It's time for the first installment of our Campus Countdown! Throughout the CBB season we'll keep you in the know as only RSS can. We'll give you our Elite 8 Teams, Starting 5 (star players), 4 Corners (games to watch), 3 Point Play (3 Random Thoughts), 2 Man Game (coaches in the spotlight), And 1 from now until the end of March... or April, whenever the tournament ends. We'll update periodically throughout bowl season and then hit the hardwood in full come January.
Elite 8 - We don't just regurgitate the AP or Coaches Polls. These are the real rankings based upon which teams have actually done the most and looked the best in the first month of the college season. All these teams are currently unbeaten. UK (our friends at Strait Pinkie, who cover UK BBall among other things, ask whether their unbeaten start hides some flaws here) and Syracuse have the best resume by beating multiple Top 15 teams. The rest of the Elite 8 are fairly standard, although it would be nice to see teams like Kansas, Texas, and Purdue get tested in the next few weeks.
1) Kentucky
2) Syracuse
3) Kansas
4) Villanova
5) Texas
6) Purdue
7) Georgetown
8) Florida
Starting 5 - The 5 Players You Need To Hear About...
G - John Wall (UK) - The sensational freshman is on his way to the Naismith Award. If they had a Naismith type ceremony (or if they do and nobody knows/cares), Johnnie Wall can book his ticket. As Y2 said, he's a DWade/DRose crossover. The numbers back it up: 25 pts against UConn and 2nd in the nation in assists.
G - Evan Turner (OSU) - Had 2 Triple Doubles for the Bucks before breaking his back (yes, you read that right) on this hard fall...
Alongside John Wall, Turner was playing the best bball in the nation. The Buckeyes will struggle until he comes back in a couple months.
F - Craig Monroe (GTown) - His all-around play (15 ppg, 10+ rpg, 3 apg) has led GTown to an unbeaten start and he had a huge game of 24 and 15 in the Garden to beat Butler.
F - Luke Harangody (ND) - Notre Dame isn't making a big dent on the national landscape, but Harangody leads the NCAA in total points and is averaging 10 boards per game.
F - Wes Johnson (Cuse) - The transfer from Iowa State has been the main reason that Syracuse has been able to recover from the losses of Flynn and others. Plus he plays big in big games: 25/8 v UNC, 17/11 v Cal.
4 Corners - The 4 Games to watch this week...
-Thursday 9PM (ESPN): #6 Syracuse v #11 Florida - The two most pleasant surprises in CBB square off in something called the DirecTV SEC/Big East Invitational, whatever that is... anyways, this is one of the more intriguing games we'll see in the non-conference slate to see if one or both of these teams are a legit threat for a Final 4 run.
-Saturday Noon (ESPN): #15 OSU v #20 Butler - Thad Matta faces his old club, but don't buy too much into this as a statement game with Evan Turner missing. Expect the Bulldogs to bounce back after a tough loss to Georgetown.
-Saturday 2PM (FSN): #13 GTown v #11 Washington - Craig Monroe and the Hoyas travel cross country to face Quincy Pondexter and the Huskies in the Wooden Classic. Two teams under the radar that will be popular dark horse picks come March.
-Sunday 7PM (ESPNU): #19 Cincy v Xavier - One of the best rivalries that you don't know about. The Crosstown Shootout is always a rough and tumble affair and while Xavier has had the edge recently, the Bearcats are back on the rise with FR Lance Stephenson and Yancy Gates.
3 Point Play - 3 Random Thoughts
1) The Big 10 finally won one!!! WOOOO!! After sooo many years of toil and heartache, the Big 10 finally won a Big 10/ACC Shootout. Wow, I've waited all my life for this... wait, no one cares? Oh, sorry. It'll give people pause when ripping the conference as slow, unathletic, and methodical, but in the grand scheme of things these conference showdowns are shallow media creations and money grabs. Do you think Dick Vitale and others will love the ACC any less? Do you think anybody will players, pundits, or fans will mention this come March? Didn't think so.
2) So... to combat that, the Pac 10 & Big 12 and SEC & Big East are starting a series of matchups for conference supremacy. Again, who cares? I don't know when the hysteria about conference power rankings started, but it's very overrated. If I were a fan, I want my team cutting down the nets in the end, period. If it's a conference rival, I'm not going to be jumping up in down in jubilation. As a Missouri fan, I'm not going to be glued to my TV to see if Colorado can beat USC or if Kansas can beat Arizona and win one for the Big 12.
3) Is the one and done rule good or bad for the college game? On one hand, guys like Wall, Rose, Durant, Anthony and the rest do feature for one season. But, on the other, it seems like there are no lasting iconic figures in the college game. All of the great players are gone before they have a lasting impact. It's the nature of the beast and I don't think it is a black and white issue. It's one of those things where it's both.
2 Man Game - Two Coaches In The Spotlight
-Bob Huggins (West Virginia) - Huggy Bear has had his ups and his downs in his career. But, when he was hired at his alma mater in West Virginia, I don't think anyone expected that he would make the Mountaineers a Top 10 consistent presence. Huggins took a program that had grew exponentially under Jon Beilein and taken it to another level. Mountaineer fans should knock on wood that it stays that way... I guess there's not too much trouble in West Virginia to get in to (insert it's all relative joke here)...
- Matt Painter (Purdue) - With the Bobby Bowden mess going on at Florida State, it's important to look to Purdue to see how the whole "coach in waiting" or transition period should be handled. Painter was hired from SIU as an assistant for one season while Purdue legend Gene Keady retired. It was much smoother than anything we've seen on the football side of things and now Painter's Boilermakers are the favs to win the Big 10 for a program that had gone stale at the end of the Keady regime. Painter has done a great job.
And 1...
-The proposal to expand the tournament from 64 to 96 teams might be the single worst idea that I have ever heard. Why would you want to fix something that is absolutely perfect the way it is? Why would you want to let in not 1, or 2, or 5... but 32 more flipping teams to the tournament!!! I don't think people grasp how many mediocre teams that will bring into the "big dance." The bubble talk would consist of teams that are 13-18. Do we really want to put Joe Lunardi through that? Would you tune in to see Duquesne square off with Colorado State in the "First Round?" How about Northwestern vs Rider? Maybe we'll get two titans in the "First Round" and see Sacramento State and South Dakota State square off!! Get juiced to fill out those office pools! 96 teams?? We can't even get 8 in a football playoff!
*Self-promotion note... we'll have our YCS playoff coming soon here at RSS! Stay tuned to find who earns the real national championship! Oh, and follow us on twitter by clicking on the upper right hand part of the page*
Seriously though, if the tournament expands, it might be the death of March Madness as we know it. Expanding to two extra rounds kills the chances of Cinderellas (could a George Mason make it through 2 extra rounds?), turns off all of the extra viewers that tune in for the tourney, takes away the magic of the early rounds, and most importantly screws up something that is perfect as it is. March Madness is sport in the most purest and best sense as we know it in this country... don't cheapen it forever for a few extra bucks.
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