Blogging Through the NCAA Tournament (Day Two)

We’re back for the entire day two of the NCAA tournament, in what promises to be a long and exciting day of excellent individual and team matchups. We have Joseph Treutlein joining us on the blog today, he’ll be focusing in on the games that me and Eric Weiss won’t be watching as they go on simultaneously around the country.

The games we’ll be watching include: Western Kentucky-Drake, Butler-South Alabama, St. Joe’s-Oklahoma, and Arkansas-Indiana, so our commentary will be focused on those, while Joe will keep tabs on Davidson-Gonzaga, Clemson-Villanova and some others.

12:57- We’ve been TIVOing Western Kentucky-Drake to give it a head start and allow us to fast-forward through timeouts and half-time…so we’re just about to get this show on the road. We’ll be around all day so keep checking back with us.

1:28- Pretty strong start for Courtney Lee. He’s taking the ball to the basket, being very aggressive looking for his own shot, had two very nice floaters, another nice pass, and a big block on the defensive end, where he has been his typical excellent self. He had some tough shots rim out, but you have to like the aggressiveness he playing with.

Gonzaga-Davidson half-time report

Joseph Treutlein

An exciting first half for the Gonzaga-Davidson game, with Gonzaga up 5 in a game they’ve lead throughout, with them going up by 11 at one point, though it’s been fairly close most of the way. Jeremy Pargo has done a solid job running the show for the Zags, using his athleticism to consistently get into the lane for drive-and-kicks, getting his team multiple open shots, even though they haven’t converted on all of them. He finished the half with an excellent pass off a crossover through the defense to an open man right under the basket. He also had a pull-up three pointer and two heady steals.

Josh Heytvelt has chipped in for the Zags as well, hitting a spot-up three pointer and playing strong on the boards, getting a few putbacks for a quiet nine points. Intriguing freshman Austin Daye has flashed some nice things, hitting a spot-up three pointer and a smooth pull-up 10 footer off the glass, but missed on a few other attempts, not really getting into a rhythm early. It’ll be interesting to watch him as the game goes on, because with his long strides and smooth athleticism, he can get to the rim well against this particular team, especially in up-tempo situations.

On Davidson’s side, it’s very much been the Jason Richards show, as he’s done a very good job running the show for his team and chipping in 14 points himself. Despite being limited athletically, Richards show excellent timing on his drives, getting into the lane quite a few times on right-handed drives, getting past Jeremy Pargo, an excellent defender, in space. He had a few lay-ups at the rim, two three pointers, and was fouled on another three pointer, but he’s actually looked most impressive with the passing game, making excellent reads and doing a very good job managing his team’s offense. He makes perfect passes for teammates coming off screens, read the pick and roll well when he hit his man on a nice backdoor cut, and also does a good job keeping his head up for drive-and-kick opportunities.

Stephen Curry’s touches have been limited, as Gonzaga has played good off-ball defense, but he’s made quick work when he got the ball, scoring 10 points, hitting some very nice shots off screens, from inside and outside the arc, including one very nice fadeaway three from very deep. He’s played tough defense as well, though his size hurts him when matched up with larger shooting guards who can shoot over him. Speaking of his size, it’s interesting to note that Curry has grown from 5’9 to 6’3 since coming to Davidson, something that certainly bodes well for his future potential. If Davidson has a chance in this game, they’ll need to get more open looks for Curry, so look for them to try to get him going in the second half.

1:52 We’re at the half here…and all we can see is that Courtney Lee definitely has NBA range on his jump-shot…he just pulled up from about 25 feet and drilled a 3-pointer, nothing but net. Then he proceeded to use a great shot-fake on his next opportunity, and take one dribble into a buttery pull-up for the floater off the glass. He’s playing well, and so is his team…they scored 47 points in the first half. He had to sit out a few minutes at the end after picking up his 2nd foul.

2:02- Lee continues to play within the flow of the offense, not taking any bad shots and doing a great job finding the open man. Even though it might seem like’s playing too passive at this level where his talent clearly exceeds anyone else that is on the floor, this is a great attribute to have for a guy who will be a do-it-all role player in the NBA. His teammates and coaches will love him for that since he doesn’t make any mistakes and makes everyone around him better. He is making some aggressive moves from time to time, though, showing outstanding body control knifing his way through three defenders into the lane to draw a foul.

2:10- Josh Young is not only four inches shorter than Courtney Lee, he just made the grave mistake to give him about three feet defending him on the perimeter. Lee looked quite insulted as he pulled up and drained a 3-pointer right in his face. He continues to play outstanding basketball, even if on paper the numbers might not look outstanding. He just had a great steal and then fed his teammate Tyrone Brazelton for an open 3-pointer, plus a foul for the 4-point play.

2:17- Western Kentucky is officially on fire, and Drake did not even show up for this game. They are missing layups, free-throws, and open 3-pointers, turning the ball over and playing the exact opposite from how they looked all season long. The pressure has clearly gotten to them. WKU on the other hand is playing great basketball, utilizing their athleticism to get out in transition at will, draining 3’s, getting to the rim, playing super-energetic basketball and generally looking fantastic. They’ve been able to get Courtney Lee an extensive amount of rest here.

2:27- Courtney Lee has made some exquisite moves to get himself into the lane today, but has had a very hard time finishing plays around the rim, which has deprived him of a good 6-8 points. Not being the tallest, most explosive guy in the world, he needs to learn to do a better job creating contact inside, which would help him get to the free throw line more. He only has two attempts in this game so far. Drake is making a mini-run here with about 6 minutes to go…they are down by 10 points and Western Kentucky is showing some nerves.

2:43- Drake has made a major push to get back in the game, using their excellent pressure defense to cause numerous turnovers and finally executing their half-court offense the way we’ve become accustomed to seeing them doing. Their shots are also starting to fall, which has helped them make this a game, even if WKU is still ahead by 6-8 points mostly. Courtney Lee seems to be taking some responsibility here late, giving some much needed help with his team’s ball-handling, and trying to help out with his perimeter shooting as well, which has been hit or miss. This one is clearly going down to the wire. Even though he continues to score like machine, Tyrone Brazelton has been disastrous as a ball-handler in the second half, turning the ball over again and again and single-handedly getting Drake back in the game. Once down by 16 points, Drake has cut the lead to 1 with 1:12 to go.

2:49- Drake tied it up, and this game is going to overtime.

Gonzaga-Davidson Final Report

Joseph Treutlein

In one of the more exciting games of the tournament thus far, Davidson was able to pull away from Gonzaga in the second half, winning 82-76, largely behind Stephen Curry’s 40 points, 30 of which came in the second half. As I alluded to at the end of the first half, Davidson was likely to look for more touches for Curry, and did they ever. He started off the half with two quick three-pointers coming off screens, something he does exceptionally well. He uses screens all over the court and shows great court sense and basketball IQ in using them, baiting defenders before changing directions to get open. One thing that cannot be understated is the difficulty of running full speed towards the three point line with your back to the basket, stopping on a dime, catching, turning, and shooting, all with exceptional quickness. Curry does this over and over and over with outstanding accuracy. He also showed good instincts in the passing lanes, netting him five steals on the game, leading to some fast break opportunities where he finished at the rim. All in all, he shot 14-for-23 with an incredible eight three-pointers.

The rest of Davidson took a backseat in the second half obviously, with Curry scoring 30 of their 46 points, though Jason Richards continued to do a solid job managing the team’s offense, getting Curry the ball on a lot of his open looks coming off screens. His lack of athleticism was apparent on some missed finishes at the rim, where he doesn’t have the airtime to adjust to defenders.

Moving on, it’s very interesting to note that Davidson will likely play Georgetown in the next round, with the game in Raleigh, which is under three hours away from Davidson. We’ll soon see if Curry can continue his strong play in the NCAA tournament, as he also scored 30 points in Davidson’s opening round defeat last season. He obviously loves the big stage.

On the Gonzaga side, Jeremy Pargo struggled a bit with decision making, forcing some pull-up jumpers from deep and having six turnovers on the game. He wasn’t able to take advantage of his athleticism advantage the way you’d expect. From what we’ve been told, he is expected to announce that he is testing the NBA Draft waters soon. Freshman Austin Daye struggled even more so, missing a lot of outside shots and going just 3-for-13 on the day. He obviously needs to continuing polishing his game, though he’ll definitely be someone to watch next year, as his physical tools are excellent with his size and length for a perimeter player.

2:56- Courtney Lee mostly deferred to the red-hot Tyrone Brazelton in the last few minutes of the game and overtime, and his coach Darrin Horn did him no favors by not even running a single play for his best player. This is a trend we’ve seen throughout the season—very few plays run for Lee, and not much in terms of assertiveness and demanding the ball coming from Lee’s direction. That’s something you probably have to live with considering his passive, unselfish nature, but for WKU’s sake, they’d probably like to see him step up a bit more. We’re halfway through overtime and Drake is up 1.

3:03- Lee managed to get two shots up in overtime, one a tough mid-range jumper that looked pretty forced, and one a nifty offensive rebound put-back that didn’t fall but kept the possession alive that got WKU to the line and helped them take the lead with 21 seconds to go. Alas, Western Kentucky could not grab one of numerous offensive rebounds that Drake came away with, and Drake managed to get to the free throw line. With 5.7 seconds to go, Darrin Horn called a play for what will go down as one of the best game-winning shots in NCAA tournament history, a handoff for Ty Rogers for an unbelievable 25 foot 3-pointer that went in at the buzzer. MARCH MADNESS!

Courtney Lee finished with 15 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks and 5 turnovers on 6-17 shooting. He showed a lot of different things today, and probably had a better all-around game that the numbers indicate. I doubt he cares about any of that, because his team now advances to play Connecticut (most likely). Tyrone Brazelton had 33 points, 5 assists and 5 turnovers on 11-22 shooting.

3:34- After the insanity we just witnessed with Davidson beating Gonzaga and Western Kentucky upsetting Drake in overtime, it’s a bit hard to get up for any of these next games. We’ll be keeping an eye out on South Alabama-Butler and Georgetown-UMBC (which is still pretty close halfway through the first half), but don’t expect a great deal of updates until the 7 PM games start (specifically OU-St. Joe’s). We will have some sporadic reports here and there, though, so don’t fall asleep completely just yet.

If you have any comments on the tournament or this blog, shoot me an email at jonathan@draftexpress.com and maybe I’ll talk about it on the blog.

6:10- Not a whole lot to report from three of the four games in this last time slot (3-6 PM EST). The South Alabama-Butler game was a blowout, which was kind of surprising considering that it was basically a home game for South Alabama. Butler sent a strong message that they were deserving of a much higher seed than just a #7. The main player of interest for us, Mike Green, had to sit quite a bit because of foul trouble, and only finished with 5 points, 3 assists, 3, rebounds and 4 turnovers in just 21 minutes. By the time he was ready to play, the game was virtually over, as the contest ended 81-61 in favor of Butler. Pete Campbell scored 26 points (8-10 3P) in 20 minutes. He’s not an NBA prospect, but he just made himself some money overseas next year. AJ Graves had 18 points, 6 assists and 0 turnovers. Mostly known as a one-dimensional 3-point shooter as a 6-2 shooting guard, he may have shown another side of his game today, although he looks like a real long shot to make an NBA roster. He’ll be at Portsmouth from what we understand. So will Demetric Bennett of South Alabama, who had a miserable game with 6 points (2-7 FG), 2 assists and 4 turnovers in 33 minutes.

In Little Rock, Texas blew out a mediocre Austin Peay team 74-54, in a game that was practically over before it began really. D.J. Augustin didn’t have to score much, with 6 points, but he did 8 assists to go along with 2 turnovers in 37 minutes.

In Raleigh, Georgetown beat UMBC 66-47. Roy Hibbert had 13 points, 7 rebounds in 22 minutes.

The best game of the late afternoon was clearly UConn-San Diego. A.J. Price got injured 12 minutes into the game with a sprained right knee, which evened things out nicely for the rest of the game and eventually led a depleted San Diego squad to the upset in overtime. The final score was 70-69 San Diego. They will play Western Kentucky in the next round. Joseph Treutlein will go into more depth on the prospects on that one in a bit.

UConn-San Diego Final Report

Joseph Treutlein

Hasheem Thabeet had an up-and-down game to end UConn’s season, as he scored 14 points along with 6 rebounds and 4 blocks, but looking deeper at the game action, you see a few glaring problems. San Diego got off to a good start early, and much of it had to to with Gyno Pomare, their PF/C, who was really excelling in the pick-and-pop game. Thabeet was his defender, and he repeatedly had severe problems defending the pick-and-roll, hedging the ball handler but not showing the ability to change directions quick enough to get back to Pomare, who was routinely left open for open shots, leading to his 10-for-12 from the field with 22 points on the game. What’s really alarming looking at it, though, is that Thabeet wasn’t even hedging especially strong, and he still wasn’t even close to getting back on most occasions. Pomare got into foul trouble in the second half, which kept him off the floor and prevented this segment of Thabeet’s game from getting further exposed, but the damage was done.

On the positive side, Thabeet was a force in the lane, blocking and contesting shots left and right, though it’s worth noting the opposing team isn’t very physically imposing. Also, Thabeet made a crucial error with 25 seconds to go in overtime, not contesting a lay-up down low, which gave San Diego the lead, while also making body contact to commit the foul. On the offensive side, Thabeet got open fairly often to put in easy lay-ups (though he showed no willingness to dunk the ball) and had a few key putbacks down the stretch that kept UConn in the game. Despite those putbacks, though, Thabeet was not nearly as much of a force on the boards as he could’ve been, just not exerting his dominant physical stature in this area of the game.

Point guard A.J. Price went down with an awkward knee injury early on a drive to the basket, and didn’t return to the game. This obviously hurt Connecticut down the stretch, and he definitely could’ve been the difference in such a close game.

6:58- The St. Joe’s-Oklahoma kicks off in about 10 minutes. The most interesting question we got came from Nejc Dvoracek, asking about O.J. Mayo, and whether “his stock is the same as it was before yesterday’s game, did he hurt it, or even help himself?”

I talked to a few NBA scouts about that. Most thought that Mayo didn’t do anything to hurt himself, particularly considering the way he’s played over the last month or so. There are still question marks about whether or not he can play point (most think he is more of a 2/1), but the passing ability he displayed really helped him in that area. His stock looks pretty solid in the top 5-7. Jerryd Bayless on the other hand is much more of a question mark, especially since he seemed to peak earlier in the year and did not play particularly well to finish the season, which is when most decision makers watched him. We need to do some research over the next week to see what people think about him, and whether the overwhelmingly positive sentiments scouts had about him a month ago is still the same. This all ties into tonight’s game at 9:40 between Indiana and Arkansas as well. Eric Gordon has played pretty poorly since the Kelvin Sampson saga started, and it would really help him to have a strong showing here to avoid hurting his stock any further.

We’re moving onto Oklahoma now…especially Blake Griffin. NBA people have not forgotten about him of course, and he could definitely be a dark horse pick in the lottery or even top 10 if he decides to enter the draft. What happens tonight could play a big role in that.

7:34- The Oklahoma-St. Joe’s game looks pretty good early on. This is an interesting game, because for once, we have two NCAA teams that actually have some legit post players they can utilize. Not surprisingly, both teams are going inside an awful lot early on. Pat Calathes taken only one shot 12 minutes into the contest, but he does have 3 assists and managed to draw a foul after bringing the ball up the floor and making a strong slashing move. He flipped a beautiful left-handed pass right into the paint off a pick and roll, and has been pretty solid defensively as well. Blake Griffin was also used as a facilitator primarily early on, but he also finished a good post move with a very fluid scoop off the glass. St. Joe’s is up 19-18.

7:58- Pat Calathes finishes the half scoreless—after taking only two shots and missing both. He’s being defended well by David Godbold, and doesn’t seem to mind facilitating for others rather than looking for his own shot. St. Joe’s is having a lot of problems getting into their offense—their point guard Tasheed Carr seems to be having one of those games. Blake Griffin is playing well in limited minutes (he might not be 100% after the torn meniscus), doing some damage inside, making some nice passes, crashing the glass, etc. He’s made some typical swooping moves in the lane, showing that same outstanding combination of strength and fluidity that makes NBA scouts drool. At half-time, the score is 34-22.

8:10- Even though Vanderbilt is losing 46-34, we have to mention that Shan Foster is hitting some absolutely ridiculous shots. We switched over for the last 6 or 7 minutes of the first half, and he is putting on an absolute show. He had one beautiful shot-fake and pull-up jumper, a jab-step and 3-pointer, a free throw line pull-up, and then a turnaround baseline jumper from about 17 feet. He has 11 points and 4 rebounds in 14 minutes on 5-8 shooting. This is a game we definitely need to come back to…

8:30- St. Joe’s still can’t score, and Oklahoma can’t be stopped, so this game is getting out of hand. Pat Calathes is struggling to help his team out, going 1-5 up until this point, and seems pretty frustrated. Blake Griffin is being doubled on the catch for the most part every time he gets the touch, and he’s making the right play kicking the ball out and getting his teammates good looks. Oklahoma is playing fantastic defense. It’s 47-32 OU with 16 minutes to go, and Vandy-Siena will be calling our name soon if things don’t get any better.

8:56- St. Joe’s seems to be playing much better now, cutting the lead to 7 with about 5:30 left. Pat Calathes still isn’t shooting all that well, but defense has picked up and he continues to handle the ball in the open floor and make excellent passes, either on the drive and dish or with smart post-entries. He just can’t seem to turn the corner creating his own shot against David Godbold, who has been locking him up all game long here.

9:17- Blake Griffin and Oklahoma are going to the next round, where they will meet Louisville or Boise State. Griffin did not get a great deal of touches in the post, but he made the most of every one he got, beasting his way to the rim and finishing with an extremely soft touch once he got there. He’s 6-7 from the field—the one shot he missed he followed up with a super quick second bounce off the floor for an offensive rebound and put-back. The final score before we switched to Mississippi State-Oregon was Oklahoma 72- St. Joseph’s 64. Pat Calathes had a very forgettable game with 5 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 0 turnovers on 2-9 shooting.

9:28- Vandy has lost to Siena (83-62) in yet another shocking upset (our third of the day). We didn’t watch much of it, but it seems like Vandy’s atrocious defense did them in once again. Shan Foster only scored 2 points in the second half, finishing the game with 13 points and 6 rebounds on 6-14 shooting. He was only 1-5 from behind the 3-point line. A.J. Ogilvy had 18 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists.

9:40- Oregon-Mississippi State is in the books as well, and the SEC finally landed its first win after losing three straight contests. Portsmouth bound Charles Rhodes went off for 34 points and 9 rebounds on 10-12 shooting, while Jamont Gordon almost had a triple double with 8 points, 10 rebounds, 9 assists and 5 turnovers on just 3-15 shooting. For Oregon’s draft-bubble seniors, Bryce Taylor had 9 points on 2-12 shooting, Maarty Leunen had 13 points (5-11 FG) and 7 rebounds, and Malik Hairston had 22 points (7-16 FG), 7 rebounds, 0 assists and 3 turnovers in a losing effort.

Oregon-Mississippi State Final Recap:

Joseph Treutlein

After leading a fairly close game most of the way throughout, Oregon fell apart late, missing 16 straight three pointers late in the second half, which was a critical blow for a team that relies so much on the long ball. Mississippi State attacked strong throughout, getting many baskets in the painted area, led by senior Charles Rhodes, who had the game of his life just when the Bulldogs needed him most, scoring 33 points (a career high) and pulling in eight rebounds. Rhodes was extremely aggressive using his athleticism and physicality to score frequently down low, hitting on open lay-ups off cuts, dunks in transition, and also mixing in some face-up and turnaround jumper from the 10-15 foot range. All in all, he shot a remarkable 10-for-12 from the field and 14-for-18 from the free throw line. Rhodes will be a likely attendee for the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament, and he’s certainly getting off to a good start in trying to improve his stock with this postseason play.

Rhodes’ teammate, junior Jamont Gordon, didn’t fare as well with his scoring game, really struggling to create baskets in the painted area. He frequently penetrated, and even though he used his strength to bully his way around, he didn’t show the second gear with athleticism and quickness to get around or over defenders, often leaving him stuck amidst a crowd and chucking up a prayer. Shooting 3-for-15 on the game, he obviously didn’t have his best day with his own scoring, but to his credit, he adjusted extremely well as the game went on, looking more for the drive and dish, and showing some outstanding court vision in doing so, dishing out nine assists. They weren’t all simple passes either, as some were to moving cutters and others crosscourt passes through the defense. He also attacked the boards strong, pulling in 10 boards.

Jarvis Varnado had a typical game, blocking 4 shots, pulling in 8 boards, and scoring 11 points, mostly on cuts to the basket where he did a good job catching and finishing despite a large bandage on his right hand due to a sprained thumb. Varnado battled with foul trouble late, but had a great impact on the game for his team, keeping Oregon out of the paint, with more than half of their field goal attempts coming from behind the arc.

On Oregon’s side, it wasn’t a great showing for most of their draft prospects, though Malik Hairston led the way with 22 points and 7 rebounds, playing a fairly efficient game, hitting some threes and making some drives to the basket where he hit some lay-ups and got to the free-throw line. Not the greatest athlete in the world, he wasn’t always able to finish over the defense in the lane, but played aggressive and was Oregon’s best player on the floor.

Maarty Leunen really struggled with his shot, missing most of his three-point attempts, many of which he attempted from NBA three-point range, which isn’t irregular for him. This was just a cold shooting night for him, and to his credit, he adjusted late by attacking the basket more, getting some lay-ups around the rim, though his athleticism holds him back there at times. He, along with Hairston, are two more players we should be seeing at the PIT, where they can attempt to improve their stock in front of NBA execs after a fairly disappointing season for the Ducks.

10:08- Another slow start for Eric Gordon here in Tampa against Arkansas. He has 2 points on 1-4 shooting 12 minutes into the game, not looking like he has a great deal of rhythm in his game at the moment, going from being extremely aggressive to fairly passive without any rhyme or reason. He’s not contributing much in other parts of the game either. His shot looks pretty awful right now, he just bricked a long 3-pointer badly…not even coming close.

10:34 Gordon is having an absolutely atrocious game here so far, as simply nothing is falling for him (even from the free throw line) and he’s making basic mistakes as well. His confidence looks absolutely shot. Indiana needs him to snap out of it, as they are down by 7 points at the half, 37-30. Gordon has 2 points on 1-7 shooting, with 1 assist and 2 turnovers. Steven Hill had an unbelievable half on the defensive end, blocking 3 or 4 shots and altering countless others. He is making it extremely difficult for Indiana to get anything easy inside the paint, and he has to be making quite an impression on the many scouts sitting courtside as well. After all, there aren’t that many athletic shot-blocking 7-footers like him roaming around these days. We’ll be able to see a lot more of Hill at Portsmouth in a few weeks. D.J. White is having a solid game for Indiana with 11 points and 5 rebounds.

11:10- Second half, and same story for Eric Gordon. He palmed the ball on one drive, and jacked up a long 23 foot jumper that wasn’t even close. He needs to start taking more simple shots—the degree of difficulty of everything he’s doing is extremely high. D.J. White on the other hand is having a phenomenal game, which is what is keeping Indiana in the game. He’s hitting the glass ferociously, knocking down 15 footers, posting up inside, hitting turn-around jumpers, and just playing extremely hard on both ends of the floor. The only thing that is limiting him right now is foul trouble—he has 3 with 12 minutes to go. Indiana is down 2.

11:33- Since Eric Gordon doesn’t feel like giving us anything to write about, we should probably give a shout-out to the guys that did show up to play here. Sonny Weems is working on a 29-point game here with over 4 minutes to go still. His jump-shot has been unbelievable, primarily from mid-range coming off screens (he runs extremely well off these curls), but also with some pull-up jumpers. He’s gotten only a few baskets close to the rim, which makes this performance all the more impressive. Weems is a pretty interesting guy, since he’s got nice physical tools (6-6, strong, fairly athletic) to go along with what appears to be a very nice jump-shot. His ball-handling skills have always been considered his biggest weakness, along with his inconsistent 3-point shot, but that hasn’t been much of an issue here in this game since he’s done such a good job sticking to his strengths. He’s another player that is slated to participate at the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament. He looks like he could be one of the more intriguing seniors to look at there. Tonight he’s 11-13 (3-4 3P) so far, for 29 points. There might be some serious buzz about him if Arkansas can hold on here and he can have a good performance against North Carolina…

Steven Hill and Darian Townes also continue to do yeomen’s work down low, Hill defensively--he’s just a wall in the paint and has fantastic timing to block shots without fouling-- and Townes offensively, showing a strong post-up game with excellent length and nice athleticism. Arkansas looks extremely impressive with all these seniors.

11:50- This game is just about over here…Arkansas is up 12 with about a minute to go. Eric Gordon will finish the game 3-14, with 8 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, and 4 turnovers in 37 minutes….yuck. CBS just pointed out that in the 7 games since Kelvin Sampson is gone, Gordon is shooting 7/50 from behind the arc. D.J. White struggled with cramps late in the game, but still finished with 22 points and 8 rebounds. Darian Townes had 17 and 12. The stat-sheet has Steven Hill down for 2 points, 2 rebounds and 2 blocks in 13 minutes—which is pretty much shocking considering how he changed the game. He had at least 5-6 blocks by our count if not more, and really had a fantastic game. We’ve been high on him for a while, but it wouldn’t surprise me one bit now to see him on an NBA roster when it’s all said and done. It will be fascinating to see how he does against Tyler Hansbrough.

Second Day Summary

Stock Up:

Stephen Curry (Davidson)
Sonny Weems (Arkansas)
Steven Hill (Arkansas)
Blake Griffin (Oklahoma)
Darian Townes (Arkansas)
Tyler Smith (Tennessee)
D.J. White (Indiana)
Jack McClinton (Miami)
Charles Rhodes (Mississippi State)
A.J. Graves (Butler)
Scottie Reynolds (Villanova)

Stock Neutral:

Courtney Lee (Western Kentucky)
Shan Foster (Vanderbilt)
Jamont Gordon (Mississippi State)
K.C. Rivers (Clemson)
A.J. Ogilvy (Vanderbilt)
Malik Hairston (Oregon)

Stock Down:

Eric Gordon (Indiana)
Hasheem Thabeet (UConn)
Pat Calathes (St. Joe’s)
Bryce Taylor (Oregon)
Maarty Leunen (Oregon)
James Mays (Clemson)
Trevor Booker (Clemson)
Demetric Bennett (South Alabama)