SURVIVAL BOARD UPDATES (Click here to view)
-Incarnate Word from the Southland was the second team of the year to be eliminated yesterday. As always, we had lengthy discussions and concluded that they were not an at-large candidate, so the team total is now down to 347.
-Milwaukee out of the Horizon League will be eliminated today if they lose at UIC, or if IUPUI beats Green Bay. They are currently three games back with three games to go, so either scenario would eliminate them. Detroit is currently the 8th place team, but since they swept the season series against Milwaukee they own the tiebreaker.
NEWS AND NOTES
So much happened yesterday that I think we have a week’s worth of notes for just one day.
-Duke picked up a much needed road win without Zion Williamson against a Syracuse team that’s hot and cold, but typically hot at home. Syracuse did play well and was in it until the final minutes, but couldn’t hold on. It was the biggest on campus crowd in basketball history!! Next year, they will break that record!! The year after that, they will break it again!! And the year after that, and the year after that, and the year after that. Each time, the media will talk about it as if it is the first time it’s happening and not acknowledge that it is being done by design, and it will continue to drive me crazy!
-Tennessee led LSU for most of the way, but it was close all throughout and LSU ended up forcing overtime, and ultimately getting the win. They did this without Tremont Waters, who is obviously a key player, so even though they were at home it was a fantastic win. The game was so good, that the referees kept wanting to watch replays of it on TV! Over and over and over again!! If you added together all the time the refs spent at the monitor it had to come close to equaling 30 minutes. It’s was beyond ridiculous!! It really did ruin the flow of a fantastic basketball game.
-Kentucky beat Auburn so badly that it raises the question of whether or not Auburn is even a solid tournament team. I think they’ll make it, but “solid” is not an adjective I would use to describe them.
-Florida State’s eight game winning streak came to an end when North Carolina knocked them off rather easily. The Noles are still in good shape, though, and given how well North Carolina is playing you start to wonder if they have a path to the #1 line.
-Nevada had to sweat, but ended up holding off Fresno State.
-Texas Tech’s football team had a tougher time beating Kansas than the basketball team did last night. Texas Tech just blasted them. I know Texas Tech is really good, and I know they were at home, but Kansas has just two true road wins, and they are not the same team since the injuries. It is time to acknowledge that they have not looked like a protected seed, particularly away from home, for over a month now!!
-TCU got a much needed home win over a really good Iowa State team to help stabilize what was becoming a rather flimsy resume. It ended a three game losing streak for the Horned Frogs.
-Oklahoma blew a big lead against Texas, but held on at home to pick up a hugely important win. It was a rivalry game, and it was their second straight, so they appear to be coming out of the tailspin that they were in. They’ve got another huge week ahead.
-Florida and Ole Miss both won home games against teams that are nowhere close to making the NCAA Tournament….BUT BARELY!! Those would have been rather damaging losses had they not held on, especially for Florida.
-South Carolina started out strong at Mississippi State and held the Bulldogs to 1-of-11 shooting to start the game, but Mississippi State shot over 65% from the field the rest of the way and ended up winning at home against double digits. Mississippi State clearly looks to be the best SEC team outside of the Big 3 and also means a missed opportunity for a South Carolina team that has an outside shot at an NCAA at-large bid themselves.
-Wofford picked up a HUGE win at Furman that I think makes them a probable NCAA Tournament team even if they don’t win the SoCon Tournament. It was just the second home loss of the year for Furman, which makes this the third very impressive road win for the Terriers.
-Saint John’s sprinted out to a big early lead against Seton Hall and the Hall was never able to catch up. While the Pirates were able to cut the deficit to 5 points at the under-2 minute mark; at no point did it appear that the Johnnies were in any serious danger of losing the game.
-There was a lot of Under the Radar carnage yesterday with Liberty losing on the road, Texas State barely winning, Georgia State losing big (although they did come back), Radford falling at home to Hampton when they could have locked up the Big South, Yale losing at the buzzer to Harvard in a thriller, Hofstra going down to James Madison, UMBC went down big, and Northern Kentucky fell at home to a Cleveland State team that was mathematically eliminated from the conference tournament earlier this week. It was a rough day to be at or near the top of the standings in a UTR Conference!!
-The wildest game of the night was actually Houston Baptist at Sam Houston State – the Bearkats had a 25-point lead with 5:17 remaining, but Houston Baptist managed to somehow extend the game to overtime and even take a 6-point lead in the first overtime themselves. Nonetheless, SHSU was able to extend the game to a second overtime and ended up with 18 3-pointers in a 119-113 victory that also gave the Bearkats a share of the Southland regular season title.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-SMU AT UCF (American). We have UCF just outside the bubble, and if they want to end up on the right side of it then they best not lose at home to a non-tournament caliber team.
-VILLANOVA AT XAVIER (Big East). Villanova has been mostly hot this year, but they have gone through some cold stretches, and are currently trying to pull themselves out of a stretch where they’ve lost three of their last four games. Xavier has actually won three in a row, including two on the road, so while their resume is still a 100 miles from the NCAA Tournament, they do have a bit of momentum built up and this probably won’t be the easiest game for Nova to win.
-CINCINNATI AT UCONN (American). Cincinnati just keeps winning, and they’re probably one of the more overlooked teams in the country this year. They don’t have much in the way of wins against heavyweight teams, but they haven’t exactly been only eating of the pastry cart either. A win today gets them to 23-4, and to 6-3 in true road games.
-MICHIGAN STATE AT MICHIGAN (Big Ten). It’s a rivalry game between two teams that are basically cruising toward protected seeds, and who have the chance to possibly end up as a #1 seed depending on how everything plays out, and depending on who wins when they play each other. This one should be wild!
-WAKE FOREST AT NC STATE (ACC). NC State is squarely on the bubble and needs to hold serve against the weaker teams in the conference.
-CALIFORNIA AT ARIZONA STATE (Pac Twelve). One never knows what Arizona State is going to do on any given night, and they need to finish strong in order to feel safe on Selection Sunday. Cal is one of the worst teams in the country, so if they were to stumble and lose this one it may kill any hopes they have for an at-large bid.
-MINNESOTA AT RUTGERS (Big Ten). Minney will most likely end up in the field, and they should be able to win this one today, but Rutgers has improved as the season has gone along, and it’s becoming more and more difficult to go there on the road and win.
UTR NOTES
-Lehigh and Bucknell are tied for first place in the Patriot League with just three games to go. The first place team gets home court advantage throughout the conference tournament. Both are in action today with Lehigh hosting Holy Cross and Bucknell, who’s lost two straight, hosting Lafayette.
