On The Horizon

Jim Squire

2011 B.I.A.H End-of-the-Year Awards, Part-I--Ballin' is a Habit

Best Team in 2011

Butler Bulldogs
Resume: 28-10. Horizon League Regular Season and Tournament Champions. National Runners-Up. won 14 consecutive games. Currently 6-7 with wins over Purdue and Stanford.
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Best Game of 2011
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No.8-seed Butler 71, No.1-seed Pittsburgh 70, NCAA Tournament - March 19th
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Best Coach in 2011

Jim Boeheim, Syracuse
Jim Calhoun, UConn
Jon Calipari, Kentucky
Steve Fisher, San Diego State
Mike Krzyzewski, Duke
Thad Matta, Ohio State
Shaka Smart, Virginia Commonwealth
Bill Self, Kansas
Brad Stevens, Butler
Buzz Williams, Marquette

Gone streaking: Which of the 25 longest Tourney streaks will continue?--Run The Floor

Butler Bulldogs (6-7) - 5 years. Prediction: 20%

Brad Stevens' club is lucky to have two very solid wins against Purdue and at Stanford. But there's not a realistic chance for them to do enough to get in as an at-large. Which means they'll need to win the Horizon. And losses to Evansville, Valpo and Ball State don't make that prospect seem all that likely.

Live Analysis: Jazz’s Corbin sticks with same starters vs. Nuggets--Salt Lake Tribune
Men' college basketball preview: Green Bay at Butler--The Indy Star
Bulldogs' growing pains--The Indy Star
Butler tries to sustain momentum--Indy Star Butler Insider
Important weekend starts with Green Bay--Victory Firelight
On this day 10 years ago - Dec 28, 2001--Butler Blue Fever
Butler (6-7) vs. Green Bay (6-6)--Butler Blue Fever

Dawgs Open League Schedule At Detroit--ButlerSports.com

MAC Basketball Review: No Return Policy--Hustle Belt

Cleveland State 72, Toledo 64 — With all the Military Bowl wackiness keeping us busy, little did we have time for a sneakily good game which had the Rockets up by six points at halftime against the Horizon League's best team. But turnovers cost them down the stretch as the CSU seniors salted away what turned out to be a very mellow victory for them. Curtis Dennis led all Rockets with 14 points.

Also, if you didn't hear, Ryan Majerle, Thunder Dan's nephew, is transferring. Odd time for this to happen, but he probably did this now so he'll only have to sit out two more semesters and pull a Curtis Dennis; rejoin someone after the fall 2012 semester.

A Brief, By the Numbers Look at Vanderbilt--Anonymous Eagle

(3) When the O goes broke, they're toast. The common theme in Vandy's four losses is easy enough to identify: vs. Cleveland State: 0.83 points per possession; vs. Xavier: 0.91 points per possession; vs. Louisville: 0.91 points per possession; vs. Indiana State: 0.83 points per possession. In every other game (save for the rock fight against Oregon State), the 'Dores have produced an offensive efficiency of at least 113 (1.13 points per possession).

There isn't a single consistent culprit for the low offensive outputs in those four losses: the losses against Cleveland State and Indiana State, for example, were the product of hideous shooting days (39.2 eFG% against CSU, and 44 eFG% against ISU) and a ton of turnovers (21 vs. CSU, 15 vs. ISU), while the loss against Xavier seems tied to Vandy's inability to get to the line (just 12 throws attempted, for a free throw rate of 18.8%) and getting slaughtered by X on the offensive glass (Xavier had 25(!!!) offensive rebounds, good for a 51% O-reb rate).

Vanderbilt isn't exactly bad defensively (no opponent has cleared an offensive efficiency of 112 against them), but they're not great either, and when the going gets tough, they haven't been able to get enough stops to make up for their inconsistent offense. Xavier, as noted earlier, grabbed offensive rebounds at their leisure, and Indiana State managed an eFG% of 52.9 in their win at Vandy.

Miami Heat rookie Norris Cole trending in NBA--Miami Herald
Miami Heat’s Mario Chalmers bounces back big--Miami Herald

After a long night on Tuesday in the Heat’s 115-107 win over Boston — one in which backup Norris Cole stole the spotlight and most of the playing time — Chalmers rebounded with a season-high 15 points and four assists against just one turnover.
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Chalmers had committed six turnovers against Boston and watched as Cole played 29 minutes and scored 20 points.
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Cole played just 10 minutes, and finished with five points and one assist. Chalmers said he’s fine with the way Spoelstra goes with the point guard who’s playing the best on any given night.