lucid

Kentucky. That was hands down the best ND team in a major sport since at least 1988. They exemplified team ball. They exemplified everything that is good about college athletics. They played basketball the way it is supposed to be played. On top of that, it was a bunch of 3/4 stars outplaying 9 McDonald's All Americans for 39 minutes of the game & UK had to play perfect ball & have some luck to win [against our A- game]. The better team lost on Saturday. And the better team may be the best team in the country, but without the chance to beat Wisconsin, we'll never know. This ND team deserved 2 championships. Alas, they only got one.

Sorry for the strong language, but the complaints I see about Vasturia leave me scratching my head thinking I'm watching a different game entirely. Some in this thread have complained about his defense, yet outside of Jackson he's the best defender on the team without question. He is also the most fundamentally sound player with an incredible basketball IQ who understands both spacing in Brey's offense and is content to play his role - namely you won't be featured, but make it count when you are. I expect Matt Carroll level of play out of him the next two years. And if he continues on his current trajectory, I have little doubt that he'll have a Matt Carroll type career in the NBA.

Anyone complaining about Vasturia's playing time doesn't understand the game of basketball. He's a phenomenal defender - his footwork is perfect and he's never out of position coming off of screens. His off the ball movement on offense is pretty staggering. He maintains floor spacing, has excellent handling and passing. And he's content to be the 5th option on offense, when he could very easily be higher in the pecking order. VJ only warrants about the 20 minutes per game he gets - he isn't even 3/4 of the player Vasturia is at this point in his career. You'll all see next year when Grant and PC are gone. Vasturia will become the #2 or 3 option on the offense and prolly average about 13-14 points a game.

Don Juan - spot on. In the case of Geben, unless he catches up to the speed of the game this year [and there's prolly a 50/50 chance of that] his role on the team will be limited to 4-5 minutes in the first half to help keep Auguste out of foul trouble and help keep his legs for the second half. In the case of Colson, he doesn't belong on the court yet in games like these. He will contribute a lot next year & has some great skills, but his defensive positioning is terrible and he doesn't yet understand the flow of the offense. Also, anyone complaining about Vasturia getting too much time, doesn't watch the game closely. He's our second best defender behind Jackson - perfect footwork, never out of position & asked to defend the oppositions best wing player every game. Even when he's not scoring, he's a big part of why this team wins. Last night he legitimately was struggling on the offensive end & Brey gambled that VJ's offense would offset the loss of Vasturia's defense. The gamble paid off [and was probably made given that UNC is a pretty terrible shooting team]. But you will rightly see Vasturia on the floor for a minimum of 30 minutes every game this season. One additional point. Almost every coach will tell you that 'rest' is over-rated. Yes, bigs tend to need some rest & I think getting Pat back to 35 minutes a game would be good [so please Burgett, start getting back into the shape you were in at the beginning of the ACC season last year], but having your 1, 2 & 3 play 35+ a game is not only not a problem, but common practice even in the pros. There are a ton of teams that have won the NCAA with a very short rotation - in fact the most recent UCONN championships came with teams that only had a 6-7 man rotation. It is a myth that guys can't play 35+ minutes all season & still compete for the NCAA. Further, that has not been Brey's problem in the tournament, athleticism has. And for the first time since his first couple of teams, we now have the athleticism to compete in the tournament.

Why don't you try submitting the exact same resume with two different names - one of which is clearly African American - and tell me which one receives the most response... Then again, you don't need to as this has been demonstrated countless times. We don't live in a color blind society. Anyone who thinks we do is willfully blind. This is the last I'll comment on this thread as we shouldn't be discussing politics, but as I suspected, you just hiked your skirt a bit more.

As a regular reader and casual contributor, I'm just reminded yet again why I hate it when politics come up on sports blogs... Your slips are showing guys and it isn't pretty.

Not sure if we agree entirely, I think the floor of the team as constituted is 9-3, but could potentially do better with either certain players coming along or luck. With the suspended players, this team's floor is 10-2 with the playoff being very possible. So I think we're just on the outside of the top ten as is, but potentially better. If the players return, we're definitely top 10 and potentially top 5. Today I just watched UCLA struggle to beat a terrible Virginia team, FSU barely beat OSU [and needing some luck to do it], Alabama struggle until the last quarter to put away WV... The best team I saw today was Georgia. I don't think it is far fetched that we're potentially a top ten team as is.

I think the offense has the potential right now to keep us in any game. We haven't had such a high powered offense with such good skill position players since 2005. I think it will really come down to the defense & I'm fairly confident that with KR & Ishaq it will be good enough. Without, we may drop a game we shouldn't.

If we get back Ishaq, Russell and DD, and don't catch the injury bug, this is a top ten team.

I'm a proud atheist, but I'm a die hard ND fan for two reasons: 1. I'm a faculty brat and grew up with season tickets to the football & basketball games. 2. I respect that ND requires their athletes to actually get a well rounded education, unlike most of the storied programs that could care less about their athletes.

I was in high school at the same time as Shawn Kemp and sometimes showed up at the same parties... Hell of a player. Also, Don't forget folks from the Valpo area - Scott Martin [who could have been a pro prospect if he hadn't blown out his knee] & Bryce Drew, who had major program interest, but chose to stay with his Dad. Harangody was also form northern IN [Laporte, I think]... Of course, going way back, there was Del Ray Brooks from MC Rogers. And going waaay back [my Dad's time - he grew up in Elkhart in the 40's & '50s], Wooden's programs at SB Central were of course legendary & during the same period, so were Elkhart Central's programs.

Yes, of course - I grew up a hoosier, after all. There are excellent basketball players all over the state - I was just responding to the previous poster's contention that Northern IN is lacking for talent in general.

Don't sleep on Demetrius Jackson who joins the men's basketball squad this fall [or VJ Beachem for that matter - from Fort Wayne]. Northern Indiana has had a fair share of good basketball prospects over the years, football is much weaker though, for whatever reason.

I think Anthony Johnson was the last time my old high school had a player that was D1 quality.

ND 27 OK 13 I think the defense is finally finding it's footing & Tommy will bounce back this week and hit a couple of long touchdowns.