Saturday's Winners and Losers

Two weeks to go in the regular season, and the bubble-sliding is frantic. Between "Bracket Buster" Saturday (a whole other article...I think I am in the minority in saying good idea, but a terrible idea actually). Maryland might have saved their season and Coach Williams' job today with a frantic comeback to force overtime and eventually take down North Carolina. That win is an enormous step towards punching their dance ticket.

Other Big Winners:

Staying in the ACC, Florida State is officially off the bubble and can now begin entertaining dreams of a deep tourney run. Their two point win over Virginia Tech slides the Hokies into a precarious spot as they are likely the 7th or 8th team in the ACC consideration.

Miami refuses to go away. The Florida State loss earlier in the week was damaging, but they rebounded today with an 11 point win over BC. The ACC is going to be a muddled mess, and it is likely the first round of the conference tourney will be virtual elimination games for three or four squads.

ACC SNAPSHOT:
IN: UNC, Duke, Wake, Clemson, FSU
BUBBLE: VA Tech, Maryland, BC, Miami

Texas snapped their freefall from grace tonight with an enormous win over arch rival Oklahoma. AJ Abrahams caught fire in the last five minutes and literally carried the Longhorns into the NCAA lock status.

Lost in the hoopla off te "big upset" is the fact that Oklahoma showed me more than any team this weekend in defeat. Sophomore All-American Blake Griffin suffered a concusion in the first half and scored only two points before being ruled out for the night. Yet the Sooners and their very underrated supporting cast had a tie game on the road with only a minute to play.

True, a win would have launched the Sooners to #1 in the nation in the Monday poll and all but sewed up a #1 seed in March, but tonights "loss" might have been the biggest win in gearing up for a National Championship run. I walked away very impressed with the Sooners tonight.

In other Big 12 action A&M kept their bubble hopes alive beating Texas Tech, while K State and Mizzou kept rolling along with wins.

BIG 12 SNAPSHOT:
IN: Oklahoma, Mizzou, Kansas
GOOD: Texas, Kansas State
BUBBLE: Texas A&M, Oklahoma St.

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