NEWS AND NOTES:
-Michigan looks like the best team in the country. Period. They are absolutely bulldozing everyone they play and have been since Thanksgiving. McNeese is a good team and Michigan beat them by about 50. The final score was 112-71. The Wolverines are simply awesome.
-There were nine top 20 teams in action last night and all held serve and won. Michigan State had a little trouble with Cornell, but was able to get the win. Alabama had absolutely no trouble whatsoever with a very good Yale team and blew them off the floor 102-78.
-Belmont lost an overtime thriller to Indiana State 81-80. They had to battle just to force OT, and then had a shot at the end to win it, but couldn’t get it to go down. As is the situation with all Under the Radar teams trying to make the NCAA Tournament, it’s a damaging loss that they won’t get the chance to recover from.
-Another Under the Radar surprise was Wright State beating Oakland, and doing so rather handily 88-73. At no point did it seem like Wright State was not in control of that game.
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HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
MIAMI OH AT BOWLING GREEN (MAC). Miami is coming into this one a perfect 13-0, but this is by far their toughest test of the season so far. They’re on the road against a really good Bowling Green team who has played a tougher schedule and may arguably have a better overall profile. The question is can Miami remain unbeaten after tonight.
-LOUISVILLE AT CALIFORNIA (ACC). Cal is having a much better year than expected and Louisville, while good, has yet to win a true road game. For Cal, this would be a chance to pick up another notable win, and for Louisville it’s a chance to round out their profile with a true road win against a solid opponent.
-BUTLER AT CREIGHTON (Big East). Creighton has been playing better, but they have a lot of catching up to do. Butler is having a solid year and right now looks like they’d be inside the bubble, but we have a long way to go. This is the kind of road game that tournament caliber teams should be able to win, so we’ll see what Butler can do tonight.
-NEW MEXICO AT BOISE STATE (Mountain West). Both teams need to build up their profiles and both could really use this win tonight. Considering that there are a limited number of chances to pick up big wins in conference play, there should be a sense of urgency for both these teams tonight because this would be one of the better wins of the season for whichever team pulls it off.
OTHER NOTABLE GAMES:
-Wyoming @ Air Force (Front Range) – We at Hoops HD Love the Front Range!! Wyoming needs to bounce back from a loss to Grand Canyon, and quite frankly needs to pretty much run the table the rest of the way if they want to end up inside the bubble
-Florida State @ North Carolina (ACC) – North Carolina is on a solid pace to end up as a protected seed and should be able to hold serve in their conference opener
-Seton Hall @ Marquette (Big East) – Marquette’s season has basically gone off a cliff whereas Seton Hall is one of the biggest surprise teams of the year. The Pirates should be able to get this one on the road
-Pittsburgh @ Miami FL – Miami is having a really solid year despite not having a whole lot of media attention on them. They should be able to hold serve at home and improve to 12-2 overall
-Nevada @ Colorado State (Mountain West) – neither team is completely out of the picture in regards to being able to make a run at the bubble, but both teams have a ton of work to do and both could really use this win tonight
-Saint Mary’s @ Pepperdine (West Coast) – Saint Mary’s has strung together some decent wins lately and should be able to pick this one up on the road tonight
-Utah State @ Fresno State (Mountain West) – Utah State clearly looks to be the best team in the MWC, but having said that this is not the easiest game to win. Fresno has played well at times this year and they’re at home tonight
-Notre Dame @ Stanford (ACC) – Stanford is having a solid season and while Notre Dame is certainly formidable and looks to be getting better, it’s a game where the Cardinal should be able to hold serve
-Gonzaga @ San Diego (West Coast) – The Zags should be able to hold serve and get this conference road win without too much trouble
-Washington State @ Seattle U (West Coast) – Seattle is on the outside looking in, but they’ve done well enough to where they are positioned to make a run at the bubble if they can do well throughout conference play. That means holding serve in games like this one tonight
BUY GAMES:
-Milwaukee @ Wisconsin
-South Carolina State @ Tennessee
-New Hampshire @ Nebraska
Hoops HD Staff Bracket – Friday, December 26
As the holiday weekend starts to wind down, it is our colleague John Stalica’s turn to put together the weekly Hoops HD staff bracket this week. This is NOT what Jon Teitel and Rocco Miller do as part of their exercise to guess what the Selection Committee does; rather this is what we feel the bracket should look like at this point in the season. Without further ado:
First Four Out: Indiana, Ohio State, Kansas State, Creighton
Others considered: Washington, Wisconsin, Virginia Tech, Oklahoma
– I think there is little doubt that Michigan is currently the top overall seed given their body of work and margin of victory; Arizona does have the singular best win with a victory at fellow 1-seed UConn.
– Teams like Vanderbilt and Nebraska get some benefit of the doubt with undefeated records going into conference play, but they don’t have the same level of quality wins as others in the top 2 lines. That said, Vandy did destroy Wake on the road and are more than capable of doing similar damage when SEC play rolls around.
– Ordinarily I should have Michigan in the Midwest Region, but the placement of Arizona and Iowa State as the top two seeds makes this impossible to pull off thanks to BYU. BYU can’t be in the West region because of Arizona and I doubt the Selection Committee would drop the Cougars from their natural 3-seed down to the 5-line for such an accomodation. I wonder what Chad would have done in this circumstance.
– I know I’m probably being a Big East homer having 5 teams from the league in the current bracket, but this again is where things stand through today. The margin of error is small for Villanova and Seton Hall and even smaller for Butler and St. John’s. However, as bad as the bubble is, I wouldn’t write off Creighton either. They are dismantling teams ever since the holiday break began.
– Frankly, Kansas State isn’t completely dead in the water either. The road win at Creighton is looming larger and they also have wins against Tulsa and California in their back pocket as well. They also have a neutral court win against Mississippi State, but the Bulldogs might be at the bottom of the SEC this season.
– I had VCU as my last team in the field thanks to a victory against Virginia Tech; they have almost no margin for error in the A-10 though. They’re going to have to put up a very strong conference record to stay in the at-large hunt.
COMMENTS FROM STAFF:
COMMENTS FROM DAVID GRIGGS:
-As much as I’ve beaten up on Kansas State, and while I initially did a spittake when I saw how close Stalica had them to his field, he actually does have a point. I don’t know how this happened, but their profile actually isn’t awful. The Big 12 will give them the chances they need to play their way inside the bubble if they’re good enough. Having said that, I still think that the “good enough” part of that will prove to be a big problem.
-I’m actually with Stalica on Butler! I think they have a good enough team to rack up the record they need to in Big East play to make the field.
-As is the case with most bracket projections, when I look at the teams on the 12 line, and then compare them to the teams on the 9 line, I’d much rather play the teams on the 9 line.