College Hoops 11/11-11/13

[Crimson's Ghost]

Pitt 0-0  

-- Eastern Michigan Friday 7:00

Pitt opens the 2016-17 season at the Pete on Friday night.  Eastern Michigan has a decent team that has plenty of experience, so it shouldn't be a total cake walk, but Pitt probably should win.  It's an interesting season for Pitt since there's so many unknowns, mainly with new coach Kevin Stallings.  Pitt returns 6/7 seven of their top scorers from their NCAA tournament team last year, so it shouldn't be a total transition. There are some proven commodities on the team.  The big thing to watch is Jamel Artis at point guard.  Pitt is employing a "five forward" lineup of sorts.  They may have the tallest starting 5 average in the country, so that's something to monitor. 

Penn State 0-0 

-- Albany Friday 7:00
-- Duquesne Sunday 6:00 B1G Network

Penn State opens the year with a bit of optimism. They have some exciting young returning players that will be meshed in with some talented freshmen. Can they put it together for a big season and step forward this season?  That's something we'll all be watching this season. Pat Chambers is 23-67 in Big Ten play in his five seasons running the program.  The seat isn't hot, but it's not cold either. They need to make a charge to at least the middle of the Big Ten this season, and I think it's possible with the league likely in a down year.  

Duquesne 0-0

Loyola Friday 7:00
@ Penn State Sunday 6:00  B1G Network

Duquesne has a lot of new faces this season, and may be turning to 3 transfers to start this season.  Meshing new pieces can take time, and maybe that's why Duquesne lost to Division II Mansfield the other day. The Dukes don't have many expectations this season, and they are picked towards the bottom of the Atlantic 10.  We'll see what they can do this weekend.  The game with Penn State is interesting, they've played PSU tough before, and knocked them off recently. 

Saint Francis 0-0

@ St. Bonaventure Saturday 4:00

The Red Flash finished last season 13-17, including a six game losing streak to close out the year.   At one time, it looked like Saint Francis was in the running to host a conference tournament game, with a 9-4 NEC record. It didn't end well for the Flash.  The game with St. Bonaventure should be a tough test to open the year. 

[El-Moldo]

Albany was to open their season with Duke, but because the state of North Carolina refused to support the transgender bathroom issue, New York teams were forbidden to travel to NC. Therefore they cancelled their appearance in Durham. Penn State then took them as their first game of the year.

[El-Moldo]

I knew something was wrong after watching the Channel 8 and 6 sports last night. Pitt and PSU both opened their season last night at home. During the evening I kept up with the Pitt score. They were able to pull out the victory in double overtime over Eastern Michigan, a team I think will win a lot of games this year. Anyhow, wanting to see how PSU made out, I checked out the local sports at 10PM and 11PM. It was the same sportscaster in both cases. Naturally, he spent time with district football playoffs, and of course a story on the Tomahawks. But in BOTH cases, there was absolutely NO mention of the Penn State game, not even a score. At that point, I knew it was bad news in State College. So I get on the computer and sure enough, PSU fell to the Albany Danes (the team that refused to open at Duke because of the transgender bathroom issue in North Carolina). With our local TV's fascination with Penn State sports, I'll guarantee you if PSU had won, it would, at least, have been mentioned in the sportscast.

[knowitall]

Did they mention Penn Highlands loss to Potomac State?

[Crimson's Ghost]

The Pitt game was not ideal, but I agree....Eastern Michigan is projected to win the MAC West and is a top 100 KenPom at the moment. I think if they have a big season, this could end up being a top 100 RPI win.  But Pitt played poorly down the stretch and blew a 12 point second half lead.  

Personally, I think Pitt should start a true point guard.  The Artis at Point Guard thing didn't look too good.  They have one more game to mess around with it, but Pitt's on national TV Thursday night against SMU.  Pitt needs some big non-conference wins, I want them to be ready to roll by Thursday.

[Crimson's Ghost]

18th ranked UConn lost to Wagner of the NEC, there were some other weird upsets as well.

Both games in the Armed Forces classic, MSU-Arizona and Kansas/Indiana were great games to watch.


Glad to have basketball back.

[El-Moldo]

I did not hear the Penn Highlands score mentioned. I'm sure that disappointed both of their fans. And by the way, #7 Xavier beat Lehigh 84-81, and Maryland beat American U 62-56.

[bigrig15]

Im in favor of kithcart starting at the point i know there will be some growing pains but with the amount of seniors around him it should go pretty smooth. Looking at this roster I feel like they should be very good lots of very talented upperclassmen and some talented underclassmen but they might not even finish in the top 6 or 7 in the acc cause it's loaded this year

[konjo78]

I dont think either pitt or penn state will be dancing in march. Both have become mediocre basketball programs.

[bigrig15]

Penn state has never been more then mediocre and Pitt should be in the mix come march they bring back the same team as last year minus one starter