For the latest HOOPS HD BRACKET RUNDOWN where the seedlists of all the staff members are cross country scored and ranked to create a master seedlist which is then bracketed, and that bracket is revealed via Selection Sunday Style – CLICK HERE
-IVY LEAGUE – Harvard is 3 games back of 4th place with 4 games to go. If they lose tonigh to Columbia (not likely), and if both Penn and Brown win their games tonight they will be eliminated tonight. I’m expecting them to make it through tonight, but not through Saturday.
NEWS, NOTES, AND HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
For John Stalica’s UTR Game of the Day – CLICK HERE
-College basketball has been on one hell of a bender this week! The whole thing is just drunk!!
-It was as if Purdue forgot to come out for the second half in their game at Maryland. The Terps just got complete control and ran the Boilers off the floor. Purdue, as good as they are, have now lost three of their last four and are showing that they can absolutely be beaten.
-Florida Atlantic suffered their third loss of the season as they fell to Middle Tennessee. It was close for most of the game, but MTSU was in the lead the whole way, and held on to win 74-70. This is a setback for FAU, but I still think they are inside the bubbler.
-Memphis had a lead over UCF for most of the game, but almost blew it in the final minutes, and It actually came down to the final possession after a sloppy second half, but Memphis escaped 64-63.
-Oral Roberts, who all year long had been destroying the Summit League in their sleep, got a big scare from a rather underwhelming North Dakota State team yesterday, but managed to hold on 73-70 after blowing a huge second half lead.
-Saint Mary’s BARELY escaped at San Diego 62-59. This would have been a loss that would have likely knocked them down several seed lines.
-LMU made a huge mistake when they beat Gonzaga earlier this season. It made the Zags REALLY mad!! They absolutely blew LMU off the floor, and dominated the first half in a way that we really haven’t seen since some of the ridiculously mismatched buy games from early in the year.
-Southern Miss, who we really liked as an Under the Radar team, and who we thought even might get some sort of look from the committee if they didn’t win the auto-bid even if they weren’t selected, has basically no shot of being selected now. They were blown to the moon by South Alabama 85-54 in a game that has me scratching my head as much as any others that we’ve seen this week, and we’ve seen some CRAZY stuff this week!
-Morehead State and UNC Asheville both won their games, and both can clinch a share of first place in their conferences if they win on Saturday.
-Kennesaw State also came from behind to beat Liberty, which gives them a one game lead in the standings with three games to go. They have not clinched yet, but they have the tiebreaker if the two teams end up tied, which means they are on track to have home court advantage throughout the entire ASun Tournament.
-NEW MEXICO AT SAN JOSE STATE (Mountain West). After a great start to the season, New Mexico has gone into a tailspin and is at risk of missing the NCAA Tournament entirely if they can’t get things turned back around. Tonight’s game won’t be easy against a San Jose State team that’s been playing really well these past few weeks and is actually ahead of them in the standings.