I Dislike Your Favorite Team

It was a busy day, and a lot of interesting stuff happened.

Lets get straight to the important stuff.

UNC, easily hateable, baby eating, dirty UNC handed Arizona an embarrassing loss. Huge loss. like almost 30 points, and UNC was without freshman sensation Brandon Wright. 92-64! Ouch. Perhaps that might quell the talk of the Pac-10 being so fucking awesome. Perhaps not. Arizona was ranked #17 in the country before this game. Will they be in the top 25 after getting routed by UNC, without their 2nd best player, on their home floor? They probably shouldn't be.

In an all Pac-10 match-up, we saw the team that should move up, despite losing. #7 Oregon needed overtime to beat #20 Washington State. However, we've seen this before. The Big 10 is usually the beneficiary of "This Conference is So Tough" argument, but now it may be the Pac-10 that gets that kind of love. It is conceivable that both of these teams move up the rankings, and UNC doesn't move up at all (admittedly, they don't have much room to grow--both Florida and Wisconsin certainly deserve to be above them). But I've witnessed Big 10 years when they have 3-6 teams in the top 25--it is usually based on the concept that the conference is so tough that losses don't mean that much. Come tournament time, those teams that lost to the top 3 teams in their conference usually get booted by a much less heralded team. We'll see with the Pac-10. There is talk that they will get anywhere from 6-8 teams into the Dance. If they get 8 teams in, I guarantee that 3 of them don't make it past their first round game.

Speaking of overrated, #23 Indiana knocked off Michigan today. That ranking is a product of a huge overestimation of the Big 10. The Big Ten is more like the Big 3. The Big 10 is a shadow of its former self. I remember when Minnesota made to the Final Four on the strength of Booby Jackson and Miles Tarver. I remember when Purdue was full of great athletes, and then when it was a scrappy Brian Cardinal team. I remember when Michigan attracted great players. I remember when Illinois was sickening stacked. I remember when Drew Neitzel was the 4th best player on the court for Michigan State. I remember when Northwestern had Evan Eschmeyer, and he was enough to power a shitty team into a win or 2. I remember when Indiana had Bracey Wright! Most of these rememberances weren't that long ago. D.J. White is going to wreak havoc on other teams with talented big men? I doubt it. The Big 10 is Ohio State and Wisconsin. That's it. No other team in the Big Ten should even get invited to the NIT, much less March Madness. I can't remember the last time the Big Ten was so top heavy. It's like Nell Carter with Breast Augmentation surgery. That top heavy.

Alabama does their Annual Losing to Teams not Ranked. We've discussed Alabama before, and last year's Elite 8 appearance was a fluke. How does a team with 5 losses end up in the Top 15? Especially a team with such sketchy history as the Tide? I don't know. I do know that they'll make a good run towards the end of the regular year to get a decent seed, only to lose to Creighton, or Vermont, or some such thing.

other stuff happened, too.