09 Feb 2 - Day One

Volume XIII, No. 13 - 09 Feb 2: MIDCONFERENCE - [] Top 25 Ballot

Day One

Wake Forest was able to open up a lead on Duke in the second half through its superior individual athleticism; but with 10 minutes to go, they couldn't close the deal. Duke caught up and tied the game with :02 left. Ever wonder why they say to never play man-to-man defense on out-of-bounds plays? Well, here's why. gGerald Henderson rotated one way and fJeff Johnson cut the other way for an easy layup to win the game at the buzzer for the Demon Deacons, @70-68. So what does WFU do after it was poised to take over the #1 ranking again? They let the Duke win go to their heads and goofed around to lose their own buzzer-beater at 9-10 Georgia Tech, @76-74, on gIman Shumpert's jumper. Maybe it's better that Wake gets this out of its system now, though, than be snakebit come tournament time. No #1 ranking this week, but at least they're first in line among the three NC superpowers for the two Greensboro Pod slots in this year's tournament. Wake, Duke and North Carolina are all in contention to be #1 seeds, but one of them will have to actually fight to get to the Sweet 16 away from the friendly confines of a home crowd.

The #1 ranking was up for grabs because Pittsburgh lost at Villanova, 57-@67. The Wildcats were led by their frontcourt [fReggie Redding(18p7r) and fDante Cunningham(15p5r)] for a change. That's a formula for major success down the road for a team normally led by its guards gScottie Reynolds, pCorey Fisher and bCorey Stokes. Connecticut takes over the top spot in the rankings this week on the strength of two dominant performances, 71-@49 at DePaul, and @94-61 over Providence behind cHasheem Thabeet's triple-double: 15p11r10b. The 7-3 cThabeet isn't always a factor on the offense, but no other team in the nation has a defensive presence in the lane near his calibre. As well as the UC Huskies are playing, they're only in third place in the conference standings behind Louisville and Marquette. The Cardinals beat West Virginia @69-63 while the Golden Eagles beat both Notre Dame 71-@64 and Georgetown @94-82 (behind pJerel McNeal's 26p11a6r5s performance). Those losses sent the Fighting Irish and the Hoyas to the bottom half of the Big East standings at 3-6. If they stay there, they'll have to play on Day One of the conference tournament facing the prospect of having to play five games in five days in order to get to the final. (Win or lose, that schedule could seriously debilitate a team for the NCAA tournament the following weekend.)

Minnesota throttled Illinois, @59-36, holding the Illini to 29% shooting with no players in double-figures. Upstart Penn State is tied for third in the Big 10 thanks to a shocking 72-@68 win at first-place Michigan State (thanks to 29p5r3a from bTalor Battle). Kansas State surprised Missouri @88-72 and then stunned Texas 85-@81(OT) behind 44p3a from gDenis Clemente. Providence was able to stay in the top half of the Big East standings thanks to a @100-94 win over Syracuse.

The SEC is quite the mess, but LSU is at the top this week after a 79-@73 win over Tennessee. The Volunteers were able to stop their slide with @79-63 beating of visiting Florida. Meanwhile, South Carolina pulled a buzzer-beater road win for the second week in a row with a 78-@77 at Kentucky thanks to a late jumper by gDevon Downey(24p4a).
     None of the top three in the Colonial were able to make any noise outside the conference, but Northeastern has taken control of the second half race with a tough 68-@63 win at VCU. The NU Huskies also beat George Mason earlier in the season and should be home free the rest of the way with those powers out of the way on the schedule.

Another third of the conferences have reached the halfway point. Besides the Big East (Marquette and Louisville) and Big 10 (Michigan State and Purdue), Washington and UCLA are tied atop the Pac-10 after the UW Huskies could only split with Arizona and Arizona State while the Bruins swept Cal and Stanford. St. Mary's was beating Gonzaga on the road in the first half as pPatrick Mills hit 6 three-pointers, but he had to leave the game after injuring his wrist in a fall and the 'Zags prevailed @69-62. GU leads the WCC at 7-0 at the break, while the Gaels fell to 5-2 following an undermanned loss at Portland. (pMills will be out four weeks and, hopefully, can return in time for the conference tournament.)
     Davidson (Southern Conference) and unheralded Utah State (WAC) made it through the first half of league play undefeated, each with a two-game lead on the pack. Elsewhere, Holy Cross leads American in the Patriot League; perennial conference powers Vermont and Boston University share the lead in the America East; Weber State leads giant-killer Portland State by a game in the Big Sky; Long Beach State heads a sorry pack of teams in the woeful Big West; East Tennessee State and Jacksonville split a couple of tight games and share the lead in the Atlantic Sun.
     Most everyone else will pass the halfway point in conference play by the middle or end of this week. (Only the Ivy League, which doesn't have a postseason tournament, spreads out its regular season until the following weekend before ending the first half.)

At the start of conference play, it appeared that Georgetown at Connecticut was "The Game of the Year" in the Big East (after preseason favorite Louisville struggled at the beginning of the year). Now at the midpoint, it's back to Connecticut at Louisville (Monday night) as the true GOY as the Hoyas have collapsed in the first half of the league schedule. Clemson hosts Duke on Wednesday -- there's a separation between the top four ACC teams and the rest of the pack, but the Tigers need to keep posting solid performances to hold on the fourth spot (and a first-round bye in the conference tournament). Minnesota will try to keep it going when it visits Michigan State on Wednesday while host Illinois and visitor Purdue clash on Sunday. Gonzaga and Memphis are dominating their respective conference -- both are still undefeated inside their leagues -- so their meeting on Saturday in Spokane only has seeding implications for them, not whether they'll actually receive a NCAA bid. (Both teams are more likely headed for the dreaded Anti-Spoiler position which can only mean disaster for at-large bubble teams in March.) Cornell at Princeton (Friday) is the closest thing to the Ivy League GOY.

-- Ron

Key games this week:

Monday:

Connecticut-@Louisville, @Pittsburgh-RobertMorris(PA), Butler-@WIGreenBay, @Baylor-Kansas,
(BRACKETBUSTERS PAIRING SELECTION) [102 teams/51 games],

Tuesday:

@NCarolina-Maryland, Purdue-@OhioSt(BG), SCarolina-@Florida, @Kentucky-MississippiSt, @UNLV-SanDiegoSt, @Bradley-NoIowa,

Wednesday:

@Oklahoma-TexasA&M, WakeForest-@MiamiFL, Duke-@Clemson, @MichiganSt-Minnesota, @UCLA-USC(LosAngelesCA), WVirginia-@Syracuse, @Texas-Missouri, Villanova-@Providence, @Arkansas-Tennessee, @Cincinnati-NotreDame, @FloridaSt-GeorgiaTech, @Northwestern-ChicagoSt(IL), @CFlorida-Houston, @TCU-Utah, @Vermont-SUNYB,

Thursday:

@Xavier-Temple, Illinois-@Wisconsin, Washington-@California, Gonzaga-@Portland, @Michigan-PennSt, @AustinPeay-TNMartin(TN), @Oakland-OralRoberts, @LongIsland-MtStMarys,

Friday:

@Princeton-Cornell,

Saturday:

@Connecticut-Michigan, @Duke-MiamiFL, @UCLA-NotreDame, Minnesota-@OhioSt, @Clemson-FloridaSt, @WVirginia-Providence, Texas-@Nebraska, @Villanova-Syracuse, @Gonzaga-Memphis, Butler-@WrightSt(BG), @Davidson-ColofCharleston, @UtahSt-LouisianaTech, @Kansas-OklahomaSt, UNLV-@NewMexico, @Georgetown-Cincinnati, @SantaClara-StMarys(CA), @MississippiSt-Arkansas, @Rider-Siena, @Tulsa-UTEP, @TexasA&M-KansasSt, @WIGreenBay-WIMilwaukee(WI), @Drake-Bradley, @StephenFAustin-Lamar(TX), @Albany-Vermont,

Sunday:

@WakeForest-BostonCol, @Illinois-Purdue, Washington-@Stanford, @PennSt-Wisconsin, @NoIowa-Creighton, @Massachusetts-StJosephs, @Temple-RhodeIsland, @Niagara-Fairfield.

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Top 25 - 09 Feb 2: MIDCONFERENCE - [] Column

1. Connecticut (19-1)
2. Oklahoma (21-1)
3. Pittsburgh (18-2)
4. Wake Forest (15-2)
5. Duke (18-2)
6. North Carolina (18-2)
7. Louisville (17-3)
8. Marquette (17-2)
9. Michigan State (17-4)
10. Xavier (19-2)
11. Purdue (17-4)
12. UCLA (17-4)
13. Minnesota (17-3)
14. Clemson (16-2)
15. Illinois (18-4)
16. West Virginia (15-6)
17. Texas (15-5)
18. Villanova (16-4)
19. Washington (16-5)
20. Gonzaga (15-4)
21. Memphis (18-3)
22. Butler (17-1)
23. Davidson (17-3)
24. South Carolina (13-4)
25. Utah State (18-1)

Honorable Mention:

Georgia Tech (9-10), Penn State (16-5), Kansas State (13-7), LSU (17-4), Providence (13-7), Northeastern (15-6).