Paradise Jam

What kind of spoon is that?  Jellyspoon?

Okay, so the Hoos are down in the Virgin Islands, set for this weekend's Paradise Jam.  View the bracket, HERE.

Today's opponent - TCU - is the kind of team that won't help your RPI if you win, but will kill your RPI if you lose.  (And no, it's not too early to be thinking about RPI, not when it's an NCAA Tournament or Bust season; the bubble is always on my mind.)  Perhaps more importantly, losing to TCU means we will not be playing a televised game this weekend, whereas a win over the Frogs puts us on the tube twice.  So we need to win today.  It's paramount.

The Frogs feature former VPI pest Hank Thorns, former UVA recruit Kyan Anderson, an army of sawed-off 6-6, 6-7 type forwards, and about 500 JUCO transfers.  It's a loose-built team of mercenaries that lacks much in the way of outside shooting.  We should have an advantage over this team in three main areas: 1) Team cohesiveness, 2) Shooting, and 3) Size/rebounding.  I won't jinx us by saying this should be an easy win... but... if we're the kind of team we think we are, this should be an easy win.

If we lose, we're dumped into a loser's bracket which might set up such barnburners as Virginia vs. Norfolk State, and Virginia vs. Ole Miss.  But we won't focus on that.

Instead, we'll just say we win tonight, and advance to Sunday in what is almost certain to be a game against Drexel.  The Dragons don't move the needle on name recognition, but this is a very solid team.  Drexel went 21-10 and 11-7 in the CAA last season -- the same conference that sent a team to the Final Four.  The Dragons return their top six players from a damn strong team, and are an incredibly dangerous draw for anyone in Paradise.  A loss wouldn't be an RPI-crusher, but a win would be a bright spot on our Tournament resumé.  A nice opportunity for us to get tested against a quality team.

If we beat Drexel - a big IF - we'd then advance to the Jampionship game against what will probably be Marquette, who faces a bit of a cakewalk on their side of the bracket.  The Golden Eagles are currently the #21 team in the country, and beating them to win this tournament would most likely put a number beside our name.  So yeah, it's a big deal.

Marquette was a Sweet Sixteen team last year, and this year's team might be even better.  Three starters return, including All-Big East candidate Darius Johnson-Odom, who is a deadly three-point shooter who also excels at penetrating and scoring.  The Golden Eagles are loaded with talent, but their achilles heel is a tendency to get a little sloppy on the defensive end.  A great team, but beatable if we play our A+ game.

This is going to be a blast!  GO HOOS!