Kyle McAlarney

Sitting here after watching North Carolina pick apart a very good Notre Dame team 102-87 in the championship game of the Maui Invitational, I'm very tempted to write a post predicting that the Heels will go undefeated on their way to the national championship. I'm going to refrain from doing so, because I haven't seen Connecticut, Louisville, or Pittsburgh yet -- nor have I seen Michigan State, the one remaining non-conference opponent on Carolina's schedule with a realistic shot at beating them. Honestly, though, I can't see these guys losing this year.

Instead, I want to focus for a few moments on Notre Dame shooting guard Kyle McAlarney. The senior had himself one hell of a Maui, hitting 21 of 38 three-point attempts during the three games, scoring 39 points on 10-of-18 from deep in Wednesday night's finale. McAlarney has almost unlimited range and an incredibly quick release.

These things typically bode well for a player's NBA prospects. I'm not so sure with McAlarney. At the very least, if I were an NBA scout, I'd want to see him hit more threes coming off of screens.

Pure shooters like McAlarney make their living in the NBA by running off of screens on the baseline, curling out to the wing and draining threes. (Think former Indiana Pacer Reggie Miller, or perhaps Detroit's Rip Hamilton, though Hamilton usually steps inside the three-point-line). Notre Dame runs plenty of these sets for McAlarney, and he's very good at using the screens to get open, as well as reading the defender and deciding whether to curl towards the ball or fade to the corner.

The problem is that he doesn't necessarily shoot that well coming off of these screens. At least he didn't in Maui. I noticed it after he clanged a few in Monday night's game against Indiana, and tracked it closely in Tuesday's win over Texas and tonight against Carolina. Of the 15 trifectas he hit in those latter two games, only one came off a screen. And even that one wasn't the play I just described -- with the ball on the left wing, he passed to a teammate at the top of the key, then ran around behind the teammate for a quick handoff and shot.

Hitting a shot like this essentially requires that the shooter square his body as part of his shooting motion, and I didn't see McAlarney do it once successfully. Any time he hit a three coming off of a screen, he had time -- he doesn't need much -- to square himself before he caught the pass. If you watch guys like Texas' A.J. Abrams or Davidson's Stephen Curry, however, you'll see something different -- it looks like they are squaring their bodies to the rim while in the air.

I certainly don't mean to knock him, but this is a skill he's going to need.

Syracuse Wins CBE

Two huge -- huge -- non-conference wins for Syracuse the last two nights. I know that this year's versions of Kansas and Florida are hardly the teams that have combined to win the last three national championships between them, but they are high-profile programs that started the season in the Top 25.

Syracuse has missed the NCAA Tournament each of the last two seasons, not a little bit because they play a famously soft non-conference schedule. I don't want to say that the Orange have locked up a bid already, but they've made their jobs a hell of a lot easier on themselves when it comes to what they need to do in a brutal Big East. .500 in the conference looks a lot better when you have wins like these under your belt.

They can be better than what they were in last night's 89-81 overtime win over Kansas, though. Eric Devendorf and Jonny Flynn played sluggishly and selfishly through most of the night, sparked only when Flynn -- for a reason I couldn't really figure out -- got into a jawing match with his opposite number, Sherron Collins. His inspired play down the stretch -- combined with timely rebounding from Paul Harris and a smart decision by Jim Boeheim to switch to man-to-man defense -- won them the game. But if they can score 89 points (albeit in overtime) against a very good Kansas team on a night they aren't playing particularly well together, think of what they might be able to accomplish when they're clicking. In particular, I'm thinking the January 17 date in the Carrier Dome with Notre Dame is a must-watch; the Irish can fill it up and don't like to play much defense.

Speaking of Notre Dame, they're in the finals of the Maui Invitational tonight against North Carolina. I'll have a whole Maui wrapup post after those games tonight.

Viewing Alert: Syrcause at Florida

7:30 p.m. Eastern, ESPN2.

I don't have too many rules, but two of them are:

1. Take every opportunity you can to watch The Marvelous Jonny Flynn; and
2. Any time a Calathes is playing, you should watch.

This game has both. Flynn is Syracuse's sophomore point guard, and Florida is led by soph Nick Calathes (whose brother, Pat, just finished up at St. Joe's). Both players are great passers, which is why I like them so much, but both can score, too.

Michigan Upsets UCLA

The Bruins probably aren't the top-5 team their ranking coming into this one suggested, but tonight's 55-52 win is a huge step forward for Michigan.

John Beilein-coached teams are always going to be difficult to beat, because of the unique things they do on both ends of the court. The back-cutting offense that requires a full 35 seconds of defense (and ends with a three-pointer at least as often as layup) is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Beilein, but I think the 1-3-1 zone he employs on defense is the real innovation.

Beilein didn't invent it, of course, but he's the only major Division I coach that I know of that uses it almost exclusively. That's part of its genius. Breaking the 1-3-1 is different then breaking a more standard 2-3 zone. Against a 2-3, you want to move the ball around the perimeter, then zip it inside as the zone shifts. You can't do that against the 1-3-1, because of all the people in the middle. You have to get it to the baseline -- a dangerous spot against a 2-3 -- and then look to the opposite side of the court for a skip pass, an uncomfortable play for young players who are cautioned from day one against throwing long, cross-court passes.

UCLA, even with seasoned senior point guard Darren Collison, had trouble breaking it.

The Wolverines have another shot at taking down a Top 5 opponent, as they will take on Duke Friday night in the championship game of the 2K Sports Classic. Duke overcame a turnover-riddled first half against Southern Illinois' tenacious man defense to win 83-58. Michigan's 1-3-1 will pose a different type of challenge for the Blue Devils offensively. Coach K has named sophomore Nolan Smith his starting point guard, but I think senior Greg Paulus, with his experience, will be key. Smith may not be seasoned enough to effectively defeat the 1-3-1.

-Speaking of Duke-So. Illinois, this marked the first time I've heard Bobby Knight doing color on a broadcast, and I was impressed. Knight, who left Texas Tech in the middle of last season and moved into the ESPN studio, doesn't yet have the annoying qualities that many coaches turned color analysts do.

For one, he keeps his comments focused on the game going on, as opposed to say, Dick Vitale, who I like, but who turns his broadcasts into advertisements for the game of college basketball. Vitale always needs to be reined in by his play-by-play guy; otherwise, he would spend most of the broadcast talking all the players and teams in the nation other than the ones on the court in front of him.

Secondly, listening to Knight you can tell that he still sees the game as a coach. Several times, he referred to a string of possessions: "Three out of the last four possessions, Southern Illinois has gone inside"; "That's five consecutive trips Southern Illinois has only made one pass before their shot." I didn't get a chance to go back to see if he was 100% accurate, but it's clear that he sees the game on a macro level in the way that most analysts don't.

Bizarre Ending in the Desert

I'm a day late posting this one, but I didn't get a chance to watch UAB's wild 72-71 win at Arizona in the quarters of the Preseason NIT until tonight.

In case you didn't see it, the clip is here. You can't really see the score, though, so I'll do my best to explain it:

UAB up 71-68 and the ball, like 45 seconds left. Arizona interim coach Russ Pennell orders the foul, which is something I don't think coaches do enough in these situations: Lengthen the game, make the other team hit free throws, don't give them a chance to run 30 seconds off the clock and ice it with a bucket. The gamble pays off, as UAB misses the front end of the one-and-one, and Arizona rebounds.

On the ensuing Wildcat trip, Arizona freshman Garland Judkins is fouled. He makes the first. 71-69, UAB, with about 35 seconds left. He misses the second, but UAB's Robert Vaden can't corral the rebound. The ball squirts to another Arizona freshman, Kyle Fogg, who lays it off the board and in. 71-71.

UAB inbounds, and Fogg -- apparently unaware that his bucket tied it up -- reaches out and grabs the Blazer ballhandler. As the crowd, the bench, and Pennell go nuts, Fogg still hasn't realized his mistake. Only when sophomore Jamelle Horne comes over and tells him does Fogg realize his error. He's distraught.

But he's also lucky, because UAB missed the front end of yet another one-and-one. Arizona calls timeout. The play was for Nic Wise, who missed a jumper (he shot a tick or two early, by the way, and he had taken a very ill-advised shot a possession or two earlier. The play should have been for Chase Budinger). At any rate, UAB rebounds, and Paul Delaney III begins dribbling upcourt, heaving a three-quarter court shot...

while Horne lunges at him with both hands from behind, grabbing his jersey!

The ref has no choice. Delaney's heave misses, but the whistle blows with eight-tenths of a second left. Intentional foul. Delaney hits one of two, UAB survives an adventurous inbounds pass, escapes the McKale Center with a victory, and punches its ticket to Madison Square Garden and a date with Oklahoma in the semis.

***
Hard to know exactly what happened here. It's possible that both Fogg and Horne mistakenly thought they were behind, though this is hard to reconcile in Horne's case, since he was immediately aware of Fogg's mistake and there was a timeout in between the first foul and the second.

ESPN analyst Len Elmore posited a different theory, which is that down three points with 45 seconds left, Pennell put the intentional foul defense "on," and either never called it "off" (unlikely, given his reaction to Fogg's foul and the fact that there was a timeout between the two fouls) or Fogg and Horne never realized it was "off."

At first, Elmore's explanation didn't make much sense. Why would any player think it was correct to foul when the score was tied? But as I thought about it more, it reminded me of a point I'm always making and a conversation I had about it with a mid-major Division I assistant coach I know.

I think coaches end up wasting timeouts in close games to tell their players something the kids should know already. For example, let's say Arizona had the ball with 40 seconds left down three. The Wildcats kids should know what the coach wants them to do there, whether it's run a specific play for a three or get a quick two and then foul. Instead, the coach ends up burning a timeout to remind them of the strategy, which incidentally gives the opposing coach the opportunity to communicate strategy to his players, get his personnel right (subbing in his best defenders or free throw shooters, for example), and maybe draw up a play or two for when they get the ball back.

My point is that the players should be smart enough to know what to do in these common lage-game spots. It's apparent, however, that a great many players don't. Whether it's because they lack "Basketball IQ" or they simply lose their heads in the moment, they have a tendency to do the wrong things in these spots. So my position has always been that coaches need to spend more time "coaching" these specific situations in practice.

I brought this up to my friend, the assistant coach, and he told me that they do coach situations; the kids just temporarily forget in the heat of the moment.

So, did Fogg and Horne suffer the same bizarre mental breakdown on back-to-back possessions, somehow forgetting the score? Or were they simply following orders; that is, had they simply not heard that the intentional foul play was off? I suspect we'll never know, as it's not in the team's interest to continue to discuss this in the media. It seems implausible that Horne, especially, would have realized the intentional foul was "off" when Fogg tied the score, and then not realized it seconds later.

But anything's possible, and Elmore and my friend certainly know more about the brains of college basketball players than I do. If Elmore's theory is correct, it goes a long way to proving my friend right.

VMI Beats Kentucky

So, yeah, they moved the three-point line back a foot, and now my blog title suggests that I'm writing about high school basketball, or perhaps women's basketball. I know nothing about either, so for now, I'm continuing on with a mis-monikered blog.



A few things are going to have an effect on my posting frequency this year. One, I'm in law school. Two, I've started a Celtics blog, Rhymes With Hondo. Three -- which is a combination of one and two, really -- I've begun following the Celtics again so closely that given my school obligations, I'm sure I won't watch nearly as much college ball as I have in recent years.



Nonetheless, I'm going to try and post here -- or perhaps a new blog, if I can think of a good name -- as much as possible.



I get ESPNU now, which is great for my college hoops watching, bad for my schoolwork. I caught a little bit of UCLA-Miami (Ohio) Thursday night, but I don't feel like writing about it. I just wanted to weigh in with a few words on the big upset of the young season: Virginia Military Institute over Kentucky, 111-103.



First thing that struck me is that on the ESPN homepage, the teaser for this story was "VMI hands once-proud Kentucky stunning loss."



"Once-proud"? Wow. I wonder how that is going over in Bluegrass country.



Second thing: At the end of the above-linked game story, Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie is quoted: "I attribute this loss mostly to lack of leadership."



(I'm pretty sure it's improper to use two colons like I just did there.)



This is the second straight year that Kentucky has made early-season headlines by being upset by a team it has no business losing to. (Recall last year's 84-68 pasting at the hands of Gardner-Webb.) It's also Gillispie's second-year as coach. Sure, you need leadership from the players in college basketball, but you also need it from the coach. Gillispie needs to shoulder some of the blame for not having his team prepared -- again.