OT: Weekend games

There are some good games on today that are going to give me the opportunity to really get a feel for some of the top tier teams. I'm on the record saying that Syracuse will beat Louisville (home court or not). After watching Syracuse play SDSU in the carrier classic first game of the year I knew they were legit. They are long and athletic. I have three teams that worry me right now and Syracuse is on the top of that list (Indiana and Kansas are the others).

I think the Mizzou blowout by Florida shows two things... 1. Florida can play. They were damn near a final four team last year with basically the same guys. 2. Illinois lost to Mizzou earlier in the year which coupled with their recent play leads me to believe that Illinois isn't anywhere near ready to be in the top-tier-team discussion.

I've got O$U over MSU on the road as well. The wheels are falling off in EL. I may have to chalk up Sparty's Kansas win early this year as a fluke (even though Kansas is being tested by an unranked Texas as I write this). Sparty loses today and they have zero quality B1G wins yet. As a matter of fact I would not be surprised to see MSU lose their next five games.

I also want to see the Oregon v UCLA game. Besides Arizona the Pac12 has NOBODY that can make a deep tourney run.

To add a little more on what I just posted... All bias aside, the more I watch these supposed other "TOP" teams play the more I think UM call play with and beat any team in the nation.

This is a great weekend for college basketball.

MSU holding their own against Ohio. Tough played game on both sides.

F*ck spartina!!

By far the best day in college basketball up to this point of the year. The best in many years, IMO.

If anyone missed the end of that Butler game, you have to check it out.

How in the hell did Illinois beat both Butler and Gonzaga.

And Ohio St. by 19.

That team blows my mind. I don't think next week's game is a gimme. I expect to win but if for some reason their 3s are falling (they usually aren't), Michigan might be in for a game.

Couple of things....

1. Like Hail said, it was by far and away the best day of college bball I have seen in years. Every game was great!

2. I still can't get it out of my mind how in the hell Illinois beat both Butler and Gonzaga (and O$U as Hail mentioned) but lost to a lowly Mizzou and Purdue. Before you say Mizzou was #12 when they faced them, I watched Mizzou look like a lost JV girls team trying to take on Florida yesterday, it was terrible.

3. I'm going to ruffle some feathers but I was glad to see MSU win yesterday. Like I've said before, I can NEVER root for an O$U win. NEVER. I think we'll win both games against MSU.

4. Syracuse didn't dominate like I thought they would rather Louisville gave that game away but I stand by my previous statement that Syracuse makes it to the final four and not Louisville.

5. New #1 on Monday. I see the rankings as: 1. Syracuse 2. Kansas 3. Michigan 4. Duke 5.Louisville 6. Arizona
I put us above Duke because we had a quality win on the road this week (@#9 Minny) and Duke got a win at home over an unranked Georgia Tech.

My prediction for the new rankings is:
1. Duke 2. Kansas 3. Michigan 4. Syracuse 5. Louisville 6. Arizona

Duke's resume is too good to drop them below us.

Duke:
#1 Louisville
#11 Ohio St. (beat Michigan)
#9 Minnesota
Kentucky

Michigan:
#9 Minnesota
#18 N.C. State (beat Duke)
Kansas State
Pittsburgh

I think Michigan might jump Kansas though. The voters last week had Kansas at 1,416 pts and Michigan at 1,415 pts. Kansas nearly lost to a bad Texas team and Michigan won on the road.

I think Duke is locked at #1, #2/3 will be KU/MI, #4/5 will be Syracuse and either Louisville or Arizona.

Duke posers will be rated above us based solely on reputation, not talent.

I think Michigan would beat Duke, but they will be ranked ahead of us because they have had a more impressive season, so far.

When they lost and only dropped from #1 to #3, that was on reputation.

sandyeggo_blue wrote:

Couple of things....

1. Like Hail said, it was by far and away the best day of college bball I have seen in years. Every game was great!

2. I still can't get it out of my mind how in the hell Illinois beat both Butler and Gonzaga (and O$U as Hail mentioned) but lost to a lowly Mizzou and Purdue. Before you say Mizzou was #12 when they faced them, I watched Mizzou look like a lost JV girls team trying to take on Florida yesterday, it was terrible.

3. I'm going to ruffle some feathers but I was glad to see MSU win yesterday. Like I've said before, I can NEVER root for an O$U win. NEVER. I think we'll win both games against MSU.

4. Syracuse didn't dominate like I thought they would rather Louisville gave that game away but I stand by my previous statement that Syracuse makes it to the final four and not Louisville.

5. New #1 on Monday. I see the rankings as: 1. Syracuse 2. Kansas 3. Michigan 4. Duke 5.Louisville 6. Arizona
I put us above Duke because we had a quality win on the road this week (@#9 Minny) and Duke got a win at home over an unranked Georgia Tech.

I watched that game too. Florida scored 7 points in the first minute lol.

To be fair, though, Missouri is without their top player in Bowers. That Missouri offense is designed to run and Bowers runs the court as well as any big man in the country. Think of what Zeller is to Indiana and that is what Bowers is to Missouri. Also, Phil Pressey is as good of a PG as anyone not named Burke. That combo of Pressey and Bowers is really good. Aside from beating Illinois, they did beat a really good VCU team, too.

With Bowers, Missouri is a top 20 team. This stretch is going to make a lot of people perceive them as bad. Come tournament time, they will be ruining a lot of brackets. Namely those who look back at this stretch that includes a 15 point lose to Ole Miss and a 31 point loss to Florida, not realizing they were without the guy that makes their wheels turn.

Regarding Missouri, here is and idea of how much different their offense looks with Bowers on the floor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLEvGbR8uzw

See:
0:30
0:34
0:41
2:25
5:00
5:32

I would love to see Michigan at #1 but of course I am totally biased. That said I think Michigan's schedule is much tougher than Duke's to this point and certainly over the next 3-4 games.

The good news is college basketball has a true playoff system, so ranking do not matter a whole lot. #1 will be decided on the court.

I love March Madness, but I think a smaller tournament would decide more who is "#1". A big field like that makes it more so who gets hot at the right time. See: UCONN 2 years ago. That was a good UCONN team (Kemba Walker) that got hot at the right time. They weren't the best team in basketball, though.

Regardless, it's sOOoOOOo much than the shit NCAA Football shoves down our throat.