The copycat selection committee, exhausted with the task of choosing four football teams, finished its work on Sunday, making room for the first College Football Playoff ... and clearing the space so the real selection committee can get to work over the next four months.
No disrespect here (OK, maybe a little) but choosing four teams from essentially five leagues after 12 games, although challenging, is what the college hoops committee calls Tuesday -- before lunch.
But let's pretend for a minute that basketball was football and the original selection committee was tasked with choosing just a Final Four and this was the weekend to announce it.
Who would it be and, since hoops still has four months, who might bump those four out?
The Separatists: Kentucky, Duke, Arizona, Wisconsin
Today, based on talent, eye test and just about everything else, this would be the Final Four. (Hey, football: We coined it. We own it).
Not exactly a stretch, but this isn't about predictions. This is about here and now, and these four are clearly the best.*
They are bigger (somehow Kentucky makes 6-foot-7 Alex Poythress look like a munchkin), stronger, deeper and flat-out better. And yes, Wisconsin already has a loss. To Duke. Big deal. Football somehow managed to overlook Ohio State's loss to Virginia Tech, so surely the Badgers' misstep is forgivable.
*Gonzaga belongs here, but the Final Five doesn't work
OK, so someone had to be left out, and for now that someone is Gonzaga, but it's tough to put the Zags on the outside.
Some, including my colleague Myron Medcalf, might argue against Mark Few's team. That's reasonable. But after watching the Zags play a stingy defensive team such as Arizona on the road, I'm even more sold, despite the L.
Now, will this group make the Final Four? Probably not. College basketball is not a meritocracy. The best and most talented team does not always win it all, which is why some other teams need to be considered.
Such as ...
The Growth Spurters: Texas and Louisville
Isaiah Taylor is hurt; Chris Jones can't shoot. Neither of those things will last. Those are two of the many reasons the Longhorns and the Cardinals have maybe the biggest upside of any teams in the top 25.
Texas rebounded to beat Connecticut at Gampel Pavilion and lost at Kentucky. In both games, a young team showed not just its poise but its talent. The Longhorns are big and strong. And when Taylor returns, they will be even better.
Meantime, the only team in the country that might be playing better defense than Louisville is the school right down the road in Lexington. Offensively, Louisville has been less than consistent. Wayne Blackshear finally looks like the player everyone has been waiting on for four years, but Jones is knocking down just 30 percent from the floor, mystifying even his Hall of Fame coach. Presuming Jones gets over the yips, the Cards then become very dangerous.
The Frauds: Kansas and Michigan State
OK, first, read the definition.
These are not your traditional frauds, as in bad teams masquerading as good teams. No, these are teams that aren't quite as good as we know they're going to be.
Feel free to pick someone else to win the Big 12. Go ahead and write the Spartans off, but, before you do, you might want to check their history.
If Bill Self- and Tom Izzo-coached teams do anything, it's that they get better. What you see in December is like a funhouse mirror -- completely distorted and out of focus.
The Before Pictures: Virginia, Wichita State, Villanova, San Diego State
So you know the pics from the women's magazines -- the mousy, mopey, entirely unsexy "before" pictures? Yeah, that's these guys.
They are not going to wow you with their freshman lottery-pick talent. They won't necessarily blow the doors off of every opponent, but they are fundamentally sound, incredibly smart and wildly well coached.
Looking for an outlier? Look right here.
LAYUPS
1. I love New York
Native New Yorkers understandably have bemoaned the selection of native Pennsylvanian/transplanted Nashvillian Taylor Swift as the city's tourism ambassador.
But the city long has inspired its share of carpetbaggers.
Add college basketball to the list. In 2018, the Chicago-based Big Ten and the North Carolina-based ACC will both host their postseason tourneys in the city -- the Big Ten at Madison Square Garden, the ACC at Brooklyn's Barclay Center.
So what's the allure of New York?
Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany, who grew up across the river in South Orange, New Jersey, practically waxed nostalgic when asked about the draw of playing in the Garden. His father played in one of the earlier iterations of the building and, as a student at St. Benedict's, Delany himself played there, too.
"I think the Garden represents something very deep and historic about the game," he said. "I think all of our coaches feel that. I certainly feel it."
Both Delany and ACC commissioner John Swofford have argued that conference expansion necessitates the moves, that the leagues have to please their new constituents. But no one in the ACC seemed overly anxious to move anything to Boston when Boston College joined the league, and, at last check, the Big Ten hasn't played a game in Harrisburg to appease Penn State.
No, this is about business and, more, opportunity.
As recently as two years ago, the thought of another league muscling into the Big East's real estate was blasphemous. The conference owned New York and there was no room for anyone else, not just in terms of actual space but also branding.
But the new Big East is vulnerable. The league has a long-term deal with the Garden, but its attraction is not what it once was. Meantime, the ACC and Big Ten continue to grow, in numbers, in appeal and, now, in manifest destiny.
2. Wright saying right things for Utah
Larry Krystowiak should be proud. Delon Wright managed to do what the Utah coach couldn't -- avoid foot-in-mouth disease.
After the Utes upset Wichita State last week, Krystowiak was asked about his team's tough nonconference schedule, one that also includes San Diego State, BYU and Kansas.
He responded, "I said, going into this stretch of five tough games, playing five elite teams, I think ... well, four and a half if you count BYU, I guess."
It was funny and it was a joke and well, of course, there is no such thing as a joke in the pitchfork-carrying world of social media.
The silver lining -- at least people care what Utah has to say these days. For the first time since Rick Majerus patrolled the sideline, the Utes are back in the headlines. The win against Wichita State, ending the Shockers' 35-game regular-season winning streak, bumped Utah's record to 6-1. The lone loss is a more-than-respectable four-point decision to San Diego State.
This Saturday, Utah could go two-for-Kansas, with a date against Kansas looming.
The challenge, of course, is that before that is the little rivalry game against BYU that Krystowiak talked about.
So when Wright, the Utes' NBA-ready guard, was asked to skip ahead, he hedged.
Utah is taking one game at a time, he said. The Utes are focused and level-headed. They aren't paying attention to the buzz around them and are ignoring social media. They're buying into what Krystowiak is preaching.
Pressed, though, Wright let down his guard for a split second.
"Oh man, that would be great, he said. "To beat another established program like that ..."
And then he caught himself, "But we have to get there first."
FREE THROWS
Big opportunity for John Groce and the Illini on Tuesday night at the Jimmy V Classic against Villanova. Illinois is much improved but came up short in its first chance for a big win (against Miami).
Frequent flier bonus miles go to Florida A&M. The Rattlers have played all nine of their games on the road -- three in South Carolina, one in San Diego, one in Phoenix, one in Wyoming, one in New Mexico and two in Colorado.
At 3-4, Florida now has more losses than it had all of last season, and what once looked like a rebound game for the Gators suddenly seems a little more daunting. Florida plays Yale next. That would be the Yale team that just beat UConn at Gampel Pavilion.
Good under-the-radar game on the schedule for Saturday: Northern Iowa at VCU. The Panthers, of Ali Farokhmanesh fame forever and always, are 8-0.
Player of the week honors to Eastern Washington's Venky Jois. Jois scored 38 against Seattle and against Eastern Oregon, hitting 28 of 39 from the floor and 20 of 23 from the free throw line in the two games combined. He pulled down 12 rebounds and blocked seven shots. Better yet, the Australia native (given name Venkatesha) has a 3.51 GPA in pre-med.
AND ONE
After NJIT's upset of Michigan, Twitter naturally exploded.
@SportsCenter Even though we may be engineers, we still got game.NJIT Men's Basketball Upsetting Michigan University.
— Kirko (@_itskirko) December 15, 2014