Wednesday Night Dribbles

A few quick hitters to sum up the night in college basketball:

• Temple and BYU both lost opportunities to strengthen their cases for a protected seed. Kudos to Chris / Craig on calling the Charlotte upset. Though, I still don't think they are or will be a tournament team.

• Anyone who had William & Mary as an at-large team can gently take them out of the discussion. Tonight, they lost to CAA strugglers James Madison. David Schneider has shot 11-for-45 in their last three games - all losses. Ultimately, their demise comes down to their defense (246th nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency). Meanwhile, my preseason pick, George Mason, is 9-1 in conference play.

• If no one in the SEC West separates themselves from the pack, Vanderbilt may turn out to be the SEC's 2nd-best team despite a shaky start to the season. They now have wins over Missouri, Tennessee, Florida, South Carolina, Middle Tennessee St., St. Mary's, and Arizona. Not bad for the end of January. After their Rocky Top high, Tennessee is looking like a team without the services of its best player.

• Oklahoma State is starting to normalize with another win at Texas A&M. The margin for error remains small for Travis Ford. Their next four are @ Missouri, v. Texas, @ Texas Tech, v. Oklahoma. So, that's 2 road games, 1 against a top 5 opponent, and another against your in-state rival who hates your guts and has a mental edge from a prior win. We'll know a lot more about this team's heart (Eaton and Harris were huge losses) very soon.

Chalk Full of ... Chalk

Last night's games consisted of three great ones totaling a five-point difference and a blowout ... of 9 points. The first two games are exactly why everyone should (if possible) purchase the DirecTV package or watch the game at a bar with similar amenities. Here are some quick hits on the last night's games.

Kansas 61 Southern Illinois 58
Dear Big Ten Conference: When you argue that your teams play a grinding style due to great defense, both of these teams probably think that you're using the term "great" too liberally. Kansas didn't exactly take care of business and this biased guy thinks they benefited from some zebra love. In the first half, a no-call on a shot clock violation led to two points for the Jayhawks. In the second half, defensive goaltending was not called on a play where Jamal Tatum was fouled. There was also a shot clock violation called against the Salukis in which you can see (in slow motion) the change in trajectory after Mullins' three-pointer shaved the rim. Of course, Matt Shaw missed a gimmie layup in the last three minutes and Kansas shot 60% for the game. Credit must go to Russell Robinson who did a stellar defensive job all night. The Jayhawks go on to face the UCLA Bruins on Saturday.

UCLA 64 Pittsburgh 55
This game was as boring as the scoreline looks. The game was a three-possession battle for the majority of the game and whenever Pittsburgh, UCLA had an answer and vice versa. Classic Panther non-execution in big games and Aaron Gray was inconsistent as we hinted in our preview. Levon Kendall was underutilized and struggled when he was. Afflalo is still struggling, but he's nailing everything at the line. Pitt still lacks that go-to guard who they can rely on late in games. On Saturday, UCLA absolutely needs Josh Shipp and Michael Roll to nail jump shots.

Memphis 65 Texas A&M 64
Last Saturday, Texas A&M defeated Louisville in what was considered a road game by many in the know. Last night, Memphis got a win in similar unfriendly circumstances and credit must go to Calipari for motivating his players, because the media - real and fake - have lampooned the Tigers for chalking up easy wins in Conference USA. Douglas-Roberts did not show any signs of being injured and the Tigers at all times knew that they belonged in this game and in the Elite 8. When a 64% free throw shooter knocks two down cold with 3.1 seconds remaining to take a one-point lead, you know this team has a higher calling. On a side note, Acie Law IV was amazing this year and is the only guy who is capable of winning the Naismith Award not named Durant.

Ohio State 85 Tennessee 84
If you're a Vols fan, you're probably on the top of a building right now. Ohio State has almost as many lives as Jack Bauer. Okay, maybe not that many. A 20-point lead is relative. If Tennessee is up 20 on you, you have a chance to come back if you are a very good team. If Southern Illinois is up 20 on you, you're done like Nextel. The Vols' 49-point first half explosion was catalyzed by spectacular outside shooting and getting Oden and Conley Jr. into foul trouble. Nevertheless, Ohio State's team defense, which limited Tennessee to four two-point baskets, got them back into the game almost immediately in the second half. When the day is over, you can't forget about the efforts of OSU's Ron Lewis and Tennessee's Chris Lofton, who seemed to trade three-pointers late in the game. Missed free throws (8-for-17) and potential complacency may be on Bruce Pearl's mind for the next few taxing months.

NCAA Tournament Performance (by conference)

The first weekend of the NCAA Tournament has come and gone, and unless you had Wisconsin or a dark horse going far, your bracket is still in decent shape. The preservation of the top seeds only amplifies the quality of matchups that will take place this upcoming weekend starting with Thursday night.

The only major upset of the weekend was UNLV eliminating Wisconsin in Chicago. I was surprised when Washington State forgot how to play perimeter defense against Vanderbilt in what turned out to be a double overtime defeat.

There is no perfect way to gauge conference performance, but what we can do is look at expected and actual numbers from the multi-bid conferences. For the record, it’s not completely scientific, but it does work with the seeds designated by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee.

Conference	Actual Record	Expected Record	Actual vs. Expected Difference	Actual Sweet 16 teams	Expected Sweet 16 teams	Sweet 16 Difference
ACC	6-6	9-4	-2.5	1	3	-2
SEC	7-2	5-4	+2.0	3	1	+2
Pac-10	7-3	8-3	-0.5	3	3	0
Big Ten	6-5	5-4	0*	1	2	-1
Big East	5-4	7-4	-1.0	2	2	0
Missouri Valley	2-1	2-1	0	1	1	0
Big XII	5-2	6-1	-1.0	2	3	-1
Mountain West	2-1	2-2	+0.5	1	0	+1
Western Athletic	1-2	1-2	0	0	0	0
Atlantic-10	1-2	0-2	+0.5	0	0	0
Horizon	2-1	1-2	+1.0	1	0	+1
Colonial	1-2	0-2	+0.5	0	0	0

* lower winning percentage for actual record

When staring at these statistics, a few things jump out.

• First, the ACC has done the worst job of “holding” seeds in this tournament. In three games, a member school has lost to a lower seed. In Virginia’s case, many feel that they were generously seeded.

• Second, the SEC (the SEC East, in particular) has been stellar. In my opinion, Tennessee had the good fortune of being in a pod with three overseeded teams. I will never understand an objective argument describing how either Virginia or Long Beach State deserved within one seed line of their given seed. Had Wazzou held onto their double-digit lead against Vanderbilt, we’d be discussing the Pac-10 in this spot.

• Third, … so the Big Ten wasn’t as bad as I thought they were. I stand by my somewhat inflammatory (yet factually based) comments about Illinois. I watched a fair amount during the regular season and preferred to watch the good defensive teams of the Valley instead of the Big Ten save Ohio State and Wisconsin. Like last year, the Big Ten had a lazy Sunday this year.

• Fourth, the end game for the Big East is what we expected after the first weekend – Georgetown and Pittsburgh move on and everyone else going home. What we didn’t expect were all of the close games. While the nation expected VCU to keel over and die after being down 19 in the second half, I was more surprised by the sustained effort of Boston College against Georgetown. The Big East record might have been better had Jerel McNeal and Mike Nardi been healthier, but I don’t believe that a healthy McNeal or Nardi would have altered the number of Big East teams in the Sweet 16.

• Lastly, I, for one, thought a few of the seedings were shrouded in subjectivity. Of course, I can talk for hours about Virginia, who actually played some quality basketball in the tournament - unlike the two weeks leading up to the NCAAs. There’s also UNLV, who we projected as a 4-seed (actual: 7-seed), and then *stunned* Wisconsin. The two that have the committee smiling are Butler and Vanderbilt. Following the method of previous selection committees, many bracketologists placed less value on November victories; however, Butler received a 5-seed, compared to an 8-seed, which was projected by a group of 30 bracketologists. To their defense, they validated the seed and overachieved by defeating a good Old Dominion team (who played a bad game, trust me) and a favored Maryland squad. As for the Commodores, their 5-5 close to the season capped by two non-road defeats to Arkansas had people thinking that they were destined for the doomed 8-seed. As it was, Vanderbilt got a 6-seed, trounced a GW team that was happy to be in the dance and gutted out a thriller against the Cougars.

One thing we do know is that, despite the chatter – mainly by ESPN guys who have more airtime than substantive material to fill it with - there was no George Mason this year. USC (5), Butler (5), Vanderbilt (6), and UNLV (7) are the only non-protected seeds that advanced the round of 16. All in all, this is just one weekend, and much of this story has yet to unfold. That is the beauty of this madness that takes place annually in March and grips us to our sofas for hours on end. By next weekend, 16 will have become 4 and more stories will be etched into our permanent memory. Until the games return in 89 hours, savor the quality of basketball we’ve enjoyed over this past weekend and do your best to resist watching the NIT (that is, unless you have a rooting interest).