1st day of March/College Hoops Open Thread
Michigan continues it's quest for the title.
Wichita State attempts to complete an unbeaten regular season.
Syracuse visits Virginia in a huge ACC showdown.
Bubble teams galore looking for big wins.
Go blue!
If anyone is planning their Big Ten viewing, Illinois and MSU square off at 4 PM on ESPN2 and Northwestern and Nebraska are on at 5 PM on ESPNU. We are, of course, on BTN at 6 PM.
Around the horn -
Connecticut is up by one against Cincinnati at halftime - 26-25.
Miami (FL) is also in a bit of a battle against NC State - 37-36 at halftime there.
Tennessee just scored again - they are manhandling Vanderbilt at the moment 43-18 in the opening minutes of the second half.
Undefeated is great but their only big win is over Saint Louis otherwise their wins are all fairly pedestrian for a top 10 team (beating mid-majors by 10-15 points) playing in a fairly week conference.
You have to wonder what Arizona or Syracuse would do playing Wichita's schedule, they'd probably be undefeated as well and I know they wouldn't be undefeated playing in the ACC or Big Ten.
I think they're probably in the top 11-20 range and should be a 3-4 seed
If Wichita played in the Big XII (which would actually make sense geographically) I think they'd be a 10-8/9-9 team in conference.
Yes, they are a good team. However, their conference is really bad and they've only played TWO games against top-100 competition in league play (Indiana State twice).
It's a nice story but I wouldn't be surprised to see the Shockers to lose in the second round a la Gonzaga last season.
The big 12 is overrated. And lose just like Gonzaga last year? The same year WSU went to the final four?
Last season Wichita came out of nowhere. And Gonzaga had a very similar profile, with tons of wins over crappy teams and little competition in conference. Heck, you could argue that the WCC was better last season than the current MVC.
This year everyone is gunning for the Shockers. We'll see how they handle it come the Big Dance against teams better than the dreck that is their conference.
I might have to finally give some love to Witchita St. They look fantastic. Early's shooting stroke is so pretty.
I'm currently watching the Thor vs. The Dark World game. Its' late in the fourth quarter and I believe the women are winning.
Louisville's in a dogfight.
Memphis with a huge 3. 11-0 run and up 3. What a turn around
ILL up on MSU 21-9.
Don't worry. Dawson will drop 20+ in the 2nd half. He's got a sick jumper.
and Izzo's got some weird guys in there.
LOL Dakich defending himself claiming that it wasn't really his fault that Dawson slammed his hand against the table.
I don't really care about the polls and that is somewhat misleading as they beat SMU and UConn when they were unranked, but both of those teams will probably be ranked next week. But the point about their strength of victories does stand. Their SOS in KenPom is #141, worse than Wichita State. The bottom half of the AAC is turrible.
Amazingly, they were #2 in the KenPom coming into today.
until after Michigan plays them next week, knock on wood. I've been burned by what happened at PSU last year and Purdue at home 2 years ago. And Illinois has beaten Minnesota and Nebraska in their last 2 games.
They're not healthy yet.
They also look fatigued. Those schedule makers really had it out for them.
They're not healthy yet.
Is it possible that Izzo has never seen how ridiculous he looks when he's complaining and that's why he continues to look like a complete ass?
so it works.
Always blaming something else, not his own team's performance.
And then the officials, instead of giving him a technical like he deserved, screw over Illinois by calling a non-existent foul.
They're not healthy yet.
Syracuse is done. Virginia is playing textbook "beat the 2-3 zone" basketball.
Just wait until state gets back all its players...
What?
Oh.
um, oh, never mind.
Izzy gonna need a new song and dance now.
Illinois hails from North Carolina - a state Izzo doesn't traditionally coach well against so this is very understandable. Even with three McDonald's All Americans - Harris, Appling, and Dawson (1 a sr, 1 a jr) + 5 star recruit senior Payne. 'Crooooting.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but if MSU loses here and we beat Minny, we clinch at least a share tonight?
A win tonight essentially hangs a future banner.