The Best Team in the Nation…

…won tonight.

(AP Photo/Stew Milne)

I don’t want to mention any names…

but this post might strike one of our contributors the wrong way.

ESPN has released some sort of list ranking the top college hoops programs since 1984. Their “formula” (I love when these ranking systems create some sort of arbitrary scoring system, and then justify the legitimacy of their rankings by pointing to these scientific scores) can be found here. They even say, “But with ESPN’s Prestige Rankings, there is no such argument. We let the numbers do the talking.” Sure thing.

But here’s what really caught my eye: Plenty of big names turned up small.

Regardless of the hmm..factual basis for these rankings, Providence ranked a paltry 111. Yes, the Providence that contributed L.O. and Shammgod.

In other basketball news, the Redeem Team opens with an exhibition game this Friday at 8 PM against Canada. Dwight Howard’s been cleared to play, although it’ll be interesting to see how the team’s supposed lack of size will hinder them. I don’t really buy that argument too much – feeding the ball to Tim Duncan, probably one of the greatest big men of all time, didn’t save us last year. I like our chances with a smaller, faster line up. And I’m not really sure how much “smaller” our line-up would be if Lebron James (6′9ish, 250ish) was our 4. U-S-A!

He just sucks

I guarantee everyone, there is a 100% chance Joe Alexander will be a bust in the upcoming NBA draft. I couldn’t believe he was leaving, and then I couldn’t believe anyone actually wanted him. Now apparently he is a top ten pick. This is ridiculous. Why you ask? He just sucks.

He’s not good. All he does is shoot midrange jumpers over smaller defenders, defenders that in the NBA won’t be small. They will also be quicker. Alexander could NEVER get to the hoop against anyone resembling a decent D-1 defender last year. He will NNNNEEEEEEVVVVer get to the basket in the NBA.

I pay a lot of attention to Big East basketball. Joe Alexander got destroyed in the first round of the big east tournament by guys like Geoff McDermott, Jamine Peterson, and Alex Kellogg. Of course, these Providence Friars missed a TON of layups and dunks so they lost the game, but Alexander sucked. Look at these pictures. Above you have Joe late in defensive help not even close to guarding Weyinmi Efejuku. Below you have Joe trying to drive by average defender Brian McKenzie and, well, not. Get used to a lot of that picture on the left if your team drafts him. Sure these pictures are cherry picked, but Alexander dunking on no one is an even less accurate judge of his ability.

Alexander is a below average NBA defender, a guy who can dunk but can never get to the basket, and a guy who has a great mid-range jumper when he is open, which again, he never will be in the NBA because he is slow.

But he does speak Chinese, so I guess he’s got that goin for him.

Keno Davis Did Ok for Himself

Last post of the day for me, just wanted to prove how many connections this blog has. Keno Davis was recently named the new head coach of the Providence Friars men’s basketball team. I had a friend who attended the press conference. His thoughts? (paraphrased)

“His wife is hot.”

So he’s got that goin for him. I can’t see anyway the Friars can fail next year.