NEWS AND NOTES:
-Maryland, who had not won a true road game prior to yesterday, got a HUGE road win at Illinois 91-70. They didn’t just beat the Illini, but blew them off the court and totally dominated the second half. This was, without question, the biggest win of the year for the Terps and make make the difference of them being an NCAA Tournament team as opposed to an NIT team.
-Saint Mary’s absolutely dominated a San Francisco team that had been playing well, but after last night does not quite look like they’re gonna make it inside the bubble. The final score was 71-51, and for part of the second half the margin was a lot more than that.
-UC Irvine fell in overtime to UC Riverside 84-80. They trailed by 12 midway through the second half, but came back to tie it and the lead seesawed back and forth the rest of the way. UC Irvine is a really good team, but any game they lose is going to hurt because any loss they sustain will be against a team that’s nowhere near the NCAA Tournament field. I still think the committee will select them if they win out, but anything short of that and they’ll probably need to win the Big West Tournament.
-It was actually a pretty exciting and busy night for a lot of Under the Radar teams. Maine got a huge win at UMass Lowell in overtime, Samford came from behind to beat Chattanooga on the road and remain in 1st place in the SoCon, Arkansas State held off Appalachian State at home to remain within a game of South Alabama in the Sun Belt, Lipscomb fell at North Alabama in a game between two of the better teams in the ASun, and Northern Colorado went down in a very surprising upset at Idaho.
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HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-VILLANOVA AT MARQUETTE (Big East). Nova had been playing better, but they’ve now lost 3 out of 4 and have a very tough assignment tonight which will likely drop them to 4 out of 5 losses and keep them outside the bubble. Marquette still looks to be on cruise control for a protected seed.
-MICHIGAN AT PURDUE (Big Ten). Both teams are in the rankings, both have some really good wins on their resumes, and both could end up as a protected seed if they play up to their ceiling the rest of the way. A win tonight for either team would likely end up as a quad-1 win.
-SAINT BONAVENTURE AT VCU (Atlantic 10). I’m beginning to think that VCU is the only team from the A10 that can land inside the bubble and make the NCAA Tournament without winning the conference tournament, and to do that they pretty much need to win out between now and the end of the season. Any loss between now and the end would be coming against a non-tournament caliber team.
-UCLA AT WASHINGTON (Big Ten). UCLA has pulled themselves out of whatever tailspin they were in, and can pick up their third straight win tonight. It’s never easy to win on the road, but this is one the Bruins should be able to get.