College Hoops Notebook (Dec. 15)

[SelectionSunday]

What's happened and what's ahead in the world of college basketball.

The Unbeatables
We're down to 14 unbeatens after Butler, Dayton and Villanova fell from the ranks. Here's where they sit in the RPI, and who they "got next."
1. Clemson (Tuesday: North Florida)
3. Xavier (Saturday: vs. Duke)
4. Pitt (Wednesday: Siena)
6. Oklahoma (Saturday: vs. VCU)
7. Ohio State (Wednesday: Jacksonville)
9. Syracuse (Tonight: Cleveland State)
10. Connecticut (Tonight: Stony Brook)
16. North Carolina (Thursday: Evansville)
36. GOPHERS (Saturday: vs. Louisville)
39. Stanford (Wednesday: Northern Arizona)
41. BYU (Saturday: vs. Arizona State)
56. Wake Forest (Friday: at Richmond)
99. Illinois State (Wednesday: at Central Michigan)
151. LSU (Wednesday: Nicholls State)

How's Blue Ribbon Doing?
We're more than a month into the season, with the meat of the season (conference play) just around the corner. Let's take a look at Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook's preseason conference favorites and see how they're doing.
America East: Boston University (5-4, #154) 0-1 vs. BCS
ACC: North Carolina (8-0, #16) 4-0 vs. BCS
Atlantic Sun: Belmont (3-3, 1-1, #230) 0-1 vs. BCS
Atlantic 10: Xavier (9-0, #3) 4-0 vs. BCS
Big East: Pitt (9-0, #4) 2-0 vs. BCS
Big Sky: Portland State (4-2, #93) 0-1 vs. BCS
Big South: Winthrop (0-7, 0-2, #275) 0-2 vs. BCS
Big 10: Purdue (8-2, #122) 1-2 vs. BCS
Big 12: Oklahoma (10-0, #6) 2-0 vs. BCS
Big West: Cal State Northridge (1-6, #292) 0-2 vs. BCS
Colonial: VCU (6-3, 1-0, #82) 0-1 vs. BCS
Conference USA: Memphis (5-2, #26) 1-1 vs. BCS
Horizon: Cleveland State (5-4, 1-1, #125) 0-3 vs. BCS
Ivy: Cornell (3-5, #101) 0-4 vs. BCS
Metro Atlantic: Siena (5-3, 2-0, #117) 0-2 vs. BCS
MAC: Miami-Ohio (6-3, #27) 0-2 vs. BCS
MEAC: Morgan State (4-6, 1-0, #198) 1-1 vs. BCS
Missouri Valley: Creighton (7-2, #73) 0-1 vs. BCS
Mountain West: UNLV (8-2, #111) 0-2 vs. BCS
Northeast: Mount St. Mary's (3-6, 0-2, #143) 0-2 vs. BCS
Ohio Valley: Tennessee-Martin (1-5, 0-2, #305) 0-2 vs. BCS
Pac 10: UCLA (6-2, #74) 1-2 vs. BCS
Patriot: American (4-4, #91) 0-2 vs. BCS
SEC: Tennessee (6-2, #44) 1-0 vs. BCS
Southern: Davidson (7-1, 1-0, #25) 2-1 vs. BCS
Southland: Texas-Arlington (1-4, #331) 0-0 vs. BCS
SWAC: Jackson State (1-8, #210) 0-5 vs. BCS
Summit: Oakland (5-5, 1-1, #139) 1-3 vs. BCS
Sun Belt: Middle Tennessee (2-3, 1-0, #254) 0-2 vs. BCS
West Coast: St. Mary's (5-1, #37) 1-0 vs. BCS
WAC: Nevada (4-4, #182) 1-0 vs. BCS

Some Hard Candy With The Marshmallows
Kudos to these BCS programs, who already have played at least four BCS opponents: Kentucky (3-2); North Carolina (4-0); Baylor (3-1); Florida State (3-1); Texas (3-1); Iowa (2-2); Michigan (2-2); Notre Dame (2-2); and Oregon (2-2).

Could You Stop By My Office For A Moment?
March pink slips aren't out of the question for these five coaches.

1. Mark Gottfried (Alabama): Gottfried's done solid work at his alma mater, but his time's probably short after an underachieving start to the season.

2. Jeff Lebo (Auburn): He's in his fifth season, and the program's still in quicksand.

3. Greg McDermott (Iowa State): One of the best fan bases in the country has to be getting restless watching mostly "blah" basketball, especially after seeing one of its Midwest neighbors reel in Tubby Smith.

4. Jerry Wainwright (DePaul): Of the schools that switched from Conference USA to the Big East, it appears the Blue Demons would have been best served staying put. It's kinda' sad seeing what this once-proud program has become. Also see Cool Musings below.

5. Dereck Whittenburg (Fordham): Home losses to Columbia, Princeton, James Madison, Manhattan and Fairfield aren't the way to impress your bosses, especially when you're in your sixth year at an A-10 school.

Tracking My Preseason Final Four
1. Duke (8-1, #7)
2. North Carolina (8-0, #16)
3. Louisville (6-1, #57)
4. Arizona State (8-1, #58)

BCS Conferences Head to Head
1. ACC (19-12)
2. Big East (15-12)
3. Big 12 (15-13)
4. Big 10 (15-14)
5. Pac 10 (9-16)
6. SEC (6-12)

Big 10 in the RPI
7. Ohio State
11. Northwestern
18. Illinois
21. Michigan
23. Wisconsin
36. GOPHERS
49. Michigan State
50. Iowa
116. Indiana
120. Penn State
122. Purdue

Tracking the Gophers' Nonconference Foes
58. Louisville (6-1)
76. Eastern Washington (6-3)
80. Virginia (3-3)
101. Cornell (3-5)
105. Bowling Green (2-4)
195. North Dakota State (4-3)
209. Colorado State (3-6)
238. Georgia State (1-6)
299. Southeastern Louisiana (1-4)
320. South Dakota State (2-7)
327. High Point (1-6)

What To Watch This Week
Marquette at Tennesse (Tuesday)
Siena at Pitt (Wednesday)
Ole Miss vs. Louisville (Thursday)
Wake Forest at Richmond (Friday)
Arizona at UNLV (Saturday)
Arizona State vs. BYU (Saturday)
Connecticut vs. Gonzaga (Saturday)
Davidson vs. Purdue (Saturday)
Duke vs. Xavier (Saturday)
Gophers vs. Louisville (Saturday)
Illinois-Chicago at Illinois State (Saturday)
LSU vs. Texas A&M (Saturday)
Miami-Ohio at West Virginia (Saturday)
Michigan State vs. Texas (Saturday)
North Dakota State at USC (Saturday)
Northwestern at Stanford (Saturday)
Oklahoma State vs. Rhode Island (Saturday)
Syracuse at Memphis (Saturday)
Temple at Kansas (Saturday)
Clemson at Miami-Florida (Sunday)

"Cool(hand) Musings" from Peru
** Could you have a worse week than DePaul? When yesterday's 18-point loss to UCLA could be considered a moral victory, I would say no. Northwestern thumped the Blue Demons to the tune of 63-36 the previous Saturday, Morgan State (4-6) upset them at home on Wednesday and then UCLA followed up with its stroll to victory. I think it's going to be a long Big East season. Coach Jerry Wainwright should get in contact with his realtor. Somewhere Terry Cummings, Mark Aguirre and Dallas Comegys are hanging their heads.

** While Indiana's season could end up being the worst in its illustrious history, things are not all lost in Bloomington. Among the horde of Hoosier newcomers is Tom Pritchard, the standout freshman forward for Indiana. Pritchard has been Indiana's second leading scorer (13.1 ppg) and leading rebounder (7.6 rpg), but where Pritchard has been exceptional is on the offensive boards. Junkyard dogs are taking notes on how Pritchard rebounds on the offensive end, as more than 50% of his rebounds come on the offensive end. Along with Prairie View A&M's Darnell Huggee, they are the only players among the top rebounders in the nation who average more offensive rebounds than defensive rebounds. Not a bad player for Tom Crean to build the reconstruction around.

** Do you remember Hilton Armstrong? Armstrong is currently playing for the New Orleans Hornets, but just a few years ago he was a senior at Connecticut who shed three years of forgetful play on Jim Calhoun's bench to have a standout senior season and vault himself into the first round of the NBA draft and guaranteed millions. When I consider Villanova's Dante Cunningham, I think of Armstrong. I'm not saying Cunningham's a future millionaire, but his career arc has followed a similar path, although he has been more of a contributor to Villanova during his previous three years than Armstrong was at UConn. In his senior campaign, Cunningham is leading Villanova in scoring (17.5 ppg) and rebounds (8 rpg) and has given the program which introduced the four-guard lineup a post presence it has not had in many years. It's nice to see four-year players who blossom during their senior year. I hope Cunningham can carve out a career path similar to Armstrong's.

Team of the Week
The Arizona Wildcats get the nod this week. After a nondescript start (a brain-fart loss to UAB) and sort of given up for dead after the Lute Olson fiasco of the past couple seasons, the Wildcats thrust themselves back into the national spotlight -- in a good way -- with a pair of quality wins. Beating a solid San Diego State squad was nice a start to the week, but it was Sunday's 69-64 win over previously unbeaten Gonzaga that has folks in Tucson excited about U of A basketball again.

The SS Mailbag
Dear Selection Sunday,

Texas has looked pretty good this nonconference season. Could this be the year where Rick Barnes joins the ranks of national championship coaches?

-- K. Durant, Oklahoma City, OK --

Dear Scoring Machine,

Rick Barnes is one of my favorite coaches in the country. He just continues to reload every season, but there's something about this team I'm just not quite sold on. The Longhorns will be in the top 10 all season, no surprise there, but eventually I think not having a true PG the likes of DJ Augustin will be their downfall. AJ Abrams is a fantastic, quick-release shooter, but he's better playing off the ball. Like last season, I see the Longhorns maxing out at the Elite 8.

College Hoops Notebook will take a Christmas break next week, returning Dec. 29 with the first in-season "Field of 65" projection.

 

[OSUfan]

Purdue being the preseason Big Ten favorite has given national pundits good cause to bash the Big Ten as being weak at the top. Unfortunately, that same logic will still allow more Big Ten bashing until it's clear that they aren't the best team in the conference. The fact that Purdue is LAST in the RPI among Big Ten teams according to the list SS provided has to be a sign that they're not the conference's BEST team, right?

Blue Ribbon fell prey to the same groupthink that almost everyone else (Gary Parrish and Lindy's magazine as the only exceptions) did regarding my Buckeyes, saying that they're too young to contend for the Big Ten title. They provide very good details, but their predictions and evaluations aren't any better than any of the other magazines. They gave Notre Dame a higher grade than OSU in every category (backcourt, frontcourt, bench/depth, and intangibles), yet the Buckeyes beat them on a neutral court only a few weeks into the season and are way ahead of ND in the RPI. Somehow the team with back-to-back top-10 recruiting classes is actually a good team. Go figure. You wouldn't know it from reading Blue Ribbon.