Is it premature to anoint Syracuse as the
country's best team, in the wake of Kentucky's one-day-and-done run at No. 1? Not here, at least ...
NCAA Basketball Power Rankings
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Last Week: 2 |
I'm
usually loath to explain why teams are ranked in what order -- it's just too boring -- but this week it's necessary
to justify why the Orange are the Power Rankings' new No. 1. The Associated Press and coaches' poll voters
have Syracuse third behind Kansas and Villanova, so it seems the 'Cuse is the team least likely to be
atop Monday's polls. Here's what separates the Orange from the nation's other one-loss teams (other than, of course,
that Retro Plaid Jim Boeheim is the best cardboard cutout I've
seen all year):
• Save for its loss to Pitt, Syracuse has played exceptionally well in games against
potential NCAA tournament teams, rather than just scraping out victories. The Orange beat Cal by 22, North Carolina
by 16, Cornell (the team that nearly knocked off Kansas) by 15, Memphis (another team that nearly upset KU) by 17,
Florida by 12, Georgetown by 17 -- and in their marquee road game, held a double-digit lead over West Virginia
before giving up a late run and winning by one. The Orange have been the most consistently impressive team on big
stages, and that bodes well for their NCAA-title chances.
• Syracuse has a slightly better resume of
true- and semi-road wins -- at tourney-bound West Virginia and Florida (in Tampa), as well as at Seton Hall and
Notre Dame. Kansas' road-win resume only includes one team in SI.com
's projected bracket (Temple), and so does Villanova's (Maryland).
Next three: 1/30 at
DePaul, 2/2 vs. Providence, 2/7 at Cincinnati |
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Last Week: 3 |
Kentucky
has had more star power in its orbit than any other team this year -- Barack Obama, LeBron James,
Drake, Ashley Judd, whoever's in
Cougar Town. But Kansas can claim a HUGE name that the Wildcats can't: Eddie Money. He sang the national
anthem before the Jayhawks' rout of Missouri on Monday -- ad-libbing the line "I love my country!" in the middle
of the tune -- and then was caught in this ESPN
screenshot, adjusting his toupee while sitting directly behind Bob Knight. Mr. Money also came on the
Jayhawks' radio network and talked about betting lines as well as the hotness of KU coeds. Sez Eddie: "My son goes
to junior college. I wish he was here today to see how beautiful the girls are who go to school in the Midwest. I've
been to UCLA, all over the place. The prettiest girls in the country are right here."
Alert Rivals and
Scout.com: We know the identity of KU's next big-time juco recruit!
On a different, basketball note:
While we were obsessing about North Carolina earlier this week, I had the thought that the '09-10 Jayhawks
might just be following the same path as the '08-09 Tar Heels -- stumbling in early January, causing people to lose
confidence in them as a national title lock, then correcting themselves down the stretch and steamrolling their way
to a title. UNC's slip-ups came on these two dates:
Jan. 4, 2009: 85-78 home loss to Boston College.
Jan.
11, 2009: 92-89 road loss to Wake Forest.
Kansas' slip-ups (or near slip-ups) came on these two
dates:
Jan. 6, 2010: 71-66 home win over Cornell.
Jan. 10, 2010: 76-68 road loss to
Tennessee.
After their Wake loss, the Heels went 20-2 the rest of the way. Might KU, now that Cole
Aldrich is back in beast mode, be about go on that sort of run?
Next three: 1/30 at
Kansas State, 2/3 at Colorado, 2/6 vs. Nebraska |
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Last Week: 5 |
In Big
East games only, the Wildcats have the best
efficiency margin (+0.17) of any team, while West Virginia is second (+0.16) and Syracuse is third (+0.12). The
biggest difference between 'Nova and the 'Cuse, who were both candidates for No. 1 this week, is that the Wildcats
have the league's top offense (1.21 PPP) and ninth-ranked defense (1.04 PPP), while the Orange have the league's
best defense (0.97 PPP) and its seventh-best offense (1.09 PPP). It's interesting to look at how the two teams have
played in their three common Big East situations this year:
Points/100 Poss. by Common Opponents
Opponent vsNovaD vsCuseD Diff
Marquette(H) 118.4 96.1 -22.3
G'town(H) 104.1 83.6 -20.5
Rutgers(A) 95.8 88.2 -7.6Points/100 Poss. Scored vs. Common Opponents
Opponent NovaOff CuseOff Diff
Marquette(H) 121.5 102.9 18.6
G'town(H) 104.7 108.9 -4.2
Rutgers(A) 130.3 110.0 20.3
The Orange's defense has been
superior against each team (by big margins), while the Wildcats' offense has been superior 2/3 of the time. I've
always been someone who prefers defensively strong clubs, so that's another reason I have the 'Cuse ranked a few
spots higher.
Next three: 2/2 vs. Seton Hall, 2/6 at Georgetown, 2/8 at West Virginia |
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Last Week: 1 |
I hope
even the craziest Wildcats fans (at least before they started Facebook-slamming Patrick Patterson) were able to appreciate just how much of a college
hoops EVENT Tuesday's game against South Carolina was.
You had buildup: President Barack Obama calling
the Kentucky team to thank them for helping raise more than $1 million for Haiti relief efforts, congratulate them
on being No. 1, and tell super-frosh John Wall, "What's going on, All-Star? I've been watching you." You had
rising tension: Gamecocks star Devan Downey, when asked if he embraced the chance to face Wall, saying,
"Why?" You had action: Downey putting up one of the all-time great-but-incredibly-inefficient performances -- 30
points on 9-of-29 shooting, scoring on drives, jumpers, sleight-of-hand tricks and black magic, with Wall trying to
match him to the finish line. You had a powerful (albeit unhappy) ending: Kids mobbing the floor in a
crazy/aggressive $25,000 party.
My lasting memory will be the move Downey made with 2:40 left, which is
screen-capped (from ESPN) below: The first four screens show him making an absurd drive-left,
spin-move-on-heels-right (with ball in left hand) move; the next three screens show him making a swim-and-hop move
to split Wall and DeMarcus Cousins; the last one is him successfully releasing a shot over a player 14 inches
taller.
UK
faithful should just hope this inspires Wall to upgrade his YouTube reel by one-upping Downey in the coming weeks.
Obama's All-Star might be the only one capable of making better highlights.
Next three: 1/30
vs. Vanderbilt, 2/2 vs. Ole Miss, 2/6 at LSU |
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Last Week: 8 |
 Kalin Lucas picked the wrong four-day stretch to be a hero. Everyone's been so gaga for Downey Ball that Lucas isn't getting nearly enough national cred for hitting the dagger three in the
Spartans' 13-point, second-half comeback at Minnesota on Saturday, and then a game-winning, zone-busting jumper with 3.5
seconds left at Michigan on Tuesday. Lucas' late-game prowess did evoke some Mateen Cleaves
memories amongst the locals, though. Seems like he's popular enough around East Lansing of late that, had the
school's new logo looked like the one at right, no one would be
complaining.
Next three: 1/30 vs. Northwestern, 2/2 at Wisconsin, 2/6 at Illinois |
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Last Week: 6 |
After the whole Bob Knight-hating-on-K-State's-offense thing happened (and was somewhat
justified) in the Wildcats' upset of Texas on Jan. 18, I made a point to tape K-State's next few games to see if the Wildcats'
offensive flow had improved. In their 73-69 home loss to Oklahoma State five days later, the offense didn't look
much better, but it did in a 76-74 win at Baylor on Tuesday.
Early in the first half against the Bears' zone,
the Wildcats had two nice possessions that reminded me just how important it is that they have an offensive-minded
big man (Curtis Kelly) in the middle. The first shows Kelly flashing to the high post as guard Jacob
Pullen cuts along the baseline; when Baylor's D opts to collapse on Kelly, he correctly finds a wide-open Pullen
in the left corner for a three:
The second shows Kelly setting a ball screen for Denis Clemente, who rotates the
ball to Pullen, who hits Kelly in the high post. With Baylor's zone stretched high and low, Kelly is able to knock
down a wide-open jumper:
Next three: 1/30 vs. Kansas, 2/2 at
Nebraska, 2/6 at Iowa State |
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Last Week: 4 |
Is
Longhorns forward Damion James, who's among the frontrunners in the national Player of the Year race, a lock to be a first-round pick? He's in NBADraft.net's first-round mock at 16, but is a
second-rounder (at No. 36) on DraftExpress. The truth
might be somewhere in between; I asked three NBA scouts about James this week and each said they'd guess he'd go in
the mid-to-late 20s, although they couldn't guarantee it. "Unless there's some crazy run on foreigners
late in the round, I can't see him not going there," one of the scouts said. "Someone's going to pick him late in
the first and get a nice bench player they can use at the 3 and as a smaller 4 -- [James] plays so hard and he's
such a great rebounder, and he's really improved his shooting, too." (I should note that all three scouts thought
freshman guard Avery Bradley would be the highest drafted player on the 'Horns roster, although they hope
he'll play at least one more season in Austin.)
Next three: 1/30 vs. Baylor, 2/1 at Oklahoma
State, 2/6 at Oklahoma |
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Last Week: 11 |
Yet Another Basketball
Blog has been running a series of great posts on coaches' efficiency numbers over the past seven seasons
(including 2009-10). You can see the entire charts on YABB's site, but as a teaser, these are the top five coaches
in adjusted offensive efficiency:
Roy Williams, UNC: 121.1
Mike Krzyzewski, Duke:
119.0
Bill Self, Kansas: 117.7
Billy Donovan, Florida: 117.4
Rick Barnes, Texas:
117.1
And the top five in average adjusted efficiency margin (offense minus defense) are:
Bill Self, Kansas:
+31.8
Mike Krzyzewski, Duke: +31.6
Roy Williams, UNC: +31.6
John Calipari, Memphis/Kentucky:
+26.9
Rick Barnes, Texas: +26.7
Even though Williams won two national titles during that stretch, and
Coach K won zero, his Blue Devils have been exactly even with the Tar Heels in efficiency
margin.
Next three: 1/30 at Georgetown, 2/4 vs. Georgia Tech, 2/6 at Boston College |
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