Non-Conference Opponents

RPI Effect Only Teams:

It was actually a pretty good week for the non-abysmal non-conference foes. Long Beach State (5-11) beat Cal Poly. Holy Cross (7-9) beat Lehigh. Charlotte (12-5) beat Tulsa and North Texas, and may actually compete in Conference USA. All three are in the mid-100s to KenPom (158, 156, and 138, respectively). It won’t matter much on the surface, but it could provide some RPI support to balance out the dregs.

The dregs, as their name would seem to indicate, did NOT have a pretty good week. UMass-Lowell (4-13) lost to Stony Brook and Hartford.  Houston Baptist (4-14) lost to McNeese State to fall to 1-5 in the Southland Conference (and yes, the Southland Conference was named after the police drama on TNT) South Carolina State (6-12) lost to Florida A&M but beat Bethune Cookman.  Coppin State(6-12) beat Hampton and lost to Norfolk State, but in doing so they moved into the top 300.

Big Sorts of Teams

#16 Iowa State (14-3, 2-3 Big 12)

This week: Lost @ Texas (86-76)

The Cyclones completed the first three rotations of the Ohio State Quadruple Salchow; that is, an effort to take an undefeated record into conference play and then rip off four straight losses. They go for the landing on Saturday, when they take on Kansas State at home.

Still better than the sleeved jerseys the NBA has been wearing

Florida State (13-5, 4-2 ACC)

This week: Lost @ Virginia (78-66), Beat Notre Dame (76-74)

The Florida State win isn’t as important to Michigan given the recent win at Wisconsin [ED: and the win over Iowa, because I obviously wrote this earlier on Wednesday], but they remain arguably Michigan’s second third-best win to date. You could make a case for a road game at Minnesota over a neutral court win over FSU, but to the Bracketology folks Florida State is a 7- to 9-seed and Minnesota is barely hanging onto a spot. The Notre Dame game was fascinating; I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a two point win in which KenPom says the win probability never dipped below 76%.

#18 Dook (15-4, 4-2 ACC)

This week: Beat NC State (95-60); Won @ Miami (67-46)

Relatively drama-free week for Duke, especially considering they were playing two top-100 teams. Jabari Parker averaged 20 points and 11 boards.

#1 Arizona (18-0, 5-0 PAC 12)

This week: Beat Arizona St (91-68)

The other other other nice thing about the Wisconsin and Iowa wins is that they replace the Arizona loss as Michigan’s ‘best outing’ of the year. Both Nick Johnson and Aaron Gordon are in the early KenPom Player of the Year Top 10, and Johnson is in the 25-man Wooden Award midseason whatever list.

Stanford (12-5, 3-2 PAC 12)

This week: Beat Washington (79-67)

Stanford has worked its way onto the bubble with wins over Oregon, Washington State, and Washington. Arizona is going to win the conference walking away, but the PAC 12 is good enough to warrant a 4^th tournament team, so if Stanford gets to 10 or 11 conference wins, that should be good enough to grab an at-large.

[AFTER THE JUMP: Big Ten Country is surprisingly mitten-shaped]