The All "That Guy is Still in School?!" Team

We've all done it. You are watching a college basketball game and you see that player and you say, "Wait....he's STILLLL in school?" It happens a handful of times each year, and basically it means that the player is good enough to get solid playing time as a freshman, but not a sure thing at the next level that would lead them to leave school early.

This year is no different. Plenty of players out there that have been around around forever. Now presenting, the Daily Onions All "That Guy is Still in School?!" Team.

First Team
Peyton Siva - Louisville (Unanimous selection): Loyal reader Ramy actually sent us a text a few weeks back saying/asking "Siva is STILL at Louisville?!" See it really does happen.

CJ Fair/Brandon Triche - Syracuse: Fair has been a solid contributor for 4 years, but Triche is on the verge of getting the Craig Forth Award for starting every game of his four-year college career. Cuse fans will miss these two guys a lot next year (EDITOR'S NOTE: We had convinced ourselves that Fair had been at Syracuse for so long that he was a Senior. Well, he's only a Junior. So good news, he'll be back next year, and an automatic first teamer).

Miles Mason Plumlee - Duke: Good news, there is a younger brother Marshall, who is a redshirt freshman on the Duke roster.

Travis Releford - Kansas: Releford is a player that you might not know the name, but when you see him, you know exactly who he is...and then you wonder if he was a teammate of Mario Chalmers when Kansas won the National Championship in 2008 (he wasn't).

Kenny Boynton - Florida: We used to confuse Boynton with Erving Walker, who was a senior last year, similar type player. Probably leads to us thinking Boynton has been around for that much longer.

Second Team
Deniz Kilicli - West Virginia: The Turk. The Hook. The Beard. The no longer has the beard. Whatever you want to call him, he's been around way too long. Moutaineer fans are ready for him to be gone.

Mike Rosario - Florida: This one is a little tricky, considering Rosario started his career at Rutgers and then transferred to Florida. Rosario did match up against Johnny Flynn, who is now already (!) out of the league and playing in Australia. In fact, watch the video, maybe this is why Rosario left Rutgers




Derrick Nix - Michigan State: When you are a senior that is 6-7 and 290 lbs, its hard for people to miss you. Throw in the fact that you play for one of the nation's most recognizable programs, you are going to be seen a lot.

Rodney McGruder - Kansas State: One of Daily Onions favorite players, solely because of his last name...so close to McGruber!

Mike Brusewitz - Wisconsin: Big, white dude with a buzz cut that can shoot from outside and plays hard for Wisconsin. Sounds familiar, right? Well Brusewitz also used to have some flowing orange locks before he went with the Badger buzz, making him standout during his first two years on campus

Early look for next year's squad- Aaron Craft, Ohio State; Will Spradling, Kansas State. Both are juniors are could be honorable mentions this year.

Who'd we miss?

Winners and Losers of Sweet 16 Thursday

Half of the Elite 8 is set. Syracuse, Louisville, Ohio State and Florida advance. Daily Onions was 2-2 last night in our picks (Marquette and Michigan State). Let's see who else were winners and losers last night.

Fair busts out of slump vs. Wisco (pic: syracuse.com)

Winner: Basketball - Seems kind of simple, right? Well the game of basketball was a winner last night with the Syracuse and Wisconsin game. Whether you are a fan of Otto or Bucky, you HAD to enjoy watching that game last night. One of the best all around played games in a while by two teams in the tournament. You had the athleticism, length and uptemponess (new word) of Syracuse, against the smart, patient, sharpshooters from Wisconsin. The Badgers hit 14 3 pointers in the game, including a stretch of six in a row. But every time they made a run, Syracuse was able to bounce back and answer. Eventually, Wisconsin's shots weren't falling, thanks to Syracuse extending the zone and a little regression to the mean. One other note, good to have Brandon Triche and CJ Fair back doing their thing for the 'Cuse.

Loser: That Awful Camera Angle - Note to CBS and TBS, let's try and stay away from the over-the-court angle that makes you feel like you are even further from the action. Keep it simple.

Winner: Coaching Trees - Rick Pitino was one of Jim Boeheim's first assistants. Pitino then went on coach Billy Donovan at Providence (as well as a short stint with the Knicks). After working on Wall Street for a year, Donovan became an assistant for Pitino at Kentucky. Now, all three of these coaches are in the Elite 8, with Pitino and Donovan squaring off against each other in the West Regional Final.

Loser: Lesley Visser's Face in HD - We don't want to be disrespectful, but come on. Her face just isn't normal anymore, and it's actually frightening. I remember watching Visser as a sideline reporter when I was growing up. She was always solid. But I think it's time for her to hang up the microphone.

Louisville in Orange (pic: syracuse.com)

Winner: Orange - Congratulations to all the teams that wore Orange last night, as you were a winner. Syracuse defeated Wisconsin, Florida beat Marquette, and Louisville beat Michigan State.

Winner: Draymond Green - Yes, we know that Michigan State lost, but how can you not like this kid. Everybody loves Draymond. Classy kid on and off the court. Probably came into this season with a ceiling of being a very good college basketball player, and a quick flame out in the NBA. This year though, he led the Spartans from unranked to a number 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Put Draymond Green on a perennial contender in the NBA and I think he becomes a solid contributor. It's been fun watching Green over the past few years. Too bad he didn't go to Duke...then Dick Vitale would have been comparing him to Derek Jeter all year long.

Loser: The State of Wisconsin - It was a rough night for all the cheese heads. Not only did Wisconsin fall to Syracuse in a heartbreaker, but Marquette couldn't hit an open shot and lost to Florida. We really liked Marquette this season, but if you don't make open shots you aren't going to win Sweet 16 games. Actually, if you do make open shots, you still might not win Sweet 16 games (see: Wisconsin).

Winner: Bill Raftery - Last but not least....this is obvious. Raftery was on point during the Syracuse - Wisconsin game. His greatest work came during Syracuse's first half run. There was a little lingerie on the deck after a Dion Waiters spin cycle. Then Waiters hit a high arching jumper, to which Raftery exclaimed, "It came down wet!" He then followed that up with a jab at a round Derrick Coleman (he was available?!) in the stands ("No Church League for that guy!"). See for yourself.

Swimming and Kicking at NCAA Tourney Open Practices

Prior to the Sweet 16 and Final 4 games, the NCAA hosts "open practices" to the public, where you can come in and watch the teams on the court for an hour or so. Don't expect to see what the team's gameplan will be, though. You mostly get lots of shooting drills, lots of fancy dunks in layup lines, maybe see the team run through a few sets, and barely see the coaches or players break a sweat. With that said, its cool for the fans to get a behind the scenes look at some top programs in the country.

The highlight of the open practice is the half-court shootout to end practice. All teams do it differently. It could be a nonchalant group of guys chucking it up from center court. Others will have two teams to see who can make more shots in a certain amount of time. During the season, Butler's basketball team (and you thought you wouldn't see them in a NCAA tourney post), finishes their day of game walk thru on the road with assistant coaches, radio guys, trainers, etc shooting from half court, with the players watching. Practice isn't officially over until someone makes it. Brad Stevens became a bit superstitious when he realized that when a certain staff member made it, the team would play poorly. Prior to the UIC game, that person wasn't allowed to shoot, and Butler won a few hours later.

Back to the Sweet 16 open practices. Two great videos below. The first is Marquette's head coach, Buzz Williams (who we have in the Final Four), sinking a half court shot and then doing his best Michael Phelps impersonation.

The next video doesn't come on a half court shot, but still pretty impressive. Syracuse walk-on Brandon Reese, who is listed at 5-11 (on two phone books), goes up for an alley-oop (impressive that he can get up that high), can't quite throw it down, but uses his foot to put the ball through the hoop. Check it out.


Less than nine hours away until the Sweet 16 tips off. In no particular order, here are our picks for the next round of games: Syracuse over Wisconsin (sending Bo Ryan to vacation in South Jersey), Michigan State over Louisville, Ohio State over Cincy, Marquette over Florida. Big East sends 2 of 4 teams to the Elite 8. Tomorrow night, we got Baylor over Xavier, UNC over Ohio, Kentucky over Indiana and Kansas over NC State. Yes, you can call us Chalky White.

(videos courtesy of muathletics and fizzfirst on youtube)

March Means Gus Johnson

Today is March 1st. The Madness is basically here. While we won't have Gus Johnson calling the games on CBS, TNT, TBS, TruTV, etc this year (still can't quite process that thought), we got a treat last night in Evanston.

Northwestern, who has never made the NCAA Tournament....yes, NEVER...was hosting Ohio State. A win for the Wildcats and they'd basically punch their ticket to the dance. A loss wouldn't eliminate them, but it'd leave them with some work to do.

Speaking of doing work, here is Gus Johnson on the Big Ten Network completely losing his mind when Northwestern hits a long three to tie the game up in the final 10 seconds.



In case you don't know how this game finished, Ohio State went the length of the court in about 2 seconds, lobbed one into Jared Sullinger, and his layup with 3 seconds left gave the Buckeyes a two point lead. John Shurna's three-point heave at the buzzer came up just short (God only knows what would have happened to Gus if that shot fell).

Heartbreak once again for the Cats and their purple faithful. They finish the regular season with a game at Iowa (who has been playing well of late), and then it's on to Indy for the Big Ten Tournament. If the season ended today, I think Northwestern would be in. However the season does not end today. Two more Ws, they are in comfortably. One more win, hold your breathe on Selection Sunday. Zero more wins, hello NIT.

Welcome to March.

(video courtesy of the Big Ten Network)

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: Weekend in College Basketball

The Good: I feel like this section should be entitled "The Great" or "The Unbelievable", because that's exactly what the Indiana-Kentucky game was. We predicted on Friday that IU would keep it close, but eventually UK would pull it out for a victory. Well IU did more than keep it close, and when they were down 2 (thanks to Doron Lamb only making 1 of 2 free throws) with 5 seconds to play, IU placed itself back in the national basketball picture.



A few things to note in this video:

• Check out Tom Crean's reaction at the 23 second mark. Hey Tom, you just had your biggest win at IU. We know you are a super hyper passionate guy. I get trying to act like you've been there before, but a smile would have been nice.
• Great court storming by the IU student section at Assembly Hall. Nice work on a very worthy storm.
• Nice job by ESPN's Dan Shulman staying quiet and letting the moment breathe. I'm guessing they had to unplug Dick Vitale's mic to keep him quiet at this time.
• Is there any camera shot cooler than the wide angle where you get to the see the entire stadium, arena, etc explode at the same time?
• A few thoughts on the game - best way to beat Kentucky is to get Anthony Davis in foul trouble, make some outside shots, and hope Terrance Jones is allergic to the basketball for the majority of the game.
• Its obvious Kentucky had a foul to give, and you know Calipari told his team to get one early. His young team didn't execute, and his first reaction to the made 3, was wondering why his team didn't foul (at about the 1:58 mark).

Other goodness from Saturday - Syracuse remains unbeaten by taking care of business with George Washington. Bottom line, GW isn't very good, and the Orange jumped on them right away and never looked back. That's what good teams are supposed to do. Thanks to a couple of loses elsewhere, Syracuse should be #1 in the new polls.

The Bad: We won't necessarily saw this is bad, but rather unfortunate. It was unfortunate that Jared Sullinger wasn't able to play at Kansas on Saturday. The Jayhawks ended up winning, but OSU was right there most of the game. If Sullinger is healthy, I think OSU wins. KU's Thomas Robinson continues to impress. He was 7-9 from the field, 7-8 from the line, 7 rebounds and 21 points.

The Ugly: To say that the end of the Xavier - Cincinnati was ugly would be a huge understatement. As bad as the scene was with punches being thrown, sucker punches being landed and bodies trying to be stomped on, the post game comments from Xavier's Tu Holloway and Mark Lyons were almost just as worse.




This video doesn't show Holloway's comments, but he basically said that his own team had a bunch of "gangstas" in the locker room (he clarified by saying, not thugs, but gangstas). He then went on to say that he had no regrets for anything that happened, and that's what you want to see in the XU-Cincy rivalry. Not sure if Holloway and Lyons have a nickname yet, but it should be Dumb and Dumber.

On Saturday, everyone gave credit to Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin for his post game comments. Here's some of the best:

“We represent an institution of higher learning. It’s way more important than basketball games. I made everybody take their jersey off and they will put it on again until they have a full understanding of where they go to school and what the university stands for and how luck they are to even be there let alone have a scholarship. Because there’s a whole lot of kids that can’t pay for college and don’t get to go to school....

......they are all sitting in there (the locker room) with no jersey on. Some of them I physically took them off........

.....We talk all the time, toughness is doing the right thing in life. That is what we talk about. If that is the case, you are being provoked, this or that, true toughness, you walk away from it. You take your ass whipping and you go home and you get better."

Cronin talked the talk on Saturday, but he along with the University and the Big East did not walk the walk on Sunday when handing out punishment. The fact that Yancy Gates, who connected on a sucker punch, threw numerous other punches and could barely be restrained, was suspended a total of 6 games is absolutely ludicrous. After the game Cronin talked about not knowing who would even be on the team anymore (you have to think he was referencing Gates), to now having one of his best players only miss the next 6 games, and only one of those being on the Big East conference schedule.

In my opinion, 10 games would have been acceptable, 15 games would have probably be right on, and being kicked off the team would not be out of the question. Six games? Six lousy out of conference games doesn't send a message. Cronin said he was embarrassed after the game. Well he should be embarrassed by what he thinks is an acceptable punishment.

Holloway will get one game, while Lyons gets two games for their role in the brawl, but mostly for their post game comments. Both of these suspensions are probably a bit light at well. It's obvious Holloway and Lyons didn't "get it" after the game. Let's hope they do, sooner rather than later.

+1: Since we don't want to end on such a sour note, let's give you a bonus video from the weekend. One of the coolest traditions in college basketball comes from Taylor University and their annual "Silent Night". Spend the next 3:27 watching this video. It's worth it.

Workin' for the Weekend

Now that we have the Loverboy hit in your head for the rest of the day, let's talk about the evolution of workin' for the weekend (also if you get the chance to check out the video for this song - its all kinds of amazing).

When we first got out of college and started in the "real world", we weren't used to working 8-9 hour days, 5 days a week, every week. We were coming off our last semester of college, or if we were lucky, a summer following college graduation. Working for the weekend meant we needed the the weekend to sleep in, go out at night and make questionable decisions, all mostly for a good story to tell our buddies.

Sullinger probable for match up with KU

As we grow up, working for the weekend has been given new meaning. Adult things like wedding planning, kids (don't worry, First Lady and I are not expecting a little one any time soon), trips to Bed, Bath and Beyond (Frank Ricard knew what he was talking about) and other domesticated related things make up the weekend activities. One thing that stays consistent though, is looking forward hanging on the couch, watching the big games of any given weekend (yes, I know this is going to change when little ones are around - that's why naps and DVR were invented). I might start listing "Strategically scheduling my weekend plans around games I want to watch" as a skill on my resume.

This weekend, which will be sprinkled with holiday festivities, wedding checklists, laundry and grocery shopping, will also feature some can't miss college hoops games.

Crean and IU fired up for UK on Saturday

Saturday kicks off with #2 Ohio State at #13 Kansas. An asterisk next to this game as it could be short all of its star power if Jared Sullinger's back spasms keep him sidelined. Let's hope he plays since he'll be matched up with Kansas's Thomas Robinson in the post. Sullinger and Robinson considered two of the best big men in the country. Don't forget about Aaron Craft and William Buford for the Buckeyes, and Tyshon Taylor, Elijah Johnson and an annoying "Rock Chalk" chant for the Jayhawks.
Daily Onions pick: If Sullinger plays, we like OSU. No Sullinger, gotta go Kansas.

That game should be getting over just as #1 Kentucky travels to Assembly Hall to take on undefeated Indiana. Interesting matchup here. Arguably the best team in the land going up against arguably one of the greatest traditional basketball programs in the land. One program has been in the Top 5 consistently the last few years, the other team hasn't sniffed the NCAA tournament in years. Both coaches are two of the most energetic and passionate you'll see roaming the sidelines, with one a favorite of Daily Onions (Crean), the other not so much (Calipari). Saturday's game marks the first true road game for Kentucky and their young freshmen. Indiana's best win this year is either home against a young Butler team, or on the road at North Carolina State. If IU pulls it out, they'll join the Top 25, and will have a huge resume win for March.
Daily Onions pick: IU keeps it close, but UK wins.

Heavyweight Week - Top Ten Matchups Highlight College Basketball

If last week was "Feast Week," according to ESPN's marketing department, because of the great games/lineup in the Maui Invitational (along with that whole Thanksgiving holiday thing), then Daily Onions is dubbing this week "Heavyweight Week." Think about it, the only suitable follow up to a week of feasting, is a week of being a heavyweight.

Actually, "Heavyweight Week" references the all the Top 10 match ups that we have this week. Last night's hyped up game (no, not Syracuse vs. Eastern Michigan), featured #2 Ohio State vs. #4 Duke. Not sure we can even say Duke was there though. After dropping behind the Buckeyes 11-0 to start the game, the Blue Devils were able to get back into the game to make it close halfway through the first half. From that point on, it was ALL (and I mean all) Ohio State. A few thoughts from the game:

-Austin Rivers crossover.....oh my. Quickest since.....Iverson? D. Rose? Man, that thing is impressive. He's got a decent jumper too. With that said, let's remember, Rivers has only played 7 college basketball games. Still lots to be learned.

Aaron Craft arguably the best PG in the country (Pic: US Presswire/SI.com)

-Sullinger, Buford, Craft and.....Deshaun Thomas (who?): We all knew Ohio State would depend on their big three of Sullinger, Buford and Craft. We rode the Buckeyes hard last year, and then Sullinger and mostly Buford pulled the disappearing act in their Sweet 16 loss to Kentucky.  These two (Sullinger 21, Buford 17) along with Craft (17 and 8 assists) were on top of their games on Tuesday night, and it was a bit of a coming out party for sophomore Deshaun Thomas. Check out the 6-7 swingman's line: 8-12 from the field, 2-4 from 3, 18 points and 5 rebounds. Thomas now averaging 12 points a game on the season. He'll be key for the Buckeyes, who try to replace the scoring of David Lighty and  Jon Diebler.

-I think I heard Dick Vitale cheating on Duke a bit, as he praised Sullinger and Buford throughout the night.

-LeBron James and Dwyane Wade were in attendance for the big game as well. LeBron was comfortable being there, since there isn't a 4th quarter in college basketball games (heyoooooo).

-One more thought on Duke: They are really going to miss Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler. Rivers is the only player on that team can create his own shot, and he isn't really a distributor yet. Curry is deadly from outside, but Ryan Kelly, the Plumlees, etc shouldn't really scare people.

With last night's game being a bit of a dud. We'll hope the rest of the marquee match ups live up to the hype.

Tonight: #9 Wisconsin vs. #5 UNC - The Tar Heels were anointed the head and shoulders favorite coming into this season, but have been knocked off their pedestal after a loss to UNLV in Vegas over the weekend. Harrison Barnes has a slightly injured ankle coming into tonight's game. UNC's Kendall Marshall is one of the best PG's in the country (from a getting teammates involved standpoint), but is a liability on defense. It will be interesting to see if he can match up with Wisconsin's preseason All-American Jordan Taylor. Daily Onions is a fan of freshman P.J. Hairston (McDonald's All-American last year), who leads the team in 3-point percentage and can get to the rim as well. We also like what we saw from junior guard Dexter Strickland against UNLV. Look for him to be a spark for the Heels tonight.

Friday: #4 Syracuse vs. #10 Florida - By far the toughest test for the Orange thus far this season. They needed to comeback wins in NYC last week to beat Virginia Tech and Stanford. Besides those games, they've handled the likes of Colgate, Eastern Michigan, Albany, Manhattan, etc. Will be interesting to see what Jim Boeheim does with Rakeem Christmas, Michael Carter Williams, and even James Sutherland. In tight games w/ Tech and Stanford, Boeheim tightened his rotation (as we've seen over the years) to 7 guys (Joseph, Scoop, Waiters, Triche, Fair, Fab, and Keita). Florida, whose only defeat this year was a seven point loss at Ohio State (ask Duke if its tough to play there). Last year, many people thought the Gators were a year away from being a contender. Well, now we're here. Keep your eye on freshman Bradley Beal, who hit 5 three pointers last time out. Throw in Kenny Boynton in the backcourt, the Gators will be ready to chomp (too easy) on the 'Cuse 2-3 zone.

UK's Davis (Kentucky.com)

Saturday: #5 UNC vs. #1 Kentucky - UNC took a little air out of this matchup after losing to UNLV. A loss tonight to Wisconsin would raise even more questions about Roy Williams' squad. Kentucky once again is stacked with freshman. Their starting five, which includes three freshmen, all average in double figures. Anthony Davis, from Chicago, might be the number 1 pick in the NBA Draft next year. Sophomores Terrence Jones and Doron Lamb (leading the team in scoring this year) add some experience for the Cats this season, who have already beaten Kansas by ten two weeks ago. Before they get UNC, Kentucky hosts St. John's on Thursday.

Daily Onions picks for Heavyweight Week: UNC over Wisconsin, Cuse over Florida and Kentucky over UNC.

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College Basketball is Back! (Kind of)

A wise man once said, "I don't know if it will make any change, but I figure its time for me to start playing ball." That wise man was Jimmy Chitwood. And in the spirit of Jimmy, Hoosiers and basketball, Daily Onions doesn't know if it will make any change, but we figure its time for us to start writing about basketball.

Check out video of Jimmy Chitwood Gettin' Back into the Game

With the official kickoff of college basketball season (practices at least) tonight with "Midnight Madness", Daily Onions takes a look at what's on tap for the upcoming season:

1. Preseason Rankings!! We actually wrote about how stupid preseason rankings were last year in December after Harrison Barnes, a preseason 1st Team All-American before he even put on the baby blue Tar Heel uniform, struggled out of the gate, and UConn, the eventual National Champion catapulted to #9 a few weeks into the season, after being left out of the Top 25 preseason poll. This season's Top 5 Preseason Poll looks like this:

• UNC: Harrison Barnes, Kyler Zeller, John Henson, Kyle Marshall all return. That should be enough. Throw in two McDonald All-Americans....the early favorite to win it all and run the table.  
• Kentucky: Terrence Jones surprised everyone and came back to school, along with Doron Lamb (the 2nd best Lamb in college bball), and Darius Miller. Coach Cal, the snake oil salesman, also brings in the two of the best freshman in the country in Anthony Davis (Chicago) and Michael Gilchrist (NJ). Good combo of NJ and Chicago there.
• UConn: The Defending Champs bring back Jeremy Lamb, the little brother of Daily Onions loyal reader, Ramy. He joins one of our favorite big man underclassmen from last year, Alex Oriakhi, along with Shabazz Nappier, Roscoe Smith, and Tyler "White" Olander. Stud newcomer Andre Drummond will help as well.
• Syracuse: Oh, no (Cuse is in the House). High expectations for the Orange this year? That can't be good for the Cuse faithful. Everyone's favorite PG to hate, Scoop Jardine is back to run the show. All reports say that Scoop had a great summer at various camps and a stint w/ Team USA. Let's hope he learned how to be smart with the ball. The Cuse also returns Kris Joseph, who was picked as a 1st Team All-American. And that's right there is why we talk about how preseason rankings don't mean anything. We love Joseph, but a 1st Team All-American?!? Prove me wrong, Kris. Rounding things out for the Cuse are Brandon Triche, CJ Fair (Daily Onions Favorite), Dion Waiters (hopefully with a new attitude), Fab Melo, Baye Moussa Keita, James Southerland, Mookie Jones, Andy Rautins, Otis Hill.......right, you get it. The Orange return a lot. They also bring in 2 McDonalds All-Americans in Rakeem Christmas (lots of puns coming your way) and Michael Carter Williams. Trevor Cooney is another frosh, who folks are hoping can light the Dome up from outside.
• Ohio State University: No THE this year for OSU. Since we picked them to win it all, and they decided to bounce in the Sweet 16, you get no love from Daily Onions....for now. Once we see that large backside of Jared Sullinger (he actually slimmed down, though), I'm sure we'll rekindle the love. William Buford and Aaron Craft important returners for the Buckeyes.
• Duke: Yes, we can count. Duke is #6. Quick thought on the Blue Devils. They have arguably the best freshman in Austin Rivers, they return guards Seth Curry and Andre Dawkins, and now have three, yes THREE Plumlee brothers (not that that means anything). We are very excited to see Austin Rivers play. When we saw him at the McDonald's All-American game, we called him "Steph Curry with a little more pop".....whatever that means.

2. Basketball: Yep, it's that simple. The fact that basketball will be played is a huge thing to look forward to. With no NBA season in sight, the youngsters will have center stage, and that will be awesome. Throw in the fact that the greatest basketball conference ever assembled, The Big East, will be playing one of its final seasons (could be final, could have one or two more) as the dominant conference, culminating with the basketball orgy that is the Big East Tournament in March. Man, are we going to miss that tournament.

3. Road Trippin': While the schedule Gods did not grace us with a Big E Hoops Weekend Round 2 scenario, Daily Onions is planning on hitting the road to catch lots of games in person this season. We'll catch the Cuse at Notre Dame in January, we are taking a trip to see Brad Stevens and Hinkle Field House for a Butler game, we'll see what Big East teams roll through the Windy City to play DePaul, and will be sure to catch some Big Ten action up in Evanston. In short, we love college basketball, and we can wait to watch it....as I am sure that goes for the First Lady of Daily Onions as well.

With that said, in order to live up to our Jimmy Chitwood promise, we'll be posting weekly leading up to the start of the season, and then will get things going a bit more from there. We are only 9 posts away from 100, so we'll be sure to have a HUGE celebration commemorating some of our favorites from the first 100, and previewing what the second hundred have in store.

Thanks for reading, and here's to a great college basketball season.

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16 Sweet Things To Look Forward To: Part 2

Before we get into the next eight things on our list....let's have a moment of silence for Jimmer's college career (moment). We thank you Jimmer, it was a blast. Now we are excited about the MoMo Jones era (errr, weekend of the season). Florida, UConn, Butler (and Brad Stevens) and Arizona are still standing. We still have 3 of our 4 Final 4 teams still alive (thanks, Duke), so we're still in the running for predicting the National Champion. Now let's look ahead to tonight's action, and reasons 9-16 we like the Sweet 16.

9. Shaka...Gone? Will tonight's game be the final game of the season for the Rams, and coach Shaka Smart? Shaka was already on the "hot, young, up and coming coach" list this season, and victories over Georgetown and Purdue may have hoisted him to the top. With openings at Missouri, Tennessee, Oklahoma, NC State, and Monmouth (hi Ram!), there is a good chance Shaka will be gone from VCU once they are eliminated.

10. College Basketball Capital of the World: Apparently it is Richmond, Virginia. Two schools that are just six miles away from each other, both double-digit seeds, both pulled a few upsets and both are in the Sweet 16. Oh and both will probably be looking for a new head coach after the season, as Richmond's Chris Mooney is also on the aforementioned coaches list at which bigger schools will start taking a look.


11. Two down, Two to go: As you all know, we picked THE Ohio State University to go to the Final Four back in December. Well, they've won their first two tournament games, and need to win two more for our prediction to come true. They got a young Kentucky team tonight in....NEW JERRRSEEEY. A classic match up for Daily Onions, since it includes one of our favorites this season (OSU), as well as one of our favorites to dislike (UK).

12. Kentucky and Calipari: As you all know, we aren't the biggest fan of Coach Calipari. We never have trusted his young squad, as they have struggled on the road during the season, and went home early last season thanks to a more disciplined, more mature West Virginia team. We also don't trust Coach Cal. Even a six page article in Sports Illustrated basically defending Calipari couldn't really change our opinion. Bottom line, he's taken two different schools to the Final Four, and both of those schools have had those trips revoked. Now Cal claims he knew nothing about the violations (maybe true), but where there is smoke there is fire. If Kentucky ends up winning two more games, will it even matter? Half his team will be gone in a few months, and who knows what potential violations are down the road.

13: Big East Pride: Not only are the Marquette Golden Eagles one of two Big East teams left standings, but they also sport the pair of shorts we are most likely to purchase on Eastbay. Gold or light blue, take your pick, you can't lose. Shorts aside, is anyone else a tad scared of Marquette right now? They are playing inspired ball for Coach Buzz, aka Coach Streetwise....."maybe on the way out" (Chicago joke). They play hard, they are athletic, they are physical, and they will most likely give UNC everything they can handle.


14. Rock Chalk: Apparently Kansas didn't get the memo that the Southwest Region is Cinderella's castle. The team's left in that region are seeded 10, 11, and 12. Oh yeah, and the Jayhawks are 1. That means one of two things. Kansas either has a very good shot at making the Final 4, or they are in trouble and are the next top seed to take a tumble.


15. Gus vs. Raftery: This is a match up where no one wins. Its bad enough this is the final weekend of the season that we'll get to hear these two vocal geniuses, but we don't even get them on separate nights. At least on Saturday, the games are staggered so we'll be able to enjoy the final 40 minutes uninterrupted, of both Gus and Raftery. That makes us want to put our lingerie on the deck (what?).

16. ONIONS! After Friday's games we'll have the first set of standings for the Show Us Your Onions competition. We lost Syracuse, Notre Dame and Pitt last weekend, and waved goodbye to Duke and San Diego State last night. Yep, we projected Duke in the Final 4. We were wrong. Tomorrow we'll be able to see who's been right, and who's been wrong, and who has the nicest Onions thus far.

Day 4 of the Madness: Boom Goes the Dynamite

And on the fourth day, he ended the Syracuse basketball season. We'll save our thoughts on the Syracuse season for a post at a later date, but we'll include some brief musings in our recap of the final day of opening weekend.

Domination Station: After starting the game trailing 11-2, THE Ohio State University got there stuff together and showed why they are the overall #1 seed in the tournament. The rest of the first half, they outscored George Mason 50-15. Put the money in the bag. OSU ends up winning 98-56, and will be headed to Newark, (Governor Patterson SNL voice) NEW JERRRSEY to take on Kentucky in the Sweet 16. Another #1 seed in action, Kansas, also cruised to a victory against Illinois. The Fighting Illini hung around, but never really threatened the Jayhawks, who will now face Richmond in the next round. While we are on the topic of domination, we need to throw VCU aka Southern Prep (South Jersey HS bball reference - thanks J5!) in there. For the third straight game, they've gone up against a team from a power conference (USC, Gtown and Purdue) and completely taken it to them winning by an average of 13 points. Purdue was a sexy pick for the Final Four thanks to the the freakish talents of JaJuan Johnson, who went for 25 and 14 on Sunday. That was not enough, as the Boiler Makers couldn't stop the Rams, who put up 94 points. Yes, this is the same VCU team that most "experts" said had no right even being in the tournament.
  
You Down with ACC? Both Duke and North Carolina were part of nail-biters Sunday afternoon in Charlotte. In a track meet, UNC held off Washington 86-83. Super Frosh Harrison Barnes has really come into his own after struggling at the beginning of the season for the Tar Heels. He dropped 22, including a 3 with four minutes to play, to give UNC the lead for good. In the second game of the afternoon, Duke and Michigan renewed the Fab 5-Laettner/Hurley/Hill rivalry. Duke went up by as many as 16 in the second half, only to see Michigan storm back and cut the lead to 1 point with 1:30 left, and then again with ten seconds left. 1 of 2 free throws from Nolan Smith and a missed Darius Miller runner as time expired sealed Coach K's 900th victory, and another trip to the Sweet 16 for the Dukies.

Five Seconds: Cue the controversy for the Texas-Arizona game. A questionable five second violation on a late game in-bounds play led to the ball going back to Arizona, trailing by two with 12 seconds left. Zona's Derrick Williams was then able to convert a three-point play the old fashioned way, finishing a layup and making the free throw. The Longhorns had two chances to win it around the bucket but could not finish, including a play on which some wanted a foul to be called. The refs (correctly, this time) swallowed their whistles. Zona will now face Duke, and Texas will once again go home early from the tournament.

Two for Eleven: That's the stat that everyone will talk about this week. The Big East got 11 teams into the tournament, but only two (Marquette and UConn) are still alive in the Sweet 16. They'll leave out the part that there were two games that matched Big East members against each other, so that number should technically be out of nine. But regardless, Syracuse and Notre Dame did nothing to help the cause on Sunday. When the brackets were released, Daily Onions looked at the Syracuse draw and said the first weekend scares us more than the potential second weekend match ups.  The reason was a second round date with either Xavier or Marquette. The Cuse got Marquette, a team the Orange lost to this season, a team that is athletic as heck, plays hard as all and can get up and down the court, and a team that isn't a great match up for Syracuse. Granted, 17 turnovers and some costly mental mistakes the entire game probably cost Syracuse the game as much as Marquette's play did. We won't talk about the backcourt violation (which isn't actually a backcourt violation - refs got that one wrong), but we'll get to Scoop, Dion, I'm Sorry Rick Jackson, Kris and the rest of the crew in a post later this week. Now, we'll pour another one out for the Big East because Notre Dame couldn't overcome Florida State. So what was supposed to be the battle for Indiana Basketball between ND and Purdue in the Sweet 16, has now turned into the battle for Cinderella between VCU and FSU.

Big: East Region

We've saved the best for last. In my opinion, and the opinion of many others, the East Region is the toughest out there. Let's dive right in because there is lots to discuss.

'Cuse is in the House: The Orange are taking their talents to Cleveland for Round 1 and will take on the Fighting Larry Birds from Indiana State. If they are able to avoid the upset bid from the #14 seed, they'll either play #6 Xavier (in Cleveland - Thank you selection committee!) or #11 Marquette, a Big East foe that Syracuse lost to in January. Not going to lie, but the second round scares us. Xavier is a sneaky team and they'll have somewhat of a home-court advantage, while Marquette is a team that knows Syracuse, plays them every year, and has a victory against them two months ago. If Cuse can get out of Round 2, we'll feel better about things.  The East Region is located in Newark, NJ aka Syracuseville East. Potential Sweet 16 opponent is North Carolina, a match up we kind of like. Hold that thought.

Big East Tournament, Part 2: We know Cuse and Marquette are in this bracket, but there's also #9 Villanova and #5 West Virginia. Nova hasn't won a game in ages, so we are going to go with everyone's favorite flashback Cinderella, #8 George Mason. Meanwhile, Huggie Bear and the boys will actually tip in the first game on Thursday in Tampa, taking on Clemson (a team that just played late Tuesday night in Dayton - Thank you Selection Committee! Love, Clemson). What will definitely be a grind it out, physical game, we are going to take WVU. An added bonus would be Bob Huggins rubbing one of his player's faces, or at least getting nose to nose during a timeout. Potential second round game for WVU puts them against Kentucky, the team they upset last year to go to the Final Four. Huggins also owns Calipari, so while Kentucky looks to have more talent, don't count out the Eers.

You Never Forget Your First: Get your mind out of the gutter. Just about three months ago, Daily Onions made our first Final Four projection of the year. Since then, we've been riding the bandwagon of Sullinger, Diebler, Lighty, Buford, Lauderdale and Craft, aka THE Ohio State University. In case you forgot, this is what we wrote back on December 21 on why OSU would make the Final Four: Dominant Player (Sullinger) + Experience (Lighty played with Havlicek) + Tough, but not too tough of a schedule (Two road losses to the second and third best teams in the conference) = OSU in Final 4. We are sticking to our guns, and Ohio State will be in Houston. It pains me to say, but after taking down Kentucky, OSU will take out Syracuse in the Elite 8 (who would have beat UNC in the Sweet 16) to cut down the nets in Newark.

And then what? Our Final Four includes OSU, Duke, Kansas and Florida. When we first filled out our bracket on Monday, we had OSU beating Duke. Even with new information available and all signs pointing to Duke's Kyrie Irving ready to see some action this week, we are still going to go with OSU. (By the way, the "Chance Irving plays this week" news on Twitter on Tuesday was the equivalent of the public address announcer saying "Daniel LaRusso is going to fight" at the All Valley Karate Championship in 1984. I can only imagine what Twitter would have looked like if people heard what Myagi did in the locker room). OSU will face the Rock Chalk Jayhawk in the National Championship Game, and with a final score of 70-66, Jared Sullinger does his best Carmelo Anthony impression and leads his team to a National Championship as a freshman.

Now that we've gotten that all taken care of, we can watch some basketball! Odds that our picks are even relatively close to what actually happens....no chance. Odds that your picks are close...you tell us! Show us YOUR Onions. Lots of entries came in on Wednesday, so make sure you don't miss out on the fun. I mean who wouldn't want an entire Daily Onions post about them??

The Weekend That Was

FINALLY!!! The regular season of college basketball is over. Postseason is here, or has been here for a few days thanks to a few conference tournaments that got underway last week. Lots to catch up on from the weekend, including the first four tickets being punched for the dance, rush season on college campuses and some crying in one NBA locker room (there's no crying in basketball!?)

Indiana State scored an upset and an automatic bid this weekend

First Four In: The past few weeks we've been hearing hypotheticals of the last four teams in the tournament and which four teams are the last four out. Well now we have four teams that are officially in. Congrats to Belmont (Atlantic Sun), UNC-Asheville (Big South), Morehead St. (Ohio Valley) and Indiana State (Larry Bird! - Missouri Valley) for guaranteeing their spot in the dance. Indiana State pulled the upset over Missouri State to get in, which means Mizzou St. will be one of those mid-majors now hanging out on the bubble. Take note of Morehead St. as well, as they feature Kenneth Faried, the nation's (not conference, the NATION) leading rebounder. The kid averages 14.5 per game and is slated to be a late first round pick in the NBA draft.

Five for Fighting: As in five days for fighting in Madison Square Garden because this year's Big East Tournament is sure to be a slug-fest. Top four seeds (Pitt, ND, L'ville and Cuse) get the double-bye (winning!) and are off until Thursday. Who would have thought that Villanova and UConn would be playing on Tuesday, as the 9th and 10th seed. Well, we kind of did and that's why we featured them in our teams not peaking at the right time post last week. Take the Villanova name off their tournament resume and it's nothing special. A loss on Tuesday would probably put them on the good side of the bubble, but I think a big reason for that comes from some name recognition. Throw in the fact that Corey Stokes is questionable for games this week with an injury, Jay Wright and his pinstripes have to be a bit nervous. Meanwhile, Syracuse is in the New Jersey/New York portion of the bracket, as they'll face the winner of St. John's and Rutgers/Seton Hall. Daily Onions doesn't see a team out of the top four seeds winning this tournament, but then again it is the Big East and anything is possible.

Great win for UNC, but storm-worthy? Not so sure.

Take Your Shirt Off: North Carolina, come on and raise up. It's official. The Tar Heels are back. We missed you last year, but are glad to see you are here just in time for March! UNC pretty much led the whole way against Duke on Saturday night, and with the win clinched the regular season ACC title. Freshman Harrison Barnes is finally starting to live up to the expectations and the Tar Heels have settled in with their new point guard Kendall Marshall running the show (15 pts, 11 assists). Daily Onions is still standing by their claim of Duke as a Final Four team, although we'd like to see a little more toughness from Blue Devils from here on out.

Elsewhere: Daily Onions first Final Four pick, THE Ohio State University made a statement on Sunday, telling the rest of the nation that they are the team to beat heading into the NCAA tournament. A near perfect performance by the Buckeyes yesterday led to a butt-whooping of Wisconsin, avenging the earlier loss in Madison. OSU was 14-15 from 3 pt. land (Diebler was 7-8) and shot 68% from the field. Jared Sullinger and his backside went for 22 and 8. In the SEC, Florida is quietly playing some of the best basketball in the country and locked up the SEC title yesterday at Vanderbilt. Meanwhile, Kentucky FINALLY got a win on the road, taking care of Tennessee 64-58. Are the Wildcats finally starting to grow up and learning how to win on the road? It will take more than a win at Jekyll and Hyde Tennessee to convince us.

Storm Troopers: It was a tough day to be a court side security guard in college basketball this weekend. Court storming was contagious as we saw it in Iowa's win over Purdue (acceptable); in Chapel Hill after UNC beat Duke (HIGHLY disappointed in Tar Heel fans - National Championship 2 years ago, beating your rival handily at home, act like you've been there); out west San Diego State fans stormed to celebrate a share of the Mountain West Conference title (ehhh, sure why not - it's been a Cinderellaly type of year for the Aztecs). We'll probably see a few more storms this week as some of the smaller conference tournaments come to an end. In these cases, Daily Onions says go ahead and storm the court, Bethune Cookman fans. Enjoy your 15 minutes, and then make sure you buckle up for your 15 or 16 seed in the Big Dance.

We'd hide too if we lose four in a row

Cry-ami Heat: According to Coach Spo, a couple of the Heat players were crying in the locker room after yesterday's 1-point loss the Da Bulls. Maybe crying will help the team that has lost four in a row and five of their last six. Bottom line, the Heat can't close. They are 1-9 against the league's top five teams, and 0-6 against the Celtics and the Bulls. Most of those games have been close, and down the stretch they are 1-18 from the field in the final 10 seconds with the chance to tie or take the lead (on odd days of even months). We all knew it'd take time for the Heat to really become a dominating team, but the fact that LeBron, Wade and Bosh have been coming up short in the clutch is a bit surprising (well, minus Bosh). That'll have to change come May, as the Eastern Conference playoffs will have five pretty scary teams in play (Celtics, Bulls, Heat, Magic, Knicks). Big shots will need to be made, and there won't be much time for tears.

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.

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.

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?

The Weekend that Was

All they do is Win: As in THE Ohio State University, who is the only remaining unbeaten team in the land and sneaked by Northwestern, 58-57, in the high school gym that is Welsh Ryan Arena in Evanston. Daily Onions jumped on the bandwagon along time ago, and probably isn't getting off OSU until Houston in early April. The thing with the Bucks has been they've found ways to win regardless the situation.  Big game at home (Purdue - win easily), road game that is tough to get up for (Iowa, Northwestern - win by the slimmest of margins), ranked team on the road (Illinois, win). The common theme, Ws. However, three of the next five are on the road for the Bucks, including at Minnesota, at Wisconsin and at Purdue (all ranked opponents).  Highly doubt they come out of that stretch perfect, but as we mentioned in our Final Four projection, a loss here or there is fine.

You'd make this face if you lost four in a row, too. (Post Standard)

We're Goin' Streaking: In a bad way. Syracuse has lost four straight games.  The last time that happened was 2005-06, a season in which Gerry McNamara put the team on his back and led them to a four-day magical run to the Big East Championship. Gerry McNamara ain't walking through that door this season. Well, technically he is, because he is an assistant coach, but you get what I mean. With Daily Onions in attendance against Marquette, the Orange once again started slow and before you knew it, the score was 10-3. Sure, the Golden Eagles shot 53% from the field and 46% from 3-point land (10% higher than their season average). But you can't keep saying, "Well, the other team just shot the heck out of the ball.." (see: Pitt, Villanova, Seton Hall, Marquette). At some point you need to make it uncomfortable for the other team, and Syracuse's defense just isn't doing that in the last two weeks. Offensively, Syracuse wasn't even THAT bad on Saturday.  It was just another case of getting in a hole early, and not being able to overcome that down that stretch (Syracuse tied the game with 8 minutes left, but never took the lead). The worst past of the 4 game losing streak is that it could become five pretty quickly, as the Cuse heads to UConn on Wednesday night. Take it easy on us, Kemba.

Big Beast: It was an interesting weekend in the Big East to say the least. St. John's ended their month from h - e - double hockey sticks with a huge out of conference win over the Dukies, 93-78 (and it wasn't even that close). Pitt was lucky to pull out a 3 point win at Rutgers, while road dogs Louisville and Georgetown took down UConn and Villanova, respectively.

Jimmer Watch: After taking the college hoops world by storm on Wednesday night, Jimmer and the Cougs had a bit of a letdown on Saturday, losing at New Mexico 86-77. Jimmer dropped 32, and also added 7 assists (he can pass!), 5 rebounds and 3 steals (one of his more complete games of the season). The Cougs will get an easier test come Wednesday against Wyoming, who got spanked by 40 by San Diego State. The Aztecs were coming off their first loss of the season to the Jimmers.

Bad Basketball: Some have called Auburn the worst basketball team in a BCS conference this year. If that is the case, what is South Carolina? Auburn got their first conference win on the road at SC, by 15 points!

State of the Onions Address

(From L-R) Raftery, Daily Onions, Johnson

Mr. Raftery, Mr. Johnson, Members of the College basketball community, distinguished guests, and fellow hoop fans:

Today I want to begin by congratulating the men of THE Ohio State University basketball team, as well as your stud freshman Jared Sullinger, for remaining undefeated with a dominating performance over Purdue last night. You truly showed us that you deserve to be ranked number 1 at this point in the season.

It's no secret that those of us reading this today are disappointed in Syracuse's performance last night. The debates over whether or not the Cuse is overrated have been contentious; Daily Onions has fought fiercely for our beliefs that Syracuse is a top tier team. And that's a good thing. That's what a robust fan base does.

But there's a reason Syracuse's three game losing streak has given us pause. Amid all the noise and passions of what team is the best in the Big East, Seton Hall reminded us that no matter who steps on the court on any given night, if you shoot over 60% from behind the arc, the Syracuse zone is in trouble. If your team comes out and sleepwalks through the first 20 minutes of the game, odds are you won't be victorious. Whether or not the Orange can break out of this funk will be back on display this Saturday in Milwaukee. At that point in time, with backs against the wall, we shall see what kind of resolve Coach Boeheim and his boys have.

At stake right now is not who wins the next game — after all, we have games every night. At stake is whether new teams in the top 5, like San Diego State and previously unknown players like Jimmer, make long runs in this upcoming March Madness. It's whether the hard work of mid-majors like Cleveland State, St. Mary's and Utah State is rewarded. It's whether we sustain the leadership from players that have stayed in school for four years, to make sure their school is not just a place on a map, but a team to be reckoned with come March.

That basketball world has changed. And for many, the change has been painful. Kansas State was once ranked in the top 5, and now they are a few games under .500 in Big 12 play. Michigan State has struggled all season, and just dismissed one of their best players from their team. Two other teams from last year's Final Four aren't even ranked right now. We've heard about this in the frustrations of fans who've seen their wins dwindle or their team pride disappear.

The idea of the college basketball season endures. Our destiny remains those three weeks in March. And today, more than five weeks away from Selection Sunday, it's because of our love for the game of basketball and our favorite teams, that our future is hopeful, our journey of a season goes forward, and the state of Daily Onions is strong.

Thank you. God bless you, and may God bless the next two months of the college basketball season. (Applause.)

The Weekend that Was

I promise to make it through this entire post.....unless an undetectable injury forces me to stop halfway through, and even if you see my standing around, walking around, disinterested, riding a stationary bike, I promise you, I am really hurt.

Road Warriors: Playing away from home on Saturday wasn't that big of a deal, as a couple of road dogs pulled off impressive wins early in the day.  Ohio State remained unbeaten and even had to come from behind in the second half to put away Illinois. Daily Onions favorite Jared Sullinger had a ho-hum day at the office with 27 points, 16 rebounds and 3 blocks.

KU messed w/ Texas, and lost.

Despite starting the game on an 18-3 run at home, a place where they've won 69 straight games, #2 Kansas loss for the first time this season to #11 Texas. One concern for the Jayhawks is the inconsistent play of freshman standout Josh Selby. Over the last 6 games, he alternates between scoring right around 15 points, or under 5 points. They'll need him to step it up down the stretch, the Morris brothers can't do it all.

Villanova shot lights out from behind the arc in the first half, which led them to a victory at Syracuse. The Wildcats were 8-13 from 3 in the first 20 minutes of the game and shredded the Cuse zone to own a double-digit lead at the half. The Orange threatened a few times in the second half, but never tied or took the lead. This game brought up the question, what is Jim Boeheim's tipping point to get out of the zone? If shooting 62% and building a 13 point lead doesn't do it, not sure what does. While Nova cooled off from outside in the second half, Syracuse's D still couldn't "stop a nose bleed". Another concern for the Orange had to be the play of Scoop Jardine, who had just 2 points on 1-8 shooting, and looked out of it all game. Despite losing two in a row, Daily Onions doesn't think its time to panic in Boeheimburg. Losing to Pitt and Nova happens in the Big East. Cuse needs to make sure it takes care of business at home against the Hall, and then puts on a show for Daily Onions in person at Marquette next Saturday.

The Jimmer Update: Ninth-ranked BYU won at Colorado State and The Jimmer put up his second 40 point game of the year, dropping 42 on the Rams. Jimmer's 42 consisted of 4 3 pointers, and going 16-17 from the free throw line. Daily Onions "can't wait" to see Wednesday's game when the Cougs host unbeaten and soon to be top 5 team, San Diego State. Now if we only knew what channel CBS College Sports Network was...check your local listings.

Two out of three ain't bad: You can't spell Northwestern without an N or a T, and I guess we'll have to find the I somewhere else. The Wildcats quest for a first-ever NCAA tournament berth has been knocked off track. N'western is already 3-5 in conference play (including a 78-46 loss to Wisconsin yesterday) and has Minnesota, Ohio State and Illinois as its next three. Ouch.

I Got Five On It

Pop quiz, hotshot. There's a basketball game about to start and you need to compile a team from this year's group of college kids. Make sure you fill each position and you might as well pick a coach as well. What do you do? What do you do!? Here's what I do:

C - Jared Sullinger (Freshman, Ohio State): Best player on the best team in the country right now. Sure, I'll take him on my squad. A dominant force in the low post and a good rebounder, also provides some bulk inside to make up for any smaller forwards.

Johnson (center) would be celebrating a lot with this team.

PF - JaJuan Johnson (Senior, Purdue): He's 6-10 and just 225 lbs. He's long and can score from anywhere on the floor. He's developed a nice turn around jump shot, and has shown he can make the big one when needed (hit the game winner against Penn State last night, after leading Purdue with 26 points against WVU on Sunday). On the defensive side of the ball, he can lurk on the weak side and provide a nice shot blocking presence.

SG - Jimmer Fredette (Senior, BYU): Jimmer fever is sweeping the nation, and he leads the entire NCAA Division 1 in scoring. It's a shame the majority of the country doesn't get to see him on a daily basis, but make sure you do some Jimmer homework before the tournament starts, as he will be sure to be a human highlight come March. Let's just hope Gus Johnson or Bill Raftery is announcing his games because we are guaranteed a couple of "From the parking lot" and "Whews" when Jimmer steps on the court.

PG - Kemba Walker (Junior, UConn): Daily Onions hasn't always been the nicest to Kemba Walker. We've acknowledged the good and the bad, but the more and more we watch him we realize that he's got "it". Like when he hit the game winner last weekend at Texas, and then did it again on Monday against Villanova. We still think he shoots a little too much, and might get a little out of control, but he can make it when it matters.

I struggled finding a SF, so I am going to play it safe and go with Kyle Singler (Senior, Duke): He's won a national championship, he's a hard worker, and he'll do anything on the court to win the game.  I can see him taking a back seat to Kemba, Jimmer and Sullinger getting a lot of the shots, and not complaining/worrying about it. Always good to have a do-it-all, unselfish player on your squad.

I'm a little worried about playing with only one basketball, and that's why I am taking Coach K to lead this team.  You have to be impressed with what he's done with USA Basketball over the last 3 years. Getting all those superstars to buy in and play together. We'd need that same game plan with this team.

Who's got next?

Still Perfect After All These Games

We'll return to our regularly scheduled Big E Hoops Weekend preview later, but we couldn't let last night's jam-packed Top 25 slate pass without any comments.

It's Storm Season in College Basketball, as seen in Tallahassee last night (AP)

-The big news going into last night's games was that the five remaining unbeaten teams were all in action (#1 Duke, #2 Ohio State, #3 Kansas, #4 Syracuse and #6 San Diego State). Most people thought UNLV over San Diego State or St. Johns over Syracuse would mark one of the undefeated's going down. Instead, it was the top-ranked Blue Devils that fell on the road to Florida State.  Big deal? I don't think so. There was no way Duke was going unbeaten this year. A loss on the road in ACC play won't hurt them that much and puts to rest all the hype of a possible undefeated season. Duke is usually always good for a road loss in conference play to a Florida State or a Virginia Tech, etc. In fact, I see the Blue Devils losing another game or two in conference play, even if they are the ONLY ACC team ranked in the Top 25. We all know Duke isn't the same team without Kyrie Irving, but they are still a top 3 team and I'd be surprised if they weren't in Houston come early April (Daily Onions Final Four Projection??). Breathe easy, Dick Vitale, your boys in blue will be just fine.

-With Duke losing, THE Ohio State University will take over the #1 position after their four point win at Michigan. OSU is 4-0 in the Big Ten, but three of those four games have been decided by 5 points or less. The Buckeyes host red-hot Penn State on Saturday.  The Nittany Lions are coming off back to back home wins against Michigan State and Illinois.  Can they make it three in a row over top 25 teams? In a word, No.

-Kansas was able to hold off the Mayor Fred Hoiberg and his Iowa State Cyclones, 84-79 in Ames. Don't sleep on the Cyclones. Hoiberg has them playing good basketball and while I don't think they'll make the tournament this year, they won't be a cake walk in the Big 12.

-Syracuse does what it does best, wins at Madison Square Garden, beating St. John's, 76-59. For the first time in a long time though, Syracuse has some company from another basketball squad in orange and blue that is playing well at the Garden (Knicks are 22-16, currently 6th in the Eastern Conference).

-A hundred percent of the time, San Diego State wins every time this season. The Aztecs kept its 18 game winning streak alive with a win over UNLV. They now own the longest active win streak in Division 1 basketball (and they ate a whole wheel of cheese). Stay classy, San Diego...State.

More Big E Hoops Weekend news coming later.