Thursday, November 12, 2009

College Basketball: November 12, 2009

Just one game tonight, and it was a decent game for a half. Looking forward to Bradley/BYU tomorrow night, which to me is the first matchup of relatively equal teams of the season. Stanford at San Diego is also a decent game tomorrow, but I don't believe that's on TV anywhere. Also, on Saturday, two excellent mid-major matchups, also not on TV (that I've found at least): Creighton at Dayton and Davidson at Butler.

Anyway, brief thoughts on tonight's game:

James Madison @ Ohio State
--I probably already knew this, but the Buckeyes are a well-rounded team: good ballhandling, good rebounding, good defensively, and very exciting offensively. If this team runs into trouble this year, it will be at the expense of their interior players. As much as I like Dallas Lauderdale, beyond him the only real quality depth inside is senior Kyle Madsen, who is just serviceable. Ohio State can hide this some with their commitment to getting out on the break, but once they get into grind-it-out games on wintry nights in Big Ten conference play, their interior could get exposed.
--James Madison has some nice perimeter athletes, especially in freshman Darren White and sophomore Julius Wells. Unfortunately for them, their one real true point guard, sophomore Devon Moore, tore up an ACL and is out for the season. If they can hide that deficiency, they can compete in the CAA.

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