One great thing about the BCS game every year is the discussion surrounding the alternatives that could take place if the knuckleheads who ran college football would wise up and give the fans some sort of a playoff.
Hartzell, how often do you get caught Tebow-ing? I think I saw you on the website.
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1- Syracuse
2- Kentucky
3- UNC
4- Ohio State
5- Baylor
6- Michigan State
7- Duke
8- UNLV
9- Missouri
10- Indiana
11- Georgetown
12- Kansas
13- Gonzaga
14- Murray State
15- Louisville
16- Seton Hall
I am glad that I represent UConn's kiss of death. That makes me smile on the inside. Virginia and Kansas State are on the cusp of this prestigious list, and are worth mentioning. I also would like to welcome back Gonzaga and Kansas, so bet against them this week.
1. UK
2. Cuse
3. Indiana
4. Ohio St (my pick to win it all)
5. UNC
6. Michigan St
7. Kansas
8. Duke
9. Baylor
10. Georgetown
11. UNLV
12. Kansas St
13. Michigan
14. Louisville
15. Gonzaga
16. who cares
I'm sorry but I can't rank Seton Hall. Yes they beat UConn but UConn is bubble.
I never had Missouri in my top ten like the rest of you but I had no idea they were so short under the basket. They are going to get beat up in the Big 12 and hence are finally off my list this week. Hartzell, congrats on ranking them 5 last week. Your 8 also played well.
Lux you mean to tell me that you are ranking Michigan this week because they lost to Indiana? I understand they beat Wisconsin but did this coupled with the showing in Bloomington really cause you to reverse your stance on Michigan from last week when you went after me for having them ranked? You are becoming the Mitt Romney of this blog.
...and further rank 16 teams. Otherwise I am only ranking 10 for the rest of the year.
Matt, I think Michigan had a week where they answered some questions I had about them. Why did you take them off? They almost beat Indy on the road (who you have ranked 10) and demolished one of the best defensive teams in the country by 20. How does that merit them dropping off your poll? Especially when so many teams lost to non tourney teams.
I also only questioned your Michigan pick because you didn't have Kansas or Wisconsin in your list. Both of those teams were clearly playing better basketball at the time. Now you suddenly have Kansas at 12 because they beat a team at home that you haven't even ranked? Obviously you thought some of my comments were valid and you're making up for it. Thank you for listening.
Ok fine, my #16 is Alabama.
1-Cuse
2-Kentucky
3-UNC
4-Ohio St
5-Indiana
6-Michigna St
7-Baylor
8-Duke
9-Kansas
10-GTown
11-UNLV
12-Michigan
13-Mizzou
14-UVA
15-Lville
16-Zaga
I was in attendence to for the Duke GT game on Sat. Duke has some real problems on Defense, but might be better on the offensive end of the floor than in years past.
This is also a Duke team that may be built for the long run as they play six deep at guard and five legit post players this weekend.
Rivers should get freshman on the year, I haven't seen a player in person that quick since Klotz? He took on dribble from the three point arc to get to the hoop for a decent shot.
Last week was a mega meltdown for everyone. Michigan is making me eat my words after bashing them last week...they are a much better team then I gave them credit for.
Sorry for my truancy this week. Starting with Florida on saturday and then the Falcons are Sunday it was a pretty brutal sports weekend for yours truly. Onto the poll:
1 Kentucky
2 Syracuse
3 North Carolina
4 Ohio State
5 Baylor
6 Kansas
7 Michigan State
8 Indiana
9 Missouri
10 Michigan
11 Duke
12 Virginia
13 Georgetown
14 Murray State
15 Nevada Las Vegas
16 Creighton
The opening week of conference play has confirmed the notion that there are a handful of teams (SU, UK, OSU, UNC) that are capable of pulling away from their competition, while others (UConn, Fla, Wisc) simply are not good enough to show up and beat teams in their league.
I think losses in league play can be a positive if your team responds the right way. See Gainesville tonight for what I mean by 'the right way'.
Parity is alive and well in college basketball this year, fellas. It's a very broad statement and I have to over-generalize but that's going to be the theme from now until the first weekend in April when we have the four best teams in the country battling it out in New Orleans. I agree with the sentiment that 11-16 on this poll could have been any team with a pulse, since it was obviously a wild and upset-laden week in hoops.
Murray State and Creighton? I'll take my chances with those two upper-classmen-dominated, strong-chemistry, we-know-who-we-are-and-how-we-like-to-play-the-game teams against most (not all, nothing is absolute this year) of the mediocre middle-of-the-pack power conference teams. Just my own personal preference for now until I see something different.
Poll question: who is your favorite player in college basketball this season? Mine is Aaron Craft.
Also, Lux can we do something special when the blog gets is 5000th hit later this month? We don't need anything over the top, I was thinking Jade and a chair with no arms would suffice.
How can a team like Louisville lose by 30 to Providence? I can't wait to take them off my poll.
Huge win for Illinois. Do some of you still think the Big10 is overrated? I'm talking to you Hartzell.
0. The number of bench points in the Ohio State-Illinois game. WOW.
Washington almost lost to Seattle last night. AT HOME. Unreal.
I never said the Big 10 was overrated. I'm as shocked as you that the Buckeyes can't get it done in Champaign. But I didn't come out publicly earlier that day and proclaim OSU as the eventual National Champions, either. Bad day for you. Your eventual Pac-12 champs almost shit the bed at home to Seattle, too. No bueno.
Baylor is pretty good folks. Road wins are so precious in conference play.
Syracuse is going to lose a game this week you can just feel it.
Kentucky better watch out tonight at Auburn. Not because the Tigers are good but look at Calipari's track record on the road in the SEC, not exactly world-beaters.
Louisville is 1-3 in the Big East and all of you fools have to drop them next week. Clown shoes.
We both had them ranked 4 and I still think they are going to win it all. That doesn't necessarily mean they are the best team.
What did that kid score for Illi, 40 something?
I still think Wash is goign to win the Pac12. 3-1 already and they've beaten teams that beat Stanford and Cal. They'll get it together.
Luxey are you an Aaron Craft lover like myself or do you have other interests?
He's dirty and getting better.
Kid dropped 43 and was 8-10 on threes i believe last night..hard to beat that on the road in any conference.
Lville is doing what they typically do every year. Get off to a great non conference schedule, go on a skid early in conference play and real off some wins late only to lose in the 1st or 2nd round of the dance.
As for man crushes..Craft is dreamy, but what about the paste patrol that is Cody Zeller? I think that may be Luxey new man crush.
Is Matt Alive?
Matt where you at? You've been awfully quiet for having the number one team in America right now. This reminds me of the story you had about being in Fairview over May Session when your eyes crusted over so badly that you had to stuble your way to Rockingham Memorial Hospital along Main St. through a cloud of eye boogers and schwag haze.
Fine, I'll do it for you. This is the best Syrcause team I've seen. They aren't more talented than the Melo and Warrick and McNamara triumverate that cut down the nets (in New Orleans I believe, hmmmmmm where this year's Final Four is as well) but they are close.
It's like every guy the Orange bring off the bench is 6'8 with monster wingspans and they all love to run the floor in transition. It's a heck of a ballclub and I haven't seen any weaknesses. Usually the knock on zone teams is they have trouble rebounding but Cuse has been playing the 2-3 for 30 years, they rebound the ball just fine. And that's when they're not turning you over, which they do at a clip of what, 17 or 18 a game? Nasty team.
Anyone been watching North Carolina this season? Those boys have been hitting their stride lately, they may run the table in the lowly ACC this year. I don't think Duke is all that special (yet), that could evolve over the next 6-7 weeks.
Big East is starting to sound like Lux at a wedding: "let's get weird". Rutgers blowing out Pitt at Peterson? Seton Hall at 15-2, 4-1? Notre Dame off to a hot start at 3-1? Just weird.
I do not get the feeling that Syracuse will lose this week, why would you have that feeling? Its not like Providence or Pittsburgh will come in here this week and defeat them, but it appears as though the Providence game will be the toughest one (see Pitt's performances against Rutgers and DePaul respectively).
A local college coach up here commented earlier this year that Boeheim's squad is like Noah's Ark: two of everything. They are tremendously talented and deep and are poising themselves for a hell of a run.
Ohio State is really good, but they need to perform better on the road before I annoint them over UK and Cuse.
Is it that UNC is good, or the ACC is really that bad?
Dur has really changed so much over the years. It has been great to see him develop. Years ago he would be on this blog post claiming to be the illegitimate third Plumlee brother, now he knows freshman at schools like Indiana.
Keep up the good work Dur.
Sidenote: JMU 8-7, 1-3?! WTF Matt Brady. Our alma mater has been cursed in men's basketball since Lefty left us back in the 80's. We suck again.
I haven't watched Cuse since I was court side at the Stanford game but there are too many guys for them to not get things done. In other words, I didn't think they had solid chemistry but it didn't matter. I don't see them ever losing by more than single digits.
They need to do a better job preventing offensive rebounds though. I know that is hard with zone but everyone on the floor usually has fresh legs and they are lengthly. They allow more than 1/3 of missed shots to go back to the other team. Indiana or Duke will beat them the way they're shooting the long ball unless their defensive rebounding improves.
Matt, great to hear from you. I concur, by the way, Dru has really blossomed since leaving Harrisonburg. Amazing how that happens.
Well guys moving from the sticks to the big city has really changed my view on life.
We all remember my first trip to a real city. Sloth and DS passed our on each other shoulders riding dirty down I-85 in Hartzells Maxima.
I actually watched to ACC games last night and all of the teams looked pretty bad, with the exception of GT they played their best game of the season.
Hartzell good call on UK struggling against a not so good Auburn team (SEC Insider)..what do we need to pay to subscribe to the Auburn sports highlight podcast.
I also had the chance to check out Cuse for the third time this year last night and I will whole hearty agree that they are deep and poised to make a deep run this year. Fab Melo has developed into the player he was once touted and they go about 10 deep at guard and on the wing...gonna be tough to beat in March with fresh legs.
UNC is hands down the best team in the ACC...but I wouldn't sell my-life-is-my-card Dukies to short Hartzell. This is one of their deeper teams in the past 10 years, they can go 5 deep at guard and have the plumtrees to dunk, rebound and foul everyone in that steps in the lane.
I still can't figure out the big 12..is Baylor for real. Can you win a conference when you turn the ball over 20 times a game. Mizzou doesn't have the size to compete with the upper level of the league they are going to have to rely on speed and transition ball all season. Kansas might be the most complete team in the league, but i'm not sure their guards are good enough to make an impact late in the season.
Thank goodness conference play in alive.
http://basketball.realgm.com/article/218239/At_Their_Best_Against_the_Best
Worth a read boys
Tough loss to Minnesota last night for the Hoosiers. After reading that we can all infer that Lux will not drop IU from the Number 3 perch and may even move them to Number 2.
That was a good article. Just shows that there are about a million ways to rank teams and each one has its own qualities.
Tough loss for Zaga last night, I thought they were going to go on one of their staple runs but they fell flat and then fell off the face of the world.
I watched UVA/Duke last night and I gotta tell you, there may not be a team that plays harder than UVA. They are scrappy and willed their way almost to a victory in Cameron. As Vitale mentioned 100 times in the last 10 minutes of the game "they will win their share of games".
Indiana had a very off night from behind the arc. I'm still going to drop them though.
BC actually won a game and Utah almost won again (against Stanford). The Pac 12 is god awful. Iona lost at home and joined the ranks of Belmont for underperforming in league play.
Seton Hall -1.5 tonight at South Florida?
Lux is that link your way of hiding behind someone else's bullshit argument? It's all great prose but it's not your writing and your the guy in the room with Indiana at 3.
It has not been a good week for your Big Ten 1 seeds and now that Hoosierland has been humbled don't be stunned to see this team go 9-7 in conference play. They are limited and I'm sorry you're not going to keep hitting 16 3's on the road like you did @ Penn State earlier this year. Indiana is a good story, they gave us the best game of the year so far against Kentucky, and now they are going to start playing like the 5 seed we all know they are.
I'll still take Indiana over Florida and Missouri any day of the week.
Last night merely proved how dirty the 12 team Big10 is. Even Nebraska can play.
Hartzell, you have Indiana as a 2 seed right now. Stop reaching.
Indiana has exceeded expectations but the schedule reflects they should win 8-9 more games which would probably place them 3rd in a "bunch of good teams, no real great challenger to OSU," and they would snag a 4 seed for that. Placing them on the 5 line is too rash.
Who will win more games the rest of the way: Northwestern or Minnesota? I will take Shurma and the Wildcats but it will be close.
I'm not reaching because I'm not falling head over heels with a bunch of playing-out-of-their-minds corn-fed white guys from Indiana. They have consistently been ranked where their play has dictated: as about the 10th best team in America.
Florida/Indiana would be a very even matchup. I would lean Gators because of the coaching prowess of one Billy Donovan over the river-boat gambling mentality of Crean. That's just me.
Matt you want to break the tie on this one? Hoosiers/Gators nuetral court who you got?
Hoosiers win by 4. Especially if Crean is wearing a Red Suit. Or a Pitino White suit.
I am not buying in to Florida just yet. Or anything in the SEC that isn't spelled Kentucky.
Nothing has changed. Vader still falls in line with Lux no matter what.
Interesting Indiana comments Hartzell. Especially when they already have wins over 3 teams in your top 10. They are at worst a 3 seed. They'll go 11 and 7.
Losing by missing a basket at the end of regulation against a Tubby team needing a win to save his career and shooting 20% from behind the arc when you're avg a D1 leading 46% doesn't mean the sky is falling. Yes, they are making 46% of their 3s despite playing a 29 strength of schedule. Minnesota just took Illinois to two overtimes and almost beat Michigan last week (both games on the road).
Keep doubting boys. Stats don't lie.
Sorry to jump in late boys. I am going to have to agree with Lux and Matt on this one Hartzell...sounds like you are "Jaded" by you new employer. I have seen both team play a few games this year and overall Florida is 10 times more athletic, but prone to turning the ball over, gambling and forcing up shots in a tight game. The corn feed white boy team would put them in a fundamental Montague of sorts.
I would agree that the game would be very close, but my new man crush Zeller would handle your man P. Young (get him in foul trouble). The wing play would be a wash with Wattford and Beal going head to head. The difference would come down to guard which I think Florida has the athletic advantage, but for some reason I haven't see great play from their experienced backcourt yet this year....see Rutgers and Tenn. I will agree with I think that Billy D is a better coach than Crean...who has made more final fours and also won national titles.
Final edge would come to down to pace of the game and I feel the Hoosier would do a slightly better job holding their pace of play.
Hoosiers by 2 after shooting 45% for 3 and 85% from the line.
Much like Jade when she was crushing up Dan's addies, you're all high. Florida was a bad 5 minute stretch away from the Final Four last year, folks. Indiana has very little experience, leadership, or talent (I said it) compared to the real big boys this year.
Three of Indiana's next four games are on the road.
@ Ohio State (loss)
@ Nebraska (loss)
vs. Penn St (win)
@ Wisconsin (loss)
All of you guys need to chill out with the Hoosier love it makes you sound stupid. They are 3-2 in conference right now. They will be at or below .500 after the above listed games. Wake up boys. You can juke the stats all you want, Lux.
Revolution's over, Lebowski. The bums lost.
Your #4 is 3-2 in conference and Indiana will win 3 of those games.
Zeller could very well be the freshman of the year and again, Indiana is draining almost half of their 3s. Yeah, no talent whatsoever.
UConn has the likely 1, 3 and 29th draft picks next year. How's that talent doing Hartzell? Kentucky's entire starting 5 is a top 30 nba pick. How did they do against Indiana?
I'm done fighting over this. If Indiana wins 2 of their next 4 I will be impressed. It's a long season, Lux. Very un-like you to get emotional about what a team has done in December, but I'll let you enjoy the ride over the next 6 weeks when Indiana plays sub-.500 basketball and goes to the NCAA tournament as a 5 or 6 seed.
Time will tell. There's a reason Calipari's NBA loaded teams haven't won a championship.
Seton Hall unable to get it done at USF? Big East is weird.
A few choice Saturday selections on the house this week:
Tennessee +10
Michigan -3
Kansas State -3
Vanderbilt -13.5
Alabama -1.5
Florida -7.5
Towson +26
So last week, Wake beat Virginia Tech. This week, NC State beat Wake by 40.
Kentucky almost lost again. The tournament is going to be insane boys.
And unc is now down 26 at fsu
Yeah if the first two Saturdays of conference play are any indication, it will be off-the-wall crazy come tourney time. There are some nutty things happening when ranked teams hit the road...
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