Arkansas would have a pretty darned good chance of beating any team in the country (see: Florida) as long as the game is played in Fayetteville.

Arkansas would have a pretty good darned chance of losing to any team in the country above high school (see: any number of L's this year) as long as the game is played anywhere but Fayetteville.

I don't suppose Fayetteville is hosting any tournament games this year.

Xavier played their worst game in conference play against UMass. A lot of shortcomings got exposed in the second half. Sure, UMass made their 3's, but Xavier left them open. Sure, the team can't score, but its generally been able to defend beyond its talent level, so to see that fall apart is disheartening. I wonder how much fatigue is going through the team right now, with so many players playing so many more minutes than they're used to.

Its been a frustrating season, and I have to remind myself that the team is probably at the bottom of two troughs -- some recruiting class misses combined with unexpected departures. Either Mark Lyons _or_ Dez Wells on this team probably has them contending for the league title and an NCAA tournament bid. That's not to give the coaches a free pass, but it does provide context and areas for improvement.

And in far less important, non-Gator news, Ryan Kelly had a hell of a comeback game for Duke.

Teams have been packing the lane against Mason Plumlee and shadowing Curry for a couple of weeks. Cook and Sulaimon can penetrate, but are inconsistent finishers, especially when the lane's crowded. Kelly's outside shooting is a real difference maker for them.

That said, Miami still looked really good. They've come out of nowhere to be a legit Top-5 team. Kelly played out of his mind, and the 'Canes still had a chance to tie the game on the last possession.

Gonzaga #1 in both polls.

Are they worthy?

boy did wisconsin throw up all over itself yesterday. all i could tell was that wisconsin couldn't hit a shot despite playing at home. and there were open shots.

the downside of relying on jump shots

Gonzaga #1 in both polls.

Are they worthy?

They're a process of elimination No. 1. No one else warrants the distinction more than them.

[256] Which is what I hate about polls. The "Have you lost lately" game is a stupid one.

Has anyone created a polling prediction model to show how useless they are?

Kind of an odd scene in Bloomington last night. They held their Senior Night festivities after the game (as is traditional), which was an upset loss to Ohio State. They then held a large Big 10 Co-Champions net-cutting ceremony. Again, all after a tough loss.

I'm not criticizing; I know it was a slog for Crean and Indiana after Sampson left. Still, the timing was quite awkward.

gt beat miami!

Gonzaga #1 in both polls.

Are they worthy?

No, it should be Indiana or Florida imo. Gonzaga is a nice story who has played nobody.

__________________________

This the most brutal B1G season I can remember. Winning on the road in conference play is next to impossible and even the top teams in the conference (IU, UM, MSU, O$U) have slogged their way through with plenty of puzzling (until you realize it's the B1G; it's what happens) losses along the way.

The B1G is simply on another level this year. Hell, I'd take Minny, a team that just lost on the road to NU, over the 3rd best SEC team Kentucky, on a neutral court. Minny might be the 6th best team in the B1G.

gt beat miami!

I think Minny could beat Miami on a neutral court 4 times out of 10 or so. No offense to GT.

Before you call me a homer look at the advanced stats and also -- B1G football sucks I readily admit. But for some crazy reason this conference is loaded most years in hoops. It's especially loaded this year.

None taken. It's not that Miami is great, just that GT sucks and I root for them.

I'd love to see Miami make the Elite 8. I have a fondness for Shane Larkin. The NCAA tournament has a lot of variability though. The Miami program doesn't strike me as one that's built to last, and its kind of a shame to peak at, say, a "only" Sweet 16.

The Miami program doesn't strike me as one that's built to last, and its kind of a shame to peak at, say, a "only" Sweet 16.

I feel like it's really important in these once-a-decade kind of seasons to come away with concrete achievements, something to point at or put on a banner. In Miami's case, an outright ACC Championship would be a pretty sweet prize, even if they end up falling fairly early in the tournament.

If you have one of these seasons and still come away with nothing (no conference championships, no tournament championships, no national titles) it can really feel like a waste. I remember looking at the one year Texas had Kevin Durant as a pretty massive wasted opportunity. You have this amazing, once-in-a-lifetime kind of talent, you have him for one year, and you finish third in the conference, runner-up in the conference tournament and exit in the second round of the NCAAs? What did you really get out of Durant, then? Some nice memories, a little good publicity and that's about it.

(To be clear, I don't blame Durant for that at all. I'm quite sure Rick Barnes holds most of the responsibility)

Honestly, it doesn't even need to be an outright championship. Nobody at Xavier cares about the times they split the league title when they won 5 in a row.

But you make a good point overall -- conference championships are an accomplishment oft-overlooked when you're not a dedicated fan of teams in that conference.

I want to believe the stat guys when they tell me that Florida's close losses are indicative of bad luck and little else, but this is getting obscene. You can't go the last eight minutes of a game without scoring a point. For God's sake, a high school team would luck into a point in eight minutes, even at Rupp.

I don't know how many times Billy Donovan is going to let Kenny Boynton miss long, contested jumpers at the end of games before he understands it's not a high percentage play, but he should learn that really, really soon.

Congratulations to Florida Gulf Coast and Belmont, our first tournament teams.

The dynamic among UCLA fans is really interesting to watch. The main UCLA fan site has dug so far into their position that Ben Howland needs to be fired that I'm not sure even another final four would change their mind. So for them, UCLA didn't win the outright Pac 12 championship today, they backed into the championship of an absolutely pathetic conference that any competent coach would have rolled through nearly undefeated. They can't back down from their position that he needs to go, no matter what happens. So you have a big portion of the fan base that is really disappointed the the Bruins just won the conference championship, because it means they might not fire their coach.

[267] At some point you have to measure against results, huh? But that doesn't mean you ignore Howland's peripherals either.

I think you have to remain skeptical if UCLA doesn't reach the FF or Elite 8, and a lot of their freshman recruiting class leaves for the NBA. If you want to play the Calipari game of great 1-year recruiting classes, you have to be able to integrate them and deliver with them too.

Okay, the season in which I actually start to care about college B'ball has begun. Watching Western Kentucky v. Arkansas St. kicked it off. Damn that exhibition season is long. Gonzaga v. St. Mary's tonight to confirm a #1 seed for the Zags. Honestly, couldn't the pre-season last about eight-ten games and start February 1? Making only conference tourneys count (how to seed them? I don't care...) would save us about 8,000 unnecessary games to skip on our TV channel flips.

Oh well, let the games begin, for realz and all...

That makes sense for the more casual fan. I think more dedicated fans would rather have the conference regular season count a whole lot more.