B10/ACC challenge gets underway in full scale tonite. Michigan, Illini and Indiana get big tests. Niagara faces St john's, first look at this year's version of Mt St Mary's. Belmont is off to Middle TN St and VCU sees Illinois State so we can see the new redbirds coach. should be a good nite

yeah I just refuse to watch that crap sorry


Minny and Indiana looking good ACC taking a whupping this evening.

NIU at Depaul follows this Niagra game which is surprisingly close at St Johns home court. WOw...just as i say that St Johns flexes their muscles and gets the running game going.

Seton Hall just slaughtering a M ST M team with no stand out and not much offense.


Illinois State and VCU playing close. VCU not getting the pressure we have seen in past years. Still it is close in downstate IL . Hated playing there and the visiting folks were parked up in the nosebleeds. Fired a letter off to the AD and the NCAA as that was the only place that egregiously violated the NCAA mandate regarding visiting team placement in 4 years of following the Cats.

Belmont comfortably over MTSU in the Bruins home court. 19 pts off of turns. They are looking pretty good as I bounce in and out. Recognize the MTSU coach but can't place him. Married life has made Vince Gill a very large man....surprising with AG at his side.

CIncy playing stony brook with the expected outcme

Cuse and Michigan (announcing at halftime Brady is gone I am sure) playing pretty close Dakich on the call making listening worthwhile. 45 48 and playing each other tough. orange on yellow is a bit disconcerting though

I dunno what is worse under 2 mins. A & M going 2-3 and not challenging or UL not attacking the zone and getting the ball inside then taking a contested 3 late in the shot clock.

Shane battier on the call. Must have retired officially

I actually really enjoyed Battier in the broadcast role. I'm not usually a big fan of former players jumping right into these roles (particularly in the NFL) but he was very solid.


A lot of teams are still rounding into form. I think OSU is still trying to figure out and define roles. Cincinnati, who struggled a lot in their first few games, seems to be figuring things out a bit. They have a freshman thats just going to get better and better in Gary Clark. They still need either Caupain or Shaq Thomas to really emerge as consistent scorers. By march, I think both UC and OSU will be pretty damn good.

One team I'm impressed with thus far is Miami. They're very much legit, and Rodriguez seems to be an elite PG.

I love John and the Illini, but I think the absence of Abrams is going to show up as the Big Ten schedule wears on.

To me, there's no doubt that the B1G is the elite conference this year as a whole. I'm interested to see Duke play at the Kohl Center tonight.

The only mid majors that most of these teams are gonna play are the Central Michigan's or Wright State's of the world. They won't play 'good' mid majors much of the time.

I was at NIU/DePaul last night and came away impressed with the Blue Demons and a little optimistic about the Huskies. A few thoughts mostly centered around Northern:

-NIU dominated the boards all game and it wasn't just Threloff.
-Bowie got off to a very quick start for NIU and then disappeared a bit. Showed a good ability to attack the hoop, which NIU likes to do.
-DePaul played a full court press for the entire game and forced countless turnovers before center stripe. They'd trap the ballhander with two defenders. NIU had no answer for this all game. I think they had 21 turnovers.
-On the other side of the coin, NIU had 11 steals. They also got to the line a fair amount.
-On DePaul's end, their G Billy Garrett Jr dazzled me with his ball handling skills. He is a natural. He also didn't miss a shot (not even a FT) all game. They spread their scoring out very evenly and I think they had 28 pts off turnovers. Very good showing, they might be decent this season.
-Lastly, the Allstate Arena is a miserable venue for college basketball. I'm glad DePaul will apparently be upgrading soon.

For Depaul students, I'd imagine the new location will be much better. They can still take the Red Line to get there.

They've only have 83 3PA on the season, good for 306th. So they're probably getting a ton of put back and second chance type rebs, I would guess. That was definitely the case last night - it didn't seem like their bigs were great finishers, but they could sure get a rebound. Now, they've only played 5 games, so SSS and everything, but still...something to talk about.

Also, for the record, Ohio has 84 3PA on the season so far.

Yeah I completely disagree as well. We criticize the major programs for staying home and playing weak programs, and yet we criticize them for playing each other as well? I think it's nice to see an event that forces teams to play opponents that they match up pretty evenly with. And in the end, it is just one game.

What does that make us?