NEWS AND NOTES:
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-Iowa State knocked off Colorado for the 2nd time this year. They had previously played in the Maui Invitational before Iowa State’s 79-69 road win yesterday. While it was a home loss, it still wasn’t a bad showing for the Buffs. Iowa State is almost assuredly a protected seed, and perhaps even a #1 seed, and Colorado was in the game most of the way.
-Houston won their conference opener on the road at Oklahoma State 60-47 in a game that felt like a rock fight. It’s not an overly impressive win for the Cougars, but it was perhaps their most meaningful of the season up to this point.
-Cincinnati, who seems to be in a situation where all of their remaining games will be harder to win than all of their previous games, was unable to win at Kansas State yesterday. This is not a good sign considering it was arguably their most winnable remaining road game. Cincinnati is still well positioned, and if they can perform in conference they’ll land on the right side of the bubble, but it’s also fair to be questioning how good they actually are right now.
-Princeton, who basically needs to run the table to get inside the bubble, needed a last second shot to beat Akron yesterday. They dodged a bullet, but was able to pick up the 76-75 win against the Zips.
-Rutgers clobbered Columbia 91-64, which isn’t the biggest win on paper, but Columbia was a very respectable 11-1 coming into the game, and Rutgers finally at least looked like a top 40ish type of team on the court.
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HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-WEST VIRGINIA AT KANSAS (Big 12). West Virginia has a really solid profile and is 9-2 overall. They probably aren’t quite good enough to where I would expect them to win a true road game against a top ten team, but Kansas better not just overlook them.
-UTAH AT BAYLOR (Big 12). Utah is a respectable 8-3, but all of their wins have come at home and this is their first true road game of the year, so a win today would easily be their biggest of the season so far.
-UCF AT TEXAS TECH (Big 12). Both of these teams come in at 9-2 and both have shown some signs of life, but both still have work to do between now and the end and a win today in the conference opener would be big for either of these teams.
-VCU AT SAINT BONAVENTURE (Atlantic 10). Both have racked up big records against weak schedules, and both could really use this win today to strengthen their overall profiles. Saint Bonaventure is a respectable 12-1, but with no real notable wins. This is the kind of game they need to be able to win if they want to land inside the bubble.
-RHODE ISLAND AT DUQUESNE (Atlantic 1o). Rhode Island is 11-1, but like most other teams in the A10 they played a weak schedule and have a very small margin for error. They also don’t have a true road win yet, so they kind of need this one today (and a lot more on top of that).
-ARIZONA STATE AT BYU (Big 12). Both teams are a very respectable 9-2, but BYU is a little light so far on high caliber wins. A win tonight in their conference opener would certainly give them a boost. Arizona State has probably exceeded expectations so far this year and looks like a probable tournament team, but they still don’t have a true road win, so to get this one in their conference opener tonight would certainly strengthen their resume.
-UAB AT NORTH TEXAS (American). North Texas is a good team who has a shot at making the NCAA Tournament, but their margin for error is small. They probably need to not lose to anyone other than Memphis the rest of the way, and perhaps win one of their games against Memphis on top of that.
-GEORGE WASHINGTON AT RICHMOND (Atlantic 10). Like several A10 teams, GW has an impressive record against an unimpressive schedule. They have a razor thin margin for error in regards to making the NCAA Tournament and every game will have a high stakes feel to it.
-SAINT JOHN’S AT CREIGHTON (Big East). Saint John’s has looked impressive this year and is 11-2 overall, whereas Creighton has somewhat underperformed this year and has had to deal with injuries and is a somewhat underwhelming 8-5. Still, the Blue Jays can be dangerous and they have beaten some good teams, and the Johnnies have only played one true road game so far.
-MARQUETTE AT PROVIDENCE (Big East). It’s never easy to win on the road, but Marquette is a good team that’s capable of winning games like this.
-UTAH STATE AT NEVADA (Mountain West). Utah State is coming off a massive road win against San Diego State, and while they’ll be challenged tonight, it’s still the kind of game they’ve shown they can win. Utah State looks like they’ll safely land inside the bubble and we will likely see them in the top 25 before the end of the year.
OTHER GAMES OF NOTE:
-Brown @ Kentucky
-La Salle @ Dayton (Atlantic 10)
-Seton Hall @ Xavier (Big East) – Xavier has lost three straight tough ones and needs to start stringing together wins to get back toward the bubble
-Norfolk State @ Tennessee – this feels like a 1 vs 16 game in the Round of 64
-Virginia Tech @ Duke (ACC)
-New Mexico @ Fresno State (Mountain West) – New Mexico can improve to 11-3 and 3-0 in conference play
-Boise State @ Wyoming (Mountain West) – Boise State needs to string together wins and a lot of those wins need to be on the road