The first week of 2012 was quite the week in the college basketball world as 15 Top 25 teams fell, and seven of these losses came to teams ranked outside of the Top 25. Needless to say, the contenders are beginning to separate themselves from those who were pretenders for much of the non-conference. The top five teams remained identical from the prior week, but there was a good deal of movement throughout the rest of the poll. Syracuse picked up seven of the eight first place votes with Kentucky nabbing the other. The Quick ‘n Dirty analysis after the jump…

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1. Over the weekend it was reported that former Pittsburgh freshman Khem Birch was going to announce on Sunday night, but after giving it a little more thought he decided to postpone his decision until today. According to reports, Birch is deciding between Florida and UNLV. Both programs would appear to be a good fit for Birch as he could potentially pair up with either Patric Young or Mike Moser for the next two seasons. We are not sure what the real reason was for Birch’s decision to leave Pittsburgh, but either school would be just about as good of a landing spot as you could hope for when you are a transfer.
2. After initially suspending Keala King for its games at USC and UCLA, Arizona State dismissed King, its starting point guard and leading scorer. Playing out of position due to Jahii Carson being academically ineligible, King averaged 13.7 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 3.7 assists per game, but as Doug Haller points out he had not fully adapted to running the team as he averaged 3.9 turnovers per game and often held the ball too long. We are assuming that was not the reason for his dismissal and the fact that the other two players (Kyle Cain and Chris Corvin) who were suspended with King remain on the team suggests that King did something in addition to his prior “unacceptable conduct” that led to his dismissal. Like Birch, King should have no shortage of suitors as he was a top-50 recruit coming out of college and plenty of Division I schools would be interested in a high-level point guard who can score and will have at least two years of eligibility remaining.
3. Less than two years after transferring from Illinois (he left the team once before deciding to rejoin them then finally leaving the school), Jeffrey Jordan has decided to transfer from UCF citing “personal reasons”. Neither Jordan nor anyone affiliated with the school has gone into further detail about what those reasons are, but this appears to be the end of his college basketball career as this was his senior year and we doubt that the NCAA would grant him another year of eligibility. It appears that his younger brother Marcus, who is the more talented of the two and leads the team with 17.2 points per game, will remain with the team. As for Jeffrey we assume he will continue working on his website along with his brother and some friends called Heir-Jordan.com and whatever other business possibilities are open to an heir.
4. Since the Crosstown Shootout Brawl Xavier has been in a freefall going from a Final Four pick by some to out of the top 25. While many people have been perplexed by the precipitous drop, Luke Winn thinks the Musketeers need to embrace their old mentality. We are sure that some people are going to take this the wrong way like they do with some of Winn’s statistical work, but in essence what he is saying that the team may have become too passive after all the criticism it received. As usual, we tend to agree with Winn on this and it reminds us of how the old Miami Hurricane football teams used to talk about playing with swagger. Playing with too much gets you in trouble by picking up fouls or penalties (or having brawls), but playing without it makes you vulnerable especially if you have grown accustomed to playing that way.
5. Looking for football analysis after the Wildcard Round of the NFL Playoffs? Well you came to the wrong place. If you were trying to get it this weekend at the Siena–Niagara game you were also out of luck. After Siena initially told fans that they would simulcast the New York Giants game on the scoreboard during their game against Niagara to enable them to follow their favorite college team and favorite NFL team and getting the green light from the local FOX affiliate, Siena was informed by the NFL that doing so would violate the league’s copyright interest so they had to cancel the promotion. As for the actual game, the Saints won 72-60 while the Giants won 24-2. Unfortunately, this could be an issue again next week as the Giants game, which starts at 4:30 PM on Saturday, will probably run into Siena’s next game, which is at Manhattan and starts at 7 PM.

This Weekend’s Lede. This was the first full weekend of conference play, and as expected, teams that hadn’t played many legitimate road games prior to the turn of the new year found life away from home in hostile environments to be considerably tougher than lacing another game up at home. It wasn’t the best of college basketball weekends, nor was it the worst, but as we begin to settle ourselves into competition within the family for the next two months, it’s time to separate legitimacy from fraudulence through actual play on the court around the nation. Let’s jump into this weekend’s action.

Your Watercooler Moment. Kentucky Student’s Half-Court Shot Causes Kroger Controversy.

Meet Vincent Swope. No, he actually isn’t an SEC official, he just plays one when he attends Kentucky basketball games at Rupp Arena. The freshman who has turned a referee getup into his game-day trademark in UK’s eRupption Zone was selected to shoot a half-court shot worth $10,000 during Saturday’s game versus South Carolina. As you can see above, his heave from mid-court was true. According to published reports, shortly after the ball found the bottom of the net and Swope ran around the court rightfully celebrating his newfound riches, a representative from Kroger Foods, the contest sponsor, approached him suggesting that he had violated the terms of the contest by stepping over the half-court line. In the pantheon of snaky moves, Kroger’s reported attempt to screw a young student out of his winnings due to a technicality would have reached a new level of shady business dealings. Luckily, Matt Jones at Kentucky Sports Radio became aware of the situation and immediately mobilized his legion of Twitter followers to #occupyKroger in an anti-corporate social networking throwdown that would make Ralph Nader and Naomi Klein proud. Within an hour of the game’s finish, Kroger had caved and in fact called Jones himself to beg for his forgiveness, asking him to pass along to Swope that the company would make good on his prize. As of Sunday evening, Swope says that he hasn’t yet received the money, but we’d wager that Kroger has learned its lesson and won’t drag their feet too long on paying him. Great work from KSR/Jones in ensuring the right outcome here.

[ed. note: Kroger reached out to us, taking the stance that the company never suggested to Swope that he would not be paid for his shot. This contradicts Swope’s accounting of the sequence of events to Matt Jones, but it appears that Kroger will in fact pay the freshman his winnings, which is all anyone wanted in the first place.]

Then, There Was This. Chris Mack Gives Up His Knee For a Xavier Win. In an exceptionally odd situation, Xavier head coach Chris Mack jumped in the layup line during Friday’s practice and, after dunking the ball once, ended up tearing his patellar tendon in a freakish accident trying to do it again. Andre Walker said afterward that Mack’s injury was “really weird… a freak accident,” and to that sentiment we certainly agree. First of all, props to Mack for trying just about anything to get his team off the schneid (XU had lost five of six before beating Fordham Saturday) and for still being able to dunk a basketball at the age of 42, but he probably should have wowed the players just once and left it at that! What a weird season it’s already been at Xavier.

Five More Weekend Storylines.

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RTC Live will be in Pittsburgh this afternoon for an Atlantic 10 matchup featuring two teams — St. Bonnie and Duquesne — looking for some traction in an unpredictable conference race.

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Bill Hupp is an RTC correspondent. You can follow him on Twitter (@Bill_Hupp). He filed this report following Pittsburgh’s loss at DePaul on Thursday.

Of all the ways for Pittsburgh to lose its fourth consecutive game, a defeat that dropped the Panthers to 0-3 in the Big East, this one had to be especially gut-wrenching for Coach Jamie Dixon to watch. Leading 81-79 with seven seconds to play, Dixon watched as DePaul spread the floor and Brandon Young took Ashton Gibbs off the dribble with his favored left hand, scored the game-tying bucket and drew a foul. It was bad enough that Pitt’s senior leader – or anyone else, for that matter – couldn’t stop Young, who got to the rim at will and finished with a game-high 26 points, but there was no help to be found, no teammate who rotated over and stepped into Young’s path. Gibbs was truly isolated, and Young made Pitt pay when he buried the go-ahead free throw and effectively, the Panthers. See the whole sequence below.

During this ugly four-game losing streak, the longest in Dixon’s nine years at the helm, the uncharacteristic has become quite common. Dixon’s teams are usually poised and good at winning close games, but three of their four defeats have come by five points or fewer. On Thursday night, Pitt frittered away a double-digit lead in the second half with careless turnovers and poor defense, allowing DePaul to score 53 points on almost 60% shooting.

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Brian Otskey is the Big East correspondent for RTC and a regular contributor. You can find him @botskey on Twitter. See bottom of the post for the Official RTC Star System.

There are plenty of games to watch over the next few days but these five from the Big East, Big 12 and Big Ten are the best of the bunch:

#9 Georgetown @ West Virginia – 12:00 PM EST Saturday on ESPN FullCourt/ESPN3.com (***)

• Now 13-1 with one of the better resumes in the nation, Georgetown seems to be a legitimate Big East title contender despite some question marks on its roster. The Hoyas have scored two big road wins already, at Alabama and Louisville, and this would be another one in the always tough WVU Coliseum. Jason Clark scored 26 points in the Hoyas’ 17-point comeback against Marquette on Wednesday night and the senior guard will look to lead his team on the road yet again. Georgetown will have to win this game with inside play and defense. The Hoyas shoot a high percentage inside the arc and they’ll be going up against a WVU defense that’s ranked #87 in the same area of the floor. With Clark, Hollis Thompson and Henry Sims able to score inside, Georgetown has a clear edge in that department.
• Truck Bryant had 29 points in Wednesday’s win at Rutgers to move WVU to 2-1 in Big East play. Along with his freshmen guard teammates, Bryant will have to keep the basketball away from a Georgetown defense that ranks #15 in efficiency. The Mountaineers won’t get many easy looks so they can’t be turning the ball over against the Hoyas. WVU averages 15 turnovers per game. The Mountaineers do make 53.2% of their field goals inside the arc but they’ll be challenged by the stout Georgetown defense. Kevin Jones and Deniz Kilicli have to be major factors in the paint but Jones also has to be able to stretch his game to mid-range and beyond in order to open up some looks inside. In addition, West Virginia has to do a terrific job on the offensive boards. It’s not likely that the Mountaineers will be draining a high percentage of their deep shots so they must rebound aggressively and get second chance buckets.
• West Virginia has won the last four games between these teams and both shot lights out earlier this week against Rutgers (WVU) and Marquette (GT). The Hoyas, despite going only 13-23 from the charity stripe on Wednesday, have a big edge at the foul line should this game come down to the wire, which it very well could. Georgetown is the better team but West Virginia can win with better defense and Bryant staying hot. We’d be surprised if this game isn’t close.

The Dynamic Kim English Is Just One Of Several Players To Keep An Eye Out For When The Tigers Tangle With Kansas State (columbiatribune)

#6 Missouri @ #21 Kansas State – 1:30 PM EST Saturday on ESPN FullCourt/ESPN3.com (****)

• Missouri’s first big test has arrived. The Tigers have been phenomenal so far this season but they will face a stiff challenge in Manhattan from an angry Kansas State team coming off a blowout loss to Kansas. Mizzou was 1-7 on the road last season in Big 12 play and that has to be in the back of the players’ minds as they head into this contest. Frank Haith’s four guard lineup is ranked second in offensive efficiency and shot 59.3% from the floor in an evisceration of Oklahoma earlier this week. Missouri is top 10 in three-point, two-point and free throw percentage on the strength of Kim English’s resurgence, Marcus Denmon, Michael Dixon and company. This is arguably the best back court in college basketball but it needs to have poise playing on the road in front of what will be a raucous crowd at the Octagon of Doom. Read the rest of this entry »

Zach Hayes is an editor, contributor and bracketologist for Rush the Court.

So much has changed since the beginning of November around college basketball. Our expectations for Georgetown, Indiana and Missouri have skyrocketed while our perceptions of Pittsburgh, Memphis and the entire Pac-12 have dipped considerably. Doug McDermott has emerged as a player of the year candidate while Tu Holloway slipped from preseason All-American to a “gangsta” at the forefront of a Xavier collapse. Ben Howland’s seat is rising in temperature while any notions of Brad Stevens moving in-state to Bloomington have been extinguished.

As conference schedules get underway and teams become more and more exposed, expect to learn even more over the next two-plus months. Here are ten predictions that I believe will come to fruition by the time the nets are cut down in April:

Thomas Robinson will win national player of the year- Preseason favorite Jared Sullinger could win it, but I can’t pinpoint one area where Sullinger is superior to Robinson. The Kansas big man can face up and hit from mid-range, has an unquenchable motor, dominates down low, snatches every rebound in his vicinity, blocks shots, has an NBA-ready body and is light years ahead of Sullinger defensively. I’d draft Robinson first overall in next year’s draft and not think twice about it. Given Kansas’ erratic guard play and total lack of depth, he’s been incredibly valuable to the Jayhawks push for an eighth straight Big 12 regular season title. As long as he stays near his 18/12 averages and top-20 offensive rating, expect Robinson to edge Sullinger, Barnes, McDermott, Lamb, Denmon, Pope or any of the other candidates for the esteemed honor.

Three Pac-12 teams will dance: Cal, Arizona and Washington, none higher than a #9 seed- Cal is the most steady team in the league, can really shoot it from outside and boast a legitimate leader in Jorge Gutierrez to keep the Bears on track. Minnesota transfer Justin Cobbs (29.3 MPG, 12.4 PPG, 17-25 from three) has provided a welcomed scoring punch at the combo guard alongside Allen Crabbe. If Harper Kamp can stay on the floor to solidify a thin frontcourt, Cal should win this downtrodden league. Despite accomplishing nothing of note during non-conference play, expect Arizona to string together enough wins to finish second behind a balanced scoring attack. Sean Miller’s teams usually peak when the chips are down in February and March. We’ve seen Washington excel on neutral floors in years past. Look for the Huskies to finally put their superior talent to good use, claim the Pac-12 tournament crown and make another March push.

Murray State will receive no higher than a #5 seed regardless of record- I’d never bet on any college basketball team finishing the campaign unblemished, but Murray State has as good of a chance as any recent candidate. Not only do they play in the low-major Ohio Valley, but the league as a whole is much less competitive than in recent seasons; for example, preseason favorite Austin Peay is 3-12 and has already lost twice in conference play. Because of their lackluster strength of schedule, this is a much different situation than when Drake went deep into February with one loss in 2008 or even St. Joe’s undefeated run to the Atlantic 10 Tournament in 2004. The Racers only non-conference wins of note are Memphis, Dayton and Southern Mississippi. I expect them to lose once their 45% team three-point percentage dips down to earth, but even at 30-0 after the OVC Tournament, Murray State doesn’t deserve a seed any better than a #5 seed.

Saint Louis, not Temple or Xavier, will win the Atlantic 10- This prediction made much more sense before Wednesday when Temple played their best 40 minutes of the season in an upset win over Duke and St. Louis slipped in their A-10 opener at Dayton. Xavier may be the most talented team in the league and they still have two months to straighten their ship, but I trust Rick Majerus’ Billikens more than any other unit. St. Louis ranks 14^th in defensive efficiency, shoots it well from both inside and beyond the arc and boasts a steady, playmaking point guard in Kwamain Mitchell to team with Brian Conklin and Cody Ellis. With St. Joe’s and Dayton overachieving, the A-10 (and both the MVC and WCC) could still some bids from the lackluster soft middle of major conferences.

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1. Seth Davis dug a little deeper into the newest report over the weekend that Saint Joseph’s could not talk about Todd O’Brien until he waived his student-privacy rights and found that despite the school’s initial report it appears that they would not discuss the case even if O’Brien did waive his privacy rights, which is interesting because they seemed to indicate they would when we talked to them over the weekend. Several media members have talked with O’Brien asking if he would be willing to call the school’s bluff and waive his rights. Although O’Brien says he wants to waive his privacy rights he also is hiding behind the legal system in a way as he states that he will not waive his right due to his lawyer advising him not to do so. Like Seth we are willing to acknowledge that while it is probably sound legal advice in general, it is an awful public relations strategy. Todd can hide behind legal advice, but with his decision not to mention the computer theft issue in his original column there will continue to be at least a small portion of the public that will hesitate to support O’Brien in his quest for a graduate student transfer waiver without the full story being out there.
2. Mississippi lost its leading scorer yesterday when it dismissed Dundrecous Nelson following his arrest at 1:24 AM on Wedneday after he was caught smoking marijuana. Nelson, who was averaging 11.6 points per game despite coming off the bench for the past 10 games, was expected to play an even bigger role on a team that lost much of its scoring from last season. Little-used reserve guard Jamal Jones was also arrested and kicked off the team. According to team sources, both players also reportedly failed multiple drug tests. The Rebels will need to find another offensive weapon quickly as they start SEC play on Saturday.
3. Arizona State suffered a big blow before their game at USC last night when they announced that three players (starters Keala King and Kyle Cain and backup guard Chris Colvin) had been suspended for “unacceptable conduct”. We have not heard any more information on what these players did (or if their “unacceptable conduct” was related) or how long the suspensions will be. What we do know at this point is that the suspensions left the 4-9 Sun Devils with just six scholarship players for their trip to Los Angeles this weekend with last night’s game at USC followed by a game at UCLA tomorrow. We suspect that these three will be back soon (maybe even on Sunday), but despite their win over a USC team that is an even bigger mess with the Sun Devils falling apart around him you have to wonder how much longer Herb Sendek will continue to be the coach there.
4. John Calipari spoke out yesterday against a legislative proposal that would require Kentucky to play Louisville every year in men’s basketball and football. Prior to speaking at a lunch, Calipari said, “”I would hope they (lawmakers) don’t think I need help scheduling. I hope they have more important things to do.” When questioned about it later the bill’s sponsor claimed that the proposal was just to generate interest for in the bill’s primary purpose of improving education in the state. Apparently, he felt that he needed to use college sports to get the state to care about education. While we find it amusing (and somewhat disheartening) that he had to resort to the Kentucky-Louisville rivalry to get attention some of the figures listed in the article about graduation rates within the state’s university system are shocking.
5. In the latest installment of their weekly power rankings Luke Winn takes a look at foul rates for some top interior players as well as a variety of stats including the always controversial Kentucky defensive stats while Mark Titus offers his various musings about college basketball. Winn provides his usual insightful statistical analysis with great visuals to help those whose eyes tend to glaze when presented with a bunch of numbers. On the other hand, Titus appears to be trying his hand at being a serious journalist as you will notice there are not quite as many anecdotes and he repeatedly mentions watching a game multiple times, but we are just having a hard time adjusting to the new Club Trillion as a serious basketball journalist especially when he makes comments like Perry Jones being the best player in the Big 12 while completely ignoring Thomas Robinson.

Evan Jacoby is an RTC columnist and contributor. You can find him @evanjacoby on Twitter. Night Line will run on weeknights during the season, highlighting a major storyline development from that day’s slate of games.

Indiana won another game on Thursday night over a ranked opponent, when Tom Crean’s team knocked off No. 15 Michigan, 73-71, at home in Bloomington. Christian Watford (25 points), Cody Zeller (18 points), and the rest of the Hoosiers will get all the credit for another signature victory, but it was an extremely tough effort by the visiting team that warrants even more attention. In the raucous Assembly Hall environment, Michigan trailed by 15 points but John Beilein’s team responded to the adversity with impressive poise and came back to tie the game late in the second half. While the feel-good story of Indiana’s resurgence will dominate the Big Ten storylines, and with good reason, don’t forget about the Wolverines’ resolve in this game that could be a key component to determining who the better team is by the end of the season.

Indiana and Michigan Played a Tight Game in Bloomington; Who's the Better Team? (AP Images)

There is so much to like about Tom Crean’s team, which features one of the top resumes in the entire country to date. They have wins over Kentucky and Ohio State, who were ranked No. 1 and 2, respectively, at the time of the games. Those wins alone are enough to signify that Hoosier basketball is officially back. IU scores 82 points per game, ninth in the nation, with the top three-point shooting percentage in the land (45.6%), adding up to the fourth-most efficient offense in the country. But IU has done all its major damage on their electric home court, aided by die-hard fans who have waited years for the Hoosier renaissance. Assembly Hall has become the new Kohl Center of the Big Ten, as every team that’s entered its domain this year has exited with a loss. Having an explosive offense, accurate three-point shooters, and a tremendous home court advantage helps make this team one of the most exciting stories of the year.

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When it comes to the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (key word: Entertainment) and its various offshoots, very little surprises us anymore. The network’s original programming jumped the Fonzie many moons ago, and the self-promotional brand of reporting that it favors does little to hide its mouse-eared shamelessness. Still, a recent article published on ESPNHS, the online arm’s boy’s high school basketball blog, shows that the company will not stop until it reaches the salacious bottom of the content barrel, no doubt populated with the remains of Nancy Grace’s bob haircut and Geraldo Rivera’s bathtub gin. In a piece written by someone they call “Recruit X,” ostensibly an elite recruit coveted by numerous top programs around the country, the player seeks “to keep it 100 percent real” in sharing with us the “truth about what goes on in the life of a heavily-recruited high school basketball player.” If you ever imagined that on-campus visits were like what Jesus Shuttlesworth (played by Ray Allen) experienced in a notorious scene of Spike Lee’s film, He Got Game, well, you aren’t the only one.

Next week on ESPNHS: Young, misunderstood kid is picked up on the side of the road by blonde southern woman who takes him into her home and develops him into an elite ballplayer in a nefarious scheme to get him to play at Ole Miss

When we got back to the dorms, the players had girls set up for us. If you’ve ever seen the movie “He Got Game” then you’ll understand better, but there were three of us and there were three girls there for us. We’d never met these girls before, but they were there for us. I won’t go into all the details, but let’s just say we had a great time with them and they were saying the whole time that we should come to the school and it could be like this all the time. I was loving it, personally. I’m not gonna front. What guy my age and in my position wouldn’t love that?

Real or fake? Who knows, and who cares? The sole reason for this particular endeavor is to get fans of rival schools in the comments to troll back and forth about which school offered Recruit X his companions, and as a result, drive up page views. As of this writing, Baylor, Kentucky, Ohio State, UCLA… even Duke was mentioned. Not that it matters a whit, because ESPN isn’t going to out the player (assuming he even exists at all), and there’s no actual there there anyway. ESPN.com has arguably more resources available to its writers than any other online entity in sports, and instead of taking the Yahoo! Sports tack of actual investigations into the corruption of high school and collegiate sports at all levels, they’d rather come up with gimmicky tell-all diaries from “recruits” who don’t actually tell us anything substantial at all.

Players are introduced to young women? Taken to clubs? Given a beer or two? WHO KNEW?!?! How about asking Recruit X, since he’s completely anonymous, to drop dime on the school that offered these things to him? How about getting another Recruit X, the football version, to give up the name and details of the coach that offered him a car “as a little joke?” Why does he care — he’s anonymous, AND he says he’s wasn’t going to matriculate there anyway? It’s all such garbage, and ESPNHS should be ashamed of itself for rolling this unintelligent tripe out there. In the media environment we live in, it’s much easier to be a hater than to laud someone for their efforts, but hey WWL, we’re just keeping it real.

(h/t @KansasSports for alerting us to this article)