NCAA Basketball Weekly: Pitt Defeats # 1 UConn, DeJuan Blair Is A Beast, Could We Have Another George Mason?, & More

Overall Efficiency:

Here are the top 10 teams in Overall Efficiency this season with strength of schedule in parentheses:

1. North Carolina .978 (12)
2. Memphis .976 (48)
3. Pittsburgh .974 (8)
4. Connecticut .973 (21)
5. Duke .968 (15)
6. West Virginia .962 (3)
7. UCLA .960 (32)
8. Missouri .958 (86)
9. Arizona State .951 (27)
10. Louisville .951 (26)

Last Week:

1. Duke .976 (19)
2. Connecticut .975 (38)
3. North Carolina .973 (36)
4. Pittsburgh .972 (15)
5. Memphis .966 (50)
6. UCLA .966 (62)
7. Louisville .959 (18)
8. West Virginia .957 (2)
9. Missouri .955 (78)
10. Gonzaga .954 (46)

Gonzaga(13) is the only team to drop out of the Top 10 from last week. They were replaced by Arizona State(9) after their two impressive victories over UCLA(7) & USC(34). It's starting to look like there is a clear top 3: UNC, UConn, & Pitt and then everyone else is at least a step below. It's also looking more and more like this could be a year where a team could make a George Mason like run into the Final 4, since the overall efficiency scores are lower for the top 10 teams than usual. Probably not a team from a mid-major, but if you are a 3 seed to 7 seed, you might have an excellent chance to make a run if you get in the bracket that doesn't have UConn, UNC, or Pitt. I could definitely see a team like Arizona State, Marquette, Arizona, Missouri etc. stepping it up at the right time in the tournament and making an unexpected run.

Pittsburgh Defeats UConn: I know UConn lost this game last night, but I think it tells us more about Pitt than it does about UConn. Honestly, other than Blake Griffen, I can't see another big man in the country that could handle Hasheem Thabeet like DeJuan Blair did last night. The fact that he could put up such big numbers against Thabeet tells me that nobody is going to be able to stop him in the tournament and that is going to be a big advantage for Pitt. That's also good news for UConn since they most likely will not go up against Pitt or Oklahoma until deep into the Tournament, most likely the Final 4. I'm not worried about the loss of Jerome Dyson too much, because I love Kemba Walker's speed and energy out there on the court and I think Craig Austrie has a few big three pointers in him. So yeah UConn will be just fine and Pitt showed me a hell of a lot last night. Enough for me to put them right up there with UNC and UConn as Final 4 favorites. The way things are shaping up, I think those 3 will be # 1 seeds and Oklahoma should be able to claim the 4th # 1 seed. I don't see anyone in the Pac-10 separating themselves enough to claim a # 1 seed

Players Catching Wreck:

DeJuan Blair, Pitt: After last night, how could I not show this guy some love? 22 points and 23 rebounds against UConn and Hasheem Thabeet is NO JOKE. Blair has been killing teams all year and ranks 10th in overall efficiency, 1st in offensive rebounding %, and 5th in defensive rebounding %. He's also 14th in turnover rate, 74th in steals %, and 79th in effective FG%. It's not hard to see that Blair is quite simply a GREAT college player. Right now NBADraft.net has him going 23rd in the NBA Draft and DraftExpress has him going 19th in the NBA Draft. Would that be enough for Blair to leave after his sophomore year? I'm not so sure it is, but if he works his way up to the Top 15 then I think he leaves. My guess is that he will be playing for Pitt next season though.

Stats: 15.7 points, 12.8 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 1.6 steals, 59.9% FG

Unheralded Player of The Week:

Marcus Johnson, Dayton: You may or may not have noticed that Dayton knocked off Xavier this past week. Johnson was a big reason why, since he scored 13 points in the game on 6-10 shooting. He is their second leading scorer after Chris Wright and has helped Dayton claim a share of the A-10 lead and a 23-3 record overall.

Stats: 11.6 points, 48.0% FG, 37.3% 3FG

Other Thoughts:

- You already know that Blake Griffen is a beast, but I couldn't finish this post without mentioning the monster 40 points, 23 rebound game he had against Texas Tech this past weekend.

- Shooting machine Jodie Meeks was back at it again this weekend as well. Meeks poured in 45 points in a win against Arkansas, nailing 7 threes in the process. Meeks now has 3 games this season where he scored more than 40 points.

Games To Checkout This Week (Overall Efficiency Rank):

Tuesday:
Michigan State(11) at Purdue(17)
New Mexico(43) at BYU(15)

Wednesday:
Miami(25) at Florida State(54)
Notre Dame(36) at West Virginia(6)

Thursday:
Washington(19) at UCLA(7)

Friday:

None

Saturday:
Illinois(21) at Ohio State(42)
Oklahoma(14) at Texas(28)
Marquette(23) at Georgetown(22)
Butler(38) at Davidson(45)
BYU(15) at UNLV(47)
San Diego State(29) at New Mexico(43)
Washington(19) at USC(34)
Tennessee(31) at Kentucky(26)

Sunday:
Wake Forest(18) at Duke(5)
Wisconsin(32) at Michigan State(11)
Villanova(16) at Syracuse(33)
Arizona(36) at Arizona State(9)

Monday:
Kansas(12) at Oklahoma(14)
Louisville(10) at Georgetown(22)

More: NCAA Basketball