Posts Tagged ‘Christian Watford’

Zeller and Watford returning to Indiana

Published by Source on April 10th, 2012

Two key pieces to Indiana’s success this past season will be back again next year to help the Hoosiers make a run at the National Title. Freshman big man Cody Zeller and junior wing Christian Watford announced Tuesday that they will both be back for the 2012-13 season to play for Tom Crean and the Hoosiers.

Zeller, the B1G co-Freshman of the Year and honorable mention AP All-American, had a brilliant season in which his post presence changed the entire complexion of the team on both sides of the court. The star forward averaged 15.6 points and 6.6 rebounds on a team that went to its first Sweet 16 since 2002. Zeller was the cornerstone of the team’s turn-around and will continue to have a major impact on their success moving forward. Many NBA experts projected Cody as a lottery pick, many placing him in the top-10.

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Up First For Indiana: New Mexico State Aggies (26-9)

Published by Source on March 13th, 2012

The Indiana Hoosiers have travelled an incredibly long road to this tournament appearance (<<please click that link, it’s required reading for Hoosier Nation and true college basketball fans!!). The Hoosiers grabbed the 4-seed in the South region and will head out West to Portland to face the New Mexico State Aggies. The game is Thursday night at 9:45pm/8:45cst on CBS.

Who are they?

The Aggies of New Mexico State have had a lot of success under head coach Marvin Menzies. NMSU is coming off their second WAC tournament title in the past three seasons and they finished second place in the regular season conference seasons. The Aggies finished 26-9 this season, including 3 wins in the conference tournament. They finished with a WAC record of 10-4, which was good for the 2nd seed in the tournament. They avoided having to play conference winner Nevada in the final by virtue of upset win by Louisiana Tech (the Aggies lost to Nevada both times they faced off this year). Their last NCAA Tournament appearance was 2010, when the were a 12-seed and lost to Michigan State in the first round 70-67 (the Spartans would go on to make the Final Four that season). In their only game against a power conference team this season, the Aggies fell to Arizona 83-76. In six neutral site games, they went 5-1 including their 3 conference tournament wins.

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Conference Opener Results (Tues, Wed, Thurs Games)

Published by Source on December 30th, 2011

Conference play got underway for most of the college basketball world this week. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday featured some high quality match-ups in the B1G, Big East, MAC, Horizon and Missouri Valley. Below are the results for the 3 days worth of games, plus some highlighted individual performances.

Note: Bottom team is home, bold italic indicates winner, all ranks are from the AP, any overtimes are indicated above the score.

TUESDAY:

**2OT**

72    Minnesota (12-2, 0-1 B1G) – R Sampson III: 22 pts, 9 reb, 2 blk / J Welch: 15 pts, 3 ast

81    Illinois (12-2, 3-0 B1G) - M Leonard: 20 pts, 11 reb, 5 blk / B Paul: 21 pts, 7 reb, 6 ast

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64    #11 Wisconsin (12-2, 1-0 B1G) - R Evans: 22 pts, 6 reb, 9-11 FG / J Taylor: 15 pts, 5 ast, 3 stl

40    Nebraska (8-4, 0-1 B1G) - T McCray: 16 pts, 9 reb, 2 stl / B Ubel: 8 pts, 9 reb

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59    #22 Pittsburgh (11-3, o-1 Big East) - T Zanna: 13 pts, 12 reb, 5-10 FG / A Gibbs: 12 pts, 5 ast

72    Notre Dame (9-5, 1-0 Big East) - A Dragicevich: 22 pts, 2 reb, 4-7 3pFG / J Cooley: 8 pts, 14 reb, 2 blk

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Posted in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Marquette, Michigan, Michigan State, Mid Major, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, Wisconsin
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A signature win for Indiana

Published by Source on December 10th, 2011

The Build-up

Despite being 8-0 and winning each game by more than 10 points, Indiana was not favored to win today at Assembly Hall. In fact, most people outside of Indiana did not even really think twice about Indiana’s chance to win today. The reason? The top-ranked, undefeated and uber-talented rival Kentucky Wildcats were coming to town.

John Calipari’s bunch was fresh off of a win over previously top-ranked North Carolina that vaulted them up to that number 1 spot. In addition to that, Indiana hadn’t beaten UK since 2007. But none of that matter to Tom Crean and the Indiana Hoosiers. Because of that, their program has been changed forever.

Most Hoosier fans will tell you that this year’s IU team has been playing better than the non-ranking given to them by national media. They have been receiving votes in each poll but had yet to crack the Top 25. Indiana’s first 8 wins did not exactly come against top competition, though they had won 2 true road games (Evanston and NC State) and a tough home win over Butler. There was a lot to be excited about in Bloomington and with an entire week to prepare for this game, Hoosier Nation was in heavy anticipation for their date with Number One.

Kentucky came into Saturday’s game with 8 wins of their own, coming against the likes of UNC, Kansas and St. Johns, but had yet to play a true road game. With a young team, a road trip to a wild environment like Assembly Hall is a real challenge.

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Rivals’ top 50 college players

Published by Source on November 10th, 2011

Rivals.com released their list of the top 50 players for the upcoming college basketball season. The list features several players from the B1G and/or with Chicago ties. Here’s a quick overview of the list:

 

#46 – Cleveland Melvin, DePaul

#45 – William Buford, Ohio State

#43 – Doug McDermott, Creighton

#38 – Tim Abromaitis, Notre Dame

#35 – Christian Watford, Indiana

#28 – Tim Hardaway Jr., Michigan

#27 – Darius Johnson-Odom, Marquette

#24 – Draymond Green, Michigan State

#22 – Robbie Hummel, Purdue

#19 – John Shurna, Northwestern

#15 – Trevor Mbakwe, Minnesota

#10 – Tu Holloway, Xavier

#5 – Anthony Davis, Kentucky (Chicago-native)

#4 – Jordan Taylor, Wisconsin

#1 – Jared Sullinger, Ohio State

 

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Posted in Chicago HS Prospects, DePaul, Indiana, Marquette, Michigan, Michigan State, Mid Major, Minnesota, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Purdue, Uncategorized, Wisconsin
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CBSSports Season Preview – Player/Team Ranks

Published by Source on October 25th, 2011

The guys over at CBSSports.com are currently in the process of putting together a massive preview. The team consists of some of the most highly-regarded scouts and basketball writers in the business: Jeff Goodman, Gary Parrish, Jeff Borzello and Matt Norlander. Here’s a preview of some of the stuff they have put together, as well as links to their full lists:

Top 100 Players:

1. Jared Sullinger – F Ohio State (soph)

3. Jordan Taylor – G Wisconsin (sr)

7. Anthony Davis – F Kentucky (frosh) – Chicago-native out of Perspectives Charter School

17. Trevor Mbakwe – F Minnesota (sr)

18. William Buford – G Ohio State (sr)

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Posted in Chicago HS Prospects, Illinois, Indiana, Marquette, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Purdue, Wisconsin
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Gary Harris and Indiana’s scholarship situation

Published by Source on September 2nd, 2011

By: Kyle Dunne, Indiana contributor

Gary Harris is one of the few highly ranked, unsigned recruits remaining from the state of Indiana for the class of 2012. By numerous accounts, the 6’6’’ shooting guard’s top three schools consist of Indiana, Purdue and Michigan State. With many of his friends already committed to play for the Hoosiers, as well as Bloomington’s close proximity to his hometown of Fishers, it may be very hard for Harris to turn down the opportunity to play for Tom Crean. However, because of the already clouded scholarship situation, a Harris commitment to Indiana could make things complicated in Bloomington.

Assuming Matt Roth does not use his 5th year of eligibility at Indiana, two additional current Indiana players or committed players through the class of 2012 would need to vacate their scholarships for the 2012-2013 season. This could be accomplished through transfers, early entries into the NBA draft, a player offering to give up their scholarship and pay for their school or a player in the 2012 class reclassifying.

If Harris does commit to Indiana, only five of the Hoosiers’ 2012 recruiting class would be able to sign their letters of intent in November. While it is not my intention to speculate on which current players will or will not be with the team at this point next year, it is intriguing to look at the different scenarios. (more…)

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The B1G’s Top 12* Players – Part 1

Published by Source on August 17th, 2011

The Windy City Source is profiling the top 12* players in the Big Ten Conference for the upcoming season. The reason we say “12*” is because rather than choosing the best players regardless of school, we will be taking 1 player from each team. Some players will be obvious, others not so much. And in case you forgot, Nebraska is in the conference now! Anyways – here’s the first part of four, featuring players from the “I” schools:

 

* Brandon Paul – Illinois junior from Gurnee, IL

Bruce Weber’s team will be experiencing a huge turnover this season with the loss of four seniors (three started), a one-and-done freshman (now an alleged criminal) and the addition of six freshman and a senior transfer. Normally teams would have a tough time recovering losing three senior leaders and a star freshman, but in Illinois’ case the turnover is for the better. The culture of the Fighting Illini program has been more of a “me first” situation. With Demetri McCamey, Mike Davis, Mike Tisdale and Jereme Richmond gone, Weber will have cleared his team of almost all of last season’s headaches in one swoop. Now the team is turned over to the underclassmen, led by junior guard Brandon “BP3″ Paul. Having been a solid contributor in his first two years, Paul (9 ppg) will take on a serious leadership position this season. Paul improved his stats across the board from his freshman to sophomore years, which can be partially attributed to an increase of minutes. It’s safe to say Weber will rely on Paul for more than 22.4 minutes a game this year. The most encouraging numbers are his FG, 3FG and FT percentages. Paul has shown that he can be a lethal shooter and is a tremendous athlete (my apologies to Carlton Fay).  Brandon poured in 20+ points three times in conference play last year, hitting 4 three-pointers on two of those occasions. As the top returning scorer, Paul will certainly need to put points on the board if the Illini want to get back to the NCAA Tournament. Paul has the ability to play the one, two, or three, which makes him a versatile asset in a guard-heavy lineup.

Along with junior DJ Richardson, sophomore Meyers Leonard, Bradley senior-transfer Sam Maniscalco and a parade of highly-ranked Chicago freshmen, the Illini will have a fresh look that should have fans feeling good about the future. (more…)

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