09 Jan12 - ReaWakening

Volume XIII, No. 10 - 09 Jan 12 - [] Top 25 Ballot

ReaWakening

Wake Forest's big home win Sunday over North Carolina (@92-89) is a landmark for the program. Yes, they beat #2 Duke in the second half of last season; but all of last year was really played in the shadow of the death of former coach Skip Prosser. This year, they are back to playing just for themselves again. They were already legit thanks to their win at the ANAHEIM CLASSIC (beating Baylor); but this win returns them to Top 5 status for the first time since the Chris Paul era. Paul brought them to the #1 ranking midway through his sophomore year, but his career finished with a disappointing crash in '04-05 season as they wound up with no ACC title, no ACC tourney, and a second-round loss to West Virginia in the NCAA tournament. This year's team is young and talented, led by sophomore gJeff Teague (34p5a6r;13/15ft), with plenty of athletic help all around him. Hopefully, they can write a better ending to this season's story than the '05 squad was able to do.
     Meanwhile, not 10 days ago, North Carolina was flirting with the notion of an undefeated season (with a three-peat of the ACC title and tourney a given) and fTyler Hansbrough possibly becoming the ACC's all-time leading scorer and repeating as National Player of the Year. Now, suddenly, they might only be fourth best in the league. It's going to be a tough task getting past Wake, Duke and still undefeated Clemson without any stumbles to claim the regular season title. Best not to even look at the standings until late February. The same problem of all-O, no-D persists and there's no prospect of any major change in sight. (Even if fMarcus Ginyard returns to full health, one guy isn't going to transform this team into a defensive juggernaut.) They're going to have to play their hand as is. (They have quite a similar problem as Notre Dame, actually.)

Arkansas proved its win over Oklahoma was no fluke, following that up with a @67-61 win over visiting Texas. The Razorbacks are essentially a Replacement Squad after losing six key players (including four starters) from last year's NCAA splash edition. Coach John Pelphrey has been able to fit a bunch of pieces, none of which scares you individually, into a hustling unit that plays together well above its talent level. cMichael Washington(20p9r) and gStefan Welsh(20p) did the damage against the Longhorns; but the Hogs, much like Boston College (see below), couldn't handle the success and came crashing back down to earth when conference play started up, laying an egg at home, losing @56-70 to visiting Mississippi State.
     Texas continues to fall just below Final Four status. They are quite vulnerable to size in the paint, and tDamion James isn't performing anywhere near the superstar level he achieved last year. There was no way they were going to be able to duplicate the point guard play they got last year from pD.J. Augustin, but it continues to be a problem for them in the halfcourt. Right now, they're hovering at Sweet 16 level.

Gonzaga and Tennessee went to overtime before the Bulldogs prevailed 89-@79(OT) to claim their second win this season over the Volunteers. (GU beat UTn 83-74 in the final of the OS CLASSIC back in November.) The 'Zags are great on paper with plenty of talent at every spot, but again (like UNC and ND), they'd rather run and shoot jumpers than tough it out in the paint and on defense. Both teams have one big out-of-conference game left on their schedules -- the same one, actually; they both host Memphis later on the season. League play isn't the total bust for either of them as it is for the Tigers, though; so they'll both have more chances to keep their names in lights in the national rankings. Tennessee's problem continues to be a lack of quality play at point guard, and when the fullcourt press isn't on, defensive intensity has been a big issue of late.

This week in the Big East, Notre Dame bounced back with a big home win over Georgetown, @73-67. cLuke Harangody (31p11r vs the Hoyas; 30p16r vs Seton Hall) is putting up stats that place him in the conversation for National Player of the Year alongside Oklahoma's cBlake Griffin, UNC's fTyler Hansbrough, Davidson's pStephen Curry, and Arizona State's bJames Harden. As far as the team goes, it'd be really nice to see some solid performances on the road (especially this week, at Louisville on Monday, and at Syracuse on Saturday).
     West Virginia couldn't handle its tough assignment this week, falling at home @55-61 to Connecticut, and gettting blown out 53-@75 at Marquette. They won't likely be able to earn their way back into the rankings immediately (with only Marshall and South Florida on the schedule), but there are plenty of chances for big wins left in conference play for everyone in the league. Louisville is trying to get its act together, but an endplay 61-@60 win over Villanova isn't enough to lift them back into the rankings just yet. That team is still much too disorganized for long stretches in games and the inconsistent play from everyone except tTerrence Williams and fEarl Clark remains a concern.

Michigan State is firing on all cylinders at the moment behind two big wins: @67-58 over slumping Ohio State and @75-62 out of conference over improving Kansas. Purdue fell 64-@67 at Penn State, but regrouped to handle visiting Wisconsin @65-52. Meanwhile, 14-1 Minnesota keeps plugging along without much fanfare: the Golden Gophers handled Penn State @79-59 at home.

Maryland finally gave back the juice it gained from its big preseason wins over Michigan and Michigan State with a terrible home loss, @65-66, to 6-8 Morgan State from out of the SWAC. Not to be outdone, Boston College followed its huge upset of #1 North Carolina with its own home debacle, a @70-82 loss to 9-6 Harvard from the Ivy League (the Crimson basketball program's first-ever win over a nationally ranked opponent). BC lost again at home to visiting Miami(Florida), but that's a result that wouldn't have been surprising at all two weeks ago.

Illinois State dropped two close road losses (52-@56 at Bradley, and 70-@75(OT) at lowly Indiana State) to fall from the ranks of the undefeated. They're no longer in control of the MVC race, but those two results are no cause for major panic.

Wake Forest hopes to have an undefeated showdown at Clemson on Saturday (if the Demon Deacons can avoid complacency and handle Boston College on the road on Wednesday first). Oklahoma's showy preseason won't mean much if they can't beat rival Texas at home on Monday. Louisville hosts Notre Dame (Monday) and Pittsburgh (Saturday) with a great chance to vault back into the Sweet 16 (or higher) level of the rankings. Tennessee had seemed like the obvious favorite in the SEC at the start of the season, but it's visiting Kentucky (Tuesday) who's playing better ball at the moment; then, the Vols host upstart South Carolina on Saturday, to boot. Arizona State made its way into the rankings without a real Top-25 signature win, but they'll have their chance when they visit UCLA on Saturday. Georgetown at Duke (Saturday) looked like it might have been for the #1-ranking a week or so ago, but it's still plenty great.
     What kind of reception will coach Mike Montgomery get when he brings arch-rival California to Maples Pavilion against his former team, the Stanford Cardinal on Saturday (especially after he's vaulted the Golden Bears into the national rankings in just a couple of months on the job)?

-- Ron

[P.S. Congratulations to Ace Strong for winning this year's Pigskin Pool Party!
 (He's the first person to go 5-for-5 on all the BCS games!)]

Key games this week:

Monday:

@Oklahoma-Texas, NotreDame-@Louisville(BG), @AppalachianSt-Davidson(NC), @Longwood-ChicagoSt,

Tuesday:

Memphis-@Tulsa, @Tennessee-Kentucky, @BYU-TCU, @Akron-Buffalo,

Wednesday:

WakeForest-@BostonCol, Syracuse-@Georgetown, @Illinois-Michigan, Baylor-@Texas A&M, SCarolina-@LSU, @MiamiFL-Maryland, @IllinoisSt-Drake, @UTEP-Houston(TX), @TXArlington-Lamar(TX), @Lehigh-Navy, @BostonU-Vermont, @Albany-SUNYB(NY), @MiamiOH-OhioU(OH),

Thursday:

Connecticut-@StJohns, @UCLA-Arizona, Minnesota-@Wisconsin, Xavier-@RhodeIsland, @Gonzaga-SantaClara, ArizonaSt-@USC, @Marist-Siena(NY), @WIGreen Bay-ClevelandSt, @WeKentucky-MidTennessee, @Delaware-Northeastern, @JacksonvilleSt-MurraySt,

Saturday:

Pittsburgh-@Louisville, WakeForest-@Clemson, @Duke-Georgetown, Oklahoma-Texas A&M, @NCarolina-MiamiFL, @MichiganSt-Illinois, @Syracuse-NotreDame, @UCLA-ArizonaSt, Marquette-@Providence, @Gonzaga-SanFrancisco, @Baylor-OklahomaSt, @Memphis-UAB, Butler-@ILChicago, SCarolina-@Tennessee, @Florida-Arkansas, @FloridaSt-Maryland, @Michigan-OhioSt, @VirginiaTech-BostonCol, @USC-Arizona, @Fairfield-Siena, @WIMilwaukee-ClevelandSt, @VMI-Liberty(VA), @ARLittleRock-MidTennessee, @MississippiSt-Vanderbilt, @Massachusetts-Temple, @SoMississippi-Houston, @UtahSt-BoiseSt, @VCU-OldDominion(VA), @Hofstra-Northeastern, @Niagara-Rider, @Winthrop-UNCAsheville, @CalStFullerton-Pacific(CA), @LongBeachSt-CalStNorthridge(CA), @JacksonvilleSt-TNMartin, @Jacksonville-Campbell, @RobertMorris-Wagner, @KentSt-MiamiOH(OH), @Buffalo-OhioU, @Hampton-SCState, Longwood-SavannahSt, @AlabamaA&M-AlabamaSt(AL),
California-@Stanford(CA) - (coach Mike Montgomery returns to his former school),

Sunday:

@Villanova-StJohns.

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Top 25 - 09 Jan 12 - [] Column

1. Pittsburgh (14-0)
2. Wake Forest (12-0)
3. Duke (13-1)
4. Connecticut (13-1)
5. Oklahoma (15-1)
6. North Carolina (13-2)
7. Michigan State (13-2)
8. Syracuse (15-1)
9. Notre Dame (10-3)
10. Georgetown (11-3)
11. Clemson (14-0)
12. Illinois (14-2)
13. Texas (12-3)
14. UCLA (13-2)
15. Marquette (13-2)
16. Minnesota (14-1)
17. California (15-2)
18. Xavier (13-2)
19. Purdue (12-4)
20. Gonzaga (8-4)
21. Baylor (12-2)
22. Memphis (12-3)
23. Arizona State (14-2)
24. Butler (12-1)
25. South Carolina (9-2)

Honorable Mention:

Morgan State (6-8), Harvard (9-6), Mississippi State (11-5), Nebraska (11-3).