Kentucky, Houston, Antoine Agudio
Been a couple of weeks between posts. I've been busy working and pretending to do law school applications, and it's been kind of a dead time for college hoops on TV, due to final exams. Some quick hit thoughts from games I've watched:
1. For Billy Gillispie's sake, I want to be able to say that Kentucky can turn it around. I know they're not at full-strength -- Derrick Jasper has been out all year, Jodie Meeks played his first game of the year tonight (a game that the team's lone post threat, freshman Patrick Patterson, missed with an ankle injury. But I'm not sure it's happening with this group.
Right now, they're starting two guys who aren't threats to score, in Mark Coury and Michael Porter. That puts tremendous pressure on their scorers, like Meeks, Joe Crawford, and Ramel Bradley. Meeks is just a sophomore so there's still hope for them, but as much as I like Bradley and as much potential as Crawford has shown, those two seniors are simply too erratic to count on the way the Wildcats are going to be forced to count on them.
They also completely collapsed when Houston put a run together towards the end of the first half, allowing the hosts to completely blow the game open in the second half. They currently lack the fighting spirit they need to turn their season around.
It looks to me like this year is going to be a wash, with some promise for next year in Meeks, Jasper, and Patterson.
2. If John Calipari's Memphis club is going to lose during the Conference USA regular season, it'll be on January 30, when they travel to Houston to play the Cougars at Hofheinz Pavilion. Saw Tom Penders' squad for the first time tonight as they moved to 10-1 with a 83-69 pasting of Kentucky. Great venue, great crowd, and Houston's up and down style is perfect for getting the max out of such a full court advantage.
I'm not sure Houston is good enough defensively to knock off the Tigers, but I do know that this game and the return date on February 13 will be two of the highest-scoring, most entertaining games of the C-USA season.
3, Antoine Agudio is a bigger, more-polished Salim Stoudamire. Not sure what that ultimately means for his pro prospects, but I've gotta think some NBA club is going to spend a second-rounder on this Hofstra senior. His duel with Charlotte's Leemire Goldwire in a 70-65 Pride win on Saturday was wonderful to watch. Agudio had 30 points on 10-of-15, including a perfect six-for-six from deep; Goldwire was far less efficient, scoring his 26 points on 22 shots, including an almost unheard of 8-for-20 from behind the arc. Agudio also had 10 boards and five assists.
Agudio has had an excellent career (he made his 300th career three-pointer on Saturday), but has been somewhat overshadowed by departed teammate Loren Stokes. Now that it's his show to run, he's making the most of it. He's quietly leading the nation in scoring at 27.4 per. Four of Hofstra's five losses have come by four or fewer points, and two of those in overtime. They've got a couple of high-profile games coming up before they get into CAA play: at Rhode Island on December 22, vs. Virginia Tech in New York in the first round of the Aeropostale Holiday Festival on the 28th, and either Marist or St. John's in the second round of that jamboree on the 29th. By the new year, I expect to hear Agudio's name a lot more than I am now.
1. For Billy Gillispie's sake, I want to be able to say that Kentucky can turn it around. I know they're not at full-strength -- Derrick Jasper has been out all year, Jodie Meeks played his first game of the year tonight (a game that the team's lone post threat, freshman Patrick Patterson, missed with an ankle injury. But I'm not sure it's happening with this group.
Right now, they're starting two guys who aren't threats to score, in Mark Coury and Michael Porter. That puts tremendous pressure on their scorers, like Meeks, Joe Crawford, and Ramel Bradley. Meeks is just a sophomore so there's still hope for them, but as much as I like Bradley and as much potential as Crawford has shown, those two seniors are simply too erratic to count on the way the Wildcats are going to be forced to count on them.
They also completely collapsed when Houston put a run together towards the end of the first half, allowing the hosts to completely blow the game open in the second half. They currently lack the fighting spirit they need to turn their season around.
It looks to me like this year is going to be a wash, with some promise for next year in Meeks, Jasper, and Patterson.
2. If John Calipari's Memphis club is going to lose during the Conference USA regular season, it'll be on January 30, when they travel to Houston to play the Cougars at Hofheinz Pavilion. Saw Tom Penders' squad for the first time tonight as they moved to 10-1 with a 83-69 pasting of Kentucky. Great venue, great crowd, and Houston's up and down style is perfect for getting the max out of such a full court advantage.
I'm not sure Houston is good enough defensively to knock off the Tigers, but I do know that this game and the return date on February 13 will be two of the highest-scoring, most entertaining games of the C-USA season.
3, Antoine Agudio is a bigger, more-polished Salim Stoudamire. Not sure what that ultimately means for his pro prospects, but I've gotta think some NBA club is going to spend a second-rounder on this Hofstra senior. His duel with Charlotte's Leemire Goldwire in a 70-65 Pride win on Saturday was wonderful to watch. Agudio had 30 points on 10-of-15, including a perfect six-for-six from deep; Goldwire was far less efficient, scoring his 26 points on 22 shots, including an almost unheard of 8-for-20 from behind the arc. Agudio also had 10 boards and five assists.
Agudio has had an excellent career (he made his 300th career three-pointer on Saturday), but has been somewhat overshadowed by departed teammate Loren Stokes. Now that it's his show to run, he's making the most of it. He's quietly leading the nation in scoring at 27.4 per. Four of Hofstra's five losses have come by four or fewer points, and two of those in overtime. They've got a couple of high-profile games coming up before they get into CAA play: at Rhode Island on December 22, vs. Virginia Tech in New York in the first round of the Aeropostale Holiday Festival on the 28th, and either Marist or St. John's in the second round of that jamboree on the 29th. By the new year, I expect to hear Agudio's name a lot more than I am now.
posted by H.S. Slam, Ph.D at 1:11 AM
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