Its been a weird year.
The Big East has issues with some supposed top teams (Georgetown and ND). Neither the Big 12, Big Ten, or SEC are particularly deep. What seems like a perfect year for the “mid-major” teams is set up. However I don’t really see too many mid-major teams worthy of at-large bids. There are a few, but not as many as in past seasons.
Butler? After that I don’t know.
UK won against a tough Florida. But Patrick Patterson injured his ankle. Bad news for us Wildcat fans. No report on the extent of his injury but I remember last year. Different ankle but still…
He’s in a boot as a precaution, and the sprain isn’t considered serious. It’s still bad news if he misses any games, though. He’s the best inside guy we have, and one of the best big men in the country!
Sweet win last night though. I don’t have any fingernails left, however.
Although it is early, Arizona is beating up on UCLA in the first half. A win by the Wildcats would almost guarantee that UA can keep the NCAA tourney streak alive. Arizona State beat UCLA on Thursday and locked up an NCAA bid.
I can see quite a few Pac 10 teams getting into the tournament this year. As it was mentioned earlier, some of the traditional powerhouse conferences aren’t quite as deep this year. 8 of the 10 teams have a shot with only the two Oregon schools eliminated unless they win the Pac 10 tournament.
First of all, thanks for your helping keep this thread alive!
It’s funny…we both post most in this thread yet neither of us is really talking to each other moreso than just harping on our teams!
I try to throw the random “Good job Arizona!” kibble, but we know next to nothing about each other’s teams, which is apparent.
Funny.
UK beat Arkansas handily today. The SEC is a mess. There are like six 17-7, 16-8, 18-7 teams it’s ridiculous.
To me it seems the Big East has calmed down some too.
I don’t even know what the best conference in b-ball is anymore, and I’m not certain anyone can truly make a case for one this year. Not that it matters. It will certainly make the NCAA bids and tournament interesting.
The **Illini **got a couple big road wins this week. It took a last second bucket from McCamey earlier this week to upend Northwestern and they dominated the Hoosiers even with the refs calling a horribly lopsided game in favor of the home crowd. It was very important to get those road Ws since they previously lost 4 straight Big Ten games on the road including a very disappointing showing against a struggling Wisconsin.
I still am a little nervous about this team, they are winning and are a lock for the tournament, still with a shot of a 4-seed or better, but they have too often struggled on the road and in the late minutes of games. You can see how young this team is and you can see that their offense tends to become stagnant and frantic when the pressure mounts. The future is very bright, but Weber has a tall task if he wants to get into the Sweet Sixteen with these guys.
The end of the Big Ten season will be huge. We play our final 5 games against the teams currently at 1st, 4th, 5th and 6th in the league. All teams with rock solid NCAA resumes and all teams that still have an eye on the conference title. If we defend home court the Big Ten title will be in reach if we get just a little help when MSU plays on the road in their final 6.
What’s the best conference now? The ACC? Duke And Carolina are highly ranked, but what’s after that? The Big East looked to be the early favorite in rankings, but many teams like G-Town, Notre Dame, and Syracuse (while still ranked) have seemed to fall off.
The SEC is in disarray. Could the PAC-10 emerge?
Weird season.
The Sunday night game features Arizona State vs USC. I’m not sure it is on nationally, but it should be a good game.
I saw Arizond recently trounced UCLA. That’s gotta be huge.
Looks like ASU will beat USC tonight. Too bad it is going up against the NBA.
Pitt vs. Uconn tonight. The ultimate Big East showdown… and they play again in a few weeks.
Pitt had a pretty convincing win over #1 Uconn last night. It helped that Hasheem Thabeet was in foul trouble and played limited minutes.
Pitt’s a Final Four-quality team.
I really hope so. While I was a student at Pitt, we had some pretty crappy losses in the tournament, including a first round loss to Pacific (WTF?) in '05 and a second-round loss to Bradley (equally WTF?) in '06. In fact, Pitt hasn’t even got past the Elite 8 since (gulp) 1974! It’s just so frustrating, because we’re perennially ranked in the top 10.
Michigan State at Purdue tonight. If MSU wins tonight that will just about wrap up the regular season Big 10 title. If Raymar Morgan can finally shake that illness, this team is going to go deep in the NCAA. Two games against Purdue and a trip to Champaign remain but this could be the best MSU team in many years.
I can never forgive Izzo and MSU for beating UK in that overtime game back in 2005 to keep Big Blue out of the Final Four. Damn that loss still stings!
Boo MSU! They knocked Pitt out of the tourney in the second round last year 
And in those minutes Thabeet got fucking beat like a rented mule by DeJaun Blair.
OK, fair enough. Since the Suns are trouncing the Clippers, I"m going to catch UK vs Vanderbilt tonight.
Purdue took care of business. That game in Champaign just got a whole lot bigger.