The B.I.A.H Not-Top-10 Rankings

Every week, writers, publications, media outlets and bloggers issue their Top-25 rankings for the week. A majority of the time, everybody has virtually same opinion of all the teams.

If you want to find this week's top-25 rankings, you've come to the wrong place. Here you will find our rankings for the 10 worst team performances in the NCAA. This list isn't just home to the winless mid-major bottom-feeders. No, here you will find the biggest underachievers, slumpers and teams in a funk, the worst weekly performers, and the teams that just plain suck. Now there will be teams on this list that are better than teams not on this list. But come on people, we are trying to be creative, just work with us.

The B.I.A.H Not-Top-10 Rankings

1. Mississippi State
Record: 8-6
Evidence: On the brink of anarchy


This is a no-brainer. If they had done things correctly, MSU probably could have gotten Sidney vs. Bailey on the televised portion of UFC 125:Resolution. Seriously, things could not be worse in Starkville if they tried. Rick Stansbury has decided to keep the biggest headcase in college basketball yet remove a senior co-captain from the program. The Fightin' Bulldogs have lost four of their last five, and while the SEC West is abysmal, things don't look good at all.


2. Butler
Record: 10-5
Evidence: 24-point loss to UW-Milwaukee

The loss to UW-Milwaukee was their first in five games, but there is no reason the back-to-back Horizon League champs should be losing to a middle-of-the-pack team by 24. What's worse is the marquee match-up this weekend between first-place Cleveland State and the Bulldogs has lost some of it's luster. This game was going to be a possible preview of the conference championship, but now it looks like Cleveland State is in a league of it's own, despite not even playing Butler yet. If Butler wants to make it back to the NCAA tournament, they will probably have to do it by getting an at-large bid, and I don't see that happening.


3. UMass
Record: 8-5
Evidence: Patheticism (if that's a word)

Where to start, where to start? Well, first, it's entirely possible that UMass is the worst team in the A-10. Look past their eight wins and look directly at their five losses. A five-point loss to Boston College (who has lost to Harvard and Yale), a 12-point loss to Maine, a 25-point loss to Seton Hall, a six-point loss to UCF (their only "good" loss), and get this, a 29-POINT LOSS TO CENTRAL CONNECTICUT STATE. I feel sick just writing that. I don't care if they have eight wins. UMass is ranked 266th in FG% and doesn't have a single good win.


4. Memphis
Record: 11-3
Evidence: "They are who we thought they were"

Well, "they are who I thought they were". I never believed Memphis was a top-25 team. All you had to do was look at their results after five games. They would blow out the "little sisters of the poor" but would struggle to put away BCS-conference bottom-feeders like Miami and LSU. Once they faced real competition (see: Georgetown, Kansas, Tennessee) it became apparent that this team was nothing more then a couple of freak athletes.


Hell, they even struggled to put away middling mid-majors like Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Tennessee State. In the past week, Josh Pastner recieved his first technical foul of the season and the Tigers got into a slight tussle with Tennessee State. Throw in the Jelan kendrick dismissal and Angel Garcia's departure and things look real ugly for the Tigers, especially considering how good C-USA is looking this year.


5.Georgetown
Record: 12-3
Evidence: Struggling "Run-DMV", Decline of "Big-man U."

It pains me to do this, it really does, but there is no denying that the Hoyas are struggling as of late. It seems like not too long ago people were pegging them as favorites to win the Big East. But even after watching their first game of the season against ODU, it was evident that this team will live by the three and die by the three, and in more than just one way.


If the Hoyas have the hot-hand, they are tough to beat, but when teams play suffocating defense and don't allow the Hoyas to get open looks (see Temple, Notre Dame, St. John's) the Hoyas are very beatable. The "Run-DMV" trio of Austin Freeman, Chris Wright and Jason Clark has been mediocre at best in the past couple of games. They need all three of them to have big games in order to stay competitive in the Big East. Plus the Hoyas frontcourt is pretty bad. Julian Vaughn can't stay out of foul trouble, and while Henry Simms has improved, he is still nowhere near being a Big-East caliber big-man. If they don't get things going soon, we could see them crash-and-burn just like they did two years ago.


6. West Coast Point Guards
Evidence: Drug arrests, injuries and transfers

It has been a tough week for point guards out west. First we had Washington State's Reggie Moore getting arrested for a marijuana possesion charge he got in December. Then California freshman guard Gary Franklin decided he wanted to transfer after seeing his minutes diminish, and finally, Washington's Abdul Gaddy, the conference's leader in assist-to-turnover ratio tore his ACl and will be out for the season. If I was a guard out west, I'd stay home for the rest of the week.


7. Georgia Tech
Record: 7-6
Evidence: Another bad ACC team

The bottom-half of the ACC might as well be called the SEC West. Georgia Tech is making their case for being one of the worst BCS-conference teams in the country. It's hard to be worse than Wake Forest, but the Yellow Jackets are certainly making a case for themselves. We all know about their early-season loss to Kennesaw State, but Tech also has losses to a not-so-good Siena team as well as Charlotte. In the Charlotte game, they blew a 16-point first-half lead and eventually lost in overtime to a much inferior squad. Methinks Paul Hewitt is on his last legs down in Hot-lanta.


8. Florida State
Record: 11-4
Evidence: Losses to Butler and Auburn

As we mentioned earlier, Butler is not in a good place right now. Yet Florida State still found a way to lose to them. Yes, FSU did follow it up with a win against Baylor, but you have to be blind to not see that Baylor was overrated. But the big blow to the Seminoles came earlier this week when they lost to Auburn, who is arguably the worst team in any BCS-conference. Did I mention that the Seminoles have virtually no offense whatsoever? The ACC might be bad, but if you can't score points, winning games will be tough, even if your conference is crappy.


9. Mt. St. Marys
Record: 4-12
Evidence: Ineptitude, 9-game losing streak, scored 34-points against Virginia Tech

I had a chance to watch a practice at The Mount earlier in the fall, and it honestly looked like an intramural squad. The Mountaineers went nine games without finding a W, and during the stretch had games in which they scored 53, 42, 47, and 34 points. That's terrible regardless of the quality of your team.


10. Toledo
Record: 3-11
Evidence: One quality win and a bunch of ugly, smelly losses

The Rockets didn't get a win til damn-near Christmas, and they still needed an extra session to defeat Valparasio. Their other wins are against Florida Gulf Coast and some school called Indiana Northwest. But what's worse is that they have scored under 50-points five times this season, including a 41-point output against a sub-par Alabama squad. In that game, Toledo went scoreless for seven minutes to start the second half and wound up losing by more than their total output, 83-41. Continue reading...

Derek Kellogg is cleaning up the SEC's mess

Derek Kellogg has not had the best start to his head coaching career.

In 2008-2009, his Minutemen struggled through a 12-18 season, although they did knock off then-defending champion Kansas. Last season wasn't much better, as UMass finished just 12-20. And while UMass brings back the majority of their rotation, they will be conspicuously without Ricky Harris, who was just seven points shy of averaging 20 ppg on the season.

But the good people of Amherst do have something to look forward too. Kellogg is proving to be a serious recruiter. His 2009 class was impressive, as top 100 recruit Terrell Vinson headlined a five-man class where each player received at least a three-star rating by Rivals (Vinson was a four-star).

Derek Kellogg has been doing a great job on the recruiting trail.
(photo credit: NCAABBS)

This season, Kellogg brings in three more three-star recruits, with 5'8" spark plug Daryl Traynham, who cracked the Rivals top 150 list, leading the way.

With second leading scorer Anthony Gurley also coming back, UMass has talent on their roster this season. I doubt I'm the only one that thinks this team could be a sleeper in the Atlantic 10 this season.

But wait.

There's more.

Cady Lalanne is an 6'7" forward that showed enough potential to draw interest from a number of major college programs before committing to Georgia last October. But Lalanne couldn't get academically eligible at Georgia, and as the SEC does not allow Prop-48 players (Prop-48 requires incoming student-athletes to reach certain academic standards, and if they aren't met, the athlete can become eligible if they have a 2.0 GPA after their freshman year), Lalanne needed to find a different school.

Along came Kellogg, who scooped up Lalanne two weeks ago.

But wait.

There's more.

Luke Cothron has as much potential as just about any power forward in the class of 2010. He's big, he's athletic, and he has the skills to be a face up forward. But he also has attitude and effort problems, and after bouncing around during high school, Cothron committed to, then de-committed from, NC State before signing with Auburn. But like Lalanne, Cothron was not cleared academically. And like Lalanne, Cothron is expected to go from the SEC to UMass.

Now, neither Cothron or Lalanne (Cothron and Lalanne ... has a nice ring to it, no?) will be eligible until 2011. And there's something to be said about the potential of a recruit that is unable to get eligible in college -- especially one with the red flags of a kid like Cothron. But talent is talent. Kellogg is a protoge of John Calipari, who has seemingly perfected the art of coaching questionable characters with talent.

With a roster that will lose just one significant piece this year (Gurley), and a full year for Kellogg to bring in another recruit of two, the future looks bright for the Minutemen.

Continue reading...

Basketball is played 5-on-5. Apparently Bobby Lutz missed that memo

Last night, Charlotte was playing for their tournament lives.

The 49ers looked to be close to a lock to the tournament a month ago, but after losing six of their last seven games to close the regular season, Charlotte was playing an absolute must-win game against UMass in the opening round of the A-10 tournament.

The same inconsistent Charlotte team showed up. The 49ers used a 14-5 run to open up a 51-47 lead and seemed to be on the brink of pulling away from the Minutemen. But Charlotte proceeded to go ice cold from the field, missing five straight shots and turning the ball over three times over a five minute stretch that saw UMass take a 54-51 lead on a Terrell Vinson jumper with 56 seconds left.

Ricky Harris scored 24 points as UMass knocked off Charlotte in the A-10's first round last night.
(photo credit: ESPN)

Bobby Lutz called a timeout, drew up a play, and sent his team on the court with a chance to tie up the game.

What happened next?

Charlotte got a technical foul. For having six players on the floor.

"You would think a guy with three undergraduate and two graduate degrees could count to five," Charlotte coach Bobby Lutz said. "It ultimately comes to me."

"That was big," Harris told reporters after the game. "Usually those kind of mental mistakes happen on us, but it was them this time."

Talk about a microcosm of your season. For a team that was so successful early on in the season -- the 49ers beat Louisville by 22 on the road, they beat Temple, they won at Richmond -- to end the year losing seven of eight and missing the tournament, it only seems fitting that their season would end this way.

Want to add insult to injury?

Ricky Harris knocked down both technical free throws. Two seconds after that, Gokhan Sirin hit a three that would have tied the game had no technical been called. Charlotte was never able to get a shot off with a chance to tie.

Talk about your all-time brain farts.

Continue reading...

The Real March Madness: Day 8

Everyone loves the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament. Four straight days jam-packed with 12 hours of do-or-die college hoops is more than most people can handle.

But for junkies like us, the next 13 days are just as good, for it is when the true Madness takes place. Over the course of these two weeks, we whittle some 347 teams down to 30 conference champions (the Ivy doesn't have a tournament). Auto-bids will be won. Bubbles will be burst. Buzzers will be beaten. And most importantly, a 65 team bracket will be made.

Here is what happened on Tuesday:


Game of the Day: North Texas 66, Troy 63

It was only fitting that the Sun Belt title game was a dog fight. North Texas and Troy (no, not that Troy) went back and forth in a tightly contested first half that ended with the Trojans taking a 40-38 lead into the intermission. Troy came out of the half ice cold, missing 12 of their first 13 shots while allowing North Texas to open up a 59-51 lead with just 6:30 left. Troy had a run in them, however. Brandon Hazzard hit a three to cut the lead to two before Yamene Coleman tied it at 61 with 2:32 left in the game. After the teams traded baskets, the Mean Green had the ball in the final minute. Josh White drove middle, pulled up from 12 feet, hung in the air, and knocked down the go ahead basket with 22 seconds left. Hazzard had a shot blocked off of his side and out of bounds, and North Texas went on to win and move on to the NCAA Tournament.

They were good too:

• Seton Hall 109, Providence 106: The Friars scored 59 points in the last 13 minutes as they capitalized on Seton Hall's inability to play defense, protect the ball, and make free throws to come within a missed three at the buzzer of overcoming a 29 point deficit.
• Cincinnati 69, Rutgers 68: An ugly game, Cinci used a 10-0 run sparked by Lance Stephenson's back-to-back and-one's to turn a five point deficit into a five point lead. But Rutgers wouldn't go away, as Mike Rosario hit a tough, leaning three pointer to tie the game with 13 seconds left. At the other end, Lance Stephenson went 1-on-1 against Dane Miller, drawing a foul and hitting a free throw to win the game with 1.8 seconds left.
  

PLAYER OF THE DAY: Derick Nelson, Oakland

Oakland has two stars - Keith Benson and Johnathon Jones. But when a team's defensive is geared towards slowing those two down, you need someone else to step up. Enter Derick Nelson. Nelson went bananas in the Summit League title game last night. He scored 11 straight points as the Grizzlies erased an early five points deficit and finished with 20 in the first half and 36 points on the game. Nelson also added 9 boards.

They were good too

• Jamine Peterson, Providence, and Herb Pope, Seton Hall: Peterson sparked the Friar comeback against Seton Hall, going for 38 points and 16 boards. But it was Pope's performance yesterday that was the cause of the Friar's 29 point deficit, as he finished with 27 points, 11 boards, and 5 dimes.
• Dominique Jones, South Florida: Jones had 20 points, 9 boards, and 4 assists to lead USF to a win over DePaul and into a matchup with Georgetown, who they have beaten already this season.
  

TEAM OF THE DAY: UMass Minutemen

UMass has taken over the role of spoiler in the Atlantic 10 from St. Louis. After putting a huge dent into Rhode Island's tourney hopes by knocking off the Rams on Saturday, UMass beat the 49ers last night 59-56 ending any chance Charlotte had to get into the tournament. Ricky Harris led the way for UMass with 24 points, including four huge free throws down the stretch.

They were good too

• St. John's: The Johnnies did more than just know off UConn and more than just advance to the second round of the Big East Tournament yesterday. The win very well may have saved head coach Norm Robert's job.
  

Welcome to the Tournament

Summit League Tournament
Finals (Sioux Falls, SD)
#1 Oakland 76, #2 IUPUI 64

Sun Belt Conference Tournament
Finals (Hot Springs, AR)
#2 North Texas 66, #1 Troy 63

Horizon League Tournament
Finals (Indianapolis, IN)
#1 Butler 70, #2 Wright State 45


Tuesday's Tournament Results

Atlantic Ten Conference Tournament
First Round (at higher seed)
#5 Rhode Island 87, #12 St. Josephs 76
#7 Dayton 70, #10 George Washington 60
#8 St. Bonaventure 83, #9 Duquesne 71
#11 Massachusetts 59, #6 Charlotte 56

Big East Conference Tournament
Opening Round (New York City, NY)
#9 South Florida 58, #16 DePaul 49
#13 St. Johns 73, #12 Connecticut 51
#10 Seton Hall 109, #15 Providence 106
#11 Cinncinati vs. #14 Rutgers

Big Sky Conference Tournament
Semifinals (Ogden, UT)
#4 Montana 68, #2 Northern Colorado 63
#1 Weber State 69, #6 Portland State 60

Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Tournament
Opening Round (Winston-Salem, NC)
#7 Bethune-Cookman 64, #10 Florida A&M 53
#9 North Carolina A&T 65, #8 Howard 55


Wednesday's Slate of Tournament Games

Big East Conference Tournament
First Round (New York City, NY)
12:00PM - ESPN - #8 Georgetown vs. #9 South Florida
2:00PM - ESPN - #5 Marquette vs. #13 St. Johns
7:00PM - ESPN - #7 Notre Dame vs. #10 Seton Hall
9:00PM - ESPN - #6 Louisville vs.

Big Sky Conference Tournament
Finals (Ogden, UT)
10:05PM - ESPN2 - #1 Weber State vs. #4 Montana

Big-12 Conference Tournament
First Round (Kansas City,MO)
11:30AM - #8 Colorado vs. #9 Texas Tech
2:00PM - #5 Missouri vs. #12 Nebraska
6:00PM - #7 Oklahoma State vs. #10 Oklahoma
8:30PM - #6 Texas vs. #11 Iowa State

Big West Conference Tournament
First Round (Anahiem, CA)
6:00PM - #5 CS-Fullerton vs. #8 CS-Northridge
8:30PM - #6 Cal-Poly vs. #7 UC-Irvine

Conference-USA Tournament
First Round (Tulsa, OK)
12:00PM - #7 Houston vs. #10 East Carolina
2:30PM - #6 Southern Mississippi vs. #11 Tulane
6:00PM - #5 Tulsa vs. #12 Rice
8:30PM - #8 Southern Methodist vs. #9 Central Florida

Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Tournament
Opening Round/Quarterfinals (Winstom-Salem, NC)
3:00PM - #6 Maryland Eastern Shore vs. #11 Coppin State
7:00PM - #1 Morgan State vs. #9 North Carolina A&T
9:30PM - #2 Delaware State vs. #7 Bethune-Cookman

Moutain West Conference Tournament
First Round (Las Vegas, NV)
5:00PM - #8 Wyoming vs. #9 Air Force

Northeast Conference Tournament
Finals (at higher seed)
7:00PM - #2 Robert Morris at #1 Quinnipiac

Pac-10 Conference Tournament
First Round (Los Angeles, CA)
8:00PM - #8 Oregon vs. #9 Washington State

Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament
Quarterfinals (Bossier City, LA)
2:30PM - #2 Arkansas-Pine Bluff vs. #7 Mississippi Valley State
9:00PM - #1 Jackson State vs. #9 Grambling State

Southland Conference Tournament
First Round (Katy, TX)
12:00PM - #2 Stephen F. Austin vs. #7 UT-Arlington
2:30PM - #3 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi vs. #6 UT-San Antonio
6:00PM - #1 Sam Houston State vs. #8 Nicholls
8:30PM - #4 Southeast Louisiana vs. # 5Texas State

Continue reading...

UMass @ Kansas

UMass has been struggling all season trying to adjust to Derek Kellogg and the dribble-drive motion offense. They were 2-6 coming into their match-up with the Jayhawks, and four of those losses were by less than seven points, more than likely a result of the Minutemen being unable to execute down the stretch.

Against Kansas, UMass completely abandoned their offense. Instead, they put the ball into Chris Lowe's hands, let him dribble out the shot clock, and then either cleared out and let him go 1-on-1 or ran a high pick-and-roll. Lowe's stat line (12 points on 5-11 shooting, 3 assists, 4 turnovers) really does not give a good representation of how well he played. He made a lot of big shots and big plays when UMass really needed it down the stretch.

What I am not quite sure of is why UMass took the air out of the ball like they did. Their offense was not all that effective in the first half, and it seemed like UMass was trying to run their stuff but just kept ending up in an end of the shot clock situation (when it is normal to clear out for the point guard). But the fact that UMass had built a 14 point lead also had a big influence. When you are an underdog and you build a big lead, you want to reduce the number of possessions that they other team is able to get; especially when your defense is playing as well as UMass' was (more on that in a second). The best way to reduce the number of possessions is by taking a lot of time offensively, which in turn shortens the game and makes it more difficult for the better team to come back.

The way UMass built the 14 point lead was through transition baskets, many of which were the result of some great play by Ricky Harris. Harris sparked a 24-6 run that turned a 14-10 deficit into a 34-20 lead with 12 points and an assists. The reason they were able to get so many transition baskets is that they were playing some phenomenal defense (Kansas shot 34% for the game and 5-23 from deep). They frustrated Kansas by making them to take tough, contested shots every time down the floor, and eventually Kansas started forcing the issue. Tyshawn Taylor and Sherron Collins took a lot of quick, ill-advised shots which often came before a pass was even made on the possession. This was especially true for Collins, who played one of his worst games. He finished with 19 points, but it was on 6-21 shooting. Collins is not a true point guard. He is a leader, he is a tough guy, and he can score, but his mentality is score first, create second. As much as I love Collins, his poor decision-making and shot selection probably cost Kansas this win.

That frustration didn't just come from the defense that UMass played, but from the fact that they slowed the game down. UMass destroyed the rhythm and flow of the game with the way that they played offensively, and it took Kansas out of their game. I love Tony Gaffney's game. This is the second time I have seen him play, and he brings so much energy. He is always hustling for rebounds, changing and blocking shot, and he really sets the tone for UMass defensively (the same way Joey Dorsey did for Memphis last year). He finished the game with 13 boards and 6 blocks.

The bottom-line is UMass was the better team this night and they hung on to get a much deserved victory. Continue reading...