NEWS AND NOTES:
-For John Stalica’s UTR Game of the Day – CLICK HERE
-A big thanks to John Stalica for helping out with the daily write-ups the last two days! I was out celebrating, and one thing led to another, and…well…let’s just say that I don’t think local law enforcement has been very fair to puppets!!!
-We will be recording our Hoops HD Report tonight as we are now back on our normal schedule. John Stalica will also have his first Staff Bracket of the New Year later today!
-Providence won handily at DePaul to stay unbeaten in Big East play and improve to 12-3 on the year. The voters have got to start noticing this team. They lost a ton from last year’s team and many dismissed them in the preseason, and it seems as though they actually haven’t notice that once again Providence is damn good!
-Washington State isn’t likely to make the tournament, but they are good enough to be considered a snake-pit when playing at home. They nearly beat UCLA just a few nights ago, and beat a really good USC team last night. Their only other home loss was in overtime to Utah, so they can play with, and even beat, good teams at home.
-Drake lost another game that they should have won, this time at Missouri State, 52-49. I’m very close to saying that one of Drake’s win better be that last Missouri Valley Conference Tournament game, because they are out of strikes and can’t get inside the bubble. They basically need to win out to not need the auto-bid.
-Michigan looked like a directional Michigan school against Central Michigan earlier in the week, but looked like a Final Four team yesterday against a Maryland team who had been playing well, but I guess spent too much time partying on New Years Eve. I believe it was 23-4 at one point, and the game was never really close as Michigan blew them away.
-Memphis, who had been playing well, had a tough road game against a Tulane team that has somewhat underperformed but is still having a good year…and lost 96-89. This loss doesn’t sink think by any means, but it was one of those road games that, while not easy to win, that a tournament caliber team needs to be able to win.
-Iowa’ suckiness improved a little bit yesterday, but they still didn’t get the win at Penn State as they fell 83-79. Penn State is looking more and more like a solid tournament caliber team, whereas Iowa just needs to beat ANYBODY to pull themselves out of the tailspin they are in.
-Ohio State went into Northwestern and got an impressive and decisive 73-57 road win. Northwestern had been looking like a fringe bubble team, but they looked like utter crap yesterday. The 73-57 score isn’t a close margin, but it’s a much closer margin than how close the game actually was. Ohio State just dominated.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-RUTGERS AT PURDUE (Big Ten). I’ve beens saying for weeks that Rutgers looks like an NCAA Tournament team, but that their resume needs some boosting. Well, tonight is a chance for them to boost it through the roof!! The problem is that while they look like Tournament team, they don’t look like a Final Four team, which is what Purdue has looked like, so to win there on the road might be a little bit out of their reach.
-WEST VIRGINIA AT OKLAHOMA STATE (Big 12). After a ho-hum start, Oklahoma State looked fantastic in their last game at Kansas, but could not pick up the win. Still, they FINALLY looked like the caliber of team that we were expecting coming into the year, they’ve got a winnable game at home tonight, and if they can start stringing together wins they can play their way in. WVU is in the rankings, but could use a few notable wins away from home of their own to polish up their resume too.
Hoops HD Staff Bracket – Monday, January 2nd
After our holiday break, we resume our Staff Bracket projections this week. This is not to be confused with the brackets that our committee-guessing expert Jon Teitel posts; he is simply guessing what the Selection Committee would likely pick at this stage. With John Stalica’s turn this week, this is how he sees fit at this checkpoint of the season.
COMMENTS FROM JOHN:
– With UConn losing this weekend, we now have a clear-cut #1 overall seed with Purdue taking control. Kansas and Arizona continue to impress and UConn still has the edge over Houston for the final #1 spot for now.
– Both New Mexico and Xavier tied for #22 in the AP Poll last week and both teams have been rising fast in the seed list. The Musketeers have an opportunity to rise up a little faster given the level of competition in the Big East versus what the Mountain West offers for the Lobos.
– If not for their win at home against Yale, Kentucky would be 0-4 against the top two tiers in the NET. Notice they are not in the bracket right now.
– I think that Charleston and Florida Atlantic deserve to be above the First Four right now, but teams like North Texas and UAB also have a chance to crash the party as at-larges if things break right for them in C-USA. Southern Miss is not above the First Four but I do have them as a #12 seed at this point.
– Creighton is a team that will likely get healthy and get in the field later on in the season, but right now the resume isn’t there. Villanova may not get to that point and will really be behind the 8-ball should they not kick into gear soon.
First Four Out: Creighton, Utah State, Northwestern, NC State
COMMENTS FROM DAVID: Stalica mentioned this in his write-up, but to the question of “Where’s Kentucky?” the answer should be “Right next to Oklahoma State.” I do think Kentucky will be there in the end, but right now despite multiple chances, they just don’t have enough wins against the top 100, much less tournament caliber wins, to be selected. I applaud John for the omission!!
-Sam Houston is in his field, but on the #12 line. I’m starting to think that I’m the only person that I’m the only person that respects the hell out of their resume. The wins at Oklahoma and Utah have got to be worth something. Granted Stalica only has both of those teams in the First Four, so…