College basketball top 10 topics

You're not going to believe this, but we are more than halfway through the 2011-12 college basketball season, with only eight weeks (and one day) remaining before Selection Sunday. Syracuse, which started the season ranked fifth, is the No. 1 team and stands - with Baylor and Murray State - as one of three major unbeatens. At the other end, Towson, Binghamton, and Chicago State have yet to win a game, going a combined 0-49. Surprise teams to this point have been Indiana, Georgetown, UNLV, Seton Hall, and Murray State; while Pittsburgh, Memphis, and Xavier have been the most disappointing measured against expectations.

A show of hands: Who had Pittsburgh, Louisville, and Villanova at the bottom of the Big East standings in mid-January? And how about Seton Hall, which is ranked for the first time since 2001? The Pirates appear ready to challenge for a top-four seed in the conference tournament despite being chosen by coaches in the preseason to finish 13th. "Every school in the league, basketball is its most important sport," Villanova coach Jay Wright said. "You might pick one or two that you could argue with. But it's a basketball league, so anybody can be good every year because it's important to everybody."

The poor play of Pittsburgh, the defending regular-season Big East champ, has been incredible. The Panthers (11-6, 0-4) enter the weekend on a five-game losing streak and are coming off a 39-point performance (at home!) against Rutgers. In league games, they are averaging 60.5 points while shooting 36.9 percent from the field and 22.7 percent from three-point range. Pitt has played its last nine games without point guard Travon Woodall, but coach Jamie Dixon said he won't "make excuses about what we don't have. We've got to play with who we have. We haven't come up with reasons why. We just have to play better."

La Salle leads the Atlantic Ten with a 2-0 mark, but the Explorers would do well not to stare into their rearview mirror. Six teams, including St. Joseph's, are right behind them at 2-1. For a better look at relative strengths of the teams at this stage, we'll rank those half-dozen by their current RPI: Dayton, Xavier, St. Joseph's, Massachusetts, Charlotte, and St. Bonaventure. Temple (1-1) actually has the best RPI in the league at No. 17 while the Explorers sit at No. 77, which is lower than all the 2-1 teams except for the Bonnies.

The Big Ten is ranked No. 1 by Collegerpi.com, and it's easy to see why. Four teams began the week in the top 13 of the Associated Press poll, and unranked Illinois picked up a big 79-74 upset of No. 5 Ohio State on Tuesday behind 43 points from Brandon Paul. Seventh-ranked Indiana, which was knocked off at home Thursday by Minnesota, has defeated opponents that were ranked No. 1 (Kentucky) and No. 2 (Ohio State) at the time the Hoosiers played them. And let's not forget Michigan State, winners of 15 straight going into Saturday.

Iowa coach Fran McCaffery, the pride of La Salle High and Penn, said he had "no apologies, none whatsoever" for slamming a chair during a timeout tirade in his team's huddle at Michigan State. The outburst, which happened as the Hawkeyes were being trounced, 95-61, followed a technical foul call. "If anybody thinks I'm going to sit there with my hands crossed when we're down by 40, they've got the wrong guy, OK?" McCaffery told reporters Thursday. "I was brought in here to change the culture." The video is now up to more than 50,000 hits on YouTube.

It will be difficult for Baylor to continue its unbeaten ways in a league as strong as the Big 12. But the Bears scored points for toughness with a 75-73 win at No. 18 Kansas State, where they held the Wildcats to just one field goal in the final five minutes. "That's the biggest thing . . . sometimes people question our team's toughness," Bears coach Scott Drew said. "But I think we showed how tough we've been." Said Baylor star Perry Jones, "We're able to stay together as a team when times are tough. Guys don't get mad at each other."

After a rocky freshman season at Syracuse, Dion Waiters (South Philadelphia, Life Center Academy) has emerged into one of the best guards in the Big East, and coach Jim Boeheim knows why. "Freshman year is always an adjustment for kids that come from high school, the work ethic and how much harder it is," Boeheim said. "You have to get your conditioning level where it needs to be. He didn't understand what his role was. Now he's playing almost the same minutes that he did last year, but he accepts and understands what we're trying to do." He said Waiters also has been "more aggressive" with his offense.

We got a chance to drop in on Penn State's game with Indiana last weekend, and the Nittany Lions put up a good fight before the Hoosiers pulled it out in the final minute. First-year coach Pat Chambers, however, didn't see much good in coming close. "We have to continue to change the mentality," the former Villanova assistant said. "Losing is not acceptable. It will never be acceptable. There are no moral victories. 'Oh we lost, you played hard' . . . that's got to end." He said some players were upset after Sunday's game but added, "We want 15 guys that are furious" over any loss.

Murray State isn't surprised it's one of the three Division I unbeatens. The Racers are on a run of 25 consecutive winning seasons and pulled off an upset of Vanderbilt in the 2010 NCAA tournament. Coach Steve Prohm said getting wins is more difficult considering that Murray State has to go to places such as Dayton and Memphis to play nonconference games. "Those high-level teams, while we're playing half home and half road, they're playing two-thirds of their games at home," he said. "They're buying games. We're playing in some buy games."

1. Syracuse 18-0

2. Kentucky 16-1

3. North Carolina 15-2

4. Baylor 16-0

5. Michigan State 15-2

6. Duke 14-2

7. Missouri 15-1

8. Ohio State 15-3

9. Kansas 13-3

10. Indiana 15-2

- Joe Juliano

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TOP CHOICE

Baylor at Kansas, Monday at 9:30 p.m., ESPN: The Baylor Bears, who began the weekend as one of three unbeaten Division I teams in the nation, have a formidable task ahead at the Phog Allen Fieldhouse, where the Jayhawks rarely lose.

FIVE STARTERS

Kentucky at Tennessee, Saturday at noon, ESPN: The No. 2 Kentucky Wildcats can't let the Volunteers' 8-8 record fool them; UT has upset Florida and thrown a scare into Mississippi State in the last week.

Providence at Syracuse, Saturday at 6 p.m., ESPN3: While we still try to figure out how they got their first Big East win with a 31-point rout of No. 14 Louisville, the Providence Friars prepare for the league's big dog.

Indiana at Ohio State, Sunday at 4:30 p.m., CBS3: The Indiana Hoosiers have a doubly difficult task - bouncing back after a loss and facing a revenge-minded Buckeyes team that they knocked off on Dec. 31.

Michigan at Michigan State, Tuesday at 7 p.m., ESPN: The Michigan State Spartans took a 15-game winning streak into the weekend but must find a way defensively to slow down the Wolverines' Tim Hardaway Jr.

Cincinnati at Connecticut, Wednesday at 7 p.m., ESPN2: The question echoing through the Big East is who's No.2 behind Syracuse? Whoever wins this game will have a legitimate claim for now. - Joe Juliano

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