NEWS AND NOTES
–For our latest HOOPS HD REPORT, where we recap what felt like one of the craziest weekends in college basketball history, and kind of reset everything as far as the major conferences go – CLICK HERE
-For Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day between Princeton and Penn – CLICK HERE
-Kansas rebounded from their home loss against Iowa State and picked up their second win of the year against Kansas State. It was an electric atmosphere and K State hung in until the final minutes, but Kansas pulled it out. Virginia also ran away from a short handed Louisville team in yesterday’s other featured game.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-MARYLAND AT PENN STATE (Big Ten). Maryland has been in, and to their credit won, a lot of close games. They should get this one tonight, but although Penn State is not a tournament team I think they’ve proven they are capable of beating tournament teams at home, so it’s not a gimme.
-ALABAMA AT SOUTH CAROLINA (SEC). Some on the Hoops HD staff seem to have the insane notion that Alabama can thunder down the stretch and end up on the bubble. I’m not seeing it, but if that were to happen tonight is the kind of game they’d need to win. South Carolina continues to look impressive and if things fall right I could even see them contending for a protected seed.
-FLORIDA AT GEORGIA (SEC). Florida is fresh off their emotional blowout win against Kentucky, but Georgia isn’t the easiest team to go on the road and beat so they need to avoid a letdown.
-LSU AT KENTUCKY (SEC). Kentucky has lost three out of four, but none of those were home games against non NIT teams. This may be exactly what they need to swing things back in the right direction.
-WAKE FOREST AT NOTRE DAME (ACC). Wake is outside the bubble and needs a win like this, and while th Irish are still safely in the top half of the bracket they are in a bit of a tailspin having lost five of their last six. Both teams need this win for different reasons.
-TULSA AT MEMPHIS (American). I think Memphis is just one loss away from being entirely out of the picture for an at-large.
-RHODE ISLAND AT UMASS (Atlantic Ten). Rhody’s chances of making the dance are very slim. They basically have to win out in order to do it, and hope that some other things fall their way.
-GEORGETOWN AT VILLANOVA (Big East). Nova is competing for a #1 seed, and Georgetown is just trying to get on the right side of the bubble. They’ll probably need a win like this in order to make it happen, which is much easier said than done.
-ILLINOIS AT NORTHWESTERN (Big Ten). More often than not the storyline of this game is that it’s a tournament team taking on a possible NIT team. We have that again, but the roles are reversed.
-SYRACUSE AT CLEMSON (ACC). This is a game between two bubble teams who need to string together some wins between now and the end.
-ILLINOIS STATE AT DRAKE (Missouri Valley). If Illinois State wins out they’ll probably have a less than fifty percent chance of making the field, but they will have a chance. If they don’t win out they’ll virtually have no chance.
-SAINT JOSEPH’S AT DAYTON (Atlantic Ten). Dayton should end up safely inside the bubble so long as they hold serve, and that means winning their games against non-tournament teams.
-VANDERBILT AT ARKANSAS (SEC). Arkansas had to come from behind to win the first game at Vandy. They are coming off what is easily their most damaging loss of the season and cannot afford to follow that up with a home loss to a team that currently has a losing record.
-IOWA STATE AT TEXAS (Big Twelve). Iowa State is coming off a huge upset win at Kansas, and will be in very good shape if they can add another conference road win to their profile.
-MICHIGAN STATE AT MICHIGAN (Big Ten). It’s a rivalry game between a Michigan State team who appears to be safely in the field barring a collapse, but has a lot of room to build their profile, and a Michigan team who needs to string together some wins just to land in the field.
-TEXAS TECH AT TCU (Big Twelve). This is a game between two bubble teams that really need wins like this between now and the end, especially when you consider that it may come down to having to beat out each other.
-BUTLER AT MARQUETTE (Big East). Marquette has managed some big wins, as has Butler. Butler clearly has the better profile, but they haven’t always been the best road team so it wouldn’t shock me if Marquette were able to pull this off.