19 Feb11 - Boy Wonder (PRESIXTEEN)

Volume XXIII, No. 15 - 19 Feb 11: PRESIXTEEN - [] Top 25 Ballot Boy Wonder In their biggest road game of the ACC season, Duke completed the sweep of Virginia (81-@71). For a change, it was "Robin, The Boy Wonder" (i.e., bR.J. Barrett[26p7r]) who led the way, hitting five three-pointers in the first half, instead of "Batman" (fZion Williamson). North Carolina kept pace, outrunning North Carolina State (@113-96 thanks to 26 assists as xLuke Maye[31p12r] starred). Louisville only managed a split: first, winning at depleted Virginia Tech (72-@64); but then, falling in overtime at rising Florida State (75-@80[OT]). FlaSt earlier thumped host Syracuse (82-@60 behind 25 assists) while VaTech fell again at forgotten Clemson (51-@59 only managing 28 percent shooting).      Michigan State fell back in the BIG 10 race, tripping at lowly Illinois (74-@79); but the MS-Spartans bounced back to dump slumping Minnesota (@79-55 behind 27 assists). Michigan pushed on, beating Wisconsin (@61-52), as did Purdue, which thumped tumbling Nebraska (@81-62). Maryland also dumped host Neb (60-@45 as the N-Huskies only managed 21 percent shooting). Wisc split on the week, thanks to edging Minn on the road (56-@51).      Kansas State beat arch-rival Kansas (@74-67) and beat Baylor (@84-72) to open a two-game gap in the BIG 12 race. Iowa State could only manage a split on the week: first, edging tumbling Oklahoma on the road (75-@74); but then, falling at home to TCU (@83-92). Texas Tech also beat Ok on the road (66-@54). Bayl also fell at forgotten Texas (72-@84).      Marquette tripped at home against St. John's (@69-70 on bShamorie Ponds[28p7r;GWFG]' star turn), but (barely) stayed in the BIG EAST race with a squeak home win over Villanova (@66-65 as bMarkus Howard[38p6r] starred). StJohn fell at home at Providence (@56-70 as the Friars dominated the boards 43-23).      Houston took sole possession of first place in the AMERICAN after a big week: first, the H-Cougars won on the road at UCF (77-@68 as pCorey Davis Jr.[26p5a] starred); then, they won the showdown with Cincinnati (@65-58). Temple tanked on the road at Tulsa (58-@76).      In the PAC-12, Arizona State tanked at home against lowly WashSt (@70-91 on xRobert Franks[34p13r]' star turn); but bounced back to knock off first-place Washington (@75-63). In the SEC, Tennessee went 2-0 to stay unbeaten. Kentucky stayed close, edging Mississippi State on the road (71-@67). Likewise, LSU edged MissSt in overtime on the road as well (92-@88[OT] in GC fNaz Reid[29p9r]'s best game) and also edging Auburn (@83-78 despite 25p8a6r from pJared Harper).      Loyola(Illinois) dumped Drake (@86-64 on tMarques Townes[32p5a8r]' star turn) to open up a two-game gap in the MISSOURI VALLEY.      In the ATLANTIC 10, Davidson tripped at Massachusetts (51-@54) to fall back into a tie at the top with VCU.      In the MID-AMERICAN, West-leader Toledo beat Bowling Green on the road (78-@71), dropping BowlG back into a tie for the lead in the East (and overall) with mighty Buffalo.      Yale swept Princeton (@74-60) and disappointing Penn (@78-65) to lead the IVY LEAGUE as tMiye Oni averaged 28p9r in two games. Penn did manage to win at Brown (92-@82 despite 25p5r from bObi Okolie).      No one in the WCC can even give 3-gap/unbeaten Gonzaga a game: the G-Bulldogs throttled St. Mary's (@94-46 as the SM-Gaels only managed one assist). SUNB/Georgia State lost twice on the road: first, falling at Louisiana-Monroe (76-@82 on tDaishon Smith[36p7a8r]'s star turn); then, tripping at Louisiana (72-@76); meanwhile, Texas State and Texas-Arlington both took over first place. CUSA/North Texas split on the week: first, dumping tumbling Marshall (@78-51 dominating the boards 55-30); but then, tripping at home to forgotten Western Kentucky (@59-62); Marsh further tripped at lowly Rice (69-@74); meanwhile, Old Dominion and Texas-San Antonio both shared the lead. BIGW/UC-Irvine beat Hawaii (@67-56) to open a two-game gap.      PAT/Lehigh tanked at home against Colgate (@62-84 as cRapolas Ivanauskas[33p10r] dominated), leaving Bucknell alone in first place. SLAND/3-gap/unbeaten Sam Houston State edged forgotten Abilene Christian in double-overtime/on the road (90-@85[2OT]). NEC/Robert Morris lost at home to Central Connecticut State (@68-77), falling back into a tie for first place with resurrected St. Francis(Pennsylvania). MAAC/Rider jammed three losses in one week: falling at Manhattan (66-@73); then, tripping at home against Canisius (@80-81 on gJonathan Sanks' game-winning three) and also against Siena (@57-59); leaving a FOUR-WAY LOGJAM at the top among Monmouth/Canisius/Siena/Quinnipiac ... Ugh. MEAC/Norfolk State fell at Bethune-Cookman (76-@84 as cCletrell Pope[20p15r] countered 23p9a12 from xSteve Whitley) but still held onto first place. SWAC/Prairie View A&M split on the week: first, edging Alabama State (@69-67); then, tripping at Texas Southern (90-@95 as six players posted double-figures); but the PV-Panthers still held a two-game gap lead. - - - - - - The IVY LEAGUE is the last conference to reach its halfway point (give or take a game). Yale came through in first place; Harvard and Cornell both tied for second; Princeton hung in for fourth; (disappointing Penn couldn't hang; Brown was a flop.) - - - - - - It's Year Three for the NCAA Seeding Committee's "Pre-Sixteen bracket (as if the season ended today [Saturday])". The new NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool) has replaced the old RPI (Ratings Percentage Index). The new NET is supposed to be more inclusive of the "quality" of wins more than just won/loss percentage. Here's their official take:

EAST [Washington]	SOUTH [Louisville]	MIDWEST [Kansas City]	WEST [Anaheim]
1-Duke	2-Tennessee	3-Virginia	4-Gonzaga
6-Michigan	7-North Carolina	5-Kentucky	8-Michigan State
12-Marquette	9-Purdue	11-Houston	10-Kansas
13-Iowa State	14-Nevada	16-Wisconsin	15-Louisville

... with Villanova, Virginia Tech, Texas Tech and LSU just on the outside looking in. All things considered (Rankings, Ratings, Quality Wins), my "Pre-Sixteen" bracket would be:

EAST [Washington]	SOUTH [Louisville]	MIDWEST [Kansas City]	WEST [Anaheim]
1-Duke	2-Virginia	3-Michigan	4-Michigan State
7-Tennessee	6-Kentucky	5-North Carolina	8-Gonzaga
9-Purdue	10-Houston	12-Kansas	11-Virginia Tech
13-Iowa State	14-Texas Tech	16-Marquette	15-Nevada

... with the likes of Buffalo, Wisconsin, Iowa, Maryland, Louisville, Kansas State, LSU, Villanova and Cincinnati all just out of the running.      There's not much difference between the two brackets, frankly. The top #2-seed (5/Kentucky) can't be in the same bracket as the top #1-seed (1/Duke); so UK didn't get to go to DC, but I don't get why it couldn't go to Louisville. I also managed to send Kansas to KC, but they didn't for some reason. The biggest difference is they gave top importance to Tenn>Gonz>Duke head-to-head whereas I gave more importance to more total quality wins for Mich/MichSt,UVa/UNC/UK over Tenn/Gonz. (They have a further criteria that the total seeding in each region can't differ by more than five [which mine doesn't, so I'd have to fix that by "fudging" the seeds in order to keep teams closer to their preferred regions].) Frankly, where you get sent is way more important than seeding; so UK,Kans have the most beef.      (P.S. I couldn't care less about who CBS thinks should be the remaining 52 teams to fill out a full 68-team bracket at this point.) - - - - - - Kentucky can take control of the SEC race with a big after hosting LSU (Tuesday) and Tennessee (Saturday). North Carolina hosts Virginia (Monday). Gap Kansas State hosts Iowa State (Saturday). Maryland has a big week, hosting Purdue (Tuesday) and visiting Michigan (Saturday). Wisconsin hosts Michigan State (Tuesday). Unbeaten Wofford can put away the SOCON race with a home win over UNC-Greensboro (Saturday). >     Toledo hopes to make a game of it in the second MAC showdown when Buffalo comes to town (Friday).      In the OVC Wars, Austin Peay hosts Murray State (Thursday). Cornell hosts IVY-leader Yale (Saturday). Dayton hosts VCU (Saturday).      HORIZ/Wright State hosts Northern Kentucky (Friday) with first place on the line.      SUMMIT/Omaha hosts South Dakota State (Thursday) with first place on the line. PAT/Bucknell hosts Lehigh with first place on the line (Monday). ASUN/Unbeaten Lipscomb can put away the regular season race with a home win over Liberty (Wednesday). In the mad-scramble MAAC, Rider visits Quinnipiac (Tuesday) and hosts Monmouth (Friday). NEC/St. Francis(Pennsylvania) has a big week, visiting Fairleigh Dickinson (Thursday) and hosting Robert Morris (Saturday). -- Ron

Key games this week:

Monday:

@NCarolina-Virginia, Kansas-@TCU, @Baylor-Oklahoma, @Bucknell-Lehigh(PA), @FloridaA&M-NorfolkSt,

Tuesday:

Duke-@Louisville, Purdue-@Maryland, @Kentucky-LSU, MichiganSt-@Wisconsin, @Quinnipiac-Rider,

Wednesday:

@Lipscomb-Liberty, @Auburn-Mississippi, @NCState-Syracuse, CAPITAL CITY/BLACK & BLUE CLASSIC HomeAway on-campus -(@VCU-Richmond[RichmondVA];    Sat 2 Mar: @Richmond-VCU[RichmondVA]),

Thursday:

@Furman-UNCGreensboro, @NewMexicoSt-UTValley, @ColofCharleston-Hofstra, @AustinPeay-MurraySt, @Omaha-SDState, @FairleighDickinson-StFrancisPA, @WeberSt-Montana,

Friday:

@Toledo-Buffalo, @Princeton-Harvard, @WrightSt-NoKentucky(BG), @Rider-Monmouth(NJ),

Saturday:

@Duke-NCState(NC), Tennessee-@Kentucky, @Michigan-Maryland, @KansasSt-IowaSt, @TexasTech-Baylor, @Wofford-UNCGreensboro, @TCU-Oklahoma, @Dayton-VCU, @Utah-ArizonaSt, @Penn-Harvard, @Cornell-Yale, @ColofCharleston-Northeastern, @UCIrvine-UCSantaBarbara(CA), @Omaha-PurdueFW, @StFrancisPA-Robert Morris(PA), @JacksonSt-PrairieViewA&M, @GramblingSt-TexasSo, STAR GAME HomeAway on-campus -(@ArmyWP-Navy[MIL];    @Navy-ArmyWP[MIL]), FINALIZATION OF C-USA END-OF-SEASON SCHEDULE,

Sunday:

@MichiganSt-OhioSt, Villanova-@StJohns, @LoyolaIL-MissouriSt,

- - - - - -

Monday week:

@VirginiaTech-Virginia(VA), @NCA&T-NorfolkSt.

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Top 25 - 19 Feb11: PRESIXTEEN - [] Column

1. Duke (21-2)
2. Tennessee (21-1)
3. Gonzaga (22-2)
4. Michigan (22-2)
5. Purdue (17-6)
6. Kentucky (20-3)
7. North Carolina (19-4)
8. Virginia (20-2)
9. Michigan State (19-5)
10. Kansas State (18-5)
11. Houston (23-1)
12. Marquette (20-4)
13. Villanova (19-5)
14. Kansas (18-6)
15. Iowa State (18-6)
16. Nevada (22-1)
17. Texas Tech (19-5)
18. Louisiana State (19-4)
19. Maryland (18-6)
20. Cincinnati (20-4)
21. Washington (19-5)
22. Iowa (19-5)
23. Wisconsin (17-7)
24. Florida State (18-5)
25. Wofford (18-4)

Honorable Mention:

Illinois (9-15), TCU (17-6), St. John's (17-7), Louisville (17-7)/Clemson (15-8), Arizona State (16-7), Loyola(Illinois) (15-9), New Mexico State (19-4), - - - - - - UC-Irvine (19-5), Sam Houston State (13-8).