09 Mar 2 - The Scramble

Volume XIII, No. 17 - 09 Mar 2 - [] Top 25 Ballot

The Scramble

Kansas took advantage of cBlake Griffin's absence and beat Oklahoma 87-@78 (shooting 41 free throws) and then blew out pretender Missouri @90-65 to take control of the Big 12 race. In addition to 25ppg from gSherron Collins and 17rpg from cCole Aldrich, the Jayhawks also got 20ppg from freshman gTyshawn Taylor in both games. Bill Self has molded this team of Replacements into a winner (but OU at full strength is still the class of the league). (cBGriffin was back on court against Texas Tech none the worse for wear, scoring 20p in a 78-@63 OU win.)
     Pittsburgh stumbled at Providence, 73-@81, but not badly enough to severely damage their ranking. This Saturday's showdown with Connecticut still rates as #1 vs #2 with the East Coast Huskies having a chance to sew up the Big East regular season title. (Marquette suffered a huge blow to its postseason chances when senior pDominic James broke a bone in his foot in MU's @82-93 loss to Connecticut. The senior trio of pJames, bJerel McNeal and gWesley Matthews appeared to be headed for a fine exit to cap off a great four-year career. They're not completely useless without him, but a run in the Big East tournament and a trip to the Sweet 16 are no longer likely scenarios.)

Washington earned at least a share of the Pac-10 title for the first time in 25 years (back to the days of tDetlef Schrempf) with two squeak home wins over Arizona State [@73-70(OT)] and Arizona [@83-78]; cJon Brockman(20p11r/pg) still does the heavy lifting inside for the West Coast Huskies, but it's freshman pIsaiah Thomas who has freed up the attack, making gJustin Dentmon and fQuincy Pondexter much more effective than in year's past. (UW can clinch the title outright when it hosts Washington State on Saturday.)
     LSU clinched the SEC title with a sweep of Florida (@81-75) and its first win at Kentucky in 20 years (73-@70), thanks to 27ppg from gMarcus Thornton (and tTasmin Mitchell's game-winning three at UK); coach Trent Johnson has surely made the difference with essentially the same squad that was only 13-18 a year ago.
     Illinois State came up just short twice trying to claim a share of the MVC title, losing @67-69(OT) to Northern Iowa and then 70-@74 to Creighton. Instead, it's the UNI and CU who shared the regular season title at 14-4 (with the overachieving UNI Panthers earning the top seed for the conference tournament). Still, it says here that surging Creighton, the preseason favorite, is finally playing its best ball at the right time. (There doesn't figure to be an at-large bid available for an MVC team this year, so the conference tournament is especially important this time around.)
     Utah is still in first place in the Mountain West with one week to go, but BYU's @63-50 win over the Utes made second place look a lot more impressive than first. There are likely two bids available for MWC teams and, with one week to go, the regular season title is still up for grabs between Utah, BYU and sleeper New Mexico; plus, wildcards San Diego State and tournament host UNLV are quite capable of snaring the automatic bid.
     Likewise, last year's darlings Siena clinched the Metro Atlantic regular season title early on, but second place Niagara's @100-85 rout makes the second-place Purple Eagles looking more like the favorite to win the conference tournament than the first-place Saints. Much like Davidson, Siena's out of conference schedule was strong, but it wasn't able to pull off any signature wins. Despite the same starting five, last year's tournament splash may not do them much good with this year's Selection Committee. (Whereas Davidson did beat West Virginia out of conference, and the draw of gStephen Curry nearly guarantees an at-large bid if they fail to anti-spoil.)
     New coach Ken McDonald guided a rebuilt Western Kentucky squad (having lost one of its all-time star players, bCourtney Lee) and managed to tie for the Sun Belt title (with Arkansas-Little Rock) and earn the top seed in the conference tournament. And hats off to North Dakota State, which won the Summit League title in its first season being fully eligible for Division I.

It's the last week of the regular season for the Big Boys. There are about 15 or so no-brainer at-large bids slated for BCS contenders. That leaves less than 20 slots available for 30 or so teams who still have a legitimate chance to make one last scramble this week and in the conference tournaments next week for those slots. The usual suspects are in their yearly role as anti-spoilers: Memphis (C-USA) next week, Gonzaga/St. Mary's (WCC) and Butler (Horizon) for sure, plus probably Davidson (Southern), and maybe Siena (MAAC) and Utah State (WAC) could mess up a good thing if they don't win their tournaments. Memphis, which won 70-@61 at UAB (as tRobert Vaden laid an 0p;0-for-17fg egg in the biggest game of the year) won't likely stumble; and with pPatrick Mills expected back for St. Mary's, you don't figure both GU and SMC to fail to come through. But Wisconsin-Green Bay, College of Charleston, Niagara and Nevada (which just beat USU @84-71) could very well crash The Big Dance.

It's not quite the Naismith Meteor Shower -- (that's the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament in a couple of weeks). Call it Off-Broadway. But don't lose the chance to see some of the marquee players of this season of college basketball who may not even make it to the NCAA tournament. Don't miss smooth-scoring bLuther Hudson of Tennessee-Martin: UTM barely won the OVC regular season title and faces a stiff challenge to beat Austin Peay, Morehead State and Murray State to win the conference tournament. Mighty mite 5-11 pBen Woodside of regular season champ North Dakota State should be able to hold off Oral Roberts to win the Summit League tournament. 5-6 pJeremiah Dominguez and Portland State haven't been able to meet the challenge of regular season champ Weber State; he'll do well to even make the final of the Big Sky tournament (next week).

-- Ron

Key games this week:

Monday:

Villanova-@NotreDame, @Texas-Baylor(TX),

Tuesday:

@Duke-FloridaSt, WakeForest-@Maryland, Illinois-@PennSt, @Minnesota-Wisconsin, @OklahomaSt-KansasSt, @NewMexico-Utah,

Tuesday, Friday-Saturday:

OVC TOURNAMENT on-campus, @ Nashville TN (Tennessee State)
- (Tue (1st/Qtrs on-campus): @[1]TNMartin, @[2a]AustinPeay, @[2b]MurraySt, @[4]MoreheadSt),

Tuesday, Friday-Saturday, Tuesday week:

HORIZON TOURNAMENT on-campus, @ #1-seed(Butler), on-campus
- (Tue (1st/16s on-campus): @[3a]ClevelandSt, @[3b]WrightSt, @[5]WIMilwaukee,
   Fri (Qtrs @ #1-seed(Butler),
   Sat (Semis @ #1-seed(Butler): @[1]Butler, [2]WIGreenBay),

Wednesday:

@Pittsburgh-Marquette, NCarolina-@VirginiaTech, Memphis-@Houston, Oklahoma-@Missouri,

Wednesday-Saturday:

A-SUN TOURNAMENT @ Nashville TN (Lipscomb)
- (Wed (1st/Qtrs): @[2a]ETennesseeSt-[7]Stetson,
   Thu (1st/Qtrs): @[2b]Belmont-[5b]Mercer, @[4]Lipscomb-[5a]Campbell,
   Fri (Semis): [1]Jacksonville-@[4]/[5a]),

Wednesday, Sunday-Tuesday week:

SUN BELT TOURNAMENT on-campus, @ Hot Springs AR
- (Wed (1st/16s on-campus): @[4]NTexas, @[5a]MidTennessee,
   Sun (Qtrs @ HotSpringsAR): [1a/E1]WeKentucky, @[1b/W1]ARLittleRock, [3]Troy),

Thursday:

@Villanova-Providence, @Xavier-Dayton(OH), @Arizona-California, @SCarolina-Tennessee, @MiamiOH-BowlingGreen(OH), @JacksonSt-AlabamaSt,

Thursday-Sunday:

MVC TOURNAMENT @ St. Louis MO
- (Thu (1st/16s),
   Fri (Qtrs): [1a]NoIowa, [1b]Creighton, [3]IllinoisSt),

Friday-Monday week:

WCC TOURNAMENT @ Las Vegas NV /OHA/
- (Fri (1st/16s): [5]San Diego,
   Sat (2nd/Qtrs): [3]Portland, [4]SantaClara,
   Sun (3rd.Semis): [1]Gonzaga, [2]StMarys),
SOCON TOURNAMENT @ Chattanooga TN /Chattanooga/
- (Fri (1st/16s),
   Sat (Qtrs): [1]Davidson, TheCitadel, ColofCharleston),
MAAC TOURNAMENT at Albany NY (Siena)
- (Fri (1st/16s),
   Sat (Qtrs): @[1]Siena, @[2]Niagara),
COLONIAL TOURNAMENT @ Richmond VA (VCU)
- (Fri (1st/16s): [5]Hofstra-[12]UNCWilmington, [6]Drexel-[10b]Towson, @[7]JamesMadison-@[10a]William&Mary(VA), [8]GeorgiaSt-[9]Delaware,
   Sat (Qtrs): @[1]VCU, @[2]GeoMason, [3a]Northeastern, @[3b]OldDominion),

Saturday:

#1Connecticut-@#2Pittsburgh, @Oklahoma-OklahomaSt(OK), @MichiganSt-Purdue, Louisville-@WVirginia, @Kansas-Texas, Syracuse-@Marquette, @ArizonaSt-California, @Minnesota-Michigan, @Florida-Kentucky, @SanDiegoSt-UNLV, @Pacific-CalStNorthridge(CA), @Cornell-Princeton,

Saturday-Sunday:

INDEPENDENT-NORTHWEST {UND} SPRING THAW @ Grand Forks ND ({N Dakota})
- ([1]{Seattle}-[4]{SIUEdwardsville}, [2]{SDakota}-@[3]{NDakota}),

Sunday:

@NCarolina-Duke(NC), @WakeForest-Clemson, @FloridaSt-VirginiaTech, @Buffalo-MiamiOH,

Saturday-Tuesday week:

SUMMIT TOURNAMENT @ Sioux Falls SD
- (Sat (1st/Qtrs): [1]NDState, [2]OralRoberts).

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Top 25 - 09 Mar 2 - [] Column

1. Connecticut (26-2)
2. Pittsburgh (25-3)
3. North Carolina (24-3)
4. Memphis (26-3)
5. Oklahoma (26-3)
6. Duke (23-5)
7. Michigan State (23-5)
8. Louisville (23-5)
9. Kansas (23-5)
10. Wake Forest (20-5)
11. Villanova (22-6)
12. Purdue (22-7)
13. Xavier (23-5)
14. Illinois (23-7)
15. Washington (22-7)
16. UCLA (22-7)
17. Gonzaga (22-5)
18. Syracuse (20-8)
19. LSU (25-4)
20. Missouri (23-5)
21. Marquette (21-6)
22. Florida State (22-7)
23. Clemson (20-6)
24. Butler (23-4)
25. Creighton (25-6)

Honorable Mention:

Providence (17-11), Washington State (16-13), Boston College (18-9), BYU (20-6), Niagara (24-7), Northern Iowa (19-10), SUNY-B (Binghamton) (18-8), North Dakoka State (20-6).