NCAA Manic Mondays 02/08/10

Now that football season is completed, I will be turning my attention to some of the other sports occurring right now. On Mondays, I will be offering my reaction to the newly released Top 25 of college basketball by providing valuable insight and analysis on the previous week's games. I will use certain teams as focal points for my analysis, illustrating how the games they played had a direct effect on the repositioning of the Top 25 for the current week. I shall call this column Manic Mondays, which signifies our return to the grind after a relaxing weekend. Feel free to leave some comments, which will be responded to accordingly. Enjoy!!!

Here is the Top 25 of college basketball for 02/08/10

#1 Kansas Jayhawks (22-1)
#2 Kentucky Wildcats (22-1)
#3 Syracuse Orange (23-1)
#4 West Virginia Mountaineers (19-3)
#5 Villanova Wildcats (20-2)
#6 Purdue Boilermakers (19-3)
#7 Duke Blue Devils (19-4)
#8 Georgetown Hoyas (17-5)
#9 Kansas State Wildcats (19-4)
#10 Michigan State Spartans (19-5)
#11 Gonzaga Bulldogs (19-4)
#12 Tennessee Volunteers (18-4)
#13 Wisconsin Badgers (18-5)
#14 Texas Longhorns (19-4)
#15 Butler Bulldogs (20-4)
#16 Ohio State Buckeyes (18-6)
#17 Brigham Young Cougars (22-3)
#18 Northern Iowa Panthers (21-2)
#19 New Mexico Lobos (21-3)
#20 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (17-6)
#21 Temple Owls (19-5)
#22 Cornell Big Red (20-3)
#23 Pittsburgh Panthers (17-6)
#24 Vanderbilt Commodores (17-5)
#25 UNLV Rebels (19-4)

I'll begin with the 8th ranked Georgetown Hoyas, who began last week with a devastating loss to South Florida. The key to winning in college basketball is by developing a pattern of consistency. Without consistency, good teams fail to transcend on to the next level of greatness. They look ahead to opponents who match their caliber and are oftentimes picked off by teams they are supposed to beat. Such is the sacred and the profane of college basketball, which is to say that upsets are expected throughout the course of the season. Yet it is fair to say that upsets can prevent the very best teams from ending their season with a national championship. Georgetown's upset loss to South Florida can only be explained in one simple way; they were looking ahead to Villanova. Credit must be given to South Florida in that they have played outstanding basketball as of late. Guard Dominique Jones torched Georgetown with 29 points and absolutely took over the game when it mattered. Georgetown had absolutely no answers for him as their defense broke down in the final moments. In the end, it was too little too late for the Hoyas to make a comeback. But this loss to South Florida was completely erased on Saturday afternoon under 2 ft of snow. Georgetown went into their showdown against Villanova and just took over. They never let the Wildcats control the pace of the game, always forcing them to play quick transition defense and burning them with long jump shots. Turnovers and fouls killed both teams in this game. However, a distinct majority of those mistakes fell right into the lap of Jay Wright and his upstart Wildcats. In the end, the terrific guard play of Scottie Reynolds and Corey Fisher wasn't enough to dampen the Hoyas. Big games from Austin Freeman and Greg Monroe catapulted Georgetown to their first 100-point game since 1996, not to mention a very convincing Big East win. Georgetown is a team primed to go far in the NCAA tournament. They have all the pieces necessary to make a substantial run and are among the top teams in the nation in field-goal percentage and 3 pt shots. They have two terrific guards in Freeman and Chris Wright who can take charge and spread the ball along the perimeter. And they have a big man in Monroe who can dominate the paint and hurt any team with his strength and agility. This is a team with the makings of a perennial championship contender. Yet they have to learn to take every opponent seriously.

What did we discover about the Michigan State Spartans this week? They are a completely different team without Kalin Lucas. Before Lucas left the Wisconsin game with an ankle injury last Tuesday, the Spartans were ranked #5 in the country and were considered to be the best team in the Big Ten with a perfect 9-0 record in conference play. Yet even with Lucas at the helm, this basketball team was constantly flirting with disaster. This is not a team that shows its dominance through convincing, lopsided victories. They grind it out against their opponents, oftentimes coming from behind to seal the victory. They win because they shoot the ball well in clutch situations and find ways to snag crucial defensive rebounds in the paint with the game on the line. When that doesn't happen, Michigan State falters to a point where they become vulnerable. This leads to forced desperation shots resulting from a panic and in the end, it proves to be the Spartans' biggest weakness when it comes to controlling the game. Consider last week's contests against Wisconsin and Illinois. Wisconsin got off to a fast start against the Spartans, hitting big shots from the perimeter and dictating the tempo from the very beginning. Guards Jordan Taylor and Jason Bohannon were vipers from the backcourt and were always in prime position to kill Michigan State along the outside. Yet in spite of Wisconsin's aggressive start to the game, Michigan State started off the second half strong and cut a 17-point deficit down to 9. But once Lucas went down with the ankle injury, the Spartans were never able to bounce back. They panicked and as a result, they fell by the wayside. Now they had a prime opportunity to right the ship with a sound victory over Illinois on Saturday night. Yet they did not capitalize as Lucas sat out the game and Demetri McCarney dominated with 22 points and 11 assists. Illinois had good ball movement throughout and were able to force 18 turnovers from Michigan State. As a result, they were able to hold off the Spartans in the final minutes by making their free throws and hitting clutch jump shots all over the court. No one stepped up in the wake of Lucas's absence. Guards Durrell Summers and Chris Allen has average games at best and didn't really pose a significant challenge down the stretch. Michigan State lost their primary weapon in Lucas, who averages over 15 points per game and 4 assists. He is their ultimate playmaker and without him, the Spartans don't stand a chance of making it to the Final Four this year.

The Texas Longhorns have done a massive freefall in the last two weeks. This was a team that was once 17-0 and ranked #1 in the nation. But upset losses to Kansas State and UConn sent them spiraling out of control. Rick Barnes' team has forgotten how to play defense in the final stretches of games. Their inability to close out their opponent has been their biggest weakness as a team. If one analyzes the statistics, Texas is on top of the leaderboard when it comes to field-goal percentage, rebounding, and 3-point shooting percentage. Basically, they know how to score points and they know how to snatch the ball away from defenders when it's up in the air. So then why are the Longhorns slowly dripping their way down the polls and into the realms of oblivion? Because of their inability to shoot the ball well. How is this possible when the team is tops in the nation in field-goal percentage? This is certainly one of the more intriguing mysteries of the college basketball season. In the five losses that Texas has suffered since being ranked #1, they have shot the ball under 45% and have allowed leads to slip away in the waning moments of games. They allow opposing offenses to generate unanswered scoring runs, which ends up crippling Texas and forcing them to play an uphill battle whenever they have the ball. Texas is not devoid of playmakers. Damion James is an absolute star, averaging over 18 points per game and 10 rebounds per game. He has a terrific supporting cast in Avery Bradley, Dexter Pittman, and J'Covan Brown, all of whom average over 10 points per game. Yet for whatever reason, this is a team that prides itself on building comfortable leads but then literally STOPPING before the game is over. Their failure to play adequate defense, to curtail their opponents' ability to break open the game with the momentum of clutch shots, has virtually allowed them to drop from the ranks of the elite. Texas is in big trouble heading down the stretch; if they don't start playing as a cohesive unit, then they will go down as one of the biggest disappointments of the college basketball season.

The Kansas Jayhawks have been playing some of their best basketball as of late. I know that's hard to say considering they've had close calls against Kansas State, Colorado, and Nebraska. But if one were to truly analyze this team from top to bottom, they are without question the deepest, most fundamentally sound program of the elite teams. Bill Self has done a great job harnessing his talent to the point where they treat every game as though it were their last. I know that people will argue for the enduring perseverance of Kentucky or the illuminating flashiness of Syracuse. But when one steps back to look at the Kansas Jayhawks, it is really hard to point out a fundamental weakness. They are tops in the nation in points per game, field-goal percentage, 3-point shooting, and rebounding. They play excellent defense and maintain the ability to shut down any of the nation's best teams with the game on the line. Sherron Collins is the heart and soul of that team, averaging over 15 points and 4 assists per game. He feeds the ball to his teammates and gets them involved, which in turn makes Kansas a very lethal offensive force. The best thing about the Kansas offense is their ability to kill potential momentum changers with big shots from Collins, Xavier Henry, and Tyshawn Taylor. When Kansas is not hitting their strides from the perimeter, they love to feed the ball inside to Cold Aldrich and Marcus Morris, both of whom are able to dominate the paint and draw a significant amount of fouls from the opposing defense. Both Aldrich and Morris pose significant defensive challenges as well. They are able to stand their guard under the basket and draw a lot of charges from opposing guards willing to drive into the lane. Kansas has been playing nip-and-tuck basketball as of late, jumping out to early leads only to lose their composure halfway through the game. However, the strength of that team stems from their ability to triumph in the face of adversity and work their way back into it. They are able to stem off challenges not just from the inferior teams they should beat, but also the elite teams they expect to be challenged by. The Kansas Jayhawks wear the #1 ranking proudly right now. However, they must tread softly on their way to the NCAA tournament.

That's it for now....stay tuned next week for possible commentary on Villanova-West Virginia, Kansas-Texas, Purdue-Michigan State, and Tennessee-Kentucky.