Evan Jacoby is an RTC columnist and contributor. You can find him @evanjacoby on Twitter. TT4 will cover four selected teams of interest – Syracuse, Indiana, Murray State, and UNLV – by tracking their ups, downs, and exciting developments throughout the course of the season.

Welcome to Tracking The Four! This new series reads just like it sounds, as we will be following four buzz-worthy teams across the country. Those lucky teams are Syracuse (current #1 team and a title favorite), Indiana (a feel-good contender), Murray State (undefeated dreams), and UNLV (the best of the West). With TT4, we hope to provide readers with interesting insights about each of the featured teams that helps capture the atmosphere of the programs throughout the rest of the season. Look for a full TT4 piece every Tuesday, as well as a shorter update later in the week. Each post will be loaded with highlights, lowlights, and tidbits about each team, as well as recaps from their recent play and a look ahead at their upcoming games. Conference play is well underway and there’s plenty of news to get to this week:

Kris Joseph & Syracuse are All Smiles Right Now (Getty Images/A. Lyons)

Syracuse Orange

• Trending UP Because… – They’re looking like national title favorites. The undefeated Orange (17-0, 4-0 Big East) remain number one in every national poll, including the RTC Top 25, with its consistently dominant play. They’ve beaten their four conference opponents by an average of 16.5 points, which includes two road games and two home games against ranked teams (Seton Hall & Marquette). Seton Hall has proven to be a solid and cohesive offensive team, yet the Pirates were blown out of the gym by Syracuse in a 75-49 thrashing. The Orange are the deepest team in the country with 10 meaningful contributors, and their patented 2-3 zone is as strong as ever. Jim Boeheim‘s team is now making bigger headlines on the court than off it (the Bernie Fine sexual harassment allegation was a big story), a refreshing trend for the sake of all its fans.
• This Week’s Key Cog – Brandon Triche. The junior guard led the team in scoring last week, going for 16 points at Providence on Wednesday and another 16 at home against Marquette on Saturday. He hit four three-pointers in each game with an impressive line of 16/7/4 assts and two steals in the victory over Marquette.
• Play of the Week – Point guard Scoop Jardine finds his go-to guy Kris Joseph in transition for a thunderous dunk from several feet away from the basket against Providence.
• Talking Point – Guard Dion Waiters, who comes off the bench, had this to say after the win over Providence: “I’ve never been on a team with subs like this. It’s crazy. We continue to get better and make each other better in practice every day. We’ve got some of the best guards in the country.’’
• Stats Central – Syracuse leads the nation with 37.5 points per game from its bench, further proving that they’re the deepest team in America. Also, their zone defense has been truly elite this season, as the Orange lead the country in steals (10.9 per game), are third in blocks (7.4 per game), and fifth in forcing turnovers (18.7 per game).
• What’s Next? – The Orange play at Villanova on Wednesday at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia (7:00 PM ET, ESPN2) against a struggling Wildcats team, but it’s still a rivalry game in which the Villanova crowd should be fired up and looking for the upset. Then, Cuse gets its second matchup with Providence, this time at home on Saturday (6:00 PM ET) as heavy favorites.

Evan Jacoby is an RTC columnist and contributor. You can find him @evanjacoby on Twitter. Night Line will run on weeknights during the season, highlighting a major storyline development from that day’s slate of games.

Indiana won another game on Thursday night over a ranked opponent, when Tom Crean’s team knocked off No. 15 Michigan, 73-71, at home in Bloomington. Christian Watford (25 points), Cody Zeller (18 points), and the rest of the Hoosiers will get all the credit for another signature victory, but it was an extremely tough effort by the visiting team that warrants even more attention. In the raucous Assembly Hall environment, Michigan trailed by 15 points but John Beilein’s team responded to the adversity with impressive poise and came back to tie the game late in the second half. While the feel-good story of Indiana’s resurgence will dominate the Big Ten storylines, and with good reason, don’t forget about the Wolverines’ resolve in this game that could be a key component to determining who the better team is by the end of the season.

Indiana and Michigan Played a Tight Game in Bloomington; Who's the Better Team? (AP Images)

There is so much to like about Tom Crean’s team, which features one of the top resumes in the entire country to date. They have wins over Kentucky and Ohio State, who were ranked No. 1 and 2, respectively, at the time of the games. Those wins alone are enough to signify that Hoosier basketball is officially back. IU scores 82 points per game, ninth in the nation, with the top three-point shooting percentage in the land (45.6%), adding up to the fourth-most efficient offense in the country. But IU has done all its major damage on their electric home court, aided by die-hard fans who have waited years for the Hoosier renaissance. Assembly Hall has become the new Kohl Center of the Big Ten, as every team that’s entered its domain this year has exited with a loss. Having an explosive offense, accurate three-point shooters, and a tremendous home court advantage helps make this team one of the most exciting stories of the year.

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In the excitement over the start of the Pac-12 basketball season, we’ve neglected thus far to mention the announcement Wednesday of a new “strategic collaboration” between the Pac-12 and the Big Ten. Included in this agreement are plans for more games between teams in the two conferences, beginning as early as next season for most sports, with a 12-game inter-conference schedule in football planned for 2017. For hoops, we should begin to see more games between the two conferences beginning next year, with possible special events, such as a college football kickoff event at a pro stadium, or basketball events played at NBA stadiums, to be announced at a later date. Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott and Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany also look forward to being able to expand without expanding, to grow the reaches of their respective conferences into new regions and use the two cable networks – the already excelling Big Ten network and the Pac-12 network to come next year – to expand the branding of each conference.

Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott And His Big Ten Counterpart Jim Delany Have Come Up With A Creative Plan To Increase The Visibility Of Both Leagues (photo credit: Kirby Lee, U.S. Presswire)

Focusing just on the hoops side of things, knowing that the Big Ten already has the Big Ten/ACC Challenge that isn’t going anywhere, we likely shouldn’t expect to see a similar Big Ten/Pac-12 event, but there are plenty of ideas that would be appealing. Aside from the mere prospects of home-and-home series’ between teams like Washington and Wisconsin or Arizona and Michigan State, fans in out of the way places like Pullman or Lincoln can now hope to be able to wind up with elite programs making a visit to their campus – imagine UCLA at Nebraska or Ohio State at Washington State, the types of road trips that likely wouldn’t have happened prior to this agreement. Aside from that, perhaps we get some of these early season special events, things like a couple Pac-12 teams traveling to Indianapolis for a double-header with Indiana and Purdue or the opposite, perhaps, where the Big 12 sends a couple teams to Portland for a double header with Oregon and Oregon State. Delany even mentioned that such games could be used to help college basketball come up with a more definitive season-opening event, akin to Major League Baseball’s Opening Day.

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Evan Jacoby is an RTC columnist and contributor. You can find him @evanjacoby on Twitter. See the bottom of the post for the Official RTC Star System.

Tonight’s action offers a variety of 4-star matchups, including some exciting conference openers and one of the last top-25 non-conference showdowns. Carve out some time tonight to catch these great games.

Perry Jones and Undefeated Baylor Face Their Final Non-Conference Test Tonight Against Mississippi State (AP/T. Gutierrez)

#12 Georgetown at #10 Louisville – 7:00 PM EST on ESPN2 (****)

• One of the biggest surprises in the country thus far, Georgetown is now looking to prove it can hang with the top teams in the Big East. Given how the Hoyas have played recently, they should have a great chance to add another impressive win to their resume tonight in the KFC Yum! Center. Georgetown has already won a true road game over then-top-15 Alabama, and tonight it heads west looking to rely on a veteran big three that have been consistent all year. Hollis Thompson and Jason Clark are getting it done from the perimeter, each averaging about 15 points per game and hitting exactly two three-pointers per game to lead the team from deep. Henry Sims, the most unlikely assist man in the nation, has executed his point forward role to perfection in Coach Thompson III’s Princeton-style offense. Sims leads the team with 3.7 assists and 1.6 blocks per game while continuing his low-post impact to the tune of 12.5 points and 5.5 boards per contest. If Georgetown can continue its current pace of 1.16 points per possession, which is ninth best in the country, then they will have a shot to pull off the road win tonight.
• Before taking on Kentucky later this week in a massive in-state powerhouse showdown, Louisville has this fierce test to begin Big East play. Rick Pitino’s team has been well-prepared all season leading to an undefeated record, but they have been vulnerable at home and have nearly been upset several times at the Yum! Center. The Cardinals, though, continue to collect wins thanks to a spectacular defensive effort. Louisville’s defensive efficiency of 83.0 is the fifth-best number in the nation, and they are also ranked top-10 defensively in field goal percentage, true shooting percentage, points per possession, and rebounding. Coach Pitino will run out a nine- or ten-man rotation and look to speed up the Hoyas’ efficient offense by implementing high pressure and different defensive looks throughout the night. How guards Kyle Kuric, Russ Smith, Chris Smith, and Peyton Siva shoot from behind the arc will be the key to the Cardinals’ offense.
• This should be a tremendous game, as two red-hot conference foes do battle with their conflicting styles of play. Louisville is a five-point favorite at home, and their depth across the board will give them an advantage tonight. But the Hoyas are able to counteract any opponent’s strengths when their offense is clicking. Keep an eye on who can establish their style of play early in the game.

Zach Hayes is an editor, contributor and bracketologist for Rush the Court. Follow him on Twitter @zhayes9.

I don’t ever remember a season where more coaches challenged their teams this early in the non-conference. From mandatory league challenges to aircraft carrier showdowns to champions meeting at Madison Square Garden, you haven’t had to search too hard to find a compelling matchup on any given night the last three-plus weeks. The result: frequent opportunities to judge teams against high-quality competition rather than the usual slate of cupcakes. Enough lasting impressions have been made to revise some of our pre-season prognostications and compile an updated conference power ranking.

(Note: as punishment for their embarrassing early-season performance, the Pac-12 can no longer be considered on par with the other major conferences. We’ll revisit this again in January).

Despite two losses, Marshall and UNC still class of ACC

ACC

1. North Carolina. Some toughness questions answered in Kentucky close loss. Marshall an assist machine but often exploited on the other end. Still a clear Final Four favorite based on talent level.
2. Duke. No reliable low post scorer, perimeter defense leaves much to be desired and only Rivers can beat you off the dribble. Still boasts a plethora of shooters, very efficient, three really solid wins to date. Top 10 team.
3. Florida State. Competitive in any game because of length, defense, athleticism. Extremely turnover prone and Snaer disappears. Return of PG Ian Miller could help.
4. Virginia. Also proficient defensively in the halfcourt and on the glass. Stagnant offensively unless Mike Scott decides to take over. Double-double machine needs to be all-ACC for Cavs to excel.
5. Miami. Overly dependent on Grant/Scott guard duo. Started no one taller than 6’6 vs. Purdue. Badly needs Reggie Johnson back to punch ticket.
6. NC State. Really struggles to execute in the halfcourt and allowing 41% from 3. Also extremely athletic and C.J. Leslie has been really active which is a great sign. Texas scalp could be big bubble win.
7. Virginia Tech. No excuse losing to Minnesota with Mbakwe/Sampson out. Erick Green backing up breakout predictions, Dorenzo Hudson MIA. Appears NIT-bound.
8. Maryland. Obvious rebuild year but Stoglin will keep them in any game. Could be frisky second half with Turgeon’s coaching ability if shooting improves and Howard/Len can contribute.
9. Clemson. Big Brownell believer but three regrettable home losses already to Charleston, Coastal Carolina and weak South Carolina squad. Andre Young bright spot.
10. Wake Forest. Competitive vs. Dayton then gets torched by terrible ASU squad. Post defense is an issue. Wish Travis McKie could get recognized.
11. Georgia Tech. 52 points against Tulane. 53 vs. St. Joe’s. 50 vs. LSU. 193^rd in offensive efficiency, 266^th in turnover percentage, 263^rd from 3. Pretty obvious they can’t score.
12. Boston College.  A team of freshmen that need to be developed. KenPom page features more red than the Communist Army.

Big 12

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Bill Hupp is a freelance sports writer and proud Missouri alumnus living in Chicago. Follow him on Twitter (@Bill_Hupp) for his thoughts on college and pro hoops, food, Russian nesting dolls and life. He filed this report from Sunday’s game between Baylor and Northwestern.

With five of the nine players in their rotation standing 6’7″ or taller, it’s understandable why Baylor’s imposing interior garnered most of the preseason attention. The unknown element coming into 2011-12 was the Bears’ backcourt. It’s still early, but Baylor’s solid guard play thus far has helped vault them from a Top 25 team to their highest ranking in school history (No. 7) and the favorite to win the Big 12. Playing their first non-conference true road game in nearly two seasons against a solid Northwestern squad on Sunday, Baylor used a 19-5 run to end the first half as they coasted to a 69-41 win.

Baylor's Athletic Size and Length Confounded Northwestern (AP Photo/C. Cherney)

Baylor (7-0) spent nearly all game in an extended 2-3 match-up zone with 6’9″ Quincy Miller and 6’11” Perry Jones III on the wings.  Their length and athleticism clearly bothered the Wildcats, who shot an abysmal 24 percent from the field and had long droughts of 5:45, 6:21 and 6:37 between field goals during the game. When NU did get into the lane, 6’7″ Quincy Acy was usually waiting, swatting six of Baylor’s nine total blocked shots. That shot blocking-prowess allowed their guards to extend their zone pressure out onto the perimeter. As expected, Baylor also dominated down low on offense, outscoring the ‘Cats 46-12 in the paint.  When point guard AJ Walton wasn’t driving into the lane and tossing lobs for Acy to throw down, Pierre Jackson was getting to the basket off the bounce and scoring. The diminutive 2011 National JUCO Player of the Year has poured in at least 16 points in each of the past three games and seems to be hitting his stride in Waco.

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Evan Jacoby is an RTC columnist. You can find him @evanJacoby on Twitter. Night Line will run on weeknights during the season, highlighting a major storyline development from that day’s slate of games.

The major focus on day one of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge was the thrashing suffered by No. 5 Duke in Columbus at the hands of No. 2 Ohio State. But before the Buckeyes finished off their 85-63 beatdown of the Devils, fellow Big Ten schools Northwestern, Illinois, and Purdue had already completed at least nine-point victories of their own. The Big Ten now holds a 4-2 advantage over the ACC at the halfway point of the competition, and its teams are favored in five of the six remaining games on Wednesday. The Big Ten has only won this inter-conference challenge twice in its 12-year history, and never by more than a single win. We could be looking at the first-ever convincing Big Ten victory in the event, and it’s fitting given the strength and depth of the league this year.

While Beating Duke, OSU's Jared Sullinger Proves He's the Best Player in the Best Conference (Credit: Jay LaPrete, AP)

With Ohio State’s domination of Duke, the Big Ten clearly outclassed the ACC in a battle of two of its top teams. The Buckeyes improved to 7-0 on the season, one of five undefeated teams in the conference, and that includes Illinois and Northwestern, both of whom won convincing road games on Tuesday over Maryland and Georgia Tech, respectively. Neither team has looked spectacular as of yet, but both the Illini and Wildcats are building solid non-conference resumes to boost the Big Ten’s early RPI ratings. Purdue’s win over Miami improved the Boilermakers to 7-1 on the year, with a loss only to a very good Alabama team, and Robbie Hummel is leading the push for Matt Painter’s team to return again to the NCAA Tournament.

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A report yesterday from Deadspin brought to our attention that the NCAA makes a lot of money. Not that we didn’t already know that, and not that it wasn’t already publicly available (apparently Will Leitch’s progeny whiffed on that one), but to see the NCAA’s financial statements for 2008 provides an additional layer of context to the invisible hand driving the shifting landscape of college athletics.

If we’ve heard it once, we’ve heard it a million times already — college football drives the bus in conference realignment and executive decision-making, with college basketball sitting in the back with the other ne’er-do-wells. But why is that so? Nearly every metric shows that our sport is not only popular, but thriving. March Madness could be America’s most beloved sporting event. Attendance figures are still on the uptick. The recent Carrier Classic set a ratings record for a November college basketball game (on a Friday night, no less). The NCAA just over a year ago signed a $10.8 billion (that’s a “B”) contract with CBS/Turner Sports to broadcast NCAA Tournament games until 2024 — that’s $771 million annually, in case you were wondering. These are not characteristics of a sport without fans.

The sport will never be as popular as the three major professional sports or even college football, but it’s not a second-class citizen on the landscape either. It produces real dollars that in a rational environment should extensively contribute to long-term decision-making. And yet we’re told again and again that it doesn’t matter. So the question we have is… why? And the answer here is the same answer found in most every other decision we make as a species: the rational pursuit of self-interest.

Take a look at these numbers. In 2008, the NCAA brought in $550 million in television revenue for the NCAA Tournament and another $70 million for its various championships. Keep in mind that the NCAA sees nothing from major college football with its archaic but separate bowl system. By removing all the non-revenue sports and for the sake of expediency, let’s call it a round $600 million that the NCAA made from college basketball that year. That money is then filtered through the belly of the NCAA where it is parsed to pay for everything else — administration of all its championships ($119 million), assorted NCAA programs ($109 million), management ($26 million), and so on. Before long that $600M is cut nearly in half to $360 million, which is then parsed out to 31 D-I conferences using a complicated ‘share’ system based on five years worth of NCAA Tournament performances.  Here’s how that system paid out in 2008:

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1. The New York Times reported on Monday that West Virginia is suing the Big East so that they may join the Big 12 for the 2012-13 athletic calendar. The schools cites that the Big East “breached its fiduciary duty by failing to maintain a balance between football-playing and nonfootball members.” Conference realignment has shown the dark side of college athletics, whether it be through lawsuits, political interventions, or questionable financial moves. It is funny to me, however, that somebody would sue somebody else just to join a conference that nearly everyone has written off as a “sinking ship.”
2. The San Jose Mercury News has an article determining the winners and losers of conference realignment thus far. They list Big 12 under the “winners” category, a decision that would have been highly criticized a month ago. The article goes on to explain that other than Cornhusker football, Nebraska and Colorado did not bring much to the Big 12, especially in terms of basketball. This is what is known as “addition by subtraction.”
3. In more Mountaineer news, the West Virginia Metro News discusses what does and what should excite West Virginia fans the most about joining the Big 12. It does not focus strictly on basketball, but it does bring up some great benefits of being a member of the Big 12, such as well-renowned opposing coaches, on-campus basketball arenas, and my personal favorite, road trips to Austin, Texas.
4. I’ll admit it, I’m a sports economics nerd. That’s why I’m including this Yahoo! Sports article. It reveals the rankings of average game attendance per conference, and leading the list is the Big Ten with 12,836 fans per game last season. The Big 12 ranks fourth, behind the Big Ten, Big East, and the SEC, with 10,716 fans per game. These numbers might surprise you, but remember that the Big 12’s attendance leader is Kansas with 16,436 fans per game at Allen Fieldhouse which represents 100% capacity. The SEC has arenas like Rupp Arena and Thompson-Boling Arena, both of which hold over 20,000 fans, while the Big East has the Carrier Dome, which has a 34,000+ capacity.
5. Lubbockonline.com has an article up discussing Billy Gillispie lauding of his coaching staff. Gillispie goes on to say, “I believe we’ve got as good a staff as you could ever have,” and brags on the diversity of his coaching staff’s talents. I’ve always felt like this was one of the most underrated aspects of a coaching staff, the diversity of it. It’s fine and dandy if you have four phenomenal recruiters, but when you have one guy who’s good at recruiting, one who’s great at scouting, one who cares about his players’ academic success, and one who knows how to teach the players… by meshing together under one system, that’s a recipe for a dynamic coaching staff.

Last week we examined the sixty or so major programs that Vegas feels is worth offering as action to win the 2011-12 national championship. Unsurprisingly, the top several teams in the preseason Coaches Poll — North Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio State, Duke, Syracuse — generally mimic the top several teams in terms of the odds Vegas is offering. The one stunning exception to that trend is Connecticut, whom the pollsters have listed among the few teams most likely to cut the nets down in New Orleans next April, but from whom the oddsmakers still aren’t seeing much value (+2000, or a 4.8% chance, as of now).

This week we’ll take a step further into the odds and consider the probabilities that Vegas has assigned to each power conference team to win its regular season championship. These odds are by no means foolproof. In reviewing last year’s preseason tables of the same six leagues, only Pittsburgh in the Big East and Arizona in the Pac-10 were favorites that came into the money by March. The other four league favorites this time last year? Try Duke in the ACC (UNC), Baylor/Kansas State in the Big 12 (Kansas), Michigan State in the Big Ten (Ohio State), and Kentucky in the SEC (Florida). So while all of these favorites looked reasonable one year ago today, keep in mind that college basketball seasons have a tendency to work themselves out differently despite what the oddsmakers and pundits think.

Ed. note: These odds are published on The Greek as of October 27, 2011. If you’re unfamiliar with how futures odds work, +150 represents the amount of money a potential gambler would receive back if he placed a $100 wager on that team and it won.  He would, in other words, win back 1.5 times his original wager.  Those few teams sporting a negative odds notation (e.g., -175) represents a situation where someone would have to wager $175 to win back $100. Since the aggregate of futures odds are designed to add up to a figure much larger than 100% (removing the incentive to wager on every team), we’ve added a far right column normalizing the odds to a true 100% value for each conference.    

ACC

Quick Thoughts on the ACC:

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