College Ball Notes

I haven't written about college basketball much this year, mainly because merely thinking about Wake Forest's season is enough to make me want to plant myself in front of my exhaust pipe for a 45-minute stretch. But a particularly lazy Saturday that consisted of about nine uninterrupted hours of basketball-viewing got me inspired to make a rare Sunday entry.

* John Feinstein has a nice column in today's Washington Post about former Maryland assistant Jimmy Patsos and the good work he's doing at Loyola (MD). In his first year at the school, Patsos' team had one win... For the entire season. This year they're contending for the MAAC title.

* Continuing my role of devil's advocate to the Kevin Durant hype (which, again, is strange because I've been on Durant's bandwagon since he played his high school ball down the street at Montrose Christian): In two of Durant's three all-world performances from this season, he's been out-played by opposing players. In an 18-point loss to Texas A&M, Durant shined with 28 points and 15 boards. But Acie Law, A&M's star, countered with 21 points and 15 assists. And in the college basketball game of the year (so far), Durant dropped 37 and 12 in a triple-overtime loss to Oklahoma State. However, State's Mario Boggan had 37 and 20! The rematch is tomorrow night. It should be fun.
Last thing about Durant: Check out his minutes played, starting with the Oklahoma State game:

52 @ OSU
40 @ Villanova
36 @ Nebraska
36 vs. Baylor
40 @ Texas Tech
36 vs. Kansas State
39 @ Texas A&M
38 vs. Iowa State

So in his last eight games, Durant is averaging 39.6 minutes played. He's missed 18 total minutes in those contests. Anybody who's read this site for a while knows that I'm no fan of Rick Barnes and this is why. Durant is 18 years old and still has some growing to do. Exhausting him in the middle of February probably isn't the best way to utilize his greatness. And, yes, despite what I've just written I still think Durant is awesome. I just think the hype is getting too big, too quickly. And Rick Barnes seems to be falling for it too. A worn-down Durant is the last thing Texas needs come March.

* Bill Simmons says he thinks UNC's chances at the National Title could be hindered by their lack of long-range shooting. Interesting, then, that the Tar Heels are fourth in the ACC in three-point percentage and have Reyshawn Terry (45%) and Wayne Ellington (39%) launching from the perimeter. I'd be inclined to think that Simmons has no clue what he's talking about, but that'd just be kooky talk.

* Players I really like: Mario Boggan, Sean Singletary, Reyshawn Terry, Julian Wright, Jeff Green, Chase Budinger, Curtis Sumpter, Corey Brewer, Dominic James (even after yesterday's debacle) and Durant.

* Players I don't like: Duke's entire roster, Joakim Noah and Randolph Morris (they play soft every time I see them).

* Coaches I don't like: Kelvin Sampson.

* Announcers I like: Bill Raftery, Verne Lundquist, Brent Musberger, Brad Nessler, Dan Schulman

* Announcer I like, even though I hate: Dick Vitale. More on him, though, on February 28.