that Duke's still got it (even with out Kyrie), and is one of the top 2 or 3 teams in the country.

So what team had the bigger collapse last night? Congratulations, Villanova. No reason you should give up a 13 point lead to Rutgers in the final four minutes, and no reason you should even be close enough to someone shooting a three with two seconds left that the official could mistakenly think you fouled him. I'm sure Jay Wright already has this game in their rear view though. They have Pitt coming to town on Saturday night. Should be a real dog....I mean cat fight.

Not Exactly Street Legal

With the recent rumors/allegations/stories of Jets QB Mark Sanchez having a relationship with a 17-year old girl, we got thinking about some of the underclassmen in college basketball the Daily Onions has a "crush" on (you see the connection, right? A little weird, bit of a stretch, yes...but just go with it). The requirements for our list include the player being a freshman or sophomore, and that's about it. Let's get to it:

The Well-Known: These four individuals have been talked about in Daily Onions previously.

Jared Sullinger - Freshman - THE Ohio State University: We've said it before and we'll say it again. Sullinger is close to a lock for Big Ten player of the year, and is at least in the conversation for National Player of the Year. He is a very important reason that the Buckeyes are one of our Final Four teams as of now.

Barnes and UNC are back on track

Terrence Jones - Freshman - University of Kentucky: Athletic player with lots of different tools - can score inside and outside, can rebound (11 last night, including 5 on the offensive glass, block shots (4 last night). He loves to take a few dribbles and spin when he drives, and teams are starting to pick up on that, so he'll need to add something else to his repertoire (yes, I just said repertoire).
Tobias Harris - Freshman - University of Tennessee: As we mentioned yesterday, Harris spurned Syracuse for Tennessee. He's got a great basketball body at 6-8, 225 - and is averaging a solid 14 and 7 this season. Projected to be a late first rounder, let's hope he's on our favorite sophomore list next year, and not riding the pine in the Association.
Harrison Barnes - Freshman - University of North Carolina: We felt a little bad for Harrison, since he was named to a preseason 1st Team All-American without playing a college game. He had a very slow start, which made that honor even more puzzling. But he, and UNC, has started put things together as they are 7-1 in the conference. BIG test for Harrison and Co. tonight at Cameron Indoor.

Sneaky: These players aren't going to wow you every game (maybe a play here and that as you'll see), but they do the little things, fill up the stat sheets in a lot of different areas and are players most coaches would love to have as their supporting cast.

Dominic Cheek - Sophomore - Villanova University: Despite playing for one of the biggest rivals of my alma mater, Cheek is a Jersey kid (St. Anthony's) that played for Bob Hurley Sr., so you know he plays hard. He can knock down the open shot, can defend and will do the dirty work for you.
Alex Oriakhi - Sophomore - UConn: Jeez, another player from a rival school. The man in the middle for UConn isn't quite raw, I'd say medium rare. He's a big body and has some nice moves and a nice touch around the basket (averages 10 and 8 this season). Should aspire to be the next Rick Jackson.
CJ Fair - Freshman - Syracuse University: Finally, someone in Orange. For those Cuse fans out there, Fair is Josh Pace 2.0. His coming out party was his performance at Pitt when Kris Joseph was out. Since then, when given the opportunity, he's been a spark off the bench. He's what you'd call a glue guy.

Aaron is "Crafty" (heyooo) with the ball for the Bucks

Aaron Craft - Freshman - THE Ohio State University: You can book Craft as an extra in the Hoosiers remake as well (Central Casting: Craft and Sheehey are both white with buzzcuts. Sullinger, Lighty, Diebler, Lauderdale, and Buford are the names most people know, but Craft is starting to make a name for himself at the point position. He comes off the bench, runs the team, makes a few defenders look stupid here and there, and goes about his business. The Buckeyes only go seven deep, so he is an important piece off the bench.
Will Sheehey - Freshman - Indiana University: An under recruited swingman from Florida, Sheehey puts the myth that "white men can't jump" to rest. Don't believe me - check this out. Blake Griffin watched this clip and was impressed. If they were remaking the film Hoosiers, Sheehey could be one of the players. Tom Crean has Sheehey and the rest of the squad playing hard as heck, and they've had some decent wins in the last two weeks (Illinois, Minnesota).

In Name Only: These three deserve to be at least mentioned on this list. To be quite honest though, because of their west coast location (woo hoo East Coast Bias!!!), Daily Onions hasn't been able to see many of their games. Instead of just rehashing their stats of the web, we'll just leave it as a mentioning of their names. In case you get stuck at a dinner party discussing the best underclassman in the country - make sure you mention these three.

Perry Jones - Freshman - Baylor University - Projected as the a top 3 pick in the 2011 NBA Draft.
Jordan Hamilton - Sophomore - Texas - Has the Longhorns as a potential 1 seed in the tourney.
Derrick Williams - Sophomore - Arizona - Best player in the Pac-10, potential top 3 pick in the 2011 NBA Draft.

Be Our Guest...Blogger

Daily Onions aims to please its audience and we like to invite reader participation. Just under a month ago, we had Brady Smith preview Big E Hoops Weekend. Today, we welcome friend and colleague, Carter Jordan to Daily Onions. For the entire basketball season, Carter has staked his claim that Tennessee (his alma mater) is one of the best/most exciting teams in the country (men's team, not women's). Daily Onions has chronicled The Vols erratic play throughout the year in this space. We invited Carter to present his case to Daily Onions Nation. Without further adieu, Mr. Carter Jordan... 

So,  first things…I am a true Big Orange fan and have no idea what Salt City is.  Definitely not being invited back right out of the gates.  However, that is my brash nature and probably the reason that I have been urged to state my case for the Tennessee Volunteers as one of the 5 most exciting teams in college basketball. (Editor's Note: Volunteer Orange is a light orange, so let's not call it Big Orange.)

Pearl returns tonight vs. UK (AP)

As we are less than 24 hours away from the return of the Pearl of College Basketball, I am sure that we are the same amount of time away from a transition of the Vols to a title contender.  Tony Jones, who may be the most awkward coach in history (I never realized how out of place a coach could look until I found myself noticing the space between TJ’s collar and his neck during a post game interview) is stepping aside and letting Keith Sweat back to frantically pace the sidelines.  This is what this team needs; A cardiac coach who can inject his frantic nature into the hearts of some of the most gifted athletes in college basketball.  Two five star recruits (Kid ‘n Play and Baby Lebron) along with a cat-quick Goins, a lanky finisher in Tatum and an inspired Brian Williams, who is playing beyond potential since his removal from the starting lineup, are gearing up for a tough stretch against a formidable SEC East over the final half of the conference schedule. (Editor's Note: For some reason, Carter refers to Tobias Harris as Baby LeBron because of his do-it-all nature and body type. Daily Onions wouldn't go THAT far, but we are jealous that Harris chose Volunteer Orange over Syracuse Orange last year.)

Vol Nation has lots of love for Harris (Getty)

Vol Nation has grown considerably over the last 5 years, picking up many non-alumni fans along the way (Editor's Note: Daily Onions loyal reader Ramy Nammour, "The Monmouth Man", states Pearl is his favorite college basketball coach).  Who cares if some of that has to do with aforementioned people taking their shirts off and cheering in the student section, or barbecues and such….the majority of this rise from the awful days of BuzzBall (if you’re the best man at MJ’s wedding and go from UT to Coastal to Appy St, you suck!) is EARNED!  Were talking 141-53 in the last 5+ years, 4 sweet sixteens, a No. 1 ranking, 4-0 against top five teams at home, and all while coaching on a court called “The Summit”.   

Who cares about the Jekyll and Hyde they’ve pulled with Pitt/Nova thrashings to Oakland CC/Charlotte Prep losses, that’s part of the fever! They are here to ensure you are always left in complete bewilderment.  Coming from a guy who grew up in the heart of ACC country, honing his game from the likes of Stith, Gugliotta, and Harpring (Editor's note: Never thought Bryant Stith would make his way into Daily Onions...amazing), I can tell you completely unbiased (lie) that these UT teams of late produce some of the fastest, high-flying games in college basketball, night in and out.  We are looking at a Cat/Gator week that will end with two hard fought victories and control of the SEC east.  Please know that sanctions will not prevail, hearts will not fade, and the Southeast will rise again.  

From Knox Vegas, Yours Truly,

Steevler McPearlit  (The three white guys on the bench)

P.S. Was told to try and fail rather than never succeed…hence, me writing. 

(Editor's Note: No failing grade here; a job well done from our guest blogger.)

The Weekend That Was

-We'll start the weekend recap with a look at the Big East, which had a couple of close calls, mixed in with some easy Ws. Sanity seems to be restored in the Salt City (that's Syracuse for you non-orange folk) as the Cuse is back on a two-game win streak with a walk-on-in-the-game win at South Florida. Next up for the Orange, their biggest rival, Georgetown (your mother's a Hoya). Villanova took care of business with a W over WVU, while Pitt beat Cincy easily.  In other news, ranked teams UConn, Louisville and Georgetown all squeeeaked by lesser opponents (Seton Hall, DePaul, Providence) winning by a combined 8 points. Oh, and on Sunday, #8 Notre Dame (at home) was up by 3 with 30 seconds left against Rutgers, before winning by 7. Just your run of the mill weekend in the Big East. For those of you that think the Big Ten is a better conference than the Big East, grow up.

-Speaking of the Big Ten, Daily Onions will continue THE love fest for THE Ohio State University. While the Bucks are in the hardest stretch of their schedule, they easily won on the road in Minnesota on Saturday, 82-69. They now have a week to prepare for their toughest match-up yet, in Madison against #14 Wiscaaaaansin.

-Speaking of tough road games, Kentucky knows a thing or two about that. Last Tuesday, the Wildcats lost a heart breaker to Ole Miss by two. They followed that up with a another two point loss at Florida. That marks the third time Kentucky has gone on the road in the SEC and lost by two (at Alabama three weeks ago, as well). Throw in a loss at Georgia in early January, and the Cats are 1-4 on the road in conference play. You know what type of teams lose close road games? Young and Inexperienced teams. As we said back in December, that will be the Wildcats biggest weakness this year (experience), and that's why we won't be picking them to go far in the tournament.

-Speaking of the SEC, Alabama is 7-1 in conference! We are talking about the basketball team, not football team. They won in OT at Tennessee on Saturday night, beat Kentucky, and their only loss came at Arkansas. Thursday night they go on the road once again to take on #24 Vanderbilt. Will the Tide continue to Roll?

Mach3: Fact Shaving

Quick story for you. The last game of my high school basketball career, we lost on the road in a state tournament game. Our three leading scorers (myself included) combined to shoot right around 4-29 from the field (seriously). Three players that averaged anywhere from 10-17 points a game, probably shooting 40-50% from the field during the season, came up extremely short on that night. How to explain it? Great defense? Maybe. Just an off night? Probably. Big game nerves? Possible. Bottom line, it was out of the ordinary for us to perform like that, but things like that happen in sports, and sometimes it lasts more than one or two games.

Scoop finally had something to smile about on Wednesday (AP)

Fast forward 12 years (gulp, I feel old). Syracuse's basketball team starts the season 18-0 and ends up being ranked number three in the country. Two weeks later, the Cuse loses 4 games in a row; 2 of them to legitimate top 10 teams (at Pitt, vs. Nova), one of them to a solid team on the road (Marquette), and another one in an awful performance at home (Seton Hall). Four game losing streaks don't come around often at Syracuse, as this was just the third time it happened in the last 35 years. Wonder why Syracuse is losing all these games all of a sudden. Maybe they are playing good teams, or shooting poorly, or maybe they are just in a rut. Things like that happen in sports. Or...maybe something else is going on. Maybe there is something crazy going on with that team? Point shaving?

Those are the rumors that popped up on the internet Tuesday night, claiming that three Syracuse players were allegedly point shaving. The rumor first appeared on a discussion board of a poker website. Well if its on the internet, it MUST be true. In the era of information overload, the accusation spread like wildfire through blogs, discussion boards, Facebook, Twitter, and I'm sure if anyone still uses Myspace, it was on there as well. A few of the Syracuse players denied the rumors via Twitter, which may have added more fuel to the fire.

By Wednesday afternoon, even super popular website Deadspin posted an article about the accusation. They broke down a few of the player's stats over the last few games, and since they were off of their season average, they started connecting the dots and claiming that maybe the accusations could be true? There were reports that Yahoo Sports (known for bringing down Reggie Bush) was going to start an investigation. All this going on, while Syracuse was about to play on the road at #7 Connecticut, trying to avoid their first five game losing streak of the Jim Boeheim era.

Just a few hours before game time on Wednesday night, the person that posted the initial rumor came out and apologized for starting it. He said he overheard it from a few people at a bar, including the claim that ESPN was going to release a story about it on Wednesday.

Unfortunately, that's what our reporting/journalism standards have come to in 2011. We want as much information as quickly as possible. Things like Twitter and other social media give us that opportunity. Instant access is great, but credibility and truthfulness is suffering. Talk at a bar between buddies ends up spreading to a national forum which wrongly accuses a few kids of one of the worst things you could do in sports. What happened wasn't players shaving points, they were just playing poorly. What we got was the internet "media" playing poorly, and shaving facts.

For those of you interested in what exactly happened in the Syracuse - UConn game on the court? The Orange snapped their losing streak with a 66-58 win. They held Kemba Walker to 8 points, his first single digit scoring game of the season (see, Daily Onions told you we weren't sold on him way back when). The Big East now has seven teams with at least 6 conference wins, and that isn't even including UConn, a team ranked #7 in the country. Let's put all the crap aside, sit back and enjoy the rest of the Big East season because on any given night, any team can win. And that, is a fact.

Diced Onions

Some random thoughts from the basketball world, both NBA and college:

Freeman has the Hoyas playing well of late.

-As quickly as Syracuse is imploding, Georgetown is surging. The Hoyas have won five in a row, including an impressive road win at Nova (who has lost two straight) on Saturday, and a home win against Louisville last night. What a difference a month makes. At the beginning of January, no one could figure out G-town, as they lost four of their first five conference games (their only win was against DePaul). If they can continue their win streak this Saturday against Providence (who beat Villanova last week), the Hoyas could end up back in the Top 10. Ahh, just another year in the Big East conference.

-Texas might be the hottest team in college basketball right now. The Horns have won 13 of their last 14 games, with their only loss coming in overtime to the UConn Fighting Kembas (Walker put on a show in Austin that game). Since that loss they've had impressive wins over Texas A&M (both home and away), Mizzou, and at Kansas, snapping the Jayhawks 69-game home win streak. Will the Longhorns be the next Daily Onions Final Four projected team? Ehh, not quite yet. Texas tends to lead you on in the regular season, only to bow out early of the tournament. They haven't made a Final Four since 2003, when Syra.....actually, maybe I will pick the Longhorns to go to the Final Four.

-Switching gears to some Association talk...Dan Gilbert, owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, should write an apology letter to the teams fans (in comic sans, obviously) for the horrific team he puts on the court each night.  The Cavs have lost 21 games in a row, just two shy of the NBA record. Gilbert guaranteed the Cavs would win a championship before the "King" did, and Gilbert said you could take it to the bank. Would love to find that bank right now.

-Derrick Rose is the best point guard in the NBA. Deron Williams is second. Chris Paul on one and a half legs is third. Russell Westbrook is 4th, but could very well be second or third by the end of this season. Rajon Rondo is fifth.

-Congrats to Indiana Pacers interim head coach, Frank Vogel for his first win last night against the Raptors. Vogel is a South Jersey native (the birthplace of Daily Onions) and ran in the same basketball circles/camps as I did growing up. Vogel got his start as a student-manager at Kentucky, under Rick Pitino. He then followed Pitino to the Celtics as the video coordinator, and got hooked up with Jim O'Brien. Vogel served as an assistant coach for O'Brien during his time as the head man for the Sixers and Celtics. Best of luck to Vogel. We hope the rest of the year is a success and that interim tag is dropped for the 2011-12 season.