NEWS AND NOTES:
-Top ranked Tennessee had blown everyone they had faced off the court prior to yesterday. Illinois took them to the wall and managed to hold a close lead for most of the game, but the Vols drove the length of the court and hit a game winning layup as time expired and they escaped with a 66-64 road win in a tough environment.
-Second ranked Auburn didn’t have to sweat nearly as much. I think they were up by 20 or so on Ohio State before the game even tipped, and they just blew them off the floor 91-53.
-5th ranked Kentucky actually struggled more than we were expecting at home against a Louisville team that was beat up with injuries. Louisville also got into foul trouble and made some key turnovers, but managed to keep themselves in the game. Kentucky maintained a lead for pretty much the entire game and ended up winning 93-85, but could never blow it open.
-We’ve been big on this Dayton team since Maui. Many saw that they finished 7th place and I guess just sort of wrote them off, but if you actually watched the games and saw that they barely lost to North Carolina and Iowa State, and then blew UConn of the floor in the one game they did win, you’d know they were good. Now, people may be starting to realize that. Marquette’s defense was outstanding in the first half, but Dayton was able to make some adjustments in the second half, came from 10pts down, and get a huge win over a very good and highly ranked Marquette team. It’s time to put Dayton in the top 25, and I bet they end up staying there for the rest of the season. This is a Flyers team that we may be talking about for a protected seed. They’ve played four games against probable protected seeds, three were away from home, and they won two of those games and were very competitive in the two they didn’t win. To me, that is a protected seed caliber team.
-UConn didn’t win any games in Maui, but they’ve won every single game that hasn’t been in Maui, and beat a really good Gonzaga team in NYC yesterday 77-71. I’d say UConn is back, and whatever people were saying was wrong with them before is no longer wrong with them. As for the Zags, they are not in any trouble, but they also haven’t played at the high level many of us were expecting them to. At least not yet. They’ve now lost two straight to Kentucky and UConn.
-Alabama held off a really good Creighton team 83-75. Both of these teams have played killer OOC schedules and should be well prepared for conference play.
-Florida won handily over what is a pretty good Arizona State team 83-66. The Gators are ranked in the top ten, and they’ve beaten a few pretty good teams to get there. Maybe we should be talking about them a lot more than we are.
-Texas A&M got a really nice win against Purdue in Indianapolis, which is there best of the year so far, and caps off a nice five game stretch where they’ve beaten Creighton, Rutgers, Wake Forest, Texas Tech, and now Purdue. Uncle Buzz has it going on!!!
-Bedlam was more or less dominated by Oklahoma. The final score was 80-65, and for much of the game it didn’t even feel like it was that close. Oklahoma is yet another team that has looked really good for most of the season so far.
-Memphis, who lost to Arkansas State earlier in the week, bounced back in a big way with an overtime road win against a very solid Clemson team. This one win changes the complexion of Memphis’s resume.
-UC Irvine suffered their first loss of the year as they fell 67-55 to Oregon State. My takeaway from this is that UC Irvine is still one of the best, if not the best, Under the Radar team, and can still land inside the bubble. This win would have absolutely helped, but they are still a good team. I actually think Oregon State, who is now 7-2 on the year and who nearly beat Oregon in one of those losses, is much better than what they’re getting credit for and will be a strong team within the WCC.
-I still think Grand Canyon is a good team who will win a lot of games, but I’m also starting to think that one of those wins better be the championship game of the WAC Tournament. They fell to Georgia in Atlanta 73-68. Georgia is good, and beating them in Atlanta isn’t easy, but that’s just it. For a team to get inside the bubble, they need to be able to win games that are hard to win. Grand Canyon just hasn’t. The win over Stanford is nice, but the losses to Arizona State, UC Davis, and now Georgia, were the kinds of games they needed to win. Not all of them, but at least one or two of them.
-Cincinnati picked up a 68-65 win over their rivals Xavier in the Crosstown Shootout, and improves to 8-1 on the year and will likely remain in the rankings. That’s the good news! The bad news is that while Xavier is not a bad team, I don’t think they’ve looked like an NCAA Tournament caliber team at any point, and they certainly aren’t as good as most of the other teams in the Big 12. In fact this may have been one of Cincinnati’s easier remaining games, and they barely won it. Their record is good, but their schedule up until now has been weak. They’re next game is against Dayton. We’ll see how they do in that one.
-Rutgers hit a deep game winning 3 pointer at the buzzer to knock off Seton Hall 66-63, which is a nice win over their rivals, but like Cincinnati it also raises questions. Seton Hall isn’t that good, most teams remaining on Rutgers’s schedule are much better than Seton Hall, and they barely beat them at home.
-UCLA continues to roll as they got a hard fought 57-54 win over rival Arizona in Phoenix. Arizona is now just 4-5 on the season. I know they’re schedule has been really tough, and I do think they’ll bounce back and be in good shape by the end of the year, but I also understand how people are starting to feel concerned about them.
-DePaul ran away from Wichita State in the second half and picked up a 91-72 win. Yes it was at home, and yes Wichita isn’t the strongest team out there, but they are also far from the weakest team out there. This was a good win for the Blue Demons, who are now 8-2 on the season.
-Georgetown picked up a nice 75-71 road win against their old Big East rivals in Syracuse, and is now 8-2 on the year. I know their schedule hasn’t been the toughest, and I know the Hoyas are likely not yet a tournament caliber team, but one cannot deny that they appear to be going in the right direction as a program.
-Utah State blew South Florida off the court 88-67 and is now 10-0 on the season. Utah State hasn’t played a bunch of brand name opponents that are high in the rankings, but they haven’t just played cupcakes that they ordered off the pastry cart either. Iowa, Saint Bonaventure, and North Texas are all teams they have beaten. Perhaps the voters should start paying attention to them a little more.
-Boise State held off Saint Mary’s 67-65 in overtime for a win they REALLY needed. Saint Mary’s is a really good team, and Boise needed a win against a really good team.
-Saint Bonaventure is 10-1 after beating Providence on the road 74-70. Their only loss was to the Utah State team that’s mentioned above. Their wins aren’t the best, but the Bonnies are well positioned to play their way inside the bubble if they can keep stringing together wins.
-SMU picked up a nice 74-64 win over LSU. Both teams had good records, and this should end up looking good on SMU’s resume.
-Keep an eye on Furman. They really had to sweat yesterday, but they did beat South Carolina State and are now 10-1 on the year.
-Liberty is also 10-1 (with six of those wins coming away from home) and also worth keeping an eye on. They knocked off NC A&T yesterday.
.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-CENTRAL CONNECTICUT AT RHODE ISLAND. Rhody just suffered their first loss of the season to Brown, and while they should be able to bounce back at home in this one, Central Connecticut is good enough to where the Rams better not just overlook them. CCSU has won four straight, they’ve won at Saint Joseph’s and at UMass, and they nearly won at Providence.
-ARKANSAS STATE AT UAB. Arkansas State is 8-3 and has a road win at Memphis on their resume. While UAB is a somewhat disappointing 5-5 this year, they are still a team that could end up with a lot of wins, and picking up another road win will start to put Arkansas State on a path to land inside the bubble.
-SAN FRANCISCO VS LOYOLA CHICAGO (Game in Milwaukee WI). Loyola is unbeaten, but for the most part is also untested. San Francisco isn’t a great team, but they’re better than most of the ones that Loyola has played up to this point. As for San Francisco, they do have a few modestly good wins against Boise State and Saint Louis, and getting this one today would give their own resume a nice boost.
BUY GAMES (and other games of note):
-Temple @ Hofstra – Hofstra can get to a respectable 9-3 and they’ve already got a few decent wins on their resume
-Omaha @ Iowa State
-Akron @ Milwaukee – a win for Akron gets them to 7-2
-New Orleans @ Iowa
-Arkansas Pine Bluff @ Texas
-Georgia Tech @ Northwestern
-Mercyhurst @ Kent State – Kent State can get to 8-2
-Stephen F Austin @ Oregon
-Montana State @ USC – Montana State may be the best team in the Big Sky