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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

The Weekend that Was

Kemba was kept in check for only so long. (AP)

-Kemba Walker reads Daily Onions! Or at least that's what I am telling myself, after he went out and willed UConn to a win on the road at Texas. Using my post last week as bulletin board material, Kemba was 8-27 shooting and he scored 22 points, including this ridiculous shot as the shot clock was expiring at the end of the game. He also hit the game winner in overtime and grabbed 9 rebounds. Big time win for the Huskies, and they get Rutgers and DePaul next.

-Georgetown continues to baffle me. I want to like the Hoyas and possibly pick them as a team to go deep into the tournament, but late game situations have been killing them of late.  Despite having an experienced PG in Chris Wright, the Hoyas turned it over on their final four possessions of the game against West Virginia. For the game, Wright had 5 turnovers and 2 assists...not really what you are looking for from your floor general. G'town drops to 1-3 in the Big East and now has to host Pittsburgh on Wednesday night. On the flip side, huge with a capital U, win for the Mountaineers. Exactly what they needed after dropping two of their first three conference games.

-University of Kentucky fans took out their frustration on the Enes Kanter decision on a New York Times writer, and then watched their team lose on the road to Georgia, 77-70. Hey UK fans, your team might be young and immature, doesn't mean you have to be.

-As predicted on Friday, Villanova knocked Cincinnati from the unbeaten list. Other notable results from the weekend: Penn State knocked off Michigan State, Colorado beat 8th ranked Missouri, Notre Dame beat St. Johns, Kansas needed overtime to win in Ann Arbor, and UCF dropped their first game of the season at Houston.

-Coming tomorrow: Daily Onions starts to breakdown the games that are a part of the upcoming Big E Hoops Weekend.

The Weekend that Was

Things have been a bit light in college basketball the past week or two, thanks to finals...ya know, for classes, since these players are "student"-athletes (that's a rant for another time). A quick look at some of the happenings in the college basketball world from this past weekend.

Self probably told Selby to nail a '3' to win the game (KansasCity.com)

-Early Onions Award goes to Josh Selby, the freshman guard from Kansas. After sitting out the first 9 games of the season due to an NCAA violation suspension, Selby nailed a 3 pointer with 26 seconds left to give the Jayhawks the lead in their 2 point win over USC on Saturday. In his first collegiate game Selby also dropped 21 points. Raftery was in Columbus for the Ohio State - South Carolina game, but I'm sure he dropped an "Onions" call when he saw the highlight.

-There were three upsets this weekend....the biggest which happened in the backyard of Daily Onions.  UIC (that's University of Illinois-Chicago) took down the 14th ranked University of Illinois at the United Center. The Illini shot 32% percent from the field, and 23% from 3 pt, and committed 15 turnovers, against a team that came into the game on a four game losing streak.  Illinois has a lot of experience with McCamey, Davis, Tisdale, etc, but they sure did lay an egg in this "neighborhood" rivalry game.

-Gonzaga finally got a quality non-conference win this weekend, as they went to Dallas and beat the 9th ranked Baylor Bears. Good for the Zags, who had one of the toughest early season schedules (along with Butler and Michigan State) in the country.

-Florida (#24) got a nice win at home against 6th ranked Kansas State on Saturday as well. Frank Martin's Wildcats will struggle all season if they shoot 21% in the second half of games like they did against the Gators.  K-State has a ton of athleticism and talent, but have struggled the last two games (a close victory over Loyola and the loss against Florida).  No time to think about it though, as they play UNLV tomorrow night.

-Daily Onions Curse Update: Since I wrote about the Knicks on Wednesday, they've lost 3 straight (Boston, Miami and at Cleveland). Since I wrote about Tennessee last Monday, they've lost two in a row (Oakland and at Charlotte). We gave Oakland some props, and they lost to Michigan. We'll keep making our predictions and hopefully one day our curse will be as popular as Sports Illustrated's.

The Weekend that Was

Let's take a quick look at some of the happenings in the college hoops world from this weekend:

-Just over one month ago, University of Tennessee men's basketball program was in the news for a variety of wrong reasons. From off the court issues like coach Bruce Pearl's admission to committing NCAA recruiting violations, to on the court issues like his team losing an exhibition game to Indianapolis (Lemoyne, anyone?), it was a not the greatest start in Knoxville.

Hopson is boxin' it up this season. (AP Photos)

Amazing what a month can do. The Vols are 7-0 now, including wins over two of the Big East's top teams, Villanova (at MSG) and most recently Pitt (in Pittsburgh) on Saturday.  Leading the way for Tennesse has been Scotty Hopson.  Daily Onions contributing reporter, Ramy Nammour, had a front row seat at Saturday's game and said Hopson "has the game and the look to be a top player.....great shooting form, athletic, put on a few pounds and he is set..." Not sure if "the look" had to do with Hopson's "Kid 'n Play" hairstyle, but Scotty has been the Vols leading scorer with 17.9 ppg.  The rest of his game needs to come around a bit, as he only averages 3.7 rpg, and has 21 turnovers compared to 10 assists on the season. UT, however, definitely a team to watch in the SEC.

-Following their showdown at MSG on Tuesday night, Syracuse and Michigan State went in opposite directions in their next game.  Syracuse pasted Colgate (athankyou) 100-43, while Michigan State struggled to beat Oakland, winning by 1 point.


-With Kyrie Irving on the sideline, let's welcome Jared Sullinger to the #1 spot on the Freshman of the Year Leaderboard.  The 6-8, 280 lb freshman forward dropped a 40 spot on Friday night against the Palindromes from IUPUI.  Yes, I know its IUPUI...but still, 40 for a freshman big man is impressive.

-The comeback story of Indiana University isn't ready to make that next step....at least not yet.  After starting the season 7-1, IU lost its first true test, on the road at Kentucky.  The score doesn't do the Hoosiers justice (81-62), as it was a 4 point game with about 5 minutes to play. But not making a FG from the 9 minute mark until 45 seconds left, isn't the best way to win basketball games.  Daily Onions is a big fan of Tom Crean, and knows he will bring IU back to the national stage within the next few years.