College basketball thread...

Their record is at least mediocre. I think Arizona is pretty good actually, but I was slamming the Cougs. You can't get blasted like that an remain in the top 25. Didn't they get blown out against UCLA as well?

 

Yeah, losing to UCLA is horrible.

 

Exactly. Add to that the game was at Pauley Pavilion. The Cougars are a definitely Top 25 team. They had a bad game against Arizona, but showed a lot of heart rallying to make the UCLA game close.

Speaking of UCLA, they've lost twice but injuries have been key to the team. However, it now appears that Darren Collison is starting to hit his stride and Kevin Love has been awesome (he's an almost automatic double-double and deserves more touches in the post). I can't wait for the tournament because for the first time in a few years (i.e. no Florida dynasty), I think it's a wide-open race this year.

 

When Arizona is hitting threes they can beat anyone.

Bayless and Budinger are a tough 1-2 combo. Possibly as good as any 1-2 combo in the country.

 

The *only* appeal St. Johns would have for Pitino is the chance to go home to the New York area. But he claims to love the state of Kentucky, he's a horse guy and he's had ZERO trouble recruiting the NY/NJ area as the coach at both UK and Louisville. And I think UofL would match pretty much any salary St. Johns could come up with unless it's through the roof. I don't think St. Johns has enough money.

So while Pitino would be a home run candidate, I think the chances of him leaving Louisville for anything but retirement are slim and none.

He's having a hard enough time in the Big East at Louisville -- which isn't to say he's not doing a fine job. Just think of what he'd have to do to rebuild the Johnnies.

 

I don't know if Wazzu will be shown to be a Top 10 team over time, but the team has played five of its first seven conference games on the road and looked damn tired on that Arizona trip. They've won four road games against teams that have been in the Top 25 at one point or another this season. They're plenty legit, but time will tell how that holds up. The question now would have to be, who do you put above them?

As for Arizona, the Wildcats are surging since the return of Jarryd Bayless largely because the kid is a stud. They lost half of their games when he was out with an injury and two of the losses with him were to Memphis and Kansas. The Arizona team I saw last weekend is DAMN good. Skilled (as always) but physical and more defensive-minded than I have ever seen. Wazzu looked bad in that loss, but I think Arizona, especially at home, is going to make a lot of teams looks bad.

 

Don't look now -- UConn wins again without Dyson and Wiggins, this time over Louisville.

Quite an impressive run the Huskies are on right now.

 

Tom Jurich is probably having second thoughts about moving UofL to the Big East. The Big East isn't the old Metro Conference.

 

You're joking, right?

 

Tom Jurich may be happy, but Pitino hates it. As does Jim Boeheim, Jim Calhoun, and pretty much every coach who has to explain to his fans why 5 or 6 losses is a good thing in that clusterfuck of a league.

 

So, one bad loss on the road against a pretty good team means you should drop from No. 6 out of the top 25? Really? That is a ridiculous statement.
And they didn't get blown out by UCLA, they lost by 9 or so on the road.

 

I'm still scratching my head how Mississippi State whips Ole Miss by 20 and the Rebels stay in both polls ahead of the Bullies.

The computers sure do like Ole Miss better, though, with an RPI in the teens while MState is slogging along in the 50s.