The Big Majors with Ball Control

Players are still trying to decide if they will go pro or not, and the deadline for making a permanent decision is still a ways off, so we’re going to take a little time to look at some stats. Yesterday we went over some of the major (mostly BCS) schools that were able to take care of the ball last year. But will they be able to replicate that sort of achievement when they play in 2010. Some rosters are going to be gutted. Notice North Carolina on the list. They’ll lose almost their whole starting crew, including assist-t0-turnover genius point guard Ty Lawson. It’s doubtful they’ll be in this list by this time next year. So let’s go down the list and see if these teams are keeping their point guards.

These Teams Took Care of the Ball

  • Notre Dame (Tory Jackson - staying)
  • Wisconsin (Trevon Hughes - staying?)
  • Missouri (JT Tiller - staying)
  • Gonzaga (Jeremy Pargo - graduating)
  • North Carolina (Ty Lawson - going pro)
  • Marquette (Dominic James - graduating)
  • Brigham Young (Jimmer Fredette - staying)
  • Oklahoma St. (Byron Eaton - graduating)
  • Penn St. (Talor Battle - staying?)
  • Seton Hall (Eugene Harvey - staying)
  • Perdue (Lewis Jackson - staying)

To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on April 30, 2009 - Post a comment

Looking at Turnover Percentage

The college basketball season is long over, and there are tons of stats to pour over in an attempt to get to the bottom of just what in the heck happened. One of the best places to get NCAA basketball stats information is from KenPom.com, which the Final Four Blog used extensively throughout the basketball season. Let’s take a look at some of the offensive stats today.

How about turnover percentage?  Below we’ll list some of the “major” schools (those who are part of BCS conferences) who were the best in the nation at keeping control of the ball. Having a good set of guards is critical to this stat.  When you don’t make turnovers, you don’t give the other team chances to score, which should lead to more wins. Of course, there are many more important factors to winning as you’ll see. But we digress. Here are the best “major” schools at keeping control of the ball.

These Teams Took Care of the Ball

  • Notre Dame
  • Wisconsin
  • Missouri
  • Gonzaga
  • North Carolina
  • Marquette
  • Brigham Young
  • Oklahoma St.
  • Penn St.
  • Seton Hall
  • Perdue

To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on April 29, 2009 - Post a comment

Obama Hoops With UConn; High School Junior Goes to Europe

President Barack Obama honored the University of Connecticut Huskies women’s basketball team the other day on the White House Lawn.  Giving a tour of the White House and a small ceremony for championship teams is a tradition for the President. However, he went one step further and played a game of P-I-G with a few of the team members, eventually winning the competition. Other presidents have been fond of playing sports with top-tier athletes. Former President George Bush used to have t-ball games on the White House lawn.

In other news, San Diego High School basketball star Jeremy Tyler has decided to go pro in Europe, forgoing his senior year in high school and any chance of playing in college. The move is seen as somewhat controversial. Last year a high school senior decided to go to Europe instead of playing college, but this is the first time that a player has decided to give up playing his final season in high school for the chance at making money in the pros. The NBA has regulations regarding when a player can enter the NBA Draft, but going to Europe to play pro would help to get around the rules.

To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on April 28, 2009 - Post a comment

Top Recruit Ditches Calipari for Kansas

Xavier Henry, a top high school basketball recruit, has decided to attend Kansas, the same school his older brother C.J. His mother and father both played basketball at Kansas when they were in college. So what’s the big deal about this story. Well, Xavier was supposed to play at Memphis for coach John Calipari. However, Calipari signed on to coach at Kentucky over the offseason, allowing the players he recruited to opt out of any of their commitments. Henry decided not to follow Calipari to Kentucky, instead choosing to go to Kansas.

The move is somewhat puzzling. Apparently Calipari was a big enough pull for Henry to want to attend Memphis, but wasn’t a big enough pull for Henry to chose Kentucky. Do you think he made the right choice?  Even if he didn’t, it’s likely that Henry will only be in college for one or two years before he goes pro.

To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on April 27, 2009 - Post a comment

Never Too Early to Hop on the Coaching Carousel

The offseason in college basketball can get pretty dull for a while, but for now there’s still plenty of stuff to talk about. You’ve got NBA Draft hopefuls declaring, hiring agents, going to camps and trying to impress pro coaches. You have top high school basketball players signing with college teams, and in some cases electing to go overseas to play basketball in the pros. You also have the coaching carousel.

It seems that not even before the last shot of the Tourney coaches were getting hired and fired. You can take a look at CBS Sports’ breakdown of the major coaching movement so far this offseason.  The big coaching moves include Lute Olsen retiring to give Sean Miller of Xavier a try, Bill Gillespie out at Kansas for Memphis’ John Calipari, Mark Fox of Nevada signed with Georgia, and Washington State’s Tony Bennett left for Virginia, replaced by Portland States’ Ken Bone.

To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on April 24, 2009 - Post a comment

North Carolina’s Lawson, Ellington to Leave for NBA; Same with Curry

North Carolina guards Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington are set to announce that they will enter the NBA Draft this afternoon.  The two players were critical to the success of the Tar Heels and the team’s eventual national championship at the end of the NCAA Tournament.  Lawson, a high-scoring shooting guard who takes care of the ball better than almost any college player today, is expected to be a lottery pick.  Ellington, who came on strong in the Tournament, but was an efficient outside shooter and perimeter defender during the season, might be picked up in the second round, NBA scouts believe.

Another premier college basketball guard is going to announce his desire to play in the NBA today. Stephen Curry, the Davidson shooting guard who was the media darling of  the 2008 Tourney, but missed out on this past season’s dance, will decide to go pro. He’ll snag an agent so there’s no running back to school. Curry will be a lottery pick undoubtedly, as he led the nation in scoring this past season.

To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on April 23, 2009 - Post a comment

Arizona’s New Coach Hitting the Pavement Running; Athlete Tweets

The first official year post-Lute Olsen has already started at Arizona. Sean Miller, the new sideline pacer, is already knee deep in the recruiting grind of the offseason. Apparently he’s been doing alright- though it’s quite hard to live up to the recruiting benchmarks of Lute Olsen. He signed up Solomon Hill and Kyryl Natyazhko, two blue chip recruits, but missed the mark on two others. Arizona is still in the market for a good combo guard/small forward.

Ever want to find out what your favorite college basketball players is up to every second of the day?  Well, at this site you can see the tweets of some of the most famous sports stars in America. Basically, Twitter is a sort of social networking tool that allows you to update your status whenever you want- although you only get about two lines to do it. This morning we saw Hasheem Thabeet tweeting away.

To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on April 22, 2009 - Post a comment

Top 100 Early Draft Prospects; 1936 Long Island U Basketball

If you desire to get the latest information on the NBA Draft, ESPN is a good place to start. Chad Ford already has a Top 100 board set up, with the best and brightest NBA Draft declarations ranked in terms of potential NBA strength. Take a look at where the best players wind up. You might be surprised to see that Psycho-T isn’t in the top 20.  In fact, he’s projected to go late in the second round.

In other news, if you’re looking to take a few moments to read something impressive and important in a historical sense, you should check out Michael Weinreb’s Page 2 column about the 1936 Long Island University college basketball team. Apparently, in the year prior to the 1936 Berlin Olympics, LIU was without a doubt the best college basketball team in the nation- better by far than the Tar Heels this year. This was back when mostly college players were involved in the Olympics. Well, the team decided to boycott the Olympics for political reasons, and the story about the event is just coming forth, as the players and coach were, mysteriously, silent about this issue.

To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on April 21, 2009 - Post a comment

Rick Pitino: Extortion Victim?; Draft Eligibility News

News of a somewhat scandalous nature has come across the college hoops headlines this morning.  Apparently Rick Pitino has filed a complaint against one Karen Sypher, the estranged wife of Rick’s equipment manager, Tim Sypher. Pitino claims that Karen Sypher tried to extort money from the college hoops coach. Although details at this time are sketchy, a trial might be forthcoming. We’ll be sure to keep you posted. Let’s hope Rick is innocent in this matter and cleared of any wrongdoing.

In NBA Draft news, Stephen Curry has declared himself eligible for the NBA Draft… Well, a report coming from DraftExpress.com has said as much. Davdson’s coach, Bob McKillop says the future of the shooting guard is still uncertain.  The safe money appears to be on Curry entering the draft pool.

To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on April 20, 2009 - Post a comment

Auriemma Will Remain Huskies Coach While Coaching the US Woman’s Team

The Connecticut Huskies Women’s Basketball coach will be taking over the United States Women’s team, but has stated that he will continue to coach the women’s team at Connecticut according to the Associate Press. He will be coaching the US team for the next three years, including the 2012 Olympics in London. This will make him the first active college coach to be head of a women’s Olympic team since 1996. That coach, Tara VanDerveer led her team to an Olympic gold medal in Atlanta. Recently, Auriemma and his Huskies claimed its sixth national championship and their third perfect season.

In other news, DeMarcus Cousins has signed a national letter of intent to play at Kentucky. He had previously committed to play for Calipari at Memphis, but is now joining the wildcats. A player that averaged 26 points and 12 rebounds this year, Cousins is safely named the top power forward in the country. He has also led his high school team to the state semi-finals while doing that. Along with Cousins, Kentucky announced that Jon Hood and Daniel Orton will also be joining the crew. Along with would-be NBA draft picks, should be a good season of battle.

For NCAA Basketball tickets visit stubhub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on April 17, 2009 - Post a comment


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