NEWS AND NOTES
-Yesterday sure wasn’t lacking in excitement. Arizona picked up a huge road win at UCLA in what was one of the biggest games of the day, and what is now probably one of the biggest true road wins of the season that any team has. I don’t see how you can’t think of Arizona as being a solid protected seed now.
-Baylor got the win at TCU, but it wasn’t easy. It was not until the final minute that they finally ran away from them. TCU has lost two straight, both were close games that would have been considered good wins had they picked them up.
-Marquette went into Creighton and got the win. By all accounts Creighton will struggle down the stretch without Maurice Watson.
-West Virginia lost their second straight game to Kansas State, who picked up what is easily their biggest win of the year.
-North Carolina beat Boston College, but they had to sweat a lot more than what most were expecting.
-Florida State sprinted ahead of Louisville by jumping out to a 14-0 lead, but Louisville came back and made it close all throughout the second half. FSU got the win, but Louisville still played one of their better games of the season so far minus the first couple of minutes.
-Butler got the win at DePaul. By one point. In overtime. A win is a win, but….geez. That’s cutting it kinda close against a team that they should have clobbered.
-Wisconsin got a really nice road win against Minnesota. I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it. I really like this Wisconsin team.
-Florida was upset by Vanderbilt at home in what was one of the bigger surprises of the day. It was Florida’s first home loss of the season.
-Oklahoma fell in double overtime to Iowa State, and gave up leads both at the end of regulation and at the end of the first overtime. Had they gotten this win I think they would have been on a pace to actually build a very strong profile by the end of the year. I suppose they still could, but this does slow their momentum somewhat.
-Oklahoma State finally got their first Big Twelve win, and did so in very surprising and impressive fashion by blowing out Texas Tech on the road.
-Utah got another decisive road win, and they continue to build their profile. Lee Delvecchio continues to be unimpressed with Lorenzo Romar. @HoopsHD
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-SAINT JOHN’S AT SETON HALL (Big East). Seton Hall is still on the right side of the bubble, but they need to pull themselves out of a three game losing streak and this is perhaps one of their most winnable remaining games.
-NORTHWESTERN AT OHIO STATE (Big Ten). This would be another nice road win for a Northwestern team that’s getting closer and closer to making the NCAA Tournament for the very first time.
-SAINT LOUIS AT DAYTON (Atlantic Ten). Dayton will land on the right side of the bubble if they’re able to run away from the rest of the league. The good news is that this is a very winnable game. The bad news is that it’s so winnable that it’s virtually a buy game and if by chance they don’t win it Dayton will be absolutely sunk.
-LA SALLE AT VCU (Atlantic Ten). La Salle has a few big warts on their profile, but overall I think I actually like it better than VCU’s, and I think that their team is better than VCU’s as well. They’re on the road today, so it’s a huge challenge, but if La Salle does get the win they will be 8-1 in their last nine games, and have road wins against both VCU and Rhody. The loss to Texas Southern aside, this would actually be a very good La Salle profile if they manage to win this.
-GEORGETOWN AT XAVIER (Big East). Xavier feels like they’re in a tailspin, and for that reason it is very important that they pick up this win at home, but in reality their “tailspin” came in three straight losses, two of which were close games, and two of which were on the road, to top fifteen teams. So, while they missed some chances to pick up good wins, they didn’t exactly hit the skids and pick up bad losses either. They continue to hover around the #6-#7 seed range in our projections, which still makes them a first ballot team.
-UCF AT MEMPHIS (American East). Both teams’ chances of an at-large bid are barely flickering, but I do suppose it’s possible that the committee will look at one or both of them if they really kick it into gear.
-VIRGINIA TECH AT CLEMSON (ACC). Clemson has lost five straight, but all were to very strong teams. Nevertheless they desperately need to pick up this win at home. Virginia Tech is having a good year, but could use a few more road wins themselves.
-ARIZONA STATE AT USC (Pac Twelve). This is a winnable home game that USC kind of needs to pick up considering that they’ve lost three of their last four.