I did do some reasearch into what was a magic number for the BCS conference teams over the past three years. Here's what I found.....

-Over the past 3 years, 101 teams in the BCS conferences (B12, B10, SEC, P10, ACC, BEAST) had 20+ Division I wins during the regular season and a record better than .500. Out of those 101 teams, 100 of them made it (lone exception was Kansas State, who finished 4th in the B12, which was rated the 7th best conference that year). Dropping to .500 in conference or below 20 wins reduces the qualification percentage substantially.

-Over the past 3 years, the top 4 rated conferences have qualified 6 or more teams 13 out of 16 times.

The problem for Notre Dame is two-fold. They're going to have an extremely tough time getting to 20 wins, given that they currently only have 11 D-I wins. Also, a 6-4 finish would only get them to .500, which likely won't be enough since they'd have a RPI record of 17-11 with that finish. They must have a 7-3 finish to give themselves a good chance to make the tournament. Conference tournament performance will also be crucial.

Maybe Notre Dame will make the 4th postseason tournament.

http://www.collegeinsider.com/tournament/about.html

So I'm watching Maryland lose at home to Boston College on ESPN2 and I see across the top of the screen "to share your opinion search "interactive" on ESPN.com"

Then all of a sudden mindless user chatter starts floating by:

"Imatool69: Maryland needs a basket. BostonRulz: Rice and BC are too much!"

etc etc, like its TRL or something. When did this horrible abomination start? I fired off an annoyed e-mail to the ESPN ombudsman (I'm a big fan of her columns) before posting here.

dola, I should point out that this annoying distraction across the top of my screen came in the final 2 minutes when the teams were separated by only 1 point... just awful broadcasting.

But when I think about how many times I'm watching the computer more closely than the TV during games, posting here & whatnot ... well, it would likely annoy me too but I can definitely understand the reasoning behind it.

They started it during football season on Tuesdays. It is all game long. Usually I don't even notice it.

:popcorn:

Maryland Terrapins coach Gary Williams, athletic department at odds over recruits - ESPN

The tension between Maryland men's basketball coach Gary Williams and the school's athletic department is evident, and judging from Williams' comments made Tuesday night, might be escalating.

The catalyst is Williams' recruiting, which he discussed in a news conference Monday morning. He was talking about next season's incoming class, then was asked about two high-profile recruits he lost in 2008, Gus Gilchrist and Tyree Evans.

Gilchrist, a 6-foot-10 forward, transferred to South Florida during the summer. Evans, a 6-3 guard, ended up at Kent State.

Williams told reporters: "It wasn't my fault that they're not here. That was somebody else's call."

That prompted Maryland senior associate athletic director Kathleen Worthington to tell The Baltimore Sun on Tuesday: "I want to clarify the facts and the timing and the decision process of these situations. It was my recommendation that we not sign a release for Gus. I didn't want to release him. It was the head coach's decision. No one else released Gus."

Washington- and Baltimore-area reporters brought up the subject again Tuesday night with Williams after the Terrapins' 76-67 loss to Boston College.

Williams' latest volley: "Kathy Worthington doesn't speak for me, she has never won a national championship, she has never done anything. She's an associate AD. This is just giving you guys stuff to make me look bad."

The players in question, Gilchrist and Evans, have complicated histories in relation to the Terrapins.

Gilchrist originally had signed with Virginia Tech, but after the April 2007 campus shootings that left a total of 33 dead, he asked for and was granted his release from his national letter of intent. Gilchrist went to Maryland, but was faced with an ACC rule that states a player transferring within the conference not only has to sit out a year, but also lose a year of eligibility.

Gilchrist sat out his first year at Maryland as he went through (and lost) the appeals process.

According to The Baltimore Sun, Williams signed a document, dated June 3, that released Gilchrist from the school.

"He was going to leave. Me signing the release had nothing to do with it," Williams said after Tuesday's game. "He had made up his mind. Why not sign a release and let the kid go where he wants? Why am I bad for signing a release?"

The controversy over Evans stems from his checkered history, and whether Maryland school officials were made aware of it before Williams began recruiting him.

According to The Sun, Evans, a junior-college transfer, was offered a scholarship by Maryland in spring 2008. However, the Terrapins announced shortly thereafter that Evans asked to be released, a request that was granted.

"After much thought, Tyree felt Maryland was not the best fit for him at this time, and I support his decision," Williams said at the time.

Worthington, the associate AD, said Williams stopped the recruiting process after learning Evans had been convicted of misdemeanor drug charges as well as misdemeanor assault and battery.

"Gary made the final decision to withdraw an offer of aid to Tyree and personally called the Office of Student Affairs to inform them he was no longer recruiting Tyree Evans because Tyree had not disclosed all of the criminal issues he'd had in his past," Worthington said, according to The Sun. "Gary became upset that Tyree hadn't disclosed everything."

Williams said Tuesday night that as Evans' history came to light, the media coverage and publicity made it clear it would have been difficult for the player.

"You shouldn't make that kid come into that situation here," Williams said. "He would have had to go through so much just being a student on campus after everything that was said in the papers."

Added Williams: "I've run a clean program for 20 years. Check my record. I coach here, I've got to live here. I've coached here for 20 years, long before anyone else was here. Nobody was here 20 years ago."

Wake Forest is playing extremely well tonight and leads Duke by 11 with 9 minutes to go.


They keep running alerts across the score line on ESPN about lots of potential upsets in the big east too.

And duke has made a run and trails by only 2 with the ball with 17.5 seconds to go.

Duke tied the game with 10 seconds to go. Wake missed a shot but got the ball out of bounds after a scramble on the rebound... some miscommunication (or something... shitty defense I guess!) on the inbounds play leads to an easy layup with .8 seconds to go and Wake Forest wins 70-68.

Great ending.

With 7:30 remaining in the first half Florida State led North Carolina 26-17 and UNC was unable to do anything right. Danny Green singlehandedly kept it even that close with 11 points early. They ended the half on a 28-9 run and lead 46-35 at the half.

FSU has been playing some very good defense in the second half... they led 68-63, its tied at 69 now. Hansbrough and Green both have 4 fouls for UNC with 4:30 to go.

So Georgetown appears to be emulating Notre Dame. How did this team win at UConn again?

UNC-FSU tied at 77 under 1 minute to play.

Man, another game going down to the wire here... 77-77, Florida State has the ball with 16 seconds left(12 seconds left on the shot clock).

holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit.

Nova with a huge win tonight over #3 Pitt.

There's still a long way to go in the Big East season, but at least people can't say Villanova still lacks a signiture win.

FSU got the ball with 12 seconds left on the shot clock, held it probalby too long, and Hansbrough played some GREAT perimeter defense on FSU's #1 scoring threat, Toney Douglas(who had 32 points). Douglas tries to lean into Hansbrough to draw a foul and puts up a weak shot. Its a good no-call and the shot clock runs out.

UNC gets the ball on the baseline with 3.2 seconds left. Lawson takes the inbounds pass, no one really tries to slow him down as he rushes up the court, and hits a running 3-pointer that left his hand with 0.2 seconds left. UNC with a tough road win, 80-77.

That was a dreadful final half-minute of play by Florida State. Yes, the refs kinda-sorta nudged it for the Heels earlier (seriously, how late can a whistle be on a foul like the one that resulted in the three-point play that tied the game?...the ball was practically in the hole when the whistle blew, regardless of whether it was correct or not), but FSU was atrocious besides that and didn't deserve the win. They didn't seem to have any urgency in their final possession and Douglas winds up dribbling around before making a hare-brained shot attempt thinking that the refs were somehow going to bail him out (um, that's Hansborough, dude, the refs aren't gonna call one on him in that situation). Then they practically let Lawson go unmolested for seventy feet. Granted he still had to make a tough runner from beyond the line, but getting there was the easy part for him.

Dola...interesting to see the differences between a Carolina fan's perspective and a non-Carolina fan's perspective on the same event. :D

haha I wasn't going to reply, but I did enjoy your post quite a bit :)

Seriously though Douglas trying to draw the foul on Hansbrough there was ridiculous. Hansbrough didn't even go up into the air, he was letting him take the shot over him and good for him if he could make it. Just a horrible, horrible decision. Step back and drain the jumper.

Oh, I don't dispute it in the slightest that it was a good non-call. (Most State fans beg to differ, but then they'd beg to differ if Dean Smith/Coach K/Roy/the refs said the sky was blue...especially the refs) Even so, that was some of the most dead-from-the-neck-up play from a team with a lead and trying to hold on to it (and I ought to know...I'm somewhat of a pessimist and I think it's because of State athletics over the last two decades).

Yeah I agree. Douglas had Hansbrough 1 on 1 for pretty much the entire final minute and didn't once make a serious effort to go by him. The couple plays prior to that weren't a whole heck of a lot better.

Georgia reportedly firing Dennis Felton at a news conference at 11 am.

'Bout 10 months too late there. I don't care if he did win the SEC tourney. He should have been gone.

How comfortable is Paul Hewitt at Georgia Tech?

He just landed a 5-star 'one and done' player, so I'm guessing he's secure until that kid is on campus at a minimum.

Being winless in conference play certainly doesn't help matters, but would the Georgia Tech A.D. want to take a chance on Derrick Favors and a 4th-ranked recruiting class de-committing?

I don't know what the AD might be willing to take a chance on but at this point I believe the fan base (what's left of it anyway) would be more than happy to risk it.

The one & done thing has gotten very old here, especially with a staff that doesn't seem capable of handling it. I don't really see Favors changing the W-L record significantly, we'll suck at worst & be mediocre at best with him or without him as long as Hewitt is here. In eight full seasons, Tech has had a winning record in the ACC only once and has won only a single NCAA tournament game since losing in the championship to UConn.

Either way, I'm not sure that'll be what might keep Hewitt's job secure nearly so much as the prospect of another costly buy out.

Big Game late tonight out west as "arguably" (that's for you Pac-10 & UCLA Homers) the two best teams on the left coast tip off at 11:00pm Eastern... St. Mary's and Gonzaga.

Virginia Tech leads Clemson 76-74 with 4:30ish to go in the game on ESPN. I didn't start watching until the 8 minute mark or so, but apparently Virginia Tech blew a big lead.

Upside down night for the women's game as #5 Auburn (20-0) trails Georgia by double digits with 3 minutes or so to play and Tennessee trails Ole Miss by 9 with under five minutes to play in Knoxville, where the Rebels haven't won in 21 years.

If there is a home team blowing a double digit lead, chances are I've taken that team in the ESPN streak game. Sigh.

Clemson couldn't stop them at ALL in the first half. It's been a great game, though.

Virginia Tech really fell apart a bit in that final minute. Big win for Clemson

Lady Vols rally & survive by one point to give Pat win #999. Going for #1000 at Oklahoma.

Auburn doesn't rally & their unbeaten streak comes to an end.

Wow, 22-16 lead after the first half for Minnesota over Illinois.

Minnesota holds Illinois to 36 for a 59-36 win.

I guess I'm glad I turned the game off with 12 minutes to go. First time I've done that this year, but it was pretty clear that Minnesota had control of that game. Congrats to the Gophers for winning a "must win" game ... just wish they had not already given games up to MSU and Purdue in their own building coming into tonight.

Washington forgot that you need to play defense too and dropped a good chance for a road win at McKale Center vs. the Wildcats, 106-97.

I didn't think they'd win going in. Several of the key players are young and a bit raw, which has lead them to being an inconsistent team in Big Ten play. Thankfully Sampson and Iverson have been playing well recently, hopefully they will be able to help the team with improved inside play in the 2nd half of the conference season.

UCLA waxing Cal at Pauley. Not too surprising. Cal hasn't won @Ucla in a while.

St. Mary's is looking good against Gonzaga. Patty Mills is fantastic. I wonder if he'd be drafted ahead of Stephen Curry.

We've got the Zags-St. Mary's game on TV over here. Wish I wasn't at work. :(

I'm concerned about Mills in the NBA mainly because his shot is inconsistent and he lacks height. I project him as an Aaron Brooks type, I think.

Very glad to have him in our national side however. ;)

If I was a woman, I'd so have Rotnei Clarke's love child.

26 points in tonight's 89-80 win over 'Bama, the Hogs' first SEC win of the season.

Groundhog, whatever happened to Andrew Gaze anyway? Seton Hall should have one National Title under their belt.

Patrick Mills looks Stephon Curry-esque thus far.

Mills is hurt. This is going to be tough to them to hold off the Zags in a crazy ass atmosphere.

EDIT: Called Mills Curry

That sucks Mills is out. Gonzaga was cute back in the day but now I see them as trying to become Duke Jr. in my mind. Very annoying. And what's up with the Zags always having a guard with the mop hair going on? At least there aren't any pornstar mustaches on the roster (see Adam Morrison).

Good win for UCLA, getting them back on track

Whatever happened to Andrew Gaze? He became the greatest Aussie basketballer of all time. :)

Seriously, he was like Jordan down here (albeit a not-so-athletic Jordan who didn't dunk), averaged 38ppg one season, and won numerous championships with his Aussie team, coached by his dad. Very crafty scorer.

He also played (sparingly) for the Washington Bullets, as well as the San Antonio Spurs - though for the Spurs he was more of a rostered shooting coach, however he did get a championship ring with them.

He's one of our best known sporting identities down here, even if basketball's image has fallen through the floor.

Ha! I like both of those teams.

Your statement is wrong, of course, but they're still two very good basketball teams. ;)

You sure about that? I haven't looked it up or seen mention of it recently, but I think UCLA just went through a weird stretch for five years where Cal kept beating them at Pauley. Two of those years they were really bad (Lavin's last year and Howland's first), but otherwise they were usually pretty good, and yet they always managed to give away the home game against Cal. And then oddly enough, they usually beat Cal on the road.

I'm absolutely not sure about that at all....I suppose I could look it up......

....nah

Ha, me neither. :)

Seriously, it only comes from my memory of continually being frustrated by losing at home to Cal repeatedly. ;)

Hell of a comeback by Clemson last night. KC Rivers went out of his mind for most of the 2nd half. Great great road win. Very happy to see the usually road-phobic Tigers pull one out like that.

Let me just say, I love Oliver Purnell. If only he could get our boys to hit free throws, he would be awesome.

I haven't watched much of the game, but Wake Forest looks to have struggled with Georgia Tech all day, leading by 4 with 2:30 to go.

Pitt just punished the Irish in the second half of their game. ND hit 11 threes in the first half, had a 6 point lead, and ended up with 12 threes and a 13 point loss.

Major screwup by Wake. They had the ball up 2 with 1:10 left or so after Tech missed a chance to tie the game. Wake held the ball, after a screen Wake's center ended up with the ball at the top of the key with about 2 seconds left on the shot clock. He didn't take the shot, passed to the wing and the shot clock expired. Georgia Tech got a basket and its tied. Wake ball with 7.3 left.

Up to 5 losses in a row now, that pretty much nullifies any earlier conversation about Notre Dame's status. They're fucked.

Wake Forest throws away the inbounds pass, poor bounce pass that just went straight out of bounds... Ga Tech ball with 7.3 left.

Georgia Tech jumper is GOOD with 1.0 left. Wake timeout, down 2 with just a desparation look left.

So now in between really really good wins vs Duke, North Carolina, and Clemson, Wake Forest has had complete breakdowns in the final minutes of losses to Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech. Craziness...

Wake's game management down the stretch against Duke did not leave much to be desired either. I guess it is not a shock with a young club, but you do not necessarily expect that out of a team with the collection of wins that Wake has collected this year.

Odd note about GT-Wake, as the Aminu's are only the second brother pair to face each other in an ACC game, joining the Montgomery's of Wake & Maryland in 1969.

Just kind of surprised me that it had only happened twice.

Mike Copeland is an idiot. I'll let Wolfpack expound on classless behavior by the UNC reserves at the end of the game. At least Roy appeared to be appropriately pissed off at his own guys.


NC State kept making runs in the second half to keep it interesting but Carolina gets the win in Raleigh.

Stanford got destroyed at Pauley Pavilion today. They looked like a high school team on both ends of the court. For Chief and Bug:

-J'Mison Morgan is gonna be real good once he gets in shape.

-Alfred Aboya is the most improved player in the conference. EDIT: Besides Jordan Hill

-Josh Shipp...meh

-Darren Collison is super annoying if you're a fan of the team UCLA is playing.

-Jrue Holiday is awesome. Enjoy this year, because he's one and done.

If you can get the game, the Texas-Kansas State game is going into OT. K-State lead by 17 at one point in the 2nd half, and the Horns battled back to tie the game with their final possession in regulation. Great game so far. Denis Clemente has been unconscious for the Wildcats, scoring 40 so far.

K-State gets the win in OT. Clemente ended up with 44 points.

I don't know if I can blame Copeland. I am pretty sure he just expected McCauley to give him the dunk.:rolleyes:

Honestly, I was shocked that the NC State player actually put Copeland on his ass. No need to run to the refs, no need to cry to the media afterwards. Take care of it on the court and move on.

Nice win on the road in Tempe for the Huskies, beating the Sun Devils 84-71 to remain tied for first in the Pac-10. The UW appears to be a tournament team again after treading water the last two years...

Meh, didn't get to see the game, but did listen to it on the radio, so I can't vouch for the classless behavior other than the dunk punking.

But, if you like: "OMG!!!1! What a classlus Hole jrk! he f'ing deserved it!1! lol!!111!""

:D

Nice win for Northwestern. Great to see the Badgers drop 6 straight, while Wisconsin's team gets 11 Ws in a row as Marquette takes down Georgetown.

--The question is whether he ends up doing that for UCLA. He's not entirely happy with his PT, and he might leave before he figures out he's in the best place for him.

--Yeah, Aboya has really surprised me, particularly with former trouble areas, like his range, foul trouble and free throw shooting. All of those areas have improved tremendously. Oh, yeah, on Hill's tremendous.

--Shipp has really always been a meh. He has been talked up a lot, but he really is one of the more overrated players around. That said, he's been playing better of late, shooting the three better by a good stretch, and he has been more agressive in most games this year than he has been since his frosh year.

--Glad he came back. :)

--Holiday says he's staying for two at least. Not sure I buy that either, especially if his game continues to improve. But a guy can dream, right?

I like Dawkins. I think he'll get Furd going back in the right direction again. Just bad timing with Trent Johnson leaving the same year the Lopez twins book.

Whoo boy. The loss by Texas to KSU and the win by Mizzou over Baylor this weekend sets up a HUGE game in Austin on Wednesday. It's a must win for Texas if they want to remain in reach of OU and stay even with MU. A win on the road by the Tigers would put them solidly in 3rd position with OU still having to play at Mizzou Arena.

Pat Knight: Frustration or fighting for his players?

YouTube - Pat Knight Ejected

If anyone has the Big Ten Network, there is a good game between Penn State and Michigan State going on now. Talor Battle for Penn State is on fire!

Wow, who would have believed at the start of the season that MSU would take home losses to Northwestern and Penn State?

I know, lot of time left to play.

OK, PSU is trying really, really hard not to close. Have missed front end of one-and-one twice, now blew a two foot shot. MSU on the line with a chance to cut it to three and Pringle is fouled out.

Penn State is horrible from the line.

5 of 13 from the line isn't going to win you many games.

Nice win for the Nittany Lions! I still think they need 23 wins to get in the tourney.

Bobby Knight in the SEC?
 

Report: Bob Knight interested in vacant Georgia Bulldogs job - ESPN

Irresponsible. Twelve point game with 9 plus minutes and you get yourself tossed over that? It is not like his player was injured or anything.

If true, there would be a HEAVY backlash at Texas Tech. It would make his departure look more like a move to get his kid a coaching spot and take himself out of a job that he didn't want at that point.

With that said, no one who associates with Knight should be shocked by his motives.

Knight just wants to be able to wear a red sweater.

Baylor/Kansas is fun to watch for the pace. But, man, Kansas is young and it shows. Maddeningly inconsistent- flashes of really nice play but a lot of dumb rookie mistakes.

SI

Funny, I wasn't aware there was really any question about either of those points.

As for the Knight to UGA news, all I can say is that as much as I'd enjoy watching coverage of him on a local daily basis, I hope he doesn't take the job since I realized when the story broke that it could probably be the one thing that would at least move me toward neutral on those damned Dawgs. And I don't think my nervous system could survive that sort of shock.

I felt the same way watching them play Nebraska last week. Definite talent, but totally inconsistent. They should more consistent by March and should be a tough out.

Hah, I'm rather liking the prospect. The coach I dislike more than any other coaching one of the two schools I've learned to hate with a passion. Would be awesome.

I'm a little torn on that matter- they have put up 6 wins in a row, 3 on the road, but pretty much all have been against the dregs of the Big XII. The schedule gets a lot more interesting with @Baylor (Big Monday), @Mizzou (rivalry game, Big Monday), @KState (rivalry game), and @Oklahoma (Big Monday) in the next 3 weeks.

I have no illusions that we're making a Final Four run. But, I could see this team out in the first round as easy as making the Sweet 16. This team is just way too young and just too inconsistent. The parts are nice but they definitely need a year or two of seasoning.

SI

Heard a funny story about Knight yesterday.

A little over 10 years ago he was conducting a basketball camp over here for some of our elite youngsters, and my mate was invited. Just before the camp he injured his knee pretty badly, so he couldn't participate in any of the drills, and was just sitting down and watching the camp.

Halfway through the first session Knight walks up to him and asks him what he's doing just sitting there. My mate says he's injured and can't play, so Knight then tells him that no one gets a free ticket to watch his training camps, and that there were chairs that needed stacking. Quite a few chairs in fact. As soon as Knight walked off my mate looked at his coach, who just sort of whispered to him "I think you'd better stack those chairs", so he had to hobble around and stack chairs for half an hour on a very painful knee.

Sounds like it's questionable whether James will play for Texas on Wednesday against Mizzou. He had a MRI on his knee yesterday. Mobility is reportedly limited, though I'm sure he'll play if it's at all possible.

No defense allowed in Chapel Hill tonight. Maryland shoots 55% in the first half and scores 44 points. Unfortunately for them, North Carolina is shooting 50% overall and a ridiculous 73% from 3 point range(11-15).

Its 60-44 Tar Heels at the half. 4 tar Heels in double figures already, Ellington has 21.

Apparently there is a video of Mississippi's coach Andy Kennedy being arrested in December.

Video shows Mississippi coach Andy Kennedy pleading with Cincinnati police - ESPN



Well played by the officer on the Bengals quote. Well played.

Miami is playing really well tonight and beating Wake Forest 45-34 with 13 minutes left in the game.

I'm looking forward to both of ESPN's late games as well. Duke/Clemson at 9pm on ESPN and Missouri/Texas at 9:30 on ESPN2, hopefully a good night of basketball ahead.

Patty Mills out for 4 weeks with a broken hand. St. Mary's go and lose to Portland by 20 without him. Yikes.

Miami 79
Wake Forest 52

Damn. Beatdown.

And its on in Littlejohn Coliseum as well as Clemson leads Duke by 20+....

Clemson isn't that good, but aparently and obviously neither is Duke...
Its actually funny lstening to Jay Bilas repeatedly slam Duke, I didnt know he was capable

With their last road win at Va Tech and now this, Clemson has really impressed me. Their next two games are important as well, against two of the middling/dangerous teams in the conference in FSU and Boston College. They've got a favorable schedule as well in that they only play Duke once and UNC once, so their only game against the other top 10 teams is a final game at Wake. I would not be surprised at all if they finish #1 or #2 in the ACC.