The two big stories coming into tonight were how Duke would fare against Virginia following the terrible loss at Clemson and how Iowa State would rebound after losing its first game of the season on Saturday at Oklahoma. We look at those games and more.
@Duke 69, Virginia 65: Duke rebounded from Saturday's loss to Clemson with a win tonight over Virginia. It was a win that Virginia came within less than a minute of stealing, taking the lead after a furious second-half comeback. Had Duke lost the game, we'd be looking at a team 1-3 in the ACC who now would be dropping home games. We still don't know whether Duke can win on the road, and a trip to Miami in two games won't provide much of a clue. Duke still has more questions than answers, and I see no reason after this win to give Duke much credit.
Virginia did not lose much here. Duke, while slumping, still has decent computer numbers and still is a tournament team. Road wins, conference road wins, are hard to come by, something Virginia discovered when it allowed Duke to get a big 13-point lead. UVA should not have been 13 points worse than Duke, even at Cameron. The comeback closed the gap and made the game look fairly better than it was for Virginia. Will UVA end up being a #3 seed like I had them in my last bracket? Probably not, but I still think the Cavaliers are better than they have been given credit for, and they are a force in the ACC that Duke will need to reckon with this year, if not again on the court than in the standings.
Kansas 77, @Iowa State 70: So Iowa State followed up its 14-game winning streak with a 2-game losing streak. These losses, though, were not entirely unexpected. Iowa State was never going to go undefeated. That feat might not even be possible anymore, but the Big 12 is just too good and ISU has been playing out of its mind, DeAndre Kane launching himself into elite territory. ISU next has a challenging game at Texas before returning home to play Kansas State. Win those two games, and ISU will almost certainly keep its lofty positioning in the top 4 seeds. Lose either one, and ISU's non-conference success will seem like a distant memory.
From tonight's game, I think Kansas is the more talented team, save for perhaps Kane, but KU is much younger and has experienced more growing pains (though ISU is not exactly old). Tonight, in Ames, we really saw what KU is capable of, big time road wins against big time opponents. If the Jayhawks keep this up throughout the rest of the Big 12 season, they will win one of the best conferences. KU can run itself back into #1 seed territory, but we need to see more of this and less of what happened against San Diego State.
Otherwise, college basketball was quiet on Monday night. Texas won an important road game to keep pace in the Big 12, and Syracuse downed Boston College after a shaky first half.
Texas 80, @West Virginia 69
North Carolina Central 64, @Bethune-Cookman 49
@Southern 60, Jackson State 36
Syracuse 69, @Boston College 59
For Tuesday night's games, I'm excited to see the three major bubble games going on. First, in the Big 12, is Oklahoma at Kansas State, as both teams are improving and look about as good as they have all season. In the A-10, VCU, who hasn't had a good win since beating Virginia on November 12, heads to George Washington, who has a great win over Creighton and good wins over Miami FL, Manhattan, and Maryland. And in the SEC, Arkansas tries to stem the bleeding from its rough 0-2 conference schedule opening by inviting in a good-but-dropping Kentucky squad.
#1 Wisconsin at Indiana
Georgia at #3 Florida
Butler at #5 Creighton
#8 Oklahoma at #10 Kansas State
#11 VCU at #11 George Washington
Bradley at #2 Wichita State
Penn State at #8 Michigan
#6 Kentucky at #11 Arkansas
Temple at #3 Cincinnati
#7 Pittsburgh at Georgia Tech
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