The Week In Chaos: February 4

In the spirit of the utterly chaotic and terrifyingly euphoric Super Bowl victory for my G-Men last night, The Week In Chaos makes its second appearance around these parts. While Saturday wasn't as chaotic as past Saturdays, the week was still a complete shitshow. Let's rubberneck, shall we?

AP top 25 teams going undefeated- 13 (Memphis, Duke, UNC, UCLA, Georgetown, Tennessee, Butler, Wisconsin, Stanford, Xavier, Drake, Marquette, Texas A&M)
AP top 25 teams going winless- 2 (Washington State, Baylor)

Most Ridiculous Display of Mediocrity- Michigan State, in a fierce effort to somehow outsuck a preseason loss to a D-2 school AND a 36-point effort against Iowa, lost to Penn State Saturday, 85-76. Yes the same Penn State team that lost the only player on its roster, Geary Claxton, that would even sniff minutes for Izzo's bunch. The same Penn State team that had lost six in a row going into that game and have been beaten by Central Florida this season. The Lions shot, are you sitting down?... 51 free throws in that game. They only made 34, which was still 13 higher than the Spartans attempted. I think Northwestern would have dropped 70 on the Spartans Saturday. As punishment, Tom Izzo prohibited his team's access to the locker room again, instantly proving to the boosters that he is the right man for the job. They then gave him 12 million dollars for his services. You just don't get discipline like that anywhere.

Most Embarrassing Realizations of Mediocrity- The SEC will probably dominate this category for the entire season. Florida, fresh off a destruction of equally mediocre Vanderbilt (which still is somehow ranked), got their asses handed to them Saturday at Arkansas. The Razorbacks are a good team but they should never be up 25 at half against anyone really, especially a "Top 25" team. The Gators shot 22-66 from the field and 4-25 from three. Mississippi lost to South Carolina at home last week and Mississippi State, which had just entered the Coaches' Poll, was also crushed by Arkansas last week in a fit of rage for actually being considered relevant momentarily.

Most Refreshing Display of Expected Dominance-Arizona is a solid team but they are still nowhere near the level of UCLA and it showed Saturday night in another of ESPN's Gameday crapfests. Sure, the Bruins lost to USC at home but losing another home game in the Pac-10 would have been pretty shocking. Instead they built their lead to 20 by half, completely taking Chase Budinger out of the game and dominating the paint. Kevin Love and Russell Westbrook probably could have played alongside three seventh graders and it would have been enough. This is starting to look like the frontrunner for the title.

Most Unexpected Victory That Probably Should've Been Expected Anyway- This is my favorite category for The Week In Chaos because it implies that we should be surprised by teams winning games they should win. That's how weird this season has been. Texas A&M, before last week, had beaten absolutely no one of significance, so when Texas came to town Wednesday, I initially figured the Longhorns would win. I mean, the Aggies best win was either home against Alabama or the win over Ohio State at Madison Square Garden. But then I realized that a talented but mediocre team thrives off of these home games; wins that make them look much better on paper than they really are. So I figured the Aggies would win but I would brace myself for more crappiness. Well A&M destroyed a Texas team that suddenly looks very flawed. It was an 18-point game at halftime and the Aggies shut down DJ Augustin like UCLA could not. The result is that the Aggies are now No. 18 in the AP poll, despite still being pretty awful. Good for them(?).