ESPN’s 24-hour college basketball gimmick is over.  We saw a lot of bad basketball, as early season college hoops is often times painful to watch.  We saw a few highly-ranked teams tested by foes that were thought to be inferior.  We saw a team win what may be their only win of the season.  And we saw a couple of highly-rated teams show their true colors.  Here’s our take on the top five things we learned yesterday.

5. Jerry Wainright is a dead man walking at DePaul.

The DePaul Blue Demons used to be a basketball power.  They are anything but right now.  Last night, the DePaul eked out a 59-53 win against Columbia, a middle of the road Ivy League squad, in the first game of the season for both teams.  The Blue Demons were coming off a season where they failed to win a single Big East game, and they look to be even worse this year without leading scorer Dar Tucker, who left the school after just two years to enter the NBA Draft, but went undrafted.  Another year at the bottom of the Big East will likely spell doom for Wainright, who has not restored the DePaul program to prominence by any means.  It will be interesting to see which coach will take a chance on leading a program that has gone from being a sleeping giant to just asleep.

4. Georgetown will not be an NCAA tournament team, but Temple might.

Georgetown defeated Temple 46-45 yesterday on a last-second shot by Greg Monroe, the preseason Big East Player of the Year.  That was an exciting ending to what had been a truly dreadful game.  But watching that game, we noticed a few things.  Temple was getting good shots and missing them.  Georgetown was not getting good shots at all and they have absolutely no outside presence to keep teams from focusing on Monroe exclusively.  If the Hoyas are not able to find somebody who can somewhat consistently knock down an outside shot, they will once again be on the outside looking in come March.  Temple on the other hand showed that they can play defense, and in the second half, their offense looked a lot smoother. They have a murderous out of conference schedule, but a few wins there and a good showing in the Atlantic 10 could have them dancing again in March.

3. The most important part of any game against Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium is the first four minutes.

The most important thing when playing Duke at Cameron is not to play scared.  Charlotte played terrified last night against the Blue Devils and were blown out early. Charlotte was down 17-4 at the first media timeout, rendering the rest of the game as little more than a formality.  This is not a vintage Duke team.  They are big, but they have quickness issues that will show throughout the year when they play more athletic teams.  They don’t have a point guard, and they don’t really have an inside presence that can score in the post.  But they can win games on reputation alone if their opponents let them, and Charlotte did just that on Tuesday night. (more…)