David Ely is an RTC Contributor.

Introduction

You know how ESPN loves doing college basketball marathons? The network put on 24 straight hours of hoops at the beginning of the season, and then ESPN aired four-straight games on MLK Day for your viewing pleasure. Well, why stop with those two days? Monday would have been the perfect day to sit on your coach all afternoon and watch some roundball. TWTW can’t think of a better way to nurse your Super Bowl hangover. Make it happen, ESPN. 

What We Learned

North Carolina’s 20-point loss at Georgia Tech over MLK Weekend might have been the best thing to happen to the Tar Heels this season. Since that embarrassing loss, the ’Heels have ripped off five straight wins in ACC play, outscoring opponents by at least 20 points in the last three. A lot of people will choose to single out Kendall Marshall’s insertion into the starting lineup as the turning point of the season, but it’s been Harrison Barnes’ improved play that’s catapulted UNC into the ranks of NCAA dark horse. Barnes has scored at least 17 points in three consecutive games for the first time in his career, and it’s no coincidence that UNC cruised in all three games. The Tar Heels already boast one of the better post duos with Tyler Zeller and John Henson, now they have the electric scorer they’ve missed since the 2009 title season. 

Is It Too Late For the Wildcats? (AP/N. Majamdar)

Baylor, Butler and Kansas State all went on the road Saturday and came away with mega wins as they attempt to remain in the discussion for NCAA Tournament bids. Baylor landed the most impressive W, riding Perry Jones III to an overtime win at Texas A&M. Butler got a boost with its 12-point win at Horizon League leader Cleveland State, and Kansas State avoided a crippling loss when it eked past Iowa State. It remains to be seen what these wins will do for them in the long run, though, as all three are firmly entrenched on the bubble. The Wildcats have the best RPI of the bunch, checking in at #31, and according to Joe Lunardi’s latest Bracketology, they appear to be in the best standing with the selection committee as an 11 seed, compared to Baylor (the last team in) and Butler (NIT bound). But anyone who feels secure in trusting Frank Martin’s team hasn’t watched any hoops this year.

Read the rest of this entry »

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

• #2 Texas 76, Texas Tech 60: “The No. 3 Texas Longhorns remained undefeated in the Big 12 conference with a 76-60 victory over the Texas Tech Red Raiders. Texas has now navigated half its conference season unscathed and is off to its best ever start in the Big 12 at 8-0. That is the good news. However, for the first time in Big 12 play, the Longhorns failed to play a full 40 minutes, and the lack of effort and execution should give Rick Barnes plenty of game tape to refocus the ‘Horns for the rest of February and March.” (Burnt Orange Nation)
• #3 Kansas 86, Nebraska 66: “In the Jayhawks final trip to Lincoln during Big 12 Conference play Kansas continued their recent run on the offensive end. Since the Jayhawks dropped the one and only game of the season to Texas things have turned for the better at Kansas as the Jayhawks have taken what was already one of the most efficient offenses in the country to another level. The game in Lincoln certainly had a different feel than the matchup earlier this season between these two teams in Lawrence. In the first game the tempo and style went exactly the way Nebraska wanted it to. The game was ugly, it was slow and Kansas barely squeaked out a win.” (Rock Chalk Talk)
• #12 Villanova 66, West Virginia 50: “Having nibbled two points off of Villanova’s lead (47-40) and with just over 11 minutes left in the game, West Virgninia went 1-11 and 1-4 from the line over an eight minut stretch as Villanova blew the game open with a 17-3 run that made the score 64-43 with just over three minutes left.” (Villanova by the Numbers)
• #17 Georgetown 83, Providence 81: “The Georgetown Hoyas extended its Big East winning streak to six games today with a 83-81 win over the Providence Friars.  BARELY. The Hoyas were paced by Austin Freeman with 23 points. Marshon Brooks led the Friars with 43 points in a virtuoso performance for the ages.” (Casual Hoya)

Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Pre-Game Analysis

• #3 Kansas at Nebraska: “While the faces have remained the same, some things have in fact changed about Nebraska since the first meeting in Lawrence. Or perhaps it’s more a matter of Nebraska has actually shown the ability to win a few games and be who they claimed to be on paper prior to the Big 12 season beginning. The Huskers are now 15-6 overall and 3-4 in the conference. Are they the most difficult matchup for the Jayhawks, hardly. What they do though is ugly it up and play defense. A few have circled this one as a potential stumbling block. “(Rock Chalk Talk)
• Colorado at #11 Missouri: Previewing the rematch of a Big 12 game that the Buffs won earlier this year by 13 points. (Rock M Nation)
• West Virginia at #12 Villanova: A big game for both teams as the short-handed Mountaineers try to stay on the top half of the Big East and the Wildcats try to keep pace with Pittsburgh atop the conference. (Villanova by the Numbers)
• Providence at #17 Georgetown: Breaking down a big game for the Hoyas if they hope to keep pace with the rest of the contenders in the Big East against a Providence team that has racked up some big wins over the years. (Casual Hoya)
• #19 Syracuse at USF: The Orange are coming off a big win at UConn, but will need to win another game on the road to build momentum if they want to move back up the Big East standings. (Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician)
• #24 Illinois at Northwestern: “I have braced myself for an upset loss to Northwestern on Saturday. Not because I don;t think the Illini are better than Northwestern, they showed that last month, but because the trends of this season all point toward the Illini playing poorly against lesser talented teams away from the Assembly Hall. The Illini are 3-6 in games played outside of Champaign Illinois, with the three wins coming against Gonzaga in Seattle, Maryland in New York, and at Iowa. The Illini have lost every road game since Iowa, and have been held below their season scoring average in every game. Its no coincidence we have also caught every team in absolute desperation mode, where the teams have absolutely needed a win to keep their season from going completely off the rails, we have caught teams on their biggest promoted home games of the year, and are viewed as a big enough name to rush the court on, but a vulnerable enough opponent to have it happen to us three times.” (Hail to the Orange)
• St. John’s at UCLA: Previewing Steve Lavin’s return to Los Angeles and a big game for both teams. (Bruins Nation or Rumble in the Garden: Part 1 or Part 2)
• Wake Forest at Maryland: After their loss at home against Duke the Terrapins look to rebound against a significantly weaker opponent. (Testudo Times: Part 1 and Part 2)
• Alabama at Tennessee: “The biggest opportunity of Tennessee’s season will unfold over the next eight days:  today’s home date with league leading Alabama, followed by road trips to Lexington and Gainesville.  It’s not make-or-break – recall that last year the Vols went to Lexington and Nashville in the same week and lost by a combined 30 points.  That dropped us from 6-2 to 6-4,  but the Vols followed up by winning five of their last six and then made the Elite Eight.  The season won’t be over if things go poorly in the next eight days, but if Tennessee wants to win the SEC, there’s no bigger opportunity than beating the league leader and winning on the road in Rivalry Week. We thought Alabama would be the final turn of a four game victory lap against the SEC West, but they’ve become the beginning of a much longer and much more difficult home stretch.” (Rocky Top Talk)
• Michigan at Penn State: Previewing the Wolverines trip to play the Nittany Lions. (UM Hoops)

Read the rest of this entry »

***** – 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.

On paper, this isn’t the best weekend of games. However, this is college basketball where anything can happen. You just never know what could happen and it may end up being a thrilling couple of days, anyway. All rankings from RTC and all times Eastern.

West Virginia @ #12 Villanova – 12 pm Saturday on ESPN (****)

Yet another big game in the Big East features two teams tied for third place at 6-3 in league play. The winner will tie second place Notre Dame, just a game and a half behind first place Pittsburgh. West Virginia has won seven of nine games and rebounding has been a big reason why. The Mountaineers have not been out-rebounded by an opponent since a New Year’s Day game at Marquette, plus their defense has been solid. West Virginia has scored only 58 PPG over their last four games (three of them without leading scorer Casey Mitchell) but has held opponents to an average of 50 PPG over the same stretch, culminating in holding Seton Hall to 44 points on Wednesday. Bob Huggins’ team is #5 nationally in offensive rebounding percentage but will have to bring their A-game on the glass against Villanova. The Wildcats rank 20^th in keeping opponents off the offensive boards and were led by the interior duo of Antonio Pena and Mouphtaou Yarou in their most recent win over Marquette. They combined for 32/15 and have been huge factors this season as Jay Wright isn’t counting exclusively on his guards to win games anymore. Although West Virginia has rebounded the ball extremely well of late, they still rank only #291 in opponent’s offensive rebounding percentage, allowing teams to grab 35.6% of their misses. Villanova will likely miss a lot of long range shots against West Virginia’s #2 ranked three point defense (allowing 27%) so offensive rebounding will be important for both teams, especially the Wildcats, in this game. Coach Huggins used 6’7 John Flowers on Seton Hall’s Jeremy Hazell in their last game and he successfully shut down the Pirates’ gunner. Might we see the same thing on Villanova’s Corey Stokes? It’s a good possibility, though Flowers may be needed inside more often to double Pena and Yarou. Flowers leads the Big East in blocked shots and needs to have another good defensive game against a Villanova team that can score in bunches. The Wildcats score 25.6% of their points from the foul line and attempted 33 free throws against Marquette. Villanova is very difficult to beat when they get to the stripe because they shoot 78% and get there so often. Dribble penetration from Corey Fisher and Maalik Wayns leads to good looks inside and plenty of free throw opportunities. West Virginia has to do a good job defending the dribble drive and Kevin Jones will be a key player in doing so. Jones is a taller player who, along with Flowers, will form the second line of defense if the Wildcat guards are able to get into the lane. Jones is also a warrior on the glass, going for 13/12 in his last game. With the status of Casey Mitchell still uncertain, West Virginia will have to stick to typical “Huggy-ball” more than ever, and that’s physical defense and great rebounding. Villanova is 16-0 when they score at least 70 points but only 2-4 when they fail to do so. With the way West Virginia is rebounding and playing defense right now, it’s very possible that this game could be in the 50’s or 60’s. We’re going to go with the upset and take the Mountaineers on the road in this game.

#10 Kentucky @ Florida – 9 pm Saturday on ESPN (****)

With a win on Saturday night, Florida can really create some separation between themselves and Kentucky. With a win against the Wildcats, Florida will hold a two and a half game lead over UK and remain ahead of Tennessee, a team they beat on the road already. Quite simply, a win here puts Florida in a commanding position in the SEC East. Of course, that won’t be so easy against the nation’s fourth ranked team in eFG% defense. The Gators have won 9 of 11 games but Kentucky will be their toughest test since a meeting with Ohio State back in November. The Wildcats are coming off a loss at Ole Miss earlier this week, a game in which they committed 18 turnovers and didn’t defend the three point line well at all. Freshman point guard Brandon Knight had six of those turnovers and needs to do a better job tonight. Young teams can’t turn it over and expect to win on the road no matter how talented they are and Kentucky is finding out the hard way. With a 2-4 record in true road games, the Wildcats need to grow up quick if they want to play deep into March. Knight needs to create shots for himself and others, taking advantage of UK’s 40% shooting from deep. With Doron Lamb shooting the ball very well recently, Kentucky has plenty of threats to win this game. A key battle in this game will be at the forward spot as Kentucky’s freshman Terrence Jones goes up against Florida senior Chandler Parsons. Jones averages 18/9 and had 22/12 at Ole Miss while Parsons has been on an absolute tear on the glass of late. Controlling the boards will be critically important in a game that could be all about pace. The Gators would like to slow the game down and work in the half court while the Wildcats are comfortable at a quicker pace. To keep the tempo in their favor, Florida has to win the rebounding battle and make shots. The Gators are #10 in offensive rebounding percentage but the matchup between Jones and Parsons, as well as Vernon Macklin and Josh Harrellson at the center position, will likely determine who controls the glass in this game. If Harrellson can shut down Macklin (Festus Ezeli of Vanderbilt did a good job of this in the last game), the onus will be on Parsons to carry the Gators yet again. With Erving Walker hitting only 7 of his last 33 threes (21%), Florida will work the ball inside even more than they already do. The Gators get 56.8% of their points from two point range but will face the #4 interior defense in the country. Kentucky allows opponents to shoot only 41% from two point range while Florida is making 50.5% of their two point shots. This should be a physical game and whoever controls the interior will likely come out on top. Despite their road woes, we think John Calipari’s team will be ready to play tonight and hand the Gators their fourth home loss, disappointing the big crowd sure to be at the O-Dome for ESPN Game Day.

Read the rest of this entry »

Head coach Rick Stansbury has, as of this afternoon, imposed a Twitter ban on his players. The move comes hours after senior Ravern Johnson voiced…er, tweeted his displeasure about how little his talents are showcased, a sentiment retweeted by teammate Renardo Sidney.

Guards Also Need to Hit Shots

In its entirety, the missive from Johnson read thusly: “Starting to see why people transfer you can play the minutes but not getting your talents shown because u watching someone else wit the ball the whole game shooters need to move not watch why other coaches get that do not make sense to me.”

The Bulldogs lost 75-61 at Alabama last night. Johnson played 40 minutes, scored ten points on 2-7 shooting, pulled three rebounds and added no assists.

Just as bad, from our view, is the retweet by Sidney. After a suspension for an outburst during practice, and then another short one that followed the program-embarassing fight Sidney got into with Elgin Bailey at the Diamond Head Classic around Christmastime (Bailey left the program in January) — an atrocity that was seen on national television, and only happened because Bailey wouldn’t move his feet — you’d think Sidney would eschew any anti-coach rhetoric. After the pains that MSU went through in terms of getting him enrolled and eligible, and then the suspensions and that horrible display in Hawaii, Sidney is lucky to be on the team or even enrolled as a college student.

Past Imperfect is a new series focusing on the history of the game. Every Thursday, RTC contributor JL Weill (@AgonicaBoss) highlights some piece of historical arcana that may (or may not) be relevant to today’s college basketball landscape. This week: the sine-wave career arc of Doughnut Man.

It’s still one of the NCAA tournament’s most indelible moments: disheveled Princeton coach Pete Carril grinning in disbelief moments after his backdoor-cutting Tigers stunned defending national champion UCLA in the first round of the 1996 NCAA tournament. Replayed over and over through the years, the moment resonates because it captures the essence of what college basketball’s great March tradition is all about: little guy beats big guy, Cinderella at the dance, etc. But lost in all those good vibes for the white-haired coaching legend is that the other side in that game, the losing coach seen congratulating Carril on his career-defining victory, in its own way represents college basketball, too. In many ways, perhaps more so.

Pete Carril and Sydney Johnson celebrate the win over UCLA.

No one fathomed at the time that the upset loss would be Jim Harrick’s last as head coach of the UCLA Bruins. A year removed from the school’s first national title in two decades, flush with a contract extension, with a bevy of blue chip recruits on the verge of replenishing his team’s talent level for years to come, Harrick looked to have it all working. Then, in the course of a few months, it was all over. Harrick was out. Assistant Steve Lavin, with no head coaching experience at all, was in as interim coach.

How did it all go south so quickly? The answer is a tale of two coaches, of lies and deception, of risks taken and undying myths writ large. It’s an ugly story, without much grace and lacking humility. It is, in short, the story of college basketball at the highest levels.

*      *      *

It is amusing now to go back and look at statements of outrage former coach Jim Harrick made about his abrupt dismissal by UCLA in 1996. At the time, Harrick was the man who’d brought UCLA back from the ether. The West Virginian had been all smiles hoisting the national championship trophy along with Ed O’Bannon, Tyus Edney and the victorious Bruins. And rightfully so. Harrick had taken a job a slew of previous coaches had tried to tame and done the only thing he’d been hired to do: win a national title again. Favorite sons Walt Hazzard, Gary Cunningham and Larry Farmer didn’t do it. Future coaching legends Gene Bartow and Larry Brown couldn’t do it, either. But the onetime UCLA assistant – the guy who never even played college basketball – did it. And he did it his own way, with style.

Read the rest of this entry »

Jared Quillen is the RTC correspondent for the SEC.

A Look Back

How the West Has Won: So I’ve been pretty rough on the SEC West, but after this week I think it’s time I let it go for a while.  Let’s briefly look at the turnaround in the SEC West.  Mississippi State, which I previously labeled as tied with Tennessee for biggest disappointment in the conference beat SEC East leader Florida.  Arkansas beat Vanderbilt in a game that the Hogs controlled throughout.  Auburn finally got a conference win this week when the Tigers beat South Carolina.  Mississippi beat Kentucky in a close one in Oxford and Alabama now sits solely in first place in the league at 5-1 with a win over Kentucky to boot.  Furthermore, Joe Lunardi has dropped Georgia from his latest Bracketology and replaced the Bulldogs with Alabama.  What a difference a week makes.

Power Rankings

1. Kentucky (16-5, 4-3) Despite the three losses to Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, all on the road, the resume is still good with wins over Washington, Notre Dame and Louisville, but there are noticeable chinks in the armor here (depth) and an inability to win road games usually says something about the mental fortitude of a team.
2. Florida (17-5, 6-2) Florida needed double-overtime to beat Georgia on the road and then lost to Mississippi State, and right now, it’s not good to be losing to Mississippi State.  The win over Vanderbilt helps, but then again, Vanderbilt seems to be slipping right now.
3. Alabama (13-7, 5-1) After a dismal preseason, the Tide seem to be rolling.  Alabama has the best record in the league and is winning by increasingly greater margins.  Alabama beat Kentucky by two, Auburn by 10 and LSU by 24.  Coach Anthony Grant seems to have corrected his team’s problems, as he attributed early difficulties to players still learning their roles.  Alabama has enough talent to win the West and possibly challenge for the conference if Grant is right.
4. Vanderbilt (15-6, 3-4) Vanderbilt is having a rough go of it of late, sitting at 3-4 in conference.  In a home game against Arkansas, Vanderbilt never looked good and the Commodores allowed Rotnei Clarke to make shots from everywhere, as he scored 36 points on 12-16 from the floor and 6-8 from three.  That’s not going to work.
5. Tennessee (14-7, 4-2) Now that Tennessee is at 4-2 in conference with wins over Vanderbilt and at Georgia, I want to say that things are back on track in Knoxville, but many were fooled once before when the Volunteers knocked off then-#21 Memphis after losing four of six, so I’ll give it another week before I make up my mind on this one.
6. Arkansas (14-6, 4-3) After a disappointing week where the Razorbacks lost at Georgia and got pummeled at Florida, they turned around and got wins over lowly Auburn and at Vanderbilt where they outrebounded the ‘Dores 26-21 and shot 57% from the field including Michael Sanchez‘s 8-12 for a career high 20 points.  He averages 4.1 a game.
7. South Carolina (12-7, 2-2) Despite the fact that I don’t think we should compare Bruce Ellington to Devan Downey (he’s better than Downey), I will say that they do have one thing in common.  They both have low shooting percentages.  Ellington Is currently shooting 37 percent and shot only 4-12 in a loss to Auburn. But we shouldn’t single him out in this case.  The entire team was abysmal shooting 37 percent from the field, 21 percent from three and 57 percent from the line.  Time to work on squaring up to the basket.
8. Georgia (14-6, 3-4) The Bulldogs have underperformed of late and their 3-4 SEC mark is an indicator of that.  The Dawgs finished a ten-game winning streak when they beat Kentucky in their SEC opener, but have now lost four of six, including two this week – one at Florida and the other at Kentucky.
9. Mississippi State (11-9 3-3) The other Bulldogs lost at Vanderbilt and won at Florida.  I continually marvel that a team with Ravern Johnson, Kodi Augustus, Dee Bost and Renardo Sidney is still playing as poorly as they are.  This team has lost seven of its last 11 games.
10. Mississippi (14-8 2-5) Things still are not going well for the Rebels, but the win over Kentucky is huge.  Maybe this will give this underperforming squad a little momentum against an improving Razorbacks squad in Fayetteville.
11. LSU (10-11 2-4) With LSU’s four-game losing streak, the SEC now has two teams with overall losing records.  The Tigers have not scored more than 53 points in any of their last five contests and are losing by an average of 28 points over their four-game losing streak.
12. Auburn (8-13 1-6) Well look who got a nice little conference win over a decent team.  As I mentioned above, the other Tigers held South Carolina to terrible shooting numbers but what’s more is they outrebounded the bigger Gamecocks 45-32.  Nice work, boys.

A Look Ahead

• Feb. 5 Kentucky @ Florida. Kentucky is in the NCAA Tournament.  Now the Wildcats are playing for seeding.  The selection committee really cares about road wins and Kentucky doesn’t have a whole lot of those.  You see what I’m getting at here.
• Feb. 10 Alabama @ Vanderbilt. If Alabama can get the win in Nashville on Vanderbilt’s weird court and get to 6-1 in conference, I don’t think anyone in the West can catch the Tide.  And with a favorable schedule after that, an SEC championship is not out of the question.  But this game is really big if that is to remain a possibility.

Zach Hayes is RTC’s official bracketologist.

• Last Four In: UAB, Washington State, Richmond, Penn State.
• Last Four Out: Maryland, Gonzaga, Butler, Colorado State.

Analysis:

• With the upheaval at the top of the rankings, there was as much competition for the #1 seeds this week as in any of the previous brackets. After Ohio State as the standout overall #1 seed, Pittsburgh, Kansas and Texas slid into the final three spots. Connecticut likely would have earned the spot occupied by Texas if they had closed out Louisville at home on Saturday. Although the Huskies edged the Longhorns in Austin, the overall portfolio leans ever so slightly towards Texas. As always, this is a fluid situation and could change tonight should Texas fall in College Station.
• BYU also would have been in prime contention to snag a #1 seed if they hadn’t slipped up at the Pit against New Mexico on Saturday. The Cougars boasted the top RPI in the land prior to the loss (Kansas re-claimed that esteemed spot). BYU now joins fellow Mountain West member San Diego State on the #2 seed line along with Connecticut and Duke, who drops to the final #2 seed and #8 overall.
• This past weekend was a major step forward for the Big East in their quest for obliterating the record for NCAA teams in one conference with Marquette edging Syracuse and St. John’s trouncing of Duke. All 11 contenders remained in the field this week and the lowest was Cincinnati as a #10 seed. The Bearcats look like the most vulnerable team in the conference to miss on an NCAA bid with both Marquette (Notre Dame, Syracuse, a plethora of close losses to NCAA teams) and St. John’s (Duke, Notre Dame, Georgetown, at West Virginia) having compiled some exemplary wins. Cincinnati still plays Louisville, Connecticut and Georgetown on their home floor.
• Bid stealer alert! Alabama at 5-1 in the SEC automatically gains that conference’s automatic bid with both Florida and Kentucky having suffered two defeats in conference play. This bumps Maryland just barely out of the bracket.
• Where have you gone Cinderella? The most famous of the last decade’s tournament darlings — Gonzaga and Butler –– both find themselves out of the field this week. The Zags have lost three of four in WCC play including road defeats at San Francisco and Santa Clara, while Butler has now fallen four times in Horizon play after running the table a season ago. Downing St. Mary’s in Moraga or Memphis in February would go a long way for Gonzaga and their ugly #90 RPI. Butler may have to win the Horizon League tournament which could be played in Valparaiso or Cleveland.
• I’d like to formally welcome Penn State to the field! Home wins over Wisconsin, Michigan State and Illinois carried the Nittany Lions into the bracket for the first time. Close losses at Ohio State and at Purdue also won’t be ignored by the committee. While objectivity always comes first in Bracketology, I’d personally love to see Talor Battle in an NCAA Tournament game.

Conference Call

Read the rest of this entry »

Jared Quillen is the RTC correspondent for the SEC.

A Look Back

• Interestingly, Kentucky coach John Calipari cursed at Terrence Jones repeatedly during a time-out in Kentucky’s 66-68 loss to Alabama, and ESPN got the whole thing, audio not included.  While it was largely a non-issue until Calipari issued an apology, it was later discussed on “Around the Horn,” perhaps the most boring show in sports, and “Pardon the Interruption.”  While some have blown it out of proportion, others have regarded the whole situation as silly, saying that Calipari had no need to apologize.  That’s just coachspeak.
• I have to appreciate what Coach Cal did.  His apology was completely unrequested and unforced, but he felt the need to say something and in this day and age of so much coarse language, unrepentant vitriol and media-induced faux-apologies, it is refreshing to see someone who realizes that he did something inappropriate giving a sincere apology without any pressure to do so simply because his conscience told him to do it.
• More news from Vols camp involves Tennessee’s Renaldo Woolridge shooting his own music video at a bar and he not paying for the time that he was there filming, an action that could theoretically constitute an NCAA violation.  However, Woolridge was cleared of wrongdoing after an internal investigation into the matter. Tennessee isn’t exactly in the good graces of the NCAA right now, so this figures to be one less headache from the higher-ups.
• To follow up on Mississippi State coach Rick Stansbury’s comment last week that he doesn’t feel there is that much difference between the SEC East and West, the East is now 82-29 to the West’s 64-49 and is winning by an average margin of 9.2 points per game to the West’s 3.5.  Furthermore, the East is now 9-3 in head to head matchups against the West.

Power Rankings

1. Kentucky (15-4, 3-2) Kentucky continues to have trouble on the road.  All four of the Wildcats’ losses have come at road or neutral sites, and while the Alabama loss doesn’t look good, they took care of business at South Carolina to get a good win in a tough environment.
2. Vanderbilt (14-4, 2-2) Vanderbilt went 2-0 this week with an 84-74 win over Mississippi and a good win over West Coast Conference leader Saint Mary’s.  A great week for the Commodores, but not quite enough yet to knock Kentucky off its perch at the top of the power rankings.
3. Florida (15-4, 4-1) I want to say that Florida is looking good at 4-1 in conference, especially after pasting Arkansas 75-43, but they only shot 28.3 percent from the field including 5-26 from three… against Auburn, and the game was tied with under two minutes to play.  Starting guards Erving Walker and Kenny Boynton combined to go just 6-28 from the field.  Not a good sign.  Auburn is probably the only BCS conference team in the country against whom you can shoot 28.3 percent and still win.  Step it up Gators.
4. Georgia (14-4, 3-2) The Bulldogs posted a two-point loss to the ever-enigmatic Tennessee Volunteers and then pasted the mess that is Mississippi State.  1-1 against the two most disappointing teams in the SEC is nothing to get overly excited about, but nothing to panic over yet either as Joe Lunardi has Georgia in the NCAA Tournament in his latest bracketology.
5. South Carolina (12-6, 3-2) The Gamecocks continue to be a feisty bunch getting a win over Arkansas and then forcing Kentucky to flinch by closing what was an 18-point second half deficit to just five with 1:16 to play.  And can I just say right now, Bruce Ellington is not the next Devan Downey.  Bruce is his own man, and though he posts near identical stats to Downey, when all is said and done, he will be the better player.  Coach Darrin Horn is putting things together in Columbia and his recruiting Ellington is just one piece of the puzzle.
6. Alabama (12-7, 4-1) Alabama is certainly moving up after getting a nice win against Kentucky, but that loss to St. Peter’s might be too much for the selection committee to bear and right now, Joe Lunardi agrees.  Despite Alabama’s recent winning ways, it’s going to take some kind of a special conference season to make the NCAAs.
7. Tennessee (12-7, 2-2) The win at Georgia is nice.  The loss to Connecticut is acceptable, but a win would have really helped to get the Volunteers’ minds back in the right place now that conference play is heating up.  The Volunteers did hold Kemba Walker to a season-low 16 points.  There’s something to be said for that I guess when you consider some of the teams Connecticut has played this year.
8. Arkansas (12-4, 2-3) Conference play started well for the Razorbacks, but then they had to face a couple of SEC East teams.  This week, the Hogs posted a seven-point loss to South Carolina and an embarrassing thirty-two point loss to Florida in a game that was not entirely dissimilar to their ugly loss to Texas just prior to conference play.  It was tough to watch folks.
9. Mississippi State (10-8, 2-2) With or without Renardo Sidney and Dee Bost, this team continues to disappoint.  There is plenty of talent here between Sidney, Bost, Kodi Augustus and Ravern Johnson, but the Bulldogs still posted an embarrassing 86-64 loss to Georgia in their only game last week.
10. Mississippi (13-7, 1-4) Hey, look who got a conference win, and on the road, no less.  Of course it was at LSU, but if you’re Mississippi, you’re just repeating to yourself, “ A win is a win.”
11. LSU (10-9, 2-2) The Tigers shot only 32.9 percent and were outrebounded 31-17 at home by Mississippi.  That doesn’t bode well for upcoming games against Tennessee and Alabama.  Of course both of those teams have shown they can beat or lose to any team in the nation, so maybe LSU goes 2-0 this week.
12. Auburn (7-10, 0-5) Five straight losses is never fun.  Getting close against Florida after playing your best defense all year is a heartbreaker.  I’m rooting for the Tigers to get at least one win this week against Arkansas or South Carolina.

A Look Ahead

• Florida @ Georgia, January 25.  Neither of these two teams shoot well, so this could get ugly, but both of these teams have some good wins, so there is potential for this to be a fun competitive game.
• Georgia @ Kentucky, January 29.  This is the payback game.  I don’t expect to see the Wildcats come out as flat as they did against Georgia in Athens, but the one thing that gives Kentucky trouble more than anything else is a team with a quality big man.  Georgia just so happens to have one such big man in Trey Thompkins.

We’re back with the second episode of AITF, a semi-regular piece that will take a closer look at each of the six power conferences to see what interesting tidbits relating to the national picture might be occurring.  And yes, for those of you asking, we’re still classifying the SEC as a power conference (even if KenPom has the Mountain West ahead of it). 

Power Conference Rankings

1.  Big East.

• Everyone in the Big East has now played between six to nine conference games, so we have a somewhat decent sense as to how the pecking order in this league looks at this point.  So far, Pittsburgh (7-1), Villanova (5-1) and possibly Connecticut (4-2) have separated themselves in our eyes as the cream of the conference.  Syracuse (5-2) is just a shade below that group, but they’re going to have to figure out some things before we anoint the Orange among this year’s Big East elite – we’ll keep them at the bottom of the top tier for now, though.  The next level is a muddled mess of seven teams — Louisville, Notre Dame, West Virginia, Marquette, Cincinnati, St. John’s and Georgetown.  The most likely candidate from this group to play up to the next level is (unsurprisingly) Notre Dame after last night’s big win at Pitt, while the most likely candidate to fall completely apart is Steve Lavin’s Johnnies.  ND has already played the toughest part of its schedule whereas St. John’s is already sputtering and still faces four games versus the top tier (plus Duke and UCLA).  The lower tier — Rutgers, Seton Hall, Providence, South Florida and DePaul — isn’t likely to do much more than spring an occasional eyebrow-raising upset (witness PC’s win over Louisville on Saturday).
• Notre Dame has been the beneficiary of the scheduling gods thus far.  The Irish have played nine games (6-3), winning five in the friendly confines of South Bend while going 1-3 away from home.  With nine games left, Mike Brey’s team has only four remaining contests at home, BUT five of their remaining games are against bottom-tier teams, more than another school in the mid-pack.  If the Irish can simply win all of those, they’ll already have eleven wins this season, good enough for an NCAA Tournament bid and a strong seed.  On the other hand, West Virginia, already with wins over three of the bottom tier en route to a 4-2 record, has four games remaining against the elites including a home date with Pitt. 
• We’re simply not a believer in Louisville despite their 15-4 overall and 4-2 conference record.  The Cards shoot 41% of their attempts from three, and when the bombs aren’t falling, bad things happen.  In UL’s two bad performances this season, vs. Drexel and at Providence, Rick Pitino’s modern-day bombinos shot 8-39 (.205) from outside the arc.  When you keep in mind that the Cards have had a soft Big East schedule thus far and escaped Marquette on a miraculous comeback, it wouldn’t surprise us to see the wheels come off soon.
• Rutgers is at 3-4 after defeating after defeating fellow bottom-dwellers South Florida and Seton Hall last week.  But credit is due to Mike Rice’s team for separating the Scarlet Knights a little from the true bottom of the barrel by beating those two plus Providence so far this season.  Having lost the personnel they did and to already be well past last year’s pace of five wins is a solid achievement even if the schedule toughens up from here on out.

2.  Big Ten.

• There was some consternation over the weekend about Michigan State suffering its seventh loss of the season and whether that puts Tom Izzo’s team in danger of falling onto the bubble, and that worry is misguided at this point.  According to Pomeroy, MSU has played the toughest schedule in the nation to date, and various bracketologists (Glockner – #7; Lunardi – #6; Hayes – #6) as of this morning have the Spartans still feeling comfortable.  Still, the Spartans are a couple of bounces away from having lost six in a row (instead of three of six), and it’s clear that Michigan State is struggling to find answers.  Kalin Lucas still doesn’t appear to be himself, and the continued inconsistency of Durrell Summers and Delvon Roe remains perplexing.  Sparty needs to win its next three easily (vs. Michigan, vs. Indiana, @ Iowa). 
• Big Ten schools must be so tired of Bo Ryan and Wisconsin.  Year after year no matter the personnel the guy finds a way to become an annoying thorn in the side of every team in the league.  After a road destruction of Northwestern in Evanston on Saturday, the Badgers sit at 5-2 in the league with four shots to overtake league leaders Ohio State and Purdue on the horizon.  Since the Big Ten expanded to an 18-game conference schedule, the Badgers have averaged a 13-5 record, with Purdue (13.3 wins) and Michigan State (13.7 wins) just barely ahead.  Would you bet against them? 
• Illinois has been close-but-no-cigar in losses to Texas and Ohio State this season, and there’s a general sense that Bruce Weber’s team is just one little thing short of being truly elite.  That one thing is interior defense.  Despite having the very large Mikes (Tisdale and Davis) inside to man the post, Jared Sullinger and Tristan Thompson shredded the Illini frontline for easy scores when they needed them down the stretch.  If Illinois had made stops in those situations (in addition to losses to UIC and Wisconsin), they would very likely be 17-3 or thereabouts and sitting in the top eight of the polls. 
• It’s no big surprise, but Northwestern’s NCAA prospects are dim and fading to black after the beatdown that Wisconsin put on the Wildcats Sunday.  Now at 3-5 in the league with Minnesota away followed by Ohio State and Illinois at home, it’s very likely that the next two weeks will finish them off.  The sad part is that both Michigan State losses were there for the taking; had Northwestern won those, we would be handicapping a very different situation.

Read the rest of this entry »