CBB Stock Market: March 8th-9th

Looking for something else on Sports News on Tap, I found a gem called 'CBB Stock Market' which highlighted what happened on the weekend of college hoops. Sometimes I will use this space for a longer form recap, but mostly, it will be a subheading.

BUY BUY BUY 

Wichita State's unbeaten year - I know we wrote last week about Wichita State, but it needs to get mentioned again. It is hard to believe a team without a single loss is the 'Nobody believes in us at the NCAA Tournament.' Honestly, it will all depend on their draw. I think Gonzaga's futility in the postseason have made people nervous to really go all in. Nonetheless, an unbeaten season with a sweep of both the regular and conference tournament is impressive. Shockers are one of the best offensive and defensive efficient teams, and it will honestly depend on their draw to see how things will shake out for them. They are locked in as a one seed though. No question about it.  

Wiggins and Parker rising to the top - At the beginning of the season, all we could do is talk about Andrew Wiggins and Jabari Parker's future with their respective teams. They went up and down yet at the end of the year, we have both players at their highest level thus far in the conference season. Wiggins finished with 41 points in a losing effort against West Virginia where it only took 18 shots. Parker dropped 30 points and eleven rebounds against rival North Carolina in a win. This is exactly what every college basketball fan should want heading into the tournament season. Having these two guys play so well makes things so much more interesting. I am hoping we get one more Parker v. Wiggins duel.

 

Iowa State's celebration of Marcus Smart flopping - I am always a fan of creativity in the student section that is not cruel or offensive. Marcus Smart got the label of being a flopper for good reason as he really does not care how dramatic he makes a simple touch look. Iowa State's solid student section took it upon themselves to send a message and flop in the student section. This is perfect almost to the point where I wish the Woodland Conference had a known flopper so we could have done the same in my formative years.

HOLD HOLD HOLD

Matt Norlander's mid-major theory - In lieu of Green Bay losing this weekend, Matt Norlander came out with an article explaining why conference championships should get the NCAA berth versus the conference tournament champion. Here's the thing, if they are the best team in the conference, they should be able to win the game. Green Bay got tight and lost to Milwaukee. I watched nearly the whole game. They did not play very well throughout the game and did not look an NCAA Tournament against a 7-9 team in the Horizon League. Just because they beat Virginia and nearly beat Wisconsin in December, does not guarantee them a spot in the Big Dance. I do think we could do some sort of idea when it comes to making sure the best teams are in, but to make the conference tournament a consolation prize is pretty ridiculous.

SELL SELL SELL 

Iowa Hawkeyes - What the hell happened? We see this every year where there are some real good teams in January and by March, they look like average teams. Iowa lost at home to Illinois which apparently is the cool thing to do. I think the people saying if they lose to Northwestern, they are closing in on the bubble is stupid, but they desperately need a win just to rite the ship a bit before the tournament. I do not think Iowa has a long shelf life in March, but things could change with a bit of a hot run at Indianapolis.

NOTE: I do not have much today as this once again is late and I feel like it is pretty tiresome at this point of the season. We will have something up and running about the major tournaments on either Tuesday or Wednesday with predictions in there.

Charlie. 

Tapping The Keg Podcast Episode 75

The first ever Tapping The Keg Podcast with a guest.... The guest is not someone famous, but he thinks he is as Nolan Murphy joins us from Cleveland. We talk about the recent news regarding Green Bay Packers then Murph takes us through what a mess it is in Cleveland with the Browns along with whom they might be drafting in May. Our podcast gets going with the usual topics between Charlie and Mitch as they discuss the enjoyment of Sunday Fundays, Michael Sam and what could transpire in the coming months, Milwaukee Bucks possibly getting new owners, Marcus Smart situation along with a couple other college basketball notes. We finish out with the Olympics and the most American ending.

Charlie.

Sportandfashion-news Double Take: Marcus Smart's Shove

I have no idea if this will be a new trend here or just a one time thing, but Adam Hatlak told me he had some thoughts on Marcus Smart. I took the angle of Smart and perspective around him while Adam looked at the fans and their behavior. This worked out really well. 

Charlie Tritschler 
This is the not the season Oklahoma State Cowboys expected in November. They started out the season ranked number four in the nation with Marcus Smart returning for his sophomore despite a weak 2013 NBA Draft class. People believed this team had as much talent as anyone in the country and could make a serious run at Kansas' Big 12 title run. Those dreams died in January as the Cowboys took their lumps, and the biggest lump of the season happened Saturday night when Marcus Smart pushed a Texas Tech fan in yet another game Oklahoma State lost in what continues to be a disappointing season.

Smart pushing a fan known around the Big 12 for causing trouble was definitely uncalled for, but it should not raise questions about Smart's career at Oklahoma State or the NBA, but rather it should raise questions about fans' attitudes during sporting events across the country in college athletics especially. Additionally, it should not defer people's attention to the putrid season Oklahoma State is having and not all of that blame falls on Smart.

Before the season began, people praised Smart for a variety of reasons. The college basketball purists loved the fact he stayed another year. They reigned down compliments of him staying in school. Related, people loved how he became a leader as a freshman, and how Smart worked on trying to develop his 3-point shot. If you remember at the beginning of the season, ESPN did a whole feature with Jay Bilas and Smart about his knowledge of the game. Weird thing about the season is that narrative can vaporize quickly especially if the team starts losing more than expected. Like a quarterback in football, the reason for losing starts with the best player on the team.

Things began to twist on Smart during the Big 12 season. Articles were written about Smart freaking out on the sidelines taking his agression out on the chairs at West Virginia.  More articles continued to pile in criticizing how much Smart flopped on a more than regular basis. Questions about Smart's leadership as Oklahoma State continued to struggle in the Big 12. Smart pushing a fan at Texas Tech was his rock bottom. People had some thoughts whether this affected Smart's Oklahoma State's legacy which is ridiculous given he played one and a half years at a place, but the notion is out there.  Without a doubt, this should not define the person who he is as a basketball player and a person.

People overreact to things, and that's exactly what Smart did on Saturday. Overreactions usually are the worst in people. It shows a vulnerable side that we as humans all have but hate to show plus immediately regret it the following day. Smart pushed a man in the heat of the moment because he either told him 'Go back to Africa' or 'a piece of crap.' These are opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to what fans will say, but at the same time, how many fans actually look a player dead in the eye and say something hoping for a reaction. Texas Tech's fan, Jeff Orr, baited Smart and he took it damn hard. It is shame Smart fell for it.

Adam Hatlak First and foremost, what Smart did was wrong, and he was right to be punished. Shoving a fan isn't acceptable, and 3 games shows that this is more than a slap on the wrist. However, what happened might bring a bit more light to a situation that is quickly becoming an issue in sports. Fans are losing perspective.

Social media is great, it allows us to interact with famous people in a way that we never could before. We can get random thoughts from a player without having it published and analyzed by major media outlets, player's creativity can come through as seen in the back and forth with Aaron Rodgers and Tom Crabtree, and players can even recognized specific fans with a retweet or mention for all of the player's followers to see. 

The problem with social media is growing rapidly. Twitter began in 2006, and took a few years to truly hit the mainstream as something that a lot of people use. While it is nowhere near the general popularity of Facebook, it has a specific level of importance in the sports world. In the early years of Twitter, the issue seemed to be that athletes wouldn't think before sending off a tweet, and the media would eat them alive for whatever stupid thing was said. 

Now that we are in 2014, the issue seems to be different, but far less mainstream. Fans are ruthless and unrelenting to public figures. This gets mentioned a lot on sports radio, as many hosts will attack Twitter "idiots" on their shows, as it must be annoying to listen to all the negative talk all the time. Hosts are able to fight back, but athletes themselves have a harder time doing so, as they need to keep their fans, brand, and don't want to get yelled at by the team that employs them. 

Check a player's mentions on Twitter or comments on Facebook, it's atrocious. People are able to take loyal bonds of a rival team or disappointment in their own team's performance and say generally terrible things. They forget the human aspect that comes from it and are able to hide mostly without consequence. Players have slowly started firing back slightly, but it'll blow up soon.

Which brings us back to Smart. In the past few seasons, it feels as if the social media issue is spilling into live sporting events. Fans are taking the consequence free speech that they are allowed on social media, where they don't even have to say it to someone's face, and applying it to live sporting events. I'm all for cheering for your own team, and creating noise to distract the opponent, and even booing, but there is a line that takes things too far. 

I talked to a buddy of mine about this, and he reminded me of a Duke/NC State game about a year ago, where fans chanted about someone's grandmother who had passed away. Players were booed this past season in the NFL when they were legitimately injured. I read reports that things were thrown at Novarro Bowman as he was carted off in the NFC Championship game. This goes past the fun, the entertainment of sports, and just becomes people treating other people poorly. 

Regardless of what was said to Smart, you can tell that something caught his attention, as he is sitting on the floor and clearly switches his focus to the stands. What he did was wrong, but fans need to be sure to clean up their act, before something truly gets out of control with this. 

Charlie & Adam  

CBB Stock Market: January 25-26th

Looking for something else on Sports News on Tap, I found a gem called 'CBB Stock Market' which highlighted what happened on the weekend of college hoops. Sometimes I will use this space for a longer form recap, but mostly, it will be a subheading. 

BUY BUY BUY 

Michigan Wolverines - All hail to the victors. What can you say about Michigan right now? They are easily the hottest team in the country with winning ten of their last eleven games with their only lost coming to Arizona by a single point in mid-December. I think I have said it at least 20 times but John Beilein is by far my Coach of the Year thus far. He's done yeoman's work with this team. It also has a great deal to do with Nik Stauskas developing into more than just a guy with a silky 3-point jumper. While I enjoy him, I have a feeling he might become very unlikable by March. Another underrated part of this run is Derrick Walton Jr. coming into his own as a point guard.

Florida Gators - Like many forgot about Dre, people have completely forgot Florida. The Gators are on fire as of late including a 26 point win against Tennessee at home on Saturday. They are currently undefeated in the SEC including giving up 50 points or less in the last four SEC games. Additionally, Florida has not lost since December 2nd against UConn where Shabazz Napier hit a game-winner. They have five double-digit scorers meaning any night Florida could have a big performance from the likes of Michael Frazier II or Casey Prather. This also means not every player needs to be on every game night. Florida might be undefeated before heading to Tennessee and Kentucky in the week of February 9th.

Cincinnati Bearcats - Another team that has not lost since mid-December is Cincinnati. People did not really expect from the Cats this season as they lost some tools from a tournament team although Sean Kilpatrick did return for his senior year. Kilpatrick is having a great season shooting 42 percent from the field which is an improvement from last year's clip of 39 percent. Additionally, he is shooting 34 percent from three as well as getting to the free-throw line more often than he did in his first three years.  Justin Jackson also came into his own as a senior with scoring eleven points a game, seven rebounds and three blocks a game. All up from his first three years with the Bearcats. Mick Cronin has done a great job with this program.

HOLD HOLD HOLD

Marcus Smart -  I do not think we should make much of Smart's recent struggles. He did not play really well against Kansas including getting dunked on by Joel Embiid then struggled against West Virginia leading him to do this on the bench. Smart apologized after the game and if we have learned anything from the young players in the nation right now, everyone struggles for a bit during the season. Smart is just taking some hard knocks, he will be fine in the coming weeks.

Providence Friars - Many people are looking towards Providence's hot streak recently because the Friars have not been relevant in the last couple of years. People believed this was the same old Providence squad as they lost three straight in late December and early January yet since then they have reeled off five straight wins with some major victories against Creighton and Xavier, two of the Big East bests. My one knock on Providence which could come back to bite me in the ass is the fact they have yet to win one on the road. In this streak, their only road win is against St. John's and it took double-overtime to do it. They have four of the next five games on the road so we will see if the Friars can keep this up.

Nebraska Cornhuskers - I realize they are 2-5 in the Big Ten, but they had big wins against Ohio State and Minnesota this week. This is an encouraging sign for not only Nebraska's future with Tim Miles but also with the Big Ten as they added Nebraska a couple years ago for 'football' purposes only (Honestly). If Nebraska becomes a threat to beat some teams at home in the next couple of years, that's a really good thing for the conference.

SELL SELL SELL 

Baylor Bears - What in the hell happened to Baylor? I ask this question a lot with teams, but Baylor fell completely from the wagon in the last couple of weeks. Bears have now lost four of the last five games although the only bad loss in those games were to Texas Tech. The only problem is Baylor needs a big win quickly with games against Oklahoma State and Kansas on the horizon with West Virginia before them. They need to find a way to win two of the next three or Baylor is on the bubble without question.  

GAMES TO WATCH THIS WEEK 
Monday: 17. Duke at 18. Pittsburgh 6:00 pm ESPN, 9. Villanova at Georgetown 8:00 pm FOX Sports 1
                8. Oklahoma State at 23. Oklahoma 8:00 pm ESPN

Tuesday: 7. Michigan State at 15. Iowa 6:00 pm ESPN

Wednesday: 16. Iowa State at 6. Kansas 8:00 pm ESPNU, 1. Arizona at Stanford 8:00 pm ESPN2,
                      2. Syracuse at Wake Forest 8:00 pm ESPN3

Thursday: 13. Cincinnati at 12. Louisville 6:00 pm ESPN