Friday, December 30, 2016

12/29 recap

Big East:
@St John's 76, Butler 73 - what an awful, awful loss for Butler.  This puts them a half-step behind the other teams as far as jockeying for seeding position goes

SEC:
Kentucky 99, @Ole Miss 76
Florida 81, @Arkansas 72 - road wins are never trivial.  Arkansas kind of needed this to legitimize their resume
Georgia 96, @Auburn 84 - you can just copy the above comment for this one
Tennessee 73, @Texas A&M 63 - ditto.  This one surprised me a bit more, I had A&M pegged as a better team than this.  The SEC can't exactly afford several teams to be lumped together in the upper half of the conference, it'd be nice for them to get separation and establish quality teams (and quality win chances) as a result
Vanderbilt 96, @LSU 89 - good lord will someone win a home game

WCC:
Gonzaga and St Mary's win their openers...this conference season will be all about avoiding land mines for these two.  No one else, not even BYU and surprising San Fran, figures to be relevant to our interests this year

elsewhere:
Western Illinois 93, @IPFW 91 - that's an awful loss
Lipscomb 81, @Missouri 76 - lol
@Drake 102, Loyola(Chi) 98 - in case you thought Loyola was relevant

Thursday, December 29, 2016

12/28 recap

ACC:
Virginia 61, @Louisville 53 - Signature road win!
@Florida St 88, Wake Forest 72

Big East:
@Villanova 68, DePaul 65
@Creighton 89, Seton Hall 75
@Xavier 82, Providence 56
@Marquette 76, Georgetown 66

Pac-12:
@Oregon 89, UCLA 87 - no real harm to UCLA, and a major boon to Oregon.  The top of the Pac-12 is in good shape
USC 70, @Oregon St 63 - road wins are never trivial

Big 10:
Nebraska 87, @Indiana 83 - catastrophic home loss, no other way to say it.  Nebraska isn't good enough to make the tourney.  This'll cost a seed line
@Purdue 89, Iowa 67

AAC:
Cincinnati 56, @Temple 50 - Cincy is establishing themselves as the best in the conference, but this really hurts Temple's at-large chances.  One quality win chance already off the board
Houston 62, @UConn 46 - important hold for Houston

others:
Wichita St 80, @Indiana St 72
Mountain West....Boise with a road win, UNM > Fresno, Nevada and CSU held at home.  Middle of this conference will be a mess

non-conference:
@North Carolina 102, Monmouth 74
@Clemson 87, UNC-Wilmington 73

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

12/27 recap

Big 10:
@Wisconsin 72, Rutgers 52
Northwestern 87, @Penn St 77 - NU is a very light 12-2 team right, so every single road win matters so much.  If you play light, you need to beat the bad road teams.  More of these nervy games are coming up, though
@Maryland 84, Illinois 59 - well, this helps us define Illinois' status a bit
Michigan St 75, @Minnesota 74 - such an important hold for MSU, they can't lose toss-up games anymore after wasting a lot of their margin of error in the non-con.  And such an important loss for Minny, they've got to win these swing games to get in

AAC:
SMU 58, @Memphis 54 - Memphis wasn't awful in the non-con, so this is actually a decent win and important for SMU, one of the tougher conference games for them right here

non-conference:
Kent St 63, @Texas 58 - just in case you thought Texas was still alive.  It's going to be interesting to see whether they're 6-12 bad or 2-16 bad in the Big 12 - how many catastrophic losses can they deliver to the conference?

Monday, December 26, 2016

12/26 S-CURVE

The season starts to come into focus.  The tricky thing about December/early January projections is blending predictions with results.  There's still some baked in predictions in this S-Curve; they'll slowly be filtered out by late January.  There's a few teams I'm not giving up on yet ('sup, Izzo), and a few I'm buying in.

If you asked me about the 1 line, I think Kansas and Duke are going to charge into Baylor and Louisville's slots, but for now, they sit on the 2 line.

Things about this S-Curve that is interesting:
1) 4 ACC teams in the top 9.  Are there enough quality wins to go around in the ACC to keep all 4 up there?
2) The Pac-12 is top heavy.  UCLA/USC/Arizona/Oregon are in great shape, everyone else well back.  Are there enough quality wins to go around in that conference?
3) The B1G's highest seed is a 4 right now.  That situation will fix itself, but that might mean some difficulty for the bubble teams in March, with less signature wins to go around.
4) It got real light in mid-major land.  There's a few good teams, but their bad conferences will sink them.  UT-A, Chattanooga, MTSU, Wichita, plenty of names to note, but we need to wait for their RPIs and SoSs to settle before we get crazy about their chances.
5) The SEC is in a little better shape.  A few teams building up solid records, helping to boost the SoS numbers.  I'm not sure they can hang on to all 6 bids I gave them here, but the disaster scenario of 3 or less is out of play for now.

The 1 line:  Villanova (12-0), UCLA (13-0), Baylor (11-0), Louisville (11-1)
The 2 line:  Kansas (11-1), Duke (12-1), Kentucky (10-2), North Carolina (10-2)
The 3 line:  Virginia (10-1), Butler (11-1), Gonzaga (12-0), Xavier (10-2)
The 4 line:  Creighton (12-0), Indiana (10-2), West Virginia (11-1), Purdue (11-2)
The 5 line:  USC (13-0), Wisconsin (11-2), St Mary's (10-1), Arizona (11-2)
The 6 line:  Florida St (12-1), Oregon (10-2), Notre Dame (10-2), Florida (9-3)
The 7 line:  Maryland (11-1), Cincinnati (10-2), Auburn (10-2), Virginia Tech (10-1)
The 8 line:  Pittsburgh (10-2), Seton Hall (10-2), South Carolina (9-2), Miami (9-2)
The 9 line:  Texas A&M (8-3), Oklahoma St (9-2), Dayton (8-3), Arkansas (11-1)
The 10 line:  Michigan (10-3), VCU (9-3), SMU (10-3), Minnesota (12-1)
The 11 line:  Wichita St (9-3), Michigan St (8-5), Temple (9-4), Northwestern (11-2), TCU (10-1), California (9-3)
The 12 line:  Texas-Arlington (8-3), UNC-Wilmington (9-1), Nevada (11-2), Valparaiso (8-3)
The 13 line:  Monmouth (10-2), Middle Tennessee (9-3), IPFW (8-3), Chattanooga (7-3)
The 14 line:  Akron (9-3), Tennessee St (7-3), Yale (6-5), New Mexico St (10-2)
The 15 line:  FGCU (7-5), Eastern Washington (6-5), Vermont (7-5), Winthrop (6-3)
The 16 line:  Texas Southern (4-9), Sam Houston St (5-4), Bucknell (8-5), North Carolina Central (6-5), Long Island (6-6), UC-Irvine (5-9)

Next 4 in:
VCU
SMU
Minnesota
Michigan St

Last 4 in:
Temple
Northwestern
TCU
California

Last 4 out:
Colorado
North Carolina St
Providence
Iowa St

Next 4 out:
Rhode Island
San Diego St
Clemson
Ohio St


Break it down!
ACC 9
Big 10 8
SEC 6
Big East 5
Big 12 5
Pac-12 5
AAC 3
A-10 2
WCC 2

12/25 recap

Diamond Head:
San Diego St 62, San Francisco 48 - well, SDSU get their 3 wins after they had wrecked their resume beyond saving.  We'll see if they matter any in March, I doubt it
Illinois St 68, Tulsa 56
@Hawaii 60, Southern Miss 46
Utah 74, Stephen F Austin 66 - a disaster for Utah by losing their 1st game

Saturday, December 24, 2016

12/23 recap

@Auburn 70, UConn 67 (OT) - road wins matter, this one a lot, because it's a sign Auburn is a player this year
@Boston College 79, Providence 67 - the reasons road wins matter?  Losses like this, which wreck a resume pretty badly
@Seton Hall 72, Rutgers 61
@Oakland 86, Georgia 79 - another reasons road wins matter.  Oakland's a decent team, of course the public won't care about that
@Minnesota 82, Arkansas St 75
Harvard 57, @Houston 56 - pretty fatal for UH's at-large hopes

Las Vegas Classic:
USC 94, Wyoming 92 (OT) - so I don't think USC is THAT good, but they appear good enough to be bubble-relevant
Missouri St 69, DePaul 58

Diamond Head:
San Diego St 82, Tulsa 63
Stephen F Austin 67, Southern Miss 64
San Francisco 66, Illinois St 58
Utah 66, @Hawaii 52 - SDSU and San Fran is the title game here...I'm not sure what to make of any of these 8 teams.  One minor boon to Utah - this counts as a true road win

Friday, December 23, 2016

Non-conference tournaments, part IV: Christmas

Whoops, forgot to get this up.  Only 2 tourneys this year, and I'm surprised this is still a thing, frankly.

Las Vegas Classic:
DePaul vs. Wyoming
Missouri St vs. USC
The stakes:  USC can't afford to lose either game.  Simple as that.

Diamond Head:
Tulsa vs. Stephen F Austin
San Diego St vs. Southern Miss
San Francisco vs. Utah
Illinois St vs. Hawaii
The stakes:  Utah can't afford to lose.  Hey, remember when Tulsa was an at-large team, SDSU was the MWC king, SFA was the mid-major darling?  And SMiss being a decent CUSA team and Illinois St being a team on the rise and all that jazz?  Yeah, just about every team here is in some form of disarray, and Utah is trapped with a tournament with high risk and little nutritional value.

12/22 recap

Kansas 71, @UNLV 53 - road wins are never trivial
@Cincinnati 93, Marshall 91 (OT) - that was almost catastrophic
Tennessee 72, @East Tennessee St 68 - road wins are never trivial
@Miami 72, George Washington 64
Santa Clara 87, @Valparaiso 80 - resume-killing loss
@Wake Forest 110, LSU 76
@Long Beach St 56, Colorado St 55 - hey, a home game for this team!

Las Vegas Classic:
USC 83, Missouri St 75
Wyoming 72, DePaul 58

Diamond Head:
Tulsa 74, Stephen F Austin 51
San Diego St 66, Southern Miss 51
San Francisco 89, Utah 86 - ugly ugly loss for Utah.  This is not the tourney to be trapped on the losers' bracket
Illinois St 71, @Hawaii 45

12/21 recap

@Louisville 73, Kentucky 70 - this could help or hurt the case for a 1 or 2 seed for these teams, but otherwise not much bracket impact here.  Both these teams are where they expected to be overall
@North Carolina 85, Northern Iowa 42 - just in case you were wondering, it's safe to check out on UNI now
Virginia 56, @California 52 - road wins are never trivial, remember that.  ACC is going to have a tricky logjam at the top - 4 teams legitimately in the 1 seed race
Clemson 62, @South Carolina 60 - pretty crushing loss for USC here.  Remember that quality win chances are down in the SEC, this was a lost chance to add some resume heft
@Dayton 68, Vanderbilt 63 - all these holds at home really matter to Dayton's resume now
Georgia St 64, @Middle Tennessee 56 - MTSU had actually been assembling a half-decent resume, but this is a major blow
Auburn 74, Oklahoma 70 - neutral site wins like this matter too
@Alabama 67, Arkansas St 52 - Arky St had also gotten off to a nice start, so this isn't a trivial win

Catastrophic loss of the century:
St John's 93, @Syracuse 60 - there are no words

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

12/20 recap

Creighton 96, @Arizona St 85 - road wins are never trivial
@Arizona 77, New Mexico 46
@Oregon 75, Fresno St 63
Georgia 60, @Georgia Tech 43
Northeastern 61, @Oakland 59 - NU is starting to pile up road wins over quality programs.  It's too bad they lost 4 road games already though

12/19 recap

There's almost nothing here, despite many games.  Do we really need to list out Duke/Purdue/Indiana cupcake wins?

@Oral Roberts 63, Little Rock 48 - UALR was off to a nice start, and this is a terrible loss, even though it's on the road
Colorado 75, @Air Force 68
@SMU 72, Stanford 49
Loyola Marymount 69, @Colorado St 66 - another bad loss for the MWC

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

12/18 recap

Gonzaga 86, Tennessee 76
Penn St 92, @St John's 76 - remember when I say road wins are never trivial?  Yea, this one is trivial
Gardner-Webb 70, @Nebraska 62 - lol
Clemson 67, Alabama 54 - not a great sign for the SEC, and a good one for the ACC
Portland 53, Oregon St 45 - lol
Northeastern 81, @Michigan St 73 - okay, MSU is now in legitimate bubble trouble

Monday, December 19, 2016

12/17 recap

Kentucky 103, North Carolina 100 - could be a useful result if both are competing for a 1 seed in March, but otherwise this is just confirmation these two will hang out around the top lines for the year
Butler 83, Indiana 78 - ditto
Purdue 86, Notre Dame 81 - these tams are a little further down the S-Curve, but otherwise, ditto
Arizona 67, Texas A&M 63 - more harm than you think to A&M, given the general state of the SEC

UCLA 86, Ohio St 73 - neutral site wins matter too
Kansas 89, Davidson 71
South Carolina 77, @South Florida 66 - road wins are never trivial
@Xavier 69, Wake Forest 65
@Oregon 83, UNLV 63
Georgetown 78, @Syracuse 71 - very damaging loss to Syracuse very important to GU's minuscule at-large hopes
Memphis 99, @Oklahoma 94
Texas Tech 79, @Richmond 72 - RU isn't the greatest team, but road wins matter, TTU may be an at-large player
Arkansas 77, Texas 74 - Arky may be a viable at-large team this year
Kansas St 89, Colorado St 70
Iowa 69, Northern Iowa 46
Northwestern 67, Dayton 64 - actually a quality win, and NU will be hanging around the bubble this year.  Dayton, notsomuch
Oklahoma St 93, @Wichita St 76 - signature road wins matter
@VCU 80, Middle Tennessee 77 - Middle's a good team who possibly maybe could've been in the at-large discussion with a win....so ouch
New Mexico St 81, @Arizona St 70
@Vanderbilt 76, Chattanooga 74
Illinois 75, BYU 73 - BYU is dead team walking

Saturday, December 17, 2016

12/16 recap

Long Beach St 71, @Oregon St 67 - oh man, OSU.  EVERYONE is beating LBSU.  Ahahahaha.
...not much else going on in this day.  Arkansas St and UT-Arlington filed away wins in the "road wins are always non-trivial" category, but that's about it.

12/15 recap

@George Washington 74, UCF 59
...I don't know.  You tell me what mattered from this day.  A whole lot of nothing on the schedule this day.

Friday, December 16, 2016

12/14 recap

East Tennessee St 67, @Mississippi St 65 - don't think ETSU has enough juice to make it to the at-large board, but it's still a noticeable win and a nice story
Middle Tennessee 79, @Belmont 66 - road wins are never trivial
Illinois-Chicago 80, @DePaul 75 - lol

Not much else.  UCLA held easily over UCBS....Gonzaga, Wisky, St Mary's and Arizona were cupcake winners

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

12/13 recap

@Villanova 78, Temple 57
@Cincinnati 95, Texas Southern 58 - just to point out that the schedule is finally catching up to TSU
Monmouth 82, @Memphis 79 - hey, there's our darling from last year with another road win.  Sadly, they don't have the high-impact wins to matter this year
New Mexico St 79, @UTEP 68 - more important to NMSU's seed in March than you think

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

12/12 recap

Seton Hall 67, South Carolina 64 - a solid neutral court win, and a modest blow to USC's at-large hopes.  Remember, the SEC will not provide an abundance of signature win chances
Boston College 72, Auburn 71 - this is a legitimately terrible loss for Auburn, though
Penn 58, @Central Florida 49 - UCF was creeping into at-large discussion...this will get them kicked out for awhile though

12/11 recap

@North Carolina 73, Tennessee 71 - status quo for both teams
@St Mary's 84, UC-Irvine 53 - we're going to have to detail the nosedive the Big West is doing as a conference soon
@Florida St 83, Florida 78 - kind of status quo for both teams, this won't hurt Florida too badly or help FSU too much, at least compared to what FSU faces in conference play
@Oregon 65, Alabama 56
@Virginia Tech 80, Ole Miss 75
@Long Island 74, St John's 73 - LIU might win the NEC, so this isn't horrible
Savannah St 93, @Oregon St 90 (OT) - now this, this is horrible
Nevada 87, @Washington 85 - road wins matter

Monday, December 12, 2016

12/10 recap

Villanova 74, Notre Dame 66 - Nova crusing to the 1 line at this point
@UCLA 102, Michigan 84 - UCLA to the 1 line could be a developing story
@Kansas 89, Nebraska 72
Duke 94, @UNLV 45 - road wins by 50 are always okay
@Gonzaga 61, Akron 43
@Xavier 77, Utah 69 - a good solid resume booster, and no harm to Utah's resume
@Butler 75, Cincinnati 65 - same story here, a quality win for Butler and no real harm to Cincy
Wisconsin 93, @Marquette 84 - road wins are gold
Arizona 79, @Missouri 60 - yes, even a road win over a minnow matters
Temple 73, DePaul 65
@Memphis 62, UAB 55
@Houston 82, Rhode Island 77 - um, are we sure URI is good?  I don't think so anymore
@Dayton 75, East Tennessee St 61 - ETSU isn't a bad team
Pittsburgh 81, Penn St 73
@NC State 67, Tennessee St 55 (OT) - curious
Wichita St 76, Oklahoma 73 - neutral site wins matter too
Oklahoma St 71, @Tulsa 67
@Texas 71, Long Beach St 65 - end this madness LBSU
@Ohio St 64, UConn 60
Arizona St 74, @San Diego St 63 - ok, now we know for sure that SDSU isn't good
Kansas St 70, Washington St 56
Valparaiso 84, @Missouri St 81 - road wins!
VCU 67, @Old Dominion 64
@New Mexico St 84, New Mexico 71 - just throw the entire MWC in the trash
@BYU 79, Colorado 71

Saturday, December 10, 2016

12/9 recap

A 1-game recap, because that's all that mattered:

Wake Forest 78, @UNC-Greensboro 75 - ok, UNC-G is a decent team, but this win looks better than you think.  Remember, road wins matter.

Friday, December 9, 2016

12/8 recap

Texas-Arlington 65, @St Mary's 51 - this can be broken down in a few directions.  First, a catastrophic loss for St Mary's, but if this is an isolated incident, they'll be fine.  Meanwhile, UTA has this and @Texas in the W column and 3 other roadies in the loss column.  Not completely sure what to do with them yet, but they'll be relevant for awhile

@Iowa 78, Iowa St 64 - I know it's a roadie, but this isn't very good for ISU
@Middle Tennessee 71, Vanderbilt 48 - MTSU is another team I'm not sure what to do with yet.  They're not going to have a signature win chance all year

Thursday, December 8, 2016

12/7 recap

@Kentucky 87, Valparaiso 63 - this doesn't hurt Valpo any
@North Carolina 83, Davidson 74 - this doesn't hurt Davidson any
@Gonzaga 98, Washington 71 - yawn
Creighton 77, @Nebraska 62 - remember, road wins matter, even when you're the superior team
@Colorado 68, Xavier 66 - and this is why road wins matte.  You can easily lose games to competent teams on the road.  No real harm for Xavier, except for the theoretical chance at a 1 seed
@Indiana St 72, Butler 71 - this road loss might be a bit dicier, as Indiana St is a level down from Colorado or Nebraska.  Butler should be fine as they built up a fine resume to this point, though
George Mason 85, @Penn St 66 - and then there's road wins like this that just prove that Penn St is irrelevant
Harvard 74, @Boston College 66
@Pittsburgh 84, Buffalo 79
Georgia Tech 76, @VCU 73 (OT) - VCU is likely not gonna be doing much this year
George Washington 66, @Temple 63 - Temple lost to New Hampshire, GWU, and UMass, and beat WVU and FSU.  What is going on here
@SMU 74, TCU 59
@Grand Canyon 76, San Diego St 72 - what in the world, SDSU?
Seton Hall 60, California 57 - this should be a quality neutral site win, useful for the resume

Mid-major junction:
North Dakota 74, @North Dakota St 56 - reminder:  the Summit is down this year
@Tulsa 70, Illinois St 68
@Northern Iowa 86, South Dakota St 58 - things are really wide open for Fort Wayne in the Summit this year
Loyola(Chi) 77, Wright St 64 - looks bad for the Horizon, good for the Valley
UAB 84, @Stephen F Austin 73 - I'm now fully out on the Southland, just slot them in Dayton already

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

12/6 recap

Duke 84, Florida 74 - no real change in either team's profile
Purdue 97, Arizona St 64 - does count as a neutral site win
Villanova 89, LaSalle 79 - also counts as a neutral site win
@Notre Dame 87, Fort Wayne 72
@Arkansas 84, Houston 72 - road win is a tough ask, but Houston needs the profile help
@Rhode Island 51, Old Dominion 39
St Bonaventure 81, @Hofstra 75
@Utah 87, Utah Valley 80
@Michigan 53, Texas 50

Catastrophic loss of the year:
Florida Atlantic 79, @Ohio St 77 (OT)

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

12/5 recap

@UConn 52, Syracuse 50 - UConn is still in major trouble, but at least they dragged Syracuse into major trouble with them

...and that's about it for major impact games.  Not a lot else going on here.

Monday, December 5, 2016

12/4 recap

Marquette 89, @Georgia 79 - remember, road wins always matter
Florida St 67, George Washington 48 - so do neutral site wins, kinda
@Charleston 76, Davidson 61 - this is why road wins matter, not getting them looks worse than it actually is
@Georgetown 77, lona 74 - man oh man...

Sunday, December 4, 2016

12/3 recap

UCLA 97, @Kentucky 92 - in the game of Bracketology, road wins are king.  Road wins over good teams are gold.  Signature road wins over probable 1 seeds are magic elixirs that practically guarantee inclusion in the field, even if they collapse.  The focus for UCLA now turns to seeding
@Villanova 88, St Joseph's 57
@Kansas 89, Stanford 74
West Virginia 66, @Virginia 57 - hey, speaking of signature road wins...
@Baylor 76, Xavier 61 - but on the other hand, it's okay if you don't get the signature road win.  You'll be fine
Gonzaga 69, Arizona 62 - neutral site win, if you're scoring at home.  I've talked about the mid-major signature win effect plenty already, so you know what this meant
@Creighton 82, Akron 70
Louisville 79, @Grand Canyon 70 - curious spot for a true road game, but hey, it worked
@Wisconsin 90, Oklahoma 70
@Providence 63, Rhode Island 60 - no single loss for URI is a sin...but they were all swing games, which means they have to swing your way once in awhile.  And they aren't
Wake Forest 75, @Richmond 67 - road win
@Ole Miss 85, Memphis 77 - lesson:  Memphis isn't good
@Tennessee 81, Georgia Tech 58
Omaha 98, @Iowa 89 - that's it for Iowa this year
Illinois 64, VCU 46
@Wyoming 81, Northern Iowa 73 - and that's it for UNI this year
@Loyola(Chi) 65, San Diego St 59 - and who knows what the hell to do with the Mountain West now; UNM lost to Illinois St too.  Maybe it's Nevada now, who knows
Wichita St 82, @Colorado St 67
New Orleans 70, @Washington St 54 - ahahahaha
@Minnesota 56, Vanderbilt 52
USC 91, BYU 84
@TCU 77, Arkansas St 54
Auburn 74, @UAB 70 - road win!
@Maryland 71, Oklahoma St 70
Colorado 76, @Portland 63 - road win

Saturday, December 3, 2016

12/2 recap

Duquesne 64, @Pittsburgh 55 - man, Pitt had momentum, a road win, and threw away a lot of their progress in this game
@SMU 49, Cal St-Bakersfield 43 - CSUB is a competent team, but still, this is unnerving for SMU
@Texas 77, Alabama 68 - I love how these two schools schedule on a Friday instead of a college football Saturday.  Savvy

12/1 recap

Cincinnati 55, @Iowa St 54 (OT) - big, big win for Cincy.  We've talked about how the AAC is down, so Cincy needs to maximize their signature wins out of conference.  Road win at ISU counts as such
@South Carolina 68, Vermont 50 - Vermont is competent, and USC is due to lose sometime, but not now I guess
Florida 91, @North Florida 60 - goes down as a road win, so yeah
@Arkansas 78, Stephen F Austin 62 - using this space to point out that SFA looks to be down from past years, so adjust your seeding accordingly bracketologists
@Mississippi St 74, Oregon St 57 - if two terrible power conference teams play a non-conference game and no one cares, did it really happen?

Light day, most of the big names play earlier or later in the week.  Of note, MAAC conference season is underway.

Friday, December 2, 2016

11/30 recap

@Indiana 76, North Carolina 67 - as always, everyone should just wait and see exactly how great these teams will be, before deciding the actual resume value of the win for IU here
@Virginia 63, Ohio St 61
St Mary's 66, @Stanford 51 - this St Mary's thing continues to be serious.  Another road win, and every road win is a signature win for a mid-major
@Louisville 71, Purdue 64 - you'll note I won't have much to say on these types of games where the home team holds...modest boost to UL, no real harm to Purdue, and the circle of life goes on
@Arizona 85, Texas Southern 63
@TCU 86, Washington 71 - still don't believe in TCU, but worth monitoring the W-L for awhile
Temple 78, @St Joseph's 72 - road wins!
Virginia Tech 73, @Michigan 70 - road wins!
@Miami 73, Rutgers 61
Middle Tennessee 77, @Ole Miss 62 - good sign for MTSU and CUSA, even if Miss is way way down
George Mason 54, @Northern Iowa 50 - well, that's not good
Colorado St 72, @Colorado 58 - both these teams felt like bubble-minus teams, so not sure how much value to put on this yet
@California 68, Louisiana Tech 59 - near disaster, and it might be time to lower expectations for Cal
@Boise St 71, SMU 62 - road wins are difficult
@Clemson 60, Nebraska 58
Fort Wayne 103, @Austin Peay 99 - road win
USC 76, San Diego 55 - road win
BYU 77, @Utah St 63 - road win

11/29 recap

Villanova 82, @Penn 57 - this goes down as a road win for Nova, and hey, road wins matter
@Kansas 91, Long Beach St 61 - someone should just stop LBSU for its own sake
@Duke 78, Michigan St 69 - man, MSU might be fine, but their W-L is going to be ugly.  And really, they've got a modest problem.  Played 4 signature opponents and went 0-4.  Their non-con signature win will be N-Wichita.  Not optimal
@Xavier 85, North Dakota St 55 - I'm using this space to send the message that it looks like the Summit is down a bit this year
@Creighton 93, Buffalo 72
@Wisconsin 77, Syracuse 60 - kind of status quo for both teams, Syracuse is worse and on the road so don't make too much of it
@Valparaiso 65, Rhode Island 62 - very, very important scalp for Valpo.  They'll merit further study down the road, but their resume is do-able from an at-large standpoint.  URI too for that matter
Pittsburgh 73, @Maryland 59 - I'll always harp on it - road wins matter.  A road win at a probable bubble team is better than you think
@Penn St 67, Georgia Tech 60
Chattanooga 68, @Coastal Carolian 52 - keeping an eye on this team, just in case
Davidson 78, @Mercer 57 - yes Mercer is down, but remember:  road wins!
@VCU 81, Princeton 70
Texas-Arlington 72, @Texas 61 - let's go ahead and remove Texas from the at-large boards
@Vanderbilt 83, Tennessee St 59 - notable just because TSU had a hot start to the year, and now seem to have proven it was a mild fluke
@LSU 84, Houston 65
@Illinois 88, NC State 74 - tough spot for NC State against a clearly worse team on the road.  Not the best look here
@Notre Dame 92, Iowa 78


LOL of the day:
Delaware St 79, @St John's 72