Happy Thanksgiving

Drive and Dish is a basketball blog, so one might expect us to be engrossed in Thanksgiving college basketball tournaments. But we've never spent much time covering college Thanksgiving basketball tournaments on this blog. Of course, since we're basketball people, Thanksgiving basketball tournaments have been part of our lives. We played in them during high school and college. We've attended several of them as spectators/fans. In general, we like Thanksgiving tournaments. They're fun. But we've never spent much time blogging about them. That's probably because Thanksgiving tournaments, fun though they may be, take place so early in the college basketball season that they're not terribly significant in the overall scheme of things.

November college basketball games are usually long-forgotten by the first week of January. By the time March Madness rolls around, November is often such a distant memory that, for most observers, Thanksgiving tournament games seem like they were played in a previous decade. So Drive and Dish no longer spends much time fretting about them (in the first two or three years of this blog, we actually did give them some attention [more here and here]).

But basketball commentary or not, it has become something of a Drive and Dish tradition to wish its readership a Happy Thanksgiving. And this year, it's no different. So Happy Thanksgiving!

On a side note, it's worth mentioning that it was once something of a Drive and Dish tradition to celebrate the opening weekend of the 'holiday season' -- one of the biggest party weekends of the year -- by posting one of Drive and Dish writer/editor Trashtalk Superstar's new DJ mixes on Thanksgiving day (Mr. Trashtalk spent several years rocking parties and clubs from behind the turntables, in addition to his many other duties). If nothing else, those uptempo house mixes served to help Drive and Dish readers shake out of their 'Black Wednesday'-induced hangovers. But last year, Drive and Dish wished its readers Thanksgiving pleasantries without posting a new DJ mix. That new 'tradition' will be extended to this year, as we have no new Thanksgiving weekend DJ mix to post. A special New Year's Eve Drive and Dish DJ mix to send 2011 out in style and welcome 2012 may not, however, be entirely out of the question. Stay tuned...

In the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving.

Drive and Dish has been on summer/post basketball season hiatus since the '10 Final Four. As a result, we haven't posted anything since April. There are a few posts from the spring and summer that we started but didn't finish which currently reside in the Drive and Dish "drafts" file. Even though they're quite dated by now, it's possible -- maybe even likely -- that they'll eventually be posted, particularly in the case of draft posts that deal with interesting or important issues which we'd like to have in our archives for future reference. In the mean time, we'll try to weigh in with some thoughts about college (and possibly NBA) basketball on a semi-regular basis .

Last year we ran a special Thanksgiving post that had utterly no content related to basketball, but which contained a brief rundown on the history of the holiday and an exclusive hour-long (plus), up-to-the-minute house music DJ mix by Drive and Dish contributor/editor Trashtalk Superstar. We don't have a new house mix to offer this year (although stay tuned -- more mixes could make their way to Drive and Dish in the not-too-distant future), but we do offer the following: our sincere wishes of a happy and blessed Thanksgiving to all our readers and their extended families.

Bradley Upsets Struggling Illinois

The Illinois Fighting Illini don't have much to be thankful about after taking part in the Las Vegas Invitational Thanksgiving tournament. Illinois entered the weekend ranked No. 20 in the AP Top 25, but after suffering back-to-back upset losses to the unranked Utah Utes and Bradley Braves in the Invitational, they'll soon be joining the ranks of the unranked themselves.

As for Bradley, Saturday night's 72-68 win over Illinois will be one to savor for some time. In the 2006 NCAA Tournament, Bradley upset Kansas and Pittsburgh and earned a trip to the Sweet Sixteen. And although Saturday's early season, neutral court, tournament win over in-state rival Illinois doesn't carry quite the weight of their upset wins in the '06 NCAA Tournament, it is, nevertheless, almost every bit as sweet for everyone involved with Bradley basketball (players, coaches, alumni, fans, athletic department staff, university administrators, etc.).

Bradley University is a Missouri Valley Conference institution with a rich basketball history. Bradley is located in Peoria, IL, approximately 85 miles from the Urbana, IL, campus of Big Ten basketball powerhouse Illinois. But although both teams represent basketball crazed schools from central Illinois, Bradley and Illinois rarely face each other on the basketball court (Bradley's last win over Illinois came in 1974). Thus, while a win over a nationally ranked opponent from a major conference would be a big win for mid-major Bradley in any circumstance, beating No. 20 Illinois gives Bradley bragging rights over a powerhouse program from down the road which effectively serves as its college basketball "big brother."

That said, there's no question that Illinois is struggling. They return three starters from a team that lost in the first round of the 2009 NCAA Tournament, but they start two freshmen in the back court. And although they cruised to easy wins over lower level Division I opponents to start the season, Illinois hadn't played a serious opponent until the weekend. Against Utah, the Illini blew a 16 point second half lead and lost the game in its final seconds. The following night, they came out flat against Bradley. Illinois coach Bruce Weber recounted in a post game interview that during his pregame talk, he told his players that Bradley would be the best team they had faced thus far in the 2009/10 season. But Weber said that players "rolled their eyes" at the statement. Against a Bradley team that wanted nothing more than to cut the legs out from under their in-state "big brother," the Illini players' collective disinterest was a recipe for disaster.

Illinois needs to regroup quickly. They play at Clemson on Wednesday in the made-for-ESPN ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Clemson is an experienced, athletic team. An upset of Clemson would likely go a long way in c0mpensating for the bad weekend in Las Vegas. Illinois must truly hope that what happened in Vegas stays in Vegas.

But that shouldn't take anything away from Bradley. It was a monumental win for the Braves. Bradley people will probably never forget how sweet it was to take down the big, bad Illini (even if they had to travel to Las Vegas to do so). At the very least, Bradley has major bragging rights in the heart of the state of Illinois. But if Illinois eventually gets their ship in order and proves to be a good team that merely experienced some early season, Thanksgiving tournament growing pains, Bradley's win over the Illini could help position them (and/or position other Missouri Valley teams -- remember, conference RPI is one of many factors which the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee weighs when selecting the NCAA Tournament field) nicely for post season consideration.

(Photo: Bradley's Milos Knezevic drives past Illinois' Dominique Keller -- AP/Laura Rauch).

Happy Thanksgiving

Drive and Dish would like to wish a happy Thanksgiving to all our readers. It's become a Thanksgiving tradition to spend the afternoon watching the moribund Detroit Lions lose another game (it doesn't matter what year it is, the Lions are always terrible), but we ask the following question: why waste the day watching bad NFL games when there's lots of good college basketball on television?

Well, whatever your sports viewing inclinations, it's always a good idea to take inventory of, and give thanks for, the things for which you are grateful (even if you're a Lions fan). Happy Thanksgiving.

(Image: the first Thanksgiving-1621).

Thanksgiving Hangover

By Mark Buckets


It’s great to be back in the fold following Thanksgiving and all that it entails - I’ll take some Alka-Selzter with a side of Pepto - along with the usual gathering of family and friends. And you also know what Thanksgiving means - LOTS and LOTS of college basketball. Ever since the NCAA abolished the hideous “2-in-4” rule - where teams were allowed to compete in only 2 exempted tournaments every 4 years - there has been an explosion of holiday events. Tournaments such as the Maui Invitational, Great Alaska Shootout (which has lost it’s luster of late) and the NIT Season Tip-off are the hallmark events of the Thanksgiving season.

Those three tournaments have blazed the trail for new tournaments to emerge. One of the newest events - and perhaps the most competitive of the young season - has been the Old Spice Classic. Don’t let the location (The Disney Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista, FL) or the arena (It’s called the Milk House for heaven’s sake) fool you. And despite low attendance, top-level basketball has been played over the past four days. The nation was introduced to a pair of prolific freshmen Michael Beasley and J.J. Hickson. How can anyone forget about Villanova and star guard Scottie Reynolds? Yes, Jay Wright ditched the Armani suits for a classic polo shirt, disappointing legions of admiring women across the country. Next year’s field is also stacked, so this tournament figures to have some staying power.

The season is progressing nicely - we all know of the bulk of early upsets - and should provide fans with more moments to remember. The kind folks at Kay Jewelers are calling and want their slogan back. I don’t feel like being sued, so I’ll give them the credit. Until we meet again…..

EDIT: (11/25/07)

Trashtalk Superstar adds:

In his most recent posts, Mark Buckets has criticized Marquette coach Tom Crean and Villanova coach Jay Price's fashion choices. Drive and Dish's editorial board has, apparently, decided to branch out beyond just talking about basketball. That's OK -- I probably should have seen the changes coming after this blog attracted national attention when I posted a couple items about college football. And, in fairness, the recent fashion talk has sparked a fair amount activity in the D&D's comments section.

So now that Mark Buckets has been promoted from basketball analyst/pundit to basketball analyst/pundit/fashion critic, I thought I'd join the party and weigh in with my two cents (and hope that maybe the editorial board will see fit to throw a promotion - and pay raise - my way, as well).

Tom Crean's windbreaker at the Maui tournament may have been questionable, but at least he didn't wear a Hawaiian shirt, as coaches always used to do at the Maui tournament. My main criticism of Crean's windbreaker is not that he wore a windbreaker, but that he didn't wear a cool enough windbreaker. A vintage 80's style Members Only windbreaker would have been hellasweet!! For future reference, if Tom Crean -- or anyone else, for that matter -- is having trouble finding a sweet 80's Members Only windbreaker, look no further: Sweet 80's Members Only Windbreaker.

But, even better than a vintage 80's style Members Only windbreaker, Tom Crean could have rocked a vintage David Hasselhoff Knight Rider windbreaker.

Better yet, if Crean had wanted to look extra cool, he'd have done well to have stayed with the Hasselhoff Knight Rider motif, but to have bypassed the windbreaker altogether-- and just gone for the full Hasselhoff Knight Rider ensemble: replete with boots, unbuttoned shirt and bitchin' leather jacket.

However, if Tom Crean had truly wanted to make a STATEMENT, he should have gone for the kick-ass Hasselhoff Knight Rider ensemble - sans the boots, pants and open shirt. Now THAT would've been SWEET!