The Academy Awards Of College Basketball

In honor of Sunday’s Academy awards I’ve decided to put together my own college hoops themed Oscars. These are the players, coaches and teams who I think deserved to take home the hardware. Also, anything I can do to get Bruce Pearl to make a speech I am all for.

Best Team: Syracuse
The Orange really hurt themselves when they lost to Louisville on Saturday. But even that wasn’t enough to take them out of contention for the Team of the Year Oscar. Like “The Hurt Locker” the Orange haven’t been full of special effects and big name stars, but they’ve done a great job putting it together when it counts and winning when and where it matters.

Best Supporting Player: DeMarcus Cousins
Like Christoph Waltz, Cousins came into this category with a lot of hype and like Waltz he delivered. Cousins has been Cousins all season and even though he’s playing second fiddle to the enormously talented John Wall, rest assured he has been amazing this year.

Best Player: John Wall
Like Jeff Bridges, John Wall has been the favorite coming in. Also like Jeff Bridges, people can root for other guys, but when you see his performance there’s no denying who was the best this year.

Best Coach: Bruce Pearl
Kathryn Bigelow made waves as the first woman to ever win the Oscar for Best Director and Bruce Pearl is doing the same as the very first Jewish coach to win my Best Coach award. Never mind that this is the first year I’ve given the award and no one really cares what I think.

Best Small School Game: Penn over Cornell
This is sort of like Best Foreign Film because you probably didn’t see it when it happened and you probably don’t really care. But even so, this game was probably the biggest upset in Ivy League play in the past 10 years. Penn came into the game with a record of 3-15 against the perinial Ivy League title contenders. Cornell was even ranked at the time. Penn put together an amazing game and somehow came away with the victory. Penn went on to win two games after that game, but they’ll always have that fateful February 12.

Best Game Plan: Bruce Pearl – Tennessee
After having one of his best players kicked off the team and seeing some of his most talented players suspended for various legal indiscretions, Pearl laid out a great game plan that kept the Volunteers competitive this season. Even with all that Tennessee has been one of the best teams in the country this season, with victories over KU (Kansas) and UK (Kentucky).

The 5 Most Dangerous Teams in the Country

If you know anything about sports, you know that in single-elimination tournaments the best team isn’t always the one that walks away with the championship. Everyone is making arguments for who the best team in the nation is right now, but that’s not what really matters. What matters is which team can pull a win out of nowhere when it counts.

These are the five teams that, no matter where they’re seeded or who they’re playing, I wouldn’t put my money against.

5. Maryland
Two words: Greivis Vasquez. The Terps play pathetic defense, they lost to William & Mary (ALWAYS an indicator to lower expectations) and the ACC is the weakest it’s been in my lifetime. But despite all this, that fiery Venezuelan has a win-at-all-costs cockiness that makes great players into legends.

4. Syracuse
I personally believe the Orange are the best team in the tournament this year. They’re very well coached, they’re poised and they’ve got great size. Syracuse is dangerous because they’re hungry. Coach Boeheim hasn’t won a title in seven years and I think he’s the kind of coach that takes it personally. Also, the Big East so much better than every other conference in college basketball it’s almost pathetic.

3. Georgetown
The Hoyas are the best team in the country when they want to be. When they don’t want to be, they’re almost painful to watch. Watching them beat Villanova and then annihilate Duke, I really thought they were going to make a run at a number one seed. But when they fell to USF, Rutgers and Notre Dame, I let go of that thought real quick. Still, when they’re good, they’re very, very good.

2. Tennessee
The Vols have beaten everyone worth beating this year and they’ve done it every way you can possibly imagine. They’ve won short-handed, they’ve won as the favorite, they’ve won on the road, they’ve won by beating the other team inside and by killing teams with the three. This team is short on talent, but big on heart and they’re very well coached. Most importantly, they play with the confidence that they can beat anyone.

1. Kentucky
This is hands-down the most athletic team in the nation. If they didn’t all play together, I think the combination of Wall-Cousins-Patterson could legitimately go 1-2-3 in the NBA draft. They’re that good. The most dangerous thing about Kentucky is that they haven’t put together a full game yet. Every competitive game they’ve been in this year, they played down to the competition until crunch time, then turned it on. In terms of sheer athleticism, no one can touch this team. It’s just a matter of whether they’ll be able to turn it on when it counts.

Kansas Got Beat On Saturday…

That’s not really news, Texas is number one now and everyone knows what happened. What is news is why Kansas got beat. The previously-top-ranked Jayhawks got beaten (soundly) by a team missing four of its top eight scorers and probably its best player, because they don’t understand the concept of a sweet spot. This wouldn’t have happened if the Jayhawks or their coach had bothered to watch a few episodes of “Full House”?

On one episode of “Full House,” one that Kansas coach Bill Self obviously missed, Uncle Jesse plays in a basketball tournament. Of course Uncle Jesse is terrible, until – and this is key – he finds his “sweet spot.” Once he’s got his sweet spot, Uncle Jesse can’t miss. If you’ve seen this episode, you’ll remember that Kareem Abdul Jabar played the ref in the tournament and Uncle Jesse famously complained to him that the defense was “standing on my sweet spot.” This is also key.

The Kansas Jayhawks are obviously a better more talented team than the Tennessee Volunteers. We all know that. When you are more talented than your opposition the only way they can beat you is if you play lazy defense and allow them to get shots from wherever they want. This can be especially detrimental if you let someone like, oh, let’s say Renaldo Woodridge, who averages 4.8 points per game, shoot from the exact same spot on the floor three times. It hurts even more if he makes all three of them. It hurts that much more if he does it on three consecutive possessions.

Once Kansas coach Bill Self finally told his defense to stand on Woodridge’s sweet spot, he scored a total of two total points the rest of the game.

The dagger for the Jayhawks was letting Skylar McBee, a white, 190-pound freshman, walk-on from Rutledge, Tenn., get to his sweet spot and splash a three to ice the game. I don’t have a scouting report on McBee, but if I see that the Volunteers have a white, 190-pound, freshman, walk-on in the game, call me crazy, but I’m going to defend the three-point shot.

I know Bill Self probably didn’t have a whole lot of film on McBee, Woodridge or any of the other volunteers playing for Bruce Pearl that day (get it?) but he’d been watching the team’s play all day. If you can’t figure out the sweet spots of a team full of walk ons and back-ups, then I’m sorry, but you don’t deserve to be the head coach of a major basketball program.

Kansas Football/Basketball Players Fight…

…but after learning what they were fighting over, I’m left scratching my head.

I realize I’m treading on very thin ice here, commenting on how a woman looks. Being a woman myself, and one who has received negative comments in the past regarding my appearance, I don’t want to come across as mean spirited, cruel or not understanding.

That said, when I began this blog post over an hour ago, I did a rather exhaustive internet search for images of “sexy KU coeds.” Disregarding all the pornographic results, this was the best image I could find.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying she isn’t attractive (how could I tell… it’s a terrible picture). But really? This is the best “sexy” pic that’s out there for KU girls? If you search nearly any other school you’ll find countless images of hot coeds…

Like the FSU girls.

Or the Oklahoma girl.

Or even the Michigan State girl.

So come on KU! Let’s get it together and put a few “safe for work” pics out there to showcase some of your hot girls! I know you have them. Even this girl would do if the picture was taken in better light and she was wearing a tight or low cut shirt. That’s all it takes.

Because if you do that, then the whole fighting between football and basketball players over girls and jealousy thing… well, at least all that makes sense.

Rick Pitino, Hypocrite!

There are many things that bug me about this story… obviously the biggest being Pitino’s lying and cheating ways. But what I find insulting is the notion that the famed coach is truly sorry. Please! Per everyone who gets caught, he’s only sorry BECAUSE he got caught.

Does anyone really thin this was an isolated incident? Late night, woman comes onto him, one thing leads to another and before you know it, the two are banging over a cocktail table in the restaurant’s lounge. I can see it happening… I can see it happening hundreds of times over the years.

I mean he’s Rick Pitino! He’s good looking, successful and rich. There are tons of women that would throw themselves at him, and I bet that’s happened countless times with no consequences. For crying out loud, the owner of the restaurant gave him the keys to the place to lock up… wink, wink, nudge, nudge. I guarantee it was not the first time that ever happened!

And this from a man who has been outspoken about his religious beliefs! Last time I looked, adultery and (alleged) abortions don’t exactly mesh with the Roman Catholic brand of Christianity!

But the thing I can’t wait to hear more about is Tim Sypher, the guy that married Pitino’s sloppy seconds. Because when this all went down six years ago, Karen Cunigan Sypher was simply Karen Cunigan. She apparently met her soon to be ex-husband (that’s right, the two have filed for divorce) in Tim Sypher’s condo… From what I hear, that was the chosen location for the two to discuss the abortion. Sypher, who worked for Pitino when he was with the Celtics, followed the coach to Louisville.

Good Lord, this all sounds like the Young and the Restless, right?

Can’t wait to hear all the juicy details!