bierce

NC State with a near turnover on the ensuing inbound pass. Caught near sideline and almost traveled, but they got it upcourt and hit a three after running clock. Up 79-69 with 59.4 left, WF shooting a pair.

Again with a bounce pass into the very corner. Knocked out by WF but another review. WF is playing tough on the inbound passes, but NC State is doing almost nothing to get anyone free to take a pass.

NC State really struggling to inbound the ball against WF pressure late. Took three attempts on one possession and couldn't clear midcourt that time. Now loses it out of bounds, but should be given back after review. Just no one open, and NC State willing to pass deep into the corner where player gets too easily trapped. Call not overturned, but should have been. WF ball. 76-67 NC State with 1:45 left.

Tech ran away from WVU in the second half to win 73-51. WVU is now looking like a low 10 seed and still sinking. Just no offense to speak of unless the words are "constipated," "balky," "ineffective," etc.

Mississippi State grabbed 20 offensive rebounds, but it couldn't overcome OU's hot shooting in the second half. OU hit 8 of its first 9 shots in the second half and won 93-87. NC State now pulling away. Up 11 with ball and 3:11 to go after WF missed a shot after a clear-out that knocked a Wolfpacker (?) to the ground. NC State miss. WF ball down 11 with 2:48 left.

Wake Forest is trying to do something we couldn't--lose in Raleigh. NC State on a 13-0 run and up 69-61 with 4:45 left.

Agroids finished with a .400 offensive rebound percentage.

For those people who want to dismiss the idea of Murray without any real consideration, I offer two names: Jon Scheyer and Tommy Lloyd Both long time assistants at great programs who never had a head coaching job before being hired at Duke and Arizona. Both are doing quite well. Might as well add Hoiberg to that list. He was an NBA front office guy before taking the ISU job, and he did very well there before he went crazy and decided to go back to the NBA.

The only crazy part of that would be if we invited his dad Bill to ham it up on the radio every game.

A&M trapped Zeigler baseline on the offensive end, but Barnes called timeout, and Tenn got a three on the inbound play to pretty much ice it. A&M missed two threes and Tenn hit a pair of ft to win 77-69. Cincy beat TCU by 12, ending TCU's slim hopes. Mitchell was 4/4 from the line. Came in shooting under .400. Miss State and OU in a one possession game with 18 minutes left.

Not a bubble game, but a great game going on between Tennessee and A&M in College Station. Tenn up 68-64 after a brain fart on both sides. Zeigler missed the front end, and A&M was guilty of interfering with a Taylor layup that was obviously going down to prevent the and one. Taylor at the line missed the first and made the second. Down to the wire.

I can see excusing Miller for missing the tournament last year due to not having Freemantle last year, but he went into the season knowing he'd be out, and he previously made the sweet sixteen without him in 2023, and with Freemantle now back he's at risk of missing it again. Of course, Freemantle did miss 3 games this year including two close losses in q1 games, but even so, Xavier hasn't been all that good this year, even if I think it could still make the tournament. I'm not much of a fan and will be disappointed we didn't go for a younger guy if we hire Miller. I never will understand throwing tons of money at a coach when a bigger share of the money could be used to get better players for a younger and better coach.

I thought about Brownell, too. Clemson has always been at a disadvantage in the ACC, as Barnes knew very well. My biggest concern about Brownell is that until this year his teams couldn't sustain momentum from one year to the next, but maybe he's past that now.

I'll repeat. SC's last 5 home games have all been losses, but all have been by four points or less to ranked teams, except a 5 point OT loss to current #21 Mississippi State.

A long overdue reckoning.

I already mentioned Vandy, Arky, OU, and SMU hosting ranked teams today, but there are some other games with bubble significance TCU @ Cincy. Both need to win out at this point. WVU @ Tech. WVU has bravely hung in there, but it has just one win over NET top 50 since mid January. Wake Forest @ NC State. Wake has just recently managed to climb back in. Loss here kicks it back out. Pitt @ Notre Dame. Pitt is on a lot of First Four out lists. On more second four out. Georgia @ Auburn. Georgia is now on the outside. Would be a huge win, but I don't see it happening. UVa @ UNC. UNC is also on a lot of First Four out lists. George Mason @ VCU. Could a road sweep of VCU and Dayton earn GMU an at large bid. Probably not with a q4 loss to Central Michigan, and with Dayton slipping into fourth place in the conference. Would likely knock VCU out of the likelihood of an at large bid. SDSU @ Utah State. Both having big games following, Utah State @ Boise State, SDSU hosting UNM. BYU @ Arizona. BYU is still looking for a real signature win. Everyone beats Kansas these days. Hawai'i @ UC San Diego. For reasons stated above, I don't think UC SD will get an at large bid if it fails in the conference tournament, but maybe it should.

I thought about Forbes, but he turns 60 next month, has to take care of his stroke victim wife, and has never won a tournament game.

Too little respect for authority?

Dayton lost on the road to Loyola-Chicago. Toast. Fifth q2 loss. A-10 should be a one bid league unless VCU wins out the regular season but loses in the conference tournament, and it might not deserve a bid. Zero wins against NET top 50 teams. Zero q1 wins now that Dayton will drop out of the top 75.

Nova 81-66. Freshman Jordann Dumont had 14 career points entering the game. He attempted 5 shots. He made 4 3s. He was fouled on the 5th attempt, made all 3 free throws, and finished with 15 points. Nowhere to go but downhill from there.

Nova shot 80% bta in the first half, hitting 12 of 15. Up 68-53 with 6:44 to go.

Indiana fans today: "IT WORKED!"

South Carolina's last 5 home games: Three point loss to overall #1 seed Auburn. One point loss to projected 1 seed Florida OT loss to current #21 Mississippi State Four point loss to #7 A&M Four point come from ahead loss to #24 Mississippi Will definitely not be an easy game with or without Kaluma.

tOSU is the new addition to the list of teams on which bracketistoids are split. Starting to see it left off some brackets that were updated this morning. It joins OU, Vandy, Arky, and Wake Forest in the teams that are lacking near unanimity in selection. Georgia/SMU/Xavier are in a group of teams that still get mentioned in a handful of brackets, but they are each on a small minority of brackets, and only Xavier is rising in that group. TCU is also rising, but most of that is seen by its position on First Four out lists instead of lists of Mr. Not-Appearing-in-this-Film. I don't think TCU will get there short of it winning out and not embarrassing itself in the Big 12 tournament. Currently sporting a 2-4 q2 record, too many bad margin losses, and nothing on the OOC record to give it reason to brag, but it is 4-7 in q1 with 3 q1 games left. Sweeping bubble WVU and Cincy on the upcoming road trip would give it a huge boost leading to its home game against Baylor. Would be hard to ignore a team with 7 q1 wins.

And Cal State Northridge just put the stake into the heart of UC Irvine 84-72, giving UCI its third q3 loss. UCI has nothing but q3 and q4 games left on its schedule unless UC Santa Barbara can stay 135 or under. That is the problem with being a good team in a mid-major conference. You can't get home games against P5 schools, so all you have are maybe a couple of road games against middle of the P5 conference schools or a shot in a holiday tournament, wind up with no more than 3 q1 games on your entire schedule (and usually fewer) to go with maybe half a dozen q2s and 20-25 q3s and q4s. You are bound to lose a q2 game or two and at least 10% of the q3 games, so if you don't win most (and in some cases all) of your q1 games, you'll get skipped by the committee.