SPOTLIGHT GAME
-OREGON AT COLORADO (Pac Twelve) (***Hoops HD Spotlight Game***). If you’ve been following the Hoops HD podcasts and tweets over the last few weeks, then you know that Chad and I have drastically different views on these two teams. Oregon has won a bunch of home games against teams that really don’t win on the road and that may make the NIT, and of course Chad thinks this is the most spectacular feat in the history of sports. Okay, the Ducks did squeak by Utah 77-59 earlier this week, but that’s clearly an anomaly. Colorado has actually played good basketball with four wins away from home, including at Auburn who just beat Kentucky, at Stanford who just beat Cal, and even their losses are pretty solid. For instance, they played a very good Iowa State team very tough to open the year. Tonight, Colorado will beat Oregon. Chad doesn’t think they will, but Chad is often wrong in matters relating to basketball. Case in point, he thinks Oregon is good, and Colorado is not. WHERE ARE MY BUFFS FANS?? I want all of you to tweet at Chad all game long @csherwood_1973 telling him what an idiot he is for liking Oregon and hating Colorado!!!
NEWS AND NOTES
-Notre Dame picked up a season defining win yesterday when they knocked off Duke on the road. It is a huge caliber road win that completely changes the complexion of their current profile. And, it was seemingly totally out of the blue. They had played well, but lost, at home to Pittsburgh just a week ago, and then needed to sweat out Georgia Tech at home. To go from playing like a maybe-bubble-caliber team to winning at Duke was a huge surprise.
-Baylor has had one hell of a week. I know that Texas Tech isn’t ranked, but they have been very tough on their home court and Baylor went there and won. This followed up a hugely surprising win at Iowa State earlier this week.
-Kentucky went in to Auburn and lost. If you looked at the rankings this was a huge surprise, and I’m not going to downplay it to the degree to where I’m going to say it wasn’t an upset, but Auburn was the home team and Kentucky had been looking less than stellar on the road. They lost at LSU just the other week, who isn’t a tournament team. Auburn isn’t tournament team either. Kentucky is a tournament team, but when you lose two road games to non-tournament teams it’s a probable indicator that they’re not a protected seed.
-Clemson won their third straight game against a ranked team with their win over Miami FL yesterday. Prior to that three game streak against ranked teams, they had won at Syracuse. Clemson still has some work to do and they need to pick up some road wins, but they are a team to seriously look at right now.
-Providence lost at home to an unranked conference opponent. That’s the second time they’ve done that this year. Perhaps they should just play road games. On paper, they’re actually easier to beat at home. Seton Hall is the team that knocked them off, and it was a huge win for them.
-For Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day between Indiana State v Wichita State – CLICK HERE
OTHER HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-CREIGHTON AT DEPAUL (Big East). Creighton has been playing well lately, and they could end up getting the committee’s attention if they keep it up. Keeping it up means picking up the winnable road games against teams like DePaul, who actually has a losing record at home. Even though this is a road game, it’s still a game Creighton needs.
-CONNECTICUT AT HOUSTON (American). Both teams need some quality wins on their profile. UConn is in better shape than Houston, but isn’t to the point to where they can just skate through the rest of the season. Both teams still have work to do.
-MICHIGAN STATE AT WISCONSIN (Big Ten). Michigan State lost big at home to Iowa earlier in the week, but still has the resume of a #1 seed team. Having said that, Wiscy doesn’t look like a tournament team this year, and #1 seeds need to win on the road against non tournament teams.
-SMU AT TULANE (American). SMU is unbeaten, but ineligible. Chad says I have to keep bringing them up even though they’re irrelevant.
-MICHIGAN AT IOWA (Big Ten). Michigan has been playing better and looking like a tournament team. A win today could boost their profile through the roof. Iowa is unbeaten at home, and has been playing remarkably well lately. I had them on my personal #1 line in my latest bracket, and I stand by it. They had a close loss at Iowa State, won at Purdue, blew out Michigan State at home when the Spartans weren’t at full strength, and then blew them out by more at Michigan State when the Spartans were at full strength. Iowa is REALLY damn good!!
-VIRGINIA AT FLORIDA STATE (ACC). Virginia is trying to solidify themselves as a protected seed, and needs to win games like this to do it. Florida State is trying to end up inside the bubble, and since they’re at home for this one, they need to win games like this to do it.
-OREGON STATE AT UTAH (Pac Twelve). Utah appears to be safely in the field now, but also has room for upward mobility. Oregon State is much improved this year. Whether they make the field or not, you cannot ignore the progress they’ve made. Having said that, if they want to make the NCAA Tournament as an at-large bid, they need at least one win like this on their profile, and possibly at least two.