FelatioFest 2008-Duke v. UNC part uno

Gingerballs(7:46p.m.)-Thought we would try our first live blogging effort with tonights game...my pregame burning questions...1. Is Erin Andrews doing the game and will she be wearing some apple-bottom jeans? 2. Over/under on Paulus flops/pussyplays? I'll go with 5, just in case we shall keep a running tally...bonus points for an opponent teabagging. 3. Will Dookie V be the same old voice we have come to know and tolerate? Stay tuned for more kids...

(Jemaine - prezzzent) #2 Duke vs. #3 North Carolina...it's THE RIVALRY and you don't wanna miss it!!! This game is so fucking big that the WWL had to bring in THE Mike Patrick to call it. And yes, Danny Green is putting on his best douchebag impersonation. Or his he just being Danny Green? One can never tell.

The game starts sans Tywon Lawson and with a 3 from newest pussyfart Greg Paulus. But UNC comes right back with a couple quick ones...4-3 UNC at 18:31

Gingerballs(17:10 in 1st)- Just caught Roy with one of those "wish Missouri was still my main rival" looks

Hiphop (16-13 NC, 13:30 left) First V. mention of Robert Montgomery Knight and he WILL be back in coaching...in the right situation. And Lubbock wasn't?

Gingerballs (18-18, 11:31) UNC needs to at least try to look like the have a clue on the perimeter without Lawson, mmmm I want to be Mr. Stacey Dales

Gingerballs (27-22 Duke 8:30 ish) Dear Roy...No more Thomas, signed Tarheel Nation. And how would Mike Patrick know what turf toe feels like..seriously

Gingerballs (37-28 Duke 4:00) I wish I could watch a college game in which I really didn't notice the officials. Make up calls, crap calls, mysterious calls...both ways it sucks

Hiphop (42-39 Duke at Halftime) Shockingly, UNC isn't playing good defense.

Got to send Duke some love for giving J-Mac a chance. And even he's scoring on this tenacious UNC defense.

Is there another announcer out there that screams "I molest children" like Mike Patrick? I say no.

And oh yeah, Kevin Hart - he made it all up. You stay classy, kid.

Gingerballs(42-39 half)- Duke has done a great job of playing to their strengths, 3 shooting, pressure D, handling the ball. UNC seems to have figured out that without Lawson they need to a. get out and run and b. give the ball to psycho T. I really don't understand what Roy could tell me to justify playing Thomas, honestly just have Ginyard play a full 40. Thomas adds nothing. I had this feeling that Hart kid made it up...why kid why?
*edit- Congrats to JMac, he deserves it

Hiphop (48-46 Duke, 18 to go) So…remember how I’ve been giving Russell a hard time lately. I take it back. I take it all back. I love you! I can’t live without you! Because you know who was the second choice at PG that year? That’s right, Quentin Thomas.

I mentioned this earlier, but what the hell are you thinking Steve Kerr?! You had a legitimate chance to get Kevin Garnett (in his prime, fast, equally good on O and D, driven, etc..) and passed it up only trade for Shaq (old, fat, slow, lazy, etc.)? Good luck with that. Even if by some wild stretch of the imagination this works, it still sucks because you won’t be fun to watch any more.

As for the game, I’ve never been more confident in Kansas’ ability to beat either of these teams.

Gingerballs(48-46 Duke 18 to go)- Thomas shuts me up and then we get the first attempted Paulus flop= Epic Fail...by the way, Mike Patrick said, "if thomas can just go even on assists and turnovers he will have a great game...? Really Mike

*Gamebreak* Paulus is playing perfect ball tonight, yet still prefers the company of men to women. and now back to the game

Hiphop (58-51 Duke, 12:38 left)

Roy Williams: vertigo victim.
Taylor King: Not pretty.
17 turnovers for UNC

Gingerballs (58-51 Dook, 12:31)Paulus flop/pussyplay count: now up to 2...chug your beer

Gingerballs(62-57 Dook, 9 to go)- Worst annoucing crew in basketball bar none

Hiphop (68-62 Duke, 7 left) I assume you aren't including the sideline reporter...

But really, how is UNC not winning this game? I know Thomas sucks and Lawson is awesome. But Nelson and Henderson have 4 fouls with 7 minutes left. If it were me, I'd try to take advantage. They seem to disagree.

p.s. I think Dickie V is crying. Fun.

Paulus bump...another flop after the three, he is lights out though...duke up 10 with 4:47 to go

Hiphop (76-68 Duke last TV timeout): North Carolina does one thing well and without Ty Lawson they can't do it. If you haven't guessed by now I'm talking about scoring. They really don't play defense or even box out. If the other teams is either a)athletic; or b) giving effort - Carolina is extremely average. Nothing too shocking here.

Gingerballs(Duke82-UNC73 1:30 to go)-Psycho T has had a hell of a game, the Duke gaurds are just too spot on tonight

Gingerballs-(Duke 89-UNC 78, final) It is amazing that without Lawson UNC could be completely taken out of their style of play. He is a very important player, yet at home this shouldn't be as big a factor. I really thought if Psycho T played like this, UNC wouldn't have a problem coming away with a victory. To the dismay of UNC, Ellington and Green didn't show up for shit. Ginyard played very well subbing for Lawson and Thomas had his moments. I come away from this game a little more impressed with Duke and the gaurds coming in to a hostile arena and playing well. I can't say it would be the same outcome with Lawson playing, but I wouldn't have been surprised. Of course I also come away from this feeling more confident about the Jayhawks and their chances of beating either of these teams on a neutral court. UNC is still better than dook with Lawson, but the Jayhawks combination of parts trump both.

On the football tip, it looks as if the Hawks brought in a solid class...here is to hoping Crawford makes an immediate impact, and stays out of trouble.

Hiphop (2/7) Back to THE RIVALRY

Call me crazy, but this group of guys is not winning the national championship. Have you ever seen a group of respected athletes look more like a group of gossipping, giddy, girls? Broken down...
DeMarcus Nelson is the one who knows what they look like and hates that he's there but where else is he going to hang out? With the fat girls? I think not. Will inevitably turn out the "coolest" of the bunch.
Scheyer, Singler and Henderson are clearly the ring leaders. Think the trio from Mean Girls only when they were in sixth grade rather than high school. (Note: If you have trouble picturig Scheyer as a popular girl, I don't blame you as he just as easily could have ridden the short bus.)
While Paulus is the clearly the loser (and probably overweight) doing anything to get accepted into their circle. If I had to guess, he's talking about how none of the guys at school are cool and he's looking for someone more mature. But in reality, he's the one doing anyone and everyone that's drunk enough to make that mistake.

Some Links and Congrats

Could Memphis' main inside scoring threat be on the way out? Doubtful, but he does look to be in some trouble.

Sure UNC gets wayyyy too much publicity, but I have always respected the JV program there. And they couldn't have a better coach than Jerod Haase. Nice little read.

Sign him up!

Yes, yes, Kevin Hart and his family aren't the brightest bulbs in the box. But man, did they get fucked.

If you get nearly as much amusement out of mascots as I do, then I implore you to take this link and go through the photo gallery. Stupendous!

I won't bother to preview, but here's Luke Winn's article on Darnell Jackson.

And finally, congratulations are in order to...

John McCain for all but earning the Republican nomination, assuming he doesn't die between now and November.

Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama for effectively rendering yesterday useless for the Donkeys.

Steve Kerr for ruining the only team in the NBA worth watching this millennium.

My Interview with HCBS

Perhaps the best part of being on a blog chock full of crack journalism with no credentials is that I am able to answer my own burning questions that I have for our fearless leader. Since we tend to do a lot of speculation around here, I figured I would put some of our questions to rest.

Gingerballs: First off, I would like to thank Coach Self for taking time out of his busy schedule to graciously provide us with an in depth interview. I am really impressed you would allow someone with out any journalistic background, or much education in general for that matter, to get an inkling of your time.



HCBS: Well, you know, I am actually required to do some community service per my duties as head coach and the damn compliance department deemed you "mentally incapacitated" after your call-in request. Sweet Lew in action, you know.



We take what we can get here at "It's Business Time." Now on to the hard hitting stuff. You have often called Russell Robinson "the pulse of this team", given that, does it directly correlate to our wet paper bag approach to perimeter defense recently?



Uh, uh, you know Russ has been going through some issues as of late that have affected his playing and his defense. Do we need Russ to play better to get to all of our goals? Uh, of course, Russ played a lot better offensively against Missouri but his defense needs to improve for us to be the team we need to be. When he is playing defense better, we are a much better team.

Well stated, before the game on Monday it seemed as if the team felt a bit slighted by the Missouri players(no pregame handshake.) What is your take from that?


Since no one reads this blog, I won't hold back on this issue. Quin was the lovable loser in Missouri and oh so easy to rag on with all the off court issues. The difference with Mike is that they are trying to put on this different facade, trying to separate themselves from the dirty teams of old. The problem is that, they aren't really any different. But uh, but uh, you know, we really like the way the hirings have gone over there recently, great stuff for the Jayhawks. Mike Alden might one day have his name hung up in the rafters at Allen.

Speaking of questionable hirings, what are your thoughts on the state of Oklahoma State basketball and what, if any, interest you would have in that job if it did open in the near future.




Sean looks like the "slow" kid that daddy sheltered doesn't he? But let me tell you one thing, Sean Sutton can coach. Just not in this league, maybe he and Frank Martin should help each other coach a high school team. Well I guess that didn't go so well for Frank the first time in Florida. As for the talk of me going home, I would compare that to going from driving an Aston Martin to swapping out for a Ford Ranger with 200,000 miles that won't make it very far out of state to recruit. But uh, I don't care how many Oklahoma's little brother bumper stickers T Boone's oil money would buy.


Lightning round time...1.Who would you least like to face in March? 2.Would you still do Britney? 3.Michael Beasley...smarter than a fifth-grader? 4.Best all-around player on this team? 5.Your hair...Lute Olsen real or Ed Hightower weave?

1. UCLA of course...but uh, we aren't afraid of any team. 2. Maybe after about 5 schooners from West, Doug Compton and her have a lot more in common anyway. 3. I hear his dorm room is fully decorated with SpongeBob Squarepants products and his mom literally had to come to Manhattan to supervise...so uh, you be the judge. 4. Mario hands down, though I won't tell him that, hoping to get him for another year. 5. My hair is as real as this interview, don't know if you noticed, but I got a nice new one this offseason. Thanks for having me on here, pretty good interview from half-a-tard.

And boom goes the dynamite. I have no good reason to post this next thing but i thought it was kinda cool

1. Click on this link for Wikipedia's random-article generator. Whichever Wikipedia entry comes up is the name of your band.

2. Click on this link for the Random Quotations page. The last four words of the last quotation on the page are the name of your album.

3. Click on this link for interesting Flickr photographs from the last seven days. The third picture on the page is the artwork for your album.

So if you followed all of that you have your Band Name, Album Name and an Album Cover. Side note...I can't even type that without thinking of Sean Connery on Celebrity Jeopardy...

Sean Connery: Well, the game is afoot. I'll take anal bum cover for 7,000.

Alex Trebek: That's An album cover, not anal bum cover.

Sean Connery: I can read, Trebek. That says Anal bum cover. I've spent five years of my life trying to invent an anal bum cover, failing to do so is my greatest regret.

Anyway...here is mine to the right...freaky

Hope everyone is ready for the Duke-UNC FellatioFest tomorrow night! Atleast we won't have to hear endless Bob Knight speculation/career recaps anymore

Shaking Hands: Not For Those With Integrity

Offensively, that was a wonderful game to watch. Any time you make 90 points against a legitimate team look pedestrian, I'll be happy. Defensively was another story. As you may recall, my post yesterday expressed my desire to have Russell return to form. Unfortunately, he did not. The bright side is that although he is not playing well defensively and the team again did not force many turnovers (8 on 3 steals), the Hawks won easily. Even more impressive was how they were able to score 90 points rather easily, even without getting many easy transition baskets. And lastly, they were still able to hold Methzou to an acceptable 71 without applying much pressure. Then again, this was only Methzou. They're hardly UTEP, but would the result have been so favorable if the game were against a respectable top 30 foe?

As I said, offensively I have very few complaints. There were certainly some ill-advised shots and Sherron made some pretty poor decisions, but overall it was solid. Methzou gave several different looks; from the full court press, to a man-to-man pressure, and of course a zone. Early on the Hawks took some dumb shots from the zone, but once they figured it out, there were very few sub-par offensive possessions. They moved the ball well and the post players generally finished the job when they were given the chance to score.

I can't say I liked what I saw on the other end. Maybe I'm putting too much of this on Russell, but from what Self says, as he goes so goes the team. And from what I can tell, there's no reason to think otherwise for a few reasons. 1) Most obvious is that by playing good defense he can take his man out of the game. 2) His pressure allows Mario to get in the passing lanes. 3) Our bigs foul enough without having to worry about helping out on a point guard that's in the lane all the time.

Chalmers: I suppose reasonable minds can always differ, but I don't think there's any question that he is the most indispensable player on the team. Another solid night (despite poor shooting), going for 15 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds and 2 blocks. He wasn't given credit for his only steal since Matt Lawrence's ugly ass got in the way, somehow not warranting a foul call and causing him to turn it right back over. Somehow I don't think it's a coincidence that since Russell has stopped playing solid defense, Mario hasn't been able to get in the passing lanes…

Rush: One of his best performances of the year. Went for a team high 19 points and 6 rebounds. But more importantly, he was looking for his shot, taking the open three when he had it and driving when he didn't. It goes without mentioning that he again made Matt Lawrence irrelevant.

Collins: He made some poor decisions, especially early on, but overall I think played pretty well. He seems to be getting his burst back and finished with 12 points, 4 assists and 4 rebounds.

Robinson: Offensively, I think he looked pretty good. Only took 6 shots, ended up with 7 points and 4 assists. No complaints there. But his defense is really worrying me. If Keon Lawrence (25 points on 10-13, 6 assists, 4 boards and only 1 turnover) can get in the lane like that, what will Derrick Rose, Darren Collison and Tywon Lawson do? Not only does it make for easy scoring opportunities for them, but also for their post players and it's an easy way to get Arthur in foul trouble, as obviously occurred last night and has become almost routine.

Arthur: As mentioned, he didn't get to play much due to foul trouble. Worthwhile to note that Holly Rowe made her first contribution to a game by referencing her conversation with Danny about how many of his fouls come from him not getting his work done early and being in good position. But when he was in he rebounded well and scored pretty easily. In only 14 minutes, he had 13 points and 6 boards.

Jackson: I would have liked to see him get a few more looks as he only took 6 shots. But he finished with 6 points, 9 boards, 2 assists and 2 blocks. His defense on Carroll left a bit to be desired, but I don't have any big complaints.

Kaun: As Tom Keegan so eloquently pointed out, he probably played with more intensity than he ever has. Like Arthur he got in a little foul trouble (some questionable), but was dominant when he was in with 12 points, 4 boards and 2 blocks.

Aldrich: Talk about good timing on my part. As I said, I thought he deserved more minutes and due to the aforementioned foul trouble, Bill Self complied. As I also said, he rebounds better than anyone on the team and he didn't disappoint me grabbing 9 boards in 12 minutes to go along with 6 points. As suspected, his defense left a little to be desired as he doesn't yet move his feet well and has trouble beating his man to the spot. There were also 2-3 instances where guards threw it to a spot expecting him to be there; only he wasn't. I still think he showed enough to prove he is more than just five fouls and a big body.

Depending on how much you agree with me, it's hard to leave this game feeling too badly. They easily and badly beat a decent team that was extremely fired up and trying to prove something. (What else can be inferred from their not shaking hands after the national anthem or prior to the opening tip?) Fran will have you believe that Mike Anderson is brooding with integrity for playing so short-handed. That's a good story and all, but when the only guy they're playing without is the one that's unavailable due to injury, it's hard for me to buy it. And since all of them were only suspended against lowly Nebraska (a game he likely thought he could win without them), the 2 best were brought back first, and all were brought back against their rival in a game where they wouldn't shake hands, INTEGRITY isn't the first word that comes to mind. Call me crazy.

Low and behold, after all the Wildcat praise last week, here we are at the mid point in the Big 12 season and Kansas sits atop the pack at 7-1. That same KSU team is a game back and along with Gameday will come to Lawrence on March 1. The next two games for the Hawks are home against Baylor and down in Austin against the Longhorns. In my opinion they are basically the same team with Texas having a slight edge (which pretty much bore out last weekend in Austin). Both are guard oriented, can shoot and like to play at a tepid pace. Russell will surely be a key and Kansas' bigs should be able to exploit an obvious advantage in the paint, but you never can tell. Assuming there isn't a collapse anywhere along the way, I think a win in Austin assures them of a #1 seed.

And on that note…

I don't want to complain too much as I won't be able to explain my happiness if Kansas ends up a #1 seed with Tennessee and Drake the 2 & 3, respectively. But will the committee really fist fuck them again and reward Michigan State (as a #4 seed) with all but a home court advantage in Detroit come the Sweet Sixteen? Joe Lunardi says yes. (Side note: At least we wouldn't have an exact repeat of last year with UNC now taking the worst ass pounding, getting sent out west, only to have UCLA as their #2. And this time the regional is in Phoenix…)

To basically plagiarize a line, the person who did this is clever, yes, but extremely cruel.

No link, but just thought I'd point out that I've always been a Bob Knight fan and I'll miss him coaching in the Big 12. As for his timing, it certainly seems questionable, but I won't kill him for it. As a parallel, it seems to me like he wrote his will and set up his estate to transfer seamlessly once he passed; which he apparently chose to do yesterday.

Among the official NFL Combine invites were 5 Kansas Jayhawks: Anthony Collins, Derek Fine, Marcus Henry, James McClinton, and Aqib Talib. All of these players are great and deserving but it still makes me laugh that after being selected the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year Nick Reid wasn't among the invites.

Still haven't found anything on the Super Bowl. Stay tuned…

I Want My Rusty Back

How many conference games would you say Kansas has played their A game? I know I'm picking nits here as they are 6-1 and have won 4 of them by 21+ points, but by my count, it's no higher than 3. Both Nebraska games have been clinics and the Big Monday humiliation of Oklahoma was extremely solid as well. Aside from that, they have been less than impressive despite going 3-1. By my estimation (and I would venture anyone who watches basketball believes the same) is that talent aside, Kansas has two big differentiators; pressure defense and balance. In conference play the balance has generally been there, though it went missing in Mancrappenin as I discussed ad nauseum. The pressure defense though, has not.

Trust me, I didn't expect the whole 20+ turnovers on 12 steals a game thing to continue. But I certainly didn't expect the drop-off that has ultimately occurred. Here's a look at the amount of turnovers and steals they have forced in conference games…

@ Nebraska: 12 turnovers on 7 steals
Oklahoma: 11 turnovers on 9 steals
@ Methzouri: 10 turnovers on 6 steals
Iowa State: 11 turnovers on 7 steals
Nebraska: 16 turnovers on 14 steals
@ KSU: 13 turnovers on 3 steals
@ Colorado: 11 turnovers on 3 steals (all Mario)

Aside from the Oklahoma and Nebraska games in Allen, that is not exactly pressuring the basketball. The optimistic side is that despite not pressuring like they want to, only Methzou and KSU have exceeded 59 points, with MU getting 70 and KSU an embarrassing 84. As Coach Self often says, Russell is the pulse of the team as he sets the tone and they all feed off of his ability to pressure the ball from the top of the key. Now, I don't want to be overly critical of the two time Mr. Jayhawk, but as of late I just don't think we've seen the Russell we know and love.

I still maintain (especially after watching Methzou do it to them) that Kansas defended the Purple all wrong, concentrating too much on the Bease and letting their guards off the hook. Regardless, Russell did next to nothing in that game defensively as he was decidedly outplayed by Jacob Pullen. And worse than that, I saw the same thing on Saturday, this time with no Beasley excuse. (Though they were literally in his shorts...) Needless to say, I don't love the Jayhawks chances against UCLA with Russell playing the way he is now. Darren Collison would eat his lunch.Aside from Mr. Robinson though, I think everyone else got back on track in the last 10 minutes in Boulder.

Guards…Chalmers again emerged as both the energy and go-to guy willing the rest of the team to wake up. Prior to his solid second half showing, I was really starting to worry about Collins. Hopefully that second stanza will be just what he needs to get back to the old Sherron. Brandon had a nice bounce back after forgetting to come out of the locker room after halftime at KSU. Mark this down now: if Kansas cuts nets in San Antonio, Rod Stewart will have played a major role in at least one tournament game.

Bigs…
Whenever he's in the game, Arthur has looked good. For such an incredible athlete and shooter, I still don't understand (read: slow down!) how he misses some of the layups he does. Jackson had a great bounce back game (18 & 4) from possibly his only poor performance of the season at KSU. The best thing to ever happen to Sasha Kaun was Jackson emerging to take some pressure off him and let him come off the bench. He remains by far the best post defender and both his hands and touch look better nearly every time out. As for Aldrich, I really would like to see him get some more minutes. He goes after rebounds better than anyone and he's more than serviceable on offense, but still a little slow moving his feet. If the top 3 are playing as they should I can understand why he's limited, but I truly believe he's ready for more minutes.

Coach…
I think one of the things Coach Self does best is getting his team to buy into the "greater good" philosophy. I also think he does a good job instilling the 3 seasons (non-con, league, March) attitude. But one area where I think he struggles is getting his team to calm down. I'm walking a fine line here as the last thing you want is a team that's too calm and also because I think they generally have good poise in close games. However, they have looked really out of sync against Methzou, Colorado and obviously KSU. Again I don't want to be too critical here, but it seems painfully obvious to me that for whatever reason you can make them really uncomfortable. Obviously this is easier said that done, but it just seems to me like this team is experienced enough that he should be able to: pull them aside, kick them in the ass, explain to them that they're better than what they're showing and to just calm down, move the ball and play their game. It seems pretty obvious to me that Kansas has the most complete team in the nation…they can't be beat when they're playing their game and they're damn good even when they're not but both UCLA and Memphis could make them uncomfortable and they need to learn how to respond.

As for tonight, I'm optimistic that they'll return to form. I'd like to thank Methzou for knocking the Wildcats back to reality; your timing could not have been better. I can honestly say that was the first time I've happily watched Methzou win, but in addition to being happy I was impressed. Mike Anderson made a great adjustment going to that zone and letting his guards go to work on the Wildcat guards. For at least the last 3 minutes J.T. Tiller was sucking more wind than Rocky after he beat Dolph and he still kept chugging along to lead the team with 20 points in place of Stephon Hannah.

Call me naïve, but I just don't see the same grit coming out tonight. They'll obviously be coming in confident and motivated, but even if it's close, I don't see how Kansas doesn't eventually wear them down. I'll never be surprised by anything that happens in a Border War game, but I'd say there are two likely outcomes tonight, hinging on the aforementioned Russell Robinson. If he returns to form, I think it could be a rout. If he remains sluggish, I'll say Kansas by 4-9. Since it's a Big Monday game in beautiful Allen Fieldhouse, I'll be optimistic and go with…

Kansas 83 Methzouri 64

I'd love to throw out some links today, but the only thing too interesting lately was the Super Bowl and I've been unable to find anything about it. I'll be sure to let you know if I do though. (That said, what a game. Best Super Bowl in quite a while. And there were a few decent commercials as well. None that in any way warranted paying $2.7 mil for 30 seconds, but that's another story.)

In case you missed this amongst all of the hullabaloo yesterday, early on Tywon Lawson left UNC's overtime win over Florida State with a high ankle sprain. We'll find out exactly how severe sometime tomorrow, but Roy isn't counting on him Wednesday against Duke.

Pay Heed All Who Enter

Ok going to throw a quick product plug out there. I ordered one of these and just got it and it is just as advertised. I would go as far as to say if you are a Hawk fan and have any sort of man cave you need one of these (the big one if you have the wall space and a significant other that will let you use it for this, but hey if you are a true Hawk fan you would only be with someone who also is a Hawk fan).

http://www.payheedbanners.com/Home.html

Also for anyone watching the Superbowl tonight you got the treat of seeing Lou Perkins crome dome about 20 times as he was sitting right below Peyton's booth. Not the best face to put forward for KU athletics (I think it made my daughter cry) but a KU face on national TV none the less.

And just 'cause...

Only 4 Weeks 'Til March

After having the chance to watch several of the elite teams around the country last night, combined with seeing the top 4 teams from the Big 12 face off on Wednesday night, now seems like an opportune time to do some ranking. Big 12 first and Top 16 below.

As always, my conference rankings will represent how I expect the final standings to look…

1. Kansas (20-1, 5-1). As I'm sure pretty much anyone outside of Mancrappenin believes, this team is still the best in the league. However, if they're going to win it outright, I doubt they can lose again.
2. Kansas State (15-4, 5-0). The championship runs through the Rotten Apple. Shocking, but true. They've already beaten A&M and KU and Texas has to come up to play them. They do still have to play at Allen though. And this needs more national publicity.
3. Texas A&M (17-4, 3-3). I'm not sure why, but suddenly I feel like this team will be alright. Plus, they just dismantled Texas.
4. Texas (16-4, 3-2). Haven't yet shown much on the road in the conference. Hard to forget Pauley though.
5. Baylor (16-3, 4-1). Have a big one in Austin this weekend to show that this is too low. To me they're Texas Lite, so I keep them a notch below. They do have the most impressive road win in the conference though.
6. Oklahoma (15-5, 3-2). They've already got their tough north games (losses) out of the way. Now they just need to keep winning the ones their supposed to the conference should be looking at 6 tourney bids.
7. Texas Tech (11-8, 2-3). Have the best win of any team in the bottom half. Have Bob Knight. Have Martin Zeno. That's where the optimism ends.
8. Iowa State (13-8, 3-3). Good for them, I didn't see this coming. We knew about Wesley Johnson but Brackins is going to be good for the next three years.
I honestly don't have a clue what to do from here on out…
9. Nebraska (12-6, 1-4). In their next 5 they play ISU twice, Methzou and Tech at home and @ KSU. 4-1 is pretty realistic.
10. Methzou (12-9, 2-4). Hard to tell without knowing who will be playing, but their next five are KSU twice, @ KU, @ Nebraska and home against A&M. Going 2-3 would be more than shocking and 0-5 wouldn't surprise me.
11. Oklahoma State (10-10, 1-5). Sean Sutton.
12. Colorado (9-11, 1-5). Winnable games left. Tech and ISU in Boulder.

Since there's no official order at the end of the season, I think it's only logical to rank them on what you think of the team, and base it on who you would take on a neutral floor, giving no favor to how they're playing, etc. For the sake of convenience, I'll copy the WWL and give you my Top 16.

Tier 1 – The Champions. How shocked would you be if a team not in this group won it all?

1. Kansas (20-1). Call me a homer if you want. I am. But I still think this is the most complete team in the nation. If they look immature and foolish again I'll begin to think otherwise.
2. UCLA (19-2). I'm not entirely sure this is defensible, but Ben Howland is as good as they come and if they played Memphis on a neutral court I'd take the Bruins.
3. Memphis (20-0). They're the indisputable #1 team in the nation and they can run you and pressure you to death, but they've still got no legitimate inside threat offensively. I can't see how this doesn't hurt them against teams that not only have that, but can also defend their perimeter players (i.e. Kansas, UCLA, and possibly UNC).
4. UNC (20-1). It all depends on the draw, but I doubt I'll be taking this team to San Antonio if they don't improve defensively. But man can they score.

Tier 2 – The Wannabes. All of these teams would like to think they belong up top, but I just don't see it. But they all have that "je ne sais quoi" to keep them above the rest.

5. Duke (18-1). They seem like a noticeable drop-off from the top 4, but I trust them a whole lote more than anyone not yet mentioned.
6. Georgetown (17-2). Again, I just trust them more than the other teams. But they should be 15-4.
7. Kansas State (15-4). Perhaps I'm still drunk on Purple Kool-aid, but there isn’t another team with 2 lottery picks. Obviously I don't expect them to replicate Wednesday too often, but if Pullen, Young and Stewart play half as good as they did that night they'll be able to beat most teams.
8. Tennessee (19-2). I don't trust this team AT ALL. But they have some players.
9. Arizona (15-6). They're not especially deep off the bench but they have one hell of a starting 5.

Tier 3 – The Sleepers. None of these have what it takes to win it all, but they all have something that can scare some better teams and beat them in a one game situation.

10. Michigan State (20-2). I'm embarrassed to have a team here that only scored 36 points against an awful Iowa team. But there aren't many (if any) better tourney coaches than Izzo.
11. Xavier (18-4). That shellacking of KSU looks pretty solid right about now. I haven't watched them nearly as much as the others and they could be better or worse than this, but it sounds about right to me.
12. Washington State (17-3). Sure they play good defense, but you have to score too. Add in that I'd say 5 teams mentioned play better defense than them and this seems about right to me. Grind it out games are still scary though.
13. Wisconsin (17-3). After watching Duke dismantle them earlier I wouldn't have figured this at all. But Bo Ryan knows how to get the most out of what he has.
14. Indiana (17-3). This seems WAY too high for me. But DJ White is a beast and Eric Gordon is as good a perimeter scorer as there is in the country.

Tier 4 – By Default

15. Stanford (17-3). Haven't seen them enough to rule them out. But they certainly seem like a step down from those mentioned.
16. Texas (16-4). Like I said, it's by default. And they have beaten two of my top 8.