NEWS AND NOTES:
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-Florida only had a lead for about 2 seconds in their game at South Carolina, but it was the right two seconds as they hit a game winning shot to escape 70-69 and avoid a loss to a South Carolina team that’s nowhere near the field right now.
-Texas A&M was behind for pretty much the entire second half at Ole Miss, but they were able to keep it close and hit a game winning 3 with about 15 seconds to go to pick up a massive 63-62 road win. This is probably TAMU’s most impressive win of the year considering it was a true road win against a deservedly highly ranked team that was unbeaten at home coming into last night.
-Kansas also had to come from behind to win at TCU, but managed to put the game out of reach down the stretch and win 74-61.
-Saint John’s came back from 16pts down against Xavier to force overtime, and then pulled away in overtime for the 79-71 win. The Johnnies remain in solid shape with some big challenges coming up, and Xavier remains on the outside looking in.
-Nebraska, who I’ve tried to be nice to all season, continues to show why they can’t have nice things. They lost at home to USC 78-73. It’s hard to argue that a team belongs in the NCAA Tournament when they can’t win home games against teams that are nowhere near the NCAA Tournament.
-Georgia appeared to be steamrolling over an Arkansas team that appeared to be getting steamrolled, but Arkansas kicked it into gear in the last ten minutes of the game, came back from double digits, and ended up winning 68-65. This is the first SEC win for Arkansas, so they still have a lot of work to do. As for Georgia, it’s their second straight close loss and this one kind of hurts since it came to a team that is nowhere near the NCAA Tournament field.
-We keep saying that Air Force is hard to play against, and they are. Most teams find a way to beat them, but most teams struggle in doing so. Last night San Diego State needed overtime and barely escaped 77-76. AFA is just 3-16 on the year and 0-8 in MWC play, but they are still a potential landmine given their unique style of play that most teams just aren’t used to.
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HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-WICHITA STATE AT MEMPHIS (American). Memphis has a tendency to sleepwalk through some of these conference games that they should be blowing through, but the expectation is that they will hold serve in this one.
-MARYLAND AT ILLINOIS (Big Ten). Illinois is coming off a tough road loss at Michigan State where they almost pulled out a huge win. They should be able to bounce back tonight against a Maryland team that’s good, but not ‘able-to-beat-a-top-20-team-on-the-road’ level good.
-SAN FRANCISCO AT SAINT MARY’S (West Coast). San Francisco is a very solid 16-5, and is just one big win away from being on the bubble and on the committee’s radar. A win at Saint Mary’s, who is safely inside the bubble right now, would qualify as a big win, so this one is an important game that should be a lot of fun to watch.
-UC SANTA BARBARA AT UC SAN DIEGO (Big West). UCSD is perhaps out of strikes. They need to win out to have any shot at all at landing inside the bubble.
-UC IRVINE AT UC RIVERSIDE (Big West). Right now I’d say that I think UC Irvine is one of the 40 best teams in the country, and that they belong inside the bubble and in the NCAA Tournament even if they don’t win the Big West Tournament, and that their resume is strong enough to indicate that. Having said that, they absolutely need to keep winning!