Ask any coach besides Kentucky’s Tubby Smith and Kansas’s Bill Self about the struggles of the Wildcats and the Jayhawks this season and they’ll tell you two things.
1. Yes, each team’s woes are mildly surprising.
2. There is still a lot of basketball to be played.
And they’re right. The streaks broken, such as Kansas’ 31 consecutive wins over Kansas State, and Kentucky’s 29-game dominance over Vanderbilt, makes the programs’ mounting losses all at once shocking, interesting, entertaining and head-scratching.
But they are by no means alone.
Hits are being taken by top teams across the country, and that is likely going to give the top of this year’s NCAA Tournament bracket as different a look as it has had in many seasons. Kansas, Kentucky, Arizona, Boston College and Louisville already have suffered losses that have the potential to affect tournament seeding, if those teams even make the tournament. Kansas and Louisville, in particular, have played themselves into hot water.
These teams were either one, two, three or four seeds in last season’s NCAA Tournament: Illinois, Washington, North Carolina, Duke, Oklahoma State, Wake Forest, Connecticut, Kentucky, Arizona, Gonzaga, Kansas, Oklahoma, Boston College, Louisville, Florida and Syracuse.
If the tournament started today, nine of those teams would kiss a top-four seed goodbye – North Carolina, Oklahoma State, Wake Forest, Kentucky, Arizona, Kansas, Oklahoma, Boston College, and Louisville. Four members of that group – Oklahoma State, Kentucky, Kansas, and Louisville – might not even be in the field. KU is 10-6, 1-2 in league play.
“It’s a struggle for everyone,” Georgia coach Dennis Felton said. “There’s a very, very fine line between winning and losing, and it’s very difficult to win a major college basketball game.”
For some, it has appeared downright impossible.
The new-look top seeds in the tourney will contain some, if not all of these schools: Pittsburgh, Villanova, Memphis, Texas, N.C. State, Wisconsin, West Virginia, UCLA and Indiana. None of those teams were any higher than a No. 5 seed in 2005. Indiana and Memphis didn’t even make the tournament.
But … there is a lot of basketball left to be played, which means some of the usual suspects have a chance to play themselves back into familiar territory. Kentucky’s victory over Georgia on Tuesday was an important step in the healing process for the Wildcats (11-6, 1-2 Southeastern Conference).
“It’s more psychological than anything else,” said Smith, who recently employed the services of a sports psychologist to help his team. “(The players) start questioning, ‘Are we playing the right way? Are you doing this, are you doing that?’
“As a coaching staff, you start questioning yourself, going, ‘Wait a minute, do we have the right chemistry?’ and everything else. But I think we’re getting closer to overcoming that.”
Pac-10, SEC want respect
If you ask an SEC coach about the perception the league is down this season, brace yourself.
“There’s too many good teams for our league to be down,” Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings said. “I’m not subscribing to it at all. We’ve got the second-ranked team in the country in Florida. I think our league is good. I think it’s deep.”
There’s more from other SEC coaches, but we’ll spare you that and take a moment to point out the conference is more formidable than it is given credit for. It is rated third behind the Big Ten and the Atlantic Coast Conference and does boast the No. 2 team in the nation, undefeated Florida.
Kentucky is down, and that will always hurt, much in the same manner that a down UCLA hurts the Pac-10 and a down Kansas hurts the Big 12. Established star power is down as well, but there are budding superstars such as Kentucky’s Rajon Rondo and LSU’s Tyrus Thomas.
The Pac-10 is facing a different situation. Injuries have put big hits on nearly every team in the league. That has taken its toll on the top teams, which have had some uncharacteristic losses and removed some of the shine of the conference.
The Pac-10 can be viewed one of two ways, according to Southern California coach Tim Floyd.
“Wow, that Pac-10 is full of tough, talented teams and they’ve done a great job, so let’s take five of them,” he said of the NCAA selection committee.”This is the conference that had teams lose to Cal-Davis, Cal-Irvine and Eastern Michigan.
“This is the conference where Oregon and Oregon State were swept by Portland. Then Oregon and Oregon State swept Arizona over the same weekend. And we’re supposed to think Arizona is tough? Nope.”
Footnotes
North Carolina’s Dean Smith Center turned 20 on Wednesday. The Tar Heels have a 230-45 record there. … Inexperienced players not used to pressure-packed late-game situations have doomed Kansas to an 0-6 record this season in games decided by five points or fewer. … Kentucky has had seven different starting lineups this season. … There have been those who have questioned Kentucky’s talent level. Not its coach. “We’ve got three McDonald’s All-Americans so we’re probably as talented as anybody,” Smith said. “It’s just all about getting those guys on the same page and getting those guys healthy.”
Chris Dempsey can be reached at 303-820-5455 or cdempsey@denverpost.com.
