Sooner Legend, Longtime NBA Player Wayman Tisdale Dies at 44

Former University of Oklahoma star, longtime NBA veteran forward and accomplished jazz guitarist Wayman Tisdale died Friday morning. He was 44.

Tisdale played 12 seasons in the NBA and averaged 15.3 points for his career. He was a member of the U.S. team that captured the gold medal at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

In 2007, Tisdale was diagnosed with bone cancer. His right leg was amputated in August, 2008.

The Indiana Pacers drafted Wayman Tisdale out of Oklahoma in the first round of the 1985 NBA draft. The 6'9" Tisdale played with the Pacers, Sacramento Kings, Toronto Raptors and Phoenix Suns before retiring in 1997. Tisdale released his debut jazz album, "Power Forward," in 1995, while a member of the Suns (where he played from the 1994-95 season until 1997). "Power Forward" rose to No. 4 on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz chart. Tisdale's career as a jazz musician took off when his basketball career came to an end. He was one of the most successful musicians in the contemporary jazz scene up until his death.

Associated Press video: here.

RIP Wayman Tisdale.

North Carolina Wins 5th National Championship

Monday night, North Carolina breezed past Michigan State 89-72 at Ford Field in Detroit, to capture the 2009 NCAA National Championship. With the win, the North Carolina program owns five National Championships (tying with Indiana for third place on list of programs with the most National Championships, behind only Kentucky and UCLA). North Carolina had previously won National Championships in 1957, 1982, 1993 and 2005.

North Carolina dominated Michigan State from start to finish. The Spartans surprised the "experts" with their Final Four run. They had upset supposedly superior teams in Louisville and Connecticut to advance to the Final Four and Championship game. But North Carolina was clearly the superior team. The Tar Heels were simply too talented, too athletic, too deep at every position, and too focused for the Spartans.

Congratulations to the 2009 NCAA National Champion North Carolina Tar Heels.

(Image: USA Today).

Bennett to Virginia; Calipari to Kentucky: Done Deal?

Tony Bennett has been hired as the new men's head basketball coach at Virginia. Bennett coached Washington State to the Sweet Sixteen in the 2008 NCAA Tournament.

Drive and Dish discussed the Virginia basketball program when Dave Leitao was forced to resign earlier in March. We acknowledged that while the University of Virginia is an esteemed academic institution with a gorgeous campus and outstanding basketball facilities, it has a tough time recruiting and competing against rival powerhouse Atlantic Coast Conference programs:

Virginia is an outstanding school with a beautiful, historic campus. And it has top-notch basketball facilities. But in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Cavaliers have to compete against basketball powers like North Carolina, Duke, Wake Forest, Maryland. And they have trouble keeping the best players from Virginia in state, as the traditional ACC power programs and Georgetown usually raid Washington, D.C. and Virginia of its best basketball talent.

Despite it's many strengths (at least on paper), the Virginia men's basketball program remains something of an enigma. In theory, there's no reason why U.Va shouldn't be able to consistently finish in the top five of the ACC. After all, if a football school like Clemson can become a player in ACC hoops, certainly Virginia, with its outstanding facilities and strong basketball tradition, can reassert itself as one too.

But for some reason, a sustained return to basketball prominence just hasn't been in the cards. for Virginia.

Then we asked why -- given the difficulties that Virginia has encountered in trying to be a player in ACC hoops -- an in demand, up-and-coming coach would agree to take on the challenge that is Virginia basketball :

(u)nderstandably, the University of Virginia wants to replace Dave Leitao with a coach who can resurrect the Cavalier basketball program and generate excitement among Virginia fans and alumni. Virginia will likely spend big money to lure a hot, up-and-coming coach to Charlottesville. But Pete Gillen and Leitao were once hot, up-and-coming coaches who appeared to possess the qualities that would allow them to rebuild the once-proud Virginia basketball program.

Why Virginia has been unable to field a consistently competitive basketball program remains somewhat unclear. Why an in-demand, up-and-coming coach would accept the Virginia job, especially considering how the tenures of Virginia's recent coaches have ended, remains even less clear.

Tony Bennett, however, is an interesting hire. He succeeded his father, legendary coach Dick Bennett, as the coach at Washington State (Tony had been an assistant on his father's WSU staff). Prior to the Bennetts' arrival in Pullman, WA, Dick Bennett built the once-moribund Wisconsin basketball program into a national power in the 1990's. Tony was a member of his father's coaching staff at Wisconsin when Dick Bennett's accomplished his most impressive feat as a Division I head coach (Dick Bennett had coached at several levels, including the NAIA): leading an improbable Wisconsin team to the 2000 Final Four. Dick Bennett retired from coaching shortly thereafter, but his reputation as a "program builder" prompted Washington State to pursue him to fill their coaching vacancy in 2003. When Tony Bennett took over the reins from his father in 2006, Washington State had already become a fairly competitive basketball program. But after he took WSU to the 2008 Sweet Sixteen, Tony Bennett became a hot commodity among Athletic Directors looking to fill coaching openings (Bennett was offered, but ultimately turned down, the head coaching jobs at LSU and at Indiana).

Tony Bennett is a young (38), and relatively charismatic coach. He was a great college point guard -- still the the NCAA's all-time leader in 3-point percentage (.497), he set Mid-Continent Conference records for scoring (2,285) and assists (601) while playing for his father at Wisconsin-Green Bay -- who played three seasons in the NBA before becoming a coach. Once at Washington State, he found immediate success as a first-time college head coach. What's more, the fact that the Bennetts have a solid track record of turning non-traditional college basketball powers into competitive programs makes Tony Bennett especially well suited for the challenge of returning Virginia basketball to prominence.

When Drive and Dish wondered why an up-and-coming coach would want to take on the massive task of trying to rebuild the Virginia basketball program, we didn't know that Tony Bennett was on U.Va's radar. Tony Bennett is a good fit for Virginia.


Calipari to Kentucky: Done Deal?

Earlier today, ESPN's Andy Katz reported that Memphis head coach John Calipari had met with officials from the University of Kentucky to discuss Kentucky's coaching vacancy. Later, Katz reported that Calipari was close to taking the Kentucky job, but had conducted several meetings with players and officials at Memphis.

This evening, Sports Illustrated's Seth Davis wrote that two separate sources characterized a Calipari/Kentucky deal as being somewhere between a "done deal" and "moving in that direction." Later in the evening, WMC TV in Memphis reported that Calipari was set to leave for Kentucky.

Drive and Dish has historically eschewed trafficking in rumors. Although our (former) proximity to the worlds of college and high school basketball -- albeit on the fringes -- prompted us to blog anonymously, we've always declined to publish confidential information that friends have relayed to us in private conversations (and we've had some damn good "scoops" over the years that we never posted). But for what it's worth, a "friend of Drive and Dish" who has "insider information" from the within the Kentucky basketball program told us this afternoon that Calipari is, indeed, headed to Kentucky, and that he's already notified Memphis of his decision to leave.

Since the Calipari to Kentucky story is already being widely reported, relaying the information transmitted by our friend doesn't violate Drive and Dish's "no snitching" policy. We'll continue to steer clear of the college basketball/NBA rumor mills. But the Calipari/Kentucky romance is in a different category ... at this point, it's one of the worst kept secrets around.

UConn, Michigan State, North Carolina, Vilanova Advance to Final Four

The first two rounds of the 2009 NCAA Tournament are over. The 65-team NCAA Tournament field has been whittled down to four remaining contestants. Connecticut, Michigan State, North Carolina and Villanova have survived and advanced, and, thus, constitute the field for the 2009 Final Four.

On Saturday, April 4, Connecticut will play Michigan State and North Carolina will play Villanova in Detroit's Ford Field.

As 1-seeds, North Carolina and Connecticut were expected to reach the Final Four. Michigan State and Villanova, while both seeded highly (2 and 3-seeds, respectively) upset 1-seeds in the Elite Eight in order to advance to the Final Four.

Michigan State's presence in the Final Four is particularly noteworthy. As members of the much-maligned Big Ten conference, most college basketball "experts" expressed the opinion that the Spartans did not have what it takes to reach the Final Four. Most experts expected Louisville to defeat MSU handily in the Elite Eight, and thus, become the third 2009 Final Four participant from the Big East conference. In fact, it was widely believed that Louisville would run Michigan State off the floor.

But Tom Izzo and the Spartans had different ideas. Izzo's superior game plan put his team in position to take advantage of its strengths (superior guard play, strong play in the paint), and neutralize Louisville's strengths (full court pressure defense, athleticism, three point shooting, switching zone defenses, depth). Most analysts expected Michigan State to wilt under Louisville's famed full court pressure. But the backcourt duo of Kalin Lucas and Travis Walton (along with occasional help from big man Goran Suton) broke the Cardinals' pressure with ease. And the Spartans' torrid three point shooting relegated the zone defense ineffective.

Also of note, since his promotion to the position of men's head basketball coach prior the 1995/96 season, Tom Izzo has taken Michigan State to five Final Fours. Even more impressively, since becoming head coach, every one of Tom Izzo's who has completed his four years of eligibility has participated in a Final Four.

Although he's regularly overlooked by the Big East & Atlantic Coast Conference-obsessed national sports media, Tom Izzo is clearly one of the top coaches in college basketball. What's more, he's widely regarded as one of the true good guys in a notoriously shady sport (college basketball) that is filled with smooth-talking, but often unscrupulous coaches.

Drive and Dish expects Connecticut to beat North Carolina to win the 2009 National Championship (as we've said all year), but we tip our hats to Tom Izzo and Michigan State. We thought MSU would probably make it to the Elite Eight, but fall short of making the Final Four (even though we picked Kansas in our final official bracket). But we're thrilled to see Izzo and the ever-tough Spartans back in the familiar territory of the Final Four.

Drive and Dish Reveals 2009 NCAA Tournament Picks

Since the NCAA Tournament starts later this morning, Drive and Dish is revealing our (until now) super-embargoed NCAA Tournament Brackets. Long time Drive and Dish readers may remember that we did the same thing last year. Last year, Mark Buckets and Trashtalk Superstar filled out brackets for Drive and Dish. This year however, we only have Trashtalk Superstar's bracket, as Mark Buckets' position has been eliminated due to the effects of the recession on the sports blog industry.

So without any further ado, we present the official 2009 Drive and Dish NCAA Tournament filled-out bracket (click on image to enlarge):

Notes:

* Indicates games in which Drive and Dish thinks the underdog team is likely to challenge the favored team and give them a "scare" before, ultimately, falling short of pulling off an upset.

** Drive and Dish picked Michigan to beat Clemson and Wisconsin to beat Florida State, despite the fact that we think Clemson and Florida State should win those games.

As we've said before, we're not sold on Clemson. We think Michigan's 1-3-1 zone could prove difficult for Clemson's offense. And we think Clemson will have trouble defending Michigan's Manny Harris. If Clemson struggles with Michigan's zone defense, and if Manny Harris has a big night, Michigan will win (despite the fact that Clemson has a better balanced team).

Florida State's Toney Douglas is one of the best guards in the game. He's not big, but he can break defenders down easily, can shoot effectively off the dribble and has, as they say, a motor that doesn't quit. Douglas torched opposing teams throughout the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament. Douglas should cause problems for Wisconsin. However, if Wisconsin can dictate the game's tempo, Florida State (and Douglas in particular) could find themselves stuck in a plodding, bruising, half-court game. If this happens, the Seminoles will have trouble scoring.

Earlier in the season, Northwestern -- the ultimate slow-it-down, plodding Big Ten team -- upset Florida State in the ACC vs. Big Ten Challenge. Florida State has better talent than Wisconsin, but Drive and Dish expects the Wisconsin to be effective in slowing FSU down and forcing them to operate their offense out of half-court sets. If this occurs, Wisconsin should be able to knock Florida State out of the NCAA Tournament.

Leitao Out at Virginia

Dave Leitao has resigned his position as the head coach of the University of Virginia men's basketball team. Sources say it was a forced resignation.

Virginia finished the 2008-09 basketball season with a 10-18 overall record and was just 4-12 against Atlantic Coast Conference opponents. The Cavaliers placed 11th in the 12 member league.

Leitao arrived at Virginia in 2005 after three seasons as the head coach at DePaul. Prior to his stay at DePaul, he was Jim Calhoun's top assistant at Connecticut.

Under Leitao, Virginia participated in three postseason tournaments, including the 2007 NCAA Tournament. What's more, the Cavaliers' strong showing in '07 -- U.Va earned a share of the regular-season conference title -- resulted in Leitao being named the 2006-07 ACC Coach of the Year.

But despite his early success in Charlottesville, Leitao had trouble recruiting. The University of Virginia is an outstanding school with a beautiful, historic campus. And it has top-notch basketball facilities. But in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Cavaliers have to compete against basketball powers like North Carolina, Duke, Wake Forest, Maryland. And they have trouble keeping the best players from Virginia in state, as the traditional ACC power programs and Georgetown usually raid Washington, D.C. and Virginia of its best basketball talent.

Despite it's many strengths (at least on paper), the Virginia men's basketball program remains something of an enigma. In theory, there's no reason why U.Va shouldn't be able to consistently finish in the top five of the ACC. After all, if a football school like Clemson can become a player in ACC hoops, certainly Virginia, with its outstanding facilities and strong basketball tradition, can reassert itself as one too.

But for some reason, a sustained return to basketball prominence just hasn't been in the cards
for Virginia.

Pete Gillen was one of the hottest college basketball coaches in America when he took the Virginia job. But he washed out a few years later. Dave Leitao was also highly regarded when he arrived to replace Gillen. After all, Leitao had taken DePaul to the NCAA Tournament after the program lay in ruins following the end of the Pat Kennedy era. He was a young, polished, black head coach who carried himself with a quiet confidence and an unwavering cool. But after four years as Virginia's head coach, Leitao leaves Charlottesville with a head full of grey hair and the appearance of a much older man. His formerly cool demeanor has been replaced with a perpetually stressed-out look that underscores the difficulties he's encountered while helming the Virginia basketball program.

Understandably, the University of Virginia wants to replace Dave Leitao with a coach who can resurrect the Cavalier basketball program and generate excitement among Virginia fans and alumni. Virginia will likely spend big money to lure a hot, up and coming coach to Charlottesville. But Pete Gillen and Leitao were once hot, up and coming coaches who appeared to possess the qualities that would allow them to rebuild the once-proud Virginia basketball program.

Why Virginia has been unable to field a consistently competitive basketball program remains somewhat unclear. Why an in-demand, up and coming coach would accept the Virginia job, especially considering how the tenures of Virginia's recent coaches have ended, remains even less clear.

Thoughts On the ACC

The Drive and Dish editors spent the last week traveling through the Carolinas. We weren't traveling for pleasure, and we only had a limited time to watch basketball. But we did get the chance to see several games on Saturday, Feb. 28, as well as a couple games on the preceding Wednesday and Thursday. Since the Drive and Dish headquarters are located in Chicago, we normally get to see plenty of Big Ten local programming. But our travels in North and South Carolina afforded us the opportunity to see several local (i.e., not nationally televised) Atlantic Coast Conference games (to the extent that we've been able to view games, which, as stated before, has been limited).

On a side note, it was fun to watch two disappointing Clemson losses games with a cousin who's a 2008 Clemson alumnus. I've never been around Clemson fans during basketball season (just football season), and it was fun to bear witness to their angst and frustration during losses to Virginia Tech and Florida State. Clemson is a football school first and foremost. As such, I wasn't aware that Clemson fans really cared about basketball. And after watching Clemson basketball with some them, I'm still not convinced that they actually care about basketball. But they like to see Clemson win, and they root hard for their Tigers. Plus, they hate Tyler Hansbrough and North Carolina ... but no more than they hate Mike Krzyzewski and Duke.

I also got the chance to watch Duke narrowly escape an upset at the hands of Virginia Tech with family members who are fairly recent UNC alums, and big Heels fans (my cousin and her husband -- whose father is a professor at UNC-Chapel Hill and played basketball for the Tar Heels in the 1960's). In my experience, UNC fans tend to be knowledgeable, sophisticated college basketball fans. There are exceptions, of course, but as a general rule, the Heels' fan base is among the best in college basketball. Certainly, the Heels fans who I watched the Duke game with fit that description.

But lest Drive and Dish plunge head first into full-fledged digression mode, we return our focus back to the original intent of this post: our impromptu, early-March Drive stay in the Carolinas allowed Drive and Dish's editors to take in plenty of late-season ACC basketball. And although we've been monitoring the ACC all season long from our Chicagoland headquarters (and haven't really changed our opinions of the key players in the ACC), being immersed in ACC country with fans of ACC teams has prompted Drive and Dish to have a renewed interest in several of the league's less-glamorous, and less-publicized teams.

In other words, we've got some thoughts on the ACC, and we're willing to share them.

First, we'll offer a quick take on the Final Four prospects of the top teams in the ACC. Then we'll give a few thoughts about the NCAA Tournament prospects for the other ACC Tournament hopefuls.


North Carolina:

As we've stated before, Drive and Dish expects North Carolina to make it to the Final Four. We're not sold on the Tar Heels' chances of winning the National Championship, but we think that they're an elite level team (which should be obvious to anyone with eyes).

The Heels have three -- and possibly more -- likely future NBA first round draft picks on their roster. Tyler Hansbrough, Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington may not be destined for NBA superstardom, but they will probably be drafted in the first round. And Danny Green probably has an outside (albeit considerably outside) chance of making it to the "league."

Teams that contend for National Championships almost always have multiple future NBA players on their rosters. The Tar Heels definitely fit that bill.

Drive and Dish takes the position that Connecticut will, most likely, win the National Championship (although the loss of all-important guard Jerome Dyson to injury has the potential to cause the Huskies untold problems). We think North Carolina will probably make it all the way to the National Championship game, but we suspect they'll fall short of capturing their second National Championship in four years (UNC won the 2005 National Championship).


Duke:

Duke doesn't strike us as a legitimate Final Four contender, but make no mistake: Duke has two great players in shooting guard Gerald Henderson and forward Kyle Singler.

Henderson has solidified himself as one of the premier players in college basketball (and a likely lottery pick in the NBA Draft). He's such an excellent one on one player that Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski has appeared to have loosened up the reins on the motion offense to create opportunities for him to isolate his defender. At the college level, there aren't many teams that can slow Gerald Henderson. He's an outstanding athlete and he has good size and strength for his position. What's more, he's a good shooter, he's very adept at taking his defender off the dribble (to either get to the basket, or create an open shot) and he has a variety of Kobe Bryant-esque, NBA-style scoring moves in his arsenal.

Kyle Singler is a versatile, new school power forward. He's not a banger, but he's a very good scorer. He has a nice perimeter shot and he's good at taking the ball to the basket from the wing. Singler should be a solid NBA player someday, but he's not a great presence in the paint. That would be fine if Duke had some other rugged big men to offset Singler's game. But since the rest of Duke's front line is widely -- and rightly -- considered to be suspect (Greg Zoubek's improved rebounding notwithstanding), the Blue Devils are unlikely to have what it takes to make a Final Four run.


Wake Forest:

Drive and Dish believes that Wake Forest has enough talent and enough size to be a Final Four team, but we question their maturity and ability to make good decisions. The Demon Deacons are a very young team, and we think that they're a year away from being a legitimate Final Four contender.


Clemson:

Clemson is ranked No. 18 in the AP Top 25, but we think they're overrated. Their guard play is suspect. K.C. Rivers is a nice point guard, but shooting guard Terrence Oglesby is an one-dimensional 3 point shooter whose shot selection is iffy and who makes many questionable decisions with the ball.

Forward Trevor Booker has shown an ability to score in the paint, but Clemson's guards have had trouble getting the ball to him in the post (especially Oglesby). Center Raymond Sykes is an athletic, strong rebounder/"garbage man." He and Booker give Clemson a formidable front line. Sykes is one of those tough, scraping, big men who seem to have a special ability for always being around the ball in rebounding, drive and dish, and interior defensive situations. That allows Sykes to get easy baskets from simple cuts to the basket, and to pull in tons of rebounds (both offensive and defensive) and loose balls. But it also means that he gets fouled a lot. And that's a problem for Clemson, as Sykes' decidedly poor free throw shooting has been a critical factor in several of the Tigers' losses.

Clemson may have a nice starting front line, but they're not very deep inside. Thus, Raymond Sykes will have to play most of the game (and stay out of foul trouble) in order for Clemson to be competitive in the NCAA Tournament. And he'll absolutely have to be in the game during "crunch time" in any close Tourney contest. Unfortunately for Clemson, that will put him in position to be fouled (frequently) in late game situations. If Clemson finds itself entangled in a "nail-biter" game in the NCAA Tournament, expect the opposing team to go out of its way to foul Sykes. Thus, Raymond Sykes' free throw shooting could be a critical factor in determining Clemson's prospects for making a run in the Tournament.

Ultimately, Drive and Dish remains skeptical of Clemson. We expect them to be granted a favorable seed, but to make an early exit from the NCAA Tournament.

Now for the rest of the league:

North Carolina, Duke, Wake Forest and Clemson are certain NCAA Tournament teams. There's simply no question that those teams are in. And they're all certain to get high seeds. No. 22 Florida State is also, for all intents and purposes, "in." The Seminoles won't likely be seeded as highly as the four aforementioned teams, but it's nearly a sure thing that they'll get into the Tournament. Boston College, Maryland, Miami and Virginia Tech are all essentially "bubble" teams.


Boston College:

Boston College turned a lot of heads on Jan. 4, when they upset unbeaten and No. 1 ranked (at the time) North Carolina in the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill. BC also beat Duke on Feb. 15, and has wins over Florida State, Maryland and Providence. Their only bad loss -- and it was, indeed, a bad loss -- came at the hands of Harvard, one game after they upset No. 1 North Carolina.

Drive and Dish expects Boston College to get into the NCAA Tournament. They're a 20-plus win ACC team with wins over North Carolina and Duke. They're certainly not an NCAA Tournament sure-thing, but they appear to be in pretty good shape (barring a collapse in the ACC Tournament). It will be close, but as of this writing, BC is likely to get in.


Maryland:

Maryland is 18-12 and head Coach Gary Williams has come under fire for not having the Terrapins atop the ACC in 2008 and 2009 (despite the fact that he was hailed as a miracle worker after guiding the unheralded Terps to the 2002 National Championship). Maryland has an impressive, fairly recent (2/21/09) upset win over North Carolina. But the Terrapins only have one other big win, and it's been gathering dust all season: they upset Michigan State way back on Nov. 27, 2008. Maryland has a recent "good" loss at the hands of Wake Forest (3/3), but they have a more recent "bad" loss to hapless Virginia (3/7). What's more, Duke crushed Maryland by 41 points (85-44) at Cameron Indoor Stadium back in January. Normally, a road loss to Duke wouldn't count as a bad loss. But "bubble" teams can't afford many 20-plus point losses, regardless of who their opponents were. For a team on the "bubble," having a 40-plus point loss on it's resume could prove to be a deal-breaker.

Verdict: Maryland needs more wins over quality opponents. If they can put together an impressive run in the ACC Tournament, the Terps could force their way into the NCAA Tournament. As it stands right now, they're likely headed to the N.I.T.


Virginia Tech:

It seems like Virginia Tech finds itself on the NCAA Tournament "bubble" every year. It's become commonplace for the Hokies to pull several stunning upsets (usually road wins over Duke and/or North Carolina) followed almost immediately by several equally stunning -- or at the very least, head-scratching -- embarrassingly bad losses to sub-.500 teams.

This year, Virginia Tech's huge upset road win came at the expense of Wake Forest, who was undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the AP Top 25 at the time. The Hokies fell just short of upsetting Duke and/or UNC, but they also avoided their usual subsequent letdown losses to teams at the bottom of the ACC standings (save for their Feb. 18, loss to Virginia). As it stands, Virginia Tech has a 17-13 record and, once again, sits firmly on the NCAA Tournament "bubble." But the Hokies' resume, while not as checkered as in years past, appears to be a bit thin. On the plus side, the Hokies have one signature win (Wake Forest), and a have a nice five game winning streak from late January that includes wins over Boston College (1/17), the aforementioned then-undefeated and No. 1-ranked Wake Forest (1/21) and Miami (1/25). The Hokies' only notable "bad" losses came at the hands of Georgia (12/9), Duke (once again, for the purposes of determining a team's viability for receiving an NCAA Tournament bid, a loss to Duke would normally be seen as a "good" loss, but VA Tech's 25 point loss to the Blue Devils on Jan. 4, will be considered "bad" because the Hokies lost by more than 20 points), and the previously mentioned Virginia Cavaliers (2/28).

Virginia Tech also has two notable losses that the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee will likely consider to be "good" losses (although neither is recent): a 1 point loss to Xavier (11/21), and a 2 point loss to Wisconsin (12/1) in the ACC vs. Big Ten Challenge.

Ultimately, Virginia Tech finds itself in the same position as Maryland: they desperately need a few more wins over good teams. If VA Tech can make a run in ACC Tournament, they'll probably punch their ticket to the NCAA Tournament. Anything short of that, however, and the Hokies will have to settle for an invitation to the N.I.T. (which is nothing to scoff at, by the way).


Miami:

Miami is a quintessential "bubble" team. They're 18-11, they've got a big win over Wake Forest (2/4), a season sweep of Boston College (2/21 & 1/10), and in shooting guard Jack McClinton, the Hurricanes have one of the most electrifying players in college basketball. Miami has helped itself by steering clear of bad losses (they have none), and they have a few notable "good" losses on their resume: a 3 point loss to Duke (2/7), a 4 point loss to North Carolina (2/15) and losses to No. 3 Connecticut and Ohio State.

But like Maryland and Virginia Tech, Miami is a probably a few "big" wins shy of receiving a bid to "the Dance." Again, like Maryland and VA Tech, the Hurricanes will need to string together a few wins in the ACC Tournament -- which would include an eye-opening upset (or two) over one (or more) of the conference's power programs -- if they hope to go "dancing" in the NCAA Tournament.

That said, if Miami can make a run in the ACC Tournament, the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee may look favorably upon them because the Hurricanes feature the exciting, All American caliber McClinton.

Make no mistake: Jack McClinton will be a first round draft pick in the NBA Draft. He's a smaller, combo guard who can break down defenders at will and light it up from deep beyond the three point arc. And he's one of the toughest, most grizzled competitors in the college game. Drive and Dish maintains that McClinton's telegenic playing style brings to mind the playing styles of the Memphis Grizzlies' O.J. Mayo and the Chicago Bulls' Ben Gordon (although McClinton is bigger than the 5'10"ish Gordon). No doubt, Jack McClinton is fun to watch. What's more, flashy perimeter players like Jack McClinton are attractive to TV audiences. And the CBS and the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee know as much.

All things being equal, the presence of Jack McClinton on Miami's roster could give the Hurricanes an advantage over other bubble teams from the ACC in the eyes of the Tournament Selection Committee (although Maryland's star guard Greivis Vasquez is, at the very least, deserving of mention in that regard as well). He's a legitimate star who is capable of "putting the team on his back" ... and that has the potential to make for good TV. But Miami needs to win some ACC Tournament games if they want the Selection Committee to seriously consider their pros and cons. The Hurricanes play Virginia Tech in the first round of the ACC Tournament. Whichever team which loses that game will have to settle for the N.I.T.

UConn is Back at No. 1

Connecticut is the No. 1 team in America again. The Huskies have re-taken the top spot in the AP Top 25. North Carolina is No. 2.

Drive and Dish thinks Connecticut and North Carolina are the best teams in the country. We wouldn't be surprised to see them play each other in the National Championship game (although the loss of Jerome Dyson could prevent the Huskies from getting that far).

Pittsburgh is ranked No. 3. Oklahoma and Memphis round out the top five.

AP Top 25 (3-2-09):

Rank	Team	Record	Votes	Previous
1	Connecticut (67)	27-2	1792	2
2	North Carolina (3)	25-3	1678	4
3	Pittsburgh (1)	26-3	1612	1
4	Oklahoma	26-3	1576	3
5	Memphis (1)	26-3	1543	5
6	Louisville	23-5	1462	6
7	Duke	24-5	1340	7
8	Michigan State	23-5	1302	9
9	Kansas	24-5	1190	15
10	Wake Forest	22-5	1158	13
11	Villanova	23-6	913	10
12	LSU	25-4	894	18
13	Marquette	23-6	860	8
14	Gonzaga	23-5	837	17
15	Missouri	24-5	795	11
16	Washington	22-7	704	21
17	Xavier	23-5	629	19
18	Clemson	22-6	564	12
19	Purdue	22-7	545	16
20	UCLA	22-7	497	22
21	Arizona State	21-7	347	14
22	Butler	25-4	302	24
23	Illinois	23-7	287	20
24	Florida State	22-7	272	23
25	Syracuse	21-8	99	28
Others Receiving Votes: Creighton 52, Brigham Young 41, Utah 22, Saint Mary's 13, Dayton 11, West Virginia 10, Davidson 9, Texas 9, California 8, South Carolina 7, Providence 7, Washington State 4, Arizona 3, Oklahoma State 2, Boston College 1, Rhode Island 1, American University 1, Utah State 1

RIP Johnny "Red" Kerr, Norm Van Lier

Tragedy hit the Chicago Bulls organization on Thursday when Johnny "Red" Kerr and Norm Van Lier both passed away. After serving as the Bulls first head coach, Kerr enjoyed a long career as a color commentator on Bulls television broadcasts. Van Lier was a tough point guard for the Bulls in the 1970's. After his playing career, Van Lier had a long career doing sports talk radio and in-studio pre and post game analysis for the Bulls.

Drive and Dish has been traveling on the East Coast and learned of the news belatedly. Therefore, we refer readers to Top Ten Chicago Sports, which has a nice tribute to the Bulls' long-time ambassadors.

Upset Saturday

On Saturday, the second and third ranked teams in America ventured into the arenas of conference rivals and staggered out with upset losses on their records. Texas upset No. 2 Oklahoma 73-68, and unheralded Maryland stunned No. 3 North Carolina 88-85 in overtime.

Texas' A.J. Abrams scored 18 of the Longhorns' final 20 points, including 16 straight points in the last eight minutes of the game. But Texas (18-8, 7-5 Big 12), no doubt, benefited tremendously from the absence of Oklahoma's Blake Griffin, the leading scorer and rebounder in the Big 12 Conference. Griffin left the game after sustaining a concussion first half. He did not return in the second half and only played for a total of 11 minutes (netting 2 points and 3 rebounds).

With the loss, Oklahoma falls to 25-2, 11-1.

Maryland Upsets No. 3 North Carolina 88-85 (OT)


Maryland overcame a 16 point deficit en route to their upset of No. 3 North Carolina, thanks largely to a Herculean effort by Greivis Vasquez. Vasquez finished with a career-high 35 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. His performance marked Maryland's first triple-double in 22 years (Derrick Lewis had two triple-doubles for the Terrapins in 1987).

With the win, Maryland (17-9, 6-6 Atlantic Coast Conference) likely put itself within striking distance of an NCAA Tournament bid.

North Carolina fell to 24-3, 10-3. Ty Lawson led the visiting Tar Heels with 24 points.

(Photos: Baltimore Sun).

73 Year Old College Basketball Player Ruled Ineligible

Roane State Junior College's Ken Mink, who at 73 is the oldest man to ever play college basketball, has been ruled ineligible by the NJCAA.

Guest Post: Wake Forest Basketball Through a Student's Eyes

Drive and Dish has been paying close attention to Wake Forest all season long. The reasons for our are new-found Wake Forest interest are obvious: the Demon Deacons have undergone a basketball renaissance in 2008/09 which resulted in their ascension to the No. 1 ranking in the AP Top 25 Poll (although it was a brief stay at No. 1), they've bounced back from the sudden death (in 2007) of head coach Skip Prosser to rally around new head coach Dino Gaudio, and -- for some reason -- Drive and Dish gets a lot of traffic from Wake Forest fans.

However, despite our renewed interest in Wake Forest and the apparent popularity of a few Wake Forest-related Drive and Dish posts, this blog has never had a tangible connection to Wake Forest University. To be sure, we've got no shortage of friends who either currently attend, or alumni of, Big Ten schools. And we've spent plenty of time on Big Ten campuses. The same goes for most of the Big 12 and many of the Big East and Pac-10 schools. What's more, we've got several relatives and friends who are alums of ACC schools. And we're well acquainted with Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Durham, Clemson, Charlottesville, Tallahassee and Miami. But to date, we've never set foot on the Wake Forest campus (or even in Winston-Salem, North Carolina).

So we're pleased to welcome guest blogger Izzy to Drive and Dish. Izzy is a Wake Forest student -- class of 2009 -- from Los Angeles, CA, and he maintains the fine NBA blog Dishing Dimes (he's also appeared on ESPN to discuss Wake Forest football and to represent Wake Forest in a debate with students from Duke). Izzy brings to Drive and Dish his insider's view of life at Wake Forest in the year of Wake's basketball rebirth:

What is it like to be a Student at Wake Forest?

Since my time at Wake Forest we have been a football school. Crazy, I know. Wake Forest has traditionally been thought of as a basketball school. In reality, that is what I cling to hailing from the Southern California. People ask, “Where is Wake Forest?” I explain that it is a school in North Carolina, and drop the names Tim Duncan and Chris Paul, sometimes to no avail. Aside from the academics, I don’t tell those people that Wake Forest is the 2^nd smallest Division 1 School (behind Rice University) with only a bit over 4,000 undergraduates. I don’t tell those people that Wake Forest has beaten the mighty Duke Blue Devils two years in a row. I don’t tell them that we have been to the NCAA tournament 20 times in our school history and had 16 straight postseason appearances (the most in ACC history). No. I don’t tell them any of that because frankly, I don’t care. I’ve gotten used to the underdog label that Wake Forest is commonly ascribed. I’ve gotten used to being the forgotten nationally ranked university. We are the forgotten North Carolina school after Duke, Carolina, and NC State.

We like to think that Duke is our rival, but they have Carolina. That is how bad it has gotten over here. We have no defined rival. We play who we play. No one has any strong opinion about Wake Forest. We are the black sheep of the ACC. Seldom does anyone think of Wake Forest when they think of the ACC. In all honesty, if I didn’t go to Wake, I wouldn’t either. The two biggest programs in the country are in ACC country. Their shadows are seen in Terapin country all the way down to the University of Miami campus lake.

How do we get noticed? We rise to #1 in the country for the first time since Chris Paul’s tenure here in 2005. We beat North Carolina. We beat Duke. We beat Clemson. We go 16-0. We have one of the most underrated student sections in the country. A student section that prides itself on wearing the most obnoxious tie-die shirts, coming up with new chants, and harassing every away team that comes into Joel Coliseum. Simply put, Wake Forest sports are a way of life around here. We are the forgotten middle child of the ACC. We need to be heard every time we play.

With all that said, hopes are high around campus. We have been taken, once again, on the roller coaster ride of Wake Forest basketball. With three NBA caliber players in Jeff Teague, James Johnson and Al-Farouq Aminu, and with the tallest front line in the country, we scratch our heads when we lose. We haven’t lost to a ranked opponent yet this season. Every loss we have had has been in the conference. Yeah, you could say that it is just the instability of the ACC, but we truly believe that we can play with anyone in the country.

In all honesty, I think the student body is scared. We are scared that the team won’t get the benefit of the doubt when it comes tournament time. We know that Duke can lose to an unranked team and probably move up in the rankings. We know that when we lose to an unranked team it is death. We play with a chip on our shoulder. As of me writing this, we dismantled Georgia Tech, a team that we lost to earlier this season. We know what we need to do to be successful.

We have a couple of x-factors on our team, Chas MacFarlane and LD Williams. LD Williams is a good perimeter defender, but he is inconsistent on the offensive end. Chas MacFarlane obviously gives us good height down low, but he is an emotional player. That is not necessarily a bad thing. I think that if he channeled his emotions in the right way, we can be a successful team. I know that authors on this site have criticized Wake’s lack of maturity, and in all honesty, that is true. We are an immature team, but a Final Four appearance is not out of the question if we are able to find our identity, and work out the kinks in our game. Ish Smith is developing as a player. I have publicly questioned both Smith and Teague’s decision making, and they have both improved their decision making. The team has a lot of work to do in order to get to the Final Four level. March is a crazy month. So many factors play into the tournament. Sitting here and trying to dissect every bit of that is not going to give us a better picture. It is just my opinion. All we know is that college basketball has seen every single #1 team fall this season. It will make for a great tournament. Until then, all I can say and hope for it, Go Deacs!

Izzy

Guest Writer

Author of dishingdimes.blogspot.com

An Early Look at the NCAA Tournament Bubble

With just one month to go before the NCAA Tournament's "Selection Sunday," Bracketography (one of Drive and Dish's favorite websites) breaks down the teams on the proverbial NCAA "bubble."

UConn's No. 1 Streak Reaches Three Weeks

For the third straight week, Connecticut is the No. 1 ranked team in America. Thus far, the Huskies are the only team to keep the No. 1 ranking in the AP Top 25 for more than one week in calendar year 2009. Oklahoma remains at No. 2 and North Carolina remains at No. 3.

Pittsburgh and Memphis round out the top 5.

AP Top 25 (Feb. 16, 2009):

		Record	Votes
1	Connecticut (66)	24-2	1794
2	Oklahoma (4)	25-1	1709
3	North Carolina (2)	23-2	1676
4	Pittsburgh	24-2	1589
5	Memphis	22-3	1465
6	Michigan State	20-4	1443
7	Louisville	19-5	1280
8	Wake Forest	19-4	1217
9	Duke	20-5	1048
10	Marquette	21-4	1045
11	Missouri	22-4	1041
12	Villanova	20-5	983
13	Clemson	20-4	939
14	Arizona State	20-5	830
15	Kansas	20-5	651
16	Xavier	21-4	646
17	Gonzaga	19-5	599
18	Illinois	21-5	589
19	Purdue	19-6	582
20	UCLA	19-6	473
21	Butler	22-3	373
22	Washington	19-6	334
23	LSU	21-4	294
24	Syracuse	19-7	207
25	Dayton	23-3	194
Others Receiving Votes: Texas 83, Utah State 72, Ohio State 45, Arizona 38, California 34, Utah 34, West Virginia 26, Florida State 18, Davidson 15, South Carolina 10, Minnesota 6, Boston College 5, Kentucky 5, Miami (FL) 2, Tennessee 2, Wisconsin 2, Brigham Young 1, Robert Morris 1

Tidbits: UNC vs. Duke Edition

Tonight is the first of two nights that ESPN has been waiting for all year long: it's the first run of the annual North Carolina vs. Duke rivalry (a.k.a. the most hyped up sporting event this side of the Super Bowl).

In honor of tonight's big game, Drive and Dish is rolling out another installment of our ever-popular "Tidbits" feature. For those readers who are sick of the UNC vs. Duke hype, rest assured: not all of our "Tidbits" items pertain to the Duke vs. North Carolina game. However, we're not getting paid to write about the Mercer vs. the Citadel rivalry, so forgive us if we're a little UNC vs. Duke heavy today.

On second thought, we're not really getting paid to write about the North Carolina vs. Duke rivalry either. Our high six-figure blogging salaries were casualties of the recent economic downturn, so the Drive and Dish writers are now blogging pro bono (although thanks to the largess of the U.S. Senate, the "sports blog bailout" allocation in the stimulus bill will allow the twelve member Drive and Dish Editorial Board, the Drive and Dish Board of Directors, and the 21 year old Long Island Iced Tea- drinking, table-dancing, Pussycat Doll lookalike Drive and Dish interns to retain their usual high levels of compensation).

So before we start having second thoughts about the whole "pro bono blogging" thing (and before we start to resent the Editorial Board's high level of compensation and begin to demand salary caps for Editorial Board members ... damn those "suits!" ... workers of the world unite! ... viva la revolucion!), we present the "UNC vs. Duke 2009" edition of "Tidbits":

1. Ken Tysiac (a noted North Carolina hater, at least according to many Tar Heels fans) of the Charlotte Observer says that North Carolina is starting separate itself from Duke as a basketball power because of Roy Williams' superior recruiting:

“Not that Duke has recruited badly, but North Carolina has sort of exceeded them in recruiting,” said (Bob) Gibbons, the All-Star Sports recruiting analyst. “And the end result is the differential in the game performance.”

Just a few short years ago, Duke was widely considered the preeminent program in college basketball, and Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski was said to be able to get just about any recruit that he wanted. But Duke has gone just 2-5 against North Carolina recently, despite having won 15 of the the previous 17 games against the Tar Heels. And Raycom Sports analyst (and former Duke center) Mike Gminski thinks that North Carolina's recent dominance in the heated series is likely to further the Heels' recruiting advantage over Duke:

“Kids can't identify with history. They're too young.”

2. Scout.com, powered by Fox Sports and MSN (hey, wait a minute ... aren't Fox News and MSNBC supposed to be bitter, archenemies? Don't Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow make their livings by "speaking truth to power" to the nefarious "right wing fascist Nazis" at "Fixed News"? And don't Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity lampoon the "crazy liberals" at MSNBC and in the "mainstream media?" Isn't the Fox vs. MSNBC rivalry more heated and intense than the Duke vs. North Carolina rivalry? Don't tell me that the parent companies of the two cable news rivals are actually partners in some kind of cynical, capitalist, synergistic media alliance! Could the respective politics of the cable news enemies be little more than the result of programming decisions that had their roots in corporate media attempts to establish strong "brands" for their cable news entities? Oh, the horror!) previews tonight's North Carolina vs. Duke game.


3. The ACC & SEC Blog also previews tonight's game and predicts a 1-5 point North Carolina win.


4. North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough looks to go 4-0 vs. Duke at Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium.


5. Drive and Dish gets frequent requests from readers to step up our coverage of mid-major college basketball. Many of those requests come from fans of a Horizion League programs (one or two programs in particular).

Ask and ye shall receive: coverage of Tuesday night's Wright State (OH) win over Loyola (Chicago) courtesy of the fine blog, Chicago College Basketball.


6. Michigan turned some heads earlier in the season when they upset then-No. 4 UCLA and then-No. 4 Duke in the space of two weeks. Hopes were high that Wolverines head coach John Beilein was in the process of reestablishing Michigan as an elite college basketball program. But the Wolverines trailed off somewhat after their hot start. However, all is not lost in Ann Arbor: after last week's nice win over Penn State and respective showing at No. 1 UConn, Michigan is still very much in the mix for a post-season berth. And considering the depths to which the once proud UM program had fallen to, John Beilein has done a nice job turning what was a moribund program around. Hoopraker looks at Michigan's climb back up to college basketball prominence.

Two Weeks and Counting: UConn Still No. 1 in AP Top 25

For the second straight week, the University of Connecticut Huskies are the No. 1 men's college basketball team in the nation. Until now, no team has held the No. 1 spot in the AP Top 25 for more than one week since the start of calendar year 2009.

What's more, Oklahoma has held on to its No. 2 ranking for the second week in a row. And although most of the elite teams have gone through ups and downs thus far in 2009, the newfound stability at the top of the AP Top 25 may be an indicator of things to come. With North Carolina ranked No. 3, Pittsburgh ranked No. 4 and Louisville ranked No. 5, it's beginning to look like the cream of college basketball is rising to the top.

AP Top 25 (Feb. 09, 2009): Team Ranking Votes

1. Connecticut (67) 22-1 1,795

2. Oklahoma (3) 23-1 1,710

3. North Carolina (2) 21-2 1,672

4. Pittsburgh 21-2 1,583

5. Louisville 18-4 1,423

6. Duke 20-3 1,350

7. Wake Forest 18-3 1,242

8. Memphis 20-3 1,237

9. Michigan State 19-4 1,214

10. Marquette 20-3 1,137

11. UCLA 19-4 1,131

12. Clemson 19-3 1,097

13. Villanova 19-4 989

14. Xavier 20-3 893

15. Butler 21-2 762

16. Kansas 19-4 751

17. Missouri 20-4 395

18. Arizona State 18-5 389

19. Gonzaga 17-5 361

20. Purdue 17-6 353

21. Utah State 23-1 317

22. Illinois 19-5 303

23. Syracuse 18-6 280

24. Ohio State 17-5 216

25. Florida State 18-5 182 Others Receiving Votes LSU 167, Washington 135, Texas 106, Florida 66, Minnesota 43, Dayton 31, California 16, Kansas State 8, West Virginia 8, South Carolina 7, Davidson 7, Miami (FL) 7, Utah 4, Arizona 4, San Diego State 2, Siena 2, Northeastern 2, Robert Morris 1, Boston College 1, Green Bay 1. Dropped From Rankings Texas 16, Minnesota 19, Washington 22.

EA Sports: "Toughest Places to Play" in College Basketball

EA Sports has released the finalists of its "Toughest Places to Play" in men's college basketball poll. The fifteen finalists were chosen based on the voting of 100,000 fans. According to the EA Sports press release, "(c)ollege basketball fans can now vote at http://www.easports.com/ncaabasketball/toughvenues.action to create the official 'fans ballot' that will determine the final ranking of the 15 finalists."

EA Sports "Toughest Places to Play" in college basketball:

Clemson University (ACC)
Duke University (ACC)
Syracuse University (Big East)
UCLA (Pac-10)
University of Arkansas (SEC)
University of Florida (SEC)
University of Illinois (Big 10)
University of Kansas (Big 12)
University of Louisville (Big East)
University of Maryland (ACC)
University of North Carolina (ACC)
University of Pittsburgh (Big East)
University of Tennessee (SEC)
University of Texas (Big 12)
Xavier University (A10)

Clemson Hammers No. 4 Duke

Wednesday night, No. 10 Clemson beat No. 4 Duke 74-47. Trevor Booker had 21 points and Terrence Oglesby hit 5 three pointers to finish with 17 points for the Tigers (19-2, 5-2 Atlantic Coast Conference). K.C. Rivers tied a Clemson record by amassing seven steals.

Clemson fans stormed the court in Littlejohn Coliseum to celebrate the Tigers' first home win over Duke since 1997.


Duke's 47 points marked its lowest point total for the season. Gerald Henderson led Duke (19-3, 6-2) with 16 points.

BracketBuster Games Announced

The BracketBuster matchups have been for 2009. Kyle Whelliston has the rundown at " The Mid Majority."

Televised Games: (Times and ESPN network assignments will be announced Feb. 9)

Northern Iowa (Missouri Valley) at Siena (Metro Atlantic)
Butler (Horizon League) at Davidson (Southern)
Utah State (Western Athletic) at Saint Mary`s (West Coast)
Miami (Oh.) (Mid-American) at Evansville (Missouri Valley)
Illinois State (Missouri Valley) at Niagara (Metro Atlantic)
George Mason (Colonial) at Creighton (Missouri Valley)
Virginia Commonwealth (Colonial) at Nevada (Western Athletic)
Northeastern (Colonial) at Wright State (Horizon League)
Boise State (Western Athletic) at Portland State (Big Sky)
Buffalo (Mid-American) at Vermont (America East)
Wisconsin-Green Bay (Horizon League) at Long Beach State (Big West)
Hofstra (Colonial) at Fairfield (Metro Atlantic)
Liberty (Big South) at Old Dominion (Colonial)

Connecticut = No. 1 (Feb. 2)

Connecticut is the new No. 1 team in America. The Huskies replace Duke as the highest ranked team in the AP Top 25.

Last week, Duke replaced Wake Forest as the No. 1 ranked team in the AP poll. But Wake Forest beat Duke 70-68 on Wednesday, before falling to Georgia Tech on Saturday.

Oklahoma takes over the No. 2 position in this week's poll, and North Carolina moves up to No. 3. Duke and Louisville round out the top 5.

Drive and Dish has been skeptical of the claim that Wake Forest is a legitimate Final Four contender. After the Demon Deacons beat Duke, we adopted the position that Wake Forest has the requisite talent and the size needed to contend for a Final Four, but that they may not have enough maturity/experience to get them there this year. And we've also stated that North Carolina is likely to make a return trip to the Final Four, but that they're unlikely to win the National Championship. But make no mistake, the UConn Huskies are a legitimate Final Four and National Championship contender.

AP Top 25

1. Connecticut (64) 20-1 1,792

2. Oklahoma (5) 21-1 1,691

3. North Carolina (3) 19-2 1,639

4. Duke 19-2 1,563

5. Louisville 17-3 1,464

6. Pittsburgh 19-2 1,427

7. Wake Forest 17-2 1,409

8. Marquette 19-2 1,358

9. Xavier 19-2 1,176

10. Clemson 18-2 1,077

11. Butler 19-1 1,051

12. Purdue 17-4 961

13. Michigan State 17-4 876

14. Memphis 18-3 798

15. UCLA 17-4 787

16. Texas 15-5 724

17. Villanova 17-4 698

18. Gonzaga 16-4 632

19. Minnesota 18-3 426

20. Syracuse 17-5 415

21. Kansas 17-4 316

22. Washington 16-5 216

23. Illinois 18-4 198

24. Arizona State 16-5 146

25. Utah State 21-1 99

Others Receiving Votes Dayton 95, Davidson 85, Missouri 39, Penn State 37, LSU 36, West Virginia 33, South Carolina 33, UNLV 29, Florida 24, Providence 14, USC 8, Notre Dame 7, Siena 4, Kansas State 4, Northeastern 3, Ohio State 3, Kentucky 2, Arizona 2, Florida State 1, Northern Iowa 1, Virginia Military 1.

Grambling State Game Cancelled Due To Missing Referees

Last week's game between tiny Talladega College and Division I Grambling State was canceled because there was no officiating crew to call the game.

"When we get to the gym they notify us that the referees were running late," Talladega head coach and athletic director Matt Cross told The Anniston (AL) Star. Cross said the team was told the game would be delayed for a half hour.

Twenty minutes later, the game was canceled, with Grambling officials saying the Southwestern Athletic Conference had failed to assign officials "and have a safe trip back and we'll mail you the guaranteed money," Cross said.

"I offered to try to make sense of the situation and they were just blaming everything on the SWAC," Cross said. "Then I even offered to stay another night and play the game on Wednesday, but they were adamant about not playing the game."

Talladega College has knocked off four Division I college teams this season. And that makes the case of the missing referees at Grambling all the more interesting.

Duane Lewis, assistant commissioner for the SWAC, said that lining up officials is the home team's responsibility, not the league's. He said Grambling athletic director J. Lin Dawson is looking into the situation.

Talladega coach Matt Cross talked about how disappointed his team was by the forfeit:

"They were so disappointed, I'd never seen them that distraught. They really wanted to play the game. They get excited to play bigger schools."

Wake Forest Beats No. 1 Duke

Wednesday night, No. 6 Wake Forest beat No. 1 Duke 70-68. Last week, Wake Forest earned its first No. 1 in the ranking AP Top 25 since November, 2004. But Virginia Tech upset Wake Forest on January 21, just two days after the Demon Deacons took over the No. 1 position.

On Monday, Duke (18-2, 5-1) replaced Wake Forest (17-1, 4-1) as the No. 1 men's college basketball team in America (the AP Top 25 is released each Monday during college basketball season). But just as Wake Forest did last week, Duke lost a game two mere days after garnering their first No. 1 ranking of the 2008/09 season. Thus, the Blue Devils' stint at No. 1 will likely be as short-lived as Wake Forest's one week No. 1 run.

No. 3 Pittsburgh Falls

Also on Wednesday night, Villanova beat No. 3 Pittsburgh 67-57.

Duke Claims No. 1 (January 26, 2009)

Duke is the new No. 1 team in America. The Blue Devils sit atop the AP Men's College Basketball Top 25 for the first time since the 2005/06 season. Duke's climb to No. 1 comes as no surprise: last week's No. 1 team, Wake Forest, lost its first game of the season to unranked Virginia Tech on Wednesday. Duke beat North Carolina State and Maryland convincingly during the week, which practically guaranteed them a promotion from last week's No. 2 ranking.

Wake Forest's stay atop the polls was short-lived: last week, the Demon Deacons captured the No. 1 ranking in the AP Top 25 for the first time since 2004. But thee days after taking over the top position in the AP poll, Wake fell at home to the unheralded Virginia Tech Hokies.

The Big East leads all conferences with four teams in the top 10: Connecticut is No. 2, Pittsburgh is No. 3 , Louisville is No. 7 and Marquette is No. 8. The Atlantic Coast Conference has three teams in the top ten, with the aforementioned No. 1 Duke, No. 5 North Carolina and No. 6 Wake Forest.

Only three non Big East or ACC teams appear in the top ten (No. 4 Oklahoma, No. 9 Michigan State and No. 10 Xavier).

AP Top 25:

1. Duke (62) 18-1 1,789

2. Connecticut (6) 18-1 1,694

3. Pittsburgh (3) 18-1 1,647

4. Oklahoma (1) 19-1 1,539

5. North Carolina 17-2 1,529

6. Wake Forest 16-1 1,509

7. Louisville 15-3 1,351

8. Marquette 17-2 1,209

9. Michigan State 16-3 1,136

10. Xavier 17-2 1,084

11. Texas 14-4 1,017

12. Clemson 17-2 929

13. Butler 18-1 916

14. Arizona State 16-3 834

15. Syracuse 17-4 808

16. Purdue 15-4 724

17. UCLA 15-4 544

18. Memphis 16-3 530

19. Illinois 17-3 401

20. Gonzaga 14-4 381

21. Villanova 15-4 276

22. Saint Mary's 18-1 247

23. Washington 15-4 218

24. Kentucky 16-4 217

25. Georgetown 12-6 189

Others Receiving Votes Notre Dame 154, Minnesota 138, Kansas 84, Florida 65, Missouri 52, Virginia Tech 37, Baylor 34, West Virginia 32, Davidson 27, Utah State 23, Dayton 14, California 13, UNLV 4, Florida State 3, Ohio State 1, Virginia Commonwealth 1. Dropped From Rankings Notre Dame 19, Minnesota 21, Florida 24.

High School Team Apologizes for 100-0 Win

A high school girls basketball team from Dallas, TX, has apologized for -- and is seeking forfeiture of -- their 100-0 blowout win over a rival from a school for learning-disabled students.

Virginia Tech Deals Undefeated No. 1 Wake Forest First Loss; Northwestern Upsets No. 7 Michigan State

Over the last several days, Drive and Dish has devoted a lot of time to talking about Wake Forest and Northwestern (more here, here, here, here, and here). How fitting then, that Wake Forest and Northwestern were participants in Wednesday night's two shocking upset games.

Virginia Tech traveled to Winston Salem, NC, and stunned No. 1 Wake Forest 78-71, handing the previously unbeaten Demon Deacons their first loss of the season.

And Northwestern ventured into Michigan State's intimidating Breslin Center and upset the No. 7 Spartans 70-63 (more here). With the stunning win, the Wildcats ended Michigan State's 28-game home winning streak and earned their first road win over a top ten team since the early 1950's.


What's more, the Wildcats' newfound winning ways have prompted some Northwestern fans to start looking down the schedule and speculating about the broader implications of the 'Cats' two recent upset wins (and it's prompted Drive and Dish to link to the fine Northwestern blog Lake the Posts for the third time this week):

Before you go into "coulda, shoulda, woulda" mode with the Purdue and Penn State games, just be thankful we grabbed this one thanks to a combination of stellar defense and poor Michigan State shooting. Northwestern moves to 10-6 (2-4) with several winnable games in the near future (Iowa, Chicago State and Indiana). However, after winning AT Michigan State, it makes you wonder what game isn't winnable? To the Carmody-must-go-ists, including myself, it makes you also wonder if he secured another year with tonight's win (along with at least four or five more to be .500-ish).

As alluded to above, Wake Forest and Northwestern have taken to making college basketball headlines, and have, thus, been the subjects of several recent Drive and Dish posts. If the Demon Deacons and Wildcats stay at the forefront of college hoops, Drive and Dish will be forced to continue talking/writing about them. Sure, we're well aware that with all our recent WFU/NU talk, we run the risk of looking like WFU and NU fanboys (fanboy pictures: here, here, here, here and here). But what's a basketball blogger to do? If the aforementioned teams keep making waves, we'll have to keep writing about them ... although we might be well advised to stop wearing the Demon Deacon underoos (more here) and to stop sleeping in the purple and white Wildcat sheets.

Tidbits, '09 Part 2

On Friday, Drive and Dish published the maiden 2009 edition of our ever-popular Tidbits series. As it happens, our Friday Tidbits edition was so well received that the Drive and Dish editors have ordered a special impromptu Tuesday edition of Tidbits.

So with out any further ado, we present the second edition of Tidbits for 2009:

1. -- Hoopraker provides pre-game analysis of tonight's marquee Big Ten games: Michigan at Penn State and Ohio State at No. 25 Illinois.


2. -- Fresh off of Sudnay's Northwestern upset of then No. 18 (now No. 21) Minnesota, Lake the Posts discusses the lack of student support for the Northwestern basketball program, ponders what it will take for the Wildcats to fill the traditionally empty seats of NU's Welsh-Ryan Arena and calls for the firing of Northwestern head coach Bill Carmody.

(Photo: Lake the Posts)

Drive and Dish has long held the position that Northwestern basketball has the potential to rise from its decades-long stay in college basketball's wilderness and become a respectable, competitive program -- much like Northwestern football has done. Welsh-Ryan Arena is an old school, band box-style gym that could provide the Wildcats with an intimidating home court advantage, were it ever to fill up with boisterous Northwestern students/fans. But as long as alumni and fans of Northwestern's opponents continue to outnumber Wildcats supporters in Welsh-Ryan's stands, Northwestern basketball will likely continue to flounder.

If Northwestern could ever establish a consistent home court advantage, the 'Cats would almost certainly pull a few more of their close games out. Bill Carmody's system allows Northwestern to slow their opponents down and keep games close. A hostile Welsh-Ryan arena could spell the difference between Northwestern losing even more nail-biters, or finally starting to win a few (as they did against Minnesota) -- which would allow them to build some momentum. And that could be the difference between finishing with a winning record, or finishing with yet another losing record.

More:

On a personal note, when yours truly, Trashtalk Superstar, was forced to leave the grind of life as a Division III college basketball walkon in order to return home to Chicagoland for surgery in February 1996, I made my first visit to Welsh-Ryan Arena to watch then-first year head coach Tom Izzo lead his Michigan State team into battle against Northwestern. I had been in downtown Chicago that afternoon/evening and made a last minute decision to attempt to check out the MSU Northwestern game (despite the fact that I was by myself ). Due to the hasty nature of my decision, I didn't walk through the Welsh-Ryan turnstiles until a little past the halfway point of the first half. To my surprise, the kind folks at Welsh-Ryan Arena granted me admission free of charge, and I hurried into the gym where I took a courtside seat amidst a sea of Michigan State alumni and fans. After that night, I would go on to make several last minute decisions to shoot up to Evanston in order to check out Northwestern games. And since I almost usually arrived late, I almost never paid to get into the games.

Over the years, the promise of being able to breeze into cheap (possibly free) first rate seats to watch Northwestern take on the Big Ten's best teams afforded me many opportunities to convince family and friends to make the trek to E-Town to take in NU basketball games (often at the last minute).

So Northwestern students' apathy for their basketball team has worked out well for yours truly, as it's allowed me to waltz into several NU games on little more than a whim (and often for free). And the perpetually half-full stands at Welsh-Ryan have allowed me to enjoy the spoils of reliably available prime seating.

But I'd love to see Northwestern become a winning basketball program that plays in front of a consistently full (or close to full) Welsh-Ryan Arena. Sure, I wouldn't be able to stroll into Welsh-Ryan Arena at the last minute any longer, but it would be a vast improvement for Northwestern basketball.


3. -- Butler tops The CollegeInsider.com's Mid Major Top 25. St. Mary's, Gonzaga, Davidson and Illinois State round out the top 5.


4. -- Allen Vaughan of the Springfield, MO, News-Leader catches Kansas head coach Bill Self skirting an NCAA rule:

"That's what was so curious when Kansas coach Bill Self came rolling
through. I was puzzled because it's an evaluation period in the NCAA's eyes, meaning coaches and recruits can have no contact, except for an exchange of greetings.

Of course, (John) Wall is the top uncommitted recruit. Self had to know I was a reporter and even said hello to me.

I just thought he'd stand there, maybe even wave to Wall to let him know he was there. Instead, when the Holy Rams poured out of the locker room, Self was excited:

Self: "Johnny, great win man. You really played well."

Wall: "Thanks."

More about past questionable recruiting practices by Kansas assistant coach Kurtis Townsend via the Seattle Post-Intelligencer here (a liquored-up Drive and Dish writer/editor commented on the questionable writing on display in the linked Post-Intelligencer article here).


5. -- Boston University's John Holland played all 60 minutes of Monday's four overtime BU win over Stony Brook (the final score was Boston U 99, Stony Brook 97). Holland's teammate, Jake O'Brien played 56 minutes. Stony Brook's Bryan Dougher played 57 minutes.


6. -- Caulton Tudor of the Raleigh News & Observer discusses what it means for Wake Forest to be ranked No. 1, and states that it means a lot more to be ranked No. 1 in April than it does in January (obviously).


7. -- Finally, since every man, woman and child in America is apparently caught up in the rapture of Inauguration Day fever, Drive and Dish has decided to stand out from the crowd by turning our attention across the Atlantic, and to the workout habits of the President of France. Apparently, French President Nicolas Sarkozy works out his lower abdominal and pelvic muscles to help him prevent embarrassing pre-mature *********** when engaged in amorous activity with his wife, supermodel/singer Carla Bruni. The Mail-Online profiles Julie Imperiali, "the female personal trainer who helps (French) President Sarkozy improve his sex life with his supermodel wife."

Drive and Dish's editors eschew the kind of worship of, and lavishing of attention on, attractive females which seems to prevail at websites that appeal to heavily male audiences (including sports websites and blogs). Drive and Dish is a basketball blog, and as such, we focus on basketball, with the occasional foray into subject matter outside our usual reach. We realize that blogs can increase their traffic by posting pictures of hot girls -- Drive and Dish was even the accidental beneficiary of such traffic after we included a picture of the UCLA cheerleaders/dance team in a post that chronicled UCLA's march to the Final Four -- but we remain committed to our original vision of carving out an online niche by dishing straightforward, non-snarky/catty/sardonic, basketball-intense commentary with a slightly whimsical -- but not derisive, or haterade guzzling -- tone (actually, that part of the vision evolved over time, as we started out by blogging with a healthy amount of sarcasm, derision and ... well, trash talk [more here, here, here, and here], but eventually matured and grew wary of the snarkiness and playa-hating that infests many sports-oriented websites and blogs, as well as the shtick-before sports ethos of ESPN).

Additionally, Drive and Dish editors tend to be worldly, sophisticated, young men of learning and action. In that regard, we're not entirely unlike James Bond. Or Rhett Butler. Or Han Solo. What's more, we're young enough to be in our primes, yet old/experienced enough to have learned a few things along the way. Thus, we naturally avoid the common male pitfall of putting "hot" females (or any females, for that matter) on pedestals.

And most of us have had our share of hot girls over the years, which has helped us learn several essential truths about "the ladies" which have generally evaded and bedeviled males for eons. Not that we're unique in that regard, of course. But to appropriate a common saying, once you know how sausage is made, well ... you may (or may not) still have a taste for sausage, but sausage definitely loses some of its luster. As such, Drive and Dish recognizes that attractive females may be the centerpiece around which our sex-obsessed society seemingly revolves, but we remain mindful of an essential secret: there's really nothing all that special about "hot chicks." Sure, they know how to carry themselves, they know how to get attention and they know how to create a mystique. But deep inside, they're just like all other females (although they're probably more likely to have princess mentalities). What's more, they're just as full of insecurities, jealousies and neuroses as anyone else.

So Drive and Dish never treats "hot" females with awe, lustfulness or worship.

Besides, the incessant ogling of attractive females on the internet -- especially on sports-based websites and blogs -- is really geeky.

All that said, the Drive and Dish editors have taken the official position that President Sarkozy's trainer, Julie Imperiali, is infinitely hotter than his supermodel/singer/coke-whore looking wife, Carla Bruni.

One has to wonder about those training sessions.

Wake Forest Captures No. 1

Unbeaten Wake Forest has taken over the No. 1 ranking in the AP college basketball Top 25. The Demon Deacons (16-0) have replaced previously unbeaten Pittsburgh, which fell to Louisville on Saturday.

Three Atlantic Coast Conference Teams appear in the top 5, with Duke ranked No. 2 and North Carolina ranked No. 5. Big East rivals Connecticut and the aforementioned Pittsburgh occupy the No. 3 and No. 4 positions.

Wake Forest last owned the top spot in the polls in November 2004. The 2004/05 Demon Deacons held the No. 1 ranking for two weeks, but lost their place atop the polls to Illinois after the Illini dismantled them in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

How fitting then, that on the very day that Wake Forest makes its return to the top of the AP Top 25, Illinois returns to the AP Top 25 for the first time since 2006. With Illinois now ranked No. 25, The Demon Deacons and the Illini bookend the Top 25.

Both Wake Forest and Illinois suffered through two down years in 2007 and 2008, so it's especially sweet both for Wake to sit atop the polls, and for Illinois to be back on the college basketball map. Drive and Dish friends Toki Wartooth (Joe) of Paint the Town Orange and Izzy of Dishing Dimes celebrated their schools' rankings in this week's Top 25 by publishing new blog posts (Toki Wartooth [Joe] and Izzy are members of the class of 2009 at Illinois and Wake Forest, respectively).

Also, after having picked Clemson to beat Wake Forest, Drive and Dish friend The ACC & SEC Blog makes amends by rating each ACC team and opining that the ACC is probably as good as it has been in ten years.

AP Top 25 (1-19-09)

1. Wake Forest (68) 16-0 1,793

2. Duke (4) 16-1 1,721

3. Connecticut 16-1 1,590

4. Pittsburgh 16-1 1,569

5. North Carolina 16-2 1,510

6. Oklahoma 17-1 1,498

7. Michigan State 15-2 1,394

8. Syracuse 17-2 1,146

9. Louisville 13-3 1,090

10. Clemson 16-1 1,043

11. Marquette 16-2 1,003

12. Georgetown 12-4 979

13. UCLA 14-3 897

14. Texas 13-4 858

15. Xavier 15-2 848

16. Butler 16-1 726

17. Arizona State 15-3 671

18. Purdue 14-4 553

19. Notre Dame 12-5 469

20. Villanova 14-3 353

21. Minnesota 16-2 298

22. Memphis 14-3 208

23. Gonzaga 12-4 201

24. Florida 16-2 175

25. Illinois 15-3 159

Others Receiving Votes Baylor 148, Saint Mary's 137, Kentucky 105, California 82, Florida State 34, Kansas 23, Ohio State 20, Missouri 14, Davidson 14, Tennessee 14, Utah State 12, Washington 12, West Virginia 8, Miami (FL) 8, Arkansas 6, Michigan 5, Dayton 4, George Mason 1, LSU 1. Dropped From Rankings Baylor 21, California 22, Tennessee 24, Michigan 25.

Northwestern Upsets No. 18 Minnesota

Just three days after squandering a game-long lead and suffering a heart breaking home court loss to No. 19 Purdue, Northwestern returned to the upset-friendly confines of their Welsh-Ryan Arena home court and knocked off No. 18 Minnesota 74-65. More here.

Sunday's win was Northwestern's first in Big Ten play. Northwestern is now 9-6, 1-4 Big Ten. With the loss, Minnesota falls to 16-2, 4-2 Big Ten.

Craig Moore hit six three pointers and finished with 22 points for Northwestern. Kevin Coble had 20 for the Wildcats.

Lawrence Westbrook led Minnesota with 18 points.


Drive and Dish has had high praise for Minnesota head coach Tubby Smith and his Golden Gophers as of late, especially after they pulled out an impressive come-from-behind overtime road win over Wisconsin at the hostile Kohl Center on Thursday night. But while Minnesota was flying high after Thursday's dramatic win, they fell utterly flat today in what they should have understood to be a potential trap game. Northwestern's deliberate, Princeton-inspired offense and its 1-3-1 zone defense took the Gophers totally out of their game. By the end of the contest, the upstart squad from the land of 10,000 lakes had all but fallen apart. Every time Minnesota would threaten to make a run, Northwestern would answer with a quick three, an easy layup off of a backdoor cut, or a basket off of a fast break -- yes, you read that correctly: Northwestern scored several points by converting fast breaks.

Minnesota's Westbrook described the Gophers' plight to CBS Sports:

"Northwestern is a hard team to come back from because of their (Princeton) offense," Westbrook said. "They slow down the tempo and they use the game clock. If you get down big against them, it's virtually impossible to come back."

Drive and Dish discussed the state of Northwestern basketball, and the Wildcats' heartbreaking loss to Purdue here.

After Thursday's Purdue loss, we contended that Northwestern is, indeed, a good team, and that they've demonstrated that they're capable of knocking off highly regarded opponents. But we also noted that repeatedly falling just short of beating those opponents would likely be toxic to the Wildcats' confidence and, ultimately, spell doom for their season.

Today, Northwestern held on and finally pulled off an upset against a ranked opponent. It was a long time coming for the Wildcats. And although today's victory was only their first of the year in Big Ten conference play, it should help the 'Cats build some momentum, gain some confidence and earn some respect from the rest of the Big Ten. As Tubby Smith commented,

"They're going to win a lot of games, Northwestern."

Northwestern head coach Bill Carmody might want to cut that quote out of the paper and put it on the bulletin board.

Update:

Lake the Posts, the fine Northwestern football blog, has more.

Two Undefeated Teams Fall: Louisville Upsets No. 1 Pittsburgh, Wake Forest Beats Clemson

On Saturday, two of college basketball's undefeated teams were handed their first loss of the season. And in one of those games, the top ranked team in America get upset by a bitter -- albeit relatively new -- conference rival.

Saturday night saw No. 20 Louisville end No. 1 Pittsburgh's dreams of an undefeated season. More here, and here. The Cardinals beat the visiting Pitt Panthers 69-63 in front of 20,000 observers in Freedom Hall.

Terrence Williams paced Louisville (13-3, 4-0 Big East) with 20 points. Jermaine Dixon finished with a career-high 19 to lead Pitt (16-1, 4-1 Big East).

Head coach Rick Pitino has Louisville surging. Earlier in the week, his Cardinals beat No. 13 Notre Dame 87-73 in overtime.

Saturday's Louisville upset marked another milestone in the emerging Louisville vs. Pittsburgh rivalry. The Cardinals and the Panthers are not traditional rivals. But since Louisville joined the Big East in 2006, the Louisville vs. Pitt rivalry has become one of the most heated rivalries in college basketball.

Wake Forest Hands Clemson First Loss

Also on Saturday, No. 2 Wake Forest put it's unblemished record on the line in Clemson's Littlejohn Coliseum against its similarly unbeaten Atlantic Coast Conference rival, the No. 10 Clemson Tigers. Wake Forest emerged with its perfect record intact, as the Demon Deacons beat the Tigers 78-68.

With its 16-0 record, Wake Forest is off to the best start in school history. Jeff Teague led the Demon Deacons (16-0, 3-0 ACC) with 24 points. Clemson fell to 16-1, 3-1 ACC.

It's been quite a week for Wake Forest. Last Sunday, the Demon Deacons knocked off No. 3 North Carolina. Wake Forest will, undoubtedly, move to No. 1 in the nation when the new AP Top 25 is released on Monday.

The last four years have been a whirlwind for Wake Forest basketball. In December 2004, a Wake Forest team led by point guard and current NBA star Chris Paul took its No. 1 ranking to Champaign, IL, to face Illinois in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. But the Illini blew Wake away in the hostile Assembly Hall and wrestled the No. 1 ranking from the Demon Deacons. Illinois held on to the No. 1 slot until they fell to North Carolina in the 2004/05 NCAA National Championship game. And what had been a much heralded Wake Forest team fell to West Virginia on the first weekend of the 2005 NCAA Tournament.

Wake Forest then went relatively dormant for two seasons, but landed a stellar recruiting class in 2007. Tragically, Wake Forest's head coach, Skip Prosser died of a heart attack before the 2007 Fall Semester began. But assistant coach Dino Gaudio took over the shaken program and continued Prosser's system.

Now, one year later, Gaudio has Wake Forest out to the best start in the history of the program and atop the college basketball world.

Like his counterpart Dino Gaudio at Wake Forest, Clemson head coach Oliver Purnell also has his team out to the best start in school history. But although Clemson's dreams of an undefeated season have been squelched, there's no doubt that the Clemson basketball program is earning respect and making people stand up and take notice at what has traditionally been a football-crazy, but basketball-apathetic, school.

(Image of Louisville vs. Pittsburgh: Breitbart, Image of Wake Forest vs. Clemson, Washington Post).