A big thanks to Jim, our guest columnist for some on-site reporting from the Old Spice Classic in Orlando.  He got to see some pretty good hoops live.  And he also got to watch Cal... Enjoy!

Fellow Maniacs,

I had to write in briefly after attending Day 2 of the Old Spice Classic on Black Friday.  The Old Spice Classic is a hidden gem for Orlando area college basketball fans.  The tournament in its 5th year is played down at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports on Disney property, and although advertised a decent amount locally it is only attended by a small amount of fans.  It makes for the perfect setup for die hards like myself to get great access so some of the game’s best programs.  Years past have brought us teams like Michigan St, Gonzaga, Georgetown, and Xavier.  In fact nine teams that have played here in the last two years have gone on to the Big Dance later that same year. 

So you can imagine my excitement as my Dad and I head into the HP Field house for the third straight day after Thanksgiving to watch 4 games in one day.  The day started off well enough with Wisconsin using a 32-4 run in the 2nd half to beat a stunned looking Boston College team.  That game was followed by a Texas A&M victory over tourney hosts Manhattan College.  So we’re two games in enjoying a few adult beverages and then California comes onto the court and takes a giant dump on our visions of watching quality basketball.  In case you missed it California (a tournament team from last year) scored 5 first half points!  That’s not a typo, 5 points in one half of division 1 NCAA basketball.  Right when the half ended everyone immediately started to wonder out loud if that was some sort of record, and indeed it was.  The least amount of points scored in one half in the shot clock era (1986).  It was incredible to watch how many different ways the Bears could figure out how to screw up.  They had 11 turnovers in the half, missed numerous lay-ups, missed all 8 of their 3 point shots, and had just looked totally lost the entire half.  To make matters worse for us spectators Notre Dame was not much better.  The Irish managed to score just 21 points in the half.  Coach Mike Brey said it best in the post game interview "I was trying to do the math. I've never had 21 points at halftime and been up 16.”  The second half was at least competitive but the end of game numbers will make any basketball fan shake their head:

-         California shot 26% from the field Notre Dame shot 27%
-         Notre Dame was 1-20 from 3 point range
-         California shot just 9 free throws the entire game
-         Both teams combined to hit just 31 field goals for the game

This Cal team has 6 freshmen on it so one would be foolish not to think they would have some struggles but nobody could have seen this coming.  Especially coming off an upset of #21 Temple the day before.  Coach Mike Montgomery will have to pull some magic out of his hat if he expects to go back to the tournament for the 3rd straight year, but funny enough this may be just the right year to pull it off.  The Pac 10 is down once again with only Washington being a sure thing to start the season.

Some other quick notes and observations from the day’s games:

-Wisconsin will play Notre Dame in the final on Sunday….take the Under!  I don’t care what the o/u is I promise you it will be low scoring.

-Boston College is a tough team to figure out.  They have a great player in junior guard Reggie Jackson and a ton of experience with 8 seniors on their roster, but then they fall asleep and let Wisconsin go on a 32-4 run in the second half.  This is also the same team that lost to Yale to start the season.  I say give new coach Steve Donahue a couple more games before he figures these guys out.  Once he does that amount of experience could be tough to beat in conference play.

-Manhattan is a team to watch in a year or two.  The MAAC is a league that historically has rotated their tournament representative every couple of years.  It seems teams get a good recruiting class ride them for a few years and then fall back in the pack once that class graduates.  Siena has been that team the last few years and Niagara was the couple years before that.  Manhattan has been there in the past as well but they have fallen on some hard times as of late.  That could change though as they have two very nice looking freshman in Rhamel Brown and Michael Alvarado.  Head coach Barry Rohrssen has also stacked his coaching staff with former NBA assistant Scott Adubato and former Kentucky star Scott Padgett.  Look for them to build around those two freshmen and make some noise in the coming years.

-California has a sophomore forward named Bak Bak.  Throw that one on the all name team.

-The team I liked best even though they lost was Georgia. You can tell that Trey Thompkins is a stud even though he was playing on a bum ankle.  Once that ankle heals Georgia will be good to go.  Look for them to make the dance out of the SEC.

-Did you know that Texas A&M is one of only 2 teams to win at least one NCAA tournament game each of the last 5 years (Pitt is the other)?  I didn’t either…Most people have that steak coming to an end this year though.  I say Not so Fast (permission granted from Orlando resident Lee Corso)!  Mark Turgeon is a hell of a coach and this team can shoot the rock.  In a year that seems to be wide open I would not write off the Aggies.

-Temple is a solid team…nothing to write home to mom about, but certainly a team that will do some damage in the A-10.  Seems to me that they have 5 or 6 seed written all over them.  Also Lavoy Allen is over rated.  It’s the 2nd time I’ve seen him in person and he seems to play very timid for a big guy.  4 points on 2-5 shooting in the Georgia game.