College Hoops II

Last week when I posted my top 5 college basketball teams in the country, the list was almost exactly the same as many other polls. I realized no one wants to read another person's opinion on why those particular teams are the best in the country. This week I have decided to make a change which will be in place from today until the end of the season. I am going to tell all of you what teams I think are playing the best. It won't always be 5 teams, it may be 3, it may be 9, it's just going to be what I am feeling from watching a week's worth of games. Sure some of the teams I mention may be the "flavor of the week" but if they are playing well, they deserve to be discussed. A few guidelines first; neutral court wins will carry more weight than a home win, a one point conference road win is better than a ten point conference home win, and isn't it strange that the style of play in different conferences seems to be the same no matter the sport? Think about it, the Big Ten and Big XII are both power football conferences and both play a more physical style of basketball than relavtively more finesse style of conferences like the SEC or ACC. Does anyone else find this strange? Gaddis and I had this discussion earlier today, it just seems odd. At any rate, hopefully this will be to your liking, and if not, I apologize. Onto the list:

4.) The University of Texas Longhorns- (14-3)

The Longhorns had an impressive home win against Oklahoma State on "Big Monday", winning 75-61. Oklahoma State came in ranked fifth in the country and was right on the verge of being a top three team in my eyes. They will still probably end up in St. Louis, but on this night, the Longhorns were just better. Texas was playing in front of a raucous home crowd, but they played better than OK State all night. This is a talented team at Texas, but if they lose P.J. Tucker for the season (accademic ineligibility) will Daniel Gibson be able to carry this team deep into March? In order for Texas to really prove themselves worthy of being on my prestigious list, they will need to play very well and win at number 21 Oklahoma on Saturday. The Sooners may be one of the most underrated teams in the Big XII at this point, so this will be a nice test for both teams.

3.) The University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa Crimson Tide- (14-3)

To start off with, Alabama has been my favorite football team since 1992 and since then I have also enjoyed watching the basketball team. I try not to ever miss a game when the Tide is on television. Last night's game when the Tide played host to Mississippi State was a great opportunity for me to watch this team and see how they would play against the Bulldogs and Lawrence Roberts (best player in the conference). I wasn't expecting to see anything special from Alabama, but saw an absolutely dominating performance, albeit from a team playing at home against a team missing its second best player. The Tide won 98-49, handing the Bulldogs their worst loss in 50 years. It wasn't the fact that Alabama won the game that impressed me, it was that I didn't even need to watch the last 15 minutes of the game because the performance was SO DOMINANT (I was able to enjoy the movie Garden State instead, great movie). In the first half, Mississippi State didn't have a field goal for almost 15 minutes and were down 49-18 at the half. Added to the dominating defensive performance was guard Earnest Shelton's career high 34 points. This team simply played some of the best basketball I have witnessed all season. We shall see if they are more than just a one hit wonder.

2.) Wake Forest University Demon Deacons (15-2)

Yes, yes they just lost last night at Florida State 91-83 in overtime, but the team showed me a lot in the loss. At one point in the first half, the Seminoles held a 19 point lead and were up 14 at the half. The Deacons kept fighting back in the second half led by point guard Chris Paul and eventually tied the game at 69 with 6:16 left in the game. If it wasn't for guard Taron Downey stopping the Wake Forest record setting streak of 50 free-throws made in a row, Wake probably would have come out with the victory. Wake Forest was playing in a building where the Seminoles have done nothing but knock off ranked teams under Leonard Hamilton. Since December 28, 2003, Florida State has beaten Maryland, UNC, Georgia Tech, and Wake Forest twice, when all were ranked in the top 21. With all of this going against Wake Forest, not to mention the fact FSU guard Von Wafer (who?) scored a career high 30 points last night, including 25 in the first half, Wake played a pretty darn impressive game. Down 14 at half time, lesser teams may have given up, but Skip Prosser had his team playing hard and not giving up the entire game, and they almost pulled it off. This says a lot about the character of the Demon Deacons. This team is tough and resilient enough to make it through to St. Louis. A non conference win at Cincinnati on Saturday would go a long way to helping this team forget the loss at FSU.

1.) The University of Kansas Jayhawks- (13-0)

Wayne Simien returned to the lineup for the Jayhawks when they played at Iowa State last Wednesday and looked healthy again. Even though the competition wasn't that tough and Kansas didn't beat the teams they played by 20, I still love this team. I would really love to see Kansas and all of its seniors play for the National Title against North Carolina and former coach Roy Williams. How pumped up do you think the Kansas players like Aaron Miles, Simien, and Keith Langford would be if this were for the title. Simien running up and down the court screaming, "I gave my left arm for you coach", Miles and Langford trying to make sure Williams knows he made the wrong decision, along with J.R. Giddens showing why he stayed at Kansas after being recruited by Williams, wouldn't you love to see this? How much would you pay to see this happen? I'm thinking I would go as high as $250 just to watch it on TV. Plus, then Bill Self could say, "Ha Ha, I won with a team you couldn't win with!" God that would be great. Until that happens, we can just keep playing this game out in our minds and on paper. I love this team; senior led, great coach, great role players, freshmen and sophomores coming into their own, punch their ticket to St. Louis.

One noticeably absent team from the list this week is Illinois. The only reason for this is because I didn't see a single game of theirs this week. Should I see them again, they will probably be back on the list. Well, that's it for this week. Check out Duke tonight, they are getting better, and the aforementioned Wake/Cincy and Texas/Oklahoma games.

-Until next time...