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

11/28 recap

Kentucky 115, Arizona St 69 - I love that this game existed.  This was played at a neutral site, more specifically the rave arena at which the Battle 4 Atlantis is played.  So Kentucky, not being in the Atlantis field, just to feel special, scheduled a neutral site game against a terrible power conference team, just to feel special.  GTFO Calipari

Butler 68, @Utah 59 - signature win?  Yes, because road wins are signature wins
@Oregon 68, Boise St 63
@Florida St 75, Minnesota 67
@Northwestern 65, Wake Forest 58 - both ACC/B1G games go as scripted, good news for FSU/NU, not that much harm to the losers

11/28 S-CURVE

It's still pretty early for this.

The 1 line:  Villanova (6-0), Kentucky (6-0), North Carolina (6-0), Kansas (5-1)
The 2 line:  Duke (6-1), Xavier (6-0), Virginia (6-0), Arizona (5-1)
The 3 line:  Baylor (6-0), Indiana (4-1), Gonzaga (6-0), UCLA (7-0)
The 4 line:  Creighton (6-0), Louisville (4-1), Purdue (5-1), Iowa St (5-1)
The 5 line:  Michigan St (4-3), South Carolina (6-0), Butler (6-0), Wisconsin (5-2)
The 6 line:  St Mary's (5-0), Michigan (5-1), West Virginia (4-1), Cincinnati (5-1)
The 7 line:  Dayton (4-2), Florida (6-1), Oregon (4-2), Texas A&M (4-2)
The 8 line:  Oklahoma (4-1), Rhode Island (5-1), Wichita St (5-2), Notre Dame (6-0)
The 9 line:  Michigan (5-1), Maryland (6-0), San Diego St (2-1), USC (6-0)
The 10 line:  Florida St (5-1), Syracuse (4-1), California (4-1), VCU (5-1)
The 11 line:  Pittsburgh (5-1), Seton Hall (4-2), Virginia Tech (5-1), Auburn (4-1), Ohio St (6-0)
The 12 line:  Northern Iowa (2-2), SMU (4-2), Valparaiso (5-1), Chattanooga (3-2), Iona (3-2)
The 13 line:  Middle Tennesse (5-1), Akron (5-1), UNC-Wilmington (4-1), Arkansas St (5-1)
The 14 line:  North Dakota St (3-2), Texas Southern (4-2), Tennessee St (5-0), Columbia (3-2)
The 15 line:  Vermont (5-2), Eastern Washington (4-2), Hawaii (3-3), New Mexico St (4-2)
The 16 line:  Stephen F Austin (1-1), Bucknell (5-2), FGCU (3-3), Long Island (4-1), Winthrop (2-2), North Carolina Central (3-2)

Next 4 in:
VCU
Pittsburgh
Seton Hall
Virginia Tech

Last 4 in:
Auburn
Ohio St
Northern Iowa
SMU

Last 4 out:
Colorado
Texas
Providence
Marquette

Next 4 out:
Houston
Northwestern
Oklahoma St
Georgia

11/27 recap

Advocare Inv:
Gonzaga 73, Iowa St 71 - such an important signature win for Gonzaga
Florida 65, Miami 56
Stanford 66, Seton Hall 52
Quinnipiac 80, Indiana St 77

Wooden Legacy:
UCLA 74, Texas A&M 67 - I'm not sure anything in this tourney counts as a signature win, but it's still very important for UCLA
Virginia Tech 66, Nebraska 53
Dayton 64, New Mexico 57 - after a bad loss, Dayton limits the damage
Portland 96, Cal St-Northridge 78

elsewhere:
@St Mary's 76, UAB 63
San Jose St 88, @Washington St 76 - lol

11/26 recap

Emerald Coast Classic:
Virginia 63, Providence 52 - 2 standard wins for UVa here
Memphis 100, Iowa 92 - so much for Iowa

Great Alaska Shootout:
Iona 75, Nevada 73 - Iona gets the 3-0 record here, boon to the MAAC.  This hurts Nevada and the MWC a bit
Buffalo 74, Weber St 72
Oakland 79, UC Davis 66
Alaska-Anchorage 74, Drake 69 - oh no

Barclays Center Classic:
Maryland 69, Kansas St 68
Richmond 67, Boston College 54

Global Sports Classic:
TCU 93, Washington 80 - maybe neither of these teams are relevant after all
UNLV 71, Western Kentucky 61

elsewhere:
@Xavier 64, Northern Iowa 42 - second time they played in a week, extension of a tourney.  UNI whiffs twice, but the Oklahoma win will soften this blow
South Carolina 64, Syracuse 50 - it's technically neutral court, but it was Syracuse friendly.  And now USC piles this win on top of Michigan and there's something here, folks
@UMass 70, Harvard 66 and @Vermont 67, Yale 65 - yikes, Ivies
Penn St 74, @George Washington 68 - road wins!
Utah Valley 114, @BYU 101 - catastrophic loss of the day, WCC really needed that 3rd relevant team to help out the top two

11/25 recap

Battle 4 Atlantis:
Baylor 66, Louisville 63 - all of a sudden, Baylor has wins over Oregon, N-MSU, and N-Louisville already.  Big-time resume is forming here
Michigan St 77, Wichita St 72 - Michigan St was kind of in a desperate position given their insane schedule, this win will do for now.  Wichita, meanwhile is now in a bit of bubble trouble
VCU 85, LSU 74
Old Dominion 63, St John's 55

Wooden Legacy:
UCLA 82, Nebraska 71
Texas A&M 68, Virginia Tech 65 - a swing game between probable bubble teams, more important than you think
New Mexico 105, Cal St-Northridge 89
Dayton 84, Portland 74

NIT:
Temple 81, West Virginia 77 - So Temple blew a couple early games, and mostly erase that with WVU and FSU wins.  We'll see where it leads, I'm not sure what to make of them yet
Florida St 72, Illinois 61

Las Vegas Inv:
Butler 69, Arizona 65 - there's the signature win siren going off.  Pac-12 isn't the greatest conference, so this might hurt Arizona more than you think
Vanderbilt 76, Santa Clara 66

Advocare Inv:
Gonzaga 77, Florida 72 - very important quality win for Gonzaga, must get them before conference play
Iowa St 73, Miami 56 - Gonzaga/Iowa St in this final, that's good for both
Stanford 65, Indiana St 62
Seton Hall 90, Quinnipiac 79

Emerald Coast Classic:
Virginia 74, Iowa 41
Providence 60, Memphis 51

Great Alaska Shootout:
Oakland 71, Alaska-Anchorage 65
UC Davis 64, Drake 58
Nevada 67, Buffalo 62
Iona 76, Weber St 54

Barclays Center Classic:
Kansas St 72, Boston College 54
Maryland 88, Richmond 82 (OT) - that was almost a disaster

Global Sports Classic:
Washington 86, Western Kentucky 47
TCU 63, UNLV 59

elsewhere:
@USC 78, SMU 73 - as always, these swing games matter more to the team from the lesser conference. Missed chance for SMU
Lehigh 87, @Mississippi St 73 - good Patriot team beats bad SEC team.  Don't overreact
Fresno St 63, @Oregon St 58 - don't overreact to this either
@California 71, Wyoming 61

11/24 recap

I'm behind.  So sue me.

Battle 4 Atlantis:
Louisville 62, Wichita St 52
Baylor 73, Michigan St 58 - it's tough to get a read on the value of a win over Izzo given their murderous schedule so far.  For now, we can still assume it's a signature win, and Baylor's resume has some speed now
VCU 75, St John's 69
LSU 66, Old Dominion 60

Las Vegas Inv.:
Arizona 69, Santa Clara 61
Butler 76, Vanderbilt 66 - Butler gets the signature win chance tomorrow

Advocare Inv:
Gonzaga 82, Quinnipiac 62
Iowa St 73, Indiana St 71
Miami 67, Stanford 53
Florida 81, Seton Hall 76 - the 4 best teams probably won in the quarterfinals here, so the winners are going to get 2 reasonably valuable games.  It's nice when things work out like this

Wooden Legacy:
UCLA 99, Portland 77
Texas A&M 95, Cal St-Northridge 73
Virginia Tech 92, New Mexico 72 - a pretty positive sign that VaTech is moving in the right direction, and a really bad sign for UNM and the Mountain West in general
Nebraska 80, Dayton 78 - oops, for Dayton, and a very important win for Nebraska.  NU gets two shots at quality wins, and Dayton is now trapped on the side of the bracket with absolutely zero resume impact.  All of a sudden, Dayton's resume is going to look a lot lighter than it should.  Could be the most damaging loss of the day right here

NIT:
West Virginia 89, Illinois 57
Temple 89, Florida St 86 - disaster for FSU, as Temple was off to a pretty bad start.  Now not getting a shot at WVU either, which is a modest hit to the SoS

Great Alaska Shootout:
Iona 64, Drake 53
Weber St 86, UC Davis 58

elsewhere:
@Binghamton 72, Long Beach St 64 - just pointing this out, LBSU has played a brutal non-con this year, but another road game, this time at a minnow, and another loss.  So tough to figure out if this means LBSU is plain bad or if this is just wear and tear