Draft Decisions: On JP, Justin, and a Culture Where College Players Can't Win

Brendan Brody reflects on some of this year's early departures from college basketball to the NBA:

In perusing NBADraft.net, Facebook accounts, and media tweets, everyone likes to make their opinions known on who is making a good decision and who isn't when it comes to entering the NBA draft. I used to be guilty of this judgmental activity, as I became a little kid having a temper tantrum any time someone from UNC had the audacity to try and make basketball a professional enterprise without first earning a degree. This angst was based on a very selfish ideal. I am an unabashed college basketball fan who only pays attention to the NBA once the playoffs start. Yet I've had a recent epiphany. And I'm coming to grips with my old selfish ways.

A Fan's DNA: Raising a son who knows Dean Smith

My sister and I grew up in the home of an avid UNC fan, our father. When she grew up, she married a Duke fan. Two months ago, she and the Duke fan had a kid together. I asked her to write about it:

In sickness and in health.

Parents pass all kinds of things on to their children. Hair color, skin tone, blood type, mannerisms. Of course, biological parents have no control over what the child’s hair color will actually be. It is all complicated genetic science. And it is all out of the parents’ control. So no matter who the child looks like, and whether or not the child’s genes come from her parents, all parents work to pass on values, morals, and the traits that make up a personality. Yet, even though parents of all types work to instill these things in their children, they really have little control over what gets carried on and what gets left behind.

Recent Rumblings: @TheClassical, @TheBallerBall, & @RushtheCourt

While Langston took care of last Saturday's SEC post, our blog's been reduced to a weekly football caption over the last month. However, that doesn't mean we haven't been writing elsewhere recently. Check out the links below, and we promise to diversify our portfolio here in the coming days (especially now that basketball is truly upon us).

Just make me look good guys, and I promise to give you all the credit. 

In the Time of Tar Heels: A Short Story

The week ended and the weekend began with Duke losing. I laughed.

After I laughed, I texted Aisander, a Duke fan, "At least your sons aren't old enough that they will remember what Mercer means." Then I laughed some more and wished Aisander's sons were older.

Number of the Day: Kendall Marshall's Four Fouls

This Tar Heel team is a margarita on the beach one moment and a migraine the next. During the second half of their game against Maryland (who isn't very good), I kept waiting for the nine point deficit to snowball into thirty points, as it did against Florida State not too long ago, for these are the kind of expectations that rest like Jenga blocks on the rickety shoulders of Tyler Zeller and John Henson and glass ankle of Harrison Barnes. Those guys grabbed the rebounds, altered Maryland's shots, and got to pose after clutch baskets, but it's Kendall Marshall's vision that makes all of this team's manic depressive whims bearable.

A Pile of Light Blue Burning: FSU DISMANTLES UNC

Tyler Zeller tried, I think.

Number One North Carolina Takes Off Tonight

Lanes like runways and the sky is blue:

It's been said that John Henson's bones are hollow as crack pipes

                               and fallopian tubes,

Molotov Cocktail: Links and News

Pic from The Velvet Rocket

-First, here's a story I wrote on the NBA labor talks over at TFT: "Occupy Wall Street: NBA Lockout Edition." It features a distressed David Stern, NBA players as protestors, and a molotov cocktail. Let me know if I'm crazy or not, and remember it's only fiction--sort of.

North Carolina Beats Duke: Championships and Refutations

A lot of things were said about this Carolina team before the season and during their rocky 4-3 start, but things don't always follow literary formulas and end where they began.

It Could Have Been About Anything Else: UNC Beats FSU in the Last Second

It could have been about anything else.

It could have been about about Kendall Marshall and how his compound eyes netted another eight assists.

Around the Power 6 "Plus 1"

ACC
Ascending: Duke
Descending: Maryland
Player of the Week: Nolan Smith, Duke (23.3 pts, 4.3 rbs, 4.5 assts, 1 stl)
On the Horizon: Maryland at VT (Tues.), BC at UNC (Sat.)

My favorite team (which so happens to be dominated by freshmen and sophomores) was up 14 points at halftime in Cameron Indoor. This was a shocker, to say the least. More on this game to come, but Duke gets the nod because they proved they're the class of a very weak ACC. Even without Kyrie Irving, the Devils have found another scoring option in Seth Curry to go with an ever-dominant Nolan Smith. Smith hit every big shot and put Duke on his back against Carolina, with Kyle Singler doing nothing and the Plumlee brothers looking like they had money on UNC. He's inched his way ever closer to serious national player of the year consideration. Maryland is now 5-5, sitting at 16-9 overall and needing a spectacular finish to avoid the NIT. Maryland gets a chance to move up a little if they can win in Blacksburg Tuesday, while Boston College gets a chance to avenge the ass-kicking they absorbed at home against Carolina on Saturday.

Big East
Ascending: Georgetown
Descending: Cincinnati
Player of the Week: Chris Wright, Georgetown (16.5 pts, 4.3 rbs, 5.5 assists)
On the Horizon: St. John's at Marquette (Tues.), Georgetown at UConn (Wed.), UConn at Louisville (Fri.), Pitt at St. John's (Sat.).

Georgetown has shaken off its 1-4 start to climb into the top 10. They've now won 8 league games in a row, using multiple contributions to make up for losing Greg Monroe to the NBA. I was seriously considering putting Marquette in the descending spot, as both they and the Bearcats look to be the first casualties of the murderers row that is Big East conference play. Chris Wright struggled right around when the Hoyas were 1-4, but has gotten his act back together just in time for Georgetown latest hot streak. My only knock on him is his inconsistent shooting, but he's one of the best point guards in the country in terms of leadership and intangibles, proving this with his play of late. St. John's looks to continue its streak of big wins at MSG, this time getting a Pitt team that still might not have Ashton Gibbs on Saturday. Also, UConn gets Georgetown at home, then has to turn around and go to Louisville in a rare Friday night contest.

Big 10
Ascending: Wisconsin
Descending: Illinois
Player of the Week: Jordan Taylor, Wisconsin (22 pts, 4 rbs, 6.5 assts, 4.3/1 assist-to-turnover ratio)
On the Horizon: Michigan St. at Ohio St. (Tues.), Wisconsin at Purdue (Wed.), and Ohio St. at Purdue (Sun.)

Wisconsin was the first team to knock off Ohio St. just like they did in football, winning on Saturday and climbing to number 10 nationally. They look ready to go much further than their first round exit last season when they lost to Cornell. Michigan St. has been the team most criticized for leadership questions, but Illinois has fallen to pieces, largely because of a rift between the seniors and some of the younger players. Bruce Weber has benched Demetri McCamey and Mike Tisdale, as a team that was clearly going to be dancing a couple of weeks ago now has some work to do. Taylor gets player of the week (it's actually 2 weeks, but who's counting) largely off of his work Saturday, going off much like Nolan Smith did against UNC. Sparty gets one of their final chances more a marquee win on Tuesday, while the spotlight shines upon West Lafayette as Purdue gets 2 games against the league's elite in four days.

Big 12
Ascending: Texas
Descending: Oklahoma .
Player of the Week: Jordan Hamilton (18.3 pts, 7.8 rbs, 1 blk)
On the Horizon: Kansas at Kansas St. (Mon.) and Colorado at Kansas (Sat.)

Texas continues to roll unexpectedly and at this pace should be headed toward a number one seed. Oklahoma had a decent stretch early on, but the team that lost to D3 Chaminade has shown that they simply have lost too much talent in the last two years (Where the hell are Tommy Mason-Griffin and Keith “Tiny” Gallon even playing right now?) to compete in the second or even the third best league in the land. Jordan Hamilton has been player of the week two times in a row now, providing a little bit of everything as the best player on the 2nd best team in the country. My preseason final four pick Kansas St. gets the Jayhawks at home in a non-eventful week schedule wise, and the Jayhawks also get a relatively frisky Colorado team Saturday at home.

SEC
Ascending: Florida
Descending: LSU
Player of the Week: Chandler Parsons, Florida ( 16.3 pts, 11.7 rbs, 5 assts)
On the Horizon: Vanderbilt at Georgia (Tues.), Georgia at Tennessee (Sat.)

I'm firmly planted on the Florida bandwagon right now, if only because they're another one of my Final Four picks that actually isn't making me look completely stupid right now. The Gators are now 9-2 and running away from the rest of SEC East. Remember when LSU had players like Big Baby Davis and Tyrus Thomas, all of five years ago? Well they don't have them anymore, and their record of 10-15 shows it. Parsons gets a free pass for playing hurt against UT on Saturday, but averaged a double-double in his 3 other games in the last two weeks. Georgia gets a chance to bump up its resume with challenging games against Vandy and Tennessee, which could vault them to second behind Florida.

Mountain West
Ascending: San Diego St
Descending: UNLV
Player of the Week: D.J.Gay, San Diego St. (12.5 pts, 4.8 assts, 2.3 stls, 18/0 asst to turnover ratio)
On the Horizon: New Mexico at San Diego St. (Wed.), UNLV at Colorado St. (Sat.)

I've been as guilty as anyone in perpetrating the “2011 Jimmer Fredette Love Fest,” but San Diego St. should be getting just as much pub as the Mighty Mormons. They're now 25-1, and could arguably make a case for a number one seed if they win out. UNLV now sits at 6-5 in a league that was supposed to be better than it has been (as I rethink whether the Mountain West really deserves to be included as the “plus one” part of this bi-monthly blog enterprise). They've blown chances against the top 2, and now will be on the bubble unless they do some damage in the conference tourney. Again the player of the week spot is usually exclusively Jimmer's domain, but this week I'm going with SDSU point guard D.J. Gay. Stunningly, he has gone a four game stretch without turning the ball over once. New Mexico has been just as disappointing as UNLV, but gets a crack at the Aztecs in San Diego on Wednesday, as the MWC tries to get more than two teams into the NCAA's.

Pac 10
Ascending: UCLA
Descending: Cal.
Player of the Week: Tyler Honeycutt ( 8.3 pts, 7.8 rbs, 4.3 assts, 3.3 blks)
On the Horizon: Washington St. at Arizona (Thurs.), Washington at Arizona (Sat.)

I try not to harbor an East Coast bias in writing this, and in doing so I've actually watched Pac 10 games quite a bit in the last month. The league isn't as bad as it was last year, and the main reason is the reemergence of “Blue Blood” programs like Arizona and UCLA. The Bruins look to be hitting their stride, entering the week at 9-3 in the league, and getting a big non-conference win against their old boy Steve Lavin and St. John's on 2-6. Cal was looking like they were going to shake off their early struggles with a strong conference start, but it looks as though losing in triple overtime to Arizona might have been the death knell to their year. Honeycutt didn't put up huge scoring numbers, but he did have an 8 block game as is considered to be a potential lottery pick. Arizona looks to continue a streak that has them up to number 13 in the country, getting the two talented Washington schools at home in the span of two days.

Duke-UNC Recap and other Observations
I'm not normally a believer in the term “moral victory,” that being said, I came away from the Greatest Rivalry in College Sports in good spirits. Like I mentioned up top, UNC was up 14 points at the half, something that I and probably a great number of Carolina fans would not have fathomed going into the game. Especially after the blowouts last year, even if UNC should have won the game. But to go into Duke and play that well in stretches, bodes well for the rest of the season. The major key that I can see going forward is the need to develop one or two consistent shooters. If Reggie Bullock or someone else can start knocking it down from deep, biased or not, this is a dangerous team that could end up in Houston for the Final 4. Barnes is starting to get it, and Kendall Marshall has been a revelation. They beat people up on the boards, and after some early season problems defensively, they do a good job locking people down. I don't want to say we're back, but after the carnage of last year, I'm highly pleased with the improvement I've seen from Chapel Hill.

Kansas is a lot better than I thought. Last Monday in the Missouri game, they took the Tigers' best punch in the beginning of the game, with Mizzou starting off 7-9 from the field, and ended up putting up 103 points and winning by 17. Russ' cousins Markieff and Marcus are the real deal, and the rest of the supporting cast have all gotten better since last year's early exit, offsetting the losses of players like Sherron Collins and Xavier Henry. They are now number one, and they deserve to be.

Three teams that I saw in spurts over the weekend as I attempted to channel surf sans remote control (harder than you think unless you're 50 or older) that will be top 10 teams next year are Vandy, Louisville, and UConn. Vanderbilt has shooter John Jenkins, Festus Ezeli, Brad Tinsley, and possibly Jefferey Taylor all coming back. Louisville brings in 2 McDonald's All-Americans to a team that has dealt with all kinds of injuries, all the while losing just Preston Knowles. UConn is probably losing Kemba Walker, but will bring back everybody else, including freshman guards Jeremy Lamb and Shabazz Napier who have become the 2nd and 3rd scoring options the Huskies need with teams keying on Walker. All of these teams have Sweet 16 potential right now, but the future is extremely bright as I try to get a jump on actually picking teams for the Final Four in the preseason that even make the NCAA's.

Every Family Has One: Larry Drew II We Barely Knew Ye

"...when the little boy discovered, at four...that only birds and airplanes could fly--he lost interest in himself."       

 --Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon

I forget who the game was against. It was early in the season, and the opponent didn't much matter. I felt confident that a North Carolina team that featured Tyler Hansbrough, Danny Green, Ty Lawson, and Wayne Ellington as upper classmen would steam roll to something, and they did: they won a championship. When a group of guys have played together for three or four years, you know what to expect from them. You know who's going to do the scoring, what the passes will look like, and what effort will be given on defense. It's all so familiar that the present is already past tense, which is why those early games in the 2008-2009 championship season were really all about the new guys: Justin Watts, Tyler Zeller, Ed Davis, and Larry Drew. The question of the 2009 season was never really about whether Hansbrough and company would carry on the Carolina legacy, but how would the freshmen handle playing with young men that were already legends. And the early signs were promising.

UNC Routs NC State: Mr. Barnes, Your Arrival Time Is Approaching

How does one judge the moment of an individual's arrival? The term arrival is thrown around like it is some cumulative moment, that everything in life has added up to. We say a player has arrived as if that settles all debate on an athlete's legacy and there is nothing else to add, but rarely, are moments in sports so final, or even satisfying, or distressful, as we would like to make them. Brett Favre is less than his touchdowns, but more than his interceptions. Michael Jordan is less cool than his highlight reel, and LeBron James is more sinister than a triple double, but better than The Decision. These people we call athletes are more of a twisted, mutated bird species than they are pure hawks and doves. Take Jay Cutler, for example, and it is impossible to paint him as a total quitter and wimp because he went out of a championship game with a knee sprain, when one considers that the man gets pummeled weekly and has battled diabetes for most of his life. These moments of definition are never the entire story. They are never all-encompassing. Humanity is too complicated for that.

North Carolina freshman Harrison Barnes, the preseason All-American and one-time projected overall pick in this year's NBA draft, waited eighteen games this college basketball season before crossing into the stratosphere of twenty points. He dropped twenty-five on NC State yesterday, and it would be easy to say that he has now arrived on the college stage as a force to be reckoned with, especially since he also scored a last second, game-winning shot on Miami earlier in the week, but it's not that simple. Harrison Barnes was a legit college player prior to this week, already a vital cog in turning around Carolina's pedestrian 4-3 start to the season to a surging 14-5 record that features a 5-1 start in the ACC, giving a strong defensive effort every night and demonstrating an ability to hit clutch threes on the road or at home. Harrison Barnes may have smiled wide enough to say finally yesterday and let out a sigh of relief at how easily and often the ball went in the basket for him, against the Wolfpack, but that twenty-five points was not his biggest contribution to Carolina basketball in these early stages of his career.

The goodwill was there for all to see. John Henson was cracking jokes, dunking like Walt Disney's Goofy used to ski off cliffs. Tyler Zeller was grinning like some old church Deacon remembering the first time he got drunk at a barn dance, and even Old Roy couldn't help but be happy for a moment. The focus seemed to orbit around Harrison Barnes' stat line, but the thing was, that wasn't it at all. This team was happy because the real gravity of the moment was that this young team is finally starting to realize its identiy, something that didn't seem possible when it got blown out three games ago by Georgia Tech. At that moment, this team seemed as lost as it had last year when it was depending on Deon Thompson, Ed Davis, and Will Graves for leadership, which was like relying on cannibals to perform CPR. 

The negative vibes from last year's teams had infiltrated the Tar Heel fanbase to such an extent that Roy Williams, winner of two national championships in the last six years and coach of five Final Four teams in the last nine years, was no longer seen as a viable source of leadership by his own basketball family. People were not only questioning his coaching abilities, but his recruiting strategies as well, and the blood in the water was blinding them to the fact that this team was not last year's team, that this year's team fights back from double digit margins on the road and bounces back from twenty-point blowouts with three consecutive conference wins, that the much maligned Larry Drew II is embracing a role off the bench, that slow-footed Kendall Marshall can run Roy's roadrunner offense, that Reggie Bullock can carry a team offensively in spurts, that Leslie McDonald is for real, that John Henson may actually be a basketball player, that Tyler Zeller is a serviceable big man, and that, yes, Harrison Barnes can score over twenty points in a game. This team will not win a conference championship or a national title this year, and it may even get swept by Duke, but after two consecutive years of losing at least its top three scorers and having to rebuild its rotations and talent base, this team is displaying signs not only that it will get what Roy is preaching but that it wants to hear the sermon. This team is hungry for success, not draft status or personal stats, and that in and of itself is the most telling sign of how Roy Williams is shaping this team.

Harrison Barnes' twenty-five points is something to smile at, but only in the way that a kid smiles at a passing plane, unsure of where it's going to land. Enjoy the flight; hopefully, it's just beginning.

Dissecting North Carolina's 4-3 Start

 

Before I begin, Teach, I know you'll disagree with half of this, but you know I'm right; after all, you're already dealing with this in your talk of John Henson's unique fear of the rim.

I refuse to go through another season like last year. I'm not unreasonable to the point that I expect a championship each year, but if you have the University of North Carolina jersey on, you should be, at a minimum, in the top 25 each year. You shouldn't carelessly turn the ball over time after time. You shouldn't play scared. You shouldn't decide when you're down by 12 with 4 minutes left that now it's time to start playing D. What makes it worse is that Duke looks unstoppable. They have no holes, as the team I thought would beat them, and still might, got beat up last night in Durham. I'm not here to talk about Duke right now. I don't want to vomit on my keyboard. I need to vent and illustrate what I see, and what can be done about it before it's too late, before I'm watching NIT games sometime in mid-March with lukewarm interest, hoping that next year my team will be back in the Dance.

John Henson's Fear of the Rim

His wingspan is seven feet, and with arms like that, one would think he could fly just by flapping them.  One would think that he would have no problem hoisting an orange sphere from the foul line to the rim, with arms like that.  But he does.

John Henson is scared of the rim.

Ed Davis Declares for the Draft

Is he going?  Yes.  Is he ready?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  Am I upset? A little (maybe a lot).  Do I understand why he's leaving?  Yeah, it makes perfect sense.  I would probably go too.

Breakfast with Berndon: Cheaters Sometimes Prosper?

In this edition of B.B.E., Berndon tries to replace his first love with another, if only for a couple weeks. Hit the jump for the result.

Breakfast with Berndon: Capping off the Weekend

 

Author’s note: I’m making B.B.E. two parts this week. I wrote way too much about Duke-UNC to fit in my usual stuff, so I’m going to just put in the recaps and a much smaller version of “Around the Power 6.” Tomorrow, I’m going to take a stab at breaking down the Conference tourneys, and at picking my All-League teams for these conferences.

Duke 82, UNC 50: Just typing that score would have been unfathomable last year, two months ago, hell even two days ago. I brilliantly predicted that UNC would pull off the upset, but they weren’t remotely in the game from the opening tip. These two teams aren’t even in the same stratosphere anymore. The matchup was about as one-sided as if my Chancellor team played against Oak Hill Academy.

The only thing I kept thinking of was when I was playing 8th grade AAU ball. We lost to Prince William like 96-20, and the game was called after 3 quarters, making this the first and only time I’ve ever seen the slaughter rule applied to a basketball game. Honestly, they could and probably should have called this one at halftime. It wasn’t just a talent discrepancy because Carolina arguably isn’t that far away from Duke in this area. But in terms of heart and other intangibles, it wasn’t even close. Carolina didn’t fight. They were the pacifist who just kept getting punched in the mouth repeatedly.  They had worse body language after turnovers than the 6th grade girls team my father coaches. By the time you hit college and have a D1 scholarship, you should have learned to run back on defense without pouting or sulking.          

So where does Carolina go from here? I mean aside from the NIT, which they might not even get into. Honestly, and this might be a little bit of a knee-jerk reaction here, but I feel like Roy should do what Calipari did when he took over at Kentucky and just clean house. Scholarships are renewable, and from the way that these players “competed” this season, it might be wise for Roy to basically tell some of them they should try out another program. Kentucky brought in John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Daniel Orton, Eric Bledsoe, and Darnell Dodson, keeping Patrick Patterson, Darius Miller, and DeAndre Liggins as the only holdovers from the Billy Gillespe regime. Why couldn’t Roy do the same with Harrison Barnes, Reggie Bullock, and Kendall Marshall? Rebuild everything around these 3, keep John Henson, Dexter Strickland, Tyler Zeller, and maybe the Wear brothers, see if Ed Davis comes back, shorten the rotation, and go from there.

From what I saw this season, I don’t want Larry Drew running the offense, and I don’t want Will Graves erratically launching airballs from the perimeter. You could argue that UNC has won two national titles in 5 years, and that they shouldn’t necessarily go drastic with changing everything and panic. But it’s not just the 16-15 record, it’s the way they underachieved. This wasn’t the only time this season that they were simply outworked in route to losing. It happened repeatedly, and inexperience played a role; but, in the one-and-done climate that is college basketball today, you can’t sit around and wait for freshman and sophomores to figure things out. Injuries played a role, but they shouldn't have to the extent they did. They still had plenty of depth and should have been able to play through everything.

I honestly think that if Bobby Frasor would have been granted a 5th year, things might have been different. Frasor might have been able to do what Ginyard and Thompson obviously could not: lead this young team and get them to go all out and represent Carolina basketball the right way. Hometown biases aside, Frasor was a tremendous leader last season, never bitching about playing time, and stepping in for Lawson when he was injured, providing quality minutes and not making the mistakes that were made this season, always scrapping and hustling along the way. Ginyard and Thompson were always supporting actors, not leads that can carry a picture. Their lack of leadership had this team doomed from the jump. I just don’t even feel remotely comfortable with what is coming back, and again, it would be different if they lost a bunch of close games where they fought like heck and gave it all they had. But they laid down in way too many games and I don’t know if Roy can fix this stuff in practices. To go from having probably one of the hardest working teams in the country to the one that underachieved the most means that it’s not going to be just a matter of the team magically getting it next year and taking back their spot in the top 25. Roy needs to change things up, cut the dead weight, and start over. I don’t want to see Duke 82, UNC 50 ever again. Carolina’s the only consistently good team that I cheer for, I’d hate to see this change, with Roy’s legacy fading into the background in the process.
Man of the Match: Duke’s Program in general

 Maryland 79, Duke 72: I went through a lot to watch this game. I had to go somewhere during the first half, so I decided to DVR it and watch the whole thing after its completion. I was about 5 minutes in, when my ex-girlfriend called, which resulted in us fighting and talking for a good hour. I then proceeded to watch everything up until 1:27 left in the second half, where the DVR shut if off. I’m new to having a DVR, and didn’t realize that everything would shut off right at 11. I didn’t know what to do, but luckily ESPN 2 was showing a replay of the game from 1:30-3 in the morning. So I jumped right back in at the 1:27 mark, trying my absolute hardest to watch without looking at the bottom line updates. Long story short, it was Duke-Maryland, and with the Terps getting the win, it was well worth my struggles to bring my loyal readers, all 5 of them, my thoughts. Both of these teams will be around until at least the second week of the NCAA’s. Begrudgingly, I give Duke credit for coming back from an early 11 point deficit. Scheyer and Smith seemingly hit shot after shot, which bodes well for the Dookies because guard play is always a factor in the dance. Brian Zoubek has turned into a rebounding machine, and although he seemingly always shoots about 5-14, Kyle Singler is usually good for a couple of clutch 3’s and big rebounds each time out. As for Maryland, Grevis Vazquez is simply one of the best guards in all the land. I think the last, or second to last shot he hit, where he dribbled into 3 people and seemingly just threw the ball at the rim, is a microcosm for who he is as a player. It is one of those shots where coaches scream “No, no, no, Yes!!!” You question his methods sometimes, but he gets the job done. Jordan Williams bears an uncanny resemblance to a young Sean May, and he had a very Sean May-like output of 15 points, 11 boards, and 3 blocks. Vazquez led the Terps with 20, while Nolan Smith also had 20 for Duke. Now, the clash in Durham between Duke and the Tarheels takes on added importance, with UNC now getting a chance to spoil Duke’s chances at winning the league. (As you read above, you saw how that turned out).
Man of the Match: Vazquez 20 pts, 4 rbs, 5 assts

Tennesee 75, Mississippi St. 59: I watched UT play for the first time this season, so I could argue more effectively with Langston about their merits or lack of them. I also wanted to check them out because they have beaten arguably the two best teams going in Kansas and Kentucky. I don’t really think this game was a case of the Vols playing great, but simply Miss. St. playing terribly. They got down 17-0, then pretty much ignored Jarvis Varnado and just shot threes. What Tennessee does have going for them, aside from “Rocky Top” being a pretty sweet song, is that they are deep and athletic. Scotty Hopson relies on shooting triples a little too much, but when he’s on, he’s tough to stop. J.P. Prince led the Vols with 16, while Brian Williams had 10 points and 13 rebounds. UT could go anywhere from the Final Four to out in the first round, but either way they’ll make it interesting.
Man of the Match: Prince 16 pts, 6 rbs, 3 assts, 2 stls

"Around the Power 6"

ACC

Ascending: Maryland
Descending: Georgia Tech
Player of the Week: Greivis Vazquez (21.5 pts, 5 assts, 2.5 stls)

Big East
Ascending: West Virginia
Descending: Cincinnati
Player of the Week: Deshaun Butler (21.5 pts, 8 rbs, 4 assts)

Big 12
Ascending: Texas A&M
Descending: Oklahoma
Player of the Week: Cory Higgins (24.5 pts, 4.5 rbs, 3 stls)

Big 10
Ascending: Wisconsin
Descending: Illinois
Player of the Week: Raymar Morgan (19 pts, 9 rbs, 2 stls)

SEC
Ascending: Tennessee
Descending: Mississippi St.
Player of the Week: Mikhail Torrance (15 pts, 9 rbs, 7 assts)

Pac 10
Ascending: Arizona St.
Descending: UCLA
Player of the Week: Matthew Bryan-Amaning (14 pts, 10.5 rbs, 2 blks)

LCB Hoops Picks: March Towards Madness

This week me and Berndon take a look at the big game between Texas and Baylor... Oh and two schools from North Carolina that are playing sometime this weekend. I hear there is some sort of history between the two institutions.

An Angry, Less Sophisticated UNC Rant

To steal from a little Jay-Z diddy entitled "Public Service Announcement," Allow me to reintroduce myself, my name is Brod, B to the Rody. And while i've never moved snowflakes by the oz, I similarly broke the law and paid the price for it. With that sordid chapter now behind me, I can move on with my life and discuss socially relevant topics like college basketball. Namely, the defending champions who are currently defending their championship like a bunch of hyper-active retarded children attempting to play capture the flag. Needless to say, Georgia Tech, Clemson, and fucking UVA, amongst others have taken their turns stealing our sky blue colored flag and are stomping all over it. I had positive aspirations at the beginning of the season, knowing full well that we'd at least make a run at the Sweet 16, but now the NIT seems like a more feasable goal. In closing, I would like to call out, question, or simply wonder what is going on with 5 Tarheels that have let the Carolina nation down.

1. Marcus Ginyard: The glue guy/defensive stopper has been a turnover machine, and has not been anything near the stabilizing force that a 5th year Senior should be on a team loaded with underclassmen. While he is playing hurt, Ginyard has disappointed by allowing countless blown leads and sloppy basketball to continue on his watch. Ginyard and Thompson have been there through the glory years, and one of them needs to draw a line in the sand and say enough is enough. We will get this defensive stop, we will get this loose ball, because that's what winning teams do.

2. Will Graves: Teach gave us an extensive pyschological profile in a previous article about Mr.Graves, so all I can say is that he's the only legitimate perimeter threat, so why isn't he getting more looks? I've been saying since the beginning of the season that he needs to emerge as the main offensive weapon, yet he still disappears for large segments of the game.

3. Dexter and Larry: One supposedly plays too fast, the other doesn't look to run enough. Which means if Roy could somehow magically combine them into one uber-hybrid point guard.....they still wouldn't be as good as Ty Lawson. Drew has great assist numbers, but kills the boys in blue with inopportune turnovers. Neither can consistently shoot, nor run a team efficiently.

4. John Henson: The much ballyhooed McDonald's All-American has been putrid. He's only 30 pounds bigger than me, and I'm a robust 5'10 160!!! He's fucking 6'10 190..... Suffice to say rebounding and banging inside are out of the question against the Lawal's and Aminu's of the world. So he brings about 1 block and 2 points a game into the fold. Way to earn that scholarship John boy.

5. Ed Davis: Yes superstar, I'm even going to call you out. Despite also being injured, Sam Perkins Jr. has also been a disappointment as of late. The boards and blocks are still there, but with all this NBA buzz (slated to go 9th in the first round of the latest mock on nbadraft.net), tell me how he's going to score in the Association if he can't lead a bad Tarheel team in scoring. He has no low-post game to speak of, and with the injury, looks tentative and scared.

Despite these countless flaws, I still predict Roy's boys to make a deep run in the ACC tourney, and will win at least one game in the dance. Bill Simmons talks about there being a 5 year grace period where fans cannot get angry until 5 years after winning a championship, so I probably need to take a deep breath. We're in a rebuilding year, but champions don't rebuild, they reload. Carolina better get a different firearm however, because the trigger is stuck. Only 9 more months until the Harrison Barnes era begins. At this point, the only way we beat Duke is if the Wear brothers challenge the Plumlee brothers to a steal cage match or possibly a pie eating contest. Because on the basketball court, it may not happen this year.

photos via Inside Carolina