With a small slate of games and no major upsets, Monday ended up being very quiet. But we still had one very good game out of the Big 12.
Iowa State 98, @Oklahoma State 97 (3OT): Wow, welcome to college basketball, NFL fans. Despite Marcus Smart's flopping all over the court and the refs somehow falling for it (see: all of Twitter), Iowa State was able to come away with the win...after three overtimes. The road win cannot be understated for Iowa State. An impressive resume looks even better with a big time road win (its only previous road victories: BYU and Texas Tech). Iowa State had been in a bit of a slump, but, then again, it hit the meat of its conference schedule in a great conference. This is the type of game that elite teams win. ISU may not be elite, but it is close (and it looked like it was earlier this season). I could see them moving up to the #3 seed line now.
As for Oklahoma State, wow, tough loss. To lose at home, in front of your far-less-than-capacity crowd, is an extremely difficult thing to come back from, especially when you've just lost three-straight and four out of your last five. Couple that with the bizarre Marcus Smart tweet after the West Virginia game and the questions he will now undoubtedly get about how he flops like a European soccer player, and Oklahoma State looks like it is in big trouble. 8-10 in conference is now a very real possibility, and as OSU keeps dropping, it will begin to face the same questions dogging Ohio State, Oregon, Wisconsin, and other once seemingly powerful teams in free fall.
As I said above, the rest of Monday was very slow, and all the favorites won as expected.
@Syracuse 61, Notre Dame 55
@Villanova 81, Xavier 58
@Delaware 80, Northeastern 67
@Georgia State 85, South Alabama 65
North Carolina Central 66, Maryland Eastern Shore 62
Tuesday should have more interesting games than Monday. #1 on the list is probably Ohio State at Iowa, as OSU, coming off a huge win at Wisconsin, tries to get its season all the way back on the tracks. The test, however, will be extremely difficult. I'm also interested to see how Baylor fares against Kansas and how Florida plays now that there seems to be a groundswell of support for them getting a #1 seed (from the Bracket Briefer as well).
#2 Kansas at (FFO) Baylor
#6 Ohio State at #3 Iowa
Ole Miss at #4 Kentucky
Rutgers at #8 Memphis
Saint John's at (LFI) #12 Providence
Maine at #15 Vermont
#15 Iona at Monmouth
#6 Texas at TCU
Maryland at #11 North Carolina
Georgia Tech at (FFO) Clemson
(LFI) #12 Missouri at #1 Florida
Wake Forest at #2 Duke
#5 Wisconsin at Illinois
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