Last Remaining Undefeated Team Falls: Wisconsin Upends Ohio State's Hopes For Perfect Season

(Reuters photo: Wisconsin's Jordan Taylor [Left] and Jon Leuer [Right] celebrate their win over No. 1 Ohio State).



No. 1 ranked Ohio State was undefeated when they entered the Kohl Center in Madison, WI, for their Saturday afternoon game against No. 13 Wisconsin. But the Buckeyes exited the Kohl Center with their hopes of an undefeated season dashed after they were upset by Wisconsin 71-67. Wisconsin junior point guard Jordan Taylor scored 21 of his 27 points and dished out 4 assists in the final 13 minutes of the game, as he and the Badgers overcome a 15 point Ohio State lead en route to victory.

Ohio State will drop from No. 1 when the new AP Top 25 is released on Monday. Current No. 2 Kansas will, undoubtedly, overtake the No. 1 position. But Ohio State will be just fine. No one really expected them to finish the season with an undefeated record. As Drive and Dish opined when the previously undefeated and No. 1 ranked Duke Blue Devils lost their first game of the season in January, nobody goes undefeated in college basketball today. Bob Knight's 1976 Indiana Hoosiers delivered the last undefeated season in men's college basketball. In the ensuing 35 years, nobody else has finished the season with an unblemished record. And it's extremely unlikely that anybody will do so anytime soon, if ever.

The loss will have no bearing on Ohio State's prospects for earning a trip to the 2011 Final Four and a shot at the 2011 National Championship. They still must be considered legitimate contenders for both honors. However, it bears mention that teams which rely heavily on freshmen rarely win Championships--especially teams that start a freshman at point guard. And despite the leadership of talented upperclassmen David Lighty, William Buford and Jon Diebler, coach Thad Matta's Buckeyes are led freshman superstar center Jared Sullinger and start freshman Aaron Craft at point guard.

Drive and Dish considers the 2011 Ohio State Buckeyes to be the most talented, best balanced team in college basketball. But they face an uphill battle in their quest to reach the Final Four, if for no other reason than their heavy reliance on freshmen at the key positions of center and point guard. Jared Sullinger might be the best player in the college game, but he's still a freshman (despite the fact that he doesn't play like one). At some point in the NCAA Tournament, his inexperience--as well as the inexperience of freshman point guard Craft--is likely to catch up with the Buckeyes.

So who do we expect to win the 2011 National Championship? It's still too early to answer that question, or to even identify a short-list of likely teams. It's been one of those rare seasons in college basketball in which no team has distinguished itself as a favorite. Defending National Champion Duke still probably has to be considered the team to beat, despite the fact that the Blue Devils have lost several key players from their 2010 Championship team. But there's lots of room for an upstart to take the college basketball world by storm. Can Ohio State be that team? Possibly, but Buckeye fans shouldn't hold their collective breath waiting for that to happen. No freshman has taken his team to an NCAA men's basketball title since Carmello Anthony directed Syracuse to the 2003 Championship. And Anthony was a noteworthy exception to an otherwise near-ironclad rule: prior to 2003, Louisville's Purvis Ellison had been the last freshman to lead his team to a National Championship (1986). Michael Jordan famously hit the game-winning shot as a freshman for North Carolina in the 1982 National Championship game, but the young Jordan was far from the leader of his team--upperclassmen James Worthy, Sam Perkins and Matt Daugherty led the '82 Tar Heels.

Ohio State is very talented and should be considered extremely dangerous with regard to their potential for making a run deep into the NCAA Tournament. But the odds are still against them cutting down the nets in April.

Illinois: On the Bubble Again

(Photo: Indiana players celebrate Thursday's upset win over No. 20 Illinois: Darron Cummings, Champaign [IL] News-Gazette)


It's become a familiar refrain here at Drive and Dish, but we gave serious consideration to using this blog to predict an Indiana upset over No. 20 Illinois yesterday. Unfortunately, yesterday's beginning-to-end, tightly-packed schedule didn't permit us the time required to write a coherent, quality blog post. But we thought that last night's game looked to be an obvious "trap game" for the always mercurial Fighting Illini: Illinois was coming off a hard-fought, nail-biting, nationally-televised home loss to to No. 1 Ohio State and was expected to make amends by rolling over an injury-riddled, last-place opponent on the road.

As long as the sun comes up in the east, Bruce Weber's Illini can be expected to follow up a heart-breaking loss in which they "choke" at the end of a nationally-televised "big game" against a highly ranked opponent (Illinois' usual "big game" result), with an unforeseen, almost laughable, quickie loss to a lower-regarded opponent. Such "let down" losses are usually the result of Illinois' players overlooking their supposedly "inferior" opponents, and accordingly, forgetting to "show up."

If you're a smart gambler, you always bet against Illinois.

And once again, it's too bad we didn't get the chance to make our prediction, because, true to form, No. 20 Illinois suffered a humiliating 52-49 road loss to struggling Indiana Thursday night in Bloomington, IN.

With the upset win, the Hoosiers notched their mere seventh Big Ten conference win -- and their first win over an opponent ranked in the AP Top 25 -- since Tom Crean became head coach of the once-great, but recently-moribund program three years ago. Making matters worse for Illinois was the fact that the depleted Hoosiers were without both of their starting guards, Verdell Jones and Maurice Creek.

Illinois' record now drops to 14-7 overall, and to an eye-opening 4-4 in Big Ten play. Indiana improved to a meager 11-10 overall, and 2-6 in the Big Ten. What makes Illinois' most recent letdown loss all the more galling for Illini fans is the fact that, once again, Illinois has failed to live up to lofty preseason expectations. Most analysts had expected the upperclassmen-laden Illini to compete for the 2011 Big Ten conference title and to be a major player in the NCAA Tournament in March. But now with the Big Ten title out of reach, Illinois finds itself in an all-too-familiar place -- sitting directly atop the NCAA Tournament bubble.

College basketball fans may remember that Illinois was widely expected to do big things last year. However, the 2009-2010 team spent the season with a figurative ball and chain affixed to an ankle after it sauntered its way into back-to-back embarrassing upset losses at the hands of Utah and Bradley in the 2009 Las Vegas Invitational Thanksgiving Tournament. Despite high preseason expectations, the 2010 Illini muddled their way through what turned out to be a challenging schedule, and limped into the final week of the season as one of the most high profile teams on the proverbial NCAA Tournament "bubble." Ultimately, the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee left Illinois out of the Tournament field, and the Illini ended their disappointing 2010 season with an ugly home loss to Dayton in the N.I.T.

This season was supposed to be different. Heading into the inaugural 2010-2011 tip-off, Illinois looked good on paper. First, they had the distinction of being the tallest team in college basketball. Their roster had two players who stood at least seven feet tall, and they had a returning starting front line that went 7'1", 6'9" and 6'9," respectively. Second, Illinois featured a promising coterie of experienced upperclassman, talented sophomores and highly-touted freshmen from the much-hyped 2010 Illini recruiting class. But perhaps most importantly, Illinois entered the season with the ace-in the-hole of being led by a standout senior point guard, Demetri McCamey. And that seemed to bode extremely well for the Illini, since point guards are the lifeblood of college basketball. Want to look like a genius when filling out your NCAA Tournament bracket? Pick teams that are led by tough, experienced, standout point guards. Your brackets will thank you.

Unfortunately for Illinois, all their size, talent (or purported talent) and experience hasn't been enough to turn their fortunes around from last year. First team All Big Ten senior point guard Demetri McCamey, senior power forward Mike Davis, senior center Mike Tisdale and senior forward Bill Cole have loads of experience, but they have yet to exhibit consistent toughness, intensity, competitiveness and determination to win. That amounts to a lack of leadership. And it shows in the results, as the Illini are quickly spiraling their way out of being in legitimate NCAA Tournament contention.

This past Saturday, llinois gave undefeated, No. 1 Ohio State all it could handle in the friendly confines (for the Illini--not so friendly for visiting teams) of Assembly Hall in Champaign, IL. But predictably, Ohio State's much-vaunted inside game, led by super freshman Jared Sullinger, wore the Illini down late in the game. And ultimately, the Illini came up short of pulling off an upset win over the No. 1 team in college basketball. That wouldn't have been a problem for Illinois if the Illini had come out of Bloomington, IN, with a "W" last night (as they were supposed to do). Close losses to good teams don't hurt you in the eyes of the Tournament Selection Committee when you've got a good record, you have plenty of impressive wins over good teams, you have a string of road wins, and you win the games that you're supposed to win. But close losses to good teams won't help you get you into the NCAA Tournament when you're bogged down with multiple embarrassing losses to bad teams, when you don't win games on the road (Illinois is currently 1-3 on the road), and when you fall to teams that you're supposed to beat.

Illinois was supposed to be good this year. But once again, they've failed to live up to expectations. And once again, they're in big trouble with regard to their prospects for making it in to the NCAA Tournament.

Florida State Upsets No. 1 Duke

Yesterday, Drive and Dish returned to posting about basketball (sort of) when we explained why we didn't run a blog post predicting a Penn State upset win over No. 16 Illinois, despite the fact that we expected Penn State to win. It's become routine for Penn State to upset Illinois. It happens almost every year. Illinois may have been heavily favored to win Tuesday night's game, but Penn State has had Illinois' number over the years.

Similarly, the mighty Duke basketball program has been upended by unheralded Florida State several times in recent years. Just as Illinois always seems to struggle when they play at Penn State, Duke seems to struggle when they're ranked No. 1 and they play Florida State on the road in Tallahassee. Florida St. upset a top-ranked Duke team in 2002 and upset another top-ranked Duke team in 2006. We never, however, imagined that Duke would have trouble with Florida State this year. Given Duke's previously unblemished record, season-long No. 1 ranking (obviously, having a No. 1 ranking doesn't mean that a team is unbeatable; we cite Duke's No. 1 ranking only because Duke has been the clear No. 1 team this year), and seeming clear superiority over all other teams in college basketball this year, we figured that coach Mike Krzyzewski's Blue Devils would take the Seminoles out pretty easily this time.

We were wrong.

Florida State upset Duke 66-61.

The loss won't set Duke back much, if at all. In fact, it may not be a bad thing that Duke got the "undefeated" monkey off their backs in the second week of January. They won't have to slog through their ACC intra-conference schedule with the added pressure of trying to be the first team to go undefeated since Bob Knight's 1976 Indiana Hoosiers. They weren't going to go undefeated anyway. Nobody does that in today's game. Now they can stay entirely focused on winning the conference, winning the ACC Tournament, and winning the NCAA title.

(Photo -- Florida State fans rush the court after Florida upsets No. 1 Duke: AP Photo/Steve Cannon)

No. 16 Illinois "Upset" by Penn State

After nearly two years of alternating between semi-dormancy and full-on dormancy, Drive and Dish returned to semi-active status (or semi-dormancy for all you "glass half empty" types) with two posts apiece in November and December. But despite our new-found blogging second wind (or relative second wind), we've yet to weigh in on basketball since the 2010-2011 basketball season started -- and we're a blog that's devoted to discussing basketball.

That almost changed yesterday as yours truly gave momentary consideration to penning a quick blog post that would predict a Penn State upset win over No. 16 Illinois, in anticipation of last night's contest between the Nittany Lions and the visiting Fighting Illini. For the Illini, the game was widely expected to produce a routine mid-week win against a mediocre in-conference opponent. The "win" would boost coach Bruce Weber's surging Illini to 4-0 in Big Ten conference play, and coming off of consecutive impressive beat-downs of Wisconsin and Northwestern, set the stage for what promised to be an epic rematch with No. 20 Wisconsin on Saturday at the Kohl Center in Madison, WI. But since 2006, Illinois has struggled mightily in each of their matches with Penn St. And the buzz around the water cooler at the Drive and Dish corporate headquarters on Tuesday morning was that Illinois would likely come out flat against an opponent that they would characteristically overlook -- despite the fact that Penn State upset Michigan State on Saturday, and despite being, no doubt, implored repeatedly by Bruce Weber and staff not to overlook them -- and get knocked off by a hungrier, if less talented Penn St. team. Again.

But shortly after our editorial staff decided to get to work on an early morning post predicting a Penn State upset win over Illinois, the rapidly increasing daylight began to reveal the effects of a significant overnight snowfall. And that meant that we immediately had to scrap the idea for the blog post and get to work on a quickie round of snow-shoveling. Unfortunately, the rest of the day never yielded adequate time for us to return to work on our Penn State vs. Illinois post. So we didn't get to make our bold prediction.

Later in the day we got to thinking about it, and realized that since Penn State has pulled off an "upset" win over Illinois in something like every season since 2006, an Illinois road win over Penn State might actually be the bigger upset, regardless of what line the Las Vegas odds makers had set for the game. And when Illinois opened the game ... you guessed it ... flat, against the fired-up Nittany Lions, we were more or less glad that we hadn't posted our prediction. As of last night, Illinois has been "flat" against Penn State just about every time the two teams have faced each other for five years. Therefore, it can hardly be considered "going out on a limb" to predict an underwhelming showing by Illinois when they play coach Ed DeChellis' Nittany Lions.

As it happens, Penn State indeed upset No. 16 Illinois last night, 57-55. If we'd posted our prediction yesterday, we'd be able spend today gloating and telling everyone "told you so." But since we don't like gloating, or saying "told you so" (and don't like people who do), we wouldn't be cashing those chips in anyway. Besides, by now, there's really nothing all that bold about predicting a Penn State "upset" win over Illinois ... it's too predictable.

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.

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.

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).

Minnesota Upsets #9 Louisville

On Saturday, the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers upset the #9 Louisville Cardinals 70-64 on a neutral court in Glendale, Arizona. At a perfect 10-0, Minnesota is off to its best start since the 1976-77 season.

Al Nolen led Minnesota Gophers with 18 points. Blake Hoffarber had 15 points off the bench for the Gophers.

The game reunited Minnesota Head Coach Tubby Smith with his former boss, Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino. Smith served as an assistant to Pitino at Kentucky for two years before leaving to become the Head Coach at Tulsa. Smith later succeeded Pitino as Head Coach at Kentucky when Pitino left to become the Head Coach and General Manager of the NBA's Boston Celtics in 1997.

Hiring Tubby Smith in 2007 was nothing short of a coup for Minnesota. Sure, Smith was on the hot seat when he left Kentucky for Minnesota; his days in Lexington were likely numbered. But his arrival in Minnesota delivered instant credibility to the Gophers basketball program. In his first season as Minnesota's coach, Smith turned a program that had been either mediocre or bad for several seasons into a scrappy, 20 game winning team. Now Tubby Smith has the Gophers undefeated, and with a major upset under their belt with just one week to go before Big Ten conference play begins.

Drive and Dish was impressed with Minnesota's hire of Tubby Smith, and last year we predicted that Coach Smith would have the Golden Gophers competing for Big Ten championships in the near future. But that future may have come sooner than even we realized.

More:

On a side note, Minnesota's upset of Louisville marks yet another impressive upset of an AP Top 10 rated team by an unheralded upstart from the Big Ten. When combined with Michigan's upsets over then-#4 UCLA and then-#4 Duke, Minnesota's upset over Louisville should serve notice to the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee, if not the talking heads at ESPN and in the national media, that the Big Ten might not be "down" again this year (sure, Michigan State's drubbing by North Carolina didn't do much to help the Big Ten's image, but their thrilling 67-63 upset of #5 Texas on Saturday surely did).

Kentucky Loses Opener to VMI

Friday night, Virginia Military Institute's basketball team made the college basketball world stand at attention when it walked into Kentucky's vaunted Rupp Arena and upset the Kentucky Wildcats 111-103 in their home opener. Some observers are already calling it the greatest win in the history of VMI basketball.

Last year, the Billy Gillispie era got off to a rough start when Kentucky lost its second game of the season to Gardner Webb. Gillispie had been hailed as the savior of Kentucky basketball, but doubts arose all over the bluegrass state as soon as the Wildcats fell to a supposed "cupcake" opponent in Gillispie's second game as head coach.

Gillispie will be afforded the benefit of the doubt if the Wildcats make considerable improvements over the course of the season. But Kentucky fans have extraordinarily high expectations, and as such, Gillispie had better get things turned around soon. Tubby Smith won a national championship in his first season at Kentucky, but it didn't endear him to Kentucky fans (although it probably did buy him time with regard to the Athletic Department and the university's administration). With no championship ring on his finger, Billy Gillispie won't be granted as much of a honeymoon.

Texas Tech Upsets #5 Texas

Yesterday, Pat Knight's Texas Tech Red Raiders beat #5 Texas 83-80. It was Knight's second win over a team ranked in the AP Top 25. And more importantly, it was a much needed turnaround win, as days earlier, Tech had lost to Texas A&M by 44 points -- the worst margin of defeat in school history.

Following the loss at A&M, Pat Knight put his team through an old fashioned, hard nosed practice:

"Bob Knight, said his son, did 'regular old drills' that in some way involved basketball. On Thursday, the younger Knight left the court behind and made his players run sprints while carrying weights. Then they shot lots of free throws. After that Pat Knight made them carry tractor tires and then flip them over - in relay races."

It's good to see Pat Knight getting some decent wins at Texas Tech. Knight inherited the remainder of his father's contract at Tech (which he had just extended for three more years at the beginning of this season), so he's got guaranteed money coming, no matter what happens with regard to his stewardship of the program. The previous administration at Tech had agreed to let Knight succeed his father (whenever the elder coach Knight decided to retire). But the new Texas Tech administration has indicated that they may not be inclined to extend the coaching position to Pat Knight.

So getting wins over top opponents is crucial for Pat Knight's bid to continue as the head coach at Texas Tech.

Knocking off Texas was a good start.


On a Side Note:

I've been saying this for a long time, but I think Texas is perpetually overrated.

Aside from their 2003 Final Four team, I've never understood why Texas gets the national media love that they do.

Year after year, Texas has struck me as being a paper tiger. And so far, I've seen nothing that would cause me to change my mind with regard to this year's team.

Vanderbilt Knocks Off #1 Tennessee

Four days after winning the biggest game in the history of their basketball program (Saturday's 66-62 win over then #1 Memphis), Tennessee was upset by #18 Vanderbilt 72-69 Tuesday night.

Tennessee was ranked #1 for the first time in school history when this week's AP Top 25 was released on Monday, but the Volunteers' stay at #1 appears certain to be short lived.

In the wake of Saturday's historic win over Memphis, head coach Bruce Pearl and his Tennessee squad were the beneficiaries of a tremendous amount of media attention. Tennessee, it was said, had climbed the mountain to elite basketball status. So it's fitting that Tennessee's sudden downfall came at the hands of their old in-state conference rival Vanderbilt.

Vanderbilt has a history of knocking off #1 teams. As the above Sports Illustrated article says (see the link in the first paragraph of this post):

"Vanderbilt (24-4, 9-4) has hosted the No. 1 team nine times in its 56 years at Memorial Gym, and the Commodores improved to 6-3 overall in those games with victories in the past four, including then-No. 1 Florida last year. The Commodores also now have won all 18 home games this season and 31 of their last 32."

Over the course of the last four days, two different basketball programs from the state of Tennessee have held the #1 ranking in the nation, and both of those programs have been knocked off by in state rivals.

This season, the state of Tennessee has become the epicenter of college basketball; a title that has, historically, belonged to states that border Tennessee: Kentucky and North Carolina. And despite the college basketball mania to its North and East, college football has always been king in the Volunteer state.

But, at least for 2008, things have definitely changed.

One more thing: although he's built a great program at Vanderbilt (and may well be content to stay there), head coach Kevin Stallings is certain to be a hot prospect to fill one of the big name coaching vacancies that will arise at the conclusion of the college basketball regular season. One can expect to hear his name associated with some of the more well publicized coaching searches (especially Indiana).

Miami holds off Duke 96-95

By Mark Buckets

Duke was once again shocked by an unranked conference opponent, this time on the road, dropping a close one to Miami 96-95.

The Devils stormed back from 20 points down in the second half and closed the final margin to one.

Jon Scheyer led Duke with 27 points, while Miami's athletic one-two of Dwayne Collins - who, as we'll document later, taunted the Duke bench all night - and Jack McClinton combined to torch Duke for 48 total points.

This marks Duke's second leauge loss in a row, tightening up the standings at the top of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Kentucky Upsets Tennessee

By Trashtalk Superstar

Just one day after Drive and Dish speculated about the possibility of John Calipari, Bruce Pearl and Kelvin Sampson -- princely souls that they are -- being in the top five in next week's AP Top 25, Kentucky upset Tennessee 72-66.

Drive and Dish has been tough on first year Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie. But after pulling major upsets over Vanderbilt and now Tennessee, it looks like "Billy Clyde" is starting to get things under control in Lexington. Two weeks ago, he was a goat to many Wildcats fans. But now he's probably the toast of the town ("toast" may not have been the best choice of words -- sorry about that -- but you know what I'm trying to say [Kentucky may be starting to embrace Gillispie]).

Tennessee plays a fun style of basketball. They throw full court pressure at teams and they look to turn turnovers into transition baskets. They've also got guys who can break you down off the dribble and get to the rack. And they LOVE to shoot the three. Best of all, they run, run, run and run some more.

Tennessee is fun to watch and they'd be fun to play for.

But Head Coach Bruce Pearl is a dirtbag. He's as sleazy a guy as you'll find in college basketball ... and that's really saying something.

Last night's loss aside, Tennessee will be a highly seeded team in the NCAA Tournament and they'll probably be a trendy Final Four pick in a lot of people's NCAA brackets. But I believe that they're overrated and that they're not likely to reach the Final Four.

Time will tell.

In the meantime, congratulations to Kentucky.

The Weekend of the Upset

The weekend of January 19 & 20 will likely go down as having been 2008's weekend of the upset in college basketball.

Yesterday, #1 ranked and previously undefeated North Carolina was stunned at home by the enigmatic Maryland Terrapins, 82-80. More here. And here.

On the West coast, Tim Floyd and O.J. Mayo's USC Trojans upset #4 UCLA, 72-63.

Out in the Big 12, Michael Beasley and Kansas State stomped #10 Texas A&M 75-54. Earlier in the week, A&M had also been upset by Texas Tech, as Tech coach Bob Knight netted his 900th career win.

In the Big East, Cincinnati surprised #15 Pitt, 62-59.

And the upsets didn't end on Saturday. Today, Connecticut knocked off #13 Marquette 89-73, in Storrs, CT.

Although most sports fans' eyes were on the NFL, as the NFC and AFC Championship games were played today, the weekend's real action was in college basketball.

Over the last two days, college basketball teams from coast to coast elevated their games and pulled off huge upsets, both at home and on the road.

Drive and Dish would just like to say: Now that's what we're talkin' about!

Purdue Loses to Wofford

Last night, Purdue lost at home to tiny Wofford College 69-66. Despite the fact that the Boilermakers are a young team, Drive and Dish expected them to make it to the NCAA Tournament this year. And although last week's upset of Louisville will look good on Purdue's resume, Wofford will stand out as a really bad loss.

Purdue should still be competitive in the Big 10, but c'mon. There's no excuse for losing at home to freakin' Wofford!