I got a rare treat last weekend - State played Ole Miss in hoops televised on ESPN Classic. It was some sort of promotional deal where the SEC wore "throw back" jerseys & ESPN Classic showed some games. Pretty lame idea, except I got to see the alma mater live!
It had been a hellacious end to the week - 2 sick kids home Thursday with the wife, I took Friday off with same 2 sick kids + a trip to the doctor. Then, the wife had a work event Friday evening, so I had been "on" for close to 24 hours straight. She took the kids to see her mother Saturday afternoon, leaving me alone to watch the game.
The Bulldogs completely dismantled the Rebels by 29 points. It was actually a little worse than that. State led by 30+ the entire 2nd half. One Clarion-Ledger columnist pointed to the death of the brother of an Ole Mis player as the reason they came out flat. I didn't know this before the game, so I spent the entire 2nd half watching closely to figure out if State had turned a corner or Ole Miss was flat or really that bad. I decided that State had turned a corner - few turnovers, tough defense, good rebounding, good shot selection against a tough defense, etc.
To quote Lee Corso, not so fast my friend. Played at Auburn Wednesday night & trailed by 20 early in the 2nd half. Tried to come back & lost by 4. This is a "what the?" moment. In the SEC West, it seems to me, State, Ole Miss & Auburn have been essentially interchangeable all season. If State comes out & is 29 better than Ole Miss, hitting on all cylinders, why are they essentially 20 worse than Auburn 4 days later?
I live in Univ of Maryland country. It seems like half my office are Maryland grads. This Wednesday, they lost at Fla St by 9. You would have thought they lost to a girl's school. The same coach who delivered a National Championship a few years ago & umpteen straight NCAA tournament appearances is no good & should be fired!
This has been an interesting year for both Maryland & State. Maryland has better athletes, but are 16-10 & 6-7 in the ACC. State is 13-13 & 3-10 in the SEC. The difference is probably the coach & these idiots at work want to get rid of Gary Williams?!?!?! I posed the question to a couple of them - fine, fire Gary, then who do you hire? I grew up in Fayetteville, AR & had this same argument recently with my sister. Fire Stan Heath, Arkansas' coach, & hire who? Neither of these groups had a viable answer. My sister got closest, Mark Few from Gonzaga. Yeah, Gonzaga is a better job right now, but Arkansas can offer hella lot more money. The Maryland fools came up empty with a replacement! They point to how Coach K worked under Bobby Knight and Roy Williams worked under Dean Smith. I said fine, hire Coach K's top assistant & take a chance. They didn't like that idea.
Rick Stansbury was an assistant at State for years before taking over the top job 7 or 8 years ago. He was a stud recruiter who is primarily responsible for State's success. This is the first time he's had such a young and small team. Did he turn recruiting over to the wrong guy? Did all the "graduations" & transfers hurt more than we thought they would? Who knows. He was my guy 8 years ago & he's still my guy today.
Maryland folks are speculating whether they make the big dance or not. I say no, but know they probably will, on the coattails of the National Championship & Gary's resume. That's what Gary brings to the table. Meanwhile, State closes out with Georgia, @ Arkansas and Alabama. I see 1-2 or maybe 0-3. We're not even going NIT this year, so why are Terps complaining?
I need to call my Philly boy Jack, the La Salle grad, to actually watch some games this year, instead of just talking about it!
