Kansas is quickly becoming the poster child for the teams that we all thought were elite at the beginning of the season but instead are merely very good (or worse). Can they rebound, or will the Jayhawks and their tournament seed continue to fall?
Florida 67, Kansas 61: The numbers for the Jayhawks are still good, but Kansas has now dropped 3 out of its last 4 (at Florida, at Colorado, and Villanova in the Bahamas) and the one game it won was against an average UTEP game where the Miners were the better team for about 75% of the game. The big question for Kansas now is this: is the trend here related to being away from home for so long (since Nov. 22), or is something bigger going on? Kansas has very little experience---only three teams in the entire country are younger. There seems to be a trend these days for the elite teams who rely heavily on freshmen either live up to the hype or fall into a mess of immaturity. Kansas doesn't completely feel like it has the chemistry problems that Kentucky had last year, but something feels off in Kansas that doesn't feel off in this year's Arizona and Kentucky teams.
Then again, it might just be because Kansas has played away from home so much this early. We'll see. As for Florida, they add an excellent win to the Selection Sunday resume. The Gators are making a strong push for a #2 seed, but they will need to win again against Memphis in MSG next week to stay there.
Kentucky 70, Boise State 55: Frankly, this game went as expected. Kentucky is definitely the more talented team, but Boise State has been a great story so far this year. BSU's schedule has been, in a word, weak, and they have another tough game on Saturday against St. Mary's. BSU is in a position to earn an at-large bid, but they are far from a lock at this point. Wins are necessary.
Gonzaga 80, West Virginia 76: Gonzaga traveled all the way across the country and got a win against a good West Virginia squad. Gonzaga does not have the high profile non-conference wins that it usually has, but away wins are always welcome. WVU, on the other hand, lost another golden opportunity to begin building a quality resume. WVU has lost to an elite team (Wisconsin), a very good team (Gonzaga), a good team (Missouri), and an average team (Virginia Tech), but the Mountaineers have no wins to speak of. Look for WVU to be eaten alive in the Big 12.
California 92, Nevada 84: Cal has been on the outskirts of the bubble all year so far. The Golden Bears needs to make sure from here on out that the always win every game they should win. A win in two weeks at Creighton, followed by no additional losses, would move Cal back into the bracket in all likelihood. Cal will probably also need to pull some wins out of the Pac-12 that we're not expecting, to Arizona, UCLA, or Oregon. It is an uphill climb, but Monty's squad is still in play.
Wednesday's lineup includes potentially important games of Boston U at George Washington, North Dakota State at Notre Dame, Penn State at Duquesne, Bryant at Ohio State, Milwaukee at Wisconsin, and the game of the night: New Mexico State at Arizona. Frankly, none of those games will matter much unless they don't go as planned.
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