We couldn’t resist.  This evening we’ll witness two of the biggest games of the year.  I don’t have to tell you, but I’ll tell you anyway — we’re talking Villanova at West Virginia at 7 PM, then Kansas @ Texas at 9 PM.  We’ll be commenting the whole evening on the games, so hit that refresh button and let’s hear what you have to say as well!

7:03 PM: Big Monday?  Heck no, how about HUUUUUGE Monday?!?  Two great games.  Raftery has already given us a “mn-a-mn!!”  Aside from the obvious excellent guard matchup, I’m interested to see how the refs are going to call this one.  PLEASE, let these guys play.

7:12: First question…did the Pirates at least give a tryout to the kid who hit the Pittsburgh assistant coach with that coin?  I’m not saying there was anything like that in the works, and we at RTC certainly don’t advocate such terrible behavior in spectators, but are you going to tell me that the Pirates’ outfield couldn’t use a guy who can throw a 500-foot strike with a nickel?  Senators, maybe?  Just a thought.

7:18: It led to free throws only, but Corey Fisher just put a Bozo the Clown suit on Da’Sean Butler.  Took the ball on a long outlet pass, took a dribble, saw Butler in front of him, gave him a QUICK shimmy-shoulder fake, and went around Butler as if his feet were in cement.  It even got a WOW and a WHOO! from Bilas and Raftery (respectively).

7:24: It has to be said: I like watching Taylor King play this game.  The guy does everything.  I dig the way’s he’s ALWAYS the first guy on the floor going after loose balls, he’s back-tapping balls, grabbing steals, snagging some offensive boards, blocking a couple of shots…and you can’t leave him open from anywhere on the floor.  He’s a difference-maker.

7:31: No rhythm to this game at all, so far.  Choppy pace because of the placement of media and team time-outs.  Another important question is…is West Virginia here, mentally?  I ask because they’ve had issues with that this year.  SEVERAL times this year we’ve seen the Mountaineers have to play catch-up, even late into the second half, because they just didn’t seem interested in basketball for the first 20-35 minutes.

7:42: As soon as I say something positive about Taylor King, he shoots two threes — one an air ball, the other a brick.  So far, 33% of WVU’s shots have been threes, and not all of them well-selected.  Meanwhile, only five of ‘Nova’s shots have been treys, all of them pretty clean looks (even the King ones).  And there’s your eleven-point lead.

7:52: Impressive half by Villanova.  How do you come into a top-10 opponent’s gym and give yourself a chance to win?  Good shot selection, good defense, win the rebounding battle, and keep buying into the role your coach has assigned for you.  Villanova has done all of these things.  That’s probably the coolest thing about this ‘Nova team, to me.  They aren’t just exceptional athletes and good ballers both as a unit and as individuals; you can TELL that each player has listened to Jay Wright say what he wants from them, processed the information (sometimes that is the toughest part), and bought into that role.

8:00: Checking some other games…over on the 360, Siena is up on a pretty good Fairfield team 36-28 at the half.  Don’t sleep on Siena, folks.  Surely you learned that lesson last year.  No other really compelling games on paper, to be honest.  But this night is all about this one and KU vs UT.

8:10: Garik16…it’s so hard to say.  WVU is a slow-breaking thoroughbred.  You know?  They are that horse you play that comes out of the gate last and comes BLAZING down the stretch…you just have to hope there’s enough track left.  I know I had to work for that analogy, but I think it’s apt.  WVU, though, has the talent to play with that big four that you mention.  It’s just getting them all mentally in the same gym for two straight halves.  My opinion, anyway.  Yeah, I’m tweeting that horse racing analogy out…

8:23: Man, what an expression from Huggins after that heave at the end of the shot clock.  Hilarous, but understandable.

8:28: Trouble for Villanova.  Fisher with his fourth, and it wasn’t much of one.  And then a bad charge called on Antonio Pena.  Sorry, WVU fans…but those were bogus calls.

8:33: Scottie Reynolds may have just found that extra gear that most humans do not have.  A CONFIDENT pull-up three, and a lightning-quick drive to the hole for an and-one.  Villanova by double digits again.  WVU better rev up that engine soon…

8:38: Wow.  Another missed call at the Villanova end. Isaiah Armwood’s tip in was WELL out of the cylinder.  Why can’t referees review that?  There’s always a camera angle, why not use it?  Then a four-point play by WVU at the other end and that’s a six-point swing!

8:45: Refs aside, you have to give WVU credit for hitting three straight threes and now a chance for an old-fashioned…which is missed.  But they’re starting to heat up.  Down to three on that MASSIVE tomohawk by Devin Ebanks!

8:53: Antonio Pena decides it’s time for pull-ups, so he gets two straight dunks on BEAUTIFUL feeds from Reggie Redding and Reynolds.  Scottie Reynolds owned two WVU defenders on that last one to clear a lane for that pass.

9:00: I know everyone thought Kansas/Texas was going to be 1-versus-2, and now it’s 1-versus-14.  But it still hasn’t lost any luster for me.  Still extremely fired up, and still think Texas has more than “just a shot” at home.

9:05: Holy cow, Taylor King…making an idiot out of me.  Fouls his second three-point shooter tonight who MADE the shot.  That took it to five, but Villanova just extended it to eight after a lay-up and a pair of FTs by Reynolds (shocker there, right?).  Look at that…a perfect 8-8 for Reynolds from the line.  And Bilas echoes our sentiment about Reynolds…kid just doesn’t take bad shots.

9:15: Is it just me, or has WVU showed their highest intensity, greatest interest, and smartest basketball in the final minute of this game…after showing very little over the first 39, except for maybe two short stretches in the second half?

9:19: It’s over in Morgantown.  82-75, ‘Nova.  Huge win for the Wildcats, and places them right back in the hunt for a #1-seed, not that they ever left it, really.  And now…the main event.

9:24: At the under-16 MTO, Texas up by a deuce.  The big question for me on this one is whether or not Texas will show up as a confident, capable basketball team or a team that knows they were supposed to be #1 or 2 instead of #14 in this one.  So far,  it’s the former.  Good catch by Musberger there…Marcus Morris hurt his hand and is in some pain on the sideline.

9:33: Good to see Aldrich get a touch inside which led to an immediate kickout to Brady Morningstar for three.  That’s why the big man has to get those touches — he wasn’t getting them on Saturday, so far as I could see.  Ouch, Morris with a dislocated finger on that shot-block attempt a few plays ago.  That’s gotta be painful.

9:40: A couple of poor post plays there by Cold Aldrich (his led to a forced airball) and Pittman (his led to a triple-team, a near-turnover, and a disorganized play).  I’m not a post man and I never will be, but I can’t understand why players like that don’t utilize a quicker move immediately off the catch rather than waiting for the primary defender to stick right onto his hip?  Can someone with some coaching experience explain that to me?

9:45: Ugh, the Texas offense is pathetic right now.  12-0 KU run in the last seven minutes or so.  It’s not just offensive execution that’s lacking, either; it’s also just poor ball-handling leading to turnovers.  It UT’s first sixteen games this year, they only had an offensive efficiency rating under 100.0 one time; in the last seven games, they’ve had five.  That’s just a fancy way of saying that they’re not getting it done on offense.  In all but the OU loss on Saturday, they turned the ball over >20% of the time, and they shot poorly.  Right now UT is shooting 27% from the field, and they already have a boatload of TOs.

9:52: Wow, this arena couldn’t be any quieter right now.  Meanwhile, Knight throws the media under the bus for selecting UNC in the preseason top ten, saying that people like that have no idea about anything relating to basketball.  I’d be interested to know if Knight submitted a list of top ten teams that included North Carolina at the beginning of the year.  I bet he did, actually.  I mean, considering Roy Williams has gone to 21 straight NCAA Tourneys (in 21 tries), it wasn’t a great bet that UNC would implode this miserably with eight McD’s All-Americans on the team.  Right?

9:57: Speaking of cold, wow, a 22-0 run by Kansas is finally ended when Damion James banks home a three.  Kiffney-style as the kids are calling it these days.  This is a gut-punch by Kansas right now.  Bill Self’s team looks nothing like the lackadaisical squad I saw the last two games.  Meanwhile, Texas looks like a shell of the team that it was even a month ago.  Confidence-wise, they look like they have none.  The passes aren’t crisp, the shots look a little rushed, and even the staid defense feels a little slower than usual.

10:02: Maybe Damion James is good enough to carry Texas until the rest of his team wakes up offensively, but I doubt it.  He already has 15 pts, and the Horns are still down by ten points.  A decent last-minute flurry would really give Texas some momentum heading into the second half.  Avery Bradley did his part, with a long corner three, and they’ll have another chance here in a moment if they don’t turn it back over.

10:05: Wow, Musberger really got a kick out of Sherron Collins’ halfcourt attempt there for some reason.  All I can think is that the O/U for the first half would have hit if that shot went in… he was quite giddy about that.  Texas will go into the locker room down ten points, but it feels like a lot more.  I actually think if they can figure out how to hold onto the ball (9 turnovers leading to 16 KU points) and get some offense from Bradley, Pittman and Jordan Hamilton, they will have a shot to win this game.  Hmmm…  Hubert Davis agrees with me apparently.

]]> http://rushthecourt.net/2010/02/08/boom-goes-the-dynamite-02-08-10-edition/feed/ 1 http://rushthecourt.net/2010/02/08/checking-in-on-the-colonial-4/ http://rushthecourt.net/2010/02/08/checking-in-on-the-colonial-4/#comments Tue, 09 Feb 2010 01:58:05 +0000 rtmsf http://rushthecourt.net/?p=17340

Ryan Restivo of the MAAC-based SienaSaintsBlog is the RTC correspondent for the Colonial Athletic Association. SienaSaintsBlog now features exclusive video!

Standings (as of 2/7)

1. Northeastern (16-8, 11-2)
2. George Mason (15-9, 10-3)
3. Old Dominion (18-7, 10-3)
4. VCU (17-5, 9-4)
5. Drexel (14-11, 9-4)
6. William & Mary (16-7, 8-5)
7. Hofstra (12-13, 5-8)
8. Georgia State (10-15, 4-9)
9. James Madison (10-13, 3-9)
10. UNC Wilmington (7-16, 3-9)
11. Delaware (6-17, 2-10)
12. Towson (5-17, 2-10)

The league had an interesting schedule change due to pending and impending snowstorms. Towson’s home game against James Madison was postponed on Thursday. UNC Wilmington pushed their game one-day against Delaware to Sunday and then to Monday after the snow fell. James Madison will travel to play Towson tonight. Meanwhile the team off to the best start in conference play, George Mason, hit an unexpected rough patch. However, should it have been expected? The young Patriot squad’s seven-game winning streak came against every sub-.500 team in conference. This strength of schedule will change soon enough with a game against heating up VCU, traveling to Old Dominion before a clash with William & Mary. With Northeastern and VCU starting to heat up, not even mentioning Drexel’s strong push, there’s still a race to the top in the CAA.

Important Games This Week

Tue 2/9               

VCU @ George Mason  (7pm ESPNU).  George Mason lost their seven-game winning streak this week. However, all but one win comes over a CAA team that’s over .500. They have won their last eight home games and this only game with VCU may prove to have tiebreaker implications.

Wed 2/10

UNC Wilmington @ Towson (7pm ESPN360.com).  You might not watch this one, but I will. I want to see how the Brooks Lee era continues as the Seahawks battle the Tigers. Towson has struggled immensely and will likely have a second straight 20-loss season. It will be interesting to see the energy of both teams: How will the Seahawks play for their interim coach on TV and how will the Tigers respond to their recent struggles?

Sat 2/13

Northeastern @ William & Mary (7pm).  There will be no love lost on this Valentine’s Day eve matchup between the Huskies and Tribe. The Huskies could be on the path to the top seed in the conference by this time but the Tribe, who have won four out of their last five at home, will have something to say about that. With this being their only meeting, a loss would likely kill the Tribe’s chances at a top seed.

Team Reviews

• Northeastern (11-2).  The Huskies went on their first true road trip in conference and came out with two wins on the week and increasing their road/neutral win streak to eight with wins over Delaware and Hofstra, each by double digits. The offense has been clicking lately as the Huskies have shot better than 50% in six of their last eight games and have won five of their last six games, all by double digits or more. Matt Janning led this week for Northeastern, shooting 42.8% from the field and making 5-10 three pointers to lead the Huskies with game highs of 17 in each win this week. They get a home test against Georgia State, who has not won an in-conference road game since December, followed by a trip to William & Mary that might decide the top four seeds in the CAA.
• George Mason (10-3).  The Patriots were stifled Wednesday night by the box-and-one, triangle-and-two defenses that the Panthers threw at them, being shut out in the final 2:52, as Mason fell 61-57. Cam Long scored just two points and made just one of nine shots on the night.  Heading into Drexel, George Mason could not hold off the Dragons as they went on a 23-6 run and beat the Patriots by 13. The Patriots have struggled in their last three games from behind the arc, making just 12-47 (25.5%) in the last three games.
• Old Dominion (10-3).  The Monarchs used this week to stretch their home win streak to 20 but also saw their road losing streak stretch to two. The Monarchs elite defense, ranked sixth in efficiency entering Sunday, shut down the William & Mary and outrebounded them by 23 in a 19 point win over the Tribe. However, the Monarchs could not dish it out on the road, losing a halftime lead and falling to the VCU Rams by 12. Every loss this season for the Monarchs has been at a road/neutral site, which does not bode well for their BracketBuster game where they will face a Northern Iowa team that is undefeated at home.
• VCU (9-4).  The Rams continued their impressive trek through the conference with wins over UNC Wilmington and a 12-point win over Old Dominion to propel them back into the race for a top seed in the CAA Tournament. Larry Sanders was benched to start the game against Old Dominion and his backup, Kirill Pishchalnikov responded with 14 points and five rebounds. Sanders chipped in 14 of his own and a game-high 12 rebounds. VCU’s 51.4% effective field goal percentage is second to Northeastern’s in the CAA. After an amazing 20 three pointers in a win over Towson, VCU has come back to average making 4.3 three pointers in the last three games.  Meanwhile, Sophomore Jay Gavin left the team for personal reasons. Gavin saw reduced playing time, playing just 11 minutes in the last seven games. Gavin transferred from Marist, where he was MAAC Co-Rookie of the Year, to Virginia Commonwealth after his coach Matt Brady went to James Madison.
• Drexel (9-4).  This is the team to watch out for down the stretch. Redshirt Freshman Chris Fouch has made a great impression scoring 28 and 17 in Drexel’s two wins this week. Fouch has scored double-digit points in the last seven games shooting 47.5% from the field. The Dragons have a chance to solidify their contention this week with games against Hofstra and Delaware. They have won five out of their last six, are third in field goal percentage defense and held their opponents to under 40% shooting in five of their last six games, this team is a definite contender for the conference title. They travel to Hofstra in a winnable game and then host Delaware before a crucial road date to Virginia Commonwealth on the 16th.
• William & Mary (8-5).  The Tribe were dealt a dose of reality in the Constant Convocation Center with a 19 point loss to Old Dominion. Their cold three point shooting hit a low, making just 5-25 attempts in the loss, and every player for the Tribe were held under nine points. In no other game has that happened before this season. That low point appeared to continue in the first half but the Tribe fought through it and prevailed in a tough environment in Atlanta to beat Georgia State by three. Credit should go to the defense, which held the Panthers to two points over the final three and a half minutes even while generating just seven turnovers. They start a homestand this week against Delaware and then a crucial game against Northeastern on Saturday.
• Hofstra (5-8).  The Pride blew out James Madison on the road by 20 but could not bring the same energy against top team Northeastern, shooting just under a season-low in their 20 point home loss to the Huskies Saturday. One problem this week for the Pride were turnovers, dishing out 35 of them on the week. Chaz Williams had a tough time, making just 4-19 and scoring just 9 points this week. Charles Jenkins is working on his Player of the Year candidacy still with 34 points on 10-22 shooting. The junior star has scored 20 points or more in four of the Pride’s last six games. One of their remaining tests comes this week at home against Drexel and a Saturday road date to UNC Wilmington looms ahead.
• Georgia State (4-9).  Jihad Ali’s career high 22 points and knocked down a clutch three with 42 seconds left to give the Panthers a win over first-place George Mason. This was just Ali’s fourth double digit scoring game of the season, doubling his previous high of 11. “I worked hard all week with Coach Barnes,” Ali said after the game. “They told me to stay in the gym and my time would come.” The Panthers’ threw a box-and-one and a triangle-and-two at the Patriots and it stifled them late, not allowing them a point over the final 2:52. The Panthers challenged the Tribe at home as well but were unable to make a field goal in the final 3:13, scoring just one point in that span, in a 59-56 loss to William & Mary. Head Coach Rod Barnes said they got good looks in the second half but could not make enough shots to contend with the best three-point shooting team in the conference. They will be embarking on a road trip this week to Northeastern and then a more winnable game at Towson.
• James Madison (3-9).  Following a two-point loss at George Mason, Head Coach Matt Brady wanted to send a message the team leadership needs to step up. Brady threw his team out of practice Monday but his tactic did not work as Hofstra dealt the Dukes their worst loss in almost eight years. A 20 point loss at home to the Pride drove them a step even further back. Senior Pierre Curtis tried to lead (7.9 ppg, 4 assists per game) but the freshmen have not responded, resulting in their worst shooting percentage since their second game of the year. They have not been able to control the game from the three point line either, shooting 26.5% from behind the arc in the last seven games. Texas A&M transfer Denzel Bowles has done well but it hasn’t been enough, scoring 20.6 points per game in 15 games. Brady has told locals that he plans to sign at least two more junior college players in order to try to contend quickly as Bowles will be a Senior and Julius Wells (16.8 ppg) will be a Junior.
• UNC Wilmington (3-9).  The search is on for a new head coach at UNC Wilmington. As for the fired Head Coach Benny Moss? He has been reassigned as a special assistant to the athletic director. The school would have to pay the difference if he moved to a lower paying job so keeping him on in a role is cost-effective, since he was terminated with three years left on his deal. They are willing to spend around $250,000 per season, which might not be enough for some of the top major assistants in the country. Rumors have circulated that Vermont’s Mike Lonergan, 90-57 at Vermont, could be a candidate for any open CAA coaching job.
• Delaware  (2-10).  This week the Blue Hens learned that forwards redshirt freshman Kelvin McNeil and Josh Brinkley will miss the rest of the season. Brinkley was the team’s leading rebounder with 6.2 rebounds per game and started 18 of the Blue Hens first 20 games. McNeil will go under arthroscopic surgery Wednesday. Meanwhile the Blue Hens were held to a season-low 30% field goal percentage in a 16-point loss at home to Northestern. The Blue Hens rank 11th in the conference in effective field goal percentage, and 310th in the country, at 44.7%. It will not get easier this week with trips planned to William & Mary and Drexel.
• Towson (2-10).  Brian Morris and Robert Nwankwo came back but it did not help as Towson lost their second of three road games on Tuesday by falling at Drexel by 42. Calvin Lee scored eight points but fouled out with just over 15 minutes left in the game. The problem this year has been the defense, and that’s an understatement. In their last four road losses, the Tigers have lost by 25, 9, 59 and 42. They grabbed a road win over a reeling UNC Wilmington team that just fired its coach but this team cannot take care of the glass. They were out rebounded in each of the last six games and have been out rebounded this year by five boards per game which helps lead to league lows in Field Goal percentage defense and scoring defense. The Tigers have not had a winning season under Pat Kennedy and the circles around a potential firing are starting to surface as they approach their third 20-loss season under Kennedy. Snow delayed their weekend game with James Madison and they will have a chance this week to pick up wins at home before traveling to Old Dominion and William & Mary in mid-February.

When not covering the CAA for Rush The Court, Ryan writes about Fantasy Baseball on Rotosavants.com, on his own website RyanRestivo.com and at SienaSaintsBlog.com.  Ryan will take your questions here.

Steve Coulter of the Clarion is the RTC correspondent for the Big West Conference.

Top Story

Santa Barbara shuts down Pacific

UC Santa Barbara traveled to play conference leader Pacific on Thursday night and upset the Tigers 61-48 on their court.  The Gauchos played outstanding defense not allowing any of the Tigers starting five to score more than 10 points in the game.  Sophomore guard Orlando Johnson had a career best 28 points for the Gauchos and led all scorers.  Johnson, the conference’s leading scorer (17.8 points per game), also had six rebounds in the victory.  Fellow sophomore James Nunnally added 19 points and six rebounds.  With the win the Gauchos move to within a half-game of Pacific for the conference lead.  Eight minutes into the game the Tigers trailed 14-2 and failed to recover from that.  They couldn’t come back mainly because of horrendous shooting. The Tigers shot 29.4 percent from the field and only connected on six of their 27 attempted three point shots.  Freshman guard Allen Huddleston led the Tigers off the bench, scoring ten points.  Santa Barbara had beaten Pacific 68-67 earlier this year on January 10 and has now swept the season series.

Other News

Nunnally on fire for Santa Barbara

James Nunnally’s breakthrough in the last four weeks has been a key factor in the Gauchos’ rise in conference standings.  The sophomore forward has the perfect combination of skills that has allowed him to peak.  He can drive to the basket and make a play or he can shoot the three-pointer. On defense he has proven solid in the past few weeks, as the Gauchos have won five of their last six games.  In those six games, Nunnally has scored in double figures every game and has scored more than 20 points five times.  Big performances against Cal Poly, Pacific, and UC Davis in the past two weeks have helped the Gauchos pick up necessary conference wins.  The small forward’s presence is also freeing up space for his teammate Orlando Johnson, who has scored in double figures every game this season and leads the team in rebounding.  With the Johnson and Nunnally combination it seems plausible that UCSB can overtake Pacific in the weeks to come and snag the top seed in next month’s conference tournament.  While Johnson may be pulling away with conference player of the year award, it has been Nunnally’s emergence that has propelled the Gauchos in conference play.

Austin has a career-high night

UC Riverside’s Kyle Austin set a career-high when he scored 35 points last Saturday night in a 76-59 road win over Cal State Fullerton. The mark is second all-time for the Highlanders in their Division I era and is five points short of Rickey Porter’s record set on January 7, 2006.  Austin’s performance helped UC Riverside snap a three-game losing streak.  After a road win over UC Irvine on the January 23, the Highlanders dropped all three games during a three game home stretch.  Austin, who has scored in double figures every conference game this season besides one, was surprisingly cool at home only scoring a total of 25 points in losses to Pacific and CS Northridge.  Without Austin’s scoring, the Highlanders dropped both games and failed to score over 60 points.  In Saturday’s win Austin could not be stopped by the Titan defense. In the first half he shot 7-10 from the field and nailed both three-pointers he attempted.  He finished with 21 first half points, which was one shy of his season record of 22 points in the second half against San Diego on December 4, 2009.

Phelps named player of the week

Sophomore forward Eugene Phelps became the fifth player from Long Beach State to be named Big West Men’s Basketball Player of the Week.  Phelps received the award on February 1 because he led the 49ers to two conference wins the previous week.  Entering the week Phelps had been averaging 8.2 points per game, but he stepped his game up by scoring a career-high 18 points in a 69-68 road victory over Cal State Northridge.  The following game he set a new career high, scoring 21 points and grabbing nine rebounds in a win over UC Davis.  By earning the honor, Phelps helped the 49ers become the first team in league history to have five different players earn Player of the Week honors in a season.  Phelps followed his career best week by returning to earth, scoring ten points in Thursdays overtime loss to Fullerton and finishing with just seven in Saturday’s victory over Northridge.

Two Big West teams will play in BracketBuster games

When Pacific hosts New Mexico State in two weeks (2/20), the Tigers will be representing the Big West in one of eleven of ESPNU’s televised BracketBuster games being held throughout the weekend.  This marks the second time that the two schools play each other in a BracketBusters matchup. They played each other on February 18, 2006, as well.   Although it will not be televised, UC Santa Barbara will also be playing in an out-of-conference game that weekend when they travel to play Fresno St.  The Gauchos are 5-6 out of conference and are below .500 on the road, but they will be playing a 12-12 Bulldogs team that has lost five of its last seven games.

Conference Breakdown

Top Tier: Pacific (8-2), (15-7), Santa Barbara (8-3), (13-8)

The conference leader, Pacific, has not lost to another conference opponent other than UC Santa Barbara yet this season.  Offensively the Tigers have been struggling in the past two weeks. The shooting behind the arc has increased in attempts, but hasn’t produced nearly enough baskets for an offense that relies on it to pull ahead in games.  Pacific is fifth in the conference behind the arc, shooting 34.3 percent but in the past two games against Santa Barbara and Cal Poly the Tigers have shot 27.1 percent. That number is staggering considering that Pacific shot 10-20 from three-point range in a January 21 victory over Cal State Fullerton.  In the past four games there has been a lack of consistency from the starting line up. Joe Ford, Terrell Smith and Michael Nunnally each scored in double-figures in a win over UC Irvine on January 28. Since that game the trio has struggled to score, which has meant Sam Willard and Demetrece Young have had to step up to carry the load.  Willard currently leads the team and rebounding, however the junior forward missed Saturday night’s game against the Mustangs  The Gauchos remain a half game back of Pacific for the conference lead, but must take care of the two teams that sit behind them in the conference standings if they want to catch the Tigers and claim the top spot.  Next Saturday the Gauchos play host to Long Beach State, who has a 5-5 conference record, and then they travel the following Thursday (2/17) to take on Fullerton, also a 5-5 conference team.  The Gauchos are clearly the team to beat in the conference, winning five of their last six games.  Right now they are doing the exact opposite of Pacific—they are effectively shooting the ball from 3-point range and rank first in the conference shooting 37.3 percent from behind the arc  In Saturday’s win over UC Davis, the Gauchos hit their first seven 3-point baskets and in their upset win against Pacific on Thursday they shot 46 percent from 3-point range.  Johnson and Nunnally are giving this team plenty of offensive power and have seemed to mature rapidly as the season has progressed.  With two consistent scorers, good shooting, and a defense that has begun to make plays in recent weeks, the Gauchos have solidified their spot among the top teams in the Big West this season.

Middle of the Pack: Cal State Fullerton (5-5), (11-11), Long Beach State (5-5), (11-12), UC Davis (5-5), (9-13), and Cal Poly (5-5), (9-13)

None of the middle teams seem to have anything in common besides their 5-5 conference record.  They all seem to be going in opposite directions. Long Beach State is winner of three of their last four and has become the second best offensive team in the conference.  Upcoming games against conference heavyweights—Santa Barbara (2/13) and Pacific (2/17)—put the 49ers in great position to thrust themselves into the top tier of the conference before the postseason begins.  It helps to have six players who average over nine points a game, including sophomore forward and player of the year candidate T.J Robinson.  Robinson averages a double double with 15.3 points per game and 10.3 rebounds per game. He had a streak of three consecutive double-doubles last week, but had his streak snapped on Saturday in a win over Northridge.  While the 49ers appear to be heading in the right direction, Cal Poly seems to be heading the other way.  The Mustangs have lost their last four games, including an ugly nonconference to Cal State Bakersfield on January 30. The win was the first road win of the year for Bakersfield and their fourth win on the season.  To revive, the Mustangs must beat the 49ers this upcoming Thursday night. Then they travel to play bottom feeders Riverside and Northridge.  Fullerton has the league’s highest scoring offense, which has positioned them three games back of the Tigers for first place in the division.  Starters Aaron Thompson, Jer’Vaughn Johnson, Jacques Streeter, and Devon Peltier have formed a nice nucleus for the Titans, who until Saturday’s loss to Riverside had no problem scoring more than 70 points a game.  All four players average more than ten points per game and must find help from role players such as center Bryce Webster and forwards Gerald Anderson and Orane Chin.  The Titans have played in three overtime games in their last six games and have come away winners twice, the team needs to continue to rally late in halves in order to continue to have a chance this season.  Of all the middle of the pack teams, UC Davis seems to be the most stagnant. The Aggies seemed destined to stay in the middle of the pack while other teams (Fullerton and Long Beach State) rose past them and others (Cal Poly) dropped.  The Aggies have a chance to make a statement when they host Pacific on Wednesday night.  However no matter what the outcome of the game the Aggies’ postseason future seems murky, as the team has struggled to find consistency. They are 3-3 in their last six games and haven’t had a winning streak since the first week of January.

Bottom Tier: Cal State Northridge (4-6), (9-14), UC Irvine (3-7), (10-14), and UC Riverside (3-8), (9-14)

UC Irvine didn’t help themselves by dropping one of two back-to-back games against non-conference foe Cal State Bakersfield.  The Anteaters have struggled in conference all season and have lost six of their last seven conference games.  Senior guard Michael Hunter and sophomore forward Eric Wise have made up a nice combo for the Anteaters, a lone bright spot in a season that hasn’t seen many.  As for Northridge and Riverside, the two teams continue to turn the ball over too much.  The Matadors have a horrendous defense that doesn’t complement a shaky offense well. They surrender 74.5 points per game, but will have a chance to gain a few wins in the upcoming weeks as they play feeble nonconference opponents in Bakersfield and Drake. Also a Wednesday night game next week against a struggling Cal Poly team could have the Matadors marching into the middle of the conference.  Riverside has pulled off some upsets so far this season, beating Long Beach State and Fullerton, but the facts remain that Riverside is abysmal.  Kyle Austin seems to be the only bright point for the Highlanders, as the junior cannot be stopped by opposing defenses.  Unfortunately for the Highlanders, the rest of the offense is inept, averaging just above 62 points per game.

Michael Vernetti is the RTC correspondent for the West Coast Conference.

Standings (through games of 2/6/10)

1. Saint Mary’s                 8-1 (21-3)
2. Gonzaga                       7-1 (19-4)
3. Portland                       5-3 (14-8)
4. San Francisco               4-5 (9-15)
5. Loyola Marymount       3-5 (12-12)
6. Pepperdine                   3-5 (7-17)
7. Santa Clara                  2-7 (10-16)
8. San Diego                    2-7 (9-16)

Moment of Truth, Part II

Gonzaga triumphed in its trial-by-fire three-game stretch to Portland, Saint Mary’s and San Diego last month, and now it’s Saint Mary’s turn to run the gauntlet. After holding serve at home last week against Santa Clara (74-62) and San Francisco (73-57), the Gaels face a showdown with the Zags Thursday night (Feb. 11) in Spokane, a tough rematch with Portland two nights later, then a final road game on Feb. 18 against San Diego. This is make or break time for Saint Mary’s, which can sew up a regular-season WCC title and a probable NCAA bid with a sweep, or face the same uncertainty it did last season when it failed to beat Gonzaga in three tries.

Although the Gaels could salvage their season with a win over Gonzaga in the WCC tournament March 5-8 in Las Vegas, it would do wonders for their peace of mind if they did the trick Thursday night before a sold out and rockin’ McCarthey Athletic Center, where the Zags have lost only four times in the last six years. The epic contest, perhaps the most meaningful west coast college basketball game this year, will be televised at 8 p.m. Pacific on ESPN2. Are Randy Bennett’s Gaels up to the task?

The consensus of most observers, including Zag fans, is that an upset is possible but Saint Mary’s must be hitting on all cylinders to pull it off. Gonzaga dispelled any thoughts that they had fallen into a mid-season funk with their stunning loss to San Francisco on Jan. 30 by thrashing Portland at home 76-49 on Feb. 4, then pulling one of their patented cross-country jaunts to knock off a tough Memphis squad 66-58 two days later. The Zag express is rolling toward a certain trip to the NCAA tournament and will not want to be derailed by the Gaels on its home court.

To accomplish the improbable, Saint Mary’s must show it has learned some tough lessons from its 89-82 home loss to Gonzaga on Jan. 14. One of these is not to provide another contribution to a highlight reel that could be entitled “Forwards Go Off,” featuring huge games by the Zags’ Elias Harris (31 pts), Santa Clara’s Marc Trasolini (19 pts), Loyola Marymount’s Kevin Young and Drew Viney (27 pts each) and Portland’s Robin Smuelders (29 pts), among others. Simply put, the Gaels have inside defense issues stemming most directly from the departure of stout forwards Diamon Simpson and Ian O’Leary. Their replacements, Ben Allen and Clint Steindl, have given Bennett strong offensive performances from the 4-and 3-spots, but have not exactly played shutdown D. The Gaels don’t have to worry about their powerful offensive machine, which has proved to be a reliable provider of 80-plus ppg, but must clamp down on the Zags’ trio of Harris, Matt Bouldin and Steven Gray.

Eric Reveno must work hard this week to keep his Portland Pilots from licking their lips in anticipation of ambushing the Gaels two nights after they face the Zags. Portland will have a tuneup against unraveling San Diego on Thursday night, then can hope to inflict a disappointing second league loss on the Gaels if they upset Gonzaga or a crippling third one if the Gaels lose in Spokane. “Payback is hell” will be the Pilots’ motto this week, remembering their 77-72 loss to Saint Mary’s last month.

The hotly-contested fourth-place spot in WCC standings stayed with San Francisco this week, as the Dons squeaked out a 72-70 overtime win over San Diego before stumbling at Saint Mary’s. LMU supplanted Pepperdine in the fifth spot by beating the Waves 77-61 at Gersten Pavilion, but both southern California squads travel to San Francisco this week to stage a battle royal for the fourth-place position and first-round WCC tournament bye that goes with it. San Francisco is in the driver’s seat by hosting both of its nearest competitors, but even if it wins both games it faces a killing season-ending schedule of Santa Clara, Portland and Gonzaga on the road. This one isn’t over yet.

Patrick Sellars is the RTC correspondent for the Big 12 Conference.

Power Rankings

1. Kansas (8-0, 22-1) - The Jayhawks have been cutting it very close against some of the conference’s weaker opponents. The game in Boulder was incredibly surprising given that Alec Burks was out of the lineup for the Buffaloes, and KU led by 16 at one point in that game. Then on Saturday the Jayhawks had a very close call with Nebraska in Lawrence, and if they’re not careful they could see their number one ranking slip away once again if they drop a game to a far lesser opponent.
2. Texas (5-3, 19-4) - The Longhorns stay at number two because I still believe they are the second best team in the conference. Sure, they have had their share of rough performances, but with a veteran frontcourt and an experienced coach, I don’t see UT sliding any further than where they are now.
3. Kansas State (6-3, 19-4) - The Wildcats still can’t get the monkey off their back, even when they’re playing the Jayhawks in Manhattan. The tiebreaker against Texas is going to help a lot when it’s determined who will get second place in the conference.
4. Texas A&M (6-3, 17-6) - I feel like the Aggies probably had one of their best weeks ever. They went from being a team on the bubble to a team that has all but secured its spot in the NCAA tournament. Congratulations to TAMU, especially after the loss of Derrick Roland.
5. Missouri (5-3, 17-6) - The Tigers destroyed Colorado, but that was expected because that’s the only team in the Big 12 that Mizzou can consistently outrebound. The Tigers have a good shot at beating Iowa State in Columbia on Wednesday in a game that, depending on how the others go, could have the Tigers sitting alone in second place.
6. Baylor (4-4, 17-5) - That was a bad loss at A&M, mostly because they blew a late lead. The Bears are not in the tournament yet in my opinion, but if they beat Missouri at home on Saturday, it should solidify their spot.
7. Oklahoma (4-4, 13-9) - Huge home win for the Sooners, but its probably too-little-too-late as far as the tournament is concerned. It seems this OU team is destined for the NIT.
8. Oklahoma State (4-5, 16-7) - The Cowboys really had a tough time in Lubbock on Saturday. It proves that this team is nothing but James Anderson, and when he got into foul trouble early in the first half, OSU didn’t know what to do.
9. Texas Tech (3-5, 15-7) - The Red Raiders kept their slim NCAA tourney hopes alive with an “upset” over Oklahoma State on Saturday. In order for this team to make the tournament they’re going to need one heck of a second half. Finishing 5-3 in their next eight games with a win in the Big 12 tournament would still probably have TTU on the outside looking in come Selection Sunday.
10. Iowa State (2-6, 13-10) - Good news for Iowa State: Craig Brackins is back after his 30-point performance against KSU. Bad News: You’re still in 10th place.
11. Colorado (2-7, 11-12) - That was a terrible follow-up to a great game against Kansas. Missouri is a tough team to play, but many CU fans felt that this was a game they could steal from the Tigers. Cory Higgins fouling out certainly didn’t help, but the game was out of reach by then regardless.
12. Nebraska (1-7, 13-10) - Kudos to the Cornhuskers for not giving up against KU and showing some pride. I think if Nebraska plays like that every game, they could steal a few more wins at home this season.

Team of the Week - Baylor Bears.  It is no easy task beating Texas in Austin, especially when arguably your two best players (LaceDarius Dunn and Ekpe Udoh) foul out in OT.  Tweety Carter carried this team on his shoulders and it paid off, because now the Bears have another signature road win to show the tournament committee.

Player of the Week – James Anderson (G) Oklahoma State. If there was any question as to who the best player in the conference was, James Anderson gave us a clear answer last week. With 31 points against Missouri and 28 points against Texas (although both came in losses), Anderson showed why is without a doubt the most prolific scorer in the conference, and should be considered for 1st team All-American honors.

This Week’s Predictions

Kansas at Texas (Monday February 8^th, 9:00 PM ET ESPN) – This is the game that both teams and all Big 12 fans have been looking forward to since the pre-season rankings were released. The number one team in the conference (and the nation) will be playing in an incredibly hostile environment against the only team in the conference capable of matching their interior size. For Damion James and Dexter Pittman, Texas’ senior forwards, this is probably the biggest game of their careers. This game will be the difference between a #3/#4 seed for Texas in the NCAA tournament, and the possibility of attaining a #1 seed if they were to beat Kansas again in the Big 12 Tournament. When it’s all said and done, I think that the environment will be too much for KU to handle, and they will drop their first game in conference play. They narrowly escaped Manhattan with a win last Saturday, and this time I don’t think they’ll be quite so lucky.

Winner: Texas

Texas Tech at Oklahoma (Tuesday February 9^th, 8:00 PM ET) - Two teams with totally different seasons thus far, but they’ve both let their fans down in one way or another. Norman is an incredibly tough place to play, and if there is one thing Oklahoma is good at its scoring in bunches. Pair those facts with the fact that TTU has one of the worst defenses in the conference and we have a victory for OU.

Winner: Oklahoma

Iowa State at Missouri (Wednesday February 10^th, 7:30 PM ET) – The Tigers are not going to lose two games in a row at home, even if they are terribly overmatched on the inside. Iowa State has had problems turning the ball over, and that plays right into Mizzou’s gameplan. Not only do I expect Missouri to win this game, but I don’t even think it will be that close.

Winner: Missouri

Baylor at Nebraska (Wednesday February 10^th, 9:00 PM ET ESPN2) – The Bears overmatch Nebraska in almost every category, then again so does almost all of the conference. Ekpe Udoh should have a huge game, as Nebraska has absolutely no one that can stop him on the inside.

Winner: Baylor

Greg Waddell of Murray State News is the RTC correspondent for the Ohio Valley Conference.

Standings: (as of 2/7)

Team of the Week –  Rivals Murray State and Morehead State share the honor this week as both teams played admirably in their games.  Murray continued its reign of dominance over the OVC, squeaking past hated rival Austin Peay 65-63 in the Regional Special Events Center while Morehead roared to a 84-75 win over Tennessee Tech to sweep the season series and capture 13 of their last 14 games. The two teams will square off on Feb. 25 in Morehead, Ky., in a game that could determine conference supremecy.

Player of the Week – In a closely contested battle, Morehead State forward Kenneth Faried edges Tennessee-Martin guard Marquis Weddle for the title of Player of the Week in this edition. Although Weddles’ play (24 ppg and 6 rpg) over the week was superb, Faried claimed the award by showcasing an all-around game more suited for the NBA than the OVC, notching a dominant performance over the weekend against Tennessee Tech to raise his averages for the week to 19 points and 14 boards. During the stretch Faried recorded his 17th and 18th double-doubles of the season including his ninth straight.

Game of the Week – Murray State 65, Austin Peay 63. When rivals collide, crazy things tend to happen. This edition’s game of the week was just another example as it took every ounce of magic the Racers had to keep the team’s conference mark unblemished for one more game, edging the Govs on a last second shot by junior guard Isacc Miles. Although Miles provided the heroics, Danero Thomas provided the steady hand as the senior forward from Louisiana paced the Racers with 23 points and 11 rebounds. On the other side, Anthony Campbell played well for Austin Peay, nearly recording a double-double with 20 points and eight boards. 

League Notes

ESPN released its schedule of games for its Bracketbuster series on Feb 1.  All 11 OVC schools will participate in for the fifth straight season with games taking place on Feb. 19 and 20. OVC schools are 16-29 all-time in the event, including a 3-7 record last season.

• Oral Roberts at Austin Peay
• Northern Illinois at Eastern Illinois
• Winthrop at Eastern Kentucky
• Presbyterian at Jacksonville State
• Morehead State at Illinois State
• Morgan State at Murray State (TV – ESPNU)
• Southeast Missouri at Miami (Ohio)
• SIU Edwardsville at Cal State Fullerton
• Tennessee State at Central Michigan
• Tennessee Tech at Appalachian State
• UT Martin at Ball State

Team Roundups

• Murray State.  The Racers continued their unbeaten streak through conference play, knocking off Tennessee Tech and Austin Peay in dramatic fashion.  Against Tech, MSU started off slow but a second half surge allowed them to pull away easily behind B.J. Jenkins’ 17 point outburst. Jenkins also added five rebounds in the rout.  The Austin Peay game was a different story altogether though as the Racers struggled to put together any rhythm and fell behind early.  Isacc Miles, who struggled to score the entire game, put the team on his back in the final two minutes, scoring seven points including a dagger at the buzzer to knock off the Govs.  Danero Thomas was a workhorse throughout the game for Murray State, recording 23 points and 11 rebounds.
• Morehead State.  This past week was a good one for the Eagles as they swept the season series against Tennessee Tech while also extending their win streak to 13 of their last 14 games.  Kenneth Faried was a monster down low for Morehead State as the forward from New Jersey did everything but get the team water.  Against the Golden Eagles he was especially dangerous, cleaning the glass for 17 rebounds while adding 26 points, but the game before was a relataively pedestrian one for the big man as he recorded only 12 points and 11 boards. Teammate Maze Stallworth picked up the slack though, dropping 26 points and 11 rebounds.  Farried’s two double-doubles push his season total to 18 and nine straight.
• Eastern Kentucky.  The past week was also good for the Colonels and Papa Oppong as they jumped out to two wins behind the guard’s stellar play.  In the games Oppong put on a shooting clinic for the opposition dropping two games of double-digit scoring in which he recorded 20 and 19 points respectively.  The highlight of the week as the Colonels knocked off Jacksonville State on a Justin Stommes layup with 21 seconds remaining.  EKU escaped to play another, notching their seventh straight home win against the Gamecocks.
• Austin Peay.  Despite dropping the heartbreaker to Murray, the week wasn’t all that bad to the Governors.  Forward Anthony Campbell lit up the nets for 20 points on six of 10 shooting against the Racers while adding eight rebounds.  He was equally impressive from the floor in Austin Peay’s win over Tennessee Martin and he notched 13 points and 10 boards.  Center John Fraley had his way with the Skyhawk defense in the win as he cleaned the boards for 14 rebounds and added 13 points as well.
• Tennessee Tech.  And now to the bad…  Very few things went right for the Golden Eagles this week as they dropped tow straight games.  Kevin Murphy was one of the lone bright spots in the 76-58 shellacking at the hands of Eastern Kentucky as the guard netted 16 points.  There are no moral victories in conference play so although the margin against Morehead State was a little smaller, a loss is still a loss in the books. Jud Dillard did everything he could to help Tech in the Morehead game, but sometimes that not enough as his 25 points and 12 rebounds just couldn’t get them over the jump. Maybe next week.
• Jacksonville State.  Another 0-2 week for the Gamecocks was made a little bit worse by a close loss at the hands of EKU on Saturday.  Nick Murphy was a monster in the first game, a 94-75 loss to Morehead State but the problem is he was the only one to show up, his 22 points and 12 rebounds just not enough to offset the point differential.  Jacksonville State rebounded nicely against EKU but ran out of gas in the end as a crucial play by Eastern’s Justin Stommes put them down one and a timely charge call on the next possession ended their chances at a W. Trenton Marshall scored 19 points and added five boards in the loss.
• Eastern Illinois.  They fall in the bottom part of this list because they only played one game this week.  That one game was a win, but coming against one of the weaker teams (SEMO) in the league doesn’t help.  Jeremy Granger roughed up the Redhawks for 19 points on nine of 15 shooting and James Hollowell added 10 points and 5 rebounds for the victors.
• Southeast Missouri State.  Things got worse for the Redhawks as their only win this week came against a team technically not even in their league…literally.  After a loss to the Panthers, SEMO took on lowly SIU-Edwardsville, currently 3-20 overall, to claim an ugly win. Sam Pearson scored 11 points and added four rebounds in the loss while Marland Smith netted 17 points and five rebounds in the win.
• Tennessee State.  Tennessee State doesn’t fall this low because of a lack off effort, just a lack of production.  Despite Robert Covington’s outburst of 19 points and eight rebounds the Tigers failed to match up with Murray State, and squandered an early lead before falling by 22 (76-54).  Jacquan Nobles and Will Peters did everything they could against Tennessee- Martin and their combined 39 points (Nobles-20, and Peters-19) helped TSU squeak past Martin 74-68.
• UT Martin.  Marquis Weddle is an animal; his team…not so much.  Despite two 20-point games (23,25) against quality opponents in Austin Peay and Tennessee State the Skyhawks just couldn’t pull off a win in the end. The loss of a player like Lester Hudson would hurt any team but Martin must find a way to help out Weddle if they expect do anything come tournament time.  
• SIU Edwardsville.  SIU- Edwardsville is doing a valiant job despite the odds stacked against them.  The talent on their team will get better and better in future seasons but they aren’t there yet and it’s no ones fault.  Nikola Bundalo did his best against SEMO, notching nine points and 13 rebounds, but Edwardsville found itself overmatched in every facet of the game and went home with a tough 68-49 loss.

Patrick Marshall of White & Blue Review is the RTC correspondent for the Missouri Valley Conference.

Current Records and My Standings (Conference Standings) (Last Week)

1. Northern Iowa  21-2  (12-1) (1)
2. Wichita State 20-5 (9-4) (2)
3. Illinois State  16-8 (7-6) (3)
4. Indiana State  14-10 (6-7) (7)
5. Missouri State  16-8 (6-7) (6)
6. Creighton  12-12 (7-6)  (5)
7. Bradley  12-11 (7-6) (8)
8. Drake  11-14 (6-7)  (4)
9. Southern Illinois   13-10 (5-8) (9)
10. Evansville 6-17 (0-13) (10)  

STORIES OF THE WEEK

2010 Bracketbusters—The people in Bristol announced the  11 TV matchups for this season’s Bracketbusters for  Friday and Saturday, February 20^th and 21^st, while the other conference commissioners matched up the rest of the games of the other 76 teams.  Here are the matchups for the Valley teams and TV info for those selected to play on the ESPN family of networks:

• Northern Iowa vs. Old Dominion, Friday, February 19^th, 6PM, ESPN2
• Wichita State  @ Utah State,  Saturday, February 20^th, 11PM, ESPN2
• Nevada @ Missouri State, Saturday, 2PM, ESPN2
• Morehead State @ Ilinois State, Saturday, 4PM
• Indiana State @ Green Bay, Saturday, 7PM
• Loyola (Ill.) @ Creighton,  Saturday, 8:35PM
• Drexel @ Bradley, Saturday, 7PM
• Drake @ Cal State-Northridge, Saturday, 9PM
• Western Michigan @ Southern Illinois, Saturday, 2PM
• Illinois-Chicago @ Evansville,  Saturday, 7PM

Valley coaches in favor of expanded tournament—On the weekly Missouri Valley Conference teleconference, the question of expanding the NCAA Tournament to 96 teams was deemed pretty favorable by the coaches in the Missouri Valley Conference.  With the Valley looking at a one bid for the third straight year, I guess you could understand why they would like it.  However, I still think it takes away from the integrity of the hard work done throughout the season and the build-up would not be the same when teams are expecting to go to the NCAA Tourney by default every year. 

Northern Iowa declared MVC champs—Ok, so mathematically several teams have a chance to catch up and tie or overtake Northern Iowa, but come on,  with five conference games remaining, Northern Iowa has basically run away with the Valley regular season crown while all the other teams are just beating each other up.  When the Panthers knocked off Wichita State last week, they staved off their final threat in the regular season.

Rivalry Week in Full Swing—The known rivalries in the Valley will all be in action this week.  Creighton heads to Carbondale to take on Southern Illinois where the Salukis are looking to respond to the blowout the Bluejays handed to them last season on SIU’s home floor.   The Battle of I-76 between Bradley and Illinois State will be played again with Bradley seeking revenge for getting run off the court a couple weeks ago at Redbird Arena.  Drake and Northern Iowa hook up again as well in an in-state matchup.

TEAM BREAKDOWNS

CRUISE CONTOL

Northern Iowa (2-0 this week, 20-1 in last 21 games, 5 game win streak)—The Panthers are getting every team’s best shot, but they are continuing to find ways to win.  Against Wichita State on Wednesday, the Panthers survived a late rally by the Shockers to get the win.  Saturday they came from behind to beat Southern Illinois and Adam Koch scored the team’s last 11 points.  They hope to continue their domination against Drake and Bradley this week.

BUMPY HIGHWAY FOR  2^nd-9^th

Bradley (2-0 this week) – After going 0-2 last week, Bradley turned things around to go 2-0.  This is just one example of how the rest of the Valley has played this season.  A winning shot by Will Egolf gave Bradley a thrilling victory over Drake.  It is a big week for the Braves this week as they get a shot at the top of the conference with Northern Iowa and Illinois State.  The other good news for them is that both games are at home. 

Wichita State (1-1 this week)—The Shockers just seem to be coasting through under the radar for the most part.  After losing a heartbreaker against Northern Iowa  for their chance to try and catch them, the Shockers had to rally from 15 down in the final nine minutes against a shorthanded Indiana State team to pull out a victory.  It’s the little things that players like Aaron Ellis bring to the court for the Shockers that has helped them become so successful this season.  Games against Evansville and Missouri State should give Wichita State the opportunity to lock down their second place standing in the Valley.

Illinois State  (1-1 this week)— Win one, lose one….that is the mantra of the Valley over the past several weeks and the Redbirds have not been left out.   The big troubles have been road games with last week’s loss coming at Indiana State.  Illinois State is now 1-5 on the road.  With Bradley and Creighton on tap this week, can they get a road victory?  The other question—is Osiris Eldridge not playing as well this season compared to last?   Appears that way. 

Missouri State (1-1 this week)— The Bears are the highest scoring team in the Valley as well as trying to be a great defensive team as well.  In their win against Creighton this week, they displayed both as they went on 11-1 and 17-0 runs to take the Bluejays behind the woodshed, 70-52.  Creighton only had 30 points with nine minutes to go.  Southern Illinois and Wichita State give the Bears opportunities  to move up this week.

Creighton  (1-1 this week)—Creighton, like Illinois State, has big problems winning a road game.  After getting crushed at Missouri State this week, the Bluejays are now 2-11 in road/neutral games this season and it looks like they may not get a road victory the rest of the year.  Luckily they have two home games this week against Indiana State and Illinois State.  It is so dire for Creighton fans now, that the focus is almost off the men’s basketball team as fans find the Creighton Dance Team more interesting. 

Indiana State (1-1 this week)—The Sycamores took a big blow this week losing point guard Harry Marshall along with Dwayne Lathan to injuries suffered during the Illinois State game that will pretty much take them out until the end of the season.   They had a valiant effort against Wichita State on the road, but didn’t have enough gas to keep the Shockers from stealing the victory down the stretch.  Creighton and Drake are on the schedule this week.

Southern Illinois (1-1 this week)— The Salukis couldn’t upset the Panthers even though they hoped their depth would be key this week, so they continue to be an average team.  Tony Freeman had weird feelings playing a game in the state of Iowa again.  They got a victory against Missouri State, but cannot relish in it too much because they turn around and play them again this week along with doormat Evansville

Drake (0-2 this week)—Drake had a nice run, but they have now lost three of four games.  The three losses have all come on the road.  Josh Young keeps getting accolades before he is crowned the school’s all-time scoring leader.  They host conference leaders Northern Iowa this week and travel to Indiana State. 

BLEW A TIRE AND ENGINE BROKE DOWN

Evansville (0-2 this week, 14 game losing streak)— Colt Ryan averaged 24 points in his two games this week against Creighton and Bradley. Before the end of the season, Ryan will shatter the freshman scoring record for this school.  Unfortunately, the Purple Aces continue to lose.  With the City of Evansville building a new Arena and the Aces expected to play there, will there be enough people in the seats to make the switch?  Wichita State and Southern Illinois the next ones to beat up on the Aces.

WEEK AHEAD AND GAMES TO WATCH

Pretty much every game is key in the Valley this week, but here are the best matchups and a couple most people should be able to watch on TV.

• 2/9—Illinois State @ Bradley (Local TV)—Yes, most won’t be able to watch this one, but Bradley has declared a “Blackout” as the Redbirds try to come in and sweep their home-home series this season.
• 2/10—Northern Iowa @ Drake (Local TV throughout Iowa) –This game has to get mentioned because of an in-state rivalry and the Panthers are ranked in the top 25 so every game is important for them.
• 2/13—Illinois State @ Creighton (Local TV in Omaha and Illinois)—This game will determine who will likely play on Thursday night in St. Louis in the MVC Tournament. 
• 2/13—Northern Iowa  @ Bradley (Fox Sports Net)—Either at home or on the road, the Panthers have been dominating the Valley.  Can it continue in Peoria?
• 2/14—Missouri State @ Wichita State (ESPNU)—The Shockers hope to lock in second place in the Valley with this game

Tommy Mason-Griffin and the Other Frosh Stepped Up Saturday

On Saturday afternoon at 3pm local time, OU tipped it off against its bitter rival Texas, running out to a twenty-point halftime lead behind the stellar play of the aforementioned guard Mason-Griffin and wing Cade Davis.  The Sooners cooled off in the second half, but they were still able to utilize some great free throw defense (10-27 for UT) and some timely buckets down the stretch to hang on to win, 80-71.  The freshman four stepped up in this one, combining for half of the Sooners’ points and two-thirds of their assists.  It was without question the Sooners’ biggest victory of the season, and one that Sooner faithful hope would springboard OU back into the Big 12 picture and contention for a late run at the NCAA Tournament. 

Cause for celebration, right?  The game ended at around 5:30 pm.  Give a reasonable amount of time for players to shower, dress and venture home, and you figure most everybody is gone by 7 pm.  Surely some players went out to eat with their families; still others may have had a date with a girlfriend; and perhaps some just went home and chillaxed for a while.  Not freshmen Steven Pledger and Andrew Fitzgerald, though.  They went to the mall.  But not only did they go to the mall, they were so excited by the big win and their individual performances (Fitzgerald: started and contributed 3/2/1 asst in 19 minutes; Pledger: 9/4/1 in 24 minutes off the bench) that they decided to steal some shirts from a local Dillard’s.  Allegedly, of course.  At 8:50 pm, the two players were watched by store security as they placed two shirts inside a blue plastic bag with the clear intent to conceal them. 

Pledger & Fitzgerald Making Smart Decisions

Not even four hours after the biggest win of their entire lives, these two knuckleheads thought they were entitled to some free shirts.  Instead of receiving a conga line of well-wishers and fans back in the dorms like campus deities, they’re busy getting written up by some rent-a-cop for petty larceny.  We’re sure that they’ll learn from this mistake, but at what cost to Oklahoma?  Tomorrow night’s game against Texas Tech in Norman is a must-win, and Jeff Capel now needs to make the decision on what punishment he’ll hand down to these two clowns.  If he’s harsh and suspends them, he’ll be extremely shorthanded for that game; if he lets them play, then there’s an implication that stealing things from department stores is ok.  We’re not sure which way he’ll turn, but we do have one question in all of this…  was Royce White visiting from out of town? 

***** – quit your job and divorce your wife if that’s what it takes to watch this game live
**** – best watched live, but if you must, tivo and watch it tonight as soon as you get home
*** – set your tivo but make sure you watch it later
** – set your tivo but we’ll forgive you if it stays in the queue until 2012
* – don’t waste bandwidth (yours or the tivo’s) of any kind on this game

#4 Villanova @ #5 West Virginia – 7 pm on ESPN (*****)

WVU Has Been Celebrating a Lot Lately (AP/David Smith)

Depending on how this game plays out, we could be looking at some major Tournament seeding implications in this one tonight.  Before Villanova’s last game against Georgetown, they had won eleven in a row, but gave up over 100 points to the Hoyas and now must face a West Virginia team that has a six-game winning streak of their own.  The Mountaineers now stand at 19-3 and would get a huge boost in the rankings with a clutch home win over Villanova.  These teams have only met once the last two seasons, but West Virginia led virtually the entire game in last year’s 93-72 blowout victory in Morgantown.  As shown by their 90 points in a double-digit loss to Georgetown, Villanova can score with anybody.  They are ranked second in points per game and third in offensive efficiency, but what is killing them is their 64th ranked defense (according to Pomeroy).  West Virginia averages less than 74 points per game, but they are right behind the Wildcats in offensive efficiency and have a top 25 defense to complement it.  WVU only surrenders 61.5 points per game, and hasn’t given up 75 points in a single game since January 1.  In Villanova’s loss to the Hoyas, Scottie Reynolds scored 24 points, but it was on 6-17 shooting.  If he is having an off night, look for him to distribute the ball more in this game, but it may not be enough against a tough Mountaineer team at home (and their crowd).

#1 Kansas @ #14 Texas – 9 pm on ESPN (****)

Texas is still going to make the NCAA tournament, but their situation is getting more desperate with every passing week.  Following their 17-0 start, they have lost four of the last six games, perhaps none worse than the loss at Oklahoma in which they never led and trailed by as much as 20 points in the second half.  Kansas has won eight straight games, but has been in a recent funk with two overtimes and trouble putting teams away in each of their last three games.  Both of these teams can put a lot of points on the board, as they also rank among the nation’s leaders in points and rebounds per game, while Kansas also ranks fourth in assists per game.  Due mainly to their earlier performances, both teams also rank highly in defensive efficiency, but Texas has now given up 80+ points in four of their last five.  Perhaps the most intriguing matchup tonight is between big men Dexter Pittman and Cole Aldrich.  Pittman shoots over 68% from the field, while Aldrich averages a double-double (12/10).  To be honest, Aldrich has been a bit of a disappointment this year with decreases in points and rebounds per game, as well as a drop off in minutes and field goal percentage.  He couldn’t keep his stamina at the end of the Colorado game, and only scored eight points against Nebraska, but the Jayhawks will need him if they want to keep pace with their high-scoring opponent in Austin.

Note that this week Rob Dauster of BiaH is filling in for one or usual pollsters. 

QnD Analysis.

• Despite a lackluster couple of games this week, Kansas remains atop our poll with three of the four #1 overall votes.  The Jayhawks will be tested tonight in Austin, and if they can pull through safely in that one, they may be primed to finish the regular season with one loss.  Syracuse is ready to take over at #1 should KU falter, and has two home games this week against struggling teams by which to do so.
• In n’ Out.  There wasn’t much turnover this week at the bottom of the poll for once, as #22 Texas A&M and #23 Wake Forest rode strong weeks into the rankings.  Both teams have been in and out of the poll all season, so no big surprise there.  They replaced Missouri and Georgia Tech, both of whom dropped games last week but will probably be back in the rankings soon enough.  The bottom of the Top 25 this year has been, shall we say, fluid? 
• Variance.  This week, #11 Wisconsin and #16 Gonzaga had the most disagreement among the pollsters.  The Badgers were rated anywhere from #9 to #17, while the Zags were from #11 to #18.  Actually, most of the poll this week was fairly settled, with the majority of teams falling into a relatively small interval.  As always, there was also some disagreement among the bottom teams, as three pollsters identified #19 Vanderbilt as the nineteenth-best team in America, while one pollster had the Dores unranked.  Similarly, Texas A&M, Pitt and Baylor all had support as high as the #18 mark while also being unranked depending on the pollster. 
• Conference Call.  Big East (5), Big 12 (5), Big 10 (4), SEC (3),  ACC (2), MWC (2), A10 (1), WCC (1), Horizon (1), MVC (1).

Zach Hayes is RTC’s resident bracketologist.  He’ll regularly be out-scooping, out-thinking and out-shining Lunardi over the next two months.

Some quick thoughts going into the last five weeks before Selection Sunday…

• Kansas remains the #1 overall seed by squeaking out two games this week against Nebraska and Colorado to remain undefeated atop the Big 12. Both Syracuse and Kentucky took care of business behind them. Despite being romped by Georgetown on Saturday, Villanova slips in as the last #1 seed but must play in Salt Lake City.
• Georgetown appeared as though they might slip from the #2 seed line after their loss to South Florida mid-week, but their statement victory against Villanova healed all wounds. Also on the second line are West Virginia and Duke. Losing two games this week still kept Michigan State as a #2 seed slightly ahead of Wisconsin and Purdue due to the Spartans being the projected conference champions.
• Wisconsin, Purdue and Kansas State as #3 seeds were obvious, but New Mexico’s impressive portfolio really jumped out at me at 21-3 (7-2) a #10 RPI and six wins over the RPI top 50. Surviving a scare from San Diego State allowed the Lobos to claim this lofty seed and play closer to home in San Jose.
• Three big climbers this week were Wake Forest, UNLV and Richmond. The Demon Deacons picked up an underrated road win at Virginia and, with an RPI/SOS in the top 25 and four top-50 wins, they’re building quite the resume. Wake might be the second-best team in the ACC. UNLV destroying BYU in Vegas pushed the Rebels up to a #6 seed while Richmond’s dispatching of Temple moved them up from bubble territory to a much more comfortable #8 seed.
• The Big East is incredibly muddled in the middle. Out of the 12 teams in my LFI, LFO and NFO categories, five reside from the Big East. Notre Dame could have been dead with a loss yesterday to South Florida, but an Irish win keeps them very much alive and doesn’t allow the Bulls to inch into the periphery of the bubble. Illinois and Virginia Tech just could not be denied entry due to their conference records despite lackluster computer numbers. Louisville and Cincinnati are also close calls.
• Marquette and Old Dominion were extremely close for the last bid, but the Golden Eagles winning their last three while the Monarchs have fallen in two of their last three flip-flopped the schools. Coincidentally, both hold a signature win over Georgetown. One team that needs to watch out is Oklahoma State, now straddled with a losing Big 12 record and just three wins over the RPI top 100.

Last Four In: Marquette, Illinois, Virginia Tech, Oklahoma State

Last Four Out: Old Dominion, Louisville, Cincinnati, Notre Dame

Next Four Out: South Florida, Wichita State, Washington, Mississippi State

Also considered: Connecticut, Texas Tech, South Carolina, Northwestern, Minnesota, Tulsa, Memphis, Virginia, Louisiana Tech

Automatic bids: Stony Brook, Charlotte, Duke, Lipscomb, Kansas, Syracuse, Weber State, Coastal Carolina, Michigan State, Pacific, Northeastern, UTEP, Butler, Cornell, Siena, Kent State, Morgan State, Northern Iowa, New Mexico, Robert Morris, Murray State, California, Lehigh, Kentucky, Charleston, Sam Houston State, Jackson State, Oakland, Arkansas State, Gonzaga, New Mexico State.

Bids per conference: Atlantic Coast (7), Big 12 (7), Big East (6), Atlantic Ten (6), SEC (5), Big Ten (5), Mountain West (3), Conference USA (2), West Coast (2).

Next bracket: February 15.

1. Want to know what’s wrong with UNC this year?  One ACC coach laid out all of the dirty laundry about Roy Williams’ team in an interview with the Washington Post.  Since the coach was speaking as someone who had faced Carolina once already this season, and the article came out Saturday morning, this means that it was one of the following four: Seth Greenberg (Virginia Tech), Paul Hewitt (Georgia Tech), Oliver Purnell (Clemson), Sidney Lowe (NC State) or Dino Gaudio (Wake Forest).  Lowe lost to the Heels in their only game and Gaudio still seems too new to make those kinds of statements about that program, even anonymously.  That leaves Greenberg, Hewitt and Purnell, and our money is on Greenberg.  For some reason it just sounds like him (and the WaPo probably has a closer relationship with him than the others).
2. Florida State announced on Sunday that they will be vacating wins from ten sports that involved 61 athletes accused of academic misconduct during the 2006-07 academic year.  Most of the news will focus on football coach Bobby Bowden losing 12 wins from his career total, but of interest to us is that the basketball program will lose all 22 of its wins from that year as well — one from the ACC Tourney, and two from the NIT.
3. Based on everything that Isiah Thomas says here about his lack of interest in the LA Clippers job, we fully expect him to see him stalking the sidelines (and the interns!) at the Staples Center next season.
4. NCAA 96: a voice of reason on expansion of the NCAA Tournament from an unlikely source, the Commissioner of the Big Ten, Jim Delaney.  The key takeaway from his discussion with TSN is ‘let’s learn more about this.’  Exactly.  The more time spent talking to stakeholders as well as THE FANS is simple but seemingly missing from this idea — it helps to remove avarice from the equation and gives reasoned consideration to the premise that just because an idea will be profitable makes it a good thing.
5. Pat Forde writes that if the COY award were handed out today, there would be no doubt who should win it – Jim Boeheim.  He won’t get any argument from us.  Syracuse received 83 votes in the preseason AP Poll (good for 31st) and 111 votes in the ESPN/Coaches Poll (25th).  The Orange are now 23-1, leading the Big East Conference, and could potentially be Boeheim’s best team ever.  That’s right.  Look through this list and find a better team.  It’s hard to do.

Blowout Weekend.  On paper, it looked to be a dog of a weekend, and for the most part it turned out that way.  Among nearly 150 games, you’re bound to find some good ones, but among the Top 25 there were twelve games where the favorite won by 10+ points and of the six “upsets” involving ranked teams, even three of those were blowouts the other direction.  Maybe everyone knew that the sports world’s focus would be on the Super Bowl, so they figured they’d save some drama for the rest of the month.  Whatever the case, we’re expecting some much better games this week during ESPN’s self-described Rivalry Week.

Game of the Weekend.  Illinois 78, #5 Michigan State 73. For the second consecutive weekend, ESPN got lucky in that the best marquee matchup of teams happened to coincide with their Gameday game.  In a wild Orange Krush environment in Champaign on Saturday night, it was Demetri McCamey who brought the noise with a 22/11 assts night that included six threes, every one of which seemed to be of the timely variety.  Perhaps his biggest of the night was with less than a minute to go, a shot that effectively put the game away from the Illini.  MSU got a huge night from Draymond Green (17/16), but it seemed as if the Spartans lacked a little of their usual poise with their star point guard acting as an assistant due to his ankle injury (18 turnovers, six from his replacement, Korie Lucious).  It didn’t seem to bother the Illinois students who RTC’d afterward in a questionable display for a program of that caliber.  The win puts Illinois in a virtual tie with Wisconsin, Purdue and Ohio State just one game back in the loss column behind MSU, but we’re not sold on the long-term viability of that team as much as the others.  Still, they were the better team on this night, largely due to McCamey’s heroics, and we’re thankful that the Big Ten race has now gotten a lot more interesting.

Orange Krush Fail (AP/Heather Coit)

Notable Upsets This Weekend.   The theme here?  Home teams.

• Oklahoma 80, #10 Texas 71.  It was Wayman Tisdale Day at Oklahoma, and the Sooners used the inspiration from the sweet-shooting big man and musician to jump out on the reeling Longhorns behind 20/10 from Cade Davis and 24/5 from Tommy Mason-Griffin.  The Horns once again looked indecisive and like a team without on offensive identity in this one, and it didn’t help that they were a putrid 10-27 from the foul line.  Can Texas find their mojo in time for a visit from #1 Kansas on Monday night?
• UNLV 88, #12 BYU 74.  This was a good old-fashioned asskicking, as UNLV jumped out to a 47-18 first-half lead and never looked back.  Tre’Von Willis had a career-high 33 points as his team hit their first nine three-point attempts and effectively walloped the Cougars from their perch atop the conference.  BYU star Jimmer Fredette had 21 points, but he worked for it on 4-15 shooting.  The MWC might have three teams that are NCAA-worthy this year if you include New Mexico in that mix.
• Richmond 71, #17 Temple 54.  It was Richmond that appeared to have one of the nation’s top defenses (and offenses!) on this night as the Spiders moved into a four-way tie in the loss column by torching Temple.  The Spiders shot 58% from the field and held Temple to just 32% behind Kevin Anderson’s 29/5/3 assts on 11-17 shooting.  With the Pac-10 looking like a one-bid league, could the A10 be a four-team league this year including some combination of UR, Temple, Rhode Island, Xavier, Dayton and Charlotte?

• Georgia 72, #20 Vanderbilt 58.  Georgia took advantage of a poor shooting night by Vandy, including only 14 points from AJ Ogilvy and Jeffery Taylor, to get the Dawgs’ second win in the SEC this season.  With the loss, Vandy drops into a tie with Tennessee one game behind league-leading Kentucky in the SEC East.  The Commodores host those very Vols on Tuesday night in Nashville.
• Texas A&M 78, #24 Baylor 71.  An upset in ranking only, as the Aggies are likely the better team.  They’re certainly playing better, with wins over Missouri and now Baylor in the last week.  Seniors Bryan Davis and Donald Sloan played great, combining for 42/13/6 and helping  hold key offensive players Tweety Carter and Ekpe Udoh to 10-28 shooting on the night.  Baylor’s a team we’re having trouble figuring out on a regular basis.

Conference Recaps.

• ACC – Four of the six ACC games this weekend went down to the wire, and the most interesting one was probably Wake’s road win at Virginia on Saturday.  It seems that the only way to beat the Deacons is to do so in regulation, as Wake won it’s fourth overtime game of the season in Charlottesville behind a 15/7/5 asst game from Ish Smith.  After Duke, Maryland and Wake Forest appear most likely to take the league regular season crown should the Devils falter down the stretch.  And there could be reason to think that’ll happen, given how close Coach K’s team was to dropping another road game at BC on Saturday.  Their triple-S’s combined for 54/11/8 assts, but they had to sweat a Joe Trapani three at the buzzer that would have sent the game into OT.  Maryland continues to look impressive, with a second-half waxing of UNC on Sunday that looked a little bit like ‘name-your-score’ at certain points of the game.  Greivis Vasquez had 26/5/11 assts as he continues to make his case for ACC POY, while Ol’ Roy’s squad is heading straight to the NIT with six Ls in their last seven games.  Georgia Tech nearly blew a 16-pt lead with five minutes to go at home on Saturday before hanging on to beat NC State, while Virginia Tech and Florida State also got home wins over the weekend.  The conference race is still muddled, but the surprise team right now is the Hokies, now sitting at 5-3 and tied with rival (and media darling) Virginia at the moment.
• Big East – The biggest game of the weekend — Georgetown vs. Villanova — is discussed below in RTC Live, but it’s amazing to us how good the Hoyas are when Chris Wright is on his game.  National title contender good… the problem is that he can’t do that for six straight games against quality competition.  The other two interesting games this weekend were both West Virginia and Syracuse using insane second-half runs to turn upset scenarios into easy wins.  WVU was down thirteen points in the second half when they finally put everything together and blew the Johnnies out of the building, finishing the game on a 47-15 run.  Da’Sean Butler had 33/6/4 assts on 7-7 shooting from three.  On Sunday, Syracuse found itself down six points with twelve minutes remaining in a hostile road environment before shutting down the Bearcats the rest of the way, using a 28-5 run to finish the game off.  How scary is it that the Orange were able to accomplish this despite Wes Johnson only scoring five points as he deals with soreness from his nasty fall last week against Providence?  Connecticut, Louisville, Pitt and Notre Dame all got much-needed home wins, and the most interesting aspect of those games was that USF’s scorching-hot Dominique Jones was held to 10 points on 3-17 FGs against, of all teams, the papier-mache Notre Dame defense.  It looks like a three-horse race for the Big East regular season title, and tomorrow night’s game between WVU and Villanova may go a long way toward deciding who has the advantage to take on Syracuse the rest of the way.
• Big Ten – With Illinois’ win over Michigan State (discussed above) to move to 8-3 in the league, there are now five teams with a legitimate shot at the Big Ten regular season title.  Wisconsin shut down Michigan in Ann Arbor easily yesterday to move to 8-3, and Ohio State defeated Iowa today behind Evan Turner’s 33/7/4 to keep the pace.  Purdue didn’t play this weekend, but they’ll have MSU on Tuesday to try to make up the one-game gap the Spartans have on the others.  Minnesota and Northwestern both got key wins to keep their NCAA hopes alive, with the Gophers’ Lawrence Westbrook hitting perhaps the shot of the weekend with a contested fadeaway to win the game over Penn State (see below), while NU continues to win just enough games to keep people like us talking about their still-realistic chances of making the NCAA Tournament.

• Big 12 – #1 Kansas didn’t play all that well again, but they did enough to win their 55th in a row at home behind Marcus Morris’ 20/11 despite Cole Aldrich once again only getting five shot attempts in the course of the game (by contrast, Sherron Collins and Morris had a combined 26 attempts).  The other two key games were discussed above, but K-State and Missouri managed to avoid letdown games against Colorado and Iowa State, respectively, while Texas Tech took care of the up-and-down Oklahoma State at home.  At 8-0, this league is clearly KU’s to lose, but there’s a logjam at second place with four teams having three losses right now.  KSU and A&M are playing the best ball, but there isn’t a team in this league that hasn’t been slightly schizophrenic so far, so we’re not making any kind of prediction as to the rest of the way in that regard.
• Pac-10 – The dream 9-9 for every team scenario still has a shot to happen, but Cal’s win at UCLA on Saturday makes it a little less likely.  The Bears are at 7-4 with five teams now at 6-5 after both Washington schools swept the Arizonas on Saturday and Oregon State whipped Oregon in Corvallis.  Stanford, who was tied for the league lead a little over a week ago, is now in last place.  UW visits Cal on Thursday night which could ultimately decide whether the Bears are going to create separation from the rest of the pack or not.
• SEC – Kentucky’s DeMarcus Cousins outscored LSU 15-14 in the first half of the Wildcats’ thrashing of the Tigers on Saturday.  John Wall?  2-9 FGs for a season-low 6 points.  Is it safe to say that Cousins has passed Wall as the FrOY yet?  In a huge comeback, Ole Miss came back from down 23 in the second half to get past Alabama, who has shown a propensity for running out of steam late this year, while Tennessee thrashed South Carolina and Florida outlasted Mississippi State.  The most interesting team over the past two weeks in the SEC has been the suddenly resurgent Arkansas Razorbacks, who gutted out another close win in overtime against Auburn on Saturday.  Courtney Fortson had 24/10/7 assts, and believe it or not, the Hawgs are leading the SEC West at 5-3 with four straight close wins.  Could John Pelphrey’s team be the best team in that crazy division this year?
• Others – Charlotte now leads the A10 with an 8-1 record after the 49ers won at Fordham and Dayton ripped Xavier with the Musketeers’ worst loss of the year and Richmond’s impressive win over Temple, discussed above.  In the CAA, Northeastern now leads the league at 11-2 after defeating Hofstra in tandem with ODU’s loss to VCU and George Mason’s loss to Drexel on Saturday – this is one of the better conference races around this year.  In CUSA, UTEP now leads at 8-1 after handling Tulsa behind twin dub-dubs from Derrick Caracter and Arnett Moultrie.  UAB stayed one game back with a win at Rice, while Memphis’ interconference game with Gonzaga was discussed above.  Butler moved to 13-0 in the Horizon League with a win over Wright State on Saturday, while Cornell also stayed unbeaten in the Ivy at 6-0 with wins over Yale and Brown over the weekend.  Over in the Valley, Northern Iowa kept its three-game lead on the next best team with an ugly win over SIU, while St. Mary’s beat USF to move to 8-1 in the WCC in prep for their game at Gonzaga for the league lead this week.  With BYU’s loss, New Mexico won in overtime over SDSU to move into a three-way tie in first place of the Mountain West with the Cougars and UNLV.  In the WAC, Utah State won over Nevada (see RTC Live below) and moved a half-game ahead of Louisiana Tech and New Mexico State for the league lead.

RTC Live.  It was a light weekend for RTC Live, but we still sent our correspondents through the blizzard conditions in DC to take in Georgetown’s waxing of the #2 Villanova Wildcats.

• #8 Georgetown 103, #2 Villanova 90.  Just like they did against Duke last Saturday, Georgetown’s offense picked apart Villanova’s defense. They started by pounding the ball into Greg Monroe. After a couple of early buckets and a couple of early fouls on Antonio Pena, Villanova had to start collapsing inside. That allowed Georgetown’s shooters some daylight, and boy did they make the Wildcats pay, hitting 10-19 from deep. After digging themselves a 50-31 hole at the half, Villanova threw on a press in the second half, and while they got the lead down to ten on a couple of occasions, Nova was never able to string together enough stops to really ever make a threat. Perhaps the most telling stat of the day is that Georgetown shot 53% from the field while picking up an assist on 21 of their 27 field goals.  Jason Clark had a career high 24 points on 6-7 shooting from three, while Austin Freeman led the Hoyas with 25 points and Greg Monroe chipped in with 19 points, 8 boards, and a team-high six assists. Villanova’s Scottie Reynolds went for 24 points and 6 assists, but was just 6-17 from the field and turned the ball over six times.
• Utah State 76, Nevada 65.  Tai Wesley scored 19 points to lead Utah State and the Aggies dominated the boards in route to a big win over rival Nevada. Nevada played great defense on Utah State, and Luke Babbitt and Armon Johnson were spectacular as usual (scoring a combined 39), but Nevada could not close out defensive stops with rebounds when it counted in the second half. All in all Utah State finished with 21 offensive boards (compared to Nevada getting 22 defensive rebounds) leading to 20 second-chance points, and that proved to be the difference on a night when the Aggies only shot 40% from the field. Five Aggie players finished with at least five rebounds lead by Tai Wesley with nine (seven offensive) as Utah State used a balanced attack in the post to wear down the painfully thin Wolfpack. Nevada dropped to 5-4 in conference and is danger of falling out of the top tier in the WAC as Utah State (8-2), New Mexico State (7-2) and Louisiana Tech are all starting to separate themselves. Utah State has now won eight games in a row and will look to keep the momentum going when they head back out on the road Thursday at Boise State. Nevada will look to rebound Wednesday against a suddenly resurgent Idaho team.

***** – quit your job and divorce your wife if that’s what it takes to watch this game live
**** – best watched live, but if you must, tivo and watch it tonight as soon as you get home
*** – set your tivo but make sure you watch it later
** – set your tivo but we’ll forgive you if it stays in the queue until 2012
* – don’t waste bandwidth (yours or the tivo’s) of any kind on this game

South Florida @ Notre Dame – 12 pm on ESPN 360 (***)

If somebody told you two weeks ago that USF was a tournament team, you would be shaking your head and laughing.  Now, with four straight wins, including victories against Pitt and Georgetown in their last two games, the Bulls are looking to dance in March.  Today’s game will be in South Bend, but considering South Florida held the Hoyas to 64 points in Washington, D.C., they may in fact be ready for this game.  While USF continues to impress, the Fighting Irish are disappointing fans again with four losses in their last six games, including defeats to Cincinnati and Rutgers.  Luke Harangody has held up his end of the bargain, with at least 37 minutes and 19 points in each of the last five games.  What is killing ND is how one-sided they are.  They rank fourth in Ken Pomeroy’s offensive efficiency rankings, but are an astounding 239th in defensive efficiency.  Statistically, Notre Dame can still play smart basketball, as they are third in the nation in assists per game and are in the top team in assists/turnover ratio.  However, given play of the most underrated player in the country in Dominique Jones (he has scored 20 + points in every game since December) I expect the Bulls to put another dagger in Notre Dame’s at-large chances.

North Carolina @ Maryland – 2 pm on FSN (***)

The debate is now over: UNC is out of the tournament as things stand now.  For Maryland, however, questions arise if this team is a serious threat to do some damage in March.  After having the four-game win streak ended by Clemson, they responded in a big way with a road win against Florida State.  The Terrapins rank in the top ten in Ken Pomeroy’s standings, thanks to top ten rankings in both offensive and defensive efficiency.  North Carolina, with losses in six of the last eight games, is sniffing the bottom of the ACC with a 2-5 record.  Neither their offense nor defense rank in the top 60 in Pomeroy’s efficiency rankings, so their chances in College Park do not look promising.  Maryland’s has not lost all year at the Comcast Center, but the Terps have shot around 20 % from beyond the arc in their last two games, a trend they will not be able to keep up if UNC scores near their 80.4 season average.  The difference between these two teams is that North Carolina is finding ways to lose and Maryland is finding ways to win, as shown by their late comeback against FSU.  Look for North Carolina to fall even further with another L in ACC play.

#4 Syracuse @ Cincinnati – 2 pm on ESPN 360 (**)

Initially this game would seem to be a blowout.  Syracuse appears to be the hottest team in the country right now, and Cincinnati is faltering in the Big East.  The Orange average over 10 points more per game and give up fewer points per game.  Syracuse ranks in the top 15 in both offensive and defensive efficiency, and the Bearcats rank 104th in offensive efficiency.  What UC has going for them, however, is that they are fighting for their postseason lives, and Syracuse is not at full strength.  Wes Johnson, Syracuse’s leading scorer, was inactive for a large majority of the second half against Providence, but will try to play against Cincinnati.  The Bearcats also get to play at home, where they are 11-1 on the year.  With all that said, Jim Boeheim’s team could not do anything to look more impressive than they do right now.  They haven’t given up more than 71 points in any of the games during their nine-game win streak, and they are still averaging 82.5 points per game on offense.  If Johnson is able to contribute or play without negatively impacting the team, looking for Syracuse to keep rolling.

Another weekend means that the RTC crew is back with another thrilling edition of Boom Goes the Dynamite. This weekend’s games are not as strong as you might expect for an early February weekend, but that just means the rest of the month is going to be stuffed to the gills with great matchups.  Still, any Saturday that has a total of 147 games on the slate is going to have quite a few goodies.  Here are the games that we plan on trying to keep an eye on today…

12 PM: #2 Villanova @ #7 Georgetown on ESPN – RTC Live
12 PM: Xavier @ Dayton on ESPN2
12 PM: #6 West Virginia @ St. John’s on ESPNU
12 PM: Wake Forest @ Virginia on ESPN360
1:30 PM: Mississippi State @ Florida on ESPN360
2 PM: #10 Duke @ Boston College on ESPN
2 PM: #19 Temple @ Richmond on ESPNU
4 PM: #16 Wisconsin @ Michigan on CBS
4 PM: California @ UCLA on CBS
4 PM: #9 Texas @ Oklahoma on ESPN
4 PM: #17 Gonzaga @ Memphis on ESPN2
4 PM: #12 BYU @ UNLV on Versus
4 PM: #20 Baylor @ Texas A&M on ESPN360
6 PM: South Carolina @ #14 Tennessee on ESPN
6 PM: San Diego State @ #15 New Mexico on The Mtn.
6 PM: Seton Hall @ #22 Pittsburgh on ESPN360
9 PM: #5 Michigan State @ Illinois on ESPN
10 PM: Tulsa @ UTEP on ESPN2
10 PM: Nevada @ Utah State on ESPNU – RTC Live

We’re sure you know how the drill works — we’ll update accordingly throughout the day as we try to test the limits of our televisions’ channel-changing mechanisms — and we hope to see you around in the comments.

12 noon: Here we go.  JStev to start out with you here, then rtmsf will guide you through the latter part of the day.  Pretty good slate of early games, as you can see above.  Looks like the ESPN Gameday guys are split on the evening game, with Digger the only one taking the Illini.

12:04: Also, as you can see from the link above, we have a man at Georgetown vs Villanova for RTC Live.  Man, it looks like DC got walloped by this storm.  I’ll be checking in quite often on Xavier at Dayton over on ESPN2. since we have live coverage in DC.  I’m also thinking WVU at St. John’s could get interesting on the U.

12:13: I wasn’t aware of this 72-hour stretch for Villanova.  AT Georgetown and then AT West Virginia.  Yeesh.  If they win both of those, it’d be hard to begrudge them the number one spot in the rankings, if Kansas/Texas on Monday is even CLOSE.  Who was the last #1 to get demoted to #2 without losing?  I think it was a Kentucky team in like 1986 or 1987, with Arizona taking #1.  Verification pending…

12:20: Dayton has come out on fire at home against Xavier, already up by ten.  They’ve hit 7-13 and 3-5.  I was courtside at Dayton vs Creighton to start the season and let me you, folks…I was impressed by the passion brought to the table by the Dayton fans.  I’ve seen many games in many places from media seats this year, and Dayton’s fans were some of the loudest.  You know what?  So were Xavier’s.  One of the great things about A10 basketball.  SO many great rivalries.

12:30: It’s obvious that Brian Gregory has made it clear to his team how important this game is.  They are OWNING the Muskies right now.  They’re on fire from everywhere on the floor.  They have five times the assists (5-1), double the rebounds (14-7), and Xavier doesn’t have an assist yet.  Five minutes left in the first half and Dayton is up 31-17.

12:40: Again, I’m keepin’ tabs on Dayton/Xavier since we have a guy at Villanova/Georgetown doing RTC Live.  But, there’s a shocker happening there, too as Georgetown is thumping Villanova, 43-25, at the under-4 MTO.

12:47: Two things have happened, here.  Dayton has slacked off a bit on the interior defense and allowed XU a couple of layups, and XU has showed a little more interest in hitting the boards, but Dayton maintains their lead because of a couple of XU turnovers.  At the half, 39-26.  Chris Wright has 10/4 for the Flyers but Devin Searcy has been great on the glass with six boards.

1:00: Halftime at Georgetown:  GU 50, ‘Nova 31.  Wow.

1:09: Dayton has continued playing well and Xavier has layup disease.  Despite the 14 pt lead for UD, we have guys really GOING for plays, getting up for dunks, etc, lots of play ABOVE the rim.  I think these fellows are aware that when you are 16-6 and 15-6 and you have about 7-10 games left, you’re at a season-determining point.  Although you gotta figure Xavier’s in with their current 8-1 A10 record.

1:27: Georgetown is still putting the wood to Villanova by SEVENTEEN with 15 minutes to play, and before you accuse ‘Nova of looking ahead to the WVU game…over on ESPN-U, St. John’s is still up on WVU 45-40 early in the second half.  Look out, though…Chris Wright just went out for G’Town with his 4th foul.

1:40: I was all ready to take huge credit for my prescience in this St. John’s/WVU game, but it looks like that dream is done.  WVU has just hit two straight threes as part of a 32-9 run, and are now up 64-54.  Xavier has been totally unable to make any real dent in this Dayton lead, showing little life this half.  It’s 70-63 with less than seven minutes left.  XU has been forced into 38% shooting but the story here is the board work.  Dayton has shown MUCH more enthusiasm than their counterparts in that aspect of the game and it’s led to a 34-20 margin.

1:50: Chris Mack just got T’d up.  I think that’s a result of overall frustration throughout the day, not so much because of the (admittedly tick-tack) foul call on Terrell Holloway just now.

1:58: My 360 feed was hit-and-miss at best, JR, so I haven’t been commenting on that game, but you are totally correct about that UVa/Wake game, and ESPN has just gone to a little bonus coverage of that game…

1:59: And then they switch almost immediately to Marquette/Providence, where we got to see a missed three to tie.  Perhaps ESPN2 will go to Wake/UVa.  Meanwhile, it just got interesting in DC, where we have a 10-point game with five minutes left and G’Town’s Chris Wright just fouled out.  This is the time that guys like Scottie Reynolds find that extra gear.

2:08: Dayton waxed Xavier, 90-65.  Chris Johnson led the Flyers with 18/6/3, and at this point in the season, 16-6 looks a LOT better than 15-7.  Major help to the Flyers’ tournament hopes.  I STILL cannot get a good 360 feed, but ESPN just updated Wake/UVa, where Wake is up four in OT.

2:17: Props to the folks in DC who showed up for the game there, almost 11,000.  And I LOVE the move by the Georgetown players going into the student section before the game to say thanks.  Still an 11-point game with 96 seconds left.  Wake is up 64-61 on UVa with 20 seconds left; Sylven Landesberg has blown up for Virginia with 28 but Ish Smith (15/6/5) and Al-Farouq Aminu (13/10) have been phenomenal for Wake.  That just went final with Wake pulling it out.

2:25: So, who predicted Georgetown would put up a hundy against Villanova?  Well, claim your prize, my friend.  The Hoyas take it 103-90, so we’ve had #2 go down already today.  AND NOW, the second flight of games.  Looks like the primary will be Duke/BC and we’ll definitely be checking in on Temple/Richmond on ESPN-U.  Richmond is an underrated squad and they’re at home.  Oh, and they’re up 31-17 on the Owls early.

2:35: Holy crap, Richmond is shooting 72% at the under-4 MTO.  BC is hanging around against Duke, 29-26, with 2:26 left in the first.  T.J. DiLeo just took a HARD foul on a steal and conversion, but Richmond nails a three and gets a HUGE block from Justin Harper at the other end…this is a DOMINATING performance so far by the Spiders.

2:45: At the half, it’s 44-26 in favor of the Spiders.  Duke is up by ten, 35-25, and Kyle Singler barely has a hair out of place.  Nolan Smith has 13 on 6-9 shooting, and Duke is a different team when he’s got his confidence.

2:53: What is this, no Lowell Galindo and crew in the ESPN-U halftime show?  I was kind of looking forward to that.  I guess the guy’s got to sleep sometime (he’s always there in some capacity).  I’ve mentioned this before, but it bears saying again.  How much has THAT bunch improved as the season has progressed?  I wasn’t very nice to them during/after that Midnight Madness show they did, but I think they fell victim to some bad timing issues (like long volleyball games) and the like during that broadcast, but since then they’ve really stepped it up.  Galindo provides good insight and therefore brings it out in the discussion with his panel.  It’s not just the usual platitudes or segueways between repeated highlight reels of other games.  You get fresh analysis and — best of all — they look and sound like they’re having a LOT of fun.  It’s a shame so many fewer people have the channel, because I’d put their halftime show and nightly roundup right up against anyone’s.  Try it when you get a chance, and tell me what you think.

3:05: And we’re back in action.  BC has started with a 6-0 run to cut it to 35-31, so that might get interesting.  Richmond is throttling Temple, 53-30.  We knew Richmond was a good squad and that it might be a tough game for the Owls, but JEEZ.

3:18: A little jawing at BC/Duke!  To be honest, I think BC needs to cultivate that kind of atmosphere in this one.  I don’t mean they have to be unsportsmanlike, but Duke is actually playing pretty well and is capable of exploding at any second and putting this away early.  If I were BC, I’d make this as much of an up-and-down affair as I could, and I’d irritate the Devils in whatever way I could.

3:26: Gotta give props to commenter JR with those Wake/UVa updates since my 360 feed was spotty.  And I think Duke’s tournament fortunes are SO altered when Nolan Smith plays confident basketball.  He has a tendency to drift in games, but when he’s focused Duke is so much tougher.

3:35: Checking some of the 360 games, Florida is in a tough one at home against Mississippi State in a game that both of these soapy teams could REALLY use.  64-59 Gators with 36.8 seconds left.

3:44: Richmond has closed to within 57-49 and Florida’s going to close this one out against MSU.  Duke has a little eight-point cushion against BC now, and, since he’s now gotten his full 16 hours of sleep, I’ll hand it off to rtmsf who will set the schedule and guide you through it for the rest of the day.  Great day of hoops still to come!

3:52: One of these weeks he’s going to have some new material, but we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt – he’s pretty old.  Anyway, I’ve got six games going on my “favorites” right now…  well, I did, and then Florida finished off Mississippi State in the SEC, and Texas Tech is giving OSU’s Travis Ford a headache, as he just got teched up in Lubbock.  That one appears to pretty much be over.  I also have Minnesota in a must-win situation, up four on Penn State with 2:26 left on the BTN.

3:57: Duke remains in a comfort zone of around 6-10 points against BC.  In years past, this has been a very tough place for teams to visit, but BC has already dropped five games there this year, including Ls to Harvard and Maine.  The Eagles still have life, though, after Plumlee makes a silly foul on a rebound.  If BC can get this to four…  could be interesting.

4:00: Minnesota  had the ball up three on Penn State with under a minute and drew a foul to push it up to five before Talor Battle nailed a top-of-the-key three to cut it back to two.  This is an absolute must-get for Tubby’s Gophers.  If they win today, they’ll be 5-5 in the league with a favorable home schedule in the last eight games.  I think 10-8 would get the Gophers in.

4:05: Wow, Penn State just tied up Minnesota and got possession back!  They’re going to have a shot to tie or win the game here in the final 35 seconds.  Over in Boston, Duke is up four with 52 seconds, and I’ve got an eye on that one too.

4:07: WILD ending at Penn State.  First, Talor Battle got rejected not once, but twice (!) before a loose ball that Minnesota thought it had ended up in the hands of Battle for a wide-open thir layup attempt, which he converted.  Then Lawrence Westbrook came up for the Gophers and hit a stepback fadeaway at the buzzer to win the game.  As I said, must-win for Minny, and they did just enough today to get it.

4:11: Duke just fouled Corey Raji to send BC to the line for two with the Eagles down four.  He converted both and BC will have a chance at this if Duke doesn’t hit all their FTs.

4:13: Um, Reggie Jackson just hit a long three to cut it to ONE in the Duke-BC game.  Really, Mike Patrick?  Really?  Could you suppress your adulation for Duke any less?  Looks like Richmond finished off Temple – that’s a really nice win for that program.  Ok, back to Duke, and Jon Scheyer will go to the line.  Not who BC wanted to foul, but even when he hits both, they’re not sunk.

4:15: BC got a three off from Joe Trapani, but I think they made a mistake not penetrating and kicking out rather than dribbling around the perimeter hoping for a shot to open up.  Duke survives to move to 7-2 in the ACC.

4:23: Ok, so now we’re working into the 4pm games today, and this is by far the best group of games.  I’m going to keep an eye on all of them, and I’ll focus appropriately depending on how they’re going.  For now I’m going to start with Memphis hosting Gonzaga and UCLA-Cal.  The second game because I just can’t get enough Verne Lundquist.  UCLA is already up 24-11 on the Bears.  And you guys know my dream scenario is that every Pac-10 team ends up at 9-9 this season, so I’m definitely rooting for UCLA here.

4:30: Oklahoma is up early on Texas, 20-13, and Kentucky-LSU are in a 12-10 slogfest in Baton Rouge.  I’m also trying to monitor Baylor-A&M on 360, and the Bears are up early 18-10 on that horrible A&M court.

4:31: Wow, another game I briefly forgot about in this time slot is UNLV up 30-11 on BYU in the Mountain West.  That one is on Versus, and I haven’t found that on my package yet.

4:35: I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a dunk attempt that never hits the rim before that one by Wesley Witherspoon.  Granted, he got hammered, but it was strange to see someone tomahawk a ball six feet away from the rim.  I love these kinds of games between the national programs that aren’t in major conferences.  Can we add Butler, Davidson, St. Mary’s, BYU, Siena and Utah State into a basketball-only super-mid-conference?

4:43: Um, BYU is now down 45-18 in Vegas.  Ya think that the Rebels were hyped for this one?  Ok, it’s getting easier to tell which games are going to keep my interest.  Oklahoma is playing well vs. Texas, up nine still, and Cal is back in the game, down two at UCLA.  I’m putting UK-LSU off to the side for now, as the Cats are already up twenty.  Baylor-A&M remains close.

4:48: I’m getting a good look at Texas here prior to Monday night’s showdown against Kansas.  Do you guys feel like the Horns are missing something – one piece that would make this team almost unbeatable?  The foul shooting is an obvious problem, but where do the Horns go when they absolutely need a basket?  While James is a great piece to have, I don’t view him as a get-his-own-shot guy like I do Wall, Collins, Reynolds and others.  I readily admit I could end up being wrong about this, but there’s something that bugs me about this team on the offensive end.

4:55: Memphis hit a three at the buzzer to cut an eight-point Gonzaga lead back to five.  The Zags had a really nice push in the last couple of minutes before the half.  Back to OU-Texas, and the Sooners look as good as I’ve seen them all year.  Maybe the secret for Jeff Capel is to put orange unis on all of his opponents this year.  Everyone knows that Oklahoma should be better than they are this year with the talent they’ve got on the floor.  Willie Warren hasn’t been a leader, though, and when a player that good isn’t taking ownership, it presents a tough situation for Capel.

5:00: Egads, the one thing you should be able to expect from Texas is solid defense, but giving up 48 pts in a half to a pretty average offensive team in OU is incomprehensible.  I know I was talking about their offense above, and that remains a problem as well (D. James has 4 pts), but Texas is right now looking like a team that is one-and-done come Tournament time.  Barnes has to get their attention in the next couple of weeks.

5:03: A few other halftime scores here…  Kentucky up 29 on LSU, holding the Tigers to a mere 14 first-half points…  Wisconsin is up 14 at Michigan, and a mild surprise as NC State is leaing Georgia Tech in Atlanta by two at the half.

5:10: Ok, second halves are getting started… I suspect the Memphis-Gonzaga game is going down to the wire, and you’d have to figure that Texas will make some kind of a run on Oklahoma.

5:16: Robert Sacre of Gonzaga is a really intriguing prospect.  He’s a legit 6′11 and he’s thick.  He lacks explosiveness but he has a nice touch around the basket.  DraftExpress has him as a second-rounder in the 2011 draft, and I think he can go higher than that with another year-plus of improvement.

5:22: Switching over to Texas-OU for a minute, and Avery Bradley came downcourt, chucked a jumper that missed, and nobody bothered to stay back to protect transition, which as you might expect resulted in an Oklahoma runout.  To me, that’s just poor execution.  How can a top-10 team make that kind of rotation mistake down fifteen points on the road?

5:26: Fran Fraschilla just referenced it, but you just saw what he called the “Ginobili step-through” on the fast break by OU there to avoid the charge.  I was just thinking about how prevalent that move has become in the college game, and I was wondering when it really started to take off.  My shoddy memory tells me it’s exploded in the last five years (sorta like how the jump stop got huge in the mid-90s).  So where did that move come from?  Did Manu Ginobili really popularize it, or is it from Europe?  Somewhere else?  Hoopheads want to know…

5:31: ESPN2 just informed us that BYU is getting pounded at UNLV, but the Cougars have actually cut the 30-pt lead in half.  I’m back with Gonzaga-Memphis right now and Baylor-A&M on 360.  Matt Bouldin is playing well today, and I’m actually noticing his production.  More than any other player in the country, I feel that he’s the quietest really-good player in college basketball.  In a normal game, you figure he’s got 6/4, and you look at his final stats only to learn he’s contributed 19/7/6.  Right now he has 13/3.

5:37: With Elliot Williams quiet (7 pts), the fourth foul on Wesley Witherspoon is huge.  He’s got 22 of Memphis’ 42 total points.  I’ve seen Williams take over games this year, so look for the sophomore guard to start looking to score a little more.

5:41: On cue, Williams has taken it to the hole the last two trips.  He charged on the first, but it’s clear that he’s being more aggressive with the ball now that Witherspoon is out of the game.  Over in the Big 12, Texas has cut the Oklahoma lead to nine and are threatening to do more.  From what I’m seeing, Rick Barnes has reminded his team of all the powerful players they have inside.  They’ve gone in there the last several possessions, and guess what, it’s working.

5:48: Memphis is back within one point, so it’s split-screen time.  DJ Stephens with an airball followed by a foul call on what appeared to be a pretty good block attempt.  Shots aren’t falling anymore for the Zags, and they’re having trouble stopping the penetration of the Memphis guards.  Elliot Williams had a nasty baseline drive where he seemed to float for about 20 feet before dropping it in.

5:57: Texas is just a disaster at the line.  9-24 today, and 62% on the season.  Damion James is 4-12 by himself.  In a seven-point game, that’s the equivalent of a couple of extra turnovers.  Quick update on CBS – Cal is finishing off UCLA.  The Bears’ late first-half run continued into the second, and so Cal is now 7-4 in the Pac-10.  Not good for my chaos theory hopes.  Gonzaga is now up three with a minute remaining and Matt Bouldin going to the line.

6:08: The Zags are closing out a solid OOC road win that will improve their seed a little bit.  Memphis still has work to do.  At 16-7 with an RPI in the 60s, they’re probably going to need to have a strong second half in the CUSA to position themselves well for Selection Sunday.  Back to OU-Texas, and the Horns are back within five after a Gary Johnson three-point play (assuming he can make the upcoming FT).

6:12: A&M used a late run to knock off Baylor by seven in College Station.  That team just continues to impress me – Mark Turgeon should be in contention for Big 12 COY along with Frank Martin of K-State, as the Aggies move to 6-3 in league play.

6:16: It looks like Texas is going to drop its fourth game in the last six here in Norman this afternoon.  The Horns just never appeared all that together in this one, and it manifests as Oklahoma gets by far its best win of the year.  Maybe this will get the Sooners off the “last four out” list on our NCAA96 Bracket analysis.  Wayman Tisdale Day is going to be a good one for OU, and the question becomes whether Jeff Capel’s team can put enough together down the stretch to try to sneak into the back door of the NCAAs?  The short answer is “unlikely,” but the next three games are winnable, and if they got all three they’d be sitting at 7-4 in the conference.  The remainder of the schedule is a beast – K-State, Texas again, Kansas, Baylor and A&M to finish the year, but I’m not saying that it’s impossible.  I’d give it about a 25% chance at this point, though.

6:22: A couple of other scores we were keeping an eye on… in the ACC, Georgia Tech survived its bout with NC State by a mere two points, and Virginia Tech is about to finish off Clemson up in Blacksburg.  The two Virginia teams reach the halfway mark of the ACC with identical 5-3 records, and I don’t think anyone had that prediction before the season.

6:31: Ok, we’re hitting the slow part of the day, but there are still a couple of games going that are interesting.  Tennessee is taking on South Carolina on ESPN, Kansas hosts Nebraska on the U, and if you haven’t seen them this year, Northern Iowa has Southern Illinois in town on ESPN2.  If you get the Mtn, there’s also a good New Mexico-SDSU game on that channel in this slot.

6:41: I know a lot has been said and written about Tennesse in the wake of their personnel losses after New Year’s Day.  The Vols have gone 7-2 since the incident, and it does call into question whether Bruce Pearl might be better as a coach when he’s limited in options.  It seems that when his teams are loaded with talent from 1-10 on the bench, there are problems with the definition of player roles.  I’m not saying that I completely agree with that, but it is interesting how his team has responded in the last month to the crisis.

6:47: I just switched over to the U as Tennessee has jumped out to a double-digit lead over the Gamecocks, and Kansas is currently only up six on Nebraska.  I think KU is the most complete team in America, and right now, I’d only put Syracuse and Kentucky as the two teams most likely to beat them, but they don’t have a killer instinct that I’d like to see against inferior opponents.  I saw it the other night in the Colorado game, and we’re seeing it here again.  If KU is clicking, the Huskers would have no business staying with twenty points of this team.

6:56: Some oddities from around the country right now – Alabama is doubling up Ole Miss at the half, 40-20.  Tough day for the Mississippi schools.  If they keep this up, the SEC may be looking at a four-bid year, all from the Eastern Division.  Pitt is trying to avoid a meltdown at home, up five at the half on Seton Hall.  I’m trying to find that one on my satellite package, but to no avail so far.

7:06: Can we fast-forward to Monday night already?  The Big Monday games this upcoming week should be epic.  WVU-Villanova followed by Kansas-Texas.  The sheen has been slightly tarnished with Texas’ recent slide and today’s Villanova loss, but I’m pretty sure all four of these teams will be jazzed and show up for those two games.

7:11: I cannot locate that Pitt-Seton Hall game even though my guide says I have it on three separate channels.  Oh well.  I’ll have to settle for Kansas-Nebraska and the others.  NU came right out of the half and cut the game to two.  Kansas is clearly sleepwalking through this game.

7:14: And the Huskers now have the lead after a three drops for Doc Sadler’s team.

7:17: A 10-2 run for Nebraska now and the KU fans are in shock.  Surely they thought after the lousy performance at Colorado the Jayhawks would come out like gangbusters in this one.  Not so much.  The problem as I’ve seen it in both games is their offense is getting bogged down, and Cole Aldrich needs to touch the ball more.  Sherron Collins is 3-9 right now, Xavier Henry is 2-5, and Marcus Morris is 6-10.  That’s 24 shot attempts between the three, and Aldrich has one.  I repeat, the 6′11 all-america center has one shot attempt.  I understand that Nebraska’s defense is taking that option away, but come on!  One attempt!

7:24: And there he is.  Finally.  He had to get it off a rebound though.  If I were Bill Self, I would demand that Aldrich get ten shot attempts this half, and if he doesn’t get it, then he makes people run.  They simply cannot continue to forget about a player that good inside.  Well, as I type this, Aldrich picks up his third foul, but again, if I’m Bill Self (and I’m clearly not), I would challenge my team and Aldrich to get it done even with he (and Morris) in foul trouble.

7:30: Quick check on other games…  Tennessee is absolutely throttling South Carolina, doubling up the Devan Downeys 49-24.  Northern Iowa and SIU are playing first-one-to-40 wins, with NIU up one with 12:32 left, and Pitt has opened up a double-digit lead on Seton Hall.

7:32: Thanks Hemoglobin.  I tried to keep an eye on that one with the split-screen but the pace was so slow it looked like my right half of the tv froze.  Or maybe that was me.  So I’m sticking with KU-Nebraska until the Jayhawks have their inevitable run to put the Huskers away.  Still can’t find the Pitt-SH game anywhere.

7:39: The KU defense has now held Nebraska without a field goal for the last seven minutes of action.  This is completely expected in Lawrence.  I’d give NU three minutes to make another run to give themselves a shot; otherwise, they lose this game by 15-20.

7:46: Ok, we just got an upset from ESPN on the Michigan State-Illinois game and Kalin Lucas will not play this evening.  Korie Lucious is a more than capable backup, though, and I’m still not sold on the offensive capabilities of the Illini guards other than Demetri McCamey.  We’ll see how it plays out, but I still like MSU in that one later tonight.

7:50: Why can’t these Big 12 teams make foul shots?  KU missed 20 in the OT win at Colorado the other night, and they’ve missed ten today in the friendlier confines of Allen Fieldhouse.  They’re at 69% for the year, way better than Texas at 62%, but they’ve not been good lately by any stretch.  Speaking of lately, KU is now pushing it out to double-digits and Nebraska looks cooked.

7:53: Nebraska was ahead in this game 43-39.  Since that time, they’ve scored five points while Kansas has dropped 27.  This game is clearly over.  On ESPN, Tennessee is up 25 on South Carolina, while Pitt is blowing out Seton Hall.  Ohhh…. the other interesting game is that Ole Miss has come all the way back from 20 down vs. Alabama and now leads the game!  So I’m going to flip back and forth between that one and the SIU-NIU game.

8:00: That’s right, eight straight hours with you so far today…  I’m watching Ole Miss hang onto a 4-pt lead over Alabama right now, and this is definitely a game that the Rebels couldn’t afford to lose.  Great second half comeback for Andy Kennedy’s team.  A 5-4 record in the SEC West is awaiting if they can hang on.  Over in the Valley, NIU is down five to SIU now.  Still 3:32 left in that one, but NIU hasn’t lost at home all season, so this would be a pretty major upset against a 5-7 team in the MVC.

8:07: Tie game as Jake Koch lays it in at Northern Iowa with 1:36 to go…  I just noticed that New Mexico beat SDSU by one point in the MWC as well, when the Aztecs missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with a second remaining.  Ole Miss, Kansas and Tennessee all won.  Remember when SIU was one of those teams mentioned above, like Gonzaga and Memphis, who you could count on being solid every single season?  Not sure what’s happened to that program, but this is the third straight year that the Salukis have been “down.”

8:17: These last two minutes illustrate the difference between good teams and not-so-good teams.  Good teams make the right plays in the last few minutes, while not-so-good teams don’t.  UNI will keep their home unbeaten record intact, and are getting very close to salting away the MVC with several weeks left in conference play.  Scratch that update from above about New Mexico and SDSU b/c apparently they’re now in OT even though the ESPN feed had that game as over.  Must have been something weird going on down in the Southwest.

8:20: Digger’s favorite phrase is that some team, player or coach is “on a mission.”  You’d think that the Franciscan monks were still traveling up and down the El Camino Real as much as he throws that phrase around.  Well, folks, it’s been another great afternoon of games here on BGTD.  But it’s not over.  I’m going to shut it down for a bit, but we’ll be back for the 9pm showcase game between Illinois and the Kalin Lucas-less Michigan State.  So check back when that one starts as we finish up the day…

9:10: Mike Tisdale and the Illini have decided to show up today, which is bad news for Tom Izzo and the Spartans who are already down 12-4 just 3 minutes into the game. If Lucas is out more than a week or two, the Spartans can forget about the Big Ten regular season title.

9:25: I’m all about school spirit, but that thing that Bruce Weber is wearing might give me an aneurysm. How about an orange tie? The Spartans have managed to tie it up at 16. Meanwhile, in Indianapolis, Butler is up by 14 despite relatively modest efforts out of Gordon Hayward and Matt Howard.

9:30: 23k for GameDay?!? Say what you want about the state of Kentucky, but they do love their basketball.

9:50: Interesting take from the coaches and analysts on ESPN2 covering the Wright State-Butler game where they don’t want to expand the NCAA tournament. Perhaps they read our 96-team tournament preview. . .

9:55: Michigan State has recovered from their awful start to go into half down by just 1, but that doesn’t seem to bother the Illinois students who are letting everyone know they are #1. In the state of Illinois?

10:07: Quick check of the scoreboard reveals a pretty big upset brewing as Georgia (9-11) is up by 10 with less than 90 seconds left against #20 Vanderbilt (17-4). In Storrs, UConn survived what would have been a humiliating home loss to Will Walker (24 points) and DePaul (8-14 coming into the game) thanks to a late run after trailing by 1 with less than 5 minutes left.

10:15: Vanderbilt goes down by 14. And the SEC will have 2 teams in the Top 25 next week. . .Meanwhile, it looks like we might have a legitimately great game at Illinois with the score tied at 41. Dan Shulman just complimented the Illinois student section while taking a shot at the much-criticized West Virginia student section. Have they become the media’s anti-Cameron Crazies?

10:25: Just as I was about to make a Big Ten offense joke, Dan Shulman chimes with a shot at them saying the score with 12 minutes looks a lot like the final score of many Big Ten games. Having said that  both teams are really heating up now. The final score should be in the high 70s and maybe even the 80s. For each team.

10:37: Illinois is threatening to blow this game wide open. A series of open-court dunks has the Orange Crush going crazy. Izzo can sense this one getting out of hand. The Illini are up by 7 with 7:17 left. Demeteri McCamey is destroying the Spartans with 19 points and 10 assists so far.

10:55: Vitale ripping apart the 96-team tournament? I would have assumed he would want everybody to get to the postseason so all of his coaching buddies could keep their jobs instead of getting fired. . .and getting rehired somewhere else by some braindead AD who thinks hiring retreads is a great idea.

11:00: One minute and eight seconds left on ESPN with Illinois up by 2. Who will step up for the Spartans with Kalin Lucas on the bench? Draymond Green would be my guess. He seems to have stepped up tonight with Lucas in street clothes.

11:01: Onions!!! McCamey with a huge 3 to put the Illini up by 5 with 37 seconds left, but Green responds with a tip-in (17 points and 15 rebounds). Illinois up by 3. Now it’s just up to Illinois to hit their free throws and this game is theirs.

11:04: Hello Durrell Summers! A quick 3-pointer to cut it to 1 with 17.4 seconds left.

11:07: “Oh. You don’t rush the court!. . .I don’t buy this!” – Dick Vitale. Can we count that as an endorsement for the site? I mean he mentioned us, right? With some creative Michael Moore-style editing, we can spin this into an endorsement, right? By the way, that’s an unapproved RTC. Has West Virginia RTC’d this year? Normally I would know this, but everybody seems to be doing it this year so it is hard to keep track.

11:15: In what will probably be the final BGTD game of the night, Tulsa and UTEP are tied in basically every category at half. This should be an interesting match-up of Derrick Caracter and Jerome Jordan.

11:30: UTEP is using an 8-0 run to go up by 4 with 13:23 left in the game as Ben Uzoh picks up a dumb offensive foul. Are the Miners starting to pull away here?

11:40: UTEP up by 9 now off a 14-1 run. Caracter is starting to dominate.  Tulsa is about to get run out of El Paso. Uzoh or Jordan need to step up here.

11:54: Normally I wouldn’t call a 13-point game with 6 minutes left, but the way Tulsa has been executing on offense this half I might be ready to call this one for the Miners.

12:00: I have to say it is a little weird to see the C-USA standings and not see Memphis at the top. It looks like UTEP will be on top of C-USA as we enter “Rivalry Week” unless Jerome Jordan can take over because Ben Uzoh is having an off-night.

12:10: Barring a huge collapse, the Miners will take over control of C-USA.

12:12: Ok. The Miners are attempting to collapse right now. This could be ugly.

12:13: Wow. The finish of this game is sloppier than the finish of today’s BGTD and they have only been playing for 2 hours. I don’t doubt that these teams have players with the athletic ability to compete with the big-time schools. I doubt that these teams have players with the basketball fundamentals to compete with those same schools.

12:17: Despite the sloppy finish, UTEP holds on for the victory to advance to 17-5 and are in 1st in C-USA at 8-1. That does it for another edition of BGTD. Thanks for following us and commenting. Keep checking in on RTC for the latest college basketball news and analysis.