So Louisville swept Syracuse in the Big East. You can bet any coach who has to face Syracuse in the post-season will be analyzing the game film from those two games. Rick Pitino is Patton to Jim Boeheim's Rommel: you magnificent bastard, I read your book! Pitino apparently knows how to exploit Boeheim's 2-3 zone, something hardly anyone else has been able to do, and held the Orange to only 44% field goal completion. Of course, the big key to exploiting the 2-3 was pretty simple: the Cards took 40 3-point shots and hit 12 of them.
Kentucky's half court offense is looking a little better in the past couple of games. Of course we're talking about conference punching bag teams like Georgia and Florida. Not that Billy Donovan can't coach his way to a big win from time to time; the Gators put away Tennessee just a couple of games ago and very nearly did it in Rupp today. You have to wonder if Donovan is regretting his decision to stay in Gainesville rather and turning down the Kentucky job - not once, but twice - since it seems possible this will be his 3rd straight trip to the NIT after winning those back-to-back national titles. I understand all his reasons for staying at Florida, with teenage kids well-established in their lives there and not wanting to uproot them, but there has to be a part of him that wonders what it'd be like to sitting where Coach Cal is right now.
As for premier jobs, I don't know if I really believe that anymore. Not even in football, though Notre Dame and Alabama would have you believe different...one had to poach a guy from a small school and the other had to pay a gazillion dollars to a mercenary who was desperate to go anyplace after failing at the NFL because he thought Dante Culpepper was a better answer at QB than Drew Brees. The last few years it seems that despite the media and hometown fans talking about marquis jobs, the only ones to leave a good situation for a name school are alumni (Roy Williams), fat white Irish guys (Brian Kelly, George O'Leary), or mercenary douche bags (Nick Saban, Lane Kiffin, Larry Brown). Other than that, places like Kentucky and UCLA have had to settle with poaching guys from smaller conferences or mid-tier schools like Pitt and Georgia.