Welcome Hoops to Sports Gal Pal

Time for hoops! (Photo credit: Tulane Publications)

The NBA season began today! College Hoops are coming! Hooray more sports to talk about- and basketball is a great sport to follow because unlike football it isn’t as complicated for a beginning but there is a ton of strategy for a seasoned follower.

Plus basketball is so much fun period. Here are some of the reasons why it has a special place in my sports life.

I grew up in ACC country

Growing up within the boundaries of the ACC you have to at least acknowledge basketball- and for good reason. Historically the ACC is the conference for both men and women’s basketball. And boy do they take bball seriously. The ACC is the only Division I college basketball conference that doesn’t recognize a regular season title- it only recognizes the winner of the ACC tournament as the league championship. This means that while a team may have been amazing all season if they lose one game in the tournament they won’t be champions.

That’s serious gals and pals.

Plus ACC has had 12 NCAA men’s basketball championships-= UNC has five; Duke has four; NC ST two; and Maryland has one. Eight of the 12 members have made it to the Final Four at least once.

In Women’s basketball the ACC has won two championships- UNC and Maryland. And this is the only conference to have three teams from the same conference advance to the Final Four which resulted in Maryland’s winning the championship.

As a Virginia grad and fan I love basketball- especially because we are better at it than our rival which is great after a very long and frustrating football season.

The pace is quicker

Another great reason to catch a basketball game is the pace is quick. It is almost none stop action which a ton of fans appreciate. While football is hard hitting- there are lulls because of penalties, injuries, and setting up for the play. And baseball can creep along- really creep. Basketball keeps going- and even with lining up for a foul it’s still quick.

The College Tournament is the best in the NCAA

March Madness is my favorite sporting event all year. The brackets, the polls, and the upsets. Unlike college football which has a computer telling us who belongs in the championship game, the NCAA men’s and women’s tourneys are a you win the game or go home situation. Every single game matters and sometimes the little guys win. It’s a rare chance to see a ODU play a Kansas and could win. It makes for incredible drama and some amazing story lines.

I am going to admit right now- I am way more comfortable talking about college hoops than the NBA- so I’m going to be learning along with all of you. That should be fun. So welcome basketball to the Gal Pal universe. I’m excited to see tip off.

Related articles

• Duke picked to win ACC women’s basketball title (journalnow.com)
• Duke, UNC athletes exceed national graduation rates (newsobserver.com)
• Transfers in college hoops hit U.Va. hard (timesdispatch.com)
• So the Fighting Irish Heading to ACC: What does it mean? (sportsgalpal.wordpress.com)

Water Cooler: College Football Edition

The Geno Smith show is good on the Road

After yesterday’s win there is no contest- WVU‘s quarterback Geno Smith is your Heisman candidate. This year he has 1,996 passing yards, 204 attempts and the best stat ever no interceptions.

The game was a close one, all really coming down on a 41-yard field goal that Texas kicker Anthony Fera missed late in the fourth quarter. This is the same kicker who transferred from Penn St– and whose absence was most notable in the Penn St loss to UVa.

Also I must mention the WVU receiving duo Stedman Bailey and Tavon Austin- wow. Bailey had three touchdowns and Austin another one plus 111 yards on kick returns.

What this game signifies is that WVU is the top dog in the Big12- nice for your first year.

Oklahoma bounces back

Keeping with the Big 12- OU came up with an impressive win against Texas Tech- 41-20. Landry Jones had 25 of 40 catches for 259 yards and two touch downs. Tech did have 271 passing yards but only 89 rushing yards.

Penn State comes from behind in the 4th to beat N’western

Trailing 11 going into the fourth quarter the Nittany Lions had to pull up their boot straps. They scores three times in the final 10 minutes of the game.

This happened after N’western has a 75 yard punt return for a touchdown late in the third quarter.

Stanford gets overtime victory

Andrew Luck who?

Stanford qb Josh Nunes had a career high 360 yards, threw two touchdowns and ran in for three more.

He was a scoring machine.

But Arizona looked good- they did get over 400 passing yards against Stanford something that hasn’t happened since 2007. But the defense couldn’t hang on.

Florida defends its Swamp for the Win

Oh my- now this was a football game. None of these basketball, let the quarterbacks throw until their arms give out. This was fought on the ground- and the Gators win.

Mike Gillislee ran for 146 yards and two touchdowns giving the Tigers their first regular season loss in 19 games.

South Carolina makes it an ugly day for UGA

Wow- 35-7 victory for the Gamecocks (try saying that name without a giggle- I bet you can’t). They not only got the win but stopped a Georgia team that had a league-leading 48.2 points and 536 yards a game offense.

Notre Dame easily withstands the Hurricanes

Back in the 1980s this was a great rivalry- and if you’re interested a wonderful book called “Perfect Rivals” by Jeff Carroll is an excellent read. This time the Irish has 587 yards total and 376 yards rushing.

This wasn’t even close- Miami only scored once a field goal in the first quarter and then the Irish led for three quarters without a single Miami score.

Did I mention the Irish are undefeated?

The Triangle is Evil and Should be Destroyed

Perhaps next week I won’t write about UVa and Va Tech and then maybe those team will win.

Of course actually playing defense would help as well.

UVa is a mess- but looking I should have expected this with the loss of Kris Bird and Chase Minnifield– it’s just hard to go from your first good season in so many years to a now four game losing streak. And to lose where you score no points in the second half. Grrrr

On the other hand we could be the Hokies who right now need to have a hotline set up to calm fans down. Seriously I was looking at the fan message boards and a scream of S.O.S messages make me wonder- what are y’all thinking? Calm down folks.

I guess when you’re used to winning consistently one bad season is a shock.

On the other hand let’s look at Duke and UNC- obviously Virginia and VT forgot it was football season and went straight to basketball season. I’m not going to look at the numbers- I don’t want to its too painful. Both teams were impressive- especially Duke’s defense. And UNC found many holes in VT coverage- I was shocked.

And no 4 FSU lost in the Triangle as well to NC State makes the Triangle and evil place for ACC football- evil.

So maybe there should never be all three teams having home football games because it caused a great disturbance in the force.

Related articles

• Week Six College Football Preview (sportsgalpal.wordpress.com)

UConn basketball coach Jim Calhoun to retire after legendary college career: source – NY Daily News

Left: Jim Calhoun, head basketball coach, University of Connecticut. Right: Rudy Gay, former UConn basketball player, now with the Memphis Grizzlies Location: Archbishop Spalding High School in Severn, Maryland (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

UConn basketball coach Jim Calhoun to retire after legendary college career: source – NY Daily News.

This is huge news in the world of Men’s College Basketball.  Calhoun has a 866-369 record at UConn, including three national NCAA titles. I am sure this is related to health concerns that have been plaguing Calhoun for awhile.

I’m not sure how much the Big East can take with the announcement of Notre Dame bolting from the conference to ACC and now one of its best programs losing its coach.

Related articles

• AP: Legendary UConn Coach Jim Calhoun To Announce Retirement Thursday (newyork.cbslocal.com)
• Another Terrible Day For The Big East (1045theteam.com)