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NEWS AND NOTES:
-Before the season started I stated rather emphatically that I thought Indiana was overrated. I was wrong. They remain unbeaten after knocking off North Carolina 77-65 in a game that they pretty much controlled last night, and if you add that on to their road win at Xavier that is a very good profile. The Hoosiers are for real. They have a lot of tough tests coming up between now and March, but they are good enough to pass enough of them to stay in the hunt for a protected seed.
-Yesterday I said that Notre Dame was perhaps the worst 5-1 team I had ever seen. Well, after they blew Michigan State’s doors off in a 70-52 win in South Bend, today I’m saying that Notre Dame appears to be a very good 6-1 team!! We all liked the Irish coming in to this season, and to see them sweat out several home buy games was shocking. That made yesterday’s blowout win against a battle-tested Michigan State team…well…shocking. I guess the Irish have woken up and eaten their Wheaties now.
-It seems as though every game Drake had played this season they slept through their alarm, let a team that we thought they were much better than hang around, but still manage to get the win in the end. Well, yesterday, they got off to a slow start at Indiana State, fell behind, came back in the second half and appeared to be in control late in the game, but then couldn’t finish it off. Indiana State picked up a huge win in the conference opener 75-73 on their home court. These are likely two of the best teams in the Missouri Valley, and they will see each other again on Jan 24th at Drake, so this is a HUGE win for the Trees! As for Drake, does this loss finally wake them up a little bit? I still think they are a solid top 40 team, and that they could end up stringing together enough wins to crack the top 25 before the season is over. We shall see, I suppose. One Drake player that was NOT asleep was Roman Penn. He had 32pts in this game, and put on an outstanding overall performance.
-The other big result from last night was New Mexico’s win at Saint Mary’s. New Mexico came into the game unbeaten, but for the most part was untested. Saint Mary’s looks to be a clear Tournament caliber team, so playing them on the road certainly qualifies as a test. New Mexico picked up a REALLY nice 69-65 win, and that certainly ups the value of their resume.
-Duke held serve against Ohio State 81-72 at Cameron. This loss won’t really set Ohio State back at all since it’s possible that Duke will go unbeaten at home this year, so…no worries for the Buckeyes.
-Butler handed Kansas State their first loss of the season with a 76-64 home win. Butler is a modest 5-3 on the year, but they remain unbeaten at home. I don’t think they’ll be inside the bubble come March, but they likely won’t be the doormats of the Big East either.
-Marshall has now won six straight since losing their season opener at Queens, and beat a pretty good Akron team 68-57 yesterday. The game was at Marshall, but it was still a game where the Herd played a good team and were in control the whole way. We are now starting to keep more and more of an eye on this Marshall team.
-Rutgers went into Miami FL in an ACC/Big Ten Challenge game, and ended up falling 68-61. I still say this Miami team, that has only one loss on the year and has pretty much all the key players from a team that was in the Elite Eight a year ago, is being grossly undervalued by the media. How the hell are they not in the top 25?? Miami is now 7-1 on the season, which should surprise no one. As for Rutgers, because of how good I think this Miami team is, I now think Rutgers has quite a bit of life. They’re still a respectable 5-2 on the year, and given how well they played in this game without some of their key players, Rutgers might be setting themselves up for a big year too.
-Western Kentucky is now 7-1 on the year with two true road wins after their win at Austin Peay last night. The overall record is impressive. Their performance last night was not as they just barely scraped by 75-74, but they did still pick up the win.
-TCU improved to 6-1 with a nice home win over Providence. Whatever was wrong with them when they were sweating out (and even losing one) of their buy games no longer appears to be wrong. Sometimes this happens. Teams lose a game they shouldn’t, and then suddenly become noticeably better.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-OKLAHOMA STATE AT UCONN (Big East-Big 12 Battle). Oklahoma State has been a little slow out of the starting gate, but they are still a respectable 5-2. In order to get this win, though, they’ll have to play much better than they have at any point this season. UConn is unbeaten, they’ve past some very tough tests, and are showing all the early signs of being a protected seed caliber team.
-CREIGHTON AT TEXAS (Big East-Big 12 Battle). Another battle between two top ten teams!! We’ve seen a lot of them these first two weeks, and it’s been great! Both these teams are ranked high, and both have won big games to earn the rankings. This is a huge resume boosting caliber game, but regardless of what happens it’s possible/probable that both will end up with protected seeds come March.
-ARIZONA AT UTAH (Pac 12). Arizona is unbeaten on the season, and they were super impressive out in Maui. This is their first true road game of the season (as well as it being their conference opener), so it would actually add something to their resume that they don’t currently have.
-ARIZONA STATE AT COLORADO (Pac 12), It was very easy to just dismiss (and sort of laugh at) Arizona State when they lost to Texas Southern. The thing is, that is the only game they’ve lost, and they looked really good out in the Legends Classic. If they can pick up this game on the road then not only should they not be tossed aside, but it may be time to start taking them seriously again. Colorado is all over the place. They are perhaps the nation’s most schizophrenic team. This is an important game for them as well.
-SETON HALL AT KANSAS (Big East-Big 12 Battle). Kansas looks like a solid top ten caliber team, and Seton Hall looks like a possible NIT team. This appears to be a rather big mismatch where Kansas should be able to hold serve.
-UTAH TECH AT UTAH STATE (Bee Hive). Utah State is unbeaten on the season, and will likely stay that way.
-WASHINGTON AT OREGON STATE (Pac 12). Oregon State is just 3-4, but they did have some moments In the Phil Knight Tournament that demonstrate they are capable of being competitive. The real story of this game is Washington, who comes in at 6-1 with a pretty good win (at least I think so) against Saint Mary’s. This is the conference opener, and the first true road game for the Huskies, and Oregon State is good enough to test them.
-UCLA AT STANFORD (Pac 12). UCLA has two losses to really highly ranked teams, and they were competitive in both games, so they are probably better than their current record and ranking indicate. This is certainly a winnable conference road game for them.
-WASHINGTON STATE AT OREGON (Pac 12). Oregon is off to a rather disappointing 3-4 start. They’re still talented, but they need to start stringing together some wins.