NEWS AND NOTES:
-Tennessee bounced back from a disastrous road performance at Florida earlier in the week with a really strong 74-70 road win at Texas. Tennessee is still in fantastic shape and on pace to get a 1 seed. Texas has now dropped three straight, which can easily happen in a league as tough as the SEC. All three losses were against top ten opponents.
-Auburn held on to win at South Carolina 66-63 and will likely be ranked #1 on Monday, but the bad news as Johni Broome went down with a nasty looking ankle injury. He will likely be out for a couple of games.
-Iowa State needed a last second shot to force overtime, and then a thrilling finish in overtime to escape Texas Tech 85-84. Texas Tech had a lead for much of the game, but Iowa State kept it close, drove the length of the floor at the end of regulation, and was able to convert a game-tying layup to force overtime. Texas Tech had a good look at the last second of overtime that could have given them the win, but it just didn’t go down.
-Alabama picked up a very impressive 94-88 win at Texas A&M. There has been a ton of buzz around Auburn, but Alabama is keeping pace with neutral floor wins against Illinois and Houston, and now a true road win against Texas A&M.
-Kentucky, who has had their share of impressive wins this season, picked up another huge win yesterday as they knocked off Mississippi State on the road 95-90. I thought Kentucky would be good this year, but not this good. This was probably their most impressive win of the year considering how good Mississippi State is and that it was a true road game.
-Florida followed up their big win against top ranked Tennessee with a tough road win against Arkansas 71-63. That’s a pretty good week for the Gators!
-UConn got a battle from Georgetown, but managed to hang on and win 68-60 and is looking like they’re right up there with Marquette in the Big East and have a wide open path to a protected seed.
-Kansas keeps winning and Cincinnati keeps losing. The Jayhawks went on the road and picked up the nice 54-40 in over the Bearcats. I say it was nice. The offense in this game wasn’t nice, but the win itself will look nice on paper.
-Illinois, who appeared to really have a lot of momentum built up, lost at home to USC 82-72. After a road trip where they blew out Oregon, then beat Washington handily, and then beat a really good Penn State team by such a margin that it almost seemed illegal, for them to come home and lose to USC was one of the bigger head-scratchers of the day.
-Oklahoma has now lost three straight after the impressive 13-0 start as they fell at Georgia 72-62. Georgia is good, and they are tough to beat at home, but Oklahoma needs to pull themselves out of the tailspin they appear to be in.
-Boise State had a lead over Utah State for much of the first half, but the Aggies kept it close enough. Then they came back and pulled even in the second half, and the last part of the second half was incredibly entertaining. We saw multiple lead changes in the final minute, and the game came down to the wire before Utah State managed to hold on and barely escape 81-79. This was perhaps the most entertaining game of the day!
-Louisville keeps winning! I don’t know how, but they do. They picked up a really big road win at Pittsburgh 82-78. Considering it was a true road win against a likely tournament team, and that it was a conference game, and that Louisville has done it after losing so many players, it may be one of the biggest wins of the year so far for the Cardinals.
-Saint Bonaventure, who I was praising a week ago, has now lost two straight games. Both the losses came to really bad teams. They fell to La Salle 83-82 yesterday. It’s hard to still like them after that.
-Columbia, who had such an exciting start to the season through OOC play, lost their Ivy League opener at home to Cornell 94-83. Columbia is still having one of their best seasons in recent memory, but they will face some challenges in the Ivy.
-Bradley, who may be good enough to flirt with the bubble, dodged a HUGE bullet yesterday, but held on to win at UIC 61-60.
-North Carolina has now won five of their last six and picked up a nice road win over conference rival NC State yesterday 63-61. It isn’t a win that will stand out all that much on their resume, but it was a true road win against a conference rival for a team that’s trying to climb back up the rankings after a tough OOC run.
-Wake Forest has now won five of their last six and is starting to make some noise. A win over Miami FL in and of itself isn’t much to get excited about, but the Demon Deacons are on a roll right now.
-Villanova, who was (and still is) playing much better, was unable to follow up their big win against UConn with a win at Saint John’s. The Johnnies are looking like a really good team, and quite frankly they’ve looked good all year. They’re probably being undervalued and belong in the top 25.
-Indiana, who I had been very critical of all year but had recently begun to praise, once again looked like a team that needs to be criticized yesterday. Iowa absolutely blew them out of the gym with an 85-60 win.
-Liberty, who we said could end up inside the bubble if they could run through CUSA, now has two conference losses. They fell on the road to Louisiana Tech 79-74 yesterday, which admittedly was likely their toughest conference game, but it was still one they needed to win if they wanted any real shot at landing inside the bubble.
-Baylor got a really big road win at Arizona State as they held off the Sun Devils 72-66. Arizona State was one of the bigger surprises in OOC play, and they are still reasonably well positioned, but they are just 1-3 in the Big 12 so far and really could have used this win yesterday.
-UC Irvine got a massive road win at UC San Diego as they held them off 60-52. UC San Diego shot the ball extremely poorly despite getting a fair number of open looks, but UC Irvine is also an outstanding defensive team. Both teams are in the top 50 of the NET, both belong there, both will likely remain there, and both have a shot at landing inside the bubble if they can can continue to hold serve against the rest of the Big West. UC Irvine is now an amazing 8-2 in true road games!
.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-MICHIGAN STATE AT NORTHWESTERN. Northwestern has had some really bad luck this in a couple of their close losses, and consider that they’ve lost their last two games makes this one really big today. It’s a win that would look really good on their profile and it would prevent a three-game losing streak. Michigan State is positioned to end up as a protected seed and is 2-0 in true road games so far, so it won’t be easy for the Wildcats.
-NEBRASKA AT PURDUE (Big Ten). Nebraska seems positioned to land inside the bubble, but Purdue seems positioned to still possibly end up as a protected seed. The Boilers are the better team with the better resume so far, and they should be able to hold serve at home.
-WASHINGTON AT MICHIGAN (Big Ten). Michigan has been playing really well and is probably being a little undervalued. They should be able to hold serve at home and remain perfect in Big Ten play.
-WEST VIRGINIA AT COLORADO (Big 12). This is a really tough road test for West Virginia, and it’s one that could help boost their resume since they’re coming off the decisive loss to Arizona and have just one true road win. Colorado has shown they can play at a high level, but their overall resume isn’t strong enough to indicate they are a solid NCAA Tournament team. They’ve also lost three straight, so this game has a very pivotal feel to it for the Buffalos.
-OREGON AT PENN STATE (Big Ten). Oregon is a likely protected seed, and Penn State is looking more and more like they will be an NCAA Tournament team. A win today for Penn State puts them in even better shape, and a win for Oregon shows that they are good enough to beat tournament caliber teams in true road games.