Rankings, Irrelevant Comments & More (Take 8)

Below is Take #8 of my Rankings and Irrelevant Comments. Thank God for Wake Forest and its big win last night. I almost had to put Duke #1.

RANKINGS

1.UConn (18-1)
Best Wins: Miami, at Wisconsin, at Gonzaga, West Virginia, Villanova
Losses: Georgetown

My Irrelevant Comment:
Towards the end of the UConn-ND game, Dick Vitale stated that Kentucky held the longest home wining streak. I then yelled, “Please say who’s #2! Please!” There was a pause. Then Dickie V said, “And #2 is the St. Bonaventure Bonnies with 99 in a row.” God bless that bald headed, one-eyed man.

I jumped out of my chair and did a dance of joy for my beloved alma mater. Yeah, you know things haven’t been going well lately when such excitement is caused by an event that dates back to 1948.

2.Wake Forest (17-1)
Best Wins; Baylor, BYU, UNC, at Clemson, Duke
Loss: Virginia Tech

My Irrelevant Comment:
When I told my daughter that Wake Forest’s Al-Farouq Aminu and Georgia Tech’s Alade Aminu are brothers she replied, “Oh, just like the Jonas Brothers.” Yeah, just like the Jonas brothers. Except the Aminu brothers don’t make you want to grab a fork and gouge out your eardrums.

3.Oklahoma (19-1)
Best Wins: Purdue, Davidson, Utah, Texas
Loss at Arkansas

My Irrelevant Comment:
Blake Griffen was home schooled till he was about 13. And I bet you thought it was his huge wingspan that made him a freak.

4.Pitt (18-2)
Best wins: Florida State, at Georgetown, Syracuse
Loss: at Louisville, at Villanova

My Irrelevant Comment:
Despite a 29-point margin of victory, over Vermont, Pitt’s coach did not give senior Sean Brown a single minute of playing time. Though that’s kind of sad, it does finally put to rest the question, “What can Brown do for you?”

5. Duke (18-2)
Best Wins: Michigan, Purdue, Xavier, Georgetown
Loss: Michigan, Wake Forest

My Irrelevant Comment:
I didn’t realize that the reason Coach K always has that clipboard covering his face is because he doesn’t want the cameras to catch him swearing. I just thought it was because he’s ugly.

6.North Carolina (18-2)
Best wins: Michigan State, Notre Dame, Clemson
Loss: Boston College, Wake Forest

My Irrelevant Comment:
Ty Lawson can supposedly go coast to coast in less than three seconds. Amazing. I can’t think of anything I can do in under-3 seconds. Wait a minute. My wife seems to be raising her hand. She claims to know of something I can do in under-3 seconds.

7.Louisville (15-3)
Best Wins: at Villanova, Kentucky, Pitt, ND, at SU
Losses: Western Kentucky, UNLV, Minnesota

My Irrelevant Comment:
Do you think that Pitino is really trying to get his players’ attention when he stomps his foot on the floor? Or is he just having problems with his switch from boxers to briefs?

8.Marquette (17-2)
Best Wins: Wisconsin, Villanova, West Virginia, ND
Losses: Dayton, Tennessee

My Irrelevant Comment: A few years back, Marquette went the politically correct route and changed its nickname from the Warriors to the Golden Eagles. They could have easily kept the Warriors as the nickname. They just needed to dump the Native American mascot and, instead, go with a Patty Smyth mascot. You know, one who would be “shooting at the walls of heartache, bang, bang.”

9. Michigan State (16-3)
Best Wins: Texas, Minn., Ohio St., Kansas, Illinois
Losses: Maryland, UNC, Northwestern

My Irrelevant Comment:
I keep hearing ESPN announcers say that Michigan State is likely headed to the Final 4. Those announcers always feel compelled to add that the Spartans would then be playing for the Championship at home in Detroit. This has led the school to print T-shirts that say: East Lansing is a very long 90 miles away from Detroit.

10.Clemson (16-2)
Best Wins: at Illinois, at Miami, Alabama
Loss: Wake Forest, UNC

My Irrelevant Comment:
Though Forward Raymond Sykes has a near out of control playing style, he’s had 9 double doubles this year. Those are games where he’s scored at least 10 points and tallied at least 10 fouls.


MOST OVERRATED TEAM

Notre Dame
Got to stick it to the Irish once again. 12-7 and ranked #22 just isn’t right. While watching their losing effort against Marquette, I noticed that McAlarney is a dead ringer for one of the guys from “Hoosiers”. I hear when he’s off the court he’s a dead ringer for one of the guys from “Cheech & Chong’s Up in Smoke.”

Honorable Mention

St. Bonaventure
People had been saying that my Bonnies have “turned the corner.” Then last night they lost to Fordham at home. Maybe they have turned the corner – three times and all immediate lefts.

MOST UNDERRATED TEAM

St. Mary’s
18-1 and ranked #18. Maybe they’d be ranked higher if they went with a “higher” name. St. Mary’s is named for St. Mary. Much like St. Joseph’s is named for St. Joseph and well, you get it. Just wondering why none of those Catholics schools decided to go to the top and name themselves after Jesus. University of Jesus. That would allow the players on the team to state with absolute certainty, “I play for Jesus”. Going with “University of Jesus” would also seem to give that school a huge advantage over the Duke Blue Devils. I guess it could be Jesus University instead. But then you’d have JU for short and that might not clearly portray Catholicism.


OTHER OPINIONS

Bill Sullivan: Marquette - I am willing to be a roving reporter for your blog and am heading out to sunny Milwaukee to evaluate the Marquette Warriors and the Georgetown Hoyas. I will try to avoid having too many beers and brats out there so that I can provide clear analysis, but I cannot promise too much self control having been out there before. There are no places like the Hickey Tavern or the Burton, but they have Sobelman's, Turners and Major Goolsby's. Tough job but I will do my best.

Paul Joseph: Maryland - The Terps have no business playing Division I hoops. I'm sure they are nice guys and can do other things with their lives, but basketball is not one of them. The public sniping between Gary and the AD staff is painful to watch and not how I expected or hoped Gary would ride off into the sunset.

Mike Wood: Marquette & Notre Dame - I like Marquette’s top three players & the big guy at ND is a beast.

Harold Barend: Duke, SU & Louisville –
Even though Duke lost to Wake Forest (big and bigger) by two points at Wake, I am convinced Duke will be in the Final Four. Who goes to number one? Despite their lost to Wake, I think Duke should stay at number one. They have the best team in college basketball--unfortunately, they only clicked on two cylinders against Wake. It will be interesting to see how well Wake plays on the road against teams in the top of the ACC. I wish Mike K. would smile.

How about Syracuse--the Orange is getting crushed. Hopefully this will not be a repeat of the stretch of games when Andy Rautins was recovering from a previous injury. If so, Syracuse will be lucky to get an invitation to the NIT.

Louisville should also get to the final four-- depending on how they are bracketed. Explosive and great defense. They are ugly to watch but on the positive side at the end of the game. Rick Patino can usually find a way to win.

Daniel Palmisano: Binghamton - Dave, Binghamton (BU) got beat last nite by UMBC. How come you never write about BU? For example, one of the players had an incident at the Vestal Walmart. If BU wins its conference its in the NCAA. Good luck with your blog.


If you’d like to contribute an opinion on any college hoop team for next Thursday’s post, just email me your comment by Wednesday night to davebarend@yahoo.com. New Rant coming sometime on Monday.

Take it easy,
Dave