My Thoughts of the Week

Butler and the A-10

A while back I received a question about Butler (Ben H.). Are they legit? What has led to their success? That kind of a thing. I was in the middle of a three parter on the state of the BYU basketball team, an article I now regret due to their recent woes and probable NIT destination, so I decided to finish that before I did another mailbag. Then I decided that Butler deserved it's own post, but since knocking off top ranked Indiana they had kind of slipped into irrelevancy, not because of poor play, but because they had been playing a weaker schedule. When Butler beat Gonzaga at the buzzer last weekend, without their leading scorer and best player, Rotnei Clarke, I decided this week would be a great time to return to the Butler Bulldogs and give them a full post of their own, but then Wednesday they lost to La Salle. La Salle! Seriously. Consequently, I feel now is not the time to talk about Butler's dominance. I mean, La Salle, guys. They beat top-10 Gonzaga without Clarke, but lost to La Salle? Stunner. So for the time being I'll direct your attention to Mark Titus' Top 12 NCAA Power Rankings: How Butler turns it's irritating style of play into wins over top opponents like Indiana and Gonzaga. I highly recommend the entire article, and in fact you should check out more of his stuff because Titus is hilarious, but if all you care about is the Butler info, scroll down to their section. They come in at number 7 in his power rankings. This is, of course, prior to the La Salle game. I still can't believe it. La Salle?

Rotnei Clarke and Butler are probably still the best team,
but the A-10 is deep and the race to the top is wide open.

While we're on the subject, how about the Atlantic 10 conference this year? Joe Lunardi currently has them slated as a three bid league, with two more teams just barely on the wrong side of the bubble. I could conceivably see four bids coming out of this league, and that's incredible. Charlotte sits atop the conference, with VCU, Xavier, and Butler also all having just one conference loss. La Salle has two losses, just beat Butler and has VCU up next. The Butler win could give La Salle all the confidence they need to take down two ranked teams in the same week. Richmond also has two losses, but just took down VCU in overtime which could propel them going forward as well. Temple and Saint Louis have two conference losses and big wins out of conference and could conceivably make a run the remainder of the season. Last but not least, UMass also has just two conference losses, but lack a marquee win just yet, though they have games against Butler and VCU remaining. Any one of those nine teams could find themselves dancing in March. At most, the A-10 will be a four bid league, but when have we ever talked about nine teams in the A-10 having a shot at the tourney?

Duke and the Hurricanes

Unbelievable. I just can't believe it. Shane Larkin, son of Barry Larkin, who was taught to hit by his father, Tony Perez, and Pete Rose, was actually told by his Little League coach that whoever taught him to hit a baseball taught him wrong? Are you kidding me? He was taught to play ball by three two Hall of Famers and Pete Rose (don't get me started). If Pete Rose, the all time hits leader, teaches a kid to hit a baseball, I'm sure he did just fine.

But thanks to that stupid coach, we saw Miami upset number one Duke in blowout fashion, and it was a fun game to watch. The Hurricanes jumped on Duke from the beginning. Duke played miserably in the first half, and Miami played better that I would have ever predicted. After taking a 42-19 lead into the locker room at halftime, Miami never relented. The second half was filled with deep threes and exciting alley-oops. Duke played better offensively, but their defense never materialized. I'm not necessarily a Duke hater, but that game sure was fun to watch.

Kenny Kadji and Shane Larkin led Miami to a demolition of
Duke and the programs first win over a top ranked team.

The consequences for both teams are interesting. Duke has to learn to play without Ryan Kelly, and this was obviously not a good start. It could be a tipping point for the Blue Devils, and we may watch their season spiral out of control, or this may be a wake up call. They have a tough schedule the remainder of the way, including an opportunity for vengeance against Miami at Cameron Indoor on March 2. If they can learn quickly how to play without Kelly, they should still be a national title contender. If not, and if they suffer some losses down the stretch of conference play, we could see another early exit in the NCAA tourney.

Miami, however, may have just alerted the nation that they could be a serious threat in March. Despite two inexplicable losses against Florida Gulf Coast and Indiana State, they are an incredible team and seemed to hit their stride just as conference play come. If they can continue their run in the ACC, they could be primed to do some serious postseason damage.

BYU and the NIT

Jack Carlino, little brother of point guard Matt Carlino, asked Joe Lunardi this week on Twitter what BYU needed to do to make it to the NCAA tournament. His response? "Stop losing to every tourney-level team they play." Yep, that about sums it up. If they don't steal a good win soon, BYU will be NIT bound.

Yep. That about sums it up.

In the biggest game of the year against a top-10 team on the road, BYU played the worst half of basketball imaginable. Wait, sorry, I just remembered Duke. The second worst half of basketball imaginable. That hole proved to be way too much, but if there's a silver lining to all this it's that BYU actually outplayed the Zags for much of the second half, and that was without any semblance of a contribution from the 7th leading scorer in the country, Tyler Haws. In fact, every Cougar struggled mightily in this game apart from Josh Sharp and Nate Austin who shot a combined 9-11 from the floor with 23 combined points. The rest of the Cougars? 12-48 for 40 points. Absolutely abysmal. For stretches, Carlino looked like he may come alive, and Brandon Davies played a significantly better second half than he did first half, but none of it was nearly enough to dethrone a Gonzaga team that looks destined for run late into March. 

I said just prior to conference play that BYU was going to need to go 2-2 in the four games against Saint Mary's and Gonzaga. Having started that quest 0-2, the Cougars are going to need to steal a game on SMC's home floor, and hold court against Gonzaga, both of which are remarkably daunting tasks. BYU will also likely need to avoid any further slip-ups against the rest of the West Coast Conference. 

Murray and the Djoker

Andy Murray is seeking his second Grand Slam title Sunday

What a wonder winning Gold did for Andy Murray! He followed that up by winning the US Open, his first Grand Slam title. And now he's made a run in the Australian Open, taking down Roger Federer in five sets. After beating Fed in the Olympics, Murray has been a different man. He was formerly fueled by determination, and with the help of his coach, Ivan Lendl, Murray rode that determination to victories, and now to confidence. Rather than getting shaken and rattled by his opponents if the going gets tough, he thrives on it. He embraces it. And he will now get another shot at Novak Djokovic in an Aussie Open final. He lost to the Djoker in Melbourne two years ago, but took him down in last year's US Open. 

Murray has been playing the best tennis of his career since last summer, but Djokovic has been the most dangerous player on tour in the last two years. Djokovic cruised through these championships, including a 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 straight set demolition of David Ferrer in the semifinals. It almost certainly won't be that easy for him against Murray, but with that kind of dominance, you have to wonder if Murray stands much of a chance right now. I suppose we'll find out Sunday.

Manti and the Hoax

The more and more we find out, the more and more I become convinced of Te'o's innocence. I'm still not 100 percent sold, but I still believe him. That being said, I'm becoming more and more annoyed and bored with the story. I've basically lost interest and no longer care who was behind it or who did what. I mean, I'll still follow the story and wait for the whole truth to surface, but in the mean time, I'm just going to focus on sports and pay little attention to conspiracies.