The week is only three days old. And it's already been a bad one for some of the country's premier basketball programs, like Louisville, N.C. State, Duke, and Kentucky.
Louisville goes down ... twice
The Cardinals ascended to the country's #1 ranking last week, and then promptly lost at home to Syracuse. Then the real shocker came on Tuesday, when they lost to rebuilding Villanova on the road, 73-64. Louisville's half-court offense has been mostly atrocious, which is a problem because the Cardinals need to make baskets in order to set up their most effective weapon, the full-court press. This isn't exactly a new development. Louisville should be fine.
North Carolina State loses ... to Wake Forest (!!!)
On January 12, the Wolfpack capped off a ten-game winning streak with a home upset over #1 Duke. Since then, they've played three games, with the following results:
51-50 road loss at Maryland
66-62 home win vs Clemson
86-84 road loss at Wake Forest
Dropping a road game at Wake Forest? Really? Wake Forest is not a good basketball team; N.C. State let the Deacons score 84 points and shoot almost 50% from the field. Terrible. Plus, the Wolfpack only made 14 of their 25 free throw attempts, committed 23 fouls, and allowed Wake Forest to grab 16 offensive rebounds. Their problem isn't talent -- it's clearly focus, and energy, and effort. They're lacking in all three of those departments.
There's no better way to illustrate these facts than one particular play at the end of the Wake Forest game. Wolfpack star C.J. Leslie was clearly hit while going for the game-tying basket, but the foul wasn't called, and Leslie missed the shot. Instead of quickly fouling to extend the game, Leslie just stared incredulously at the official, yapping away, while precious seconds ticked off the clock. A teammate had to intervene and commit the foul, but not before time had basically expired. It was an incomprehensible mental error. It reflects poorly on Mark Gottfried. And it's episodes like this one that make the Wolfpack impossible to trust despite their All-American talent.
The Hurricanes take down #1 .. by 27 points
N.C. State and Miami have both defeated Duke when the Blue Devils were ranked #1 in the country. But that's where the similarities between those two teams end. The Hurricanes are the exact opposites of the Wolfpack: experienced, poised, well-coached, and fierce on defense. All of which certainly showed in their 90-63 obliteration of #1 Duke on Wednesday night. Miami at full-strength is the best team in the ACC. As for Duke: if Ryan Kelly is out indefinitely, the Blue Devils will be a fascinating test case for the Selection Committee. What seed should this version of the team be?
Kentucky is headed for the NCAA Tournament ... next year
The Wildcats would be fortunate to make the NIT field right now. They dropped their sixth game of the season on Tuesday by losing at Alabama 59-55. Their best win came all the way back in November against Maryland. They've done nothing else of note since then, except suffer the first two home defeats of the John Calipari era -- to Baylor and Texas A&M. Blah. Nerlens Noel has been the only bright spot; he's blocking over four shots per game. The rest of the team is playing exactly how you'd expect a bunch of freshmen-not-named-Anthony-Davis to play. Given how awful the SEC is this year, Kentucky probably needs to upset mighty Florida at least once to even be considered for an at-large bid in March.
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