10 Feb15 - (In)Excusable

Volume XIV, No. 15 - 10 Feb 15 - [] Top 25 Ballot

(In)Excusable

Cornell is new to the Anti-Spoiler role and they nearly blew it already. Penn got off to such a bad start this year that coach Glen Miller was fired midseason; so former Quaker star Jerome Allen was the interim coach in charge as they stunned the Big Red @79-64 in The Palestra. Nice job; doesn't mean much. Here's the problem: Princeton was still undefeated and if PU beat CU the next night, Cornell would be two games back in the standings. Remember, the Ivy League has no tournament so the regular season champ gets the automatic bid. If they couldn't catch the Tigers, they'd have to use up an at-large bid in order to make the NCAA tournament (which they've earned). Good thing they escaped 48-@46 at Jadwin Gym on Saturday. (Still, both teams only have one loss in conference play at this point.)

Syracuse has lost some steam. The Orange needed a late run to beat Connecticut @72-67 and then never got going against Louisville at all, falling @60-66 to the up-and-down Cardinals (who were coming off a blowout loss at St. John's themselves). Georgetown has looked like a Final Four team in blowing out Duke and Villanova; but they have also looked beatable in losses to South Florida and now Rutgers, 68-@71. Inexcusable losses when you're bidding for a #1 seed.

Villanova is doing a better job on the boards, actually outrebounding West Virginia 37-27 in their 82-@75 road win over the Mountaineers. It's pScotty Reynolds(21p5a) and gCorey Fisher(17p) who do most of the scoring, but there is so much depth off the bench that a half-dozen players could score 10 points for them any given night. West Virginia had a tough week -- after leading down the stretch in regulation, they wound losing in triple-overtime in their "Backyard Brawl" at Pittsburgh, 65-@68(3OT) as xDa'Sean Butler had 32p11r0to in a losing effort.
    Purdue handled Michigan State on the road, 76-@64, behind 25p6a from pE'Twaun Moore (as MSU's pKalin Lucas was not at full strength recovering from his ankle injury). Illinois won at Wisconsin, 63-@56, behind 27p7a5to from pDemetri McCamey; but Ohio State turned the tables and routed the Illini on the road, 72-@53, as tEvan Turner had 16p11r8a.
    Kansas had no trouble winning on the road at Texas, 80-@68, (despite 24p10r5b from xDamion James). (The Longhorns' free fall may finally be over, though, as they routed Nebraska @91-51 behind 25p from gAvery Bradley.) Baylor edged Missouri, @64-62, at the buzzer.

Tennessee (at Vanderbilt 70-@91; at Kentucky 62-@73) fell twice on the road. UNLV lost at home to New Mexico, @66-76, and away at San Diego State 58-@68 as they were outrebounded 42-78 in two games.

Duke's "showdown" for first place with Maryland was just another home rout in Cameron Indoor Stadium, @77-56, as cBrian Zoubek (16p17r) had a big game in the paint.

Xavier may have earned an extra bid for the Atlantic 10 with its controlled 76-@64 win on the road at Florida. The top seven teams in the A-10 have a three-game gap on the bottom half, and they're taking turns beating each other while handling outsiders with ease. They'll get four bids, for sure, and probably more.

Northern Iowa (59-@68 at Bradley) and Siena (74-@87 at Niagara) had excusable losses -- Siena has since clinched the Metro Atlantic regular season title, and Northern Iowa is loaming. Butler has managed to remain undefeated in conference and has clinched the Horizon regular season title as well.
    Gonzaga routed St. Mary's @80-61 to open up a comfortable two-game gap lead; the Bulldogs are well on their way to at least a share of the West Coast title for a TENTH STRAIGHT YEAR. Elsewhere, Weber State beat Northern Colorado, @81-75, to open up a gap lead in the Big Sky; and Jackson State now has a gap lead in the SWAC.

Don't be surprised if Vanderbilt can beat Kentucky on Saturday. The Commodores have plenty of talent on the perimeter in gJermaine Beal, tJeffery Taylor, gBrad Tinsley and gJohn Jenkins, which is where the Wildcats are vulnerable defensively; cA.J. Ogilvy is too soft inside, though, to deal with the UK big men. Mississippi State's cJarvis Varnado (in pursuit of becoming the NCAA's all-time shot-blocking leader) won't be enough to give Kentucky a problem.
    Ohio State hosts Purdue (Wednesday) and visits Michigan State (Sunday) while Illinois visits Purdue (Saturday), all with first place in the Big 10 on the line. Syracuse at Georgetown (Thursday) may be more important out of conference (for seeding) than in conference for the standings. Surprising UTEP (with gRandy Culpepper fresh off a 45p effort) travels to Tulsa on Saturday. Cornell has one last tricky road game, at Harvard (Friday).
    The BRACKETBUSTER marquee matchups should be interesting. It's more important for the WAC (Utah State, Louisiana Tech, New Mexico State, Nevada), Colonial (Old Dominion, Northeastern, VCU, George Mason) and MAAC (Siena) teams, who didn't have a conference challenge to bolster their RPI like the MVC did this year (but Butler and Northern Iowa should still win their games).

-- Ron

Key games this week:

Monday:

Kansas-@TexasA&M, @Villanova-Connecticut, @Maryland-Virginia, @MorganSt-SCState, @TexasSo-JacksonSt,

Tuesday:

Kentucky-@MississippiSt, @VirginiaTech-WakeForest, @GeoMason-William&Mary(VA), @VCU-Drexel,

Wednesday:

Purdue-@OhioSt(BG), Texas-@Missouri, @Marshall-Tulsa, @UtahSt-LouisianaTech, @ColofCharleston-AppalachianSt, @MiamiOH-Akron(OH), @BallSt-CMichigan, @MoreheadSt-EaKentucky(KY), @DelawareSt-MorganSt,

Thursday:

Syracuse-@Georgetown, Vanderbilt-@Mississippi, @Oakland-SDState,

Friday:

@Harvard-Cornell, @Campbell-ETennesseeSt,

Friday-Saturday:

BRACKETBUSTERS on-campus [98 teams/49 games]

(Fri:

@NoIowa-OldDominion, @Iona-William&Mary,

 Sat:

@Butler-Siena, @UtahSt-WichitaSt, @VCU-Akron, @MissouriSt-Nevada, @Northeastern-LouisianaTech, @GeoMason-Col of Charleston, @Pacific-NewMexicoSt, @KentSt-WeCarolina, @MurraySt-MorganSt,

@Bradley-Drexel, @WIGreenBay-IndianaSt, @IllinoisSt-MoreheadSt, @Creighton-LoyolaIL, @SoIllinois-WeMichigan, @AustinPeay-OralRoberts, @StPeters-Buffalo, @BowlingGreen-Valparaiso(BG), @EaKentucky-Winthrop, @OhioU-WrightSt(OH), @ClevelandSt-Toledo(OH), @FresnoSt-UCSantaBarbara(CA), @Vermont-Fairfield,

@Detroit-EaMichigan(MI), @AppalachianSt-TennesseeTech, @WIMilwaukee-Niagara, @Radford-UNCWilmington, @Hosftra-Rider, @MiamiOH-SEMissouriSt, @MontanaSt-SanJoseSt, @Canisius-JamesMadison, @LoyolaMD-NewHampshire, @CMichigan-TennesseeSt,

@GeorgiaSt-SCState), @Delaware-BostonU, @Idaho-LongBeachSt, @EaIllinois-NoIllinois(IL), @BoiseSt-UCDavis,

@CalStFullerton-{SIUEdwardsville}, @Hawaii-CalPolySLO, @Manhattan-Towson, @CalStNorthridge-Drake, @UCIrvine-Marist, @BallSt-TNMartin, @UCRiverside-YoungstownSt, @Evansville-ILChicago, @GardnerWebb-Elon(NC), @JacksonvilleSt-{Presbyterian},

Saturday:

Kentucky-@Vanderbilt, @Purdue-Illinois, @Temple-v@StJosephs(PhiladelphiaPA)/Palestra/(BIG_5), UTEP-@Tulsa, @Maryland-GeorgiaTech, @Mississippi-Florida, @Charlotte-Xavier, @UAB-Houston, @SELouisiana-StephenFAustin, @Lafayette-Lehigh, @Army-Navy(MIL), @RobertMorris-Quinnipiac, @Longwood-SavannahSt, @ARPineBluff-PrairieViewA&M,

Sunday:

Villanova-@Pittsburgh, @Duke-VirginiaTech, OhioSt-@MichiganSt, @Arizona-ArizonaSt(AZ),

Monday week:

@Kansas-Oklahoma, @Connecticut-WVirginia(@HartfordCT), @ARPineBluff-TexasSo.

---

Top 25 - 10 Feb 15 - [] Column

1. Kansas (24-1)
2. Kentucky (24-1)
3. Villanova (22-2)
4. Syracuse (24-2)
5. Purdue (20-3)
6. Duke (21-4)
7. Georgetown (18-6)
8. Kansas State (19-4)
9. Ohio State (19-6)
10. Michigan State (19-6)
11. West Virginia (19-5)
12. Wisconsin (19-6)
13. Pittsburgh (19-6)
14. Texas (20-5)
15. Gonzaga (20-4)
16. Vanderbilt (18-5)
17. Tennessee (18-6)
18. New Mexico (23-3)
19. Texas A&M (16-6)
20. Baylor (18-5)
21. Butler (23-4)
22. Brigham Young (22-3)
23. Temple (20-5)
24. Texas-El Paso (19-5)

Honorable Mention:

Louisiville (16-9), Rutgers (13-12), San Diego State (18-7), Pennsylvania (4-16), Bradley (13-12), Niagara (15-13).