09 Feb 9 - "Oh, Snap!"

Volume XIII, No. 14 - 09 Feb 9 - [] Top 25 Ballot

"Oh, Snap!"

Davidson had a chance to tie the all-time Southern Conference record for consecutive wins inside the league -- they had won their last 43 straight games, dating back over two full years -- but, Oh, Bobby Cremins' College of Charleston squad snapped the streak with a 77-@75 win as fAntwaine Wiggins blocked gStephen Curry's three-point attempt at the buzzer. Now, the 13-1 Wildcats still have a three-game gap over the 10-4 Cougars, so that result doesn't change much in the greater scheme of things. gCurry, a junior, is still a whopping 56-2 overall against SoCon opponents with two regular season titles and two conference tourney crowns under his belt (well on the way to three each this season), but Jerry West's '56-60 West Virginia squads stay in the record book at 44 straight.
     Princeton had its first meaningful league game in three years when Cornell came to Jadwin Gym. And, Oh, the young Tigers pulled their own surprise with a crushing @61-41 win, which snapped the Big Red's 19-game Ivy win streak (dating back to March '07). But head-to-head results don't matter in the Ivy standings, so it's still more likely that CU will be the more consistent team for the rest of the regular season than PU.
     Still intact is the 50-game win streak inside Conference USA that Memphis is riding. In fact, the Tigers are 62-1 overall with three regular season titles and three conference tourney crowns (with numbers four and four well in sight this season) since Louisville, Marquette and Cincinnati left for the Big East in the Great Conference Shuffle prior to the '05-06 season. UM is pretty good out of conference, too. They physically manhandled soft Gonzaga 68-@50 in Spokane. Both teams are dominating their conferences, but John Calipari has been much better able to fine tune his squad while drubbing also-rans than Mark Few has been able to do as GU waltzes through the WCC schedule.

Connecticut sent a message to anyone willing to listen with an impressive 68-@51 road win over Louisville. But, strangely, they struggled at home out of conference against middling Michigan, only winning @69-61 (as John Beilein's spread offense and zone defense effectively mimicked the formula Georgetown used way back when to hand the Huskies their only defeat). UCLA pasted reeling Notre Dame in another interleague matchup, @89-63 (handing the Irish their seventh straight loss). In fact, Cincinnati (which swept Notre Dame and Georgetown on the week) vaulted itself out of Day One status into a tie for sixth place in the standings.

Clemson put together 40 complete minutes of effort and crushed nemesis Duke, @74-47; but the Tigers couldn't stay on task and fell at home @61-65 to pesky Florida State. Miami(Florida) used a zone defense to neutralize Wake Forest, winning a @79-52 stunner. The Hurricanes nearly pulled off another shocker, but fell in OT at Duke, 75-@78(OT). Hopefull, UM can use the momentum from this week to fully erase the psychological setback from "The Slap" earlier in the season that stole their mojo. The fourth seed in the ACC tournament is a coveted slot, and this year's competition among Clemson, Florida State, Virginia Tech and Boston College could go down to the wire.

It's finally midseason among the last of the major conferences. Thanks to others stumbling, North Carolina was able to claim a share of the lead with Duke atop the ACC at 6-2. The Replacement Players at Kansas have come good in the first half, tied for the Big 12 lead at 8-0 with Oklahoma. The "North Division" has shown some strength this season: KU won 75-@65 at guard-happy Baylor; third place 6-2 Missouri (69-@65) and Nebraska (@58-55) both beat reeling Texas, pushing the Longhorns down to sixth place in the standings. Xavier stumbled 68-@72 at Duquesne, but the Musketeers (8-0 at the break) still lead the A-10 standings. In the muddy SEC, it's LSU in the weaker West Division that has the overall lead at 7-1. The Mountain West doesn't get much exposure, but it is solid at the top (with two NCAA bids coming, for sure); at the midway point, San Diego State and Utah were 6-2, a game ahead of New Mexico, BYU and UNLV, all well in the hunt.
     Further down, Sam Houston State and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi were both 7-1 atop the weak Southland standings. 7-1 Buffalo was the best of a sorry bunch in the struggling MAC. Preseason favorites 7-2 Morgan State (MEAC) and 8-1 Alabama State (SWAC) each had one-game leads over the rest of the pack in the weakest of the weak.
     There's actually going to be an "Independent Conference Tournament" this year, which is a contradiction in terms. {Seattle}, {North Dakota}, {South Dakota} and {SIU-Edwardsville} -- all provisional Division-I schools -- are playing a full 6-game home-and-home schedule among themselves, with a 4-team tournament at {North Dakota} on March 7-8. ({Seattle} led the "league" at the break at 3-0.)

fRobbie Hummel bad back is a major problem for slumping Purdue. fHummel sat both games this week as the Boilermakers lost 72-@80(OT) at Ohio State and 48-@66 at Illinois. They're already hustling overachievers as it is; it's even harder to win that way without their best player. California beat Washington @86-71 to keep contact in the Pac-10 race -- they're tied for third with Arizona State at 7-4. (Up next: the return grudge match at home against Mike Montgomery's former team, Stanford.) Florida took the lead in the SEC East with a @97-93 shootout with South Carolina. Butler fell at Wisconsin-Green Bay, 66-@75, but still has a one-game lead in the Horizon. Marquette managed to stumble, 56-@57 at lowly South Florida.

It's officially the second half of conference play now. One last chance to go after the league title with no more mistakes allowed. Round One of UNC-Duke kicks off the second half of ACC play on Wednesday in Durham. Missouri and Kansas play the first of two Big 12 "North Division" showdowns on Monday. (That doesn't even sound right!) Florida and Kentucky have the first of two second-half clashes on Tuesday in Lexington with first place in the SEC East on the line. Round One of Xavier at Dayton (Wednesday) is more than an Ohio state title match -- first place in the Atlantic is on the line as well.

-- Ron

Key games this week:

Monday:

@Pittsburgh-WVirginia, @Missouri-Kansas, @SUNYB-Albany(NY), @SCState-MorganSt, @{HoustonBaptist}-ChicagoSt,

Tuesday:

MichiganSt-@Michigan(MI), Marquette-@Villanova, Clemson-@BostonCol, @Kentucky-Florida,

Wednesday:

@Connecticut-Syracuse, Oklahoma-@Baylor, NCarolina-@Duke(NC), Xavier-@Dayton(OH), @Memphis-Tulsa, @Purdue-PennSt, @MississippiSt-LSU, @Creighton-Bradley, @Utah-SanDiegoSt, @Northeastern-Drexel, @SamHoustonSt-NichollsSt, @Vermont-BostonU,

Thursday:

Louisville-@NotreDame(BG), UCLA-@ArizonaSt, Gonzaga-@StMarys, @Arizona-USC, @StJosephs-Temple(PhiladelphiaPA)(BIG5)(/Palestra/), @Troy-MidTennessee,

Friday:

Villanova-@WVirginia,

Saturday:

@Pittsburgh-Cincinnati, @WakeForest-FloridaSt, UCLA-@Arizona, @Missouri-Nebraska, Kansas-@KansasSt(KS), @Syracuse-Georgetown, OhioSt-@Wisconsin, Minnesota-@PennSt, UtahSt-@BoiseSt, @California-Stanford(CA), @ArizonaSt-USC, @StMarys-Portland, @Maryland-VirginiaTech, @GeoMason-Northeastern, @MidTennessee-NTexas, @Troy-WeKentucky, @Fairfield-Niagara, @TexasA&MCC-SamHoustonSt(TX), @UNCAsheville-Radford, @BostonU-SUNYB, @Weber St-PortlandSt, @Belmont-ETennesseeSt, @{Seattle}-{SDakota},

Sunday:

NCarolina-@MiamiFL, Duke-@BostonCol, @Duquesne-Temple(PA).

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Top 25 - 09 Feb 9 - [] Column

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

Honorable Mention:

Miami(Florida) (12-8), South Florida (8-14), Duquesne (13-7), Florida State (18-5), Wisconsin (13-9), Nebraska (15-7), California (18-6), Wisconsin-Green Bay (16-6), College of Charleston (16-6), Florida (18-4), Cincinnati (15-8), Princeton (8-8).