Rankings, Irrelevant Comments & More (Take 9)

Below is my ninth attempt at Ranking the Top 10 accompanied by some Irrelevant Comments. Hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed Duke's loss to Clemson.


RANKINGS
1.UConn (21-1)
Best Wins: Miami, at Wisconsin, at Gonzaga, West Virginia, Villanova, at Louisville
Losses: Georgetown

My Irrelevant Comment:
Coach Calhoun tries hard to exude class. He wears a nice suit, puts on a decent tie, dons a shined pair of shoes and then tops it all off - with a mouth full of Hubba Bubba.

2.Oklahoma (21-1)
Best Wins: Purdue, Davidson, Utah, Texas
Loss at Arkansas

My Irrelevant Comment:
Oklahoma just beat Texas A&M. Do you think that school goes with “A&M” because adding Agriculture and Mining is just too long? I actually think it uses “A&M” because it’s hoping and praying that prospective students will think those letters stand for something else – anything else.

3.North Carolina (19-2)
Best wins: Michigan State, Notre Dame, Clemson
Loss: Boston College, Wake Forest

My Irrelevant Comment:
Last week I heard an announcer say that Danny Green jumps like he has springs in his sneakers. When I was a kid I actually did put springs in my sneakers. Well, I tried, but all I could find was a couple Slinkeys. Yeah, that didn’t work out as hoped. All that happened was an uncontrollable urge to summersault.

4.Pitt (19-2)
Best wins: Florida State, at Georgetown, Syracuse, ND
Loss: at Louisville, at Villanova

My Irrelevant Comment: Pitt’s ferocious, hard-hitting defense is quite unique. Well, come to think of it, there is another team with a similar style - The Steelers.

5.Louisville (17-4)
Best Wins: at Villanova, Kentucky, Pitt, ND, at SU
Losses: Western Kentucky, UNLV, Minnesota, UConn

My Irrelevant Comment:
When Louisville prints Freedom Hall, the name of its arena, it uses a basketball in place of the letter “o” in Freedom - signifying the importance of that sport to the school. I think they should mix it up a bit. Like, to signify the unimportance of academics, the school could replace the “o” in Freedom with a “u”.

6.Marquette (19-2)
Best Wins: Wisconsin, Villanova, West Virginia, ND, Georgetown
Losses: Dayton, Tennessee

My Irrelevant Comment: Did you see Coach Buzz Williams in the Super Bowl ad? It was the one for Bridgestone. Come on, you have to remember. He was the one driving the car with Mrs. Potato Head.

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

My Irrelevant Comment:
Wake Forest’s Jeff Teague got completely spun around by Georgia Tech’s quick dribbling Iman Shumpert. Haven’t seen someone that dizzy since Cloris Leachman’s attempt at the Cha-Cha.

8.Xavier (19-2)
Best Wins: Missouri, Memphis, LSU
Losses: Duke, Butler

My Irrelevant Comment:
Xavier and Wake Forest have agreed to a yearly match-up. There are going to call it The Skip Prosser Classic. That’s a great decision. Much better than their back up plan – The Skip Bayless Classic.

9.Clemson (19-2)
Best Wins: at Illinois, at Miami, South Carolina, Duke
Loss: Wake Forest, UNC

My Irrelevant Comment:
During the Clemson-Virginia Tech game, Bobby Knight stated, “Malcolm Delaney is like a good looking Miss America.” Has there ever been a non-good looking Miss America? In fact, I’m pretty sure that Malcolm Delaney would be the ugliest Miss America of all time. You know, ‘cause he’s a dude.

10. Duke (19-3)
Best Wins: Michigan, Purdue, Xavier, Georgetown
Loss: Michigan, Wake Forest, at Clemson

My Irrelevant Comment:
Like many schools, Duke named its court after its coach. St. Louis is planning something similar for Rick Majerus, but instead of the court they’re going with the Jumbo Tron.


MOST OVERRATED TEAM

Bobby Knight
Yeah, I usually pick a team here, but Knight’s color commentary is too ripe to pass up. In addition to the ridiculous comment mentioned above, he also tried to figure how much time had elapsed during a play by counting aloud while watching a replay. Amazingly that’s not the stupid part. The stupid part is that he did this while the replay was in slow motion.

MOST UNDERRATED TEAM

Northeastern
The Huskies are 15-6 and in first place in the CAA. I love to see Massachusetts teams do well. Gives me hope that maybe a couple folks in the area might actually start following college hoops. But, somehow Northeastern is only ranked 6th. No, not in the country, but in its hometown of Roxbury.


OTHER OPINIONS

Mike Hurley – Illinois: Being an alum of the Univ. of Illinois, I am intrigued by the Big 10 and U of I in particular. If you get a chance to look into it, can you figure out why this team is good. They don't have any good scorers, (none average more than 13 points) and they are mostly a bunch of sophomores. On a follow up questions, why can't Weber recruit (he is a great coach), and why can't their football coach coach (he is a great recruiter)? Maybe the two of them could be co-coaches for f-ball and basketball. Zook could do all the recruiting and Weber could coach. (Zook will have to give the inspirational speeches, since Weber's voice sounds like some kind of muppet).

Mike Wood – UMass: UMass has Gaffney - one of the top reb and shot blockers in the country at only 6'8" and 208. He is my sleeper for this year. He came out of nowhere after playing his first two yrs at BU.

Ken Robbins – Notre Dame: Loved your Cheech & Chong Up in Smoke comment in last week’s Rankings about ND & McAlarney.....but it appears Up in Smoke also has reference to America's fav speedo boy - M Phelps too!!

Bill Sullivan – Marquette, Georgetown & Beer: Just returned from road trip to Milwaukee for the Marquette-Georgetown game. Impressions: Marquette will be tough down the stretch but really only has 4 quality players so depth a problem. but what defense they can play. Jerel McNeal is playing like an All American. Georgetown has ridiculous talent, hard to believe they are not better. More importantly, Calderone's Pub and Turner's Bar are great pre and post game spots in Milwaukee and Soblemans is the spot for the town's best burger and coldest beer.

Harold Barend – Duke, Notre Dame & Tattoos: This year, when it comes to picking teams for the Final Four, I think I'll just throw darts. Just when I thought I had it all figured out Duke loses by 20 to Clemson and Wake Forest gets pummeled by Miami and Notre Dame loses another. The coaches on the Duke bench never smile when they win so you can picture how they looked when the camera panned the bench during this game. I thought they were the pallbearers for a funeral and I guess they were. As for Notre Dame, I think they get the short end from the referees. The opposing teams realize the refs are not calling the bumping and holding--so much for the three.

Despite being laden with tattoos Devendorf played great for Syracuse. Every time I watch Syracuse play, I see a tattoo I haven't seen before. When I played in the 50s, if you wore a tattoo you either played for the jail or the playground team. No high school or college coach would have you representing their school. Today it is all about winning and money.

If you’d like to contribute to next Thursday’s Rankings & Irrelevant Comments, just email me by Wednesday night at davebarend@yahoo.com. Rant #13 coming Monday.

Take it easy,
Dave