Non-Conference Opponents

RPI Effect Only Teams:

UMass-Lowell (5-14) Beat Maine, but lost to New Hampshire. I’m assuming this was hockey. Houston Baptist (4-12) had a rough Bayou-centric week, losing home games to New Orleans and Southeastern Louisiana. At this point, you probably aren’t even reading this section because who cares. But I’m still writing. South Carolina State (7-13) beat Norfolk State, but lost to Hampton. I’m tempted to call this section “a tree falling on a blog when a 402 error knocks out the servers.” Coppin State (7-13) lost to North Carolina Central, but beat North Carolina A&T, and are a middle-of-the-pack MEAC team, which is probably best-case scenario.

Long Beach State (7-12) beat Cal State Northridge. Purple monkey dishwasher. Holy Cross (11-9) is on a four game winning streak, beating Lafayette and Navy. Inflammable and flammable mean the same thing. Charlotte (12-7) lost to Louisiana Tech and Rice, though given the last week, Michigan’s loss to the 49ers has shifted from “resume anchor” toward “amusing anomaly indicating the unpredictable nature of sports.” Resume. Résumé. Ah, better. Vive Napoleon! Allons enfants de la patrie, le jour de gloire est arrivé.

Big Sorts of Teams

#16 Iowa State (15-4, 3-4 Big 12)

This week: Beat Kansas State (81-75); Lost to Kansas (92-81)

Somehow, the bracket gurus still have Iowa State as a 4-seed. You figure it out.

Florida State (13-6, 4-2 ACC)

This week: Lost to Duke (Many-Few); Lost @ NC State (74-70)

Yikes, this week. Florida State has fought its way down to the bubble. For some reason, they have been terrible on the defensive glass; they’re dead last in the ACC, losing 40.8% of rebounds to their conference opponents. I wonder if this will come into play against…

#23 Dook (17-4, 6-2 ACC)

This week: Splattered Florida State (78-56); Beat Pitt (80-65)

Duke is hitting on all cylinders, beating KenPom’s #13 and #22 teams by a combined 37 points, with the 15 point win over #13 Pitt coming on the road. In possibly the most amazing stat I have seen all year, Duke grabbed 27 OFFENSIVE rebounds (to FSU’s 24 TOTAL rebounds). That is an OR% of 61.4%. A Duke miss was way more likely to end in Duke hands than in Seminole hands. And FSU, as I have been reminding you weekly, is huge. Jabari Parker had 10 offensive boards. That is how you beat a quality opponent by 22 despite shooting 10-39 (25.6%) from INSIDE the arc. Mind: bottled.

#1 Arizona (21-0, 8-0 PAC 12)

This week: Beat Colorado (69-57); Beat Utah (65-56); Beat Stanford (60-57)

Arizona is going to walk away with the PAC 12, and could probably sleepwalk into a 1-seed. So nothing has changed.

Stanford (13-7, 4-4 PAC 12)

This week: Lost to UCLA (91-74); Beat USC (79-71 OT); Lost to Arizona (60-57)

Stanford is riiiiiiiight on the bubble right now, and a win over Arizona would have been worth an incredible amount to the committee. They’ve still got a shot, but their golden ticket may have just escaped.

[The Big Ten after the Jump]