I’ve been following ESPN’s countdown of the “Top Ten Most Prestigious Hoops Programs Since 1984-85” all week. Yesterday, they posted the final results, which had Duke at number one, North Carolina at number two, and my beloved Kansas Jayhawks at number three. Now, they’ve revised the results, nothing that “some facts for Kansas and North Carolina were incorrectly tabulated by the ESPN research department,” and moving KU into the number two spot. Sweet! Visit site »
I predicted my Jayhawks would come in in the top five, and maybe the top two in this list. I was disappointed to find they ended up at number three. Duke was the obvious number one, but I thought Kansas would edge out North Carolina for the number two spot. I thought North Carolina’s losing season would be the killer for them. Turns out, Kansas’ losses to Bradley and Bucknell in the tournament a few years back hurt them more. In the end, UNC bests Kansas by four measly points!
Of my other top ten predictions, I picked the top five correctly (Arizona and Kentucky being the other two). I correctly picked UConn, UCLA, and Syracuse in the top ten, but sort of forgot about UNLV and Georgetown, picking Michigan State (#11) and Florida (#21) instead. Doh! I really dropped the ball with the Florida pick! Despite being one of only five school to have two NCAA championships in the span, they also had five losing seasons, only four 20-win seasons, and not very many conference titles, thanks to being in the same conference as Kentucky. Visit site »
ESPN is counting down the 50 best college hoops programs in the nation this week, and they’ve just posted the first installment (numbers 50-41). They’re using a scoring system in which schools get points for various accomplishments, such as winning the NCAA tournament, making the final four, winning their conference, and so forth. Fun stuff.
I’m anxious to see where Kansas winds up on the list. Based on the point system, I should think it’ll be pretty high — top five at least, and possibly top two. By my off-the-top-of-my-head memory, only Duke has more NCAA titles (three, to KU’s two), but Kansas has more conference championships and All-Americans. Besides Kansas and Duke, I’d expect to see UNC, Kentucky, and Arizona rounding out the top five. Syracuse, UConn, Florida, UCLA and Michigan State should also be in the top ten. That is, if my memory is anywhere near accurate. Visit site »
I actually welled up here in the office when I watched this video of the incredible display of sportsmanship that went down when Western Oregon’s Senior softballer Sara Tucholsky hit her first career homerun in a conference championship game, only to blow out her knee as she rounded first base. “You hit the ball over the fence — you deserve it.” Awesome story, man. Awesome. via Kottke. Visit site »
PTI is possibly my favorite show on TV, so when I saw this, I was incredibly amused. I love Wikipedia. Visit site »
ESPN.com won the high-traffic counterpart to KUSports.com’s EPpy award today. I link this mostly because of the KUSports.com mention. :) Visit site »
Fun piece over at ESPN. The “SBCS” says we’ll see the Bears and Chargers in the Super Bowl this year. I could believe that (although Grossman better get his act together!). Visit site »