About last night 2.0

Two unbeatens were tested last night, but both were able to flunk the challengers. Texas was especially vulernable in the 1st half in Arkansas, but dominated in the 2nd to post a 96-85 victory. It's hard to imagine the Longhorns losing another game until their February 8th clash of the gods with Kansas. The winner will likely have the inside track to the top overall seed.

Purdue had similar troubles with bubble rider Minnesota, leading by only 7 at halftime, but again the 2nd half proved key in the 79-60 victory. The Boilermakers had 4 players score 15 points or more. From the Gophers' perspective, this was one game they truely miss Rodney White. The freshman was counted on to make a significant effort, but off-court woes prevented him from even playing in a single game and he has since left campus. Now I'm not saying they would have won with him, but they would have been more competitive down the stretch. Still, Minnesota will be near the cut line for the rest of the season, a major downer from the preseason expectations which had them amongst the top 25.

Elsewhere in the Mountain West opener, preseason fave San Diego State reasserted itself in a 74-64 win over the current favorite New Mexico. The Lobos are trying to score a top 16 seed and a loss like this, even to the 12-3 Aztecs, certainly won't help.

Lastly, Rhode Island came out on top in a closely fought 68-63 victory of Akron in Rubber Town. Yes it was against a Mid-American Conference foe, but imagine what kind of pain the Rams would be in had they lost the game.

On tonight's lineup, Cornell pays a visit to Lawrence to face the #1 ranked Kansas Jayhawks, hopeful of at least being competitive, if not able to pull off an upset. Memphis is at the Carrier Dome to face Syracuse, hoping for a morale boost heading into Conference USA play. Marquette could have been on a 5-game winning streak, if things had broken their way, but they're not and they face a Georgetown team looking to keep pace with Syracuse, Villanova and West Virginia. And lastly, UNLV and Brigham Young get it on in Provo with the Rebels hoping to build their case for a bid and the Cougars looking to deny it.

As you probably can tell, I intend to make About Last Night a sort of semi-regular feature here on the blog, If you like it, please let me know on the comments page of this post.

About last night in Hoops

One of the banes of college basketball is the unwillingness of teams from the BCS 6 who refuse to go on the road during the out-of-conference season, not even to face a team from another BCS 6 conference. At least North Carolina has the balls to schedule mid-majors on the road, winning one such game vs. the College of Charleston on the other hand, not so much. In actually, the Cougars had an 11-0 run to win at the end of regulation, then played a masterful performance in OT to secure the win. The result is that the Heels' RPI ranking on Rivals.com is now 58th. Expect that to improve the rest of the season. While the Cougars now assume the role of Southern Conference favorites. Now we wait for Duke to come into someone else's gym for an OOC game, fat chance it ever happens.

Last night was a stake in the heart of the Colonial's chance to earn an at-large bid to the dance. William & Mary's 10-game winning streak ended after blowing an 8 point lead to UNC Wilmington at home, losing it on a tip-in in the final 3 seconds. Virginia Commonwealth on the other hand, continued to be dominated in it's owh house by Northeastern, who extends their winning streak at the Siegel Pavillion to 3 games. Who ever wins the regular season title will be the most likely at-large hopeful, but upsets by the bottom-feeders will make this task more difficult for the leaders.

Instead of a letdown in Cincinnati, Pittsburgh was able to edge the Bearcats in a closely fought contest. The Panthers, fresh off of giving Syracuse it's first loss are now 3-0 in conference play and their seeding will rise at least one or 2 lines come next week. The Bearcats however, are looking at a stay on the bubble.

Mississippi State shot itself in the foot again, losing at Western Kentucky(Maybe the Heels and Bulldogs can start a support group...When BCS 6 teams go on the road at a non-BCS 6 school and lose). After losses to Rider and Richmond, the last thing the Bulldogs needed was to lose to another non-BCS 6 school. They may now need to do some significant damage in Southeastern Conference play to stay on the good side of the cut line.

Bracket Watch and the New Year's Surprise

What is the new year's surprise? Well unless you've been glued to the television watching so much football you may become a pigskin itself, here it is: Southern California, one of the co-leaders in the Pacific-10 has declared itself ineligible for this year's NCAA's(and the NIT and Pac-10 conference tourneys too). It all stems from O.J. Mayo's year at the school, Tim Floyd's tenure and plenty of greenbacks(Si, Barone!*). USC administrators declared themselves ineligible before the NCAA could do the same and do more damage, but the immediate penalty will force the Trojans from participating in any of this year's tournaments.

Now onto the first Bracket Watch of the season, which as always looks at how the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee would select, seed and bracket the field if the season ended Sunday night. No effort has been made to predict future results.

The Final Four pairings:
South(1) vs. West(4)
Midwest(2) vs. East(3)

South Region
Reliant Stadium; Houston; University of Houston

@Ford Center; Oklahoma City; Big 12 Conference
1-Texas vs. 16-Army(Patriot)
8-Tennessee vs. 9-Virginia Tech
@HP Pavilion; San Jose; San Jose State University
4-New Mexico(Mountain West) vs. 13-Weber State(Big Sky)
5-Temple(Atlantic 10) vs. 12-St. John's
@Dunkin' Donuts Center; Providence; Providence College and Big East Conference
2-Villanova vs. 15-Morgan State(Mid-Eastern)
7-William & Mary(Colonial) vs. 10-Texas Tech
@Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Coliseum; Jacksonville University
3-North Carolina vs. 14-Vermont(America East)
6-Mississippi vs. 11-Minnesota

West Region
EnergySolutions Arena; Salt Lake City; University of Utah

@Bradley Center; Milwaukee; Marquette University
1-Purdue vs. 16-Radford(Big South)
8-Texas A&M vs. 9-St. Mary's
@Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena; Washington State University
4-Florida State vs. 13-Pacific(Big West)
5-Connecticut vs. 12-Cornell
@Providence
2-Syracuse vs. 15-Campbell(Atlantic Sun)
7-Mississippi State vs. 10-Richmond
@New Orleans Arena; Tulane University
3-Wake Forest vs. 14-Murray State(Ohio Valley)
6-Washington vs. 11-Florida

Midwest Region
Edward Jones Dome; Saint Louis; Missouri Valley Conference

@Oklahoma City
1-Kansas vs. 16-College of Charleston(Southern)
8-Georgia Tech vs. 9-Pittsburgh
@Spokane
4-Gonzaga(West Coast) vs. 13-Oregon(Pacific-10)
5-Wisconsin(Big Ten) vs. 12-Siena(Metro Atlantic)
@Jacksonville
2-Duke(Atlantic Coast) vs. 15-Texas-San Antonio(Southland)
7-UAB(Conference USA) vs. 10-Virginia Commonwealth
@HSBC Arena; Buffalo; Canisius College, Niagara University and Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference
3-Georgetown vs. 14-Oakland(Summit)
6-Dayton vs. 11-Harvard(Ivy)

East Region
Carrier Dome; Syracuse; Syracuse University

@Milwaukee
1-Kentucky(Southeastern) vs. 16-Opening Round winner
Opening Round: Texas Southern(Southwestern) vs. Robert Morris(Northeast)
8-Cincinnati vs. 9-Rhode Island
@San Jose
4-Kansas State(Big 12) vs. 13-Louisiana Tech(Western Athletic)
5-Brigham Young vs. 12-Northern Iowa(Missouri Valley)
@Buffalo
2-West Virginia(Big East) vs. 15-Western Michigan(Mid-American)
7-Butler(Horizon) vs. 10-California
@New Orleans
3-Michigan State vs. 14-Troy(Sun Belt)
6-Clemson vs. 11-Oklahoma State

Last four in the field: Minnesota, Oklahoma State, St. John's, Cornell
First four left out: Miami(FL), Ohio State, Nevada-Las Vegas, Xavier
Next four in line: Northwestern, Marquette, Old Dominion, Missouri State
Also under consideration: North Carolina State, Maryland, Duquesne, Notre Dame, Illinois, Michigan, Baylor, Memphis, Tulsa, Creighton, San Diego State, Washington State, Arizona State, South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Western Carolina, Nevada

Next projection: Monday the 11th.

*For those wondering what I meant when I put down Si, Barone!, it's a reference to Stiletto, the right-hand conspirator to Baron Greenback on Danger Mouse. Just so you know.

Why Expanding the NCAA Tournament is a Bad Idea

Chatter has picked up in recent months about the NCAA possibly expanding the Men's Basketball Championship from it's current configuration of 65 teams to as many as 96. Let that last number sink in....on second thought don't, the scene may be too erotic for some. Why 96? Why mess with something that is perfect(except for the Opening Round game)? Why is the NCAA even considering this? Well there are a few ideas that may sound good, but really aren't. Here are just a few examples:

Increasing access for smaller conference teams
After only 3 teams from outside the BCS 6 made it in last year(and 3 others just missed out), one has to be very nervous about the potentiality of ALL 34 at-large bids going to BCS 6 members(it is very possible for this to occur). Thus, the idea of increasing access. Now this idea may infact be worthwhile to some, after all expanding the field may increase the number of Mid-Major teams is what many outside of a few simple-minded nitwits who only follow the BCS 6 would want to see, but the truth is many of the newly minted spots would go to middling to poor teams from the BCS 6. Of course who would be pushing for all this would be coaches, which leads to:

Job Security
Many big name coaches(Jim Boeheim for example) have constantly complained for increased access, knowing full well it will look good on the resume. But look at the coaches that have had bad years and not been fired. Of course many of them occured in the era when you only made the NCAA if you won your conference. Speaking of conferences(and the teams that reside in them):

Division I Growth
Back in 1948, when the NCAA listed 160 of it's members as being part of the University Division, only 8 teams were chosen to play in the NCAA tournament(of course the NIT was also available and even the NAIA tournament had a few University Division members participate). As late as 1974, only 25 bids were available to 233 Division I teams. Today, there are 334 teams playing actual Division I hoops playing for 65 spots. That's 1 bid for every 5.2 teams. If it were to grow to 96, the ratio would drop to 3.6 for 344 teams. The Division I Board of Directors has at least recognized that Division I has grown too big in recent years and has proposed new requirements to limit(if not outright prevent) movement into the division. It's definitely an outgrowth of:

The American Way
It's a simple fact of our consumeristic society that we want more and we want it now. It's brought us numerous inventions and ideas that have whetted our appetites to the point where if were deprived of it for only a few minutes, we (figuratively) throw tantrums. This way of life has also produced or last element and it should come to no one's surprise that it's four little letters:

ESPN
Having scored the rights to the BCS starting this fall, the worldwide leader is setting it's sights on the second most popular college property. The NCAA has at least aided and abetted ESPN by including in the current contract with CBS that the NCAA can opt out after this season. It is entirely possible however that the NCAA will do the decent thing and allow the contract to run it's course. But then ESPN has a ton of money to throw(thanks to the Walt Disney Company) and has shown no remorse for throwing it around. Heck, they may even steal the Olympics from NBC.

Now those ideas may work in the short term, but it may kill the goose and the egg, why?

It's the economy, stupid!
Even as we rebound from our most recent recession, money for sporting sponsorship will continue to be tight for at least a few years.

The BCS
Remember when New Year's Day was the absolute end of the College Football season, well it's now gotten to a point when an outdoor hockey game(NHL Winter Classic) is considered by some, not all, as the most important event of the day. The BCS shoulders the blame here by taking important games out further into January and rendering them meaningless(Yes, I'll admit it, the Rose Bowl was meaningless this year). If the NCAA extends the tournament into April, you risk bumping into the Masters, the start of the baseball season, the NFL draft and at many schools, spring football.

No more perfect symmetry
Yes it would still be symmetrical, but 96 is not the same as 64(or 65 for that matter). After all, the bracket would have to be expanded on to 2 sheets of paper or more.

I'd stop doing bracketology
I mean the best part of doing this job would be to compare myself to others. But if you expand the field, how many would just give it up? I know I would and I suspect others would.

If you like the ideas, or hate them, just comment.

Guess who has his own twitter feed?

Yep, I've just created my own twitter account. Click on the title to become a follower(if you are already on there).

Note: I'll be using it mostly to announce when brackets are up, and to make occasional comments. I will not be using to announce when I go to the bathroom.