bierce

Bradley losing bigly, but the question this game brings to mind is when you are ahead by 15 with less than a minute to go, why do you run the shot clock down to 12 seconds before calling timeout to empty the bench? The walk-ons scored a basket by a small guard driving and putting up a turnaround in the lane. Was a pretty shot. Bradley hit a 3 at the buzzer. UNI 83-69. We breathe a highly facetious sigh of relief about Bradley falling below LSU.

Illinois outscored tOSU 24-11 over the last 7:30 to win 87-79. WVU blew out to a 22 point lead midway through the second half and won 63-50 in game during the last 3:25 of which Cincy had only 3 possessions and the teams combined for just 2 points. Cincy still has some chances to make up ground on the field, but . . . it's just not very good. It plays good defense, but It is averaging over the entire conference slate just 59.4 points per game on 64.9 possessions per game.

Yeah, I mentioned on the other thread that LSU staying in top 75 won't matter in March.

Just a few of games of interest today. tOSU (26, but only a 10 seed in the matrix) @ Illinois (13) tOSU is 4-5 in q1 and 2-3 in q2. Huge win at Purdue, but otherwise 3 losses against the top 20 type teams in the Big Ten. Games remaining at home against Maryland and Michigan. Got fairly lucky on the schedule by drawing Maryland, Nebraska, and Indiana as the 3 teams it doubles up on at there. More fun with prepositions. tOSU is probably a pretty safe bet now to make the tournament, but it probably wants to avoid losses its the remaining q2 and q3 games. WVU (46, 9 seed in the matrix) @ Cincy (48, and not on a single bracket) How can two teams so close in the Net rankings be so differently judged? WVU is 4-5 in Q1 games while Cincy is 0-6, that's why. WVU is sinking badly. Averaging .9 points per possession over its last 3 games. Only games left on WVU's schedule of major note are @ Tech and @ Baylor, but it also has a pair left against BYU. Cincy has to go to ISU and Houston and will host Baylor and BYU. Nebraska (55) @ Oregon (33) Nebraska may have saved its season by beating Illinois in OT on Tuesday, but it is still as bubbly as a team can get. OOC win @ Creighton looks good. Recent 6 game losing streak in conference doesn't. Nebraska still has a game @ Ohio State and home games against Michigan, Maryland, and Ohio State, so it has plenty of opportunities left for good wins. Oregon has a slew of great wins, but when it loses, it can do so in spectacular fashion. Bradley (74) @ Northern Iowa (whatever) For those interested in seeing if LSU can stay in the top 75 for a while longer. Things like that don't really matter at this point, nor will they in March, but what the heck.

We rose to 25th in Net rankings this morning. We're 4-6 in q1 games, thanks to LSU hanging on to the 75th spot, but don't expect them to stay there. Their remaining home schedule is brutal, including Florida, Tennessee, A&M, and Mississippi.

No, Pomeroy still has us an 8 point favorite in Austin, which seems more than just a tad high, but Arky was terrible on the road in before last night.

Pomeroy shifted his lines a little after Arky beat UK by double digits. We're now a 1 point dog in Fayetteville.

SMU clobbered Stanford 85-61 at home. Still not a believer. 0-4 in q1 games, and home against Clemson is its only chance at another q1 game. Just . . . no.

Calipari have any beef against Terry? His team sure did a number against his former employer.

Something it is normally not good at. Oops, I did it again.

And UK bricks a ton of threes and Arky is up double digits with a minute left. A&M beat South Carolina by 4. And that wraps up the conference. I guess I never mentioned how Alabama beat the snot out of Georgia.

BYU beat UCF by 6. UCF has two chances left to make the committee notice it.

Other review for a flagrant against Arky. Announcers keep talking about reason for the review, but they haven't show a replay, and they've had about 5 minutes to show the replay. Another play in which the UK rebounder was taken to the floor. They never did show the replay of that. Instead they showed the replay of a screen earlier in the possession. Arky now up 10 with 8:55 left.

And then Arky commits a blatant offensive foul by barging through defender in the paint. UK takes it inside and scores. 7 point game and crowd is loud.

UK made the ft, inbounded, and was immediately fouled by Ivisic inside, but it then missed a three.

Arky trying to upset Kentucky in Lexington. Up 11 with 12:45. Review now on Aidoo foul on a rebound. Should be a f1 for hook and hold and drag to the ground. Looks like they are calling the f1. Yep.

Even better -- KU led 38-17 with 1:28 left in the first half.

Not a bubble impacting game, but in the "I feel really sorry for Bill 'The devil him'Self, but I can't stop laughing" department, KU lead Baylor 30-12 with 5:15 left in the first half. Baylor won 81-70. UConn just dribbled out a 77-69 win @ Marquette. Our sole q2 loss is getting a lot closer to a q1.

Don't look now (or do), but Pomeroy now favors us to win all but two of our remaining games, and he has us in a one point loss at home to Bama and a 3 point loss @ Mississippi State. Most margins of victory are small, so he rounds the percentages to predict us to finish 9-9 in conference, but I would note that we have beaten Pomeroy's prediction in four straight games. I don't think we're going to do anything like win out, but this team has played very well of late. And the players and the coach should be given credit for it.

North Texas lost at home to UTSA. Toast.

I still have not received an explanation for why Vinson doesn't play in blowouts. Gerry?

Pryor is someone Terry was ridiculed for recruiting. He was an under the radar guy who was not only under the radar but reclassified to start a year early. It was expected he wouldn't play at all last year, but he got a few minutes. On another site, most posters thought it was a waste of a scholarship, but I told them from the beginning that I saw a guy with major hops and agility and a nice shooting form from the perimeter. I saw a really good player there in about 2 1/2 -- 3 years. He might be a year ahead of schedule.

Maybe. Maybe not. LSU lost by only 13 to Auburn, beat Kentucky, and lost by 8 to Vandy in earlier games in red stick. We should have won. But Pomeroy had us as a 1 point favorite. I know I had said several times that we had played over the Pomeroy prediction in 2 straight games, but winning by this much is an eye opener about what our ceiling might be. OU lost at home by 2 to A&M, and beat Vandy by 30 and South Carolina by 20. Our "only" 4 point win in Norman looks a lot better now, doesn't it? Texas is on the verge of becoming a q1 opponent for teams playing at home. Whoa. But no team plays its best game every game. This was our best game. Here's hoping we continue playing at a high level and avoid having any more worst games along the way.

Pope has such great lift off the floor on his jumper.

Great pass by Shedrick