With green leaves still clinging to the red maple trees outside my window, it’s hard to grasp November is here and the Big Ten Basketball season is upon us. In an off-season highlighted by the addition of three head coaches into the Big Ten brethren, the Conference now boasts the most accomplished set of collegiate coaches the Country. After last year’s attrition and with the influx of the Class of 2011, the Big Ten is a Conference of parity. Hoopraker salivates for the opening tips tomorrow night in Ann Arbor and Iowa City.
A Faster Brian Randle
While not much can be gleaned from pre-season game performance, even those against Kentucky-Wesleyan, if you’re an Illinois fan you must be loving Brian Randle (sr). He’s healthy, he’s stayed healthy and he looks healthy and aggressive for the first time since the Illini lost to Washington in the 2006 NCAA Tourney. Once again underrated, expectations outside Champaign are low for Illinois this season. But as Bruce Weber is prone to do, he’s assembled a deep and talented team with players who develop year to year. Brian Carwell (so), Shaun Pruitt (sr), Rodney Alexander (jr), Rich Semrau (fr-rs) and Bill Cole (fr) give Weber big bodies that rebound, pass, defend, and score. The addition of 205 pound point guard (and perhaps a long lost cousin to Deron Williams) Demetri McCamey (fr) is critical and once Chester Frazier (jr) reallocates some of his shots to the Champaign Centennial duo of Trent Meachum (rs-jr)and Steve Holdren (rs-jr), Illinois is well-positioned to exceed expectations. Still, the season rests with a healthy Randle.
Conley was in Charge
Last year, Ohio State was Mike Conley’s team. For all the attention given to Greg Oden, it was Conley who was given the ball at the top of the key when the game was on the line. It was Conley who pulled his teammates together on offense and got in their face on defense. While replacing Oden will be difficult, replacing Conley may prove more challenging.
The assumption is Jamar Butler will return to point, run the offense and Ohio State finish third in the Conference. Ohio State needs a leader at the point and too often Butler’s nonchalant demeanor hinders his potential leadership position. On Tuesday night against Division II Findlay, Butler spent much of his time on the court needlessly taunting Findlay’s 5′9″ point guard Marcus Parker, who proceeded to drop in 18 points in Findlay’s 70-68 win. While Butler scored 22 in the loss, his points and the loss are irrelevant at this stage. Ohio State needs its upperclassmen to lead and show pride in the program, not only for themselves but for the sake of furthering Thad Matta’s vision of Ohio State as a perennial National Championship contender. While Ohio State’s season may not end in San Antonio this year, they can certainly play as if it will night in and night out.
Great Coaches are Great Coaches
It worth noting that, like Ric Wesley at Grand Valley State, which famously defeated Michigan State last week, the University of Findlay is an exceptionally well-coached team. Led by coach Ron Niekamp for the past 23 seasons, Findlay has a bevy of conference championships to go with a 486-169 record. Niekamp, like so many other great Ohio athletes played his high school ball in St. Henry, Ohio (pop. 2,271), home to Ohio State football All-American Jim Lachey as well as quarterbacks Bobby Hoying and Todd Boeckman among many others. Solid coaching exists at all levels in collegiate basketball, from the College of Wooster (Steve Moore) to Wesley and Neikamp. Indeed, Bo Ryan has proven success at a Division III program (Wisconsin-Platteville) can translate into success at a Division I program. Perhaps other Division I will go out on a limb and take a chance on a great coach from D III.
What’s Happened to Sports Illustrated?
As we’ve written Hoopraker over the past two seasons, we’ve often found ourselves wondering what happened to the SI we grew up with, the one chock block full of well-written pieces on a variety of sports by the likes of Alexander Wolff, Frank DeFord, and Curry Kirkpatrick among others. In case you missed it, Josh Levin of Slate has been wondering the same thing and here’s a terrific article he wrote on the said demise of Sports Illustrated.
A Taller Raymar
Watching Michigan State play Grand Valley State the other night, I was struck by how much taller Raymar Morgan looked. He was listed at 6′7″ last year but he easily looks taller than 6′8″ Marquise Gray. Now if he refrains from picking up cheap fouls.
A series of good points. The resurgence of the Big Ten is on the horizon. The quality of coaching conference wide is truly impressive. The bad news for some is that recruiting talent will no longer be enough and the chess match of college basketball will be alive and well in the midwest.
Thanks for the kudos to Steve Moore. He is an outstanding coach and a high quality human being. character counts, as does knowing oneself and what makes you happy.
As for Sports Illustrated - I couldn’t agree more. The depth of writing is gone. It has gone the way of sound bytes and surface level commentary. I can no longer bring myself to puruse a free copy in the lobby.
Left by blongbrake on November 15th, 2007