College Hoops 11/14-11/20

[Crimson's Ghost]

Pitt 1-0   KenPom: 51   

-- Gardner-Webb Monday 7:00
-- SMU Thursday 7:00  ESPN2
-- Marquette/Michigan Friday  5:00 or 7:00  ESPN

Pitt narrowly escaped a pesky Eastern Michigan team in their season opener.  A win is a win - I guess, as the Kevin Stallings is officially under way.  They have a big double-header in New York City this week against some quality teams.  Pitt could certainly make a statement by playing well in front of a national audience against some solid competition. 

Penn State 1-1   KenPom: 105

-- Grand Canyon Tuesday 7:00
-- Duke Saturday 12:30
-- Cincinnati/Rhode Island Sunday

Penn State split a pair of game last week. They lost to Albany at home, but rebounded against Duquesne two days later. It's things like this that hold the program back. It's tough to go anywhere when you lose to American East teams, but at least the freshmen are showing promise.  Obviously the big story is that Penn State will play Duke up in Connecticut on Saturday. It's unfortunate the game is buried on a college football Saturday, it would have been better for PSU to have the visibility of a national TV game on a weeknight.  Either way, the ability to compete against Duke is cool.  I don't recall Penn State ever getting into any good preseason events, so this is a step up for them.  


Duquesne 1-1  KenPom: 174

-- Saint Francis Wednesday 7:00
-- Canisius  Friday  7:00
-- @ Kentucky Sunday 9:00 ESPNU

Duquesne hung with Penn State for a while, but came up short as a part of a 1-1 week.  They have an opportunity to pick up 2 wins before going into Rupp Arena and playing John Calipari's Kentucky team. 


Saint Francis 0-1  KenPom: 323

@ Duquesne Wednesday7:00
Chatham  Saturday 7:00

Saint Francis battled against St. Bonaventure of the A-10, but dropped one 92-82 to the Bonnies.  They will head to Pittsburgh on Wednesday night to play Duquesne.  The SFU-Duquesne games have been competitive lately, including a close one at the War Memorial last season. 

[Crimson's Ghost]

[center]Games of The Week[/center]
[left]Monday - #3 Villanova  at #15 Purdue 7:00 FS1[/left]
[left]We get to see the defending champs in a big setting on the road in the Gavitt tip-off games.  Purdue has a great frontcourt, and they could give Nova some trouble inside. [/left]

[left]Tuesday - #1 Duke vs.  #7 Kansas (New York City)  9:30 ESPN[/left]
[left]Pretty good double header here, as Michigan State and Kentucky play in the early game.  But I feel Duke/Kansas is a bit more compelling.  Obviously Kansas has a loss already, but they're very talented. Excited to see this one. [/left]

[left]Wednesday - Northwestern at Butler 7:00  FS1[/left]
[left]Wednesday is an off-night for big games, but this Gavitt tip-off game might be a good one. [/left]

[left]Thursday - Marquette vs. Michigan (NYC) ESPN2[/left]
[left]Should be a good game between two tournament contending teams. [/left]

[left]Friday - 2K Classic Second Rounds  ESPN2[/left]
[left]Pitt/SMU winner/loser vs. Michigan/Marquette winner/loser[/left]

[left]Saturday - 21 Rhode Island vs. 23 Cincinnati  3:00 ESPN3[/left]
[left]You'll probably be watching football, and you'll need your laptop to see this game. [/left]

[left]Sunday - Duquesne at #2 Kentucky 9:00 ESPNU[/left]
[left]I'm interested to see how bad this one can get. [/left]

[Crimson's Ghost]

Duquesne/SFU live stream.

http://www.atlantic10.com/mediaPortal/p ... m_id=31600

[El-Moldo]

Just left a Penn State site, where I just read that "The Penn State men's basketball team will face it's stiffest test of the season on Saturday when they take on #1 Duke in Uncasville, Connecticut". Oh, c'mon now. Really?

[Manfred]

No local love for UPJ? I attended their home opener last eve against an 0-5 Carlow U. 2 pt. halftime diff. Leahey missed his first 5 trey's, hit his first 2 to open the 2nd half, and UPJ pulled away to win by 31. This team needs a space eater that can run the floor. W/ Leahey @ 6-7, the biggest starter, they are going to lose a lot of games when they can't dominate boards or transition well. Gotta cut down turnovers too. Adequate depth. A couple nice newcomers, Josh Wise from Wash. Prexies. Not much from Hinton, 1st home game jitters?

[Crimson's Ghost]

I've never really kept up with UPJ/D2 hoops in general. 

[dougkeklak]

How did Ray Hinton look?  I saw he got some minutes but not a lot of points.  Of course box scores don't tell the whole story. 

[Manfred]

For a frosh, he had decent minutes, but got caught trying to stop a couple drives to the hoop in which he didn't get any help, and drew 2 fouls that could have been avoided. Two other fouls were just avg. fouls. 4 fouls, 0 points. Don't know about his assists or rebounds or turnovers. Looked like an average frosh for his first game. Hopefully he improves. He took over games at Ferngully. Thats not going to happen at this level.