Sorry for the lack of preview, as I would have liked to get one up as this game is pretty large. Sure, Kent State doesn't have the name value that a Washington or Syracuse has, but their is certainly an argument to be made that they are a better team than Washington (I'm good with that one), or even Syracuse, although that one would likely be more hotly contested.

Last year, watching random, assorted college basketball games, I discovered the Kent State Golden Flashes. Well, I didn't discover them, like at all, as it was mid-February when I first saw a large majority of one of their games. But, the first time I saw them, they were fantastic, and I instantly fell in love with them. I particularly fell in love with one player, Al Fisher, who was one of the most exciting players I saw all of last season. I pegged them as a team I would have go quite far in the NCAAs, my sleeper pick that I had a inside scoop on (i.e. I had actually seen them play).

Of course, they ended up as the 8/9 seed and the #1 seed in their section of the bracket? Uh, yeah, that'd be us, the Kansas Jayhawks. So, for obvious reasons, I couldn't have them go too far in the NCAAs. And they lost in the first round anyways, so whatever.

But enough dialogue about last year. Because we are clearly not the same team as last season. Kent State, however, is largely the same team. They only lost two players from last season, although those two players were prevalent characters on last season's team. One was Haminn Quaintance, a 6'8" F that was the key player in the post for them. He specialized in the trade of swatting the shots, averaging 2 blocks a game. So, no more of that. And the other was another starter and the other main low post presence, 6'7" Mike Scott. Scott was more of the scorer down low, as opposed to Quaintance's reputation as the MAC Defensive Player of the Year and outright dominant defender.

So who are they returning? Well, Al Fisher, for one. Including Fisher, they are returning 66% of their scoring, 58% of their rebounding and only 29% of their blocks. So, not in a complete-and-utter rebuild like us, but they lost two of their three best players from last season, leaving All-Everything Al Fisher to lead the Golden Flashes to their eleventh straight 20-win season. Or something like that.

As we conclude the longest intro to an Open Game Thread of all time (although, I get a free pass because it also serves as a preview), here are the other, non-Al Fisher players to watch out for.

• Mike McKee is a junior G who has seen a six-minute bump in PT this year. He is their second best three-point shooter (after Fisher), currently sitting at 39%.
• Chris Singletary is another junior G, one who has seen his minutes rise from 23 to 30 minutes this year. He isn't a great outside shooter, judging by the numbers, but is a great slasher and is averaging 15.2 points a game.
  
• The low post minutes are primarily distributed between Brandon Parks (a junior C), Julian Sullinger (senior 6'5" F) and Anthony Simpson, a true freshman.
  

Sure, they have already lost twice this year, but that was in a six-point loss to Illinois in overtime and to Texas A&M by only six as well. Fisher scored 18 against Illinois and 24 against the Aggies, so yeah, dude can score.

Still, we are pretty awesome defensively for how young we are. So, I'm not too worried about the game from a won-loss standpoint, just worried that a closer-than-expected finish might cause some of the fanbase to worry. But who cares what they think anyway, right?

I'll take the Jayhawks, obviously, 78-69. Close until about 2 minutes left.

via 2.bp.blogspot.com

Obviously, there will be plenty of internet space used up on this game in the coming days and weeks, as there won't be much else for us to talk about, football-wise. But for now, simply bask in all its glory.

We were the better team today, and I don't think anyone will really dispute that. And that had more to do with our improvement from week-to-week, and the coaching staff's preparation using the bye, than a not-so-hot performance from Mizzou. Sure, the Tigers didn't play fantastically, particularly in the first quarter, but they still played a really good football game. And they are a damn good football team.

And in a better place, overall, with their football team. However, the gap isn't nearly as noticeable as plenty would have you believe. We need a couple more athletes on defense and POOF, we are right in their league year-in-and-year-out. But again, that is what we can talk about more later.

For now, just enjoy the aftermath of the game. One of the best games of the season, easy, and one of the best games in the history of the Border War. Absolutely incredible.

Rock Chalk, baby.

Here we go.

This is the game that we have been waiting for since last year's not-so-fun finish.

Of course, even an upset win, and it certainly would be an upset, does little to diminish last season's monumental win by the Tigers. So, it isn't like this is a revenge game. Just a good, ol' fashioned rivalry game. Any time Missouri and Kansas get together, there is hatred and reveng and anger and desire and all of that fun stuff involved. That goes without saying.

And we will have to take advantage of those qualitative categories to win, because let's be honest; the quantitative numbers don't stack up. Not by a longshot. We are still a good team, and we still possess plenty of damn good football players that were around last year that made the game what it was, Armageddon at Arrowhead.

Todd Reesing. Kerry Meier. James Holt. Dezmon Briscoe. The list goes on and on. But we clearly aren't the same team as last year, as is painfully obvious, and while we can get into reasons later, Missouri is just about as good as last year. Not as good, no, but closer to last season's team than we are to ours.

So, given last year's loss, this year's chances don't look so hot. I will certainly be watching and cheering actively, it is the Border War afterall, but don't expect a profound showing from our football team.

Not to be negative and piss on the parade, but I just don't see it adding up. And still, just because I can't pull myself to actually pick the Tigers to beat our Jayhawks, I'll still take Hot Toddy and Company to pull off the upset. And, just for the record, it wouldn't be a tremendous upset. I would probably give us, oh, about a 38% chance of winning today. not incredibly long odds by any stretch of the imagination, but not exactly confidence-inspiring numbers either.

Kansas 35 Missouri 34

Rock it. Chalk it. Talk it.

Oh, and I'll be here for the duration of the game, so check on in.

Sorry, copmletely spaced on this one with all of the Thanksgiving hullabaloo.

Here is your Open Game Thread for tonight's matchup with the Coppin State Golden Eagles. This should be an easy victory, although they are the first team we've played that made the NCAA Tournament last season. Of course, they entered their conference tournament, the MEAC, with an embarassingly bad 12-20 record and simply managed to get hot at the right time, winning four straight there. And even then, they only made the play-in game, which they promptly lost to Mount Saint Mary's. And yes, that was all from memory.

In any case, it will be nice to see how our freshmen react in their first action following a loss. And hopefully we will continue to see the progress that has been evident in the first four games.

Happy Thanksgiving weekend, and don't get too worked up before tomorrow.

Tomorrow should be big, in case you haven't noticed.

Last night pretty much summarized what you should expect from a young, talented team. There are plenty of positives to take away from the game, but nearly as many negatives as well. There were some absolutely incredible plays, and then there were some not-so-hot plays.

It was just one of those games, y'know?

But while I am incredibly disappointed in the outcome, it is a good kind of disappointed. It certainly wasn't I would have expected over the off-season, when I was preparing myself for this season. I would have expected some 20-odd turnovers, a plethora of missed shots and, in general, plenty of stupid, freshman mistakes. But that isn't what the game was like at all. And while there certainly were some freshman mistakes, and we aren't a veteran team yet, it is obvious that this team is far more advanced than most teams would be with the same sum of experience for the relevant players. As silly as it is to say, we are a really good team. An awesome team, even.

It wasn't all positive, though. There were plenty of not-so-hot things that went down as well, although, as most seem to understand, they are mostly completely understandable, considering the immense lack of college basketball experience on this team and the fact that it is still only late November.

So, in an effort to get the bad news out of the way first, here we go with the negatives.

• Sherron Collins. Uh, who thought that was coming? The first half was great, and it is becoming increasingly clear that we need Sherron's go-getter attitude out there on the court to score (well, at least him or Tyshawn Taylor, as he has a similar attitude, but he deserves to be on the plus side of the ledger; by a longshot). But his two straight turnovers midway through the second half directly led to Jonny Flynn jams, and it ended up being the distinct turning point in the game. A 61-50 lead quickly evaporated after that, and it was all back-and-forth from there until Andy Rautins nailed a three late in OT. But that's a story for a different bullet point. Getting back to Ron-Ron, he forced way too many shots as well. I understand we aren't capable of running the offense we've run the past two years or whatever, at least currently, because we aren't developed enough as players, in general, to effectively execute that system. But that doesn't mean we should run the isolation NBA game, where Sherron brings the ball up, makes a couple dribble moves and then pulls up for a 18-footer. Yay. And while that is fine if he gets the ball with 4 seconds left on the shot clock, it isn't quite as enjoyable to watch with 28 seconds left. So, yeah, I love you Ron-Ron, but let's cut that whole part out. Please?
  
• Free Throws. Now, obviously, this is a gimme. Of course, we have to work on our free throws. And, honestly, who doesn't this early on in the season? Not to make excuses or anything. Still, it would be nice to be able to consistently make the freebies, and we need at least one guy to be the knock-em-all-down guy to give force the ball to late in games with a lead. Sherron Collins would probably be candidate number one, but he has yet to prove anything definitively. And with the holes in Brady Morningstar's game, which we'll get to later on today, it would be nice to have him be the sharpshooter from the free throw line.
  
• Quintrell Thomas. Dude looks lost out there on the court, at least on offense. He has succeeded Cole Aldrich as the designated screen-setter, but the difference is that is about all Quintrell is capable of doing as of right now. He is having trouble getting into good rebounding position and has shown absolutely zero ability to be an offensive threat. Honestly. I still do think that he is Darnell Jackson's clone, only not the senior version of D-Block, at least not yet. Just remember, Darnell wasn't exactly the greatest player his freshman year either. So, stick to it Quintrell, I certainly haven't given up on you yet, but don't be surprised as your playing time decreases.

And now, to the positive side of the ledger. There are plenty of players that belong on this side, that I don't really want to get into player-by-player stuff. So, don't get all angry if some 'positive' doesn't get listed.

• Tyshawn Taylor. Are you kidding me? I mean, seriously, are you kidding me? Who knew freshman are this good, this early? And it isn't just his whole driving game, which is incredible. He can get to the whole, right now as a true freshman in early November, against some pretty damn good defenders. That is incredibly impressive. But, more impressive is his defense, and he is already being assigned the opposition's best defensive player on the perimeter. Of course, he didn't play incredibly well against Johnny Flynn, but not many people do, and I'll give him a one-time pass.
  
• Morris twins. The improvement is incredibly visible, and they are exactly what the doctor ordered as far as the low post game goes. Cole Aldrich is great, obviously, but we needed at least another body down low to provide some competent offensive production and plenty of rebounding. Both Markieff and Marcus are providing, but Marcus has shownup to be the much better player so far, at least for what we currently need. Both have oodles of potential, and I am incredibly excited to see what each can do.

OK, that's all I got. It is Thanksgiving, after all. Check back later for some other assorted basketball thoughts as well as some Mizzou preview content.

Tonight should be oodles of fun. Syracuse is clearly a better team than we are, and I have kinda-sorta been expecting a loss to the 'Cuse/Florida winner all along. That isn't to say we won't win, in fact, given last night's performance, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see us win.

But it is nice for us to play an intense game this early on in the season, and I am legitimately excited for it. Much more excited than I usually am about college basketball in November.

No keys tonight or nothing, I really don't know too much about the Orange. However, I will say one thing: we have to make outside shots. It is near-impossible to beat a zone without knocking down threes, and we haven't really shown an ability to make outside shots thus far this season. SC can, sure, but I can't say with a straight face that anyone else definitively can. Tyrel Reed probably can, from everything I've read and some flashes I've seen, but he has yet to come out and prove it. Tonight would be a mighty fine time to break out, Tyrel. Or, really, anyone not named Cole Aldrich and Sherron Collins.

With all of that said, I'll take the optimistic route. I rarely, if ever, actually predict us to lose a game on these Open Game Thread thing-a-ma-bobs, and I certainly am not going to predict a loss tonight. We start off a little shaky, but Cole keeps us in the game throughout the first half and we knock down enough shots in the second half, led by a breakout performance from my boy, Tyrel Reed, (well, Travis Releford is more of my boy, but he certainly isn't Bill Self's boy, as evidenced by his playing time) who will knock down 4 treys. Yeah, boy.

Kansas wins 72-67.

And check back in after the game, as we will breakdown the game tonight, hopefully. The rest of the week will mostly be devoted to the football team, however, as we apparently have some rivalry game on Saturday. Still, there will be some basketball content, particularly concerning Self's updated rotation and all of that fun stuff.

Oh, and I should be here ALL night tonight. At least hopefully.

Rock it. Chalk it. Talk it.

Bunches of thanks go out to the best Syracuse blog around, by a mile, Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician, who was kind of enough to answer some questions. Make sure and check out TNIAAM for plenty of Syracuse content, it is an absolutely outstanding blog.

And so, without further ado, here are Nunes' answers. Make sure and check out his blog for my answers to his questions, some of which were more painful to answer than others.

Rock Chalk Talk: 1) With Donte Greene gone, who is your best player?

Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician: Here's the dirty secret from last season...even with all of his scoring and athletic ability...any Syracuse fan still only wanted the ball in PG Jonny Flynn's hands at the end of the game.  All due respect to Donte, who put up some great numbers and had some very solid offensive games, but we didn't really see him as the second coming of Carmelo i.e. this is the guy who will lead up back to the promised land.  But we feel that way about Flynn.

If he's not the best point guard in the country, he's in the discussion for sure.  He played every minute of every game last season so even as a sophomore he's got experience to go around.  He's working with a much fuller deck this season to rely on so he won't be asked to score quite as much (unless the situation calls for it).  I think he's going to progress into an even better point guard this season and while his stats might not reflect it, be the leader we are all hoping he's going to become.  We just hope he doesn't jump after this season, he's only going to get better.

RCT: 2) How far do you think this team can get in a ridiculously tough Big East? And in the NCAAs?

TNIAAM: Here's the thing...it's still too early for anyone to truly saw all of those teams are that good and everyone else isn't.  I think, based only on what I've seen of SU, that they're capable of being part of that top-tier discussion.  Last year's SU team loses that Richmond game and last year's SU team certainly doesn't beat Florida in November in a neutral location.  We may end up with 10-11 losses just based on the brutal schedule but it's going to be a damn good 10-11 loss record.

I'm pretty confident this team returns to the NCAAs, and if I had to lay down a guess right now I'd say they're a 5 seed.  But if we know anything about college basketball, it's that things change quickly.  Long way to go but right now I see good things for this team.

RCT: 3) Should Syracuse have made the NCAAs either of the last two years? And, if so, are you still pissed about it?

TNIAAM: I'm personally over it but I know a LOT of SU fans are not.  Not so much last year as I think we all knew the team didn't do enough but it was the previous year, 2006-2007, that everyone's still rankled about. 

I think they probably SHOULD have made it in 2007 but at this point what's done is done.  And it's not like SU didn't put themselves in that position to begin with.  It's always a little funny when you think about it too, cause basically you're arguing that you should be allowed into the Tourney and if you do get in you're probably a 10-11 seed and most likely done in the first weekend anyway.  But it's the placement that counts, I know...

All demons can be exorcised with an appearance this year.

RCT: 4) I'll sort of copy off you with the next two...Syracuse wins because....

TNIAAM: ...of many of the same things that got them the win against Florida.  Flynn controls the tempo, Rautins is hitting his shots, Paul Harris is doing Paul Harris things (which is everything) and Arinze Onuaku is marking his territory in the paint (not literally).  And if Eric Devendorf can put on a better show than he did last night, look out.

RCT: 5) And, Kansas wins because....

TNIAAM: Too many SU players have off-nights, as in Devo can't get it together and Onuaku can't establish himself down-low.  If Rautins returns to his cold shooting.  Kansas controls the tempo and slows things down.  The "hometown" crowd gets into the game. SU doesn't hit their free throws (which they haven't been save for Flynn).

RCT: 6) Can I get a real-quick prediction?

TNIAAM: I'm looking forward to a great game that will set the tone for both team's December.  Gotta go with my boys and I'll shove the 2003 dagger in a little deeper by predicting SU 81, Kansas 78.

Thanks again. Make sure and check