NEWS AND NOTES
-Villanova got back onto the court for the first time in almost a month, and did not have the easiest time with Seton Hall. They held on for a 76-74 win due to some questionable late foul calls in the game, but it was still a well earned win. Seton Hall seems to be leading the nation in close losses to good teams.
-Now for a loss that WASN’T close. After looking rather pedestrian for the past several weeks (and understandably so) Florida came to life and absolutely blew 6th ranked Tennessee off the floor. It was surreal! If the Gators are back, they didn’t phase in their comeback. They went from zero to ten in a hurry!
-Purdue has gotten better and better as the season has gone along, and they got what was perhaps their biggest win of the year last night at Ohio State. It’s the fourth straight win for the Boilers after a modest 7-5 start. They have a real tough test coming up against a Michigan team that had cracked a few peoples’ top five.
-Alabama continues to blow good teams off the court. I’m not sure where this came from. We thought the Tide would have a good year and perhaps make the NCAA Tournament. We didn’t see them being a legit top ten team, but that’s exactly what they’ve looked like these past few weeks. They absolutely took LSU apart last night in a 30pt win that was probably even more lopsided than that.
-USC, who we had been rightfully praising for the past couple of weeks, really stubbed their toes last night with a loss to Oregon State. Oregon State isn’t great by any stretch of the imagination, but they also aren’t nearly as bad as we thought they’d be. They are now 7-5 on the year and 3-3 in Pac 12 play.
-Pitt held off Duke to improve to 8-2 on the year and 4-1 in the ACC. Had it not been for their season opening loss to Saint Francis U, Pitt would probably be in a lot of peoples’ top 25 by now. They may be headed their anyway. Duke isn’t as good as they normally are, but the string of wins that Pitt has put together has been impressive.
-Utah State picked up another impressive win as they decisively beat Colorado State 83-64. Colorado State looked like they were arguably a bubble team, and Utah State just trucked them. The Aggies didn’t play the toughest OOC schedule, but if you look at them on the court, especially in the last week or so, they’ve certainly passed the so-called eye-test.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-WINTHROP AT PRESBYTARIAN (Big South). Winthrop is looking to remain undefeated on the season.
-VCU AT SAINT BONAVENTURE (Atlantic Ten). This is a big game between two teams that we think could be tournament caliber teams, but haven’t had very many opportunities to show it (especially the Bonnies). That makes this a big game today.
-PROVIDENCE AT CREIGHTON (Big East). Providence appears to be a lot better than their record, so even though Creighton is ranked 11th they better not overlook the Friars. Providence is looking to string together wins to shore up their resume, and Creighton is looking to end up as a protected seed.
-CLEMSON AT GEORGIA TECH (ACC). Clemson had their doors blown off against Virginia and needs to wash that nasty taste out of their mouths, but they are still having a fantastic year overall. Still, GA Tech has shown signs of life this year too, so Clemson can’t just sleepwalk through this one.
-FURMAN AT VMI (SoCon). I still think there may be room for Furman inside the bubble if they can win out, but anything shorter than that will make it tough, and VMI can be hard to play against.
-TULSA AT HOUSTON (American). Tulsa pulled the big upset the first time these two met. It’s Houston’s only loss and they will be looking to bounce back from it. As amazing as the first one was, if Tulsa can do it again it will be the biggest diamond on their resume and their strongest case for a bid.
-NORTHWESTERN AT WISCONSIN (Big Ten). Northwestern keeps slipping, and pretty soon I think they will be out of the picture. It’s not that losing at Wisky is all that bad. Wisky is a very likely protected seed. But losing six in a row is certainly bad.
-COLORADO AT WASHINGTON (Pac 12). Colorado continues to have a solid year, they can pick up another road win, another conference win, and improve to 12-3 on the year with a win tonight.
-FRESNO STATE AT BOISE STATE (Mountain West). Boise State looks to be safely inside the bubble for now and will remain there so long as they can keep holding serve.
-AUBURN AT ARKANSAS (SEC). Arkansas has a respectable 10-4 record, but there isn’t anything on their resume to get all that excited about, so they need to keep holding serve against non-tournament caliber teams if they want any chance of staying in the picture.
