News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Sunday, Feb 26th

NEWS AND NOTES

-For Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day, which involves a Middle Tennessee team that is likely on their way to the NCAA Tournament – CLICK HERE

-Gonzaga, after absolutely blowing through the season, and blowing through their conference, and being absolutely dominant at home, had a chance to finish the regular season undefeated yesterday…..and ended up losing to BYU in a game that still stupefies me.  The Zags were up 16-2 (or something like that) around the time of the first media timeout.  From that point on BYU outscored them by 20 or so points to get the biggest road win of the year.  BYU probably needs to do a little more to end up on the bubble, but if they get another win against Saint Mary’s in the conference tournament they will at least be within reach of it.  I believe their RPI jumped over 20 spots with that win yesterday.

-UCLA picked up their most impressive win yesterday with a win at Arizona.  This is their second monster road win as they won at Kentucky earlier in the year, and they’re a last second shot away from having a third huge road win at Oregon.  UCLA doesn’t always play up to their ceiling, but when they do it’s a ceiling that’s very damn high!

-Iowa State picked up another big win as they knocked off Baylor at home in a game that went back and fourth.  They’ve now passed Baylor in the conference standings, and most likely knocked them off the #1 line.

-Miami FL continues to trend up and improve as they handed Duke their second straight road loss yesterday.  Duke was without Grayson Allen so there is no reason to be too alarmed, but they’re most likely done with any chance at the #1 line.

-Kentucky avenged their loss to Florida despite being down a man.  They’re now in the driver’s seat to finish first in the SEC, and will more likely than not end up as  protected seed.

-Michigan continues to play well as they ran away from a Purdue team yesterday that had been playing like a top 15 team.

-Iowa picked up a big win at Maryland.  It was just their second true road win, and that is a problem, but if they can somehow win at Wisconsin this week then they’ll at least be in the conversation.

-When it comes to Vanderbilt, I think they’re more than just in the conversation.  I think they’re in if they can win one of their final two games against either Florida or Kentucky.  They blew passed Mississippi State yesterday.

-Both Wichita State and Illinois State picked up wins to finish tied at the top of the Missouri Valley standings.  Illinois State wins the tiebreaker and will earn the better seed due to having a better RPI.

-Providence came from behind at home to beat a Marquette team that’s inside the bubble.  I still feel Marquette is reasonably safe, but they really could have used this one yesterday.  As for Providence, they’ve played their way onto the bubble and continue to improve their chances as the season goes on.

-Florida State picked up a win at Clemson, which was a pretty good win for them considering they only had two true road wins coming into the game.  Clemson had a chance to win the game on a last second shot, but missed.  They say all things even out.  Well, in order for things to even out for this Clemson team and offset all the close calls they’ve had not go their way they’ll have to make the Final Four.

-VCU, who has won more exciting games against non-impressive teams than just about anyone in the nation, couldn’t get it done at Rhode Island yesterday.  I still feel they’re inside the bubble, but that win would have pretty much iced it.

-Kansas State had been in a bit of a tailspin, but was still in good shape going into yesterday’s game against an Oklahoma team that will miss the NIT.  Kansas State proceeded to lose by 30 to this sub NIT caliber Oklahoma team.  That’s not good.

-In one of the more exciting games yesterday Northwestern surged out to a big lead at Indiana, and then fell apart at the end of the first half as IU closed on a 22-0 run.  Northwestern came back back and built a lead in the second half, but they fell apart at the end of that half as well.  Northwestern had a 2 point lead and the ball with ten seconds to go.  After not scoring, and giving up an IU dunk, and fouling IU on the dunk, they ended up losing 63-62.  It’s not enough to get IU inside the bubble, nor is it enough to knock Northwestern outside of the bubble, but it was certainly enough to make IU feel good and Northwestern feel bad for a day.

-Villanova, Kansas, Oregon (who got an unexpected scare at Stanford), North Carolina, West Virginia (who got a scare at TCU), SMU, Virginia, Saint Mary’s, and Minnesota are all first ballot teams who picked up wins.  TCU is right on the bubble and really could have used the home win over West Virginia.

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-SYRACUSE AT LOUISVILLE (ACC).  Syracuse has a lot of big wins, but has done very little on the road.  We’ve seen the committee leave teams out that have struggled in true road games, and although it’s more likely than not that Syracuse will get in, a win in a game like this would all but assure it.  Louisville is coming off a loss at North Carolina, but is still a solid protected seed that could land as high as the #2 line.

-CINCINNATI AT UCF (American).  Cincinnati continues to dominate and can add yet another road win to an already solid profile.  If they win the AAC Tournament, which they are certainly good enough to do, then they may enter the NCAA Tournament with 30 wins.

-XAVIER AT BUTLER (Big East).  These two teams are going in different directions.  Butler is coming off a huge road win at Villanova and is now solidly in the protected seed range, whereas Xavier has lost four straight and is falling backwards toward the bubble.

-WISCONSIN AT MICHIGAN STATE (Big Ten).  Wisconsin is also in a bit of a tailspin having lost three of their last four, and they have another tough game today against a Michigan State team that’s struggled, but has now won five of seven and appears to be playing better.

-MONMOUTH AT IONA (Metro Atlantic).  Monmouth still has an outside shot at an at-large bid if they win this game and avoid a loss in at least the quarterfinals.

-GEORGIA TECH AT NOTRE DAME (ACC).  Whenever we are ready to completely write off Georgia Tech they manage to win a big game, so for that reason Notre Dame better not overlook them.

-ILLINOIS AT NEBRASKA (Big Ten).  Illinois is on the outside looking in, but if their last three games are all winnable and if they pick up all three of them and then pick up another big win in the Big Ten Tournament they’re going to be right in the discussion.  I tried explaining this to people on the podcast the other night, but they wouldn’t listen!!