College basketball season getting wackier every night
Greatness no longer exists.
It apparently left the college game with Mario Chalmers and Derrick Rose, exited stage left and hasn't been seen since. So if you spot it out there wandering around, kindly guide it back to Chapel Hill or Gainesville or wherever it is we are used to seeing it. Because greatness is gone and I'm worried about it. Every time I think I spot greatness, it just turns out to be a false-sighting, which brings me to Wake Forest.
Did you catch that Wednesday night?
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| Harvey Hale can't believe the Demon Deacons suffer defeat No. 1. (AP) |
That's not greatness.
That's grossness.
Meantime, the nation's sixth-ranked team (Oklahoma) nearly lost at home to a below-average Big 12 program (Nebraska), while the nation's seventh-ranked team (Michigan State) fell at home to a team (Northwestern) that has never made the NCAA tournament. And just in case that wasn't wacky enough, the New Jersey Institute of Technology Highlanders -- bless their little hearts -- won for the first time in 52 games when it beat Bryant University, meaning the record books will forever show that on the day after President Obama took the oath of office, NJIT won a basketball game while Wake Forest, Michigan State and Florida did not.
Change has indeed come to America.
Suddenly, we can't count on anything.
Just when it looked like Wake Forest was the best team in the nation, it proved it isn't. Just when it looked like Michigan State would run away with the Big Ten title, it proved it won't. Just when it looked like Florida might be the class of the SEC, it proved otherwise. Just when it looked like NJIT would never again win a game, those suckers went out and won a game, and I'm about ready to give up.
It's hard to play smart when everybody is playing dumb.
It's hard to predict winners when everything is unpredictable.
So ask me for the best team in the nation, and I can't help but draw a blank. It could be Duke, I guess. But will anybody be shocked if the Blue Devils lose to Maryland this weekend? It could be Connecticut, I suppose. But will anybody be surprised if the Huskies lose at Notre Dame this weekend? Perhaps it's Pitt, the team that just lost to Louisville and beat Syracuse in a 48-hour span. But it's possible Pitt might lose at West Virginia on Sunday, meaning by the next time the Top 25 (and one) is produced the Panthers could be No. 1. Or the losers of two of their past three outings. Or something in between.
It's crazy, I tell you.
Crazy and maddening and tough to follow.
On Wednesday afternoon I was checking flights for next week's possible No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown between Wake Forest and Duke, and by Wednesday night, I was scrapping all plans for the trip and wondering whether there is somewhere else to be. With any luck, I'll figure it out at some point. But rest assured wherever I land, I'll have my eyes open wide, looking for greatness to make a return to college basketball yet well aware I'm likely to end up nothing more than disappointed and fooled.
