News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Sunday, Jan 30

NEWS AND NOTES:

-Last week Kentucky went on the road to Auburn and hung in tough with them despite being shorthanded for much of the game.  This week Kentucky went into Kansas and absolutely blew the Jayhawks off of their own home floor.   It took Kentucky a little while to get going so they probably won’t end up as a #1 seed, but based on how they have been playing they are good enough to make it to a Final Four.   It’s harder to beat a Final Four caliber team on their home floor than it is to beat a Final Four caliber team in the Final Four, and Kentucky has shown that they can play with, and even beat, Final Four caliber teams on the road.  Amazing.

-Baylor suffered their third loss of the year as Alabama picked up yet another extremely impressive win 87-78.  Alabama doesn’t always play up to their ceiling, but when they do they are very tough to beat.  They now have wins against Gonzaga, Houston, and Baylor, and although they were at home yesterday they’ll still get quite a bit of credit for the win.

-Louisville hung with Duke for about 32 minutes in their first game without Chris Mack, but the Blue Devils pulled away for the 74-65 win.  Still, it was the best the Cardinals have looked in a long time and we may see a noticeable improvement in these last few weeks.

-Texas had what appeared to be a comfortable lead against Tennessee, but the Vols came storming back to tie the game and actually had a shot at the buzzer to win it, but the Longhorns escaped 52-51 and add another notable win to their resume.  Texas’s resume has improved quite a bit in the last week or so.

-TCU is squarely on the bubble, and the 77-68 home win against LSU has done a ton to help them out.

-Xavier was down 36-19 at Creighton and looked like they were about to get blown out of the building.  They came storming out of the locker room, pretty much tied the game before Creighton was even able to score, and ended up with a 74-64 road win, which is actually one of their better wins of the season.

-Illinois really had to sweat at Northwestern, which wasn’t a surprise, but escaped with a 57-54 win.

-Arkansas picked up a nice 77-68 home win against a West Virginia team that is now in a complete tailspin.

-Indiana looked impressive in their 68-55 win at Maryland yesterday, which was a much needed road win for the Hoosiers.

-After looking like they had turned their season around and that they were likely to make the NCAA Tournament as recently as a week ago, Florida State has dropped two straight games to teams that aren’t likely to be anywhere near The Tournament come March.  They fell at home to Virginia Tech yesterday 85-72.

-UAB, who was squarely on our bubble, suffered a huge setback yesterday by losing at Marshall 84-81.  The Blazers trailed by double digits for most of the game, and you get the sense had they played for another minute or two that they would have gotten the win.  They actually came back and had a shot at the buzzer to force overtime, but came up short.  It was only Marshall’s first conference win of the season, so this will really weigh down UAB’s resume and really hurt their chances for an at-large.

-Wake Forest, who doesn’t have all that good of a resume and who doesn’t look all that good on the court, did not look good on the court at all yesterday as they were blown out at Syracuse 94-72.  I don’t see why so many seem to be so high on this Wake team.

-Texas A&M, who we thought was hovering around the bubble, probably isn’t anymore.  They lost at home to South Carolina 74-63.

-BYU suffered what is probably their worst loss of the year as they failed to get by Pacific 76-73.  Pacific was just 5-13 coming into the game, so this one is going to knock BYU down a peg or two.

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:

-OHIO STATE AT PURDUE (Big Ten).  Purdue has been projected as a protected seed all season long and will likely end up there on Selection Sunday.  Ohio State has a solid profile, but if they could somehow pull off this win it would be their most impressive win of the season to date.

-MARQUETTE AT PROVIDENCE (Big East).  This one should be fun.  Both teams have good resumes, both are good enough to end up as protected seeds, both have a lot of momentum coming into this game, and both seem to be improving as the season goes on.

-MINNESOTA AT WISCONSIN (Big Ten).  Minnesota has been good at times, but they are currently way outside the bubble and will need some really big wins (like this one) to get back into the discussion.  Wisky looks to be a solid protected seed and with a strong finish they could end up as high as the #2 line.

-SAINT PETER’S AT IONA (Metro Atlantic).  Saint Peter’s is one of the better teams in the MAAC, but they’re nowhere close to being anywhere near the bubble like Iona is, and they are on the road.  If Iona continues to blow through the MAAC they should make the field even if they don’t win the auto-bid.

-LOYOLA CHICAGO AT DRAKE (Missouri Valley).  Drake has been somewhat of a disappointment this year, but they are still capable of playing really well, and considering that Loyola Chicago has had to sweat out a lot of their conference wins lately, an upset is not out of the question at all.