NEWS AND NOTES
-We will be posting our latest Bracket Projections either today or tomorrow. I think. We will also be recording the Hoops HD Report tonight instead of tomorrow night. It’s that time of year where we have to put a few things on hold and make a few changes for what’s really important. And what’s really important right now is the Diamond Head Classic. We plan to spend all day Monday prepping for the games on Tuesday.
-Top ranked Kansas went down at Arizona State. It is a huge win for the Sun Devils and it will go a long way come their selection and seeding in March, but I do want to point something else out. Prior to this game Arizona State had lost to Nevada on a neutral floor (not bad), barely beaten Georgia on the road (kinda bad, but they won), and was beaten handily by Vanderbilt on the road. They need to do more than just be a home court hero, which they have, but beating a #1 team at home does not necessarily move them up as much as it would have had they been winning away from home. So, to assess Arizona State, they can beat the best teams in the country at home, but at the same time struggle (and perhaps even fail) to beat NIT teams on the road.
-Kentucky looked better than they’ve looked all year yesterday with a big win over North Carolina where they essentially had a lead from tip to buzzer. Suddenly Kentucky’s resume is looking a ton better. They’ve got a win on a neutral floor against a likely protected seed, and none of their losses are really the kinds of losses that would anchor a resume. Is it safe to say that Kentucky is back?
-Auburn got the home win against Murray State. By 5. Now, to be fair the Tigers have been winning, but in their last three games they’ve needed overtime to beat UAB, got beaten kind of handily at NC State, and had to sweat out Murray State at home. I know those are all good teams (well, maybe not UAB), but I don’t think anyone would argue that any of them, much less all three of them, are top ten teams, so why is a team that’s ranked #7th having to sweat them out like they are?
-Speaking of not winning impressively, West Virginia held off Jacksonville State. At home. By 2. Perhaps West Virginia will do very well in the NIT this year.
-UConn stayed with Villanova for about 25 minutes before Nova blew it completely open and ended up with one of their more impressive wins and showings of the season.
-Texas State went into Arkansas with just one loss yesterday, but had racked up that record against a really weak schedule so we didn’t really know what to make of them. They took the Razorbacks to the wall, and nearly pulled the upset against a pretty good Razorbacks team. I know there probably isn’t enough meat left on Texas State’s schedule to get them inside the bubble without them winning the SBC Tournament, but they should be a strong force in the Sun Belt and worth keeping an eye on if you’re an Under the Radar fan.
-LA SALLE WINS THE BATTLE OF THE BOARDWALK!!! LA SALLE NOW HAS A TROPHY!!!! Not a bad weekend for a team that was winless. Granted, they beat another team that was winless and then beat a pretty bad Towson team, but they got it done!!!
-This is mentioned below, but Colorado looked to be a quiet dark horse riding to the rescue of what is a mostly pitiful Pac Twelve. The Diamond Head Classic was set up to give them 3 wins away from home and put them at a rather impressive 11-1. Well, they lost to Indiana State yesterday.
-Boston College picked up a nice road win against DePaul. I’m not going to say it was a great win, but it was a nice win. It was DePaul’s first home loss, and BC is now 9-2 on the year.
-Seton Hall picked up their first true road win by knocking off a pretty good Maryland team yesterday. Seton Hall has a pretty damn good resume, which now includes a neutral floor win against Kentucky and a road win against Maryland.
-San Francisco only beat Stanford at home by 9, which was kind of surprising.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-COPPIN STATE AT HOUSTON. I’ve gotta credit Chad for this (which I HATE doing!!) but we’ve got five undefeated teams remaining, and one of them is playing in this game. We’ve also got two winless teams playing, and one of them is playing in this game. And do you know what that means!!?? IT MEANS YOU SHOULD WATCH A DIFFERENT GAME!!! Sheesh!!
-INDIANA STATE VS UNLV (Diamond Head Classic). Indiana State doesn’t have much a profile, but they don’t have anything that’s really awful on their resume either and they just picked up a pretty good win against Colorado. If they can win this tournament and knock off a team like TCU in the process, then they may be better set up for an at-large bid than anyone else in the Missouri Valley.
-COLORADO AT HAWAII (Diamnond Head Classic). Colorado came into this event with just one loss. Now the only objective is to avoid getting out of this event without any bad losses, and hope that finishing at or near the top of the Pac Twelve is enough to get them into the Dance.
-SAN DIEGO VS DRAKE (Las Vegas Classic). An interesting game between two teams with good records, but not a whole lot of good wins (at least by the standards of the selection committee). This game is a chance for one of these teams to pick up a decent win against a decent team away from home.
-WASHINGTON STATE AT NEW MEXICO STATE (Las Vegas Classic). New Mexico State kind of stubbed their toes against Drake yesterday, and whenever a team with so few chances at high quality wins loses to a team that isn’t inside the bubble it can be a setback. Now, losing today would be an infinitely bigger setback. I still like this New Mexico State team and still think they can be dangerous come March, but they may have to win the WAC Tournament to get there.
-BUCKNELL VS TCU (Diamond Head Classic). Bucknell picked up an exciting win against a Rhode Island team that has really struggled this year, but has a bigger test today against a one loss TCU team that sputtered in the beginning, but seems to be getting better and better as the season goes along.