Bigtime Site News

Ladies and gentlemen, the day has come. We have moved.

Check out our new site, now part of the Bloguin network, here.

The NCAA Does Something Smart?

Have you always wanted to watch the end of the 2008 National Championship game? Or that epic Arizona-Illinois Elite 8 in 2005? Or hear Gus Johnson scream in the UCLA-Gonzaga game?

Well now you can. Thanks to this site, you can watch any Sweet 16 game or later from 2000 on.

Enjoy, bitches.

An Interview By One Of Our Own

Since there’s really nothing going on today, I thought I would direct you to Ridiculous Upside, SB Nation’s blog about the NBA D League, where I interviewed former Kansas Jayhawk and current D-Leaguer Russ Robinson.

You can check the interview out here.

Nothin’ But ‘Net

Nothin’ but ‘net is our ever so often look at what’s going on around the internet. Enjoy.

This is a great cause, and I’ll probably have more about it in the coming days: Love College Hoops… Beat Cancer Week is next week. (National Association of Basketball Coaches)

What’s been wrong with Florida since those back-to-back titles? (Sparty and Friends)

DeMarcus Cousins tells fans to call him… after they’d been calling him all week and bombarding his cell phone. (Buster Sports)

Your National Player of the Year: Evan Turner… according to a straw poll of 50 voters from around the nation. (RTC)

We all know SC wants Steve Lavin to coach DePaul, but could we see Billy Gillispie there instead? (CBS2)

A couple of bracketology links for your viewing pleasure:

– From ESPN’s Joe Lunardi (ESPN)

– And one courtesy of Blogging the Bracket. (Blogging the Bracket)

Beadlemania Top 25

1. Kansas (3)

2. Kentucky

3. Syracuse

4. Purdue

5. Kansas State

6. Villanova

7. Duke

8. West Virginia

9. Ohio State

10. Georgetown

11. Michigan State

12. Wisconsin

13. BYU

14. Butler

15. New Mexico

16. Texas

17. Tennessee

18. Vanderbilt

19. Pitt

20. Gonzaga

21. Xavier

22. Virginia Tech

23. Texas A&M

24. Baylor

25. Temple

Also receiving votes: Wake Forest, Cornell

Steve Lavin’s Hair Greases the Broken Wheel

Since 2003, the floor at Pauley Pavilion hasn’t been quite so shiny.  They are currently preparing a Zamboni for the arrival of a savior in Rosemont, Illinois.  (where?)

Lavin, who took some other guy’s players to a 2001 Pac-10 Coach of the Year award at UCLA, hasn’t graced a sideline since 2003.  Lavin was one season away from returning UCLA to glory (source redacted)  What has this new Blue Demon excited about Lav’s interest is his that greasy mop situated on top of that massive, basketball knowledge vault (may or may not be true).

All-President’s Day Team

Keepin' it Presidential Today.

Another day with Fetch bailing on us to live-blog the entirety of the Olympics (you should go visit him, he gets lonely over there sometimes), so again I’ve been left in charge, since SC hasn’t been heard from in days. Today’s President’s Day, which means some of you probably have the day off from work… yet for some strange reason, I don’t get the day off from school. Go figure.

Anyways, in honor of President’s Day, we bring to you the best college basketball players with presidential names:

G – Tweety Carter, Baylor. Much like our 39th president — James “Jimmy” Carter — Tweety Carter doesn’t go by his legal first name (Demond). Beyond that, though, Tweety Carter is averaging 16.1 points per game for the Bears (10th in the Big 12), and leads the conference in assists, with 6.05 per game.

G – Jordan Taylor, Wisconsin. Okay, maybe I’m getting lazy with this name, but Taylor shares a last name with Zachary Taylor, our 12th president. Jordan Taylor is second in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio (and first in the Big Ten) at 3.4 to 1. He also led the team with a 2.2 ratio as a freshman last season. The more you know!

G/F – Kevin Palmer, Texas A&M Corpus Christi. Who said all the players on this team have to have nonfictional presidential names? Palmer shares a surname with two of the most prominent fictional presidents of our time: Wayne and David Palmer, of 24 fame. For the Islanders, Palmer is pouring in 19.75 points per with a TS% of 59.2. And yes, this will probably be one of the few times you see Corpus Christi get some pub from us.

F – D.J. Kennedy, St. John’s. See, his last name is Kennedy, and he plays for a school with John in its name, so there’s that. Then of course there’s the whole “he goes by initials, as did JFK,” thing. So it kinda works three-fold. High five! But seriously, D.J. Kennedy is doing work for the Red Storm this season. As a junior, he is averaging nearly 15 points and close to 7 boards per game. That’s sort of presidential.

F – Quincy Pondexter, Washington Huskies. Okay, so his name isn’t quite what you would expect for this team. But he plays for the University of Washington, and when I hear the name Quincy, two people come to mind: super-producer Quincy Jones — he of Thriller fame — and John Quincy Adams, our sixth POTUS. Pondexter is averaging over 20 points per game this season for the Huskies while pulling down eight boards per with a TS% of 62.

The Big East: Where Black is East and Up is White [Updated!]

It was an interesting weekend in the Big East, to say the least. Let’s recap it, shall we?

• Jim Calhoun announced his return to the bench for UConn… which then promptly lost to Cincinnati, dropping them to 14-11 on the season.
• USF has fallen back down to earth by dropping its second-consecutive game after knocking off two ranked teams in a row.
• Pittsburgh and West Virginia gave us an exhilarating triple-overtime thriller Friday night, where Pitt toppled fifth-ranked West Virginia by three after Darryl Bryant took a jumper just inside the arc… down three.
• Then today, Louisville put a halt to Syracuse’s 11-game win streak and Rutgers took down Georgetown behind 24 points from former-Florida Gator Jonathan Mitchell.

So what do we know about the Big East at this time?

Um.

Expect the unexpected? Yeah, that’s all I got for now.

It’s no doubt that Syracuse should still be considered one of the top teams in the nation this year — as should Villanova, who survived the weekend — and Georgetown is still a good team. Hell, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi currently has six Big East teams making the tournament, with another five just missing the cut… of course, there are still a few weeks left in the season, so things can undoubtedly change. But one thing is for sure when it comes to Big East basketball this season, anything can happen.

Oh, and for the record, Rutgers fans restrained themselves from storming the court after upsetting No. 8 Georgetown, so big props to those fans.

UPDATE: And the Big East continues to confound us, as UConn, coming off of a bad loss to Cincy, drops the No. 3 team in the nation, Villanova. For those scoring at home, the four highest-ranked Big East teams (including three of the top five ranked teams in the nation) have all lost since Friday… and two of those were at home (Syracuse and Nova). Is the Big East really this deep, or is the madness just getting started a month early, this season?

A Fitting Valentine’s Weekend Performance

It’s Valentine’s Day, which is the perfect time of the year in the sports world to take a look at some aptly named athletes for this holiday — kinda like what Fetch did for Christmas — and see if any of them actually live up to their holiday-infused names.

But since it’s the weekend, and it was a long night last night, I’m only going to give you one college basketball player who used this holiday weekend to put his name to good use. That player, of course, being Xavier’s Jason Love.

Living up to his name.

Saturday, against Florida, Love went off for 20 points (second-highest total of his career) and double-digit rebounds with 10 en route to the Musketeers’ 76-64 win over the Gators. The defeat of course delivered another blow to UF’s hopes of returning to the big dance, but there’s still some time left.

To go along with Love’s performance, he had a +/- of +17, second only to his teammate, Jordan Crawford — yes, THAT Jordan Crawford — who had a +21. Love was also responsible for Xavier’s fast start, scoring 13 of the team’s first 23 points.

So kudos to you, Jason Love, for living up to your name the one time of year that you are expected to.

Enjoy your Valentine’s Day, everyone.

Storming The Court:When Is It Right?

When should it be ok to rush the court?

It’s an activity that many fans dream of, but only so many get a chance to partake in during their lifetimes. It’s storming the floor following a big win by your team, and it’s something that is unique to college athletics.

But it’s also something that we see too often, and in particular, something done under the wrong circumstances.

So far this season, there have been at least six situations (that I can think of) in which the fans of a team has rushed the court after a big win:

• South Carolina after upsetting then-undefeated No. 1 Kentucky
• Providence after thumping then-No. 19 UConn
• Then UConn after defeating then-top-ranked Texas
• Indiana after toppling Minnesota
• Illinois after taking down Michigan State (without Kalin Lucas)
• and then last night Penn stormed the floor after knocking off Ivy League rival, No. 22 Cornell.

But how many of those instances have been warranted? I’d say one, maybe two of them. That one being South Carolina taking down Kentucky. What makes what the Gamecocks did right, you may ask? Well, when thinking about rushing the floor, fans should take a few things into consideration before acting on impulse.

For one, the upset should be over a highly-ranked  — and of course, your team should be unranked — and over a team that is highly favored. Also, a fan should take into consideration how successful his or her team has been in recent memory.

That’s why South Carolina is a good example: they have never really been good. The school has only had eight NCAA tournament appearances (the last one being in 2004) and has only sniffed the second weekend of the tourney three times. Add in that Kentucky is a storied program, and was undefeated and ranked first in the nation at the time of the upset, and voila(!) you’ve got an ideal situation to storm the court.

The other instance that you could make an argument for? Providence upsetting UConn. Sure, UConn was only ranked 19th at the time, but let’s face it, Providence isn’t as prominent of a program (only five tournament appearances in the last 20 years) and UConn has itself been a great team in recent years. Plus, Providence shellacked them by 15+ points, so there is some gray area on that one.

Which brings me to UConn, who should be ashamed for rushing then floor when it topped Texas. Let’s ignore for a minute the fact that the Huskies have two titles in the last 11 years, and have made the big dance eight of the last 10 seasons. UConn has been ranked most of the season, so there should be no excuse for such a reaction after defeating ANOTHER ranked team.

The same could be said for the Illini, as much as SouvenirCity will argue otherwise, their fans had no business taking the floor. As I pointed out on Twitter when the upset happened, Illinois is five years removed from an appearance in the NCAA final and has made the tournament nine of the last 10 seasons. Not to mention that Sparty was playing WITHOUT its best player, Kalin Lucas.

It was really a shameful display by UConn’s and Illinois’ fans.

What about Indiana and Penn, you may ask? Well, Indiana has been down lately, but they are still a storied program that is also not far removed from success. And Penn? Well, it has won the Ivy League regular season title six of the last 10 seasons. Oh, and not to mention Penn is the 34th most prestigious division 1 men’s basketball program in the nation, according to some weird ESPN Prestige Rankings that I know nothing about.

I think I’ve ranted on long enough about fans storming the floor. Yeah, it’s a cool thing that a lot of us wish we could do one day, but it’s become an epidemic in the college basketball world… and it loses its uniqueness and appeal when it’s done so routinely in unwarranted scenarios.

So let’s close this out with one last rundown of what criteria should be met before an arena rushes the court:

1. Opponent must be highly ranked.
2. Your team should be unranked (for most of the season prior to the upset).
3. Your team cannot have a recent history of success — for this argument, let’s say the last 10-15 years.
4. YOUR TEAM CANOT HAVE A RECENT HISTORY OF SUCCESS. Repetition drives points home.

(H/T to @TallGuyDuke)