Conference USA is shaken up again, North Carolina fans storm the court, and BYU is closer to locking in its spot in the Big Dance. Such is the State of college basketball in 2014, when there is a new headline every night. Last night we were focused on Syracuse's upset and the near upsets of a number of other top teams. Tonight, we drifted further down the bracket to see if teams could improve their seeding and whether conferences could sneak more bids into the tournament. The fact is this: you can't turn away from college basketball for any night this year, because every night has been important.
Eastern Carolina 75, @Louisiana Tech 68: Conference USA is a mess. Louisiana Tech is the best team when healthy, but top scorer Raheem Appleby has been out for more than a month with a severe ankle injury. It looks, at least, like Appleby has started practicing and will be back for the conference tournament, if not sooner. If that's the case, the committee may look at Louisiana Tech for the 13-3 team with Appleby that won at Oklahoma rather than the team that has gone a pedestrian 8-3 in a bad conference.
Personally, I still think Louisiana Tech has a better at-large resume than Southern Miss. Southern Miss (who won at home tonight) has one thing going for it: a good RPI, but teams with far better RPIs have been left out of the tournament. The C-USA tournament might make all of this discussion moot, but the question of the number of bids the C-USA will receive is one of the major bubble questions right now.
@North Carolina 74, Duke 66: One of the big storylines through the first half of this college basketball season was North Carolina's big wins (Louisville, Michigan State, Kentucky) and even bigger losses (Belmont, UAB, Wake Forest Miami (FL)). But over the last month, the Tar Heels have played as well as just about anyone in the country. Tonight's win over Duke was the cap to that month-long run that moved UNC from a bubble team to a clear at-large. North Carolina is now in a position to get a seed that will give them a good shot to get to the tournament's second weekend. UNC has 4 easy games coming up followed by Duke at the end of the season. 4-1, and UNC will be in that position. 5-0, and maybe UNC can get to a spot where it is playing in Raleigh.
@BYU 73, Gonzaga 65: Well, that should be the win that just about cements BYU's spot in the bracket. Yes, I know it was at home, and this isn't the same Gonzaga team of the last few years, but BYU also beat Saint Mary's in its last game. There are only two regular season games left for BYU, very winnable games home against Portland and at San Diego. Wins and BYU gets the #2 seed in the WCC tourney and a bye in the first round. Barring a very bizarre upset in the conference tourney, and BYU is in. The question is how high the seed can climb. I doubt it can get above 10, but BYU should at least be able to get out of the First Four games.
For the most part, the rest of Thursday night's games were not much of a surprise. The most noteworthy game below is Georgetown's loss at Seton Hall, which all but makes it impossible for Georgetown to get into the bracket without winning the Big East tournament. And Saint Mary's is likely dead as well having lost to San Francisco. At least SMC has one game left against Gonzaga to prove itself, unlike Georgetown, who has an awfully difficult schedule to end the season (Xavier, at Marquette, Creighton, at Villanova).
Michigan State 94, @Purdue 79
Memphis 64, @Rutgers 59
@Robert Morris 73, LIU Brooklyn 64
@Georgia State 75, Louisiana Monroe 60
@Southern Miss 85, UTSA 56
New Mexico State 78, @Texas-Pan American 61
@Belmont 82, Eastern Illinois 63
@Green Bay 67, Valparaiso 53
Connecticut 68, @Temple 55
@Montana 68, Weber State 57 - Weber still in control of Big Sky
@Seton Hall 82, Georgetown 67 - devastating loss, G'Town unlikely to get into bracket now
Toledo 60, @Bowling Green 58
@Stanford 80, USC 59
@San Francisco 73, Saint Mary's 62 - loss may end SMC's at-large chances
UC Irvine 60, @Hawaii 56 (OT)
Back to the usual, Friday night does not have a lot to watch for. VCU and Massachusetts will play for bracket seeding and conference tournament seeding, while Mercer has a tough road game against FGCU, who has the best shot at knocking Mercer to the NIT.
#14 Mercer at Florida Gulf Coast
#11 Harvard at Penn
#6 VCU at #7 Massachusetts
#14 Iona at Rider
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