| Advertisement |
|
|
For What it's Worth on this January 16th--- Over the last four days the top three college basketball teams in the country lost. Begging the question of dominance…is their such a team this season like the Kentucky of last? No. There doesn’t appear to be any team free of weakness. I really liked Indiana, but last night so did Wisconsin—in Bloomington. Michigan was cruising along until Ohio State kicked them, the same Buckeyes that looked overmatched against Kansas. It’s hard to figure, unless we figure on having another incredibly unpredictable March. Last year, just about everyone had Kentucky in their office pool final—right now there would be wildly divergent picks, how fun.
Bounce back---
Both Illinois State and Wichita State try to get to the same place tonight, albeit from very different starting points. The Shocks are trying to bounce back from one dreadful game that they still almost won in spite of themselves. The Redbirds, picked second in the Valley, are trying to bounce back from a confounding 0-5 start in the conference. This is essentially the same team that ended WSU’s 9-game win streak in the MVC Tournament last year. It’s a team that won on the road at Dayton earlier this year and too top rated Louisville to the last possession before losing by three. My point is that you can’t sleep on Illinois State, even if they—themselves—are suddenly snoring through their schedule.
Good timing---
As soon as Illinois State had blown a nine point halftime lead at home in losing to Drake last weekend, one of the Wichita state coaches I was with in Evansville said; ‘watch how fast Tyler Brown comes of suspension now”. Sure enough, after spending one game off the team for ‘detrimental conduct’—Brown, the team’s second leading scorer is back at practice this week and is expected to play at WSU tonight. Hey, I guess there are widely different degrees of detrimental.
The Big 12’s only soft touch---
I get bringing TCU into the Big 12 for their football prowess, but how do you think they reacted to the move in the basketball offices? A bottom feeder in the Mountain West, now the Horned Frogs are playing in what’s usually one of the nation’s power conferences. Even in a year when the Big 12 minus KU seems down, TCU will finish somewhere south of south. Tonight K-State goes into Ft. Worth looking for its sixth straight win. The Frogs best win is against UAB which is currently in the Conference USA cellar. There are 388 division one programs in the country, TCU is currently ranked 344th in points scored—Mister Rogers is more offensive that Texas Christian.
Seeing Red…Sox---
Am I going to have to revoke my charter in the ‘Red Sox Nation’? Will clam chowder ever taste the same after claims by former manager Terry Francona that the BoSox ownership doesn’t even like baseball? Further, he states in his upcoming book, that a consulting firm hired to boost sagging TV ratings urged the team to sign more” good-looking stars” and “sex symbols”. And here I just wanted a pitcher who could throw strikes. I’ve got news for the Red Sox---WINNING IS SEXY!!! Good looking guys who can only win 66 games are nothing more than good-looking bums.