Today’s menu at the house Jordan built and Jerry Reinsdorf cost-cutted into architectural banality is a feast for every fan. For the fan who likes his teams ranked number one in the country and wearing corporate logoed spandex tops and pantaloons, there are the Ohio State Buckeyes. For the fan who enjoys watching a former golden boy player turned coach fret and sweat over his job security, there is Amaker and his Wolverine product line. For the fan who appreciates a coach who has transformed a team that had a single digit win total to a squad one win away from this year’s NCAA tournament, there is Purdue. For those appreciative of Big Ten seniors reaping the benefits of four years of development, take Adam Haluska and his Hawkeyes. And those are just the appetizers.
Buckeyes Go Fashion Forward
Ohio State, once again, needs to show why its number one status is deserved. They need a few muscular, forty minute demonstrations of Big Ten champion basketball to prove that they are constructed of the kind of stuff that wins NCAA titles. After all, this has been a team recruited with the notion of immediate gratification. While there are folks who like to humor the idea that he loves college enough to delay his millions, Oden has always been a one and done piece. Matta has one month to take advantage before his gentle giant has vacated Columbus to be replaced by 7′0″ Nick Smith clone Kostos Koufos. While defeating Michigan tomorrow will likely not require their best, it would be wise for the Buckeyes to play as if it does. The do just enough to win stuff needs to be exorcised in favor of a killer mentality that justifies the hype that has surrounded them since November.
Last Meetings:
February 6 (Columbus) Ohio State 76 Michigan 63
March 3 (Ann Arbor) Ohio State 65 Michigan 61
Muncie Versus New Castle II
Can Steve Alford produce more heroics in the conference tournament? This shapes up to be an extremely loaded game for Matt Painter and his Boilermakers. Many pundits have this in the must win category for Purdue and they might as well believe them. The alternative is Painter flop sweating through Selection Sunday and hoping his wins against Oklahoma, DePaul, Virginia and Missouri, his twenty wins overall, and upper half conference showing have enough traction. Certainly, Purdue cannot afford the kind of bad loss they took against the Hawkeyes in Iowa City.
The individual talent on tap here is no small part of the appeal. It will be entertaining to watch seniors Haluska, Teague, and Landry in their last showcase games for Big Ten fans. These are three examples of under the radar recruits who have maximized their basketball capital. The difference tomorrow, however, will be in the contributions of support personnel, superstar-in-waiting Tyler Smith for Iowa, Gordon Watt and Chris Lutz for Purdue. Iowa has struggled with point guard play all season and the Mike Henderson injury layoff was punitive, but they’ve fought through the conference slate admirably thanks to some monster offensive games from Haluska. As Drew Neitzel proves again and again this season, and Steve Alford demonstrated in the late eighties, it’s tough to stop a lights out shooter who is running hard off constant screens.
Last Meeting:
February 21 (Iowa City) Iowa 78 Purdue 59
And Then There Are The Nightcaps
Hoopraker came away extremely impressed by Michigan State’s execution on both ends Thursday and were it not for a spirited second half showing by Northwestern, the Spartans would’ve enjoyed a comfy win. With UCLA’s loss to Cal in yesterday’s Pac-10 tourny, Wisconsin has an opportunity to make a valid case for a one seed. The Badgers win two to three in Chicago and that constitutes a pretty valid case. This rubber match is going to be a whopper.
Last Meetings:
February 20 (East Lansing) Michigan State 64 Wisconsin 55
March 3 (Madison) Wisconsin 52 Michigan State 50
The Illini secondary home court at the United Center is going to be frosty clime for Kelvin tomorrow. But, Illinois is going to have to execute much more disciplined basketball on the offensive end to get one up on their nemesis. Chester Frazier’s aberrant offensive outburst yesterday shouldn’t be expected to repeat, so it is the establishment of the low post game that will determine their fate. Once Randle, Pruitt, and Arnold are meriting attention underneath, then the perimeter loosens up and become a higher percentage realm for Illinois.
Last Meetings:
January 23 (Champaign) Illinois 51 Indiana 43
February 10 (Bloomington) Indiana 65 Illinois 61
Postscript
We’ve been critical of Northwestern’s meek showings in recent Big Ten tournament games, but their second half against the Spartans yesterday deserves commendation. Michigan State played the kind of first half that demonstrated yet again why Tom Izzo is a coaching maestro, a half of crisp, fundamentally polished execution on both ends that would’ve buried even the best of the nation’s teams. The Cats maintained contact and then Carmody made superb use of his halftime session. His second half team defense and another typical Kevin Coble offensive performance made this a very interesting game until the final minute.
Craig Moore’s solid shooting yesterday proved why he is such an important player for the Wildcats. If he can find his shooting rhythm next season and become an every night step-up player, this Northwestern team changes its complexion in a hurry. Coble is fast proving to be an anchor, but he needs a few more good men to join him in the box score each night. Hoopraker prescribes less time in the weight room for Moore in lieu of thousands and thousands of jumpshots. As Mike Walker and Drew Neitzel proved yesterday, good shooting isn’t about having Geary Claxton deltoids. It’s about reps, reps, reps.
Whatever the case, Carmody’s bunch gave its fans some good reasons to believe that the future has promise. They need to take yesterday’s good showing and build on it. Hopefully, potential pieces of that future such as 2007 target Isiah Martin of Morgan Park Academy, and class of 2008 players such as Luke Fabrizius of Hersey and Nick Freundt of Batavia, realize how close the Wildcats are to becoming a more than occasionally threatening Big Ten team. Coble, Ryan level talent plus Princeton offense and the vexing 1-3-1 defensive scheme would make Northwestern a recurring, punitive nightmare for foes.
Michigan’s effort was truly impressve, particularly in the first half. That said, the glaring absence of quality point guard play doomed their dance card dreams. Otherwise a 21-8 rebounding edge cannot result in a halftime deficit, even a slight one. Again, one is left to wonder just how good is Thad’s squad? On a late morning start, it was an after lunch run which created the margin to allow yet another coast to the buzzer. Michigan had numerous opportunities to change the complexion of the game in the first half and couldn’t create a cushion to put the Buckeyes at risk. I certainly can’t predict what the Ohio State team will or won’t accomplish in the NCAA tourney. Can anyone say they have put forth 40 minutes of consistent effort since the UNC loss? College Basketball is in many ways a series of mini-runs back and forth, but why does a team with such talent seem to utilize cruise control - even in heavy traffic - a la the Wisconsin home win when they failed to slam the door on the Badgers despite multiple opportunities to do so. Yes, the Badgers were a talented, well coached, determined opponent - but so were the Buckeyes when the Gator hoopsters rubbed the salt in still fresh wounds, and then kept rolling. This team may let an opponent hang around long enough to send them home early in the NCAA.
Left by blongbrake on March 10th, 2007