Mid-week repor(t)

Good news, NC State coach Sidney Lowe is released from the hospital

Will Oregon officially change its name to "the Nike Ducks?" Their new AD (athletic director) is a very very very generous booster who recently sold his insurance company for many many many millions. He is close with Phil Knight (Nike's founder) but the new AD has no experience in managing intercollegiate athletics. No, the insurance company in question is not Aflac (the duck non-connection)

How do you rate a conference? Is it the conference with the best teams on top? the conference with the most NCAA-worthy teams? the conference with the most NCAA/NIT-worthy teams? Or the conference with the best teams top to bottom? Using the last one would point at the SEC where LSU and South Carolina are presumably the bottom two teams of the league, and they are not that bad, when compared to the bottom four of the Big East, the bottom two of the Pac-10, Big 10, Big 12 or the ACC.

Big Brother Says.... The "NCAA on Campus" documentary has an "Ask Myles" feature where students ask NCAA czar Myles Brand a question and he answers plainly and truthfully without any spin. This month's question was: "Will Division 3 players be allowed to redshirt again?". To paraphrase Myles's answer/spin: "NO!".

Bob Knight was smart. He made his comments on "one year NBA players in college" before they got beat by Texas. That way he wouldn't sound like a sour loser", but rather just "bitter and jealous".

What happened to FSN's Countdown to Signing Day? Bobby Cremins returned to coaching but i'm sure they can find another coach/expert to sit next to Dave Telep. Has it been cancelled or simply not carried by Fox College Sports anymore? Anyone?

OJ Mayo mania today!. On ESPN2. Check the tv listings below for details. OJ Floyd will be watching for sure (tape-delayed since his team is playing tonight)

This on CSTV's Crystal Ball (a highly recommended weekly show on college hoops): According to Seth Davis, Mark Few is struggling on what to do with Josh Heytvelt, Theo Davis situation. He has been calling many coaches in the profession for opinions.

Why is Fran Frachilla so reluctant to talk about teams on the bubble? Because as a coach he spent too many years on the wrong side of the bubble. Counselling may be necessary!

Fake Plastic Trees:: Coach K is a bad actor. His act of "OMG I didn't know it was my 700th win" wasn't convincing.

Mid majors want more coverage but with that you have to take both the good and the bad. Mark Turgeon sounded like "Debbie Downer-Whiner", whining version of SNL's Debbie Downer during his press conference after a loss. This was shown nationally on CSTV's Full Court Press. How things change: Last summer he would have commanded more than a million a year in salary at a BCS school but he turned them down. And who is George Mason again?

Mid-major NCAA bracket-buster candidates: Texas A&M Corpus Cristi, North Dakota State and Appalachian State. More on mid-majors at the Mid-Majority Repor(t)

Will Nancy blame Bob Huggins for this too?: Cincinatti football program is trouble after alleged sex-tape scandal involving football recruits. Time for the people of Cincinatti to come up with signs like "Fire Nancy, rehire Huggins!"

Image Improvement Attempt. Bo Ryan tried to show some personality by joking around during his halftime interview with Holly of ESPN (at Michigan State). An attempt perhaps to put Wisconsin on the map and get them some respect since most people still don't consider them a national championship contenter.

Dick Vitale gave some juicy details on his firing from the Detroit Pistons during his weekly call-in appearance on Mike & Mike. Apparently Vitale was trying to tell the Pistons owner how to run the franchise and his wife told him "you are going to get fired", but Dickie V didn't believe it until it happened baby. The Pistons loss is college basketball's gain!



Judgment Week: Louisville and Kentucky
It's only fitting to talk about those two bitter rivals together:
Louisville: In the summer Louisville looked very good on paper, with depth, talent and some experience. The optimism from the fall Canadian trip quickly faded as new and old injuries took their toll on Padgett, Palacios, Jenkins, and McGee (among others). Louisville was struggling and a rerun of last season was possible, or even worse, not even an NIT trip (eight fewer invites this year). But the injuries healed, and the freshman started to deliver, first Earl Clark and now the program-changer of this class, Derrick Caracter. Now Louisville looks like a hot team that could make a run to the Final Four providing no one else gets (re)injured and Caracter continues to make progress. However Pitino teams have been known to have highs and lows, and this could simply be their high. But some patterns of the classic Pitino teams of the 90s were barely visible in recent games, such as effective pressure, and turnover margin/efficiency. The Cardinals blew out St Johns without the three pointer, another positive sign. If At Louisville continues at this rate, they are going to be a top 8 seed (top 32 teams) (currently projected as a 7 seed by Joe Lunardi)

Kentucky: Kentucky's season was the opposite of Louisville. Kentucky started under the radar, their four-man recruiting class flew under the radar because of the all-star caliber recruits elsewhere, Randolph Morris was largely ignored because of his NBA non-draft. Slowly but steadily the Wildcats managed to string up some wins and crept back into the spotlight. However a losing streak burst that bubble, and the team almost lost to a baby-less LSU team. A "one-game losing streak" can create a stir in Lexington, so when it's more than one, one can imagine the stir... Kentucky is in the NCAA tourney (barring an 0-for-rest result) but their seed is not going to be high. While the four freshmen look like a good foundation class, the rest of the roster is not "Kentucky-caliber". Bradley looks like a 3rd guard that should come off the bench to provide a spark, not a starter. Crawford is not living to his expectations and even for a college tweener he looks a bit slow/heavy. Morris posts good numbers, but he is not a game-changer inside like one would expect from someone of his size and experience (compare his game-impact (not numbers) in the paint to Greg Oden's). Perry, Thomas, Obrzut are good rotation players but none of those guys are PTPers. However, if they listen to Tubby and play ball-line defense as he teaches them to, and if the four freshmen give them an offensive spark, they could make the Elite 8 and could even take down a number 1 seed along the way (eg as an 8/9 seed).


These Voting Records are public!
ESPN Personalities/experts (Bilas, Katz, Vitale, Lunardi, Gottleib, Schlabach, Glockner, and Howie Schwab) vote their Top 16 Power teams. Here is their voting record. If you look at Schwab's and Vitale's list, well, someone is cheating :-) The latest Power 16 is here. Since we are talking about ESPN, here are the latest brackets from Joey Brackets (aka Joe Lunardi).