NEWS AND NOTES:
-Nothing normal happened on Saturday. It was seemingly college basketball’s drunkest day in a very long time.
-Baylor lost at home for the second time in a week, this time to an unranked Oklahoma State team. The Cowboys pretty much led from tip to buzzer. Baylor actually had to come from behind to even have a chance of winning the game late, and while they got close, they couldn’t get over the hump. The #1 ranked team almost never loses at home at any point during the year, especially when it’s a team that’s ranked that high this late in the season when it isn’t just an early season guess as to where teams are in the rankings. I don’t know if the #1 team has ever lost twice at home in the same week. But, it happened yesterday.
Other things happened too…
-Northwestern went on the road to Michigan State, and of course picked up the 64-62 win. Northwestern was actually in control late and nearly blew it. A (questionable?) foul call with seconds to go put the Spartans on the line with a chance to tie it, but they were unable to sink the freethrows and Northwestern got a huge upset. That snaps a four game losing streak for Northwestern.
-Arkansas, who had looked pitiful for most of the season, went into LSU yesterday and pulled off a huge upset win. The Razorbacks still have a lot of work to do, but they also have talent, and if this can be the start of a turnaround for them then they still have time.
-USC also lost for the second time in a week to an unranked team when they fell to Oregon 79-69. USC’s unbeaten record may have been a bit inflated. I still think this is a good Trojans team, but don’t feel they are quite protected seed good. As for Oregon, they have gone from being a huge disappointment to a huge turnaround story after winning at both UCLA and USC this week.
-Texas Tech, who was coming off what was perhaps the single biggest win of the season, followed that up with a loss at Kansas State yesterday. Sometimes after a really big win a team’s head can go way up into the clouds and it’s kind of hard to get their feet back on the ground, so that may have been a little bit of what happened yesterday, but had you said to anyone int he world that Texas Tech would play at Baylor and at Kansas State and go 1-1 on the week, those are NOT the results you would have thought likely.
-Alabama could have really used a road win at Mississippi State last night, and didn’t get it. Mississippi State seems like a very NIT-ish kind of team, and it’s the kind of road game that protected seed caliber teams should be expected to be able to win.
-Iowa State held on to beat Texas at home 79-70. Someone in the Big 12 is going to eventually start to slip. It’s a mathematical fact that every time you play a game one of the teams has to lose. But, so far it’s looking like that team won’t be Iowa State. They nearly won at Kansas earlier this week, and had a nice win against Texas at home yesterday.
-Kentucky blew out Tennessee yesterday 107-79. It was a home win, but it was still highly impressive given the quality of the opponent and the margin of victory.
-Marquette held on against Seton Hall at home to pick up another big win. They have strung together several wins over the past week and their resume keeps looking better and better.
-In an Under the Radar game of note, Murray State went into Belmont and totally blew them off the floor. Belmont didn’t shoot well at all and had a lot of uncharacteristic turnovers, whereas Murray couldn’t miss and basically controlled the whole game from tip to buzzer despite early foul trouble. Murray State is solidly inside the bubble. No question about it. If today were Selection Sunday and Murray were to lose in the OVC Tournament, they’d still get in.
-Florida State still has work to do, but at least they’re starting to do it. They picked up a road win at Syracuse yesterday 76-71, which was their fourth straight win. Perhaps they’ve finally woken up and are starting to look a little bit like the team we though they’d be back in November.
-Auburn had to come from behind, but they did manage the road win at Ole Miss. They are looking more and more like a #1 seed.
-Florida picked up a nice road win at South Carolina, which isn’t a great win, but it is a road win and it does help.
-Texas A&M had to come from behind to beat Missouri on the road, but they got it done 67-64 and add another road win to their bubblish resume, which helps make it look a little better.
-TCU got a big win against Oklahoma 59-58. It was a home win, and TCU does need to do a little bit more away from home, but it was still a nice win and it gets them to 12-2 on the year.
-Stanford, who is a team we think is squarely on the bubble, lost to a Washington team yesterday that is nowhere near the bubble. That one is gonna hurt a little bit.
-Wyoming, who is another team we have right on the bubble, picked up a nice win at Utah State yesterday 71-69. This isn’t an Earth-shattering win, but it’s still a win they’ll get some credit for. Utah State is not an easy place to play.
-BYU got a big road win against San Francisco 71-69. Both teams look to be top 40 teams, which means they are safely within the range of making the NCAA Tournament, so it was a really nice road win for the Cougars.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-BUTLER AT VILLANOVA (Big East). I’d normally say that this is a blah game where we should just expect chalk and for Nova to hold serve, but after yesterday I think anything can happen.
-PENN STATE AT OHIO STATE (Big Ten). Penn State has won three of their last four and is noticeably better, but winning on the road against a protected seed caliber team like Ohio State is a huge task.
-NIAGARA AT IONA (MAAC). Like we seemingly say every week, if Iona can hold serve throughout conference play then they should end up inside the bubble.
-IOWA AT MINNESOTA (Big Ten). This one should be fun. It’s a conference rivalry between two teams that appear to be NCAA Tournament caliber teams and who can build up their resumes with a win today.
-GEORGETOWN AT SAINT JOHN’S (Big East). The Johnnies appear to be on the outside looking in right now, but they will definitely have their opportunities between now and the end of the year to get to where they need to be.
-LOUISIANA TECH AT SOUTHERN MISS (Conference USA). This LA Tech team is someone we’ve mentioned on the Under the Radar podcast a lot. I know the path to landing inside the bubble is long and narrow, but there may actually be one if they can continue to blow through CUSA.