While we love to celebrate teamwork in college basketball, the truth is that the individual is much more fun. Balanced scoring is fine and tactically sound, but what we really love in college basketball is the virtuoso offensive performance, or as it is called in 2011, the Jimmer. And while the three-headed Devil from Durham may have won last season, perhaps this season, the one man show is back in style.  It’s Michael Jordan’s fault, really. His competitive nature and unbelievable personal narcissism motivated him to incredible heights and made him largely unbearable to most of his contemporaries. His success provided a model for greatness that was easy to recognize and hard to argue with. There are lots of different names for the Jordan model, but Bill Simmons’ version is probably the best known: The Alpha Dog.

Yeah, It's Safe to Call MJ an Alpha Dog

Simmons didn’t invent the concept or the term: lots of analysts, sportswriters, announcers and coaches have described the alpha dog model in one way or another over the years. The gist of it is this: A team needs an undisputed leader. The alpha dog is the go-to-guy on offense and is the guy who takes the game-winning shots. To win championships, you need an alpha dog. Jordan was an alpha dog (at least for the Bulls if not for North Carolina), and he is the primary reason his team won championships. Despite being a team game, you need an alpha dog to win, to demand the right to take the last shot. Guys who pass up the last shot aren’t alpha dogs: they are losers. At least, that’s the catechism. However, in the grand world of Simmon-isms, there may be another theory at play.

Specifically, I’m talking about the Ewing Theory, which in short, postulates that sometimes a team will play better without its star player, that the team will transcend the individual. Does this contradict the Alpha Dog theory? Well then it contradicts the Alpha Dog theory. Simmons, like Walt Whitman, contains multitudes. In any case, the Sports Guy has lots of examples, and anecdotally, lots of folks have seen this with their own eyes and believe it. It’s not too hard to imagine a scenario where this makes sense. The star is a volume scorer and fairly inefficient, and when the star is out of the game, the other players get more shots and more efficient shots. This is fairly intuitive and you can see the principle in action every Kentucky game. Terrence Jones is a sensational basketball player and undoubtedly incredibly skilled. That said, he is the fifth most efficient scorer on the team, but takes 30.5% of the shots. If he took fewer shots and his teammates took more, the team’s offensive efficiency would go up.

At Ohio State, Jared Sullinger uses, by far, the most possessions in each game, and for the most part, that’s fine. Sullinger is an incredibly efficient scorer with an offensive rating of 123.6 (points per hundred possessions). That said, Sullinger’s teammate Jon Diebler has an insane offensive rating of 139.1 and yet uses only 12.5% of Ohio State’s possessions. If I were to pretend you were naive here, you would then ask why Ohio State isn’t constantly feeding Jon Diebler. Fortunately, you aren’t naive and you understand that efficency is fleeting. Or if not exactly fleeting, curved.

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1. It has been a tough season so far for Wake Forest as the Demon Deacons have fallen from a solid NCAA Tournament team to one that is widely considered to be one of the worst in any major conference, and things do not seem to be getting any better in Winston-Salem. The latest blow for the team is the dismissal of Melvin Tabb, a freshman forward whose time with the team was more notable for his frequent suspensions than his on-court productivity. We don’t want to place all the blame for this season on new coach Jeff Bzdelik but we have to think that the administration is going to have him on a very short leash going forward if he even survives this off-season.
2. Over the past few months there has been a lot of media attention (news, not just sports) on states cutting their budgets on what many people consider essential services. The state of Arizona has garnered a lot of unwanted attention with their decision to stop paying for organ transplants for Medicaid patients. We can only imagine that the news that Arizona spent $1.5 million dollars on renovating its men’s basketball locker room, including six different types of mood lighting, will ignite a media firestorm even if it was paid for through donations and not taxpayer money. [Ed. Note: RTC could have provided a significantly cheaper contract based around lava lamps. Please contact us for competitive quotes.]
3. Since you read our site, you are probably aware of Kenneth Faried of Morehead State and how special he is on the court, but we are guessing that you didn’t know that much about his background off the court. If the Eagles make it to the NCAA Tournament, you’re probably going to be hearing a lot more about that, but we doubt that you will find a much better piece than the one Dana O’Neil put together about Faried and his background.
4. You may have heard that there was a rather big game played at Cameron Indoor Stadium last night between Duke and UNC. You may have also heard about how their fans can get really worked up and sometimes cross the line (not unexpected). Sometimes even the coaches cross that line (somewhat unexpected). Well, it turns out that even administrators aren’t immune from making idiotic statements. Case in point: UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp, who issued this since-deleted Tweet: “Our students are talking about the future and asking smart questions instead of wasting time sitting in a tent #USFutureEconomy.” In the grand scheme of things, we don’t consider the tweet itself that offensive since we see many more offensive ones every day, but the fact that someone in such a powerful/political position would actually issue a statement like that to the world is dumbfounding. Is there any chance UNC could ban its administration from social media sites?
5. Speaking of Duke, they have been pretty active on the recruiting trail over the past few days picking up one highly rated class of 2012 recruit in Alex Murphy, a 6’8″ forward out of Rhode Island, and putting on quite a show in a comeback victory in front of Rasheed Sulaimon, one of the top shooting guards in the class of 2012, who was in attendance for the game last night and reportedly grew up a Blue Devils fan. With Duke’s recent success on the recruiting trail, Coach K could be approaching 1,000 victories more quickly than many of us expected.

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

Isn’t it fantastic that Duke-North Carolina means something again? Last year’s Blue Devil dominance coupled with a bleak NIT season from their Tobacco Road rivals produced a lackluster two-game set between these hated competitors culminating in a Senior Day thrashing for the ages at Cameron. With Kyrie Irving buoying a seemingly unstoppable Duke attack and UNC still figuring themselves out, it looked to be more of the same refrain during non-conference play, but obviously much has transpired since then: Tyler Zeller has grasped a go-to scorers role, Kendall Marshall has supplanted the now-departed Larry Drew at the point and, most importantly, Irving suffered a toe injury that’s kept him on the sidelines and Duke has had to change their style once again. The last point could loom large during Wednesday’s meeting in Durham. I fully expect Duke to win, but the pressurized, relentless, full-court attack that Duke employed with Irving was going to pose a challenge for Marshall setting up the Tar Heel halfcourt offense and containing the much quicker Irving defensively. Given Duke’s adjustment to a halfcourt-oriented offense with an emphasis on screening for Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith, the Blue Devils won’t provide as much of a headache for the inexperienced Marshall. Thus, I expect a closer-knit affair on Wednesday, and any tight Duke-UNC game is a victory for college basketball.

Roy Williams has his Heels peaking as they head into Cameron

It might surprise you to know that Arizona has 20 wins already. The quick-fix rebuilding job Sean Miller has orchestrated in Tucson is nothing short of extraordinary, but it’s appropriate to point out that none of it would have been possible if not for the Tim Floyd disaster at USC. Most forget that Pac-10 POY frontrunner Derrick Williams and Arizona starting point guard Lamont Jones were both USC commits under Floyd until the O.J. Mayo situation surfaced, Floyd resigned and the two talented recruits signed on with Miller at Arizona. Williams (19.5 PPG, 8.1 RPG, 63% FG) has molded into a lottery pick as a sophomore and Jones’ heroics down the stretch at California provided the Wildcats with a breathtaking road victory and propelled them to first in the Pac-10. To claim Miller’s reloading effort as mostly luck is doing the fantastic coach a disservice, though. Miller’s coaching acumen was displayed during his 120-47 run at Xavier and his recruiting has already produced a 2011 recruiting class that rivals Lute Olson’s top efforts. Where this Arizona program stood two springs ago during their frantic and humbling search for a head coach to their position today atop the conference and with a bright future ahead is staggering.

The road ahead is treacherous for Baylor, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. On one hand, the resuscitated Bears have an ample amount of opportunities to collect quality wins down the stretch with trips to Austin, Columbia and Stillwater and a return trip from the Longhorns on the docket. On the other hand, good luck winning those games! The fact that Baylor is even in the discussion (their best non-conference win is Pac-10 bottom feeder Arizona State at home) shows the current state of the bubble in a 68-team environment. Regardless, the development of Perry Jones should give Bears fans hope that a late season surge could be approaching. The multi-talented future lottery pick is making tremendous strides lately. He’s scored in double-digits every game in Big 12 play including 24 points against Oklahoma State and a banner performance on Saturday at A&M where he scored 27 points on 9-16 FG and 9-9 FT. Jones is becoming much more comfortable knocking down a smooth mid-range jumper, attacking the glass and playing within Scott Drew’s offense. At 14.7 PPG, 7.0 RPG and 57% FG in over 33 MPG, Jones has quietly posted a stellar freshman campaign in the shadow of Sullinger, Jones and other prominent diaper dandies.

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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.

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There was almost no movement within the top 10 of the rankings, but that was certainly not the case for the rest. A big rebound week for Syracuse and disappointing ones for Kentucky and Texas A&M highlight what is always an eventful week of college hoops.  Quick n’ dirty after the jump…

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Jesse Baumgartner is an RTC contributor. In this weekly piece he’ll review the five things he loved and hated about the previous seven days of college basketball. This week, Jesse goes nuts (as did most people) on the whole Larry Drew II situation and claims Brandon Knight isn’t a real point guard (God help us), and then takes his place in the long line of Wild Bill fans.

The Five Things I Loved This Week

I LOVED…..“Wild Bill” from the Utah State student section. Apparently I missed this guy last year, but you sure can’t miss him when you’re an opposing player at the free throw line. You get a couple options, too, when you’re playing the Aggies. Wild Bill could choose to expose his rather robust cleavage, or he might switch things up and don an elephant costume – like he did this last week against Nevada. Of course there’s also the Winnie the Pooh outfit, too. Personally I’m waiting for the first free-throw line victim that just starts cracking up. You know they want to, so I’d just let it loose for a few seconds so you could concentrate on the freebie.

How Can One Not Love This?

I LOVED…..three things that came out of Larry Drew II’s decision to quit on UNC (don’t worry, I rant about it in the HATE section, too). First off, UNC looked dynamite without him on Sunday against Florida State and showed again that the team is bigger than the decisions of one disgruntled player. Then there was Roy Williams, who said in the wake of Drew’s decision that “Z (7-footer Tyler Zeller) thinks that he can” be a factor at the point. And finally, check out Tar Heel swing man Dexter Strickland’s hilarious Tweet after realizing he’ll be the back-up point guard: “I gotta get on my Deron Williams swag for Sunday…lol @KButter5 (PG Kendall Marshall) I got u son!”

I LOVED…..some innovative expression from the Pac-10. This time it was Arizona point guard Lamont “MoMo” Jones, who went off for 27 points and hit multiple clutch shots in a dramatic 3OT-road win against Cal. “I’ve played like this my whole life,” said Jones. “To other people it might be something new, but to me it’s just another day in the life of MoMo Jones.” Players take note. If you want to be quoted, nothing does it faster than referring to yourself in the third person. Gets ‘em every time.

I LOVED…..that for all the talk of a weak SEC and a strong, dynamic Kentucky, the Wildcats are now 4-4 in conference play after taking a spill against Florida this weekend. Once again, that which we take for granted in college basketball comes back to bite us in the…whatever you call it. I stand by a statement I made after watching UK in Maui at the start of the season – Brandon Knight must become an actual point guard. Point guards don’t have assist-turnover ratios of 83-75. This UK team can make a run, but they need Knight to perhaps limit his scoring a bit (which is tough, since he’s a stud in that department) and get his teammates better looks on a consistent basis.

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The Lede.  It might have been a Super Weekend elsewhere in the American sports universe, but this weekend’s college hoops slate left a lot to be desired.  There were few good matchups on paper, and even fewer in practice.  It’s hard to get through approximately 165 games, though, and not have something worthwhile to talk about, so we’ll of course ferret out the best of the weekend here.

Derrick Williams & Arizona Are On the Rise (Az Daily Star/D. Sanders)

Your Watercooler Moment.  Game of the Year? Arizona Beats Cal in a Regular Season Classic.  RTC Live was lucky enough to be there for the 107-105 thriller, and we’re not sure we’ve seen a more back-and-forth, exciting game in a random regular season setting.  Certainly not in person.  The comparison that immediately comes to mind was the 2007 Texas-Oklahoma State game, another game where nobody outside of certain local viewing areas actually saw the action.   With around ten minutes to go, in what had to that point been a fun high-scoring game that visiting Arizona appeared to be in control of, the Wildcats’ Solomon Hill elbowed Jorge Gutierrez on the break, drawing an intentional foul and handing the momentum back to Cal.  From that point on, with the score 59-54, both teams punched and counter-punched each other in a classic final twenty-five minutes of action with more twists and turns than Highway 1 up the Big Sur coast.  The game ultimately changed hands seventeen times and was tied fourteen other times, including after regulation and a first and second overtime.  So many players stepped up for both sides, including Pac-10 FrOY candidate Allen Crabbe (27/7), POY candidate Derrick Williams (12/18), but the star of stars on this night was UA’s sophomore guard Lamont “MoMo” Jones.  The brash New Yorker hit a tough runner (and-1) from behind the basket to send the game into the first overtime, then drained a 22-footer with six seconds to go in the second overtime to tie the game, then made the go-ahead layup with a minute left in the third overtime.  “Just a day in the life of MoMo Jones,” he said afterward, but with Arizona now at 9-2 in the Pac-10 and a game ahead of UCLA in the loss column and two games ahead of league favorite Washington, people around the country should do themselves the favor to learn that Sean Miller’s desert rats are more than simply a dominant post player on the blocks in Williams.  This Wildcat team is a year or more ahead of schedule, but should anyone who has tracked Miller’s career to this point be surprised?

This Weekend’s Quick Hits…

[ed. note: our BGTD coverage of Saturday’s games is located here, in three parts.  Early Games; Late Afternoon Games; Evening Games.]

• Buckeyes Roll On.  After Ohio State’s Sunday win over Minnesota in Minny, the Buckeyes are 24-0 with its next game scheduled on Saturday, February 12, in Madison.  The last time any team has gone this late in the year with an unbeaten record was Memphis in 2007-08, a team that didn’t lose until February 23 that year.  The last time a power conference team went undefeated this late was the 2005 Illinois Fighting Illini, who ran out to a 29-0 record before losing in the final regular season game against none other than Ohio State.  That Illini team also went to the national title game before losing a close one to North Carolina.  Certainly with a diversified offense that includes Jared Sullinger as its centerpiece (18/13 against the Gophers), OSU has designs on a similar or even better track than their conference brethren from a half-decade ago.
• A Wildcat Sort of Saturday.  We mentioned the Arizona Wildcats above, but a couple of other sets of Cats had pretty a pretty good weekend as well.  The Northwestern Wildcats kept what little NCAA pulse they have alive with a nice win over Illinois in Evanston, and the Kansas State Wildcats did likewise with a one-point road win over Iowa State.  Jacob Pullen used the bounce to get to the rim for the game-winning layup with three seconds remaining.  Neither of these wins are blockbusters, but they’re the type that you simply must have if you have designs on making a final push.  The Big 10 Wildcats next five games are against unranked teams, while the Big 12 Wildcats face similar in three of the next four — does either team have the guts to save its once-promising season?  Other Wildcat teams — Davidson, New Hampshire, Villanova and Weber State — also won on Saturday.  Apologies to Kentucky and Bethune-Cookman, though, the sole losing felines.

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The evening and night games provided us with plenty of memorable moments and two of the best games so far this season.

The afternoon games gave us a couple of squads needing and getting redemption wins, despite still having a lot of work to do on their resumes. We also saw The Jimmer get creative and show you other aspects of his game besides the leaning scissor-kick threes from the hash marks (though those are really fun to watch), and we’re preplexed by Washington’s road-o-phobia.

• Wildcats Win a Wild One. We’ve written so much negative stuff about Kansas State this year, let’s say something good for once. Jacob Pullen used a tasty little crossover to wrong-foot his defender and get to the hoop for an easy lay-in with about two seconds left to give the Wildcats their first Big 12 road win this season, an 86-85 squeaker over Iowa State. Congrats on the nice win, but let’s keep a big-picture perspective. KSU’s next two are at Colorado (tough) and at home against Kansas. If they can win those two, then they’ll have our attention. That’d put them at 18-8 (6-5) with a late-season win over a title contender. Ironically, that KSU vs KU game is a Valentine’s Day tilt.
• Speaking of Wildcats Needing Wins… Northwestern has a pulse, at least, having pulled out a close road win at Illinois, 71-70. We’re still scratching our collective head regarding the change over the last month in Demetri McCamey (14/4 asst). In the Illini’s first 16 games, McCamey had only one game in which he had less than five assists (three in a win vs Oakland on 12/8). At that point, they were 13-3. In their last seven games, McCamey has had only one game with more than five assists (11 in a win vs Michigan State on 1/18). The Illini have lost five of those seven games.
• Along Came (the other) Jones.  Another team that earned a little redemption (and needed it) with a road win: the Baylor Bears. Perry Jones (27/7) deserves every bit of the hype he gets, but today it was Anthony Jones (10/8) who saved the Bears with a lay-in with 3.1 seconds remaining, giving Baylor a good solid win (76-74) over a 16th-ranked Texas A&M squad. Checking the schedule, Baylor has seven Big 12 games remaining, and we see a minimum of three wins out of those (Nebraska, Texas Tech, and Texas A&M, all at home). That would make Baylor 8-8 in the Big 12…which isn’t even as encouraging as it sounds. In the past 18 years, a .500-or-worse team has only been to the NCAA Tournament four times. The Bears still have two games against Texas ahead of them. They might need to steal one of those.

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Game #133.  RTC Live is at Cal to see surprising Pac-10 leader Arizona take on the equally surprising Bears this afternoon in Berkeley.

In a Pac-10 season that was essentially handed to Washington through the early going, Arizona has had something else to say about that conventional wisdom.  Coming into tonight’s game in Berkeley, Arizona is 8-2 in conference play while Washington is 7-3.  UW will play Oregon in Eugene this afternoon, and both teams have home-dominated schedules the rest of the way (Arizona with three; Washington with two).  If the Wildcats hope to keep a one-game lead until the rematch on February 19 in Tucson, today’s game is very important.  In typical Mike Montgomery style, Cal has overachieved its way to a 6-4 Pac-10 record at this point.  Behind Jorge Gutierrez and Allen Crabbe’s fine play, the Bears have not been a pushover despite losing all five starters from last season’s conference championship team.  Cal comes into this one having won four in a row, while Arizona is on the same number in its streak.  Something has to give today — will it be Derrick Williams again making his case as one of the top big men in the country; or will it be Cal reminding everyone that Montgomery gets the most out of his personnel year after year?  Join us this afternoon on RTC Live for all the action.

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