NEWS AND NOTES:
-For the most part it was a pretty chalky day yesterday. Alabama, Florida, Oregon, Oklahoma, Purdue, Illinois, Ohio State, Texas, Penn State, and Northwestern all won games you would expect them to win without too much trouble.
-Georgia had to sweat South Carolina State a lot more than what many of us were expecting, but they did manage to hold on and win 79-72. South Carolina State also came very close to upsetting Xavier earlier in the year, so they’ll be a team to keep an eye on once MEAC play gets underway. Speaking of the MEAC…
-Norfolk State picked up a really nice road win at High Point yesterday 77-74. It was High Point’s first home loss of the year, and it may turn out to be their only home loss. Norfolk State will almost assuredly need the auto-bid to get into the NCAA Tournament, but they have looked good OOC so far (as has South Carolina State) and we could see them a little further up the seedlist than where we normally see the MEAC AQ team.
-Drake rolled past Belmont 65-46. It was never even a game. It may not be their most impressive win of the season on paper, but Belmont is still a pretty good team and for Drake to beat them that handily is certainly a statement. They remain unbeaten, and I guess we’ll have to wait until this afternoon to see if this was enough to put them in the top 25.
-Michigan absolutely dump-trucked Western Kentucky 112-64. This was a WKU team that had been playing fairly well coming into this game, so it is kind of impressive that Michigan beat them so badly.
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HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-AKRON AT PRINCETON. Princeton had the big win against Rutgers their last time out and while they were a little disappointing in some of their OOC games they are still 9-4 overall. If they can blow through the rest of their schedule (which I know is a big ‘if’) they will likely at least be on the bubble at the end.
-COLUMBIA AT RUTGERS. Columbia has been one of the more intriguing stories in college basketball. They’re 11-1 on the season with 3 true road wins, but this will hands down be their toughest test so far. Rutgers is super talented, but also super young. At 7-5 overall they have underperformed, but the Big Ten will provide them with the opportunities they need to get big wins and land in the NCAA Tournament despite the slow start. Having said that, the sooner they start stringing together wins, the better.
-CINCINNATI AT KANSAS STATE (Big 12). This is not an easy road game for Cincinnati, but it is perhaps one of the more winnable road games that they’ll have the rest of the way. They are 10-1 overall and their last two wins were fairly solid, but their overall OOC schedule was not that difficult, and playing in the Big 12 will be…well…exceedingly difficult.
-HOUSTON AT OKLAHOMA STATE (Big 12). I still really like this Houston team and think they are good enough to make it to the Final Four, but they didn’t build up much of an OOC resume (at least by protected seed standards) and need to start stringing together wins in conference play. Not only is this Houston’s conference opener, it’s their first true road game of the season.
-TCU AT ARIZONA (Big 12). Arizona is just 6-5, but they’ve played a very tough OOC schedule. Having said that, they need to hold serve at home and win the winnable games like this one to keep themselves within reach of the NCAA field.
-IOWA STATE AT COLORADO (Big 12). This is one of the more intriguing games of the day. Iowa State is ranked 3rd in the nation, and they go on the road in their conference opener to play a Colorado team that’s 9-2 overall with some really big wins and who has a shot at another huge showcase win tonight.
BUY GAMES (and other notable games):
-Western Michigan @ Michigan State
-Monmouth @ Auburn
-New Hampshire @ Iowa
-Presbyterian @ South Carolina
-Alabama State @ Missouri
-Oakland @ Arkansas
-Bryant @ Grand Canyon
-New Orleans @ Vanderbilt
-Bethune Cookman @ Mississippi State
-Southern @ Nebraska
-LMU @ Washington State (West Coast) – Wazzu should get the win and improve to 12-3
-Portland @ Oregon State (West Coast) – a win for Oregon State gets them to 11-3 on the year
-Gonzaga @ Pepperdine (West Coast) – Gonzaga is coming off a tough loss to UCLA, but should be able to bounce back tonight in their conference opener
-UC Irvine @ Cal Baptist (Big West) – I still really like this UC Irvine team and think they have a path (albeit a narrow one) to landing inside the bubble. They need to hold serve in games like this
-Santa Clara @ San Francisco (West Coast) – a Bay Area rivalry. Santa Clara has shown some signs of life, but San Francisco has shown more. A win gets them to 12-3