- Kansas
- Syracuse
- Villanova
- Kentucky
- Michigan St.
- Georgetown
- West Virginia
- Kansas St.
- Purdue
- Ohio St.
- Texas
- Duke
- Baylor
- Georgia Tech
- Tennessee
- Gonzaga
- Vanderbilt
- Missouri
- Wisconsin
- Brigham Young
- Temple
- Florida State
- Mississippi St.
- Clemson
- Maryland
It's time to stop giving Connecticut and North Carolina credit for their history when their play on the floor has been abysmal. Needless to say I'm basking in the fact that both teams are putting up highly inferior seasons.
I came away from Saturday night's battle in Manhattan with two thoughts. It was nice to see Kansas hold on despite Marcus Morris (I knew Collins and Aldrich could play, but damn Marcus can ball too) fouling out and Sharon Collins dealing with injuries. It showed that have some moxie. Secondly, Kansas State deserves some respect for hanging tough. Their frontcourt isn't well known, but they're better than you think. With the experienced guard play of Clemente and Pullen, they could make a deep run in March. If not for a couple silly lane violations, this might've been their victory.
What happened to Kyle Singler's shot? I know he's got a busted thumb, but he's been terrible this year. He won't be able to go pro after this year's showing and will have to come back to be the glue in a much more formidable team next year that will include Nolan Smith, Andre Dawkins, Seth Curry, the Plumlees, and incoming freshmen Kyrie Irving and Joshua Hairston. Most importantly deadweight Lance Thomas and Brian Zoubek will have graduated.
I wish Greg Monroe had more of a killer instinct because he's always the most talented dude on the floor and is dominant when he wants to be. If he gets a fire lit under his ass with Wright and Freeman playing as well as they are, Georgetown could be Final Four bound in March.
Not that I was ever really on board, but I'm fully off the Texas bandwagon at this point. They've got no leadership in the backcourt and Damion James is lacks the ability to win big games by himself. The Longhorns have now lost all three of their biggest games in conference. Rick Barnes has never been considered a rocket scientist (at this point I'm not sure whether or not he's qualified to pick up dog shit), but this coaching job is a waste of all the talent he's supposed to have. Nothing I've seen of Avery Bradley has impressed me at all. After watching how John Wall takes over games, you would never believe Bradley was almost on Wall's platform coming out of high school.
While it was nice for Baylor to grab their win against Texas, it was more that Texas lost the game rather than Baylor won it. I had hope that Tweety Carter would be able to carry the Bears once LaceDarius Dunn fouled out, but he made way too many careless plays against the press. Without some dumb luck, Baylor would've lost this game.
If I told you Patrick Patterson took only seven shots against Vanderbilt, you'd think Kentucky had lost the game. It's been a weird transition for the Wildcats as they've entered conference play since Demarcus Cousins has taken over as the primary low post option. It's obviously good for Kentucky to diversify their scoring options, but will Patterson keep his mouth shut just to win the title? We shall see...
Ohio State is fun to watch when they're playing at their best. They lack depth and Turner doesn't think like a PG in key situations (see West Virginia game), so there are still some Final Four red flags. They, however, can beat anyone on a given day.
The end of the Florida vs. Tennessee game proved neither team (or coach) knew what they were doing, but Florida ended up losing because of the youth in the backcourt.
Maryland played about as badly as they could've and still beat Clemson. That has to say something, but consider me somewhat doubtful over how good the Terrapins (and the ACC as a whole) really is. Everyone loves to be on Grevis Vasquez's nuts, but how does a senior PG turn the ball over nine times??
