PUPPET RAMBLINGS
For Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day – CLICK HERE
-Some teams are just so schizophrenic they’re too hard to peg. Take this year’s Miami FL’ team, for instance. They have a decisive win at Duke, but they also have a blowout loss at home to Eastern Kentucky. And, they’ve done everything else in between. They were blasted at home by Georgia Tech earlier this week. Georgia Tech has been awful both in conference and away from home, yet they go to Miami and get a conference road win. But, Miami also has road wins at Florida and at Syracuse who while not overly impressive, are still tough teams to beat at home. I don’t know where to seed this team. They’ve shown us that they’re good enough to go to the Final Four by winning decisively at Duke, and that they’re bad enough to go out in the quarterfinals of the OVC Tournament by getting their doors blown off at home by Eastern Kentucky.
-Providence is another team that’s all over the map. They’ve won at Butler, and have a neutral floor win against Notre Dame. Those are two very high caliber wins. But, they’ve also lost at home to Brown, and have two other losses to Marquette and Boston College on the road, neither of which appear to be close to the NIT right now. Two losses to bubbly Saint John’s are also noteworthy. Again, it’s hard to decide what to do with them.
-Last week, I talked about how I thought Virginia was better than Kentucky. Up until the last under 4 timeout in their game against Duke this past weekend, I thought I was looking like a genius, then Duke kicked on the afterburners and won their third true road game against a top fifteen team. You’re welcome, Virginia, for the jinx. They have a big one in Chapel Hill tonight.
-We are not unanimous on this, but with true road wins at Wisconsin, Louisville and now Virginia, how in the hell is Duke not a #1 seed?? If you’ve followed me over the years, you’re probably dying of shock hearing me say that because my normal critique is that Duke is NOT worthy of a #1 seed, but that the committee will give it to them anyway. This year, they certainly are. That’s unreal. In fact, Louisville, Virginia and Wisky have a combined total of four home losses. Duke is responsible for three of them.
-A UTR note, I now think Green Bay needs the automatic bid to get in. It’s not easy to win at Cleveland State, but to get to the tournament you have to be able to win games that aren’t easy to win. Green Bay did not. In fact, they got creamed.
-Prior to the start of the season I said I thought Northern Iowa had a good chance of making the tournament. We were probably giving them more credit than anyone else at the time, but we still underestimated them. They WILL make the tournament. They MAY get a protected seed. They blew out Wichita State over the weekend, and even though they were at home, Wichita is a very strong road team. Northern Iowa may prove to be the best team in the MVC by the end of the year.
-The SEC has been so bad for so long, but this year they currently have seven teams in the picture. Many of those teams are close to the bubble, so it should be an exciting finish.
-VCU was upset at home by crosstown conference rival Richmond. What’s more upsetting than the upset is that they lost Briante Weber for the year, who was on pace to set an NCAA record for most steals in a career. This was Weber’s senior year, so his career is over. It’s a tough blow for him and his team, who have had a tremendous season up to this point.
-We will be recording our Bracket Racket Podcast tonight. Be sure and check it out either later tonight or tomorrow morning.
-And be sure to check out our message board by clicking…..ahh, screw it. I’m tired of linking it. If you want to see it, it’s linked at the top of the page.
TONIGHT’S HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-VIRGINIA AT NORTH CAROLINA (ACC). Both teams are coming off tough losses where they blew leads late in the game. It’s a chance for either team to rebound and add a high quality win to their profile. Virginia is still very much in the hunt for a #1 seed, especially if they pick up a win here.
-HAMPTON AT NJIT. The team of the people!!! NJIT has protected their house going 6-1 at home. A win tonight gets them to 13-10 on the year, and one step closer to the CIT.
-IOWA STATE AT KANSAS (Big Twelve). Iowa State has not been the best road team, and Kansas is as tough a place to win in the country as any. Having said that, if Iowa State can pull this off, they can tie Kansas for first in the standings, and with this being the toughest conference in the country, an outright first place finish has to mean quite a bit to the committee.
Puppet Ramblings, and Highlighted Games for Monday, Feb. 2nd
PUPPET RAMBLINGS
For Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day – CLICK HERE
-Some teams are just so schizophrenic they’re too hard to peg. Take this year’s Miami FL’ team, for instance. They have a decisive win at Duke, but they also have a blowout loss at home to Eastern Kentucky. And, they’ve done everything else in between. They were blasted at home by Georgia Tech earlier this week. Georgia Tech has been awful both in conference and away from home, yet they go to Miami and get a conference road win. But, Miami also has road wins at Florida and at Syracuse who while not overly impressive, are still tough teams to beat at home. I don’t know where to seed this team. They’ve shown us that they’re good enough to go to the Final Four by winning decisively at Duke, and that they’re bad enough to go out in the quarterfinals of the OVC Tournament by getting their doors blown off at home by Eastern Kentucky.
-Providence is another team that’s all over the map. They’ve won at Butler, and have a neutral floor win against Notre Dame. Those are two very high caliber wins. But, they’ve also lost at home to Brown, and have two other losses to Marquette and Boston College on the road, neither of which appear to be close to the NIT right now. Two losses to bubbly Saint John’s are also noteworthy. Again, it’s hard to decide what to do with them.
-Last week, I talked about how I thought Virginia was better than Kentucky. Up until the last under 4 timeout in their game against Duke this past weekend, I thought I was looking like a genius, then Duke kicked on the afterburners and won their third true road game against a top fifteen team. You’re welcome, Virginia, for the jinx. They have a big one in Chapel Hill tonight.
-We are not unanimous on this, but with true road wins at Wisconsin, Louisville and now Virginia, how in the hell is Duke not a #1 seed?? If you’ve followed me over the years, you’re probably dying of shock hearing me say that because my normal critique is that Duke is NOT worthy of a #1 seed, but that the committee will give it to them anyway. This year, they certainly are. That’s unreal. In fact, Louisville, Virginia and Wisky have a combined total of four home losses. Duke is responsible for three of them.
-A UTR note, I now think Green Bay needs the automatic bid to get in. It’s not easy to win at Cleveland State, but to get to the tournament you have to be able to win games that aren’t easy to win. Green Bay did not. In fact, they got creamed.
-Prior to the start of the season I said I thought Northern Iowa had a good chance of making the tournament. We were probably giving them more credit than anyone else at the time, but we still underestimated them. They WILL make the tournament. They MAY get a protected seed. They blew out Wichita State over the weekend, and even though they were at home, Wichita is a very strong road team. Northern Iowa may prove to be the best team in the MVC by the end of the year.
-The SEC has been so bad for so long, but this year they currently have seven teams in the picture. Many of those teams are close to the bubble, so it should be an exciting finish.
-VCU was upset at home by crosstown conference rival Richmond. What’s more upsetting than the upset is that they lost Briante Weber for the year, who was on pace to set an NCAA record for most steals in a career. This was Weber’s senior year, so his career is over. It’s a tough blow for him and his team, who have had a tremendous season up to this point.
-We will be recording our Bracket Racket Podcast tonight. Be sure and check it out either later tonight or tomorrow morning.
-And be sure to check out our message board by clicking…..ahh, screw it. I’m tired of linking it. If you want to see it, it’s linked at the top of the page.
TONIGHT’S HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-VIRGINIA AT NORTH CAROLINA (ACC). Both teams are coming off tough losses where they blew leads late in the game. It’s a chance for either team to rebound and add a high quality win to their profile. Virginia is still very much in the hunt for a #1 seed, especially if they pick up a win here.
-HAMPTON AT NJIT. The team of the people!!! NJIT has protected their house going 6-1 at home. A win tonight gets them to 13-10 on the year, and one step closer to the CIT.
-IOWA STATE AT KANSAS (Big Twelve). Iowa State has not been the best road team, and Kansas is as tough a place to win in the country as any. Having said that, if Iowa State can pull this off, they can tie Kansas for first in the standings, and with this being the toughest conference in the country, an outright first place finish has to mean quite a bit to the committee.