C-I-T…wait, you mean this isn’t about the chant?

Posted on March 16, 2009 by Sandlapper Spike

For the first time in this or any other century, The Citadel’s basketball team will be playing at least one game beyond the conference tournament.  It’s not the NCAA tournament, or the NIT, or even the CBI (although it may be more respectable than the CBI, quite honestly), but the CIT.  The CIT?

That’s right, the CIT.  It’s the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament, to be precise.  It’s been around for quite a while…since January!

The teams participating all hail from non-power conferences, which isn’t a bad thing, in the sense that for most of them, this tournament will be seen as worthwhile.  Also, unlike the CBI, every team in the field has a winning record (Oregon State got a bid to the CBI with a 13-17 record).

As you might imagine, the CIT has been rather hastily put together, as demonstrated by the scheduling of The Citadel’s opening-round game, against Old Dominion.  ODU is hosting the game, which was originally slated for Wednesday night.  Then it was apparently discovered that another commitment precluded the use of ODU’s arena on that day, so the game was quickly moved to Tuesday, but that posed a series of problems for The Citadel (mostly revolving around travel issues, from what I understand).  It is now going to be played on Thursday night, at 7 pm.  Luckily, there isn’t any other sporting event of national interest taking place on that day and night…

Old Dominion is one of three schools to have played in the NCAA, NIT, CBI, and CIT tournaments (along with Rider and Bradley).  The Monarchs have played in the NCAA tournament nine times since joining Division I in 1976, winning twice.  The second of those two victories was a memorable triple-overtime upset of 3-seed Villanova in 1995.  ODU played in the NCAAs as recently as two seasons ago, losing to Butler in the first round.

In other words, this is a school with a recent tradition of success in hoops, including four 20-win seasons in the last five years.  This season the Monarchs were 21-10 while playing in the rugged Colonial Athletic Association.  It finished 12-6 in conference action before losing to conference champ Virginia Commonwealth in the CAA tourney semifinals.  That was the third time the two teams had met during the season, with the home team winning the first two games.  The Rams are the only common opponent for ODU and The Citadel, which lost at VCU 82-59 early in the season.

Old Dominion and The Citadel play at a similar pace (the Monarchs actually average fewer possessions per game than the Bulldogs), so this is not likely to be a track meet.  ODU features 6’10” center Gerald Lee, a first-team All-CAA selection who averages 15.7 points and 5.6 rebounds per game.  Lee was born and raised in Finland (his father is an American who moved to Finland to play pro basketball, explaining his American-sounding name).  I look forward to listening to Darren Goldwater as he attempts to pronounce Lee’s hometown.  Lee will be a difficult matchup for The Citadel.  ODU has a lot of size in general.  Eight different players average 16 minutes or more for the Monarchs.

ODU has solid stats across the board, including an excellent turnover rate, and generally good defensive numbers.  The Monarchs do not shoot the ball particularly well from outside, and are a poor free throw shooting team (63.8%).

This is going to be a tough game for The Citadel.  It will be interesting to see how motivated each team will be for the game.  If the Bulldogs can contain Lee and shoot the ball well from three-point land, they have a shot.  It will be a tall order, though.

Still, just the opportunity to have a tall order to fill is something to enjoy.

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Michigan State’s “brutal” hoops schedule is not really that brutal after all

Posted on October 29, 2008 by Sandlapper Spike

Yesterday’s USA Today included a story titled “Spartans hope brutal schedule gets them ready for primetime,” which began:

One of the hallmarks of Tom Izzo’s coaching career at Michigan State has been to embrace a rugged non-conference schedule…

Izzo is at it again this season. Michigan State will play 10 games against teams that reached last year’s tournament, including defending national champion Kansas and this season’s probable No. 1, North Carolina. The Spartans will also play Texas and could meet Georgetown, Tennessee and Gonzaga.

“I just never want to be on Dick Vitale’s ‘cream puff’ scheduling list,” Izzo joked. “But many years ago we took on the ‘any time, any where’ theory of playing people and it’s kind of stayed with me.”

Izzo is not a masochist. He believes MSU can not only survive this schedule, but flourish against it.

Now, I like Tom Izzo.  He seems to be one of the very few bigtime college basketball coaches who may actually be a nice guy.  And Michigan State’s non-conference schedule does have some tough teams on it, as mentioned in the article.  However, when I saw that headline, I immediately did a double-take, because I was well aware that on that same non-conference schedule is a game in East Lansing against one of the toughest teams of all…The Citadel.

For the uninformed, The Citadel did not make the NCAA tournament last season.  No, the Bulldogs did not win the Southern Conference tournament, and were not deemed worthy of an at-large bid, possibly because of a 6-24 record that included just two wins over Division I opponents.  I quickly checked to see if a McDonald’s All-American had accidentally signed a letter of intent to play for The Citadel this season.  Nope.

Of course, you can have a cupcake or two (The Citadel had an RPI of 334 last season; there were 341 Division I teams) and still have a very difficult schedule.  However, the Spartans are also playing Idaho (last season’s RPI:  299), and Alcorn State (336, an RPI worse than The Citadel’s!), both at home, and have a road game against IPFW (RPI of 218).  The Spartans also have a game at Oakland (which I suspect might be a “home away from home” situation) and a home game against Bradley, which should be decent but not that big a test for MSU.

The rest of the non-conference schedule, admittedly, is impressive.  Michigan State plays Maryland in the first round of the Old Spice Classic in Orlando, a tournament that features several other teams that should be good this season, including Gonzaga, Tennessee, and Georgetown.  However, the article suggests Michigan State “could meet Georgetown, Tennessee and Gonzaga” when that’s not the case; the Spartans could only face two of them at most.  Michigan State plays Texas in Houston, and the Spartans also drew North Carolina in the ACC/Big 10 Challenge (a game that will be played in Detroit) .  MSU concludes its non-conference slate with a home game against defending national champion Kansas.

Michigan State will play twelve non-conference games.  Five are against teams it should defeat easily, and a sixth (Bradley) is a home game against a middle-of-the-pack mid-major.  The other six games include only one matchup (Texas) in which Michigan State will be the road team, and even that game is not on the opponent’s home court.  Michigan State will play three games on a neutral site in Orlando, with the first of those coming against Maryland, a team that is projected to finish seventh in the ACC.  North Carolina is favored by many to win the national title, but last year’s champs, Kansas, lost seven of the nine players that made up its rotation.  I’m sure the Jayhawks will have plenty of talent replacing those players, but the Spartans will have the opportunity of playing them at home and in early January, before those players have had a chance to mesh with each other.  Considering Michigan State won 27 games last season and has three starters returning (along with most of its regular rotation), I think the advantage lies with the Spartans.

That’s a fair schedule, and not one deserving of any criticism.  It strikes me as balanced.  I like the fact that Izzo is going on the road (at least the Ft. Wayne trip is a true road game; as I said, I’m not sure about that game in Oakland) against smaller schools.  The UNC, Texas, and Kansas games should be a lot of fun, and the tournament in Orlando should be excellent — I’m looking forward to watching it.  The Spartans will be well-prepared by the time the Big 10 season rolls around.

It’s not a brutal non-conference schedule, though.

You want to see a brutal non-conference schedule?  Just take a gander at what Fang Mitchell has put together for his squad this season (and seemingly every season).  Coppin State’s coach has set up a slate with nine road games and three neutral-site games in Hawaii:  at Purdue, at Kansas, at Richmond, at Loyola (MD), at Dayton, at Wisconsin, at Syracuse, the Rainbow Classic (Colorado is the first-round opponent), at Oklahoma, and at Missouri.  Coppin State actually mixes in a road conference game in there, so the Eagles will play thirteen games before their first home contest on January 10.

Now, that’s a brutal non-conference schedule.

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