Ohio State, who was looking at a solid #1 seed earlier, lost at Michigan State, which was not too damaging, but today's home loss to Iowa, who was in control most of the day, hurts quite a bit. Ohio State fell a bit further back in line for a #1 seed, and without more wins, OSU will be in trouble. On the West Coast, the Pac-12 went all topsy-turvy, as Colorado, Oregon, and Utah were all upset.
Iowa 84, @Ohio State 74: A team like Ohio State only had down to head towards when slotted as a #1 seed with all these good Big Ten teams on the calendar. But Iowa made Ohio State's vaunted defense look rather average today, with Iowa's offense looking good in virtually every situation. What this win does for Iowa is huge. The Hawkeyes have now played 4 of the best teams in the country, all away from home. The fact that they went 1-3 is rather irrelevant---winning any of those games is a big boost. Iowa still has two games with Michigan State and home games with Wisconsin and Ohio State. Win 3 of those 4, and Iowa is sitting extremely pretty.
@Washington 71, Colorado 54: Washington getting hot at the start of the Pac-12 season is just about the worst thing that could happen to the Pac-12. UW needs a prayer to get into the tourney, thanks to some fairly substantial losses to insubstantial competition early in the season. But it now has taken down two bubble teams, Utah and ASU, and it has taken Colorado down a few notches in the seeding. It also nearly beat Arizona. The Huskies are wreaking a lot of havoc in the Pac-12, and next up is a road trip to the Bay Area schools. Wins there could muddy the Pac-12 waters even more.
Stanford 82, @Oregon 80: At least the Buffs lost on the road. The Oregon Ducks suffered a fairly bad loss tonight as well, falling to Stanford at home, three days after losing to Cal at home. Oregon is now 1-3 in the Pac-12, and it plays its next three games on the road. The Ducks should be scratching their heads. They did well in the non-conference season, going 12-0 before opening the Pac-12 season with a win at Utah, a troubling win, though, that required a miracle end in overtime for a Ducks victory. Oregon seems to have the same problem Duke has: an extremely good offense with no defense. UO has winnable games until its February 1 game at Arizona, but right now, Oregon is dropping far and fast.
In other news, Louisville finally beat a decent team (at home, granted), and Creighton got a good win over rapidly improving Xavier, who couldn't take out a short-handed Bluejays team. And to go along with Oregon and Colorado's losses, Utah lost at Washington State. Utah has much less room for error than the Ducks or the Buffs, though, and they'll have a major uphill climb now to get close to the bubble in a Pac-12 with a lot of decent teams.
@Louisville 71, SMU 63
@Tulsa 75, Southern Miss 71 - La. Tech gaining separation at top of C-USA from S. Miss.
@Manhattan 86, Marist 79 (OT) - MAAC favorite escapes from near home loss
Green Bay 93, @Milwaukee 86 (OT)
Stony Brook 73, @Hartford 50
@Creighton 95, Xavier 89 - Bluejays, without Gibbs, beat good XU squad with McDermott's 35
San Diego State 79, @Air Force 72
Akron 83, @Ohio 80 (2OT)
@Washington State 49, Utah 46 - very bad loss for Utes who will fall off the Next Four Out line
@Northwestern 49, Illinois 43 - very bad loss for Illinois, who already is in First Four Out
@Florida State 85, Maryland 61
@UCLA 87, Arizona State 72
The marquee game for Monday night is Virginia at Duke. Duke has been dropping like a rock as it cannot demonstrate it can beat teams away from Cameron (or from Cameron North, Madison Square Garden). We might be looking at the 5th-place team in the ACC, interesting considering all of the Jabari Parker love. Virginia has been improving, quitely proving itself as a competitor in the ACC. Elsewhere, we'll see how Iowa State reacts to its first loss of the season when it hosts a Kansas team that clearly had too difficult of a schedule this season.
#3 Virginia at #8 Duke
(NFO) Texas at West Virginia
#16 North Carolina Central at Bethune-Cookman
Jackson State at #16 Southern
#1 Syracuse at Boston College
#4 Kansas at #3 Iowa State
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