10 Dec21 - Holiday Hiccups

Volume XV, No. 7 - 10 Dec 20 - [] Top 25 Ballot

Holiday Hiccups

Just when you lavish praise on a team, they turn around and lay an egg. Tennessee did it twice!!! First, they lost @82-89 at home to a 6-5 Oakland team that has played a tough schedule with mixed results. But that didn't wake them up as they fell again 48-@49 to a 5-6 Charlotte team on the road. You figured they'd have some bad losses during the first 8 games of the SEC schedule when coach Bruce Pearl will have to sit out a suspension; but not now.
     Meanwhile, Louisville lost at home to 7-1 Drexel, @46-52. BYU's schedule caught up to them in the JOHN WOODEN CLASSIC, as they couldn't handle 6-4 UCLA, 79-@86. Illinois' woes scoring easy points hasn't been rectified by an influx of talent -- it can be a bad thing for a point guard to dominate the ball as much as pDemetri McCamey does -- as they lost to 5-7 Illinois-Chicago, @54-@57. UNLV lost at home to 5-4 UC-Santa Barbara, @62-68.

Generally speaking, these preseason hiccups don't mean a lot. Teams are looking forward to the holidays and the upcoming conference schedule and can look past a pesky squad playing the biggest game on its schedule. Don't read too much into those results.
     More troubling, though, are the losses where you can clearly see the quality of the opponent coming. Baylor (which has Final Four talent) couldn't handle struggling Gonzaga in front of a Dallas crowd at THE SHOWCASE, falling @64-68. Kansas State got worse and worse as the game went on in its 44-@57 loss to Florida in the ORANGE BOWL CLASSIC; pJacob Pullen is having a tough time being a scoring point guard and the Wildcats are absolutely horrible on the free throw line.

Kansas barely squeaked by USC, @70-68, but the game-winning three-pointer came from freshman gJosh Selby (21p), who was making his debut after sitting out a preseason suspension.

The last four major preseason tournaments are on tap this week. No major fields, but a win is worth taking notice. The 8-bracket DIAMOND HEAD (Washington State, Baylor, Butler, Mississippi State with newly eligible fRenardo Sidney) is the best of the bunch. The new 8-bracket CANCUN GOVERNOR'S CUP (Southern Mississippi, Mississippi) could wind up with an in-state final.
     There are actually two tournaments going on in Las Vegas this week. The 10th annual 2x4 LAS VEGAS[-CHRISTMAS] CLASSIC (New Mexico, Northern Iowa, Indiana) concludes at Orleans Arena on Wednesday and Thursday. Meanwhile, the new LAS VEGAS "HOLIDAY HOOPS" CLASSIC (Miami(Florida), Rice) -- a 6-choose-4 round-robin -- features three double-headers at South Point Arena on Tuesday through Thursday. [Too bad my trip's still another week away!]

(Geno Auriema is far from my favorite personality, but hats off to the Connecticut women's program for tying UCLA's all-time win streak at 88 games. It's probably a better accomplishment by comparison, too. They've done it in the face of well established rival powerhouse programs [Tennessee, Stanford]. The '71-74 Bruin men didn't have rivals with national championships to their name and Hall of Fame coaches on their benches.)

Happy Holidays, everybody!

-- Ron

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Top 25 - 10 Dec 20 - [] Column

1. Duke (10-0)
2. Ohio State (9-0)
3. Connecticut (8-0)
4. Georgetown (10-1)
5. Pittsburgh (11-1)
6. Syracuse (11-0)
7. Kansas (10-0)
8. San Diego State (11-0)
9. Missouri (10-1)
10. Kentucky (8-2)
11. Louisville (9-1)
12. Notre Dame (10-1)
13. UNLV (10-2)
14. Purdue (10-1)
15. Minnesota (10-1)
16. Michigan State (7-3)
17. Tennessee (7-2)
18. Central Florida (9-0)
19. Florida (8-2)
20. Kansas State (8-2)
21. BYU (10-1)
22. Texas A&M (9-1)
23. Villanova (9-1)
24. Temple (8-2)
25. West Virginia (8-2)

Honorable Mention:

Drexel (7-1), UCLA (6-4), Oakland (6-6), Charlotte (5-6), UC-Santa Barbara (5-4), IL-Chicago (5-7).