Guru's Musings: Thoughts And Facts

By Mel Greenberg

MANCHESTER, Conn. -- No, the Guru is not in the home of a certain Hall of Fame coach set to make more history down the road in Hartford Tuesday night, barring interference from No. 21 Florida State nor is he at the residence of the new media liason, who is not new to the Guru.

But since the hotel located on the grounds of a mega-mall out here is located within the boundaries of the dateline, that is why it says what it says.

If you haven't been at the previous posts, the Guru's advance of the game went to print at the employee alma mater as another guest star appearance as will be the situation Tuesday night so head over to Philly.com in the Inquirer subset sports section.

For those of you who know the Guru's little trick, the answer is made the midnight ride, sailed without traffic, and 2-for-1 is in play with a reasonable rate attached.

There are two things the Guru is amused at concerning what is now the attempt to establish the all-time streak at 89.

In terms of television, as the song goes, we went from a U buried behind the NFL to a deuce in 24 hours with all kinds of programing attached going into the game at the expected sellout XL center.

Then there was the Sunday quote from the Philly guy that set everyone atwitter which these days means the traditional besides themselves and the modern make sure whatever your reaction is -- keep it under 141 characters or use a special long tweet twitter apps.

If you were in the media room the Garden and saw how the whole postgame flowed, those that are atwitter might be less so.

The best quote, actually, came from a member of the Buckeyes staff familiar with the Guru who used to drive the Garden crowd insane when the summer action is held.

Passing the Guru, the individual smiled to nod hello and then said "Oh (expletive deleted. What else can you say?"

Next up: the Seminole post game reaction.

Weekly AP Poll Trivia

OK, the Guru is keeping this post short to get a little shuteye having made the midnight ride, as noted, but he did do his weekly diliegence in updating the poll history file as we start the next 600 weeks of AP voting.

So those of you who like to throw odds and ends in your pregame notes or just likes what spits out of the data sheet, the Guru begins by saying happy 300 to Sylvia Hatchell and Stanford.

Hatchell, the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame coach with the North Carolina Tar Heels is making her 300th appearance this week while Stanford is making its 300th appearance as a team in the top 10.

The Cardinal trail Tennessee (530), Louisiana Tech (373), and UConn (307) in terms of all-time Top 10 rankings.

Meanwhile, the Guru uses a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet program to house all the polls, so congratulations to Kentucky, which fell on line 14,000. In other words the first team ever ranked in 1976 -- Delta State -- is on line 1, and so on and so forth through the years.

Arkansas is ranked for the first time since Jan. 7, 2008. Tom Collen is in the elite group with three different teams in the AP Poll -- Colorado State (34), Louisville (17), and Arkansas (3) for 54 appearances.

While Florida State coach Sue Semrau is working on her concession speech for Tuesday night's game -- just kidding -- she reached her 42nd poll appearance, just one behind Villanova's Harry Perretta ranked 36th -- the same number his team has had on the scoreboard in the closing minutes.

North Carolina tied Rutgers for all-time appearances in 10th place with 329.

OK, the drill the rest of the way is some quick sleep, a must stop at nearby Reins Deli in Vernon and then over to the XL Center. The Guru will tweet depending on bandwith cooperation with the iPad.

-- Mel