February 22, 2012

CSU Weekend Wrapup: Vikes Sweep Wisconsin Schools and Stay Atop Horizon League

January 23, 2012 By 1 Comment

It was a huge weekend for the Cleveland State Vikings basketball team. They entered Friday night’s home tilt with Green Bay in a three-way tie for the Horizon League lead with Valparaiso and the team they would be facing Sunday, Milwaukee. A sweep of the Wisconsin schools would be of the utmost importance, especially at home, considering the Vikings have already lost an in-conference home game against the upstart Youngstown State Penguins.

Before the first place showdown with the Panthers, CSU had to make sure they didn’t overlook Green Bay on Friday.

They didn’t.

In front of a National TV audience on ESPNU for the second straight week, the Vikings controlled the game and took down the fighting Phoenix 78-68. The first six minutes were a back and forth struggle, but after back to back threes by Senior Tre Harmon, the Vikings never looked back. They led by six at the half. [Read more...]

Filed Under: College Basketball, CSU Vikings Tagged With: , , , ,

TD’s Five For Friday: Top College Hoops Games of the Weekend and Players to Watch

January 6, 2012 By 7 Comments

The weekend is upon us, and for most of the country, its the first big weekend of conference play. This is where the men separate themselves from the boys. The games get bigger, as do the stakes in terms of NCAA Tournament seedings and for the individual players themselves. The NBA scouts are watching. Teams such as our own Cleveland Cavaliers will be viewing these games with a close eye. So let us take a look at the top five matchups of the weekend alnong with the players to watch for in these games. Just a warning, its not a great slate this weekend….p.s. I love this old photo of the 1991 UNLV Runnin’ Rebels

#20 Marquette (12-3) at #1 Syracuse (16-0), 4 PM, ESPN3
The #1 team in the country has looked loaded thus far. This may be the deepest team that Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim has ever had in his 30-plus years as coach. The way they run up and down the floor is a beauty to watch. Its an unselfish group without a true “star” player. They are a solid group one through 10.

In terms of draft picks, an interesting guy to keep your eye on is their Sophomore Center Fab Melo. Had the 7-foot Melo come straight to the NBA, someone would have taken him in the lottery on size alone. Instead he went to Syracuse and spent his Freshman year in Boeheim’s doghouse. This season, he has looked terrific. He lost weight and has been a real presence, especially on the defensive end. Though he is still a project, he’s a late first/early second round candidate. But you cant teach size and he is rapidly improving. [Read more...]

Filed Under: College Basketball

TD’s Five For Friday: College Hoops Weekend Games To Watch

December 2, 2011 By 3 Comments

It’s Friday. The weekend is upon us. I for one cannot wait to hunker down for a solid weekend of College Basketball. The College Football slate has been rendered meaningless, so its time to get your self into some hoops.

OK Cavs fans. I know you are looking for your Basketball fix while awaiting the start of the NBA season. With your pro team headed for another losing season, you need to acclimate yourself with the top prospects in the college game, because one of them will be wearing the Wine and Gold next season.

Scott got you all warmed up yesterday with his  NBA Draft big board, so today I thought I’d take you through some of the best games of the weekend and some of the players you should watch for. It all starts tonight. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Cavaliers, College Basketball

Ohio State and Might Just Have Been the First Domino

August 17, 2011 By 17 Comments

There is no gloating to be done by Ohio State fans today.  Alabama might be in trouble for having players involved with a memorabilia scandal and now the University of Miami potentially in big trouble with a rogue Ponzi scheming booster, but these two situations – and any others that might arise – don’t absolve anyone or anything at Ohio State.  Sure, it might add some perspective to the things Ohio State and its players were involved with, but it will hopefully be good for everyone in the end.  Ohio State fans (this one included) largely sounded like babies when they said, “Oh come on!  You know everyone is doing exactly the same stuff.  The NCAA is a broken system.”  That’s the pain of being the first domino to fall.

Some will want to point at everyone else and say how much worse someone else’s violations were, but that ignores the larger point.  The NCAA has a system where the goals and benefits are so apparently misaligned that rule-breaking has become the norm, not the exception.  You can blame the players.  You can blame the boosters.  You can blame the NCAA and the schools.  At the end of it all, if this many big programs can’t figure out how to create an environment where players aren’t doing the wrong things, then it is the whole system. [Read more...]

Filed Under: College Basketball, College football Tagged With: , , , ,

WFNY Bracket Challenge – Winning

April 5, 2011 By 2 Comments

Charlie Sheen is in town tonight and some people are pretending like this whole deal wasn’t played out two days after it started. Similarly, that championship game was played out about two minutes in. When a buzzer-beating three pointer to end the first half represents 15% of your previous point total, you know the game is an absolute abhorrent snoozer.  But, as bad as the game was, it served its true purposes. It has allowed WFNY to give out a couple of prizes to the best pickers/guessers in our Yahoo! bracket competition.  Here is your final top ten.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Buckeyes, College Basketball, CSU Vikings Tagged With: , , , , ,

College Hoops and The NBA: Bad Play All Around

April 5, 2011 By 18 Comments

For those of you who didn’t stay up to watch the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship game last night, let me just say I’m jealous. I could have used the extra sleep. I’m surprised the game didn’t complete put me to sleep on its own. And I say this as a big time College Basketball junkie.

I can fully admit it. The college game is seemingly getting worse and worse each year. There are fewer and fewer great teams and mediocrity seems to be order of the day. Some say the rise of the mid-majors is because the scholarship rule has been limited to 13 per school, meaning the top tier programs cant horde all of the great players. The real reason is because mid-major programs for the most part are able to keep their teams together and are Senior and Junior-laden. [Read more...]

Filed Under: College Basketball

WFNY Bracket Challenge – Ohio State Out

March 28, 2011 By 7 Comments

Well, I am sure a lot of WFNYers are significantly less interested in the tourney now that the Buckeyes have been Calipari’d out of the game.  Still, the contest goes on for the Tribe tickets and Carlos Santana jersey.  As we await opening day on Friday, that should be enough to keep your eyes glued to the competition.

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Filed Under: Buckeyes, College Basketball, CSU Vikings Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

WFNY Bracket Challenge – Sweet 16 Abounds

March 21, 2011 By 7 Comments

“Nobody cares about your bracket!” That has commonly been bandied about on Twitter, but it just isn’t true right here right now on this post.  This is where we absolutely care about your bracket.  We care so much that we have assigned not one, but two prizes for winners.  We still haven’t figured out something to give to the last place finisher (who also completely filled out the brackets) but we probably will.

I am happy to say that the bonus point structure is also causing a bit of chaos. The leader right now has gotten 34 of 48 picks correct, while second place has gotten 36 correct.  One of the two tied for third has 38 correct.  Picking those underdogs correctly pays!  Even I finally pulled myself out of the basement with a VCU win last night.  Make no mistake, I still have no chance at winning, but it still feels good to be in the 200s rather than the 300s.

Filed Under: Buckeyes, College Basketball, CSU Vikings Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Big day for the Big Ten, and a Bracket Challenge Update

March 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The leader board will be a bit more relevant tomorrow once the field of sixteen is completely identified, but as of noon on Sunday here’s where we stand:
So nice work Techmohofer aka Nicholas C, 34 of 40 is pretty impressive so far.

Tough day yesterday though for our new last place title holder however, Go Cuse, who also has Pittsburgh winning it all.  I imagine he doesn’t like yesterday’s officiating crew all that much.

As a note, I am currently in 301st place, which is at least better than where I was after day one.  

–

A lot will be decided today though to be sure, especially for the Big Ten Basketball playing conference. 

There are four games today with Big Ten Teams involved, headlined obviously by the Ohio State Buckeyes tipping things off against George Mason this evening down at the Q. 

Those match-ups, estimated tip-times, point spreads, and a couple thoughts on each game are as follows: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buckeyes, College Basketball Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

WFNY Bracket Challenge Off Day Update

March 19, 2011 By 4 Comments

The first round is now officially in the books and the top ten is changing bit by bit.  Long gone is the thought of anyone getting everything right.  That being said, here is your top ten.  Rather than typing it all, I got lazy this time and took an image.

That’s right folks. Your “Commissioner” in this Yahoo! group is currently in 355th place. I stink.

We also have a new “Mr. Irrelevant” bringing up the rear. In 370th place is Va Beach 2. If you stink it up long enough, you just might get a prize for your (lack of) effort.

As always, you can check out the group here.

Filed Under: Buckeyes, College Basketball, CSU Vikings Tagged With: , , ,

On the first round of March Madness and why I don’t gamble

March 19, 2011 By 3 Comments

I don’t believe there is anything morally wrong with gambling.  I do not attend BYU and fall under the requirements of their honor code, and I also know plenty of people who would be thrilled to take my “action”.   People who live in Vegas that is.  So those are not reasons that prevent me from earning a million betting college hoops games this time of year.

I don’t gamble for two reasons.  One - I have no idea how to consistently predict the outcomes of these games.  Tenessee will lose by 30 to Michigan?  Okay, sure I thought that would happen.  So I primarily don’t gamble because I would lose a ton of money if I did.

But I also don’t, especially on this tournament, because I then wouldn’t be able to switch the team I’m rooting for mid-way through if the underdog has a real shot of knocking off a perennial power.  Which is one of my favorite things to do this time of year…Morehead State Nation, we did it!!!!  [Read more...]

Filed Under: College Basketball Tagged With: ,

WFNY Bracket Contest Update / NCAA Open Thread

March 18, 2011 By 4 Comments

After a predictably wild first day in the NCAA tourney there are no perfect brackets left on the board.  And in case you were worried about me winning the whole thing and taking home the prize, you can stop.  I am currently sitting in 352nd place out of 397 total.  Oh, and I was never eligible to win anything anyway.  Same goes for Scott who finds himself in the top ten.  Don’t worry folks.  Unless he ponies up some cash of his own, he won’t be sporting a Carlos Santana jersey anytime soon.  After day one, here’s your top ten.

  1. Casey – The Penske File
  2. Mitchellj – Jimmer Me Timbers
  3. Rachel – Hot in Cleveland
  4. Cory S – The Real McCory
  5. JustinD – FeArThEeLf
  6. Mike – Thad <blank> Bracket
  7. Nicholas C – Tecmohofer
  8. the big check – monchak
  9. Andy – AndyB
  10. Scott S – WFNY Scott [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buckeyes, College Basketball, CSU Vikings Tagged With: , , , , ,

WFNY March Madness Bracket Contest

February 25, 2011 By 5 Comments

While the Cleveland news is slow (understatement) we thought we would get a leg up on our bracket competition.  We will be using Yahoo.  We will be giving out a prize to the winner. There is no cost to enter, so really you have no excuses!

Here’s how we are doing the scoring. I decided not to weight the later rounds so heavily that it won’t be interesting. Also there are bonus points based on upsets or underdogs.

Round of 64 = 1 pts + Bonus = 1 x seed diff
Round of 32 = 2 pts + Bonus = 1 x seed diff
Reg. Semis = 3 pts + Bonus = 1 x seed diff
Reg. Finals = 4 pts + Bonus = 1 x seed diff
Semifinals = 5 pts + Bonus = 1 x seed diff
Championship = 6 pts + Bonus = 1 x seed diff

Instructions to enter are after the jump. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buckeyes, College Basketball, CSU Vikings Tagged With: , , , ,

College Basketball Season is Here….Does Anyone in Cleveland Care?

November 3, 2010 By 16 Comments

Since I first got heavily into the NCAA Basketball Tournament in March of 1985, I’ve been hooked on the college game. Whether it be Derrick Coleman at Syracuse, Jerome Lane at Pitt, or the Arkansas teams of Corliss Williamson and Scottie Thurman, I’ve always been in the tank for college basketball.

I’ve never been an pro guy, and in the past 10-12 years, the NBA has severely diluted the talent pool of the college game, which is essentially its minor league (sorry, D-League fans).

First it was the mass exodus of the prep-to-pros kids. Its obviously worked out great for guys like Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James. But for every KG, there was Korleone Young. For every Kobe, there was Leon Smith. For every LBJ, there was Desagana Diop (aka Lasagna Flop). The list goes on and on.

In attempts to improve both the college and pro games, the NBA adopted a 19-year old age limit to enter the draft (or your high school graduating class must be a full year out of school). [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buckeyes, College Basketball, CSU Vikings

Dayton Flyers Win NIT Championship; Tragedy Strikes UD Volleyball Team

April 2, 2010 By 2 Comments

The Dayton Flyers were crowned NIT Champions last night hours after tragic news hit the UD campus. Despite their convincing 79-68 victory over North Carolina, all the attention of the Dayton community was focused on the tragic death of volleyball player Kacie Hausfeld and her father Tom.

Watching the game against the defending NCAA Champions, I was enjoying the festivities as it looked like the Flyers had finally reached their peak. Using explosive athleticism, rebounding tenacity and some efficient long-distance shooting, this was the Dayton team we were supposed to see all season long. The Flyers then held on down the stretch, something they failed to do away from UD Arena throughout the regular season.

In the final minutes, with the margin looking insurmountable, I received a University e-mail announcing Kacie’s tragic death. It was a shocking blow to what had been a triumphant victory as I recalled working alongside her all year long. My sincere condolences go out to her family, the volleyball team and the entire Dayton community.
[Read more...]

Filed Under: College Basketball Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
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