NEWS AND NOTES
-For John Stalica’s latest personal bracket projections – CLICK HERE
-For Rocco Miller’s first bracket at his website – CLICK HERE
-For Jon Teitel’s weekly bracket where he guesses the NCAA Selection Committee – CLICK HERE
-For Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day between Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Texas Southern – CLICK HERE
-Yesterday was a rather chalky day on the court, with all the results ending up pretty much with the better teams (on the radar) holding serve. Boston College sure made the end of their game against Louisville interesting where they almost overcame an 18 point deficit in less than three minutes, but the Cardinals held on to win.
-Canisius got a huge road win themselves at Iona thanks to an intentional foul by the Gaels that short-circuited an Iona comeback in the closing seconds. Iona forced a tie-up down a point with 8 seconds to go, but Canisius retained the ball because of the possession arrow. On the ensuing sequence, it took Iona 6 seconds to commit a foul and ended up undercutting a Canisius player in the act. After hitting one of two free throws, Canisius inbounded the ball and ran out the clock to complete the season sweep and claim sole possession of first place in the Metro Atlantic.
-In the America East, Vermont won a tough road game at Hartford where they were rarely challenged. 2nd place UMBC went to Albany and put up no fight whatsover in a game where they were sand-blasted.
-The Big South is a logjam. In other breaking news, the sun rises in the East, water is wet and the Puppet will be barred from entry at the Nebraska-Ohio State game tonight. (We are also expecting a couple of other HoopsHD VIPs to be in attendance, though.)
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-NORTH CAROLINA AT VIRGINIA TECH (ACC). North Carolina appears to be on pace to get a protected seed and shouldn’t have too much trouble picking up a conference road win tonight. VA Tech does have some talent, but their resume is at best really bland and they’ll need to really finish strong just to get into the discussion.
-MARYLAND AT INDIANA (Big Ten). Maryland is a fringe bubble team, and any team in that position needs to take care of business in their winnable road games.
-IOWA STATE AT TEXAS (Big 12). Iowa State is coming off a big and surprising blowout win over the weekend, but they still have a lot of work to do before we are ready to declare them a tournament caliber team. Texas, on the other hand, was blown out by West Virginia in their last game and is simply looking to rebound from that and get the sour taste out of their mouths.
-NEBRASKA AT OHIO STATE (Big Ten). Nebraska has been hot lately, but they have struggled away from home and still have a ton of work to do in order to land inside the bubble. Having said that, winning this game would certainly go a very long way toward helping them reach the tourney. Ohio State has been red hot as well and will be in the discussion for a protected seed if they keep it up.
-WEST VIRGINIA AT TCU (Big 12). TCU REALLY needs a big win. They are just 2-5 in league play and you get the since that it is slowly slipping away. A loss tonight won’t crush them by any means, but eventually they’re going to need to win a game like this (especially now that they need to show they can win without PG Jaylen Fisher) and get to at least 2 games under .500 in league play. West Virginia is coming off a huge blowout win against Texas and still has a good chance of ending up on the #1 line.
-MICHIGAN STATE AT ILLINOIS (Big Ten). The Spartans had a rough week the other week, but other than that they’ve been fantastic this season and should be able to pick this one up on the road.
-KANSAS STATE AT BAYLOR (Big 12). K State is still outside the bubble, but is making up ground rather quickly and can take another big step forward with a road win tonight. Baylor is nowhere near the field, but they are coming off a rather impressive effort at Kansas where they lost a close one.