The big news came from the midwest, where Ohio State followed up its 15-0 start with a 0-3 losing streak, falling tonight at Minnesota. Once an easy pick for a #1 seed, Ohio State will struggle to climb back to that loft position. Elsewhere, UConn and Memphis battled, Colorado began the post-Dinwiddie part of the season, and a bubble team out of the SEC lost.
Connecticut 83, @Memphis 73: Memphis should have been able to handle UConn, but the Huskies looked very strong on the road on Thursday night, pulling away late. This game ended up being about Memphis's defense, or lack thereof. Not that the Tigers' defense has been that bad this season, but Memphis has now lost its last two home games, to UConn and Cinci, luckily getting 3 road wins to stay above 0.500 in the American. This loss will hurt, but it won't drop Memphis out of the tournament.
Connecticut, on the other hand, really needed this win. UConn has been riding the bubble after back-to-back losses at Houston and at SMU. This game showed that UConn can win some games away from home in conference, but more than that, that it can beat good teams. Next up is a still unknown Louisville in Storrs, a win would give UConn some bubble breathing room.
UCLA 69, @Colorado 56: Some people may look at this as an upset since it happened in Boulder, but that requires forgetting one thing: Colorado's best player, Spencer Dinwiddie, is out for the season with an ACL tear. Colorado is still going to win some games, and they still may make the tournament. After all, the Buffs still have Askia Booker, Josh Scott and some nice role players, but this just simply is not the same team. It will be interesting to see what adjustments Tad Boyle makes as the season progresses. UCLA, with its big road win, is in an excellent position now to challenge Cal for #2 in the Pac-12, considering Colorado has this injury and Oregon appears lost.
@Minnesota 63, Ohio State 53: Yikes. Two weeks ago, Ohio State was an easy #1 seed. OSU didn't have any great teams on the schedule, but it beat all comers, and had some OK wins (at Marquette, Maryland, Notre Dame). What a difference a Big Ten schedule makes. They say that defense wins championships, but not without some kind of complementary offense. OSU has now lost three straight (at Michigan State, Iowa, at Minnesota). All the losses are excusable and somewhat expected of most teams, but not of teams who once vied for a #1 seed. Ohio State luckily has some poor competition in its next three games, but then it plays back-to-back games at Wisconsin and at Iowa. OSU could lose each of those and, at that point, would be 5-5 in the Big Ten. As I said at first: yikes.
Very, very nice win for Minnesota, however. The Gophers had most recently been slotted as a dreaded #9 seed, an almost death sentence for a team hoping to make it out of the first weekend. Tonight's win should move Minnesota up a couple of seed lines, but a win at Iowa on Sunday would be even bigger. Still, Minnesota is in a very good position right now.
Lots of low-major action, and lots of Pac-12 (and other West Coast) action on Thursday night. Save for Missouri's and New Mexico State's losses, the rest of the night went just about as expected.
@Louisville 91, Houston 52
@Robert Morris 73, Saint Francis (PA) 68
Mercer 74, @Northern Kentucky 58
@Georgia State 73, Arkansas State 72
@Manhattan 90, Siena 68
@Eastern Kentucky 74, Belmont 63
@North Carolina Central 71, NJIT 55
@Vanderbilt 78, Missouri 75 - bubble-riding Mizzou needs good wins and only great losses
Vermont 83, @Maine 46
Elon 87, @Davidson 85 (OT)
@Southern Miss 84, Rice 62
@Chicago State 86, New Mexico State 77 - very, very bad loss for NMSU, may change seeding
@North Dakota State 91, Omaha 69
Stephen F. Austin 74, @Northwestern State 58
@Arizona 91, Arizona State 68
Louisiana Tech 73, @Tulane 45
BYU 83, @San Francisco 76
@Montana State 70, Northern Colorado 55
@Utah 84, USC 66
Gonzaga 70, @Pepperdine 53
@UC Santa Barbara 64, Long Beach State 51
Only 4 games are slated for Friday night, and the only one worth your attention is #12 Green Bay heading to Wright State. Green Bay may be the best team in a one-bid conference that can't get an at-large bid (I project four teams from one-bid conferences would get at-large bids if they lost in their conference tournaments: Gonzaga, Wichita State, Harvard, and Louisiana Tech). Green Bay has Keifer Sykes, who is likely the Horizon Player of the Year and one of the best mid-major players in the nation. Whatever team gets paired with Green Bay should be terrified.
Tomorrow we'll look at some burning questions in the Friday Appraisal.
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