unpaid scout

In my efforts to "scout" the Big East, I try and watch every team play at least one game before the conference schedule begins. You know back in the good old days this wasn't such daunting task. The current problem is that there are now 16 teams in the league for basketball purposes, and, to be quite honest with you, I have a hard time accepting the new ones as my own. Basically what I'm trying to say is that I feel as if South Florida is my new 17 year old step-son that I just don't give two shits about. He's off to college in the Fall and getting to know him would be a waste of my time.

So I tried to watch a little South Florida - Vanderbilt last night. Right before the first TV timeout it was 2-1 and my eyes were bleeding. I mean here I go giving them a chance and they prove to be exactly who I thought they were - aka hot trash.

Next up was Marquette - Tennessee. Marquette has had the same team for about 4 years now. Matthews, McNeal, and James just fly around the court trying to fast break on your ass. The trick is to get James to do most of the shooting while in a half court setting and you are silly. The only wrinkle is that they have a new coach this time around. Maybe he isn't a complete no talent like Tom Crean.

I missed most of the first half but during the second half I found myself saying, "This is being played at a pace where Georgetown could have beaten the Vols."

Turns out I was right. The Vols beat the (used to be called) Warriors 80 - 68. Three weeks earlier they had beaten Georgetown 90 - 78 thanks to some insane shooting from behind the arc. I mean they were 10 for 16 from downtown. Freaking Cameron Tatum, a freshman, went 5 for 6 all by himself in about 15 minutes of action.

Here's a little "Did you know" that only I will find interesting. That 90-78 loss on Nov 28 was the most points Georgetown has scored in a loss during the JT3 era. Before that the previous high in a loss was 73 - but that was in overtime.

In fact the Hoyas, under JT3, are 62 - 6 when scoring over 68 points. Not too bad.

So getting back to my "scouting" from the beginning of this post, it's never been actually used. By that I mean that none of the coaches have actually come to me for my advice on the opponents. Weird huh?

Ok I'm starting a new game today. I'm going to see if I can predict tonight's high scorer in the NBA.

Tonight I select Danny Granger from the Pacers.

My thinking: He scores a lot normally and tonight hes facing the Golden State Warriors. Seems like a winner to me.