Monday Madness: Everyone Goes Down

Super Awesome Team of the Week

Tennessee Volunteers

After flying under the-radar for much of the season thanks to a slow start in the preseason slate, the Vols are finally playing the way that everyone expected them to. The home blowout win over Vanderbilt, where the Commodores where completely thrown out of their offensive game, just proved that the Vols are easily the class of the SEC. In the hard fought home win over Ohio State, the Vols rallied from a second half deficient, something a few teams ranked ahead of them (UNC, UCLA) couldn’t do. Even with Chris Lofton still scoring below last season’s average, the balanced scoring attack of the Smith’s (JaJuan, Tyler and Ramar ) and super transfer J.P Prince may actually make the Vols a more dangerous than last season.

Close: USC (statement win vs. UCLA), Duke (quietly in the Top 5), Indiana (Didn't get upset), Miss State (4-0 SEC), Cincinnati (The Official 2008 Spoiler beat Pitt), UMass (resume building wins vs Dayton, Charlotte), Stanford (key sweep of Zona schools), UConn (first marquee win over Marquette), Temple (surprising first place of A10).

Bad, Bad Week

Texas A&M Aggies

Trust me, there were plenty of candidates for this, but we’ll go with the Aggies, who got absolutely crushed in road games to Texas Tech and Kansas State. The Aggies have been hanging around the top 10 much of the season after winning the Preseason NIT back in November, but really haven’t done much since then. With the losses this week, the Aggies have now lost all three tough road contests this season.

Close: Marquette (smoked in losses to Louisville and UConn) Miami (FL) (May be this year’s Clemson after losing twice on the road), North Carolina (And the questioning begins…) Holy Cross (now 0-3 in Patriot), Florida State (two tough ACC losses).

Upset of the Week

Maryland 82 North Carolina 80

Once again, the candidates were numerous this week, but Maryland’s win here was downright stunning. Having seen Maryland lose/get dominated by American in person, I would have had more faith in Dennis Kucinich winning a primary than the Terps winning in Chapel Hill.

Close: USC 72 UCLA 63, Cincinnati 62 Pittsburgh 59, Cleveland State 55 Butler 52, Temple 78 Xavier 59, Auburn 80 Ole Miss 77.

Mid-Major Spotlight

Cleveland State Vikings

Thought that everyone in the Horizon was going to run and hide because they were in the same conference as big, bad Butler? Think again. If Wright State’s surprise tourney appearance last season proved anything, it’s that the Horizon has some quality teams outside of the Butler. One of the mid-major feel good stories of the year, the Cleveland State Vikings are 7-0 in the Horizon, defeating their main competition of Wright State, Butler and Valpo in order. Even the losses (Ohio State, George Mason and Kent State) aren’t so bad. Possibly the most underrated mid-major in the country?


Bubble Watch

Baylor Bears

With about 50 days to Selection Sunday, time to start focusing on some bubble teams. One team to pick up a huge bubble win over the weekend was Baylor, who defeated Nebraska 72-70 in a likely battle for the Big 12’s final bid. It’s hard not to root this Bears squad, seeing how much this program had to overcome form the Bliss era and how Baylor seems to suck at just about every sport. At 15-2 and an RPI of 32, it’s going to take a pretty severe collapse to keep the Bears from dancing.

Player We Don’t Really Want To Party With If He Gets As Naked As He Says He Does

Each week, I’ll pick a player that I think it would be fun to party with. As part of the gimmick, I’ll also ask them to be friends on Facebook. And maybe someday, I will actually get to party with them.

Rick Majerus, Saint Louis

I’m not sure if I need to really add anything else about the reveling interview he did with Sports Illustrated. If you have only read the clips about him getting naked and whipping his dong out, I highly suggest you go to the link and read the entire article. I found it a fascinating read on one of the most fascinating/bizarre coaches in college basketball.


Freshmen Spotlight

OJ Mayo, USC

Billy Packer called Mayo out in this one, saying he was “good”, not great” after only scoring two points in the first half. But Mayo responded with 14 points in the second, and more importantly got all of his teammates involved to lead the upset of UCLA. While Devon Jefferson may have scored more (23 points) and Kevin Love may get all the attention, Mayo got the win.