Contributing writer Kevin Chupka will periodically interview a rabid student fan about all things basketball on the court and in the stands… a view from the student section.

Florida State is probably known more for its work on the gridiron than on the basketball court, but that doesn’t stop a group of basketball loving students from packing “The ‘Nole Zone” for every home game at the Donald L Tucker Center.  Matthew Cullen, a senior at FSU, is the president of this rabid fan section. “The Nole Zone is home to the rowdiest, most passionate Florida State basketball fans,” he says.  “The Nole Zone certainly does their collective homework,” Matthew adds, “we’re always quick to let an opponent know what we think about how their season is going.”

The Seminoles have rebounded nicely this season from their stint as the dreaded 12/5 upset victim in last year’s NCAA tournament (their first such appearance in a decade), bowing out to Wisconsin on a last minute shot in overtime.  This year Cullen admits that “losses at rival Florida and in the home ACC opener to NC State were disappointing,” but they have shown flashes of greatness in knocking off rival Georgia Tech in both meetings and handing Virginia Tech one of their three conference losses this year.  So what does the rest of the season hold? “Runs in both the ACC and NCAA Tournaments are certainly not out of the question for this year’s squad,” Matthew thinks.  But it might be easier said than done. Many analysts have just about the entire middle of the ACC on the bubble meaning FSU must jockey for position with the likes of Maryland, Clemson and Virginia; the last two of whom they are scheduled to play in the final weeks of the regular season. 

So who will FSU be counting on in the home stretch? “It’s really been a well-rounded team effort,” he says, “but it’s a trio of sophomores that stand out. 7’1 center Solomon Alabi leads the team in scoring, blocks and free throw percentage, where he’s better than 82 percent. Forward Chris Singleton has really developed his game. He’s second in scoring and blocks, and brings a defensive edge with his team-leading 48 steals. I’d also throw in Devidas Dulkys, the sophomore out of Lithuania. He’s an excellent three-point shooter, as well as a great defender who is second on the team in steals.”  And Matthew says the team as a whole has some work to do, namely on turnovers, “We turn the ball over too much… and often become hesitant and tentative in our play. Limiting turnovers and careful execution of the offense will be essential keys to returning to the Dance.” 

Still, hopefully improvements in the final weeks of action along with sustaining what Cullen calls “our suffocating style of play” on defense, the ‘Noles very well might be dancing and looking to turn around the upset tables come late March.

If you’ve been following the WAC all season then you know this is the game we have been waiting for. Louisiana Tech came into the conference season with just two losses against a pretty weak schedule and there were questions about just how good they were. They answered those questions with an opening weekend sweep of the old guard in the WAC, beating Nevada by six and then smoking Utah State by 22. Since then, the Bulldogs have slowed down a little, but still come into tonight’s rematch in third place in the WAC, sporting an 8-3 conference record. Meanwhile the USU Aggies came out of that weekend with their tails tucked between their legs, getting edged by New Mexico State followed by the aforementioned beatdown from Louisiana Tech. Since that January 4 matchup, however, the Aggies have yet to lose, running off ten straight victories with eight of them coming by double digits. The key to the earlier meeting in Ruston was Louisiana Tech’s defense. The Aggies shot a miserable 3-13 behind the arc, something they usually excel at (currentl second in the nation in 3pt% at 43% and an even better 46% in WAC play). For the Aggies the key will be getting good inside play, especially from leader Tai Wesley going against the WAC’s best defensive big man in Magnum Rolle, and they will need to keep shooting well from behind the arc to take the pressure off the big guys (look for Brian Green shooting a blistering 71% from deep in conference games). The Bulldogs will need Rolle to control the boards and get someone besides Kyle Gibson (averaging 21 pts a game) and Rolle (just under 15 pts a game) to contribute to the scoring load (Jamel Guyton had 17 in the first matchup between these two). A win for the Bulldogs would put them right back into the thick of things for the conference title, but a loss would all but eliminate them from the race. Can the Bulldogs pull the upset in front of 10,270 screaming Aggie fans? Stay up late and tune into ESPN2 tonight at 9 pm (MST) and follow along to find out. 

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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 2012
* – don’t waste bandwidth (yours or the tivo’s) of any kind on this game

#4 Purdue @ #12 Ohio State – 6:30 pm on BTN (*****)

Ohio State made the biggest statement of any team last weekend with the clinic they put on the Illini in a 19-point road win.  Now Purdue has the opportunity to make a statement of their own.  These two teams have combined for 13 consecutive wins, and they have been using some of the best defense in the country to make their respective climbs atop the Big Ten standings.  In five of Purdue’s seven games, they held opponents under 70 points, and the Buckeyes have not allowed any team to score over 63 points during their six-game winning streak.  The score in their last matchup was 70-66 in a road win for OSU, but the offenses played surprisingly well, with Ohio State shooting over 50% from the game (including 46% from beyond the arc).  Evan Turner, who has been the catalyst for Ohio State’s late-season run, scored 32 points in that game and will have to play well again for the Buckeyes to come out with a win.  The Buckeyes rank third nationally in two-point field goal percentage, and are eighth in offensive efficiency.  Purdue has a bigger lineup, but the Boilermakers took almost half their shots from the three-point line in the last game, so look for them to get the ball more often to big man JaJuan Johnson, who only had four points last time around.  OSU is undefeated at home this year, but hasn’t played many tough teams besides Wisconsin at home, so this game should come down to the wire.

Notre Dame @ Louisville – 7 pm on ESPN 2 (***)

The Cardinals saved their season with a huge road upset over Syracuse last weekend, and are ranked as a #11 seed according to Joe Lunardi.  The Irish do not have any games left against Syracuse, Villanova, or West Virginia the rest of the regular season, so they need a strong push in order to make the Tournament this year, and a good way to start would be a road win over Louisville.  Some people said that the Irish needed to win out before they lost to St. John’s at home, but now that UL is coming off a victory over Syracuse in the Carrier Dome, it would look more impressive for Mike Brey’s team to walk away from Freedom Hall with a win.  Everybody knows what they are going to get from forwards Luke Harangody and Tim Abromaitis, but when it comes down to it, Louisville may be the tougher team down in the paint.  The Cards rank in the top 20 in both rebounds and two-point field goal percentage, and Notre Dame doesn’t even rank among the top 50 teams.  That really doesn’t help Notre Dame’s cause when they have one of the underwhelming defenses in the country (#247 according to Pomeroy).  Notre Dame’s offense ranks in the top five in offensive efficiency, but they have not proven they can stop anyone when it counts, and I don’t see them beating a confident Louisville team on the road.

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Ray Floriani of College Chalktalk is the RTC correspondent for the MAAC and NEC conferences as well as an occasional contributor.

NEWARK, NJ – North Carolina, UConn, Siena… It just occurred that some of the strange goings-on lately can be attributed to a jinx. Namely with yours truly and Rush the Court. Oh, don’t read this wrong. I love my association with RTC . I enjoy the work as a Northeast Conference and MAAC correspondent. Also enjoy the occasional side article the opportunity affords to produce. 

Every other week a recap is submitted on the Northeast Conference and MAAC; besides that is an occasional article of general interest. In November at Coaches vs. Cancer one of my features was on the North Carolina cheerleaders. Well, you can see what has transpired in Chapel Hill these past few weeks.  Over Thanksgiving another one of my articles was a profile on the UConn cheer/spirit program. Watching the Huskies effort against Cincinnati on Saturday all I could think was NIT. How about UNC-UConn at the Garden in an NIT semi?  It could happen.

Twice last year I wrote about officiating Richard Codey’s basketball games. Codey is a basketball devotee, a coach and was the New Jersey Senate leader. Was is the key word. He no longer heads the Senate.

Friday morning I sent my MAAC wrap-up across several time zones (with no Rick Majerus-like complaints of the cyberspace road trip). At the beginning I noted how the MAAC tournament in March will be “Siena’s to lose.” The undefeated Saints have the experience, talent, coaching and location. That evening Siena went out and lost at Niagara. On seeing the score I thought I was to blame. On second thought I did not officiate their game nor did I drive the team bus to Niagara Falls, Ontario, and not NY by mistake. None of those things happened, so in other words the game had a great crew and I’m sure Fran McCaffery’s club arrived well-rested and prepared to play. What happened? A quick tempo free look…

	Poss	OFF EFF	EFG PCT	OREB PCT	TO RATE
Siena	71	104	45	55	21
Niagara	68	128	60	50	18

The Purple Eagles scored their 87-74 victory because they were almost unconscious from the floor and cared for the ball with a great turnover rate. Niagara also moved the ball extremely well with 22 assists on 33 field goals and shot 26 of 40 (65%) from two-point range. Joe Mihalich’s club all appeared to follow the lead of sophomore forward Kalief Edwards , a 7 PPG scorer, who shot 9-14 from the floor for a 20-point night.

So forget the jinx. In Siena’s as well as Carolina’s and UConn’s case as well. Just one thing. At the Big East-SEC Challenge at the Garden in December I met and chatted with the Kentucky cheer squad. Even took a picture with them. Still, no one asked about getting an article done about them. Guess they knew better. Didn’t want to jeopardize a deep run in the NCAAs next month.

RTC contributor and official bracketologist Zach Hayes will update the bubble scene every week until Madness ensues.

Another week gone by in college basketball, another snapshot of the bubble picture provided…

Atlantic 10

Locks: Temple

Xavier (21 RPI, 19 SOS)- The Musketeers are bordering on lock status after their enormous bubble win at Florida last Saturday. The only factor preventing such an accolade is the lack of quality non-conference wins. They played Baylor, Butler and Wake Forest extremely tight, yet could only come out on the winning end against Cincinnati and the aforementioned Florida game. Xavier has beaten Charlotte, Dayton and Rhode Island at home. Win at Charlotte on Saturday and the Musketeers should be in. Current seed range: 6-8.

Rhode Island (22 RPI, 37 SOS)– URI could be the highest-RPI team left out of the bracket if they don’t start picking up quality wins to boost their resume. Winning one of their two nail-biter home defeats at the hands of Temple and Richmond would have been enormous for their NCAA hopes. Fortunately, they only face two threatening games the rest of the way- at St. Louis Wednesday night and vs. Charlotte on March 3. There’s a very realistic chance the Rams could win out and receive a bid, but they won’t have another chance against an RPI top-25 opponent until the A-10 tournament. Current seed range: 10-11.

Richmond (27 RPI, 49 SOS)– Other than Temple, the Spiders have the most impressive portfolio of any Atlantic 10 team. They picked up neutral court wins over bubble teams Mississippi State, Missouri and Florida in non-conference play and are currently riding a six-game winning streak in A-10 play with wins over Temple and at Rhode Island mixed in. They’re 4-2 vs. the RPI top 50 and currently lead the conference with a 9-2 record. Win just one of their last three- at Xavier, Dayton, at Charlotte- and the Spiders will be dancing. Current seed range: 7-8.

Dayton (34 RPI, 33 SOS)– The Flyers put themselves back into a precarious position by falling in heartbreak fashion at St. Louis on Saturday. They’re just 1-5 vs. RPI top 25 opponents but do have two solid wins in non-conference play over Georgia Tech and Old Dominion. Dayton still must travel to Temple and Richmond on their A-10 slate; split those two games and they’re in decent position, lose both and the Flyers could be 1-7 vs. RPI top 25 teams and squarely on the bubble at 21-9 (10-6). Current seed range: 11-12.

Charlotte (41 RPI, 117 SOS)– All in all, the 49ers are in a solid position for a bid. The win at Louisville looks stronger now that the Cardinals are in the field, plus Charlotte knocked off Temple at home and Richmond on the road during conference play. They welcome Xavier and Richmond to Charlotte and also must travel to Rhode Island in three of their last six games. Finish 4-2 in that stretch and it’s going to be awfully hard to deny a bid to a 12-4 Atlantic 10 squad. Current seed range: 10-11.

ACC

Locks: Duke, Wake Forest.

Georgia Tech (29 RPI, 14 SOS)– With road games remaining at Maryland and at Clemson, it’s likely the Yellow Jackets finish ACC play at a pedestrian 8-8 record. Still, it’s going to be hard to put them on the bubble with five wins over the RPI top 50 (possibly six if Virginia Tech jumps into that category and they beat the Hokies at home on March 6) including victories over Duke, Wake Forest and Clemson. Just stealing one of those road contests would make it a near certainty Paul Hewitt is back dancing. Current seed: 8-9.

Clemson (32 RPI, 31 SOS)– I wouldn’t feel at ease if I’m a Clemson fan. The Tigers may have stellar computer numbers, but their best win out of the ACC was Butler in November and their best in-conference victory came over Maryland at home. Couple that with a brutal stretch in their last four games- at Maryland, at Florida State, Georgia Tech, at Wake Forest- and their reputation for fading down the stretch, and it could be a more nervous Selection Sunday than anticipated. The Georgia Tech home game is of great importance. Would a 20-10 (8-8) record push the Tigers into the Dance? Most likely, yes. Current seed range: 9-10.

Maryland (42 RPI, 28 SOS)– The Terrapins still don’t boast an RPI top-25 win and their best win in non-conference play was at Indiana, but Maryland still stands at about the 8/9 seed range due to their impressive 7-3 ACC mark and a sweep of Florida State. The Terps still have to face likely-NCAA teams Georgia Tech, Clemson, Duke and Virginia Tech the rest of the way, but only the meeting with the Hokies is away from College Park. With trips to NC State and Virginia also sprinkled in, no game is a definite win. They need to keep picking up victories in conference play to mask an underwhelming portfolio overall. Current seed range: 8-9.

Florida State (43 RPI, 53 SOS)– FSU probably has the easiest slate of any ACC bubble-in team. The three road games remaining feature a grand total of zero teams with hopes of making the NCAA Tournament in Virginia, North Carolina and Miami. Florida State also welcomes Clemson and Wake Forest to Tallahassee. Go 3-2 at the very least during that stretch and the Seminoles should be set for a bid. Leonard Hamilton’s team picked up a non-conference win over Marquette, swept Georgia Tech and beat Virginia Tech this season. Current seed range: 8-10.

Virginia Tech (44 RPI, 180 SOS)- Virginia Tech picked up their first win over an RPI-top 25 opponent last night in their comeback victory over Wake Forest. It’s impossible to overstate how gigantic pulling out that win was- fall to Wake at home and they’re likely back on the wrong side of the bubble at fourth in the ACC with a low-100’s SOS and their best non-conference win over Seton Hall. Now the Hokies are edging themselves further into the field at 21-4 (8-3). All they have to do is take care of their three winnable games at Boston College and home vs. Maryland and NC State and they should be fine at 24-6 (11-5). Current seed range: 9-10.

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1. Wisconsin center Jon Leuer had a pain-free practice on Monday and will be back in action for his team tonight against his home state Minnesota Gophers.  The Badgers were 6-3 in his nine-game absence, even though the Wisconsin defense clearly wasn’t as effective without the 6’10 junior in the lineup.
2. Former Oklahoma State head coach Sean Sutton pled not guilty through his attorney to four felony charges involving painkillers, and he is supposedly in a rehab center already.  Sutton hasn’t coached since his dismissal from OSU in 2008, but we’re all aware of the dangers of the abuse of these drugs, so we’re hopeful that he’ll be able to get his life back on track.
3. Staying in Stillwater, OSU point guard Ray Penn will miss the remainder of the season to allow time for a stress reaction in his right knee to heal.  The lightning-quick Penn averaged 8/3 APG in just over thirty minutes per game this year, and he should be back at 100% by next season.
4. You’ve probably heard  what former Senator and HOFer Bill Bradley is up to these days (winning awards from the NABC), but did you know that former non-Senator and non-HOFer Todd MacCulloch is #91 in the world in professional pinball?  We’re not sure to be incredibly impressed or a lot scared, but Lost Letterman ranks MacCulloch and several other former hoopsters who are now making their living in other odd capacities.
5. This is superb analysis by Vegas Watch in which he compares his adjusted Pomeroy ratings with the current odds you can get for teams to win the 2010 national title, and then makes some assessments as to their current value.  Duke, Wisconsin and Missouri are the big value buys right now, while Kentucky, Syracuse and Villanova appear overvalued.

Kentucky Survives in Raucous Starkville.  #2 Kentucky 81, Mississippi State 75 (OT).  After several days of fielding phone calls from Mississippi State fans who ranged in temperament from delusional to deranged, DeMarcus Cousins and his team had the last laugh tonight in Starkville as water bottles and sodas rained down on the court in the closing minutes of this one.  Coach John Calipari was so giddy afterward that he even played up the hostility of the situation in his interview with Jeannine Edwards, ducking for cover at one point and running over to corral his players at another (wow, consider just how different things were last year at this time with respect to UK’s head coach and Miss Edwards).  The story of this game, however, was in the way that Kentucky was able to overcome a seven-point deficit in the last three minutes after having looked shaken and stirred in the previous few as MSU built its lead with inside star Jarvis Varnado on the bench fouled out.  Cousins held up his end of the bargain with MSU fans by dropping 19/14/3 assts, including seven huge offensive rebounds, several of which he converted at key points in the second half to keep the Cats afloat.  Patrick Patterson added a dub-dub himself (19/10), while John Wall ended up just shy of a triple-double with 18/10/8 assts/3 stls.  Come March, when the rest of the country decides to tune back into college basketball, all anyone is going to hear about is the mercurial Wall; but to those of us who know better, it will be Cousins that makes the difference if Kentucky is to make a serious run at the national title.  He has a knack for corralling the ball on the offensive end of the court (the #1 offensive rebounder in America), but he’s probably just as effective at converting those extra possessions into points with his soft touch around the bucket (note: if anyone has hard stats on this, we’d love to see them).  MSU had numerous chances to put a signature win on their NCAA resume, but like much of their season this year, they were close but not close enough.  The Bulldogs played the game without leading scorer Ravern Johnson, who was suspended for conduct detrimental prior to his team’s biggest game of the season, and Varnado had at least two silly fouls that would have allowed his presence to stay on the court longer than 23 semi-effective minutes (10/5/2 blks).  If any one of those decisions were different, perhaps MSU wins the game and we’d have a photo of their fans RTCing underneath this writeup.  But as it happened, Bulldog fans will instead by remembered for their unsportsmanlike behavior, and they’ll have to settle for screaming into DeMarcus Cousins’ voicemail as he moves on to the more important things like winning SEC titles and gunning for the Final Four.

Regular Season Champs. Two clinchers tonight…

• #24 Northern Iowa 70, Creighton 52.  No Jordan Eglseder, no problem.  Even without the big man who was suspended for three games after his arrest for DWI over the weekend, UNI clinches its first outright MVC regular season title with an easy win over the Bluejays.  The Panthers hit thirteen treys for the game, including a 5-10 effort from Ali Farokhmanesh.  It will be a very interesting Bracketbuster game on Friday night when UNI hosts the co-leader of the CAA, Old Dominion.
• Murray State 80, Southeast Missouri State 62.  Murray moved to 16-0 in the OVC tonight, clinching their 21st regular season title and the top seed in the OVC Tournament next month.  The Racers now have the nation’s longest winning streak (at sixteen) and put twelve players into the scoring column this evening.  This is a team that has six players averaging between 9.5 – 10.8 points per game that nobody will want to see as their first round opponent on March 14.

Other Games of National Interest.

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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 2012
* – don’t waste bandwidth (yours or the tivo’s) of any kind on this game

#25 Wake Forest @ Virginia Tech – 7 pm on ESPN2 (****)

This game might feature two of the most underrated teams in the entire country.  It took a four-game winning streak for Wake Forest to crack the bottom of the top 25, and the 20-4 Hokies are still unranked in both polls.  In fact, Virginia Tech ranks just #50 in the RPI and are still considered by many to be a bubble team.  VT’s out of conference schedule is weak, but with four straight wins against ACC opponents, they are 7-3 in the league, just half a game behind Wake Forest and still in contention to win the conference.  Before the Hokies can even think about an ACC title, though, they need to prove their legitimacy against a solid Wake Forest team.  This game may only end up in the low 60s for both teams, as neither ranks in the top 70 in offensive efficiency, and both rank among the top 20 defensive teams.  Virginia Tech, whose leading scorer shoots below 40%, ranks #113 in Ken Pomeroy’s offensive ratings, so a below-average shooting night could bring this game down to the 50s.  If the Hokies want to be successful tonight, they are going to have to stop Wake Forest in the post.  Led by Al-Farouq Aminu, the Demon Deacons score the majority of their points from forwards and centers, and they rank third in the nation in rebounds per game.  Virginia Tech has not lost in Blacksburg yet, but they will face their toughest test of the season tonight.

Cincinnati @ South Florida – 7 pm on ESPNU (**)

With their recent performances, South Florida played itself out of the tournament and Cincinnati is on the verge of playing themselves back in.  USF has lost their last two games to other bubble teams (Notre Dame and Marquette) and are now not even in Joe Lunardi’s first eight teams out.  The Bearcats, on the other hand, are coming off a game in which they held UConn to their lowest point total since 2002, and are now the second team out according to Lunardi.  Like the Wake Forest vs. Virginia Tech matchup, this game will also be extremely low scoring.  Both teams give up less than 66 points per game, and neither ranks in the top 70 in offensive efficiency.  Cincinnati has no players scoring over 12 points per game, and they rank #112 in offensive efficiency.  On paper, it would seem like USF would score more than 68.9 points per game, with four players averaging over 10 points per game and two players scoring over 17 points per game.  However, one reason for that is Gus Gilchrist just returned from an injury that kept him sidelined since December 2.  In his first game back against Marquette, he scored 10 points below his season average of 17.4 (most of USF’s earlier games were against weaker teams), but if he can provide some quality minutes and score close to what he did earlier in the year, USF should be able to win this game.  Cincinnati is just 2-6 on the road this year, and despite a relatively empty crowd at the Sun Dome, the Bulls should at least play themselves back in the bubble discussion.

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RTC contributor and bracketologist Zach Hayes will deliver ten permeating thoughts every week as the season progresses.

I like to mix it up here on Tuesday’s with my Scribbles column. Rather than the usual listing of ten players/coaches/programs catching my eye, I’m going to give this column a bit of a twist. My ten this week will attempt to rank the top ten conferences in America and highlight an underappreciated player residing in that conference. Sure, labeling someone as underrated can be completely subjective, but that’s the joy of having my own weekly column. And team success is not a factor, here; in fact, that’s what makes these players underrated on an individual basis. Let’s get right to it:

1. Big 12: Donald Sloan, Texas A&M– Most thought Derrick Roland’s crippling knee injury would devastate the Aggies both on and off the court enough to destroy their NCAA chances. Instead, Donald Sloan tossed on his Superman cape and carried the load in the absence of his best friend. The run began for A&M with a stunning road victory at a place where nobody wins- Missouri- coupled with a sweep of Texas Tech and a home win over fellow NCAA team Baylor sandwiched in the middle. Sure he struggled in the second half in A&M’s valiant effort vs. Kansas, but just ask head coach Mark Turgeon if Sloan has been the senior leader, the backbone, the constant force behind the A&M attack. Sloan has scored in double figures in every Big 12 game save a loss at Kansas State and even poured in three performances of 26+ points. His 18.2 PPG is good for third in the Big 12 and Sloan is shooting a cool 46% from the field, 78% from the line and 37% from three. The 6’3 senior ranks in the top-75 in the nation in fouls drawn per 40 minutes, meaning if a defender respects Sloan’s reliable mid-range shot, he can penetrate and get to the charity stripe as good as any offensive player in the Big 12. Cole Aldrich, James Anderson and Jacob Pullen may get more publicity, but Sloan is just as vital to his team on the offensive end of the floor.

2. Big East: Jamine Peterson, Providence– This high-flying Friar might be the most athletic player in the Big East outside of Stanley Robinson. I witnessed his athleticism first-hand during the late stages of a win at Northeastern early this season when, inbounding under their basket, Peterson leaped over two Huskies on an alley-oop dunk that iced the game for the Friars. His skill set is incredibly rare: a 6’6 redshirt sophomore that can score with ferocity in the paint, step out and drain a three (40 made on the year) and absolutely dominate the glass. Peterson and the rest of his Friar teammates do have a propensity to turn the ball over with extreme frequency, but Jamine more than makes up for it with his 18.9 PPG. His rebounding ranks even a notch higher as Peterson is just 0.1 RPG from averaging a double-double, ranks in the top-50 in offensive rebounding percentage and has two games this season with 20+ rebounds, including an otherworldly 29/20 effort vs. Rutgers in January. A suspect overall floor game and woeful free throw shooting percentage are the only facets of Peterson’s game hindering his quest towards becoming a top-flight Big East player. With two years left at the Dunk (appropriately named), I’d be willing to bet Peterson receives more and more love from the national media as he averages 20/10 and the Friars improve under Keno Davis.

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1. Sad news from Memphis last night as it was reported that former Tigers coach Dana Kirk, died from a heart attack at 74 years old.  Kirk was essentially the architect of Memphis (State) basketball in the 1980s, as he turned a hoops backwater into a program that consistently recruited top players (mostly local), won 158 games, and made  regular trips to the NCAA Tournament.  Kirk coached the Tigers to the 1985 Final Four behind star forward Keith Lee, but he was dismissed by the school in 1986 and was later imprisoned a few months for federal tax evasion.  His legacy was further tarnished by numerous NCAA violations on his watch, which led to his F4 appearance getting vacated and the school serving a probation in the late 80s.  But make no mistake, Memphis probably wouldn’t have become the elite job it has become today without Kirk’s groundbreaking work there.  RIP.
2. Wow, Nolan Richardson with an Isiah Thomas moment…  his target, however, wasn’t Larry Bird but rather John Wooden and Bob Knight.  Talking about some of the forgotten great black coaches in history, he said, “No matter how well they did the white power structure in college basketball mostly ignored them. If [John] McLendon had been white, he’d have been a star in the coaching world. If all the great coaches in basketball history like Knight or [John] Wooden had been black, they’d be nobodies.”
3. In case you missed it on Saturday, Oklahoma’s Willie Warren did not travel with his team to take part in the shellacking in Stillwater (OU lost by 21).  He has the dreaded mononucleosis, which means officially that he’s out ‘indefinitely,’ but it could also mean that he’s shutting it down for the rest of the  Sooners’ miserable season.  OU has games left against Kansas, K-State, Texas, Baylor and Texas A&M in the next three weeks.
4. We really have to get an invite to this thing one year.  Seth Davis gives his report from the annual NCAA Media Mock Bracket, which he was supposed to attend but couldn’t (weather).  He breaks down the bracket that the media came up with, pointing out the obvious and subtle errors in their version.  Honestly, we’re pretty surprised that the media bracket doesn’t do a better job with this each year — there’s very little pressure to ‘get it right,’ and these people are the ones who eat, sleep and breathe this stuff.
5. Gary Parrish’s take on why John Calipari should at least listen in case the Nets come to him with an offer is the most compelling we’ve seen on the matter.  The next Phil Jackson will be the coach who gets to tell Lebron James when to pass the ball from time to time, and whoever that person is will ultimately become a legend because of it.