NEWS AND NOTES
-For John Stalica’s UTR Game of the Day between the rivals UC Irvine and Long Beach State – CLICK HERE
-On the court it was a pretty chalky night. Maryland trailed Northwestern at the half, but came back to win and picked up their first road win, Illinois got a nice road win at Purdue and continues to look more and more impressive, TCU upset Texas Tech, but the Horned Frogs were at home and had been playing well so it wasn’t that surprising, and Butler lost their third straight game, but it was on the road to Villanova.
-LSU barely held on to beat Florida after blowing what appeared to be a safe lead in the final minute of the game. It was a big home win for LSU, and another missed opportunity for the Gators to add a big win to their resume and get things turned around.
-If you’re reading this then you’re a big enough hoops fan to know what happened at the end of the Kansas v Kansas State game. I didn’t see it live. I had changed the channel because the game was over. I really don’t want to say much about it or get into what I think the consequences should be. On the court, it’s an issue for Kansas going forward because they will likely be without some key players for several games, and perhaps for the entire rest of the season. What I will say that while I think it was stupid, and while I think consequences are definitely warranted, I’m not a fan of the way things like this are typically digested by both the professional media and social media. Instinctively, everyone seems to think of what the maximum penalties should be, and is immediately all for dishing those out. Secondly, I don’t like that whenever something like this happens, we make it very difficult for the people who are involved to move on as time goes by. It was bad. But I think a lot of us have done things that if we had done them on television the after effects would have been a lot worse than what they probably were. The next time these two teams play each other, you’ll see this again. When they play each other next year and the year after that, the same media outlets who are out yelling for blood now will be showing these highlights to promote the games in the future. Several 20-ish year olds were playing a game and things got heated. It was definitely wrong. But, had this happened in a bar (which is also wrong, but also happens on a nightly basis in some college bar every night) they would have been kicked out, everyone would have gone home, and that would have probably been it. But because it was a basketball game, it will linger for years. And maybe even longer. That just doesn’t taste very good to me. And, I’m glad that someone grabbed the stool and that we didn’t witness a felonious act.
Anyway…
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-GEORGETOWN AT XAVIER. This is a desperation game for both teams. Both still have a path to the NCAA Tournament, but both need to string together some wins in order to get there, especially Xavier who has lost four of their last five.
-GEORGIA TECH AT LOUISVILLE (ACC). Louisville is coming off a humongous win at Duke and should be able to hold serve tonight against Georgia Tech. Louisville is suddenly looking like a solid protected seed that could challenge for a first place finish in the ACC.
-SAINT BONAVENTURE AT DAYTON (Atlantic Ten). Dayton just keeps winning. Saint Bona had been on a roll winning 11 out of 12, but was blown off the court by VCU in their last game and has a tougher challenge tonight against Dayton.
-SOUTH CAROLINA AT AUBURN (SEC). Auburn has lost two straight and needs to bounce back tonight in what should be a winnable home game.
-PENN STATE AT MICHIGAN (Big Ten). Both teams are having good years, but both are also sliding backwards a little bit. Neither are in any real trouble yet, but both have lost lost three out of their last four, and Penn State has just one true road win.
-ARKANSAS AT MISSISSIPPI STATE (SEC). Arkansas dropped a tough on at Kentucky over the weekend, but it’s certainly something they can bounce back from. This is a winnable road game tonight for the Razorbacks and they want to make sure they take care of business.
-DUQUESNE AT RHODE ISLAND (Atlnatic Ten). Duquesne has been living at the bakery all year long, and this is their first semblance of any sort of a test. If they can win this game, then I’ll start to believe in them a little more. If not, then I’m still impressed with how they’ve progressed as a program, but I won’t be able to think of them as an NCAA Tournament team.
-SYRACUSE AT NOTRE DAME (ACC). Syracuse still has a lot of work to do, but they’ve quietly been building up their resume with three straight wins, two of which were on the road. A win tonight would be another step forward.
-SAMFORD AT FURMAN (SoCon). If Furman wants any shot at all at being considered, then they pretty much need to win out.
-SAINT LOUIS AT DAVIDSON (Atlantic Ten). Saint Louis is hovering around our bubble, and has a very small margin for error if they want to make the field. Saying they need a win tonight…well…goes without saying.
-STEPHEN F AUSTIN AT NORTHWESTERN STATE (Southland). If SFA wins out, they will be considered. If not, then they will need the auto-bid.
-EAST CAROLINA AT SMU (American). SMU’s resume consists of nothing but empty calories, but the opportunity is there for them to impress the committee if they finish strong.
-NORTH CAROLINA AT VIRGINIA TECH (ACC). This is an odd way to write this game up, but VA Tech needs to hold serve at home against a sub-NIT team in order to help them stay inside the bubble.
-PROVIDENCE AT SETON HALL (Big East). Seton Hall is on an absolute tear and has looked like the strongest team in the Big East since conference play began. Providence has looked tough as well, but they need to keep winning in order to offset how not-tough they looked out of conference.
-RUTGERS AT IOWA (Big Ten). This is a match-up between two NCAA Tournament caliber teams, which makes this a resume building opportunity for both of them. The one box that Rutgers really hasn’t checked is that they have just one road win. If they can pick this one up, their resume becomes even better and they should shoot into the top 20 of the rankings next week. It’s one of the most meaningful games that Rutgers has played in in a while.
-MEMPHIS AT TULSA (American). Memphis could use this road win to help polish up their resume. Tulsa has won four out of five and has climbed to first place in the American. One of those wins was against Houston, so Memphis better not just overlook them.
-BOSTON COLLEGE AT PITTSBURGH (ACC). Pitt is still on the outside looking in and needs to string together some wins to get themselves into the conversation.
-ALABAMA AT VANDERBILT (SEC). Alabama still has a lot of catching up to do, but they’ve won seven of their last ten and they should be in the discussion if they keep winning at that clip.
-CREIGHTON AT DEPAUL (Big East). A really big game for both of these teams. DePaul is coming off a big win against Butler and is looking to keep that momentum going. Creighton is in good shape and is looking to add another road win to an already good resume.
-NORTHERN IOWA AT SOUTHERN ILLINOIS (Missouri Valley). Northern Iowa is inside our bubble, but they won’t be if they don’t win out through the regular season, and given how they’ve played in a lot of their conference games, they need to step it up.