You Look Familiar...Didn't You Used to Be Undefeated?

Many times after an undefeated team loses their first game, some analyst will say that there is such a thing as a "good loss"- that it lifts the pressure that comes with being undefeated and can refocus players on the real goal, a national championship. In some ways, I can see how this would apply to this Duke team, as this past week, there were way too many people asking if Duke could be the first team since the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers to go undefeated and win it all; and it was already beginning to wear this team down. However when I look at what happened to the Indianapolis Colts this season after suffering their first loss, it makes me wonder how potentially devastating Duke's loss could be. Much like when the Chargers beat Indy to put them at 13-1, Georgetown didn't just beat Duke- they provided a template for other teams to follow when they play Duke. Georgetown brought their big man out close to the three point line, forcing Shelden Williams out of the paint. With the key wide open, Georgetown ran a series of back cuts against Duke's sluggish man-to-man defense, which led to layup after layup. Pete Carril would have been proud. I expect many coaches to copy this strategy until Coach K finally relents and switches to playing some zone defense. Duke is still one of the 4 best teams in the country, but now their aire of invincibility has been shattered...

On the flip side, Florida and Pittsburgh never really had that aire of invincibility to begin with. They were just two solid teams who play a good brand of basketball, but time finally caught up with them. So while I'm sure there's disappointment in their locker room after losing to Tennessee and St John's respectively, I doubt that many players are feeling any sense of shock, but rather thinking, "It was fun while it lasted..."

With Texas Tech struggling this season, Bruce Pearl has captured the title of "Best Demented College Coach." There are a lot of ways to motivate players, and this week Pearl chose fear. I'm pretty sure his halftime speech was something along the lines of "Win or Die! No I mean it..you will die." Fun times...

It's hard to make huge jumps in the polls this time of year, but two teams could move 10 spots from last week's rankings. Tennessee could go from unranked to 16. Louisville could go from 15 to out of the top 25...

Thanks to Wisconsin for confirming what I'd suspected after watching them a few weeks ago- they just aren't that good. North Dakota State dared them to shoot from outside and Wisconsin obliged. The Badgers shot under 15% from 3 pt land (4-27) and 22% overall (16-72). If the Bisons had mixed in a little full court press, which Wisconsin has shown incapable of handling, this could have been a 20 point route...

Jordan Farmar is still looking for the basketball- and his keys and wallet. Mike Gansey picked his pocket clean to seal up the victory for West Virginia. Not to take credit away from West Virginia, who played a very solid game, but I thought Arron Afflalo's cold shooting was the key to UCLA's loss. Despite getting many open looks, he went 1-9 from the field and had a season worst 4 points. Just in case part of his struggles on national tv were part of some "Lounge jinx" I inadvertantly put on him with all of my hype, allow me to say that Ben Roethlisberger is the greatest 2nd year quarterback in the history of the NFL...

A little bit of order was restored in the Pac 10, with all of the favorites winning their conference games (UCLA was favored and lost, but played Big East WVU). The Pac 10 standings now look like this: 1(t). Washington,1(t) UCLA, 3. Arizona 4(t) Cal. While the order may shuffle a little bit, I think those four will continue to battle each other for the top spot and will also be the only teams from the Pac 10 invited to the Big Dance...

Adam Morrison was waaaaaay too excited after Gonzaga's one point win at San Diego. When you beat a 1-3 team in your conference by a single point, there should be a collective sigh of relief, not fist pumping and taunting. Later Morrison said, "This is a tough place to play." A tough place to play? The University of San Diego is a Roman Catholic university in a beach community! If he finds that environment to be tough, how is Morrison going to fare when they're playing in the NCAA tournament? (Although the way they're running, they have a good chance of playing the first two rounds at Cox Arena in, you guessed it, San Diego.) Gonzaga may be ranked in the top 8, but they are not an elite 8 team...

With Greg Gumbel likely in Denver preparing for the NFL, Gus Johnson was in the studio for CBS' basketball coverage Saturday. I'd like to think that as a society, we would not be in any way upset about a new black man being given control of the studio for a day. However to be safe, CBS instructed Gus to raise his voice by an octave for the day and put on a pair of glasses that previously had been reserved for someone's Jewish grandmother. Just a sad, sad day for broadcasting...

One piece of happy news I learned Saturday- Jenn Sterger, best known as "that slutty chick from FSU games," will be appearing in this May's issue of Playboy. Hopefully this will inspire more sorority girls to attend sporting events scantily clad in hopes of achieving a brief brush with fame. But not all sorority girls. After watching the G'Town game, I feel the need to provide the following guideline: If there is only room to fit one or two greek letters on your belly, then you may wear the crop top and paint yourself however you'd like. If however, there is room for three or more letters, then might I suggest the sweatshirt instead? Just trust me on this one.