Primarily a collection of news links about all 11 Horizon League teams on a daily basis, culled from online newspapers, school athletic websites, the conference website, and school newspapers, plus some other content from time to time.
The offense Bosh was supposed to provide — spreading the floor with his three-point shooting — was picked up by Ray Allen (16 points, 4 of 4 on three-point shooting), Norris Cole (9 points, 1 of 2 from three) and even Dwyane Wade, who hit a pair of rare three-pointers.
Miami soon opened things up, and led by 11 with 4:58 left when Norris Cole stripped George as he drove the lane. The Heat worked the ball back up court with Ray Allen hitting another three-pointer to give the Heat its biggest lead — to that point — of the night.
Wade had 23 points and carried the Heat for long periods while the rest of the team struggled to find rhythm. Bosh and Norris Cole both finished with nine points. The Heat was 10 of 18 from three-point range.
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The lead changed eight times in less than six minutes in the third quarter, but the Heat led 71-64 entering the fourth quarter after a 10-3 run. Three free throws by Allen after being fouled in the act of shooting a three-pointer started the run and Cole followed with a lightning-quick reverse layup. Wade entered the third quarter for James with five seconds to play and nailed a three-pointer to end the period. Wade then started the fourth quarter with another three-pointer.
Cole said Monday morning: “Sometimes LeBron gets in that gear when he has to prove a point. Paul Pierce did it [two weeks ago] and LeBron had 49. It doesn’t take much.”
A block by Norris Cole on a three-point attempt by Stephenson then triggered another breakaway and Stephenson picked up his fourth foul rather than give James another highlight. Cole made both foul shots to extend the 7-0 run.
The Heat’s lead hit 19 points with 19 seconds left in the third quarter when Cole found space for an 18-foot jumper.
It was late against the Pacers in Game 2. Miami was down and in danger. Lance Stephenson was, according to Jeff Van Gundy, the best player on the court during a sizzling third quarter. The angry noise that has consumed this Miami franchise for four years — a noise that has been quieter than it has ever been since Game 7 of last year — was about to return. Amid this, James told Spoelstra to put Norris Cole on Stephenson. It was an unconventional move. Cole hadn’t been very good for Miami this postseason. But Spoelstra listened. And never mind scoring again. Stephenson didn’t get inside the three-point line with the ball after that. Miami has cruised since.
"We have to play our style of basketball," guard Norris Cole said. "We have to impose our will on the game. We do that with our athleticism, our pressure, our ability to play in the fullcourt as well as the halfcourt. I think we have to take advantage of that."
Max Hooper, Oakland: Travis Bader's heir apparent is St. John's transfer Max Hooper. Hooper started his career at Harvard and has only participated in two seasons so he'll have tow left. Last year he averaged 9 minutes and 3.2 points per game for the Red Storm. Hooper will be an immediate threat from behind the arc in the Horizon League.
Green Bay: The Phoenix lose Alec Brown to graduation, but they return the majority of their rotation players, including star point guard Kiefer Sykes, who is back for his senior season
The NCAA released its APR scores on Wednesday revealing that eight schools–Alabama State, Appalachian State, Florida A&M, Houston Baptist, Lamar, San Jose State, Central Arkansas, and Wisconsin-Milwaukee–will be ineligible for the 2015 NCAA Tournament. None of these names comes close to having an effect on the national title picture so Mark Emmert won’t get called out at the 2016 Final Four by any of the players from these teams, but there are a couple of notable things about this group. The first is that three of the schools are from the Southland Conference meaning that over 20% of the conference cannot play in the NCAA Tournament. The other is that Wisconsin-Milwaukee, which won the Horizon League Conference Tournament last year after going 7-9 in conference regular season play will also be ineligible. Outside of that we have to wonder how much some schools are getting players to graduate or not count against their score just to keep themselves eligible rather than helping the student-athlete. We assume that some schools are already doing this and that the ones that are failing to meet the scores probably just are not doing a good enough job of it.
In-conference upsets didn’t help. Heavy favorite Toledo lost to Western Michigan in the MAC tournament final. Green Bay, a 24-game winner, fell to Milwaukee, in the Horizon semifinals. Robert Morris, which upset Kentucky in last year’s NIT, was the victim this time around, beaten by Mount St. Mary’s in the NEC tourney final, and Belmont never made it out of the Ohio Valley Conference tourney.
Alabama State, Appalachian State, Florida A&M, Houston Baptist, Lamar, San Jose State, Central Arkansas and Milwaukee, will all sit out the 2014-15 postseason by failing to meet the four-year average of 930. Appalachian State has filed a waiver request that is still pending according to the NCAA website.
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Other schools that did not meet the threshold but avoided a ban are Alcorn State, Bakersfield, Binghamton (practice reduction), Fresno State, Cal State Fullerton (practice reduction), Coppin State, Fairleigh Dickinson (practice reduction), Florida International (practice reduction and other restrictions), Grambling, Idaho State, Mississippi Valley State, Norfolk State, North Carolina A&T, Southern Illinois, Tennessee State, Texas A&M, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Towson, Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Cal Riverside, UIC, Louisiana-Monroe, Maryland-Eastern Shore, New Orleans (practice reduction and other restrictions), Charlotte (practice reductions), UNC-Wilmington, Tennessee-Martin (practice reductions), and Utah Valley.
Nick Faust‘s announcement that he was longer committed to Oregon State after Craig Robinson should hardly be a surprise. What is surprising is that he committed to a school with such an unstable coach and that the school waited this long to fire Robinson with how much a late firing could affect recruiting. While Faust says he is “open to everyone” his most likely destinations would appear to be Richmond, Cleveland State, Siena, UCLA, George Mason, and George Washington, which were the other schools that he considered before committing to Oregon State. Out of those the only one that we would be surprised by him going to is UCLA because we can’t envision a scenario where a player of Faust’s caliber would decide to play at Oregon State instead of UCLA particularly with how poorly the Beavers played under Robinson. Faust also has not closed the door on going to Oregon State in the end depending on who Robinson’s replacement is.
Faust mentioned UCLA, George Washington, Richmond, George Mason, Siena and Cleveland State were all being considered at the time he committed to the Beavers.
