2 is the loneliest number

I will continue my welcome back tour with some basketball power rankings. I was going to try to predict how the seeding will turn out for the big 10 tourney, but I'll just go with who is best right now.

1. Wisconsin: Honestly, I dont think it is even that close right now. The Buckeyes are struggling to beat bad teams or win games at home against mediocre squads. Wisconsin isn't torching anyone, but they are putting teams away. Wisconsin is the best team in the big ten right now and probably the second best team in the country

2. OSU: Ok, I havent said it yet, but here is the team that these Buckeyes remind me of: 1993-1994 North Carolina. That is the team coming off a national title that lost some good players, but added Stackhouse and Sheed. They didn't miss a beat all year, but got into the dance as a 1 seed and was upset in the second round by a tough, veteran BC team that had a good inside game and were well coached. Do not be surprised if this OSU team gets a 1 or 2 seed and face a solid team in the secound round that is well prepared and not afraid of the big guy. If that happens, the Buckeyes and Greg Oden will be a March Madness afterthought

3. Indiana: Bad loss for the Hoosiers last night will pretty much guarantee them the #3 seed in Chicago. Probably a 6 seed come March

4. Iowa: Let me ask you a question: after the big 3, list the next 2 best players in the conference? I would have Smith and Haluska. Iowa is very underrated and I think will be a scarry matchup in Chicago. Too many bad nonconf losses (Drake, anyone?) and no big conf scalps in order to make the dance, but they should make Chicago fun.

5. Purdue: Great win on Thursday, and this is after they had OSU beaten. I mean, totally had them. Carl Landry would be #3 on my list. They are a tourney bubble team.

6. MSU: Needs to stop turning the ball over and start making big shots. Although they have 2 games upcoming against Wisconsin, so no hurry on that one guys

7. Illinois. What a bad week for Illinois, first they lose 2 role players, then they lose the Chief. Start preparing for your opening round NIT matchup against DePaul, boys.

8. Michigan. Andy Katz had something on his blog back in December that said like 8 or 9 BCS teams have not made the dance since at least the 1998 NCAA tourney. One of those teams: MICHIGAN

(Baylor, Kansas State, South Florida, Rutgers, Wash St, Oregon State, Northwestern and maybe another are the other ans Wash State and maybe KSU are dancing this year)

How embarassing is that for a team that made 2 national title games in the 90s?

9. Minnesota: Gophers are showing signs of life with Tollackson back. I bet they give OSU hell this weekend in the barn

10. Penn State: too much talent to be this bad. I'm starting to blame Eddie DeChellis. The AD might want to pay attention to coaches during the bracket buster this weekend

11. Northwestern: Speaking of coaches that need to go- I spoke to an NU fan over the weekend and he basically said he hates going to NU games because they are boring and they dont win. He said you can be boring, but you need to at least be respectable. Aside from last year, NU has been bad and boring. I dont understand how Bill Carmody gets such a free pass. 4 out of 5 years they will finish 9th or worse in conference and 5 out of 5 years their attendance will stink (unless they are playing Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, or Iowa in a good year) and they will bore the hell out of everyone who does show up. Carmody needs to go.

Save the Cheerleader, Save the World

I wanted to welcome myself back to the happy hunting ground of the blog by commenting on the University of Illinois' decision to "retire" Chief Illiniwek after next Wednesday's home basketball game.

Personally, I cannot believe the school held out this long. On another level I cannot believe that there are so many students, alumni, and fellow Illinoisans that are so outraged by the fact that the state university finally did the right thing and banished the chief to Redskin Island.

Lets be blunt here, Chief Illiniwek is some suburban white kid from Wheaton or Highland Park who wears 10 cent makeup and birkenstocks and shows up for 5 minutes at every game to do toe touches and signal "touchdown." That is all the Chief is. Oh yeah, and a ridiculous racist symbol that was outdated around the time black face became outdated.

Illinois fans will claim the NCAA had no right to tell the school what to do. I would tell you that its sad that an organization that can't even crown a football champion has to remind schools of what is right and what is racism.

Illinois fans will say that the Chief is actually a part of the band, and that the school should not have been a target. As a former band member I would respond that all of the band members crying today that the chief is gone, would have thrown him under the bus in .2 seconds if the NCAA made the decision to ban the band from postseason performances as long as the chief was a part of the band.

Chief apologists will say that the student who is the chief has to take a class and learn about native american culture and dances and that the dance is authentic. I would point out that a) there were no touchdowns in 17th century Native American land, that doing toe touches reminds me of a cheerleader after Dee Brown hits a 3, and that the fact that I took a class on Modern African History does not mean I am capable of running a diamond mine.

The bottom line is that the chief has become an absurd symbol of the over the top racism and disrespect still directed towards native americans in America. There is no other race- NONE- where this would have been respected. Can you imagine the Tennessee Blackies with their masot, Big Jim, or the Arizona Zapatas with a sombrero and poncho wearing mariachi band member with a bottle of tequila in one hand at basketball games? Jesse Jackson would have visited those schools while he was still in the womb.

Meanwhile, Illinois finally did the right thing, which is more than I can say for Jamar Smith

Coach the Year

Seth Davis has Bo Ryan ranked #3, with his former assistant, Tony Bennett, leading the pack at Wazu. Davis claims that only Tucker is a legitimate pro prospect on the Badgers, with the Polar Bear standing as a arctic size question mark. He's right in suggesting that Bo gets credit for his knowledge of X's and O's, but few props for his motivational tactics. His ability to prepare the team for every game, focusing on going 1-0 every evening, is what impressed me most about Coach Ryan from the get-go. His teams play without fear or overconfidence, the mark of superior preparation.

Ryan has also won his share of recruiting battles with a stumbling Minnesota program that a decade ago was a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Besides beating the Gophers to Kam Taylor, Joe Krabbenhoff, and even the Morley Monster, the 2007 class features John Leuer, and in 2008 Jordan Taylor and Jared Berggren will don Badger red instead of Gopher gold.

A decade ago I rushed the floor at the Fieldhouse when Bucky defeated the Gophers and grabbed a date to the Dance. Hard to believe we've been left out only once since, and that a late-season loss at Williams Fieldhouse tonight would be a monumental upset.

Finally, Davis has Bucky as a #1 seed in the Midwest region, second overall behind Florida. OSU lands a #2 in the West, Marquette a #3 in the same region, and Indiana a #4 in the East.

Big Ten Responds to SEC Challenge

Commissioner Jim Delaney wrote a scathing letter rebutting charges by Tom Lemming and other recruiting analysts that the BT has fallen behind the SEC for its failure to recruit below the Mason-Dixon line and its more stringent academic standards. Delaney uses head-to-head matchups, Heisman winners, and national titles to make his point that the two leagues are at a point of parity.

Wisconsin's most recent bowl victories prove this point. Bucky was not the league's elite team in '05 or '06, but demonstrated the team speed necessary to defeat Auburn and Arkansas teams that were allegedly on a different level. The fastest team on the field in the 2006 Capitol One Bowl was undoubtedly the Badgers, and Ike's chasing down of all-world RB McFadden is a testament to the fact that the BT has the athletes to play with any league, even if the talent comes from our nation's breadbasket.

The Stretch Run

USA Today reported the following:
"CBS studio analyst Seth Davis predicted Sunday that the Atlantic Coast Conference would get the most NCAA men's basketball tournament bids — seven — and that UCLA, Florida, Wisconsin and North Carolina will "have to lose twice" to not end up as No. 1 seeds."

This would leave OSU out in the cold, even if they beat UW at home and win the BT? I don't see the league claiming two #1 seeds given its overall weakness beyond Indiana. I would guess the BT Tournament may ultimately break the tie. Seeing that Bucky played a tougher league schedule, and assuming the teams will split their home-road matchups, the success of their neutral court performance in Chicago is the best way to fill out the top spots in the Dance card.

Davis' calculation doesn't hold up in my mind as appealing as it is for Badger fans. With OSU already ahead of Bucky in both polls, a two-loss differential in league play would be too much to overcome short of winning the conference tournament. This makes the game in Lansing that much bigger, assuming wins at the Barn on Wednesday and in the final two home games of Alando Tucker's sterling career.