NEWS AND NOTES
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-Big East play got underway with Butler and Georgetown going into double overtime before Butler won in the final couple of seconds. Xavier and Marquette seesawed back and forth as well, but Marquette was unable to hold on to pull the upset.
-San Diego State fell on the road rather convincingly at Wyoming. SDSU just can’t seem to play well with any sort of consistency. That’s better than being consistently bad, but still. They don’t have the biggest margin for error in the world and they won’t end up on the right side of the bubble if they keep dropping these kinds of games.
-Nevada picked up another impressive win with their win against Fresno State. It wasn’t just that they won the game, but that they led a really good team on the road by a comfortable margin for the entire game. The Wolfpack are looking like the class of the Mountain West again this year.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-CREIGHTON AT SETON HALL. Both teams seem to be headed toward the top half of the bracket and are expected to be wearing white in the Round of 64. This is a chance for both to start off conference play with a big win that will look good on the resume.
-TULANE AT TEMPLE (American). Tulane is a much improved team and it will be interesting to see what they can do in conference play. They start with a tough road test against a Temple team that has looked good at times, but still has some work to do.
-HOUSTON AT SOUTH FLORIDA (American). Houston has a bloated record, but they need a strong showing in conference with some solid wins to go along with it in order to land on the right side of the bubble. They definitely need to be able to hold serve in games like this.
-PROVIDENCE AT SAINT JOHN’S (Big East). The Johnnies have been really impressive this year and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them make quite a bit of noise in Big East play and end up dancing in March.
-STEPHEN F AUSTIN AT SELA (Southland). I think if SFA runs the table in league play then they will make the NCAA Tournament even if they end up losing in the conference tournament. That’s the story for the rest of the year. Can they win out?
-SOUTHERN ILLINOIS AT NORTHERN IOWA. UNI has had a rough week, but of their four losses three of them are to top ten teams, so their resume is still pretty strong. If they finish at the top of the MVC I think they’ll be inside the bubble regardless of what happens in the conference tournament.
-PACIFIC AT GONZAGA (West Coast). The Zags need to dominate this league if they want to end up on the top half of the bracket, which they are certainly good enough to do.
-PORTLAND AT BYU (West Coast). BYU has just two losses and some fairly decent wins on their resume. A strong showing in conference should land them inside the bubble, but their margin for error is rather small despite the bloated record.
-LSU AT MEMPHIS. Neither team has looked super strong this season, but both come into this game with just three losses and the longer they keep it up the more realistic it is to think that they can make the field. This is a big game for both teams tonight.
-NEW MEXICO STATE AT UC IRVINE. New Mexico is on a path to land inside the bubble, but they’ll need to win out or come close to it in order for that to happen. They are in the midst of starting a four game stretch of true road games, and are in the middle of an eight game stretch of games away from home. If they get through this they should be in good shape.
-LMU AT SAINT MARY’S (West Coast). SMC has almost no margin for error because they’ve done very little, and outside of Gonzaga and BYU they won’t have any more chances to put good wins in their resume.
BUY GAMES
-NC A&T @ Virginia Tech
-Hartford @ Rutgers