Like most parents, I spend some of my time watching TV with my daughter. Most of the shows are more or less tolerable and some (like Spongebob Squarepants) I don’t get at all. One of my favorites is the HBO version of the Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel performed by Robert Klein. Its animation is a bit dated, but it has good songs and a nice story. Perhaps you’ve read the book (it was read to me when I was little) but a little boy has an idea at the end to spare Mike and his steam shovel, Mary Ann, which prompts the town to say, “Why not?” A song ensues in the video. Why is this relevant to college basketball? When the subject of the expansion of the NCAA tournament comes up, I say, “Why not?”

In general, the college basketball cognoscenti have been nearly unanimously opposed to the idea. Their criticisms seem to include that two many average Tier 1 teams will make the tournament and that the specialness of the tournament will be diluted. Some are bothered that this move seems motivated by money only. They are right: money has no place in college athletics. No place at all! Of course, somebody is making money hand over fist with the broadcasting rights to the games, but perhaps we shouldn’t mention that. Of course, there is also the 25-year tradition to uphold.

My main argument in favor of the larger tournament (or at least not against it) is that we are being offered more high level, elimination-style tournament games and everyone is saying “no thanks?” I don’t think the plan is for the top team to waste time on the 96th seed. The top 16 or 32 teams would probably get a bye past the first rounds or play-in games. This would add another week to the tournament so maybe it would overlap a bit more with the opening of the baseball season (or as I like to call it, my sports offseason), but I don’t understand what the problem is.

In some ways, I think this tournament expansion may have been created by the media and their constant talk of the bubble and subsequent talk of “egregious” snubs. To counter all of that bubble talk, the NCAA seems to be saying, “well, how about if we eliminate the bubble altogether.” All of this bubble talk is worth the same amount as any words spent on weekly polls. I think there’s a pretty good reason I don’t write about the bubble very much: it’s not that interesting. I trust the committee and think they annually do a great job. And, yes, that sounds like I am channeling Clark Kellogg, but on that point (and that point alone), we agree. I do think it would be interesting to be a fly on the wall in the committee’s room. Perhaps they could provide notes of what happens in there after a 20-year period like decommissioning classified information. In any case, there would still be plenty of speculation around the 96-team drop off (the new bubble), so that there would be more conversation about some Tier 2 and 3 teams who did not win their conference tournament, but had strong regular seasons. Again, I ask, how is this a bad thing?

My greatest concerns are for the NIT and newly created CBI (as well as other tournaments that take the NCAA rejects). They aren’t going to have much to work with, but maybe Northwestern will win a tournament or two with the NCAA expansion. And it’s not like we have to deal with some archaic system that relies on something called “bowls.”

Selfishly, I have to admit that I hope the NCAA doesn’t expand the tournament because those three weeks are my crazy time of year when I am even more devoted to college basketball than I am for the other four months of the season (as well as my odd devotion to the offseason). In all, I don’t think a tournament expansion would hurt the product that much. The top teams would still make their way through the bracket until they met other top teams and the small teams (albeit more of them) would have a chance to put on Cinderella’s slipper. And maybe a 16-seed would finally win a game.

Fantasy sports can be an odd thing. We, as owners, can get attached to players that we’d otherwise completely ignore. My first fantasy team was an American League only team back in 1997. I was living in Asia and hadn’t heard of many of the players I drafted. One such player, Brad Radke a pitcher for the Twins, reeled off victory after victory to win a surprising 20 games. Of course, he became my all-time favorite (along with Patty Hentgen, who won a Cy Young that year and helped me win the championship). I maybe saw Radke pitch once or twice in his career.

The same holds true for fantasy college basketball. I’ve only seen Jonathan Rodriguez of Campbell play once (and he went scoreless), but he has been a mainstay on my Syrens team. I hope to see him again before he ends his eligibility at the end of this season. This past weekend, I had an opportunity to watch two of the best players outside of Tier 1 as I mentioned in my last post: Aubrey Coleman of Houston and Damian Saunders of Duquesne. I wondered if watching them would correspond to my idea of them based on statistics only.

First off, I think Cox Sports hoodwinked me a bit by showing a game from earlier in the week on Saturday. I thought Duquesne’s battle with Rhode Island was live, but it turned out that it happened last Wednesday. Since I didn’t know who won or any of the details, it was new to me so there wasn’t much of a difference. Saunders had a nice game and it was easy to see why he is such a valuable player. At the beginning of the game, the Dukes used him to guard the in-bounder in a full court press and he was subsequently deployed in a variety of defense: as a wing in a 2-3 zone and at the top of the perimeter in a 3-2 zone. Although he only had two blocks and no steals in this game, it was not hard to see how he averages 2.7 steals and 3.3 blocks. The Rams seemed to hurry down the court so that he wouldn’t be able to set up to block shots (a strategy that worked fairly well).

While Saunders is a defensive demon, he showed nice basketball IQ on offense as well. He can handle the ball and had a nice awareness of his place on the court and where his teammates were. Saunders struggled from the free throw line (4 of 9) and jacked up four three-pointers, making one, but his team was playing without Bill Clark, one of their offensive lynchpins, so maybe he was forcing a bit more than he would of. Because of his excellent athleticism, he can get easy baskets on alley-oops and put backs. He ended up with eight offensive rebounds and 11 overall to go along with 21 points. He might have been a bit better than even I thought he’d be.

As for Coleman who leads the nation in scoring (25.6 points) and steals (3.2), he was matched up against Memphis and did his best to give the Tigers their second straight Conference USA loss. The 6-foot-4, 200 lb Coleman isn’t overly impressive physically, but he was able to torch the Memphis defense for 32 points on a variety of mid-range jumpers and forays to the basket. He ended up with 32 points and went to the line nine times, making eight.

Coleman only had one steal in the game which was just the second time this season that he had been held below two steals (he only has six thefts in his last four games). His on-ball defense didn’t seem otherworldly, but his quickness was evident. Memphis may have been a bad match up for him because their guards are also very athletic and he couldn’t overwhelm them with his aggressiveness. Unlike Saunders who is a junior, Coleman is a senior, so I hope I get a chance to watch him again. His next game is against Marshall with Hassan Whiteside, who I’d also like to see. Hmmm… I hope ESPN 360 comes through for me. Doesn’t look like I’ll be so lucky.

This morning as I was looking over the games set on my DVR for today, I was quite tempted to cancel the Texas at Connecticut game. I was ready to watch Houston vs. Memphis and Duquesne vs. Rhode Island to see two of the best fantasy players outside of Tier 1 (more on Aubrey Coleman and Damian Saunders hopefully tomorrow), so I figured a third game might be overkill. Fortunately, laziness won out and I forgot to cancel the recording. I started watching a bit of the game in the late afternoon and after watching that huge Stanley Robinson alley-oop dunk, I was hooked.

I happened to watch with the sound on, so I heard the voice of Clark Kellogg. I’ve picked on him before because he adds very little to the game and nothing in his performance changed my mind. However, I finally figured out the term for his dullness: clarkability. It came to me when Kellogg announced that Robinson has bounceability and he has also coined the word spurtability. Clarkability is to say a lot of words and not really say anything interesting. Clark Kellogg is filled with clarkability. In fact, he practically owns the term. If color commentating weren’t in such a sad state, Kellogg might be unique in his clarkability. As long as I am writing about announcer, I might as well mention that Andy Bottoms and I discussed Bobby Knight’s announcing capabilities on Tuesday’s podcast. I meant to note that Knight reminds me of another broadcaster: Billy Packer. Both are filled with basketball knowledge, seem to direct all of their comments to the play-by-play guy, and are utterly devoid of humor. I will say that I enjoyed listening to Bill Raferty announce last weekend’s Syracuse-West Virginia tilt. He brings a little something to games.

I wrote about Texas last month when they looked like an awesome juggernaut against North Carolina. It appears that beating the Tar Heels is no great shakes. In this game, Dexter Pittman was completely taken out of the action with foul trouble and Damion James didn’t start scoring until the affair was out of hand. The most impressive Longhorn in the loss was freshman Avery Bradley. He paced Texas in the first half and looks like a solid two-way guard. As I said last month, I wouldn’t surprised to see him become a star next year when James and Pittman move on.

It’s easy to be impressed by the aforementioned Robinson. In addition to the dunk early in the game (oop, is that the wrong video? Well, give a beleaguered Bucks fan a moment…), he had a variety of athletic baskets and looks like a strong rebounder. He clearly has NBA level athleticism and his shot seems to be coming along (he hit a three-pointer and is converting 45.5% of his threes this season). With his uber-hops, he could be a strong small forward at the next level, but I wonder if his time away from the program will come back to haunt him. Texas has a lot of great athletes, but Robinson was a step above the rest.

Another Husky with potential NBA talent is Kemba Walker. I was very high on him prior to the season and I was upset with myself when I took John Wall ahead of him in the Big Chief draft. Well, that worked out in my favor, but Walker has taken a step in the right direction in his sophomore season. He had his best game in front of the home crowd against Texas with 19 points, 10 assists, and six steals. Walker did miss his first five shots and had six turnovers before making a basket (and eight for the game), but he has excellent quickness. By the way, I think turnovers – like assists - are an overrated stat. The best players always have the most turnovers so I am not in favor of using them for fantasy purposes. They are kind of like strikeouts for hitters in baseball – an acceptable loss. Walker is going to need to work on his three-point shot. He is hitting 35% of his threes, but that is mostly because he started the season well. Since Dec. 9 loss to Kentucky, Walker has made just five of his last 27 three-point attempts (18.5%). Right now, he reminds me of Brevin Knight.

If I overrated Walker coming into the season, I underrated Jerome Dyson who had a career-high 32 points. With his 5.1 assists, Dyson might be the biggest reason that Walker hasn’t prospered. But the 6-foot-4 senior can only do so much. These days, he seems to be settling into the shooting guard role. After opening Big East play with a pair of 10-assist games, Dyson has has 18 assists in his last five games. He does most of his damage attacking the basket, but has hit seven threes in his last two games. The backcourt of the all-Big East team will be interesting. Dyson will have to compete with Dominique Jones, Jeremy Hazell, and Scottie Reynolds for two slots. After his big game against Texas, I’d give the nod to Dyson (and probably Reynolds next to him, although Jones is better for fantasy purposes).

There were a lot of big doings last night in college basketball (Duke losing to North Carolina State, Memphis losing its first Conference USA game in the last four years, etc.), but stubborn guy that I am, I had the DVR set for Baylor at Kansas. By gum, that’s what I was going to watch. Fortunately, the game turned out to be quite compelling if not a big upset.

This year, I had been trying to focus on entire teams, but for this game I decided to ditch that effort and just concentrate on a couple of players. My first priority was to watch Baylor forward/center Ekpe Udoh. For someone who averages a double-double and four blocks a game, I thought he would be bigger. Maybe it was the fact that Josh Lomers and Cole Aldrich were on the court, but Udoh reminded me of Tim Perry who played for Temple in the late ‘80’s. I was surprised to see that he is 240 lbs (whereas Perry was 6-foot-10, 200 lbs). Udoh collected a couple of early fouls and did not have much impact on the game. He did show a nice offensive game, including a sweet turn-around post move and he hit his fifth three-pointer of the season.

Although it seemed like Kansas was the superior team, Baylor managed to stay within striking distance and even had the score all tied up a halftime. LaceDarius Dunn was the main reason. He hit four threes in the first half and most of them seemed like terrible shots. It’s hard to argue with the results, but that is apparently Dunn’s game. While he is doing a little better in passing the ball (36 assists this year through 17 games, whereas he had 24 in 39 last year), I’d imagine most of his baskets are also assist-less. He’s a talented offensive player, but it’s hard to see how a black hole like Dunn would be featured on a
consistent winner.

I was also very curious about Aldrich and why his offensive game has disappeared. Part of his statistical downturn is due to less playing time and another part is due to the emergence of Marcus Morris (as Asa Tysseling noted on the CHFI Podcast. Aldrich is big and fairly skilled, but I don’t think he is special. Morris did have a nice game with 22 points before fouling out.

What I think Kansas needs is a mind meld between Aldrich and point guard Sherron Collins. Collins seems to be in a better place than he was last year when it seemed like the whole team was on his shoulders. This year, he has Xavier Henry to take some of the offensive burden, but I still think Collins shoots too much (and Aldrich shoots too little – mind meld needed!). Against Baylor’s loose defense, Collins had a nice game – 28 points, four assists and no turnovers – but I don’t see him as a pro prospect. Henry, however, looks like a pro already. It’s hard to believe he’s just 18-year-old. He’s mainly just a shooter at this point, but it’s not hard to see him as a swingman in the NBA.

There is nothing like watching a good comeback (and maybe that will include this blog which has been on hiatus while I try to figure out my new schedule – who knew having free time would require doling out said free time). I watched the first half of the Marquette-Villanova game last night with middling interest. As has been my habit, I ruined the ending for myself by looking at the scores (they are getting increasingly difficult to stay ignorant of) and watched the exciting second half this morning.

What struck me in the first half was how – once again – ridiculously deep Villanova’s backcourt is. Of course, this comes with usual problem of not having enough forwards, but when you are guard-rich like the Wildcats, you get along on the perimeter. The star continues to be Scottie Reynolds, but the two Coreys (Fisher and Stokes) are coming along. Reggie Redding does a little of everything and the two freshman – Maalik Wayns and Dominic Cheek – could be starting on most of the teams in the nation. Coach Jay Wright (who reminded me of a gangster in his pinstripe suit) must be tempted to go with an all-guard lineup. Forward Antonio Pena looks serviceable, but it a noticeable step down from past lone Villanova forwards like Dante Cunningham and Curtis Sumpter. It would have been interesting to see what Cassiem Drummond could do on this team had he not transferred (Drummond is out of action for Marist because of academic suspension). Maybe Mouphtaou Yarou, who is back after missing 11 games because of Hepatitis, will fill a frontcourt role later in the season.

Despite being rated number six in the country, Villanova has noticeable holes. Obviously, so many guards led to rebounding problems (just like West Virginia’s all-forward lineup led to some ball handling issues) but Marquette doesn’t come back if they don’t have so many open three-point shots. In the first half, the Golden Eagles shot poorly and found themselves down 22 points in the middle of the second half. Then, the lid came off the hoop and seemingly every three that was launched found the bottom of the net.

Lazar Hayward struggled with fouls in the first half, but made four of those three-pointers in the second half and ended with 20 points. The 6-foot-7 forward has not shrunk from being the man in Milwaukee and his scoring has increased (even as his field goal percentage and rebounding have dipped a bit). Darius Johnson-Odom supplies guard play and moxie. The sophomore juco transfer hit three more three-pointers and played with fire.

The close loss has been a frequent visitor for Marquette. Each of their last four games has been decided by three points or less and Marquette has only won one of them (a three-point win at home over Georgetown last Wednesday). While some people will point to the late game execution (which wasn’t bad against the Wildcats) and note that Buzz Williams should prepare his players better, I think it is just due to bad luck. Granted, all of these losses won’t help the Golden Eagles dance in March, but my guess is that they’ll get their share of wins before Big East play is done.

And now a few assorted comments that I’ve accrued in the past ten days since last writing:

*Why is it every time I see Cole Aldrich I can hear Bill Walton saying “Greg OEOEstertag!”?

*During the ESPN telecast of Memphis-Syracuse, they showed a time of possession stat that showed that the Tigers took twice as long per possession as the Orange. I don’t think that type of stat is worth much in basketball (for football, it is often essential) and it was pretty clear that the Tigers were trying to slow down the pace as they just held onto the ball for half the shot clock on each possession. If I were a player, that would indicate to me that my coach doesn’t think we have enough talent to beat the opponent, so we are going with a gimmick.

*Villanova and Memphis were somewhat akin. I don’t remember anyone from Memphis’ frontcourt doing anything.

*I mainly watched the game to see Elliot Williams and Wesley Johnson. One can only wonder what Williams would have meant to this year’s Duke team. It may have been a transfer that worked out for both player and team. He did memorably miss a dunk, but it didn’t shatter the backboard. As for Johnson, I was wondering how a decent forward from Iowa State a couple of years ago could transform into a superstar. He is currently the fourth best prospect on Chad Ford’s top 100. As I’ve written before, I don’t think Ed Davis is all that great, I haven’t seen Derrick Favors do much, and I think Xavier Henry has a pro body and a perfect situation to accentuate his skills. I think Al-Farouq Aminu is a better pro prospect than any of those three players and I figured he had more talent than Johnson as well. After getting an eyeful of Wesley, I don’t think Jim Boeheim has been blowing smoke. Johnson has a smooth game that reminded me of Grant Hill. Johnson may not be the passer that Hill is, but he is a better rebounder. Other than John Wall, I don’t think this is a great potential draft class, but it might be decent.

I had a feeling, for whatever reason, that Oklahoma would head to the Pacific Northwest and steal a victory from Gonzaga. As such, my anticipated story line for the game was to compare Tier 2 teams to small market teams in baseball: they have to adjust their expectations. Just as the Kansas City Royals can hope to win half their games, the Zags and their ilk, can hope to make the Sweet 16. Wishing beyond that may be dangerous. However, my impression of the Zags made as they got pummeled by Duke last week may have been hasty. Or maybe I thought the Sooners were better than they are.

In any case, like the Oakland A’s and Florida Marlins, Gonzaga has found ways of being competitive annually that are different than power conference teams. Coach Mark Few will clearly allow players to have any hairstyle they like (the floppier, the better). All kidding aside, they seem to have a European pipeline and have made good guesses on some other players. I still kind of wonder how Gonzaga would do if they were promoted into the Pac 10. My guess is that they’d be a middle rated Tier 1 team. Why is that teams in conferences have to be the same for football and basketball? It’s not as if professional teams in the same cities have to be same divisions across sports. And, yes, I know that professional teams like the Yankees and Jets have nothing to do with each other (other than sharing a city).

As for the game, the Oklahoma defense was terrible. They appear to have a talented, albeit young roster and coach Jeff Capel doesn’t have them playing defense very intensely. Some of this may be because their leader, Willie Warren, is a bit of a head case. The 6-foot-4 guard was benched earlier in the season by Capel and he has given his point guard role almost exclusively to freshman Tommy Mason-Griffin. Maybe he is somewhat confused by his role. Prior to last night’s game, he had at least three assists in every game. Against Gonzaga, he went assist-less and had five turnovers.

Oklahoma did shoot well in the first half to keep the game from being a blowout. At one point, they had hit 60% of their threes and were still losing by a dozen points. Gonzaga also shot well and that was easy to do when they were able to get opportunities around the basket. Freshman Elias Harris was also on fire and hit his first five shots. He ended up with 16 points and nine rebounds. Gonzaga has a deep roster and I imagine they won’t have much trouble coming out of the WCC again. Back to my baseball analogy, they are the Yankees of the West Coast Conference. And as for my last article, Gonzaga also has huge guards. It was good to see the Zags play well.

The game also featured one of those rare plays: the destruction of a backboard. I thought the glass of modern baskets wasn’t supposed to shatter in such a way. The play happened in the middle of the second half. Warren was going for his first assist and threw a lob intended for Tiny Gallon. Zag freshman center Robert Sacre blocked the lob away, but Gallon hung on the rim. Glass rained down. The play reminded me of Bird vs. Dr. J on the Apple. I haven’t played basketball video games for awhile, but I hope they haven’t gotten away from shattering backboards. Because it took an hour to replace the basket, I wasn’t able to see the end of the game. I figured I’d seen enough to know how things turned out.

I think now more than ever is the age of the big guard in basketball. If you look at the teams that have been successful in both the NCAA’s and the NBA, there are very few short guards. The only one I can think of winning a championship in the recent past is Rajon Rondo with the Celtics, but he was a fourth option when they won. Tywon Lawson is quite short as well and is one of the few exceptions. If you look at the abdicated Memphis team from 2007-08, Kansas from the same year, the Lakers from last year or even all of those championship Bulls teams, you’ll find massive guards (and the occasional Steve Kerr). So, good luck to my Milwaukee Bucks as they try to evolve into a winner behind slight Brandon Jennings.

While this trend toward bigger players (in the frontcourt to a lesser degree because there simply aren’t that many really huge people) seems inevitable, I think Bob Huggins might taking it a bit far. For one of the few times that I can remember, I was actually jarred when seeing the starting lineups announced this weekend when West Virginia took on Seton Hall. ESPN announced the Mountaineers’ starting backcourt as 6-foot-7 Da’Sean Butler and 6-foot-9 Devin Ebanks. “That must be a mistake,” I thought, “That’s West Virginia’s frontcourt.” Oh, it was no mistake even though the announced backcourt was bigger than the three starting forwards (Wellington Smith, John Flowers, and Kevin Jones). That Huggins is a mad scientist and I like him. It’s not like he doesn’t have traditional point guards on the roster with Joe Mazzula and Truck Bryant, but they are apparently in the Huggy doghouse.

Seton Hall went with the more conventional two guards, two forwards, and a center lineup, so I figured this would be a fascinating case study (as well as the only game on the schedule for Saturday). The Mountaineers built a nice lead against a traditional Pirate defense. Seton Hall coach Bobby Gonzalez, seeing that West Virginia was going without a traditional guard, brought out the full court press. I figured this would be a good tactic against tall guys who can’t dribble as well as small fry, but the forward-laden Mountaineers handled the press very well.

In fact, West Virginia was in control for the majority of the first 39 minutes of the game. The 6-foot-7 to 6-foot-9 Mountaineer lineup controlled the boards (Ebanks finished with 17 and Kevin Jones had 14) and deterred the Pirate guards into some horrible shooting. Jeremy Hazell did finish with 41 points, but he took 33 shots and went just 4 of 19 from three-point land. Of course, one of those threes was in the waning seconds to tie the game as the Pirates went on a scoring spree in the final minutes to erase a 10-point deficit. Hazell did have a rough time from the perimeter, but he is another big guard (6-foot-5) who can slash his way to the basket. He isn’t much interested in passing, however, and has just three games this season with more than one assist.

The other Pirate I was very interested to watch was Herb Pope. I was excited when he ran away from Tier 1 and landed at New Mexico State. That lasted less than a college year and he ran back to the east coast. I have always associated him with Lamar Odom, who was one of the better college players from the late ‘90’s. I don’t know whether it is four-letter last name, something I had read, or his troubled past, but the connection remained. Like Odom, Pope is a fine rebounder, but I don’t think he is as athletic and he certainly isn’t as wiry. He had an effective game from everywhere except the free throw stripe (going a horrendous 1 of 10 – all of which I fast-forwarded past).

I think the Mountaineers are a serious threat to win the Big East (big talk seeing as they are undefeated through 10 games) and I hope Huggins continues to play this all-forward lineup. I think their New Years’ game against Purdue should be a great battle. I look forward to seeing Seton Hall again. I thought they played well in front of the home crowd and may end up being a tournament team.

Last year I took a couple of opportunities to write about fantasy fans vs. “real” fans and my lack of interest in humanity, er, I mean human interest stories. I was reminded of those stories this weekend while watching North Carolina battle Texas at the new Texas Stadium, which seemed like an active participant in the game. I am sure the majesty of Jerry Jones’ ego (otherwise known as the 180 foot HD-screen) is impressive to see in person, but that doesn’t really translate over TV (non-HD no less). Because they could, ESPN kept showing weird floating angles, which are fine for replays but just annoy me during the game because I can’t tell what is going on. If I wanted to watch a game live with a lousy vantage point, I’d be happy to pay $10 and see the Ragin’ Cajuns. I don’t want to pay and I want to see – how’s that for being demanding? All in all, I found the concentration on the venue to be annoying. If I wanted to discuss architecture, I’d turn on PBS. I am sure it is a nice place to watch a game, but I am more interested in what happens on the court than around it (or off it, for that matter).

I was really curious to see the Tar Heels again. They looked like a second rate team against Kentucky and I can’t say that they looked much better against the quasi-home town Longhorns. I paid particular attention to Ed Davis and I think he may slightly better than I previously thought. Davis had a variety of moves around the basket and tip ins for what ended up what looked like a pretty decent game of 21 points and nine boards. His frontcourt mate, Deon Thompson, however, did not have a good game (3 of 12 from the field) and none of the other Tar Heels stuck out. Unfortunately for UNC, I had just watched Duke eviscerate Gonzaga and that made North Carolina look like a second rung ACC team. Roy Williams has nothing to be ashamed about – there simply aren’t teams that win every year. When Harrison Barnes and his fellow freshmen come to Chapel Hill, all will right again with the Yankees of college basketball.

This was my first opportunity to watch Texas and it was hard not to be impressed. Dexter Pittman has gone from large to in charge. He hoovered up 15 rebounds in 26 minutes and put in a season high 23 points. Maybe what Rocky said at the end of Rocky IV is true: “If youse can change, and I’se can change, we all can change.” Pittman has gone from an underconditioned big man to what looked like the star of the team. The Longhorns have legions of good players on the bench, but for this game, it was all about Pittman. I think he is probably too slow to be a good NBA player, but I am sure the Basketball Prospectus people are drooling over his per-40 metrics and 73.4% from the field. That’s efficient.

Other Texas players I enjoyed watching were Turkish guard Dogus Balbay and freshman Avery Bradley. Balbay plays with a sense of style. His stat line says that he only produced two points, two rebounds, and two assists, but at one point, he did a scissors kick when corralling the ball. For someone who used to rate his tennis matches on style points (not wins and losses), I was impressed. Bradley looks like he could be an ace scorer on a team with less depth. He did score a season-high 20 and has averaged 18 points over his last four games, but Texas simply has too much depth for him to become a top fantasy prospect. If he sticks around Austin next year when Pittman and Damion James leave, he could mature in a 20-point scorer.

From a statistical standpoint, James is one of the more interesting players since I started writing about college basketball five years ago. Has there ever been a player who produced at such a high level and never really be the man on his team? Remember, James came to Austin four years ago with Kevin Durant and D.J. Augustin. Durant had one of the greatest freshman seasons ever and left. Augustin proved he could be the top banana in his sophomore year and left. Last year, James was clearly the Longhorns’ most valuable player, but A.J. Abrams took the most shots. At least from one game this season, it looked like Pittman has taken the spotlight away from James who did have 25 points and 15 rebounds against the Tarheels. When he finishes his Longhorn career, James will likely have some of the best cumulative numbers in school history. In fact, the 6-foot-7 swingman is just four rebounds shy of becoming the school’s all-time rebounder and will likely finish as a top ten scorer and shot blocker. Despite his longevity, he is rarely mentioned among the best players in college basketball. Maybe he should be.

I don’t know why it should matter so much, but I really prefer to watch games in which I don’t know the final outcome. I guess watching a game in which I know which team is going to win (which has been the case fairly often of late) is like reading a book for the second time. You might not remember the details, but you remember the basic structure. Maybe that’s why I don’t reread many books. In any case, I had the opportunity to watch a couple of games fresh this past weekend. I watched a double-header of John Wall and I think Kentucky should be number one in the country. Who have Texas and Kansas beat? As always, polls are silly. The game I focused most on, however, was Washington-Georgetown.

I had seen both teams before so I knew kind of what to expect. I watched the majority of Washington’s overtime loss to Texas Tech before the DVR ran out (which wouldn’t have happened if fans didn’t rush the court at the end of regulation). I was kind of surprised by how sloppy the Huskies were. I also watched some of Georgetown earlier in the week when they beat Butler. By the way, I think Butler will be just fine. Like Southern Illinois two years ago and Davidson last year, they seemed to have overscheduled. It will work out for them in the end, but I am not sure they are ready to face the Georgetowns and Clemsons of the world.

My main focus for the Hoyas was on Greg Monroe. Despite his length and apparent athleticism, it’s easy to see why pro scouts aren’t crazy about him: he’s too passive. He reminded me a bit of a late model David Robinson. Now I don’t think you necessarily have to play with a visible anger, but Monroe – who had 15 points and seven boards – seems to be infected by the slowness of life on the bayou (just like me!). It will be interesting to see how his collegiate career progresses and if he makes the jump to the NBA after this year. It seems like he could be a decent role player in the NBA and does seem like a good passer for a big man, but he’s not more than that.

Despite losing both times I have watched them, I think the Huskies are quite an interesting team. They have two excellent scorers in Quincy Pondexter and Isaiah Thomas, and they play at a fast pace. However, they seem to be like an all-star team in that they lack players to do a lot of the dirty work. They reminded me of this game my dad used to play in his philosophy classes. Every student could vote secretly to be virtuous or selfish. If everyone was virtuous, the entire class profited. If almost everyone was virtuous, the class profited less and the selfish people got extra credit. If everyone voted selfish, no one profited. Washington looks like a team in which no one is going to profit from their selfishness.

Perhaps the most depressing thing for a Husky fan is that they have what looks to be a virtuosic player on the bench. Heralded freshman Abdul Gaddy seems to have team-first instincts that are lost in the shuffle as Thomas, Pondexter, and Venoy Overton control the ball. I may be overrating Gaddy, a 6-foot-3 Tacoma native, here but it seems to me that the offense would flow much better if he were given the reins. The Huskies defense might be better if they didn’t have Thomas on the perimeter as well. They could also use some bigs (ahem, Charles Garcia) to help Pondexter on the boards. He is averaging 9.1 rebounds, but that is mainly buoyed by big totals against Belmont (11), Portland State (13), and San Jose State (15). In his last four games, he has returned to career norms of 6.3 rebounds.

And Washington is supposed to be the best team in the Pac 10? This leads me to believe that the Pac 10 may only be a one-bid conference. When I checked yesterday, they were ninth in conference RPI and the ten teams only had one win over a top 70 RPI-rated team (Arizona State’s win over LSU). Now, I’ll grant you that it is early in the season and teams like California (with Theo Robertson back from injury) and Arizona (as their freshmen learn to play together) could get better, but it fairly grim for teams like Washington when you say your best non-conference win is against Wright State.

The SEC was as bad a Tier 1 conference last year, but this year’s Pac 10 appears to be worse. They will need some fluky happenstances – like Mississippi State winning the SEC tournament last year – to get as many as three teams in the tournament. Part of the problem is that the signature program, UCLA, is having a tough year. Injuries, suspensions, and desertions make it unlikely that the Bruins will emerge from their stupor in 2009-10. Of course, they won’t stay down for long because Josh Smith – a 6-foot-10 center prospect – and Tyler Lamb will be coming next year. Of course, we heard applause for J’Mison Morgan and Jerime Anderson as well. On the whole, I won’t feel sorry for the Pac 10, I just won’t watch.

It isn’t often that I feel sorry for North Carolina (the basketball team, not the state that I have never been to). I guess you could say the Tar Heels looked pitiful two years ago in the Final Four against Kansas, but even then North Carolina was a top-seeded team with the world’s greatest guy, Tyler Hansbrough (Did you know he likes puppies?!?), and had made the Final Four. Yet, on Saturday, I felt myself feeling sorry for one of the most storied teams in college basketball when they looked like a mid-major team against Kentucky. It was as if the establishment had gone sideways. By the way, for all of the applause that the San Diego Chargers get for their powder blue uniforms, isn’t Carolina blue almost the same color? Why is there no applause for the Yankees of college basketball? Maybe I just answered my own question.

In any case, what looked like a nice match up on paper turned out to be anything but. In the first half, the Wildcats blitzed UNC and at one point had a 28-2 run. John Wall has received much deserved praise, but I was expecting the Tar Heel frontcourt to hold its own against Patrick Patterson and DeMarcus Cousins. It didn’t happen. Ed Davis Jr. is supposed to be a highly regarded pro prospect but he was a nonfactor against Kentucky. If Patterson can stay healthy and Cousins can adjust his attitude slightly, it’s hard to see how Kentucky won’t be a favorite to win the National Championship.

Let’s talk about Wall a bit more. The 6-foot-5 freshman who seems to be waiting out this year so he can be the number one pick in next year’s NBA draft is the real deal. He had some jaw-dropping moves in the open court, did not monopolize the ball, and looked like he has a nice outside stroke. I think the comparison with Dwayne Wade is appropriate. Jeff Goodman compared the start of his career to Derrick Rose’s, but I think that’s not the best comparison. Rose started out slowly and was never really a statistical (i.e. fantasy) beast until the NCAA tournament when he became unguardable in half court sets. Wall did most of his damage in the fast break and looked to push the pace – so much so that he forgot to drink his Gatorade and was slowed by cramps at the beginning of the second half (even more reminiscent of Wade).

If I were a conspiracy theorist, I’d have thought that Tar Heel coach Roy Williams called the powers that be at CBS at halftime. Roy would have said, “Isn’t it bad enough that I am coaching with a surgically repaired shoulder and this darn splint?” So, an executive at CBS sent a message to coach John Calipari that would have read something like this, “John, we need to make this game competitive. We don’t care what excuse you have to make, just get Wall out of there for awhile.” And suddenly Wall came down with “cramps.” Of course, that’s just silly, but the game did tighten up in the second half.

While it would make sense to give North Carolina credit for making a nice comeback in the second half, I thought it was more a case of Kentucky playing poorly than UNC playing well. Without their sparkplug in Wall, the Wildcats looked discombobulated. Cousins had to be sat down and looked pouty on the bench. When Wall returned, he seemed to lack that extra gear. Meanwhile, Tar Heel shots that had rattled out in the first half, started rattling in. Will Graves made four three-pointers, including a meaningless three in the final seconds to finish the scoring, and Deon Thompson did a bit of damage inside. With Thompson, Davis, the Wear brothers, and Tyler Zeller, I would have thought the Tar Heel bigs would have matched up with anyone, but they looked like the less talented group compared to Patterson, Cousins, Daniel Orton, and my personal favorite Perry Stevenson.

One interesting tidbit from the post-game interview: Calipari called Sports Illustrated writer Seth Davis a Nazi. Well, not directly, but when asked about Davis’ prediction that the Tar Heels would win from milquetoast personified (Clark Kellogg), Calipari claimed that Davis also predicted the Germans would win World War II. How Davis knew the events of a war concluded 25 years before his birth is just another of those Calipari secrets (like the fact that I took Derrick Rose’s SAT. We got an 1130, which was suspiciously low for me.) Calipari did note that his team is young and does a lot of dumb things. While he may strike me as a snake oil salesman, I think Calipari will get those wrinkles ironed out by the tournament and I wouldn’t mind seeing Kentucky face the other Wildcats (Kansas) at some point down the road.