TEE'S TOP 10
by Tee Kane
January 24, 2008
Here's the updated Top 10, as voted* on by our unique collection of Tee's Weekly staff, nervous Federal Reserve board members, subpoenaed baseball players, and Oscar nominees. So without further ado, here again for week number four is our Tee's Weekly Top 10.
*Voting is determined by the Government Accountability Office
10.) Wisconsin (747 votes): The Badgers have now won 10 in a row after a couple of earlier losses. Anything I say about Wisconsin is not going to be as interesting as 60-year-old Bo Ryan (Chester, PA) doing the Soulja Boy dance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TajSyEm-Qg
9.) UCLA (828 votes): The Bruins suffered their second loss of the season and the first in Pac-10 play with a nine-point loss to cross-town rival USC. The rise of USC and O.J. “the green and red of” Mhaigh Eo (Mayo) as serious players in the Pac-10 means it’s likely to be a crowded and close finish in the conference.
8.) Dook College (1,056 votes): Apparently this is a one-loss team that plays in something called the Atlantic Coast Conference.
7.) Georgetown (1,105): The Hoyas had two Big East home games wins this week and dazzled in the first (Notre Dame) and disappointed in the other (Syracuse). There’s been a lot of cursing from season ticket holders in section 114 directed at Jeramiah Rivers for his almost comical ineptitude on the offensive end this year, but he more than earned a reprieve for his shinning defensive performance against Syracuse. Rivers manned up against Syracuse’s dynamic scorer Jonny Flynn (game high 24 points) and held him scoreless in final nine minutes of regulation and overtime.
6.) Tennessee (1,328 votes): The Vols looked like they were headed for a top-three ranking this week until they were upset in Lexington against University of Kentucky, the most perplexing team in the country. Tennessee has played a rigorous schedule at a frightening pace. They are either physically preparing themselves for the strain of the conference and NCAA tournament, or they are going to be running on fumes come March.
5.) Washington State (1,492 votes): Since losing to the previously undefeated Bruins, the Cougars gamely defeated both Oregon and Oregon State. A stiffer challenge awaits Washington State this week with a pair of road games at Arizona and Arizona State. Would a loyal Pac-10 reader please write in to Tee’s Weekly and tell me how long the Pac-10 has scheduled these in-state games in pairs? It obviously makes sense from a logistical and academic sense, but I wonder how long it has been in effect. Unlike Crazy Dee, I’m willing to admit when I don’t know.
4.) University of North Carolina (1,560 votes): It’s tough to see how the number one team in the country could lose at home to a team that lost to American University earlier in the year. UNC’s offense is a still among one of the very best in the country, but their defense is merely good (ranked 38th in defensive efficiency by Ken Pomeroy). For as long as Ken Pomeroy has been tracking this, the worst team statistically to make the Final Four was Cinderella George Mason, who were 23rd before entering the tournament. This should be a gigantic red flag for the Tar Heel nation.
3.) Indiana (1,776 votes): The Hoosiers lead Tee’s Top 10’s list of teams with at least one blemish on their win-loss record. It’s admittedly a tenuous endorsement. They owe this spot mostly to the virtue of losing first in the season (November 24 to Xavier). Indiana gets a late non-conference game this week when they host UConn on January 26. The real test will be the following Thursday, January 31, when they go to Madison to face Wisconsin.
2.) Kansas (1,896 votes): The Jayhawk Express continued its romp through the Big 12 with a couple of wins. They don’t have as good a chance as Memphis of going undefeated due to the differences in their remaining schedule. Not sure when the last team from a BCS power conference seriously threatened to go undefeated, but that’s why we have at least 12 readers with Google. Steve “Onions” Shep (a regular guest columnist on this site) has suggested for some time that people should be able to subscribe to Elias Sports Bureau for on-demand answers to sports-related research questions. Who wouldn’t love that capability? It’d be brilliant to have an ultimate arbiter available whenever a disagreement broke out in a bar.
1.) Memphis (1,916 votes): Memphis takes over the number one spot on Tee’s Top 10. They were likely going to catapult over UNC even before the Tar Heels lost to Maryland on Saturday. There is very little to distinguish Memphis and Kansas. They both haven’t lost and are dominant on both ends of the court. Memphis gets a slight edge because it has an elite victory at home against Georgetown. Memphis smartly scheduled two tough out-of-conference games in the second half of the season. The first one is this Saturday, January 26, against Gonzaga. The Zags haven’t been as good as they have in previous years, but at least it will allow Memphis a chance to sharpen their mental focus from the otherwise lackluster CUSA.
Others Receiving Votes (total votes are in parentheses):
St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke (0 votes): Check out this link: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=3210049 Will this guy ever go away? Can they send him away to Rome with Bernard Law? I’m glad the spiritual leader of St. Louis has finally gone after the real troublemakers in society: Rick Majerus and Sheryl Crow. Never mind that Majerus once coached a team to the final of the NCAA tournament with two academic All-Americans starting on his team.
George Washington University (2 votes): The Colonials were brought down to earth with two crunch-time collapses to Fordham and Xavier. GW desperately misses a veteran ball handler. For many years they could depend on TJ Thompson and Carl Elliot to direct the team when it got down to the final possessions in the game. Senior Maurice Rice is capable scorer, but he hasn’t delivered like his predecessors.