12 Jan 9 - Marq'ed Down

Volume XVI, No. 10 - 12 Jan 9 - [] Top 25 Ballot

Marq'ed Down

The second week of conference play was particularly rough on a few teams. None more than Marquette, which dropped two road games: 70-@73 at Georgetown (as the Hoyas came back from down 17, on 63 percent shooting, 26p5r from bJason Clark, and yet another game-winning three from gHollis Thompson[16p]) and then 66-@73 at still unbeaten Syracuse.
     The wheels have come off the Badger Bus -- Wisconsin also lost twice: @60-63(OT) at home to surging Michigan State (despite 28p1a5r from bJordan Taylor) and a 41-@59 blowout loss at Michigan. bTaylor was the only player in double-figures in either game for UW.
     Connecticut double-dipped as well: 63-@75 at surprising Seton Hall (as the Pirates' pJordan Theodore had 19p11a) and 60-@67 at Rutgers. pShabazz Napier and gJeremy Lamb have been fine, but the Huskies haven't been getting much production in the front court.

Duke fell on the road at Temple, 73-@78 (as the Owls' gKhalif Wyatt had 22p5s) and needed 14-for-14 free-throw shooting from tRyan Kelly(21p5r) to escape with a 81-@74 win in Atlanta against lowly Georgia Tech. The Blue Devils' backcourt is supposed to be their strength, but they are far from dominant on the perimeter.
     Missouri finally tasted defeat for the first time, and did so in a big way. Kansas State (fresh off its own 49-@67 loss at Kansas) turned the tide on the Tigers with a @75-59 home win. Louisville stumbled at home, @65-67(2OT) against feisty Notre Dame.
     Mississippi State dropped its conference opener, 88-@98, at Arkansas. Florida turned in an even more puzzling performance, losing 56-@67 at reconstructed Tennessee. Purdue couldn't keep a good thing going, falling 45-@65 at Penn State. Harvard lost 54-@60 at lowly Fordham. (The Crimson won't see the rankings again this year, but don't forget about their first-round splash potential come tourney time.)
     Towson set a new Division I record for consecutive losses (35 and counting) when it fell 38-@75 at Old Dominion.

On the up side, West Virginia's tough preseason schedule finally paid dividends with a @74-62 win over Georgetown (as gTruck Bryant[25p1a] and cKevin Jones[22p16r] both played well in the same game for once). 12-3 Iowa State got off to a 2-0 start in the BIG 12 with a @77-71 win over Texas and a 74-@50 drubbing of slumping Texas A&M (behind tRoyce White's triple-double: 10p18r10a).
     Northern Iowa sewed up this year's IOWA BIG 4 title with a 83-@68 win at Drake. Oral Roberts is already 6-0 in the SUMMIT with wins over Oakland (89-@80) and second-place South Dakota State (@97-75).

California, Stanford, Oregon State and Oregon all split 1-1 with each other, including Stanford's wild 103-@101(4OT) win at Oregon State. Surprising Colorado leads the PAC-12 at 3-0 thanks to a @87-69 routh of Washington. (The Buffaloes run the gauntlet on the road in northern California this week, though.)
     The closest thing to a Player of the Year performer so far this year has been xDoug McDermott of Creighton -- he put up 44p8r on 18-for-23 shooting in a 92-@85 win at Bradley. (But no one team has taken early control of the tough MVC race.)
     George Mason won 63-@54 at Old Dominion and @61-58 vs Georgia State in what qualifies as The Game of the Year in the declining COLONIAL.

Baylor's unbeaten record will be in jeopardy with two huge road games: at Kansas State (Tuesday) [and at Kansas (Monday week)]. Count on Extreme Payback when Ohio State gets to host Indiana on Sunday. Duke could be ripe for the picking if Virginia can hold its nerve in Cameron (Thursday).
     It's The Game of the Year upcoming on Thursday for St. Mary's when it hosts Gonzaga. If the Gaels can't win at home, it'll be an uphill climb needing to win at Gonzaga, or likely at Creighton in BRACKETBUSTERS, or in the WCC tourney in order to make it to the NCAAs -- but cRob Jones is outperforming cRobert Sacre and gMatthew Dellavedova is having a better season than any of the young 'Zag guards. (GU has more on its resume and can survive a loss.)
     Alabama gets to rub it in the face of visiting LSU (Wednesday) -- expect a celebration of the football national championship during the game.

-- Ron

[P.S. In this year's Pigskin Pool Party, Ronald Days tied with the expert picks by ESPN College Bowl Mania's (Robert Smith) to take this year's title. The second straight year an "expert pick" got at least a share of the win -- it's never happened in the Hoops Contest.]

Key games this week:

Monday:

WVirginia-@Connecticut, @Georgetown-Cincinnati,

Tuesday:

@NCarolina-MiamiFL, OhioSt-@Illinois, Baylor-@KansasSt, @Creighton-NoIowa, @WichitaSt-IllinoisSt, @VirginiaTech-FloridaSt, @Penn-@LaSalle(PhiladelphiaPA)(/PALESTRA/)(BIG_5),

Wednesday:

Missouri-@IowaSt, @Michigan-Northwestern, @Alabama-LSU, @StLouis-Temple, @Marquette-StJohns, @OhioU-Buffalo, @Memphis-SoMississippi, @Lehigh-American,

Thursday:

@Duke-Virginia, Gonzaga-@StMarys, @Purdue-Wisconsin, @California-Colorado, @Arizona-OregonSt, @Drexel-GeoMason, @Campbell-UNCAsheville(NC),

Friday:

Creighton-@IllinoisSt, @Butler-ClevelandSt(BG), @NoIowa-MissouriSt,

Saturday:

NCarolina-@FloridaSt, MichiganSt-@Northwestern, @Kansas-IowaSt, UNLV-@SanDiegoSt, @Missouri-Texas, @Dayton-LaSalle, Alabama-@MississippiSt, @Charlotte-StLouis, @Marquette-Pittsburgh, @NotreDame-Connecticut, @Wyoming-NewMexico, @Akron-OhioU(OH), @Stanford-Colorado, @Marshall-CFlorida, @Arizona-Oregon, @KentSt-BowlingGreen(OH), @Arkansas-LSU, @Columbia-Princeton, @Nevada-Hawaii, @Wagner-CConnecticutSt, @WeberSt-Montana, @Lamar-TXArlington(TX), @StephenFAustin-TXSanAntonio(TX), @MorganSt-NorfolkSt, @Albany-Maine,

Sunday:

Indiana-@OhioSt(BG), WichitaSt-@IndianaSt,

Monday week:

@Kansas-Baylor, @Syracuse-Pittsburgh, @Marquette-Louisville.

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Top 25 - 12 Jan 9 - [] Column

1. Kentucky (15-1)
2. North Carolina (14-2)
3. Michigan State (13-2)
4. Indiana (15-1)
5. Kansas (11-3)
6. Ohio State (15-2)
7. Syracuse (17-0)
8. Duke (12-2)
9. Baylor (14-0)
10. UNLV (14-2)
11. Kansas State (12-2)
12. West Virginia (12-4)
13. Georgetown (12-2)
14. Missouri (14-1)
15. Louisville (13-3)
16. Murray State (13-0)
17. Virginia (14-1)
18. Vanderbilt (11-4)
19. Gonzaga (13-2)
20. Creighton (12-2)
21. Wichita State (11-3)
22. Michigan (12-3)
23. Dayton (12-4)
24. Alabama (12-3)
25. Seton Hall (13-2)

Honorable Mention:

Arkansas (12-3), Iowa State (12-3), Northern Iowa (12-4), Oral Roberts (13-4).