Just when you think the conference is about to shed its label as the worst basketball conference in America, LSU plays Utah and Tennessee plays Gonzaga, and we’re back at square one.

Tuesday started so well for the SEC. Georgia led Georgia Tech by a dozen points at the half in the annual basketball version of Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate. Sure, Tech might have come back and won, but that’s okay because they’re probably a better team than the Bulldogs, right? It’s a moral victory for Georgia to play so well against Tech. Let’s just see if the next game is any better.

Hey, it’s Texas vs. Arkansas. This one should be pretty good, and in fact, it was. Arkansas withstood a dominant Texas edge inside to rally in the last few minutes to take the lead. Then they benefited from Texas forgetting how much time was left and jacking four straight threes on their last possession. Once again, the Razorbacks had done the conference proud, emerging triumphant over a top 10 foe from the Big XII.

At the same time that game was going on, Alabama was in Littlejohn Coliseum, hoping to remove Clemson from the ranks of the unbeaten. Their coach is Mark Gottfried, so they did not win. Despite the fact that I think there’s hardly any difference between the talent levels of Clemson and Alabama, the Crimson Tide never really posed a serious threat.

Finally, out west, the LSU Tigers took their long, athletic bunch to Salt Lake City to battle the mighty Utes. I don’t know anything about this Utah team except that they lost big to Oklahoma and their jerseys say “Utah” on the back instead of the players’ names. Utah won 91-61. A team that was the favorite to win the West a couple of weeks ago lost by 30 against a Utah team that probably isn’t as good as either BYU or UNLV in the Mountain West Conference.

And that was just Tuesday.

Last night, Tennessee had a chance to avenge a loss to the hated Gonzaga Bulldogs from the Old Spice Classic back in November. They jumped out to a 15-point lead in the first half. For much of the half, Cameron Tatum outscored the entire Gonzaga team. He set his career high in the first half. My boy Wayne Chism had a career high 19 rebounds to go along with 15 points. Tyler Smith was his usual dependable self. How could Tennessee go wrong with any of those figures? Well, it would help if they gave a crap about defense. Tennessee cares as much about defense as Christopher Reeve cared about playing soccer. Gonzaga’s best post player is Josh “Mushroom Kingdom” Heytvelt, but he is more of a face-up guy than a true post player in the mold of Patrick Patterson. Gonzaga pounded it inside with Heytvelt and his 7’5” backup Will Foster, who I had never seen on TV before. Both guys scored at will. Tennessee didn’t contest entry passes. They didn’t stop anybody in the paint. They didn’t defend the high screen. If Tennessee didn’t turn Gonzaga over with the press, Gonzaga shredded them in their halfcourt sets. How scary is it that Gonzaga, the most anti-clutch team in college hoops since 2004, thoroughly owned Tennessee for the entire overtime period? Did you see JP Prince miss the entire goal on that three from the corner? Did you see Bobby Maze miss the entire goal on that three from the top of the key? Did you see Tatum walk with nobody even close to him? Maybe I’m just mad at Tennessee because I wanted Kentucky to be the team that broke that long home winning streak, but it’s disappointing in many ways.

And now, here are the rest of the things that are on my mind.

You know the team that Kentucky fans really need to stop worrying about? Minnesota. Are the Golden Gophers on the schedule this year? No? Does Kentucky have a long history of playing Minnesota like they do Indiana and other teams? No? Then shut up when Minnesota wins a game. And shut up when Minnesota loses a game. They do not matter to you unless you miss Tubby Smith like a recently departed relative. And please, for the love of all things that are holy, never say another word about Minnesota beating Louisville this year and Kentucky losing to Louisville. There was one difference in those two games. The Minnesota game was at cavernous University of Phoenix Stadium. The Cards missed their open looks. Our game was at shooter friendly Freedom Hall. The Cards hit their open looks. If Kentucky played Minnesota right now or in March, I’d take UK and the points.

I’d make fun of Carolina losing to Boston College, but then Harvard beat Boston College. If I told you yesterday afternoon that there would be a 20-point difference between the margins of Boston College’s games against North Carolina and Harvard, you would have predicted a 28-point win by BC – not a 12-point win by Harvard. College basketball can be crazy sometimes.

Fun fact: Vanderbilt has already lost twice at home this year – once to Illinois and the other time to Illinois-Chicago. The team from the Big Ten is actually pretty good this year, maybe even good enough to remove Bruce Weber from my personal hot seat, but you can’t get run on your own floor by the UIC Flames, and make no mistake about it, UIC absolutely rolled Vandy. The Commodores did get a pretty good road win last weekend against UMASS!!!, but I don’t think they’re capable of beating us by 40 like they did last year.

By the way, stop talking about that game too. Every time I’ve seen a loss like that by UK, the Cats have avenged it. The only big losses of my lifetime that haven’t been avenged are last year’s game in Nashville and the 2006 game against Kansas. We get one back on Saturday. Bank on it.

As last season showed, conference play can provide hope. This team has loads of individual concerns. The play of the freshmen can be remedied. Look what happened to Joe Crawford, Ramel Bradley and Perry Stevenson in conference play. They looked like three new players. It isn’t time to give up on these guys yet when they’re going through a rough spell.

I’m Seth Stogsdill. Thanks for reading.