The OtherArena

[jdw]

Yikes! :)

John

[Bob Morris]

Pat Summit diagnosed with early onset dementia. Dan Wetzel writes about it.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/womens-basketball/news;_ylt=AvFFXSMlFwaHUMVMh_CAFIFMvrYF?slug=dw-dementia_diagnosis_wont_stop_summitt_082311

Pretty amazing that Summit will continue coaching. I don't know how long it will last, but there's no question Summit really had a positive impact on women's basketball and that her approach was quite similar to the way many of the top men's basketball coaches approached things.

[jdw]

Very sad.

[CFTV]

Michigan Basketball Recruit Austin Hatch who was involved but survived 2 fatal airplane crash has reportedly been singing the Michigan Fight Song while recovering from his injuries. 8 or 9 years ago his family was in a plane accident that saw his mom, sibling, and dogs passing away while him and his dad survived. Just this summer after announcing that he will be coming to Michigan was involved in another plane accident that saw his dad and step mom die as they were heading on vacation to their cabin in Michigan. Hatch's dad was really into airplanes even keeping the local airstrip open in their small Indiana town was a pain management Doctor who went to Michigan himself. I doubt Hatch plays competitively again at a high level but if this didn't happen he would have been a perfect piece in Beline's looks as he could stroke it from deep and had an engine to defend.

I really love hearing the good news as he continues to recover from this horrible moment that he had to live 2 times in his life in terms of losing his family in plane crashes.

[jdw]

I get home just in time for Hoback to call about Duke looking terrible and at risk of being upset by a total jobber. Caught the last two minutes, and yes... Duke looked horrible, though avoided the upset. The whole thing is on the DVR for when I can stomach it. :P

Looks like the Heels beat a good Sparty in a spectacle. Don't have that one dvr'd... look forward to hearing Elliott's report and thoughts. :)

John

[jdw]

Watched Duke's opener. Terrible performance by the team as a whole. Belmont is a solid mid major. Duke made a nice run to "bury" them, then gave it away and make it way too close. Lack of a true PG is a problem, and one that's not likely to clear up. Lacking a true small forward in the top rotation is worrisome as well. Hairston is the SF on the roster, but a DNP doesn't indicate he fits into the rotation a ton. Duke can cause some match up issues with the Plumlee's and Kelly on the court at one time, but:

(i) Duke hasn't done well at coaching their players to take advantage of such things

(ii) Kelly isn't really a true SF

He's not really a PF, and plays on the perimiter... but size and lack of athleticism make him very much *not* a true SF.

Against teams that have a more traditional athletic and talent SF along with a pair of power guys (C + PF or a more modern dual PF combo), there are going to be some issues defensively.

One of the tragic things of Irving's injury last year was its impact on the development of Plumlee the Younger. They seemed to be on the same page, with Irving knowing that if he drove he had four options:

1. layup
2. draw a foul (he loved going to the line and was a wicked FT shooter)
3. draw help dropping down and kicking it to the open wing
4. draw help from the inside and dish to the open Plumlee

The last is open quite a bit for Duke since Plumlee has come to the school, but the other PG's far prefer #1 and #3. Irving was hipper to #4 more than anyone. The benefit to #4 is that it not only gives you an easy score but also (i) often draws panic fouls as teams try to stop a big fellow while out of position, and (ii) get the big fellow engaged rather than being forced to stand around with his thumb up his ass while the team passes the ball around outside.

Lots of teams with big guys seem to get that: drive & dish. Duke... doesn't.

The other thing Irving was good at was catching Plumlee making a move to the hoop while slipping his defender. The flashiest are alley-oops, but they weren't the only ways Irving would catch him.

It's hard to see these non-points figuring that out. Curry, Dawkins and Rivers are likely going to be gunners rather than creators.

John

[Yakuza Rich]

This is probably the deepest Syracuse team ever. Back in the late 80's there were some pretty deep Syracuse teams, although it was different.

Back then you would have a guy like Herman Harried who could play and defend people, but had no offensive skills. Then you had guys that were freshmen that wound up being good players (i.e. Lazarus Sims) but didn't get any playing time until they were ready.

It didn't matter either way because Boeheim just doesn't like to use his bench that much.

But, this year seems to be very different. Almost surreal for me as a Cuse fan because it's such a change. We are legitimately 11 deep and even guys like CJ Fair have some real scoring ability.

This Syracuse team *might* wind up being the best defensive team. They play a lot more man-to-man and have some rebounders in Melo (who looks worlds better) and Christmas.

Of course, recent history shows that if you want to win, you have to have at least 2 future NBA'ers on the team. I think Fab Melo could be NBA bound based on his size. Maybe Christmas as well given his size and athleticism. After that, Waiters seems like the best bet. I can see him converting to the point guard spot in the NBA. Triche has a lot of muscle and athleticism for a guard, but might be too short and not a good enough shooter.

Anyway, they killed Manhattan which has been a pretty good low level program the past 10 years.






YR

[Scott]

Auburn's men's basketball team starts the season 2-0 for the first time in five years with wins over Kennesaw State and McNeese State.

In other news, the lower part of the conference continues to underperform:

Coastal Carolina 71 - 63 LSU

Elon 58 - 53 South Carolina

Miss State 58 - 68 Akron


That's in addition to Vanderbilt's loss to Cleveland State. Vandy is one of the SEC's better teams this year...


Scott

[jdw]

"903"
-Bruce Mitchell

:)

John

[jkc31]

I know its probably way too early for me to overreact, but Austin Rivers seems to be the atypical Dukie. All about Austin, driving to the basket to miss another layup, cavalier approach to passing, facial expressions that would make Bobby Hurley blush.
Plus did anyone notice that right as Coach K went to his family, those rat bas*ards from espn cut away. GRRRRRRRRRRRRR.
Great seeing Grant Hill and Shane Battier being interviewed though.
Funniest thing toward the end of halftime while espn is finishing their halftime show, here comes Coach Knight glad-handing the refs. Made me laugh out loud.
In closing I hate Austin Rivers and can't wait for him to graduate. or transfer. or jump to the NBA in the middle of this season.

[jdw]

I think we're going to have to bust out a Duke DVD at King of Soccer. :P

John

[Yakuza Rich]

SU wins big again versus Albany. The team didn't look as sharp as they did against Manhattan, but they were playing their 2nd game in 2 nights.

Most of the 'experts' give high praise to Kris Joseph. He's another fine SU swingman, but I just don't see him as NBA material. He's not good enough at creating his own shot and is not a great defender. The guy that impresses me a lot, even last year, is James Southerland. He poured in 19 here, going 3-4 from 3-land and 8-12 from the field. He's a tall (6'8") high energy guy.

Little concerned about the defense stopping guys who are good at taking it to the rim. Suero had 30 points agianst them and is a Kemba Walker type.

Lot more man-to-man so far and it's helped with the rebounding. Out-rebounded the Great Danes 47 to 29. That's really SU's 3 main concerns since they instituted the patented zone defense in '96, rebounding, 3-point shooting and free throw shooting.






YR

[jdw]

This is going to be an interesting season. We have one team that is almost a presumptive champ in UNC. Which leads to two questions:

* will the play to those expectations?
* who steps up to be seen at the challengers?

We had that last year with Duke... then Irving got hurt which opened things up. Then out of nowhere came UConn.

John

[Yakuza Rich]

[guren]

Speaking of Syracuse hoops...

(Syracuse University assistant basketball coach) Bernie Fine target of police inquiry