39 Days to Selection Sunday

One of our favorite teams lost tonight. Other than that, how did we fare?

1. Florida: Vandy in Gainsville. The Gators will have to do everything wrong to lose this game. And they won't. Yes, the Gators won, but they did two things that will be their downfall later on: they let Vandy outscore them in the first half, and they coasted in the second half, winning by only 10 at home. How do you beat the Gators? Like the Duke teams of the 90's, you have to make them live or die by the 3-pointer. Lots of pundits have this team going to the Final Four. What do we think? Well, we say Florida has a LONG road to get to Atlanta.

2. Wisconsin: at #25 Inidiana. We would like to watch this game, as it will be close, but Win-consin will not lose. It will be close, and maybe an OT or 2. No OT, but it was close throughout as Indiana wins by 5. The most obvious weakness for Wisconsin in this game was that only 2 players scored. Tucker and Taylor had 38 of the Badgers' 66 points. No one else was in double figures. And, Win-consin needs to step it up on defense.

3. North Carolina: play Miami at home. The Hurricanes are not good and the Heels are great. No contest. We do have to note that as bad as Miami is, they are deep. They will try to slow down the Heels and to get them in foul trouble. But, it won't be enough. Miami tried to run with the Heels, which is a BIG no-no. You can't run with this team. At the end of the game the Hurricanes had no legs. UNC wins big by 41, Oh, and they went 12-24 from beyond the arc. It seems like they show a different strength each game. Miami was out-rebounded 16-48. WOW!! NOTE: Carolina scored 64 in the second half, which, to our knowledge, is the most scored in a half by a Division 1 team this season. Let us know if we are wrong.

4. Ohio State: at Purdue. While this looks like a no-brainer, OSU could struggle if Landry can contain Oden. But, we're guessing he won't, and he won't get a lot of help off the bench. He may foul out trying to guard Manchild Oden. If we were coacing Purdue, we would play freshmen Uchendu (6-11) and Vandervieren (6-10) and have them double Oden on each Ohio State possession. Let the rest of the OSU team try and score. Risky, but why not? The Buckeyes win, though. Well, Pudue didn't listen to us, but it really didn't matter. Oden had a bad night but OSU still won by 18. Have we sold this team short?

8. Texas A&M: play Iowa State at home. The Cyclones cannot possibly win this game. A&M will win. And the Cyclones did not win.

11. Butler: at Youngstown State. No need to comment. Butler wins. And Butler did win. This one was too easy.

12. Memphis: play at Central Florida. Memphis continues to roll as they beat the Knights. Not to say this will be a blowout. UCF has won 15 games this year, but they have not won against a good team. And UCF continues to not be able to beat good teams. Memphis wins.

13. Nevada: at La. Tech. No chance for the Bulldogs as Nevada wins big. A lot closer than we imagined, but Nevada held on.

18. Virginia Tech: host NC State. Did we mention that NC State should have cancelled their season a while back? Hokies win at home. The only thing we think happened here is that Sidney Lowe printed out this blog and put it up in the NC State locker room as an incentive to pump up his team, because the Wolfpack won big against a very decent Virginia Tech team. We still stand by what we have said about NC State, though. They need to look at this season as an opportunity to "build" this team.

20. Alabama: at LSU. LSU needs to win this game. Why? Because they have been a huge disappointment this season. Coming off a 3-game losing streak they will upset Bama. No upset here as Alabama tries desperately to prove they belong to be ranked. And they don't. LSU is on our "They Suck" list. The Big Baby needs a diaper change.

23. Texas: at Texas Tech. Watch this game on ESPN2. CAN Bobby Knight out-coach Rick Barnes? We beileve he can. Texas Tech upsets the Longhorns. Texas Tech had a PITIFUL second half as they donate this game to Texas. Would not want to be at the Red Raiders' practice on Thursday. Will Bobby Knight hit someone?

We go 7-4 tonight. Has anyone checked out our overall record? We have our misses, but we bet we are riding high above 70%.

OK, Thursday. What have we got?

5. UCLA: play #9 Oregon at home. Both teams have only lost 2 games this season. This is a pretty even match-up, and despite out-rebounding the Bruins in this game, the Ducks will not win.

10. Duke: at Virginia. Well, we still don't think the Blue Devils are all that, and the Cavaliers play tough at home. We're going to say Virginia wins.

17. Washington State: at #22 Arizona. Sorry Washington State, but the Wildcats will not be in the mood to lose at home after what UNC did to them. Arizona wins.

Again, we're holding off on on top-25 comments. In fact, we're most likely not going to go any further on that until next week. Sorry.

Let it snow.

Bad Night in Syracuse

Notre Dame put up 61 in the first half to demoralize Syracuse tonight. Let's recap:

19. Notre Dame: at Syracuse. The Orange will pull down more boards, but Notre Dame hands Syracuse their third loss in a row. True to form we were right x2. Syracuse did pull down more rebounds, but Notre Dame won. We don't remember any other Div-1 team scoring 61 in a half this season. Massacre. Sitting in the middle of the average Big East, the Orange need to win almost all of their remaining games to be even considered legit.

25. UNLV: at Colorado State. We have been waiting for the Rebels to be ranked, and they won't disappoint as they win by less than 10 away. Did we say "less than 10?" Try 17. UNLV won this game with 3-pointers, but they have to do more on offense rebounding to stay ranked. They face a pretty good team in BYU this week.

Wow, eleven top-25 games tomorrow. Let's give you our take short and sweet:

1. Florida: Vandy in Gainsville. The Gators will have to do everything wrong to lose this game. And they won't.

2. Wisconsin: at #25 Inidiana. We would like to watch this game, as it will be close, but Win-consin will not lose. It will be close, and maybe an OT or 2.

3. North Carolina: play Miami at home. The Hurricanes are not good and the Heels are great. No contest. We do have to note that as bad as Miami is, they are deep. They will try to slow down the Heels and to get them in foul trouble. But, it won't be enough.

4. Ohio State: at Purdue. While this looks like a no-brainer, OSU could struggle if Landry can contain Oden. But, we're guessing he won't, and he won't get a lot of help off the bench. He may foul out trying to guard Manchild Oden. If we were coacing Purdue, we would play freshmen Uchendu (6-11) and Vandervieren (6-10) and have them double Oden on each Ohio State possession. Let the rest of the OSU team try and score. Risky, but why not? The Buckeyes win, though.

8. Texas A&M: play Iowa State at home. The Cyclones cannot possibly win this game. A&M will win.

11. Butler: at Youngstown State. No need to comment. Butler wins.

12. Memphis: play at Central Florida. Memphis continues to roll as they beat the Knights. Not to say this will be a blowout. UCF has won 15 games this year, but they have not won against a good team.

13. Nevada: at La. Tech. No chance for the Bulldogs as Nevada wins big.

18. Virginia Tech: host NC State. Did we mention that NC State should have cancelled their season a while back? Hokies win at home.

20. Alabama: at LSU. LSU needs to win this game. Why? Because they have been a huge disappointment this season. Coming off a 3-game losing streak they will upset Bama.

23. Texas: at Texas Tech. Watch this game on ESPN2. CAN Bobby Knight out-coach Rick Barnes? We beileve he can. Texas Tech upsets the Longhorns.

We hope you don't mind, but we are going to suspend until tomorrow night our top-25 breakdown.

Signing-off.

Tonight's Games and New Rankings Commentary

Monday saw only 3 top-25 games. Let's look at how we did, and then we'll take you through the new Coaches' poll and see who we think (know) is over-ranked, under-ranked, and in the right place.

8. Kansas: at Nebraska. The Cornhuskers will be no match for the Jayhawks. Kansas wins. We guess that the worst part about playing in the Big-12 is that you never get to play in a place that is even close to being warm in the winter. Gametime temps in Lincoln will be in the single digits. A few snow flurries as well. Despite the cold weather, Kansas wins by 20. No surprise to us.

9. Pitt: at Villanova. Villanova is coming off a close loss at Notre Dame, and they are pretty tough at home (see: January 17 trouncing of Notre Dame and January 20 upset of Texas). We think the Wilcats will beat Pitt. We don't particularly like how high Pitt is in the rankings (more on that later), but Nova couldn't pull off this win, although they led at halftime. We missed this one, but our opinion of Pitt stands. Each team couldn't score worth crap, but the Wildcats need to learn to share the ball.

11. Butler: at home against Illinois-Chicago. While the Bulldogs lost to Ill-Chicago earlier this month, they will not lose again. Butler wins. And they need to. Butler makes Ill-Chicago pay as they win big. The Flames had a dismal 5 assists total for this game. Butler needs to work on ofensive rebounding. They are too small to go past the second round in March. Yes, they have won 20 games, but they are not all that.

Only 2 top-25 games tomorrow. Let's break them down:

19. Notre Dame: at Syracuse. The Orange will pull down more boards, but Notre Dame hands Syracuse their third loss in a row.

25. UNLV: at Colorado State. We have been waiting for the Rebels to be ranked, and they won't disappoint as they win by less than 10 away.

OK, here is today's Coaches' poll with our astute and knowledgable comments. We went to see a very good mid-major team play tonight, so we are tired. What does that mean to you? Well, we're only going to comment on 12 of the ranked teams tonight, and then we'll do the remainder tomorrow night.

1. Florida: Over-rated. They are a very good team, but they have struggled as of late over teams such as Ole Miss and Mississippi State. And, the SEC is just not a formidable conference. How long do you give so much slack to the defending national champs?

2. Wisconsin: Under-rated. This team should be #1. Bo (above pic) knows coaching, and everyone needs to start looking at them as a team-to-beat rather than an underdog. They will advance to the Final Four.

3. North Carolina: Under-rated. They should be #2. Did anyone notice the beating they gave Arizona? Lute Olson's worst loss ever at home. And the Heels did it with their hands tied behind their back with their second-leading scorer on the bench. The book on them is that they are "talented", but, in fact, the real analysis is that they are a talented "team." Ol' Roy takes this team to the Final Four this year, and could very well win it all.

4. Ohio State: Over-rated. Greg Oden is a great player, but can a freshman lead an average team to win it all. No.

5. UCLA: Over-rated. The Pac-10 is awesome, and Oregon is better than UCLA. They should be hovering around 9 or 10. They've got a lot of miles to cover before they can prove themselves. NOTE: a team should not be ranked on their W-L record alone (see: Butler).

6. Kansas: Correctly ranked. Tough conference and eight-deep. Final Four? We'll see.

7. Pitt: Over-ranked. Does anyone other than us know that Pitt has not beaten a top-ranked team all season? The Big East is not strong enough to propel Pitt to #7. They are maybe a #20 team.

8. Texas A&M: Correctly ranked (so far). We are waiting to place judgement on this team until they are deep into their Big 12 schedule. Fundamentaly they are sound, and seem to do all of the right things (rebounding, sharing, FT and FG shooting), and if they continue in this manner they will go at least to the Great Eight.

9. Oregon: Under-rated. They play at UCLA Thursday night, and will prove then that they are the better team. They need to sit around 5 or 6 in the rankings. However, like all Pac-10 teams, they need to get through a tough conference schedule before we can fully evaluate them. They rebound great and are 12-deep, so we could see them advance to the Final Four. Again, time will tell.

10. Duke: Over-ranked. Well thank goodness someone sees what we see and does not advance the Blue Devils this week. They are not #10 in the country, and a tough ACC schedule will be their downfall. We think they will lose at least 5 more regular-season games this year, putting them in the middle of the ACC.

11. Butler: Over-ranked. We have always liked this team. They have won some big games. But, one of their downfalls is that they play a weak conference schedule (see: Cleveland State). Our other concern is that they are small. Their tallest starter is only 6-7. This will not get them far in the NCAA Tourney. If they do belong in the rankings then they should be #25.

12. Memphis: Over-ranked. OK, they have beaten 1 top-ranked team this year, and Conference-USA is not good. IF they can get through the remainder of their schedule without a loss (BTW: my childrens' elementary school team could beat East Carolina) then they may make it to the second round. They are big, though. But, would they be 17-3 if they played in the ACC or the Pac-10? We'll see.

Word.

Tough Weekend

We are glad to see this week go away. While we started out strong, we were not as adept over this weekend. Don't count us out, though. We are good.

So how did we do today? Well, let's review:

2. UCLA: at Stanford. The Pac-10 will put 6 teams in the NCAA Tourney. Tough. Stanford will win at home. We still say UCLA is not the #2 team in the country. We hate to tell you we told you so, but Stanford scored a mind-boggling 50 in the second half to beat UCLA into submission. Granted, the Pac-10 is tough, but a team cannot be ranked #2 and allow an unranked team to score 50 points on them in a half. UCLA falls hard in the rankings.

3. Wisconsin: at Iowa. The Hawkeyes are up-and-down this season, and Win-consin is too tough for them. The Badgers are the best team in the nation, and they will prove it as they take down Steve Alford and Iowa. Another win for Wisconsin, who will certainly advance to the Great Eight, and, more than likely, the Final Four, in the Big Dance.

10. Duke: play Boston College at home. B-C is the better team, and they take care of the basketball better than the Blue Devils (Greg Paulus is Mister Turnover). They also rebound better than Duke. But, when you are playing at Cameron Indoor you have to be poised, and the Eagles are not experienced enough to handle all the "classy" comments and ruckus they will get from 9,314 students from New Jersey. Dook wins. B-C shoots 34% from the field as they go down. One big surprise to us was the rebounding margin. Duke actually won the battle of the boards 41-29. Greg Paulus continues to struggle. He will not be factor in March, and McRoberts cannot carry this team without a guard that can score. However, Paulus did a great job limiting his turnovers this game. We think Duke has played their best game of the season, and it will be downhill for them as they will lose 5-6 more ACC games before it is all said and done. One note: David McClure, the freshman who was red-shirted last year with surgery on his left knee, went down with 6 minutes to go clutching the same knee. Duke's depth is shallow, so they cannot afford to lose a player averaging 22 minutes per game. We'll see how that turns out.

17. Clemson: host Virginia. Another ACC matchup as the Tigers shut down Sean Singletary and beat the Cavaliers. Clemson was able to prevent Singletary from scoring, but the Virginia guard decided to make his mark rebounding as Virginia stuns us, and the Tigers, to win by 1 at Littlejohn. Fair to say that Clemson falls from the top-25 with two straight losses. The Tigers peaked in December. Bye-bye IPTAY.

20. Marquette: at South Florida. Marquette is glad to see: 1. warm weather, and 2. a very bad team, to win this game away. Obviously the Marquette players spent too much tome soaking up the Gulf Coast sun and fun and they BARELY beat a terrible South Florida team. Let's face it, they we lucky to win. Perhaps several of the Golden Eagles were hung-over and sunburned. That's all we can figure.

22. LSU: plays at Georgia. LSU, battered from 2-straight losses to unranked teams, will struggle again at Georgia. The Bulldogs win. LSU makes an exit from the top-25 by losing their third-straight at Athens. We called this upset. We may never speak of LSU again.

23. Virginia Tech: play at Georgia Tech. Can the Georgia Tech toddlers beat an experienced Virginia Tech team?? No. Both teams suck on the boards, but the Hokies' (please, for the love, tell me what in the world a Hokie is!!!) depth helps Va. Tech eke out a win. The Hokies did win, as we said, BUT Georgia Tech's bench outscored Va. Tech's bench 25-9. Tech is young, though.

25. Kentucky: play Tennessee at home. Ashley Judd will have her day cut out for her as UT keeps up with the sub-par Wildcats. Neither team is good, so we have to flip a coin on this one. Give the win to the Volunteers. Sorry to the Judd family. Let's face it, Kentucky got lucky. UT's top-scorer, Chris Lofton, was out with an ankle injury. No coincidence that UK won by 19 and Lofton averages 21 points a game. Not to take away from the Wildcats who dominated the boards. UT will have to regroup and find another scorer if Lofton is out for a while.

So we went 6-2 today. Not too bad, as we called a couple of upsets; most notably the UCLA at Stanford game. We are a dependable source, so keep on checking with us. No doubt we have not yet reached our peak (like Clemson has) and we will shine come NCAA Tourney time.

Three top-25 games on Monday:

8. Kansas: at Nebraska. The Cornhuskers will be no match for the Jayhawks. Kansas wins. We guess that the worst part about playing in the Big-12 is that you never get to play in a place that is even close to being warm in the winter. Gametime temps in Lincoln will be in the single digits. A few snow flurries as well.

9. Pitt: at Villanova. Villanova is coming off a close loss at Notre Dame, and they are pretty tough at home (see: January 17 trouncing of Notre Dame and January 20 upset of Texas). We think the Wilcats will beat Pitt.

11. Butler: at home against Illinois-Chicago. While the Bulldogs lost to Ill-Chicago earlier this month, they will not lose again. Butler wins. And they need to.

We're not going to predict the Coaches ranking for tomorrow, but we will note that UNC will jump up to #2 as Win-consin stays at #3. UCLA? They fall to the middle of the top-10. Duke rises to 7.

Carry-on.

Super Saturday

Lots of games today. Here we go:

1. Florida: at Auburn. Yes, we noted what Jeff Lebo's Tigers did to Alabama, and we were impressed. However, they have their work cut out for them with #1 Florida, who is rolling on an 11-game win streak. As we mentioned before, Auburn has not lost at home this season, and their scoring is well-balanced, meaning they are hard to guard since each of their starting five can score. The Gators are a good match-up, since they are about as deep as Auburn, but rebounding will be the key to this game. We say Florida will win, but not by much. This game could go to OT. Not even close. The Gators just took the Tigers down. As we said, rebounding was the key as Florida edged out Auburn in this stat 33-25. The real key turned out to be 3-pointers. UF nailed 9 of 14, while the Tigers got 1 of 13.

4. North Carolina: at #19 Arizona. The Wildcats will play hard at home, but the Tar Heels depth will be Arizona's downfall. Heels win. Who thought this would be such a blow-out? Especially with UNC playing without Brandan Wright, their second-leading scorer, and Marcus Ginyard, the master of defense. Lots will be said about this game, but the bottom line is that the Heels were just the better team. With Ty Lawson now a scoring AND ball-handling threat, can anyone beat this team? Five Heels' in double figures. Hello Final Four for Ol' Roy.

5. Ohio State: Michigan State at home. Each team is good, and each team is on a winning streak. Yes, the Spartans beat Texas early in the season, and they are only one game behind the Buckeyes in the Big Ten. We are really unsure about who will win. We usually pick the home team when we think it will be close, but this time we're going with Michigan State. BUT, if Greg Oden dominates it will be a long game for MSU. Oden had a great game, and it was close as OSU wins by only 2. We knew we might miss this game, and we did.

6. Texas A&M: get Oklahoma at home. The Aggies are good, but they can't rebound worth crap. But they have depth, and that will be enough to beat the Sooners NOTE: Oklahoma beat OK State a couple of days ago, so we sense, but won't call, an upset. We're glad we didn't call this as an upset. This was pretty close all the way, but the Aggies prevailed.

7. Oregon: play away at #18 Washington State. Coming off a tough loss to Washington, Oregon will lose another game to the Cougars. Wrong! Oregon wins in OT.

8. Kansas: play Colorado at home. the Buffaloes are no match for the Jayhawks. Kansas wins. And they did win. Kansas is peaking.

9. Pitt: play St. John's at home. Rebounding will be the key in this game as Pitt pulls down more boards to beat the Red Storm. Red Storm. Help me remember what St. John's was called before we got all politically correct. It was some Indian name. Oh, we remember now--St. John's Redmen. Right? Wasn't that it? Oh my, how demeaning (read: sarcasm). Oh, we are good (most of the time). Pitt out-rebounded the Red Whatever by 14 (like we said they would) and won BIG.

11. Butler: they play at Detroit. As we noted earlier, Butler has to blow out everyone in their conference to remain legit. They should bounce back from a close call with Loyola-Chicago to stomp the Titans. OK, Butler needs to win by more than 10 over a team that is now 7-13. Finishing will be Butler's downfall this season. Once again, they need to blow out the pitiful teams in their conference to get a decent ranking in the Big Dance.

12. Alabama: draw Arkansas at home. The Razorbacks cannot finish and will lose to Bama. Arkansas didn't have to finish as they dominated the first half and held on for the ride in the second half. What is it with the SEC this season? No team, except Florida, has stood out, and it seems that anyone can win or lose on any given night. That means the SEC teams are either well-balanced or that they are all average. We'll see, but we do know that they only have 3 teams currently ranked, and one of them, which we will not name (but rhymes with Petucky), that should not be anywhere near a top-25. AND, Bama has lost 4 of their last 6 SEC games. They will fall into the low-20's in Monday's rankings.

13. Air Force: at Brigham Young. The Mormons, oh sorry, the Cougars are not a bad team, but air Force is better. Falcons dominate. The Mormons shot down Air Force to win their 27th-straight at home. Give it up for polygamy! Joseph Smith would be proud. We missed this one. The Falcons are having trouble winning away.

14. Memphis: play Southern Miss at home. The Golden Eagles are no match for Memphis. They lost to the Tigers at home, and Memphis will prevail in this game as well. Southern Miss gave Memphis all they could handle in the second half, but the Tigers win. This was an incredibly well-balanced game, and Memphis was lucky to pull this one out.

15. Nevada: play Utah State at home. Utah State is on a five-game winning streak, and they have only lost five games this season. But, they have not played a top-25 team yet. Nevada will be too much for them as the Wolf Pack wins. Look for this to a close game, though. This was only close in the second half as Nevada wins.

16. Oklahoma State: get Iowa State at home. Man, it seems like most of the top-ranked teams are playing at home on Saturday. The Cowboys are coming off losses to Kansas and Texas A&M, and Iowa State did take Kansas to the wire a week and a half ago, but OK State will dominate. They need to in order to justify their ranking. We believe in this team, though. They are still our pick for the Final Four. Down by 6 in the first half, OK State out-scores Iowa State 45-27 in the second half to win. The Cyclones could not connect as they shot below 40%.

21. Notre Dame: again, play host to Villanova. The Wilcats massacred the Irish a little more than a week ago, and they are on a roll. Notre Dame is struggling. Villanova wins. Close game, but the Irish proved us wrong in a poor-shooting game for both teams.

24. Indiana: once again, this top-ranked team plays at home against Michigan. Michigan did lose early in the season to woeful NC State, but we think the Hoosiers are over-ranked and will lose to the Wolverines. Wow, we are sucking wind tonight as the Hoosiers had no problem with Michigan.

So, we went 9-6 tonight. Not a good showing. Are we losing our edge? Don't count on it. We will bounce back on Sunday's games. Check it out:

2. UCLA: at Stanford. The Pac-10 will put 6 teams in the NCAA Tourney. Tough. Stanford will win at home. We still say UCLA is not the #2 team in the country.

3. Wisconsin: at Iowa. The Hawkeyes are up-and-down this season, and Win-consin is too tough for them. The Badgers are the best team in the nation, and they will prove it as they take down Steve Alford and Iowa.

10. Duke: play Boston College at home. B-C is the better team, and they take care of the basketball better than the Blue Devils (Greg Paulus is Mister Turnover). They also rebound better than Duke. But, when you are playing at Cameron Indoor you have to be poised, and the Eagles are not experienced enough to handle all the "classy" comments and ruckus they will get from 9,314 students from New Jersey. Dook wins.

17. Clemson: host Virginia. Another ACC matchup as the Tigers shut down Sean Singletary and beat the Cavaliers.

20. Marquette: at South Florida. Marquette is glad to see: 1. warm weather, and 2. a very bad team, to win this game away.

22. LSU: plays at Georgia. LSU, battered from 2-straight losses to unranked teams, will struggle again at Georgia. The Bulldogs win.

23. Virginia Tech: play at Georgia Tech. Can the Georgia Tech toddlers beat an experienced Virginia Tech team?? No. Both teams suck on the boards, but the Hokies' (please, for the love, tell me what in the world a Hokie is!!!) depth helps Va. Tech eke out a win.

25. Kentucky: play Tennessee at home. Ashley Judd will have her day cut out for her as UT keeps up with the sub-par Wildcats. Neither team is good, so we have to flip a coin on this one. Give the win to the Volunteers. Sorry to the Judd family.

See you Sunday.

We Did Not Believe

Yes, we underestimated Washington, and damn if they didn't read our blog and get psyched up. The Huskies were 1-6 in the Pac-10 coming into this game and were on a 3 game losing streak. But Washington out-rebounded #7, and Justin Dentmon scored 24 (more than twice his season average) and chalked up 7 assists (we like a player who can dish it out) to beat Oregon at home.

Moving on, there are a buttload of top-25 games tomorrow. Let's see what we have to say about them:


1. Florida: at Auburn. Yes, we noted what Jeff Lebo's Tigers did to Alabama, and we were impressed. However, they have their work cut out for them with #1 Florida, who is rolling on an 11-game win streak. As we mentioned before, Auburn has not lost at home this season, and their scoring is well-balanced, meaning they are hard to guard since each of their starting five can score. The Gators are a good match-up, since they are about as deep as Auburn, but rebounding will be the key to this game. We say Florida will win, but not by much. This game could go to OT.


4. North Carolina: at #19 Arizona. The Wildcats will play hard at home, but the Tar Heels depth will be Arizona's downfall. Heels win.

5. Ohio State: Michigan State at home. Each team is good, and each team is on a winning streak. Yes, the Spartans beat Texas early in the season, and they are only one game behind the Buckeyes in the Big Ten. We are really unsure about who will win. We usually pick the home team when we think it will be close, but this time we're going with Michigan State. BUT, if Greg Oden dominates it will be a long game for MSU.

6. Texas A&M: get Oklahoma at home. The Aggies are good, but they can't rebound worth crap. But they have depth, and that will be enough to beat the Sooners NOTE: Oklahoma beat OK State a couple of days ago, so we sense, but won't call, an upset.

7. Oregon: play away at #18 Washington State. Coming off a tough loss to Washington, Oregon will lose another game to the Cougars.


8. Kansas: play Colorado at home. the Buffaloes are no match for the Jayhawks. Kansas wins.

9. Pitt: play St. John's at home. Rebounding will be the key in this game as Pitt pulls down more boards to beat the Red Storm. Red Storm. Help me remember what St. John's was called before we got all politically correct. It was some Indian name. Oh, we remember now--St. John's Redmen. Right? Wasn't that it? Oh my, how demeaning (read: sarcasm).

11. Butler: they play at Detroit. As we noted earlier, Butler has to blow out everyone in their conference to remain legit. They should bounce back from a close call with Loyola-Chicago to stomp the Titans.

12. Alabama: draw Arkansas at home. The Razorbacks cannot finish and will lose to Bama.

13. Air Force: at Brigham Young. The Mormons, oh sorry, the Cougars are not a bad team, but air Force is better. Falcons dominate.

14. Memphis: play Southern Miss at home. The Golden Eagles are no match for Memphis. They lost to the Tigers at home, and Memphis will prevail in this game as well.

15. Nevada: play Utah State at home. Utah State is on a five-game winning streak, and they have only lost five games this season. But, they have not played a top-25 team yet. Nevada will be too much for them as the Wolf Pack wins. Look for this to a close game, though.

16. Oklahoma State: get Iowa State at home. Man, it seems like most of the top-ranked teams are playing at home on Saturday. The Cowboys are coming off losses to Kansas and Texas A&M, and Iowa State did take Kansas to the wire a week and a half ago, but OK State will dominate. They need to in order to justify their ranking. We believe in this team, though. They are still our pick for the Final Four.

21. Notre Dame: again, play host to Villanova. The Wilcats massacred the Irish a little more than a week ago, and they are on a roll. Notre Dame is struggling. Villanova wins.


24. Indiana: once again, this top-ranked team plays at home against Michigan. Michigan did lose early in the season to woeful NC State, but we think the Hoosiers are over-ranked and will lose to the Wolverines.

Whew. We are going to bed now. 15 predictions pretty much did us in. We'd like to go 15-0, but we're realistic enough to know we could very well miss 1 or 2.

We Aren't Always Right

But we strive to be right all of the time. The beauty of this college basketball game is that anything can happen, and the outcome is always based on talent and dedication and the will of the athlete.

So, enough pontificating--let's see what we got right and what we didn't:

2. UCLA: at California. The Golden Bears are not a bad team, and the Bruins are not exactly great, but UCLA will win by single-digits. Did not win by single-digits, but UCLA did win. While California was within 4 at the half, we like the way UCLA came out and took control the rest of the game.

7. Oregon: plays at Washington. Yes, the Huskies are not anywhere close to being good, and the Ducks are very good. Oregon wins. Yawn. We old people on the other side of the U.S. cannot stay up for these late games. At this writing, the Ducks are down by 9 at halftime, but Washington is still not capable of winning. We stick with our original prediction. Oregon will win.

10. Duke: play #17 Clemson at home. Watch this game on ESPN. Duke should not be #10 (just ask Len Elmore). Clemson wins. Well, they had their chance to win, didn't they? Let's face it, Clemson lost this game in the final 4 seconds. Defense wins games, and the Tigers let their guard down when it mattered the most. Depth had a lot to do with this game, as neither team has a talented go-to bench. Anyway, Duke wins this great ACC game.

11. Butler: at Loyola(IL). no need to even evaluate this one. Butler will win. Butler did win, but had to do it in OT. Butler needs to be a better rebounding team, which was the factor tonight. Sure, anyone can hold a team to a low shooting percentage, but you also have to fight hard on the boards. The Bulldogs did not do that tonight, and it almost cost them a loss. The Horizon League is not exactly what one would consider a strong conference, so Butler is going to have to prove it should be ranked high by blowing out the Loyolas of the world.

15. Nevada: play Louisiana Tech at home. Nevada wins. Yawn. And we yawned for a reason as Nevada wins by 17.

18. Washington State: they get Oregon State at home. No upset here. 16-3 Washington State wins big. The Cougars chalk up another one. They are the Cinderella team this year.

No top-25 games scheduled for Friday. We will break down the Saturday games for you in our Friday post.

Censored

While Dickie Vitale can waste our valuable listening time going on and on and on (and on) about DOOK and the "classy guy" Coach K, the same does not hold true if an ESPN commentator wants to give a different, and usually more accurate, assessment of Vitale's favorite team.

Case in point: last night Len Elmore and that fat commentator who's name we can never remember were calling the UNC-WF game. Here's the brief, but telling, dialogue between the two during a time-out:

Fat Guy: "So, tomorrow night tune into ESPN at 7:00 as #10 Duke takes on #17 Clemson at Cameron Indoor Stadium."

Five seconds of silence.

Len: "You don't really think Duke is a #10 team do you?"

Fat Guy: "Uh, well, you know, hee-hee (nervous laughter) I just read what they tell me to read."

Safe to say that no one wants to bring down the wrath of Coach Cry, including ESPN.

Kentucky=Overrated

Did we mention that we think Kentucky should not be in the top-25?

Let's check out tonight's games:

1. Florida: at Mississippi State. A no-brainer. Gators win. Down by 4 at the half, the Gators rally to another win.

3. Wisconsin: hosts Michigan. Win-consin chalks up another victory here. And so it was. Wisconsin wins another one.

4. North Carolina: at Weak Forest. Oh, sorry, WAKE Forest. We cannot even fathom that the Tar Heels could lose this game. The Demon Deacons are on a four-game losing streak. The Heels will shut down Visser and turn up the volume. Another UNC win, although the Heels will be down at halftime. While the Heels were not down at halftime, they only led by 5. Weak Forest loses again. NOTE: Carolina looked a little tired in the last 5 minutes. We are sure Ol' Roy will be harping on them this week to go hard, even if you are winning by 20+.

5. Ohio State: at Northwestern. The Wildcats have lost 5 of their last 6, and should be no match for Oden and the Buckeyes. Ohio State wins. Northwestern played better than we thought they would and only lost by 9. And Oden? Coming off the bench he had 17 points AND 17 rebounds. Wow!

6. Texas A&M: they play at Texas Tech. Bobby Knight and the Red Raiders are no joke. They are coming off a big win against Kansas. A&M will lose this game, and Texas Tech will be in the top-25 next week as we think they will knock off Missouri on Saturday. We called this upset. Texas Tech is starting to feel it. Bobby Knight is a psycho, but he can coach.

8. Kansas: at Baylor. We feel kind of sorry for Baylor as Kansas takes out their frustrating loss to Texas Tech on the struggling Bears. We do need to note that Baylor did beat Texas Tech less than two weeks ago, so they have a small chance at an upset here. But, Kansas will prevail. Kansas smacked Baylor and wins by 26.

9. Pitt: at Cincinnati. the Bearcats have not beaten a top-ranked team this season, and they will not win this game. Pitt rules. Pitt won easily.

14. Memphis: they get Tulsa at home. This is the Golden Hurricane's first game against a top-ranked team, and they won't be able to beat Memphis, who is on a 7-game winning streak. The Tigers crush Tulsa. And crush they did. 8 in a row for Memphis.

19. Arizona: they host pitiful Arizona State. This would be a great in-state rivalry if Arizona State wasn't so bad. The Wildcats roll to a win to snap their 3-game losing streak. No challenge here as Arizona wins by 24.

20. Marquette: they win against Seton Hall at home. Marquette wins, but Seton Hall has a strong second half, for whatever that is worth.

22. LSU: face Vanderbilt at home. Vandy last week beat then-#9 Alabama by 21 and now-#25 Kentucky. LSU lost to Alabama and is trying to find themsleves. We smell upset. Vanderbilt wins. We called it again. Vandy led by 10 at the half on the way to a decisive win. Any love we had for LSU is gone.

25. Kentucky: despite how average they are, the Wildcats will beat Georgia. This will be a close game. OK, this is a game we got wrong, but our error is bittersweet, because we don't think the Wildcats are even close to a top-25 ranking. Kentucky is only ranked because they are KENTUCKY, and because Ashley Judd is a big fan. But, as we said, they are vulnerable, and they proved it by letting a so-so team take them to OT, and then getting outscored 13-4 in the extra period. We pray that the rankings' gods will put everyone out of their misery and drop the Wildcats from all polls next week. Please???

We are trying hard to be humble, but we did go 11-1 tonight. How about Thursday night?

2. UCLA: at California. The Golden Bears are not a bad team, and the Bruins are not exactly great, but UCLA will win by single-digits.

7. Oregon: plays at Washington. Yes, the Huskies are not anywhere close to being good, and the Ducks are very good. Oregon wins.

10. Duke: play #17 Clemson at home. Watch this game on ESPN. Duke should not be #10 (just ask Len Elmore). Clemson wins.

11. Butler: at Loyola(IL). no need to even evaluate this one. Butler will win.

15. Nevada: play Louisiana Tech at home. Nevada wins. Yawn.

18. Washington State: they get Oregon State at home. No upset here. 16-3 Washington State wins big.

Chow.

Upset Tuesday

Auburn coach Jeff Lebo, a little chubbier since his days playing point for North Carolina, made a statement tonight beating #12 Alabama. Did we call this game correctly? See below.

12. Alabama: at Auburn, who has not lost at home this season. This will be close, as all 3 of Bama's losses have been away this season. We think the Crimson Tide will win, but it will be a great game to watch (ESPN at 9:00 EST). This is another game that we may very well be wrong. And we were wrong. Auburn put a hurting on Alabama and won by 24. Down by 1 point at halftime, the Tigers outscored Bama 46-21 in the second half. Lebo must have given his team one helluva halftime talk in the locker room.

13. Air Force: will beat TCU (the "Horned Frogs"???? Help us out here) at home. The Horned Frogs never stood a chance in this game as Air Force rolls by 33.

21. Notre Dame: they play at St. John's, who have lost 4 of their last 5, but they are fairly deep (nine guys averaging over 10 miniutes a game), so they could turn this thing into a running game and hope they tire ND out, or, the Red Storm forces the Irish to run their half-court game to try and put pressure on the guards. Either way, upset in New York as St. John's prevails. We called it. St. John's ran with the Fighting Irish in the first half, then slowed the game down in the second half to win. So, we were right about the outcome AND the Red Storm gameplan. Did we mention we know our hoops?

23. Virginia Tech: sporting a ranking they don't deserve, the Hokies (please, someone, just tell me what a Hokie is) get a break from cold weather as they play Miami at Miami. While the Hurricanes did beat Maryland a couple of weeks ago, they have only won 3 of their last 11. They suck and will lose to Virginia Tech. We reign again. Miami did play an awesome second half, but it was not enough to beat the Hokies.

24. Indiana: play at Illinois. The Fighting Illini win this game. Indiana is not all that, and Illinois needs this win at home after a disappointing loss to Wisconsin at home on Saturday. It's hard to be humble...Yes, we were right once more as Illinois beat Indiana (who have no business being ranked) by 8. The only thing that did surprise us was this low-scoring game.

Let's see what's on-tap for Wednesday:

1. Florida: at Mississippi State. A no-brainer. Gators win.

3. Wisconsin: hosts Michigan. Win-consin chalks up another victory here.

4. North Carolina: at Weak Forest. Oh, sorry, WAKE Forest. We cannot even fathom that the Tar Heels could lose this game. The Demon Deacons are on a four-game losing streak. The Heels will shut down Visser and turn up the volume. Another UNC win, although the Heels will be down at halftime.

5. Ohio State: at Northwestern. The Wildcats have lost 5 of their last 6, and should be no match for Oden and the Buckeyes. Ohio State wins.

6. Texas A&M: they play at Texas Tech. Bobby Knight and the Red Raiders are no joke. They are coming off a big win against Kansas. A&M will lose this game, and Texas Tech will be in the top-25 next week as we think they will knock off Missouri on Saturday.

8. Kansas: at Baylor. We feel kind of sorry for Baylor as Kansas takes out their frustrating loss to Texas Tech on the struggling Bears. We do need to note that Baylor did beat Texas Tech less than two weeks ago, so they have a small chance at an upset here. But, Kansas will prevail.

9. Pitt: at Cincinnati. the Bearcats have not beaten a top-ranked team this season, and they will not win this game. Pitt rules.

14. Memphis: they get Tulsa at home. This is the Golden Hurricane's first game against a top-ranked team, and they won't be able to beat Memphis, who is on a 7-game winning streak. The Tigers crush Tulsa.

19. Arizona: they host pitiful Arizona State. This would be a great in-state rivalry if Arizona State wasn't so bad. The Wildcats roll to a win to snap their 3-game losing streak.

20. Marquette: they win against Seton Hall at home.

22. LSU: face Vanderbilt at home. Vandy last week beat then-#9 Alabama by 21 and now-#25 Kentucky. LSU lost to Alabama and is trying to find themsleves. We smell upset. Vanderbilt wins.

25. Kentucky: despite how average they are, the Wildcats will beat Georgia. This will be a close game.

Take care. We'll see you tomorrow.

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OK State

Sean Sutton (see his "mad face" to your right) and his Oklahoma State team got a win tonight against Oklahoma after a blowout loss to Texas A&M on Saturday. We did call this game correct, but we are disappointed in the Cowboys as they let an average Oklahoma team hang around the entire game.

OK, the Coaches Poll. We pretty much agree with this week's rankings (heck, we did name 22 of the 25 teams in this new ranking, and got 14 of the 25 actual rankings correct), but we were a bit disappointed that some of the really good teams (Florida State, Southern Cal, and UNLV) were not in the top 25. Also, we were amazed that a team like Appalachian State University did not even get any votes. Let's see how we did, though. We have our predictions listed below, with the actual rankings in boldface. Here we go:

1. Florida (1)
2. UCLA (2)
3. Wisconsin (3)
4. North Carolina (4)
5. Ohio State (5)
6. Texas A&M (6)
7. Oregon (7)
8. Kansas (8)
9. Pitt (9)
10. Alabama (12)
11. Butler (11)
12. Duke (10)
13. Memphis (14)
14. Air Force (13)
15. Nevada (15)
16. Oklahoma State (16)
17. Clemson (17)
18. Arizona (19)
19. Marquette (20)
20. LSU (22)
21. Notre Dame (21)
22. Washington State (18)
23. Florida State (not ranked--Virginia Tech)
24. Southern Cal (not ranked--Indiana)
25. UNLV (not ranked--Kentucky)

Virginia Tech: lost to Florida State and won, but struggled, against then-#22 Maryland.
Indiana: beat two mediocre teams (UConn and Iowa). What are they doing ranked??
Kentucky: LOST to Vanderbilt and beat a woeful South Carolina team. Huh? Like the Avian Flu was in 2006, this Wildcats team is overrated.

Five top-25 games on Tuesday. Let's take a look:

12. Alabama: at Auburn, who has not lost at home this season. This will be close, as all 3 of Bama's losses have been away this season. We think the Crimson Tide will win, but it will be a great game to watch (ESPN at 9:00 EST). This is another game that we may very well be wrong.

13. Air Force: will beat TCU (the "Horned Frogs"???? Help us out here) at home.

21. Notre Dame: they play at St. John's, who have lost 4 of their last 5, but they are fairly deep (nine guys averaging over 10 miniutes a game), so they could turn this thing into a running game and hope they tire ND out, or, the Red Storm forces the Irish to run their half-court game to try and put pressure on the guards. Either way, upset in New York as St. John's prevails.

23. Virginia Tech: sporting a ranking they don't deserve, the Hokies (please, someone, just tell me what a Hokie is) get a break from cold weather as they play Miami at Miami. While the Hurricanes did beat Maryland a couple of weeks ago, they have only won 3 of their last 11. They suck and will lose to Virginia Tech.

24. Indiana: play at Illinois. The Fighting Illini win this game. Indiana is not all that, and Illinois needs this win at home after a disappointing loss to Wisconsin at home on Saturday.

Peace out.

Marquette is For Real

We said they were no joke, and we should have listened to our instincts on this one.

Let's get to the games.


6. Pitt: they host a decent Marquette team at home. Both teams are deep. Marquette has beaten more top-ranked teams (especially in the past 2 weeks) than Pitt, and they are ranked #24 in the AP poll. This is a hard game to call. But, we pick Pitt only because they are the home team. We concede that we may very well be wrong. Are we actually right because we said we would be wrong? We won't pull a Bill Clinton on you--we were wrong. When in doubt, go for the home team, but this was a hard one to call, and we got it wrong. Marquette back in the Coaches Poll tomorrow?? We'll see.


20. Notre Dame: they get South Florida at home. Again we wonder why South Florida is in the Big East. They are 1-4 in conference this season, and had a 4 game losing streak earlier to bad teams. Notre Dame should win big. Maybe South Florida and NC State could start their own conference. ND wins big as we said.


22. Maryland: play a tough Virginia Tech team away. The Terrapins got whipped by Virginia earlier in the week, so they will be up for this game. Virginia Tech is ranked 25 and is no joke. We think the Hokies (what is a Hokie?) will win. They need to win after a loss to Florida State on Wednesday. A bit of an upset, but we did know, didn't we. The ACC is so unpredictable this year. You have 8 teams that will most likely make the NCAA Tournament, but anyone in this league can beat anyone else in this league on any given night. Oh, except Weak Forest and NC State--they both suck. I think we may have mentioned that before.

Let's look at our predicted rankings for next week. We use the Coaches Poll since we believe it is, for the most part, the most accurate.

1. Florida: stays at #1.

2. UCLA: Bruins retain #2.

3. Wisconsin: Win-consin stays #3.

4. North Carolina: keeps #4 ranking.

5. Ohio State: moves up from #7.

6. Texas A&M: move up from #8.

7. Oregon: strong wins move the Ducks up from #10.

8. Kansas: fall from #5.

9. Pitt: also falls from #6.

10. Alabama: moves down from #9.

11. Butler: continues upward movement from #15.

12. Duke: moves up from #17.

13. Memphis: moves up from #18.

14. Air Force: drops from #12.

15. Nevada: down from #13.

16. Oklahoma State: drops from #14.

17. Clemson: down one point to #16.

18. Arizona: 2 losses bring them down from #12.

19. Marquette: big win over Pitt gets them into the top-25.

20. LSU: for some reason they will drop only a point.

21. Notre Dame: drops from #20.

22. Washington State: down one point from #21.

23. Florida State: gets into the poll by beating Virginia Tech.

24. Southern Cal: good week. Welcome to the top-25.

25. UNLV: maybe? We think so.

One top-25 game tomorrow:

14. Oklahoma State: the Cowboys play Oklahoma at home and get a much-needed boost as they beat the Sooners.

See you tomorrow.

We Are Human

Yes, despite our greatness and uncanny abilities, we do make errors in judgement. Today was a perfect example of our immortality as we are only 74% correct in our predictions. NOTE: we strive to be 90% correct each day.

1. Florida: Mississppi does not beat top-ranked teams on the road. Florida keeps on winning. We were right on with this one, but Mississippi tried to win by outscoring the Gators by 10 in the second half. Is this a sign of things to come??

2. UCLA: now this game at home against #12 Ariziona will be interesting, to say the least. While they struggled early in the season against top-ranked teams, the Bruins are rolling. And they will roll over the Wildcats. The Bruins did not "roll" but they did win, as we said they would.

3. Wisconsin: Illinois will have to work hard to win this game at home. The Fighting Illini (what they hell is an "Illini"?) have to rebound and finish. They won't. Wisconsin chalks up another win. We may as well call them Win-consin. They are hard to beat. This was a sensational game!! Despite playing at Illinois (one of the toughest venues in college basketball) Wisonsin was able to stay focused and pull out a tough win. Win-consin.

4. North Carolina: faces a young, but pretty darn talented, Georgia Tech team at home. We watched some of the UNC loss to the Yellow Jackets in the 1993 ACC championship game today (on ESPN Classic). Tech won that game, but they will not win on Saturday. The Heels will just run the Jackets into the ground. And the Heels did just that, as their defense just shut down the Yellow Jackets. Passing the ball within Carolina's defense is like passing into a swarm of bees.

5. Kansas: the Jayhawks away at Texas Tech. Bobby Knight will fire up his team for this game, but they will have to get more players involved to win. The Red Raiders have only 3 players averaging double figures, and the fourth only gets a whopping 5.2 points a game. This makes it easy to defend Knight's team. Kansas will shut down Jackson and Zeno while Rush has a great game to lead the Jayhawks to a win. We like to be right, but hand it to Bobby Knight who got 19 points from reserve Darryl Dora (who averages 5.2 points a game) to pull out the win. Knight didn't even have to hit any of his players in this win.

7. Ohio State: lack of depth and woeful rebounding will kill Iowa as the Buckeyes win at home. We were right, and how about Greg Oden? He must have read our blog about him being underrated and gotten fired up. 29 points and 10 rebounds. The giant awakes.

8. Texas A&M: tough game at home with #14 Oklahoma State. Have we mentioned we like this Oklahoma State team? We do, and the Cowboys will beat the Aggies. Oklahoma State just has too much bench for A&M. OK, so we were wrong. Oklahoma State loses this game and scores only 49 points. Were they worn out from their triple OT win earlier this week against Texas? We can only assume.

9. Alabama: while Georgia has talent, the Tide will bounce back from a loss to Vandy to win this game at home. What a great game! Georgia scored 50 points and looked like Superman in the first half, but Bama calmly outscored the Bulldogs in the second half to win, like we predicted.

10. Oregon: the Ducks are awesome! No problem with California at home. They did have a little more competion from California than we thought, but, as good teams do, they stuck to their game plan of teamwork to finish off the Golden Bears. WARNING: Oregon is good, but not deep, and this will be their downfall come Tourney-time.

11. Air Force: at home against San Diego State. Coming off a tough loss to Utah, the Falcons should win this game, but the Aztecs are no joke. Air Force will need to control the boards to prevail--and they will. Both teams shot under 40% (bad, bad, bad) but Air Force managed to prevail, despite a strong second half by San Diego State. It is the Falcons' 26th straight win at home.

13. Nevada: no problem with New Mexico State. What happened?? Well, New Mexico State connected on 86% of their free-throws to hand Nevada their second loss.

15. Butler: home game with Wisconsin-Green Bay. No cake walk here, but Butler will win. OK, it was not a cake-walk, whatever that is. But, Butler won by 11.

16. Clemson: host Boston College. B-C is not that bad, and the Tigers will have to shoot better from the outside to beat the Eagles. This will be a nail-bitter for all of the IPTAY boosters, but Clemson will prevail. The Tigers dominated the Eagles, especially in the second half, to win this ACC game. Only the first loss in the ACC for B-C.

17. Duke: at NC State. The Wolfpack is not all that bad (just kidding--they suck) but the Blue Devils are not that good. Upset city. Duke suffers another loss. We were way wrong on this one. We have to admit that the Blue Devils are getting stronger each game. They shot 52.5% in this outing. Again, we note that NC State does indeed suck.

18. Memphis: at East Carolina. The Pirates are 5-11. They lost to Tulane for goodness sakes. No contest. Memphis wins big. They did win big, as we said.

19. LSU: at Arkansas. The Razorbacks, coming off three straight losses, will shock the Tigers. This will be a battle of two teams with no depth, but Arkansas wins. We called this one. Arkansas won big. LSU has fallen completely out of favor with us with mediocre play. They have the talent, so why can't they win. We are mystified.

21. Washington State: will beat Washington at home. Washington State dominated their in-state rivals, as we said they would.

23. Texas: playing Villanova at Villanova. The Wildcats are riding high after killing Notre Dame, but Kevin Durrant and company will help the Longhorns get their 14th win. They are hurting from a triple OT loss at Oklahoma State. We assume Texas was also still reeling from that triple overtime loss to Oklahoma State as Villanova outplayed the Longhorns in the second half. We were wrong. That happens sometimes.

24. Tennessee: playing South Carolina in Knoxville. The Volunteers rebound from 3 straight losses (they should NOT be in the top-25) to beat the so-so Gamecocks. Tennessee proved that they are not a good team by beating the Gamecocks by only 3 at home. Say good-bye to the top-25 in Knoxville. UT is struggling.

Thankfully for us, there are only 3 top-25 teams in action tomorrow. Here's what we think:

6. Pitt: they host a decent Marquette team at home. Both teams are deep. Marquette has beaten more top-ranked teams (especially in the past 2 weeks) than Pitt, and they are ranked #24 in the AP poll. This is a hard game to call. But, we pick Pitt only because they are the home team. We concede that we may very well be wrong.

20. Notre Dame: they get South Florida at home. Again we wonder why South Florida is in the Big East. They are 1-4 in conference this season, and had a 4 game losing streak earlier to bad teams. Notre Dame should win big.

22. Maryland: play a tough Virginia Tech team away. The Terrapins got whipped by Virginia earlier in the week, so they will be up for this game. Virginia Tech is ranked 25 and is no joke. We think the Hokies (what is a Hokie?) will win. They need to win after a loss to Florida State on Wednesday.

That's it. See you on Sunday.

Ouch

We spent most of the evening rewiring the fog lights on our SUV, so it is late and our hands are cold. BUT, we are here giving you our predictions for all (and we mean ALL) of the top-25 games tomorrow.

1. Florida: Mississppi does not beat top-ranked teams on the road. Florida keeps on winning.

2. UCLA: now this game at home against #12 Ariziona will be interesting, to say the least. While they struggled early in the season against top-ranked teams, the Bruins are rolling. And they will roll over the Wildcats.

3. Wisconsin: Illinois will have to work hard to win this game at home. The Fighting Illini (what they hell is an "Illini"?) have to rebound and finish. They won't. Wisconsin chalks up another win. We may as well call them Win-consin. They are hard to beat.

4. North Carolina: faces a young, but pretty darn talented, Georgia Tech team at home. We watched some of the UNC loss to the Yellow Jackets in the 1993 ACC championship game today (on ESPN Classic). Tech won that game, but they will not win on Saturday. The Heels will just run the Jackets into the ground.

5. Kansas: the Jayhawks away at Texas Tech. Bobby Knight will fire up his team for this game, but they will have to get more players involved to win. The Red Raiders have only 3 players averaging double figures, and the fourth only gets a whopping 5.2 points a game. This makes it easy to defend Knight's team. Kansas will shut down Jackson and Zeno while Rush has a great game to lead the Jayhawks to a win.

7. Ohio State: lack of depth and woeful rebounding will kill Iowa as the Buckeyes win at home.

8. Texas A&M: tough game at home with #14 Oklahoma State. Have we mentioned we like this Oklahoma State team? We do, and the Cowboys will beat the Aggies. Oklahoma State just has too much bench for A&M.

9. Alabama: while Georgia has talent, the Tide will bounce back from a loss to Vandy to win this game at home.

10. Oregon: the Ducks are awesome! No problem with California at home.

11. Air Force: at home against San Diego State. Coming off a tough loss to Utah, the Falcons should win this game, but the Aztecs are no joke. Air Force will need to control the boards to prevail--and they will.

13. Nevada: no problem with New Mexico State.

15. Butler: home game with Wisconsin-Green Bay. No cake walk here, but Butler will win.

16. Clemson: host Boston College. B-C is not that bad, and the Tigers will have to shoot better from the outside to beat the Eagles. This will be a nail-bitter for all of the IPTAY boosters, but Clemson will prevail.

17. Duke: at NC State. The Wolfpack is not all that bad (just kidding--they suck) but the Blue Devils are not that good. Upset city. Duke suffers another loss.

18. Memphis: at East Carolina. The Pirates are 5-11. They lost to Tulane for goodness sakes. No contest. Memphis wins big.

19. LSU: at Arkansas. The Razorbacks, coming off three straight losses, will shock the Tigers. This will be a battle of two teams with no depth, but Arkansas wins.

21. Washington State: will beat Washington at home.

23. Texas: playing Villanova at Villanova. The Wildcats are riding high after killing Notre Dame, but Kevin Durrant and company will help the Longhorns get their 14th win. They are hurting from a triple OT loss at Oklahoma State.

24. Tennessee: playing South Carolina in Knoxville. The Volunteers rebound from 3 straight losses (they should NOT be in the top-25) to beat the so-so Gamecocks.

Did anyone see the hurting Georgetown put on Seton Hall tonight? The Hoyas should be in the top-25.

See you tomorrow night.

Late Games

We stayed up late for the Western US games. We also stayed true to our basketball IQ by going 5-0 tonight.

By the way, our predictions from the night before are always first, and our comments after the games are always in italics, just so you know. Let's get to it:

2. UCLA: plays a very bad Arizona State team at home. No contest. UCLA wins. UCLA won, but they have to beat teams like this by more than 10. Granted, they are the #2 team in the nation, so every team they face will come at them. But, as proved tonight, they need to defend the 3 better, and even start making some of them as well.

10. Oregon: at home against Stanford. The Cardinals have won two in a row against top-25 teams. They are a threat to Oregon, but not a serious one. The Ducks win this one. Oregon held on to win, as we said.

12. Arizona: at USC (not South Carolina, for those of you who are college basketball dumb). Arizona gets no free ride here. The Trojans are for real, and they will win this game. We hate to boast, but we were again correct here. Arizona helped USC win by shooting only 38% from the floor, and 29% from 3-point range.

13. Nevada: home against Fresno State. This game will hinge on rebounding. Fresno State will hold the advantage on the boards, but can they convert? No. Nevada wins. They have one of the best players in the country (Nick Fazekas) and three of their starters average a combined 52.8 points per game. Neither team sports much depth, but Nevada takes this game. We said this wouldn't be easy, and Nevada won by only 10, but Fazekas played with an injured ankle and helped the Wolf Pack with a 20-point perfomance to beat Fresno State. We, once again, called this win.

17. Duke: no problem with Wake Forest at home. Remember when Wake was good? Remember when Duke was good, too? They won tonight against a VERY bad and very young Wake Forest, but the Blue Devils have their work cut out for them this season. And, as usual, tonight at Cameron the refs were able to help out the Dookies. Note the little movie above with Coach Cry once again (as he does every time his boys get called for a foul) noting his discontent. NOTE: he is not saying "Full knit." As many expletives that come from the Duke coaches each game, we would be afraid to sit anywhere near them in the arena for fear lightening would strike. We also wonder why Dickie Vitale goes on and on about Mike Cry having a lot of class when all Coach Antichrist does is spew four-letter words at the refs and excuses after each loss. Is he any better than Bobby Knight? No. They are both a-holes.

No top-25 games scheduled tomorrow, so we are outta here! Big Saturday on tap so we will have a lot to say tomorrow.

Run Run Run

4. UNC: Clemson just could not run with Carolina tonight. And the Tar Heels played in high gear 90% of the time. They are just too deep and too fast (see: Ty Lawson) to lose this game. In fact, despite the strong teams in the ACC, the Heels will win most of their conference games if they play like they did tonight. We did not think this would be such a blowout, but, alas, we did pick Carolina to win this game.

3. Wisconsin: will beat Pudue at home. No contest here. Wisonsin should be #1. While Wisconsin did win, they let Purdue (who has not beaten a top ranked team this year) take this game to the wire. The Badgers, if this outing is any indication, may have some trouble against Illinois, Ohio State, and Michigan State. Let's see how they do Saturday at Illinois.

7. Ohio State: Northwestern continues their downward slide to lose once again. Golden Child Oden struggles with only 5 points, but the Buckeyes win big. We predict that, despite the fact that Ohio State has successfully recruited a couple of highly-ranked post players who will be freshmen next seaon, Greg Oden will not enter the draft after this season. He has just not proven himself. 14 points a game average? He should stay around for another season.

9. Alabama: at Vandy. The Commodores (without Lionel Richie) will give the Crimson Tide a hard time, but Alabama will come out with a win. Wow!! Vandy was in control of this game from the start, and scored 54 in the first half! We were wrong--VERY wrong. But, the upside is we like the Commodores--even without Lionel (or even Nicole) Richie. However, Vandy needs to prove itself in a tough SEC conference to even think about the Big Dance. They did beat Tennessee, though. Hmmm..

15. Butler: this will be close, but Butler will beat Youngstown State. While we could be cocky about predicting Butler to win this game, anyone would have gotten this game right.

19. LSU: no worries here as they beat the Mississippi Rebels (yee-ha!) at home. LSU did as we said, and won.

20. Notre Dame: Villanova, facing their first ranked team of the season, will lose to Notre Dame at home. Damn! Are we surprised about Villanova blowing Notre Dame off the court. Games like this make us love college basketball. Anyone can win on any given night.

24, Tennessee: Auburn continues their losing streak against top-25 teams with a loss to the Volunteers at home. We are sucking wind tonight as Auburn took down the Volunteers. Don't stop checking in with us, though. One bad night does not a website make.

25. Virgina Tech: Florida State faces the new darling of the ACC at home. Can the Seminoles win. Yes. We thankfully bounced back with a correct upset prediction here. The Hokies tried very hard to come back, but they now have their first ACC loss of the season.

Let's see what we have on tap for tomorrow:

2. UCLA: plays a very bad Arizona State team at home. No contest. UCLA wins.

10. Oregon: at home against Stanford. The Cardinals have won two in a row against top-25 teams. They are a threat to Oregon, but not a serious one. The Ducks win this one.

12. Arizona: at USC (not South Carolina, for those of you who are college basketball dumb). Arizona gets no free ride here. The Trojans are for real, and they will win this game.

13. Nevada: home against Fresno State. This game will hinge on rebounding. Fresno State will hold the advantage on the boards, but can they convert? No. Nevada wins. They have one of the best players in the country (Nick Fazekas) and three of their starters average a combined 52.8 points per game. Neither team sports much depth, but Nevada takes this game.

17. Duke: no problem with Wake Forest at home. Remember when Wake was good?

Have a great day.

Bad Habit

We have a bad habit of under-estimating Memphis lately, and we must admit we are wrong about this team. Despite our prediction, the #18 Tigers beat UAB decisively tonight. We have learned our lesson.

6. Pitt: did not win by 15, but did beat UConn by 9. Close enough. Chalk up another one for us.

11. Air Force: we love Air Force, but we called this upset as Utah won, snapping a six-game winning streak for the Utes.

14: Oklahoma State: we told you to watch this game! Wow! Triple OT. We also told you OSU would win, and they did. Note here that we told you to watch Boggan and Durrant, and they proved us right with scoring 37 points each. Best game of the season so far, hands down.

22. Maryland: we said they would lose at Virginia, and they did. Wow, the ACC is tough this year.

Lots of top-25 games tomorrow. By-the-way, the top-25 that we use is the Coaches poll, not the AP. For this reason, you will not get from us any comment on teams ranked in the AP and not in the Coaches poll. Tonight is a perfect example as we ignore the Marquette and Kentucky games.

So let's talk about tomorrow night:

3. Wisconsin: will beat Pudue at home. No contest here. Wisonsin should be #1.

4. UNC: this will be a great ACC game. Both teams are coming off a loss. We pick UNC, but #16 Clemson will give them all they can handle at Littlejohn.

7. Ohio State: Northwestern continues their downward slide to lose once again.

9. Alabama: at Vandy. The Commodores (without Lionel Richie) will give the Crimson Tide a hard time, but Alabama will come out with a win.

15. Butler: this will be close, but Butler will beat Youngstown State.

19. LSU: no worries here as they beat the Mississippi Rebels (yee-ha!) at home.

20. Notre Dame: Villanova, facing their first ranked team of the season, will lose to Notre Dame at home.

24, Tennessee: Auburn continues their losing streak against top-25 teams with a loss to the Volunteers at home.

25. Virgina Tech: Florida State faces the new darling of the ACC at home. Can the Seminoles win. Yes.

Bye-bye.

RPI Madness

In the next couple of months you will be hearing a lot about RPI Rankings. RPI college basketball formulas are similar to the BCS college football rankings in how they are calculated. However, both methods are severely flawed.

To begin with, RPI rankings are all over the place. Anyone can come up with them, based on a series of formulas and statistics. We have even tried to come up with our own RPI (ratings percentage index) the past couple of years with no measured success.

Basically, you take a number of statistics (W-L against top 25, top-50, top 100 teams; W-L records at home, away, and at neutral sites; strength of team offense and defense; strength of schedule; the possibilities are endless) and apply a weight to each one. Everyone applies a different weight, or importance, to each stat. Each RPI is different, and, unfortunately, no matter what someone may tell you, no RPI is an accurate representation of any team.

Let's use the example of the top-5 teams in this week's Coaches poll. See below listed each team's updated RPI rankings in 4 different RPI polls:

1. Florida (32, 33, 16, 5)
2. UCLA (1, 1, 110, 6)
3. Wisconsin (7, 10, 23, 39)
4. UNC (5, 4, 12, 14)
5. Kansas (21, 21, 19, 32)

As you see, there is absolutely no consistancy, especially when you compare RPIs to rankings. The problem, of course, is the amount of variables and the importance you place on each variable. College basketball is not a controlled experiment in which you can take several variables and have a controlled situation. The amount of available variables is just too great. You could even break it down to how well a certain team does when the humidity inside the arena they are playing in is above or below 50%.

For this reason, the RPI means nothing. N-O-T-H-I-N-G. We proved this last year when we took 5 RPI rankings, averaged them, and used those averages to try and predict winners in each NCAA Tournament game. We did no better, and even worse, than the folks who based their predictions of wins on likings of colors of team uniforms.

So, laugh in the face of anyone who cites an RPI ranking for their decision to pick one team over another.

Forgot

We erred last night in not commenting on the couple of top-25 games going on tonight. Quickly:

6. Pitt: at home against UConn. These teams have similar styles, but Pitt gets the edge with experience. The Huskies starting five is all freshman and sophomores. In fact, you have to go all the way to the 13th in scoring on the roster to find a junoir or senior, of which there is only one of each. Pitt wins this one by 15.

11. Air Force: playing at Utah. OK, let's be honest--Utah sucks. But remember three things: 1. they will be playing very hard to break a dismal 6 game losing streak; 2. balls always bounce well for the home team; and 3. the Utes did beat now-#21 Washington State back in December. Air Force will not win easily here. In fact, we think they will lose.

14. Oklahoma State: hosting #23 Texas. Watch this game if you can. OSU's JamesOn Curry (would be playing at UNC right now if not for a drug charge in his senior year of high school) is exciting. And this is a battle of 20+ points per game players Mario Boggan (OSU) and the Longhorns' Kevin Durrrant. Edge goes to the Cowboys, though. They need this win to start establishing their place in the Big-12. They are currently 1-1 in conference play, and a win over Texas (3-0) would gain them the respect they deserve.

18. Memphis: hosts UAB. This will be an interesting match-up. UAB took Florida to the wire just over 2 weeks ago and have impressive wins against Cincy, Minnesota, and Depaul. Memphis needs every win it can get from now until March to have a chance at a decent seed in the Tourney. This game will be a battle of the guards, and close. The winner will be the deepest team in the backcourt, which is UAB. Blazers win by less than 10.

22. Maryland: at Virginia. The Cavs are hard to beat at home. Sean Singletary can be unstoppable. Neither team likes to pass the ball or play much defense. We think Virginia will win.

See you tonight.

New Rankings

Should Florida be number #1? Well, they are in both the AP poll and the Coaches poll. But, let's not forget that they rank around 100 in their strength of schedule. We think that Wisconsin should be the number 1 team in the country. But what do we know?

We like the Coaches poll for the most part, though, because it represents very little bias and lots more knowledge than the AP.

But, it is late, so let's take a look at the rankings tomorrow.

We would like to point out that the AP has ranked Duke 14 (yesterday we noted they would drop to 14 or 15) and the Coaches poll has more realistically put them at 17. This is not a good team. They have a long season ahead of them, and, even at 17, they are ranked too high. In fact, they are the only ranked team with a losing record in their conference.

Enough of that.

Kansas knocked off Missouri at home tonight. This was close, but the Jayhawks have now won 10 straight. Lucky for them their next 4 games are against unranked teams. They have extremely well-balanced offensive and rebounding production--maybe the best in the country. But, let's face it, the Big 12 is not very strong this year. They may roll through the regular season but how they do in the Big 12 tourney will be the deciding factor in whether they will be #2 or #6 in whatever region they have to play in for the NCAA Tourney.

One of our favorites, Appalachian State, was left out of the rankings once again. With an RPI in the 30's, and if they win on Saturday against Davidson, App should be in the polls next week.

Marquette beat Louisville tonight, proving that the AP was right about ranking them #24. They do have a lot of proving to do, but don't forget they beat then #22 UConn and then #21 West Virgina. Overall, they seem to do well on the road.

Again, please tune in tomorrow as we will break down the top-25 and try to explain the RPI, which is consistantly wrong.

Less than 2 months until selection Sunday.

Slow Sunday

Yes, this may look like a mug shot, but it is, in fact, Aaron Brooks (A.B. to his teammates), a political science major and six-foot guard at #15 Oregon. The Ducks' top-scorer banked in a shot with 2 seconds left to beat #10 Arizona today.

We did call this as close but thought the Wildcats would pull it out by single-digits. What a great game. Close all of the way.

As we said, Duke poured some wrath on Miami and won by 22. We watched this game and are still not impressed with the Blue Devils.

"Isn't that ironic?" coach Mike Cryzewski said (no, we are not continuing to mis-spell his name. Just watch a Duke game and see him cry to the refs over each Duke foul). "This is probably the worst offensive team we've had in a while, and they do that in the first half."

"That" would be leading by nine. Nine! Who is cocky about leading by nine?? And don't be cocky about being 1-2 in the ACC. Again, we sense a back injury in Coach Cry's near future. Bye-bye Wo-Jo. Thanks for the memories.

The only other game of note today was Illinois at Michigan State. We watched part of this game and were impressed by both teams. The Spartans, down by 11 at the half, ended up beating the Fighting Illini.

The game we didn't stay awake for last night--Nevada at Hawaii--turned out to be close (not what we thought) as Hawaii lost but took Nevada to OT.

One top-25 game tomorrow. Kansas (#6) plays Missouri at home. Missouri has not faced a top ranked team all season and despite some good offensive production they will fall hard.

No predictions for the new top-25. Of course, Florida will be the new #1 and the Tar Heels will fall to 3 or 4 (maybe even 5). Duke, the golden team, will either retain #11 or fall to no less than 15.

Go And Be a Ballerina

"If you don't get jacked up for Carolina and Duke, you need to quit and go be a ballerina or something, We came out hard. No reason to be scared."

Thus the knock on the ballerina community by Virginia Tech guard Jamon Gordon as he describes the desire of his team, and the LACK of desire of ballerinas, who, according to Gordon, are "scared."

Yes, as we predicted, Virginia Tech beat the Tar Heels, despite being outscored in the second half. We said UNC may very well go 1-1 this week, and, as usual, we were correct. The Heels will give up their short-lived #1 ranking to Florida on Monday. They also have to face Clemson at Littlejohn on Wednesday after the Tigers suffered their first loss today. More on that below.

2. Florida: the new #1 team dominated the Gamecocks, again, as we said they would.

3. UCLA: as we thought, this was a very close game, but UCLA won away by a point. They will also move up in the rankings. Uh, and we did say UCLA would win.

4. Wisconson: wow! Not only did they not win big, but this was a very close game throughout. But, they did win.

5. Ohio State: we finally see Greg Oden today with 24 points, 15 rebounds, and 5 assists as OSU squeaks by the Volunteers.

6. Kansas: we smelled an upset, and it was close to being that as the Jayhawks won by 4 in OT.

7. Pitt: ouch. We had faith in the Hoyas, but Pitt managed to win by 5, despite being outscored in the second half. Georgetown will continue to be threat in the Big East this season. They are underrated.

9. Texas A&M: rolled, as we said, past Colorado. No contest.

12. Butler: was not challenged at all by South Dakota State. Won by 15, but did show some weaknesses in the second half.

14. Clemson: we are right most of the time, and this game was no different. Upset by Maryland.

15. Air Force: we said this game at Wyoming would not be easy, and we were right (as usual). Air Force only won by 2.

15. Nevada: we will not be staying up for this game. Will give you the details tomorrow. At halftime, Hawaii is up by 4. Aloha.

18. LSU: we said LSU would make a "strong showing" against Auburn, but a win by only 2 is not only NOT strong, it continues to befuddle us about the Tigers.

19 Memphis: had an easier time than we thought at Southern Miss. However, we did predict Memphis would win, and that's what they did.

22. UConn: we predicted St. John's would upset the Huskies, but, guess what, they didn't. We can't be right ALL the time. That would be unfair.

23. Washington State: bouncing back, we said Stanford would win this game, and, go figure, we were correct.

24. Washington: oh my, we missed this game completely. We said the Huskies would "roll", but California pulled off the upset.

25. Maryland: beat Clemson as we predicted.

FYI: the Oklahoma State at Nebraska game today was postponed due to bad weather. No make-up date announced yet.

Only two top-25 games on Sunday.

11. Duke: coming off 2 straight ACC losses, the Blue Devils will kill themselves to win this game rather than face the wrath of Mike "The Antichrist" Cryzewski. However, this will be no easy game as Miami has beaten both then #24 Georgia Tech and #25 Maryland this season. But, we say the Blue Devils will escape Miami with a win. And, despite their last couple of games, and their clear lack of offensive threats, Duke will stay ranked in the low teens. Go figure.

8. Arizona: this will be a good game to watch. #17 Oregon will give the Wildcats a run, but Arizona should pull this out at home by single digits.

Have a great Sunday. We'll try and give you our predictions for next week's top-25 rankings tomorrow.