07 Mar5 - Things Are Tough All Over (PRETOURNAMENT)
Things Are Tough All Over
In the last week of regular season play in the major conferences, practically no one made it through the week with two solid performances. Some teams lost focus after they had already clinched the title and they coasted through "meaningless" games against upstarts with everything to prove. Other teams had everything to play for but couldn't close the deal with title-clinching games right in front of them. In the first wave of conference tournaments in the "lesser" leagues, no one that didn't belong wound up replacing a team that will have to make its way into the NCAAs at-large (but keep your fingers crossed this week).
UCLA fell at Washington, 51-@61, as the Huskies held the Bruins to 31% shooting. (UW also routed USC @85-70 in a last-ditch effort to make the tournament. They'll have to keep on winning and make the PAC-10 final if they want serious consideration for a bid, though.) Florida played its worst game yet in a dreadful 76-@86 loss at Tennessee that wasn't even that close -- (the Gators trailed by 27 points in the second half). The Gators pulled it back together somewhat, though, with a nice @85-72 win over Kentucky. Georgetown was beaten by Syracuse, 58-@72, but regrouped to take out Connecticut @59-46. Ohio State and Wisconsin managed not to lose; but the Buckeyes were only 65-@61 winners at Michigan, and the Badgers needed a game-winning three-pointer from gKammron Taylor to sink Michigan State @52-50 at home. Nothing too serious to worry about in most of those case, but watch the SEC tournament closely to see if Florida really can turn the switch all the way back on when the games count again.
In the ACC, no one seemed to want to go out and claim the title. No less than four teams each had its turn to win a game and earn the #1-seed for the conference tournament and all four teams lost when the chance was right in front of them. North Carolina had the chance to sew things up with a win over Georgia Tech, but the Yellow Jackets kept the pressure on for 40 minutes and won @84-77 in the Thrillerdome. Next, Virginia Tech had a shot, but fell 56-@69 on the road at Virginia. Virginia had its own chance to sew things up, but managed to lose 72-@78 at Wake Forest. Boston College tried its luck, but fell 60-@74 at Georgia Tech. Virginia Tech lost again, this time at home to Clemson @74-75 on gK.C. Rivers' game-winner. Finally, North Carolina prevailed against Duke, @86-72, to garner a tie with Virginia for the regular season title (and the Tar Heels gained the #1-seed in the ACC tournament by virtue of their earlier win over the Cavaliers). The UNC-Duke game ended on a bizarre note: with only seconds left in the game, cTyler Hansbrough grabbed an offensive rebound off of his own missed free throw and nearly had his nose broken when gGerald Henderson came down on him with a vicious elbow that drew lots of blood. Because it's Duke (of course), it was "accidental". (The refs did eject Henderson for a flagrant foul and, rather than staunchly defending his player with "I know my guy and he would never do that on purpose", coach Mike Krzyzewski said instead, "if it was intentional, it's crazy".) The guy was probably not purposely trying to break his nose, but there's no good explanation for swinging that wildly in a game that's over. You could argue that Hansbrough is so physically strong that, like Patrick Ewing or Shaquille O'Neal, opponents "have to" foul him harder than the average player just to make an impression. Still, with 14 seconds left, that kind of intensity doesn't make sense. (But we all know that Duke athletes are beyond reproach, right?)
Texas has become more than just the tKevin Durant Travelling Circus. The Longhorns put together two fine performances and darn near stole away the Big 12 regular season title. Not even more outrageous heroics from Texas A&M's gAcie Law could prevent a @98-96(2OT) UTx win in Austin. Even before this season, Law was known for coming up big late in the game. He turned the game around in the last 4 minutes when the Aggies came back to beat Kansas 77-@75 earlier this year. This time, he kept knocking down clutch three-pointers to keep them in the game against the Longhorns: he made one to send it into first overtime, made another one to send things into a second overtime, and damn near made a third one at the very end. Ultimately, though, it was Durant's 30p16r and pD.J. Augustin's 25p7a5r that won the day. On the road at Kansas, Durant had 25 points in the first half (as they led 51-35) before the Jayhawks turned things on themselves (and Durant slowed down after turning his ankle) and KU eventually pulled out a @90-86 win to clinch the Big 12 regular season title. Because of the unbalanced conference schedule, it will have to wait until the conference tournament to know for sure which is really the best team in the league, and now it's a three-way conversation instead of two.
The "lesser" conference tournaments got under way last week. The "Big One", the MVC, held form among all the main contenders through to the final as Missouri State knocked out Wichita State, Bradley knocked off Northern Iowa, and in turn, Southern Illinois beat Bradley and Creighton beat Missouri State (behind 33p from gNate Funk). In the final, Creighton turned the tables on Southern Illinois (which swept them in two close regular season games). The Bluejays won 67-61 and held the lead for most of the game behind 19p from Funk and 15p13r from cAnthony Tolliver. The Salukis play lockdown defense, but they struggle to score an easy baskets on offense; they lack both height and speed and it's hard for them to play catch-up once they get behind. Still, they've managed to put together a great season (but their prospects in the NCAA tournament depend greatly on the physical talent of their opponents).
Winthrop saved the day for all those bubble teams by taking care of business and winning the Big South conference tournament outright, but it wasn't easy. The Eagles had to outlast the nation's leading scoring team (VMI) and player (gReggie Williams) in a @84-81 shootout in the final. Bobby Cremins' College of Charleston Cougars spoiled the plans for Appalachian State with a @89-87(OT) win in the semifinals behind gDontaye Draper's 38 points). Meanwhile, Davidson held off CofC in the final, 72-@65, to take the Southern Conference crown (to go along with their 17-1 regular season title). George Mason found some life in a "back-to-a-pumpkin" season with two big wins in the Colonial tournament, @64-61 over Hofstra, and @79-@63 over Old Dominion.
It's now out of their hands for the likes of Missouri State, Appalachian State, Old Dominion, Bradley, Drexel, Marist, Hofstra, East Tennessee State (which managed to lose @67-94 on its own home floor to second-seed Belmont), Nothern Iowa, Wichita State, Austin Peay (which lost on a last-seconds shot, @62-63 to Eastern Kentucky). With so many of the BCS conferences finishing so competitively, most likely all of those teams will only make it to the NIT.
Holdover finals from last week include the danger schools Gonzaga and Butler (which barely hung on 67-66(OT) over Loyola(Illinois) in the Horizon semfinal, thanks to clutch free-throw shooting from NCAA-leader gA.J. Graves -- and, in fact, GU's gDerek Raivio is right behind him in second place). Memphis (Conference USA) should be able to repeat Winthrop's performance and come through with the automatic bid in front of the home folks. Don't forget the Patriot final on Friday 4:30PM (at Holy Cross vs Bucknell -- the Crusaders are host for this game thanks to the official RPI used as a tiebreaker) and the America East final Saturday 12N (at Vermont vs Albany) squeezed in with all the major tourneys.
People are talking about 9 ACC teams, 8 Big East teams, 7 Big 10 teams, 7 SEC teams, 6 Pac-10 teams and 5 Big 12 teams being the mix for the NCAA tournament. That's already 36 at-large bids right there (and there are only 34 to be had). It's going to be very hard for anyone outside the BCS to get in (except for the "locks" that are supposed to take the automatic bid). Southern Illinois makes it 33, and there's Nevada/New Mexico State and BYU/Air Force/UNLV out there. (MO State? App State? ODU? Xavier/UMass? It don't look good, boys.)
-- Ron
Key games this week:
Monday:
WCC TOURNAMENT Final @ Portland OR
- (Gonzaga-SantaClara),
COLONIAL TOURNAMENT Final @ Richmond VA
- (@VCU-Geo Mason),
MAAC TOURNAMENT Final @ Bridgeport CT
- (Niagara-Siena),
Monday-Tuesday:
MID-CON TOURNAMENT @ Tulsa OK
- (@OralRoberts-IUPUI, Oakland-MOKansasCity),
SUN BELT TOURNAMENT @ Lafayette LA
- (ArkansasSt-WeKentucky, NTexas-MidTennessee),
Tuesday:
HORIZON TOURNAMENT Final on-campus
- (@WrightSt-Butler),
Tuesday, Thursday-Saturday:
WAC TOURNAMENT @ Las Cruces NM
- (Thu: Nevada, @NewMexicoSt, FresnoSt, UtahSt),
MWC TOURNAMENT @ Las Vegas NV
- (Thu: BYU, @UNLV, SanDiegoSt, AirForce),
Wednesday-Saturday:
PAC-10 TOURNAMENT @ Los Angeles CA
- (Wed: Washington-ArizonaSt, California-OregonSt;
- Thu: @UCLA, WashingtonSt, @USC-Stanford, Oregon-Arizona),
BIG EAST TOURNAMENT @ New York NY
- (Wed: Syracuse-Connecticut, Marquette@StJohns, WVirginia-Providence, DePaul-Villanova;
- Thu: Georgetown, Louisville, Pittsburgh, NotreDame),
C-USA TOURNAMENT @ Memphis TN
- (Thu: @Memphis, CFlorida, Houston),
A-10 TOURNAMENT @ Atlantic City NJ
- (Thu: Xavier, Massachusetts, GeoWashington),
MAC TOURNAMENT @ Cleveland OH
- (Wed: @OhioU, WeMichigan;
- Thu: @Toledo, @Akron, @KentSt, @MiamiOH),
BIG WEST TOURNAMENT @ Anaheim CA
- (Fri: @LongBeachSt),
Thursday-Friday, Sunday:
SOUTHLAND TOURNAMENT @ Houston TX
- (TexasA&MCC, Sam Houston St),
Thursday-Sunday:
BIG 10 TOURNAMENT @ Chicago IL
- (Thu: @Illinois-PennSt, MichiganSt@Northwestern, Michigan-Minnesota;
- Fri: OhioSt, Wisconsin, Indiana, Iowa-Purdue),
SEC TOURNAMENT @ Atlanta GA
- (Thu: Tennessee-LSU, Arkansas-SCarolina, Kentucky-Alabama, Auburn@Georgia;
- Fri: Florida, MississippiSt, Vanderbilt, Mississippi),
ACC TOURNAMENT @ Tampa FL
- (Wed: Maryland@MiamiFL, GeorgiaTech-WakeForest, Duke-NCState, Clemson@FloridaSt;
- Thu: NCarolina, Virginia, VirginiaTech, BostonCol),
BIG 12 TOURNAMENT @ Oklahoma City OK
- (Thu: TexasTech-Colorado, Missouri-Baylor, @OklahomaSt-Nebraska, IowaSt@Oklahoma;
- Fri: Kansas, TexasA&M, Texas, KansasSt),
Friday:
PATRIOT TOURNAMENT Final on-campus
- (@HolyCross-Bucknell),
Saturday:
AMERICA EAST TOURNAMENT Final on-campus
- (@Vermont-Albany),
Sunday:
(NCAA TOURNAMENT BRACKET SELECTION).
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FINAL TOP 25 - 07 Mar 5: PRETOURNAMENT - [] Column
- Ohio State (27-3)
- UCLA (25-4)
- Wisconsin (27-4)
- Florida (26-5)
- North Carolina (25-6)
- Texas A&M (25-5)
- Kansas (26-4)
- Georgetown (22-6)
- Washington State (24-6)
- Pittsburgh (25-6)
- Nevada (26-3)
- Maryland (24-7)
- Memphis (26-3)
- Oregon (23-7)
- Tennessee (22-9)
- Texas (22-8)
- Duke (22-9)
- Kentucky (18-10)
- Michigan State (21-10)
- Marquette (22-8)
- Creighton (22-10)[:MVC]
- Southern Illinois (26-6)
- Butler (24-5)
- Winthrop (24-4)[vBIG SOUTH]
- Louisville (20-8)
Honorable Mention:
- - Arizona (20-9), Georgia Tech (19-10), BYU (22-7), Davidson (28-4)[@SOCON], VCU (25-6), Stanford (17-11), Clemson (21-9).
posted by Ron @ Tuesday, March 06, 2007
