08 Feb25 - The Day Of The Year

Volume XII, No. 17 - 08 Feb 25 - [] Top 25 Ballot

The Day Of The Year

Fittingly, The Game Of The Year capped off what thus became The Day Of The Year. The most hyped rivalry game in the history of the state of Tennessee lived up to its advance billing intensity-wise from start to finish (and quality-wise at the start, anyway). The opening segment of Tennessee-@Memphis was spectacular. They went seven minutes before the first TV timeout (normally at four minutes) with Memphis leading 20-17, having hit six three-pointers already. Mind you, three-point shooting is no strength of the Tigers (and after starting 7-for-11 on 3s, UM shot 1-for-16 on 3s for the rest of the game). Memphis led 31-24 with seven minutes left in the first half and 35-34 at the break. Reserve fJ.P. Prince(13p8r) keyed a run to start the second half to put the Volunteers up 45-39 five minutes in. UM fought back to go up 61-58 with four minutes to go, led by pDerrick Rose(23p5a5r -- as clutch this week as he was non-clutch last week in their almost-loss at UAB) and gChris Douglas-Roberts(14p). The closing segment belonged to UTn, thanks to two huge baskets from pTyler Smith(16p6a), and two free throws each from fPrince and bChris Lofton(7p3a5r) as Tennessee prevailed 66-@62, ending Memphis' dream of an undefeated season and lifting the Vols into the top spot in the rankings. Players were cramping on both sides as the effort level and emotional intensity was sky high. Tennessee won the boards 50-34 while Memphis, the worst free-throw shooting team in the nation -- that's right, they're dead last at 59% -- shot 8-for-17 on free throws, more than enough misses to make up for the losing margin. Both teams are quite similar, pressing and running as much as possible. Tennessee has more balance and doesn't need its designated star (gLofton) to come through in order to win. If the Vols can finish as the SEC title holder/conference champ, they'll secure a #1 seed and get a spot in the Charlotte Regional. (That would send Louisville, Georgetown and the loser of North Carolina/Duke all packing for Detroit or parts unknown.) [Hey, one team did complete a perfect season: Provisional Division-I {New Jersey Institute of Technology} closed out its year at 0-29. Yikes.]

The off-court mess at Indiana culminated in the negotiated resignation of coach Kelvin Sampson with the agreement that he won't sue the university for wrongful termination (as some other high-profile coaches have done recently, with some success). Former IU player, assistant coach Dan Dakich (aka "The Man Who Shut Down Michael Jordan" -- he guarded MJ when Indiana beat North Carolina in the 1984 NCAA tournament in Jordan's last college game), was named interim coach. Six players (including fD.J. White) promptly skipped his first practice in protest (but they wisely regrouped and all played in Indiana's 85-@82 win at Northwestern). Sampson's alleged violations revolve around excessive phone calls to recruits -- which doesn't seem egregious enough to warrant termination; except that it's exactly the same violation that got him in trouble at Oklahoma and nothing seems to have changed. (Hey, Michigan won the 1989 national championship under interim coach Steve Fisher after A.D. Bo Schembechler fired Bill Frieder in March for pre-accepting the job at Arizona State before the current season was over. So all is not lost for the Hoosiers just yet.)

Texas is now alone in first place in the Big 12 after they routed Texas A&M @77-50 and Oklahoma @62-45, while Kansas fell at the buzzer at Oklahoma State 60-@61, and Kansas State lost twice: at Nebraska 64-@71 and at Baylor 86-@92 (despite 44p13r from cMichael Beasley and 31p11r from tBill Walker). If the Longhorns can come through as Big 12 title holder/tournament champ, they can end up with a #2 seed and stay home for the Houston Regional. cBeasley continues to put up monster numbers, but if the Wildcats don't come away with a conference title, he won't be Player Of The Year. (The current frontrunner is "Old Reliable" cTyler Hansbrough(UNC), whose Tar Heels are now back atop the ACC, thanks to another road loss from Duke -- this time at Miami(Florida) 95-@96.)

Xavier won three times on the week: 81-@77 at Rhode Island, @75-48 vs Duquesne, and 57-@51 at Dayton to open up a three-game lead on the rest of the Atlantic 10. The 14-team "A-10" not only has unbalanced scheduling (3 teams twice plus 10 teams once), but they've even enhanced the unbalanced nature of the schedule by arranging for the stronger teams to double-up with each other while the weaker teams double-up among themselves. The object was to bolster the RPI of the best teams in order to get more teams a shot at at-large NCAA bids. What it's also done is muddy the standings with the likes of 13-13 La Salle in third place (7-5) while 17-9 Dayton wallows in twelth place at 5-8. (Right now, only Xavier and St. Joseph's are poised for bids; Massachusetts and Rhode Island have to improve their conference standing in order not to get trapped in the mud.)

Villanova stopped Connecticut's 10-game win streak, @67-65. UAB outlasted Houston @101-99 (despite 41p7a6r from tRobert McKiver). Bradley handed Drake another conference loss, 72-@71, but the Bulldogs have already clinched the regular season MVC title. South Alabama won at Western Kentucky 69-@64 to complete the season sweep.

The main event of the day on Saturday was BRACKETBUSTERS. 14 games are televised nationally, but 100 teams play 50 games all across the nation. It's a good thing that ESPN gets so many teams to commit to leaving that one game on their schedule open. No way to know ahead of time that Drake would be the team you'd want available for the marquee matchup. Butler couldn't shake the other Bulldogs; a close game throughout wound up with an endplay road win for Drake 71-@64. Also winning on the road was Kent State, which shocked St. Mary's 65-@57 behind 28p from gAl Fisher. VCU held on to win at Akron 57-@52; and Davidson won at Winthrop 60-@47. Kent State now joins Butler, VCU and probably Davidson in the dreaded anti-spoiler position. They've built up their case so strongly now that they're assured of an at-large bid, but they come from otherwise 1BC conferences. Traditionally, "spoilers" are teams who upset the natural order of things by winning games they aren't supposed to. These "anti-spoilers" are teams that, if they wind up losing a game they aren't supposed to in their conference tournament, will force the NCAA Selection Committee to use an at-large bid on them that otherwise would have gone to a non-1BC school. Normally, the Colonial isn't a part of this scenario, but George Mason's loss at Ohio University means the Patriots can't realistically expect an at-large bid for themselves, so the CAA is back to being 1BC for this year (unless VCU anti-spoils). Conference-wise, the big winner was the Missouri Valley, which went 8-2 (including 5-0 from its power teams). The Metro Atlantic was 6-4 overall (but its power teams were 5-1 with 4 road wins as Siena won big at WAC-leader Boise State 93-@70, and Rider edged out Big West-leader Cal State-Northridge 76-@75). The Colonial (7-5) and MAC (6-5) were only so-so; while the Horizon (4-6), Big West (4-6) and WAC (3-6) were disappointing, all with their leading team going down at home. Most of those games will have no effect on NCAA bids, but they might affect NIT/CBI bids; and if not, at least teams got an "in-season bowl game" to spice up the year.

Michigan State paid back its two non-elite losses, beating Penn State @86-49 and Iowa @66-52. They're two games out of the Big 10 lead; so this week, at Wisconsin (Thursday) and vs Indiana (Sunday), is their last shot at being a factor in the regular season (and their longshot hopes of staying home for the Detroit Regional). Kansas State's title hopes rest on this week as well, vs Texas (Monday) and at Kansas (Saturday). A loss at Vanderbilt (Tuesday) would ruin the buzz in Knoxville if Tennessee doesn't come away with a win. Gonzaga hosts St. Mary's (Saturday) in Round Two of the WCC "Game Of The Year". Winthrop hosts UNC-Asheville (Saturday) for first place in the Big South. First place isn't at issue, but Stanford vs Washington State (Saturday), Arizona vs USC (Thursday), Clemson vs Miami(Florida) (Wednesday), Clemson at Maryland (Sunday) and Illinois State vs Creighton (Wednesday) all will have a big effect on the pecking order for at-large bids in a couple of weeks.

-- Ron

Key games this week:

Monday:

Texas-@KansasSt, Marquette-@Villanova, @StMarys-SanDiego(CA), @MorganSt-Hampton,

Tuesday:

Tennessee-@Vanderbilt(TN), @Indiana-OhioSt, BYU-@NewMexico, @UNLV-SanDiegoSt, @Bradley-SoIllinois(IL),

Wednesday:

@TexasA&M-TexasTech(TX), @Clemson-MiamiFL, @Nebraska-Oklahoma, @Kentucky-Mississippi, @IllinoisSt-Creighton, @Navy-American,

Thursday:

UCLA-@ArizonaSt, @Louisville-NotreDame(BG), @Wisconsin-MichiganSt, WashingtonSt-@California, @Arizona-USC, @WakeForest-Maryland, @Nevada-NewMexicoSt, @CalStFullerton-CalStNorthridge(CA), @SacredHeart-RobertMorris,

Friday:

@Siena-Niagara,

Saturday:

UCLA-@Arizona, Texas-@TexasTech(TX), @Kansas-KansasSt(KS), @Stanford-WashingtonSt, Georgetown-@Marquette, @Connecticut-WVirginia, Vanderbilt-@Arkansas, @Gonzaga-StMarys, @ArizonaSt-USC, @Syracuse-Pittsburgh, @Oklahoma-TexasA&M, @Florida-MississippiSt, @Creighton-Bradley, @SoIllinois-IllinoisSt(IL), @MiamiOH-OhioU(OH), @FresnoSt-NewMexicoSt, @Winthrop-UNCAsheville, @Belmont-GardnerWebb, @American-Lafayette, @Wagner-Quinnipiac,

Sunday:

@Tennessee-Kentucky, @Louisville-Villanova, Indiana-@MichiganSt, Clemson-@Maryland, @StJosephs-@Temple/Palestra/(BIG5)(PA).

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Top 25 - 08 Feb 25 - [] Column

1. Tennessee (24-2)
2. Memphis (26-1)
3. UCLA (23-3)
4. North Carolina (26-2)
5. Duke (22-3)
6. Texas (22-4)
7. Kansas (23-3)
8. Stanford (22-4)
9. Louisville (22-6)
10. Georgetown (22-4)
11. Xavier (24-4)
12. Wisconsin (23-4)
13. Washington State (21-6)
14. Notre Dame (20-5)
15. Indiana (22-4)
16. Connecticut (21-6)
17. Purdue (21-6)
18. Marquette (18-6)
19. Drake (21-3)
20. Michigan State (22-5)
21. Vanderbilt (23-4)
22. Kent State (22-5)
23. BYU (21-6)
24. Butler (24-3)
25. Gonzaga (21-6)

Honorable Mention:

Oklahoma State (14-12), Miami(Florida) (17-7), Nebraska (16-9), La Salle (13-13), Bradley (17-12), VCU (20-6), South Alabama (20-5), Davidson (19-6), Siena (17-10), Rider (18-9), Creighton (17-8), Ohio University (18-9), {New Jersey Institute of Technology} (0-29).