bierce

UNT moves really well on defense. It's moving the ball on the perimeter a little better on offense and hit a few threes this half to boot, but this is a defense first team. 59-52 UNT and shooting ft. Northwestern getting killed 32-11 with 4:12 left in the first half.

BTW, quad fanatics should be informed NMSU lost again at home yesterday and has slid to 165 in NET after 3 straight losses. Losing by single digits @ Liberty didn't hurt, but losing to Kennesaw State and Jacksonville State at home by a combined 19 points did. Our win over NMSU is now a q4 win, and we are 6-6 in q1-q3 games. NMSU has several chances to move back up (home against Liberty, a pair of games against Middle Tennessee, and only one game left against a team outside the top 200).

Nebraska couldn't get closer than 18 after an early second half run by Wisconsin, so I switched over to the North Texas game. After watching about 4 minutes of that, I need to bleach my eyeballs. North Texas went scoreless, regularly fumbled the ball while trying to fight through multiple defenders, was reluctant to shoot when open, and bricked the few open shots it attempted. Ghastly. It finally hit a three, after nearly fumbling the pass away, but this happened on a possession after it gave up a three, then committed a f1 foul on the rebound. Basket counted. Free throws counted. 28-19 FAU with 3:07 left in the first half. It was only 4 minutes, so a pretty small sample of what UNT basketball is like, but that is UNT basketball. Work the offense for a long time to try to get something inside, and if there is nothing inside, then keep trying. Nebraska lost 83-55. It will take several wins for Nebraska to get back into field contention now.

The American conference is really weak this year, but it does have two teams that are at-large candidates. Memphis is hideously underrated by NET in the low 40s, but bracketizookeepers generally favor it, as they should. OOC wins over Michigan State, Mississippi, Clemson, Missouri, and UConn, and it's in the 40s? Ridiculous. Yes, it has the quad 3 home loss to Arkansas State, but Arkansas State is a top 100 team, so maybe Memphis is being penalized for not running up big margins lately against mediocre conference competition. North Texas is the opposite. Almost nothing of value on the OOC schedule--a home win over Oregon State and road losses to McNeese and High Point and a neutral site loss to Utah State. North Texas lost its only reg season game to Memphis (by 4 in Memphis), so it is in a tough spot. It won't play Memphis again until conference tournament finals in all likelihood, so if it wins there, it gets the auto bid. If it loses that game, what will it have to show the committee? Almost nothing of value. So it is sitting kind of like Indiana State was last year. I suppose it is possible for UNT to win out and get a bid just on its win totals, but it has only 4 games left against teams better than 156 in NET ranking, and 0 against teams in the top 100, so it could be a tough sell for the committee, even if it manages 27 wins. Anyway, Memphis is winning comfortably over UAB, 66-49 with 13:37 left. UNT in a tight game midway through the first half against FAU.

Down to the wire, indeed. IU went on a 10-0 run before wheels fell off on offense, and Maryland got back to within one. Then IU fumbled the ball in the post, and a guard came in and made the layup, getting a foul because a Terp who was tied up with a Hoosier in the paint happened to still be standing in the arc. He didn't do anything except not get out of the way of the guy barreling at him. IU made the ft to go up 4. Maryland scored, then fouled, and IU missed the front end. Maryland ran offense and hit a three. Maryland up one with IU ball and 5.6 seconds left. Attempt to drive baseline, ball knocked out. Still IU ball 3.9 seconds left. Inbound to corner. Tough, twisting shot attempted. Air and tapped away by Terp after it passed the rim. I guess Kevin Willard and the Maryland AD will make nice now.

Wisconsin was trying to run away and hide over the last 5 minutes of the first half. 16-2 run culminated by a four point play on a transition three, but Nebraska hit a three, rebounded a bad shot on Wisconsin's last possession, and drove the length of the floor for a layup. 40-28 Wisconsin at the half. Maryland-Indiana could go down to the wire. 70-65 Maryland with 5:30 left. IU getting points inside. Maryland's last four possessions ended in 3pt attempts. Two missed, two made. Two more IU possessions end with buckets inside, and Maryland possession ended with clumsy drive near end of shot clock. Tie game with 4:37 left.

Terry said after the game that he never wants to put players on the floor when they aren't at full strength and Kaluma is day to day. I seem to remember Shedrick playing quite a bit while banged up last year, so I'm interpreting Terry's comments to mean he won't put players on the floor at risk of aggravating injuries, but absolute 100% full strength of every muscle group is not a requirement to see action.

Brackets are still meaningless at this point, but to get an idea of what most people think of yesterday's win, we are a ten seed in six of eight brackets that were updated this morning. We are a nine seed in the other two. So, we basically jumped a seed line and a half. We were slotted by most bracketeerazoids to appear in a play-in game at the start of play on Saturday. Three Big Ten teams needing wins are in action today. Maryland (most definitely in) @ Indiana (currently out). Maryland is absurdly only a 9 seed despite being NET 19 and having lost no game by more than 6 points. Ten of 80 brackets don't have it in the field, and a few of those were updated after Maryland beat Illinois by 21 in Champaign. Weird. Indiana is struggling. It managed an OT win @ tOSU, but it also lost to Northwestern and by 25 @ Iowa and home against Illinois in its last 4 games. Nebraska is @ Wisconsin NU has lost 5 straight, including home games to two teams on the outside (USC, Rutgers). And let's not forget it losing by 36 to Purdue. Home game against Illinois and a road game against Oregon coming up, so this could become an 8 game losing streak. Northwestern has the toughest game, playing @ Illinois. I think NW profiles as well if not better than Nebraska or Indiana despite having no good OOC wins, but NW isn't included in a single bracket right now.

That would be nice, but it's not a necessity now. We only have two such games left--@ Mississippi Tuesday and @ Mississippi State near the end of the season. Everything else left is a home game or a road game against Vandy and below, not that winning in Vandy is easy, right Coach Barnes and Coach Pope? If we can sneak a win at home against either Bama or Kentucky, win the rest of the home games, and get a couple of wins on the road against the bottom third of the conference, then we're in the tournament. I'd like even more of course for better seeding, but until we know how long Kaluma will be out of action, I'm not exactly hopeful of getting even enough wins to make the tournament.

I don't see how we can project probable wins and losses without knowing when Kaluma or Weaver come available.

Bilas: I don't want to switch here. I don't want Broome on Zeigler. Zeigler missed a three. Auburn got the rebound cleared out. Game. Zeigler finished 0/7 bta, so that was kind of a gamble.

Missed the first. Made second. Tennessee inbounded to guard close to baseline who drove across midcourt. Timeout with 9.4 seconds left.

Tennessee up 51-49 with 44.5 seconds left. Auburn ball. Auburn took it down, went to Broome, failed, got it out to a three in the corner. Barnes had 2 timeouts left. Didn't call one. Drove and didn't score. Auburn rebound. Auburn up one with 13.7 seconds left. Tennessee fouls Pettiford.

Eat it, squid.. Arky drove, couldn't convert, and OU got a breakaway for a dunk. Would have been smarter to run into the corner and run out the clock, but OU up 3, and Arky forced to try a 3/4 length heave. I hate Calipari. Always did.

Arky gifted by the refs. Ticky-tack foul called on OU player setting a ball screen. Arky ball now down one with 24.7 seconds left.

Ok, put that in your playbook. Pass into the paint, get it deflected to a guy on the perimeter who airballs a three to be taken by a guy who tries to knock it off a defender but miss only for the ball to go to another guy for an easy layup. Nice play, Porter Moser. OU up 3 with 2:21 to go.

Ivisic back in the game. Maybe he just got a punch on his upper arm.

This is really strange. Ivisic went to the bench grabbing his shoulder. No one is there tending to him, and he is in obvious pain.

Yes, and judging by their commericials, Warby Parker is still trying to redefine ugly as "chic."

Hurley standing on the floor while Xavier trying to inbound. Deadball foul called on UConn for holding. I would have run a player into Hurley to draw the technical. Xavier made the ft. UConn failed to score. 76-72 Xavier. And Hurley didn't kill anyone.

Shot clock violation. Hilarious.

Xavier up 2 with 21.7 seconds left, UConn ball with 16 on shot clock. Neither team has a timeout left.

St. Mary's will survive. I still think they are the same fraud as always. Randy Bennett is a good coach, but St. Mary's has never played above seed, has twice played below seed, and one of the times it played to seed, it lost to a team seeded way below it. Arky has caught up in the second half, just like it did against Georgia. Game getting helter-skelter. Three straight OU turnovers.

Xavier guard nearly loses dribble in silly behind the back move, drives, and gets rewarded with 2 ft on silly UConn foul. Xavier up 10 with 5:01 and the ball. Nope, lost it in transition. UConn converts, and it is an 8 point game.

LSU was tied at the half with Alabama despite shooting 39% from the field to Alabama's 50%, because it had a huge advantage on rebounds and took 10 more shots. I hate to keep harping the subject, but possessions are a big part of basketball.