B101's New Year's Eve Tweets

Our quick thoughts on Thursday's results:

Michigan's loss at Indiana (sans Maurice Creek) tells you all you need to know about the Wolverines' tourney chances. It also shows what a heck of a job Tom Crean is doing in Bloomington.

There's no shame in Ohio State losing at Wisconsin without Evan Turner, but their ineptitude on offense against the Badgers without Turner was a little alarming. The Buckeyes scored just 18 points in the second half and had just two bench points.

Wisconsin, meanwhile, is a solid 4 seed right now. How long can they stay that high? Their next five games (at Penn State, at Michigan State, Purdue, at Northwestern, at Ohio State) will go a long way in showing whether the Badgers can climb onto the 3 line and, more importantly, whether they can challenge for a Big Ten title.

Tennessee desperately needed a quality OOC win and, thanks to some tough defense and an intensity that would make Lane Kiffin smile, that exactly what they got at Memphis on Thursday. The Vols were the deeper and more physical team, and Memphis had no answer for Tennessee inside - three Memphis players fouled out, and Elliot Williams missed a big chunk of the first half after two early fouls. Tennessee held Williams and Willie Kemp to a combined 2-for-16 from the field.

Memphis could have snuck into our field with a win, but their consolation is they still have OOC games at Syracuse and home against Gonzaga left which could pad their resume. With Tulsa struggling, the Tigers appear to be the second-best team in C-USA heading into conference play.

The Pac-10 picture got cleared up quite nicely Thursday night. USC won its seventh straight game, disposing Arizona by six at home. The Trojans are looking at a single digit seed in our next bracket.

Washington State, meanwhile, lost a brutal game at home to Oregon. In what is sure to be one of the wackier finishes of the year, the Cougars celebrated what they thought was the game-winner in regulation a little too much, got T'd up, watched Oregon hit two FTs with under a second left to tie the game, and then lost to the Ducks in OT. Ouch. In another head-scratching result, Arizona State (fraud alert!) lost at UCLA.

Gonzaga beat Oklahoma in Spokane, no big deal. The big story from this game, if you haven't seen it yet, was the alley-oop gone wrong by Oklahoma's ironically-named Tiny Gallon. The 6-9, 300 pound forward rang in the New Year by shattering the backboard on a missed dunk attempt in the second half, delaying the game for an hour.

Richmond came thisclose to adding another OOC win to its already impressive resume. The Spiders took Wake Forest to OT before losing 74-68. Richmond plays at Bucknell tomorrow and opens A-10 play at Duquesne on Wednesday.

Of note: Georgetown beat St. John's at home in its Big East opener; Washington opened up Pac-10 play with a win at home over Oregon State; Butler beat Green Bay by 23 at home, handing the Phoenix their first Horizon loss; Mississippi State (thanks to Jarvis Varnando's 23 points and 17 boards) won at San Diego; Oral Roberts lost at South Dakota State in its first game since upsetting New Mexico.

B101's Weekday Tweets - Wednesday

Our quick thoughts on Wednesday's results:

After two tough OT losses, Cincinnati finally got the big win their resume needed on Wednesday night, upsetting UConn in their Big East opener. In what turned into a Stephenson/Vaughn vs. Robinson/Dyson two-on-two battle, the Bearcats' duo made the big plays down the stretch. Stephenson's last-second drive wasn't pretty, but it got him to the line with under a second left, and the freshman (who could play in the NBA tomorrow) calmly hit both FTs to seal the win.

On that last play, Gavin Edwards did bump Stephenson a little with his body, but it would have been nice to see the refs swallow the whistle there and let the outcome be decided in OT.

It's going to be a long winter in Storrs if the Huskies can't find someone not named Robinson or Dyson to score. Kemba Walker's point production has slipped of late (8.8 ppg over his last four), and UConn has no legitimate scoring threats down low. Ater Majok is not the answer; he's a giant question mark.

Northwestern really could have cemented a place in our Field of 65 with a win at Illinois. Instead, the Wildcats blew a 10-point second half lead and lost to Mike Tisdale (31 points) and the Illini 89-83 in overtime. Northwestern's resume, which still has just one notable win on it (Notre Dame), is looking less and less attractive in terms of an at-large. They'll need to upset Michigan State on Saturday to avoid falling out of our bracket.

Illinois, meanwhile, now has two solid wins on its resume. Those don't exactly cancel out their four questionable losses, but Wednesday was a big step in the right direction. If they beat Gonzaga on Saturday, we'll welcome them back in the bracket with open arms.

Hard to believe UAB followed up such an impressive performance against Butler with such a dud at Virginia. The Blazers are still playing better than anyone else in C-USA, but this loss will hurt them a seed line or so in our next bracket.

Kalin Lucas' response to his much-publicized benching at practice? Sixteen points in 29 minutes. Message received.

We may have raised a few eyebrows in our last bracket by giving William & Mary a 10 seed, but we loved the Tribe's OOC resume and fet they were playing the best ball of anyone in the Colonial. Our faith was rewarded in a big way again Wednesday, as they beat Maryland 83-77 in a game that wasn't that close. The Tribe, who now boast wins over Maryland, Wake, Richmond, and VCU, would be on the 8 line if we did a bracket tonight.

Of note: Baylor (who is now in Last Eight Out territory) crushed Arkansas; Old Dominion won at home against Duquesne; Boston College beat South Carolina at home; Notre Dame beat Providence at home; Temple beat Northern Illinois in its final tune-up before Kansas comes to town.

B101's Questions For The Competition

Questions For The Competition is a weekly column that addresses our issues with the brackets of other bracketology "experts." This week's questions - the first we've posed to the competition this season - are reserved for SI.com's Andy Glockner. As the season goes on, and more major sports websites (ESPN.com, CBS, etc.) consistently post weekly brackets, we will ask questions to them as well. Keep in mind that these questions are about Glockner's latest bracket, which was released before Monday's games.

Andy Glockner (SI.com) - Dec. 28 Bracket
If the season ended today, five A-10 teams would get bids? Five?? Xavier and Rhode Island have tourney-quality resumes right now? Did Fordham and St. Joe's make your bubble sheet?

Does the Pac-10 really deserve two top-four seeds? What has Washington done to earn a 3 seed if the season ended today? How in the world has Cal earned a 4?

No Wake Forest, but St. John's and Seton Hall are in right now?

We like Temple too, but a 3 seed? (Well, I guess, if Cal's a 4 seed...)

How is Pitt even in the field? And how are they an 8 seed?

How is VCU five seed lines better than William & Mary?

B101's Weekday Tweets - Tuesday

Our quick thoughts on Tuesday's results:

Another game, another dramatic finish for West Virginia. Da'Sean Butler's ridiculous, no-timeouts-left, 20-foot fade-away with 2.3 seconds gave the Mountaineers an improbable win over Marquette Tuesday night after they were down five with less than a minute to play.

Is there a better three-headed monster in the Big East than Butler, Ebanks, and Kevin Jones? Answer: Nope. (Apologies to Dyson, Walker, Robinson and Monroe, Wright, Freeman). Ebanks' get-out-of-my-way dunk on WVU's second to last possession got everyone in the building believing the Mountaineers could pull off a miracle.

If I'm a Marquette player, I'm expecting to shoot about 500 free throws in practice tomorrow. The Golden Eagles missed three huge freebies in the last minute that would have made WVU's comeback that much more impossible. Marquette will need every FT they can get over the next 10 days - they play Villanova twice and host Georgetown in what is a very front-loaded Big East schedule.

It took John Wall all of 14 games to set a Kentucky single game record. His 16 assists against Hartford broke Travis Ford's old mark of 15 set in 1993. Almost as impressive - Wall turned the ball over just once. Get a napkin, Rod Thorn. You're drooling.

As great as Wall's performance was, the freshman had nothing on Wesley Johnson or Jeremy Hazell Tuesday night. Johnson finished with 20 points, 18 rebounds, and five blocks in Syracuse's big road win at Seton Hall. Hazell followed up his 41-point explosion against West Virginia last time out with a 38-point effort against Syracuse. He also added five rebounds and five steals.

New Mexico's win over Texas Tech at The Pit wasn't a huge surprise, but the margin of victory certainly was. The Lobos looked nothing like the team that lost at Oral Roberts last week, and their resume now features three wins over tourney-caliber power conference teams (Cal, A&M, TT). They're a low-end 5 seed right now, while Texas Tech looks like a low 9/high 10.

The "Big Three" in the Valley opened conference play Tuesday, and only two came out victorious. Wichita's double-digit loss at Illinois State further cements Missouri State at the Valley's second best team right now.

Of note: Minnesota won its Big Ten opener at home against Penn State, Xavier crushed LSU, Louisiana Tech won at Houston, Cornell won at LaSalle.

Of note? South Carolina State outscored Clemson by eight in the second half in a 70-67 loss.