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Top 25 Games
- #16 Notre Dame 56, #3 Pittsburgh 51: “Enormous road win for the Irish tonight, as they utilized some great outside shooting and Ben “Get Out Of My Damn Way” Hansbrough down the stretch to come from behind against the top-notch Pitt Panthers. Carleton Scott’s 4-point play with about seven minutes left pushed the ND lead to 46-41, and they never relinquished it. Some awesome clear-outs for Ben after 30 seconds of burn in the waning minutes helped put it away. (When was the last time we had a guard who could work the clear-out? Seriously. When? And who thought Ben would ever be that guy?)” (Rakes of Mallow)
Pre-Game Analysis
- #12 Purdue at #1 Ohio State: A preview in the form of Q & A from two opposing bloggers. (Boiled Sports or Buckeye Battle Cry)
- Virginia Tech at Georgia Tech: The Hokies will be trying to build on some recent victories in an attempt to move up in the ACC standings. (Tech Hoops)
- Maryland at Virginia: “Maryland’s game at Virginia at John Paul Jones Arena on Thursday is massively important for the Terrapins. Really, every single game from this point out is, and all for the same reason: Maryland’s skating on thin ice for the NCAA tournament unless an unexpected run is on the way down the stretch. Another bad loss, even on the road, may not be something this year’s Terrapins can survive.” (Testudo Times)
News/Analysis
- West Virginia suspends leading scorer indefinitely: “West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins announced Monday evening that leading scorer Casey Mitchell has been suspended indefinitely for a “violation of team rules.” Mitchell was also briefly suspended in October for an undisclosed violation of team rules, but he did not have to sit out any games.” (Card Chronicle)
- Why the next two weeks matter: “We’ve been here before. Two years ago, the Vols had the same 12-7 record thru 19 games that this year’s squad has earned. Both the ’09 Vols and this year’s version struggled with inconsistent play, and while the ’11 Vols have two more impressive wins and two more frustrating losses, for the most part the story has been the same: an inability to win close games against above average teams.” (Rocky Top Talk)
- Big Ten Roundup: January 24th, 2011: A statistical analysis of the Big Ten. (UM Hoops)
- Big Ten Power Rankings: Week 5: There is a consensus for the top 5 teams, but after that the picture gets a bit hazy. (Inside the Hall)
- Big East Basketball Power Rankings Week 11: There were already some major shake-ups before Notre Dame’s big win last night. (The UConn Blog)
- 5 Key Plays: Minnesota at Michigan: Analyzing the key moments in Minnesota’s close victory in Ann Arbor. (UM Hoops)
- Plus/Minus Update: Post-Texas: “As move on from this game and look at the bigger picture heading forward, the plus/minus shows what we already knew about the team but also might highlight those flaws a little more than we realized previously. We know the team is dependent on Marcus and Markieff Morris. We know Josh Selby has struggled since his first 5 games. Hopefully everyone has also realized just how valuable Tyrel Reed has been. Speaking of Reed, I heard yesterday that this was the first home game Tyrel Reed has lost in his basketball career. His Burlington team never lost in middle school and lost one game at home in high school, a game he didn’t play. If true, interesting. As for the Texas game, this was about as poor of a “team” performance as it gets. The Jayhawks had four guys end up with a positive number, four who recorded zeros, and two in the negative. For a team, that’s just bad but it shouldn’t surprise those who watched the game and are familiar with the formula I use. Missed shots and fouls are bad, Kansas had a lot of each. Texas on the other hand had six guys in the positive and four at +9 or better.” (Rock Chalk Talk)
- ESPN’s College GameDay by State Farm® In Lawrence Saturday: “Rock Chalk Talk will be making the trip to Lawrence for this one and you should too. Why? Well not only is College Gameday a great event that gives Jayhawk fans one more opportunity to show how passionate we are about our team, but State Farm will also be giving you the fan the opportunity to raise money for KU’s Student Union Activities’ organization Hawk Zone just by showing up.” (Rock Chalk Talk)