Bryan the Intern's Picks to Click

  RPI Update: 64 (Mississippi RPI:45)  1. It's that time of year now where college basketball is the ONLY thing happening and you can just feel the NCAA Tournament coming.  So, everyday I will bring you highlights from EVERY NCAA Tournament game from last season, starting with the first round and on the Friday before Selection Sunday, I will link highlights from last years national championship game.  Todays first group of highlights:  (1) Kansas-107 vs. (16) Niagara-67 (8) Kentucky-67 vs. (9) Villanova-58 (5) Virginia Tech-54 vs. (12) Illinois-52 (4) Southern Illinois-61 vs. (13) Holy Cross-51 2. Lots of talk about the RPI the past couple weeks and it will continue into March, but hardly anyone (myself included) has a complete understanding of how this ranking is calculated.  For a complete explination, click here.  But for UK's sake, the important factor is that road wins count for much more than home wins, making the South Carolina game huge.  Also, road losses count less than home losses, meaning losing to Tennessee doesn't hurt the Cats very much, but losses to Mississippi or Florida would be damaging.  And if by some minor miracle UK beats UT, then the RPI will jump 10-15 spots on that game alone.  Another part of the equation is average opponents winning percentage, which for Kentucky is .585 or Kentucky's opponents this year are winning 58.5% of their games.  3. It's no secret that Kentucky has been winning games with a stout defense and clutch shooting at the end of games.  But, Coach Gillispie knows the Cats need to start playing more complete games on offense to keep the season alive. 4. Playoffs have begun in Kentucky, and several UK commits and recruits have already shined in district play.  For a recap, take a look at Jody Demling's blog on the Courier-Journal website. 5. John Clay touches on the Mitch Barnhart (idiot) controversy, along with UK players at the scouting combine, and needed changes to the NCAA.  Funny note from Clay's article: after Indiana beat Northwestern on Saturday, each player recieved a congratulatory text message from someone.  I will let you guess who. 6. In depth statistical comparison between Ole Miss and Kentucky.  Keys to the game: (1) Pace of the game: Ole Miss likes a very fast game. (2) Rebounding: Ole Miss the best rebounding team in the SEC.  If Cats win rebounding well, they will win this game.  (3) FG%: Cats shoot the ball very well, Ole Miss does not.  7. A classic video of an animated Dikembe Mutumbo trying to play $20,000 Pyramid. 8. If you haven't heard, Sean Salisbury is OUT at ESPN as an NFL analyst, and it couldn't make me happier.  Although, if you hear Sean talk about it, maybe it explains why he was always such a prick on the air.  This is stepping out on a ledge, but I always thought Salisbury was a bigger prick on the air than Seth Davis.  It's close, and after Davis' recent comments, I know I am in the minority, but it's my opinion.  9. Don't mess with news reporters!!! If you do, this is what happens to you.  You get your ass kicked.