Hoops links for Thursday:
- At CBS Sportsline, Gary Parrish writes that the college basketball season gets wackier and wackier. Writes Parrish: “Greatness no longer exists. It apparently left the college game with Mario Chalmers and Derrick Rose, exited stage left and hasn’t been seen since. So if you spot it out there wandering around, kindly guide it back to Chapel Hill or Gainesville or wherever it is we are used to seeing it. Because greatness is gone and I’m worried about it. Every time I think I spot greatness, it just turns out to be a false-sighting, which brings me to Wake Forest.”
- In the Winston-Salem Journal, columnist Dan Collins writes that Wake Forest fell flat against Virginia Tech. Collins: “The Hokies knocked the Deacons from their perch atop college basketball by knocking down enough shots to shoot 56 percent in the second half and 50 percent for the game. It was quite a comeuppance for a Wake Forest team that ranked second in the nation in field-goal defense after allowing only four of its previous 16 opponents to shoot better than 40 percent from the floor.”
- At the New York Daily News, Dick Weiss gives his take on Louisville’s win over Rutgers last night. Hoops writes: “This game was a showcase for versatile senior forward Terrence Williams, who scored 21 points on 9-for-14 shooting and grabbed 11 rebounds for the Cards, who were coming off a huge 69-63 victory over then top-ranked Pitt on Saturday. Louisville shot 59% and played with the kind of aggressiveness that catapulted the Cards to a 40-20 halftime lead as they made their sixth straight victory look easy.”
- Paul Daugherty of the Cincinnati Enquirer asks if Xavier has outgrown the Atlantic 10. Paul writes: “Xavier roams the Atlantic 10 Conference like Gulliver, taking tiny arrows to the ankles from the likes of Fordham and La Salle. You know you have it good when in six of the previous seven seasons you’ve won either the regular-season title, the league tournament or both. You know the cotton is tall when, after your most recent A-10 blood-letting ends in a predictable, 20-point blowout, your coach is mad at your free-throw shooting. That’s dominant. Too dominant.”
- In the Detroit Free-Press, Shannon Shelton reports on Michigan State’s upset loss to Northwestern. Writes Shelton: “Northwestern’s victory shattered multiple MSU streaks. The Spartans entered the game on a 28-game home winning streak and had won 11 straight this season. MSU had won the last 12 games against the Wildcats, and Northwestern hadn’t beaten the Spartans since Feb. 6, 2002.”
- Luke DeCock of the Raleigh News-Observer writes that North Carolina savors its advantage over Clemson. Writes DeCock: “College basketball can be a game full of mystery and magic, where the unlikely can pop out from behind every screen and the unexpected is part of the fun. Sometimes, though, it’s exactly what you expect it to be. Good teams win, bad teams lose and Clemson loses at North Carolina.”
- In the Hartford Courant, Mike Anthony reports on Connecticut’s win over Villanova. Anthony: “(A.J.) Price, who made 10 of 13 shots, was being modest. The Huskies (17-1, 6-1 Big East) eventually needed a stalwart effort from Jeff Adrien, good free-throw shooting, timely blocks by Hasheem Thabeet and other key plays to seal their sixth consecutive victory, but Price was the driving force.”
- In the Birmingham News, Ray Melick addresses the Ronald Steele/Mark Gottfried soap opera. Melick writes: “It opens up reconsideration of last season, when Steele elected to redshirt and Gottfried never sounded comfortable with that decision. Remember all those postgame press conferences when Gottfried made references to the fact that his “best” player was only playing in practice? Were those comments subtle shots taken at Steele, evidence that Gottfried felt if Steele was well enough to practice, he should have been well enough to play?”
- At SportsIllustrated.com, Seth Davis says the future of once-proud Arizona is looking dim. Writes Davis, “Arizona State may be off to its best start in eons, but fans of the Arizona Wildcats, who followed a pretty good nonconference season with a 2-4 start in Pac-10 play, are greatly unsettled. Besides being confronted by the specter of possibly missing out on the NCAA tournament for the first time in 24 years (the longest active streak in the country), the school is also facing the task of replacing Lute Olson at a time when the program is going to be emptied of its talent with no recruits on their way.”
- At the Sporting News, Mike DeCourcy writes that there is no doubt that the ACC trumps the Big East in hoops. Writes DeCourcy: “The gentlemen in the ACC feel the need to proselytize about the quality of their basketball because last year the league received only four NCAA Tournament bids–and because something like that could happen again if the world doesn’t get the clear message that the ACC has played by far the best of any conference.”
