How college basketball reminded me that I have a heart

After a buddy mentioned an old, familiar name in Trent Johnson, I was perusing the ol' NCAA Men's Basketball standings to check up on how our (Stanford's) former coach was faring in his second season at LSU. I had heard earlier in the year that the Tigers were struggling, and the professional researcher in me wanted to re-confirm such intelligence.

Sure enough, my spidey senses were correct, as Trent's Tigers are sitting in last place in the SEC with an 0-9 conference record, a disappointing turnaround from last year's regular season conference champs. Though they did manage to rack up a respectable 9-5 non-conf record, LSU's last win came on January 4 against small conference McNeese St., and since then Trent's squad has proceeded to lose its first 9 SEC games by an average of more than 13 points a game (pretty much a blowout in college basketball).

Maybe we can partially credit LSU's performance to the specter of facing one Mr. John Wall...but of course, he can only beat you one game at a time, and most likely that is limited to the games in which his team is actually playing yours. Maybe, though, the Tigers were so spooked at the thought of trying to contain him that they figured they might as well lose every conference game leading up to their tilt with Kentucky, just in case, so they'd be used to the feeling if Mr. Wall made it happen to them too. Anything's possible, right??

Whatever it is, this year's Tigers unfortunately seem to lack most, if not all of the punch that earned them a #8 seed in last year's tourney, and at this point, LSU's outlook for even an NIT bid looks bleak at best.

While counting down the games until LSU gets off its SEC-schnide may prove to be a thrill ride [and I'm being facetious - I can hold no ill will against the man who brought us the Lopezes (pronounced "Lo-PEEZ-us") and my personal favorite, Lawrence "The Law" Hill], I stumbled upon a couple situations even more dire than the... "Let's Wait Quietly Until Spring Practice To Start Talking Unwarranted and Unjustified Smack Again"-fest going on in Baton Rouge.

I was but a few seconds into singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" in honor of LSU's "defeated" conference record when my eyes caught a pair of other names: Alcorn State and Bryant. No, it wasn't the idea that Kobe somehow started his own college somewhere, (which would be sweet, by the way... I can imagine it now, "Court Tactics 101: Dunking Is Your Friend", etc.); what literally caught my eye were the extra 0s in the win columns next to the names.

Yes, the Braves of Alcorn State and the Bulldogs of Bryant University (and yes, I had to google their mascots) have the dubious distinction of being entirely winless on the season. Alcorn State, of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, is 0-11 in conference play and 0-24 on the year, while Bryant is "one-upping" Alcorn State with an 0-12 record in the Northeast Conference and an 0-24 mark on the year.

Now, I am not the type to mock a winless team. Not only did I sweat out a 1-11 football team on the Farm, I played baseball in high school for a team that won MAYBE 10 games in 3 years...in a league full of smaller, private schools! And that's not even to mention the kickball team I played in a couple months ago that won a measly ONE GAME in league play. (Though it was still a lot of fun!) Needless to say, I know what it's like to be on the wrong side of a Win-Loss record in which one of those values is a "0".

This being the internet (or "intarwebs" as it is better known), I figured I could draw something interesting or meaningful from my 2 minutes of NCAA-related research. So it is here that I will begin writing up and following the progress of my two new teams to watch: Alcorn State and Bryant.

Alcorn State has 7 games left on the season, while Bryant has 6. I will be pulling for each of them to pull off a win, not just for the fans, but mostly for the kids who are putting in the hours of practice and leaving their sweat on the court. While my time might be limited before either or both of these teams break into the wins column, I would like to take this opportunity to delve a little deeper into their stories and provide some insight into my feelings for them. Thanks for reading!

Next up for the Alcorn St. Braves (0-24, 0-11): Saturday, 2/13 vs. Miss. Valley St (6-18, 5-6)
Next up for the Bryant Bulldogs (0-24, 0-12): Thursday, 2/11 vs. St. Francis (PA) (7-16, 5-7)