Tee's Top Ten
By Tee Kane
February 21, 2008
Here's the updated Top 10, as voted* on by our unique collection of Tee's Weekly staff, stumbling presidents, the faithful of Barnsley town, and amateur-ish American Idol contestants. So without further ado, here again for week number eight is our Tee's Weekly Top 10.
* Some of our readers have emailed complaining to me personally about where their favorite school is ranked. I want to reiterate that I merely write the summaries and only have one vote in our poll. However, don’t hesitate to take up your complaints with the rest of our voters – I know they’re eager for viewer mail.
10.) Texas (747 votes): See Picks of the Week.
9.) Georgetown (828 votes): Just about every national college basketball commentator was writing the obituary for the Georgetown season after the loss to Syracuse. I’m not buying it – not even if Warren Buffett were selling it. The Hoyas still have all the pieces to win a national championship; they just need to better use them offensively and that means making sure Roy Hibbert gets the ball. In their victory against Providence this past Monday, the Hoyas gave a season-high 15 shots to Hibbert. He ended up making nine of those shots for a total of 18 points, as well as demoralizing the Friars with six blocks. I still think the Hoyas are the favorite to win the Big East regular season and tournament title. They still get to play Louisville at home and hold an important tie-breaker against Connecticut, since they beat them earlier in the season.
8.) Xavier (1,056 votes): The Musketeers have won eight in a row in the Atlantic 10, but they’ve been escaping with narrow victories over less-than-elite teams. Part of it could be complacency at the top, since they haven’t lost in a month (a bit like the junior senator from Illinois).
7.) Wisconsin (1,105 votes): The Badgers are now tied with Purdue and Indiana with two losses in the Big 10. Unfortunately for the Badgers, they have the most difficult remaining schedule of the three and don’t hold the tie-breaker against Purdue. Conference titles are nice, but Wisconsin should be more focused on putting together a stretch run in the big dance. Unlike Dr. Enakmas, I think Wisconsin is an absolute bargain to win the national title at 60-1.
6.) Dook (1,328 votes):The Blue Devils finally dropped a pair of ACC game this past week with a pair of losses at Wake Forest and Miami. The Wake loss shouldn't be as worrisome for Duke-fans as giving up 96 points against Miami. Duke is a deeply flawed team that was overachieving most of the season.
They're probably headed for another postseason that ends short of the elite eight for the fourth straight year.
5.) UNC (1,492 votes): Coach Roy Williams stoked the UNC-Duke rivalry this week by suggesting on his radio show that Coach K should, “coach his own damn team.” Roy made the comment after Coach K took a shot at him for complaining about UNC’s injury woes. You have to think Roy is trying to raises the stake for the rematch against Duke in Durham on March 8. If the Tar Heels have a healthy squad, it should be one of the best games of the year.
4.) Tennessee (1,560 votes): The Volunteers are now 24-2, but there’s no way they are the second best team in the country. I think they’ll be exposed against Memphis this weekend (as would most teams).
3.) UCLA (1,776 votes): The Bruins shut down USC and O.J. Mhaigh-Eo (Mayo) in their rematch at Pauley Pavilion and have their sights firmly set on a Pac-10 title and number one seed in the NCAA tournament.
2.) Kansas (1,896 votes): Pay attention to the rematch with Kansas State in Lawrence on March 1; it will be a great test of where the two teams are heading into the post-season. I’m still not sure in my heart of hearts who is better: Kansas or Memphis.
1.) Memphis (1,916 votes): If you read one thing about college basketball this week (besides Tee’s) I suggest this Sports Illustrated article about Memphis’ dribble-dribble-motion (DDM) offense taken from an obscure former junior college coach in California. I’m inclined to believe that John Calipari is a complete sleazebag with no interest in complying by NCAA rules, but I have to hand it to him for being willing to innovate this late in his coaching career. I think the offense is intriguing because it doesn’t depend on sophisticated half-court sets that can lead to over-coaching and gives players ample room to showcase their talent. Calipari’s got enough talent that his team would probably succeed running any offense, though junior Chris Douglas-Roberts seems uniquely to flourish in the offense.
Others Receiving Votes (total votes are in parentheses):
George Washington University (2 votes): The Colonials got their first away win of the season against St. Bonaventure. Earlier in the year I advocated kicking the Bonnies to the curb in the Atlantic 10 because they are such a downer on the conference's RPI, but I'm rethinking that a bit. No one wants to have the worst team in the conference and it's nice to have St. Bonaventure there in case you encounter an off-year. It's kind of like why I always enjoy having Timee in my foursome.
Indiana (604 votes): It’s hard to believe Indiana beat both Michigan State and Purdue while facing the likely firing of head coach Kelvin Sampson for NCAA infractions. I think those two games prove this season is much more about senior D.J. White and freshman Eric Gordon. They can’t be removed from Final Four considerations.
Louisville (651 votes): See Picks of the Week.