Quick Miscellaneous Thoughts for a Thursday

Yesterday was my younger son Jonathan's birthday.  He turned three. He's into monster trucks and monster dunks.  Maybe someday he will love college basketball as much as his dad.  But for now, it's Monster Truck Mater and his preschool basketball hoop.

We are nearing a full week of college basketball.  Some major tournaments start today with the Puerto Rico Tipoff and the Charleston Classic being the main two tournaments.  There are some really good games on TV tonight and if you are in the local NY area, I would suggest one of two venues.  One is New Rochelle where Iona hosts Richmond.  And two, there is the 2K classic semifinals tonight at MSG.

Speaking of which, if you are one of the few, the proud, the avid readers of this site, I wrote an article disparaging the notion that 2K Classic was a tournament.  And if you read the article, it truly is not "a tournament".  And Charleston nearly put a nice dent into the 2K classic by giving Maryland a major scare, but fell short at the end.

Well, the first irony is that I will be at MSG tonight for the semifinals of this "tournament".  But before you are thinking, "What's with the advertisement for the 2K Classic?", let me tell you the second irony.  Three days after I wrote my 2K classic article, I got an email message advertising the tournament.  Now I checked my email history and I never had been in touch with the Gazelle Group before. No not even to abuse them about the CBI.

So how did I get this?  Well, here's what I think happened.  If you click on my name under contributors on this blog's home page, you get my profile.  You can then click on "email" under contact to email me.  Some enterprising person, perhaps even one of my wiseacre friends, or perhaps the Gazelle Group themselves (yeah right) decided to sign me up for their mailing list.  I think it's actually pretty funny and whoever decided to do that, props to you.

Congrats to VCU, who themselves are going to MSG next week for the Preseason NIT Tipoff.  The Rams punched their ticket by punching out Wake Forest 90-61 in Winston Salem Tuesday night.  VCU will play Tennessee in one of the semifinals while UCLA takes on Villanova in the other semifinal.  The stat of Tuesday night.  The Rams forced 23 turnovers on the Demon Deacons but only committed seven themselves.  Talk about ball possession.

Sticking with the Virginia schools, I am going to give credit to Virginia Tech for actually scheduling a tough non conference ROAD game vs. Kansas State.  And the Hokies were playing well till my friend Mal gave them "The Marv Albert Kiss of Death", then the Wildcats rolled over them.  But still, they will be guaranteed not having the 339th ranked non conference schedule they had last season, since they also play Purdue and Mississippi State as well.

But a note to Seth Greenberg - How about playing teams in your backyard?  Meaning, why doesn't Virginia Tech play VCU or Old Dominion or Richmond?  There's not much traveling involved since all are in the same state and it guarantees the Hokies a good non conference strength of schedule.  So c'mon Hokies, how about helping yourselves, your fellow Virginia schools and Virginia basketball fans and schedule some in-state games.  Imagine a yearly in-state tripleheader featuring Richmond, Old Dominion, VCU, William and Mary, Virginia and Virginia Tech.  I can.

Despite not being able to watch just about all of the 24 Hours of Hoops Tuesday on ESPN, I did somehow manage to stay up and watch San Diego State vs. Gonzaga.  And I tell you, if you didn't watch the game live, the replay should be on ESPN3.  Watch the game just for the performance by the Aztecs' Billy White.  White is a 6 foot 8 senior forward who can shoot from the outside as well as score from the post.  He was 14 of 18 from the field, including 2 of 2 from beyond the arc, for 30 points and he added 9 rebounds. White was downright dominant.  Also, I was wondering why Elias Harris looked so out of it on Tuesday night.  Now we know why - Harris hurt his achilles during the game. Hopefully Harris will be OK.

Enjoy your Thursday.