Ain't no media...

-- The St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Jeremy Rutherford suggests Gene Keady might be going out on a low note, his Purde Boilermakers failing to make the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time in fifth seasons. Rutherford also gets Keady to go on record as having stayed too long; I "probably should have left a long time ago. Sometimes your voice is not heard because it's old. You can stay some place too long, and maybe I did that."

-- Santa Clara nearly upset Gonzaga, which tells us more about Santa Clara -- they haven't missed a beat (with respect to their ability to pull off a huge upset) since the game against North Carolina -- than it does about Gonzaga. Notably, Zags point guard Derek Raivio seems to have benefited from playing against the best of the best (Oklahoma State's John Lucas, Georgia Tech's Jarrett Jack and Illinois' Dee Brown). Last night, he scored a career-high 32 points, made six 3-pointers and hit all 10 of his free throws.

-- The Corvallis Gazette-Times sat down with red-hot Oregon State coach Jay John. His Beavers are 10-3 this year and coming off a sweep of UCLA and Southern California. My favorite question and answer?

What [was] the first step you decided to take as coach?

The first thing I wanted to do is I wanted to find out how many of the guys that were here liked being a student here, because if they didn't like being a student and basketball hadn't been going well, then chances were they weren't very happy. That was a significant thing for me.

-- Say you're Dave Odom. Now imagine a headline you don't want to see. Poof! From the State: "6-foot-11 work in progress hardly making any; USC prospect's juco coach says center is not ready for rigors of SEC."

-- NBA prospect Taylor Coppenrath and the Vermont Catamounts will make their final pre-NCAA Tournament appearance on national television on January 16th. Their noontime game against Boston University will be televised regionally on NESN and nationally on CSTV.

-- The Sunsbury (PA) Daily Item's Tom Housenick examines the Patriot League, noting the challenges Lafayette faces as the only league school without athletic scholarships.

-- Boo (two o's) Wade has left Wisconsin and will not return, Bo (one o) Ryan noted yesterday. No worries. They'll be sunshine when he's gone.

-- The New London (CT) Day's Gavin Keefe pens the inevitable "What's wrong with Connecticut" column, arguing the Huskies are not only plagued by shaky perimeter play and a shortage of mental toughness, but also, more importantly, lack team unity.

-- Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun isn't ready to give up the "ACC reigns supreme" meme, giving Skip Prosser an opportunity to wax on about Dick Vitale's league. A friend of my enemy is not my friend.

-- Who else but the Republican-American's Ed Daigneault would write a piece suggesting seven (!) Big East teams are NCAA Tournament bound. Not entirely out of the question. But Villanova? All Jason Frazier wanted for Christmas was a new set of knees.

-- The Tallahassee Democrat picked up the AP story on Craig Smith and the 12-0 Boston College Eagles. Ain't no media like free media.

-- The Denver Post's Natalie Meisler examines the reputation of the Mountain West Conference, noting not a single conference team is among the nation's Top 50 in the latest RPI ratings.