Pick and Rolls Nov 25th

• SI.com article on Ohio State freshman center Kosta Koufus about how he isn't Greek, turned down million dollar offers from European teams and wouldn’t compare himself to Greg Oden

• ESPN’s Andy Katz provides an update on Louisville’s David Padgett

“Louisville will likely seek an appeal for David Padgett to get a sixth year of eligibility now that likely he's out for the season with a broken kneecap. Padgett is on the trip with the Cardinals to Las Vegas to play UNLV on Wednesday and then BYU on Friday before either Old Dominion or North Carolina on Saturday. Padgett is the team's captain and will help being in the locker room and on the bench for support.”

• The Tennessee defense certainly helped but the American Statesman discusses how Rick Barnes was concerned about his team’s offense, but it seems the Longhorns won’t have any trouble scoring. Fox Sports discusses how they could be better without Kevin_Durant.

• Syracuse finished third in the preseason NIT and Donte Greene seems to get better and better every game even to the point that Jim Boeheim played Greene all 40 minutes.

• Interesting observation on Marquette in the Chris West Blog, http://chriswesthoops.blogspot.com/

“On the radio broadcast, color commentator Jim McIlvaine made the comment that teams are going to have to re-work their game plans geared toward making Marquette shoot the ball from long range after the way that they shot it last night. While it will be something for teams to consider, I’ve seen MU have one good shooting night before, and it’s going to take a lot more than a hot shooting night in Maui before I start believing that shooting isn’t a big weakness still for the Golden Eagles.”

I agree, especially their three stars. Last year Wesley Matthews shot only 29 percent from three, Dominic James 27 percent and Jerel McNeal 31 percent. This year the three combined are shooting 26 percent from three.

• It’s interesting to note that St Mary’s, who upset Oregon and is undefeated, has four Australians on their roster, including freshman point guard Patrick Mills who scored 37 points against the Ducks. I was able to find a feature article on Mills written before the season that states that he is “future of Australian basketball” and that he was recruited by Alabama, Utah, Wake Forest and Nebraska.

• The USA Today presents its high school basketball Super 25, no surprise, Brandon Jennings led Oak Hill Academy begins the year on top.

• Upsetting shorthanded Louisville wasn’t a fluke, nearly beating North Carolina Saturday night. BYU seems very talented led by center Trent Plaisted who had 24 and 17 against North Carolina and he believes they should have won.

• The Chicago Tribune has a preview for this week’s ACC/Big Ten challenge.