College Basketball Weekend Observations
By Michael Schneid
It was a crazy weekend in college basketball. It always s. Here are some observations and notes moving forward from the weekend that was in college basketball.
We'll start with Friday night, Arizona State upset #2
Arizona. No question ASU deserved to win after Arizona shot 16-30 from
the free throw line. But the ending of the game was complete chaos.
Jahii Carson, instead of running out the clock, dunked the ball (see left) with 0.5
seconds left. He hung on the rim, while players and fans rushed the
court. All three of those are violations and should have resulted in
technical fouls. The refs did not call anything, play resumed after cleaning up the court and Arizona lost their second game since Brandon Ashley's season-ending injury.
Syracuse got "lucky" again. This time CJ Fair sealed the deal against NC State to remain unbeaten.
Might be time to really take Florida seriously as a championship contender. They beat Kentucky by 10 on the road to remain unbeaten in SEC play. Their two losses came early @ Wisconsin and @ Uconn, on a crazy buzzer beater. The Gators might just be the best team in the country.
Virginia is 12-1 in the ACC and no one really seems to talk about them either. Other than a home game against Syracuse, they will be favored to win their remaining games. Their March 1st tilt with the Orange will be one of the biggest regular season games in school history, if Syracuse is still unbeaten.
Pittsburgh is 20-6 but none of those 20 wins are all that exciting. Stanford is their best non-conference win, and even in conference, wins over NC State and maybe Maryland and Clemson are their two best, but those aren't anything special. Of course, their six losses have come to Cincinnati, Duke, UNC, Syracuse twice, Virginia. The losses are very respectable and they have the record of a tourney team, but don't look like one.
Indiana has had a really rough season. They went 0-2 this week with losses at home to Penn State and a 20 point clunker to Purdue on Saturday. The Hoosiers beat Michigan and Wisconsin at home but have lost to all six sub .500 teams in the Big Ten.
The entire SEC (after Florida and Kentucky) is just a giant bubble. Georgia is 8-4 after beating Ole Miss. An overall 14-10 record doesn't bode well for their tournament chances though, despite being in third. Missouri got a big home win against Tennessee and LSU lost to Arkansas. This conference probably only deserves two teams in the big dance but the SEC tournament should be exciting because it's possible anyone can win (like Ole Miss last year).
There are no bad teams in the Big Ten this year. There's just teams with more wins than others. That will change next year when Rutgers joins the conference. They lost by 48 Sunday to Louisville. Louisville is very good but I think this says more about Rutgers and just how bad they are.
Baylor got an enormous home win against Kansas State. They remain a bubble team but this was a much needed win. They host Oklahoma State on Monday in another huge game.
The American Athletic Conference is unique. There were five ranked teams entering this weekend (Memphis and SMU will drop out). But the bottom half of the conference is not very good. The bottom five teams (Temple, Houston, USF, UCF, Rutgers) have a combined 3 wins over the top 5 (Cincinnati, Louisville, Memphs, UConn, SMU). Houston knocked off Uconn early and SMU lost at USF and at Temple on Sunday.
St. John's was MotleySports pre-season pick to win the Big East and they should have a chance to win the Big East tournament at their own home. They beat Georgetown Sunday, their second consecutive Sunday win at MSG after beating Creighton last week.
Speaking of Creighton, they put up over 100 points and swept the season series over Villanova to control their destiny in the Big East standings. Doug McDermott has 39 points.
MotleySports favorite Billy Baron led Canisius to a triple-OT win over Siena. Baron has 40 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 assists and is the kind of player that can lead the Golden Griffins to an NCAA win if they win the MAAC tournament.
Nebraska is a fascinating team. They upset Michigan State in East Lansing Sunday. They're currently 6-6 in the Big Ten. Their next five games are Penn State, Purdue, @ Illinois, Northwestern, @Indiana. Than they close at home with Wisconsin. They've lost just one game at home so they have a chance to win 10-12 games in conference play which could push them onto the bubble.
Wichita State beat Evansville and is 27-0. Their last four games are Loyola, Drake, Bradley and Missouri State as they seek perfection.
Stephen F Austin improved to 24-2, 13-0 in the Southland conference
It was a crazy weekend in college basketball. It always s. Here are some observations and notes moving forward from the weekend that was in college basketball.
Syracuse got "lucky" again. This time CJ Fair sealed the deal against NC State to remain unbeaten.
Might be time to really take Florida seriously as a championship contender. They beat Kentucky by 10 on the road to remain unbeaten in SEC play. Their two losses came early @ Wisconsin and @ Uconn, on a crazy buzzer beater. The Gators might just be the best team in the country.
Virginia is 12-1 in the ACC and no one really seems to talk about them either. Other than a home game against Syracuse, they will be favored to win their remaining games. Their March 1st tilt with the Orange will be one of the biggest regular season games in school history, if Syracuse is still unbeaten.
Pittsburgh is 20-6 but none of those 20 wins are all that exciting. Stanford is their best non-conference win, and even in conference, wins over NC State and maybe Maryland and Clemson are their two best, but those aren't anything special. Of course, their six losses have come to Cincinnati, Duke, UNC, Syracuse twice, Virginia. The losses are very respectable and they have the record of a tourney team, but don't look like one.
Indiana has had a really rough season. They went 0-2 this week with losses at home to Penn State and a 20 point clunker to Purdue on Saturday. The Hoosiers beat Michigan and Wisconsin at home but have lost to all six sub .500 teams in the Big Ten.
The entire SEC (after Florida and Kentucky) is just a giant bubble. Georgia is 8-4 after beating Ole Miss. An overall 14-10 record doesn't bode well for their tournament chances though, despite being in third. Missouri got a big home win against Tennessee and LSU lost to Arkansas. This conference probably only deserves two teams in the big dance but the SEC tournament should be exciting because it's possible anyone can win (like Ole Miss last year).
There are no bad teams in the Big Ten this year. There's just teams with more wins than others. That will change next year when Rutgers joins the conference. They lost by 48 Sunday to Louisville. Louisville is very good but I think this says more about Rutgers and just how bad they are.
Baylor got an enormous home win against Kansas State. They remain a bubble team but this was a much needed win. They host Oklahoma State on Monday in another huge game.
The American Athletic Conference is unique. There were five ranked teams entering this weekend (Memphis and SMU will drop out). But the bottom half of the conference is not very good. The bottom five teams (Temple, Houston, USF, UCF, Rutgers) have a combined 3 wins over the top 5 (Cincinnati, Louisville, Memphs, UConn, SMU). Houston knocked off Uconn early and SMU lost at USF and at Temple on Sunday.
St. John's was MotleySports pre-season pick to win the Big East and they should have a chance to win the Big East tournament at their own home. They beat Georgetown Sunday, their second consecutive Sunday win at MSG after beating Creighton last week.
Speaking of Creighton, they put up over 100 points and swept the season series over Villanova to control their destiny in the Big East standings. Doug McDermott has 39 points.
MotleySports favorite Billy Baron led Canisius to a triple-OT win over Siena. Baron has 40 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 assists and is the kind of player that can lead the Golden Griffins to an NCAA win if they win the MAAC tournament.
Nebraska is a fascinating team. They upset Michigan State in East Lansing Sunday. They're currently 6-6 in the Big Ten. Their next five games are Penn State, Purdue, @ Illinois, Northwestern, @Indiana. Than they close at home with Wisconsin. They've lost just one game at home so they have a chance to win 10-12 games in conference play which could push them onto the bubble.
Wichita State beat Evansville and is 27-0. Their last four games are Loyola, Drake, Bradley and Missouri State as they seek perfection.
Stephen F Austin improved to 24-2, 13-0 in the Southland conference
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