Daily Dribble: Friday Report Card

 

The Report Card

 

A

- Oral Roberts

The Golden Eagles have been the best team in the Summit for a few years now, coming off back-to-back seasons in which they won 20 games and made the NCAA Tournament. But many assumed this good run had more to do with Caleb Green and Ken Tutt as opposed to a consistent base of great talent. But this year's team is showing that there was more to their success than those guys. Seniors like Shawn King, Adam Liberty, and Moses Ehambe, who were contributors last year are playing better than ever.. and have mixed well with newcomers Robert Jarvis and Marcus Lewis. At 13-0 in Summit league play and with a surprisingly good RPI of 46, it makes our 3rd place projection to start the season a bit suspect.

 

B - Pac-10

Even before the season, the Pac-10 was getting respect as one of the country's best (if not the best) leagues. So the fact that so many teams are getting NCAA Tournament kudos is no big surprise. The league can be looking at 7 bids considering that 7 of the 10 teams have an RPI of 60 or better. This is an amazing number considering that in 2006, the league had only 3 teams better than 57th in RPI, and only 4 teams in the top 85. With the exception of Oregon State, who simply provides two free W's to the rest of the league, every team is moving in a positive direction.

 

C - Wake Forest

Nice job by Coach Gaudio and the staff getting Wake to .500 in ACC play. With games against Duke, UNC, and Maryland coming up, their 5-5 record might become a distant memory. For today though, this is a nice accomplishment for a team that was considered to be just biding time until next year's monster recruiting class comes to town. Next year's starting lineup of lets say Smith, Teague, Aminu, Johnson and one of Woods/Walker at the five looks pretty solid.

 

D

- UMASS

Huge loss by the Minutemen to Fordham last night. Coming in, they were in almost everyone's projected field of 65 despite a sub .500 A10 record.  Sure, they were 4-5 in league play but 3 of the losses were on the road and the other two were home defeats to tournament teams Xavier and Saint Joseph's. The point being they had no bad losses. But a home loss to Fordham (158th in the RPI) could be a big blow to their tournament chances. No doubt they will fall out of most brackets when the analysts rework the field.. but all hope shouldn't be loss. They have a favorable schedule the rest of the way with games against most of the A10's lower tier teams.

 

F - Picking Big Ten Games

Just about every night for the Games of the Night  series, I pick the results of three big games. For whatever reason, my picks have been a bit off this year compared to previous seasons.. and a big reason why is the Big Ten.  When the Big Ten's big four get together (Indiana, Michigan State, Purdue & Wisconsin), I've been wrong just about every time. Indiana at Wisconsin.. wrong. Michigan State at Purdue.. wrong. The list could go on and on. One day I'll figure it out.

 

The Daily Report Card tells you all you need to know about the day in college hoops. From good to bad and bad to worse, I'll be laying down the law.

 

Previous Best / Worst

February 13th - Mike Green / Ed Donato

February 11th - Charron Fisher / Tim Morris

February 8th - Big West / Virginia

February 6th - Chris Lofton / Dick Vitale

February 5th - Bob Knight / Josh Heytvelt

February 4th - New York Giants / Washington State

February 1st - Nevada / Penn

January 31st - Kansas State / St. John's

January 29th - Winthrop  / Dyson & Wiggins

January 28th - Rutgers / Doris Burke

January 25th - Ron Hunter / Princeton Offense

January 23rd - Kentucky / Archbishop Burke

January 22nd - DJ Augustin / Scott Sutton

January 21st - New York Giants / Marquette

January 20th - Maryland / ESPN.com editors

January 18th - Cleveland State / Marquette

January 17th - Drake / HP Laptops

January 14th - Roy Hibbert / Michigan State

January 10th - Tony Bennett / Saint Louis

January 9th - DJ White / CSTV

January 8th - Robert Morris / Schedule Makers

January 7th - Wayne Ellington / Illinois

January 6th - Herb Sendek / Kentucky

 

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