INSANITY REPORT #5: FINAL ALL-ADOLPH TOP TEN & PRE-SELECTION SUNDAY TAKES

“Uhhhh mah gawd , Becky look at that upset!!!! It is so big!!
It looks like one of those mid-major conference upsets!!
Who understands these tourney brackets?

IIIIIII like big upsets and I cannot lie,
Those other Gus Johnson’s can’t deny”
- Sir Mixalot 1992

Sir Mixalot is an f-ing prophet yo!!!! He coined the above phrase 18 years ago, just one year before the Chris Webber timeout debacle, and it rings more true this year than ever before folks!!!! That’s right, it’s here, just hours away from Selection Sunday and 5 days away from Christmas, errrrrrr The 1st Round of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament………MARCH MADNESS!!!!

There is a group of 4-5 teams that are upper enchalant teams, but no one teams has been dominant all year and every team has tasted defeat from an upset team once or twice this year. The rest of the Top 25 teams have been Jeckyl-n-Hyde this year that this years tourney may have a 5 seed as the highest remaining Final 4 Teams. No joke here folks…….do I look like I’m joking!?!?!?

There is plenty to break down, and we will most definitely break down each bracket to the n’th degree, but lets just prepare an appetizer here, with the Final All-Adolph Top 10 teams going into Selection Sunday.

ALL-ADOLPH TOP TEN TEAMS

1. KANSAS JAYHAWKS: Overall, the best team in the nation all year. They’ve had their hiccups vs. Cornell and Tennessee this year , but going 15-1 in the Big 12 and sweeping through the Big 12 Tourney like Paulsen through some bar-b-q ribs is quite impressive. As little respect the Insanity Report Staff gives big man, Cole Aldrich, in relation to his hype, he still has a game changing presence in the blocks. The kicker with the Rock Chalk Jayhawks is Sr. Point Guard, Sherron Collins who has many amazing attributes, with his best one being that it seems he won’t allow KU to lose, and he uses this power in clutch time.

2. KENTUCKY WILDCATS: Bar none the most talented team in the past 10 years!!! 4-5 Div II draft picks in the bunch, lead by one-and-done player of the year, John “Ball” Wall. He’s the goods, but his kryptonite right now is that he may be believing his own hype a bit too much right now. Fr. Post, DeMarcus Cousins is the best post in the country and another one-and-doner. As deep as Kentucky is, their weakness is in Coach John Calipari. It’s not in his future academic/recruiting violation that will strip Kentucky of this years wins, but it’s in his playbook. Its’ a completely Div II playbook full of clear outs and 1 on 1’s. There is absolutely no off the ball cuts with the occasional pick-n-roll. All this entails is that Calipari’s game plan is to “out-talent” their opponents. He must realize that he still has to actually COACH this team!!! Coach Calimari, trying to out-talent teams in the tourney will not get you 6 straight wins in the Madness!!

3. SYRACUSE ORANGMEN: The deepest top 7 in the country in terms of their cohesiveness and how they compliment each other. There’s one question in forwards Arinze Onuaku’s injury he sustained in the Big East tourney. We’ll see if he can make it back by Madness time. 15-3 in regular season play? In the Big (B)East Conference? Legit.

4. WEST VIRGINIA: Probably won’t get a #1 seed, but they are a super talented team that is peaking at the right time. They aren’t the best team in the Big East, but to win the gauntlet that is the Big East Tourney is too legit to quit. Devan Ebanks and Da-Sean Butler are as good a one-two punch this side of Hall and Oates. Keep an eye on 6-6 Forward Wellington Smith. Although, he’s undersized, he worked Greg Monroe of GTown tonight; That’s x-factor material folks.

5. DUKE BLUE DEVILS: Probably will get a #1 seed due to their dominance of the weakest ACC Conference since the 2010 Pac-10. The Doo-Doo Devils are the Over-Under Team of the Year. PG Jon Scheyer has OVER-achieved all year. F Kyle Singler is OVER-rated. F Miles Plumlee is UNDER-utilized.

6. OHIO STATE BUCKEYES: Wait till you see 1st Team All-Adolph player, Evan Turner play!!!! He’s been a bit under the radar all year, but he can shoot, slash to the hole and dominate the last 10 minutes of a game in huge spurts. But it’s in huge Scottie Pippen-like x-factor, David Lighty that takes tonnes of pressure off Turner on the defensive end and by making it so teams can’t double team Turner.

7. GONZAGA BULLDOGS: The whole Insanity Report Staff has glossed Can-zaga all year, especially in Gonzaga Correspondent, Marc Paulsen. Senior, Matt Bouldin is Collins-like in his will to clutch. Elias Harris is the biggest diamond-in-the-rough find since Santa Clara’s Steve Nash, and the 4 Canadians on the Zag’s would spank the present starting line-up of the Canadian National Team in a game of 4 on 5!!! It must be noted in Paulsen’s excellent point in a recent Staff Meeting, in that Gonzaga got rid of the big stage butterflies when the Bulldogs got worked by Duke in Madison Square Gardens in a nationally televised game at Christmas time. Now when they hit the big stage come real-Christmas time, this Thursday they won’t be so star-struck. Big Final 4 threat here folks.

8. PURDUE BOILERMAKERS: These guys are on relative life-support compared to where they were pre-Robbie Hummel Torn ACL 3 weeks ago. They put up a good fight with some key wins but flat-lined today in their loss to Minnesota with an 11 point first half. They still have the other Big Two in E-Twaun Moore and JuJuan Johnson, but no proven point guard. Ouch. Upset material here?

9. VILLANOVA WILDCATS: They should be off the Top 10 due to their recent slide (4-6 in last 10 games), but their experience from last years Final 4 run, especially at all guard-wing spots, make it enough to have some belief in these philly cheesesteaks.

10. BUTLER BULLDOGS: A 20 game win streak is nothing to turn your head from, and remember the name Gordon Hayward. Game changer!!!

That’s it for now, but here’s a taste of the future takes to come in preparation for the Madness:

Some tips to look at when making picks:
- Look at a teams non-conference schedule. Did they have enough stones to have a challenging sked. Did they get any W’s in said challenging sked?

- Look at a teams road record? There’s something to be said for a team that wins the games they’re supposed to win on bum teams’ home courts. You gotta have big Dub’s on the road!!! That is the kryptonite for West Virginia right now if you look at their road record.

- Wanna make a mid-major upset pick? It’s all in the coach. If the coach is an up and comer where he’ll probably be snagged in a year or two by a bigger school, then he’ll get an upset or 2 outta his guys. Hint: check out Siena. Conversely, if a mid-major with past upsets has lost their coach to a bigger program, then so is that mid-majors upset mojo.

That’s it. Happy Selection Sunday, and bring on the Madness!!!!

Commissioner Adolph