Joe Lunardi, the expert on bracketology–I think he’s gotten over 95% of his predictions for the field of 65 right over the years– has Ms. State in and Notre Dame out. He also has the Blazers in.
I agree with his prediction on State to a point. I think State is a fine basketball team, but as Jay Bilas pointed out last night on ESPN’s Gameday, State is 1-4 against RPI top 50 teams. Not good for the resume. Notre Dame has had some real quality victories lately over Pitt at home and at Gtown.

UAB still has work left. If they can beat Memphis at home Wednesday and then UTEP on the road (very tall order) Sat, they’ll look better. But I still think they’ll need to win a couple of games in the C-USA tourney. They had a good win yesterday albeit over a very weak Tulane team. But they did play a lot better.

In other words, all three of those teams have work left along with UConn. I think all four are pretty quality teams even the  Blazers if they can find their shooting touch. They could all make it in, but there is plenty of work left for all four. I think all four need to at least go two or three rounds in the conference tourneys and it would help if all four won their last two games. If they don’t the tourneys are critical.

The Syracuse Orangemen. The No.4 Orangemen looked awesome last night against No.8 Villanova in a 95-77 victory. They should be N0.1 this week. With No.1 Kansas losing and No.2 Kentucky losing, the ‘Cuse should move up to No.1.
Purdue is No.3 in the country and they’re a very fine basketball team though they took a huge hit when star small forward Robbie Hummel was lost for the season with a torn ACL on Wednesday. Still, the ‘Cuse is awesome. They are the great team this country has been lacking this year.

A lot of experts have been saying Kansas is the best team and some were saying Kentucky, but I like the ‘Cuse (27-2, 14-2). They clinched the Big East title with their win last night before 34,616 fans, the largest attendance for an on-campus college game ever. They were awesome.

Six guys scored in double figures for the ‘Cuse. Rick Jackson had 19, Arinze Onuaku had 17, Scoop Jardine and Kris Joseph had 16, Wesley Johnson 14 and Andy Rautins had 12. Rautins, the guy who makes them go, had eight assists. Johnson had 10 rebounds and Onuaku had nine boards, eight on the offensive end, and three blocks.

They’ve got it all: they play incredible defense in Coach Jim Boeheim’s 2-3 zone. They are long, they cover the floor and they really get after you. The only concern for the “Cuse would be an injury because they go only seven deep, but a bad injury would cost anybody. Still with a seven man rotation they need to stay healthy and avoid foul trouble. But overall, they look better to me than anybody else.

They rebound so well. They had 22 offensive rebounds last night. They can really pass, too. When they aren’t shooting great, they overcome it with hustle. Rautins is a great three-point shooter though.

The Big East, to me, is the SEC of basketball without a doubt. They have nine quality teams this year. The ‘Cuse, ‘Nova, West Va., and Pitt are locks for the tourney. Marquette, Louisville and Gtown have a little work left, but should get in. Notre Dame and UConn have to do well in these last two games and in the tournament to make it in and even Seton Hall has a shot. It’s just an amazing conference.

For example, Notre Dame defeated Pitt at home by 15 this week and then went on the road to beat Gtown yesterday. That’s playing quality basketball and it was with their top player, Luke Harangody, on the bench with a bruised bone in his knee. He’s missed the last four games with that injury.

Notre Dame plays a lot like Duke. Their coach, Mike Brey, was a long time assistant for Coach K. Duke has a very fine team for that matter this year.

My number one seeds are: ‘Cuse, Kentucky, Kansas and Duke if they win the ACC Tourney. If they don’t they still have a shot, or it may be somebody from the Big Ten for that fourth number one: Ohio State or Purdue.

But as Bob Knight said last night, who cares if you’re number one, two or three; you’ve still got a good shot regardless.

Two-of-22 from trifecta (9%)against UT in a 74-65 loss. That’s not going to cut it in March. Tennessee wasn’t that much better at six-of-25 (24%), but Scotty Hopson hit a huge one with 41 seconds left to put the Vols up 70-65. They held off the ‘Cats from then on. Kentucky just got down to far in the first half and early in the second.
It usually happens that when a team is down by a big margin (Ky was down by around 16 early in the second) it’s hard to come back and win. Kentucky has good players, but they can’t find the net from three-point range. It’s going to come back and haunt them. There is no doubt in my mind.

Kentucky at Tennessee. 11 a.m. CBS. Should be a great one. UT should be fired up to knock the ‘Cats off. I’m just not sure that Ky is that great. They have great players, but the team is ugly and they don’t shoot the ball very well. Pearl should have his team jacked.
Texas at Texas A&M-A&M lost to Baylor the other night, but both these teams should be tourney teams. The Big 12 can play some ugly basketball at times, so if it looks bad at the start, you’ve got Vandy-Arkansas on SEC Network at 12:30. Channel 21.

Mississippi State at South Carolina 5 p.m. ESPN-Devan Downey is a fun player to watch and State has some exciting players, too. You never know if any team will shoot well in college basketball today, but these teams are capable. State has a slight chance at a tourney bid. Very slight. Will probably have to at least go to the finals of SEC tourney.

Villanova at Syracuse- 8 p.m. ESPN. Great  Big East matchup though I find it hard to believe ‘Nova has a shot to beat the ‘Cuse in the Carrier Dome. They’re just too good at home. Could be a good game though.

Alabama plays at Ole Miss tomorrow at 1 on ESPN2. Anthony Grant has had a bad first season. Maybe it’s an aberration.
Auburn vs LSU at Auburn. 6 p.m. on Fox Sports South. Jeff Lebo has run out of lifelines in my opinion. It’s been six years without an NCAA appearance and with no chance unless they win the tourney this year, which is highly unlikely, it looks to be about over for Lebo. I hate it. He seems like a good guy who knows the game, but Auburn plays terrible defense and can’t hold leads in the second half. They’ve lost about three or four games where they were leading handily. Arkansas and Ole Miss on the road really stand out to me. Those were bad losses. It’s not looking good for Lebo.

Tulane at UAB at Bartow. 1 p.m. No TV. Another lousy opponent for the Blazers to look terrible against to further hurt their chances of getting a bid. Maybe they can play well, but there is no margin for error with this team and I just don’t have much confidence in them the way they’ve been playing. How can a team go from being a strong NCAA team (maybe a sixth or seventh seed) in early January to being on the bubble looking in?  If they can wake up and start playing well they have a chance. But they’ll have to win tomorrow (surely they can do that) and beat Memphis at home Wednesday (8 p.m. CSS) and then possibly steal one against UTEP, which I don’t see happening. If they lose one or  two of these three, particularly at home, they will probably need to win the tournament. They just shoot the ball terribly. Maybe this Fields kid can give them a lift. He seems to be able to shoot the three. Blazers’ backs are against the wall. They need to respond for any chance to play into March.

Kevin Scarbinsky’s column about Cousins this morning in The News has some merit, but I tend to agree with the camp at ESPN that says he’s basically a powder keg ready to explode. One guy said he’s a criminal. Well he hasn’t committed a crime that I know of, just seems like he’s capable. He’s a great player and I’m sure he hasn’t totally matured yet as Scarbinsky writes, but he seems closer to Allen Iverson than he does Grant Hill. Does look like a thug, too, no doubt.
We’ll see how the season plays out and then in the NBA when he’ll have more money than he’ll know what to do with. He just seems like he’s ready to go ballistic any minute. There is plenty of  basketball left for Kentucky and more time for some bad behavior.

The guy just has this anger written all over his face. He doesn’t look like he has any fun and nothing would make him happier than beating another player up. He’s a shaky character in my book and someone who looks ready to explode on a moment’s notice despite the claim that he’s just not matured yet. To me he looks like a grown man and acts like it. I don’t know how much more he can mature. Maybe he can. He certainly needs to change his attitude.

I think Vandy is a special team. They were down by five to Georgia with 42 seconds left and came back to tie it with 15 seconds left on an A.J. Ogilvy tip in and won it in overtime, 98-96. Georgia is a good basketball team. I know their record doesn’t reflect it, but they play extremely hard and shot the ball very well against Vandy last night. They made some threes from downtown Nashville last night. A good victory for the Commodores in a game you could say they got outplayed in. But they hung in tough and pulled it out. They moved  to 21-6 and 10-3.
The SEC is a good basketball conference. It doesn’t have the depth of the Big East or even the Big Ten, but the teams are all competitive; you can’t take a day off or you’ll get beaten.

Georgia’s first year coach, Mark Fox, has them playing hard, and I think their future is bright with him at the helm. He took his last five Nevada teams to postseason play, and the ‘Dogs can shoot the ball a lot better. They look a lot more fluid under Fox than they did under his predecessor Dennis Felton. They dropped to 12-14 overall and 4-9 in league play.

Looks like Ky, Vandy, UT and probably Florida are in. Ole Miss and State would probably have to win the SEC tourney to make it to big tourney. But it’s been another good year with some great individual play and there are still some big games left.