On the Radar: UCLA
01.05.04
Ben Howland may be a great coach, but in the case of taking the UCLA job this year, timing was everything. It really didn't matter whether UCLA improved this year, only that they didn't take a step back. Just standing still, UCLA is able to watch the rest of PAC 10 slide down a notch or two. Only Stanford, and maybe Washington St., are improved this year. After their sweep of the Oregon schools over the weekend, the Bruins look likely to return to the postseason. They take on the Washington schools on the road this Thursday/Saturday, and both games are winnable. Well, just about every game the rest of the way for UCLA is winnable, since almost every conference foe already has an embarrasing loss on their record.
John Chaney, Genius
01.03.04
I didn't get to see any games today, but checking over scores, my curiosity was drawn to the Temple-Indiana game. Temple won 59-50. By the way, this makes IU 19-18 since Mike Davis lost his cool in the Kentucky game last year. But I digress - the key number from this game was that IU took an outrageous number of 3-pointers: 39.
This is secret behind the Temple defense. They let you shoot as many 3's as your little heart desires. And opponents don't shoot usually that poorly from the perimeter against Temple, although IU was not so hot. I'll expand on this later in the week, but the idea here is that great teams - teams that consistently play well - are built from the inside out. Chaney exploits this by being bound and determined to clog up the middle on defense.
At this time last year…
01.01.04
On January 2, 2003, the lowest RPI-rated team to eventually get an at-large bid was Colorado at #103. Other low-rated teams included Cal at 98 and Syracuse at 63. All other at-large teams were in the top 60. Highly ranked teams that failed to make it to the dance included UNC at #12, UNLV at #17, Kent St. at #20, and Virginia at #22. There were only 4 unbeatens at this time last year - there are currently 11.
So while the RPI is still insignificant, teams like Providence (currently 3rd) and Texas Tech (6th) would have to to stumble badly to not make the field of 65 at the end of the year. Conversely, teams like Missouri (90) and Marquette (96) are putting all their eggs in the conference basket.