Hoops Haven

While in Los Angeles on Thursday to accept the Wooden Award after being selected as the best player in college basketball this season, former Ohio State swingman Evan Turner made an appearance as an audience member on The Jimmy Kimmel Show.  Alongside Turner was Syracuse forward, Wes Johnson who was also in town as a finalist for the award and is also expected to declare for the NBA Draft this June.

Mr Kimmel is obviously a fan of Mark Titus, who runs the wildly popular Club Trillion website as a walk on player at Ohio State, since Jimmy introduced Turner as “The Villian” which is a term that Titus often uses to refer to Turner on his site.  Kimmel also pressed Johnson to declare for the draft, live on air, with Wes declining at this point.  Another finalist, freshman John Wall from Kentucky was supposed to accompany the two college stars, but was back on campus taking some final exams, presumably readying himself to leave Kentucky after only one season.

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With all the tension and dram filled moments of Conference Tournament Week comes a flurry of game winning buzzer beaters.  First it was D’Sean Butler’s bank shot in the Big East on Thursday, then it was Evan Turner’s 37 foot game winner in the Big Ten on Friday. 

But what about the ACC?  They also had a some excitement even though it came in warm-ups.  Virginia’s coach, Seth Greenberg hit a half court shot during his squad’s practice before their game against Virginia Tech on Wednesday.  Maybe he still has some college eligibility left?

Check out the video (courtesy of DC Sports Bog):

The Ohio State Buckeyes had tragedy strike Saturday when their leading scorer and All American candidate, Evan Turner, fell hard to the court after a dunk attempt, breaking two vertibrae. Anyone who watches the footage will surely cringe after seeing Turner fall flat on his back under the basket after his hands slipped off of the rim while attempting to hang on the rim after a breakaway dunk. The Buckeyes must feel snakebitten since for the second year in a row they lose one of their key players to injury. Last season, David Lighty sustained a foot injury in the team’s 7th game, greatly diminishing their potency in the Big 10. Turner was having a spectacular season by tallying 2 triple-doubles in the Buckeyes first few games and has his squad among the leaders in the Big 10 Conference and ranked among the nation’s Top 25 teams. He was also one of the favorites in the early season NCAA Player of the Year Rankings. It is unsure if he will return for his senior season next year or jump to the NBA because of the injury. Hoops Haven wishes him a speedy recovery.

After getting 7 NCAA Tournament bids, netting the national runner up in Michigan State, and with Penn State winning the NIT, one would think that we have seen the best of the conference for a few years. Not true………. The Big 10 could possibly get even better this year with most coaches returning virtually their entire rosters from last season. The team with possibly the biggest holes to fill is the Spartans since they lost center Goran Sutan and conference Defensive Player of the Year Travis Walton. Surely other teams like Purdue and Ohio State, as conference contenders, hope those key losses will keep them a little closer to Coach Izzo’s squad than the 4 games which State won last year. Tubby Smith helped to put the Golden Gophers back on the national scene and will only get better. Michigan could again be a sleeper since they return 7 players from last season’s NCAA Tourney squad. Bruce Weber has one of the top recruiting classes in the nation to help the Illini contend for another tournament berth. Wisconsin, Northwestern, and Penn State all have major holes to fill, while it will be interesting to see how quick Tom Crean can rebuild the once proud Indiana Hoosiers once he has his own recruits. Unfortunately, Coach Lickliter at Iowa may be on the way out since they were 11-25 in the conference the last two seasons and things don’t look good for this year.

Predicted Order of Finish

1) Michigan State

2) Purdue

3) Ohio State

4)Minnesota

5) Michigan

6) Illinois

7) Wisconsin

Northwestern

9) Penn State

10) Indiana

11) Iowa

Teams On the Rise

Michigan, Illinois, Indiana

Teams On the Decline

Wisconsin, Penn State, Iowa

Player of the Year Candidates

Evan Turner – Ohio St, Kalin Lucas – Michigan St, Robbie Hummel – Purdue

Other Big 10 Players To Watch For

Manny Harris, Jr. Michigan

Talor Battle, Jr. Penn St

Mike Davis, Jr. Illinois

Jajuan Johnson, Jr. Purdue

Kevin Coble, Jr. Northwestern

Freshmen of the Year Candidates

DJ Richardson – Illinois, Christian Watford – Indiana, Royce White – Minnesota