Waiting for Godunk: Talking Tourney with Greg Anthony & the Powerade ION4 Bracketology Scientists

Kevin Owens is a seven year veteran of overseas professional basketball. He currently writes for SB Nation Philadelphia, SLAM Online, Hugging Harold Reynolds and his own blog Waiting For Godunk, which details his career as a standby athlete. He played for Monmouth University in the 2001 NCAA Tournament. Follow him on Twitter @Waiting4Godunk.

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During my playing career, I have been injured more times than I can count. I’ve worn knee braces, elbow pads, ankle braces, protective glasses, a facemask, and on one occasion an athletic cup. (My man parts are ok now.) Never have I had to wear anything like former UNLV and NBA standout Greg Anthony. Anthony, who broke his jaw in 1990 practiced in a hockey helmet during his recovery.

This is one of the bits of information I received from the HBO Documentary Runnin’ Rebels which premiered Sunday night. Monday morning I had the opportunity to meet Greg Anthony, now a basketball analyst for CBS Sports, ESPN, and Yahoo Sports, and ask his opinion about the 2011 NCAA Tournament.

We met up at CBS’s Bracket Lounge in the Time Warner Center. Powerade, the official drink of the NCAA Tournament, sponsors the lounge, which gives shoppers, or the occasional slacker skipping work, a place to watch the NCAA games live. Along with watching the tournament, they have many interactive games which include a mini-basketball shooting contest.

Greg and I were at the lounge as official “Powerade ION4 Bracketology Scientists” along with Kevin Burke from The Hoop Doctors, Susan Shan from Susan Shan.com and Josh Zerkle from With Leather. I quickly learned that as much as I watch college basketball, my seven year hiatus from intently watching the tournament put me at an analytical disadvantage.

Case and point, a sleeper pick of mine, Villanova. In my bracket I have the Wildcats reestablishing themselves as one of the best teams in the nation and doing some damage. My thought process being that Nova now has their full roster healthy and practicing again. Then Greg Anthony dropped some knowledge on me. “You’re looking at the name on the jersey. Don’t always just look at the name on the front of the shirt. Everybody is doing that with their region. Villanova is the weakest nine seed in the tournament, by far. If I’m OSU, I’m saying I could be playing Villanova. I like that; I’m not upset with that.”

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My other sleeper was the Richmond Spiders. I just covered the A-10 Tournament for SB Nation Philly and watched them play twice over the weekend. I was shocked that they were a 12 seed and not an eight or nine. Kevin Richardson, although small, can put up some serious numbers. Richardson’s teammate Justin Harper has jumped up the NBA draft boards lately with his fine play over the past few months. I was convinced that the Spiders could overtake Vanderbilt in the first round. Then more knowledge dropped by Anthony. “Vandy is a potential Final Four team.” Damnitt!

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I also am not big on Florida doing much in the tournament. I say this mainly because I haven’t seen them play that often. I have them losing in the second round…That is until Greg…Knowledge…Dropped. “Florida’s won more games, outside of the Big East, against the top 50 than anybody in the country. They were 12-3 coming into the championship game. If you look at their division, they had Kentucky, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Georgia in the same division all make the Tournament, and you won that division by three games.”

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I feel like my bracket was in disarray and the tournament hadn’t even started. Although I walked towards the exit with little confidence in my analytical skills, I was grateful to have met such intelligent analysts. It was then that I noticed my bag and sweatshirt were missing. In their place sat a more expensive looking bag, far heavier than mine, and a grey sweatshirt, far nicer than mine.

I quickly realized that one of the reps had brought my bag down to Greg instead of his. I felt like Greg probably didn’t want to swap his bag for mine, which contained car keys for my car parked in central New Jersey, my grey hoodie and a half eaten chocolate chip cookie.

The situation was quickly rectified and our bags swapped back to their rightful owners. As I stood, eating the remainder of my stale cookie, I saw Greg Anthony and his bag walking out. Greg overwhelmed me with his basketball knowledge. He knew so many stats and information off the top of his head. I’m sure he works harder than most analysts, reading hundreds of stat sheets and team breakdowns whenever he has free time. I began to realize why that bag was so heavy.

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CBS Sports Fooled by College Message Board Trolls

An article by TJ Corbs Corbs, which a source in-the-know tells us is a fictitious and satirical author on Bleacher Report (a content partner with CBS), was featured On the main page of the CBSSports.com college basketball page.

The article essentially was about how Seton Hall should be kicked out of the Big East. Granted, it is positioned as editorial, but the fact of the matter is that the piece was written as a ruse...for no other reason than to incite Seton Hall fans.


Evidence of this can be seen by simply looking at the VU Rivals message board.

Clearly, Wildcat fans are in on the joke. Comments include:

• TJ Corbin is a compelling journalist. His career began 2 days ago and already he is an internet sensation.
• Buzz Bissinger's head would explode if he knew about these journalistic shenanigans.
• Remind me never to go to cbssports for sports news.
• Can someone post this link on PirateScrew?
• Finally broken through. This is an unbelievable development - one that we will look back on in ten years as a major accomplishment.
• Thats unbelievable. CBS sports is a joke.
• it's official - reliable, credible journalism is dead - long live the internet where fans can author articles made from whole cloth for no reason other than to tweak fans of rival teams
• please make Providence your next victim - a buddy of mine went there and it would make my year
  
  

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10 Great Ensembles Of the Big East - Last 15 Years

With the Big East Tournament starting this week at Madison Square Garden, arguably the greatest post-season conference tournament gets underway in all of college basketball. (I await the ACC backlash.)

That said, let's take a look back at 10 of my favorite ensemble casts from awesome Big East teams in the last 15 years. By "ensemble cast" I mean a great group of guys that played together at some point on the same team. For example we could cite the Cuttino Mobley, Lamar Odom, Tyson Wheeler Rhode Island squad of the mid 90s.

These are in no particular order and I say the last 15 years because that is far back as I can reasonably discuss. With that I present "the man" - the clear leader of the team, the "best supporting actor" - a great sidekick who was nasty in his own right, and "the big cat" generally a center or forward that was also a beast. Please feel free to comment with your own favorites.

Georgetown Hoyas - 1995-96

The man - Allen Iverson - Before he was tatted up and talkin' about practice, this guy did it all for the Hoyas and for the first time in a while had G-town led by someone other than a center.

Best supporting actor - Victor Page - God knows where he is now but the lefty had a smooth jumpshot and took some of the offensive pressure off A.I.

The big cat - Othella Harrington - Another southpaw that could clog the middle and score, he eventually made a decent little NBA career for himself.

UConn Huskies - 1995-96

The man - Ray Allen - Ray Ray's jumper was the smoothest thing in the big east that year and let's not forget his off balance floater that dumped the above Hoyas out of the tourney.

Best supporting actor - Doron Sheffer - Saw an increase in Connecticut housewives naming their newborn's Doron and this guy also provided some scoring punch hitting 41% from 3.

The big cat - Travis Knight - Your classic white center that was reliable in college but not great in the NBA. Decent outside shot and he got to play with Ray Allen. I'm bitter from Knight's tenure with the Knicks.

St. John's Red Storm- 1998-1999

The man - Ron Artest - Ron put the Redmen, Red Storm, whatever, back on the map for the first time since the Mullin years. Sadly they are back off the map these days, while Ron has gone on to show he's very talented and possibly insane.

Best supporting actor - Eric Barkley - Just a frosh on this team, Barkley would later become the face of the Johnnies. He, like Omar Cook and a host of others, has vanished.

The big cat - Bootsy Thornton - Really a guard but could play a ton of minutes and took pressure off Artest. It's sad he wasn't big in the league because a name like Bootsy doesn't come along very often.

UConn Huskies - 2003-2004

The man - Ben Gordon - Born in England, he dominated New England for a span and led the Huskies to an NCAA title. He has now been underused in the NBA for reasons only known to Vinny Del Negro.

Best supporting actor - Rashad Anderson - Wins the memorial "Scotty Thurman" award for lights out college shooter who dropped off the face of the earth after college. Also, sported a money beard.

The big cat - Emeka Okafor - Just a beast on defense and in the rebound column while also putting up points at a solid clip. Is now carrying the Bobcats on his oft injured back.

Providence Friars - 1996-1997

The man - God Shammgod - Ridiculous handle on this guy to go with a great name, he may have deferred to the big cat in overall best player status, but he was pretty good.

Best supporting actor - Jamel Thomas - Another member of the Marbury clan strikes, by all acounts Jamel is normal and has had a solid career overseas.

The big cat - Austin Croshere - His NBA career has really revealed his outside shooting, but could do it all for PC back in the college days.

Pittsburgh Panthers - 2002-2003

The man - Brandon Knight - A stellar point guard following in the footsteps of brother Brevin, but with a better build. Seemed to have an eternally injured ankle but still made plays.

Best supporting actor - Julius Page - Another great scoring option on this squad to assist Knight, who wins in a Page vs Page match? I can't tell.

The big cat - Chevon "Chevy" Troutman - Built like a truck, Troutman looks like a poor man's Tyson Chandler but was a physical presence for the Panthers that, as this season has shown, is often their m.o.

Syracuse Orangmen - 2002-2003

The man - Carmelo Anthony - Only took one season for 'Melo to get Boehim that elusive NCAA title, the rest (as you know) is history. He's had a nice little run in the NBA.

Best supporting actor - Gerry McNamara - A few seasons before Gerry single-handedly willed the Orange through the Big East tourney and into the dance, but he was gunning threes even in his first year.

The big cat - Hakim Warrick -His tea bag dunk on Royal Ivey puts him on hallow ground forever, and I believe he blocked the shot to secure the title game win, so double bravo, Hakim!

Seton Hall Pirates - 1999-2000

The man - Ty Shine - Took over for an injured player (see below) to help spur this squad on to the Sweet 16. A year later, newcomer Eddie Griffin would say, "Let's have a punch fight. I go first."

Best supporting actor - Shaheen Holloway - Love what this guy did a few years later with Cohen's Optical in the Jersey Shore Basketball League. Was a leader on the Pirates' team until an ankle injury hurt him.

The big cat - Darius Lane - Just a hustler, could can the medium range J and provided some toughness down low for a guard-orientated team.

West Virginia Mountaineers- 2005-2006

The man - Mike Gansey - Transferred in from St. Bonaventure and did wonders as a driver and perimiter player. Really made the squad one of the fun teams to watch over the years.

Best supporting actor - Patrick Beilein - The coach's kid, he brought the pain from downtown. Able to stretch the D and nailed a host of outside J's in a shoot happy situation.

The big cat - Kevin Pittsnogle - Now a little over his playing weight and teaching grammar school in the boondocks, he was a fan favorite for the Mountaineers. A big man who could also bury the big shot from deep.

Villanova Wildcats - 2005-2006

The man - Allan Ray - A solid scorer who became a household name on the Villanova scene along with the two others on this list. Damn him, however, for helping defeat the Monmouth Hawks in the 2006 Big Dance.

Best supporting actor - Randy Foye - Could also have been tabbed "the man" as he was equally important to the success of these Wildcats. They perhaps didn't reach their total potential with this solid group.

The big cat - Will Sheridan - The next in a line of lanky athletic big men to roam the middle for the Wildcats.

Note: Shoutouts to the Kerry Kittles era at Villanova and the John Wallace era at Syracuse.

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Capital Punishment

Not in first place? No foul for you.

What a terrible end to an otherwise hard-fought game.

As Monday's Georgetown-Villanova tilt at the Verizon Center entered its final moments - any by final moments, I mean 0.1 seconds left in regulation - the teams were tied at 53. That is, until Georgetown guard Jonathan Wallace was brushed by a Villanova defender during a loose ball scramble and granted a miraculous foul some 80 feet from his own basket.

Wallace, Georgetown's best free throw shooter, of course iced the game, sending Nova to their 6th loss in their past 7 conference games.

In a league where the refs view WWE-style takedowns around the basket as sound, fundamental basketball, this particular call was, as Bill Raftery would say, "a nickel-dimer".

In fact, I think he did.

Big East basketball. Excellence in officiating on display nightly at 7.