Tuesday Morning Dump

Hope everybody had a solid holiday weekend. We are still trying to get out of a food/drink-induced haze, so forgive us if we seem slow today.

_ There was very little movement at the top of the rankings this week, but that could/should all change by this weekend

- Jeff Brozello provides a solid conference reset for the Big East (But sweet god, that head-shot is hideous. Did you photoshop that yourself?)

- Jeff Goodman (whose head-shot looks significantly less photoshop'd) resets us on the Big-Ten Conference and provides an interesting statement about NCAA Tournament potential of the conference as a whole

- It seems like everybody has been going gaga over Iona during the non-conference months. But as John Templon points out, they haven't won the MAAC yet, and their at-large fate isn't exactly crystal clear

- Speaking of the MAAC, don't count out Loyola's chances of threatening Iona's place at atop the conference.

- Pittsburgh's issue this year is that they haven't been playing the stifling, air-tight brand of defense that has become accustomed to Jamie Dixon-coached teams. John Gasaway provides further explanation (Insiders Only)

- Digital Hoops Blast is the only site of it's kind, and should be read as much as possible. There isn't a place on the web that analyzes internet media and college basketball as well as Digital Hoops Blast does

- Mac Irvin, the "Godfather of Chicago Hoops" and founder of the famous "Mac Irvin Fire" AAU program passed away over the weekend

- Hoopniks provides a top-ten list of the best books about college basketball. (Solid list. I'm certainly not a bibliophile, but even I own 3 of the 10 books on here)

- Mike Miller drops some great knowledge on why Long Beach State is more equipped this year to win the Big West tournament than in previous years, when the fell short to UC-Santa Barbara in the finals

- Gary Parrish tells the fans to dial back some of the Josh Pastner-hate. Oh yeah, since it's Tuesday, you also get his Poll Attacks (Always a Tuesday must-read)

- Andy Katz lists the ten teams that impressed him the most this past week

- Curtis Kitchen gives us the five major reasons why Kansas State won the Diamondhead Classic (Note that "Not having to play Xavier" was omitted from this list)

- You probably aren't too familiar with Charlotte freshman Pierria Henry, but luckily for us, Ken Cross does a great job dropping some knowledge about the first-year guards stellar non-conference play

- I certainly did not foresee Cincinnati and Xavier heading in the directions they are in following the Crosstown Brawl

- Florida guard Mike Rosario is doubtful to play in the Gators' match-up with Rutgers, his former school

- A mid-season look at the Big Sky predictions

- I know you all probably don't give a you-know-what about Arkansas-Little Rock or the Sun Belt Conference, but if you were inclined to do so, I'd highly recommend checking out Burn The Horse. Not many low-major schools have fans dedicated enough to create a team-specific-blog. But the good people at B.T.H certainly represent their school well and run a good operation over there

- Your weekly reminder that the Pac-12 is like, really really really really bad this year

- I guess maybe Billy Clyde Gillispie isn't as much of a punk as we all make him out to be

- Don't mess with Dickie-V on Twitter. The Ambassador of College Hoops doesn't take kindly to low-brow trolling