07Jan29 - DNP(various)

Volume XI, No. 13 - 07 Jan 29 - [] Top 25 Ballot

DNP(various)

Some of the more surprising results from the past week involved key players who did not play for various reasons. The most surprising result actually occurred in spite of who didn't play. fBrandan Wright sat out due to illness when North Carolina visited Arizona, but it hardly mattered in UNC's 92-@64 blowout victory. In fact, fTyler Hansbrough(14p6r) really didn't do much, either, until the second half when the game was already out of reach. Instead, it was pTy Lawson(18p8a), fReyshawn Terry(15p6r4a) and fAlex Thompson(14p6r) who were the main keys early on. What figured to be a two-team track meet quickly became a one-team showcase. fChase Budinger(16p7r) sat with early foul trouble; fMarcus Williams sat with an injury and the lack of depth behind the Wildcats' talented starting five became very evident. This was a laugher. Arizona shot 1-for-23 on three pointers. This sure looks like the same-old, same-old from UofA. Meanwhile, vault UNC back up to #1 over Florida with the thought that UofF's fabulous starting five also has the same vulnerability to foul trouble as well, whereas the Tar Heels are two-deep at every spot.

gAaron Brooks did not play in Oregon's 77-@89 loss at Washington. He sat out as part of an NCAA suspension from an incident last year. He returned in a flourish with 31 points in the Ducks' thrilling 77-@74(OT) win at Washington State on Saturday. Not even 37 points from the Cougars' pDerrick Low was enough to pull out a victory. Another depth issue slides Oregon up into the #4 spot in this week's poll. To be sure, without Brooks on the court, we see that they're beatable; but this is not a one-man team. pTajuan Porter has scored 30+ this year; gBryce Taylor has had his own 20+ moments; and this used to be tMalik Hairston's team before that. (For UCLA, by comparison, lately it has been only gArron Afflalo and pDarren Collison consistently scoring points, especially with fJosh Shipp coming off an injury.)

Speaking of the Bruins, UCLA managed to blow a 17-point lead in its 68-@75 road loss at Stanford. Actually, this was more about the Cardinal putting together two great performances in front of its home crowd. First, freshman fBrook Lopez posted the first triple-double in school history in their @65-50 win over USC with 18p11r and 12 blocked shots. He followed that up with 22p5r against UCLA. Both 7' Lopez twins are now starting for Stanford -- fRobin had lagged behind, recovering from back surgery in the summertime -- and with gAnthony Goods and fLawrence Hill, the Cardinal is starting to gel into a solid unit with a great future, and a pretty good present.

gChris Lofton is out with an ankle injury and Tennessee sorely missed him as the Volunteers fell twice, 69-@83 at Mississippi and then 57-@76 at Kentucky. Forgotten 1BC Winthrop has been playing without its star, bTorrell Martin, for a while now, but the Eagles were able to sneak by with two big victories, 64-@63 at High Point and @65-63 over Coastal Carolina to remain undefeated in the Big South conference at 7-0. (This team still has no bad losses and gave the very best teams a go of it on their home floors. Don't forget them come tournament time.) Also going undefeated in conference and under the radar is VCU. The Rams are 10-0 in the Colonial, which is admittedly down from last year, but not all the way out by any means. VCU's lack of height isn't a problem in conference and its perimeter attack of gB.A. Walker, bJesse Pellot-Rosa and pEric Maynor is good enough to dominate the conference so far.

Other than Florida, which is coasting through the regular season, the preseason favorites in the SEC (LSU, Alabama and Tennessee) are floundering and the likes of Georgia, Arkansas, Kentucky and Vanderbilt are stepping up into that power vacuum. The Bulldogs needed every bit of support from their home crowd to rally from big deficits, but they pulled out two key wins. Down by 17, they rallied to win in overtime, @78-69(OT) over Kentucky. Then, down by 12, they came back to win on a three-pointer at the buzzer to beat LSU @57-54. (They can't afford to get behind like that this week with road games at Tennessee on Wednesday and at Vanderbilt on Saturday.)

More fun with creative timekeeping gave Duke just enough time to score the winning layup against Clemson in a @68-66 win. pGreg Paulus isn't particularly playing any better, but the Blue Devils have found a workaround and are playing much more cohesive ball as they also were able to beat Boston College, @75-61. After being the last team left standing undefeated, Clemson now has four losses all of a sudden. They seemingly had Virginia down for the count before the Cavaliers closed the game with a 15-0 run to steal a 64-@63 road win on Sunday.

Air Force's finesse game was grounded when BYU stopped them @61-52. The Cougars outrebounded the Falcons 42-20. USAF, BYU and UNLV all have two losses each now atop the Mountain West standings. Nevada beat back Utah State, @79-62, but the Wolf Pack still remains tied for first place in the WAC with New Mexico State at 7-1. The Pac-10 and Big East are now at the midpoint of the regular season. Oregon and UCLA are each 7-2 while Arizona is 6th at 5-4 and Washington remains in 8th at 3-6 (despite going 2-0 on the week). Marquette hasn't lost since its 0-2 start in league play and the Golden Eagles are now in second place at 6-2 behind Pittsburgh.

The Game of the Year in the Big 12 is on tap this week: Texas A&M visits Kansas on Saturday in their only regular season meeting. Gonzaga visits suddenly tough Stanford on Wednesday (as if their nonconference schedule weren't already full, and they still have a home game with Memphis in February as well). The 'Zags need that win more than the Cardinal. Ohio State barely hung on at home to beat Michigan State, @66-64, this past week. The Spartans get to return the favor this week when they host the Buckeyes on Saturday. Oregon at UCLA on Thursday has first place on the line in the Pac-10. Who figured Alabama at LSU (Wednesday) would be a battle to stay out of last place in the SEC West?

-- Ron

Key games this week:

Monday:
Pittsburgh@Villanova, @Butler-ILChicago, @AppalachianSt-ColofCharleston, @LoyolaMD-Siena, @TennesseeTech-MoreheadSt,
(BRACKETBUSTERS PAIRING SELECTION),

Tuesday:
Maryland@FloridaSt, MichiganSt@Illinois, NotreDame@Syracuse, MissouriSt@Creighton, @NoIowa-WichitaSt, Marist@Manhattan,

Wednesday:
@Florida-Vanderbilt, Wisconsin@Indiana, OhioSt@Purdue, Memphis@CFlorida, Georgia@Tennessee, VCU@Hofstra, Gonzaga@Stanford, Alabama@LSU, Texas@TexasTech, Creighton@Bradley, @Drexel-OldDominion, @OhioU-Toledo, @WeKentucky-LAMonroe,

Thursday:
Oregon@UCLA, Duke@Virginia, WashingtonSt@Arizona, @IdahoSt-NoArizona,

Saturday:
@Florida-Tennessee, Oregon@USC, OhioSt@MichiganSt, @Kansas-TexasA&M, @Marquette-Providence, Clemson@GeorgiaTech, @Arizona-Washington, VirginiaTech@BostonCol, @Arkansas-Kentucky, Georgia@Vanderbilt, SoIllinois@WichitaSt, Stanford@California, @Villanova-Louisville, OldDominion@GeoMason, UNLV@BYU, @Davidson-UNCGreensboro, @U>Marist-LoyolaMD, @TexasA&MCC-SamHoustonSt, WeberSt@NoArizona,

Sunday:
@Duke-FloridaSt.

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Top 25 - 07 Jan 29 - [] Column

1. North Carolina (19-2)
2. Florida (19-2)
3. Wisconsin (21-1)
4. Oregon (19-2)
5. UCLA (17-2)
6. Ohio State (18-3)
7. Kansas (17-3)
8. Pittsburgh (19-3)
9. Duke (18-3)
10. Texas A&M (17-3)
11. Marquette (18-4)
12. Washington State (17-4)
13. Clemson (18-4)
14. Arizona (14-6)
15. Oklahoma State (17-3)
16. Butler (17-2)
17. Memphis (17-3)
18. Nevada (18-2)
19. Virginia Tech (15-5)
20. Indiana (15-5)
21. Arkansas (14-7)
22. Georgetown (14-5)
23. Georgia (12-6)
24. Southern Illinois (16-5)
25. VCU (17-3)

Honorable Mention:
- - Stanford (13-5), Texas Tech (14-6), Virginia (12-6), Illinois (15-8), South Carolina (12-7), BYU (15-6), Winthrop (13-4), East Tennessee State (14-6), Florida A&M (12-9).