Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Panic in Central New York

No, that is not a typo. Syracuse lost. To Georgia Tech. At home. Once a mortal lock for a #1 seed, Syracuse's season has taken a turn. That and more in Tuesday's recap, as teams prepare for the conference tournament (and in some cases, play in them).

Georgia Tech 67, @Syracuse 62: Go ahead and panic, Syracuse fans. Your team has now lost 4 of its last 5 games, including two home games against bad teams that won't even make the NIT. It was nice to have Syracuse at #1 for a few weeks and all, but these are the kinds of losses you want at the beginning of the year if you must have them, not the end. This loss alone is likely to drop Syracuse a full seed line, behind teams that aren't losing games like this less than two weeks from Selection Sunday. Only an ACC tournament championship could turn around this downward spiral, and even then, a #1 seed might be entirely out of reach now.

@Georgetown 75, Creighton 63: Two straight bad losses for Creighton, but both of these games (tonight and Saturday's against Xavier) were on the road, so they are understandable. Creighton needs to win Saturday against Providence, however, to avoid a major drop in bracket ranking.

@Baylor 74, Iowa State 61: This loss is not bad for Iowa State, being on the road, but it isn't good either. It was far more important for Baylor, though. Baylor steps a bit further into the bracket now, closer to lock status. There's still work to do, but the Bears have some breathing room.

@Providence 81, Marquette 80 (OT): This was an immensely important game for these teams. Marquette's at-large changes are almost 0 now, while Providence may move into the bracket on the strength of this game. The overtime periods showed just how much these teams wanted this one. The Friars, though, have an extremely difficult game to end the season on Saturday at Creighton. A win and Providence will definitely find itself in the bracket heading into the Big East tournament at MSG.



Talk about fighting for your tournament life. Down late to Lipscomb at home in the Atlantic Sun tournament, East Tennessee State stormed back and won the game in 2OT. ETSU still has a lot of work to do to get into the tournament, having to win at Florida Gulf Coast and probably Mercer. The same thing happened in the Horizon when Oakland came back and won against Youngstown State. Of course, this is the kind of thing that March is all about.

Florida 72, @South Carolina 46
Michigan 84, @Illinois 53
Toledo 73, @Central Michigan 69
@Clemson 58, Miami (FL) 54
Georgia State 79, @Arkansas State 76 (OT)
@Kentucky 55, Alabama 48
Florida State 74, @Boston College 70 - FSU keeps at-large hope going
@Oregon 85, Arizona State 78 - Oregon couldn't lose this one, ASU could

Atlantic Sun Tournament

#1 @Florida Gulf Coast 77, #8 Stetson 55
#4 @East Tennessee State 89, #5 Lipscomb 88 (2OT)
#3 @USC Upstate 80, #6 North Florida 74
#2 @Mercer 85, #7 Jacksonville 64

Notes: East Tennessee State plays at Florida Gulf Coast and USC Upstate plays at Mercer on March 6.

Horizon League Tournament

#5 @Milwaukee 83, #8 Detroit 73
#6 @Oakland 96, #7 Youngstown State 92 (OT)
#4 @Valparaiso 73, #9 UIC 63

Notes: Milwaukee plays Youngstown State and Valparaiso plays #3 Wright State on March 7. Both games at Green Bay.



Three more conference tournaments get underway on Wednesday: the Big South, the Northeast, and the Ohio Valley. And the Patriot League tournament resumes. For teams still in the regular season, we see some major bubble action in the SEC in Tennessee/Auburn, Texas A&M/Missouri, Mississippi/Arkansas and in the Pac-12 in Colorado/Stanford and Utah/California.

#2 Duke at Wake Forest
#3 Louisville at #8 SMU
Rutgers at #6 Connecticut
#7 Massachusetts at Duquesne
(LFO) Nebraska at Indiana
Texas Tech at #2 Kansas
TCU at #9 Texas
(LFI) #12 Tennessee at Auburn
Texas A&M at (NFO) Missouri
Mississippi at (LFI) #12 Arkansas
Purdue at #2 Wisconsin
(NFO) Dayton at #5 Saint Louis
Air Force at #7 New Mexico
West Virginia at #7 Oklahoma
Nevada at (LFO) Boise State
#11 Saint Joseph's at #9 George Washington
#11 Colorado at #10 Stanford
#1 Arizona at Oregon State
(FFO) Utah at (NFO) California
#4 San Diego State at UNLV

Big South Tournament

#5N Liberty vs. #4S Winthrop
#6S Presbyterian vs. #3N Radford
#5S Charleston Southern vs. #4N Campbell
#6N Longwood vs. #3S Gardner-Webb

Notes: All games at Conway, SC. Liberty/Winthrop winner plays High Point. Prebyterian/Radford winner plays UNC Asheville. Charleston Southern/Campbell winner plays Coastal Carolina. Longwood/Gardner-Webb winner plays VMI. Next games all on March 7.

Patriot League

#5 Army at #4 Bucknell
#6 Lehigh at #3 Holy Cross
#9 Lafayette at #1 Boston U
#7 Colgate at #2 American

Notes: Army/Bucknell winner plays Lafayette/Boston U winner. Lehigh/Holy Cross winner plays Colgate/American winner. All next games at higher seed on March 8.

Northeast Conference Tournament

#8 Fairleigh Dickinson at #1 Robert Morris
#7 Central Connecticut State at #2 Wagner
#6 Saint Francis (PA) at #3 Bryant
#5 Saint Francis (NY) at #4 Mount St. Mary's

Notes: Teams reseeded after this round. Next games at campus of team with better seed on March 8.

Ohio Valley Tournament

#8 SIU Edwardsville vs. #5 Tennessee Tech
#7 Eastern Illinois vs. #6 Southeast Missouri State

Notes: All games at Nashville, TN. SIUE/Tennessee Tech winner plays #4 Morehead State. Eastern Illinois/Southeast Missouri State winner plays #3 Eastern Kentucky. Next games on March 6.

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