Friday College Basketball Review

Big 10

(9) Michigan 34 – (1) Wisconsin 51

(5) Ohio State 60 – (4) Michigan State 67

(10) Illinois 74 – (2) Purdue 67

(6) Minnesota 59 – (3) Indiana 58

After about the most boring opener you could imagine the rest of the games had interest. Ohio State lost and now will sweat it out on Sunday. I imagine the Buckeyes are in trouble but they’ll be under consideration with the boatload of bubble losers yesterday. A couple of surprisingly good games finished off the day’s action as Illinois upset Purdue in overtime. Minnesota overcame some questionable officiating with a ridiculous buzzer beater from Blake Hoffarber. Regardless of the winner of the Minnesota-Illinois game tomorrow, the Big 10 will have a chance to steal a bid if that winner can take down the Wisconsin-Michigan State winner in the final.

ACC

(9) Florida State 70 – (1) North Carolina 82

(5) Miami 49 – (4) Virginia Tech 63

(7) Georgia Tech 70 – (2) Duke 82

(11) Boston College 48 – (3) Clemson 82

Yesterday I said I was willing to consider Florida State’s resume if they beat North Carolina. They did not. Duke and Clemson also rolled to victories. The big ACC game of the day was Virginia Tech’s win over Miami. They probably still need to knock off the Tar Heels but the Hokies at least deserve to be discussed Sunday.

Big 12

(9) Oklahoma State 59 – (1) Texas 66

(12) Colorado 49 – (4) Oklahoma 54

(7) Nebraska 54 – (2) Kansas 64

(6) Texas A&M 63 – (3) Kansas State 60

Texas, Kansas, and Oklahoma winning was not exciting. Texas A&M beating Kansas State was at least of moderate interest. This should finally absolutely lock up Texas A&M’s bid. Had yesterday gone differently perhaps I would say Kansas State should sweat but yesterday did go as yesterday went so Kansas State not getting a bid would be criminal.

SEC

(5E) South Carolina 87 – (1E) Tennessee 89

(3E) Vanderbilt 75 – (2W) Arkansas 81

(5W) Alabama 67 – (1W) Mississippi State 69

(6E) Georgia – (2E) Kentucky ppd.

What is going to happen with this tournament? Obviously that was absolutely nuts today but we have a suspended game now. Are we actually going to see one of those teams have to play a double header? If they do that why wouldn’t that be announced by now (and I say this at 12:20 am central time)? I have no clue. This storm is going to overshadow the fact that there were some really terrific basketball games on Friday with favorites prevailing.

SWAC

(6) Arkansas Pine Bluff 59 – (2) Mississippi Valley State 70

(4) Jackson State 77 – (1) Alabama State 72

As Alabama State goes down so do our dreams of seeing Chief Kickingstallionsims in the NCAA tournament. This really will not change much though. All it means is that the worst team in the NCAA tournament will be even worse than we thought.

Conference USA

(5) Southern Miss 53 – (1) Memphis 69

(7) Tulsa 64 – (6) UTEP 62

Tulsa is falling in love with overtime and my guess is they’ll take overtime again on Saturday. (So would I, by the way; Tulsa stealing an at large bid would be pretty fun.) It seems unlikely that bubble teams have much to worry about as Memphis should roll. Actually, Memphis jumped out to a huge early 20-3 lead and then surprisingly actually had to play basketball after that but USM never really threatened.

Patriot

(3) Colgate 46 – (1) American 52

In the Patriot League we actually get the number one seed getting the automatic bid, which I suppose isn’t too surprising because American never had to leave home. Still I don’t think they’re posing too much of a challenge.

Mid-Eastern

(4) Delaware State 55 – (1) Morgan State 61

(7) Coppin State 67 – (3) Norfolk State 65

Coppin State has now gone from 2-19 to 15-20; that’s an incredible run. They’ll get yet another test as they face one seeded Morgan State. The fact that a team can be on such a huge run yet still have only gotten the 7 seed shows just how horrible they were through most of this year. It’ll be interesting to see if Morgan State can find a way to slow them down.

Atlantic 10

(5) St. Joseph’s 61 – (1) Xavier 53

(6) Charlotte 45 – (2) Temple 60

For fans hoping for lots of bids from the A-10 this is nearly ideal. St. Joseph’s is probably in regardless of what happens against Temple in the final. Temple might even have a shot if they don’t beat St. Joseph’s. And then what do you do with the clear number two in the conference prior to the tournament in UMass? Things are looking bleak for the Minutemen now but I don’t think it’s hopeless. I wonder if there would be room for 4 A-10 teams.

Southland

(7) TX Arlington 72 – (3) Sam Houston State 66

(5) Northwestern State 69 – (1) Stephen F. Austin 66

Ugh, these are some disappointing results. Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston State (albeit to a lesser extent) were two most intriguing teams in the conference. Actually, Stephen F. Austin was by far the most intriguing team in the conference and they could have been an interesting pick for an upset as a 13 seed. Instead we’re going to see the Southland pick up a 16 seed and that’s awfully disappointing.

Mid-American

(3) Akron 73 – (2) Western Michigan 62

(5) Miami 47 – (1) Kent State 49

Obviously tomorrow bubble teams are going to be rooting hard for Kent State. Kent State beat Akron in both teams’ final regular season game at Akron 61-58. Although Kent State actually swept the season series Akron is talented enough that an upset in the final would not be stunning.

Big East

(5) West Virginia 55 – (1) Georgetown 72

(7) Pittsburgh 68 – (6) Marquette 61

Georgetown really has been terrific in the Big East tournament and they might actually be earning that two seed I was afraid they did not deserve. I don’t think they’ll have an easy time with Pitt though; it seems teams rarely have an easy time with Pitt with their style of play.

WAC

(4) Boise State 88 – (1) Utah State 78

(2) Nevada 75 – (3) New Mexico State 83

Although all four of these teams tied atop the conference standings I actually think the two best teams lost today. That’s unfortunate and now we’re looking at a strong possibility that the only WAC team to get into the tournament will do so as a triple digit RPI team. This has been a disastrous year in the WAC.

Big West

(5) UC Irvine 55 – (1) UCSB 50

(3) CSU Fullerton 83 – (2) CSU Northridge 68

How about UC Irvine? Despite being able to beat UCSB it would be pretty stunning if they are able to make it four wins in four days with a win over CSU Fullerton. Still, both of the losers today had a bye into this round by virtue of earning the top two seeds. I imagine CSU Fullerton will be the heavy favorite on Saturday.

Pac 10

(4) USC 54 – (1) UCLA 57

(3) Washington State 68 – (2) Stanford 75

A couple of decent games has lead us to a match between the two best teams in the conference all year. It’s probably not worth watching, however, because I’m pretty sure that if the game is close it’ll get handed to the Bruins anyway.

Mountain West

(4) San Diego State 54 – (1) BYU 63

(6) Utah 55 – (2) UNLV 61

Especially after Utah upset New Mexico, we’re getting the final that was expected. I figure this is likely enough to get UNLV in so we should see two MWC teams in the NCAA tournament.