To quote one of Jim Rome’s soundbites, the Oregon fan with the finger extended undoubtedly thinks the call on the floor was a “Bad call, bad call. We don’t like that call. Not a very good call.” I doubt losing by three after Oregon fell just short in their comeback attempt made him feel much better.
In fact, I bet he had a double finger for that particular result.
“We kind of got punched in the mouth right from the beginning of the game,” Memphis coach John Calipari said. “They broke us down defensively like we break people down. They beat us at our own game.” I’d say that’s a pretty accurate description for a Memphis Tiger team that, save for Tyreke Evans, looked like overrated also-rans against the Tigers of Missouri.
As teams prepare for the upcoming tournaments, coaches are wary of letdowns and performances that don’t measure up to expectations. With that in mind, the following three coaches can’t be too happy with the way their teams performed last night:
Bill Self
Jeff Capel
Billy Gillispie
All three coaches watched as their teams failed to live up to their expectations, especially Kentucky and Kansas. The Jayhawks got beaten pretty handily by Texas Tech, a team that had lost 10 out of 11 games before blitzing Kansas by 19. In the grand scheme of things, this loss probably doesn’t mean a great deal, although, Coach Self was understandably troubled by his team’s performance.
Ah, but which one? Kansas State or Kentucky? How about both teams. One Wildcat team went to Columbia, Missouri, while other went to Columbia, South Carolina. Both teams were absolutely beatdown by their hosts. Missouri smashed K-State, 94-74, and the Gamecocks punished Kentucky, 77-59. Two Wildcat teams in two different Columbias, yet both get beat by an average of 19 points.
The similarities don’t end there either.
Both Kentucky and K-State are 19-9 and both sets of Wildcats are fighting for their tournament lives. Both teams needed to play well on the road to solidify their tournament chances. Neither team did. Kansas State only had one player in double figures — Denis Clemente with 33 — Kentucky had two (Patterson and Meeks). Kentucky only got THIRTEEN points from the rest of their roster, so give K-State a hand there. At least the rest of Frank Martin’s team managed to score 41 to go with Clemente’s 33.
I bet Billy Gillispie would be nice to Jeanine Edwards if it gave him 41 additional points last night; besides Patterson and Meeks, only THREE other players on the roster actually scored for Kentucky.
Just … wow.
If you were seeding the NCAA Tournament today, would either team get a bid? Not from where I’m standing.
The Kansas/Missouri border war went down in Columbia last night and the game didn’t disappoint. Two halfway decent rivals went at it for two hours and when the dust settled, Mizzou came away with the win, one they certainly had to earn. At least twice in the second half, the Tigers faced double-digit deficits, and each time, they overcame them, which helped whip the Mizzou fans into a healthy frenzy. Needless to say, once the game was over, these same fans let their excitement boil over to the court — and this time, my cronies at STF approve.
It was one of those “classic” rival games, back and forth until the very end with both teams — especially Kansas — having opportunities to put the game away. Finally, it took a Zaire Taylor basket with about two seconds left to secure the win for Mike Anderson and company, although, it did not come easy. In the first half, the Tigers only scored 16 points, but were saved by their 46-point second stanza.
For Kansas, it was their first loss in Big 12 play, and it might be the only one the Jayhawks get until they travel to Norman to face Blake “I’ll Dunk All Over You” Griffin and the gang on February 23.
Texas and Mizzou headline a great weekend of college football as Chase Daniel and Jeremy Maclin head down to Austin in an attempt to knock the high-riding Longhorns down a peg or two. While Texas is coming off that huge win against Oklahoma, the Tigers are trying to recover from their surprising defeat at the hands of Oklahoma State. Mental states aside, this game has the making of a PS3-style shoot-out with both teams featuring explosive, explosive offenses.
We are nearing the midway point for the college football season, schedule-wise, anyway, and in light of the SEC/Big 12 article at Fox Sports, questions about who has the best team remain. Sure, the cream has started rising to the top as teams like Oklahoma, Missouri, Penn State, LSU, Alabama and Texas stand out; but forgetting about teams like Texas Tech, BYU, and the one-loss gang of Florida, LSU, USC and Ohio State is foolish.
In fact, any of the 12 teams I just mentioned could make the BCS Championship game.
With that in mind, who is the best team in the land — at this point of the season, anyway? The national rankings have the top five as follows:
While everybody is going on about Knowshon Moreno’s brilliant Vince Carter-esqe leap over a Central Michigan defender — rightfully so, I might add — Missouri’s Chase Coffman’s birdman impressions were being overlooked. Thanks to the KC Star, that’s no longer the case. Of course, it was probably all the Knowshon hype that made the Star stand up and say, “hey, what about our guy?!?!”
Following someone else’s lead aside, Coffman certainly has the same kind of flair as Georgia’s Moreno; although, he probably doesn’t get as high Mark Richt’s weapon. However, Coffman actually showed off his jumping skills against Illinois AND Southeast Missouri State, whereas, his Knowshon has only done it once this season.
