Dilsmusings Podcast - Test Run; PLUS...Officiating SUCKS, and a Big 12 vs. ACC Comparison

The audio on this show is sub-par, but that's why we call it practice (PRACTICE?!?!) The quality will improve moving forward - production-wise, I can't vouch for the content. But for now, enjoy our first effort.


As for college hoops, the officials proved that they can be equal opportunity game destroyers, as they single-handedly determined the outcomes of both a Men's and Women's Game last night. First, in DC, a Villanova team that has lost five of its last six was tied with Georgetown with 0.1 seconds left when Mike Donato called a touch (if that) foul 80 feet from the basket when absolutely no disadvantage was created for Georgetown. Villanova, who needs big wins desperately if it wants to get back into NCAA (and Big East) Tornament consideration, does not need an official handing the game to Georgetown in that manner. It was simply a horrid officiating call. More reason that these guys should be officials and only officials and not be allowed to ref as a hobby or second job.

Meanwhile, if possible, the refs in Knoxville did a worse job that the refs in DC, stealing a game from the Rutgers Scarlet Knights and handing it to the Lady Vols. Don Imus must have been behind this conspiracy. Tennessee had the ball down 1 with a few ticks left, missed a shot and got the offensive rebound, at which time th clock stopped for no reason at 0.2 seconds. After the clock had been stopped for 1.3 seconds, the refs blew a fould and awarded Tennessee two shots. They then reviewed the play using replay and CONFIRMED their ridiculous call. This is highway robbery. In fact, I am not sure why the NCAA does not reverse the result and give Rutgers the win since time ran out. The officiating is so bad that I am actually spending tiem writing about women's basketball. If that doesn't say it all, I don't know what does.

And I am not even getting into the fouls and walking calls that do NOT get called on Tyler Hansbrough....

A friend of mine emailed me the following: Duke needs to beat an unranked mediocre team like MD in Durham; Big 12 is better than ACC. Agree? So I pondered it and here is my response:

If you think Maryland is a mediocre team, then you definitely have not seen them play any basketball since the calendar turned to 2008. They are playing sweet 16 basketball over the past several weeks without a doubt. they beat Carolina in chapel hill, had duke by 9 at half in college park, and have beaten everyone else (they started 0-2 in conference, and are 6-1 since). plus, if you know this rivalry, they ALWAYS play final 4 basketball against Duke. Watch the game Wednesday night and then tell me Maryland is not that good. They have two very good players up front in Gist (clearly 1st team ACC in my opinion, along with Hansbrough, Demarcus Nelson, Trevor Booker and Hickson at NCSU) and Bambale Osby. Their backcourt is shored up now that Eric Hayes is healthy to go with Grevais Vazquez. SO I would be more than pleased with a 1 point win on Wednesday no matter where game is being played.

I think ACC and Big 12 are rather comparable. I think ACC is getting bad rap this year and is better than people are giving it credit for. Check out this article for a comparison between the ACC and Pac 10 (the point being that the greatness of the Pac 10 may be a media creation and to tread lightly before buying into it: http://www.dukebasketballreport.com/articles/?p=24321

As for the ACC (and I am NOT arguing the ACC is great this year or the best conference or anything like that), it is ranked #1 in the conference RPI (Big 12 is third behind Pac 10), and it is the only conference that has zero teams with a losing record. The worst team in the league, Virginia, smoked Arizona earlier in the year.

When you compare the ACC and Big 12, here is how I see it:

Top Tier:
Duke/Carolina vs. KU/Texas. In my opinion, pretty comparable. All four teams have shown they can pretty much beat anyone on any given day. I think if I had to rate the best chances of winning the title, I would favor KU first, then Duke, then Texas then UNC (cause their defense blows), but overall, I would call these four a wash.

Next Tier:
Clemson/Maryland vs. Kansas St/Texas A&M. Are you sitting down? I think Clemson has the talent to get to the Final 4. I have watched this team play about 4 times (three against Duke and Carolina) and they are every bit as good. They have a monster inside presence in Booker and Mays, they have nice perimeter guys led by Rivers, and they are well coached. They have two key problems that will kill them in the first round if they do not fix between now and March: first, their free throw shooting is horrid, all in caps. Just brutal. Second, they do not know how to finish a team off. They had Carolina beaten twice and lost both times, including up 11 with three to go and lost. This team may lose early, but you heard it here first if they fix these areas, this team can beat anybody, anywhere. K St. has in my opinion the best 1-2 punch in the country with Beasley and Walker. I am very interested to see how they do in the tourney with two stars like this but no experience (either from the players or the coaches). This is another team that can make a deep run or lose on the first day. Texas A&M has really disappointed me this year. I think they have some talent but I am not convinced they can do anything with it. You saw my thoughts on Maryland above. Basically, any of these teams can go to the sweet 16, and K St and Clemson have the talent but right now not the mental makeup to go further.

Middle tier:
Techs (Va & Ga), NCSU, Wake vs. Baylor, Nebraska, OU, Texas Tech. NCSU has the most talent of these 8 teams. Of course their problem will continue to be that they do not have an adequate point guard to distribute the ball to all the talent (Hickson, MacCauley, Costner, Gavin Grant, Courtney Fells). Scott Drew has certainly done a nice job with Baylor program. Oklahoma is going to have a tough time with Longar squared out for the year, although Capel has done a nice job with that program this year. From this tier, each conference MAYBE gets one bid, with Baylor the front runner in the Big 12 if they can hang on. The ACC is more muddled, but if a 5th team gets in, it will still probably be NCSU, if they can get more consistent play from Gonzalez or Johnson. Nobody from this group will be playing the second weekend.

Bottom tier:
Miami/FSU/BC/UVA vs. Iowa St/Missouri/Okie St/ Colorado. Missouri and Iowa State can compete at home, Colorado and Okie St are terrible (when will the Sutton eras end in Stillwater?). The ACC teams in this group I think are slightly better, but overall it is close on this tier as on all of them.

I would say the conferences are pretty comparable. I disagree with your assessment on KSU being significantly better than Clemson. Maryland is better than A&M in my opinion. I would be willing to call it a wash but I do not believe the Big 12 is better than ACC.