I Know What You Are Thinking...Lets Clear This Up

What an amazing tip off marathon we were treated to this season! If you didn't get a chance to catch some of the earlier games hopefully you were at least able to weigh in on some of last evening's games. If not, then I am sure you are dying to ask, "Mastermind, Michigan St. and Kansas did the same thing Kentucky did, why aren't we hearing about them being overrated?" On the surface, this is a very valid question. However, there are a few factors in both games that set them apart from Kentucky's loss. Aside from those two games, there are a few other points in the night session of the marathon that I would like to address also.

The Good...

1. The biggest factor here is that Michigan State and Kansas were up against good teams. Don't get me wrong I don't take any team lightly or take away anything that Miami of Ohio did against Kentucky, but Gonzaga and Memphis are a much different level of competition. I will agree that both the Bulldogs and the Tigers may be down a little bit from their past couple of seasons, but they are still fantastic ball clubs that have legitimate shots to win their conferences again this season.

2. This doesn't apply to Michigan State who was at home, but Kansas was on a neutral court. Play that game at Phog Allen Field House and Kansas wins by 10. Move it to Memphis, and they escape with a quality road win.

3. The stars for both teams shined tonight. For Michigan State Durrell Summers, Kalin Lucas, and Raymar Morgan combined for 56 of the Spartans 75 points. For Kansas Cole Aldrich, Xavier Henry, and Sherron Collins combined for 41 points and Aldrich added 11 rebounds to complete the double-double.

The Bad...

1. Well Michigan State...20 turnovers is not really something most teams aim to achieve. I hate to single out any players but Draymond Green and Delvon Roe did not rise to the occasion tonight. Although Green had 10 rebounds, he added only 6 points and was responsible for 5 of the Spartans turnovers. Roe on the other hand, had no bright spots with no points and 4 turn overs while playing in foul trouble all night before fouling out. Michigan State is going to need production out of these 2 if they are hoping to return to where they were last season.

2. Kansas did you take a lesson from MSU? The number one team in the country shouldn't be committing 21 turnovers against anyone. Tyshawn Taylor played 33 out of 40 minutes for Kansas and had a whopping 7 turnovers to only 5 assists and managed just 2 points. The Jayhawks may not be a 3 point shooting team but they attempted only 5 and made just 1, which could present a problem when they are playing in come from behind situations which, believe it or not, they will eventually be in.

The Other...

1. Memphis played hard and came painfully close to upsetting the number 1 team in the nation. This should be a huge boost for a program that took massive hits in the off season, has all young players, and a new head coach. Elliot Williams had a monster game, throwing down 21 points and somehow managing to not pick up a single foul in 39 min. Memphis showed tonight that although things may have them down, they are definitely not out.

2. The score of the Tennessee-UNCA game can only be described as...you know what I don't even have a word for it. A 75 point win for the Volunteers is just ridiculous. Every player on the Tennessee roster with the exception of one scored in this game. Now I didn't get a chance to watch this one but something tells me maybe Bruce Pearl should have a pulled his boys off a little sooner in this game. Although I guess he is still controlling his players a little better than his Football counterpart on the other side of the university.

3. I won't go into specifics here but the Georgetown-Temple game was one of the worst displays of basketball I have ever had to witness. The Hoyas played horrible basketball with their fouls and turnovers and the Owls played just a little bit worse which you will notice is clearly reflected in the score. Lets hope we don't have to see another game like that again this season, my eyes can't handle it

Lets have a little chat about Kentucky shall we?

At first I had every intention of slapping down a big helping of "I told you so" right now in regards to my preseason comments about Kentucky being overrated. However, before I started this post I watched some highlights, looked at some footage and ran a few numbers and have decided to go a bit of a different direction. Now don't get me wrong, I still think Kentucky is overrated, I still think they proved that against Miami of Ohio tonight, and you can still plan on hearing that out of me all season long. But......

1. Kentucky got another early double double out of Patterson (17 &10)
2. John Wall had a big first game for the Wildcats (he was suspended for taking gifts from an AAU coach, what a shocker) and had the confidence to take the ball up the court and hit a game winning shot without calling a time out and setting up a play. Now that is a lot of guts for a kid playing in his first game in Rupp Arena.
3. They didn't lose. Despite the score, despite being down an unbelievable 18 points at home to a mid-major team, despite not playing well, the Wildcats at 2-0 and did not lose this game. But....

1. The obvious here, this is Kentucky playing against Miami of Ohio. Need I say more? This game should never have even been worth writing about. Instead, it was one of the most exciting games of this young season, that is unless you are a Kentucky fan.
2. Did anyone get a look at Kentucky's free throw shooting? In case you didn't catch that the Wildcats shot a dismal 14-24 (58%) from the charity stripe. You just cant do that, especially at home. Lets see how many games Kentucky will win this season when they shoot under 60% from the free throw line, on the road, in the SEC. But...

I guess after looking at it, the positives for Kentucky out weigh the negatives in the this game. However, I think after this performance a few more people will be joining my, "Kentucky is overrated and hasn't proven anything yet" movement that I have started.

I hope everyone is watching the all night tip off marathon. If you are not turn it on right now! This Cal State Fullerton v. UCLA game is in overtime and its a thriller!

Big performances out of New Faces Shine on Opening Weekend

Well we've officially gotten underway now with the bulk of the top 25 seeing their first action on Friday night. I'm sure no one out there is all that shocked that the night was filled with blowouts and fantastic first games from a lot of players both old an new. Here is a few of the bright spots that I noticed on Friday.

- Xavier Henry threw down 27 points, a school record for a freshman, in his Kansas Jayhawks debut. Kansas is scary good people, and if Henry Continues to play games like that Kansas will crush anyone in his path. Henry (27), Sherron Collins (21) and Cole Aldrich (11), combined for over half of Kansas' 101 points in their impressive season opener. If the Jayhawks can manage to get about a combined 15 ppg out of their bench, they may not lose a game all season.

- Eric Patterson also had a stellar debut for the Kentucky Wildcats, dropping down 24 points in the season opener. Patrick Patterson threw in a double double (20 and 12) and showed that he is going to provide the leadership that this Kentucky team is going to desperately need with all the freshman on the roster.

- Duke won tonight. That in itself is not impressive as they were playing UNC Greensboro. What is impressive is that they were able to do so with only one actual guard on the floor, Jon Scheyer, who didn't turn the ball over once in the entire game. With Nolan Smith out for the first 2 games and Mason Plumlee out with a broken wrist, Duke proved that it can win even when they are short handed.

- UConn has got to having some mixed feelings this morning. On one hand, Jerome Dyson came back from his knee injury and put in 27 for the Huskies, something they have to be thrilled about. On the other hand, UConn only won by 9 points, and couldn't out rebound William and Mary. I didn't get the chance to watch this game, but I'm wondering if this is a sign of bad things to come for the Huskies this season?

The Mastermind's Game of the Day: Rider @ #19 Mississippi State
If you refer back to my preseason post about Mississippi State, you will see that the Bulldogs decided to take the route that I outlined in their weakness section, and not come out prepared to play with a target on their backs. Take nothing away from the sharp shooting of the Rider Broncs (how many of you out there knew that mascot?) who shot 50.8% from the field and a staggering 62.5 % from beyond the 3-point line. However the Bulldogs looked sloppy all game, had twice as many turnovers as their opponents, and shot horrible from 3-point land. Mississippi State can bounce back from this loss and it could prove to be a good eye opener early in the season, but the Bulldogs are going to have to play much better than this if they want a shot at the SEC title.

Let the Games Begin!

Hoops fans, I don't care what anyone tries to tell you, Christmas comes in November! The season is underway and I couldn't be happier right now. I will start by saying I am sorry I haven't posted in awhile but it was a mixture of me being very busy and to be completely honest I was getting a little bit bored about writing about preseason rankings and not getting to watch any ball. Never fear though, with the season kicking off last night I have a renewed sense of energy and some day after thoughts to share about the opening night of the season.

Well I would like to start out by giving Isiah Thomas credit for coaching against UNC last night mostly because his mother had just had surgery earlier in the day, and that takes a lot of guts to do. But also because he was so over matched it wasn't even funny. The real thing I would like to discuss here is the glaring number of turnovers that the North Carolina Tar Heels committed in this game. Now I realize that its so early in the season and the Heels are playing with almost a completely new team, but Roy Williams himself admitted that the turnover situation had been plaguing the Heels all season long. On the bright side for the Heels, very few of those turnovers were committed by their new point man, Larry Drew. As for FIU, well as Isiah Thomas stated, they never gave up. This program has been through 9 straight losing seasons and the players seem excited to play under Thomas. If Marvin Roberts can continue to play games like that (18 points) the Golden Panthers may see their program start to turn around a little.

Another point of contention from last night: Ohio State is going to be a force in the Big 10 this season. Now you may ask how I can possibly come to that conclusion after seeing them play Alcorn State. The answer lies in the statistics from last nights game. The Buckeyes had 5 players score in double figures (2 of them came off the bench), only committed 6 turnovers, and possibly the most impressive figure of the night, had all but 2 of their players play over 10 minutes in the game. Ohio State is a deep team folks, and depth is one of the biggest factors come late in the season. Don't be surprised to see the Buckeyes in the top 10 for a good part of this season, be even less surprised if they upset the number 4 Tar Heels in 10 days on their home court.

The Mastermind's Game of the Day: Murray State @ #12 California
Welcome to the radar California Golden Bears. This is going to be the story of your whole season. Folks Cal is not used to be such a force in the Pac-10 not to mention being picked to win it. This is just the first of many games where under matched, under ranked, teams are going to push the Bears to the brink. Cal was caught off guard last night by a mixture of a possibly underrated Murray State team and the Golden Bears taking their opponent lightly. Now I am still calling Cal the favorite to win the Pac-10 but they need to harden up a little, and check the target on their backs because its not going away anytime soon.

Its gonna be a fantastic Season hoop heads! Thoughts, comments, concerns, as usual, are encouraged!