Monday, February 23, 2009

A Two Pack For Monday

A look at the two most notable games on Monday's schedule:

Kansas at Oklahoma
Thanks to the right hand of Dexter Pittman, this game just got a whole lot more interesting. It was Pittman's enormous paw that knocked Blake Griffin out of Saturday's game against Texas with a concussion and, despite the best efforts of Willie Warren, helped the Longhorns pick up a much-needed win. The loss dropped OU into a tie atop the Big XII standings with the Jayhawks, who pay a visit to Norman tonight. Griffin's status for the game is being called "iffy" right now, but the fact that he hasn't been ruled out yet makes us think he'll be good to go. If he does play, and if he shows no ill effects from the consussion, Oklahoma should be able to win this one at home. If Kansas were to pull the upset (Griffin or no Griffin), they would find themselves in the driver's seat to win the Big XII title and they would likely jump over Duke for the final spot on the 2 line next week. Looking forward, Kansas' schedule is a little bit easier down the stretch than Oklahoma's. The Jayhawks still have to face Missouri and Texas, but both of those games are at home, while Oklahoma has to play at Missouri next week. Even with a loss here, Oklahoma would probably hang on to their 1 seed next week. No one else really has the credentials to be a 1 seed right now, plus the Sooners would still have to be looked at as the favorite to win the Big XII tournament.

UPDATE (5 p.m.): Griffin will not play tonight against the Jayhawks.

Louisville at Georgetown
The Hoyas missed out a golden opportunity to get themselves back into the field on Saturday, going ice cold over the final eight minutes and losing at home to Marquette. The loss dropped Georgetown to 5-9 in conference and means the Hoyas will now need to win out if they want a bid. Winning out would include a win tonight against Louisville and a win at Villanova this weekend. That's not an easy task, especially considering the way the Cardinals have played since their embarrassing loss in South Bend. They've won three in a row, including two convincing wins last week over Providence at home and Cincinnati on the road, and if they can win this game, they would have to be the favorite to win the Big East regular season title (remember they beat Pitt in the teams' lone meeting.) If they win the regular season crown and then make the finals of the Big East tourney, they would be right there in the discussion for a 1 seed come Selection Sunday. To beat Georgetown, the Cardinals will need Samardo Samuels to neutralize Greg Monroe inside, and they'll need Terrence Williams to continue his brilliant play of late. Williams had 17 points, six recounds and eight assists against the Friars on Wednesday night and 20 points, eight rebounds, and five assists against the Bearcats on Saturday.

Also receiving votes: UT-Martin at Murray State

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are you kidding me, with the kansas thing? Now, i know that there has to be a quota of teams from each big league, because 12-1 in the vaunted big 12 has to mean something, even if it means nothing... This is the Jayhawks SECOND win over a top 25 club, with the first being tennessee, and it was over a handicapped oklahoma with the player of the year sitting out! Kansas has big numbers, but gosh, this team has played 8 of what i would consider "big" games, and they have lost 4 of those, and also have a loss at Umass, with only 2, maybe 3 quality wins, are you really saying that that resume is better than duke's, who has beat Xavier(#7 at the time) Purdue(#10 at the time) Georgetown(#12 at the time) and #8 wake... Duke also has a win at michigan (followed by a loss against the same, but its hard to beat a good team twice in 3 weeks), at home against maryland, and at florida state(another top 25 team) Now, duke also has the same record as Kansas! Now, while Kansas's losses(Syracuse, Massachusetts,Arizona, Michigan state and mizzou are not terrible, Can they possibly compare to At Wake, At clemson, At BC, home against UNC and the aforementioned at michigan? I cant believe that the fact that kansas is dominating a CLEARLY inferior league makes that much difference!

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