This week’s offering tackles a bevy of topics, including the race for the NCAA tournament’s top seeds, bickering on the Beltway, the rise of Tennessee State, a breakdown of Bracket Buster Weekend’s winner and losers, and much more.
Looking at Tennessee (14-13, 6-6 SEC) ... Just as chatter began to stir around the Vols’ far-fetched, but feasible NCAA tournament chances, a trip to Alabama put the kibosh on it Saturday.
Underhanded Bama, playing without its two leading scorers, laid a second-half beating on Tennessee to win going away at Coleman Coliseum. The loss snapped the Vols’ four-game winning streak.
UT will likely need to run the table from now to the SEC title game with a few upsets in the league tournament to be in the bubble conversation on Selection Sunday.
The road starts Saturday when Ole Miss visits Thompson-Boling Arena.
Starting forward Kenny Hall remains under suspension with no recent updates coming from coach Cuonzo Martin.
Looking at UTC (10-19, 4-12) ...
It couldn’t get any worse, right?
Wrong.
A medicinal win over The Citadel was scheduled for the Mocs Saturday at Mckenzie Arena. Losing was unthinkable. The Bulldogs entered with a 4-22 overall record and a 1-14 mark in the SoCon.
Thus, fans seemed more confused than angry when the final score read The Citadel 48, UTC 46. Wait, did that just happen?
Indeed it happened, and the Mocs have now lost 11 of 12. The team resembles a car driving uphill on four flat tires. The senior guard trio of Keegan Bell, Omar Wattad and Ricky Taylor are a combined 16-for-84 (19.0 percent) from the field over the last three games, including a brutal 6-for-51 (11.8 percent) from 3-point distance.
UTC will travel to Furman on Thursday night for its last opportunity to win a road game this season. The Mocs are 0-13 away from McKenzie.
The regular season will come to a close Saturday when Samford comes to town for Senior Night.
Looking at the national scene ...
Battle for the four No. 1’s: Unless something entirely unforeseeable occurs, Kentucky has put the South Region’s No. 1 seed in its back pocket. The only remaining question is what Sweet 16 counterparts will join the Wildcats in Atlanta.
Syracuse holds a two-game lead in the Big East with remaining games against South Florida, at UConn and home versus Louisville. Even if the Orange were to lose to Louisville and lose in, let’s say the Big East semifinals, they will still likely be the East Region’s top seed. Jim Boeheim’s team would go through Boston on its road to a Final Four berth.
The rest is entirely up for grabs.
Missouri and Kansas meet on Saturday in Lawrence, Kan. A road win by the Tigers would make them a stone-cold lock to capture the Midwest Region’s No. 1 seed, regardless of what happens in the Big 12 tournament. If the Jayhawks top Missouri and go on to win the league title, they’d become a likely choice for the top seed. The Midwest Region goes through St. Louis this year.
The possibility still exists for neither Mizzou nor Kansas to capture a No. 1, which brings us to the rest of the contenders and the wide-open race for the top seed in the West Region (Phoenix). Whoever prevails between Duke and North Carolina in the ACC would be a front-runner for a top spot, but the two (or Florida State) could cancel each other out. Then there’s Michigan State with its gaudy No. 4 RPI and No. 3 strength of schedule. The Spartans might not win the Big Ten regular-season title, but a run in the conference tournament would surely offset that. Ohio State, meanwhile, is slipping and sliding out of the picture.
The only other viable options would be Georgetown, Baylor or Marquette if any were to win out in conjunction with the a few of the above teams floundering. This is about as likely as UTC winning out and capturing the SoCon title.
My predication: UK, ‘Cuse, Mizzou and Michigan State.
Close your Illin-eyes: The Illinois train derailed a week ago. This past week it slipped off the mountain edge, plummeted to the ground, and left a mushroom cloud over Champaign, Ill.
Bringing a four-game losing streak to Lincoln, Neb., the Illini started strong against the host Huskers on Saturday. Then a 36-4 Nebraska run left some Illinois players openly crying on the bench as a 36-point second-half deficit hung on the scoreboard. A monumentally embarrassing 80-56 loss couldn’t end soon enough.
Guard D.J. Richardson afterward told The Chicago Tribune, “We hit rock bottom.”
Bruce Weber is a good man and it’s tough seeing his once hugely successful tenure at the school end like this. After the Illini’s tumultuous season is euthanized in the Big Ten tournament and NIT, he will likely resign or be let go. Until then, here’s hoping that Weber’s team can notch one upset or a memorable win to at least end the depression for a fleeting moment.
Devaluing the Mississippi Estate: If I had more time on my hands I’d spend a few hours trying to find the last time an SEC team lost three straight to Georgia, LSU and Auburn. Rick Stansbury’s Bulldogs accomplished the feat over a seven-day stretch to erase it’s once shiny 19-5 overall record. Now spiraling out of the NCAA tournament picture, Mississippi State gets to face Kentucky at home and Alabama in Tuscaloosa this week. That’s not exactly a remedy.
Differences in D.C.: Stubbornness between the athletic departments at Georgetown and Maryland over scheduling a home-and-home series in men’s basketball has now trickled down to all sports. The Terps, steered by athletic director Kevin Anderson, will no longer play the Hoyas in any sport until Georgetown agrees to a straight up home-and-home series in men’s hoops. It might seem like strong-arming, but it makes sense. The Baltimore/D.C. metro area’s two premier programs haven’t played a contracted regular-season game since 1993. How long ago was that? Well, Exree Hipp still played for Maryland.
As a Philadelphia native, I’ve always been confused by the college programs down I-95. In Philly, La Salle, Penn, Saint Joseph’s, Temple and Villanova, play a yearly round-robin series to determine the Big 5 champion. A sixth Division I team, Drexel, typically plays a couple of fellow city teams. By having actual city teams play one another, it’s one way for college hoops to stay relevant in a city awash in professional sports.
Two hours south, nada. It’s dumbfounding. The Baltimore/D.C. metro area counts Maryland, Georgetown, George Washington, Navy, George Mason, American, Howard, UMBC, Coppin State, Towson, Loyola (Md.) and Morgan State. Hell, there could be two separate round-robin series among the higher D-I teams and the lower D-I teams.
With fan interest (and, more importantly, ticket sales) dropping across the country, athletic departments need to seek out games of interest for shrinking fan bases. Georgetown’s non-conference home games included Savannah State, UNCG, IUPUI, NJIT, Howard, American and Memphis. Two of those programs, Howard and American, are area teams. Other than Memphis, did anyone care about the rest of that non-conference slate? Doubtful.
This is far from a new issue. Washington Post columnist John Feinstein has been preaching the same for years. No one has listened. Or they have, and simply decided they know better.
Turns out, they don’t.
What to make of South Florida: The Bulls are tied with Georgetown for fourth in the Big East. At this time of year, that position usually locks a team into the NCAA tournament. USF, though, is a bit of an oddity. The Bulls won their fourth straight Sunday, beating Pittsburgh to improve to 17-10 overall and 10-4 in the Big East. Of those 17 overall wins, only three have come against top 100 RPI teams (Cleveland State, Seton Hall, Pitt) and their league record is a bit of a mirage as the Big East basement accounts for most of the wins. USF counts only two bad losses (Penn State and Auburn) against it. Remaining games road games at Pitt, Syracuse and Louisville, along with home dates against Cincinnati and West Virginia, will offer the Bulls ample opportunities to prove themselves.
Clear your schedule: The best regular-season game of the season will likely unfold next Saturday in Kansas’ Allen Fieldhouse, where the Jayhawks have won 89 of their last 90. Missouri will be in town and the winner will be in the driver’s seat toward a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. The teams’ first meeting was a classic at Mizzou. Add Allen Fieldhouse and the legendary Jayhawk fans to what we saw in Columbia, and this has the makings of a classic.
Big men, big difference: Drew Gordon is the reason New Mexico will make loads of noise in the Big Dance. Perry Jones III is the reason Baylor will fizzle out.
The Lobos hosted UNLV in a monster matchup at The Pitt Saturday. A win would take New Mexico off the bubble and place it firmly in the bracket, barring a disaster. Gordon responded by dominating both ends of the floor, finishing with 27 points and 20 rebounds. He was a beast and the Lobos rolled to a 20-point win.
Baylor, meanwhile, needed a home win over Kansas State to stay on pace for a top-three seed in the tournament. PJ3 responded with four points, four rebounds, and watched his Bears lose a one-point game from the bench after fouling out. Baylor has gone 5-5 after a 17-0 start.
Drew Gordon, a UCLA transfer, is a player using all his talent to will his team to the Mountain West title. Perry Jones III is player with enough talent to be a top-10 pick in the NBA draft and often plays like that’s all he’s concerned with.
Prowling Tigers: Very quietly, Tennessee State has won nine straight thanks to an 68-61 victory over Miami-Ohio on Bracket Buster weekend. These are the same Tigers that ended Murray State’s undefeated season with a victory on the Racers’ home court (rematch this Thursday). Tennessee State is now 19-10 overall and alone in second place in the Ohio Valley Conference with an 11-4 mark.
This year’s OVC tournament is once again at Nashville Municipal Auditorium, a few paces from Tennessee State’s campus. With Murray State securing an NCAA at-large bid thanks to a win over Saint Mary’s this weekend, it would be best for the OVC if the Tigers hand the Racers loss No. 2 and win the league title. Two NCAA teams from the OVC? Oh, the BCS boys would be furious.
Speaking of Bracket Busters: Let’s take a look at some of the winners and losers of a wild weekend in the land of the mid-majors.
Winners
Creighton: Once a top 15 team nationally, the Blue Jays looked destined to lose for the fourth time in five games when Long Beach State held a 10-point second-half lead in Omaha. The three-letter tournament was becoming a very real possibility for Creighton before Doug McDermott (36 points) pulled his team back into the game and Antoine Young hit a brilliant game-winner to save the day. (Side note: LBSU still deserves an at-large bid whether it wins the Big West or not.)
Drexel: This will be the fourth week the Dragons are ranked in my top 25. In a 20-point demolition at Cleveland State, Bruiser Flint’s team showed the country why. Drexel has gone 21-1 since a 2-4 start.
Loyola Marymount: Valparaiso visited LA as winners of nine of its last 11 games, while Marymount had won five of its last six, including a 15-point road win at Saint Mary’s. When the two surging mid-majors clashed, the Lions prevailed in an eight-point win.
Iona: A rare national-television appearance for Iona saw the Gaels’ Scott Machado, the nation’s leader in assists, notch 15 assists in a 90-84 win over visiting Nevada.
Losers
Davidson: Looking for a big time home win over the visiting Shockers, Bob McKillop’s team trailed by a single point with 14:31 remaining. They lost by 16. Wichita hit 20 of 25 shots in the second half, led by Joe Ragland, who finished with 30 points on 11-of-14 shooting.
Akron: Having won 11 of 12 games in the Mid-American Conference, the Zips wanted a strong road win at Oral Roberts. Akron trailed by one with under eight to go, but fell 67-61.
Radford: Someone had to play winless Binghamton and the Highlanders were stuck with the task. Radford won by five, if you’re curious.
Kent State: Leading 16-5 eight minutes into the its meeting with College of Charleston, the Golden Flashes looked like they’d roll to an easy home win. Then they were outscored 75-57 and lost 80-73.
The Hoops Market ...
Buying: The John Beilein era at Michigan got its marque win when the Wolverines beat rival Ohio State in Ann Arbor on Saturday night. Point guard Trey Burke was nothing short of spectacular and Michigan is starting to resemble the maize and blue of old. With remaining games at Northwestern, home against Purdue, at Illinois and at Penn State, the Wolverines are well positioned to win their first Big Ten regular-season title since 1986.
Selling: Even as the ship began to sink weeks ago, I still figured Connecticut had enough talent to keep afloat and ultimately find its course. More and more, though, the Huskies look unsalvageable. They trailed Marquette by as many as 17 at home on Saturday and the day ended with sophomore guard Shabazz Napier publicly questioning his team’s heart.
Keeping an eye on: After a couple of hiccups against Lipscomb and South Carolina Upstate, Belmont has found its way in the form of an eight-game winning streak. The Bruins hold a one-game lead over Mercer in the Atlantic Sun and the league will likely be decided when the two meet in Macon, Ga., this weekend.
By the numbers ...
40/31: The points and rebounds from Notre Dame forward Jack Cooley in wins over Villanova and Rutgers this week. The junior averaged 3.7 points and 3.1 rebounds a year ago.
83.3: John Jenkin’s 3-point shooting percentage in Vanderbilt’s wins over Ole Miss and Georgia last week. He did his part by going 10 of 12 from deep.
50: Kentucky’s home winning streak at Rupp Arena after Saturday’s win over Ole Miss.
27: Wins by Syracuse, the most in the nation.
16: League wins by Oral Roberts (Summit), the most in the nation.
10: Consecutive games won by Temple, which has established itself as the Atlantic 10’s top team, trailed closely by Saint Louis.
48: Meager points scored by Florida State in a win over Virginia Tech this weekend. The Seminoles rallied from a double-digit, second-half deficit to beat the Hokies and remain tied with Duke and North Carolina for first in the ACC. FSU hosts Duke on Thursday.
20: Losses (or more) the Mocs will finish with unless they win out and capture the national championship in New Orleans.
54: Kentucky’s strength of schedule because of playing five teams with a sub-220 RPI.
3: Michigan State’s strength of schedule because of playing 10 teams with a top 25 RPI.
40: Days from Monday to the Final Four.
106-33: Tennessee's RPI and strength of schedule (through Sunday).
294-203: UTC’s RPI and strength of schedule.
36-144: MTSU’s RPI and strength of schedule.
77-180: Belmont’s RPI and strength of schedule.
131-239: Tennessee State’s RPI and strength of schedule.
One man’s top 25 ...
1.) Kentucky (26-1)
2.) Missouri (25-2)
3.) Syracuse (27-1)
4.) Michigan State (22-5)
5.) Duke (23-4)
6.) Kansas (22-5)
7.) North Carolina (23-4)
8.) Ohio State (22-5)
9.) Georgetown (20-5)
10.) Michigan (20-7)
11.) Wichita State (24-4)
12.) Baylor (22-5)
13.) Wisconsin (20-7)
14.) Murray State (26-1)
15.) Marquette (22-5)
16.) New Mexico (22-4)
17.) Louisville (21-6)
18.) Florida (21-6)
19.) Temple (21-5)
20.) Florida State (19-7)
21.) Virginia (20-6)
22.) Notre Dame (19-8)
23.) Drexel (23-5)
24.) Saint Louis (22-5)
25.) UNLV (22-6)
