We didn’t go one straight week this entire season without at least one previously undefeated team losing—subsequently shortening the group. We’re left with Memphis, who has (in my eyes) about a 40 percent chance of making it through the regular season unblemished.

Memphis 20-0. The Tigers are the last team with the bagel. If you had to guess any team that would be the last standing as undefeated, wouldn’t you have picked Memphis as well? A lot of people picked Kansas, but the tougher path in the Big XII (not too tough, though) had them felled by Kansas State on Wednesday night. I’m full-on rooting for them to do it. Hey, remember how great it was to watch St. Joe’s and Stanford go for the undefeated season in ‘03-’04?

Memphis’ closest win? The 62-58 defeat over USC in overtime at the Garden back in early December.

Memphis’ closest win in conference? Wednesday’s nailbiting 12-point win over Houston, 89-77. The stranglehold is loosening! Not really: They’re beating teams by an average of 21/game.

Conference USA is currently 11th in overall RPI ranking. (Only Houston, UAB also crack the Top 100) Here’s Memphis’ schedule and my accurate, time-tested and scientifically mocked strategy for breaking down their percentages of losing each game:

• Feb. 2, Texas-El Paso: 15%

• Feb. 6, Southern Methodist: 3%

• Feb. 9, Central Florida: 8%

• Feb. 13, Houston: 10%

• Feb. 16, @ UAB: 35%

• Feb. 20, @ Tulane: 20%

• Feb. 23, Tennessee: 50%

• Feb. 27, Tulane: 15%

• March 1, @ Southern Mississippi: 12%

• March 5, @ Southern Methodist: 5%

• March 8, UAB: 25%

Though I want them to run the table, I don’t think they’ll do it. I see them scraping their knee against one the teams I’ve bolded, but sports can make us look like fools sometimes, too. You never know: a loss could come at something silly like the Southern Miss game on March 1.

That’s the freaking sun, man. It signifies just how hot Kansas and Memphis are, dude.

In case you missed it:

North Carolina; made it to 18-0. A somewhat stunning home loss to Maryland last Saturday, 82-80, eliminated UNC from the club. Ultimately the loss will mean zilch; it’d be hard for the Heels, with all of their talent, to play themselves out of a 1-seed.

Just two:

Kansas 19-0. Next two: Saturday vs. Nebraska (11-5); Wednesday @ Kansas State (13-4). Last week I said…”Don’t concern yourself with such trivial matters this week, ‘Hawk lovers.” Now the Beastley game looms on the schedule and how about the fact that the intra-state matchup is going to be rather significant? That’s pretty refreshing. Regardless, I don’t see Kansas losing on the road to KSU due to the fact that the Jayhawks are so damn deep and Kansas State has been more wobbly than a virgin, post prom night. They’ll be the last team with a bagel.

Memphis 18-0. Next two: Saturday vs. Gonzaga (15-4);  Wednesday @ Houston (14-3). Last week I said…”Gonzaga game doesn’t arrive until January 26th, so continue to watch the traveling circus that is the Memphis Tigers.” Now, that day is here. I am really rooting for Gonzaga to knock of Memphis (more pro Zags than anti Memphis), but can Heytvelt and Daye do enough inside? I think they can. I say Memphis goes down on Saturday. (This will clearly backfire.)

Point and laugh:

N.J.I.T; 0-20 (Independent). Grambling State finally got a win (they are now 1-12) last week so that leaves us with what is truly remarkable and respectable from the Highlanders. The blogs will soon grab hold of this laughingstock-of-a-team and begin to satirically rip them to shreds. What’s worse? The New Jersey Institute of Technology is a newbie to Division I and is in their first year of eligibility. This looks to be like a historic year. When they get to 0-25 I will have to chronicle each and every game. There can only be one Highlander!

 Down to three. Here’s how Vandy and Washington State were booted from the club in the past week:

Vanderbilt; made it to 16-0. A double-OT thriller against Kentucky resulted in a 79-73 loss. The Wildcats, who seemingly caught magic in a bottle in a raucous Rupp Arena atmosphere, looked better than they had all season. The verdict: 79-73.

Washington State 13-0. made it to 14-0. Last week I predicted they’d get past UCLA and fall to Oregon this upcoming Sunday Well, heh, UCLA manhandled WSU last weekend, winning 81-74; it was an embarrassment, really. An onslaught of 3s (seven of them) kept the final margin a lot closer than the game really was.

An upcoming glimpse of what UNC, Memphis and Kansas have on their plates after the jump. (more…)

We almost made it an entire week, but Ole Miss fell last night to bring our number down to five teams left. I have to admit: I love it. I want it to last as long as possible. I’m a sucker for history and the longer more teams can go without losing, the better it looks. More importantly though: The more it will make March a surprise if upsets abound. For info on how the Rebels got beat, check out the “Around the Top 25″ post below. More about the five you already know on the other side. (more…)

When last met, the list of yet-to-be-blemished squads had been cut squarely in half from 28 to 14. Now, in Two Thousand Aught Eight, there are all of six teams remaining without donning defeated laundry after the buzzer. (Here’s the link to the last entry on December 14th.) Here’s how the last eight got knocked off and how…

Georgetown; made it to 8-0. Everyone knows—the Memphis game, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, they looked good, even if they lost 85-71, believe it or not. Are they Hoyas the Big East’s best team? Arguable. A rematch against the Tigers would certainly be nice, though.

Texas-Arlington; made it to 8-0. Lost only a few days after the last installment of “Tracking the Unbeatens…”, going down to TCU, 77-74. They ended up losing their next game to Oklahoma State, a team they were perhaps looking ahead to when the Horned Frogs brought them to the floor. Currently UT-A is 9-2.

Clemson; made it to 11-0. It was that game on December 22nd against Mississippi in Puerto Rico (a common concoction for a loss) that ended the Tigers’ efforts for back-to-back 17-0 starts. Six shy of last year’s watermark, Clemson appears to be “on a mission” as the cliché goes, but it seems true.

Duke; made it to 10-0. The Blue Devils went down in a great game against Pittsburgh on December 20th at Madison Square Garden. The tombstone reads 65-64 against them, but there hasn’t been a slip-up since then. Oh wait! They haven’t played since that game…Cornell arrives this Saturday with a plenty healthy Dukie team awaiting.

Sam Houston State; made it to 10-0. The Bearkats (don’t you love it?) got beat by San Diego State by one point—a 79-78 outcome. What hurts more? They missed a shot at the buzzer after missing key free throws in the final minute. Ouch. By the by, SDSU is 10-3, so no shame in that loss.

Pittsburgh; made it to 11-0. Things were going so well for the Panthers…then injuries happened. Mike Cook went down with an ugly knee injury in the Duke game, and their floor leader, Levance Fields, might be done for the season after rolling his ankle in the ugly Dayton loss (80-55) this past Saturday.

Texas; made it to 11-0. A tough and rough game at Michigan State’s Breslin Center was just not what the doctored ordered for the Longhorns (the Spartans walked out with the 78-72 win). Since then, Texas hasn’t looked the same.

Miami (FL); made it to 12-0. Felled by Winthrop less than a week ago (76-70), this Hurricanes team might be the biggest shock of this college basketball season. Maybe the loss is what the team needed before conference season began, but who’s to say. Will the ‘Canes play Clemson this year; start out hot and flame out, missing the tournament? Doesn’t appear to be likely, but keep an eye on it.

Now, for a look at who’s still rocking the bagel in the loss column, and what they have lying ahead, let’s take it to the other side of the jump. Oh yes, and there’s also the “list” of teams that cannot yet get that “1″ in the “W” column, too. (more…)

When last met, there were 28 teams that had not experienced the “agony” of defeat. Of course, two weeks later, that number has been cut squarely in half, going down to 14. Here’s the first 14 that got knocked off and how…

»Wright State; made it to 2-0. What happened then? They fell the very night of the first appearance of this column (Dec. 1), losing to Marist, 79-64.

»New Orleans; made it to 4-0. Also lost on December 1st, to Nicholls State, 75-57.

»St. John’s; made it to 4-0. Also lost their first game following this initial post(a CHJ jinx developing??), a victim of Miami (FL), who throttled them 66-47 on December 2nd.

»Creighton; made it to 5-0. Losing a game at Xavier (79-66) is nothing to hang your head about.

»Boston College; made it to 5-0. A puzzling 98-89 loss to Providence on—you guessed it—December 1st knocked the Eagles from the ranks of the unbeatens.

»Duquesne; made it to 6-0. ANOTHER victim of the CHJ jinx, the Dukes were felled by an underrated Drake team on December 1st, 77-73.

»Seton Hall; made it to 6-0. Saint Mary’s took care of the Pirates on the day this column tried to die. The first day of December: Gaels 85, Pirates 70.

»Holy Cross; made it to 6-0. Let’s just called it Black Saturday. December 1st was the day many of the unbeatens went down, and the Crusaders were happy to oblige, allowing Dayton to escape, 55-53.

»California; made it to 6-0. The Bears incurred their first loss in a game at Kansas State on December 9th, an 82-75 loss.

»Saint Mary’s; made it to 7-0. The Gaels got knocked off by entering a rabid doghouse in Carbondale on December 11th (a 71-56 loss). Southern Illinois needed a win there as much as any team needed any win this early into the season.

»New Mexico; made it to 7-0. The final victim of the early December plague, the Lobos got beaten on the road by another yet-to-be-defeated team: Ole Miss, who walked out with an 85-77 victory.

»Texas A&M; made it to 7-0. Arizona played a great home game against the Aggies, beating them 78-67 on December 2nd.

»UCLA; made it to 7-0. A victim of the Texas backcourt, the Bruins went down 63-61 in a great game on December 2nd in Pauley, and that was with a hobbled Darren Collison.

»Butler; made it to 8-0. The Bulldogs were offed by a Wright State team that knows how to beat them (they’ve defeated Butler three seasons in a row at home). The final tally? A paltry 43-42 outcome. Yuck.

Now, for a look at who’s still rocking the bagel in the loss column, and what they have lying ahead, let’s take it to the other side of the jump. Oh yes, and there’s also the comical list of teams that cannot yet get that “1″ in the “W” column, too.

(more…)

December has just begun, and CHJ is going to start a new feature entitled “Tracking the Unbeatens…” in which, well, you get the idea already. I’m not quite sure which team is going to last the longest, but I’m hoping someone can make it to February so that I can keep this shtick up for as long as possible. This segment will run again on December 15th, and again in the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Eventually, once the list is down to about five or six teams that can be tracked with each game they play, I’ll be posting once a week.

So, as of right now we have 28 teams that have yet to take off their jerseys and throw them in the laundry pile as losers.

Here’s the breakdown (as of the morning of December 1): (more…)