June 19, 2013

Big Ten Basketball – The Bizarro World

February 8, 2013 by 1 Comment

Tyler GriffeyIn case you have been all football all the time and have not paid the least bit of attention to what is going on in College Basketball so far, your old friend and College Hoops Honk is here to get you up to speed with the best conference in America.

My man @ClevTA (a must-follow on Twitter) said it best last night – Big Ten Basketball is the bizarro Big Ten Football right now. We watched all fall as mediocre team after mediocre team played boring, uninspiring football. Yes, your Ohio State Buckeyes came out undefeated under Urban Meyer, but even the most ardent OSU supporter would tell you this was far from a National Title type team. The next best thing in the league was probably either a Michigan team that was throttled by Alabama, scored nine points against a Nebraska team that allowed 70 to Wisconsin in the Big Ten title game, and needed a miracle bomb with less than a minute to go to force OT with Northwestern at home. An argument could be made for four loss Penn State as well, but two of those losses were at home to Ohio (not Ohio State, Ohio) and a bad Virginia team.

The bottom line – in the glorious history of the Big Ten conference, 2012 was as bad of a season as the league has ever had. [Read more...]

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Box Score: Cavaliers 81, Pacers 96

December 12, 2012 by 13 Comments

Unfortunately Kyrie Irving didn’t do so well on his test.

CJ Miles came into this game picking up right where he left off. He scored 11 of the Cavaliers first 13 points and the Cavs bench played the best quarter of their season in the 2nd quarter. The Cavaliers were up 54-38 with about 4 minutes left in the first half. It looked like the Cavaliers would be cruising to another win.

Then the bottom completely dropped out. Kyrie Irving had one of the worst games of his career, Alonzo Gee was about as bad as he’s ever been, Anderson Varejao wasn’t much of a factor on offense, and the Cavaliers as a team scored 23 points in the 2nd half. Yeah, that’s right….23 points. CJ Miles finished with 28 points as the lone bright spot for the team. Samardo Samuels was the only other Cav in double figures with 10 points. Best to just forget this one and move on to the next one. 4 straight back-to-backs for the Cavaliers, so this isn’t going to get any easier.

1 2 3 4 T
CLE 29 29 12 11 81
IND 25 27 28 16 96

 

Cleveland

Starters Pos Min FG 3Pt FT +/- Off Reb Ast TO Stl BS BA PF Pts
C.J. Miles G 27:54 8-18 6-9 6-6 -8 0 2 0 2 1 1 0 2 28
K. Irving G 27:49 4-12 0-3 1-2 -20 0 1 4 2 2 0 1 4 9
A. Varejao C 29:17 0-9 0-0 4-4 -13 4 12 3 1 1 2 3 2 4
A. Gee F 30:38 0-7 0-0 1-2 -29 2 4 4 2 0 0 3 3 1
T. Thompson F 24:53 2-4 0-0 0-1 -2 4 9 1 3 0 1 0 3 4
Bench Min FG 3Pt FT +/- Off Reb Ast TO Stl BS BA PF Pts
Totals 27-81 9-22 18-25 13 40 19 12 7 6 8 28 81
Percentages .333 .409 .720 Team Rebounds: 12
S. Samuels 22:16 5-11 0-1 0-2 -1 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 4 10
D. Sloan 20:11 1-5 1-2 2-2 +5 0 1 2 1 2 0 1 2 5
D. Gibson 17:33 3-8 2-5 0-0 -7 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 8
L. Walton 17:22 1-3 0-2 1-2 +14 0 4 2 1 1 2 0 0 3
T. Zeller 17:01 3-3 0-0 2-2 -14 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 6 8
J. Pargo 2:33 0-1 0-0 1-2 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1
K. Jones 2:33 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
O. Casspi DNP – Coach’s Decision

Indiana

Starters Pos Min FG 3Pt FT +/- Off Reb Ast TO Stl BS BA PF Pts
G. Hill G 30:35 5-16 1-7 6-7 +21 1 7 3 1 2 0 1 2 17
L. Stephenson G 17:53 4-6 0-1 1-1 +5 0 3 2 0 0 0 0 1 9
R. Hibbert C 28:32 1-7 0-0 2-2 +15 5 12 1 5 1 3 1 3 4
P. George F 34:34 10-18 3-5 4-5 +19 1 7 3 2 0 0 2 2 27
D. West F 32:50 7-15 0-0 4-4 +22 3 9 7 1 1 2 1 1 18
Bench Min FG 3Pt FT +/- Off Reb Ast TO Stl BS BA PF Pts
Totals 34-83 5-18 23-28 13 48 23 13 7 8 6 21 96
Percentages .410 .278 .821 Team Rebounds: 15
G. Green 24:28 1-8 0-4 0-0 +9 0 0 3 3 1 2 0 0 2
I. Mahinmi 19:28 1-4 0-0 1-1 0 2 6 1 0 0 0 0 5 3
B. Hansbrough 17:18 1-2 1-1 3-4 -6 0 1 1 0 2 0 0 3 6
S. Young 16:39 1-2 0-0 0-0 -3 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 2
T. Hansbrough 12:37 3-5 0-0 1-2 -7 1 3 1 0 0 0 0 3 7
J. Pendergraph 2:33 0-0 0-0 1-2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1
O. Johnson 2:33 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
D.J. Augustin DNP – Coach’s Decision

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Box Score: Pacers 104, Cavaliers 98 (OT)

April 11, 2012 by 6 Comments

Whether you believe the Indiana Pacers are for real or not, the fact is right now the Pacers are the 3 seed in the Eastern Conference. With the Cavaliers playing the 2nd night of a back to back, this was sure to be a tough challenge for the young Cavs team.

The Cavaliers came out and showed tremendous fight in this game. For most of the contest, this was a closely contested game. In the 4th quarter the Cavaliers went on an 18-1 run to break open a lead, only to go almost 4 minutes without scoring allowing the Pacers to take what seemed like the lead for good.

But the Pacers’ George Hill missed 3 of 4 free throws late to open the door, and Lester Hudson took full advantage, knocking down a floater with 1.2 seconds left to send the game to overtime. Unfortunately the Pacers were just too strong in overtime and the Cavaliers, at the end of the day, just weren’t good enough in this game to pull out the win.

Hudson wasn’t able to find his outside shot in this game, but still managed to score 19 points. Antawn Jamison lead the Cavaliers with 21 points and Samardo Samuels chipped in 13 off the bench, but the Cavaliers couldn’t find enough scoring outside those 3 players to steal a win from the Pacers. This is the kind of loss you can live with, though. Much better than the 25 point blowouts of last week.

Indiana

Starters Pos Min FG 3Pt FT +/- Off Reb Ast TO Stl BS BA PF Pts
G. Hill G 41:07 7-14 2-5 1-4 +9 0 3 5 1 0 2 0 3 17
P. George G 33:50 3-6 0-2 0-0 +11 0 10 3 2 0 0 0 3 6
R. Hibbert C 38:10 4-9 0-0 3-6 +15 4 11 5 5 2 4 1 2 11
D. Granger F 40:12 8-18 2-5 5-5 +9 0 4 1 1 0 0 3 2 23
D. West F 36:50 6-9 0-0 7-8 +5 1 5 2 3 2 2 0 4 19
Bench Min FG 3Pt FT +/- Off Reb Ast TO Stl BS BA PF Pts
Totals 36-77 8-20 24-32 9 44 20 19 7 9 4 24 104
Percentages .468 .400 .750 Team Rebounds: 11
L. Barbosa 19:30 3-7 3-4 0-0 -9 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 9
T. Hansbrough 19:02 1-5 0-0 7-7 -5 2 4 0 0 0 0 0 4 9
D. Jones 13:07 1-2 1-1 0-0 -3 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 3
A.J. Price 11:53 2-6 0-3 1-2 -3 1 2 3 4 2 0 0 1 5
L. Amundson 11:19 1-1 0-0 0-0 +1 1 3 0 1 1 1 0 5 2
D. Collison DNP – Coach’s Decision
J. Pendergraph DNP – Coach’s Decision
L. Stephenson DNP – Coach’s Decision

Cleveland

Starters Pos Min FG 3Pt FT +/- Off Reb Ast TO Stl BS BA PF Pts
A. Parker G 37:21 2-8 1-2 2-2 -16 0 3 3 2 1 0 0 3 7
D. Sloan G 23:04 4-6 0-0 0-0 -1 0 0 6 0 0 0 0 1 8
T. Thompson C 30:06 4-7 0-0 2-3 -18 4 8 0 1 1 1 2 2 10
A. Jamison F 41:05 8-18 0-2 5-8 -16 3 8 3 3 0 0 2 3 21
A. Gee F 35:48 3-11 0-2 1-1 -7 1 5 5 2 0 2 4 3 7
Bench Min FG 3Pt FT +/- Off Reb Ast TO Stl BS BA PF Pts
Totals 40-88 3-21 15-19 12 41 26 17 5 4 9 24 98
Percentages .455 .143 .789 Team Rebounds: 5
L. Hudson 33:36 8-20 1-9 2-2 -5 1 6 2 6 0 1 1 5 19
S. Samuels 18:09 6-7 0-0 1-1 +10 3 5 1 0 1 0 0 3 13
O. Casspi 17:14 1-4 1-3 2-2 +1 0 2 2 1 1 0 0 0 5
M. Harris 11:57 3-4 0-1 0-0 +10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6
L. Walton 11:53 0-2 0-2 0-0 +10 0 2 4 1 0 0 0 3 0
S. Erden 4:46 1-1 0-0 0-0 +2 0 2 0 1 1 0 0 1 2
D. Gibson DNP – Coach’s Decision
K. Irving DNP – Coach’s Decision

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Well-Rested Cavaliers Face Tired and Beaten-Down Pacers

February 15, 2012 by 10 Comments

Kyrie Irving will look for redemption vs Indiana

The Cleveland Cavaliers (10-16, 10th in the East) will welcome Kyrie Irving back to the lineup Wednesday when they take on the reeling Indiana Pacers (17-11, 6th in the East).

The Pacers come in on a 4 game losing streak, the last loss coming in a complete annihilation at the hands of the Miami Heat, a game in which the Pacers lost Danny Granger to injury. So yeah, they come into Cleveland licking their wounds and looking for a bounce back win.

For Kyrie Irving, this is a shot at redemption, going against the very team which he missed his potential game winning layup. That was our first glimpse of what Irving could be, now he comes into this game a more fully realized version of himself. The question for the Cavalier coaches (and fans) is just how well can Kyrie hold up coming off the scary concussion injury.

The Cavaliers will be without Anderson Varejao and Anthony Parker again. Daniel Gibson will likely get the nod at SG while, I don’t know, probably Semih Erden will get the starting nod at center again (maybe?). Without Varejao to match up with all the size Indiana has, this game is going to be a tough one for the Cavaliers to win. [Read more...]

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Cavaliers To Try To Continue To Grow Against Indiana

December 30, 2011 by 15 Comments

The Cleveland Cavaliers (1-1) head into Indianapolis tonight to take on the Indiana Pacers (2-0). For the Cavaliers, this will be their first test against a very good basketball team. Looking to build their first win streak of the season, the Cavaliers will need to not only match the effort they gave against the Pistons, but they will have to likely play even better.

The Pacers are off to a great start this year, playing pretty solid basketball in wins against the Pistons and Raptors. Head coach Frank Vogel will feature a starting lineup of Darren Collison, Paul George, Danny Granger, David West, and Roy Hibbert. The Pacers have also have quality bench guys like Tyler Hansbrough, George Hill, Dahntay Jones, and Lou Amundson. [Read more...]

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Walking Into Movie History

February 23, 2011 by 9 Comments

Yesterday, I told you all about my trip to the mascot factory in Indianapolis. Well, there was more to that day. On the drive to Indy I saw a sign that said something like “Next Exit Knightstown, Home of the Hoosiers Gym”. I was in a hurry to get to Indy, but the idea of potentially seeing the gym where they filmed Hoosiers was getting me excited. What other ‘Hoosiers Gym’ could they be talking about? I just hope it would be open when I came back through.

I made it to Knightstown, Indiana around 3:30 on the way home. The little town is a couple miles off of I-70, but easily found by following the signs. (I would later find out that those blue tourists signs for the gym had been fought for by the committee that maintains the gym. It seems they had to take boxes of visitors sign in books to convince those in charge that enough people really did stop there.) [Read more...]

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Cavaliers Preview Game #69: Pacers at Cavs

March 17, 2010 by 22 Comments

Indiana Pacers (22-45) vs
Cleveland Cavaliers (53-15)
Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, OH
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
7:00 PM EST
FSOH/WTAM

This final stretch of games in March is the last little lull for the Cavaliers this season. With games against Atlanta (twice), Orlando, Boston, and Toronto in April, the rest of this month is the last chance to really play around with lineups, give guys rest, and see further get acquainted to what all you can do with Antawn Jamison in your lineup. Tonight’s game is a home against one of the absolute worst teams in the NBA who happen to be without their best player and superstar (and yes, if you’ve seen Danny Granger play, you know he’s a superstar whether the fans and media realize it or not), so it should be an easy win, right? Well, Indiana did just beat the Bobcats, a team the Cavaliers cannot beat, last night with Granger in for most of the game. So just remember, this is still a game between professionals and anyone can win if you let them hang around long enough.   [Read more...]

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Ohio State Handles Business Against Iowa

February 8, 2010 by 2 Comments

Evan Turner proved why he is one of the top players in all of college basketball on Super Sunday.  More on that in a minute.  A day after Michigan State dropped their game against Illinois, the Buckeyes to create a tight race in the Big Ten. After Sunday’s action the Buckeyes are 18-6 overall for the season and 8-3 in the Big Ten.  The top of the field now looks like this.

  1. Michigan State 19-5 (9-2 Big Ten)
  2. Wisconsin 18-5 (8-3)
  3. Ohio State 18-6 (8-3)
  4. Illinois 16-8 (8-3)
  5. Purdue 19-3 (7-3)

Minnesota follows at number 6 with a 5-5 record before it just gets worse.  The Buckeyes went out and did exactly what they needed to do taking care of their home court in the last three games against Minnesota, Penn State and now Iowa. [Read more...]

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Cavaliers Preview Game #6

November 7, 2008 by 13 Comments

Cavaliers vs PacersIndiana Pacers (1-2) vs
Cleveland Cavaliers (3-2)
Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, OH
Friday, November 7, 2008
7:30 PM EST
FSNOH/WTAM

Tonight the Cleveland Cavaliers will look to continue their impressive play against a potentially good divisional opponent in the Indiana Pacers. After dropping 2 of their first 3, the Cavaliers have now won 2 straight and will be going for 3 in a row at the Q. The Cavaliers swept all four games against the Pacers last season, and have actually won seven straight against the Pacers overall, but this has a chance to be a much improved Pacers team this year. They’ll face a good test of their progress tonight in Cleveland.     [Read more...]

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GAMBLOG Picks Of The Week

February 7, 2008 by 2 Comments

GAMBLOG LogoPicks Of The Week – February 7, 2008

We’re back with another installment of the GAMBLOG Picks Of The Week. This week Matt takes a look at college basketball. Personally, I think Matt is nuts and I think he’s about to drop to 4-1 ATS, but hey, that’s why he’s the resident “advice” expert and I am not. As always, I feel compelled to include my fine print disclaimer….these picks are just for fun, not for any activities that are probably illegal where you live. However, if you win your “just for fun” bet and feel an obligation to kick back a percentage of your “fun winnings” to us, we will gladly oblige your wishes. [Read more...]

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