College Basketball News and Notes

I’m a day late with my weekly notebook but that’s because I was travelling yesterday…

So let’s dive right in.

I think it is pretty clear that there isn’t a super team in college basketball this year. Oklahoma has the best resume but I’m not sure they are a lock to get to the Final Four.

And that can be said about just about every team.

My sense is that if every team played their absolute “A” game, North Carolina would win the National title but raise your hands if you have seen the Tar Heels play their A game for an entire 40 minutes – much less six games in a row.

And to that end, note to headline writers, people posting scores on Twitter, talking heads doing highlights --- the word “upset” is being used and abused, please stop!!!!

When a really good team is at home beats another really good team that happens to be ranked higher at the time, it is not an upset. It just isn’t.

Case in point – West Virginia is a top 15 team and when the Mountaineers beat Kansas in Morgantown at the Coliseum, that’s not an upset. Iowa State at home beating Oklahoma or Kansas for that matter, that’s not an upset.

Even Providence – a top 10 team – winning at Villanova, that’s not an upset and anybody beating Duke these days, that’s not an upset, either.

Please stop with this nonsense.

These teams are so close to evenly matched that honestly, very, very few conference games, especially when the winning team is at home, are truly upsets.

If Boston College wins at North Carolina, for instance, OK, maybe we can use the word upset, but good lord if Duke beats North Carolina, I don’t care what the Blue Devils record is right now – this is not an upset.

Deep breath….

OK, here is my Top Ten for the week:

1. Oklahoma – This team, like I said, still has the best wins and their two losses are on the road at Kansas and at Iowa State. There isn’t a better resume out there but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they are the best team.

2. North Carolina – The Tar Heels are on a roll and like I said, probably have the best collection of players and combination of size, experience, talent, athleticism – etc. If they ever get interested in playing defense and with great effort for an entire 40 minutes, they will be a really tough out.

3. Iowa State – You beat Kansas and Oklahoma in a week, you are pretty good – even if both were on your home court. The Cyclones are settling in to life after The Mayor.

4. Iowa – Wait, two of the four best teams are in Iowa? Well, yeah, the Hawkeyes are really good too as season sweeps of Michigan State and Purdue have shown.

5. Xavier – They have a huge game tonight - at Providence – and this team averages 79 points a game. The Big East is really strong at the top.

6. Texas A&M – Who knew after the Aggies lost to Syracuse in Atlantis that they – not Kentucky – would emerge as the best team in the SEC.

7. Providence – I know this sounds strange for a team ranked in the Top Ten – but they are a non-power 5 team that nobody wants to see in March.

8. Villanova – The Wildcats win a lot of games, that’s for sure, but they no longer have the “Big East record” winning streak intact.

9. Maryland – The Terps get a chance to make a statement Thursday as they play host to the Hawkeyes.

10. Miami – I thought at the start of the season the Hurricanes were the best team in the ACC not named North Carolina and I think they are starting to hit their stride.

*** Indiana has seemingly but the “Tom Crean watch” on hold as the Hoosiers as they have won 12 games in a row. But I’d say be careful here with this team – they are clearly a product of favorable scheduling and the unbalanced schedule in these big conferences. Consider this: They are in the Big Ten, we are nearly halfway through the conference season and they have yet to play Michigan State, Iowa, Purdue or Maryland. And of those four, they only play Iowa twice. That means we won’t know a lot about the Hoosiers until their last seven games as they play those four teams I just mentioned five times down the stretch. Indiana is a classic example of a team that has a lot of wins but hasn’t beaten anybody. Think about this – the Hoosiers are in a power league and have zero wins over RPI Top 25 teams and their one Top 50 win is over Notre Dame. So while people have to be feeling better about Crean’s future in Bloomington that could change in a hurry.

*** Kentucky plays at Kansas Saturday night at Allen Fieldhouse. That’s tremendous – for one thing, there are not nearly enough of these nonconference games between top teams that take place on one campus on the other. And I got bad news – there are going to be less as college hoops goes the way of football and starts playing more of these games at neutral sites. That’s a shame, I know this is a business and revenue streams are important - but at some level isn’t still about students at these institutions getting to watch their classmates play against big-time teams without having to leave campus? There aren’t many things that irritate me when it comes to college athletics, but students should not have to buy a bus ticket and get a hotel to watch their team play a regular season game at a neutral court. Teams should play home and homes and there should be more of them. This is a great opportunity for students at Kansas to roll out of bed, have a kegger or whatever and then roll over to the field house to see two of the best teams in the country go at it. It is part of the college experience and while, again, I understand it is a business and revenue streams are important, there has to be SOME differences between the colleges and the professional leagues. It can’t always be all about the money.

*** The SMU story has been interesting. Now that Temple beat them and thus we don’t have to see a bunch of crocodile tears for “this undefeated team not in the Tournament” let’s get right to the point: These players will be fine. A couple may go pro, a couple will finish their degree and the rest will be back next year. They all have their scholarships and free educations intact and they still get to play 31 games in a lot of nice arenas, some on TV in front of lots of good crowds. So please, spare me all the tears about the poor little Mustangs who are getting a raw deal. Is it fair that they are being punished for the sins of the coaches/administrators etc.? No, probably not. But the bottom line is there needs to be rules and punishments. I don’t like taking away scholarships because the NCAA is about opportunity and taking away opportunities doesn’t make sense. I do like suspending and firing coaches and administrators who engage in bad behavior and think that should be explored more. I mean, seriously – you want to stop cheating, here is how: “We have a new rule, if you are a coach or an athletic director and a program under your watch gets put on probation, you lose your job and can’t work for two years….” I bet that would clean it up. But short of that, I don’t think a postseason ban is cruel and unusual punishment.

*** The RPI isn’t a be-all end-all, perfect measure but it is a good guideline of who is doing what and now that we are into conference play, it is becoming a little more accurate. Early in the year there aren’t enough games for it to be very meaningful –but as the sample size grows, it becomes a much better tool. With that being said – it is a good indicator of where teams stand with respect to the NCAA Tournament and each week I’ll look at a conference through the eyes of the RPI.

First up is the ACC, which currently has seven teams in the Top 40 of the RPI. And that’s generally considered to be a safe area for Power 5 teams and so if the NCAA Tournament started today – THEORETICALLY SPEAKING ONLY – the ACC would likely get North Carolina (3), Virginia (13), Miami (14), Louisville (16), Duke (26), Pitt (30) and Notre Dame (33) into the NCAA Tournament. I’d say that is actually probably fair and accurate, to be honest, as the next group of teams have a lot of work to do to get there – Florida State (48), Syracuse (52), Georgia Tech (67), Wake Forest (70) and Clemson (93).

To be honest, looking at that next group - it won’t shock me if this is a 7-bid league and that’s where it ends because I don’t like any of that group’s chances to win enough to get themselves into the conversation. Clemson and Syracuse would appear to have a good start to a resume that if they won a lot of games down the stretch they could get there, but again I just don’t see that happening.

Getting to seven bids is a good start for the ACC but the league was hoping this was the year they got to eight or nine but looking at the numbers, I just don’t see it happening.