Basketball Talent Impressions

[IdaGriz01]

The big boys have not started their conference championships yet, but there have already been plenty of "lower tier" conference tournament games. I throw this thread out to talk about some of the talent playing for teams at this so-called lower level. One thought: There's a lot of pretty impressive individual talent out there, but it's mostly one or two players (at most) surrounded by "role players."

Second thought: When you have to get the most out of a (semi)-star and some more limited talent, coaching ability -- or lack thereof -- can make a huge difference.

Third thought: "Extra" timeouts should "expire" when you get to the last 2-4 minutes in the game. It's bad enough that the end of games becomes a parade to the foul line. When you stretch the clock with one TO after another, it becomes painful to watch. I say, 1 (at most 2) TOs allowed per team in the last four minutes.

 

[EverettGriz]

Disagree completely on the timeouts. College basketball already reduced to 4 timeouts, only 3 of which can be carried over to the 2nd half. And with a couple of those being 30s, there really aren't many true timeouts. What delays end of games is the constant official reviews.

 

[IdaGriz01]

Disagree completely on the timeouts. College basketball already reduced to 4 timeouts, only 3 of which can be carried over to the 2nd half. And with a couple of those being 30s, there really aren't many true timeouts. What delays end of games is the constant official reviews.

Officials reviews are indeed a major factor in slowing down the game ... not to mention the foul shots themselves. However, since I was talking about televised games, you also have to include the prescribed media timeouts at every 4 minutes (16, 12, 8, 4 ... roughly) of each half. Working with the media timeouts, most coaches are able to keep their team timeouts for the 2nd half. So between the two teams and the media breaks, that's 10 timeouts for the half. Again, working with the media TOs, teams often go into the last couple minutes of a game with 4 or 5 timeouts between them, and sometimes they have all 6. Between foul shots, official reviews and actual timeouts, those last two minutes can easily take 10 minutes or more ... most of it just standing around.

But the best way to streamline the end of the game would be to actually invoke the older "intentional foul" rules. I'd say at least three-quarters of those end-game fouls fit the definition. The guys really don't make a bona fide attempt at the ball, they just kind of swat at the ball handler. Allowing the offended team to have the foul shots and keep the ball would at least force the defender to make an honest attempt at stealing the ball.

 

[rainbear14]

ok I'll bite, I am a self confessed college bball junkie and I watch many levels of hoops. I think the amount of talent out there is just out standing! Here in Oregon, I have watched some really gifted players not even at the D1 level. Div2, Div3 and even NAIA all have talent. I do not measure talent on whether or not they will be a NBA player. Hell, the point guard for Villanova last season, Archechano(sp?) never made it to the league. Cherry & Johnson were two of the best guards I have watched play for the Griz and neither played in NBA, altho Cherry came very close and I think he could. Some mid major schools have 3 or 4 gifted players. Just tonite I watched UNCWilmington win the CAA tourney and I warn you, they will be a very tough out in the big dance. Last year they gave Duke a real battle in round one and this season they are improved. They have 4 legit top tier players, top notch guards and a great post player. Good team for your brackets as an upset. I think the talent in the BigSky this season is also up and most teams have 2 or 3 good players. I do agree that coaching is huge in the college game too. It can make or break a teams chances, that is why I was confused during Griz season at times because I have full confidence in Travis. Someone else pointed out in another post the youth of the assts coaches and I wasn't aware of that and I think that just put more pressure on Travis. I sure hope he doesn't get offered the Cal job if it were open up later in year. He hasn't completed the job yet at the U. Time outs? I tend to agree the game stops to much in the last 2 minutes but I think it is the replays and if too many fouls have been called earlier like in the BSC games , over and over. I sincerely hope that the refs let them play in Reno and want a Griz surprise , like last weekend to continue!

 

[griz71]

ok I'll bite, I am a self confessed college bball junkie and I watch many levels of hoops. I think the amount of talent out there is just out standing! Here in Oregon, I have watched some really gifted players not even at the D1 level. Div2, Div3 and even NAIA all have talent. I do not measure talent on whether or not they will be a NBA player. Hell, the point guard for Villanova last season, Archechano(sp?) never made it to the league. Cherry & Johnson were two of the best guards I have watched play for the Griz and neither played in NBA, altho Cherry came very close and I think he could. Some mid major schools have 3 or 4 gifted players. Just tonite I watched UNCWilmington win the CAA tourney and I warn you, they will be a very tough out in the big dance. Last year they gave Duke a real battle in round one and this season they are improved. They have 4 legit top tier players, top notch guards and a great post player. Good team for your brackets as an upset. I think the talent in the BigSky this season is also up and most teams have 2 or 3 good players. I do agree that coaching is huge in the college game too. It can make or break a teams chances, that is why I was confused during Griz season at times because I have full confidence in Travis. Someone else pointed out in another post the youth of the assts coaches and I wasn't aware of that and I think that just put more pressure on Travis. I sure hope he doesn't get offered the Cal job if it were open up later in year. He hasn't completed the job yet at the U. Time outs? I tend to agree the game stops to much in the last 2 minutes but I think it is the replays and if too many fouls have been called earlier like in the BSC games , over and over. I sincerely hope that the refs let them play in Reno and want a Griz surprise , like last weekend to continue!
/quote]

If the officiating in the women's game is any indication, don't count on it. Several "mystery" fouls were called in the LG game tonite and it seemed like if you just touched an opponent you got whistled for it.

 

[IdaGriz01]

ok I'll bite, I am a self confessed college bball junkie and I watch many levels of hoops. I think the amount of talent out there is just out standing! Here in Oregon, I have watched some really gifted players not even at the D1 level. Div2, Div3 and even NAIA all have talent. I do not measure talent on whether or not they will be a NBA player. Hell, the point guard for Villanova last season, Archechano(sp?) never made it to the league. Cherry & Johnson were two of the best guards I have watched play for the Griz and neither played in NBA, altho Cherry came very close and I think he could. Some mid major schools have 3 or 4 gifted players. Just tonite I watched UNCWilmington win the CAA tourney and I warn you, they will be a very tough out in the big dance. ...

The best part of the plethora of talent is the way it’s spread around. I got to wondering just how many close games and upsets we’ve had so far .. when we have hardly started.

As of last night, just 7 championships have been decided. Out of those, 4 have been won by a lower seed. In five other cases, we’re down to the championship matchup … and two of those have no #1 seed playing. So by the time we have 12 championship decided, we will have at least 6 lower-seed champions. And that’s assuming no upsets in the other three soon to be played.

More evidence:
So far, we’ve had four overtime games, where the final differences were: +1, +3, +9, +10.
We have also had two double-overtime games, decided by: +1, +3
I’m think at least one of those OT/D-OT decisions was a buzzer-beater, but I cannot recall exactly.

There have also been a few buzzer- beaters among the many close games that did not go into OT. We have had 15 games decided by 1, 2, or 3 points. And, all told but not counting OT games, there have been 34 games decided by 5 points or less.

So it's been a Hell of a ride so far, and we have lots more to look forward to. :thumb:

Including: GO GRIZ! :egriz:

 

[IdaGriz01]

Here’s a bit of possible history in the making. Tonight, the Milwaukee Panthers (11-23 and the #10 seed) play Northern Kentucky (23-10 and the number #4 seed) for the championship of the Horizon League … and an auto-bid to the NCAA tournament. According to those who keep track of such records, the previous record was a team with 20 losses getting into the Dance. So 23 would not be a huge difference.

BTW: Milwaukee earned their way into this game by beating #7 seed Detroit, 85-60; #2 seed Valparaiso, 43-41; and #6 seed Illinois-Chicago, 74-68.

Back on Dec 3, the Panthers lost to the Griz in Missoula, 75-69. Do we root for them or not?

 

[IdaGriz01]

(Just to bump the thread slightly.)

Panthers down by only 3 at halftime.

BSC: PSU pounded NAU, 80-67.

 

[IdaGriz01]

With another nod to "participation ribbon." Just finished a very exciting OT game in the Sun Belt Conference tournament. UL-Monroe (2-16, #12 seed) vs Arkansas State (11-5, #5) ... and ULM won it 73-70. Overall, ULM was 6-23 for the season, but there's more to the story. They played five overtime games, going 1-4. They had five other losses by 5 or fewer points and several others that were also fairly close. Most teams with really bad records are really bad teams, but ULM seems to be the exception (a decent team with a lot of tough losses). That's the reason/excuse for letting the bottom feeders into the conference tournament.