Tennessee is good, just ask the RPI

Tennessee is good, just ask the RPI

Schedule helps Louisville's start
By John Clay - HERALD-LEADER SPORTS COLUMNIST

A complete month into the college basketball season, here are some things we know:

■ Tennessee is pretty good. The Vols have beaten Villanova in Madison Square Garden and Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh. In fact, Bruce Pearl's team entered Saturday ranked No. 1 in the RPI, and the win over the highly ranked Panthers doesn't hurt.

Scotty Hopson scored 27 points Saturday. He is finally starting to live up to the billing of being Scotty Hopson.




Louisville isn't bad either, a point the Cards proved Saturday.

Having played the world's weakest schedule — only the Washington Generals were not on U of L's early-season slate — Louisville was expected to receive a reality check in the KFC Yum Center.

Didn't happen. UNLV arrived undefeated and left with a 77-69 loss. Preston Knowles came alive in the second half.

■ Those hoping for Rick Pitino's demise are disappointed. Not only is Louisville unbeaten, Pitino picked up a commitment from top 2012 point guard Rodney Purvis on Saturday morning. Then Saturday night, U of L signee Wayne Blackshear went out and scored 56 points.

■ Shelvin Mack can't shake the cramps. The former Bryan Station star had trouble with cramps in last year's Final Four. Now Butler's star guard has experienced more of the same.

Mack missed a significant segment of Butler's curtain-dropping loss at Louisville last month. Last Saturday, he missed the final 13 minutes of a loss to Duke at the Meadowlands because of cramping.

Mack says he has been following orders from the trainers. It's a medical mystery.

■ The return of Kentucky's and-ones. After not producing a single basket-and-the-foul against either North Carolina or Notre Dame, Kentucky had five Saturday in the win over Indiana.

Three of those belonged to DeAndre Liggins, who converted the and-one free throw on two of the three trips by the way. Terrence Jones opened the game with the old-fashioned three-point play. And Doron Lamb contributed the fifth, making the free throw, with 2:09 remaining.

■ Duke is darn good, but the loss of Kyrie Irving will hurt. The freshman guard made the Blue Devils head and shoulders above the rest.

It's unclear how long Irving's injured toe will sideline the New Jersey native, but the layoff is expected to be significant. Without Irving, Duke is really good. With him, it is really, really good.

■ Irving nonwithstanding, Jared Sullinger and Terrence Jones are battling for nation's best freshman.

Ohio State's Sullinger scored 40 points in a Buckeyes win early last week. He was averaging 18.1 points and 9.9 rebounds heading into Sunday's game against Western Carolina.

Jones has slumbered through a couple of games, but when he's awake, he's wide awake. The Portland native is averaging 18.9 points and 10.2 rebounds per game.

■ Josh Selby should make a difference. Kansas' freshman guard makes his college debut next Saturday against Southern Cal. The Jayhawks need him. Bill Self's team looks in need of a spark. Selby can start a fire.

■ Tom Crean has Indiana on the way back. The Hoosiers led Saturday's struggle at Rupp 57-56 with 9:40 left before the visitors forgot how to put the ball in the basket. So the final score was deceiving.

And Crean has better players on the way. Come on, the guy has Jim and John Harbaugh for brother-in-laws. He has to succeed, or he'll be the black sheep of the family.

No wonder Calipari joked he might have to cancel the UK-IU series. Or was he joking?

■ My Final Four today: Duke, Michigan State, Kansas and Ohio State.
Reach John Clay at 859-231-3226 or 1-800-950-6397, ext. 3226, or jclay@herald-leader.com. Read his blog at Kentucky.com.


Read more: http://www.kentucky.com/2010/12/13/1564486/vols-are-good-just-ask-the-rpi.html#ixzz181o8Amng

Exactly how does this RPI work? because they have Florida at #8 and Ohio State at #10. I was at the Florida Ohio State game. That's wrong. OSU is a WHOLE lot better than Florida.