For yesterday’s Championship Week video notebook (including the Survival Board and conference tournament brackets) – CLICK HERE
NEWS AND NOTES
-The Big East continues to show why they may be the most balanced league top-to-bottom in the country. Seton Hall got a much-needed win at home to increase their odds of getting an NCAA at-large bid against Marquette where the Pirates ended the game on an 18-0 run. Georgetown got sand-blasted on the road at DePaul to hurt their chances, and coupled with Creighton’s OT win at home against Providence, there is suddenly a five-way tie for 3rd place between Seton Hall, Xavier, St. John’s, Creighton and Georgetown.
-While Washington and Clemson walked the tightrope successfully with an overtime win at home against Oregon State to stay on the right side of the fence, NC State might have completely fallen off the fence with a home loss to Georgia Tech. That is a bad, bad loss for a team that, like Washington, doesn’t have many wins against potential NCAA Tournament teams. Worse yet, their #352nd ranked nonconference strength of schedule is now sticking out like a sore thumb.
-Ohio State also lost on the road at Northwestern – this is the second straight game they have lost by double digits without Kaleb Wesson (suspension) in the lineup. The Buckeyes are now sweating bullets as to whether or not they make the field, and if Wesson doesn’t return, they’re dead on arrival barring a couple of quality wins between their regular season finale at home against Wisconsin and the Big 10 Tournament next week.
-The Big 12 also is looking like a conference where West Virginia and Oklahoma State, who are not contenders for any postseason play, could be potential noisemakers. West Virginia beat Iowa State at home to knock the Cyclones down to 9-8 in conference play, and Oklahoma State went into Baylor and handed the Bears a Quad 3 loss. The Bears now share the same dubious distinction that Arizona State has – wins AND losses against all four quadrants on their team sheet!
SURVIVAL BOARD NOTES
-Troy would be eliminated with a loss against Appalachian State tonight.
-Little Rock would be eliminated with a loss against Louisiana AND wins by Appalachian State (against Troy) and Arkansas State (against UL-Monroe).
-Mississippi Valley State would be eliminated if Southern wins at Prairie View.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-CINCINNATI AT UCF (American). Both teams are (probably) just playing for seeding at this point, but this is still a huge game for both teams. Neither one of them got the dozens of chances at Quad-1 wins that some of the ACC, SEC, and Big 12 teams got, so this is a rare opportunity for both of them to really sweeten up their resumes.
-IOWA AT WISCONSIN (Big 12). Iowa is in a bit of a tailspin, but I still think they’re on pace to at least land in the top half of the bracket if they come out of it. Wisky still has a path to a protected seed, but they need to finish strong.
-TEMPLE AT UCONN (American). Temple is straddling the bubble’s fence right now, and basically every game the rest of the way is hugely important. Losing to a non-NCAA Tournament caliber team would be damaging.
-INDIANA AT ILLINOIS (Big Ten). Indiana is one of the harder teams to figure this year. Are they in because of their good wins, or are they out because of the sheer volume of their losses? One thing we can all agree on is that winning this game would be good, and losing it would be bad.
-SMU AT HOUSTON (American). Houston is coming off a somewhat surprising loss, but will still in all likelihood end up as a protected seed if they’re able to hold serve the rest of the way.
-UC IRVINE AT CAL POLY (Big West). UC Irvine has already wrapped up first place.
-MONTANA AT PORTLAND STATE (Big Sky). Montana can clinch at least a share of first place with a win tonight.