Yet another bizarre and delightful day of college hoops. Wake Forest did pollsters a favor by eliminating any possible consternation over who will be number one when the polls come out tomorrow when they lost at the buzzer to previously winless Georgia Tech. Yep, 0-6 in ACC play before taking on the Deacons who have beaten Duke and UNC. You try and figure out this season...
Yet The Yellow Jackets don't make our "Big Win" list; because the game ostensibly means very little. Georgia Tech is building for next year, but is in too deep of a hole to even entertain dreams of an at-large bid. It is unlikely they will see North of .500 and be eligible for post-season play period. SO, they don't make the list. (However, Wake could make the "bad loss" list for sure!)
Let's run down some of the biggest wins across the country yesterday:
Missouri got a much-needed win, and in convincing fashion whn they whooped Baylor yesterday. The Bears don't seem to have the magic they had last season, and are in real danger of missing the tourney. Missouri puts themself back in solid position after slipping a little with thir loss to K State earlier in the week.
Speaking on whom, how about Kansas State?? Left for dead a week ago, they beat Missouri and then go into Austin for their second straight win yesterday. It is still a tall mountain to climb, given their poor non-conference resume, but for the immediate time being, Kansas State has put themselves back in the tourney conversation.
What to make of the Pac-10? Just when everyone was ready to write off UCLA, everyone collapses around them and the Bruins once again look like the team to beat after a 30+ point beating of Stanford. Washington captured a huge win (84-71) at Arizona State yesterday, and Arizona continues their spirited resurgance winning over Washington State. Meanwhile USC reasserted their tourney hopes, and diminished those of Cal with their 73-62 win late last night.
It is a similar mess in the much maligned SEC. Tennessee was on the ropes but bounced up nicely with a sound beating of the Gators last night in Knoxville. The win pulls the Vols into a 4-way 2-loss tie atop the SEC East. South Carolina put a huge chip in their tourney pile with a win yesterday in Lexington. The Gamecocks are the most overlooked of the bunch, but at 16-4 (5-2) with their only non-conferences losses against Clemson and a tough Charelston squad and wins over Baylor and Kentucky their resume is looking tourney-solid.
LSU appears to be asserting themselves as the team to beat in the SEC West with another convincing victory, this one over Arkansas. Meanwhile Ole Miss made things more interesting beating in-state rival and formerly West-leading Mississippi State.
The two teams in the ACC that needed wins to keep their sagging tourney hopes alive got them yesterday. Boston College got a nice win over Virginia Tech, and Maryland got a desperatly needed victory over bubble-mate Miami. Again, there is still a month to play but BC and Maryland are right in the same sentance as Miami, Virginia Tech and FSU right now. I wouldn't want to be the committee who has to pick two or three and leave the others behind.
And perhaps the biggest "bubble-win" of the day, Northwestern (12-7, 4-5) downs Wisconsin. It wouldn't have seemed possible two months ago, but right now the Wildcats would be one of the last two or three teams left out of the tourney. The Big Ten will get six or seven bids, and Michigan and Wisconsin are leaving the door wide open. Northwestern is just a few wins from being in the Field. It goes without saying we will continue to follow the Wildcats' progress as they chase the school's first EVER NCAA bid.
No comments:
Post a Comment