CBB With Danny Z: St. John's Looks Legit, Hubert Davis Has To Go, And More

Normally, I post this column on Thursday. But there's just too much going in college hoops to wait an extra day. It was an incredible week on the hardwood and I literally could not wait to start writing about it. So, I didn't wait.

Here we go with the fourth edition of "CBB With Danny Z."

St. John's went from a team that couldn't crack the Top 25 to a team that can't be beaten. 

My buddy, and fellow OutKick writer, Geoff Clark has been begging me to write about the "Johnnies" forever. "C'mon, man, we have the best defense in the country? When are you going to show them some love?" 

The answer, my friend, is right now. That's because I watched St. John's pulverize Georgetown on Tuesday night and they captured my attention. 

At one point, St. John's led 41-11 in the first half and had seven more made field goals than Georgetown had POINTS. 

Fortunately for Georgetown fans, not many of them had to witness the absolute brutality their team faced because hardly anyone showed up. 

The defense that Clark talked about showed up in a big way against the Hoyas, holding G'Town to just 41 points in the game. 

Can St. John's keep it up and make a run in the NCAA Tournament? I don't know yet. But, you know what they say: defense wins championships. 

It's time for North Carolina to fire Hubert Davis. 

Not to pat myself on the back but … OK, I'm going to pat myself on the back. Here's what I wrote two years ago

"Davis is Kevin Ollie 2.0. He's a former player, below-average coach and replaced a legend (Roy Williams) at an elite basketball school.

"Like Ollie, Davis had one incredible run with mostly said legend’s players. Unlike Ollie, Davis' run did not end in a National Championship." 

UConn quickly realized this, fired Ollie, and hired Dan Hurley. Do I even need to explain what a fantastic decision that was by the Huskies? Sure, they had to pay Ollie $11.1 million for "improperly firing" him, but do you think the school regrets that for one second? 

Davis had a tremendously talented roster last year, as is usually the case for North Carolina, and earned a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. But they didn't even reach the Elite Eight, losing in the West Regional semifinal against fourth-seeded Alabama. 

This year, Carolina is currently projected to miss the NCAA Tournament, which would be their second miss in three years. That's unacceptable at North Carolina and gives fans flashbacks to the disastrous Matt Doherty years. 

Hubert Davis doesn't have what it takes to lead an elite program in college basketball and would be better served taking a lower-level team for a few years to build up his resume and coaching acumen. 

Remember, Davis was an assistant at UNC for nine years before becoming head coach, the first head coaching gig of his career. North Carolina needs an experienced head coach, and that's just not Davis. 

I'd like to see what a guy like Matt Painter could do with a roster like North Carolina's, personally. 

What happened to Tennessee? 

Everything was going great for the Tennessee Volunteers. They were the #1 team in the country after racing out to a 14-0 start. Then, things started to turn. Quickly. 

They lost by 30 (!!) to the Florida Gators before beating Texas and Georgia in back-to-back games. OK, no biggie. Teams lose. 

But then came the loss on the road against Vanderbilt. Woof. However, the losing wasn't over. Not even close. After a win over Mississippi State, Tennessee lost back-to-back contests against Auburn and Kentucky, the latter coming Tuesday night at home. 

That dropped UT to 1-3 in its past four, 17-4 on the season and just 4-4 in SEC play. To make matters worse, the Volunteers were nearly 10-point favorites against Kentucky and trailed almost the entire game. 

Whatever is going on in Knoxville, Rick Barnes needs to get it figured out, and quickly. The SEC is a difficult conference, so the schedule isn't getting any easier. 

They have a rematch against Florida coming up, and it feels like a big game for Tennessee to prove to themselves that the 14-0 start wasn't a fluke. 

CBB Bad Beat of the Week 

Look away, anyone who had Iowa State +2.5.

Reader emails… 

Chris writes: 

As a faraway UConn alumnus, I love Dan Hurley for his audacity and entertainment value. A couple weeks ago, Alex Karaban missed two free throws at the end of the Villanova loss. Here’s what Danny said, in one of the great humblebrags of our time:

"It’s like life," UConn coach Dan Hurley said. "Sometimes you’ve got to eat (bleep). Sometimes you’re gonna have bad moments. His first two years in college (were) a fairy tale… What I told him to do though is when he feels sad tonight, just get off the bus when we get back to campus and do what I did after Maui: Just pull your box of rings out and maybe just play with your back-to-back national championship rings and get ready for Georgetown."

Emails are always welcome at dan.zaksheske@outkick.com

Recap of OutKick's great college basketball coverage this week… 

Roundball Roundup… 

My editor suggested I add a "Doug Gottlieb-Green Bay Phoenix Tracker" to each edition, so here we go… 

Lost Saturday against Cleveland State. Green Bay fell to 2-20 on the season and are currently riding a 17-game losing streak. 

Green Bay plays Thursday night at Oakland. 

Caleb Love's buzzer-beater was incredible, but Caleb Love's buzzer-beater set to Titanic music is more incredible.  

Dunks are cool too, I guess.

This is less cool. 

Talk about commitment to the team: Lady Vols coach Kim Caldwell eschews the usual 6-to-8-week maternity leave and returns to her team ONE WEEK after giving birth. 

This is nice. 

This is less nice. 

Juuuuustttt a bit outside… 

Well, that's it for me this week. Want to see something included in next week's "CBB With Danny Z"? Shoot me an email at dan.zaksheske@outkick.com or a tweet @RealDanZak