Two teams fighting for respect in the Big East, not to mention a post season bid, meet tonight at the Rock in Newark, NJ.  Cincinnati, led by freshman Lance Stephenson, sophomore Yancy Gates and senior Deonta Vaughn will face off against Bobby Gonzalez and his band of Pirates, led by junior scoring machine Jeremy Hazell and transfers Herb Pope and Keon Lawrence. In a season many predicted would overturn the old order in the Big East, the Bearcats and Pirates both had plans to move up in the conference pecking order.  Cincinnati’s plan is on track – they took care of business in their opening game, downing Connecticut at Fifth Third, then traveled to the RAC and knocked off Rutgers. But they stumbled in their last conference game when they dropped a 74-71 decision to Pittsburgh. A win tonight restores their momentum and puts them (well) ahead of Seton Hall in the New Order of Things in the Big East. Seton Hall had a plan too, but three close losses into their conference season, the plan is down to “just win”. Join us at 6:00 eastern time for the tipoff.

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Welcome to RTC Live. Today, we are coming to you live from the Verizon Center in DC as the Hoyas welcome UConn to the nation’s capital. Georgetown has had the Huskies number of late. Last season, Georgetown went into Hartford, and led by freshman Greg Monroe ran the Huskies off the court in the Big East opener. Two seasons ago right here in the Verizon Center, UConn blew a late six point lead as 7’2″ Roy Hibbert drilled a three from the top of the key with less than five seconds left for the win. This winner of today’s game is going to be determined by who controls tempo. Where Georgetown loves to slow the game down, executing their deliberate offense in the half court, UConn wants to play a full court game, taking advantage of their athleticism and ability to finish in transition. The winner will move to 3-1 in conference play.

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College basketball has now entered its second act for this season, the days of conference play.  It’s all about the family from now through March.  In the three-act paradigm, the second act is where you find conflict and confrontation as things move toward the third act’s resolution.  Like characters in a play, it’s in this middle section where teams find what they’re made of.  It’s conference play that will determine how we (and the NCAA Selection Committee) as observers will judge them.  On Saturday afternoon, Georgia (8-5) comes knocking at Rupp Arena to face Kentucky (15-0) in the first conference tilt for both sides.  We all know about the Wildcats and what they bring to the table.  To keep this one interesting, Georgia’s going to have to do a couple of things.  First (and rather intuitively), they’ve got to step up the defense.  The Bulldogs rank 126th in the nation in FG% defense (42%) while Kentucky is shooting a blistering 50.2% (6th nationally).  Second, Georgia has to forget that they’re 8-5 (which isn’t bad, really) and that the Wildcats are 15-0, and concentrate on the fact that they’re both 0-0…in conference.  They must realize that the first game of the SEC season represents a new beginning, and come in with the mindset that they can play with anyone in the country.  It starts at 4pm ET, and we’ll start things off here about 15 minutes before tipoff.  We hope you’ll join us! Read the rest of this entry »

Zach Hayes is RTC’s resident bracketologist plus author of the weekly Ten Tuesday Scribbles and Bubble Watch columns.

With college football crowning another faux-national champion Thursday night in Pasadena, the college sports scene can officially shift its axis to basketball. While a number of college basketball diehards such as yours truly were knee-deep in mid-major box scores and enthralling non-conference tournaments since the season tipped off in mid-November, it’s perfectly understandable for our college football-fan brethren out there to have been entranced in the gridiron scene during this time. For many folks out there, college basketball truly begins when a football champion is crowned and conference play heats up, when Rece and the gang show up on our TVs every Saturday morning at 11 AM and the bubble begins to take its early shape. For those people, you sure missed plenty of exciting hoops action. To get you caught up in what has gone down thus far on the hardwood, here’s a summary for your enjoyment, divvied up into the six major conferences and all the rest:

ACC

What we’ve learned: There was much back-and-forth debate entering this season whether Duke or North Carolina represented the class of this conference. After two solid months of play, it’s fairly evident Duke has separated themselves from their bitter rival as the class of the ACC. While the Tar Heels may top Duke skill-wise up front, Carolina simply does not boast the backcourt to even contend with the Dukies’ tandem of Jon Scheyer and Nolan Smith. The primary knock on Duke heading into this season was point guard play with Elliot Williams transferring to Memphis. As a true sharp-shooting 2-guard who creates his shots coming off screens in Redick-like fashion, could Scheyer handle the responsibility of running the Duke offense? The answer has been resounding in the affirmative: 19.7 PPG, 46% FG, 92% FT, 43% 3pt and an otherworldly 4.8 A/TO ratio that currently leads the nation. Another key to Duke’s early season success has been Coach K’s willingness to adjust his defense to fit his roster. Rather than employing the normal Duke on-ball pressure attack, Krzyzewski is utilizing more of a sagging defense that plays into the frontcourt depth Duke enjoys with six players that receive time at 6’8 or taller.

Scheyer Has His Devils Looking Great This Season

What’s still to be determined: After Duke and Carolina (and let’s not go overboard following the Heels loss to Charleston, they’re still clearly the second best team in this conference), who will emerge as the third contender behind the top two dogs? An ever-shifting proposition, the current edge probably goes to Florida State despite their utter lack of point guard play. The Seminoles are one of the tallest teams in the nation and have a few capable long-range shooters that get open looks when defenses collapse on Solomon Alabi and Chris Singleton. Plus, they’re off to a head start with a December win at ACC foe Georgia Tech. Plenty of folks think Clemson could be that team behind powerful big man Trevor Booker, but they lack a second scoring option and I can’t stop thinking back to their collapse at home to an inexperienced Illinois squad. It would be unwise to count out Gary Williams, and the jury’s still out on Virginia Tech and Miami due to their soft schedules, so I’ll give the current edge to Wake Forest as that third team. The road win at Gonzaga’s on-campus arena stands out, Ish Smith has turned into a fine point guard and Al-Farouq Aminu has as much pure talent as anyone in this conference.

NCAA Locks: Duke, North Carolina.

Likely bids: Clemson, Florida State, Wake Forest.

Bubble teams: Georgia Tech, Maryland, Miami (FL), Virginia Tech.

Make other plans for March: Boston College, North Carolina State, Virginia.

Big East

What we’ve learned: The NCAA picture is shaping up quite similarly to last season when Louisville (regular season champion), Pittsburgh and Connecticut all received #1 seeds. There will be much back-and-forth debate about whether the top three teams this season — Syracuse, West Virginia and Villanova –– holds the edge in this conference, but does it really matter? Right now you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t think Kansas, Texas, Kentucky and Purdue are the likely #1 seeds (of course plenty could change, we have two months of games left), while those top contenders in the Big East are likely all on the second seed line. Even of greater importance though is the obvious revelation that Jamie Dixon can coach basketball. You wouldn’t be alone if you counted out Pittsburgh following a near-loss to Wofford, a 47-point output at home vs. New Hampshire and a second half butt-kicking at the hands of Indiana, but those losses came without their most athletic player, Gilbert Brown, and their best defender, Jermaine Dixon. Those two have returned to action with the most improved Big East player Ashton Gibbs (who recently broke the all-time Pitt record for consecutive free throws made) as a fearsome trio that has carried the Panthers to road wins over previously-undefeated Syracuse and fringe-top 25 Cincinnati. If Dixon is able to coax his Panthers into a NCAA Tournament team after losing such enormous production and leadership in Sam Young, DeJuan Blair and Levance Fields, there is little debate on his merits as National Coach of the Year.

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Thanks are due to Mike DeCourcy for staying on top of this story.  He writes today that Don Jackson, the attorney for Renardo Sidney who is handling his case with the NCAA over eligibility, is unhappy with Mississippi State for, as he put it, “abdicating it’s obligation to protect the interests of their student-athletes.”  Citing instances of MSU officials failing to assist his office in moving things along, he places the blame for Sidney’s continued status in limbo squarely on the athletic department’s foot-dragging in this matter. 

Renardo Sidney: Do Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate

Clearly Jackson is attempting to assign blame on anyone but himself for failing to make his client eligible to play this season, but what would you do if you were Greg Byrne, the Mississippi State athletic director?  When he approved the recruitment of Sidney by Rick Stansbury last summer, it was undoubtedly a strategic play that he believed could result in a Final Four appearance for a talented Bulldog team.  The thinking probably went along the same lines as most cost/benefit analyses do — make the risk assessment and then let the findings inform a decision tree with respect to how to pursue Sidney’s eligibility.  If there was no chance of Sidney ever becoming eligible, MSU wouldn’t have given him a scholarship in the first place (see: UCLA and USC).  But they had to believe that there was a fighting chance that they could get him on the court this year with the NCAA’s blessing, or they wouldn’t have offered him the scholarship. 

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A little Friday night college hoops, anyone?  RTC Live will be visiting a historic old gym tonight in an effort to see all the crumbling old beauties before they disappear when we’ll be at the University of San Francisco’s War Memorial Gymnasium for a WCC battle between St. Mary’s and San Francisco.  Why is it historic?  Well, for you young’uns out there, USF may not be relevant these days, but in the mid-50s with a couple of players by the names of Bill Russell and KC Jones, they were pretty much ridiculous.  The Dons won the 1955 and 1956 NCAA titles including  a streak of 55 consecutive victories over that span.  Nowadays, things have changed, and USF has been relegated to a mid-major program with its ups and downs, but they’re usually good for an upset or two each year when a big-name comes to town and St. Mary’s just might fit the bill.  SMC comes into tonight’s game at 13-2 (vs. 5-10 for USF), and Randy Bennett’s team is once again eyeing the WCC championship that starts and ends in Spokane.  The Gaels can’t afford to drop games like this if they want to have a shot at the regular season championship.  The two players to watch are Omar Samhan (21/11/3 blks) of St. Mary’s, one of the most efficient players in America, and Dior Lowhorn (19/6) of San Francisco, the two-time defending conference scoring leader and two-time first-team all-conference performer in the WCC.  We hope you find some time tonight to join  us for a little hoops action from the middle of San Francisco. 

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The first shoe dropped today in the Tennessee basketball players New Year’s Day fiasco, as star forward Tyler Smith was dismissed from the Tennessee basketball team in a statement released by Bruce Pearl:

We felt we had enough information at this time to dismiss Tyler Smith from the team.  I am deeply troubled and saddened. Playing basketball at the University of Tennessee is a privilege, and where conduct is displayed that is detrimental to the team and the university, this discipline is required. Tyler has accomplished a great deal and we are all disappointed his playing career at the University of Tennessee will end this way.

Disappointment, Thy Name is Tyler

The three other players involved in the incident — Melvin Goins, Brian Williams and Cameron Tatum — remain indefinitely suspended as #1 Kansas visits Knoxville this weekend.  The twitterati and message board chatter yesterday implied that this decision was coming, as allegedly Smith was found to be the owner of the two guns found in the rental car where the four players were riding. 

This is obviously a huge blow to the Tennessee team this year as well as to Bruce Pearl’s program in general.  Smith was generally viewed as a success story around the SEC, as the local kid had returned home from Iowa after his freshman year to be with his sick father and help Pearl rebuild the UT program.  He was all-SEC first team as a sophomore and junior, and helped lead UT to its second straight Sweet Sixteen in 2008 for the first time in program history.  Furthermore, the perception that Pearl only has loose control of his players is exacerbated by this situation, and it may ultimately impact his recruiting to Knoxville. 

Smith, to his credit, said in a statement that he’s only a dozen hours short of his degree and he intends on finishing it, but what on earth was he thinking here?  If he really feels such imminent danger on a daily basis that he needs to have not one, but two, weapons near him at all times, then it’s probably for the best that he’s no longer staining Tennessee athletics with whatever he’s involved in; but if he’s just trying to act hard by brandishing guns in a way that really isn’t necessary given his lifestyle and status as a star UT athlete, then he may want to give Gilbert Arenas a text to see how that’s working out for him these days. 

1. Chairgate 2010.  Did Karl Malone or did he not throw Nevada’s folding chairs into the dumpster after a recent game between Louisiana Tech and the Wolfpack (on ‘his’ court)?  We have no idea but the mere thought of it is awesome on about twenty-four different levels.  Please, please let The Mailman do an interview with someone over this soon.
2. Jim Calhoun is becoming a specific target after last year’s presser incident about his salary, as this exchange with a crank caller documented by Adam Zagoria on today’s Big East coaches conference call attests.
3. OJ Mayo’s agent wants everyone to know that he took no inducements to come to USC nor during his one year in Los Angeles and, um, it was all Rodney Guillory’s fault and it was OJ’s love of California that drew him to a football school with virtually no basketball history.  And please, no more questions.
4. One of our favorite ACC bloggers broke down the twelve teams of the ACC using “NBA Jam” and concluded that Georgia Tech’s trio of Gani Lawal, Derrick Favors and Mfon Udofia would be sicknasty.  He’s probably right because Paul Hewitt wouldn’t be around to coach them.
5. Luke Winn’s Power Rankings don’t see much movement, but is there a more interesting read on in the entire canon of college basketball coverage on a weekly basis than this feature?  Not for our money.

So When Do Boise and Alabama Play? The interminable bowl season finally came to an end with the only game that mattered, as Texas’ Colt McCoy got knocked out of the BCS National faux-Championship Game and Alabama’s Nick Saban earned his second title as a member of a rival SEC school.  So we’re once again left with more than one unbeaten team in the college football season and we have no legitimate way of separating those teams other than using statistics and computer printouts, a tenuous proposition at best.  After all, Cal was a ten-point favorite versus UCLA last night.  That’s what all of the computer algorithms told us.  So they’re clearly the better team, right?  No reason to even play the game, right?  Let’s just declare Cal the winner based on their strength of schedule and power rating…  Get outta here with that nonsense.  Seriously.  Thankfully we’re moving on to basketball, where our championships are earned on the court.  (ed. note: we’re going to publish this picture every time it’s appropriate, which, given the BCS’s foibles year after year, will be annually).

Other Games of National Interest.  Well, sorta.  Slow night.  There was only one game involving any of the BCS conference teams, and they were both from the Big Ten.  Guess they knew that league wouldn’t be playing on the gridiron tonight.

• Michigan 64, Penn State 55.  The Wolverines got off to a horrid start in State College, shooting 0-12 from three and finding themselves down 31-16 at the half.  But they kept their poise and made a huge second-half run of 38-13 to close out the game and put John Beilein’s team at 2-1 in the Big Ten.  DeShawn Sims was huge, scoring 25 points and pulling six boards, but it was really Laval Lucas-Perry’s four second-half treys that helped spur the run.  With games against Northwestern and Indiana coming up at home, UM has a good shot to go to 4-1 before trips to Madison and West Lafayette later this month.
• Western Kentucky 67, South Alabama 64 (OT).  This was a key early-season game in the Sun Belt, and WKU got the leg up by taking this one in overtime tonight.  Steffphon Pettigrew (16/5) hit a layup with five seconds remaining to tie the game and send it to the extra period.  In the OT, which  only saw a total of seven points between the two teams, AJ Slaughter (18/5) hit the go-ahead three and WKU hung on.  USA will get another chance at the Hilltoppers in Bowling Green on February 18.
• Xavier 68, La Salle 62.  XU got a win in its A10 opener after nearly blowing a 20-point second half lead on the road tonight in Philadelphia.  Jordan Crawford had 22/6/4 assts to improve upon his 19 PPG average coming into the contest.  Of course, he’s also thirteenth in the nation in shot% at 35.4, which means he’s our candidate for Human Cannon Midwest.
• Oakland 67, Oral Roberts 64.  Oakland picked up a key Summit League win tonight on the road against its likely toughest competition in Tulsa behind Keith Benson’s 13/8/5 blks and Johnathan Jones’ 16/4 assts/3 stls.  Interesting that Jones was the nation’s leading assist man last season at 8.1 per game, but he’s only dropping 5.6 dimes so far this year.

1. The inaugural Skip Prosser Classic was a great idea and although emotionally draining, a great game too.  Mike DeCourcy reflects on Sunday night’s Wake Forest-Xavier tilt.
2. This is wonderful and all regarding the success of Eric Reveno at Portland, but do you get the sense that this article should have been written a month ago (you know, after the nice run in the 76 Classic and before the Pilots lost games to Portland State, Idaho and Nevada)?
3. Seth Davis’ mailbag includes even more stock reports, including those of Pitt, Vandy and much discussion of some of the others discussed earlier this week.  Great banter, as always.
4. Hoops historians, do you know who Travis Grant is?  He scored over 4,000 points and won three national championships at Kentucky State, but he isn’t in any Hall of Fame at any level of the sport (actually, he is in one HOF as of last two months ago).   Fanhouse has a good read on the player nicknamed the “Machine Gun.“
5. Gary Parrish is doing a weekly article counting down the top ten NCAA Tournament games of the last decade.  We remember this tenth choice very well.  Let’s just say that the Ron Lewis three at the end of regulation was a dagger through our wallet that we felt for at least a month after that fateful shot.  Which game will be #1?  Arizona-Illinois?  Kansas-Memphis?  West Virginia-Louisville?  Arizona-Gonzaga?  We could go on and on…