By Ryan Dunleavy
Can you feel it? The excitement is just around the corner. The last week of regular-season action is upon us, mid-major conference tournaments are beginning and the power conference tournaments are on tap. It is a good time to be a college basketball fan. Even a better time to be a UPenn fan, Andy Kennedy or Geno Auriemma. As March begins, here is a look at the national campus hoops scene with an eye toward the best conference tournaments.
HOT
- University of Pennsylvania
The Quakers are all but assured the country's only NCAA Tournament bid set aside for a regular-season conference champion. The Ivy League leaders are two games ahead of second-place Yale in conference with two ways to qualify. Avenge an earlier loss to Yale at home Friday night and clinch a third straight berth. If Penn loses to Yale again, it still goes dancing with wins against woeful Brown and Princeton. That's a pretty sweet setup. It seems almost cliche at this point to say the Ivy League champion is on Cinderella watch. Every year some analyst believes the Ivy style will cause a major conference opponent trouble, and rarely does it. So, what's interesting about Penn is that it plays a Pac-10 style. With one of the best players you've never heard of - senior guard Ibrahim Jaaber - scorching the nets and playing defense, this team can play with anyone. Do not expect to see backdoor cuts and stall tactics. UPenn is smarter than that.
- Andy Kennedy, University of Mississippi
What does this guy have to do to earn some respect? Succeed as an interim solution at a powerhouse program still stinging from the effects of firing a controversial coaching legend? He did that last year. How about take a team picked last in the SEC West Division, lead them to 18 wins and the NCAA Tournament bubble? He is doing that right now. After 10 years as an assistant head coach, Kennedy finally got his chance at the University of Cincinnati last season after Bob Huggins was fired for a litany of personal mistakes. All Kennedy did was lead a group of overachievers to 21 wins. He was one miraculous game-ending 3-pointer away from the Big East Tournament victory that likely would have gotten the Bearcats into the Big Dance. But Cincinnati refused to remove Kennedy's interim label, hired Mick Cronin as coach instead and is 1-13 in Big East play this season. Hey, Ole Miss: Give this man an extension.
- Geno Auriemma, University of Connecticut
It has often been wondered why the outspoken, fiery women's basketball coach has not tested his abilities in the men's game. In a world where even Duke's Mike Krzyzkewski is tempted to leave his cushy job for unsettled NBA waters, Auriemma deserves credit for knowing his place. Even if it that place should be atop a prickly rosebush. In the women's game - where his mere words are celebrated for drawing attention and the content of his statements are ignored - Auriemma is an unpunished verbal criminal. In his latest tantrum, he called Rutgers University fans "ignorant" and "miserable" and said they were incapable of spelling the derogatory messages aimed at him in retaliation. Instead of answering the bell with an inspired performance - or even one measly message-sending foul - the Scarlet Knights humiliated themselves and their fans with a 26-point home loss. Luckily, Geno did not cause the Rutgers players any back injuries as he walked all over them.
COLD
- University of Florida
The only team bracketologists could rely on throughout this unpredictable season is suddenly all over the map. The Gators' three losses in the past four games, including two straight, is probably more a testament to boredom than anything else. Really, we should have seen this coming. Winning too often gets dull. Five starters win a national championship and all ignore draft hype to return to campus? Can we really expect them to stay focused through the entire regular season grind? What more do these players have to accomplish other than helping Florida break the Top 10 in The Princeton Review's list of top party schools? Florida finished a disappointing No. 11 in last year's party poll. Expect coach Billy Donovan to grab his players' attention after Tuesday's latest loss and lead his team on a March winning streak that will help Gainesville put Mardi Gras to shame.
- University of Wisconsin
Another top-five team in bad shape at a bad time. In its first game ranked atop the Associated Press Top 25, Wisconsin lost to Michigan State on Feb. 20 despite an abundance of warnings from analysts everywhere that Michigan State would be primed to take advantage of the slightest letdown. Wisconsin then lost the battle of No. 1 vs. No. 2 in heartbreaking fashion to Ohio State on Sunday. Now comes the news that junior forward Brian Butch is out four to six weeks with a dislocated right elbow suffered in that loss to Ohio State. Television cameras caught Butch, the team's leading rebounder, with tears in his eyes as he sat on the Badgers' bench in the second half. A lot of Wisconsin fans probably have tears in their eyes this week, too.
- Gonzaga University
The Zags may have to win the West Coast Conference Tournament or be faced with playing in the NIT for the first time since 1998. Back then, Gonzaga was disappointed to see its NCAA Tournament bubble burst despite 23 wins, but took solace in its third NIT berth in four seasons. Times have changed. After eight straight NCAA Tournament berths, three appearances in the Sweet 16 and one in the Elite Eight, the NIT might as well be a reference to the ancient Egyptian Goddess of Weaving. For all the Bulldogs' major-conference scheduling, the WCC is still a mid-major and even an otherwise brutal schedule cannot mask losses to Loyola-Marymount, Santa Clara and Saint Mary's. An at-large bid based on brand-name loyalty remains a possibility, but just as anyone would tell Winthrop, Virginia Commonwealth and Oral Roberts, "Win your conference tournament." Gonzaga best not leave fate in the hands of the basketball gods. They might have a deal set up with NIT.
