The Week In Chaos, February 25: Kansas Alters Reality; Indiana Boycotts Pratice, Defense; The Kansas State BeasWalks Lose

Northwestern in practice Friday, preparing for Indiana

The Week In Chaos examines all of the absurd things that happened to Top 25 (AP Poll only, coaches don't know anything) teams in the previous week of college hoops. With this season being The Year Of Mediocrity, consider this a chronicling of all this misdeeds these supposedly high-caliber teams are guilty of. If this season is to be forgotten due to a lack of greatness, I feel it should be remembered for its abundance of greatlessness. See, I'm being positive!

This is part 1 of this week's edition with part 2 coming tomorrow. Why am I dividing one post into two parts? Because reading/writing about this much mediocrity in one sitting can significantly lower our national level of productivity.

AP Top 25 Teams Going Undefeated- 14. Tennessee, North Carolina, UCLA, Texas, Stanford, Xavier, Wisconsin, Georgetown, Indiana, Louisville, Michigan State, Vanderbilt, Notre Dame, Marquette.
AP Top 25 Teams Going Winless- 2. Texas A & M, Kansas State.

Most Ridiculous Display of Mediocrity- The mighty Kansas Jayhawks, once an eviscerator of foes so merciless that nary a Big 12 opponent could come within 20 of topping them, lost to Oklahoma State Saturday. Yes Kansas, a title-contending frontrunner just a month ago, was beaten by a team that lost to Oral Roberts by 15 at home, North Texas by nine and Illinois by 16. A team that has a six-game losing streak this season. It was only a one-point loss but there were some disturbing signs of mediocrity. The once feared Kansas perimeter defense was torched by 11-point scorer Byron Eaton, who shot 18 free throws on his way to 26 points. The Cowboys, No. 202 in the country in three-point shooting, were able to go 8-17 against Kansas' supposedly vaunted close-outs and length on the wings. With the third most efficient offense in the country, against, again, a team that lost to freaking NORTH TEXAS, the Jayhawks committed 20 turnovers in 64 possessions and shot 43 percent from the field. The result of all this soul-crushingly confusing nonsense is that Kansas, which has lost two of three, is now a game behind Texas in the Big 12 standings and have lost to the Longhorns in the only head-to-head meeting. What that means is the team once considered the favorite for the No. 1 overall seed is going to need to win the Big 12 Tournament to obtain a regional No. 1 in March. And what THAT means is my whole entire world is collapsing in front of me.

Most Narrow Avoidance of Mediocrity That Should Not Be Forgotten But Will Be- In case you haven't heard, that basketball program over there at Indiana is undergoing significant unrest. And while those matters have certainly made any act of actual basketball completely irrelevant (I mean, think about what the boosters must be going through!), the Hoosiers did still play a game Saturday. And they were awful. Now, with the reports that some players threatened to quit and the seemingly laissez-faire attitude of new coach Dan Dakich toward holding any of those players accountable for skipping practice Friday, I didn't expect a dominating performance by Indiana against Northwestern. But no team, in the history of the world, should give up 82 points to the Wildcats. Northwestern is No. 307 in the country in pace at 63 possessions per game which earns them an average of 63 points per game. It only had 67 possessions against Indiana and scored 82. The only two teams Northwestern recorded a higher offensive efficiency against are Arkansas State and something called Illinois Benedectine. The Hoosiers allowed Northwestern sophomore Kevin Coble to score a season-high 37 points, three more than Eric Gordon and DJ White combined and if it wasn't for Armon Bassett's 24 points and four threes, they would have lost. To Northwestern. A team with ZERO conference wins and a loss to Brown this season. Brown doesn't even have a basketball team. Anyway, despite the three-point win, this has to send a crazed concoction of emotions throughout the Hoosier fanbase, which wanted a public stoning of Kelvin Sampson, essentially got their wish and are left with an angry team, with two players suddenly really looking forward to the NBA, that gives up 82 points to Northwestern. Just a program steeped in tradition.

Most Embarrassing Realizations of Mediocrity- I had two very nice options for this one, both courtesy of Kansas State. First, the Wildcats lost at Nebraska, a team that has kindly given Colorado one of its two Big 12 wins, in the middle of the week. That was an atrocious loss, but I was far more impressed with the completely ass-backwards way they lost to Baylor Saturday. The Bears are a decent team, were at home and desperate for a win, so the six-point loss was unexpected for KSU but certainly forgivable. But when you get 44 from one player, 31 from another and LOSE, well then yes, you are a disgusting mass of mediocrity. Besides Michael Beasley and Bill Walker, the rest of KSU scored 11 points. That group was 3-18 from the field, 1-10 from three and 4-8 from the line. Needless to say, Frank Martin, Crazy Person, probably would prefer a more balanced attack. One of the great things about last year's Texas team was that as the season wore on, the non-Durant/Augustin Longhorns became more involved in the offense, rather than grow accustomed to watching the two freshman stars do whatever the hell they want. As Beasley's numbers continue to border on the absurd (that was his second 40-point game in the last three) and Walker emerges as probably the most underrated freshman in the country, the other Wildcats are disappearing in hopes of deflecting responsibility to the two figureheads. Well the thing is, Beasley and Walker aren't going to suddenly suck because they have to shoot more. They are just going to continue dominating and it looks even worse on the other guys when they do things like score 11 points to Beasley/Walker's 75... and lose. As a result the BeasWalks are now squarely on the Bubble and I would venture a guess that Texas will use a double team or two on Beasley tonight.