Archive for March, 2012

McDonald’s All-American Game 2012 RECAP

Published by Source on March 29th, 2012

Another successful McDonald’s All-American event in Chicago is in the books. Twenty-four of the nation’s best high school teammates engaged in an exciting all-star game in front of a packed house at the United Center. While the field did not include any players from Chicago high schools, there were two future B1G players on the court facing off against each other. Future Indiana Hoosier Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell played point guard for the West and future Michigan State Spartan Gary Harris was on the East squad – they played on separate teams even though both players are from Indianapolis. Ferrell’s West team controlled most of the game and, after the East pulled within two points late in the second half, were able to hold on and win it 106-102.

Harris was among the starters for the East squad, but finished with just two points in a game that was dominated offensively be a select group of players. Harris finished with 2 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists. Kentucky-bound Alex Poythress had 19 points and future UCLA Bruin Kyle Anderson nearly put up a triple-double with 13 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists. Anderson was the most impressive East player in my opinion. He is just so smooth on the court and you can tell that the game comes naturally to him. As a 6’8″ point guard, Anderson will be a match-up nightmare next season and has the ability to turn around the UCLA program on his own. Poythress was pretty impressive on offense, as well, regularly slicing through the albeit lackadaisical defense and getting to the bucket. He did commit six fouls in the game, which is somewhat alarming as it was an all-star game.

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John Groce hired at Illinois

Published by Source on March 29th, 2012

After a long and somewhat troubling search, Illinois athletic director Mike Thomas has hired Ohio University head coach John Groce to be the next Illini men’s basketball coach. After the job was reportedly turned down by the likes of Shaka Smart and Brad Stevens, Thomas turned to what some media members call his sixth-choice in Groce. But regardless of how he got there, Groce is headed to Champaign with the goal of getting the Illini back in the top half of the conference and into the NCAA Tournament.

Groce seemed like a logical candidate from the beginning – a mid-major coach with ties to the area and conference that has tournament success and a proven winning record. In his four seasons at Ohio, Groce took the Bobcats to 2 NCAA Tournaments, including a Sweet Sixteen run this March. Before landing in Athens – his first head coaching job – Groce spent eight total seasons as an assistant to Thad Matta at Butler, Xavier and Ohio State. He was on the Ohio State staff in 2007 when the Buckeyes lost to Florida in the National Championship game.

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Southern Illinois hires Barry Hinson as head coach

Published by Source on March 27th, 2012

ESPNChicago’s Scott Powers reports that Kansas Director of Basketball Operations Barry Hinson has agreed to be the next head coach of the Southern Illinois Salukis men’s basketball team. Hinson has been on the Kansas’ staff since 2008 and prior to that spent eleven seasons as a Division I head coach (two at Oral Roberts then nine at Missouri State) accumulating a head coaching record of 205-140.

Hinson comes to Carbondale with Missouri Valley experience, as well as solid postseason history – he led Missouri State to four NIT berths. As far as the eye test goes, Hinson is a good hire for Southern and brings winning experience to a team desperate to reclaim its position at the top of the MVC.

Hinson replaces Chris Lowery, who was fired back on March 2nd after a disappointing eighth season in which the Salukis went just 8-23. Many thought that former Illinois and SIU coach Bruce Weber could be the next Saluki head coach, since he is recently unemployed and had a successful tenure in Carbondale from 1998-2003. A number of other Big Ten assistants were thought to be candidates, as well, including Illinois’ Jay Price and Indiana’s Tim Buckley.

 


Nebraska hires Colorado States’ Miles

Published by Source on March 25th, 2012

Nebraska athletic director Tom Osbourne has found the next Huskers men’s basketball coach: Colorado State’s Tim Miles. The 45-year old Miles comes to Lincoln to replace fired head coach Doc Sadler and will lead the Huskers into their second season of B1G competition. The first season was less than impressive, as the Huskers finished 11th out of 12 teams and lost in the first round of the conference tournament.

Miles appeared in his first career NCAA Tournament this past season, leading the Colorado State Rams to the 11-seed in the West Regional. It was the program’s first appearance since in nine years. Though the Rams fell to Murray State in their first game, the season was quite a success and launched Miles to his next career destination: Big Ten head coach.

In his five years in Fort Collins, Miles coached the Rams to an overall 71-88 (28-50) record. But those numbers would look a lot better when you take out a rough first two years in which Miles was forced to rebuild a team with just two returning players. Over the last three years Miles has proved his coaching abilities, leading the Rams to a 55-41 record and three straight postseason appearances (CBI in 2010, NIT in 2011 and NCAA in 2012).

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Jabari Parker is Mr. Basketball

Published by Source on March 25th, 2012

For the first time in the award’s thirty-two year history, the Illinois Mr. Basketball honor is going to a high school junior: Simeon Career Academy’s Jabari Parker. Rated as the #2 overall prospect in the 2013 class by Rivals, Parker has emerged as a national star and one of the most highly sought-after prospects in the nation. In what was somewhat of a down year in Illinois (in terms of nationally recognized high school players), Parker was dominate and helped lead his stacked Simeon team to an undefeated season and state title – their second straight.

Jabari becomes the fourth Mr. Basketball award winner from Simeon, and the first since current Chicago Bulls star Derrick Rose won it in 2007. Becoming the first junior winner ever, Parker will surely be the favorite to win it next year and be the state’s first ever 2-time winner.

Parker is being recruited by just about every notable college program in the country and the upcoming AAU season will be a recruiting frenzy. There are a ton of star prospects in Illinois, with Parker and Jahlil Okafor (2014) leading the way.

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Indiana Junior All-Stars Announced

Published by Source on March 22nd, 2012

The junior teams, both the core squad and the two regional squads, were announced Thursday and feature several notable recruits. Indiana Junior All-Stars play against the Indiana Senior All-Star team in two exhibition games leading up to the seniors’ match-ups with the Kentucky All-Stars June 8th and 9th. The core team, six players who will play in both exhibition games, will team-up with the regional teams, six players each representing the North and South, to make a 12-man squad. The full rosters are below, with college commitments where applicable:

CORE ROSTER:

VJ Beachem (New Haven) – University of Notre Dame

Devin Davis (Warren Central) – Indiana University

Collin Hartman (Cathedral) – Indiana University

Zak Irvin (Hamilton Southeastern) – University of Michigan

Demetrius Jackson (Mishawaka Marian)

Tony Wills (Ben Davis)

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Gatorade Player Of The Year Winners

Published by Source on March 22nd, 2012

Every year, Gatorade gives an award to the best high school athlete in each sport, in each state. On Thursday, the state announced its 51 boys basketball winners (the extra is from DC) and a few of the recipients will be playing nearby in the future (full list of winners can be found HERE):

* Jabari Parker – Simeon Academy (Chicago, IL) – Only a junior, but one of the top prospects in the 2013 class being recruited by just about every basketball powerhouse in the country.

* Gary Harris – Hamilton Southeastern (Fishers, IN) – Harris chose the Michigan State Spartans over Indiana, Purdue, and Kentucky back in November.

* Matt Costello – Bay City Western (Auburn, MI) – Also named Mr. Basketball in Michigan last week, Costello will join Harris in East Lansing next year.

* Cameron Biedscheid – Cardinal Ritter (St. Louis, MO) – The Missouri-native is headed to play for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish next year.

* Mike Gesell – South Sioux City (NE) – Gesell is headed across the state line as part of a stellar recruiting class for the Iowa Hawkeyes.

* Sam Dekker – Sheboygan Lutheran (WI) – Dekker has exploded onto the national scene in the past year and has been committed to the Wisconsin Badgers since June 2010.


Duane Wilson (2013) picks Marquette

Published by Source on March 21st, 2012

On Tuesday, Marquette learned that they had picked up a commitment from Milwaukee junior Duane Wilson. Ranked #128 in the class by Rivals, Wilson has emerged as a star point guard at Dominican High School. The junior announced last Friday that he had narrowed his list to Marquette, Memphis and Missouri and that a decision would be coming this week. Marquette has been considered the favorite in this recruitment and on Tuesday Wilson made it official. We will have more on this commitment in the near future.

Head coach Buzz Williams is locking down the city borders, already landing Rivals #45 Deonte Burton from Milwaukee’s Vincent High.

The Golden Eagles are currently out in Phoenix for a Thursday night Sweet Sixteen match-up with the 7-seed Florida Gators (game at 10:17pm/9:17est on TBS).

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Revisiting My Preseason Predictions

Published by Source on March 21st, 2012

With the regular season finished and postseason tournaments in full swing, it is time to take a look back at the predictions I posted the day before this college basketball season began. I went game-by-game to predict wins and losses, tallied them up and listed the teams from 1-12. Needless to say, I did not do that well.

The first thing that jumps out is that the B1G really beat up on each other in conference play, with a lot of teams at the top of the standings losing to teams at the bottom. No team dominated the season the way that I (and many others) expected Ohio State to do.

It was not all bad, though, as I was pretty spot on with my non-conference records. For most teams, I only missed 2 or 3 non-conference games (I missed 4 for Penn State, but was perfect for Minnesota and only missed 1 each for Michigan State, Northwestern, Purdue and Wisconsin). Below, you will see a couple different lists. The first is the side-by-side of my predicted conference standings and the actual conference standings. Next, you will see a team-by-team breakdown of the records I predicted so that you can see how wrong/right I was. NOTE: I do not include conference tournament games, as those would have been impossible to predict before the season. NOTE 2: 3-way tie in actual B1G standings, but I listed the 3 teams in the order they were seeded in the conference tournament.

PREDICTED:                       ACTUAL:

1 – Ohio State                  T-1 – Michigan State

2 – Michigan                   T-1 – Michigan

3 – Wisconsin                 T-1 – Ohio State

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Up First For Purdue: Saint Mary’s Gaels (27-5)

Published by Source on March 15th, 2012

Robbie Hummel’s final season in West Lafayette surely did not go as well as he had hoped, but the Purdue Boilermakers (21-12) find themselves back in the NCAA Tournament with an at-large 10-seed. Waiting for them in the first round (Omaha, Nebraska) are the Saint Mary’s Gaels (27-5), the WCC regular season and tournament champions. The game is Friday night at 7:27pm/6:27cst on TruTV.

Who are they?

Despite their conference affiliation, Saint Mary’s has made the case in the past few seasons that they are more than just a mid-major program. The Gaels held a pretty consistent spot in the Top 25 rankings this season and have emerged as a legitimate contender to Gonzaga’s WCC dominance. The Gaels, who split the regular season series with the Zags, took down their rival in a great overtime conference championship game back on March 5th. They missed the tournament last year, but were a Sweet 16 team back in 2010 as a 10-seed. This will be the Gaels fourth trip to the Dance in the last seven seasons.

What about their coach?

Randy Bennett has been the head coach at Saint Mary’s since 2001 and in that time he has taken the Gaels from a 9-20 dud to a conference season/tournament champion and consistent NCAA Tournament participant. Bennett has (by far) the most NCAA tournament appearances than any other Saint Mary’s coach, as the program had only been invited three times in its history before his arrival. Before this job, Bennett had a long career as a top flight assistant coach, including stops at St. Louis and Pepperdine under Lorenzo Romar. Once this season is over, his name will surely be linked to any number of open high-major jobs. While no Pac-12 jobs have opened up thus far, Mississippi State, Illinois, Nebraska and South Carolina have already released their head coaches this offseason.

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