In the search for a new No. 1, now that Florida and Wisconsin have fallen, the logical thing to do -- if you subscribe to the Coaches' poll's logic of "bumping" teams up the ranks -- would be to grant the throne to Ohio State. The Buckeyes are the coaches' current No. 1 and the AP's No. 2, yet I have reservations about bumping them up to my top spot. OSU has won 12 straight -- and its only losses are to juggernauts Florida, North Carolina and Wisconsin -- but most Power Rankings debates come down to a simple question: Whom have you beaten? And the Buckeyes' best wins are over Tennessee and Michigan State; neither of those are blockbusters. I'm re-anointing UCLA as the kings instead; the Bruins, with point guard Darren Collison healthy again, are a worthy pick. They recently lost at West Virginia without him, but have beaten three teams in these rankings -- Texas A&M, BYU and Washington State, not to mention Kentucky, Georgia Tech, Oregon and Arizona (twice). That's what I call a resume.
| NCAA Basketball Power Rankings |
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While doing a magazine piece on Darren Collison back in December that asked if the Bruins had actually gotten better than they were under Jordan Farmar, I left myself a reminder to check -- once a much larger statistical sample was available -- if that were actually true. There's enough evidence now (from kenpom.com) to come to a few conclusions:
Collison Farmar
'06-07 '05-06
PersOEff 118.5 99.3
TeamOEff 119.6 113.0
eFG% 62.3 48.5
AstRate 34.4 37.6
TO Rate 24.2 25.1Collison has come close to matching Farmar in the assist department -- but in every other category, he completely blows his predecessor away. Collison's personal offensive efficiency rating is 118.5 compared to Farmar's pedestrian 99.3, and the sprinters' son has an effective field goal percentage (which adds weight for threes) that's 13.8 percent higher than Farmar's was last season. It was always accepted that D.C. was the better defender, but who expected this kind of offensive explosion?
Next three: 2/22 vs. Cal, 2/24 vs. Stanford, 3/1 at Washington State. |
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Joakim Noah (CBS) |
Another week, another great video for the Power Rankings starring Joakim Noah, who's (somewhat unfairly) become a target for harassment on the road. First it was the Kentucky cheerleader swipe; on Saturday it was a showdown for a dead ball Vandy coach Kevin Stallings refused to relinquish. The minor scrap included hand-checking (by Stallings), a querulous plea to a ref (by Noah) and backpedaling (also by Stallings). Stallings obviously took far more pleasure in the stunt than Noah did. Our extensive YouTube research reveals that Noah really does not like giving up control of a dead ball -- even if he's playing in a zero-stakes exhibition game in Canada. Check out this short amateur clip of Noah against the University of Guelph All-Stars during Florida's September tour, in which his poor Canadian wrestling partner comes away looking overwhelmed and confused. Hey man, it's Jo's ball, and you ain't gonna take it away.
Next three: 2/24 at LSU, 2/27 at Tennessee, 3/4 vs. Kentucky. |
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Wednesday's loss at Michigan State shouldn't be devastating to the Badgers' shot at a No. 1 seed; I say either a win at Ohio State OR a run to the Big Ten tourney title game will lock one up. The bigger issue coming out of that game (and one UW should consider when it faces the Spartans again on March 3) is: Can anyone justify not double-teaming Drew Neitzel off of the endless screens MSU sets for him? My four pieces of supporting evidence: 1) The Badgers' Michael Flowers, who might be the best on-ball defender in the league, was torched by Neit-zilla for 28 points in single coverage. 2) Every time Michigan State's effective field goal percentage is less than 50 in a Big Ten game (which has happened five times this season), it loses. 3) Neitzel has attempted 55.6 percent of the Spartans' threes this season, including 11 of 16 in the upset of UW. 4) MSU does not have a second offensive star. I'd much rather take my chances leaving Goran Suton wide-open for 15-footers than have Neitzel raining treys all night long. From now on, Double Drew.
Next three: 2/25 at Ohio State, 3/3 vs. Michigan State, Big Ten tournament. |
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In a recent Hoop Thoughts, Seth Davis hinted at the growing chemistry issues between the Buckeyes' super-freshmen and elder statesmen. The problem became clearer this week: Essentially, rooks such as point guard Mike Conley want the green light to take over and feel comfortable giving pep talks/orders to the upperclassmen ... but the upperclassmen aren't yet ready to cede control of the team. "That's the conflict on this team, that a lot of us are freshmen and we look up to Ron [Lewis] and Jamar [Butler], and when teams are coming back on us, we look to them for leadership," Conley said. "If coach thinks they're not giving the leadership, we're kind of complacent and standing back and not knowing if we should step in at a certain time and yell at upperclassmen or get in somebody's face for taking a bad shot, because you don't know how they're going to react." And this, perhaps, is why Ohio State was trailing lowly Penn State -- in Columbus, no less -- at halftime Wednesday.
Next three: 2/25 vs. Wisconsin, 3/3 at Michigan, Big Ten Tournament. |
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Vroom. (AP) |
Grant Wahl penned an excellent feature in this week's SI on the Tar Heels' secondary break. UNC's high-speed attack still needs a good nickname, though, and in the story Wahl suggests "Ty Goes To the Runners" (for freshman point guard Tywon Lawson), while Bobby Frasor proposes calling it "40 Minutes of Heel." If neither of those catch on, the Rankings would like to offer three more ideas:
1. The Argyle Assault (in reference to the side panels on UNC's jerseys)
2. Basketball On Roy'ds
And last but not least, an ode to the pace classifications on mid-majority.com ...
3. NASTAR
Next three: 2/25 at Maryland, 3/1 at Georgia Tech, 3/4 vs. Duke. |
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