With the first weekend of major conference action upon us, we’re back with another weekend edition of Boom Goes the Dynamite.  The idea behind this is that we’ll update after each three-hour (or so) block of games with some instant analysis on what we’ve seen so far today.  So here goes…

• Georgetown Moves to 1-3 We’ve been touting Georgetown for most of the early part of this season, but it’s obvious that the Hoyas have some serious identity problems at the halfway mark. By that, we mean that they have to find a way to succeed when Chris Wright is off his game. Wright had a miserable shooting day in today’s loss against West Virginia (65-59), going 3-13 from the field, including 1-7 from three. The other problem is that they have to learn how to finish games. Four straight turnovers at the end of the game doomed the Hoyas, but losing the battle on the offensive glass 15-4 and coughing up 18 turnovers will ruin you every time, too. Even the effort of Jason Clark (16/6) couldn’t offset the poor play of Wright and Austin Freeman today. Casey Mitchell continued his excellence for the Mountaineers (28 pts on 10-18) and showed that WVU will be a force in the Big East this year despite very little early season talk about them.
• Upset Saturday? Looks like we have a little bit of an Upset Saturday brewing. Oklahoma State beats Kansas State by 14, right as people were starting to regain a little confidence in the Wildcats. What’s odd is that OSU was able to win despite showing just 40.4% and 2-10 from three. The defense was the story here for the Cowboys, snagging eleven steals and forcing 21 turnovers. KSU only got production fron two players, namely Jacob Pullen (20/5, but on 4-11 from the field) and Rodney McGruder (19/6 on 7-11). Oklahoma State showed up in force, placing four players in double-figures, led by reserve Jan-Paul Olukemi’s tasty double-double of 22/11 on an efficient 7-9 from the field. At 13-2 and a win over a ranked K-State team, you’ll see Oklahoma State grab some votes this week.
• MSU Continues to Lapse.  We’re trying, Tom Izzo. We’ve defended your Michigan State squad pretty loudly this year. We know that you guys usually save the best for last. But it’s getting tougher. Yes, life on the road during conference play is tough, especially in the Big Ten. But if we’re going to keep backing you, you have to pull out games like this one you just dropped at Penn State (66-62). Talor Battle drilled a jumper with 18 seconds to seal the win for the Lions, who put four players in double figures, as opposed to Sparty’s two. Looks like there’s a little road team virus going around the country this weekend.
• Another Top Ten Loses.  If you require further evidence for that diagnosis, we give you Missouri, who got shelled, 89-76, at Colorado. Of course when Alec Burks loses his mind on you with 36/8, where you’re playing matters a lot less. The Buffs owned the Tigers on the boards, 46-31, and the Missouri defense, known for forcing opponents into frustrated turnovers, could only coax 11 out of Colorado. Not a bad way to start your final Big 12 campaign, Buffaloes.

Game #96.  RTC Live visits the RBC Center for the first time this year as Wake Forest travels east to play its old-time rival.

Wake Forest is traveling to the RBC Center to take on in-state rival NC State in the conference opener for both squads.  NC State has had a difficult season so far, largely thanks to the untimely injury to senior star Tracy Smith.  The good news for Wolfpack fans is that this is Smith’s third game back, so he should steadily be returning to his pre-injury form.  Freshmen studs CJ Leslie, Ryan Harrow and Lorenzo Brown alongside sharpshooter Scott Wood round out the rest of NC State’s starting five.  I think Smith’s impact will probably be more indirect, as he will force Wake’s defense to collapse and double team him in the post, leaving State’s shooters open from the perimeter.  So far Brown, Leslie and Harrow especially have struggled from beyond the arc, but I suspect Smith’s presence will get them much easier shots.  On the other side of the floor, Wake Forest is having a nightmarish season.  The Demon Deacons have looked absolutely horrendous coming out of the gate, and coach Jeff Bzdelik will need a phenomenal game out of JT Terrell if Wake wants to have any chance at all.  Right now they’re struggling to win at home, much less in a hostile environment.  But conference rivalries tend to bring out the best in down teams, so I fully expect this to be a better game than it looks on paper.

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Game #95.  Everyone’s favorite Big East Team That Could visits Pitt on a chilly winter day in Three Rivers City.

Welcome to a snowy January Saturday in Pittsburgh at the Petersen Events Center, home of the University of Pittsburgh Panthers. Today’s Big East matchup should be like most of the others these days: A battle down to the bitter end. Pitt at home is almost impossible to beat, but Marquette isn’t going to just lie down. Their four losses are by a combined 14 points, including a five-point loss to Duke and a one-point nail biter to Vanderbilt. Pitt is almost unbeatable itself; one of the best performances of the year by Tennessee upended the home court winning streak by the Panthers. Sit back and relax, because one thing is for sure, you can be guaranteed a great game between two teams that have a lot to prove in the Big East, and they will be putting everything on the floor they have today. Plus, it’s cold outside, there’s no better place to be than watching college basketball right now.

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Game #94.  RTC Live is back at the Rock to see what the Orange are made of traveling on the road in the Big East.

What a difference seven weeks can make. Seton Hall brought back a roster packed with talented veterans and a disciplined head coach. They may have dropped a close road game to A-10 powerhouse Temple, but they played to the last possession and followed it with a huge home win over 2010 Ivy League champion Cornell. Then things started to go bad for Coach Kevin Willard, in his first year at the head of the Seton Hall program. A broken wrist sidelined “anytime, anywhere” scoring threat Jeremy Hazell, a longer than expected rehabilitation period limited all purpose forward/center Herb Pope’s effectiveness and the unexpected transfer of promising sophomore forward Ferrakohn Hall thinned the front court reserves even further. The Pirates could not hold halftime leads over A-10 teams Dayton and Richmond at the end of December, and have stumbled to a 1-2 start in Big East Conference play, leaving the rookie head coach with many more questions than answers. For Syracuse, the season started with a rookie of the year whose learning curve was far longer than anticipated, a slew of complementary players who would be tasked with filling the leadership (and scoring…) roles vacated by the departed Wesley Johnson, Andy Rautins and Arinze Onuaku. Scoop Jardine, Rick Jackson, Brandon Triche and Kris Joseph had prospered in Coach Boeheim’s team-oriented 2-3 zone defense and in the offensive shadows of the departed stars, but were they ready to step up? The Orange swept Michigan and Georgia Tech aside to win the Legends Classic in Atlantic City and then beat (then) #7 Michigan State in the Jimmy V. Classic at Madison Square Garden. The Orange have charged out to a 2-0 start in Big East Conference play, heading it seems, in a very different direction than the Pirates. Seton Hall, led by Herb Pope, Jeff Robinson, Keon Lawrence and Jordan Theodore will try to turn their season around as they face off against Rick Jackson, Kris Joseph and Scoop Jardine. Join RTC Live as we blog Syracuse at Seton Hall, Saturday at noon from the Rock in downtown Newark, New Jersey.

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Game #93.  RTC Live returns to the Verizon Center in downtown DC for a Big East tilt involving two teams needing a win.

Georgetown and West Virginia square off here at the Verizon Center in an early morning (well, early for a Saturday morning) tip. Both the Hoyas and the Mountaineers come into this one on a bit of a slide. Georgetown is just 1-2 in Big East play. To be fair, they have lost on the road to Notre Dame and St. John’s, neither of which look like bad losses right now. But throw in the loss to Temple from November 30th, and the Hoyas have not looked like the team that I saw cleverly called the best in the Big East two weeks ago.  West Virginia, on the other hand, just has not looked like the team we expected. They are also just 1-2 in league play, that win being a two point victory at DePaul. The Mountaineers have also lost at home to St. John’s and Providence. Its not necessarily a talent issue with WVU as much as a chemistry problem; this team doesn’t look like they understand how to play together or what exactly Bobby Huggins is asking of them.  This should be a dandy to start your day off with. No one whats to go 1-3 to start the Big East season.

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***** – quit your job and divorce your wife if that’s what it takes to watch this game live
**** – best watched live, but if you must, tivo and watch it tonight as soon as you get home
*** – set your tivo but make sure you watch it later
** – set your tivo but we’ll forgive you if it stays in the queue until 2013
* – don’t waste bandwidth (yours or the tivo’s) of any kind on this game

Brian Otskey is an RTC contributor.

The first big hoops weekend of 2011 features many important games across the land. Here are five key games followed by a host of others. All rankings from RTC and all times eastern.

Cleveland State @ Butler – 7 pm Friday on ESPNU (****)

With Butler’s loss at Milwaukee on Monday, folks in the Horizon League used to the Bulldogs’ dominance are excited that this may be the year someone else takes the title. Cleveland State leads the league by a game over Detroit and Wright State while holding a one and a half game lead over Butler heading into tonight’s game. Should the Vikings win on the road tonight and plow through the rest of their Horizon schedule, expect to see Cleveland State win the league. Obviously we’re a long way off from that but CSU is currently in a nice position. Butler’s problems have been on the defensive end. The Bulldogs have given up an average of 73.6 PPG in their losses while their defensive efficiency has dropped significantly from their top five ranking of a year ago.

The Bulldogs Need Mack Back On Track Tonight, And From Now On

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The NCAA has issued the final ruling regarding the eligibility of Kentucky recruit Enes Kanter, saying in a statement today that the “new information” issued by Kentucky to the NCAA Reinstatement Committee “did not change the original statement of facts agreed to by the university and the NCAA.” Kanter is therefore permanently ineligible and will not play college basketball. The NCAA statement confirms that this is the final appeal.

Enes Kanter Is Permanently Ineligible To Play College Basketball, According to the NCAA

The “new information” Kentucky based its request for a re-hearing on was the NCAA’s recent decision to let Auburn quarterback and Heisman Trophy-winner Cam Newton play after it was revealed that Newton’s father had shopped his son to at least one program for around $200,000. The NCAA essentially felt that because Cam evidently didn’t know about any of that, he was free of any guilt and his eligibility was to remain intact. By saying that the “new information” submitted by Kentucky “did not change” anything, the NCAA is saying that they see no parallels between those two situations.

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

With the exception of assorted non-conference games dotting the schedule over the next two months, this weekend marks the moment where every team is participating in the rough-and-tumble world of conference play. From the SEC to the ACC to the Ivy League, dodging superior opponents is no longer an option (here’s looking at you Cincinnati) and the games where tournament portfolios and expected seeding begin to take shape is officially upon us. As we venture into this exciting time in the season, let’s quickly take a look back at who did themselves a favor during the all-important pre-conference portion of their schedule and who has plenty of treacherous work ahead to build enough of an argument for NCAA Tournament inclusion:

Thompson tested his Hoyas and it paid off

Winners

Connecticut- Although there’s no shame in losing at Pittsburgh and Notre Dame, especially since the youthful Huskies only trailed by single digits late in each contest, there’s a growing sentiment that Connecticut’s reminiscing of their November performance in Maui will last until mid-March when the selection committee makes their final decisions. The Huskies will be referencing their early season, RPI top-50 triumphs over Missouri Valley favorite Wichita State, Michigan State and Kentucky for most of the campaign. If the Huskies can conjure up more production from their supporting cast surrounding POY contender Kemba Walker, there’s plenty of quality win opportunities that lie ahead in the once again loaded Big East. Walker donning the Superman cape in Maui gave Connecticut an upper hand in the resume department that few other teams can match.

San Diego State- The Aztecs simply took care of business in non-conference play, using a statement win at Gonzaga (where the Zags almost never falter) as a catapult to an undefeated mark prior to opening MWC play on Wednesday with a win at TCU. San Diego State didn’t just rest on their laurels following the Gonzaga win, either. Instead, they quickly turned around and won three in Oxford, Ohio. Steve Fisher’s squad also returning to San Diego and notched victories over expected NCAA teams Wichita State and Saint Mary’s. The Aztecs can add to their impressive portfolio with wins over BYU, UNLV and New Mexico in conference play. A #2 seed is very attainable.

Georgetown- John Thompson tested his team with just as much vigor as any top-notch major conference school and currently boast the #1 RPI in the nation as a result. Thompson challenged the Hoyas with four true or semi-neutral road games against esteemed competition, winning at CAA favorite Old Dominion, throttling Memphis at FedEx Forum and downing Missouri in Kansas City, just an hour or so from Columbia. Georgetown also faltered at Temple and in two early Big East road games against Notre Dame and St. John’s, all excusable defeats. All of these competitive road games should prepare the Hoyas for the brutal slate the Big East provides and will certainly aid their RPI/SOS numbers when seeding becomes a popular topic of discussion. Worth noting that Georgetown also knocked off Utah State at home, Wofford on a neutral floor and NC State in Charleston, three teams that have a decent chance to garner bids in March.

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If you are interested in participating in our ATB2 feature, send in your submissions to rushthecourt@gmail.com. We will add to this post throughout the day as the submissions come in so keep on sending them.

Top 25 Games

• #17 Illinois 88, Northwestern 63: “Conan the Barbarian had it right, there is nothing greater in life than a total, demoralizing, suffocating victory over one’s enemies, and the Illini may finally have developed the taste for blood after their performance against Northwestern tonight. The shooting for the game was so good, that the team set a school record for percentage from the field, going an astonishing 70.5% capped by Crandall Head’s breakaway jam in final minute of the game.” (Hail to the Orange)

Other Games of Interest

• Temple 70, Fordham 51: “[Temple] showed the reason, or reasons, they are the front runner in the Atlantic Ten.” (Villanova by the Numbers)

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1. It’s been a very difficult season in St. Louis after its two stars were thrown out of school for disciplinary reasons last fall and Rick Majerus has had to sit out several games with a gash in his leg suffered during a recent game.  Perhaps the tide is turning a little.  Yesterday SLU re-admitted star guard Kwamain Mitchell to the university for the Spring semester, which means he could theoretically suit up this season.  Theoretically.  Majerus has counseled Mitchell to sit out this year to get his life back in order, and the argument makes sense.  At 5-9 and with a loss to Dayton in the A-10 already under its belt, SLU would have a very difficult time making a run at the NCAA Tournament even with Mitchell back in action at 100%.  Furthermore, the school made no mention of the status of his former teammate, Willie Reed, who Billiken fans would hope be allowed to return at the same time as Mitchell.
2. You know it’s coming every week, so here it is.  The best weekly read that the college basketball scribing industry has to offer:  Luke Winn’s Power Rankings.  Grab your coffee, turn off the phone and relish in the knowledge you’re about to pick up.  It simply keeps getting better.
3. Next Thursday Oregon will open its brand spanking new Matthew Knight Arena [“the Matt”], the $200M Phil Knight-funded temple to the hopes and dreams of Duck basketball.  Notwithstanding that ridiculous court design, the building looks phenomenal.  Addicted to Quack was privileged to do a tour recently and provided us with this accompanying photo essay.  As soon as Oregon gets their program in a little better shape, we can’t wait to check that joint out.
4. Some transfer news dropped on Thursday.  Seton Hall forward Ferrokhan Hall announced that he would be heading west to play for his hometown school, Memphis.  He will be eligible to play in December 2012, providing some nice depth to the Memphis front line.  Meanwhile, Minnesota guard Devoe Joseph is looking at a number of destinations, including West Virginia, Oregon, Baylor, Pittsburgh, Charlotte and Niagara.
5. It looks like we’re finally going to put this Enes Kanter situation to bed soon.  According to Jeff Goodman, the NCAA heard Kentucky’s re-argument about the Turkish center’s eligibility yesterday, and the underlying assumption is that they will rule on this rather quickly (it could be as soon as today).  Honestly, we just want to see it over with so that the “Free Enes” nonsense will end.  Kentucky is already better than most of us thought they would be; if Kanter becomes eligible, you can easily add the Wildcats to the short list of favorites for the 2011 national title.