Video: Cheerleader Almost Costs Game for Louisville

Posted by CoHoops Josh Dhani

It was overtime in a game between Louisville and Pittsburgh. Pitt was down five points, but almost managed to come back. Thanks to a male cheerleader on Louisville, his excessive celebration could have cost the team the game as the Pitt shot two free throws because of a technical foul from him.

Here's how it went down:

That dude will either be suspended, or kicked off the team.

Wouldn't be surprised.
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Oladipo's 13 Not Enough as IU Falls to Michigan, 73-69

Posted by CoHoops Josh Dhani


The Indiana Hoosiers are on a losing-streak that just can't end right now. They started out the season nicely. What was it? 6-0? Something along those lines. Since then, they haven't been doing good as much, now at a 12-14 record as they fell to the Michigan Wolverines last night, 73-69.

"This is one of the hardest playing teams that I've ever coached, but this is not a team that has any opportunity to back away from having a combative mindset when they practice - a combative temperament," said IU head coach Tom Crean. "It's more than competitive, and when we've done that and taken it into games, we've done very well. What you saw in the comeback was a combative team. We got calls and we were aggressive."

Christian Watford, who was returning from injury, played well with 14 points. But it was Victor Oladipo who led the team, producing 13 points and six rebounds. However, it just wasn't enough. Verdell Jones III had twelve points and Jordan Hulls had ten while Tom Pritchard had four points and seven rebounds.

With IU down, Watford hit a late show to cut the lead to 70-67. But with eight seconds left, Darius Morris sealed the victory after hitting two free throws. Michigan really couldn't hit a free throw this game, but they got them in when it counted.

IU will face Northwestern next on Saturday.

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Video: Manhattan's Half-Court Game Winner Vs. Marist

Posted by CoHoops Josh Dhani
Check out this amazing buzzer-beater as Manhattan beat Marist, 60-59. Just plain awesome.

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Hoosiers Get First Big Ten Win, Beat Tough Michigan 80-61

Posted by CoHoops Josh Dhani

Verdell Jones III helped lead the Indiana Hoosiers to their first Big Ten win of the season with a 80-61 victory over the Michigan Wolverines in a tough battle as Indiana improves to 10-8 for the year now.

Jones fueled IU with his 24 points. Indiana played solid defense and amazing offense in the game, as they held Michigan to under 35-percent shooting. Indiana shot over 67-percent from the field. Jones was nine-of-ten overall.

Indiana played probably one of their best defenses of the decade. They held the Wolverines to under 24-percent shooting in the first half while limiting them to 15 points. That is the least amount of points IU held a team to in a half since they did to the Purdue Boilermakers in 2002. IU also rebounded well, having the first eight boards of the game. They were attacking the glass from all aspects of the court.

"Our players understood that it began with what our defensive transition was going to be like because of how well they push the ball up the court and get it up the court," said IU Coach Tom Crean. "They did an excellent job with that."

The Hoosiers basically did the same thing in the second half. Christian Watford got the crowd going louder with his three-pointer to put IU, 39-19. IU was creating excitement in Assembly Hall! However, with 8:33 to go, Michigan went on a late run of 12-2 to come within an eleven-point deficit, 46-35. But that is the closest they got, because every time they came within eleven points, Jordan Hulls would hit a triple.

"We were very, very solid in the half court," said Crean. "There were a couple of stretches where they got on some runs, but a lot of the things that we wanted to accomplish, things that we were keeping track of, our guys really bought into and they followed the gameplan."

This was simply a solid game by IU as they won their first big competitive game of the season. IU out-rebounded the Wolverines, 37-19, while also outscoring them on the bench, 16-6.

Christian Watford finished with 17 points and ten rebounds while Hulls had 13. Jeremiah Rivers had eight points.

Let's hope they carry this same effort following into the Wisconsin Badgers' game on Thursday.

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Verdell Jones Leads Hoosiers Past Savannah State, 79-57

Posted by CoHoops Josh Dhani

The Indiana Hoosiers were brought with their first loss of the season to the Boston College Eagles a few days earlier, dropping to 6-1. But no worries for Indiana, as they headed back home to face the Savannah State Tigers, improving to 7-1 with a 79-57 victory.

Verdell Jones led the Hoosiers with 18 points. Christian Watford had 14 and Maurice Creek produced eleven points.

The Hoosiers have won all of their seven home games this season and have extended the streak to eight total after beating the Northwestern Wildcats last season in the finale.

Joshua Montgomery led the Tigers with 15 points, but it wasn’t enough as Savannah State falls to 1-9. They got the Georgia Bulldogs coming up next.

It was a lopsided game, and it was a solid win for the Hoosiers. Jones also had eight rebounds in the game and shot well, having a percentage of 55.3-percent overall.

The Hoosiers scored the first points of the game, but would quickly go on a 10-o run. After that, Indiana was leading 22-12, which would lead to the big win.

Jordan Hulls and Victor Oladipo provided eleven points and nine points respectively. Preston Blackmon added 14 points for the Tigers.

This is a big win for the Hoosiers, as they shake off the loss to Boston College. But now they got a tough game ahead, as they go on to Kentucky to face the Wildcats. Let’s hope for the best. Win or lose, I see a good, close game. The game will take place on Saturday, December 11.

Good win Hoosiers.

Let’s get ready for UK!



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Butler, Duke Re-Match From March; Duke Wins Again, 82-70

Posted by CoHoops Josh Dhani

 

It was a re-match of last season’s National Championship. The Duke Blue Devils were leading, 61-59, over the Butler Bulldogs. The Bulldogs were the Cinderella team entering this match-up, but the Blue Devils came out on top with their great veteran experience from coach Mike Krzyzweski. Gordon Hayward had a chance to win the game for Butler, almost making a half-court shot to win the game, but it barely missed!

With Hayward gone, the Bulldogs hoped to bring revenge still on the Devils. It was basically a game going back and forth. But later in the game, star-player Shelvin Mack would injury himself with cramps. He would not return. With that, the Bulldogs were in a hole. But they would bounce back. But later in the second half, Kyrie Irving would get hot, and he would help end the game for a Duke win, 82-70. The Blue Devils improve to 8-0 while Butler falls to 4-3.

This would be Coach K’s 876th career victory, passing coach Rupp on the all-time wins list.

“I’m going to win more I think than Coach Rupp, God bless him, who won’t win any more,” Krzyzewski said of the late coach. “He won a lot of them and he won them in his way and they didn’t play as many games then. Each era has outstanding achievements by individuals, whether they be players or coaches and in this era I’ve been fortunate to have some.

“It’s tough to compare,” Krzyzewski said. “I much rather would have tied him in April than today because I’m going to keep coaching and we should win more games. You get too caught up with what your own team is doing to focus on that kind of stuff.”

It’s the 18th straight win overall for Duke now. Nolan Smith had 24 points while Irving had 21, including 17 in the second half. Like mentioned earlier, Irving hit two keys three-pointers to finish the game off.

“Nolan did a tremendous job tonight. He played like a veteran,” Irving said. “He put us on his back in the second half of this game.”

Smith said, “Kyrie brings a lot. He’s a dangerous point guard.”

Butler will face Xavier next while Duke will the Bradley Braves.
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Can the Ohio St. Buckeyes Compete for a National Championship this Season?

Posted by CoHoops Samuel Sica

The Ohio State Buckeyes have not won a championship since 1960 and I believe that this could be the year that Ohio State makes a serious threat in breaking that streak. 

Ohio State has four out of their five starters returning from last season with Evan Turner leaving for the NBA.

Turner was the key player for the Buckeyes last season and his absence will be felt immensely because no one player can fill the shoes of Turner but as a whole, Ohio State can fill that void and make believers out of everyone by doing what they accomplished in their season opener against North Carolina A&T. 

I understand that Ohio State will have to play against teams that are tougher than North Carolina A&T but with the core players that they have I believe they will be a team to watch to compete for the championship this season.

The starters that Ohio State has returning from last season include William Buford, David Lighty, Jon Diebler, and Dallas Lauderdale.

The Buckeyes also have added some talented players to go along with their core four starters with the additions of Deshaun Thomas, Jared Sullinger, and Aaron Craft. 

The freshmen have already turned heads as Sullinger had an impressive double-double in his Buckeye debut by scoring 19 points to go along with 14 rebounds.

 Thomas led the team in scoring with 24 points off the bench in his debut. Aaron Craft also made his presence known by scoring 8 points to go along with 9 assists in his debut.

The Buckeyes will face a big challenge in their second game of the season when they head down south to the Sunshine State to face the Florida Gators.

Florida is ranked number eleven in the polls and is the only ranked team that the Buckeyes will face until they play Illinois in late January.

In my opinion, Ohio State has a favorable out-of-conference schedule but they will face some tough competition once they start Big Ten play at the end of December.

Ohio State is one out of the five teams that are currently ranked in the top 25 teams in the nation with the other four being Michigan State (2), Purdue (8), Illinois (16), and Wisconsin (24).

I believe the Buckeyes will win the Big Ten championship as well as make it into the Championship game in the NCAA tournament because of the two big men that play underneath the basket in Lauderdale and Sullinger. 

Both players are taller than 6-8” and the rest of the team is no slouch either as all player are at least 6 feet tall. Ohio State has an extreme height advantage in my opinion, and that will create favorable matchups for the Buckeyes once they start their in-conference schedule.

Ohio State will also be a threat to win it all this season because of the sheer experience factor since the Buckeyes have four of their five starters returning from last season.

The Buckeyes are a well coached team and under the tutelage of Thad Matta, the Ohio State freshmen will be ready to play game in and game out. Ohio State will be ready to play once the tournament begins in March and do not be surprised if the Buckeyes are the champions when it is all said and done.

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Brandon Knight Scores 17 As Kentucky Wildcats Beat Buccaneers, 88-65

Posted by CoHoops Josh Dhani

No John Wall, no problem. The Kentucky Wildcats had nothing to worry about and they didn't even lose a single notch, beating the East Tennessee Buccaneers, 88-65, in the team's season-opener.
While Wall is dishing it out in the NBA with the Washington Wizards, Brandon Knight is the new-coming of Wall for the Wildcats. Knight is a point guard and can make great plays also. John Calipari was quoted saying that Knight is in fact a better shooter than Wall. That's good to hear.

Speaking of Knight, he had 17 points and a handful of great highlights, with a few dunks, too.

Calipari was worrying if prized center Enes Kanter will play or not. But there was no need to worry as the freshman stood up. Terrence Jones had 25 points and twelve rebounds and Doron Lamb had 20 points.

"Our freshmen played well," Calipari said. "They've got to get steadier, got to get rougher and tougher."

The Wildcats shot a solid 50-percent from the three-point line along with only just ten turnovers.

"I think we're the best team that can shoot 3s, that's what coach said, in the country," Lamb said.

Isiah Brown led the Buccaneers with 25 points, but it wasn't enough as UK had too much talent.

New news came out of Kanter, however. According to the Associated Press:

The school is appealing an NCAA ruling Thursday declaring Kanter permanently ineligible because he received more than the necessary benefits while playing for a club in Turkey two years ago. Kanter can practice with the Wildcats while the case is on appeal and watched the game from the bench in a white sweatsuit.

That's a big hole in the Kentucky's frontcourt, but I personally think they can get past it. Calipari's respects the decision but hopefully he hopes it can be overturned sometime soon.

"[Maybe] people will look at this in a common sense way and say the kid deserves better than this," Calipari said.

It was a great game by Kentucky. Last season, Kentucky could never really get those three-pointers in. Now they can. It's about time.

"Last year ... we didn't make any shots and I kept telling them 'we're good shooters, we're good shooters," Calipari said. "This team, they make shots."

The Wildcats will face the Portland Pilots next in an away game next Friday.

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Christian Watford's 24 Points Helps IU Get Past Florida Gulf Coast, 88-60, In Season-Opener

Posted by CoHoops Josh Dhani

It took a while before the Indiana Hoosiers could get double-digits in three-pointers. They have been pretty well-known to knock them down. The last two seasons, they have struggled, along with three-point shot attempts.

This season is different. And we can already see signs of that.

The Indiana Hoosiers started off with 14 three-pointers. They had ten already, with 18 minutes left to play.

Christian Watford helped fuel the game, getting 24 points in the team's 88-60 victory over the Florida Gulf Coast in Assembly Hall. Speaking of three-pointer, Jordan Hulls led the team today in them, knocking down six of them from behind-the-arc. Hulls would finish with 18 for the game.

The only lead Flordia Gulf Coast could hold on to was a 4-2 lead at the start of the game. After that, thing went downhill as one of the best basketball programs took over.

"Key point in the game for us is we had a lull in the first half a little bit after we got up, we let them stay around, said IU Coach Tom Crean told IUHoosiers.com. "We got that figured out. We played with more energy. We didn't allow this to just become a 20-minute trade baskets, lets just go up and down the floor type game."

Maurice Creek helped out in the showing with 13 points.

The Eagles kept coming back to the Hoosiers, however, in the game. At one point, they cut the lead to 46-37. But Watford and a pair of three-pointers jabbed back, as the Hoosiers bounced up to a 54-37 lead. However, the Eagles flew back, cutting the lead to 56-44. That is when IU went on a 9-0 run, capped off by new addition, Will Sheehey.

"As I said to the team after the game, when you play a game you want to first of all judge the game on did you win the game or not," added Crean. "Second of all, you look at the fact, did you impact the game and the plus-minus chart is usually the number one way to figure out if you've impacted the game. We had a lot of guys that were really high tonight, led by Jeremiah Rivers with a plus 21 inside of the game. So those are the kinds of the things that we want. We didn't play anybody over 25 minutes."

This is the 26th straight time the Hoosiers have won their home-opener and 13th straight overall in season-openers.

The Hoosiers will face Wright State next. Coach Crean has a feeling of what is to come.

"I think Wright State is a Big Ten style of physical basketball team," said Crean. "They attack in the pick and roll, but they're a very physical, contact oriented team and we've got to play through that. That scares me with this team right now."

Good game by the Hoosiers. I look forward to a solid season from them!

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Baylor's LaceDarius Dunn Suspended for Next Three Games

Posted by CoHoops Josh Dhani

According to the Associated Press, Baylor Bears' guard LaceDarius Dunn will be suspended for the next three games of the season. He was suspended and will return and be eligible to play for his team on the 22nd of November. The announcement was made by the school today before the team's season-opener.

Dunn was the team's leading scorer last season. His suspension was due to his arrest for domestic violence, allegedly beating his girlfriend and breaking her jaw. Dunn's girlfriend asked that all charges would be dropped, however. She has Dunn's son, who is three years old.

In the school press release, they said he was suspended under team-rules. Dunn has not played any games whatsoever, including the pre-season and the exhibition games.

The school will comment no longer on this situation.

Look forward to seeing Dunn return and show off a solid performance as a sorry-note to Baylor.

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Georgetown Freshman Center, Moses Ayegba, To Miss Nine Games

Posted by CoHoops Josh Dhani

Georgetown Hoyas freshman center Moses Ayegba will be out for the first nine games of the NCAA Basketball season due to violating the NCAA's rules of pre-enrollment.

According to head coach John Thompson, Ayegba was received a plane ticket from a non-family member and was immediately brought to to the United States from his home in Nigeria. Thompson said this all happened "before we began recruiting Moses, before he enrolled in high school here."

Thompson also told the Associated Press that he was disappointed with them rejecting his appeal of ruling for Ayegba.

Georgetown will be facing Old Dominion tonight.

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Oregon Reveals New Basketball Court, Looks Real Tight

Posted by CoHoops Josh Dhani

Oregon revealed their new basketball court, and it looks like what Oregon would do. They do some tight things with their football program, now here they do it with basketball. It looks real nice. Take a look:

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Robbie Hummel Focusing for Next Season

Posted by CoHoops Josh Dhani

Purdue Boilermakers power forward Robbie Hummel was ready to play this season and end his career in college basketball with his senior buddies, E'Twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson.

After having surgery on his ACL, Hummel was ready to play this season and ready to help lead Purdue to the National Championship. Purdue came close last season, but lost in the NCAA Tournament when Hummel went down with his ACL injury.

During practice, Hummel was going for a block but then landed awkwardly on the floor with his knee. From there, Hummel knew this wasn't going to be good.

"I felt it pop again," he said, "and I knew right away it was my ACL."

Hummel helped Purdue rank No. 3 in the polls before the NCAA Tournament and led the Boilermakers, averaging 15.7 points and 6.9 rebounds per game last season.

After having surgery in March, Hummel felt fine.

"I felt good," Hummel said. "I was starting to be able to dunk the ball pretty easily. I shot the basketball pretty well all summer and fall. That's what's probably part of the reason why it's so frustrating, because I felt pretty good. I was moving around pretty good, and to have this happen again is hard to swallow."

Hummel will now go for rehab along with redshirting this season to play next year. Hummel looks to have surgery sometime in November.

"It never even crossed my mind to stop playing," Hummel said. "I'm definitely not going to give up that easy."

Head coach Matt Painter said that Robbie is a mature person.

"He's been through some tough times with his injuries," Painter said. "Even though he does a good job of handling things, it's frustrating. But he doesn't come off that way. He moves forward and takes on the next challenge, and that's preparing for surgery."

He is ready to test out his knee.

"Rob started doing good things, started making improvements," Painter said. "I watched him and it's like, 'Hey, he's getting back, he's getting back to making that stride,' but he wasn't the same guy. Nobody is."

Hummel has never had injuries like these before, considering the fact he has only missed but one single game in his dynamic high school career.

"Three years of playing varsity ball, I missed one game for a concussion," he said. "I really was never hurt in high school, middle school, AAU and elementary school. I don't know what's going on. I was really never hurt."

Painter is so far impressed with his power forward.

"He worked so hard," Painter said. "You take care of your everyday business with your rehab and you do what you're supposed to do, and then it happens again."

"In terms of words, there's not much you can say," Hummel said. "I know I'm frustrated. Everybody is."

Hummel hopes to get himself back on the court soon. Very soon.

"I still think I can come back and play at a high level," he said. "I'm not concerned about not being able to come back. I know there's people who have torn their ACLs two and three times and come back."

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