NEWS AND NOTES
-First and foremost, WE STILL LOVE THE UNH WILDCATS!!!! They are the Team of the People!! They’ve had an incredibly frustrating couple of weeks, but their high ceiling is still high!! They’re back in action tonight, and Chad Sherwood has made it his UTR Game of the Day! CLICK HERE to read about tonight’s big game at Albany
-We had some great showcase games yesterday! We had THREE games that matched up top fifteen teams! All three of those games were complete duds! Xavier had a great first ten minutes, and was absolutely blown off the floor by Villanova after that. Baylor had an okay first half, and then was absolutely run out of the gym by West Virginia in the second half. Duke tried to stay within reach of Florida State, but by the end of the game that was pretty much a blowout as well. All three home teams won rather easily. As big as the margins were, it isn’t totally crazy that the games were blowouts, nor does it mean that Xavier, Duke, and Baylor aren’t as good as their rankings or profiles indicated going into last night. It just means that they’re not used to playing in hostile environments against other highly ranked teams yet. Sometimes a team has to get their noses bloodied before they realize that they need to fight harder. Not to pick on Xavier, but the same thing happened to them at Villanova last season, and they went on to absorb it and were a pretty tough road team after that. Don’t be surprised if we see the same thing happen again from all three of these teams.
Not to continue to harp on that point, but if you go back through the years, most teams lose their first couple of true road game that is played in a hostile environment. The earlier a team goes on the road and plays a game like that, the more quickly they seem to become acclimated. We saw Virginia go to George Washington last year, and North Carolina go to Northern Iowa and Texas as well. Both teams lost those games, but at the same time they also seemed to become more acclimated more quickly to playing on the road. I think what we saw last night was teams that just weren’t used to playing in those kinds of environments against those kinds of teams. I know Xavier did go to Baylor, but that was really their only true road game against a very strong team.
-Kansas State lost in spectacular fashion at Texas Tech after a late game technical foul against Coach Bruce Weber basically killed their chances to pick up what would have been a solid conference road win. It was another good home win for a Texas Tech team that’s now flirting with the bubble.
-Indiana’s frustrations continue as they lost at Maryland. There’s really no shame in losing at Maryland, and they were in a position to win the game in the final seconds, but the aggravation of not getting it done is starting to mount for the Hoosiers.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-HOUSTON AT EAST CAROLINA (American). Houston’s at-large chances are still flickering. They need to knock off some of the teams at the top of the league as well as blow through the rest of the league.
-GEORGE WASHINGTON AT VCU (Atlantic Ten). VCU is one of the few A10 teams that appears to be hovering around the bubble. Like all bubble teams with limited chances at notable wins, their margin for error is small.
-SOUTH CAROLINA AT TENNESSEE (SEC). South Carolina is clearly the better team and is having the better season, but this won’t be the easiest road game for them to win.
-MINNESOTA AT MICHIGAN STATE (Big Ten). Minnesota has been one of the bigger surprises of the season. For that matter so has Michigan State, but they’ve been the other kind of a surprise. This is the kind of road win that could further solidify Minnesota, and it’s the type of home win that could help stabilize Michigan State.
-PITTSBURGH AT LOUISVILLE (ACC). Louisville still appears to be on the cusp of a protected seed and should be able to take care of business at home and even out their conference record.
-LOYOLA CHICAGO AT WICHITA STATE (Missouri Valley). Wichita appears to be somewhat safely inside the bubble and should remain there so long as they hold serve.
-DAYTON AT UMASS (Atlantic Ten). Dayton appears to be inside the bubble for now, but because the league has so many teams that appear to be NIT caliber at best their margin for error is rather small.
-SETON HALL AT MARQUETTE (Big East). Seton Hall is 12-3. Seton Hall is the defending Big East Champion. As much love as the Big East has been getting, I’m amazed that very little of it has seemed to trickle down to a Seton Hall program that throughout all of last year and so far all of this year has been very good. They have a chance to pick up yet another conference road win against a Marquette team that’s also on the rise.
-TCU AT TEXAS (Big Twelve). There has been a lot of TCU love here at Hoops HD. It is warranted in the sense that their program is improving. It is not warranted (at least in my opinion) as far as them being improved to the point of being an NCAA Tournament team. Texas has clearly not looked like an NCAA team. If TCU truly is an NCAA team, then this is the kind of road game they need to be able to win. So for that reason, I believe it is a rather important litmus test.
-NORTH CAROLINA AT WAKE FOREST (ACC). UNC continues to look like they are clearly in the protected seed range and they have a winnable road game tonight.
-LSU AT TEXAS A&M (SEC). I highlight this game only so I can say how utterly disappointed I am in Texas A&M so far.
-MICHIGAN AT ILLINOIS (Big Ten). What a bubblelicous game this is! Both teams really need this one for that reason.
-NC STATE AT BOSTON COLLEGE (ACC). I’m still not all that high on this NC State team, and even if they pick up this road win, that will not change.
-IOWA STATE AT OKLAHOMA STATE (Big Twelve). This game has a pivotal feel for both teams. Both have looked like they could be good, and both have a few good things on their profile, but both need to add a lot more meat to it.
-BUTLER AT CREIGHTON (Big East). Both teams are high in the rankings, and if the season ended today it’s very likely that both would be protected seeds. Butler hasn’t been the best road team this year, and Creighton has been remarkable at home, so the advantage is strongly with the Blue Jays. If Butler wins this and gets a true road win on their profile of this caliber it probably moves them up at least one seed line. Maybe more.