View from my Couch - Tuesday

Early, early start to this day as the ESPN Hoops Marathon continues.

College Hoops

Monmouth @ St. Peter's

The 6am start seemed to favor the home team a lot more. A decent crowd on hand. You have to be fairly impressed with St. Peter's. They are a team without a senior, so they are looking for some good times the next few years. They played a suffocating defense and did enough offensively to make a difference.....The Peacocks lost a heartbreaker to Seton Hall on Friday night but responded here with a great effort.....Monmouth looked like a team that took a middle of the night bus trip, and never got rolling. The Hawks have a lot of work to do at this point.

St. Peter's won the game 58-34

Temple @ Georgetown

I'm home from the office and Temple has just taken the lead for the first time according to Mike Patrick....This must be a barnburner though. It is 32-31 with 12:13 left.....Temple shot 19 percent the first half - and somehow was still in the game. Although, I guess when you only score 19 points as Georgetown did in the first half, you are lucky to be ahead at all.....Georgetown looks flat out terrible in what I have seen....Austin Freeman is now in double figures and Temple leads 34-33 with 10 minutes left....Might be an exciting finish.....Temple has missed a couple of open shots - but you get the feeling they are going to win this game.....They seem to be the team with more momentum right now....Greg Monroe just scored a big conventional three-point play for the Hoyas to cut the lead in half from six to three.....Monroe has scored and got fouled again, those three-point plays sandwiched Jason Clark's three and its a 9-0 run for the Hoyas - they've got all the mo now.....This dreary game has come to life. Temple has rallied back with five straight as Lavoy Allen scored a big putback.....Temple leads by two with 3 and a half to play....Points have been at a premium in this Marathon. A lot of low scoring games. UCLA started it by only scoring 65 in a 2 Overtime game....Anybody else think TCU can beat Arizona State tonight?.....Temple just got a huge break up one....After grabbing an offensive rebound the Owl went to the floor, normally an automatic travelling violation but it wasn't called.....Georgetown has a lot of guys back. So everyone assumes they'll be good. But as a wise coach once told me, "Sure they have everyone back, but they weren't any good with them last year, why would they be any good this year"....solid logic....Georgetown has the ball down one with 17 seconds left after Temple missed the front end of a one-on-one....Monroe drives and scores - and to help the ESPN announcers the clock didn't stop on the made basket, so they'll have to reset that....Now the ESPN guys figured it out. Shouldn't Patrick be talking about Brittney Spears....6.5 seconds for the Owls down one.....Jim Burr called a jump ball when Guzman went to the hole. And Georgetown is going to survive. It might have been the right call, but I'll bet with ten minutes left, Georgetown would have been called for the foul. Great to see that Jim Burr decided to come back for another year.....These clock operators are not very good.....Patsos would have been after them.....Was it me or did Monroe nearly foul the guy on the missed free throw?

Georgetown won the game 46-45.

Charlotte @ Duke

So glad that Jeremy Goode is not playing in this game. The winner goes to NYC for the NIT Preseason Final Four......Charlotte could use Goode right about now. The 49ers have six turnovers and no field goals....Now they score, but turn it over again.....Duke has so much size and the big guys pass the ball very well.....Charlotte has settled in a little bit, but they are not defending Duke and the Blue Devils are ahead 27-14 with 11:11 left in the first half.....This is the best ACC team I've seen thus far. Duke has big guys - guards on the outside - and the ability to shoot it. And they are playing that great Duke pressure defense.....Duke leads 57-27 at the half. That means in the first half, they've outscored six teams that played in the ESPN marathon earlier today. (They also outscored Colgate - who is done - but wasn't on the family) They also tied the regulation output of Fullerton State and UCLA before the Titans downed the Bruins in double overtime....Give the Duke fans credit. The Cameron crazies are something special. But how many do you think are staying for Elon and Coastal Carolina?

Duke won the game 101-59

Gonzaga @ Michigan State - Before we get started here, I had to bring up the point that Tennessee leads UNC-Asheville at the half, 66-14. Reminds me of a 1991 game when Arkansas beat Bethune-Cookman 128-46. Remember Nolan Richardson, a College Hall of Fame inductee with Jim Phelan, and the 40 minutes of hell. The Razorbacks led that game, 65-29 at the half. Robert Shepperd and Lee Mayberry had 19 to lead Arkansas. The Big O had 13 & 10..... I was real impressed with Gonzaga's defense against MVSU the other night. But I thought maybe its just the Delta Devils. But they've brought it again early tonight. They lead 9-3 at the first break...They are to the Under 8 break at the Breslin Center....Gonzaga is just beating up on Michigan State at this point....The Zags look like the better team at both ends of the floor....We'll see what Tom Izzo comes up with, but his team is going to need his help tonight....Mark Few just got to pick the shooter on the foul shots as the State player had to leave the floor with an injury. First time we've seen that....Sparty has closed the deficit to 29-23 at the Under 4....Regardless of the outcome, you've got to be impressed with Gonzaga tonight....Michigan State just tied it with a set play out of the timeout. Huge play drawn up by Izzo.....Wofford, which almost won at Pitt on Friday, defeated Georgia tonight. Good win for the Big South.....Another play drawn up by Michigan State's Tom Izzo got Summers a three out of the timeout and the Spartans are in front 68-67....Down the stretch, State is making the plays. Raymar Morgan just scored on a reverse inside to pus the lead to 71-67....Morgan just fouled out with MSU up two with 1:08 left....Up one with 55.8 seconds left, Izzo just called another timeout. Hard to argue with that. He's drawn up some real good sets, in the contest tonight....These type of games is why College basketball is so great early in the year. And neither team has to worry about their season dreams ending with a loss tonight....Not sure they got the look the wanted there, but when it didn't work, they went 1-4 and Lucas beat the defender off the dribble into the lane and got the bucket....Gray had two good looks at it. The second shot might have been a little rushed. But the first was half way home. Michigan State can win it at the foul line now....Nobody can make a foul shot now. Michigan State missed a pair, before Gonzaga made just one of two to cut the lead to 73-71....Summers finishes it off with a pair of free throws. He scored 17 points in the second half to help rally the Spartans.

Michigan State won the game 75-71

Kansas vs Memphis

Josh Pastner is the new head coach for Memphis. He looks like he is younger than the kids he is coaching. But he's been a huge recruiter in the college game for several years, and now he's got the job after Calipari went to Kentucky. He has done a great job recruiting already at Memphis, but we'll see how it turns out on the bench....This is the Hall of Fame Showcase in St. Louis. Still trying to figure out what the Hall of Fame is in St. Louis.....Obviously, its not the floor, because the floor is hideous. The area inside the arc looks like a basketball with lines everywhere. And then the center circle has big words all the way through it. Plus there are advertisements everywhere.....It is nice to hear Dick Vitale....Vitale's either a love em or hate em guy. But I think he has done great things for the game and he's given plenty back. I like the combo of he and Shulman. They said they will be at MSG later this week, I look forward to that....Cole Aldrich maybe the difference is this game thus far. Aldrich has gotten to the offensive glass several times as the Jayhawks hold a three-point lead as they approach halftime....Elliot Williams was granted a special exemption to have eligibility this year for Memphis. He's returning home to be with his mother who is suffering from a serious illness. Credit to the Duke folks for allowing that to happen....Bill Self just said the #1 team in the land stinks on offense. Love the brutal honesty.

Kansas won the game 57-55