Saturday, February 18, 2006

Weekend Recap

Cincinnati 66, Providence 64
Good week for the Bearcats.

Nevada 88, Akron 61
This is the Wolfpack team that everyone expected this year. Their seed will continue to climb.

Northern Iowa 65, Bucknell 61 2OT
Bison had this game in the bag but blew it. Why are the UNI students rushing?

Oklahoma 83, Iowa State 82
Cyclones blew this game and all their at-large hopes.

Kentucky 79, South Carolina 66
Might have been the biggest bubble game of the day. 'Cocks rising at-large chances take a huge hit.

Kansas State 72, Colorado 60
Huge let down for Buffs after big win over Sooners.

Missouri State 72, Wisc.-Milwaukee 63
Bears get a huge road win to add to their at-large profile.

Arkansas 85, Florida 81 OT
Razorbacks get the marquee win their profile was in desperate need of.

Western Kentucky 79, Northern Arizona 58
Hilltoppers have a legitimate shot at an at-large.

UConn 81, West Virginia 75
Mountaineers can't hand Huskies 2 straight losses.

Texas Tech 70, Nebraska 64
Just when you though the Huskers would climb back in the at-large picture.

Alabama 92, Tennessee 79
Tide recovers nicely from early week loss.

Maryland 87, Georgia Tech 84 OT
Terps barely hanging on to tourney hopes. Not an impressive showing at home for them.

Florida State 76, Virginia 62
Basically an elimination game in ACC. Brutal schedule left for Cavs leaves them in big trouble.

Minnesota 74, Iowa 61
Gophers playing well at home in February.

Louisiana Tech 54, Southern Illinois 51
May be a very devastating loss for SIU. Out of conference profile is disgusting for the Salukis.

George Mason 70, Wichita State 67
Patriots are the big winners in this year's Bracket Buster. This was a gigantic road win for them over the MVC's top team.

Arizona State 65, Cal 64
Bad home lose for Bears only affects their seed at this point.

Vanderbilt 72, Georgia 55
Vandy is just hanging on to the rear end of the bubble.

Marquette 84, Pittsburgh 82
Eagles have best week out of everyone in the whole country.

Notre Dame 102, Seton Hall 91
Real tough trying to figure out Hall right now. It's just a good thing that got the win over WVU this week.

Syracuse 79, Louisville 66
Orange get a must win, while the Cardinals now have to worry about making the Big East tourney more then the NCAA tourney.

Arizona 76, Stanford 72
Cardinal really needed this one at home. They now have to sweep this week in Washington just to get back in the conversation.

USC 71, UCLA 68
Loss sends the Bruins back into a first place tie in the Pac-10.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Winthrop 98, Northern Illinois 97

I just wanted to include it after being at the game in person. It was one of the hardest fought games I have ever seen, pure college basketball. Was a shame to see either team lose, but I'm glad my Eagles pulled it out.

Anonymous said...

Does the Missouri Valley's poor showing today hurt their chances at 5 tourney births? Southern Illinois has had some tough losses lately. Cal got upset by last place Arizona State & Seton Hall suffered a bad home loss to ND. Marquette & Syracuse both got big wins in the Big East. Marquette had a great week. Maybe their doubters will shut up for a little while at least.

Anonymous said...

marquette had a great win today. tough loss for pitt, as they really had a chance to tie WVU in the loss column for third, and seperate themselves from georgetown a bit. bad loss for seton hall. UNI impressed me in their win.

is it just me, or does it just seem that when uconn struggles, they just look disinterested? i call it "tiger woods syndrome" - as in, they know that they are pretty much the best, and can blow any team away, but they choose to just go through the motions until they are pressed to do so (i.e. when nova began to rain down threes on them.) i don't see any other top teams (duke, memphis, texas, nova) do that. just a thought.

Anonymous said...

Why isn't Kansas in the recap

Anonymous said...

Kansas isn't on the bubble. The recap normally discusses bubble teams. Kansas is a lock for the tournament.

Anonymous said...

is Cal in danger to miss tournament? Their RPI slipped down to 65 with that awful loss to ASU. Plus Cal has 4 tough games left. USC is expected to have Gabe Pruitt back for the Cal game. It will be hard for Cal to get a split up in Washington. Washington State is sure to upset either Stanford or Cal.

Anonymous said...

Minnesota will get in if they win their last 4 games. Although its improbable, it is possible.

Bracketology 101 said...

Some quick thoughts...

The MVC's chances at five bids took a serious hit with SIU's loss to struggling Louisiana Tech. The Salukis have lost four of six games (with a couple of bad ones thrown in) ans still have to play Northern Iowa the last game of the season. If they lose one of theier final two games, that would likely mean an 11-loss finish for SIU (assuming they don't win the MVC tournament). It will be tough for the selection committee to justify a 11-loss mid-major team that will likely finish fifth in its conference. To be safe, the Salukis need to beat Northern Iowa and make a little noise in the MVC tournament.

If you can figure out Seton Hall right now, let us know.

Cal suffered a bad loss at home to ASU, but they are still safe for now thanks in large part to their conference record. The Bears have a tough stretch left, but have two very winnable games (at Washington State and home vs. USC). If they split their last four, they're in. Their RPI will go up the rest of the way - even if they lose to Washington and UCLA - just based on strength of schedule.

Anonymous said...

Will Arizona be in the bracket next week after losing to Stanford?

Anonymous said...

Arkansas had a bad loss and a good win this week. Why should their status be any different than last week? Unless you give more weight to the Florida win than the Ole Miss loss?

Anonymous said...

does Houston have to win at both UTEP/Memphis to have a shot at an large? They have a pretty weak resume outside of 2 November/ early December good wins. Since then they have suffered some very bad losses.

Bracketology 101 said...

Getting a little ahead of yourself there on Arizona, but if they do lose to Stanford today they will make a very interesting case. If they were to lose today their record would fall to a ugly 15-11 and 8-7 Pac-10. Their RPI is 23 because they played such a strong out of conference schdedule (no games against anyone above 150). Although they lost the toughest of those games they still beat Kansas, Western Kentucky, and Virginia. They have also beat Washington, Stanford, and Cal in conference play. They have all of their remaining games at home and have a good chance to win out down the stretch which is what it may take for them to feel safe going into the conference tourney. But lets just see what happens today first.

As for Arkansas, going into this week you figure they will go 1-1 (win at Miss. and lose to Florida). So when they do go 1-1 but win the game you expect them to lose then it is a better week then expected. Especially have lost to all the best teams in the SEC.

Houston has climbed back onto the bubble with their recent winning streak (and because of UAB's recent drubbing to UTEP). Your scenario is spot on. They have some questionable losses (home to UCF) that really hurt them. It's too bad they don't get a chance to play UAB at home and with the current standing in C-USA they couldn't meet until the conference championship. But if things changed and they were to meet UAB in the conference semis then a win in that game would move them ahead of UAB.