Sunday/Monday Recap

Not much happened on Sunday or Monday in college basketball, so the NCAA recap was condensed into one post. Besides, the new Brief came out last night, so that was plenty to chew on to begin with. The bracket would have remained substantially the same no matter what the results were in these games.

Sunday's Games

George Washington 77, Maryland 75: Of all of Sunday's games, this one would have had the biggest impact on the bracket. GW was the very last team into my bracket in this week's Brief, and they likely would have made it out of the play-in game with this good win over Maryland. Maryland may have stayed on the bubble, but it would have fallen another spot or two. This 5-4 team is not putting together a sufficient resume to come out of the ACC with a bad record. Even this early in the season, another loss or two to teams that Maryland isn't supposed to lose to could end Maryland's chance at a tournament berth.

Oregon 115, Ole Miss 105 (OT): The game with no defense. Oregon and Ole Miss each put up more than 50 points in the second half, and Oregon added another 26 in the overtime. The offenses here were immensely efficient, or put another way, the defenses were awful. Oregon is a very good team, but the Ducks need to figure out how to play some defense to survive its games with UCLA and Arizona. Still, a road win is always a welcome addition to a resume. For Ole Miss, Marshall Henderson had a career day, scoring 39, but he will shoot his team out of a number of games this year. Over 32% of Ole Miss's field goal attempts were Marshall Henderson threes, but you just know that on a day where he is not shooting well, he will still shoot that many. Mississippi will live and die by the level that Henderson can control his black-holed-ness on nights where he is not shooting well. Even before the loss to Oregon, Mississippi fell off the bubble.

Creighton 82, Nebraska 67: I go back and forth on Creighton. On one hand, they blew out Arizona State (a bubble team), and they beat a not-terrible Nebraska team handily. The Bluejays have very good efficiency numbers, but something seemed wrong in the back-to-back neutral-site losses to San Diego State and George Washington. With games against Arkansas Pine Bluff and Chicago State (as well as a home game against Cal) left on the schedule, Creighton has no more time to impress anyone. The Jays will need to play quite well to continue to garner the attention that someone like Doug McDermott deserves.

Monday's Games

Oops, none of Monday's games mattered to the bracket.

Tuesday's marquee game is a major game between Kansas and Florida. Kansas clung to a #2 seed, the last #2 seed, despite the heartbreak in Boulder. Florida is also coming off a loss, to UConn, and the Gators were slotted in a #3 seed. A Florida win, and they will likely flip-flop. A Kansas win, and Kansas will solidify its #2 seed while showing the Colorado game was basically a fluke. Other fun matchups might be Boise State (one of the final 15 unbeaten teams) at Kentucky and Gonzaga at West Virginia.