FrontRowSportsReport.com: Sports Blog

The Louisville Cardinals played tough and kept it close but in the end nothing was going to stop the Georgetown Hoyas from winning their consecutive Big East regular season title. In what was a relatively low-scoring game where Louisville (24-7) seemed to control the tempo the entire time, Georgetown hit the shots when they counted, including a late three-pointer by DaJuan Summers, giving the Hoyas a 55-52 win in Washington and a #1 ranking in the Big East Tournament.

The Hoyas withstood the pressure defense from Louisville and were led by freshman Austin Freeman who put in 15 points. Hoyas center Roy Hibbert had 12 point, 6 rebounds and 4 blocks in his final home game as a Hoya.

The Cardinals played their usual stellar defense - even getting a season high 14 steals - however good their defense was their offense was just as bad. Louisville shot just 4 of 18 from 3 point land and 10 for 19 from the free-throw line. “It was a grind ‘em basketball game,”  Coach Pitino said after the game. “We put ourselves in a situation where we could win. It just takes one blunder for you to lose the game in that situation. It was a great game. There were no easy shots. It was a lot of aggressive play out there by both teams.”

Both the Hoyas and Cardinals will look to make a run in the upcoming Big East Tournament - in order for either team to make it far in the NCAA Basketball Tournament they will need as high of a seed as possible. The reason? I have watched both teams play all year and they have been very inconsistent, if they face tough teams early on in the tournament look for both teams to make an early exit.

The North Carolina Tar Heels are now the new (for this week at least) #1 ranked team in the nation according to the latest College Basketball poll released a few minutes ago.  The Tennessee Volunteers were only able to hold onto the top spot for 1 week despite Bruce Pearl pleading his case. The Vols beat previously top ranked Memphis Tigers last week but then lost to #14 Vanderbilt a few days later.

The Tar Heels (27-2) were the preseason #1 and spent the first 10 weeks of the season in that spot. The UCLA Bruins moved up from 4th to 2nd, the Memphis Tigers are ranked 3rd followed by Tennessee and the Duke Blue Devils who are ranked 5th.

Here are the full top 25 college basketball rankings for the 17th week of the 2007/2008 College Basketball season.

1. North Carolina (19) 27-2
2. UCLA (6) 26-3
3. Memphis (6) 28-1
4. Tennessee 26-3
5. Duke 25-3
6. Kansas 26-3
7. Stanford 24-4
8. Wisconsin 24-4
9. Texas 24-5
10. Georgetown 24-4
11. Xavier 25-4
12. Butler 27-3
13. Louisville 24-6
14. Connecticut 23-6
15. Purdue 23-6
16. Vanderbilt 24-5
17. Indiana 24-5
18. Michigan State 23-6
19. Notre Dame 22-6
20. Marquette 21-7
21. Drake 25-4
22. Washington State 22-7
23. Gonzaga 23-6
24. Brigham Young 23-6
25. Mississippi State 20-8

Well, we saw another crazy week in College Basketball where some of the top teams lost creating more shifts in the polls. The Memphis Tigers (25-0) stayed on top of the polls for the fifth straight week, while the Tennessee Volunteers (23-2) moved up to #2 after the Duke Blue Devils lost to Wake Forest last night. Having the Tigers and Volunteers atop the polls couldn’t have come at a better time as the two teams play each other this Saturday in Memphis.

Ironically the North Carolina Tar Heels moved up to the 3rd spot, while the Blue Devils dropped to #4 - didn’t the Blue Devils beat the Tar Heels not so long ago?  The Kansas Jayhawks also dropped a couple of spots, now ranked #5,  after their loss to Texas. The Texas Longhorns made the biggest jump of the week moving up 4 spots to #7 after their big win over Kansas.

Here is the full Top 25  poll for the 15th week of the 2007 - 2008 College Basketball Season.

1. Memphis 25-0
2. Tennessee 23-2
3. North Carolina 24-2
4. Duke 22-2
5. Kansas 24-2
6. UCLA 22-3
7. Texas 21-4
8. Butler 24-2
9. Stanford 21-4
10. Wisconsin 21-4
11. Georgetown 20-4
12. Xavier 21-4
13. Connecticut 20-5
14. Indiana 21-4
15. Purdue 21-5
16. Vanderbilt 22-4
17. Michigan State 20-5
18. Drake 23-2
19. Washington State 20-5
20. Saint Mary’s 22-3
21. Notre Dame 19-5
22. Texas A&M 20-5
23. Louisville 20-6
24. Marquette 18-6
25. Kansas State 18-6

The 8th ranked Georgetown Hoyas lost for the 2nd time in 3 games, this time the Hoyas lost to the unranked Syracuse Orange 77-70 up in Syracuse.

The Orange led by as much 21 points in the first half and stopped a couple of the Hoya’s late comebacks. The Hoyas were killed early by turnovers and general sloppy play. The Orange are only the second team all season long to score more than 70 points on the Hoyas.

The Orange (17-9) were led by guard Paul Harris who scored 22 points and freshman forward Donte Green put in 18 points. The game was almost a must win for the Orange in their quest to keep their NCAA tournament hopes alive - they have only 5 games remaining. “This is definitely a quality, key win,” said Paul Harris after the game. “But at the same time we have to keep believing in ourselves.”

The Hoyas (20-4) were led by Jonathan Wallace who scored a game high 26 points and had 6 assists. Hoyas 7 foot 2 center Roy Hibbert was limited to 11 points and only 3 rebounds.

The Hoyas now head to Rhode Island to play the Providence Friars and the Orange head to Kentucky to play Louisville. Else where in the Big East #17 UCONN survived South Florida 74-73.

With 4 of the top 10 teams losing last week, we saw a good amount of shifting going on in the Top 25 polls released today. The Memphis Tigers and Duke Blue Devils remained the top 2 teams in the country but after them every team seemed to change their rank.

With the loss by the North Carolina Tar Heels to the Duke Blue Devils, the previously ranked #3 Tar Heels dropped only a couple spots to #5. The Kansas Jawhawks took over the 3rd spot with the Tennessee Volunteers moving up 3 spots to a season best #4 rank.

Other big movers included the Stanford Cardinals who have been moving steadily up the rankings the past few weeks - the Cardinals are now ranked 7th. UCLA made a move in the wrong direction after their upset loss to the Washington Huskies - the Bruins dropped from #4 to #6 and to be honest they could have dropped further.

Memphis has been at the top of the college basketball polls for 3 straight weeks and collected all 31 first place votes in the ESPN / USA Today poll. With a great deal of the top 25 teams heading into tough conference games this week I am sure these rankings will change dramatically yet again next Monday.

Here is the full ESPN / USA Today Top 25 Poll for the 14th week of the College Basketball Season.

1. Memphis (31) 23-0
2. Duke 21-1
3. Kansas 23-1
4. Tennessee 21-2
5. North Carolina 22-2
6. UCLA 21-3
7. Stanford 20-3
8. Georgetown 19-3
9. Michigan State 20-3
10. Butler 21-2
11. Texas 19-4
12. Indiana 20-3
13. Xavier 20-4
14. Wisconsin 19-4
15. Drake 22-1
16. Texas A&M 20-4
17. Connecticut 18-5
18. Notre Dame 18-4
19. Vanderbilt 20-4
20. Washington State 18-5
21. Saint Mary’s 20-3
22. Kansas State 17-5
23. Purdue 19-5
24. Pittsburgh 18-5
25. Marquette 16-6

Rick Pitino and his Louisville Cardinals have had their ups and downs this season, but they might be playing their best basketball of the season just in time for march madness.

Louisville (18-6) took out the #6 Georgetown Hoyas (19-3) 59-51 in a game that saw the Cardinals hold the Hoyas top guns and saw Pitino switch suits at half-time. The suit switch worked because the Cardinals limited the Hoyas to just 35% shooting and held the Hoyas scoreless in one 8 minute period during the second half.

The Cardinals were led by David Padgett who scored a game high 18 points and Jerry Smith who put up 16 points.  “This is the best win I’ve ever experienced as a player,” Padgett said after the game. “It all starts with defense. We started the game, I think we might have been a little nervous. In the second half we played defense the way we’re all capable of.”The Hoyas were led by center Roy Hibbert and Austin Freeman who both scored 14 points.

Oh and for the record  Coach Pitino started the game wearing a all-white suit, but changed to a more traditional black suit at half-time.

Not sure how many of you College Basketball fans caught this game today, but if you did you were probably as shocked as I was at the outcome. #4 Georgetown Hoyas came down to Tennessee to play the #2 ranked Memphis Tigers looking to end the Tigers home winning streak at 36 games…however, the Tigers were not going to have any of it.  Led by junior guard Chris Douglas-Roberts who put up 24 points and freshman guard Derrick Rose who put up 18, the Tigers showed that they are for real as they took down the Hoyas 85-71.

The Hoyas were lead by freshman guard Austin Freeman who had 14 points and  Sophomore forward DaJuan Summers who put up 13. Senior Center and preseason All-American Roy Hibbert had a season low 6 points for the Hoyas.

Georgetown coach John Thompson III had this to say about the Tigers: “They had contributions up and down the line. That’s what good teams do. That’s why you have to look at them as one of the best, if not the best, team in the country right now because they can hurt you in so many different ways.”

Memphis had been crtizied for playing in a weak conference (Conference USA) and that is why they have scheudled some tough out of conference opponents like the Hoyas. With the win the Tigers went to 10-0 while the Hoyas dropped to 8-1.