Friday, January 23, 2015

1/22 recap

The "What the **** is going on" result of the night:
DePaul 64, @Seton Hall 60 - DePaul goes on the road, and wins and is 5-2 in the Big East.  WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?

Significant results:
@Providence 69, Xavier 66 (OT) - gotta hold serve at home in the conference.  Provi at 5-2 and might be establishing itself as Big East #2
@Arkansas 93, Alabama 91 (OT) - kinda feels like 'Bama is not going to be able to keep pace in the SEC bubble race
@Miami 65, NC State 60 - in bubble battles, home teams winning means status quo for now
Arizona 89, @Stanford 82 - quality road win, no real harm to Stanford
Indiana 89, @Maryland 70 - it might be tough to ask Maryland to stay in the race for a top 3 seed for the rest of the year.  Meanwhile, Indiana trending upwards and at 5-1 in the B1G, are giving themselves lots of cushion
@Gonzaga 68, St Mary's 47 - road loss, so no biggie.  But getting the return game might be mandatory

Catastrophic losses, CUSA edition:
@Middle Tennessee 68, Old Dominion 58 (OT) - all of a sudden, that at-large bid for ODU is slipping away.  Further, I talked about that 4 team round-robin at the top of the CUSA standings...this is ODU's 2nd loss outside of that round robin.  They're in big big trouble now
@North Texas 73, Louisiana Tech 66 - and meanwhile, LaTech did itself no favors either
@Western Kentucky 71, UTEP 66 (OT) - and the other preseason fave, UTEP, loses as well.  Meanwhile, WKU gets a game within the round-robin and now has clear control of CUSA.  Which is a disaster for CUSA because they're ahead of 3 teams with better at-large profiles

Catastrophic losses, other division:
@Oregon St 66, UCLA 55 - I'm not sure at what point we have to start taking OSU seriously, but I'm not there yet
Arizona St 79, @California 44 - drive a stake in them already

Holding serve:
@Temple 73, South Florida 48
Notre Dame 85, @Virginia Tech 60
@UConn 67, Central Florida 60
George Washington 79, @Fordham 59
Ohio St 69, @Northwestern 67
@Rhode Island 59, LaSalle 47
@Virginia 57, Georgia Tech 28
Washington 52, @Colorado 50
@Oregon 75, USC 67

Miscellany:
- Iona 78, @Rider 68 - road win for control of the MAAC
- With losses by Coastal Carolina and High Point on the road, everyone in the Big South has already absorbed 2 losses.  This might end up being one of the best conference races in the country
- Albany goes to 6-0 and is the last undefeated in AEast, as Vermont loses
- After a full day in the SoCon, Chattanooga and Wofford are joint 6-1 leaders
- Northeastern beats JMU and leads the Colonial by a full game
- Murray St 77, @Eastern Illinois 62, for control of the OVC
- Eastern Washington is still trapped a half game behind Sacramento St in the Big Sky
- Pepperdine lost on the road at San Fran; I don't think they can turn the 3-team breakaway in the WCC into a 4-team breakaway
- UC Davis loses at Hawaii; still has control of the Big West by a half-game.  But several good teams lurk, and this might be my 2nd favorite conference race behind the Big South

No comments: