Former Big East rivals #16 West Virginia and #18 Louisville probably turned in the most eventful week in college basketball. The Mountaineers jumped eight spots this week after earning victories against two ranked opponents, beginning on Monday when senior guard Juwan Staten made a layup with four seconds remaining to give his team a one-point home triumph over #8 Kansas. Bob Huggins’ squad followed that up on Saturday when it grabbed a nice 10-point win at Oklahoma State. Those two Big 12 wins moved West Virginia’s conference record to 9-5, which at this point still gives the Mountaineeers a glimmer of hope in the Big 12 race. While West Virginia’s week had a great week, Louisville experienced something of a media circus that concluded with the dismissal of one of its key players. First, news broke Tuesday evening that senior guard Chris Jones was suspended indefinitely and would not be with the team for Wednesday’s game at Syracuse. Predictably, Louisville blew a second half lead at the Carrier Dome and lost to the Orange by 10 points. Jones was then reinstated on Thursday for Saturday’s home game versus Miami (FL), a game in which Louisville overcame a 10-point halftime deficit on its way to a much-needed two-point win. Just when it seemed like things were returning to normal for Rick Pitino’s program, the school then announced on Sunday afternoon that Jones had been formally dismissed from the program. The Cardinals now have the unenviable task of finishing the balance of the regular season and the postseason without their senior point guard and one of their best offensive threats. College basketball is often where the unexpected happens, and that was certainly on display at Louisville last week.

This week’s Quick N’ Dirty Analysis after the jump…

Quick N’ Dirty Analysis.

• Kentucky remains the unanimous #1 for the 14th consecutive week. The Wildcats continued their unbeaten season with a comfortable road win at Tennessee and a dominant 110-75 home victory over Auburn. John Calipari’s squad is now 27-0 and will look to improve that mark to 29-0 with a game at Mississippi State on Wednesday and a home showdown with #19 Arkansas on Saturday. If Kentucky is able to earn victories in those two games, it will enter the final week of the season looking to finish the regular season with an unscathed record.
• Big 12 disagreement. #12 Iowa State, #14 Oklahoma, #16 West Virginia, and #17 Baylor are all having strong regular seasons and are headed for the NCAA Tournament, but our pollsters certainly view each team differently. This is evident in the Cyclones ranking as high as #9 in one poll and as low as #15 in another; the Sooners as high as #10 and as low as #17; the Mountaineers as high as #14 and as low as #22; and the Bears as high as #15 and as low as unranked. The Big 12 regular season has been a whirlwind tour this season, so it is not all that surprising that these four teams are being viewed quite a bit differently. If one thing is for certain though, it is that the Big 12 Tournament is going to be must-see television from Kansas City in two weeks.
• Michigan State returns to the RTC25. The Spartans have been unranked in the RTC25 since Week Eight but they return at #24 this week after stretching their winning streak to four games with a road victories at Michigan and Illinois. Michigan State was sitting squarely on the NCAA Tournament bubble a couple of weeks ago, but with its overall record at 19-8 (10-4 Big Ten), the Spartans now appear to be a lock. Tom Izzo’s squad will have the opportunity to bolster its résumé on Sunday when it travels to Madison to take on conference-leading #3 Wisconsin.

Game of the Week. #7 Arizona vs. #10 Utah. Arizona can wrap up a Pac-12 regular season title on Saturday when it travels to Salt Lake City to take on the Utes. In their first match-up of the season in January, Arizona earned a dominant 18-point home victory. Considering the stakes at hand and the change of venue, we expect this one to be much closer this time around. The individual match-up to watch will be between Arizona freshman swingman Stanley Johnson and Utah star wing Delon Wright. If Wright can get the best of Johnson and the rest of the Arizona backcourt, the Utes could potentially earn a huge home victory and make things interesting down the stretch in this conference race.

Keep Tabs On. #3 Wisconsin vs. #20 Maryland; #9 Notre Dame vs. Syracuse; #6 Villanova vs. #25 Providence; #12 Iowa State vs. #17 Baylor; #6 Villanova vs. Xavier; #1 Kentucky vs. #19 Arkansas; #10 Northern Iowa vs. #13 Wichita State; #16 West Virginia vs. #17 Baylor; #3 Wisconsin vs. #24 Michigan State.

Conference Call. Big 12 (5), ACC (5), Big East (4), Big Ten (3), Pac-12 (2), SEC (2), Missouri Valley (2), AAC (1), WCC (1).

WCarey (318 Posts)

This entry was posted on Monday, February 23rd, 2015 at 12:11 pm by Walker Carey and is filed under blogpoll, Regular Features. Tagged: arizona, baylor, feature, iowa state, kentucky, louisville, michigan state, oklahoma, rtc25, utah, west virginia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.