NEWS AND NOTES
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-Iowa State picked up their biggest and most impressive win of the year by knocking off Texas State. Eight days ago, no top 15 teams had lost at home. Now NC State (who is no longer in the top 15), Texas Tech, Duke, and North Carolina all have home losses.
-K State went on the road and blew out Oklahoma. They looked so much better than they have at any point this season that I’m not even sure what the proper adjective is to described just how much better they looked. Whatever was wrong with them before was not wrong with them last night.
-Something is suddenly very wrong with Minnesota. They went up against a very weak Illinois team, and were blown off the court. They trailed by more than 20 for seemingly the majority of the game.
-UCF fell on the road to Wichita State, which doesn’t help a resume that was in need of some work.
-South Carolina picked up a road win at Vanderbilt last night. They have now won five straight, are 4-0 in the SEC, which is the 3rd ranked overall conference in the NET, are tied for first for Tennessee who is a potential #1 seed……and they are still about a hundred miles from making the NIT. Next up for them is LSU, Auburn, Oklahoma State, and Tennessee. If they win three out of those four, they’ll still have work to do, but I think they will have demonstrated that they are capable of getting that work done by the end of the year and landing in the NCAA Tournament.
-Perhaps the most amusing moment of the night was in the UConn v Tulsa game, where both Dan Hurley and Frank Haith were ejected at the same time. I’ve never seen that before. After watching the video, it was clear that both coaches needed to cool it, but it had not gotten anywhere close to escalating to the point of where you’d think either one of them would be ejected. They shook hands with each other as they left the court. There are a lot of coaches in the American getting ejected this week, which raises the question of whether or not it’s the coaches that are the problem
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-MICHIGAN STATE AT NEBRASKA (Big Ten). Michigan State is ranked in the top ten and has a path to a #1 seed if they can win out. Nebraska looks to be a solid tournament team and is coming off one of their nicest wins in years. They’re also very tough to beat at home so while they’re nowhere near Michigan State in terms of profile, they will be jacked for this one and it won’t be an easy game for Sparty.
-LMU AT GONZAGA (West Coast). LMU started off with some promise, but is now just 1-2 in league play. They’ve got a seemingly impossible order tonight against a Gonzaga team that’s gunning for the #1 line.
-STANFORD AT WASHINGTON (Pac Twelve). As bad as the Pac Twelve has been this year, I still think there’s room in the bubble for a team like Washington if they can continue to win at the clip that they have been. This is a winnable home game where they need to hold serve.
-SAN FRANCISCO AT PACIFIC (West Coast). If San Francisco can close to all their remaining games, I think they’ll get a serious look from the committee, and may even be selected. The problem is that they just don’t have any wins against NIT caliber teams, much less NCAA teams, but there have been times where teams with bloated records and no real wins have gotten in before.
-OREGON AT ARIZONA (Pac Twelve). Arizona still has a lot of work to do, but in our current bracket they’re hovering around our bubble and should be okay this March so long as they continue to hold serve, and in this conference that pretty much means beating everyone.
-OREGON STATE AT ARIZONA STATE (Pac Twelve). Arizona State is in a bit of a tailspin and they need to pull themselves out of it. Oregon State is much improved, and may be a dark horse in this conference, so ASU better not overlook them.
UNDER THE RADAR
-LOUISIANA TECH AT OLD DOMINION (Conference USA). Both had really good OOC runs, but both have already lost two conference games. Both could potentially be dangerous in March, but they gotta get there first.
-CHARLESTON AT NORTHEASTERN (Colonial). After a fantastic 13-2 start to the season that included a win at VCU, Charleston had a terrible week where they lost two straight. They need to win out to have any shot at all.
-UNC GREENSBORO AT WESTERN CAROLINA (SoCon). It will be fun watching UNCG, Wofford, Furman, and ETSU battle throughout SoCon play. There may be room for more than one bid.
-MURRAY STATE AT EASTERN ILLINOIS (Ohio Valley). If Murray State wins out, the committee will have an interesting decision to make.
-GEORGIA STATE AT SOUTH ALABAMA (Sun Belt). GA State has had some close calls, but I still feel they’re the best team in the SBC and it’ll be interesting to see what their resume looks like at the end of the year if they win out or come close to it.
-BELMONT AT JACKSONVILLE STATE (Ohio Valley). This is the game of the week in the OVC. It’s a somewhat tough road test for Belmont against a Jax State team that’s unbeaten in conference, and who beat them at home earlier this season.
-NEW MEXICO STATE AT SEATTLE (WAC). NMSU has been somewhat disappointing even though they only have one league loss. They had to really sweat out their other two. Seattle has not been somewhat disappointing. They’ve been totally disappointing after a strong OOC run. I still think NMSU can dominate this league and give someone fits in the Round of 64.