NEWS AND NOTES
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-For Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day – CLICK HERE
-Trae Young had 48 points against Oklahoma State, but the Sooners still came up short on the road against their in-state rivals in an 83-81 overtime thriller. When a team is shooting for the #1 line any loss could potentially knock them off because the margin for error is so thin, but in the grand scheme of things this is still a great Oklahoma team that, barring a completely collapse, should still end up as a protected seed. They just had their egos a little bit bruised yesterday, as anyone does that loses to a rival, but it’ll wear off quickly.
-Texas went into West Virginia and had terrible awful things happen to them. West Virginia had a frustrating week and it’s as if all those frustrations came out yesterday in an 86-51 mauling of Texas.
-Wichita State lost their second straight game, and I think this could knock them out of protected seed contention. It was close all the way through, but Houston was the team who was in control the entire time. Houston continues to flirt with the bubble. Some days they look great, other days they look NIT-ish. They looked pretty good yesterday.
-Iowa State, who had been struggling, blew out Texas Tech, who had been fantastic, yesterday. It’s never easy to win on the road, but the margin of victory was somewhat of a shock.
-Baylor played their best game of the year, but still came up short against Kansas. Kansas keeps winning, but they’ve had to sweat out A LOT of games, especially at home, that you would expect them to win handily. That was true again yesterday.
-Xavier got what was probably their biggest win of the year yesterday as they knocked off Seton Hall on the road. I’m not as big on Seton Hall as a lot of people, meaning I don’t see them as a protected seed, but I do think they’re easily wearing white in the Round of 64 and that was a great win for Xavier.
-Arizona knocked off Stanford on the road in a thrilling game. Stanford doesn’t have a great resume if you look at the entire year, but if you look at them over the past couple of weeks they had been playing fantastic. It’s not a shock at all that it was as close as it was. Look for Stanford to continue to play well and don’t be surprised if they end up in the field by the end of the year.
-Arizona State went into Cal and only won by 8. That is just as disturbing, if not more-so, as many of their recent losses.
-Florida got a HUGE road win at Kentucky. This Gator team isn’t the most consistent team out there, but it’s a lot better than being consistently bad.
-Tennessee picked up what I think is a really nice and sort of needed road win against South Carolina. The Vols are 4-3 in league play, and whenever you add a true road win against a decent team to your resume things start to look better.
-TCU went into Kansas State and lost to the horrendously dressed K State Wildcats. Seriously, I don’t know where they found those uniforms, but it’s hard for me to believe that anyone would intentionally leave the house looking like that! K State continues to roll and TCU continues to sink.
-Creighton could have really used a road win at Providence, but the Friars picked up another win and are now a very impressive 5-2 in Big East play.
-Texas A&M got another win that they really needed as they knocked off bubblicous Mizzou at home.
-Middle Tennessee picked up a HUGE road win at Western Kentucky. The questions are whether or not this is enough to offset Middle Tennessee’s loss to Marshall earlier in the week in the eyes of the Selection Committee, and whether or not it’s too damaging to WKU’s at-large chances to knock them out of an at-large bid even if the Toppers win out.
-Nevada and Boise State went back and forth in a game that was a ton of fun to watch, but Nevada finally got control in the final minute and adds another really nice win to their resume. Boise missed an opportunity to get another significant road win themselves and may be on the wrong side of the bubble at this checkpoint.
-Bubblicious UCLA fell at Oregon last night. They could have really done without that.
-For Central Florida, there is good news and bad news on the injury front. The good news is that B.J. Taylor is finally back in the lineup and was productive with 25 points in a win at South Florida yesterday. The bad news is that Tacko Fall has been shut down with a shoulder injury and will not play again this season. They have a big opportunity later this week to get a signature win at Wichita State.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-RUTGERS AT MICHIGAN (Big Ten). Michigan has been playing a lot better in the last few weeks, but in their last game they were blown out at Nebraska. This is a nice chance for them to rebound and get back on track.
-MIAMI FL AT NC STATE (ACC). Miami’s resume is rather unspectacular. At the very least there is a ton of room for improvement and a road win over an NC State team that’s at least flirting with the bubble would help a lot.
-BOSTON COLLEGE AT LOUISVILLE (ACC). Louisville has completely turned it around in the last week with two big conference road wins. They’ve jumped out to a 4-1 start in conference play and have another winnable game today against a much improved but not quite there yet BC team.
-VIRGINIA AT WAKE FOREST (ACC). Virginia is ranked #2 in the nation, they’re gunning for the #1 line, and they have what should be another winnable road game against a Wake team that just doesn’t have it this year.
-WASHINGTON STATE AT UTAH (Pac Twelve). Both these teams are so far outside the bubble that this probably isn’t even worth highlighting.