09 Feb16 - Bye-Racial

Volume XIII, No. 15 - 09 Feb 16 - [] Top 25 Ballot

Bye-Racial

It's the second half of league play now, and for many teams, the dream of a regular season title has slipped away. Now the focus is on the race for coveted byes in the coming conference tournament. Connecticut, Pittsburgh, Marquette and Louisville have staked themselves to a two-game gap in position to claim the double-bye in this year's Big East tourney; four more spots to escape Day One status are very much up for grabs. In this week's round-robin, Pittsburgh routed West Virginia @70-59; WVU returned the favor @93-72 over Villanova (behind 43p from fDa'Sean Butler); while Villanova routed Marquette @102-84. Meanwhile, Louisville tripped on Desperation Trail as Notre Dame was able to stop its seven-game skid with a @90-57 walloping of the Cardinals (thanks to 32p17r4a from cLuke Harangody). West Virginia dropped to ninth place in the league (but they moved up to ninth place in the nation on their overall performance). (UConn and Pitt are slated to play the first of two Game of the Year showdowns on Monday night, but the outcome won't affect either team's double-bye status and both will remain in place headed for #1 seeds in the NCAA tournament regardless.)

North Carolina isn't completely firing on all cylinders, but two great road performances from pTy Lawson have vaulted them from an 0-2 start in league play to first place with a two-game lead after wearing out Duke 101-@87 (25p5a) and holding off Miami(Florida) 69-@65 (21p, despite only 8p4r from Tyler Hansbrough). Duke also fell at Boston College 74-@80; the Blue Devils led the Tar Heels 52-44 at the half in Durham (on 6-for-9 three-point shooting) but wilted in the second half at home and collapsed on the road with 5-for-31 three-point shooting thereafter. Meanwhile, Clemson fell in OT at lowly Virginia 81-@85(OT) and Wake Forest lost at lowly NC State 76-@82. Clemson, Wake, Florida State and Virginia Tech were all tied at 6-4, fighting for two bye slots in the ACC tournament.

Missouri came back to beat Kansas in an endplay @62-60 behind 22p7r from fDeMarre Carroll. The Tigers' all-out scramble works well at home, but not on the road. They've overachieved to be in third place in the Big 12 standings (but their style of play is built for the postseason). Texas is two games back in fourth place, hanging onto the last bye slot in the conference tournament.
     Ohio State fell 50-@55 at Wisconsin, while Minnesota lost 63-@68 at Penn State. Those four are in a dogfight for two bye slots in the Big 10 race behind Michigan State, Illinois and Purdue.
     LSU is cruising through the weaker West Division of the SEC, leading overall with a 9-1 record and a two-game gap. Mississippi State has control of the West second-place bye, so it's a scramble among South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Florida for two byes in the East. fPatrick Patterson sat out the Arkansas game with an ankle sprain, but bJodie Meeks more than took up his slack with 45p7r in UK's 79-@63 rout of the Razorbacks. (This on the heels of his 23p/game-winning-three performance in their @68-65 win over Florida.)

Arizona State and Arizona both swept UCLA and USC. It's still the Washington Huskies in first place at 10-3, but the 9-4 ASU Sun Devils are hot on their heels. The talent separation among the Pac-10 teams dovetails nicely into the tournament draw: Washington State, Oregon State, Stanford and winless Oregon are decidedly weaker than the top 6 and don't figure to move out having to play first-round games among themselves.

Dayton knocked off Xavier, @71-58, to move into a tie for the Atlantic 10 lead at 9-2. The 23-3 Flyers have had an excellent year out of the limelight (and don't forget their preseason win over Marquette in the CHICAGO INVITATIONAL).
     The competitive Mountain West still hasn't sorted itself out. Utah beat San Diego State @67-55 to take over the lead this week, but there are 5 quality teams with not much between them (UofU, SDSt, BYU, New Mexico and UNLV) fighting for likely only two NCAA bids.
     Butler (Horizon) lost at home to Illinois-Chicago @67-71, and Utah State (WAC) had its first conference loss, 56-@66 at Boise St; but both of those teams still have comfortable leads in the standings.
     Vermont beat Boston University to secure its lead in the America East, as did Weber State with a @78-68 win over slumping Portland State in the Big Sky. Troy beat Middle Tennessee State and Western Kentucky to stay in the Sun Belt race, but it's Arkansas-Little Rock that still has the edge.
     Well, it didn't take long for Princeton to give back the juice it gained with its streak-snapping win over Cornell. The Tigers dropped two road games at Yale (48-@60) and at Brown (43-@61) to fall back into second place. Cornell led midway through conference play at 6-1, with PU at 4-2 (pending Tuesday's game vs Penn), and Columbia in third at 4-3 (already 0-3 against the top two teams). (Remember, this is the one league where you don't get a "do-over" in the conference tournament to salvage a season that got away from you.)

UCLA needs a home win over first-place Washington (Thursday) to hang in the Pac-10 race. Likewise, Texas could really use a home win over Oklahoma to stop its slide in the Big 12. Duke hosts Wake Forest on Sunday with the loser now looking like the odd one out of a place in the coveted Greensboro Pod slot.

The marquee games in this year's BRACKETBUSTERS event look great on paper. Unfortunately, key injuries may render them much less than hoped for on the court. pPatrick Mills(wrist) won't play in St. Mary's game against Utah State. pStephen Curry left the Furman game with an ankle injury. He's listed as "day-to-day", but he certainly doesn't figure to be 100% (if he plays at all) against Butler. Only those four teams could play themselves out of an at-large bid with a BB loss and a weak finish in conference play. For everyone else, winning their BB game won't get them in, anyway, so there's less on the line that it appears.

-- Ron

Key games this week:

Monday:

@Connecticut-Pittsburgh(@HartfordCT), @MorganSt-BethuneCookman, @ChicagoSt-Longwood,

Tuesday:

MichiganSt-@Purdue, @Clemson-Maryland, @BYU-NewMexico, @Princeton-Penn,

Wednesday:

@WVirginia-NotreDame, @Louisville-Providence, @Illinois-PennSt, @Davidson-TheCitadel, @FloridaSt-MiamiFL(FL), @MississippiSt-SCarolina, @GeoMason-Drexel, @HolyCross-Navy, @Akron-MiamiOH(OH), @Buffalo-BowlingGreen,

Thursday:

@UCLA-Washington, @Michigan-Minnesota, @ARLittleRock-WeKentucky, @Montana-WeberSt,

Friday-Saturday:

BRACKETBUSTERS on-campus [102 teams/51 games]

(Fri:

@Niagara-IllinoisSt,

@Nevada-VCU,

 Sat:

@Davidson-Butler, @StMarys-UtahSt, @Siena-NoIowa,

@Creighton-GeoMason, @Evansville-MiamiOH(BG), @Vermont-Buffalo, @PortlandSt-BoiseSt,

@WIMilwaukee-NDState, @WrightSt-Northeastern, @Drake-AustinPeay, @OldDominion-Liberty(VA), @Drexel-LoyolaMD, @JamesMadison-GardnerWebb, @Fairfield-Hofstra, @Rider-MDBaltimoreCo, @BostonU-Iona, @TNMartin-MissouriSt, @EaKentucky-OhioU(BG),

@LoyolaIL-Bradley(IL), @ILChicago-SoIllinois(IL), @SanDiego-Pacific(CA), @WichitaSt-ClevelandSt, @Idaho-CalStNorthridge, @NewMexicoSt-CalStFullerton, @SanJoseSt-UCRiverside(CA), @Hawaii-UCIrvine, @LongBeachSt-WIGreenBay, @MurraySt-LouisianaTech, @BallSt-TennesseeTech, @KentSt-MoreheadSt(BG), @BowlingGreen-Canisius,

@GeorgiaSo-JacksonvilleSt, @UCDavis-FresnoSt(CA), @UCSantaBarbara-MontanaSt, @TennesseeSt-Detroit, @WeMichigan-EaIllinois,

@Valparaiso-Akron(BG), @YoungstownSt-StPeters, @IndianaSt-Toledo(BG), @Towson-Morgan St(Baltimore,MD), @William&Mary-Manhattan, @UNCWilmington-Elon(NC), @Marist-Hartford, @Winthrop-AppalachianSt, @Bucknell-Delaware, @CalPolySLO-SDState, @SEMissouriSt-NoIllinois, @CMichigan-FairleighDickinson, @EaMichigan-GeorgiaSt),

Saturday:

NCarolina-@Maryland, Oklahoma-@Texas, Marquette-@Georgetown, Louisville-@Cincinnati, Illinois-@OhioSt, @Kansas-Nebraska, Washington-@USC, @Kentucky-Tennessee, @MiamiFL-BostonCol, @UNLV-BYU, @Providence-NotreDame, @VirginiaTech-FloridaSt, @NewMexico-SanDiegoSt, @NTexas-ARLittle Rock, @VMI-Radford(VA), @American-HolyCross, @{SDakota}-{SIUEdwardsville},

Sunday:

@MichiganSt-Wisconsin, @Duke-WakeForest(NC), Villanova-@Syracuse, @ArizonaSt-Arizona(AZ).

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Top 25 - 09 Feb 16 - [] Column

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

Honorable Mention:

NC State (14-9), Boston College (17-8), Notre Dame (12-10), Arizona (18-8), Virginia (8-13), Wisconsin (15-9), Penn State (17-8), Utah (18-6), Loyola(Illinois) (13-15), Boise State (17-7), Vermont (19-7), Weber State (16-8), Troy (16-10).