Rush The Court

1. We love this bracket science stuff, which is reminiscent of some of the work we did when this site was in its infancy nearly three years ago.  It’s good to see Peter Tiernan continuing to do this every year, now for CBS Sportsline.  Maybe the NCAA Selection Committee should bring him on board.  Here’s a taste: best team against seed expectation in the last decade?  Florida.  Worst?  Wake Forest.  Sounds about right.
2. The NCAA’s Greg Shaheen came out yesterday with the news that there has been no decision made to expand the NCAA Tournament.  Sounds great, but is Mr. Shaheen playing the role of Colin Powell standing before the UN here, or is this more like Mark McGwire’s contention that he only took steroids for health reasons?  Willfully misleading or delusional — you tell us?
3. If you’re lucky enough to live in an area with a select movie theater chosen by the NCAA overlords, the Final Four will be shown in living, breathing 3-D.  Because nothing says March Madness like seeing Sherron Collins barreling down the court at you at 100 miles an hour.  We have no idea if this will be incredibly awesome or incredibly lame, but we’ll make sure to send someone out there to check it out.
4. Speaking of all three dimensions, here’s Seth Davis’ 2010 All-Glue team.  The headliner is Ohio State’s David Lighty, but we also love the Willie Veasley (Butler) and Rick Jackson (Syracuse) picks.
5. More conference awards today.  POY – ACC: Greivis Vasquez, Maryland; Big East: Wes Johnson, Syracuse; SEC: John Wall, Kentucky.  COY – ACC: Gary Williams, Maryland; Big East: Jim Boeheim, Syracuse; SEC: Kevin Stallings, Vanderbilt.  FrOY: ACC: Derrick Favors, Georgia Tech; Big East: Lance Stephenson, Cincinnati; SEC: DeMarcus Cousins, Kentucky.  Some weird goings-on in the SEC there.  First, how does John Wall win POY but not FrOY?  Isn’t he a freshman, and isn’t he the best player in the league according to the voters?  Second, how does Kevin Stallings win COY — DeMarcus Cousins was so shocked he didn’t even know who Stallings was!

1. According to a well-connected Kentucky columnist, Sunday will be junior Patrick Patterson’s Senior Day.  We know that John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins will not be in a UK uniform next year either, so why not end the charade and celebrate their final games at Rupp as well?
2. The Mountain West reprimanded New Mexico coach Steve Alford for his embarrassing outburst against BYU guard Jonathan Tavernari on Saturday night after their game.  We mentioned it last night, but Alford’s later admission that he was just trying to congratulate Tavernari on his career rings a little hollow given the heated circumstances of the game, the jawing between Tavernari and Darington Hobson in the final minute, and the subsequent result with Alford caught on tape.  Next time just tell us the truth, Coach.
3. We really don’t understand nor can we agree with the decision by Binghamton brass to punish itself by removing its team from the America East Tournament a mere three days prior to the opening round.  It was bad enough when USC officials threw their promising team under the bus midway through the 09-10 season, but the players who remained at Binghamton along with interim coach Mark Macon made the best of a horrible situation this year and actually far exceeded expectations.  The Bearcats finished 8-8 in the conference and were scheduled to be the #5 seed in the tournament.  In a year without a truly dominant Am East team, imagine the story if Binghamton had been able to claw its way to the NCAA Tournament again this year!  It doesn’t make a whit of sense to us to punish the remaining players for prior transgressions, but the school has consistently made poor decisions in this arena for some time now, so it shouldn’t surprise us.
4. Some awards:  In the WCC, Gonzaga’s Mark Few and Matt Bouldin are the 2009-10 COY and POY, respectively, while in the Big South, Coastal Carolina’s Cliff Ellis and Radford’s Artsiom Parakhouski were likewise.
5. Seth Davis is back this week with one the absolute best features around this time of year… analysis from coaches off the record about the top teams in each conference.  This week his Deep Throats discuss the Big 12, Pac-10, Mountain West and Atlantic 10.  It’s good to know that we were right about Texas all along (“guys not knowing their roles and not knowing their identity offensively”).

Now it’s getting serious.  College basketball teams across the country now fall into one of four camps: bored, because they know their NCAA bid is secure; resigned, because they’ve known for a long time that they’re out; relieved, because they think they’ve played their way in; and downright antsy, because they’ve still got work to do.  That last group are the most interesting ones at this time of year, and there are plenty of them out there.  We’ll be keeping an eye on all of those games and, of course, commenting on any game we can find on the tube in today’s three-man weave version of BGTD.  We hope to hear from you while we’re at it.  Here are the games on which we’ll definitely be keeping tabs, though we’ll probably find more throughout the day:

• 12 PM – Notre Dame @ #13 Georgetown on CBS (regional) – RTC Live
• 12 PM – #2 Kentucky @ #17 Tennessee on CBS (regional)
• 12 PM – Michigan @ #9 Ohio State on ESPN
• 12 PM – Northeastern @ George Mason on ESPN2
• 2 PM – North Carolina @ Wake Forest on CBS
• 2 PM – #21 Texas @ #23 Texas A&M on ESPN
• 2 PM – Mississippi @ Arkansas on ESPN2
• 4 PM – #1 Kansas @ Oklahoma State on CBS
• 4 PM – Florida @ Georgia on SEC Network
• 6 PM – Mississippi State @ South Carolina on ESPN
• 8 PM – Illinois State @ #22 Northern Iowa on ESPN2
• 8 PM – Missouri @ #6 Kansas State on ESPN-U
• 8 PM – Southern Miss @ Memphis on CBS College Sports
• 9 PM – #8 Villanova @ #4 Syracuse on ESPN

We will start with our coverage at 11 AM. Feel free to drop by throughout the day and ask questions/comment on anything that is happening in the world of college basketball.

11:05: Well it certainly is very orange in Syracuse. And Bob Knight with the first shot of the day mocking fans who would pay $750 to watch this game. Nice. Evan Turner just signed a “Evan Turner” home-made trophy being held by some kid wearing a home-made “Villain” t-shirt.

11:06: Knight just admitted he is rooting for Steve Alford and New Mexico tonight. Not a surprise, but still amusing. I’m sure the BYU players will have something to say to the media after the game.

11:10: We would love to interview the fan who sits in that seat or the row of seats that Erin Andrews just featured. The almost looks like Final Four type seating or what we saw earlier this year for the game at the new Cowboys stadium.

11:17: Hubert Davis calling out the Mountain West and BYU. Can we get Shawn Bradley on the phone to mock UNC? Jay Bilas comes to BYU’s defense by comparing them to and crushing Virginia Tech. He’s not going to be a popular guy the next time he visits Blacksburg. Digger makes the best point of the entire discussion by saying that the reason we are talking up the mid-majors is because the PAC-10 is awful this year.

11:20: “This is the weakest at-large field ever. The weakest at-large field ever.” – Jay Bilas. He should be fun on Selection Sunday.

11:21: Does Digger have a yellow highlighter today? Is this the first time he has went with the traditional yellow for his highlighter?

11:35: Nice feature about Hank Gathers. I still remember hearing about it the day it happened on SportsCenter the night it happened. Still jarring to see the video. Nice shout-out to RTC fan Jeff Fryer. It’s too bad they ran into the buzzsaw that was the 1990 UNLV team. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing that “30 for 30″ documentary.

11:45: I love seeing the replay of the Scottie Reynolds shot. Not because I root for Villanova, but because it is the craziest basketball moment I have ever seen in person. Just the ecstasy of the Villanova fans that followed their utter despair after they had almost blown the game moments before.

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1.  Texas AD DeLoss Dodds said yesterday that the Big Ten has not contacted the league about its expansion plans and that he currently likes their situation in the Big 12 and would be unlikely to leave.  Which probably means that talks are already underway and if the Big Ten threw the Horns a sweetheart deal of some kind they’d drop the league in a heartbeat.  Or not.

2.  How much Seth Davis do you want today… because we have plenty to offer up.  We love his scouting reports feature because it offers insights on teams from the trenches and exposes what their real strengths and weaknesses are beyond the typical coach-speak.  He also gives us his ticket-punching games of the week (none came in last night) and answers a bunch of mail.

3.  Here are this year’s disappointments in terms of conference, team and player, and we’d wager you can guess all three..

4.  From a couple of weeks ago, but we just discovered it.  Cameron Crazies, you might want to take a few notes from these guys at Utah State regarding choreography.  Impressive.

5.  To honor the 25th anniversary of the Jordan brand at Nike, the company developed silver uniforms that were worn by UNC last night against Florida State and will be on Cal and Georgetown players as well over the next few nights.  Hideous or haute couture?  Regardless, it didn’t help Jordan’s Heels win their game against FSU last night.  Oh, and UNC forward David Wear is likely out for the season with a hip injury.  Things are really getting weird in Chapel Hill.

1. The twitterati was abuzz yesterday with the discovery of UNC forward Ed Davis’ name and photo as a client on a sports agent’s website.  The site is down now, but  Sports Agent Blog captured a screenshot and PTA Sports Management has given a statement to reporters that suggests there may have been some contact with the player at some point in time, but that this whole thing was a “mistake.”   Color us extremely cynical, but we think we all know what happened here.  And when we find out next month that Davis is submitting his name to the NBA Draft, it’ll make sense.  But one quick retort before it even gets started…  if Davis signs with another agent, it doesn’t at all prove that there were no illegal contacts here.  All it proves is that Davis has enough sense to fire an agent who could be so ridiculously stupid as to put his name and face on their website before he’s formally made the decision.
2. UCLA’s James Keefe will have shoulder surgery and will miss the rest of the season, effectively rendering the senior’s career over.  He only averaged 2/2 throughout the course of his career, but Howland was enamored with his defense and toughness, so he played in 111 games in his Bruin tenure.
3. Seth Davis gives us his weekly mailbag, and he devotes more than a third of it to questions about the ACC.  We have to agree that one thing that really ticks us off about modern-day conferences is the loss of round-robin schedules, but that’s unfortunately true for every major conference except the Pac-10 (oops, we said major conferences, didn’t we) these days.
4. Answer: USC’s hearing in front of the NCAA Infractions Committee that took place yesterday.  Question: things that are more pleasant than what Tiger Woods will do in front of the world later this morning.
5. Gregg Marshall of Wichita State can get a little testy at times, and this video where he attacks local reporter Bob Lutz for putting “negativity” in the minds of some Shocker fans is a joy to watch.  The video is below, and you can read Lutz’s original article here and his retort here.  Justified?

1. Sad news from Memphis last night as it was reported that former Tigers coach Dana Kirk, died from a heart attack at 74 years old.  Kirk was essentially the architect of Memphis (State) basketball in the 1980s, as he turned a hoops backwater into a program that consistently recruited top players (mostly local), won 158 games, and made  regular trips to the NCAA Tournament.  Kirk coached the Tigers to the 1985 Final Four behind star forward Keith Lee, but he was dismissed by the school in 1986 and was later imprisoned a few months for federal tax evasion.  His legacy was further tarnished by numerous NCAA violations on his watch, which led to his F4 appearance getting vacated and the school serving a probation in the late 80s.  But make no mistake, Memphis probably wouldn’t have become the elite job it has become today without Kirk’s groundbreaking work there.  RIP.
2. Wow, Nolan Richardson with an Isiah Thomas moment…  his target, however, wasn’t Larry Bird but rather John Wooden and Bob Knight.  Talking about some of the forgotten great black coaches in history, he said, “No matter how well they did the white power structure in college basketball mostly ignored them. If [John] McLendon had been white, he’d have been a star in the coaching world. If all the great coaches in basketball history like Knight or [John] Wooden had been black, they’d be nobodies.”
3. In case you missed it on Saturday, Oklahoma’s Willie Warren did not travel with his team to take part in the shellacking in Stillwater (OU lost by 21).  He has the dreaded mononucleosis, which means officially that he’s out ‘indefinitely,’ but it could also mean that he’s shutting it down for the rest of the  Sooners’ miserable season.  OU has games left against Kansas, K-State, Texas, Baylor and Texas A&M in the next three weeks.
4. We really have to get an invite to this thing one year.  Seth Davis gives his report from the annual NCAA Media Mock Bracket, which he was supposed to attend but couldn’t (weather).  He breaks down the bracket that the media came up with, pointing out the obvious and subtle errors in their version.  Honestly, we’re pretty surprised that the media bracket doesn’t do a better job with this each year — there’s very little pressure to ‘get it right,’ and these people are the ones who eat, sleep and breathe this stuff.
5. Gary Parrish’s take on why John Calipari should at least listen in case the Nets come to him with an offer is the most compelling we’ve seen on the matter.  The next Phil Jackson will be the coach who gets to tell Lebron James when to pass the ball from time to time, and whoever that person is will ultimately become a legend because of it.

1. We referred to this last night, but Memphis big man Pierre Henderson-Niles is “no longer a member of the Memphis basketball team,” according to the university.  According to his coach, though, this situation is “nothing negative” and does not involve a criminal matter or failing out of school, as Henderson-Niles is still on schedule to graduate in May of this year.  The buzz surrounding this situation is that perhaps he was having some issues with Josh Pastner that came to a head in recent weeks, but that’s just chatter at this point.
2. The Ed O’Bannon lawsuit against the NCAA over the right of the organization to use and profit from the images of its players has been green-lighted by a federal district judge to move forward.  This is a good thing.
3. Seth Davis’ Hoop Thoughts this week takes on the issue of why Georgetown is so much better than they were last year, among the usual assortment of interesting tidbits and other flotsam.
4. Left over from last week… an Arkansas special prosecutor has decided to not pursue charges against three Razorback players who were accused of rape in August 2009.  The three — Marcus Britt, Glenn Bryant and Nick Mason — have played limited minutes this season, but they’ll undoubtedly be happy to put this ugly situation behind them.
5. We already covered the big games from last night in our After the Buzzer feature, but we’re not the only ones with an interesting take whom you should read.  Mike DeCourcy nails it when he writes that Kansas is making it look easy with their dominance of the Big 12 this season.  Often you hear the media say that it’s a “wide-open field” as we’re heading up to the Tournament, only to say afterwards that Team X (as in UNC’s case last year) was “clearly the best team” after they win it all in April.  I have a feeling that we’re going to by hearing the same contrasting platitudes this year, except that Kansas will be this year’s UNC.  Now, about that Brady Morningstar free throw attempt..

Last week, RTC spoke with Seth Davis of Sports Illustrated and CBS to talk about a variety of topics on college basketball and a new promotion for Coke Zero. This is not the first time we have spoken with Seth as we interviewed him last March for the launch of his book “When March Went Mad” about the 1979 championship game between Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. Before the interview officially began, Seth expressed his displeasure about not getting linked every day in the Morning Five. We would give you the transcript of that discussion, but Chinese government regulations prohibit us from doing so.

Ed. Note: This interview took place last week, but due to some transcribing issues we are just putting it up now.

Seth Davis: Man of Intrigue

RTC: I guess we will start with your alma mater. Duke is looking strong again this year, but is different than they usually look as they are not relying on the outside shooting as much as a complete game. A lot of people have been talking up Duke. Do you think this is the year they can make it back to the Final Four?

Rush The Court Central Command  
RTC Towers  
28 January 2010  

Even Duke RTCs Occasionally

Hey.  How you doin’ out there?  Good, good to hear.  You know, it doesn’t seem that long ago (even though it was) that all of us here at RTC were college students.  God, those were some sweet times.  Lining up for tickets, going to every home game and as many road games as we could, turning a two-hour game into a whole-day event, making signs, coming up with catcalls for our opponents…ah, such wonderful years.  The game was ours back then, and we’ve since turned it over to you.  And we love what you’ve done with it.  Fantastic job, really.  It’s a great time to be a fan of the game, especially if you’re a student.  Strong work.  

One thing we’ve noticed in the past couple of weeks or so, though, is an increase in the number of court rushes, or “RTCs,” after wins.  Oh yeah, we know how fun it is.  We’ve got a few of those under our belts.  But it’s that increase that we wanted to talk to you about.  That’s why we’re writing.  We want to talk about how it’s being overdone, and not just by a little.  All the guys here at RTC, after four five a number of years as undergrads, we only had maybe one or two apiece.  It should be that rare.  Hey, calm down, we’re not trying to ruin your good time.  When it’s time to rush, we want you out there.  But it’s kind of like when you’re going out at night — we want you to have standards.  And, like so many times AFTER going out at night, we definitely don’t want you to wake up the next day, have the memory come flooding back to you, and have that “Oh, God…what have I done?!?” moment.  You know, like when you realize someone’s over there, so you roll over, turn off the camera, and…well, never mind.  That’s a story for another post.  Anyway, let’s get back to how this court-rushing exuberance has gotten out of hand.  

Good court coverage. Extra points for usage of blimp.

You know how hard it is for us in particular to say that.  But people are talking.  Gregg Doyel is talking about you.  Seth Davis is talking about you.  Other bloggers are talking about you.  Every commentator on TV is talking about you.  And if you were involved in one of the recent RTCs that was obviously uncalled for, then your families, friends, and neighbors are talking about you.  None of it’s flattering.  You don’t want that, do you?  People are definitely e-mailing and tweeting and commenting, asking us about it because of what we call ourselves around here.  Again, we don’t want to spoil the fun.  We know that RTCing will always exist.  There’s no more chance of it going away than there is of crowds actually taking Bob Knight’s advice and chanting “Great Job!” after victories over rival teams (though we despise the “overrated” chant).  It’s just not realistic to think it will ever stop.  But like we said — this is all about having standards. 

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1. Some suspension news: Creighton’s P’Allen Stinnett was suspended indefinitely by Dana Altman for conduct unbecoming to the team, and Michigan’s Manny Harris has been reinstated to play tonight against Michigan State.  Harris’ 85-game streak of games played for the Wolverines ended on Saturday when he was held out of their game against Purdue.
2. Purdue’s Matt Painter and Lewis Jackson have a tough decision to make in the coming weeks over whether the talented point guard will play this season.  Jackson could help provide depth in the Boilermaker backcourt, but there’s a considerable dilemma over whether it’s worthwhile to play him for less than a third of the season.  Not that anyone cares, but we’d sit him out and let him get his legs and rhythm back in the offseason.
3. Seth Davis’ Hoop Thoughts this week discusses Josh Pastner at Memphis, Texas’ poor foul shooting, Duke’s depth, and some SDSU students that remind us of our Halloween costume from a few years back.
4. Did the UConn Huskies get their swagger back (and cred) by beating Texas on Saturday?  Jeff Goodman thinks so.
5. Did you hear that John Calipari’s Kentucky Wildcats moved to #1 in both the AP and Coach’s Polls yesterday?  Coach Cal was so jazzed by it that he and ESPN’s John Buccigross (both Pittsburgh natives) had a little good-natured fun calling each other “jagoffs.”

1. UConn AD Jeff Hathaway stated unequivocally yesterday that Jim Calhoun’s medical problems were not career-ending in nature, but there is no timetable for the coach’s return to the sideline.  Seth Davis, not messing around with his pointed advice to the UConn coach regarding his most recent leave of absence: get out while you still can. The sideline is no place for a good man to die.  While we agree with the general sentiment of Davis’ article, we’re also betting he’s back within a week.
2. Dan Fitzgerald, the progenitor of the Gonzaga basketball program as the man who recruited John Stockton to campus in the 80s and developed a coaching staff that included future GU coaches Dan Monson and Mark Few, passed away suddenly on Wednesday in Spokane.  His record was 252-171 (.596) in fifteen seasons at the school and he took the Zags to their first-ever NCAA Tournament in 1995 before resigning two years later.  RIP “Fitz.”
3. Obama’s Education Secretary Arne Duncan is in the college hoops news for the second time in a week, stating yesterday that the NCAA should consider tying invitations to the NCAA Tournament to player graduation rates.  Umm, yeah.  While we’re at it, let’s have the players bring their report cards to the scorer’s table before checking into the game.
4. The University of New Orleans has lost its struggle to remain a Division I school, and has voluntarily withdrawn itself from the Sun Belt Conference, effective July 1, 2010.  We knew this was coming, but it’s sad to see the Privateers go.  The four-time NCAA Tournament entrant won a game in 1987 with Ledell  “A-Train” Eackles as its star player, and who can forget former grocery bagger Ervin Johnson who played for Tim Floyd in the early 1990s and took the program to two NCAA Tourneys.
5. And this is the part where you realize these players are still kids and they’re not always the most mature beings around these programs.  Royce White, the Minnesota player who created a bizarre YouTube video announcing his retirement from basketball last month, is back at practice for Tubby Smith’s team.  There’s no timetable for his actual return to action, but Tubby has been known for giving troubled kids second chances, and it’s clear that something like this is happening here.  Let’s hope he understands and appreciates the opportunity he’s being given this time around.

1. Purdue’s Matt Painter is not pleased at all with his team’s effort over the last few games (three straight losses for the Boilers).  Great quote: “I’d like to start E’Twaun Moore, E’Twaun Moore, Robbie Hummel, Robbie Hummel and Robbie Hummel. No one else deserves to start…”  The defensive efficiency numbers bear him out, as their three worst performance of the year on that end have been in the last three contests.
2. Charlotte forward RaShad Coleman injured his knee on Sunday (fractured patella) and will miss the rest of the season.  He only averaged 4/3 in fourteen minutes per game, but with the corollary loss of guard Shamarr Bowden to transfer last week, Bobby Lutz will have to keep the rest of his wing rotation healthy if he expects to compete for the A10 title.
3. Seth Davis outlines the eight teams that helped themselves and eight teams that hurt themselves with their non-conference schedules.  Also some good insider information in the hoop thoughts section, as always.
4. Interesting that Gonzaga might get to play its first and second round NCAA games at the nearby (as in 1.6 miles) Spokane Arena if it becomes a home-protected seed (h/t S. Davis, above).  The arena is not their home venue, having played only one game there this season.  Here’s the bigger question, though: why does Spokane (pop: 200,000) have two basketball arenas (including the on-campus Kennel)?
5. Fear the Beard.  Over 1,000 fans received and wore fake beards to honor Jacob Pullen’s scruffy facial hair, and even Frank Martin got into the act last night as Kansas State knocked off the #1 Texas Longhorns in Manhattan.

A More Hirsute Frank Martin (AP/Charlie Riedel)

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

1. Joe Dumars’ son, 6′5 freshman forward Jordan (is that a joke?), has already left the South Florida program and enrolled at Michigan for the remainder of his career.  He’s only played 27 minutes so far this season, scoring all six of his points in a single game against Kent State.
2. Oklahoma State’s Marshall Moses was suspended for one game almost immediately after his arrest for possession of marijuana and driving on a suspended license.  Averaging 11/10 on the season, he will miss tonight’s game against Coppin State.
3. Tennessee update from the AD himself:  “we start at dismissal and work our way backwards.”  Sounds about right.  Let’s hope he means it.
4. USC’s Kevin O’Neill said that delivering the news to his seniors that they would not have a chance to play in the postseason was much harder than ever getting fired (and he would know!).
5. Here’s Seth Davis‘ annual Stock Report.  This is always a fun read, and his UNC “sell” looks particularly prescient after last night’s loss to Charleston, but there will always be a few quibbles on something like this.  We will not, for example, be buying anything Florida is selling, and we are definitely unloading what little Louisville stock we still have lying around, but overall, pretty good assessment.

Backdoor Cuts is a college basketball discussion between RTC correspondents Dave Zeitlin, Steve Moore and Mike Walsh. This week they each pick their favorite moment of the decade — and their answers may surprise you.

DAVE ZEITLIN: Guys, in life I only have two rules: 1) Don’t commit murder; and 2) When a decade is coming to an end, I need to categorize everything in “best of” formats. Seriously, I eat that stuff up like I’m Rick Majerus at a buffet table. I’ve already listed the top 10 Penn basketball moments of the decade for my new Penn sports blog (yes, that’s a plug — now click on the link before I consider breaking rule No. 1) and I’ve read countless more of these types of lists. Who knows why? I guess I’m just a sucker for moments — glorious, spine-tingling, remember-where-you-were-when-you-see-them moments that shed a little light on why I devote way too much of my pathetic life to sports.

College basketball, to be sure, had plenty of great moments this decade. For a good walk down memory lane, be sure to check out a nice recap from Seth Davis. From Syracuse’s national championship in 2003 (Hakim Warrick’s block!) to George Mason’s truly amazing run to Adam Morrison crying on the floor, there are so many moments I remember vividly.

But this is a column where we get stuff done. So our goal is to pick out the truly best moment of the decade. Of course, this can mean a lot of things. For me,it’s hard to pick just one from the NCAA tournament, which features a handful of memorable games and plays every year. So after further consideration, I’ve decided my favorite moment of the 2000s happened this year. It wasn’t a do-or-die game for either team and many people didn’t even watch the end. But Syracuse’s six-overtime win over UConn in last season’s Big East tournament was truly epic — and my No. 1 choice.

I won’t recap the game for you. That would take up too much space, and I don’t even think I remember much of it. Here’s what I do remember: placing a friendly wager with my sports editor about the game (I picked ‘Cuse!), leaving work after the first overtime, listening to one or two  overtimes in my car ride home, coming home and chatting with anyone who was online (was that you, Steve?) through the next couple of overtimes, and then pacing around my apartment and muttering like a crazy person during the final two overtimes. How many overtimes is that? I don’t even know. That game made me forget how to count.

Seriously, I didn’t know what to do during the last hour of that game. I wanted to scream. I wanted to run around the city and find people to talk to about the 2-3 zone. I wanted to drive to Syracuse, find the walk-on that played the final overtime because everyone else fouled out and hug him. I wanted to write the words “March Madness” on a piece of paper and then make out with it. It was that good.

Was it the most important moment of the decade? Definitely not. But it was my favorite. And now I’m eager to know — what are yours? There are no rules, no restrictions. Mike, this is your chance to pen a poem on why St. Joe’s was the best sports story in Philadelphia in 2004 other than a horse. And Steve, you can, um, write about how BU’s only trip to the tourney was spoiled by Bob Huggins being mean. I’ll be anxiously waiting — it’s just too bad there won’t be any six-overtime games to keep me entertained in the meantime.

A polarizing figure for our columnists

STEVE MOORE: First of all, that 2002 tournament game still gives me nightmares. Did Steve Logan really need to go back in the game when Cincinnati had a bazillion-point lead? Bob Huggins thought so. Bob Huggins also hates puppies. So there’s that. Also, what does a list of Top 10 Penn Basketball moments of the decade look like, exactly?

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1. Horrible news for Tom Crean’s young Indiana Hoosier team, as leading scorer Maurice Creek broke his kneecap during last night’s game with Bryant and will miss the rest of the season.  Creek is one of the top freshman scorers in America at 17.6 PPG, ahead of other notables such as Kansas’ Xavier Henry (17.2) and Derrick Favors (12.9).  Huge blow to Indiana as it heads into the conference season.
2. Northwestern landed at #25 in the AP poll for the first time in forty seasons this week.  How awesome is that, especially after all of their injury problems this season?  Nine of their next ten games are very tough matchups for the Wildcats, but we’ll be rooting for them.  This could be the best little-guy story we’ve had in some time in this game if they can stay in the hunt for an NCAA bid this year.
3. Seth Davis’ annual Jigsaw Man article, and it has nothing to do with Saw VI either.
4. Jeff Goodman explains why and when the six remaining unbeatens will lose rather soon.  No argument on that point, but specifically, we do think Syracuse and Texas will last longer than what he suggests.  Texas losing at Arkansas is a pretty big reach with as bad as the Hawgs have been this year.
5. Yeah, conference play begins in earnest this week in the Pac-10, Big East and Big Ten, but it feels a little weird to have meaningful conference games before the New Year holiday.  We’ll be there watching, though.

1. St. John’s will hold out star forward Anthony Mason, Jr., for at least three more weeks as he continues to heal from a preseason hamstring injury.  The Johnnies have gotten off to an 8-1 start that includes solid wins against Siena and Temple.  SJU should be ok for another two weeks without him, but away games loom against Georgetown and Louisville right around the new year.  In other news, reserve Quincy Roberts will also take a medical redshirt due to recurring migraine headaches.
2. Remember Josh Nochimson, the former UConn equipment manager who was tangled up in the investigation involving illegal contact with Nate Miles, the one-time next-big-thing for the Huskies?  His attorney says that Nochimson has never even been contacted by NCAA investigators.  They must be too busy with that Memphis strict liability standard, right?
3. Duquesne’s Sam Ashaolu — feel-good story of the year.  You go ahead, young man!
4. Seth Davis gives us his best and worst of the decade of the 2000s, and there’s an awful lot of good stuff here.
5. Coach K gave his opinion on the whole Expansion 96 idea, which we’ve summarily ripped apart on this site.  His essential take is that folding the NIT into the NCAA Tournament will allow more teams from mid-majors to get in because of the regular season auto-bid the NIT uses (he cites the Patriot League).  True, but as Mike DeCourcy (per usual) points out, it renders the regular season in the BCS conferences meaningless.  Our previous example of 70% of BCS teams getting a bid is not something anybody except coaches and those leagues want here.

Heading into an interesting Saturday of games, we’ve got a few dollops of knowledge that will help you navigate things.  Keep in mind we’ll be doing our first weekend Boom Goes the Dynamite this afternoon, in addition to RTC Lives for Butler vs. Ohio State and the Wooden Classic this afternoon…

1. UNC’s Marcus Ginyard will be held out of today’s game against Presbyterian with pain in his foot.  A UNC doctor was quick to say that this pain was unrelated to last year’s stress fracture that Ginyard suffered, but it is in the same foot.  This is a ‘precautionary’ measure to keep Ginyard from fracturing the foot.  UNC undoubtedly won’t need the defensive dynamo today, but against #2 Texas next Saturday?  Yeah, probably want him in the lineup then.
2. Some Comings and Goings.  Wake Forest junior guard Konner Tucker is leaving the school after seven games (he was  JuCo transfer), and St. Mary’s fifth-year senior guard Wayne Hunter is out for the rest of the season after tearing his ACL in a game this week against Utah State.  In terms of relative importance, the Hunter loss is much more significant, as he was averaging 12/3 for the season and was one of the best perimeter defenders for the Gaels.  Tucker was only averaging 2.2 PPG in just over five minutes per contest.
3. LeBron a fan of John Wall?  Who isn’t?
4. Unless Notre Dame is interested, and they’re not, the only way this makes sense is if the Big Ten can poach another major conference football power.  Missouri?  Kentucky?  West Virginia?  Pittsburgh?  Louisville?  It’s fun to speculate about this, but from a hoops perspective we’d hate to see the Big East change at the top (you can send the bottom quarter to the A10 or America East for all we care).
5. Want to get ready for today’s games — Seth Davis, Gary Parrish and Jeff Goodman give us a pretty good rundown of what to watch this weekend.

1. GROAN…  our post on this will be forthcoming immediately following this M5, but if your attention span is much shorter than our longwindedness requires, suffice it to say that the possibility of the NCAA Tournament expanding to 96 teams is a complete, unmitigated abomination.  If you can find anyone in support of this  idea other than coaches at mediocre programs and network executive types who are greedily trying to destroy the best event in all of sports, please send them our way for drawing, quartering and compulsory re-education.
2. This great piece by Luke Winn comparing offensive production as freshmen with recruiting rankings confirms what we’ve been saying for a long time — that the relative dropoff in talent between top 10 recruits and top 50 recruits is much larger than the drop between top 50 and top 100 recruits.  The next step is to crosstabulate that data with team success to see just how impactful those numbers are with respect to wins and losses.  Great stuff.
3. William & Mary, the nation’s surprise middie this year?  According to Basketball Prospectus, TSN and Andy Katz… possibly.
4. Jeff Goodman takes a look back at the last week with his Weekly Wrap.  Mike DeCourcy takes a look at the week ahead.  Seth Davis gives us his weekly Hoop Thoughts.
5. Former UCLA forward Drew Gordon did an interview with Fanhouse, and although much of this interview is whimsical, he did mention that “pigs will fly” before UCLA would keep the star player over the coach (Ben Howland) – an absurd question in its own right.  Still, Gordon did confirm that he and Howland had serious differences which led him to leaving the program, and he didn’t let on where he might be headed next.

1. We’ll have more on this later today, but the AP received the records of the NCAA’s response to Memphis as a result of the Derrick Rose SAT Scandal.  In a succinct statement, it comes down to the fact that the NCAA believes that schools must fear punishment for using sketchy players, and if they don’t, they’ll act with impunity in recruiting those guys.  It’s a very interesting argument, but not one that everyone is buying…  more later.
2. Very tough news for Villanova, as they will likely lose freshman center Mouphtaou Yarou for the entire season due to a viral infection that is not life-threatening.  This puts even more pressure on Antonio Pena to contribute from the inside.  There were already serious concerns as to how VU would replace Dante Cunningham in the post, and now we’re not sure that the Wildcats can even come close to doing that.  Jay Wright may want to consider the four-guard lineup again.
3. Seth Davis gives us his weekly Hoop Thoughts — make sure you check out page two for the best of the article.
4. Mike DeCourcy riffs on the UNC-MSU game tonight, the irrelevance of polls (thankfully this isn’t football), and Alabama’s JaMychael Green (whom we’ve been hyping for a while now).
5. Occasionally, we’ll find an amusing (often, non-PC) tweet from one of the coaches, players or media folks we’re tracking and we’ll put it up here for your enjoyment as well.  Today’s entry is from UT-Arlington’s Marquez Haynes.  Guess he was hungry?