NEWS AND NOTES
-Gonzaga held on to win against Pepperdine, but it was a close, back-and-forth type of game. Against…PEPPERDINE! At home. This would have been a bigger upset than Stephen F Austin’s win at Duke or Evansville’s win at Kentucky because I think both SFA and Evansville are quite a bit better than Pepperdine. But, the Zags held on to win.
-WE HAD A QUADRUPLER!! Last night’s Saint Mary’s v Pacific game was the first quadruple overtime game in almost two years!! And it was glorious. It saw wild 3-point bank shots, I don’t know how many lead changes, and a somewhat controversial ) no-call on a goal tend that would have won the game for Saint Mary’s at the end of the third overtime before Pacific held on to win. For SMC, their resume is looking a little flimsy. I’m not going to go so far to say that they are in trouble, but they have a very small margin for error the rest of the way.
-Florida State picked up their biggest win of the year as they knocked off Louisville on the road. As great as a win as it is for Florida State, it kind of makes you question Louisville and whether or not they have a resume that even warrants being a protected seed right now.
-It’s time to start looking at Georgia now, who is 10-3 on the season, and who picked up a HUGE road win at Memphis yesterday. Their resume is suddenly looking VERY good, and when you look at the rest of the SEC you have to wonder how much noise they’ll be able to make in that league.
-Villanova was the third top ten team to lose yesterday as they fell on the road to Marquette. We had a lot of question marks about this Marquette team, but They certainly looked good yesterday and have pretty much good overall throughout the whole season.
-I’m sold on Auburn. Mississippi State isn’t great, but it was a true road game and Auburn won it rather safely.
-San Diego State went on the road to Utah State and won without even having to sweat. They are unbeaten, and they’ve already played their toughest games. I’m not ready to predict that they will run the table just yet, but they will likely be favored in all their remaining games.
-Penn State and Iowa was a thriller with Penn State pulling off yet another big win and improving to 12-2 on the season. You rarely say this when talking hoops, but Penn State is for real!
-LSU got a much needed road win as they knocked off Tennessee yesterday. Tennessee is in a tailspin, and given their injuries I don’t think they’re going to be able to pull themselves out of it.
-NC State dropped a rather headscratching game to Clemson yesterday. NC State had looked good and appeared to be putting together a fairly decent profile, and Clemson hadn’t really looked good at all at any point, so it was somewhat of a surprise that the Tigers ended up getting the win.
-Providence has now won three straight, and all three games were notable wins as they blew out Texas and Georgetown, and then managed a road win at DePaul. After sleepwalking through the first two months of the season, has Providence finally woken up?
-After going 5-1 in their last six games, Alabama lost a double overtime thriller on the road at Florida. The Gators actually had to come back to win this one as the Tide led by close to 20pts in the second half.
-North Carolina continues to struggle. They fell behind by more than 20 at home to Georgia Tech very shortly after the game tipped off, and were then never able to catch up. I figured that they’d eventually turn it around, but now I’m wondering if they’ll even make the NCAA Tournament at all.
-Every time I think Cincinnati is turning the corner, they end up slamming into the curb. They fell on the road to Tulane last night, and are once again looking like they’re 100 miles from the NCAA Tournament. Tulane, on the other hand, continues to exceed all expectations.
-East Tennessee State lost a big road game to Furman, which was a chance for them to pick up a road win that would have looked really strong on their resume.
-UNC Greensboro also lost a tough road game to Wofford. Of the three SoCon teams that we thought could land inside the bubble if they dominated the conference, two of them lost on the road yesterday.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-For John Stalica’s UTR Game of the Day – CLICK HERE
-RICHMOND AT RHODE ISLAND (Atlantic Ten). Richmond showed us that they’ve got the ability to play like a tournament team, but they have a somewhat small margin for error and need to show that more often than not they can win games like this on the road.
-VCU AT GEORGE MASON (Atlantic Ten). George Mason has a bloated record, but still doesn’t have any notable wins. VCU is 11-3, but also has a rather small margin for error because their best current win is probably against LSU at home, and as of now LSU has a losing record away from home. Both teams could REALLY use this one.
-DAYTON AT SAINT JOSEPH’S (Atlantic Ten). Dayton looks to be the best team in the A10 by far, and should blow past this Saint Joseph’s team.
-MICHIGAN AT MICHIGAN STATE (Big Ten). Michigan State has had their struggles (at least by #1 seed standards), but they have won six straight (albeit against weaker competition) and you get the feeling that they are just a breakout game away from breaking back into the top ten. Michigan is just 3-3 in their last six games, they have no true road wins, and two of those wins were home buy games, so as big as the win against Gonzaga was back in November, this would arguably be an even bigger win since it’s a rivalry game and a true road game.
-UMASS AT SAINT LOUIS (Atlantic Ten). SLU is coming off of a loss to Duquesne, but they’re still 10-3 overall and still have a path to the NCAA Tournament if they can put up a really big record in conference play and stubbing their toes in games like this.
-SAINT JOHN’S AT XAVIER (Big East). It’s just the second conference game for both teams, but you get the sense that it is HUGELY important because neither team wants to start off 0-2. The Johnnies actually look better on paper because their OOC wins are more impressive. Xavier also didn’t look all that good even though they were winning their games, but they did play pretty well in their loss at Nova in their last game. Both teams could really use this one.
-OREGON STATE AT COLORADO (Pac 12). Oregon State has a bloated record, but doesn’t really have any notable wins. That would change in a big way if they’re able to pull off this upset today, but that’s easier said than done. Colorado is coming off a big win against Oregon and has really been playing well lately.
-NORTHWESTERN AT MINNESOTA (Big Ten). Minney still has a lot of work to do, but they also need to hold serve in games like this.
-PURDUE AT ILLINOIS (Big Ten). Both teams are 9-5, both have played well at times, but neither has played like a tournament level team on a consistent basis yet.
-USC AT WASHINGTON (Pac 12). This should be a really big game between a Washington team that’s coming off a somewhat inexplicable loss to UCLA and really needs to bounce back, and a USC team that’s having a good year, but that’s been somewhat ignored. If they can pull off the upset on the road and improve to 13-2 then people will probably begin to pay more attention to them.
