Maybe it was the perfect example of
“how level the playing field has become” in college basketball.
“Parity” is the catch word in the
sport these days, right?
Or maybe it was just one of those
quirky coincidences.
But on Saturday, the
Kansas,
Kentucky,
North Carolina and UCLA teams all
lost – and on their home floors, to boot.
Remember the days when just one of
those “traditional powers” losing at home might provide the biggest college
basketball news on a given day or night?
And the thing is, the only one of
the teams inflicting defeat upon the aforementioned squads that definitely seems
bound for the NCAA Tournament right now is Washington (which beat the Bruins
after trailing by as many as 14 points early in the second half).
Freaky.
BOUNCING AROUND THE
COUNTRY:
*The Connecticut Huskies brought
the whipping switches with them to the Carrier Dome Monday night and wasted
little time in using them on the host Syracuse Orange, which appeared to be one
of the hottest teams in the country coming into the Big East Conference
game.
The final margin of victory by the
Huskies was only eight points (88-80) but the decisiveness of the performance by
Jim Calhoun’s team is better
illustrated by the fact that it led by as many as 24 points and was in still
front by 17 with 1:36 to play.
Junior point guard Marcus Williams (14 points, 11 assists
and four steals Monday night) is getting better every game. And when junior Josh Boone (18 points and 10 rebounds)
is as active and forceful as he was against the
Orange,
Connecticut truly does have collective
frontcourt power surpassing that possessed by anyone else.
The Huskies and Duke remain easily
the two safest choices to get to the Final Four, even if each stumbles a few
times in Big East and Atlantic Coast Conference play, respectively.
*Florida
and Pittsburgh might be the only
remaining unbeaten team in the country today if the Clemson Tigers hadn’t been
so inept at the free-throw line against the visiting Duke Blue Devils
Saturday.
Duke won 87-77, after the Tigers
climbed to within six points with a little less than two minutes to
play.
And what might have happened if
Clemson had managed to do a tad better than six-of-21 on unguarded shots from 15
feet away with the clock stopped (aka, “free throws”)?
The Blue Devils might be 15-1 and
16-0 Florida would be No.
1.
The gut feeling says that Duke will
have to play better, especially defensively, to remain unbeaten after its ACC
game in Cameron Indoor Stadium with North
Carolina State
Wednesday. And it also says that the Blue Devils will do just that.
*Unless the Mountain West or
Western Athletic Conference can each bag an at-large bid, it could be very slim
pickings for western-based conferences come March 12 when the NCAA Tournament
field of 65 is unveiled.
Projecting three bids from the Pac
10 (Arizona, UCLA and Washington)
right now, with the automatic spots guaranteed the Big West, Big Sky, West Coast
and aforementioned Mountain West and Western Athletic conferences, the “west”
could have just eight teams in the 2006 tournament.
The last time those conference’s
collective tournament total was fewer than nine was in 1986, when
Arizona,
Montana
State, Pepperdine,
Tulsa, UNLV, UTEP,
Utah and
Washington were part of the
tournament.
*Does any conference have as many
“impact” freshmen as does the Big East?
It appears doubtful.
Dominic James and Jerel McNeal (Marquette), Devan Downey (Cincinnati), Jeff Adrien (Connecticut), Eric Devendorf (Syracuse), Sam Young and Levance Fields (Pittsburgh), Anthony Farmer and J.R. Inman (Rutgers), Terrence Williams (Louisville), Anthony Mason (St. John’s), Luke Zeller and Kyle McAlarney (Notre Dame), Wilson Chandler (DePaul),, and Sharaud Curry, Geoff McDermott and Weyinmi Efejuku (Providence) are each
having outstanding first seasons.
Let’s give the 5-11 James (14.6
points, 4.3 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game) the frontrunner’s status for Big
East Freshman of the Year.
And, if you caught his act (28
points, six rebounds and eight assists) in his team’s 104-85 loss to
West Virginia Saturday, you’ll
understand why he’ll deserve strong consideration for the national version of
the honor as well.
Tyler Hansbrough
(North Carolina), Shawne Williams
(Memphis) and Tyrus Thomas (LSU) would appear to be
his most serious national competition.
Inducted into the USBWA Hall of
Fame last April, Frank Burlison is Scout.com’s national basketball expert and is
also a columnist for the Long Beach (Calif.) Press-Telegram. He can be reached at
frank.burlison@presstelegram.com. Read more of Burlison’s pieces at
www.FrankHoops.com