B101's Top 12 Games To Watch This Weekend

Here's our take on the 12 biggest games of the weekend:

Pittsburgh at Syracuse
A huge Big East bubble battle. This is a must win for the Orange and their at-large hopes, while Pitt looks to stay off the bubble and solidify its spot in the field of 65.

Texas A&M at Oklahoma
An even bigger bubble battle in the Big 12, as both teams try to break out from the crowded middle of the conference. The winner will have a lot weight lifted off their shoulders as March Madness begins.

USC at Arizona State
A loss here means the Sun Devils probably need an Oregon sweep and two wins in the Pac-10 tourney to go dancing.

Mississippi State at Florida
The resume-challenged Gators can double their Top 50 win total with a victory in this one.

Vanderbilt at Arkansas
The Razorbacks get a chance to bounce back in a big way from their damaging loss to Alabama.

UMass at Richmond
A very dangerous game for the Minutemen, who need a strong finish to lock down a bid.

Illinois State at Southern Illinois
A battle for second place in the MVC. It will be a good momentum builder for either team going into the MVC tourney, where they will likely meet again in the semis.

Kentucky at Tennessee
The Patterson injury is devastating for Kentucky’s at-large hopes. It will be very interesting to see how the rest of the team responds against an angry Vols squad.

UCLA at Arizona
The losses continue to pill up for the Wildcats as they look for a win to stay off the bubble.

Temple at Saint Joseph’s
The Hawks already lost one must-win game this week. They need to complete a season sweep of the Owls to stay in the field.

Villanova at Louisville
The Wildcats had to get a split this week to stay in the field. They probably didn’t want this one to be the one they needed to win.

Clemson at Maryland
The Terps already won their most important game of the week. A win here would be huge and pretty much lock down their bid.

Also receiving votes: West Virginia at UConn, Wake Forest at Georgia Tech, Georgetown at Marquette, Virginia at Miami, Washington State at Stanford, Ohio State at Minnesota, Washington at California, Saint Mary’s at Gonzaga, Kansas State at Kansas, Indiana at Michigan State

Bracketology 101's Field of 65 - Feb. 25

The Breakdown
This past week turned out to be one of the wildest and most unpredictable weeks of the season. The BracketBuster games over the weekend proved to be huge for the at-large hopes of several teams and pretty damaging for the at-large hopes of others. When the dust cleared, a bunch of changes were made throughout the bracket, including the replacement of two teams on the one line and the addition of three at-large teams that weren’t even in our Last Eight Out last week.

The changes at the top of the bracket came as a result of losses by Duke and Kansas. The Blue Devils and Jayhawks were replaced by new Big XII leader Texas and new ACC leader North Carolina. Xavier, meanwhile, by virtue of its two wins and a Connecticut loss, made it up to a two seed in our bracket for the first time this season.

The biggest surprises of the week, however, came at the bottom of the bracket. Thanks to huge home wins over West Virginia and UConn, Villanova jumped into the field as an 11 seed, giving the Big East eight bids. The Wildcats still have a tough schedule left (they are home to Marquette and at Louisville this week), but we are confident that they can win three of their last four and, with a good showing at the Big East tournament, secure their spot. Joining ‘Nova in the field is another team left for dead not too long ago: Kentucky. With wins over Georgia and Arkansas, the Wildcats erased all the bad memories of their recent 40-point loss at Vanderbilt and improved to 9-3 in the SEC. With their remaining schedule (vs. Mississippi, at Tennessee, at South Carolina, vs. Florida), 12 conference wins is a real possibility for Kentucky and 11 wins looks pretty secure. Depending on how things go, though, the Florida game could turn out to be an elimination game for both teams. For the SEC to keep its six bids, everything has to break right, and by the looks of things, the Gators are going to need that game more than the Wildcats do.

Joining ‘Nova and Kentucky in the bracket this week is UMass, which did something revolutionary in the A-10 this week – it won all of its games. The most important of those victories came at free-falling Rhode Island, which had by far the worst week of any bubble team in the country. The Rams lost three home games in a span of seven days, including a defeat to St. Joseph’s on Sunday that knocked URI onto the Next Four Out list and kept the Hawks in the field as an 11 seed. UMass and St. Joe’s are still by no means safe at this point (St. Joe’s is safer thanks to their sweep of the Minutemen and a game and a half lead in conference), but for one more week at least, the A-10 is a three-bid league. With Dayton also of the picture now for good, three bids is almost certianly the max the league can expect come Selection Sunday.

The other big storylines to come out of this week concerned (appropriately enough on BracketBuster weekend) a handful of mid-major teams. With all due respect to Drake, Kent State scored the most important victory of any mid-major last week, handing St. Mary’s its first home loss of the year and all but assuring themselves an at-large bid if they just make the MAC championship game. By beating the Gaels, the Golden Flashes zipped all the way up to an eight seed in this week’s bracket (up from an 11). The other big mid-major winner this week was South Alabama, who completed a season sweep of Western Kentucky by knocking off the Hilltoppers on their home floor on Thursday. With all of the mediocre-at-best major conference teams on the 10-12 lines, South Alabama is really in the driver’s seat for an at-large – provided they make the finals of the Sun Belt conference tourney (which, remember, is on their home floor.)

Our final mid-major headline comes out of the MVC, which saw its top six teams win their BracketBuster games. With no major conference at-large teams worthy enough of our final spot in the bracket this week (sorry Syracuse, Ohio State, and Maryland), we decided to take a second team out of the Valley. After some debate, we went with Southern Illinois over Illinois State, and we did so for a couple of reasons. The Salukis are on their best streak of the year (they’ve won seven of their last nine) and in their current four game run, they have racked up wins over Drake and, most recently, over Nevada in their BracketBuster game. Those results, plus their history in the MVC tournament (they’ve won it two out of the last three years), led us to award the Salukis the league’s automatic bid. As long as Southern Illinois splits its last two games (at Bradley and home against Illinois State in what is a ginormous game), they should be able to at least get third place in the league, and they could tie for second or finish second outright if they win out and the Cardinals lose to Creighton at home this week (got all that?). Either way, the Salukis avoid playing Drake until the MVC final, and we feel they would have enough momentum at that point to pull the upset - and make the Valley a two-bid league.

Out This Bracket
Rhode Island, Maryland, Dayton, Ohio State

In This Bracket
Villanova, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Southern Illinois

Last Four In
Wake Forest, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Florida

Last Four Out
Ohio State, Syracuse, Maryland, New Mexico

Next Four Out
Rhode Island, Houston, UAB, California

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Conference Breakdown
Big East (8), Big XII (6), Pac-10 (6), SEC (6), ACC (5), Big Ten (4), A-10 (3), MVC (2), MWC (2), WCC (2)

America East - UMBC

ACC - North Carolina, Duke, Clemson, Miami-FL, Wake Forest

Atlantic Sun - Belmont

A-10 - Xavier, St. Joseph's, Massachusetts

Big East - Georgetown, Louisville, Connecticut, Notre Dame, Marquette, Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Villanova

Big Sky - Portland State

Big South - Winthrop

Big Ten - Wisconsin, Indiana, Purdue, Michigan State

Big 12 - Texas, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Baylor, Texas A&M

Big West - CS-Fullerton

Colonial - VCU

C-USA - Memphis

Horizon - Butler

Ivy - Cornell

MAAC - Siena

MAC - Kent State

MEAC - Morgan State

MVC - Southern Illinois, Drake

MWC - UNLV, BYU

Northeast - Robert Morris

Ohio Valley - Austin Peay

Pac-10 - UCLA, Stanford, Washington State, Arizona, USC, Arizona State

Patriot - American

SEC - Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State, Arkansas, Kentucky, Florida

Southern - Davidson

Southland - Stephen F. Austin

Summit - Oral Roberts

Sun Belt - South Alabama

SWAC - Alabama State

WAC - New Mexico State

WCC - Gonzaga, St. Mary's

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The Seeds
The 1s
Tennessee, Memphis, Texas, North Carolina

The 2s
UCLA, Kansas, Duke, Xavier

The 3s
Stanford, Wisconsin, Georgetown, Louisville

The 4s
Indiana, Connecticut, Purdue, Notre Dame

The 5s
Michigan State, Drake, Vanderbilt, Marquette

The 6s
Washington State, Butler, Clemson, Gonzaga

The 7s
St. Mary’s, Kansas State, Arizona, Oklahoma

The 8s
USC, Pittsburgh, Miami-FL, Kent State

The 9s
BYU, Baylor, Mississippi State, Arkansas

The 10s
West Virginia, Texas A&M, UNLV, South Alabama

The 11s
Villanova, St. Joseph’s, Kentucky, Florida

The 12s
Arizona State, Wake Forest, Massachusetts, Southern Illinois

The 13s
Davidson, VCU, Stephen F. Austin, Oral Roberts

The 14s
New Mexico State, CS-Fullerton, Cornell, Siena

The 15s
Winthrop, Portland State, Belmont, American

The 16s
UMBC, Robert Morris, Morgan State, Austin Peay (Play-In Game), Alabama State (Play-In Game)

The Bracket
(Bracket courtesy Matt Reeves)

Questions? Comments? E-mail Bracketology 101 at bracketologyblog@yahoo.com

B101's Dean's List-Academic Probation - Week of Feb. 18-24

Dean's List-Academic Probation is a weekly column that analyzes all of the highlights and lowlights from the previous week's games. The teams, players, conferences, etc. that deserve praise for what they accomplished over the past week make our Dean's List; those deserving ridicule are put on Academic Probation.

Here are this week's honorees:

Dean’s List
Tyler Smith, Tennessee
There are tough shots, and then there are shots like the one Smith hit in the lane with 28 seconds left against Memphis on Saturday night. His floating, turn-around jumper over the outstretched arms of Robert Dozier gave Tennessee a late one-point lead that they never relinquished. Smith finished with 16 points and six rebounds in the 66-62 win, which vaulted Tennessee to the top of the national polls and to the No. 1 overall seed in our latest bracket.

Miami
Talk about proving you belong. A week after they barely snuck in the field by winning a pair of road games, the Hurricanes shocked – and rushed on – Duke on Wednesday and then beat Maryland on Saturday to get to .500 in conference and move all the way up to an eight seed in our latest field. Miami’s remaining schedule does feature a couple of very dangerous road games (at Clemson and at Florida State), but the way Dwayne Collins and Co. have played of late, a 9-7 finish looks very probable. If that happens, the ‘Canes are going dancing.

Kent State
So much for the MAC’s inability to get two bids. Thanks to their ginormous win at Saint Mary’s on Saturday, the Golden Flashes all but locked up an at-large spot in this year’s field, provided they just make an appearance in the conference title game (which they should). Their non-conference wins over Illinois State, George Mason, and Cleveland State plus their top 30 RPI are accomplishments that the committee won’t be able to ignore on Selection Sunday. Those accomplishments already have Kent State at an eight seed in our bracket, and that’s where they’ll likely end up if they win the MAC tourney title.

Kentucky
The roller coaster ride otherwise known as the 2007-2008 Kentucky basketball season reached its apex this past week, as the streaking Wildcats downed Georgia and Arkansas at home to move to 9-3 in the SEC and earn an 11 seed in our latest field. At this point, remarkably, it’s impossible to see Kentucky finishing with fewer than 11 conference wins, and they very well could win 12 with their remaining schedule. Either way, we feel that it’s going to be impossible for the committee to deny Kentucky a bid in the end.

Villanova
The Wildcats went from a Big East also-ran to an 11 seed in the span of four days last week, thanks to a pair of enormous resume-building wins over West Virginia and UConn. At 7-7, Villanova is still by no means safe (their fate will probably ultimately lie in how they do in the Big East tournament) but they now at least have a shot at finishing 9-9 or better. That quest begins Monday with a huge game at home against Marquette.

Also receiving votes: Nebraska (where in the world did this come from?... the Huskers, who came into the week with just three conference wins, pulled off a rush-worthy upset of Kansas State on Wednesday and then stunned Texas A&M in College Station on Saturday), Massachusetts (the forgotten-about Minutemen are suddenly back in the bracket after winning at Rhode Island on Thursday), Oklahoma State (the Cowboys pulled off a stunning upset of Kansas on Saturday, and celebrated in style with a very fast, two-sided court rush), The MVC (the Valley was the big winner on BracketBuster weekend; not only did Drake pick up a huge win at Butler, but the top six teams in the league all won their games), D.J. Augustin (the Longhorns won two more games this week and jumped up to a No. 1 seed in our bracket thanks to the play of Augustin; he had 27 points and nine assists in a win over Texas A&M on Monday, and 19 points in a win over Oklahoma on Saturday), Michael Beasley (Tyler Hansbrough’s only competition for POY scored a Big XII-record 44 points and added 13 rebounds in Kansas State’s loss at Baylor on Saturday), O.J. Mayo (Mayo shook off his recent slump to score 32 points in a win over Oregon on Thursday and 21 points in a win over Oregon State on Saturday), D.J. White (the Big Ten POY didn’t let a rough week in Bloomington affect his play; he had 19 points and 15 rebounds in a big home win over Purdue and had 16 points, 11 rebounds, and the game-saving block in the Hoosiers’ narrow escape at Northwestern at Saturday), Marqus Blakely (Vermont’s double-double machine – he now has 10 in a row – had 30 points and 20 rebounds in a win over Hartford on Wednesday and 19 points and 19 rebounds in win at UNC-Wilmington on Saturday), Tony Crocker (Crocker’s miraculous four-point play with 7.3 seconds left in overtime gave Oklahoma a 92-91 win over Baylor on Tuesday), Tyler Hansbrough (Hansbrough led Carolina to two more wins – and a No. 1 seed – this week with a 32 point, 12 rebound, five steal performance against N.C. State on Wednesday and a 29 point effort against Wake Forest on Sunday), Luke Harangody and Kyle McAlarney (Harangody had 23 points and 12 rebounds in Notre Dame’s win over Pitt on Thursday and McAlarney had 30 points, including nine three pointers, in a win over Syracuse on Sunday)

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Academic Probation
Maryland
The Terps were sitting pretty in the ACC standings, and in the bracket, after winning five out of six games over the past two weeks. Now, they’re just another example of a big conference bubble team that is finding every way possible to play itself out of the field. Wednesday’s home loss to Virginia Tech was killer, and Saturday’s loss at Miami came against the wrong team at the wrong time. Winning at Wake Forest on Thursday is now a must if the Terps want to be back on the bubble next week.

Rhode Island
Call it the curse of “Mike and the Mad Dog.” In the days following coach Jim Baron’s very random appearance on the popular sports talk show on WFAN radio in New York, the Rams’ at-large hopes fell apart at the seams. They lost three games in a seven day span, including resume-destroying home games to fellow A-10 bubble boys UMass and St. Joseph’s. Those losses dropped URI to sixth place in the conference standings, and all the way from a nine seed in our last bracket to the Next Four Out list.

Oregon
Oregon deserves to be on this list just for the uniforms they wore this past week. But unfortunately for their at-large hopes, their play on the court proved to be equally as forgettable. The Ducks blew second-half leads against USC and UCLA and ultimately lost both games to fall to 6-9 in conference and all but assure themselves a spot in the NIT. The only way Oregon can get back into at-large consideration at this point is to win out. Doing that would mean three straight victories, which is something the ridiculously inconsistent Ducks haven’t done since the second week of January.

Ohio State
The fact that Ohio State was able to stay in the bracket for so long with so few quality wins really speaks to how unimpressive the rest of the bubble teams really are this year. After blowing a golden opportunity at home against Wisconsin on Sunday, though, it was finally time for OSU to be placed on the Last Four Out list. The Buckeyes could jump back into the field win a road win over Indiana this week, or a home win over Purdue or Michigan State next week, but at this point, they simply don’t have the resume of a tournament team.

N.J.I.T.
There’s no need to harp on the Highlanders’ historically awful season, but a couple of stats from their winless campaign are simply staggering. They finished with more turnovers (577) for the season than they did field goals made (550), and only once did they lose game by single digits (a nine-point defeat at Stony Brook on December 10). Umm…better luck next year?

Also receiving votes: Kelvin Sampson (of all the articles written about Sampson’s disgraceful resignation, this article, by Indianapolis Star columnist Bob Kravitz, probably sums it up the best), Oregon's uniforms (seriously, Nike…black on black, green on green?...were those sequins on the names of the black unis?...does the Oregon athletic department have to be the guinea pig for all of your hideous ideas?...give them at least one nice design to wear before the end of the year…please?), Memphis’ free throw shooting (the Tigers’ Achilles heel came back to bite them again against Tennessee; they shot 8-of-17 from the line in the four-point loss), Kansas State (the Wildcats have now lost four straight conference road games; this week they fell to Nebraska and Baylor), Dayton (the Flyers’ bubble officially burst this week, as they lost to LaSalle and Xavier to fall to 5-8 in the A-10), Syracuse (we hate to say we told you so...but the Orange lost both of their games last week to fall to 7-8 in conference), Houston (the Cougars may have seen their at-large hopes evaporate on Wednesday when they lost at UAB), Clemson (the Tigers shot 3-of-27 from three in their loss at Florida State on Tuesday), the roof at Alexander Memorial Coliseum (a few inches of rain caused a leak in the arena’s roof on Thursday, and caused Georgia Tech’s game against Virginia to be postponed)

*Note: This will be our last weekly installment of Dean's List-Academic Probation this season. Next week, and in the weeks to come, it will be replaced by daily Games To Watch lists, which will essentially cover the same material.

B101's Top 12 Games To Watch This Weekend

Here’s our take on the 12 biggest games of the weekend…

Tennessee at Memphis
It’s amazing how few people are picking Memphis in this game. Both teams will keep their No. 1 seeds regardless of the outcome.

Maryland at Miami
A ginormous bubble battle in the ACC. Miami is in better shape than Maryland heading into this game.

Oregon at UCLA
The Ducks let one slip away at USC on Thursday, and now have to win three of their last four to have a chance at a bid.

Drake at Butler
The best of the BracketBuster games by far. Drake’s seed could take a little tumble if it doesn’t win this one.

Arizona State at Washington
The Sun Devils can’t afford a two loss week. If they lose this one, the Pac-10 might be a five-bid league on Monday.

Kansas State at Baylor
The freefalling Bears (losers of six of seven) will be on the outside looking in next week if they lose this one.

Arizona at Washington State
The Wildcats have quietly lost four of five (including a bad one Thursday at Washington), and if they lose this one too, they might find themselves on a “Last Four” list on Monday.

Kent State at Saint Mary’s
No one has more to gain from their BracketBuster game than Kent State does. The Golden Flashes can sneak into the at-large discussion if they pull off the upset.

Syracuse at Notre Dame
After this game, everyone will finally join us in taking the Orange out of their brackets.

Wisconsin at Ohio State
The Buckeyes were our last team in the field this week. That should tell you all you need to know about how much they need to win this one.

Xavier at Dayton
Losing at LaSalle knocked Dayton out of next week’s bracket; winning this one would thrust them right back in.

St. Joseph’s at Rhode Island
The Rams’ terrible home loss to UMass may end up killing their at-large hopes. They need this one to avoid a three-loss week.

Also receiving votes: Davidson at Winthrop, Connecticut at Villanova, Oklahoma at Texas, N.J.I.T. at Utah Valley State, Mississippi at LSU, Providence at West Virginia, BYU at San Diego State, Louisville at Pittsburgh, Wake Forest at North Carolina, California at Stanford

Questions For The Competition

Questions For The Competition is a weekly column that addresses our issues with the brackets of several other bracketology "experts." This week's questions are for ESPN.com's Joe Lunardi, CNNSI.com's Stewart Mandel, and Bracketography.com's David Mihm. In the issue of fairness, we asked a few questions to ourselves as well.

Joe Lunardi - ESPN.com
Please explain how South Alabama, if it loses on its home floor in the Sun Belt conference tournament, has the credentials to be an at-large. Do you really think they are bid-worthy, or are you (again) taking the easy way out in deciding which major conference bubble teams should be in or out?

If South Alabama were to get an at-large under your magical scenario, how in the world would they be an 11 seed?

How are both Houston and UAB in your Last Eight Out? You can't really think C-USA is that close to three bids, right?

How does Stanford move up to a 2 seed after losing to Arizona State?

How does Vanderbilt move from a 10 seed to a 7 seed in one week?

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Stewart Mandel - CNNSI.com
You finally realized Tennessee is pretty decent, huh?

How could UMass possibly be in over St. Joseph's, when the Hawks swept the Minutemen and are two games ahead of them in conference?

South Alabama...really? How?

We're confused...why do you put eight Pac-10 teams in your bracket, only to say in your write-up that eight from the Pac-10 won't happen?

USC is a 7 seed? Arizona State a 9?

Isn't Mississippi State a little low as a 10 seed?

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David Mihm - Bracketography.com
Do you really think eight from the Pac-10 will happen, or are you unsure of who else to put in?

How is Southern Illinois (at 14-12!) on your Last Four Out list...and closer to the field than UNLV?

We don't like South Alabama as an at-large either, but shouldn't they be ahead of Seton Hall, Temple, and the Salukis in your Last Eight Out?

How could Syracuse (a 10 seed) possibly be ahead of West Virginia (Last Four In)?

How is VCU, after a home loss to Old Dominion, an 11 seed?

Ohio State a 10 seed? They're really that safe right now?

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Chris and Craig - Bracketology 101
Did you guys both get rejected from Syracuse?

Isn't West Virginia a touch high as a 9 seed?

What is it you like best about Miami...their 4-6 conference record or their 3-6 record in their last nine games?

Does Florida have to lose to N.J.I.T. before you take them out of your field?

Bracketology 101's Field of 65 - Feb. 18

The Breakdown
Does any bubble team want to make the tournament? The answer this past week was a resounding “no,” as a ton of teams on the 9-12 lines lost one or more games. When the dust cleared, a couple of major changes were made to the bracket, and then we were left scrounging to find teams to put on our Last Four Out and Next Four Out lists.

Even after terrible weeks, Florida and Ohio State managed to stay in this week's field, in large part because there weren't any other teams out there that could take their place. The Buckeyes and Gators were lucky, but two other major conference teams were not. After losses to Alabama and Auburn, Mississippi fell to 3-7 in the SEC and fell out of this week’s bracket. North Carolina State also dropped a pair of games – at Boston College and at home against Clemson – and was knocked out as well. Those losses left two empty spots, and stepping up to fill them was, believe it or not, the much-maligned ACC. Thanks to its upset of Duke on Sunday night, Wake Forest jumped into the field this week, as did Miami-FL (remember them?) after the ‘Canes were able to win their only game of the week at Georgia Tech. Even though Miami is still only 4-6 in conference, we think they have an excellent chance of being on the right side of the bubble come Selection Sunday. They have a very favorable schedule left, including two chances at big wins this week with Duke and Maryland coming in. Their last three games of the year (Virginia, Boston College, @ Florida State) are also very easy and should help give them a late push toward 8-8, which would get them in.

Noticeably absent from this week’s Field of 65 is Syracuse which, despite losing to South Florida early in the week, bounced back in a big way by upsetting Georgetown at the Carrier Dome on Saturday. That win almost certainly put the Orange in everyone’s field this week, but we think that including them – even off a huge win – is still extremely short-sided. Syracuse has a very good chance of going 0-2 this week as they head to Louisville and Notre Dame. Two losses would drop them to 17-11 and 7-8 in the Big East with a lot of work left to get to 9-9. Their well-documented remaining schedule is brutal, and in the end, we just don’t think the Orange are consistent enough to get it done. Winning at home against an up-and-down Georgetown team is one thing; winning the games they have left on the road is another. We’ll see what happens, but we are sticking to our guns and keeping ‘Cuse out.

A few other things to keep an eye on: Houston is shaping up to be a fascinating case come Selection Sunday. If they can win at UAB on Wednesday, and then win out but lose to Memphis in the C-USA title game, they will be one of the most debated at-large teams in recent memory. The Cougars would have no Top 50 wins but no bad losses, and would have lost to the top ranked team in the country in three of their six losses...

In the Pac-10, meanwhile, Cal and Oregon continue to fight to be the league’s seventh bid. Neither team is worthy of a spot just yet, but both have chances this week to bolster their resumes as the Ducks head to the L.A. schools and Cal travels to Stanford. Cal’s win at Arizona State last week was huge for their profile…

In the Horizon, keep an eye on streaking Wright State. The Raiders have won 10 in a row and they still have potentially resume-building road games left at Illinois State (in their BracketBuster game) and at Butler (who they already beat once). Could they steal a second bid from the Horizon again this year? Consider this a heads up...

In the MAC, Kent State continues to win games, and is creeping more and more into the at-large picture. Their resume isn’t eye-popping, and we all know the MAC’s track record for getting multiple bids is awful, but keep in mind that the Golden Flashes do have OOC victories over Illinois State and George Mason and do have a huge BracketBuster game at St. Mary’s coming up. If they could ever find a way to win that game and then make it to the MAC championship game, their RPI would be in the mid 30s, they would have an obscene amount of wins, and they would have an extremely good chance at a bid…

Finally, in the MWC – keep in mind that we have UNLV in as the automatic bid because we like their chances to win the conference tourney on their home floor. If they don’t win it, their at-large profile is not great, and they very well may not get a bid…

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Out This Bracket
Mississippi, North Carolina State, Utah State, Pacific, UNC-Asheville, Lafayette, Sacred Heart

In This Bracket
Wake Forest, Miami-FL, New Mexico State, CS-Fullerton, Winthrop, American, Robert Morris

Last Four In
Florida, St. Joseph’s, Miami-FL, Ohio State

Last Four Out
Syracuse, Houston, California, Oregon

Next Four Out
Mississippi, New Mexico, Wright State, Western Kentucky

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Conference Breakdown
Big East (7), ACC (6), Big XII (6), Pac-10 (6), A-10 (4), Big Ten (5), SEC (5), MWC (2), WCC (2)

America East - UMBC

ACC - Duke, North Carolina, Clemson, Maryland, Wake Forest, Miami-FL

Atlantic Sun - Belmont

A-10 - Xavier, Rhode Island, Dayton, St. Joseph's

Big East - Connecticut, Georgetown, Louisville, Notre Dame, Marquette, Pittsburgh, West Virginia

Big Sky - Portland State

Big South - Winthrop

Big Ten - Purdue, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan State, Ohio State

Big 12 - Kansas, Texas, Kansas State, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Baylor

Big West - CS-Fullerton

Colonial - VCU

C-USA - Memphis

Horizon - Butler

Ivy - Cornell

MAAC - Siena

MAC - Kent State

MEAC - Morgan State

MVC - Drake

MWC - UNLV, BYU

Northeast - Robert Morris

Ohio Valley - Austin Peay

Pac-10 - UCLA, Stanford, Washington State, Arizona, USC, Arizona State

Patriot - American

SEC - Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State, Arkansas, Florida

Southern - Davidson

Southland - Stephen F. Austin

Summit - Oral Roberts

Sun Belt - South Alabama

SWAC - Alabama State

WAC - New Mexico State

WCC - St. Mary's, Gonzaga

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The Seeds
The 1s
Memphis, Tennessee, Duke, Kansas

The 2s
Texas, North Carolina, UCLA, Connecticut

The 3s
Stanford, Xavier, Purdue, Wisconsin

The 4s
Georgetown, Indiana, Butler, Louisville

The 5s
Drake, Washington State, St. Mary’s, Michigan State

The 6s
Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Kansas State, Clemson

The 7s
Marquette, Texas A&M, Gonzaga, Pittsburgh

The 8s
Mississippi State, Arkansas, Arizona, BYU

The 9s
Rhode Island, West Virginia, Oklahoma, USC

The 10s
Maryland, Baylor, Dayton, UNLV

The 11s
Arizona State, Kent State, Wake Forest, Florida

The 12s
St. Joseph’s, Miami-FL, Ohio State, South Alabama

The 13s
Davidson, VCU, Stephen F. Austin, Oral Roberts

The 14s
New Mexico State, CS-Fullerton, Siena, Cornell

The 15s
Winthrop, Portland State, Belmont, American

The 16s
Robert Morris, UMBC, Morgan State, Austin Peay (Play-In Game), Alabama State (Play-In Game)

The Bracket
(Bracket courtesy Matt Reeves)

Questions? Comments? E-mail Bracketology 101 at bracketologyblog@yahoo.com

B101's Dean's List-Academic Probation - Week of Feb. 11-17

Dean's List-Academic Probation is a weekly column that analyzes all of the highlights and lowlights from the previous week's games. The teams, players, conferences, etc. that deserve praise for what they accomplished over the past week make our Dean's List; those deserving ridicule are put on Academic Probation.

Here are this week's honorees:

Dean’s List
Texas
Kansas still may be the best – and highest seeded – team in the Big XII, but Texas showed this week that they are no worse than 1A. The Longhorns knocked off the Jayhawks in Austin on Monday and then won at Baylor on Saturday to improve to 8-2 in conference. The difference in both games was super sophomore Damion James. James had 12 of his 14 points and all 13 of his rebounds after halftime against Kansas, and then had 19 points and 10 boards against the Bears. James, who is averaging 13 points and 10.6 rebounds this season, now has 11 double-doubles on the year.

Purdue
Make it 11 a row for the biggest surprise not named Drake this college basketball season. The young and ridiculously balanced Boilermakers beat Michigan State and Northwestern at home last week to improve to 12-1 in conference – a game better than Wisconsin and a game and a half better than Indiana. Against the Spartans, freshman Robbie Hummel (the team’s leading scorer at just under 12 points per game) had a career-high 24 points in a 60-54 win, and against the Wildcats, freshman E’Twaun Moore had a season-high 28 points as Purdue rolled 71-56.

Wake Forest
Just when we were as down as we could get on the ACC bubble, Wake Forest (and Miami) stepped up and played their way into this week’s Field of 65. The Demon Deacons’ upset of Duke on Sunday was as convincing as it was surprising – they were the better team all night, especially over the last six or seven minutes as Duke tried to mount a comeback. Jeff Teague (26 points) and James Johnson (24 points, 16 rebounds) made some huge plays in that stretch as Wake pulled away for the 86-73 victory.

Chris Douglas-Roberts
Memphis is still perfect this morning, and the Tigers have their sharp-shooting junior guard to thank. He scored 22 points (including an un-Memphis-like 8-of-10 from the line) as Memphis overcame a hot-shooting Houston team on Wednesday night to win 68-59. He was even more brilliant against on Saturday night, as he converted the game-winning three-point play with 6.5 seconds left as the Tigers escaped from UAB (and from the spelling-challenged Blazer fans) with a thrilling 79-78 victory. Douglas-Roberts finished with 32 points in that game to go along with seven rebounds.

Syracuse
See…we don’t HATE the Orange. We don’t think that they will make the tournament when all is said and done, but we also have to give credit where credit is due. Syracuse deserves a spot on this week’s Dean’s List for their impressive win over Georgetown on Saturday. The Orange exploded out of the gate in that game and never looked back, winning 77-70 and then celebrating in style with a very fast-developing court rush. Now if they can just take that kind of play on the road…

Also receiving votes: Drake (the Bulldogs won at Northern Iowa on Saturday to clinch their first MVC title since 1971), Michael Beasley (Beasley is now one double-double shy of tying Carmelo Anthony’s freshman record; he notched his 22nd double-double of the year Saturday by dropping 40 points and 17 rebounds on Missouri in Kansas State’s 37-point win), Charron Fisher (the nation’s leading scorer posted his second straight 40-point game by pouring in 41 in Niagara’s win over Iona on Saturday), J.J. Hickson (his team had a horrible week, but Hickson wasn’t to blame; he grabbed an ACC freshman record 23 rebounds in the Wolfpack’s loss to Clemson on Saturday), Brian Butch (the senior center banked in a three-pointer with 4.5 seconds left to give Wisconsin a stunning 68-66 win over Indiana in Bloomington on Wednesday), Craig Austrie (Austrie’s pull-up jumper from the elbow with 0.2 seconds left in overtime helped UConn escape South Florida with a thrilling one-point win on Saturday), Eric Gordon (Gordon led Indiana to a much-needed and extremely emotional win on Saturday, scoring 28 points in an 80-61 blowout of Michigan State), Alan Voskuil (the junior guard scored a season-high 30 points and added seven rebounds in Texas Tech’s upset of Kansas State on Wednesday), JaJuan Smith (the senior guard had 32 points in Tennessee’s convincing win over Arkansas on Wednesday), James Harden (Arizona State’s underrated freshman guard had 23 points, five rebounds, five assists, and five steals in the Sun Devils’ upset of Stanford on Thursday), Jerryd Bayless (Bayless had two more 30-point performances this week, scoring 33 in a win over Cal on Thursday and 31 in a loss to Stanford on Saturday), Mike Green (Green shook off a bum ankle and scored 10 of his team-high 24 points in overtime to lead Butler to an 83-75 win over Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Tuesday; he also added 13 rebounds and eight assists), Robert Morris’ Tony Lee and Tennessee-Martin’s Lester Hudson (Lee and Hudson each had triple-doubles last week; Lee had 12 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists in a win over Central Connecticut State on Thursday, and Hudson put up 26 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists in a win over Southeast Missouri on Saturday)

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Academic Probation
The SEC bubble
The SEC is looking more and more like it will end up a four-bid league. Mississippi and Florida went a combined 0-4 in conference games this past week, highlighted (or low-lighted) by the Rebels’ home loss to Auburn and the Gators’ home loss to LSU. Those losses knocked Mississippi out of our bracket, and left Florida on the Last Four In list – for now. The Gators only have one good win (Vandy), have lost four of five, and still have to play Mississippi State and Tennessee. They'll probably survive one more week (their lone game this week is at home against South Carolina), but after that, they may very well see their bubble popped.

The A-10
The bloom is officially coming off the A-10’s rose. The league – which was looking worthy of five bids a few weeks back – is now hoping and praying that four teams make it. Rhode Island has slipped to a nine seed after losing at Temple this past week, and Dayton, which is 4-6 in its last 10 games, is down to a 10 seed after losing at home to Duquense last week. St. Joseph’s’ conference record is nice, but their only two “good” wins are over UMass – who has completely fallen on their face and out of the bubble picture for the moment.

North Carolina State
No team with anything to play for had a worse week than N.C. State did. The Wolfpack lost at woeful Boston College (by 17) and at home to Clemson to fall to 15-10 overall and 4-7 in the ACC. With their remaining schedule (UNC, at Virginia, Florida State, Duke, at Wake Forest), getting to 8-8 is going to be next to impossible. It’s probably safe to say we’ve seen the last of N.C. State in our bracket.

Ohio State
The Buckeyes were on thin ice even before last week started – and then they went out and lost at Michigan. The only thing keeping them in the bracket at this point is their remaining schedule. They still have Wisconsin, Purdue, and Michigan State coming in (on top of a trip to Indiana). A split in those four games (which we think is doable) will keep them safe. Anything less and they’ll be NIT-bound.

Kelvin Sampson
We don’t have much to add to this story that hasn’t already been said…we just wanted to show you this and this.

Also receiving votes: Michigan State (the Spartans slipped to 8-4 in the Big Ten after losing at Purdue and at Indiana last week), Pittsburgh (the Panthers were noncompetitive in a blowout loss at Marquette on Friday night), Texas A&M (the Aggies lost at home to Oklahoma State on Saturday to fall from a five seed down to a seven in our latest Field of 65), Kentucky (the Wildcats – who had been on a nice roll of late – were thoroughly embarrassed by Vanderbilt on Tuesday, losing 93-52; it was the worst SEC loss in Kentucky history), N.J.I.T. (the winless Highlanders are now two losses away from a “perfect” season; they travel to Longwood and Utah Valley State this week to close out their schedule), Stefhon Hannah (Missouri’s embattled leading scorer was kicked off the team this week for his role in a Jan. 27 nightclub brawl that left him with a broken jaw), Bob Donato (Donato’s “foul” call at the end of the Georgetown-Villanova game may have been within the rules, but it was still atrocious; 0.1 seconds were left in the game when Donato whistled Nova’s Corey Stokes for a foul after Stokes bumped Georgetown’s Jonathan Wallace some 70 feet from the basket; Wallace hit both free throws to give the Hoyas a 55-53 victory)

B101's Top 12 Games To Watch This Weekend

Here's our take on the 12 biggest games of the weekend...

Georgetown at Syracuse
This game was going to be a good opportunity for the Orange to pick up a big win, until they lost to South Florida. Now it is a must win or else the Orange will likely lose five in a row.

Florida at Vanderbilt
The Gators better play well or else their bracket spot will be up in the air after their embarrassing home loss to LSU.

Clemson at N.C. State
This is a must win game for State if they want to have any chance of getting to at least 8-8 in conference and get a bid.

Temple at Dayton
The upset here might be if Dayton actually wins.

Arkansas at Mississippi State
Battle for first place in the SEC West and the kind of home win that the Bulldogs need to pick to prove that they are tournament worthy.

Texas at Baylor
The Bears have lost four of five and look to avoid falling to .500 in conference.

UNLV at BYU
The winner is in the driver's seat for a first place finish in the MWC, and the at-large bid that will likely come along with it.

Washington State at Oregon
The Ducks look to keep pace with fellow Pac-10 bubble boy Arizona State by picking up a big home win this week.

Michigan State at Indiana
The Hoosiers need to overcome the coaching distractions and pick up a quality win finally or else their seed will soon be plummeting. The Spartans need this one to stay alive for a Big Ten title.

UCLA at USC
The Bruins look for revenge on the Trojans' home court.

Miami-FL at Georgia Tech
A loss and the Hurricanes are never heard from again.

Oklahoma at Texas Tech
A dangerous game for a Sooners team that needs to start stringing together some wins.

Bracketology 101's Field of 65 - Feb. 11

The Breakdown
Sorry it took so long to get this posted. It has been difficult lately trying to get together and make a bracket with one of us on Iraq time and the other one on East Coast time. Hopefully next week we will have it up at the normal time (early Monday morning).

There weren't too many changes to the bracket this week. Both Maryland and Mississippi State were able to get some much needed victories and thus secured their spots in the bracket for the time being. Cal got blown out at home by Oregon, which killed its hopes at making the bracket this week, while Illinois State couldn't close it out against Drake and likely destroyed their slim chances at an at-large bid. The Bears and Redbirds were replaced in this week's bracket by Arizona State and N.C. State. ASU recovered nicely from their five-game losing streak by winning at Arizona. It was a close call between ASU and Oregon for the final Pac-10 bid, but we went with the Sun Devils for a couple of reasons: despite a much worse RPI than Oregon, ASU has a better overall record and a slightly easier schedule left. Both teams will have plenty of opportunities down the stretch to pick up big wins and play their way into the field. N.C. State didn't exactly play their way into the field this week since they had another one of their typical one loss, one win weeks. But with their schedule down the stretch we think they have a good chance to get to at least .500 in the ACC and they have some great opportunities to pick up big wins (Clemson, Duke, and UNC all coming in).

UMass remains on the outside looking in. It was really a coin toss between our last team in the field, St. Joes, and the Minutemen. The Hawks hold on for now because of their season sweep over UMass. Syracuse failed in its attempt to pick up a big win against UConn this week. They have another shot at one this weekend with Georgetown coming in. After that their remaining schedule is brutal (@Louisville, @ND, Pitt, @Seton Hall, Marquette) so we don't like their chances getting to at least 10-8 in conference play, which is what it is going to take to get an at-large out of the Big East. As for the MVC, we hate to have the 8th rated conference in the country receive only one bid, but right now we'd have to take Drake over the field in the conference tourney and no one is deserving of at at-large. Creighton has a chance to get back into the at-large discussion if they can go on a run. They have the opportunity to pick up some nice wins down the stretch (@Oral Roberts, @Illinois St.) which would give a boost to their RPI and make their resume more at-large worthy. They will have to at least tie for second in conference to have any real chance.

Note: None of Monday’s results were taken into account when making this week's bracket.

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Out This Bracket
California, Illinois State, Rider, Northern Arizona, Jacksonville

In This Bracket
North Carolina State, Arizona State, Siena, Portland State, Belmont

Last Four In
Ohio State, Arizona State, North Carolina State, St. Joseph's

Last Four Out
Massachusetts, Syracuse, Oregon, Houston

Next Four Out
Miami-FL, Creighton, California, George Mason

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Conference Breakdown
Big East (7), Big XII (6), Pac-10 (6), SEC (6), Big Ten (5), ACC (5), A-10 (4), MWC (2), WCC (2)

America East - UMBC

ACC - Duke, North Carolina, Clemson, Maryland, N.C. State

Atlantic Sun - Belmont

A-10 - Xavier, Rhode Island, Dayton, St. Joseph's

Big East - Georgetown, Connecticut, Marquette, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Louisville, West Virginia

Big Sky - Portland State

Big South - UNC-Asheville

Big Ten - Wisconsin, Michigan State, Indiana, Purdue, Ohio State

Big 12 - Kansas, Texas, Kansas State, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Baylor

Big West - Pacific

Colonial - VCU

C-USA - Memphis

Horizon - Butler

Ivy - Cornell

MAAC - Siena

MAC - Kent State

MEAC - Morgan State

MVC - Drake

MWC - UNLV, BYU

Northeast - Sacred Heart

Ohio Valley - Austin Peay

Pac-10 - UCLA, Stanford, Washington State, Arizona, USC, Arizona State

Patriot - Lafayette

SEC - Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi Mississippi State

Southern - Davidson

Southland - Stephen F. Austin

Summit - Oral Roberts

Sun Belt - South Alabama

SWAC - Alabama State

WAC - Utah State

WCC - St. Mary's, Gonzaga

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The Seeds
The 1s
Memphis, Duke, Kansas, Tennessee

The 2s
North Carolina, UCLA, Texas, Stanford

The 3s
Georgetown, Michigan State, Xavier, Drake

The 4s
Wisconsin, Connecticut, Kansas State, Indiana

The 5s
Butler, Texas A&M, St. Mary's, Notre Dame

The 6s
Purdue, Louisville, Washington State, Pittsburgh

The 7s
Arizona, Vanderbilt, Arkansas, Gonzaga

The 8s
Rhode Island, Marquette, Baylor, Clemson

The 9s
Dayton, Florida, Mississippi, USC

The 10s
Maryland, Mississippi State, West Virginia, Oklahoma

The 11s
UNLV, BYU, Ohio State, North Carolina State

The 12s
Arizona State, St. Joseph's, Kent State, South Alabama

The 13s
VCU, Davidson, Utah State, Oral Roberts

The 14s
Stephen F. Austin, Siena, Pacific, Cornell

The 15s
UNC-Asheville, Lafayette, Portland State, Morgan State

The 16s
UMBC, Belmont, Sacred Heart, Austin Peay (Play-In Game), Alabama State (Play-In Game)

The Bracket
(Bracket courtesy Matt Reeves)












Questions? Comments? E-mail Bracketology 101 at bracketologyblog@yahoo.com

Bracketology 101's Field of 65 - Feb. 4

The Breakdown
Our list of bubble teams this week was the longest it's been all season, and because of that, we decided to take a look ahead at what teams had left on their schedules to try to separate the contenders from the pretenders.

With Arizona State, Miami-FL, and Villanova dropping out, there were three spots in the field up for grabs. The first of those spots went to BYU, thanks to the strength of the MWC (it’s 9th in conference RPI) and because we think that both UNLV and BYU, with their remaining schedules, should win enough games in the league to earn a bid. For the second spot, we had to figure out the mess that is the ACC bubble, and in the end we went with Maryland over North Carolina State, Miami-FL, and Virginia Tech for a couple of reasons. The Terps have the best win thus far out of those three teams (their W at UNC), they have a very favorable schedule remaining, and big picture-wise they have the best shot to get to 9-7 in conference, which should get them a bid. Virginia Tech, despite having one more win in conference and a win over Maryland (at home) under their belts, has no other good conference wins and has four very tough road games left. N.C. State’s schedule is extremely hard as well, and at 3-4 right now, they will have a hard time getting to nine wins. At 2-5, the same can be said for the slumping ‘Canes, who lost two more on the road last week. The third and final bracket spot went to Cal which, thanks to a huge week from Ryan Anderson, swept Washington and Washington State last week. Looking ahead, the Bears have a slightly better chance to get to .500 in conference than Oregon does (the two teams play at Cal this week) and if they can do that, they’ll earn the league's sixth bid.

The two interesting holdovers in this bracket are Mississippi State and Illinois State. The Aggies missed out on two chances to boost their resume this week by losing to Arkansas and Tennessee, but they are still 5-2 in the SEC with a not-so-difficult schedule left. They should win their two games this week (Alabama at home, Auburn on the road) and we like their chances of getting to 10 or 11 wins in conference. Our inclusion of Illinois State, meanwhile, is less of a projection and more of a prediction. The Redbirds have not lost at home all season, and we think that they will upset 15th-ranked Drake in front of what should be a rowdy crowd at Doug Collins Court on Tuesday. (The Bulldogs can’t really go undefeated in conference, can they??)

The only other interesting tidbits from this week’s field are the exclusions of Syracuse and UMass. We know we are in the minority in leaving these teams out, but we just don’t like the fact that the Orange have feasted on the bottom of the Big East so far or the fact that they have a brutal schedule left. We also don’t like that the Minutemen slipped up at Saint Louis over the weekend to fall under .500 in the A-10, and that they got swept by St. Joseph’s. If the A-10 is going to get five bids, a lot of things both in the league and across the country are going to have to break right. The way UMass has played of late, four bids is looking like a much safer bet.

Note: None of Monday’s results were taken into account when making this week's bracket.

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Out This Bracket
Arizona State, Miami-FL, Villanova, Cal State Northridge, Siena, Winthrop, Hampton, Wagner

In This Bracket
BYU, California, Maryland, Pacific, Rider, UNC-Asheville, Morgan State, Sacred Heart

Last Four In
California, Mississippi State, Maryland, Illinois State

Last Four Out
Syracuse, Massachusetts, Miami-FL, Oregon

Next Four Out
Seton Hall, North Carolina State, Virginia Tech, George Mason

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Conference Breakdown
Big East (7), Big XII (6), Pac-10 (6), SEC (6), Big Ten (5), ACC (4), A-10 (4), MVC (2), MWC (2), WCC (2)

America East - UMBC

ACC - Duke, North Carolina, Clemson, Maryland

Atlantic Sun - Jacksonville

A-10 - Xavier, Rhode Island, Dayton, St. Joseph’s

Big East - Georgetown, Connecticut, Marquette, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Louisville, West Virginia

Big Sky - Northern Arizona

Big South - UNC-Asheville

Big Ten - Wisconsin, Michigan State, Indiana, Purdue, Ohio State

Big 12 - Kansas, Texas, Kansas State, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Baylor

Big West - Pacific

Colonial - VCU

C-USA - Memphis

Horizon - Butler

Ivy - Cornell

MAAC - Rider

MAC - Kent State

MEAC - Morgan State

MVC - Drake, Illinois State

MWC - UNLV, BYU

Northeast - Sacred Heart

Ohio Valley - Austin Peay

Pac-10 - UCLA, Stanford, Washington State, Arizona, USC, California

Patriot - Lafayette

SEC - Tennessee, Mississippi, Vanderbilt, Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi State

Southern - Davidson

Southland - Stephen F. Austin

Summit - Oral Roberts

Sun Belt - South Alabama

SWAC - Alabama State

WAC - Utah State

WCC - St. Mary's, Gonzaga

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The Seeds
The 1s
Memphis, Duke, North Carolina, Kansas

The 2s
UCLA, Tennessee, Georgetown, Wisconsin

The 3s
Stanford, Michigan State, Texas, Xavier

The 4s
Drake, Connecticut, Butler, Indiana

The 5s
Kansas State, Washington State, Texas A&M, Arizona

The 6s
Marquette, St. Mary’s, Rhode Island, Notre Dame

The 7s
Pittsburgh, Dayton, Gonzaga, Oklahoma

The 8s
Mississippi, Baylor, Vanderbilt, Purdue

The 9s
Louisville, Clemson, Arkansas, West Virginia

The 10s
USC, Florida, UNLV, St. Joseph’s

The 11s
Ohio State, BYU, California, Mississippi State

The 12s
Maryland, Illinois State, Kent State, South Alabama

The 13s
Davidson, VCU, Utah State, Oral Roberts

The 14s
Stephen F. Austin, Rider, Pacific, UNC-Asheville

The 15s
Cornell, Lafayette, Northern Arizona, Morgan State

The 16s
UMBC, Sacred Heart, Jacksonville, Austin Peay (Play-In Game), Alabama State (Play-In Game)

The Bracket
(Bracket courtesy Matt Reeves)










Questions? Comments? E-mail Bracketology 101 at bracketologyblog@yahoo.com

BracketBuster Schedule Announced

While we put the finishing touches on this week's bracket, check out the recently announced BracketBuster schedule. It's a decent slate of games, with the top teams in the MVC, MAC, Colonial, and Horizon all participating. The headliners are Drake at Butler, Kent State at St. Mary's, and George Mason at Ohio.

Times and networks for each game will be revealed on Feb. 11.

Friday, Feb. 22
UC Santa Barbara at Utah State
Davidson at Winthrop

Saturday, Feb. 23
VCU at Akron
Siena at Boise State
UW-Milwaukee at Bradley
Drake at Butler
Rider at Cal State Northridge
Marist at Cleveland State
George Mason at Ohio
Creighton at Oral Roberts
Kent State at Saint Mary's
Nevada at Southern Illinois
Miami (OH) at Valparaiso

Sunday, Feb. 24
Wright State at Illinois State

B101's Dean's List-Academic Probation - Week of Jan. 28-Feb. 3

Dean's List-Academic Probation is a weekly column that analyzes all of the highlights and lowlights from the previous week's games. The teams, players, conferences, etc. that deserve praise for what they accomplished over the past week make our Dean's List; those deserving ridicule are put on Academic Probation.

Here are this week's honorees:

Dean’s List
A.J. Price
There may not be a player that has been called on to do more for his team over the past two weeks than Price – and the sophomore guard has responded by playing the best ball of his career. Price’s recent scoring tear continued this week as the red-hot Huskies – still playing without suspended leading scorer Jerome Dyson – picked up two more huge wins to extend their winning streak to five games. Price, who is averaging 20 points, six assists and five rebounds over that span, had 20 points in UConn’s 69-67 victory over Louisville at home on Monday and had 21 points, including a key driving lay-in with just over a minute to play, as the Huskies downed Pitt 60-53 on Saturday. Those wins shot UConn up to No. 19 in this week’s polls, and earned them a four seed in our latest Field of 65.

Kansas State
Plaxico Burress wasn’t the only athlete backing up a bold prediction last week. POY candidate Michael Beasley, who had previously guaranteed that Kansas State would break “The Streak” and beat rival Kansas at home for the first time in 24(!) years, scored 25 points and had six rebounds to lead the Wildcats to a thrilling upset. Bill Walker had 22 points and Jacob Pullen added 20 for Kansas State, which celebrated in style after the win, dancing on the scorer’s table and high-fiving the sea of purple-clad fans that had stormed the floor.

Ryan Anderson
Anderson might be the best big man in a big conference that no one knows about. His incredible sophomore season continued last week, as Cal ripped off two huge wins against Washington and Washington State to improve to 4-5 in the Pac-10. Anderson had 27 points and nine rebounds in a 69-64 win over the Cougars on Thursday and then blew up for 33 points and 17 rebounds in a 79-75 win over the Huskies on Saturday. The 6-foot-10 forward scored 15 of those 33 points in a row in one stretch in the second half, as the Bears overcame a five-point halftime deficit to earn the win.

Stanford
For months, it looked like Washington State would be the only Pac-10 team to pose a challenge to UCLA. But after another two-win week – including a road victory over Wazzu – it’s upstart Stanford that is suddenly breathing down the Bruins’ necks. Led by Brook Lopez, who scored a career high 31 points against Washington on Thursday and by twin bro Robin, who made a huge lay-up late against Washington State on Saturday, the Cardinal extended its winning streak to five this week and improved to 7-2 in conference. They should be able to push that mark to 9-2 this week with home games against Oregon and Oregon State.

Texas A&M
A little home cooking worked wonders for A&M’s previously-unimpressive Big XII resume last week. The Aggies crushed Texas in College Station on Wednesday (they led by 22 at one point), and then erased a shaky first half to beat Oklahoma 60-52 on Saturday to improve to 4-3 in conference. Some stingy defense and the play of senior forward Joseph Jones proved to be the keys to both games. Jones had 14 points in just 21 minutes against the Longhorns, and then scored 18 points to go along with six rebounds versus the Sooners.

Also receiving votes: Arkansas (the Razorbacks proved they belonged in the bracket by beating fellow SEC bubble boys Mississippi State and Florida last week), Wisconsin (the Badgers crushed Indiana at home and Minnesota on the road last week to move into a first-place tie with Purdue in the Big Ten), Penn State (the free-falling Nittany Lions pulled off the biggest upset of the week, stunning – and rushing on – 7th-ranked Michigan State on Saturday), Drake (the victories keep on coming for the Bulldogs, who beat Creighton and Indiana State this week to stay perfect in the MVC), Chris Douglas-Roberts (Memphis stayed unbeaten this week thanks to two huge performances by Douglas-Roberts; he scored 30 points in the Tigers’ win at Houston on Wednesday, and had 24 points and seven rebounds in a much-closer-than-expected home win over UTEP on Saturday), Derek Wright (the senior guard had 43 points – 32 more than his season average – and added seven steals in Austin Peay’s triple OT loss to Southeast Missouri State on Monday), Will Thomas (the senior forward had 21 points and 15 rebounds in George Mason’s 63-51 win over VCU on Tuesday), Jason Thompson (Rider’s underrated senior forward had a Beasley-esque 23 points and 21 rebounds in the Broncs’ win at Siena on Saturday), Luke Harangody (the sophomore continued his recent tear by scoring a career-high 31 points and grabbing 14 rebounds in Notre Dame’s win over Providence on Thursday, and by scoring 29 points to go along with 14 rebounds as the Irish downed DePaul on Saturday), Paul Harris (the sophomore scored a career-high 28 points in Syracuse’s win at Villanova on Saturday), Kevin Love (make it 13 double-doubles for Love this season; he had two more this week as UCLA swept Arizona State and Arizona at Pauley Pavilion), Chase Budinger (the super-soph had 29 points and eight boards in Arizona’s win at USC on Thursday), Ben McCauley (his put-back dunk at the buzzer gave North Carolina State a crazy 67-65 win over Wake Forest on Sunday), Eddie Sutton (Sutton finally got his 800th career win this week, as San Francisco rallied from a 12-point halftime deficit to beat Pepperdine 85-82 in Malibu on Saturday)

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Academic Probation
Miami-FL
Winning on the road in conference isn’t easy for any team, but for Miami it appears to be impossible. The Hurricanes dropped two more road contest last week (at Wake Forest and at Duke) to fall to 0-4 on the road in the ACC. The loss at Cameron Indoor was understandable, but what really hurt the ‘Canes’ resume this week was falling in Winston-Salem to the Demon Deacons. In losing 70-68, Miami missed out at an opportunity to pick up a nice road win and, more importantly, a chance to deal a fellow ACC bubble team a home loss. At 2-5 in conference, the Canes have a ton of work to do if then plan on eventually getting to 9-7 – a mark that should guarantee them a bid.

Arizona State
The Sun Devils’ freefall toward irrelevance continued this week, as they dropped two more games (at UCLA and at USC) to extend their current losing streak to five. Losing to the Bruins on Thursday was certainly excusable, but the final score wasn’t – ASU was down 22 at the half and lost by 33. They weren’t much better at USC two days later, losing by 13 to the Trojans. The Sun Devils are now locked in a tie for sixth in the crowded Pac-10, and have the tough task of playing at Arizona in their only game this week.

Villanova
The only big conference team tumbling faster than Arizona State is Villanova, which has now dropped five of seven (six of eight if you count their blowout loss at St. Joseph’s yesterday) to fall to 13-8 overall and 3-6 in the Big East. Ranked in both polls and slotted as high as a seven seed in our bracket just two weeks ago, Villanova is playing like a team that may not be heard from again. Their last five losses have all been by double figures, the most disturbing of which was their 14-point loss at home to Syracuse on Saturday.

Washington State
The Cougars picked a poor week to lose their shooting touch. They made just eight of 32 three point attempts in home losses to Cal and Stanford last week – losses that dropped them to a less-than-stellar 5-4 in the Pac-10. Wazzu also had its issues from the free throw line against the Cardinal, making just four of their final nine attempts from the stripe in a 67-65 OT loss. Senior Kyle Weaver missed a key FT with just under 10 seconds left that would given the Cougars a late lead in that game, and then missed another one in the closing seconds of overtime that would have tied the game.

Jerome Dyson
Most fans in the Nutmeg State figured Doug Wiggins (who had already failed two drug tests this season) would be the one in the most trouble after he and Dyson were caught with alcohol in a car and were subsequently drug tested. In the end, though, it was Dyson’s love of marijuana that got exposed, landing him a 30-to-60 day suspension. UConn coach Jim Calhoun has still not said when Dyson will return to the team.

Also receiving votes: Ty Lawson’s left ankle (UNC’s lightning-quick point guard sprained his ankle against Florida State on Sunday, leaving his availability for Wednesday’s showdown with Duke in serious doubt), Missouri’s Jason Horton and Stefhon Hannah (Horton, a senior guard, was arrested Friday on a misdemeanor assault charge following a weekend brawl that left Hannah, the Tigers’ leading scorer, with a broken jaw; five Missouri players were suspended indefinitely by coach Mike Anderson for their roles in the incident, which occurred at a night club in downtown Columbia), Wake Forest (the Demon Deacons missed out on a shot at making this week’s bracket by blowing a seven-point halftime lead and losing a heartbreaker to N.C. State), Mississippi (the Rebels followed up their big win over Vanderbilt with a home loss to South Carolina), West Virginia and St. Mary’s (the Mountaineers and Gaels had bad hiccups at home last week too, falling to Cincinnati and San Diego, respectively), Dalonte Hill’s blood alcohol level (the Kansas State assistant was arrested early Thursday morning on suspicion of driving under the influence, hours after the Wildcats upset Kansas; he has since been charged with a DUI and has been suspended one game)

B101's Top 10 Games To Watch This Weekend

Here's our take on the 10 biggest games of the weekend...

Syracuse vs. Villanova
A huge bubble battle in the Big East, with the loser in serious tourney trouble.

Pittsburgh vs. UConn
A battle to determine who the second best team is out of the Big East.

Baylor vs. Texas
The Bears were able to win at A&M (something Texas couldn't do); can they win in Austin as well?

Dayton vs. Rhode Island
An A-10 matchup to determine the second best team in the conference.

Stanford vs. Washington State
The streaking Cardinal look to hold on to second place in the Pac-10 against the slumping Cougars.

Florida vs. Arkansas
The Gators are playing well and the Razorbacks seemed to have gotten back on track, so this should be a good one.

Oklahoma vs. Texas A&M
A battle between two middle-of-the-pack teams in the tough-to-figure-out Big XII.

Tennessee vs. Mississippi State
This is the kind of win the Bulldogs need to add to their resume to solidify their position as a tourney team.

Arizona vs. UCLA
It's tough to pick against the Bruins, but the Wildcats are definitely playing well enough right now to pull off the upset.

North Carolina vs. Florida State
Probably a must win at this point for FSU's tourney hopes.

Also receiving votes: West Virginia vs. Providence, Boston College vs. Clemson, Arizona State vs. USC, Wake Forest vs. North Carolina State, Super Bowl XLII