St. Louis Decides To Slow It Down... Considerably

This just ended, and a mere glance at the final score had me racing to my computer.

George Washington 49, St. Louis 20 FINAL

Yes, that is real. If you remember earlier in the week, everyone laid into Savannah State for only scoring four points in the second half against Kansas State on 1-23 shooting, both record lows for a half in the shot clock era. Well, they scored five points more than Rick Majerus' Billikens did tonight. To make up for the unfair treatment of the Tigers, let's take a painfully close look at some fun stats from the game.

First, GW was 4-6 going into the game, St. Louis was 9-5 and was also picked to finish third in the preseason in the Atlantic 10. In their last game, the Colonials gave up 93 points to Alabama. They lost by 12 to 5-10 Binghamton. OK, so GW sucks, we know that. On to the carnage.

St. Louis scored seven points in the first half. They shot 7-48 from the field for the game for 14.6 percent. They had two less foul shots made (5) than field goals (7). Their leading scorer was 7-foot backup center Bryce Husak... with five points, two BELOW his average. They were 1-19 from three-point range. On the bright side, they had an assist on over half their field goals. They also had a balanced scoring attack, with seven different players scoring and only one making more than one field goal (Luke Meyer's two). St. Louis was also MORE aggressive than GW, shooting 10 foul shots to the Colonials' three. Oh, and just for good measure: Rick Majerus is fat. Might as well kick them while their down.

UPDATE: Here's some more. They missed 23 consecutive shots at one point. Kevin Lisch scored the 1,000 career point of his career. Must be a proud evening in the Lisch household. St. Louis how a drought of 18 minutes without a field goal. They were 3-25 from the field in the first half, which would've shot Savannah State out of the gym the other night.

All told, it's the lowest point total for one team in a game in the shot clock era. Yes, in all the lopsided match-ups in Division I since 1985, St. Louis scored less points than everyone. In a CONFERENCE GAME NO LESS! And they were only 1.5 point underdogs! GW scored 49 points and beat the spread by 27.5! Speaking of lines, the over/under was 119.5, which for those of you who can't divide, is UNDER 60 points per team. They still missed it by 50.5. I'm watching Illinois play Wisconsin right now and I want to stab my eyes out. It's a shame it wasn't Noose Night at the Smith Center, it would've been like Heaven's Gate over there.

Now the Billikens aren't a high-powered team by any means. Over at KenPom.com they average just 58.7 possessions per game, which is 336th out of 341 in the country, but taking a quick glance at the 48 shots, 14 turnovers and 10 offensive rebounds, I would guess they are right around their average in possessions. GW averages 68.1 possessions per game, which is right at average. You can crunch all the advanced stats you want, St. Louis just flat out sucked, probably more than any other team ever. They play Dayton on Saturday and will be roughly a 50-point underdog.

Something tells me there won't be too many players' parents defending their kids on the Billikens' message boards tomorrow.

As If It Wasn't Hard Enough to Watch

I was going to write my thoughts on last night's big Memphis-USC game because it was an interesting game in terms of the big picture of college hoops and there were not two but three, 2008 lottery picks (do NOT sleep on Davon Jefferson). But I've been reminded this morning why I don't write game summaries or recaps on this site: Because they are fucking EVERYWHERE. In case you want your mind to be overcome by Roses and Mayos and Triangle-and-Twos and Floyds and Caliparis and Dickie Vs and Jimmy Vs and Sloppiness and Slothiness, here are your Memphis-USC recaps. Choose your weapon wisely.

Luke Winn at SI.com- "Man that game was sloppy, Rose and Mayo are pretty good, but not in that game, man that OJ Mayo is popular."

Gary Parrish at CBS Sportsline- "Man that game was sloppy, those guys couldn't even shoot! How bout that triangle and two! Jeez!"

Someone named Heather Dinich at ESPN.com- "Man that game was sloppy, Rose and Mayo were pretty inconsistent, but they are still great! John Calipari was certainly perplexed."

Mike DeCourcy at Sporting News- "Man that game was sloppy, Memphis really got a test though and USC showed a lot, how bout that triangle and two! Jeez!"

The freaking Chicago Tribune(?!)- "Man that game was sloppy, the Rose-Mayo showdown could've been better, but this isn't about individuals!"

The AP- "Man that game was sloppy, Calipari even said so! Those teams couldn't even shoot! But at least it was close!"

The New York Times- "Man that game was sloppy, it was all slow and stuff, Mayo and Rose didn't even play that well!"

And so on and so on and so on... That doesn't even include the avalanche of local coverage in Memphis and LA which probably said the same exact thing. It's almost like they were afraid to give a different perspective for a game with so much hype because it wouldn't have been obvious enough. "Everyone was excited for the game, the game wasn't too exciting, can there be an easier storyline?!" I thought the hype leading up to the game was justified and that it was actually a pretty entertaining game with great defense, great coaching, an unselfish, team-oriented approach from Rose and Mayo and two talented, young teams trying to fight through bad shooting, little time for preparation, some not-quite-there-yet chemistry and the pressure from all the hype to get a tough, important win. But where I thought Rose and Mayo would prove bigger than the game, it turned out to be two guys with even bigger profiles and egos that put their names on the marquee, John Calipari and Tim Floyd.

But um, yeah, I'm not going to talk about the game or anything.