Kentucky Had a Little Lamb

Lamb is shooting 55% from 3 (Getty)

And he just dropped a bomb on Winthrop yesterday. Doron Lamb set the Kentucky record for points by a freshman with his 32 point performance. Lamb is one of three freshman that start for the Wildcats this year, and was probably the least heralded of the three coming into the season. Daily Onions has highlighted Terrence Jones previously, who has put up a measly 18 ppg and 9.5 rpg average eleven games into his college career, including five double-doubles (he's no Rick Jackson though). The other young gun is guard Brandon Knight, who was considered one of the best in recruiting class of 2010.

Kentucky depending on freshmen....sounds familiar.  And for that reason, Daily Onions is staying away. Last year, I was adamantly against Kentucky going far in the tournament. I was a huge John Wall fan, but wouldn't trust DaMarcus Cousins as far as I could throw him (maybe not the best analogy, since Cousins is a house...but you get the point).  So I stayed away, and the the Wildkits, a team ranked #1 for most of the season, were booted from the tourney by West Virginia in the Elite 8.

This year, I see the same. Next year, I see the same. For the third straight time, coach John Calipari (another member of the Daily Onions Don't Trust List) has the top rated recruiting class coming in next year. Odds that Jones, Knight and Lamb are all in Lexington next year are the same odds that (Alert: Non-basketball reference) Matt Dodge's family is inviting Tom Coughlin over for Christmas dinner. Jones and Knight are predicted to be Top 10 picks in June's NBA Draft.

Still smiling despite NCAA violations in his past (AP)

So is that what Calipari has made Kentucky? A one and done school.  Let's give it a shot with a team that depends on 70% of its productivity to come from freshmen. We don't win this year - try it again next year with a predominantly different cast of characters.  I guess so. Remember, at last year's NBA Draft, where five Kentucky players were drafted in the first round, Calipari said it was the best day in UK basketball history. Got it.

Well, maybe he "misremembers" the real history of the Kentucky basketball program. Ya know, some guy named Adolph Rupp, winningest program in college basketball history, 7 national championships, that kind of stuff.

Sometimes I wonder what Calipari's goal is. Prepare kids for the NBA, or win college titles? Two teams (UMass and Memphis) he's taken to the Final 4 have had those records erased from the record books for NCAA violations. I'm guessing maybe it is indeed prepping them for the next level. Is that wrong, not necessarily. In my opinion though, some of Coach Cal has done disrespects the college game, and the Kentucky faithful deserve better than that.

You Stay Classy, San Diego.....State

One can only imagine what the coverage would be like if Ron Burgandy and the Channel 4 News Team were covering this year's San Diego State basketball team.  San Diego State? Why do we care about San Diego State.

I'm sure these guys would be enjoying SDSU's early season success (Anchorman)

Well, mixed in with the 5 Big East teams and the normal Duke, Ohio State and Kansas, San Diego State is sitting comfortably in the Top 10....in the country. They are ranked 7th. Pretty impressive for a Mountain West Conference team. In fact, I'm not even mad, that's amazing.

The Aztecs best win of the season was game #2, when they beat then 12th ranked Gonzaga by 3.  The rest of their wins have been a grab bag of victories over the likes of IUPUI, St. Mary's, San Francisco, etc.

Coach Fisher doin' his thing (Getty)

Once the New Year hits, we'll start to learn just how classy the Aztecs really are, as in their first 6 games of January are matchups with Utah, UNLV (who just beat a short-handed Kansas State team), and the BYU Jimmers (for preseason All-American Jimmer Fredette).

What we do know about San Diego State is that they are well coached. Steve Fisher, the same Fisher that won a National Championship at Michigan in 1989, has had the Aztecs in the tournament three times during his tenure. Getting back to the field of 68 (that sounds weird) will be tough though. From the Mountain West Conference, there are four teams (SDSU, BYU, New Mexico and UNLV) that are receiving votes in the polls this week. Notice to all the BCS conference teams....beware of the Mountain Westers that might burst your bubble.

But March is a ways away, so in the meantime, let's just enjoy the Aztecs for now, and tune into Champ Kind's sports report on Channel 4 each night....whammmmmy.

Daily Onions Final Four Early Projection

One of my favorite things about Election night, is when CNN or another news media source starts declaring different states to a candidate. For example, you might hear something like this:

If Blitzer can predict, so can Daily Onions (CNN)

Wolf Blitzer: "With 2% of the vote counted in Wyoming, CNN is going to project and declare that state to candidate XYZ."

Hold on...what? You've only counted 2% of the vote but you are already awarding a state to someone? I don't think I completely understand that whole process, but it always seems to work.  So, Daily Onions is going to take a stab at it as well.

With 10 games in the books, Daily Onions is projecting THE Ohio State University to make the Final 4 this season. Here's why:

Hey Sullinger, see you in Houston? (Getty Images)

-Jared Sullinger: Arguably the best frosh in the country, he's averaging 18.5 ppg and 9.6 rpg thus far. He had 18 and 10 at the half on Saturday against South Carolina, including a bank three at the buzzer, which Raftery obviously dubbed, "with a kiiiisss" six times while going to commercial. He is also listed at 6-10, 280, which means he has plenty of room to put the rest of the team on his shoulders and make a Carmelo-ean run to the Final 4.

-Experience: Remember when OSU played in the National Championship game in 2006-07, with Greg Oden and Mike Conley, Jr. Yea, so does current OSU guard David Lighty, who played on that team as well..five years ago! Lighty somehow is playing in his 5th collegiate season (he actually only played 7 games in 08-09 before getting injured). Throw in senior shooter, Jon Diebler who has been playing big minutes for four years now, as well as senior power forward Dallas Lauderdale (are you allowed to have a first and last name, named after cities?). Junior William Buford is the Buckeyes 3rd leading scorer, and has averaged close to 30 minutes per game since stepping on campus. You can't coach experience, and OSU has it.

-Will Be Tested, but not Drained: The Big Ten is projected to have a pretty good season with teams like OSU, Michigan State, Purdue, Illinois, and Minnesota.  All good teams (not as dominant as, ahem, the Big East, who has five teams in the Top 10 right now), but I don't think they will get worn down because of conference play. Two of their last three games are against current Big Ten bottom feeders, IU and Penn State.  OSU should have some momentum going into postseason play and if all goes to plan, they'll most likely be playing the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament in Cleveland.

Dominant Player + Experience + Tough, but not too tough of a schedule = OSU in Final 4.

There you have it. One down, three to go. Daily Onions is looking forward to projecting their next Final Four pick, just a matter of when we'll be making the call. Hopefully we are as successful as Wolf and the crew.

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.

All Daily Onions Wants for Christmas is.....

-Someone who can shoot for Syracuse

-An NCAA Tournament berth for Northwestern – they have NEVER been to the NCAA Tournament (off to a good start this year at 7-0)

-A guarantee that no seasons will be wiped off the books at Kentucky while Calipari is there (Santa is shaking his head right now)

-DePaul to play their home games on campus in the heart of Lincoln Park, and not out at O’Hare – what’s that, you only have a small gym on campus – it’s cool, not many people are going to your games now anyway.

-The Big East to have 3 teams in the Final 4, and/or 6 teams in Elite 8 to prove their basketball dominance

Frank Martin, on a calm day.

 -A kinder, gentler Frank Martin (watching Kansas State games before bedtime will lead to nightmares)

-A step in the right direction for St. Johns – need NYC back in college basketball scene

-Success for young coaches Josh Pastner and Brad Stevens at respective schools, for a looooong time.

-No more rebuilding years for Tom Crean at Indiana

-A few minutes of a game for Rutgers coach Mike Rice to sit down and not say anything. Relax coach...believe me, your players don’t appreciate ridicule on every single play

-A full, healthy season for Duke's Kyrie Irving

Sweet vest, Coach Wright

-A new three-piece suit for Villanova’s Jay Wright – actually nevermind, he has way too many of those. While were at it, no need to get Bob Huggins another black windbreaker, or Mike Brey a mock turtleneck...what is up with Big East coaches wardrobes?

-A little less Dick Vitale  - you've done wonderful things for the game of college basketball, I'm just a bit worn out from you, that's all

-Gus Johnson and Bill Raftery calling the Final 4 and Championship game

I don't think this is too much to ask. Happy Holidays!

Three Days, Three Games, Three Alma Maters

 Let the countdown to Big E Hoops Weekend begin.  You may be asking what is this Big E Hoops Weekend Daily Onions speaks of? Pull up a chair, its pretty cool.

Cuse Is In the House, Oh My God

As I’ve mentioned, I went to Syracuse University. Many of my closest friends that I grew up went to West (by god) Virginia University. Another one of my best friends went to Monmouth University.

Somehow, someway, the basketball scheduling gods have aligned and look what they’ve done. 

Saturday, January 15^th – Monmouth University (yep, they have a Division 1 basketball program) at Robert Morris University (in Pittsburgh, basically)

Sunday, January 16^th – Purdue at West Virginia University (in Morgantown)

(Big) Monday, January 17^th – Syracuse at Pittsburgh (in Pittsburgh)

Almost Heaven.

For those of you scoring at home, that’s three college hoops games, in three days, featuring the schools that my closest friends and I attended, all within an hour and a half of each other. 

Home base for the weekend will be the Palace of Brady and Brandi Smith in the Steel City. Final roster for the weekend is still being determined, but it looks like we’ll be going at least 6 deep.

What is this? The Monmouth Logo.

As we approach that epic weekend, Daily Onions will not only take a look at the teams participating in the games, but we’ll also highlight the people making the trip.

And I know you are all wondering….and the answer is yes. Daily Onions will have a running diary of all (well, maybe not all) the weekend’s activities. Stay tuned….just 28 days away.

Daily Onions Note: Check back later today for Daily Onions Christmas List!

Concrete Jungle Where Dreams are Made Of

That's Amare: He's got 8 straight games with 30 or more points (Photo: NYDaily News)

 

New York. No real basketball dreams made in NYC over the past few years. But now in 2010, the New York Knickerbockers are FINALLY relevant again (for now). In case you missed it, the Knicks have won 8 in a row, which is the third longest current win streak in the league behind the Celtics (10) and the Heat (9). Funny we mention the Celtics and Heat because both of those teams will be taking their talents to the world's most famous arena over the next 3 nights.

New York Knick fans have been waiting, and waiting, and waiting for something to get excited about. Tonight's game against the Celtics, and Friday's game against the Heat will be two of the hottest tickets in town, and MSG is sure to be a great atmosphere. Personally, I'm not a Knicks fan, but the NBA is better when the Knicks are relevant, so I am rooting them to be back in the picture.

With that said, lets take a look at their 8 game win streak - Detroit, NJ, New Orleans, Toronto, Minnesota, Toronto, Washington, Denver. Take out Denver and New Orleans, and no other team in that stretch has over a .360 win percentage. So now you expect me to say that the streak doesn't mean anything because the teams they beat were bad. Not exactly. 

That's what "good" teams do.  They win the games they are supposed to win, and that's what the Knicks have done.  Can the Knicks beat the Celtics and Heat this week - definitely (it's the NBA). Will they? Who knows. But we should be able to agree on this.  The 2010 Knicks have brought life back to Madison Square Garden, and are on their way to putting together a pretty nice season. Let's just hope they continue it the rest of the year, if for no other reason, to give their fans something to be excited about.