Monday Madness: Return of the Gators

Monday Madness is a weekly recap of the week that was in college hoops. Look for it every Monday around noon.

Super Awesome Team of the Week



Florida Gators

Everyone has been taking a wait-and see approach to the extremely young Gators up to this point. But this past week may have proven that this team is truly tournament worthy and a member of the SEC upper tier. The Gators did two things that many young teams struggled to do; win games they are suppose to win on the road (Auburn) as well as win games they probably didn’t deserve to win on the road (Alabama). Give credit to Billy Donovan for getting this group through the early season with minimal damage and in a position to do damage in the SEC.

Close: Louisville (back in NCAA talk with Ws vs WVU, Rutgers), Kentucky (may have saved the season), Arizona State (defeat rival Arizona), UCLA (Beat WSU for Pac-10 supremacy), Missouri (back in bubble talk with win over Texas), Cincinnati (who saw wins over Cuse and Nova coming?), Kansas State (finally pick up quality W vs Oklahoma), Chattanooga (Davidson has company in the SoCon)


Bad, Bad Week

Syracuse Orange

Flying under-the-radar since a loss to URI and loss of Eric Devendolf, the youth and inexperience of the Cuse finally caught up to them this week. The Orange lost a must-win road game at Cincy and were hardly competitive in a blow-out loss to West Virginia. The RPI numbers are still great, but you have to wonder if this is the beginning of a bad trend for a team that is totally dependent on freshmen. For Cuse fans, this is beginning to look way too much like last season.


Close: Texas (free-falling since UCLA win), Michigan State (bad L vs Iowa), Saint Louis (credit them for showing up vs Dayton), Sam Houston State (bad conference loss to SE Louisiana), Miami (OH) (0-2 star to conference play).

Upset of the Week

Iowa 43 Michigan State 36

Was I not informed that the new 2008 was announced as the year of the embarrassingly low point totals? No doubt influenced by SLU and Savannah State’s 20-point performances earlier in the week, previously 14-1 MSU shot a blistering 25% on their to a 36-point performance against a terrible Iowa squad. Place your bets people, who is cracking the teens. You know it’s going to happen.


Close: Robert Morris 57 Boston College 51


Mid-Major Spotlight

Drake Bulldogs

Interesting week from the top team in Valley. They continue roll in conference play, defeating Indiana State and Missouri State for school record 13th straight win. They also lost leading scoring Josh Young indefinitely to an ankle sprain. Drake’s rise from the bottom of the Valley has been one of the better stories in college hoops this season and you would hate to see it derailed by injury. But given their outstanding RPI ranking of 15 (not to mention BBState ranking of 7), it might take a total collapse for the Bulldogs not to make the Dance at this point.


Coach Who May Be Burned at The Stake By His Fanbase

Rick Majerus, Saint Louis

You can’t ignore the 20-point performance earlier in the week, but I’ll give the man major props for rallying the troops and taking Dayton to overtime. This is the last time you’ll see Majerus in this category.

Close: Kevin O'Neil, Arizona (Loss to rival ASU), Bruce Weber (Nightmares about Gordon, nightmares), Al Skinner, BC (Loss to RMU isn’t going to help the resume).


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.

Butler coach Brad Stevens



I heard that Butler coach Brad Stevens was young looking, but man, I was floored when I saw him for the first time on television. He looks more like a graduate assistant than a head coach. No knock on the excellent coaching job he is doing at Butler, but he’s a damn young looking guy. I’d be down for a beer with Coach Stevens, even if he’s a dead-ringer for the “Boom Goes the Dynamite” guy.


Student Section of the Week


UCLA

Maybe it’s because I’m on the east coast and see Pac-10 games once in a blue moon, but I never knew that UCLA had that good of a student sections. They were loud and on their feet the entire game against Wazzu, helping to totally throw the Cougars out of their game in the first half. And major props for the Cameroon flag to represent Luc Richard Mbah a Moute.


Campus Legend of the Week

Roy Hibbert, Georgetown

This one isn’t even close. Hibbert’s amazingly unexpected three to beat UConn is already in my Top 5 highlights of this college hoops season.


Freshmen of the Week

Eric Gordon, Indiana

God, the nightmares that Illini fans must have. I would literally punch the television everytime I saw a Gordon highlight, which is quite often. Gordon burned the Illini last night, scoring 11 of his 17 in the second half to lead the Hoosiers to the comeback victory.