Tag: 2009-10 College Basketball (Page 9 of 19)

It looks like at least one good team is going to be left out of the NCAA Tournament. Since Houston upset UTEP in the C-USA final and New Mexico St. beat Utah St. in the WAC final, there are two at-large bids that are no longer available to the teams on the bubble, so fans of Virginia Tech, Minnesota, Mississippi State, Florida, Illinois, Ole Miss and Seton Hall will be pulling out their hair on Sunday hoping that their team gets a bid.

In fact, I’d go so far as to say that the final two slots are down to three teams — Virginia Tech, Minnesota and Mississippi State. I’m not a bracketologist or anything, but watching Lunardi’s page and knowing that Minnesota and Mississippi State are the only two teams still alive on his bubble, and it seems pretty clear that the Gophers’ and Bulldogs’ conference tourney runs have certainly worked in their favor.

Minnesota blew out a very good Purdue team yesterday and Mississippi State nipped a solid Vanderbilt squad. Minnesota’s numbers are better and if both teams lose today, it looks like the Gophers will get the nod. But if the Bulldogs can upset Kentucky, even if Minnesota beats Ohio State, Mississippi State will make the tournament via automatic bid. In fact, if both teams win, Virginia Tech’s poor performance in the ACC tournament will probably come back to haunt them.

Since Utah St. and UTEP are very likely to get bids, it looks like the window is just about closed for Florida, Illinois, Ole Miss and Seton Hall, who can’t help their case today.

But every year, the committee comes out of left field with a pick that nobody was expecting. Fans are focused on late-season performance while the committee says it looks at the “whole body of work,” which can result in a team getting something of a surprise bid.

So there is hope…just don’t get your hopes up.

My son’s 2nd birthday party was today, so I set up ten manual recordings to catch the last 10 minutes or so of the following games: Kentucky/Tennessee, Temple/Rhode Island, Duke/Miami, Ohio St./Illinois, Vandy/Miss. St., Richmond/Xavier, Purdue/Minnesota, Washington/Cal, Kansas/K-State and SDSU/UNLV. It worked out pretty well. If a game starts at 10 AM, I found that recording for an hour starting at 11:30 will catch the last half of the second half and if the game goes long, you’re covered. It was fun mowing through them — almost like the first couple of days of March Madness.

Anyway, here are some random thoughts from what I saw:

– Kentucky was very impressive in a blowout of a pretty good team in Tennessee. I’m pretty sure I’m going to pick them as a Finals team unless they’re on the same side of the bracket as Kansas. More on that later. Another exception might be Syracuse — I’m not sure how well the Wildcats would fare against a good 2-3 zone.

– Temple worked over Rhode Island, who probably played themselves out of a tournament bid with a poor performance.

– Duke fended off a feisty Miami team. The numbers say that Duke/Kansas are 1/2 or 2/1, but there’s a sense that they’re not for real. I wonder if the so-called “eye test” might be a little racist in this case. Duke has a number of white guys, and while they’re not the most athletic team in the country, they’re not stiffs either. They have size, outside shooting and experience. They could make a run or get knocked off early in a bad matchup if they don’t shoot the three well.

– That Ohio State/Illinois double-overtime battle was a fun one to watch. Unfortunately, as it stands, Joe Lunardi has Illinois as the first team out of the tournament. With Houston upsetting UTEP for an automatic bid, someone deserving would be left out. It didn’t help that…

– Mississippi State looked very solid in a win over a ranked Vandy squad. By making the SEC finals, the Bulldogs have passed Ole Miss, and it makes sense since they won the regular season meeting as well. It looks like Florida may be left out in the cold too.

– Richmond/Xavier went into overtime and while the Musketeers had control for much of the stretch run, the Spiders forced an extra period and capitalized. Both teams are safely in the tournament, but it was a fun game to watch nonetheless. We’ll see if Richmond can upset Temple tomorrow.

– Minnesota blew out Purdue. I didn’t see that coming. The Gophers have to be in now, right? I think both Minnesota and Illinois are deserving of a spot, but them’s the breaks.

– Washington isn’t going to have to sweat it out tomorrow. They’re in after beating California in the Pac-10 final. That’s another outcome that makes things tough for Illinois and Florida.

– Kansas looked pretty solid in a win over K-State. In the several games I’ve seen, they don’t seem to dominate, but they don’t beat themselves either. Right now, I’m pretty sure I’m going to pick them to win my bracket.

– Watch out for San Diego State as an upset special in one of those 6/11 or 7/10 matchups. They’re really athletic and play solid defense, and they just play hard. Point guard D.J. Gay is the wildcard. Otherwise, the Aztecs have a front line that can hang with anyone.

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