Pat Summitt Gets #900

PAT SUMMITT:  Pat Summitt won her amazing 900th game at Tennessee...extending her all-time wins lead for a NCAA basketball coach [Dean Smith is 2nd with 879 wins].  This may sound contradicting...but I really feel that Summitt would be the one female coach that could come into a men's program and command [and get] the respect she deserves.  However, I also believe that her 900 wins aren't as impressive as Smith's 879 or even Adolph Rupp's 876.  I do think it is apple and oranges...as the landscape as a whole is different in both types of programs.  I don't mean that to dismiss her accomplishments...just to put it into some perspective.  But her 900-172 mark is quite remarkable!!

WHAT'S UP IN KENTUCKY??  College hoops, which is a religion there, has fallen on some hard times.  The Kentucky Wildcats just snapped a 3-game skid which saw two of those losses at home.....one of them to Vanderbilt which hadn't won in Lexington since the 1970s.  The Cats lack of a frontcourt may have been patched a bit with the return of Randolph Morris...but is it too little too late?  The SEC is in a bit of an upswing this year [but still not in that elite status yet] so winning games in conference will be tougher for a team that lost by 27 to a mediocre Kansas team. 

THIS AIN'T CONFERENCE USA!!!!  Cincinnati, DePaul, Louisville, Marquette and South Florida are the 5 newest members of the Big East.....after Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College bolted for the ACC.  The five former C-USAers are a combined 7-15 in Big East play.  But of those 7 wins....Cincy had ones against DePaul and at Marquette, while Marquette has ones against DePaul and USF.  So they have one THREE wins against Big East schools.  The most impressive was Marquette's over UConn.  The other two were Louisville over Providence and DePaul over Notre Dame.  Those teams are a combined 1-7 in conference play. 

BAYLOR GETS TO PLAY:  Ten days ago, the Baylor Bears played their first game of the season....a 79-61 loss to Texas Tech.  After all the murderin' and coverin' up going on under the Mike Bliss Era, the Bears are banned from non-conference games this season.  That means that Baylor can only play a 16-game Big XII schedule.  That's it.  Their season opener was on January 11, the aforementioned loss.  Since then, they've lost two more, uncluding a 33-pt beating at Colorado.  Up next?  Texas and Oklahoma.  Eeesh. 

TORINO:  Just about three more weeks until the nation is swept up in the Winter Olympics.  Sorry, but I cannot.  Sure, I love the Olympics....but I'm not a big fan of curling, and I certainly don't care for figure skating.  Needless to say, I hope there is a bunch of hockey on....or the 70 different ways they can sled...errrr..."luge".