Winners and Losers from College Basketball's Tip-Off Marathon

He was 18 when MSU-UK tipped off.

If you stayed up for all 29 or so hours of ESPN's College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon (aka Starbucks and Red Bull's Christmahanukwanzakah), I have two things to say to you:

1) You are a sick, maladjusted, misanthropic person who will die alone unless you adopt 18 cats; and

b) I so wish I could match that stamina and lack of daytime gainful employment/small people waking up before dawn.

Some teams had a great time tipping it off at ungodly hours, while others played like they'd already had their warm milk and binky, merely needing their favorite blankets to nod off like a toddler.

Let's look back over the two days in which we were all contemplating doing rails of coke off a hooker's ass if it would keep us awake through the second half of West Virginia/Virginia Tech.
 
Check after the jump for some of those who absorbed should-be-illegal benefits and some who took must-be-pitied damage for even being in the vicinity of the Marathon.

Final Five, Nov. 8: Takeaways from College Basketball's Opening Night

1. Somebody Get These Referees Some Chapstick
--We've discussed the impact of the new hand-checking and impediment rules all offseason, and we've feared that games will become mindless death marches from one foul line to the other. It happened in several places on opening night.

Indiana made (MADE) 45 free throws in routing Chicago State.

Marquette survived against Southern because the Eagles outshot the Jaguars 53-13 from the line. Davante Gardner made 15 by himself.

Oklahoma State and Mississippi Valley State combined for 60 fouls and 79 FTA.

So some, but not all, referees did more blowing than Alexis Texas in these first real games. This trend will continue, but just wait it out. By January, the bigger leagues with the better athletes and better coaches will improve their defensive technique or get blown out on the regular. The other conferences won't be heard from until Championship Week.

The new rules will help open up driving lanes, but what will really help college scoring is when high school and AAU players learn how to friggin' shoot. But that's a rant for another time.


Four more takeaways after the jump.

TBI's Preseason College Basketball Top 25

We're screaming headlong into real basketball games coming this Friday, starting with Eastern Michigan taking on Albion College at noon Eastern time. With exhibitions winding down and some major programs producing head-scratching nights (take a bow, UNLV, Ole Miss and Alabama), we're as close as we're going to get to a true preseason evaluation of the nation's top teams.

Since other sites have abandoned the poll-style vote for one privileged writer's "power rankings," the rest of us have to put our ballots wherever we can. Here's the best top 25 you'll read today.

Conference Calling's 2013-14 College Basketball Previews: #19 Summit

The Denver Pioneers leaped from a sinking ship in the offseason. The WAC was taking on water, and just two years after agreeing to join, DU was eager for a place to land.

The Summit League became that place. Now, the major question becomes whether Denver has landed in the warm tropical waters of a conference where it can immediately earn its first-ever NCAA tournament bid or the cold arctic seas of also-ran status.

TBI will give you a small hint before the jump: the water's a bit chilly, but the Pioneers have built themselves one totally diesel raft.

More on the Pioneers' future--and the rest of their new leaguemates'--after the jump.

(All stats and rankings per StatSheet.com unless otherwise noted.)

Conference Calling's 2013-14 College Basketball Previews: #20 Patriot

The Patriot League itself is surely pleased with how it fared in the college basketball realignment domino game. New additions Boston University and Loyola (Md.) are strong programs that boast rising young coaches.

The membership, however, might be exasperated for the same reasons. Just when it seemed that the Lehigh/Bucknell stronghold was breaking with the departure of Lehigh's C.J. McCollum and Bucknell's Mike Muscala, here come a pair of teams fully equipped to win the race on their first lap.

Those two new members should, however, help the previous eight in one major regard: the RPI rating. Loyola and BU would have ranked third and fourth in the PL's Back Iron Index standings. The two faced off in the first round of the CIT, with Loyola's win propelling it to the quarterfinals.

Stronger league opposition creates a tide that raises all boats come Selection Sunday. When a victory is harder to come by, the computers give greater credit, making the selection committee take greater notice.

So forgive the other eight PL members if they don't roll out the red carpet for BU and Loyola, but know that whoever takes the NCAA bid will be glad the league was stronger for the additions.

Most likely to take that bid? Read on after the jump.

EDITOR'S NOTE: We're going into Super-Condensed Team Capsule Mode in an effort to cover each conference before opening night. Apologies to our top 20's fans, but I want to get the series finished this year.

(All stats and rankings via StatSheet.com unless otherwise noted.)

Conference Calling's 2013-14 College Basketball Previews: #21 Northeast

"Martin making faces at me back there?"

Last season, three new coaches joined the Northeast Conference and made a quick mark.

LIU Brooklyn stormed to its third straight NCAA tournament under former assistant Jack Perri. Ex-Mount St. Mary's guard Jamion Christian took over at his alma mater and and won 18 games before losing to LIU in the NEC title game. Finally, Wagner hired 28-year-old Bashir Mason and watched him take the Seahawks to 19 wins.

All three inherited some decent talent, which may be more than one of this season's noobs can say. The other only has the unenviable task of replacing his program's all-time Division I scoring leader.

Lest anyone get the impression that this coaching stuff is easy, especially in the NEC, the conference might deliver two of its bench bosses a cold, hard dose of reality.

Who finishes where? How bad is the outlook for the NEC's cellar-dwellers? Why do bananas turn brown before you get them home from the market?

The answers to some of these questions will be found after the jump. For the others, Google is your homeboy. (Homesite?)

(All stats and rankings via StatSheet.com unless otherwise noted.)

Conference Calling's 2013-14 College Basketball Previews: #22 Atlantic Sun

Hey, Neo, Elektra wants her sai AND dress back.

Our last post was all about movies, and the Atlantic Sun Conference has its own movie-related issues this season. After all, the A-Sun just had its masterpiece moment, its Citizen Kane or The Godfather, when Florida Gulf Coast stormed through the conference tournament and all the way to the Sweet 16.

After a great movie in the modern film industry, there's always the pressure to deliver with a sequel. The Godfather pulled it off (once), but most franchises stumble. Looking at you here, Matrix.

It's unreasonable to expect a reprise of last season, but no one ever accuses sports fans of being rational beings. While FGCU or any other A-Sun team once again making the Big Dance's second weekend would still be a bet that the adventurous gambler could retire on, we know somebody from this conference is going to the tournament.

Who's most likely? Read on after the jump.

(All stats and rankings via StatSheet.com unless otherwise noted.)

Conference Calling's 2013-14 College Basketball Previews: #23 America East

(Warning: this post contains some teen-movie sex scenes and the occasional bared breast. If you're watching/reading at work, I'd recommend headphones and another window to click to when the boss walks by.)

A full 55.6% of the America East's current membership has never made a trip to the NCAA tournament. Six of last season's members' 16 all-time bids bolted when Boston University left for the Patriot League.

Puts the league in dire straits, right? Eh, maybe not so much.

There's a very good possibility that one of the AE's schools pops the cherry this season, and not just because those odds are so good. (Seriously, five of nine. As a comparison, the only SWAC school with no bids is Grambling.)

One of the AE's V-club has to replace one of the conference's top players, but still has the weapons to contend. Then, there's the school that returns a nearly all-junior starting lineup led by a serious Player of the Year candidate.

Finally, there's the contender that lost its NCAA virginity 10 years ago and has since turned into a raging slut, going back five times since 2003. Makes one wonder how those whores at Kentucky and Kansas have any self-respect left.

Okay, that whole metaphor made absolutely no sense, and was actually somewhat disturbing. With all apologies, let's move on before we start quantifying how many tournament wins equal a dirty Sanchez. (Answer: a lot fewer than UCLA has. They're seriously depraved in Cali.)

(All stats and rankings via StatSheet.com unless otherwise noted.)

Conference Calling's 2013-14 College Basketball Previews: #24 Horizon

If you're an Ohio-hating political junkie who thinks the Buckeye State has way too much electoral power, you won't care for the balance of power in the Horizon League.

The potential exists for Ohio-based schools Wright State, Cleveland State and Youngstown State to sweep the podium positions in the Horizon this season, thanks to multiple all-conference losses by Detroit and Valparaiso.

The most dangerous threats to the looming Ohio hegemony may come from the north, as Green Bay and Oakland return the conference's most dangerous individual talents. But do UWGB's Alec Brown and Oakland's Travis Bader have enough support?

Read on and we'll discuss.

(All statistics and rankings per StatSheet.com unless otherwise noted.)

Conference Calling's 2013-14 College Basketball Previews: #25 OVC

Pictured: Belmont (right), rest of OVC (left).

In this space last season, we expected Belmont to walk into the Ohio Valley Conference and begin running the league like a boss. Rick Byrd's club did exactly that, toppling the Fighting Canaans of Murray State and making its sixth NCAA tournament in eight years.

In the subsequent offseason, stars filed out of the league one after the other. Belmont lost all-conference backcourt duo Ian Clark and Kerron Johnson, along with steady forward Trevor Noack. Murray State lost its own backcourt, Isaiah Canaan and Stacy Wilson, along with workhorse forward Ed Daniel and his equally notorious hair. Tennessee State lost its star forward Robert Covington and two other double-digit scorers.

So, the door is open for a new boss. UT-Martin is the only OVC school that didn't lose a double-figure scorer, but are we really going to pick the Skyhawks to step up that big?

Eh, maybe not so much.

Everybody absorbed a little attrition, but who's going to react the best to their new cast of characters? Read on after the jump and see who should go dancing from the OVC.

(All statistics and rankings per StatSheet.com unless otherwise noted.)