NCAA Basketball: Ranking the Top 10 Storylines of the 2010-2011 Season
That glorious time of year known as March Madness is almost here, and the dust is finally starting to settle from a crazy regular season.
I honestly can't remember a year when there were this many storylines worth watching around the country.
I will count down the top 10 storylines from across the college basketball landscape this season that made news and are generating buzz.
*Remember that these storylines can involve off-the-court issues and don't strictly pertain to on-the-court happenings.
As always, let me know your thoughts and opinions regardless if they are good or bad.
10. Will Gonzaga’s 11-Year NCAA Run End This Season?
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Gonzaga has sustained great success in Spokane, Wash., and their streak of 11-straight NCAA Tournament appearances is very impressive. That streak is in jeopardy, though, as head coach Mark Few and the Zags come into the home stretch of the season.
Gonzaga is 20-9 (10-3 in the West Coast Conference) and sport wins over St.Mary’s, Marquette and Xavier.
Right now, Joe Lunardi has Gonzaga as his last team in the NCAA Tournament according to his latest Bracketology.
It’s truly a testament to the job that Mark Few and the coaching staff have done that they have been able to sustain their success for so long.
Right now, though, the Bulldogs are still on shaky ground and some are wondering if this could be the season that the Zags play in the dreaded NIT rather than the familiar NCAA Tournament.
9. Texas and Kansas Duel for Big 12 Supremacy
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Kansas and Texas have been fixtures in the top five of the polls for some time now and it has become painfully obvious that these two schools are the class of the Big 12.
Kansas is ranked third in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, while Texas is ranked fifth.
Texas beat Kansas at Phog Allen Fieldhouse on Jan. 22 by a score of 74-63 and made their case as to why the Longhorns are truly the top dog in the conference.
Still, a case could be made either way for which team is the more complete basketball club.
Unfortunately, Texas and Kansas only play each other once in the regular season, so we will have to wait to see if these teams cross paths again in the Big 12 tournament or maybe even the NCAA Tournament.
8. Jimmer
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Coming out of high school in Glen Falls, N.Y., Jimmer Fredette was overlooked by the Big East schools and held scholarship offers from Massachusetts, Siena, Utah and BYU, according to Scout.
Four years and 2,299 points later, there are 16 Big East coaches all wondering how they overlooked this scoring dynamo.
BYU saw talent in Fredette and their confidence in the kid has paid off big time. The Cougars are 26-2 (12-1 in the Mountain West) and ranked seventh in the country.
Jimmer has been the catalyst behind the Cougars' dominant play, and Fredette’s 27.4 points per game has been a marvel to watch.
As impressive as Jimmer’s regular season has been, his biggest stage will come in a couple of weeks when the Cougars begin NCAA Tournament play.
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7. Record Number of Bids for Big East on Selection Sunday?
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As is stands right now, 11 Big East teams are projected to make the NCAA Tournament according to ESPN Bracketology guru Joe Lunardi.
Right now, the conference’s top nine teams look to be on very solid ground for a bid. Marquette and Cincinnati are the two wild cards that have the opportunity to push the Big East to that magic number of 11.
Some are now saying that Cincinnati solidified their NCAA Tournament position last night with a 58-46 win at 11th-ranked Georgetown. The Bearcats are now 22-6 (9-6 in the Big East) and have signature wins over Georgetown, Louisville, St.John’s and Xavier.
Even if Cincy dropped their last four ball games, they would still carry a 22-10 record (9-9 in the Big East) which would probably be good enough anyway.
Marquette, meanwhile, is 16-11 (7-7 record in the Big East) and finished the conference slate with road games against UConn and Seton Hall and a pair of home games against Providence and Cincinnati.
Clearly, Marquette is not in the tournament yet, but they can definitely play their way in during the final portion of their schedule. It will be crucial that the Golden Eagles don’t drop the Seton Hall or Providence games.
At first suggestion, it seems farfetched, but there is a possibility that the Big East could shatter its previous record of eight teams and send 11 teams to the NCAA Tournament this season.
6. Connecticut Gets NCAA Penalties Handed Down
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Earlier this week, the NCAA handed down penalties to UConn that stemmed from recruiting violations.
These penalties include a three-game suspension of head coach Jim Calhoun throughout the first three conference games of the 2011 season. Additional scholarship restrictions and recruiting restrictions were handed down to the school.
The investigation stemmed from a report from Yahoo Sports! which stated that former UCONN team manager Josh Nochimson gave recruit Nate Miles lodging, transportation, meals and representation in an effort to get him to sign with UConn.
Coach Calhoun didn’t take the news well and said of the NCAA ruling: “I am very disappointed with the NCAA's decision in this case. My lawyer and I are evaluating my options and will make a decision which way to proceed."
5. The Rollercoaster Ride That Was the 2010-2011 Season for Tennessee
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During late November, Bruce Pearl got the sobering news that he would not be allowed to be on the sidelines for Tennessee’s first eight SEC games as punishment for NCAA rules violations.
The violations were a result of excessive phone calls made to recruits and lying to NCAA investigators when asked about possible infractions.
Despite all of this drama, the Volunteers didn’t show any signs of being distracted. Tennessee began the season by going 7-0, including wins over Villanova and Pittsburgh.
The positive momentum didn’t last, though, and Tennessee went on to lose six out of their next nine games. The nine-game stretch included losses to USC, College of Charleston, UNC-Charlotte and Oakland.
Bruce Pearl then began his eight-game suspension and associate head coach Tony Jones filled in on the sidelines for Pearl.
Despite all of this controversy and erratic play, the Volunteers still have a chance to steal an NCAA Tournament bid. Tennessee is 17-11 (7-6 in the SEC) and holds those huge wins over Villanova and Pittsburgh.
Bruce Pearl’s suspension is over and the fiery coach is now trying to get his embattled Volunteer team into The Big Dance.
4. Duke's Kyrie Irving Has Freshman Campaign Cut Short by Toe Injury
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Who would you say the best team in the country is right now: Duke, Texas, Kansas, Ohio State or maybe even Pittsburgh?
There is certainly no one team in college basketball that stands head-and-shoulders above everyone else, but that wasn’t always the case.
Throughout November and early December, the Duke Blue Devils were playing the best basketball of anyone in the country and, quite frankly, no one looked to be able to compete with Coach K’s kids.
Then on Dec. 4 in the second half of what would be an 82-70 win over Butler, heralded-freshman Kyrie Irving suffered a toe injury that would send the Blue Devils back into the thick of the pack.
You may not remember, but throughout the first month of the season, Irving was playing arguably as good of basketball as anyone in the country.
The freshman from Elizabeth, N.J., was averaging 17.4 points, 5.1 assists and shooting a blistering 45 percent from the three-point arc while he was healthy.
It’s unlikely that Kyrie will return this season, and that is a shame, because he was looking like one of the most electrifying talents in all of college basketball throughout the first month of the season.
Kyrie Irving’s injury signified that there would be no runaway powerhouse after all and that numerous teams would jostle for position at the top spot.
3. Enes Kanter Ruled Ineligible
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As much as Duke wonders what if regarding Kyrie Irving’s injury, Kentucky fans are feeling similar feelings about an elite prospect who never made it on the court.
Kanter was rated as the third-best prospect in the class of 2011 according to Rivals and is being projected as a top 10 pick in the 2011 NBA Draft.
The NCAA decided that Kanter had received benefits while playing for his club team in Turkey
This ruling left Enes watching his Kentucky teammates from the sideline rather than being the dominant presence that a lot of people thought he could be.
I don’t want to speculate too much, because I have never actually seen Enes Kanter play in person, but his presence in the post definitely would have taken this Wildcats team to a whole new level.
Josh Harrellson is doing the best he can manning the paint, but Kanter would have made John Calipari’s Kentucky Wildcats a truly scary team to face.
2. Michigan State's Long Fall
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Shortly after Duke defeated Butler in the 2010 NCAA championship game, I did a preseason top 10 for the 2011 season and I chose Michigan State as my preseason No. 1 team.
On paper, the Spartans had it all: a consensus top 25 recruiting class coming in, a seasoned coach who made it a habit of guiding his teams to the Final Four and numerous talented veterans returning from a Spartans squad that had just reached the Final Four last season.
Little did I know as I wrote that prediction that eight months later, on Feb. 2, the Spartans would lose to Big Ten cellar dweller Iowa 72-52 and fall to a record of 13-9 (5-5 in the Big Ten) on the season.
Coach Izzo would call the performance the worst game one of his teams has played during his tenure at Michigan State.
"That was the worst performance of a team that I've coached since I've been at Michigan State," Izzo told reporters after the game. "As you can imagine, we are reeling."
1. Red Storm Resurgence Under Steve Lavin
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St. John’s made news during the offseason when they hired ex-UCLA head coach and ESPN commentator Steve Lavin to take over a St.John’s men’s basketball program that hadn’t made the NCAA Tournament since 2000.
Lavin hit the ground running immediately at the school and used his charisma to bring in a highly-touted recruiting class.
Despite the fact that Lavin inherited a senior-laden team that had enjoyed spots of success under former Red Storm head coach Norm Roberts, the general thinking was that St.John’s wouldn’t be a serious contender until the recruits started coming in 2011.
Apparently, Coach Lavin and these St.John’s seniors weren’t content to just let this year pass by, though, and they have proven wrong all of their doubters who said that this team wasn’t talented enough.
St. John’s is 18-9 (10-5 in the Big East) with wins over Duke, Pittsburgh, Connecticut, Georgetown and Notre Dame.
This once-storied St.John’s program is starting to gain their swagger back, and slowly but surely, Red Storm fans are beginning to flock back to Madison Square Garden to cheer on their Johnnies.
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