Adam Glatczak writes the "Wednesday Onions" column for CollegeHoopsnet.  Bookmark the "Wednesday Onions" homepage and come back each week!

Onions

We’re back…hope everyone had a great time over the holidays.

-Good to see the action heat up late in December, since the non-conference seasons of the past few years have been a bore. Dec. 17 when I should’ve been doing more Christmas shopping, I set up camp in the living room and watched some terrific games. Furman just about beat the Big 11’s Value City State (all right, Ohio State). Just as they did against Minnesota, the Paladins hung around the entire way, leading the first 25 minutes and not folding when the Buckeyes made a run to grab the lead. OSU snuck by, 70-68, but Larry Davis has got a good team this year, one that wasn’t expected to do much in the Southern Conference but has added some good newcomers with some holdovers who are much improved.

Later, St. Mary’s absolutely outplayed Arizona for 38 minutes on the Wildcats’ homecourt before getting a tad sloppy in the final minutes. Arizona rallied to win, 84-78, but trailed virtually the whole game and was down seven with less than three minutes left. This was like watching one of those great NCAA Tournament upsets, where the underdog plays better than anyone would imagine. St. Mary’s played a close to perfect game, outhustled the Wildcats and frustrated them by answering every Wildcat run until the final one. Arizona didn’t even turn the ball over much-just 7 TO’s to the Gaels’ 14-and still was outplayed. Count me as a big fan of SMC coach Randy Bennett, who has done a whale of a job turning around a program that was 2-26 and lost to the ‘Cats by sixty in 2000. Bennett was the picture of cool on the bench the entire game-the guy doesn’t even look like a basketball coach, but you only have to watch a tape of this game to see he’s good and his team is talented and well-schooled. A glaring statistic from this game: the Gaels outrebounded the Wildcats, 39-37. Granted, Arizona isn’t a huge team and is thin in depth, but what was impressive was St. Mary’s athleticism. SMC players were going over the back of Wildcats for rebounds (legally). That’s something you usually only see out of bigger teams, but the Gaels did it repeatedly. You won’t find many more impressive performances on the road this year, and hopefully St. Mary’s can start getting these close ones soon. In addition to dropping this one, SMC also lost in overtime by one to USC.

Finally, not much has to be said about the last game watched except UC Santa Barbara 61, UCLA 60. The Gauchos were just tougher and hungrier than UCLA down the stretch, and they got a very well-deserved win at Pauley Pavilion. This is another well-coached team, and UCSB has the balance and experience to go places this year in the postseason. If it gets there-Santa Barbara hasn’t capitalized much on the win and is just 7-5. The Gauchos were in the NCAAs in 2002 and the NIT last year, and before the Bruins game already had wins at Hawaii and at home against disappointing-but-still-tough Pepperdine. (One of their losses? St. Mary’s) They’re very scrappy on defense, improving offensively in the post, and can get hot from three, too. They’ll be even better, too, when last year’s Big West Player of the Year, Branduinn Fullove, gets completely healthy, and now that senior guard Nick Jones is back from an eight-game suspension.

-I don’t like to pick on the Pac-10. Of all the BCS conferences, it’s the one league that really seems to try the hardest to do things its own way, not always just catering to what TV wants or the popular media wants. That deserves more respect than some might think. Also, most of the league schools really do get screwed by East Coast Bias-sure, glory programs like USC football or Arizona basketball aren’t, but admit it, would there have been as much griping last year about Boston College and Seton Hall missing the NCAAs with their resumes if they were, say, Arizona State and Washington? All that said, I don’t think this is a very good league this year, and I don’t care what the non-conference records or RPI say. The RPI rankings have them around fifth. Give me a break. Only two teams have really done anything remotely eye-catching nationally. From the top, Arizona is talented but not very deep at all and Stanford is an experienced team but it’s hard to imagine them keeping up their pace all season. Both are excellent, but those are the only teams that deserve to be ranked. California is incredibly young and should get better, but early on has struggled big time. Arizona State has been disappointing, with the exception of Ike Diogu. Oregon hasn’t been that impressive even playing a bunch of home games and doesn’t strike me as a team that’s going to do much on the road, though they could capitalize on the rest of the league because someone has to finish third. USC is what it was last year-an average team with some great athletes that happened to return those same players this year. Their struggles are no surprise here. UCLA is improving but is a work in progress. They or Oregon are the best bet to finish third. Washington and Oregon State are also improving, but are at least a year away, and Washington State is hurtin’. Result: the Pac-10 could end up with as few as 2-3 NCAA bids. Realistically, it will get at least four, since the RPI numbers will work out and their BCS conference status means any team at .500 or better in league will get a look. That doesn’t mean they’ll necessarily deserve it, unless some teams step way, way up in conference.

-Interesting trend this year. One would think that returning loads of experience would mean teams are better from one year to the next, but in many instances that hasn’t been the case. Among the teams that returned a number of key players from last year but haven’t lived up to expectations are Michigan State, Missouri, Manhattan, East Tennessee State, Wichita State, Vermont, Niagara, Illinois-Chicago, Austin Peay and UC Santa Barbara (save for the UCLA win). That’s just to name a few. Considering all the youth in the college game, this is particularly puzzling. Some (Michigan State) had more flaws than most wanted to acknowledge or just too high of expectations. Others (Missouri, Manhattan, Illinois-Chicago, Wichita State) just haven’t meshed. UIC brought back five starting seniors, but despite a 10-5 record has struggled in almost all of its statement games. The Flames, Manhattan and Wichita State also all have lost games they shouldn’t have, and more importantly, teams like them and Niagara haven’t seized the day when they had the opportunity (the Purple Eagles lost to St. John’s-yeesh). Austin Peay returned all five starters and has been a major, major disappointment. Vermont and UC Santa Barbara have been plagued by injuries and assorted personnel issues more than expected. Still, the general assumption is that experienced teams will 1) have an advantage over less experienced teams and 2) improve their performance from the previous season. With these teams and many others, it hasn’t been the case.

-Missouri-Kansas City 93, Kansas State 52. Read that score out loud to yourself three times, and just let the effect sink in. And here we were just starting to think the Kitties were coming around and might cause a little trouble in the Big ex-eye-eye. What a great win for the Kangaroos, though, and for the Mid-Continent Conference, which has acquitted itself surprisingly well out of conference this year. IUPUI has looked darn good, Oral Roberts has surprised with some big-time freshmen, Oakland fared decently against an insane schedule, and Centenary is better than that 6-5 record. In fact, ORU defeated Wichita State on the same night that UMKC did in K-State, while IUPUI beat Pepperdine and East Tennessee State in the Rainbow Classic. Ironically, one of the few not doing much big is Valparaiso. The Crusaders are slipping further and further into the middle of the pack in the Mid-Con.

-Also, Boston U. 61, Michigan 60. Remember that one on Selection Sunday. The Big 10 is coming dangerously close to rendering itself as the Mediocre Eleven permanently in this column. Can’t have conference members lose games like this (or nearly lose at home) almost across the board, and then expect me to buy the argument that their league is infinitely more difficult than a MAC or MVC. Big 10 still is and should always be better, but it’s not as much as the margin of at-large bids per conferences would suggest. Nice win for the America East and the Terriers, who after a sloppy start are quickly asserting themselves as the favorites again in that league ahead of laboring Vermont.

-In the “Beat Goes On” department, which we could rename the Creighton Department, we present Utah State. Sure enough, the Aggies lost several starters from last year’s team, and sure enough, there they are at 9-1 again with a win over BYU and their only loss to Utah. Stew Morrill rocks. It’s just too bad he doesn’t play a little tougher non-conference schedules, because this program is good enough to be an at-large contender every year.

-Beat not going on? Try the rest of the supposed Big West biggies. None of them are stepping up much early on. Two games into conference play, and UC Santa Barbara lost to Long Beach State, UC Irvine lost to UCSB, and Cal Poly lost to Long Beach and UCI. Your top three teams right now? Utah State (o.k., no surprise), Pacific and Long Beach. Hmmm.

-Way to go, Bob Knight, for giving it to the Texas Tech “fans” for their poor attendance at Tech games. The school has its new arena, it has one of the coaching legends of all time, and it has a pretty good team to watch. And Knight hasn’t really made that much of a donkey out of himself there, so there really aren’t many excuses. On the other hand, it isn’t that surprising because attendance at most of the bigger schools has stunk the past few years in November and December. Oklahoma keeps flaunting these attendance figures of 12,000+ in the Associated Press box scores when that’s only the amount of tickets sold. Actual attendance for most Sooner games so far has been about a third of that, and you’ve seen the same thing at various other schools, too. That’s incredible considering these are the same ones with the same fans who chastise schools like Fairfield or Santa Clara for drawing those amounts.

The ones to really blame, though, are the schools themselves, for 1) making ticket prices so high, 2) selling most all good seats as season tickets and 3) furnishing these crappy non-conference schedules. Fans don’t care to see Texas play what amounts to a scrimmage against Wofford, and it’s coming back to bite these schools in the rear end. For now, the season ticket totals are financially masking the problems with actual attendance, but you have to wonder how long they’ll get by with it. On the other hand, fans haven’t been showing up for the good games, either, so that leads one to believe that in some cases the costs are a bigger deal than the schedule. Or maybe basketball just isn’t that exciting or fun to watch anymore.

By the way, it was hilarious to read in an AP story about Tech’s attendance struggles the comments by a Lubbock resident about there being “other things to do in Lubbock,” than watch Tech. Like what? He was talking about Lubbock, Texas, right? The same town renowned for not being anything close to Dallas or Houston, and once described in a song as happiness being seeing it in the rearview mirror?

-This happened awhile back now, but not sure exactly what St. John’s figures it accomplished by firing Mike Jarvis six games into the season. The school isn’t naming a coach now, and barring a true miracle, Kevin Clark certainly isn’t going to get the job (SJU wants a bigger name) so it serves very little recruiting purpose. It also says the school gave up on a season even though the record was only 2-4. Yes, some of the losses were disappointing, but what happens if the Johnnies had made a run and snuck into the NCAAs? SJU did play well at the end of last season, even before winning the NIT. That may not have satisfied the “settling for mediocrity” sentiment that always emerges from those who want a coach fired, but at least it would’ve been fairer to this year’s team. If the plug needed to be pulled-and we’re not saying it didn’t-it could have waited towards the end of the season.

-The editor isn’t putting me up to mentioning this, but there’s a good debate going on in the CHN message board about the Big East and its non-conference schedules. We won’t hit on or reiterate the points from there too much, but just a little on the topic here.

Boston College beat Georgetown Tuesday night, bringing the Eagles to 11-2 while the Hoyas dropped their first of the year and are now 10-1. This isn’t that big of a deal at first, but let’s dissect. RPI is 25% your winning percentage, 50% who YOU play, and 25% who your OPPONENTS play. Georgetown (which, according to the RPI, had the lowest rated schedule in all of Division I just before playing Rutgers Saturday) is going to get a big boost to its schedule for playing B.C., a team whose pre-conference schedule was o.k. but nothing great and included seven home games and just two true road games (both of which were losses). The loss hurts their winning percentage about 9%, and that 50% mark-up more than offsets whatever 25% baggage comes from who B.C. plays. Not to mention, it takes absolutely no account of the fact that Boston College didn’t exactly challenge itself on the road in November and December. Knowing all of this, is an RPI really anything close to fair? O.k., since we know life isn’t always fair, maybe a better question is: is an RPI number anything close to accurate?

Worse yet, though, the Eagles get an even bigger boost for playing the Hoyas, whose non-conference schedule included, ahem, ahem: Grambling, Penn State, Coastal Carolina, Delaware State, Howard, Norfolk State, Davidson, Elon and The Citadel. For B.C. there’s the slight gain in winning percentage, but the big jump comes from beating a team that was 10-0. By a 2-to-1 margin for B.C.’s RPI, the fact that Georgetown was 10-0 outweighs the fact that Georgetown hasn’t played anything even close to representing a Big East quality schedule. How ridiculous is that?

We won’t judge whether or not G’town should play an easy schedule this year, especially since this was considered a rebuilding season for Craig Esherick’s team. In fact, we won’t judge whether anyone should play an easy schedule. To each its own. We’re just pointing out how phony these RPI statistics are, and how easily it is for conferences like the Big East and SEC to take advantage of the system to in-breed huge RPI numbers for an entire conference. It’s just sickening to see these things get swept under the rug so quickly when everyone talks about records vs. RPI top 25, top 50, and top 100 in February and March. None of those records tells us much more than half of the story about a team.

-Watching Belmont play for three minutes against Missouri, I could have told you that the Bruins are the type of team that no one would want to play in the NCAA Tournament, even if they were a #16 seed. They’re fundamentally sound, composed, don’t require 35 dribbles in every single offensive set, shoot the 3 very well, and do enough inside to be a nuisance. They’re very similar to those Northern Arizona teams a few years ago that almost upset Cincinnati and St. John’s as 15 seeds in the tourney, though the Nashville school has yet to visit the NCAAs itself. But then, as if a few minutes of watching them wasn’t enough, darn it if the Bruins didn’t go ahead and beat Mizzou in what was the upset of the season so far. Belmont was so impressive with its composure down the stretch, while Missouri…wasn’t. The school best known for churning out country music stars (it’s true-Belmont has a well-known music school) survived a late Tiger run and finished the deal with clutch baskets and big rebounds in the final minutes. ESPN Full Court borders on being a waste of money in December, but every once in awhile you get a game like this that makes it worthwhile.

-Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said something recently about how his team likes to think it spends as much time in the weight room as any in the country. Not to pick on him, but that’s exactly part of what’s wrong with basketball. The game was a lot better before teams started emphasizing weightlifting as much or more than skill development. Not that teams players shouldn’t be trying to get stronger, but the amount of emphasis on weights is much more than it should be in what is supposed to be a finesse sport. It’s something that should be denounced, not worn like a badge of honor. Oh, and that 60.1% free throw “accuracy” Pitt possesses is going to cost them sometime this year, and as was mentioned a few weeks ago, maybe some of that time in the weight room would be better spent working on the stroke from the line.

-I’m going to claim copyright on an idea right now. TV networks should seriously consider showing some Division III Grinnell College games. Promote them a little, let folks see their style, and the ratings would be sky-high. Send the check in the mail. For those who don’t know about Grinnell, the Pioneers are a reincarnate of the old Paul Westhead-Loyola Marymount teams. The Iowa college is averaging 132.7 points per game over the course of its 7-0 start this year, and that’s ahead of the 124.9 ppg pace of last year’s team. More obscene statistics: Grinnell gets up more than 100 shots a game, and about 60% of those shots are threes. Incredibly, 20 players have already seen game action for the non-scholarship program this season. Coach David Arsenault has devised a system that is beyond innovative, and it has served him and his team well not only for drawing attention and setting records, but also for winning. His teams have made five trips to the NCAA Division III tourney. Oh, and he’s also the head coach of Grinnell’s women’s golf team. Just try to imagine, say, Mike Krzyzewski pulling that off in September and October. Right. Arsenault’s philosophy is stated on the Grinnell athletics website, and it should be remembered and applied not only at the D-III level, but also should at least be kept in mind with Division I athletics as well:

“More than anything else, I believe in the value of participation. With our men's basketball program, I have developed a system that regularly incorporates up to seventeen players in each of our games! With our women's golf program, I am much more concerned that our team members have the opportunity to reap the rewards of competing than I am worried about their final score. It seems to me that much has been lost at the Division III level and that coaches are overly concerned with winning and don't spend enough time perfecting a process by which individuals can better their performance and increase self-esteem.”

For television purposes, Grinnell wouldn’t need to be matched up with a Division I school-last year they got smoked by MVC member Drake, 162-110. Just put them up against, say, Beloit College, a fellow member of the Midwest Conference. Seriously, they would be a hit, and forget the school names because the style would sell itself. LMU games drew as good of ratings as any in the late 80s-early 90s, and are still among the favorites on ESPN Classic. With a little promotion the novelty would make it a bigger hit than showing some high school game, and a network could good about themselves for focusing on a Division III game as opposed to the more money, more problems world of Division I.

Audibles

-Gripe: some news services need to get better at reporting scores. Found at least two scores this year now that I was under the impression for over a week that they went one way, only to find out they went another. Reports were that Coastal Carolina beat Yale in an early season tournament, and that’s what even some box scores said. Not so-Yale won. Also thought that Alaska-Fairbanks had won a pair of games in its Top of the World Classic, when it was actually just one. What was reported in some places as a 71-47 UAF win over St. Mary’s was in fact the opposite-the Gaels won by that score. So, apologies for the wrong information here, and I guess even simple things like who won need to be researched on message boards and athletic sites now.

Got a question recently about Rhode Island and what it chances are this year. Personally, I like the Rams’ club, and don’t see why they can’t be an NCAA team. They beat some good or at least name teams in non-conference (Providence, Miami, UNC Charlotte), have a good record, and one of their losses (Lubbock Christian) was more understandable than we initially thought. Plus, Jim Baron’s squads usually beat those teams it should in the A-10, so a strong finish (say, third-best overall in the A-10) should impress the right people. A 21-9 or so record should to get the Rams in, considering how poorly most of the major conferences have looked in non-conference. “Should” is the key word there.

Games you can’t or won’t watch but should

Conference play is here, and even in the few games I watched Saturday, I couldn’t help already starting to feel the excitement. Detroit and Duke was nice, but Detroit vs. Illinois-Chicago was just…better. You can feel the intensity ratcheted up in these games, with the familiarity and with every contest having direct bearing on the postseason conference tournament pairings. Particularly in the non-BCS conferences-ACC teams know they can lose seven conference games and make the NCAAs. Not to trash those conference games (they’re fun, too), but there’s no such luxury in the Horizon League, where it’s all about getting in position to be in position at the end.

Wednesday

Lafayette at Penn. Before they were trounced by USC, the Leopards were the quietest 8-1 team in the country. The Quakers seem to be growing up faster than expected.

BYU at N.C. State. Boy, would a Cougar win be huge in separating BYU from the Wolfpack if both would happen to be anywhere close to the NCAA bubble. Or vice versa. State has a decent record but really hasn’t beaten anyone of note yet.

Creighton at Illinois State. The Redbirds should’ve beaten Illinois, badly outplaying the Illini for 38 minutes before letting it get away at the end. ISU coach takes on his alma mater, which is still undefeated.

Thursday

Gonzaga at Pepperdine. The Waves are a major disappointment with their inability to put together a whole game. Most definitely, though, they have the talent to beat Gonzaga if they somehow did so tonight.

Winthrop at High Point. High Point? Yes, the Panthers have played well this year under new coach Bart Lundy, who may be starting a revival similar to what Gregg Marshall did at Winthrop.

Belmont at Troy State. The Bruins have been more than one-trick this year-they’re 8-3 with only losses to Vandy by 15, to Mercer by 2, and to Memphis by 6. Trojans still may be team to beat in the Atlantic Sun, though.

Butler at Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Solely because these two played some classics last year. The Bulldogs, even with their inexperience, have still been a big disappointment.

Northern Iowa at Wichita State.

Long Beach State at Pacific. Believe it or not, this is for the Big West lead early in conference season…

Utah State at UC Santa Barbara. …but this should be one that decides who leads the Big West late in the year.

Friday

Manhattan at Niagara. These two had some great ones last year, and they may match up even better this year. The two Metro Atlantic favorites.

Saturday

Stanford at Arizona. Huge game. (Not much else to say)

Vanderbilt at Kentucky. Now we’ll finally get to see how good Vandy really is. The Commodores are off to a great start, but they didn’t leave home til January?!?

Gonzaga at Loyola Marymount. Not a marquee game at first glance, but the Bulldogs lost at LMU last year.

Temple at Dayton. The Flyers need to rebound from their swoon, and fast, or risk losing all the benefits of that strong start.

St. Francis (NY) at St. Francis (PA). Just because it looks so cool.

Furman at College of Charleston. Paladins were tough on road against Big 10 teams; on the other hand, was less than impressed with Charleston at Wisconsin.

Texas-El Paso at Rice, SMU at Nevada. The WAC is wide, wide open this year. These four, Hawaii, Boise State-any of the six could win this league, maybe even Fresno State. UTEP just may be playing itself into the favorite’s role with its tremendous start.

Utah State at Cal Poly-SLO. Second straight difficult roady for USU. Mustangs haven’t exactly been the picture of consistency, with wins over USC and Cal but only a 5-5 record and a squeaker win over Stanislaus State. Don’t give up on them yet, though.

Sunday

Xavier at Rhode Island. This will be one that starts separating who is best in the Atlantic 10/12/14 behind St. Joseph’s.

Wichita State at Southern Illinois. Second game of big week for the Shockers.

Monday

Providence at Seton Hall. Some are saying the Big East is down, but I don’t see it. Seton Hall is moving up and should be a tough out in conference.

LSU at New Orleans. UNO tries to complete a sweep of the Tigers and Tulane. LSU lost to Houston in its first road game of the season. Funny how that works: when you actually leave the state, your chances of losing increase.

Tuesday

Wake Forest at Texas. Wake has been a pleasant surprise, but the Deacs’ are not the No. 4 team in the country. Sorry. The Longhorns’ game against Providence was one of the games of the year-good to see the old Providence Civic Center (or Donut Center or whatever) rocking again.

Memphis at DePaul. Thought the Blue Demons would be better than they are. Probably looking at another NIT this year, while Memphis has stepped up big.

Adam Glatczak writes the "Wednesday Onions" column for CollegeHoopsnet.  Bookmark the "Wednesday Onions" homepage and come back each week!