The talk on Sunday still seemed to revolve around Marcus Smart and last night's shove. We have to assume at this point that there's a good chance that Oklahoma State will lose its next two games at Texas and home against Oklahoma, and possibly the third, last game of his suspension at Baylor. Lose all three, and the Cowboys would be on a 7-game losing streak. With OSU's remaining schedule, it could be nearly impossible to come back from that, and we might be looking at an NIT team. But OK State has been a mess since before the Smart shove, and we don't know if they would have won these games even without his suspension.
But Smart wasn't the only thing that happened on Sunday. Let's look at the day's important games.
@Wisconsin 60, @Michigan State 58: Even when it was in the middle of its slump, Wisconsin did not fall very far, thanks to a strong non-conference schedule. But we were beginning to wonder about the Badgers. Today, it forever put a good win on its resume by taking down Michigan State. And the committee does not seem to care much when a team beats another team depleted with injuries. So Wisconsin's space on the top 4 seed lines is safe, assuming they don't revert back to that team we were watching over the past few weeks.
As for Michigan State, if they have a full squad ready to go on Selection Sunday, they could still get a high seed. This team has gotten to this point with a terrific record and many good wins on the backs of backups and differing lineups. But if there is still some doubt at that point to MSU's injury status, the committee will seed them lower, and they will be a nightmare for whichever #1 seed gets the misfortune of Michigan State somewhere in its bracket.
@St. John's 70, Creighton 65: St. John's figured out how to beat Creighton even with Doug McDermott got 25 points on 18 shots and getting out rebounded. It seemed to revolve around forcing Creighton to take a lot of 3 pointers, limiting only McDermott from the outside. It also required some luck, as one of the best shooting FT teams in the NCAA struggled.
But more importantly, this gets SJU awfully close to the bubble. After SJU went through a 5-game losing streak in early January, it looked like it was dead. But Steve Lavin's squad won 6 of their last 7, and with a handful of statement games left on the schedule, the Red Storm could storm their way into the bracket.
Also on Sunday, Arizona found a bit of itself, Iona took control of the MAAC, and Syracuse kept rolling.
@Southern Miss 81, Charlotte 64
Iona 101, @Canisius 91
Massachusetts 73, @Rhode Island 68
@Syracuse 57, Clemson 44
Connecticut 75, @UCF 55
@Arizona 76, Oregon State 54
@Colorado 91, Washington 65 - CU has figured out post-Dinwiddie era
Big Monday's big game might look at first glance to be Kansas at Kansas State or Iowa State at West Virginia, but we should keep all of our eyes on DC to see which of Providence or Georgetown does more to potentially fall into the next Bracket Brief.
#3 Iowa State at West Virginia
Miami (FL) at #11 Florida State
(FFO) Providence at (FFO) Georgetown
Florida A&M at #15 North Carolina Central
#16 Southern at Jackson State
#2 Kansas at #10 Kansas State
Maryland at #4 Virginia
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