Mike Adras resigns post at Northern Arizona

We always show up when craziness ensues. Yesterday, head coach Mike Adras resigned as head man of Northern Arizona. The Lumberjacks were off to a 2-7 start after a 49-40 loss to Pepperdine, dropping Adras’ career record to 193-170. That’s not too bad of a record. He was 99-83 in 13 seasons of Big Sky play and his team was a tournament semifinalist last season.

Now in most coaching situations where a team goes through a bad season or has a bad start, one wonders how exactly this resignation came to be. Was it a “I’ll get out before they ax me” decision by Adras? Was it a “resign or you’re fired” call by the AD, Jim Fallis? Those seem to be the only options, whether logically or illogically.

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Siena keeps battling but could use a win

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Siena could have used a win on Friday night for clear reasons. It’s been a rough go for the Saints thus far, both on and off the court, and while they continue to battle, they’re 3-6 after dropping a tough 82-78 decision to UMass on Friday in the Basketball Hall of Fame Holiday Showcase.

It was another close loss for the Saints, who have suffered a few of those to this point. In a five-game losing streak they snapped in their prior game, four were by seven points or less. Friday’s loss was by four, and one where they had the lead on several occasions and showed the kind of fight they have shown through a lot of adversity thus far this season.

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Injuries, eligibility issues hurt Brown out of the gates

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The 2011-12 season hasn’t exactly gone the way Brown drew it up thus far. The Bears come up on their last game before a break for final exams with a 4-7 mark, but more than that, not playing well. They were annihilated at cross-town rival Providence on Monday, then lost to New Hampshire on Wednesday.

Brown has been hit hard in the personnel department since school began. Rafael Maia, who figured to change the frontcourt lineup by giving the Bears a better big man, was declared ineligible for the season by the NCAA. Joe Sharkey, who figured to give them some backcourt depth, injured his hip and will redshirt, with surgery coming near the end of this month. Tucker Halpern, who was ready to blossom further now that he would be able to play his natural small forward position more, caught a bad case of mono and is going to redshirt as well, as he’s not improving much. And Dockery Walker, another who figured to contribute up front, is on the shelf.

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Big East dominates SEC-Big East Challenge

We’re still a few weeks shy of the beginning of conference play in the Big East, but this past week gave us some of the best tests these teams will see in the nonconference season with the SEC-Big East Challenge.

These interconference events are great hooks for college basketball fans trying to get out of the malaise of colder weather and bad local football teams. ESPN dreams up match ups that force some teams (cough, cough, Cincinnati) to play at least one decent team before they get into the rough and tumble life of conference play.

This year, the Challenge expanded from its normal eight-team, two-night format to include 24 teams in 12 games over the span of three nights. … Continue Reading

First road win may help New Hampshire get going

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – New Hampshire hasn’t played as many games as a lot of Division I teams. Their sixth game of the season was played on Wednesday, and at times this looks like a team that hasn’t played together much. In knocking off Brown 69-56, the Wildcats picked up a road win after their coach had challenged them to do just that.

“The challenge that we’ve been handing to our guys is, can we go on the road now and win a game?” said head coach Bill Herrion.

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Looking back at the Jimmy V

NEW YORK - The Jimmy V Classic, always providing interesting matchups, did not disappoint. The Madison Square Garden doubleheader on Tuesday featured a strong Missouri team followed by an entertaining matchup in the nightcap. The scores:

Missouri 81, Villanova 71

Marquette 79, Washington 77

1. Missouri is good. Very good. The entered the game with a 126 offensive efficiency. Against Villanova, the Tigers put up a very impressive 117. Defensively they allowed a 103 efficiency to Villanova but did force the wildcats into a 22% turnover percentage rate. Frank Haith does not employ a full court pressing defense with this Missouri team. Rather, he’s decided to use a tough man-to-man defense that disrupts offenses an creates turnovers in a half court setting. Offensively he has a solid sharpshooter in Marcus Denmon, a game-high 28 point scorer on 6 of 10 three point shooting. Kim English is a capable guard and scoring threat. At the point Phil Pressey handed out 12 assists while committing just three turnovers in 24 minutes. Inside there is one key player. Ricardo Ratliffe is solid and the 6-8 forward made his presence known against Villanova with a 17 point 11 rebound outing. “Missouri is a tough team,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said. “They are so quick to the ball and rebound very well. They are the type team that can play four guards and be very successful at it.”

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Weber State loses a key component

Last year, nine games in, Damian Lillard tore his ACL. This year, Randy Rahe‘s squad was dealt another blow as redshirt senior forward Kyle Bullinger dislocated his elbow against San Jose State three days ago (semi-warning: the video is, at least, cringe-inducing. At most, might make you hurl.)

Reports aren’t confirmed just yet, but word is he will be gone at least three weeks, maybe a month or slightly longer.

Who is Bullinger? Well, he’s started 100 games for the Wildcats and is the team’s best low-post threat and key glass man (7.2 points, 9.0 rebounds). … Continue Reading

Holy Cross may be turning a corner after pulling out a close one

WORCESTER, Mass. – Holy Cross may have conquered a demon in Saturday night’s 62-57 win over New Hampshire. The Crusaders appeared to have the game locked up in the final minute, leading by ten, but they allowed the Wildcats a couple of extra chances that suddenly made it a ballgame. A year ago, they might have ultimately blown this game, but the Crusaders pulled it out by doing just enough late.

The Crusaders led 60-50 with 38 seconds left after two free throws by Justin Burrell. The game was all but in hand at that point, especially since the Crusaders fought back rallies all night long. Then two missed free throws and two missed turnovers, one in their own end, helped New Hampshire suddenly get within 60-57. Burrell then sank two more free throws to finally seal the game and get the Crusaders over the hump.

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Is NC State better than Duke right now?

In theory, a credible player rating system should allow you to begin to compare teams. After all, a team is the sum of its parts, right?

Well, it’s not that simple, as evidenced by the fact that North Carolina State’s players produce a Total Impact Quotient sum of 133.7 in comparison to 109.9 for Duke. Are the Wolfpack really substantially better than the Blue Devils right now? Is that possible even though NC State dropped to 5-3 today after losing at Stanford while Duke is 7-1?

In short, no. But the Wolfpack sure look better than Duke on paper. … Continue Reading

ACC, Pac-12 and SEC player ratings, through Dec. 3

We’re just about one month into the season, and every team has played a handful games already.

That means we have a decent sample size to evaluate players by the Total Impact Quotient rating system. We broke out the first set of 2011-12 player ratings a couple of weeks ago, starting with the Bigs — the Big 12, Big East and Big Ten conferences. We’re going with the other power conferences in this edition: the ACC, Pac-12 and SEC.

If you’re new to the TIQ, please check out our full description about the player rating system. It takes into account a whole bunch of stats that players put up and boils them down into a single number. … Continue Reading

New-look Old Dominion keeps winning and getting better

BOSTON – Prior to the season, the Colonial Athletic Association was a hotbed of questions for those who like to predict how a conference will go. Right in the middle of that was the two-time defending champions, as Old Dominion had been picked to win the conference two years in a row and did just that but was picked fifth this time around due to heavy personnel losses. The Monarchs are doing what they have done for a while now: win games. The latest example was Saturday’s 69-59 win at Northeastern that had a lot of positives for this team.

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Big week ahead for a bunch of ACC teams

There haven’t been a ton of surprises in the ACC thus far, with Duke and North Carolina standing out as the premier teams and everyone trying to chase them down.

At the bottom of the standings, Wake Forest and Boston College are in full-fledged rebuilding mode, which was expected heading into this season. Coach Jeff Bzdelik is knee-deep in a mess that has the Demon Deacons starting almost from scratch. In Boston, coach Steve Donahue is coming off a season in which he lost nearly his entire roster to graduation or the NBA Draft.

For the eight teams between the top and bottom, the rest of the season will be spent jockeying for position within the conference and with other teams competing for a bid to the NCAA Tournament. … Continue Reading

Central Connecticut looks like an NEC contender in manhandling Bryant

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – Northeast Conference play opened up on Thursday night, and one team sent notice that a championship is going to have to go through them. Central Connecticut manhandled an improved Bryant team 83-51 in a game that was never competitive, and did so with a complete effort. To boot, it was on the road and with a crowd that was not hostile but certainly up for the game.

The fans saw a good game, all right. It just wasn’t by the team they were rooting for.

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Penn State needs consistent help for Frazier

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – If Penn State ever gets another player or two besides Tim Frazier going, the Nittany Lions just might surprise some people. As it is, they’re 6-2 while being carried by one of the best players in the Big Ten, and Wednesday night’s 62-54 win at Boston College may show what could be possible if this happens.

No team can ever rely on one player, and certainly not Penn State. Frazier is a good player, but he’s not exactly at the top of people’s minds as a first team All-American. He’ll do all he can for this team, and he’s certainly done plenty thus far, but the plain fact is that if this team is to be better than one of the Big Ten’s bottom-feeders, other players need to get going on something resembling a consistent basis.

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A closer look into the Big Sky’s Monday twinbill

We’ll start with what people are calling “the appetizer”: Montana State at San Jose State.

It was a game between a pair of 2-3 teams in which the Bobcats felt favored: MSU’s losses were to higher quality opponents, as it were, and their lone Division I victory was over Utah, a low Pac-12/former top Mountain West team. SJSU’s lone D-I win was over UC-Irvine by a pint and secure only when a last-second basket was overturned.

MSU took control early with hot outside shooting, hitting 5 of its first 10 3-pointers. … Continue Reading

Cleveland State shows what they are capable of against Rhode Island

SOUTH KINGSTON, R.I. – To listen to Gary Waters after his team’s 67-45 blowout of Rhode Island on Sunday, you would get the sense that it was a picture-perfect game. It fit the way the Cleveland State mentor wants his team to play, from the style of play to what the stat sheet would show to the final result. And while his team is now 6-1 on the young season, Sunday’s game showed some things about this team.

“I thought that was one of our better defensive efforts,” Waters said. “We really focused in and defended. I’m still a little perplexed about the rebounding, and I think we can do a much better job there, but I thought our guys did a good job of doing what we do: turning people over and finishing at the other end.”

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Pre-Season NIT: A Final Analysis

NEW YORK – Syracuse captured the Pre-Season NIT title with a thrilling 69-63 victory over Stanford. A few notes on the consolation/championship doubleheader…

1. Tempo Free gives us a better look. Following the victory over Stanford, Jim Boeheim said his Syracuse team played 35 minutes of “horrendous offense” and five (in the stretch) of good. A tempo free look shows the Orange had 72 possessions and a 96 offensive efficiency (points per possession times 100). The 96 is a bit below average. Boeheim lamented that his offense needed work and thankfully the defense was good both days.

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Terriers continue to bounce back en route to two wins

SOUTH KINGSTON, R.I. – Boston University is establishing an identity as a resilient team in the early going. Adversity has been present early and often, in the form of deficits in games and tough losses. But new head coach Joe Jones and his team knew it wouldn’t last, and although they had to overcome adversity again this weekend, they did just that in finishing with a 2-1 record in the Legends Classic subregional.

The Terriers didn’t exactly start out the weekend on a good note. They lost a heart-breaker to Cleveland State on Friday afternoon, a game that was more than just there for the taking. But they bounced back to take out the host team on Saturday and then pull out a 68-61 decision over Hofstra, and that’s the biggest thing they will take out of this weekend.

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A look forward to the 2011 ACC/Big Ten Challenge

Feast Week is over, and Thanksgiving leftovers should have energized the Consumer Nation for the official Most Wonderful Time of the Year.

But when you need a break from the shopping malls or a respite from scouring the Internet for cyber deals, tune in to the 13th annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

In 2011, the Big Ten will look to pick up its third consecutive victory in this interconference duel, after a decade of futility. When the challenge started in 1999, the ACC simply controlled the entire thing, winning the first 10 challenges. … Continue Reading

Explorers start rebounding in win over Rider

PHILADELPHIA – John Giannini had seen his team get beat on the boards enough, especially his big men. So with his team holding a good lead, the La Salle mentor sent them a message at halftime about it.

“He just snapped on us, told us he’s tired of us getting out-rebounded,” sophomore point guard Tyreek Duren said. “I think today we had to change that.”

Consider the message received. As part of an 82-70 win over Rider in the Philly Hoop Group Classic on Saturday night, the Explorers turned up the effort on the glass in the second half and wound up out-rebounding the Broncs by a 40-33 margin.

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