Couch Musings
A full recap and analysis of last night's game between UIC and Duke will be coming but until then a few notes from last night.
- I wrote yesterday's Games to Watch article before surfing over to ESPN to read anything. I picked 9 games to watch before Saturday. Andy Katz picked five, one of which was Monday night. His other four games were all on my list. Granted there are not a lot of games this week, but for us both to choose the Depaul-Northwestern game, well, that was a shocker.
- The MRI correctly predicted the winner in both of the Games to Watch last night. Calling Duke was not hard, but it got the "upset" win in the Boston University-Michigan game. Since there was no official betting line, I can't tell who was the favorite among the odds makers but I have a feeling that Michigan would have been favored by a little since they were playing at home. Michigan definitely isn't playing at the level they were at last season when they took the NIT. They may have to struggle to even make that tournament this year.
- Siena and Youngstown State, two teams in the bottom 30 of the MRI, played 4 Overtime periods last night in their game. That means that the players played 60 minutes of basketball. I guess someone will be sleeping in today. Siena won on a shot in the final seconds of the last overtime period, 79-78.
- Rick Majerus accepted the job at USC after rumors all week pointed in his direction. This is a big downer for me. Majerus was a highlight for me on the telecasts ever since he joined the ESPN team last season. Compared with Steve Lavin, Mike Jarvis, and Fran Fraschilla, Majerus was definitely the best of the bunch. His commentary during games was very insightful and you could see why he was such a great coach in his previous 20 years. Not one of these other coaches could break a team down better and explain it in a way that you could understand. Majerus would give strategy during the broadcasts and then watch as teams failed when they went against what he had said or succeed when their coach agreed. Majerus knows his game, and simply put, Majerus will be missed on microphone. At the same time, this is great for USC, a team which just needs a little bit of push to become one of the premier programs in not only the PAC-10, but also the country. This is no knock on interim coach Jim Saia. Majerus is just a better candidate at this point. In his previous 20 seasons as a head coach, his teams have gone to a post season tournament 19 times. There are very few coaches in the game these days who can claim that level of success for that long. The only negative with Majerus might be his health. He left Utah last season because of health problems and you can only hope that he has improved enough where taking over the job at USC won't cause him to have to leave prematurely once more. Good luck to Majerus next season when he officially takes over the job.
Predictions for tonight's Games to Watch are posted.
