Last night I went to the Jimmy V Classic, an annual college hoops double-header at Madison Square Garden. This was the third year in a row that I attended this underrated event. There’s always good teams involved and I call it ‘underrated’ because there’s never that many people in attendance. You can buy $10 nose-bleed tickets and move to center-court with no problem. Not a bad price to watch two good games in nice seats at “the world’s most famous arena”.
This year’s edition certainly lived up to the usual standards. In this Year of the Freshman (as some have dubbed the ’07-’08 season), last night’s games featured three of the very best first-year players: Kansas State’s Michael Beasley going against Notre Dame in the first game and USC’s O.J. Mayo doing battle with Memphis and Derrick Rose in the night-cap.
Kansas St. vs. Notre Dame
The 6’9″ Beasley is emerging as the poster boy for the Year of the Freshman. He came into last night’s game leading the nation in scoring (26.7/game) and rebounding (15.1/game), leading many to give him the obvious but appropriate nickname of “Beast-ley”. He didn’t have one of his best games last night, as Notre Dame had him constantly double-teamed, and sometimes triple-teamed when he caught the ball in the post. Of course, he still scored 19 points and pulled down 13 rebounds, but he was an unspectacular 8-20 from the field and had 5 turnovers.
Beasley is similar in size and skill-set to Toronto Raptors forward Chris Bosh. He has good low-post moves, especially for an 18-year-old, can hit jump shots, and is a monster on the glass. Bosh may be the superior shot-blocker, but Beasley can do that as well and he is more advanced offensively at this stage of his career than Bosh was as a college freshman. He is also, like Bosh, left-handed.
All the focus was on Beasley and K-State coming in, but Notre Dame ended up pulling off the minor upset. For the first seven minutes of the game, Beasley was overshadowed by the Irish’s young big man, sophomore Luke Harangody. He was dominant early and had 11 points and 7 rebounds when he came out for a breather at the 13:00 minute mark of the first-half. Harangody doesn’t look like much of an athlete (i.e. wide-bodied white guy with a crew-cut), but he uses his size well, has a soft-touch, and can score with both hands inside. He finished with 19 points and 14 rebounds.
The other main contributor for the Irish was point guard Kyle McAlarney, a Staten Island native who had plenty of fan support at the Garden. McAlarney struggled in the first-half, probably feeling the pressure from the hometown crowd, but he played great in the second-half and scored Notre Dame’s last nine points of the game to secure the 68-59 win.
USC vs. #2 Memphis
Coming in, this one had all the makings of great game, with two of the most purely talented teams in the country facing off. What actually transpired was, well, not a great game. In fact, for the first 34 minutes or so of game action, it was one of the ugliest college basketball games I’ve ever seen. It was one ill-advised pass or shot after another and even the open shots were clanging off iron, but with about 6 minutes to play, the game did pick up and both teams started to play as expected. The game actually got exciting for a bit, going into overtime, before the level of play reverted back to earlier levels and Memphis pulled out the 62-58 win. 
I’ll give at least some credit to the defensive efforts by both teams, particularly to Mayo, who basically owned Rose on defense, and USC point guard Daniel Hackett, who did a great job on Memphis’s leading scorer, Chris Douglas-Roberts. Rose and Douglas-Roberts, who combined were averaging nearly 40 points a game, had combined for 2 points at half-time and 14 at the end of regualtion. They also combined to shoot 7-22 from the field and turn the ball over 9 times. Not good.
As my BroadStreetBelievers colleague pointed out in his College Hoops Preview, Memphis’s downfall may be their inability to shoot the 3. That shortcoming was painfully evident last night. It’s hard for me to imagine a team winning the national championship when not a single one of their five starters can make a 3-pointer. Their starting five last night was a combined 0-7 on 3’s. I think John Calipari may have to consider putting Willie Kemp into the starting line-up in place of Antonio Anderson and giving Doneal Mack more minutes off the bench. Both Kemp and Mack are capable long-range shooters.
For USC, they can expect to win a lot of games this year thanks to the backcourt duo of Hackett and Mayo. Everyone knows that Mayo can score, but he also showed last night that he can defend and pass, as well. He also has a presence on the court and looks like a team leader already. Star forward Taj Gibson, a Brooklyn native, had a rough night, with just 5 points and 5 turnovers. Another USC player to watch is freshman forward Davon Jefferson, who had 12 points and 13 rebounds. He is a freakish athlete who had the highlight of the game with a reverse alley-oop jam, in traffic, on a pass from Mayo.
