Kevin McCarthy from Parsing The WAC and Sam Wasson from bleedCrimson.net are the RTC correspondents for the WAC.

Not-so-happy WAC Happenings. A “one horse town” is usually offered as a disparaging comment towards a podunk community out in the hinterlands. The same applies with the term a “one bid league” in reference to Big Dance invites. Like it or not — accept it or not —  the WAC basketball programs are inexorably moving towards solely sending the conference tournament champion to the NCAAs, period. Sure, there are a number of WAC teams that will get better as the season progresses but a spate of unexpected early season defeats have already placed the league into ‘getting one invite’ standing.

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Rob Dauster of Ballin is a Habit is the RTC correspondent for the Big East Conference.

Some of the Big East elite stumbled this week. Notre Dame, Louisville, Georgetown, West Virginia, Marquette, and Cincinnati all picked up their first loss of the season since the last time we checked in with RTC. Should Big East fans be worried? Was all that talk about the Big East being the best conference ever nothing but talk? In a word … maybe? Look, the bottom line is that each one of the aforementioned teams that suffered their first loss got beat by a good team. I mean, Notre Dame losing by 15 to UNC when Luke Harangody in is the early stages of pneumonia is not the same as losing by 18 to Maryland (sorry to all Spartan fans – I know Roe and Suton were hurt and Morgan was being a punk in foul trouble, just trying to make a point). Even the Louisville loss, which is inexcusable for a team of their talent (probably why Pitino apologized), was to a Western Kentucky team that looks to be hitting their stride (they have won three straight games against Southern Illinois, the ‘Ville, and Georgia, and lost one game without leading scorer AJ Slaughter in his first game back). Let’s look at it like this – Tennessee, UNC, and Dayton are all going to be NCAA tourney teams. Western Kentucky, Florida State, and Kentucky are all going to garner attention as bubble teams. While this is a startling number of losses to occur in the span of one week, it is not like UConns are losing to Delaware States, and it doesn’t change the fact that there are a number of Big East teams (UConn, Pitt, Syracuse, Villanova) that are rolling through competent competition.

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Kurt of SEC Hoops: The Good, The Bad, The Dirty is the RTC correspondent for the Southeastern Conference.

The misery continues for the Southeastern Conference. Only one unbeaten remains after MSU, South Carolina and Tennessee dropped games, with only LSU keeping their heads above water. The Wildcats from Kentucky met a couple of high-profile-conference foes and matched up well, while Mississippi State dropped two close ones in their matchups against power-conference squads. As a whole, the conference is wallowing badly at the moment, but Tennessee – powered by All-American Tyler Smith – is looking like the perennial powerhouse they have become in the past few years under Bruce Pearl and set to take the SEC regular-season title once again.

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College Chalktalk is the RTC correspondent for the Atlantic 10 Conference.

By CCT Staff | December 1, 2008

PLAYER OF THE WEEK:

Damian Saunders (So.), Duquesne. Saunders enjoyed an excellent week, capped by an immense performance in one of the toughest environments in all of college basketball, where he scored 22 points and snared 10 boards in a loss at Duke.  It was his second performance recording at least 20 points and 10 rebounds on the week, as he filled the statsheet with 20 points and 12 boards earlier in a win over USC Upstate.  Saunders shot 16 for 25 from the field in the seven-day span, including a 4 for 9 effort from beyond the arc for the 6-foot-7 forward.

HONORABLE MENTION: David Gonzalvez, (Jr.) Richmond; Chris Wright, (So.) Dayton.

(Note: College Chalktalk’s week runs from the previous Monday through Sunday, given the release of ‘This Week in the A-10′ each Monday morning.)

GAME OF THE WEEK: November 29, 2008.  Dayton 89, (15) Marquette 75.

When your bench outscores an opponents’ bench 48-5, good things usually happen.  Such was the case for Dayton, as the Flyers backups led the upset of the fifteenth ranked Marquette Golden Eagles to claim the Chicago Invitational Challenge title.  While Tournament MVP Chris Wright (13 points, 13 boards) was solid as usual, it was Rob Lowery’s 21 points (career high) that stood out.  Chris Johnson also contributed with his first career double-double, scoring 12 points and grabbing 11 boards.

GAME OF THE UPCOMING WEEK: Rhode Island @ Providence: This battle is for bragging rights in the Ocean State, as the Rams take on their rivals from the Big East, the Friars.  The Rams (5-2) won last year’s contest held in Kingston, 77-60.  Providence (4-3), however, holds a 66-53 edge overall in the series.  The Rams will aim to stop Providence’s balanced offensive attack which features eight players that average at least 6.5 points per game.  The Friars look to frustrate the fast-paced Ram offense, currently averaging 81.1 points per contest.

RPI BOOST OF THE WEEK: Dayton; RPI No. 19 (Up 156 spots from 175 last week):  As is evident, early season RPIs fluctuate greatly, but Dayton ensured its RPI continued in the preferred direction, maintaining a perfect record and knocking off a strong Marquette team in the procecss.

RPI FALL OF THE WEEK:  Saint Louis; RPI No. 183 (Down 151 spots from 32 last week):  Two road losses and zero wins hurt the Billikens this week.  The loss at Nebraska (39) wasn’t a killer, but the same cannot be said for the loss to Detroit Mercy (209).
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Josh & Mike of Big Ten Geeks are the RTC correspondents for the Big Ten Conference.

Looking Back

Feast Week was somewhat of a mixed bag for the Big Ten.  Illinois was the only team that captured the title of its tournament, taking home the South Padre Invitational title.  Big Ten Geek favorite Mike Tisdale was named to the all-tourney team.  Penn State, Wisconsin, and Purdue each finished runner-up in their respective tourneys.  So far this season, Penn State sophomore point guard Talor Battle has been ridonkulous – converting on nearly 50% of this three pointers so far this season.  That gives Battle an early lead on the other promising sophomore point guards in the Big Ten (Kalin Lucas, Demetri McCamey, and Michael Thompson).

Wisconsin didn’t look great in the Paradise Jam, looking outmanned against UConn.  So far this season, Wisconsin’s offense has been fine, but the defense is a signficant step-back from last year’s outstanding version.

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Michael Chin is the RTC correspondent for the West Coast Conference.

So first, five things I noticed from WCC basketball this week:

1. If you haven’t notice by now, Gonzaga is for real. To beat Maryland, Oklahoma State, and Tennessee in one week is a feat so early in the season. If this is a foreshadowing of what’s to come, consider them a Sweet Sixteen lock.
2. Patrick Mills is not the best point guard in college basketball. I love, love, love the Gaels, but Mills is not NBA-ready. Throughout last week’s tournament you saw a player who continually forced the ball, trying to make too many difficult shots and passes. He has some really spectacular moments, especially in transition, but as a true point guard he didn’t run the offense well. I would say from a point guard standpoint I would put: Lawson, Collison, and Pargo all ahead of him.
3. San Diego is overrated. So I really had high hopes for these guys, but they have crumbled in games this year. Close game against Wisconsin, but lose to Miami by 20. Granted the U is a top 25 team, but if you are supposed to be a tournament team, you can’t get blown away. Oh, and I don’t really think UNLV is that good, and San Diego couldn’t hang there either. I think they still have the potential to be very good, especially when you have guys like seniors Gyno Pomare and Rob Jones, but this team needs to pick it up.
4. Eric Reveno of Portland has done an amazing job. Welcome back to relevancy, Pilots. I guess I’ll change your name back to UP from PU. One might have thought that after a loss to Portland St. this team was a fluke. I’m going on record and saying, “You’re Wrong.”  While they don’t have a special player, Reveno has them playing good team basketball and he knows how to play to their strengths.
5. Gonzaga is for real…Oh I already mentioned that, but I can’t believe how talented this team is. I had them ranked low because I didn’t believe Austin Daye could play the four, or Josh Heytvelt would return to his normal self.  They proved this writer wrong.

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Zach Smith of Old Gold & Blog and DeaconsIllustrated is the RTC correspondent for the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).

Power Rankings (Record):

1. North Carolina (7-0)
2. Duke (7-0)
3. Wake Forest (6-0)
4. Miami (4-1)
5. Clemson (7-0)
6. Maryland (4-2)
7. Boston College (4-2)
8. Florida State (7-0)
9. Georgia Tech (4-0)
10. Virginia Tech (4-2)
11. NC State (4-0)
12. Virginia (3-2)

Thanksgiving Tournament Wrap-up

Not surprisingly, the North Carolina Tar Heels took care of business in the EA Sports Maui Invitational. Their impressive 102-87 victory over Notre Dame in the championship game was a good indication of just how impressive this North Carolina team can be. Tyler Hansbrough impressed with 34 points while Ty Lawson contributed 22 points and 11 assists. The Tar Heels are proving early that they are practically unbeatable when at their best.

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Patrick Marshall of Bluejay Basketball is the RTC correspondent for the Missouri Valley and Big 12 Conferences.

Current Records and my standings:

1. Oklahoma (6-0)
2. Baylor (6-1)
3. Nebraska (5-0)
4. Texas (5-1)
5. Kansas (4-1)
6. Kansas St. (5-2)
7. Missouri (5-1)
8. Texas Tech (6-1)
9. Texas A&M (5-1)
10. Oklahoma St. (5-2)
11. Iowa St. (4-1)
12. Colorado (3-2)

TEAM OF THE WEEK

Oklahoma (2-0 this week)—Oklahoma won the NIT Tip Off defeating UAB and a pesky Purdue team as the Griffin brothers helped lead the team to victory.  Although  Purdue was able to somewhat contain Blake Griffin, he still came away with 18 points and 21 rebounds and averaged 25 points and 18 rebounds in the two games in New York.

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Patrick Marshall of Bluejay Basketball is the RTC correspondent for the Missouri Valley and Big 12 Conferences.

Current Records and my standings:

1. Illinois St. (7-0)
2. Creighton (3-2)
3. Evansville (3-1)
4. Bradley (4-2)
5. Northern Iowa (4-2)
6. Wichita St. (3-3)
7. Drake (3-2)
8. Southern Illinois (2-3)
9. Missouri St. (2-2)
10. Indiana St. (0-4)

TEAM OF THE WEEK

Illinois St. (3-0 this week)—Illinois St. is in this spot just because they are actually winning games.  The Redbirds have won the games they are supposed to.  They won games against a couple more cupcakes – Nichols State, Winston-Salem St. and UC Santa Barbara – in their own hosted World Vision tourney this past weekend and put the crowd to sleep.  Champ Oguchi has been a constant force for Illinois St. as they keep rolling along and host Bowling Green  next Saturday night.   Illinois St. fans will be happy to hear that former coach Porter Moser is doing just fine as an assistant at St. Louis.  He just bought a $1 million house.

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Mark Bryant, the Coordinator of New Media for the Big South Conference and writer for Big South SHOUT, is an RTC correspondent.

The launch of the 2008-09 season has seen some national attention and notable success for the Big South, mixed in with some results below expectations as well.  Here’s the rundown:

Out of Conference…

After well over a dozen games so far against major conference squads, most have naturally gone to the favorites on their home courts, but Big South squads certainly turned heads with two quality upsets.  VMI struck first by dumping Kentucky 111-103 at Rupp Arena.  It was the first win for the Keydets against a team from the SEC since 1975-76 (Tennessee).  Of course, it’s the second consecutive year for the Wildcats to fall to a current Big South school: Gardner-Webb defeated UK as an Atlantic Sun team last year.  Heading into the Thanksgiving holiday, Liberty added a notch in the upset column for the Flames by upending the Virginia Cavaliers 86-82.  UVa had already collected wins over VMI and Radford, but the ACC’s Cavs failed to sweep the Virginia set of Big South hoopsters thanks to LU.  Outside of those two big games, there were some close results, but let’s not resort to discussing any clichéd “moral victories” versus the big boys of the ACC, SEC, Big 12, Big Ten, Big East, etc.  (Note—major upcoming match-ups between Thanksgiving and Christmas include a trio of biggies for UNC Asheville: North Carolina, Tennessee, and Duke!)

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