In each of the last 3 weeks the team ranked number 1 in the poles has lost and dropped from its position as the nation's best. The trend began 3 weeks ago when Kansas lost a barnburner to an undermanned Tennessee team. This came only days after Kansas had to struggle at Allen Field House to fight off a valiant attempt by Ivy League CORNELL! The following week Texas, heralded by many as the best team in the country lost to Kansas State. Since then Texas has lost 2 of 3, including an overtime thriller today against Baylor in AUSTIN! And to start this week my beloved Kentucky Wildcats turned in a pathetic performance against South Carolina and became the third team to succumb to the curse of number 1. This recent series of events has reminded me much of the 2008/09 football season when the number 1 team continuously failed to consolidate their position as number 1.
In other College Basketball News this Saturday was filled with a number of amazing games. First, the (suspected) new number 1 Kansas escaped Manhattan, Kansas with a win that you could argue was given to them by the refs and KSU's free-throw game (including 2 lane violations). Current number 1, Kentucky, was back in action in Rupp Arena to take on the number 1 team in the SEC Vanderbilt. Despite a minimum contribution by phenom John Wall the outcome of the game was never really in question and Kentucky took over first place in the SEC. Another big game today that attended by President BARACK OBAMA, did not live up to its billing. Georgetown coming off an earlier loss this week to Syracuse came out on fire and shot near a record high 72% to wax the floor with a less than game Duke Blue Devils (Let's Go Duke! ~ had to throw that in there as member of the Duke Class of 2010) who were visiting the home of guard Nolan Smith. Duke is now 1-4 on the road this season. (Yikes, not good with a trip to Chapel Hill in only in 11 days)
Elsewhere around the country Syracuse held on to beat an 8-13 Depaul team by 2! Gonzaga fell in overtime to an 8-14 SF. Rick Pitno lost his religion following a call which he believes cost his team the game against WVU. And UCONN lost another game without their coach following their upset of then number 1 Texas.
My NEW NCAAB Top 5
1. Kansas
2. Villanova
3. Kentucky
4. Syracuse
5. Michigan State
I absolutely agree on a number of points.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, that game yesterday between Kansas and K-State was very much influenced by the refs in that game. It seemed like at the end of the game they would shy away from calling anything on Cole Aldrich and instead decided to put K-State's big men into foul trouble. But as you said I guess part of the problem was K-State's free throw shooting and play down the stretch.
I like the top 5, Syracuse and Villanova are two of my early Final Four picks (might be my NY and Philly bias), though I can't deny the play of the phenom John Wall for Kentucky (He may play a huge factor in who I give my NBA allegiance to after I get over my break-up with the Philadelphia 76ers.)
And I would love to find out what is going on with Texas. Though I don't have much love for them, it is a bit troubling to see them fall so far.