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-Last night was a rather chalky night with Kansas, Michigan State, and North Carolina all picking up wins at home. All beat ranked teams, but all won as expected. The biggest game of note was Nebraska losing at Rutgers. That’s a rather costly loss for a Nebraska team that’s been a little flimsy on the road.
-AUBURN AT SOUTH CAROLINA (SEC). Auburn is trying to rebound from their home loss to Kentucky and pick up what would be just their second road win of the season. They face a South Carolina team that’s also coming off a loss, but has been playing pretty well since league play began. I’ve been railing kind of hard on Auburn, but if they win this then I’ll respect them a little bit more.
-MINNESOTA AT MICHIGAN (Big Ten). Minnesota has a decent resume, but still has room to improve. Michigan is still fighting for a #1 seed and is looking to rebound from their first loss of the year. They should be way up for this one.
-MISSISSIPPI STATE AT KENTUCKY (SEC). Mississippi State has a rather hollow resume despite being in the rankings. If they can pick up a road win like this one then it will no longer be hollow. Kentucky is looking more and more like a solid protected seed as the season plays on.
-TEXAS TECH AT KANSAS STATE (Big 12). K State has gone from looking like an NIT team to looking like a protected seed in a matter of a week. They face a Texas Tech teak that also has a good chance of ending up as a protected seed, so this will be a high quality win for whoever pulls it off.
-VILLANOVA AT BUTLER (Big East). Nova is looking to remain unbeaten in Big East play, and Butler is looking to get up off the mat. This has not been an easy place for Villanova to win in recent years, so while they clearly look like the superior team I wouldn’t take this one for granted.
-CLEMSON AT FLORIDA STATE (ACC). Florida State is in a tailspin and really needs to pull this one out at home to get back on track. Both teams have just one conference win coming into this one, and really need to get it turned around.
-TOLEDO AT KENT STATE (MAC). These are two of the better teams in the MAC that were strong OOC, but have both tripped up a little bit early and fallen to 3-2. The loser of this will have very little chance of keeping pace with the top of the conference.
-BUFFALO AT NORTHERN ILLINOIS (MAC). This is another winnable road game for Buffalo. They’re good enough to win out, and if they do there is a really good chance they end up as a protected seed.
-DUKE AT PITTSBURGH (ACC). This is a big showcase game for Pitt, and if they win it their chances of making the NCAA Tournament increase exponentially, but it’s much easier said than done. Duke is a #1 seed caliber team who is looking to improve to 3-0 in true road games, and 7-1 away from home.
-WAKE FOREST AT VIRGINIA (ACC). Virginia shouldn’t have any trouble rebounding from their close loss at Duke.
-OLE MISS AT ALABAMA (SEC). This is a really important game for both teams. Both have some good wins, but both still have a lot of work to do in order to feel completely safe on Selection Sunday.
-INDIANA AT NORTHWESTERN (Big Ten). Indiana has lost four straight games, and desperately needs to pick up a win in this one. It may be easier said than done. Northwestern doesn’t look like a tournament team, but they’ve played pretty well at home this year. They’re 8-3 overall with a 2pt loss to Michigan and an overtime loss to Oklahoma accounting for two of those three losses. They also lost by just two earlier this year in Bloomington.
-SAN DIEGO STATE AT FRESNO STATE (Mountain West). Fresno State can improve to 5-1 in conference, which keeps them within reach of first place, and keeps their at-large hopes barely flickering.