Not much to say today, so no sub-headlines!
-Minnesota turned a lot of heads on Christmas evening when they knocked off Iowa in overtime. It was a high scoring game that seesawed back and forth, but that Iowa still seemed to have control of late in regulation, until they didn’t. It’s a big season defining win for Minnesota.
-Wisconsin improved to 8-1 with a win at Michigan State. Sparty, as good as people think they are, are now off to an 0-2 start in Big Ten play so that is a bit of a hole to dig out of.
-Gonzaga crushed another ranked team. This time it was Virginia 98-75. Virginia’s pack line defense makes it difficult for even teams with a lot of offensive weapons to score against, but Gonzaga just racked up the points. I’m starting to wonder if Gonzaga is more than just a #1 team, but a historically special #1 team. They are just trucking highly ranked teams and have been all season long.
-Houston needed to sweat more than expected, but remains unbeaten after winning at UCF. A lot of credit to UCF here who, despite the loss, still looks like a really good team. Let’s not forget their wins against Florida State and Cincinnati.
-Northwestern is now 3-0 in Big Ten play and 6-1 on the year with some really high quality wins on their resume. They knocked off Ohio State in yet another thrilling win and this team that we all thought would be buried at the bottom of the Big Ten should get into the top 25 tomorrow.
-Louisville beat rival Kentucky in a close and perhaps exciting, but somewhat of an ugly game. It wasn’t easy despite the fact that it appeared to be a mismatch, and Kentucky had a shot to tie the game at the end of regulation, but missed a 3pt shot. Kentucky has fallen to 1-6 on the year, and John Calipari is blaming himself for the slow start because he made the schedule too hard. The schedule certainly hasn’t been easy, but Kentucky’s OOC schedule is always really hard and it always includes Louisville, so…
-DRAKE AT INDIANA STATE (Missouri Valley). Drake is looking to stay undefeated and pick up their first conference win of the year.
-EVANSVILLE AT SOUTHERN ILLINOIS (Missouri Valley). Southern Illinois is also unbeaten and they shouldn’t have too much trouble staying that way as they have a really winnable game at home.
-ILLINOIS STATE AT LOYOLA CHICAGO (Missouri Valley). Loyola Chicago has almost no margin for error to speak of moving forward, but they are another team that’s good enough to win this conference and go to the NCAA Tournament.
-DEPAUL AT PROVIDENCE (Big East). DePaul’s season has been pretty much non-existant. They played and won their first OOC game just a few days ago, and are really going to be tested today against a Providence team that’s been a little inconsistent this year, but still looks like an NCAA Tournament team.