Blog # 39

My Beloved 85 Bloggees (Welcome Jason and Jake):

Anthony Grant and his surging Crimson Tide remain undefeated at home after its 75 - 61 win over Mississippi State http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201102020006 . They are playing with such confidence. Tony Mitchell has become the star we expected him to be, coming from the famous Birmingham basketball school, Central Park Christian (Rod Grizzard, James Lang,  Marco Killingsworth and bloggee Rye Zinder are some of the alumni who went on to have fine careers in the college ranks . http://blog.al.com/sentell/2009/04/central_park_christian_is_prep.html )

I am already looking forward to March 1st when the Tide and the Gators match up on ESPN in front of the Rowdy Reptiles. I would not mind it if they played one or even two more times this season. NEXT

 

On Wednesday night I attended Southern Miss's 75 - 71 upset win and came away impressed with the star of the game, 6' 8 forward Gary Flowers.  Although he was only 7 for 18 from the field, he nailed 3 of 5 threes and ended up with a game-hight 22 points.  What was most memorable was the blanket job he put on UAB 6' 10 star Cameron Moore, limiting him to 0 for 5 in field goal attempts. The last time I saw Moore play, he scored 28 against Kent State.

 

Would you believe 64 of UAB's 71 points were scored by just 3 players and it was an even higher percentage before Moore canned three free throws in the last minute, his only points of the game. Orlando's Dexter Fields did sink 8 out of 11 long balls for the Blazers. But a tip of the hat to Southern Miss veteran coach Larry Eustachy (remember him from his Iowa State days with Marcus Fizer) for leading the troops to a tough road win, especially when Southern Miss was down by 12 in the first few minutes of the game, thanks to Fields' radar shooting.

 

I always enjoy a college basketball game when frequent Final Four official, Ted Valentine, is working, like he did at Bartow Arena. http://www.gatorcountry.com/basketball/article/consistency_is_ted_valentines_1_goal/1783  He controls the game, is never intimidated and you can tell he loves his job.  NEXT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most basketball junkies enjoy following exceptional individual performances by a player. In a previous blog, I noted that the country's top Division I free throw shooter (men's and women's) is Samford's Emily London. On Wednesday night at Chattanooga http://samfordsports.cstv.com/sports/w-baskbl/stats/2010-2011/sam0202.html , Emily converted all four of her free throws in a 60 - 53 win, increasing her percentage to 97.3 on 71 of 73 attempts for the season ! 

 

A few weeks ago I sat with Emily at a men's basketball postgame event and the personable senior guard seemed to be an even better person than a free throw shooter  http://samfordsports.cstv.com/sports/w-baskbl/mtt/london_emily00.html . Her outstanding coach, Mike Morris, made a similar unsolicited comment to me in a recent email.  We will continue to track Emily's hot hand. NEXT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An All-BB (Barry's Blog) player, Xavier's Tu Holloway had a nightmare night in Wednesday's 66 -62 loss at struggling Charlotte http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201102020395 . He shot 3 for 17 including 0 for 8 from beyond the arc and 6 turnovers. Holloway did shoot an Emily London-like 6 for 6 on his free throws (he was 17 for 17 last game....86.7 % for the year). Of course, Gator fans don't like to see one of their top non-conference victims suffer a bad defeat like this. NEXT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I think of Tom Izzo's Michigan State Spartans (5 - 5 in the Big Ten and 13 - 9  overall) after last night's ugly 72 - 52 loss at Big Ten cellar dweller Iowa, I can hear Vince Lombardi's classic line captured on NFL Films, "What the hell is going on out here?" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocV5bGHdYag . Their brutal nonconference schedule may be catching up to them http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/teams/may/schedule . 

 

The Spartans have lost 4 out of 5 and I saw portions of the one win last Sunday when they squeaked by Indiana in overtime and were fortunate to do so. The regular Final Four participant needs to turn it around quickly or they will be featured on the dreaded NIT Selection Show. Three of their next five games are at ranked conference opponents, Wisconsin, Ohio State and Minnesota.

 

Talk is the Izzo defense has been atrocious  http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news?slug=teamreports-2011-ncaab-may . Also the recent dismissal of PG  Korie Lucious (whose buzzer-beater against Maryland hurt my bracket last year)  has not helped. It will be interesting to see if  this unexpected descent by my mom's alma mater will continue. THAT'S IT

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy......on my way to watch Davidson play Samford....because of the freezing rain it is supposed to be a closed-door event discouraging spectators, but I will be there....2009 was the.last time these two teams played here and they sold out the Hanna Center with everyone wanting to see Stephen Curry play,

 

 

 

Barry

 

 

P.S  I will wait until the weekend to send you the amazing website I have discovered. I wouldn't want you to spend a great deal of work time checking it out.