When Achilles’ mother dipped her infant son in the River Styx she made him invulnerable, unfortunately she held him by his ankle and an arrow to this spot felled the mighty warrior.

North Carolina head coach Roy Williams must’ve held his team by the guards as Monday night’s stunning 82-79 overtime upset to the College of Charleston is evidence of.

The Cougars took the No. 9 Heels, minus guards Marcus Ginyard and Will Graves, to task and hit them where it hurt most: the backcourt. The Cougars’ starting backcourt outscored their counterparts 52-17, had 11 assists to the Heels’ six and made 20 of 47 field goals compared to UNC’s 5 of 21 from their starting guards.

But the real difference in the game came from beyond the arc where North Carolina could not contain the College of Charleston, who were draining threes like the NCAA Rules Committee was considering banning them.

The Cougars outscored the Heels 39-3 from outside, making 13 of their 32 attempts including a guarded buzzer-beater from 28-feet out by Andrew Goudelock to tie the game and force overtime.

Goudelock’s bucket capped a 12-1 run by the Cougars and he scored the last eight points for C of C.

The overtime was more of the same from the Cougars as Donavan Monroe opened the period with a three-point bucket to put the Cougars ahead for good. The Tar Heels made their lone three in overtime to bring the game within one but a missed layup from Dexter Strickland with four seconds left spelled the end for UNC. An errant baseball pass intercepted by Monroe ended the game and evened C of C’s all-time record versus UNC to 3-and-3.

The loss gives UNC its fourth of the year and should drop them from the rankings completely . . . that is if they were anyone but North Carolina.

That’s because the AP and ESPN/USA Today polls have an unconditional love for the Heels. Any other team with four losses before conference play, even if three were to ranked opponents, would be nowhere near the top 25.

But due to the Vitale-inspired, North Carolina and Roy Williams-can-do-no-wrong-attitude of the pollsters they’ll likely drop to just 11 or 12 when the new polls come out next week. All the while one and two loss teams like Baylor, O.K. State and UNLV languish on the outside of the 25.

Maybe when UNC drops games in the upcoming ACC conference play, which they will if they continue to have the weak guard play they exhibited last night, the pollsters rose-tinted glasses will come off.

Or should I say powder blue-tinted glasses?

–Aaron Whitebread, Red’s Editorial Staff

If you’re a college basketball fan living outside of Utah you’ve probably never heard of him, because his name is not Wall, James, Harangody or Henry. But if you’re thinking about your bracket early with March just around the corner, it’s a name you’ll want to remember.

He is Jimmer Fredette, a junior guard for the Brigham Young Bears.  Monday night he broke a 48-year-old school record by dropping a career-high 49 points in a 99-69 trouncing of the once mighty Arizona Wildcats.

The 6-foot-2 guard went off on the Wildcats’ defense and nearly everything he put up went down. He leaned, he lunged, he made off-balance shots and launched treys from beyond NBA range. He scored with such fervor that Arizona head coach Sean Miller joked with Fredette in the waning minutes to just pass the ball and stop shooting. No such luck though as he drained yet another three.

When the final buzzer sounded, Fredette had gone 16-of-23 from the field, 9-of-13 from beyond the arc for his school-record 49 points while grabbing seven rebounds and dishing out nine assists.

The win improved the Bears to 13-1 on the year, their lone loss coming at the hands of Utah State, and once again showed just how far the Pac-10 has fallen this year.

But it shows something else, too: it shows bias among the college basketball rankings. If Brigham Young were in, say, the Pac-10 or the Big 12 and sporting a 13-1 record with wins over Arizona State, Nevada and Arizona they’d easily be ranked among the top ten. Instead they sit on the outside looking in, gathering just 49 votes in the ESPN/USA Today poll.

But the bias goes further.

With Monday night’s performance and the season Fredette is having, he should be in the conversation for player of the year.

He has been every bit the leader this season for BYU. In his 31.4 minutes per game Fredette is averaging 21.6 points with 5.6 assists. He is shooting a blistering .926 free throw percentage, ranking among the nation’s highest, and his 303 points on the year is tied for second with Charles Garcia of Seattle and just 11 points behind player of the year candidate, Notre Dame’s Luke Harangody.

He is a leader on a team poised to recapture the Mountain West title when conference play opens for the Bears with a home match-up with UNLV, and a team hungry to redeem their first-round exit from the tournament last year courtesy Texas A&M.

All of this makes Fredette as legitimate a candidate as Harangody, Cole Aldrich, Sherron Collins, Dexter Pittman, Damion James, John Wall, you name ‘em.

But like I said, unless you’re a basketball fan in Utah you’ve probably never heard of him.

–Aaron Whitebread, Red Editorial Staff

The Kentucky Wildcats, on the backs of a young team and a new head coach, brought prestige back to the storied 107-year-old program–bestowing upon it the title of first collegiate program to amass 2,000 wins.

Kentucky slayed Drexel Monday night, doubling the Dragons’ score 88-44 in the lopsided victory with freshman-phenom John Wall ringing up 16 points and dishing out seven assists. Fellow freshman DeMarcus Cousins scored a game-high 18 points along with junior Patrick Patterson.

The Cats came out hot, opening up a double-digit lead in the first five minutes. They shot an impressive 53 percent from the field and outrebounded the clearly outmatched Drexel team 45-22 in a game that proved the winningest program in CBB history was back on top of their game.

The legendary program had hit a rough patch last season, missing the Big Dance for the first time since the 1990-91 season, despite their decent 22-14 record, but the Calipari-era at Kentucky has begun with a 12-0 record, a third-place ranking and now the milestone 2,000th win.

Pretty good, but their stay as the lone 2,000-win program will be short lived as two other programs, North Carolina with 1,992 and Kansas 1,980, are hot on the Wildcats’ heels. Of course, if you know the history of these three programs then you also should know the history of basketball and know it’s no surprise these are the three winningest programs of all-time.

For those who don’t, here’s a quick history lesson: Dr. James Naismith invented the game in Springfield, Mass., and became the first head coach at Kansas for the 1898-99 season. He coached Dr. Forrest “Phog” Allen who became the Jayhawks head coach from 1919-1955. Allen coached both Adolph Rupp and Dean Smith. Rupp coached Kentucky from 1930-1972 with an 876-190 record, four National Titles and six Final Fours. Smith coached UNC from 1961-1997 collecting 879 wins, second only to Bob Knight. Smith had both Larry Brown and Roy Williams as assistant coaches. Williams is currently coaching the Tar Heels and was Kansas’ coach from 1988-2003. Brown coached Kansas from 1983-1988 and under him he had assistant coaches, you guessed it, Bill Self and John Calipari.

It’s a little bit like the Book of Matthew, you know, Abraham begat Isaac, Isaac begat Jacob, etc, etc.

But I digress; North Carolina should be the next to join Kentucky on the 2,000th win plateau, needing just eight more wins. The Heels have already suffered three losses this season and their schedule doesn’t get any easier with the ACC conference play looming, but realistically they should reach 2,000 by the end of January.

Kansas should also join the 2K ranks before the season’s end, though their milestone win might have to wait until the Big 12 tournament or the early rounds of the NCAA Tournament as there are just 21 games remaining on their regular season schedule including Tuesday night’s match-up with California.

Honestly though, while 2,000 wins are a big deal and definitely something to celebrate there’s only one win that truly matters, and that one won’t come until April.

–Aaron Whitebread, Red’s Editorial Staff

Since the addition of Penn State to the Big Ten back in 1989, the conference has been the biggest misnomer in collegiate sports with its 11 charter members. In 1999 the conference tried to round things out with an invitation to Notre Dame but they declined electing to keep their basketball in the east and their then-prized football program independent.

Well, it’s been another 10 years and it’s time for the conference to discuss expansion once again. Reports are that over the next 12-18 months the conference will explore adding anywhere from one to five new members.

Obviously, this expansion is more football-minded than basketball as the expansion would give them two divisions, a longer regular season and a long sought after conference championship game before the college football postseason, but any shift in conferences be it one school or five will impact college basketball as well.

The Big Ten is eying several schools but the most obvious choice, both geographically and economically, is sending a second invite to Notre Dame.

The Irish have struggled since joining the Big East in 1995, making the tournament just five times and advancing past the second round just once, winning one conference title in 2001 (a tie) and no conference tournament titles.  A conference as large as the Big East could certainly spare a team.

As for the football program, they are an independent so no conference loses. But therein lies the problem, Notre Dame likes its autonomy and NBC likes its exclusive contract with the once-legendary program . . . so, Notre Dame’s move to the Big Ten is almost as likely as the public option for health care.  Almost.

So who else is out there?

There is talk of other Big East schools jumping ship like Syracuse, Cincy and Pitt. The latter would help renew the age-old rivalry between Penn State and Pitt, but really how much would any of these schools benefit from the move?

In football the Big Ten is stronger year after year than the Big East, but schools like ‘Cuse and Pitt are more basketball schools than football and moving to the slowed down, defensive-minded basketball of the Big Ten isn’t going to do them any favors.

There are also Big 12 schools on the expansion radar, namely Mizzou and Iowa State, though Texas and Nebraska’s names have been thrown out there as well. But realistically Notre Dame is more likely to move than Texas and Nebraska.

Geographically both schools make sense for the conference and both would offer nice rivalries in football and basketball: Iowa State and Iowa in football and Mizzou and Illinois in basketball.

But moving Mizzou would break up one of the oldest rivalries in both sports with the Border War, (ahem) excuse my political incorrectness, Border Showdown between Kansas and Mizzou Iowa State could be rather lopsided as the Cyclones have been no match for the Hawkeyes on the gridiron the last two seasons.

I think they should look to a mid-major like Valpo or St. Joe’s to become their 12th member, but regardless who they get we’re getting ahead of ourselves. We need to come up with a new name first.

How about the Really Big 12?

–Aaron Whitebread, Red Editorial Staff

In 122 A.D., the Roman Emperor Hadrian ordered the construction of a wall in northern Brittan to establish his empire’s north border and keep raiding bands of Celts, Scots and Vikings out. Hadrian’s Wall was effective and parts of it can still be seen today in the English countryside.

In 2009 A.D., the winningest program in college basketball had grown weary of losing ways of late and hired Memphis’s John Calipari as their new head coach. Calipari brought his own Wall in ESPNU’s No. 5 recruit, John Wall and even though the season is still young, the 19-year-old freshman point guard has been more than effective.

In the freshman phenom’s eight games this season, Wall is averaging 19 points and seven assists per game. But more than just his numbers is his performance on the floor.

He is a natural born leader on a team off to its hottest start in more than a decade, who will single-handedly take a game over in the final minutes, as he did Wednesday night against No. 12 Connecticut, scoring 12 of the Wildcats final 15 points in the 64-61 victory.

The most dramatic of those points came with a 61-60 Huskies lead and 30 seconds left on the clock. Wall drove the lane, splitting two defenders on his way to the rim drawing a foul on the lay-in. A few ticks of the clock later and Kentucky wins its first nine games under Coach Calipari.

Last second heroics are nothing new this season for the rookie point guard. Wall’s Kentucky debut featured a 19-point showing including a buzzer beater to give the Cats a 72-70 win over the University of Miami-Ohio.

Last week against No. 11 UNC, Wall overcame a bout of dehydration to drop in 16 points and the game clinching free-throws with 4.3 seconds left to play.  Against Stanford on November 25, Wall racked up a season-high 23 points including some clutch last second shots to send the game into overtime.

What’s even more impressive is three of those four wins came against premier programs from power-house conferences, which bodes well for Coach Calipari who will need to produce a National Title (or at least a Final Four berth) soon if he likes his new Kentucky home, just ask Billy Gillespie.

And this year could be the year for the Wildcats, especially since Wall is an all but guaranteed one-and-done.

But you know, even if they do win it all this year with Calipari at the helm, the season and title will be vacated in a year or two anyways.

–Aaron Whitebread, Red Editorial Staff

It’s December and ’tis the season to complain: complain about the weather, complain about family, complain about the commercialization of Christmas, and complain about the eternally flawed BCS.

Complaining is as much a part of the holidays as the ever-present bell ringer outside your local mall and the tacky Santa’s Village inside it.

But this year I think I’d like to start a new tradition and complain the college basketball rankings.

What’s that? Blasphemy you say!? If only the FBS polls were more like the basketball polls you say? Well then explain to me how No. 14 Michigan State with their two losses (Florida and North Carolina) are ranked higher than conference opponents Ohio State (15) or unranked Northwestern, both with just one loss apiece.

Or can anyone explain why Pat Knight’s surprising 8-0 Red Raiders with an upset win last week over a ranked Washington Huskies team barely squeaked into the AP Poll at 23 and were snubbed by the ESPN/USA Today Poll?

It’s not all bad though, the top three of Villanova, Texas and Kansas seem to be appropriate, but beyond that both polls seem terribly flawed.

In the top 15 of both polls there are six teams with at least one loss and two, Michigan St. and UNC, with two losses, while undefeated teams like Georgetown, UNLV and Texas Tech languish in the lower half of the polls or not at all.

Why is UNC-Charlotte, after routing then ranked Louisville 87-65 in Louisville last week mysteriously absent from both polls? Because they lost to Duke?

Why is Memphis with just one loss not ranked? Because they lost by a mere two points to No. 1 Kansas?

What’s that again? It’s because these teams don’t have “quality” wins. Okay, fine but who have the Spartans beat to earn their ranking? Florida Gulf Coast? Wofford? Toledo? In fact the Spartans have just one quality win over Gonzaga yet still rank in the top 15 of both polls.

And if we’re going with the “quality” wins argument, then who has Kansas beat to earn the top spot in the rankings? An unranked and rebuilding Memphis program, a UCLA team with four losses and then the Alcorn States and Tennessee Techs of the college basketball world, that’s who.

Same goes for Texas with wins over depleted Pitt and teams in the Texas State and Rice tier of the game.

If the rankings were really based on “quality” wins, Syracuse would be No. 1 with wins over UNC and California followed by Purdue with victories over Tennessee and Wake Forest.

But the polls aren’t based on this idea of “quality” wins and to be honest, looking at them this week I’m not sure what they’re based on . . . other than pure favoritism.

–Aaron Whitebread, Red Editorial Staff

You know the old cliché, even the sun shines on a dog’s (ahem) posterior some days? Well today the dog’s rear-end is the Big Ten and the sun is shining bright.

Since the inception of the Big Ten/ACC challenge over a decade ago the ACC has been the playground bully, clobbering the Big Ten for ten straight years. But thanks to two stunning upsets Wednesday night the bully finally got popped in the mouth.

Just one day after the Tar Heels proved they can beat Michigan State sans Hansbrough and Lawson, two unranked Big Ten teams, Wisconsin and Illinois, beat two ranked ACC teams, Duke and Clemson, to give the Big 10 a 6-5 record in the challenge–the conference’s first winning record in the annual series.

It started with the second half of the Illinois/Clemson game with the No. 19 Tigers in the driver’s seat with a 20-point lead. But the Illini stayed true to their name and fought . . . hard. They mounted an improbable second half run that included 35-10 spurt and an astronomical field goal percentage of 60.7.

Junior forward Mike Davis led the way for the Illini, dropping in 22 points and grabbing nine rebounds, but center Mike Tisdale dumped the go-ahead basket with less than a minute left in regulation and followed that up with a block on the other end. Freshman Brandon Paul put up an impressive 20 points and combined with fellow classman D.J. Richardson for six treys in the 76-74 comeback win.

Duke and Coach K. came into the Wisconsin game ranked fifth with an unblemished 10-0 record in the challenge and were easily the heavy favorites in the match-up with unranked Wisconsin. But the Badgers came out hot and never trailed in the 73-69 upset victory, despite Duke forward Kyle Singler’s career high 28-point performance, 17 of which came in the first half off a series of circus shots.

Badgers’ senior guard Trevon Hughes dominated the Blue Devils with a career-high 26 points in Wisconsin’s fourth straight victory versus ACC opponents.

The Big Ten capped its first challenge title with the 77-64 Ohio State win over Florida State, but really what does it all mean?

Is the Big Ten overall a stronger conference this year than the ACC? Maybe, but does playing in a stronger conference make you a better team come March? The Big East was far and away the strongest conference last season and had two of the Final Four teams but lost both semi-final match-ups.

So really it matters about as much as finding out a celebrity athlete cheats on their spouse . . . what’s that Tiger? No comment?

–Aaron Whitebread, Red’s Editorial Staff

The last time North Carolina and Michigan State met it was the culmination of an entire season that came to an end in the first five minutes on a 21-7 Tar Heels run.

The Spartans fell apart under the fast-paced Roy Williams offense, committing four turnovers in their first ten possessions and ending the first half in a 21-point hole, the largest in the history of the championship game. When the dust settled Roy had his second ring, Hansbrough his first and Tom Izzo and the Spartans were on the losing end of a 89-72 final score in what was one of the dullest finals ever . . . unless of course you’re a Tar Heel fan.

With the memory of that beating still relatively fresh, it’s easy to forget that just five months earlier Hansbrough and the destined Heels handed State another spanking, this one to the tune of 98-63 and on the Spartans’ home court–not that last year’s championship site of Detroit was far from home for Sparty.

But that was all in the past right? And thanks to the yearly lopsided Big Ten/ACC challenge the Spartans get another chance at the Tar Heels on Tuesday and a shot at a little redemption.

And this time it could be different . . . seriously.

Sure, UNC still operates under Roy’s signature run-and-gun offense and although State is the best running team in the Big Ten, saying the Spartans are a running team is like saying G.I. Joe is an example of quality filmmaking.

But the defensive minded State has experience on their side with six of their eight leading scorers from last season returning, led by the trio of Kalin Lucas, Raymar Morgan and Durrell Summers.

Lucas has upped his last season’s points per game average from 14.7 to 17.2 and senior Raymar Morgan should have a chip on his shoulder after putting up a miserable four points in the Championship game despite averaging 10.2 points per game last season.

On the powder blue side of the coin, the Heels lost all of their top four scorers including Ty Lawson and Roy’s go-to-guy Tyler Hansbrough. UNC also was stunned last month as preseason unranked Syracuse beat them in an 87-71 game that included a 22-1 Syracuse run to start the second half, exposing Carolina’s youth and inexperience.

Though the Spartans have experience and on paper look to be the better team this year, they are far from perfect as they too have already suffered an early season loss at the hands of unbeaten Florida in a game where State committed an ungodly 23 turnovers.

If a team like Florida can make a team as good as the Spartans are look that bad, you’d better believe any team coached by Roy Williams, North Carolina or otherwise, can do the same.

Especially in Chapel Hill.

–Aaron Whitebread, Red Editorial Staff

I’m going to start this one like a grumpy old man.

Back in my day the SEC was a power major conference, they sent five to seven teams to the tourney pert-near every year, made deep runs, won championships and that’s the way it was and we liked it, dag-nabbit!

Last season however the SEC had its worst showing in some 20 years . . . the numbers never lie.

Just three teams made the tournament (Tennessee, Mississippi State and LSU) the fewest from the power conference since the 1990 season. Of those three only one, LSU, advanced past the first round and the Tigers lost to UNC in Round Two–marking the first time since the 1989 season an SEC team wasn’t in the Sweet 16.

Their highest seed was LSU at No. 8 which was the first time since seeding began in 1979 that the SEC didn’t have at least two teams seeded eight or higher. Against non-conference opponents ranked in the RPI top 50, the conference went an shameful 19-50 and perennial powerhouse Kentucky saw their streak of seventeen straight NCAA Tournament appearances snapped and went on to the “embarrassing-if-you’re-Kentucky” NIT.

But it’s a new year right? And the SEC, on paper, looks reloaded and ready to reclaim their spot among the nation’s top conferences.

Six of the eight players who declared for the NBA Draft last year returned, the only losses being Kentucky’s Jodie Meeks and Florida’s Nick Calathes. The conference returns 11 of its 19 top scorers, seven of the top eight rebounders, five of the top six shot-blockers and eight of 10 assists leaders from last year.

Preseason indicators show nine of the 12 teams in the conference are much improved and as many as seven teams stand poised to make the big dance this year.

Oh yeah, and Kentucky welcomed former Memphis coach, John Calipari, and his top recruiting class into the fold. Things are looking up, right?

Not so fast though, if the early season is any indicator of what’s to come then the SEC still has a lot of work left to do.

Five of the 12 teams have already suffered a loss this year, and four of those losses were to mid-major schools: Nov. 14, Alabama lost to Cornell 71-67, Nov. 16, Auburn lost to Missouri St. 73-62, Nov. 17, Georgia lost to Wofford 60-57 and Nov. 13, Mississippi St. lost to Rider 88-74.

As for Calipari’s revamped Kentucky squad, they narrowly escaped a huge upset from Miami (Oh.), beating them 72-70 thanks to a last second shot from freshman sensation John Wall.

At this pace the conference will be lucky to field four teams in the tournament, seven is right out.

And this is why they play the game and why preseason predictions are roughly on the same level as tarot cards, crystal balls and Miss Cleo’s psychic hotline.

But hey, they look good on paper, consarnit!  Now get off my lawn!

–Aaron Whitebread, Red Editorial Staff

It was one of the greatest title games ever played . . . maybe the greatest.

With 2:12 left on the clock in the second half and down by nine, K.U. mounted one of the most improbable comebacks in championship history and with time ticking away Mario Chalmers drained a three-pointer to tie the game and force overtime.

If you’re a Kansas or Memphis fan you know the rest of the story all too well, but even the casual basketball fan knows the end to this story–Kansas rolled, Memphis choked and the Jayhawks captured their first title in 20 years.

Of course that was more than a year-and-a-half ago and college basketball is all about the here and now.

Which begs to the question: Can Kansas capture a second title in three years and hoist yet another banner in the rafters of Allen Field House?

Well, they do have a lot going for them this season in Lawrence.

They are returning two All-American players in senior point-guard Sherron Collins and junior center Cole Aldrich, who was predicted to go top-ten in last year’s NBA draft before announcing his decision to stay at Kansas.

Both Collins and Aldrich provide the Hawks with veteran leadership on the floor, but they both also know just what it takes and the hard work that goes into winning it all in April as they were both on the 2008 championship squad.

They have one of the top recruited freshman in the land starting for them in guard Xavier Henry and though the season is still in its infancy, Henry is already leaving his mark. Henry posterized a poor Pitt State Gorillas defender in the Hawks final exhibition game last week earning him SportsCenter’s top play. In his official debut in a Kansas jersey last Friday against Hofstra, Henry put up 27 points setting a new school record for a freshman debut.

(The most points scored in a debut in school history was set by the legendary Wilt Chamberlain who scored 52 in his debut as a sophomore . . . freshman weren’t allowed to start then.)

They also boast one of the top recruiting classes in the nation with Elijah Johnson and Thomas Robinson joining Henry and his brother, C.J. They have the twin towers in Marcus and Markieff Morris, who looked much improved from last season, and a bench that runs at least seven deep giving head coach Bill Self essentially two starting lineups to work with.

And they sit atop both the AP and Coaches Polls. But this may be more of a curse than a blessing.
Sure, UNC was the pre-season favorite last year and won it all, but as for Kansas, having the bulls-eye on their back all season hasn’t boded well; the only other time K.U. was ranked pre-season No. 1 was back in ‘04-’05 and they suffered a quick first round exit to Bucknell in the NCAA Tournament.

There have also been some indicators of a lack of discipline on this team that is necessary to win it all, i.e. Brady Morningstar’s DUI and an on-campus altercation involving both K.U. basketball and football players.

But all in all this team has all the makings of a champion and come April the Rock Chalk Chant should be resonating in Indianapolis.

–Aaron Whitebread, Red Editorial Staff