Posted on Sun, Feb. 17, 2008

NOTEBOOK

Has UK's bubble already burst?

BLOWOUT LOSS TO VANDY RUINED NCAA AT-LARGE HOPES, EXPERTS SAY

By Jerry Tipton

HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER

Jerry Tipton

Until the debacle at Vanderbilt, Kentucky voiced the opinion that 10 or 11 Southeastern Conference victories would mean an NCAA Tournament bid. After all, no team with 10 or more SEC victories had failed to get a bid since the NCAA expanded the field to 64 teams in 1985.

True enough (Georgia went 11-5 in 2003, but declared itself ineligible).

But there have been plenty of teams to win 10 or more conference games and not receive a bid. Jerry Palm, the man who runs Collegerpi.com (the Web site used by the SEC), cited several such teams since 1993: 2007 Syracuse 10-6, Kansas State 10-6; 2006 Stanford 11-7; 2005 Indiana 10-6; 2004 Colorado 10-6; 2003 Seton Hall 10-6, Boston College 10-6; 2000 Arizona State 10-8; 1999 Nebraska 10-6; 1997 West Virginia 11-7, Pittsburgh 10-8, Washington 10-8; 1996 Minnesota 10-8; 1995 Washington State 10-8 and 1994 Villanova 10-8, Stanford 10-8 and Arizona State 10-8.

"So, while it hasn't happened in the SEC yet, it happens pretty much every year," Palm wrote in an e-mail. "It's just a matter of time before an SEC team fits the bill, and UK would certainly be a good candidate."

The 93-52 loss at Vanderbilt on Tuesday sounded the death knell for Kentucky's chances of receiving an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. Now UK must win the SEC Tournament to get in.

That's the opinion of several college basketball observers from around the country.

John Akers, the editor of Basketball Times, was most adamant about UK's chances of a bid.

"No, no, no, no and, furthermore, no," he wrote in an e-mail. "I have read where selection committee chairman Tom O'Connor is advocating the '34 best teams' approach -- as opposed to the '34 most deserving teams' approach that I believe should be used -- to choosing at-large teams."

O'Connor's approach would seem to give Kentucky "a sliver of hope," Akers wrote. "But either way, Kentucky ultimately falls short. One of the 'best' teams doesn't lose by 41 to Vanderbilt during a final 12-game stretch in which they must impress the committee. One of the most 'deserving' teams doesn't lose to Gardner-Webb, not to mention San Diego.

"Did I remember to say, 'No!?"

Bud Withers of the Seattle Times saw significance in the loss at Vanderbilt.

"I think the Vandy loss has the effect -- even after a good stretch before that -- of suggesting that this might really be the team that struggled so mightily back in November," he wrote.

ESPN commentator Jay Bilas lumped Kentucky with such NCAA hopefuls as Dayton, Oregon and Ohio State. He does not consider UK among the best 34 teams.

"Still, Kentucky has come a long way," Bilas wrote in an e-mail, "and Billy (Gillispie) has done a nice job with this team. They fight and play hard, and have put down a good foundation. I just don't believe that improvement is enough. There has to be high level achievement, too."

Sportswriter Wendell Barnhouse of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram saw Kentucky's chances dependent on winning the SEC Tournament's automatic bid. The loss to Vandy undid the good done by the five-game winning streak.

"Winning 10 SEC games has been significant," he said before adding, "but that's just a past-history stat that is nothing more than interesting.

"I think the battle for at-large spots will be fierce. I think Kentucky lost its battle at Vandy."

Streak at end?

If Kentucky does not make the NCAA Tournament, its streak of consecutive appearances will end at 16. That's the fifth-longest streak all-time and the third-longest current streak.

Here are the streaks going into this year's Selection Sunday:

All-time: 27 -- North Carolina 1975-2001; 23 -- Arizona 1985-2007; 18 -- Indiana 1986-2003; 18 -- Kansas 1990-2007; 16 -- Kentucky 1992-2007.

Current: 23 -- Arizona 1985-2007; 18 -- Kansas 1990-2007; 16 -- Kentucky 1992-2007; 12 -- Duke 1996-2007.

Kentucky will maintain a healthy lead in most NCAA Tournament appearances. UK has played in 48 tournaments. North Carolina and UCLA are tied for the second most with 39.

Good deed

The newspaper in Danville, The Advocate-Messenger, reported a good deed last week. It involved a radio show, "The General Store," on a Stanford station. Listeners call in with items they have for sale.

Recently, a woman called in saying she needed to sell her car to get the money needed to attend her father's out-of-state funeral.

Apparently, UK Coach Billy Gillispie was listening. After the station confirmed the woman's situation, Gillispie sent a personal check for the station to forward to the woman.

'Kind of bugged'

Put plainly, Kentucky reverted to a bad habit in the final minutes at Vanderbilt. With winning out of the question, the Cats began a series of one-on-one forays. Ramel Bradley and Joe Crawford scored all of UK's points in the final 6:17, and all but two of the points in the final 10:37.

UK Coach Billy Gillispie noticed.

"I think our team always plays hard," he said in his post-game remarks. "I've said this for a long time: they play together.

"I don't think they played together tonight at the end. Some guys were trying in their own way to make baskets. But they didn't pass the ball the way we need to. ... It kind of bugged me the way we finished out the game."

Good call

LSU's firing of John Brady prompted many calls of support. Brady said that the "overwhelming" response included calls from every one of his SEC coaching colleagues.

"How about this? Eight to 10 referees in the league called me," Brady said. "Is that strange for me?

"Best calls I've gotten in years from them," Brady quipped. "The only calls I agreed with."

Play a zone?

Vandy sliced and diced UK's man-to-man defense. But man-to-man will be UK's defense in the Billy Gillispie era.

"I don't dislike zone," Gillispie said at a Friday news conference. "I love it when the team playing against us is in a zone."

After media laughter subsided, Gillispie said it was a misconception to think playing a zone meant players could relax on defense.

"You have to have a better understanding and a better feel to play zone than man," he said. "There are always exceptions, but the best teams play great man-to-man and are really good in the half-court against man-to-man."

No excuses

Last season forced UK baseball coach John Cohen to deal with injuries to two of his top players, outfielder Collin Cowgill and pitcher Scott Green. So he took notice in how Billy Gillispie publicly handled injuries to Derrick Jasper and Jodie Meeks.

"One of the great lessons I've learned from Billy -- this is huge -- I think Billy Gillispie has never, ever mentioned injuries (as an excuse), at least any of the press conferences that I've ever heard," Cohen said. "But, boy, did he have big injuries. You're talking about two, maybe the best, athletes he had on his entire team were not available to him. And not one word was mentioned about that.

"As a coach, you're constantly trying to learn from others, and that's something that I probably should not have brought up as much as I did a year ago."

RPI: Con

ESPN commentator Jay Bilas recently called for college basketball to abandon the Ratings Percentage Index as a means for judging teams.

"I think the RPI is seriously flawed, and it has become useless," Bilas wrote in an e-mail. "Nobody needs it to determine the best teams, anyway. If you play the best team and the worst team, you are equal to a team that plays two teams in the middle (generally).

"I don't say that to diminish highly rated teams, but to point up that there are too many flaws in it, and it has become too big of a discussion point. We organize our thoughts and beliefs on the RPI, including quality wins.

"I think we should start over. The only criteria is the 34 best teams, and if you have their schedules, their results, and if you know the game, you should be able to make decisions without the RPI."

RPI: Pro

John Akers, editor of the Basketball Times, disagrees with Jay Bilas. He defends the RPI as a useful tool.

"I think it's just as frightening to expect folks to make sense of things without something to help bring an order to the chaos," he wrote in an e-mail. "If it were so easy to rank 'em, the folks on GameDay would never miss on their predictions, and they do all the time. Within days that Jay said UCLA was the nation's best team and others were pushing for Kansas, both teams lost. The eyeball test doesn't always work, either. But just as obviously, the RPI is flawed and there's got to be a better way of ranking teams. But as long as it's just a tool for the committee -- and I truly believe that it is -- I don't have a huge problem with it in that role."

Game of finesse?

In his explanation of recent calls, SEC coordinator of officials Gerald Boudreaux did not convince reader Mark Sage.

Wrote Sage: "College basketball officiating is probably the worst of any major sport. And here's why: the game is intended to be one of finesse and skill, not 'physicality.' The rules currently in place leave entirely too much up to the referees' judgment. 'Was there contact? How much contact? Did it alter the play or risk player injury?'

"These are not questions the refs should have to deal with. These are decent, well-trained people and we're asking them to essentially make value judgments. For instance:

"An offensive player 'backing' (read -- pushing) the defensive player under the basket is committing a foul, but that's rarely, if ever, called.

"An offensive player going up for a shot leans, or pushes, into a defensive player standing on the court with his arms raised straight up is rarely called for the foul, but the defensive player is.

"And I won't even try to weigh offense vs. defense when it comes to the mugging that the interior players commit on each other under the basket each trip down the court."

Sage, 50, is a Louisville native. Although he graduated from Eastern Kentucky University, he grew up a UK fan. "Except for my misguided cousins who are Louisville fans (they're the black-sheep branch of the family you see)," rooting for Kentucky is a family tradition.

He moved to Jacksonville, Fla., about 10 years ago at the urging of "my charming wife, Elaine," he wrote in an e-mail.

PTPer for eternity

Columnist Norman Chad makes no secret of his dislike of Dick Vitale's on-air style. Coincidentally, Chad wrote about Vitale in the same week the ebullient commentator was nominated for induction in the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Wrote Chad: "Alas, long ago ... I conceded that I had lost the battle and realized that Vitale's over-the-top, four-alarm shrill sensationalism likely would accompany college games well after all of us were gone, playing over and over on various ESPNs and in campus arenas on an endless reel."

Comment: During a teleconference to herald his return to ESPN following a health-related two-month absence, Vitale fielded reporter's questions. But for one media person, Vitale had his own question: What does the word ebullient mean?

It means bubbly and exuberant.

Happy birthday

To Al Robinson. The former UK guard turns 70 today.

For many years, Robinson served the program as its Captain Video. He recorded so many games on his home televisions (plural) that Kentucky relied on same-day Selection Sunday service on game tapes of obscure first-round opponents.

The move to the Craft Center ended the charming mom-and-pop component. The greater space allowed for UK to move its electronics in house.

Jerry Tipton covers UK basketball for the Herald-Leader. This article contains his opinions and observations. He can be reached at jtipton@herald-leader.com.