No one saw this season coming from the Auburn Tigers. Not in the preseason, when most considered the Tigers to be a team somewhere in the bottom six teams. Instead with the win over LSU, Auburn is 10-6 in the SEC and 21-10 overall. Most importantly, Auburn has worked its way into the discussion for the NCAA Tournament.
Auburn has won eight of their last nine, beating Tennessee, Mississippi State and Ole Miss. Their RPI may be up around 70, but they have been the hottest team in the SEC. A decent run in the SEC Tournament, and they will be hard to keep out of the NCAA Tournament. In a year where the bubble is crowded with plenty of other teams that have missed their chances to get that final win, Auburn has been doing just that.
LSU had not won a game in Lexington since 1989. They were 4-34 against Kentucky going back to 1952. By any measure, the Tigers have not done well when visiting the Wildcats. This was an absolute must-win for Kentucky in the LSU.
Instead, Marcus Thornton used the second half to demonstrate why he should be under consideration for SEC Player of the Year along with Kentucky's Jodie Meeks. Thornton poured in 19 of his 23 points in the second half to lead the Tigers to a big win that puts Kentucky off the bubble.
Well, I mean aside from LSU which has run their record to 10-1 in the conference. Over in the SEC East it is a mess. Whether you want to call it parity, mediocrity or just plain suckitude, there are four teams pillow-fighting their way to see who can back into the top spot in the division.
Kentucky got humiliated by Vanderbilt yesterday. Florida, which had lost three of four got a win over a bad Alabama team. Tennessee got run out of Oxford by an injury-ravaged Ole Miss team. South Carolina has been overachieving, but they couldn't win in Starkville. That leaves all four with identical 7-4 conference records.
Headlining: The beauty of a Tuesday column, at least this season, is that whoever ends up No. 1 can do so with an asterisk based on Monday's games. (*In case you didn't know already, Pittsburgh beat Connecticut.) And it appears that next week, we'll likely have a new No. 1 team in the nation. That will likely be Blake Griffin and the Oklahoma Sooners. Which is fitting, considering Griffin dropped a rediculous 40-point, 23-rebound Valentine's Day stat line on Texas Tech Saturday night.
Well, there you have it. The FanHouse Preseason College Hoops BlogPoll for 2008 is complete.
The voting for No. 1 was not close. North Carolina was atop every single ballot. UCLA, Louisville and UConn usually followed in a variety of orders. From there, it was a typical free-for-all as there is a glut of teams from No. 5 to No. 12 that was very fluid.
The poll also had some newcomers to it. Davidson is now a household name; St. Mary's will soon be; UNLV is back on the map while schools like Arizona State, Miami-FL and Wake Forest are primed to make their move. Defending champion Kansas didn't make the cut.
Still, the more things change, the more they stay the same. The top two ranked teams were in the Final Four last year, UConn takes back its place among the elite and six of last March's Elite Eight are ranked in the top twenty.
This week, FanHouse is taking a look at the top teams heading into 2008 with a BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. To help with the team capsules, we've brought in some of the top fan bloggers around the internets to give us insights on their teams.
Today, we have enlisted Poseur of the And The Valley Shook blog to break down the LSU Tigers.
Let me first speak for about three-quarters of the LSU fanbase first: thank God John Brady is finally gone. I don't think I have ever loathed a coach as much as I loathe Brady. Eleven years of doing just enough to not get fired, Brady finally got shown the door as he followed up a fluky Final Four appearance with two last place finishes in the SEC West. OK, that's cheating, LSU was in last when Brady got canned, but rallied down the stretch, going 5-5 with an interim coach. So excuse us if we're a little shell-shocked, LSU fans have learned an important lesson over the past decade: don't get your hopes up.
Johnson has been a successful coach at Stanford but may be motivated to leave in part because next year's team won't be nearly as talented as the one he led to the Sweet 16 last year. With the Lopez twins leaving for the NBA, Stanford was already going to look a lot different next season. The new Stanford coach will have a tough job ahead of him.
Even though there are a few games left to play before a champion is crowned, the college basketball coaching carousel is alive and spinning. In the SEC, South Carolina hired Darrin Horn but they aren't the only league school looking for a new coach. LSU needs one too and may also end up with a Kentucky native on their bench.
If you are going to blow a journalistic raspberry on a team on the verge of one of the biggest games in school history, please either offer an iron-clad guarantee of accuracy, or provide sources for the information.
I understand the desire for an unfettered run-up to a championship game but this is the nature of the beast. LSU's President used to be the President at UMass, Ford has done good things at UMass and is well-known around the SEC because of his days at Kentucky. This isn't wild speculation, then, but well-reasoned reportage using sources, anonymous though they be, to back it up.
UMass fans must dread losing Ford just as he's put the program back on good footing but I'd guess it's going to happen. They can take solace in the fact that the rumors didn't hurt them against Florida on Tuesday, at least, and hope Ford leaves on a winning note.
The rumors have been that LSU would pursue Southern Cal Coach Tim Floyd. Floyd, as a LSU alum Louisian Tech grad, from Mississippi and seems like a natural fit. Of course, there is the issue of whether LSU would pay what it would take for a name basketball coach. There is also the issue of whether Floyd believes he can recruit the talent like he can at USC.
Of course the trade-off might be that USC might not have as much talent in the near future with the way Floyd has recruited. Creating up-and-down seasons.
O.J. Mayo is certainly done at USC. Taj Gibson is probably leaning towards going, regardless of his declarations of being unsure. Freshman forward, Davon Jefferson, will at least test the draft waters. Daniel Hackett has always seemed to think higher of his ability than others do.
There's also the fact that incoming one-and-done freshman DeMar Rozan cost the Trojans an extra scholarship that they had to give to his buddy Lil' Romeo.
Floyd said before the Trojans' 80-67 loss to Kansas State in the first round of the NCAA Midwest Regional on Thursday that he might reconsider the benefits of one-year players if they harm the team's Academic Progress Rate.
"It will be a detriment if and when O.J. leaves if he's not academically eligible and costs us a scholarship," Floyd said. "That would be something that would make me review whether or not to give another guy like this an opportunity at some point."
That he would be worried about Mayo's academic eligibility in March, and feel concerned that the APR was too close to the edge can't be a good thing. Suddenly an exit strategy with LSU seems more probable.
Arkansas State will name John Brady its next basketball coach, a source close to Brady has told CBSSports.com.
ASU called a Wednesday press conference to announce the hiring.
Arkansas State had looked at a few SEC retreads including former Razorbacks coach Nolan Richardson.
Brady had 3 years left on his contract when he was fired from LSU. He was to get his base salary of $300,000 per year unless he was hired elsewhere. Presumably, the amount would be reduced by the whatever he was paid by another school. Brady really let the LSU Athletic Department off the hook by jumping right back into coaching.
NCAA Basketball 
No one saw this season coming from the Auburn Tigers. Not in the preseason, when most considered the Tigers to be a team somewhere in the bottom six teams. Instead with the win over LSU, Auburn is 10-6 in the SEC and 21-10 overall. Most importantly, Auburn has worked its way into the discussion for the NCAA Tournament. 
LSU had not won a game in Lexington since 1989. They were 4-34 against Kentucky going back to 1952. By any measure, the Tigers have not done well when visiting the Wildcats. This was an absolute must-win for Kentucky in the LSU. 
Well, I mean aside from LSU which has run their record to 10-1 in the conference. Over in the SEC East it is a mess. Whether you want to call it parity, mediocrity or just plain suckitude, there are four teams pillow-fighting their way to see who can back into the top spot in the division.
Ranking the rankings
Well, there you have it. The FanHouse Preseason College Hoops BlogPoll for 2008 is complete. 
This week, FanHouse is taking a look at the top teams heading into 2008 with a BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. To help with the team capsules, we've brought in some of the top fan bloggers around the internets to give us insights on their teams.
Stanford basketball coach 
Even though there are a few games left to play before a champion is crowned, the college basketball coaching carousel is alive and spinning. In the SEC, 
The rumors have been that LSU would pursue Southern Cal Coach Tim Floyd. Floyd, as a 
Well, I guess John Brady was serious about getting right back to coaching. The former Louisiana State coach was 
