TEE'S TOP 10
by Tee Kane
January 17, 2008
Here's the updated Top 10, as voted* on by our unique collection of Tee's Weekly staff, striking Hollywood writers, weepy NFL receivers, and bonus-less hedge fund managers. So without further ado, here again for week number three is our Tee's Weekly Top 10.
*Congratulations to Paul Gill from Bray, Co. Wicklow, for correctly deriving the correct formula for Tee’s Top 10. I knew it would take a trained doctoral candidate to figure out the complex formula.
10.) Dayton (747 votes): The Dayton Flyers carry the flag for the long-assumed moribund Atlantic-10 into Tee's Weekly Top 10. Dayton already has signature wins over Pittsburgh and Louisville due in large part to the exploits of senior Brian Roberts (20.1 points per game). Roberts also has the added advantage of not playing second base for the Baltimore Orioles. Admittedly, Dayton has been a bit lucky recently to survive overtime victories against Akron and St. Louis. Dayton and Xavier are the class of a vastly improved and talented Atlantic-10 and will likely battle each other for the rest of the year for the conference title and Ohio bragging rights (they meet in Cincinnati on January 24; no word on whether Tim Russert will crown the champion afterward).
9.) Washington State (828 votes): Washington State clearly made me look like a fool last week when they lost at UCLA. I predicted in the Picks of the Week column that they would at least keep it within the seven points Vegas was giving them. If it weren't for a miracle barrage of threes at the end of the game, the score would not have been close and you wouldn't have gotten your money back on the eventual push (final score: UCLA 81, Washington State 74). The Cougars should get their feet back as they welcome both Oregon and Oregon State to western Washington. (The first reader to correctly email in the town where Washington State is located wins a free Tee's Weekly subscription.)
8.) Marquette (1,056 votes): I feel obliged to recognize Marquette after they made an even greater fool out of me in my Picks of the Week column and blew out Notre Dame at home. They have a number solid wins in addition to the Notre Dame victory, including wins against Wisconsin and Oklahoma State. I have a feeling a loyal international reader from Italy might be wondering why a certain one-loss team from a private college in North Carolina is not on Tee's Weekly Top 10. My only advice to her is that she should take it up with the voters. I only write the summaries.
7.) Georgetown (1,105): The Hoyas had an up-and-down week, beating UConn at home and then going stone cold from the three-point line for a loss at Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh loss is a disappointment, especially because the Hoyas seemed to do everything well except shoot the ball from behind the arc. They can also take several positives away from their victory over UConn. Perhaps the best part of the Georgetown victory over UConn was the emergence of a legitimate home court advantage at the Verizon Center. Large, professional, off-campus arenas are always difficult places to build a true home court advantage. I'll take an 8,000-seat, on-campus gym packed to the rafters with students almost every time over a cavernous, downtown NBA arena. In the dark years of Georgetown basketball, when they were coached by he-who-should-not-be-named, the MCI Center was often turned into an away game as other teams bought up all the tickets. UConn was one of the worst offenders, so it was a pleasure to see them so thoroughly outnumbered last weekend.
6.) Indiana (1,328 votes): After Michigan State's loss, Indiana remains the lone Big-10 representative on in Tee's Top 10 (I'm sure they'll link this article on the school's website). Like Michigan State, Indiana had at times struggled with turnovers (though not to the same horrific extent), and if they can straighten that out they should find themselves on this list for a long time. At the moment they do lack a signature non-conference win, so it's important for them to take care of business in Big-10 play and secure a quality seed.
5.) Tennessee (1,492 votes): The Vols got through their first two tests in SEC play with a narrow win against Ole Miss and cruise-control victory at South Carolina. In five days they’ll go through a brutal stretch against Vandy, Ohio State, and Kentucky. If they slip once in those three games, I don’t think they will be penalized in the polls. If they survive all three, they’ll have some serious claims for inclusion in the Kansas-Memphis-UNC stratosphere.
4.) UCLA (1,560 votes): UCLA answered the call against Washington State in a top five battle at Paulie Pavilion. Kevin Love is making his case for best freshman in the country. Between Love, DeJuan Blair at Pittsburgh, and Michael Beasley at Kansas State, there is a great group of freshmen big men. They are all beasts on the boards and great finishers, and all will be coming soon to an NBA draft near you.
3.) Kansas (1,776 votes): The Jayhawk Express (can we get behind this nickname?) rolled straight through the capable universities of Nebraska and Oklahoma by a total of 51 points last week. Kansas is starting to look like the best team in the country. They are dominant on both ends of the court. I know I've mentioned it before in this space, but Kansas’ defense is freakishly good. Most good teams tend to either keep opponents’ field goals percentages down or force a lot of turnovers. Kansas actually does both at an elite rate (as did the 1997 St. Francis boys’ basketball team under the tutelage of the legendary Coach Corrigan).
2.) Memphis (1,896 votes): The race is now on to see if Memphis can finish the rest of the regular season undefeated. Ken Pomery of kenpom.com puts the chance of this happening at 47.30 percent. His ratings system calculates the likelihood of Memphis winning each game left from 100 percent against Rice and SMU to a low of 84 percent against Tennessee. Pomeroy wrote earlier, and I believe persuasively, that it would be silly to suggest that Memphis would be better off losing a game before they enter the NCAA tournament. Getting a chance to go undefeated is a historic opportunity that no team should pass up for the alleged psychological advantage of losing once.
1.) University of North Carolina (1,916 votes): There have been real rumblings in the national press to swap Memphis (or Kansas) for UNC as the top team in the country. I'm inclined to leave them where they are and wait for UNC to loose in the ACC. Objectively, Memphis and Kansas have probably been better this year than UNC, so it's possible the "voters" may change their mind in the coming weeks.
Others Receiving Votes (total votes are in parentheses):
George Washington University (2 votes): GW might not win many games this year, but at least they made history this past week holding St. Louis to a modern-day record low of 20 points. They might have also found their defensive calling in the trapping 2-3 zone. Just a week ago it looked like GW was in danger of missing out on a trip to the Atlantic 10 tournament in Atlantic City. A win against Fordham and we'll be talking ourselves (foolishly so) into a first-round bye.
Vanderbilt (638 votes): I inadvertently gave Vanderbilt the kiss of death last week by placing them in the Top 10 as they promptly lost to a .500 Kentucky team in Lexington. Vandy has difficult schedule ahead in the SEC, but the team should be able to distinguish itself with enough victories to earn a top four or five seed in the Big Dance.