10 Feb22 - Cat Tales

Volume XIV, No. 16 - 10 Feb 22 - [] Top 25 Ballot

Cat Tales

Three sets of Wildcats are front and center this week. Kentucky passed two of its toughest road tests, coming away with narrow victories at Mississippi State [81-@75(OT)] and at Vanderbilt [58-@56]. They still have road trips to Tennessee and Georgia left, but they won't be any tougher than these two were (and the "neutral site" games in the NCAA tournament will be virtual home games in front of the Wildcat Nation, anyway).
    Meanwhile, Villanova is in danger of losing what seemed like a lock on a #1-seed. A home loss to slumping Connecticut [@75-84] is unacceptable, and a road loss at overachieving Pittsburgh [65-@70] is disappointing. They've done a decent job this year of battling on the boards given their height issues, but basic halfcourt D remains a problem.
    Nothing spectacular on the week for Kansas State, just two more wins: @91-87 over Nebraska and 83-@68 at Oklahoma. KansSt's backcourt has been solid all year, but the frontcourt is what has taken the team to an elite level -- physical, skilled, active.

Syracuse blew out to a 20-point lead on the road at Georgetown, but the Hoyas fought all the way back before the Orange prevailed 75-@71. Purdue won at Ohio State (to go along with Michigan State last week) in a tough battle, 60-@57. The Buckeyes regrouped to win in East Lansing themselves, 74-@67. The Spartans are healthy, but they've lost something in the interim and are now out of first place completely. fJon Leuer returned for Wisconsin, but isn't back to full strength yet; the Badgers were blown out on the road at Minnesota, 52-@68. Texas is playing better, but the Longhorns couldn't handle the intensity of Missouri in Columbia as the Tigers won @82-77. Kansas travelled to College Station and came away with a hard-fought 59-@54 win.

Gonzaga can't seem to clinch in the West Coast. This time they lost at 15-13 Loyola Marymount, 66-@74. St. Mary's, which is having a solid year behind cOmar Samhan (although they have no name wins) remains one game back with a week to go.
    Temple escaped the Palestra with a @75-@67(OT) win over St. Joseph's to go 3-0 in the Big Five and clinch this year's title. Northern Iowa[MVC], Oakland[Summit] and Murray State[OVC] continued to dominate their leagues and all clinched their regular season races.

The Atlantic 10 and Conference USA remain tight. Richmond, Temple and Xavier all have just two losses in the A-10, but St. Louis, Rhode Island, Charlotte and Dayton are all capable. (Even Duquesne (15-12/6-7) had two solid wins, 83-@77 at Charlotte and @73-71 vs Dayton.)
    UTEP leads Memphis in C-USA; but UAB, Marshall and Tulsa are all keeping pace.

Princeton lost at home to Brown, @54-57, effectively eliminating its already longshot hopes for an NCAA bid. Now trailing Cornell by a game in the standings, the Tigers would likely have to beat the Big Red twice (once in the regular season in Ithaca, and then again in a one-game playoff) to earn the regular season title. Not gonna happen.

With one week left, no fewer than seven teams are within one game of first place in the muddy Sun Belt. Western Kentucky won at Vanderbilt and South Alabama won at Florida way back when, but mostly the SBC teams are a mystery -- especially since the league doesn't participate in BRACKETBUSTERS.

The BRACKETBUSTER games held true to form for most of the marquee matchups with quality home teams able to beat worthy visitors. Butler trailed at the half but eventually blew out Siena @70-53. Northern Iowa played without cJordan Eglseder (suspended for 3 games) and still handled Old Dominion @71-62. Utah State beat solid Wichita State @68-58; Missouri State edged Nevada @62-60; Illinois State beat Morehead State @71-62; Murray State kept on its roll @75-66 over Morgan State; Kent State edged Western Carolina @74-72; VCU routed Akron @70-53. Only a handful of teams were able to pull off quality road wins: Louisiana Tech won 60-@57 at Northeastern (on a banked-in 3-pointer); College of Charleston won 85-@83 at George Mason; New Mexico State won 84-@78 at Pacific; Oral Roberts won 89-@80 at Austin Peay.
 &nsbsp   The Colonial needed a strong showing to make a case for a second bid but it didn't happen -- they went 3-9 overall. More expected was the OVC going 3-8. On the positive side, the MVC (which won its head-to-head challenge with the MWC in the preseason) was strong again, going 7-3 overall. More surprising was the Big West's 7-2 performance. Also faring well were America East (3-0) and Southern (3-1). The Horizon (5-5) was only middle-of-the-pack, along with the Mid-American (7-5), WAC (4-5) and Metro Atlantic (4-6).

The Big East title (and a #1 seed) could be at stake when Syracuse hosts Villanova (Saturday). Oklahoma State has a rough week ahead: at Texas (Wednesday) and vs Kansas (Saturday). New Mexico and BYU clash (Saturday) with first place in the Mountain West on the line. Cornell vs Princeton (Friday) has a lot less riding on it after the Tiger's loss.

-- Ron

Key games this week:

Monday:

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

Tuesday:

Georgetown-@Louisville, Tennessee-@Florida,

Wednesday:

Purdue-@Minnesota, Pittsburgh-@NotreDame, @Texas-OklahomaSt, TexasA&M-@Baylor(TX), @BYU-SanDiegoSt, @Temple-Dayton, @Maryland-Clemson, @Houston-Memphis, @StLouis-Xavier, @Akron-Buffalo, @TexasA&MCC-SELouisiana, @StonyBrook-Vermont, @Lehigh-Bucknell(PA),

Thursday:

@Kentucky-SCarolina, @Duke-Tulsa, @SAlabama-Denver, @Wofford-ColofCharleston(SC), @MoreheadSt-MurraySt(KY), @Jacksonville-Campbell, @{HoustonBaptist}-UTValley, @Longwood-{NCCentral},

Friday:

@Cornell-Princeton,

Saturday:

Kansas-@OklahomaSt, Kentucky-@Tennessee, @Syracuse-Villanova, @KansasSt-Missouri, @Georgetown-NotreDame, Texas-@TexasA&M(TX), Vanderbilt-@Arkansas, @Gonzaga-SanFrancisco, NewMexico-@BYU, @NoIowa-IllinoisSt, @VirginiaTech-Maryland, @California-ArizonaSt, @GeoMason-Northeastern, @OldDominion-VCU(VA), KentSt-MiamiOH(OH), @StephenFAustin-TexasA&MCC(TX), @Radford-Winthrop, @Jacksonville-ETennesseeSt, @BostonU-Maine, @{Seattle}-{CalStBakersfield},

Sunday:

@Purdue-MichiganSt, @Connecticut-Louisville, @FloridaSt-Clemson, @Xavier-Richmond, @LaSalle-Temple(PhiladelphiaPA)(BIG_5),

Monday week:

@WVirginia-Georgetown, @Texas-Oklahoma, @JacksonSt-ARPineBluff, @PrairieViewA&M-AlabamaSt.

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Top 25 - 10 Feb 22 - [] Column

1. Kansas (26-1)
2. Kentucky (26-1)
3. Syracuse (25-2)
4. Purdue (22-3)
5. Duke (23-4)
6. Villanova (22-4)
7. Kansas State (21-4)
8. Ohio State (20-7)
9. Pittsburgh (21-6)
10. West Virginia (21-5)
11. Georgetown (18-7)
12. Missouri (20-7)
13. Wisconsin (20-7)
14. Michigan State (20-7)
15. Texas (21-6)
16. Vanderbilt (19-6)
17. Tennessee (20-6)
18. Gonzaga (21-5)
19. Butler (25-4)
20. New Mexico (25-3)
21. Oklahoma State (19-7)
22. Texas A&M (17-7)
23. Brigham Young (24-3)
24. Temple (22-5)
25. Texas-El Paso (20-5)

Honorable Mention:

Connecticut (16-11), Minnesota (16-10), Loyola Marymount (15-13), Duquesne (15-12), Utah State (20-6), Illinois State (20-8), Murray State (21-3).