Off The Boards
By Jack Scheuer
February 6, 2019 Edition
It is note-worthy that there are several father-son combinations currently active in Division One, which include some very interesting parental ties. At Oregon State, coach Wayne Tinkle directs his son Tres, a 6-8 junior forward who is also his best player. Former Sixer Johnny Dawkins coaches his son Aubrey, a talented 6-6 junior at UCF; Iowa coach Fran McCaffery has son Connor, a 6-5 red shirt freshman playing quality minutes, and Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim coaches his promising off- spring, 6-5 freshman Buddy. Then there is Brad Calipari (Coach John) at Kentucky, and Illinois Tyler Underwood (Coach Brad) who are deep subs at their schools. Nice information, but what it also means is we are all getting old (especially me).
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Two teams who are prime Final Four candidates are putting up some impressive numbers. Gonzaga leads the nation in scoring at 91.2 points a game, while Virginia, as usual, is tops in defense allowing just 52.9 per contest.
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Trivia Time: Who is the last National Player of the Year to have averaged under 15 points a game for the season? Answer at the end of the column.
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Surprisingly, Loyola of Chicago is having some problems following last year’s Cinderella performance when they went 32 – 6 and made the Final Four. Despite the return of three double figure scorers, the Ramblers are 15 – 9 including a 70 – 35 thumping to Missouri State. They could still turn it around, but it’s starting to get a little late.
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Congrats to La Salle on its 83 – 69 win over Saint Joe’s last night. It was the fourth straight victory for the Explorers (7 – 14) while the injury riddled Hawks (10 – 13) have lost 3 of their last 4, and are 0 – 4 in Big 5 games
This and That: Illinois, a 10-point underdog at home, rallied to defeat # 9 Michigan State 79 – 74 last night snapping a streak of 17 straight losses to ranked teams….Marquette’s Markus Howard (5-11) has got to be the best little man in the country. Just a junior, he’s similar to Trey Young, with better shot selection. Villanova visits the Golden Eagles on Saturday…..Jeff Capel has had a nice turn around at Pitt. The Panthers are 12 – 11 after going 8 – 24 last year under Kevin Stallings…. Improving Drexel has been getting solid work from 6-9 junior Alihan Demir, who is scoring 13.9 a game while shooting 49.4% from the field….I think every year I say Dick Vitale’s a very nice man who just talks too much. This year he’s basically out of control. And how would you like to be his play-by-play partner?…..Michigan defensive whiz, 6-0 junior Zavier Simpson, recently became the shortest player in Wolverine: history to record a triple-double….How good was Cincinnati legend Oscar Robertson? In three years at the school, he scored 2,973 points. In second place is Sean Kilpatrick, who in four seasons had 2,145 points….Upcoming: Tonight it’s Temple home with UConn while Villanova welcomes Creighton; Tomorrow, Drexel hosts UNCW; Friday, Saint Louis is at St. Joe’s. On the weekend, Penn is at Brown and Yale, while La Salle is at George Mason on Sunday.
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Answer to Trivia Time: During the 2011-12 season, Anthony Davis averaged 14.2 points per game.
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