bierce

There is more strangeness to the Indiana story. When Indiana was selected to host early rounds in the NIT near the end of Crean's tenure, the AD refused to allow Indiana to host a game, claiming an NIT game would diminish the legacy of Assembly Hall. This proved to be nothing more than a jerkwad move to denigrate the coach. Assembly Hall was previously the venue for Indiana's first three NIT games in 1985 under Bobby Knight. Indiana still thinks itself as all that, when it clearly isn't, but the team has played well since Woodson announced he is stepping down.

We're now out in all reasonable probability. Our only chance might be winning four straight, which would mean winning at Mississippi State, home against OU, a first round SEC tournament game against Arkansas or Georgia, and a second round SEC tournament game against Tennessee or Missouri. In other words, an illusory promise. But I'm still interested in who will and who won't make the tournament, so forgive me if continue this thread, basketball junkie that I am. WVU was clobbered by BYU last night in a late game. It has now lost 7 of its last 8 games against tournament teams, and it has lost them by an average of 13+ points. Still in the field thanks to 5 q1 wins, some of which were really, really good, but now at serious risk. A loss at Utah Tuesday will put it in serious jeopardy. San Diego State beat Wyoming 72-69, staying firmly in the field even if only a 10 seed. UC San Diego won by a bazillion. At this point, I am definitely of a mind the committee should select UC San Diego, VCU, and maybe Drake, even if they lose in their conference tournaments. That could change if they suffer a bad loss in the interim before the conference tournament, but the worst of the P5 contenders aren't showing much reason to include them, with the exception of Indiana, which has gone 4-2 since Woodson announced he would step down, with wins @ Michigan State and home over Purdue and the two losses were close losses to projected 4 and 6 seeds.

Florida. Anybody else was either before UCLA's run or a team that has won only one title. Unless you want to count Louisville, since Krum won two in the 80s, and the Pitino coached team had its title vacated.

So we are hiring Wade after all.

It's also misleading. McCasland's teams have never played at a fast pace. Tech is extremely efficient on offense this year (due in large part to Hawkins being such a great penetrator and distributor), but it is not all that prolific at scoring. In fact, it is playing games at the fourth slowest pace in Big 12 games.

Wake Forest beat ND 74-71 Boise State won 66-61 against a team that triggered an investigation about gambling. We're going to be looking up at about 6-8 teams ahead of us for the last spot in the tournament if we don't have a miraculous second half like we did against A&M.

Indiana won on the road by 16. Vandy beat Missouri by 4 in OT. Boise State in a one point game midway through the second half.

I've already buried SMU, but now you can dig up the casket, seal it in lead, and drop it to the bottom of the ocean. Stanford wins by 5 after Raynaud scored on a putback slam with 8.7 seconds left. I thought it was strange for SMU to let Stanford run the shot clock out with a 3 point lead and 37 seconds left in the game.

Xavier 83 Creighton 61. Expect Xavier to appear on a lot of brackets Monday.

Not a bubble game, but Tennessee just pulled off a near miracle victory over Bama. Started with a four point play the hard way, getting a bucket, missing the ft, getting fouled on the rebound, making both. Then it tied up Bama near the end of the shot clock, forcing Bama to inbound, and it got a 5 second violation. Then it hit a 30 footer at the buzzer to win 79-76.

Xavier leading Creighton 42-27 at the half. If it keeps this kind of lead, it will start appearing on a lot of brackets, and if it follows it up with a win @ Butler, it will likely get back in the field.

Here's an interesting one-- Colorado State leads currently projected 9 seed Utah State 48-22 at the half. I don't think Colorado State can win an at-large bid with 5 noncon losses, including home against UC Riverside, but if it wins this game, then it will be 7-1 in Q1-2 games and be in a position to possibly tie for the regular season MWC title if New Mexico loses one more and Colorado State can win out, which would also give it a q1 win @ Boise State.

OU lost 87-84 after 3/4 length of floor heave went off the backboard. I thought it was jobbed a bit at the end. Forsythe was fouled driving baseline with OU down one, no whistle, but he was called for chucking the ball over the backboard. Ole Miss with a breakaway on the inbound pass, but Murrell fumbled it, pinned it against his side while trying to dribble, took a couple of steps that way, dropped the ball, picked it up and started dribbling. Apparently that was OK. But the OU guy trying to foul was called for a flagrant for grabbing Murrell's shirt as he went by. Murrell made both, and OU was left needing to steal the inbound pass and hit a court length three. It managed half of that. Not crying for OU. Bubble getting softer and softer today.

Q3 loss for Nebraska after a great comeback to take the lead with 9.4 seconds left. It had forced a ten second violation and scored on the ensuing possession to take a one point lead. Minnesota quickly ran down and hit a three with 4.1 seconds left. Nebraska tried to counter but missed from about 35 feet at the buzzer.

I like Hoiberg, but I'm rooting against Nebraska from here on out for the half-time show of making babies crawl on the court to their parent or bottle of milk or whatever other carrot was held out for them. Several were bawling.

Minnesota started second half on a 9-0 run to build lead back to 44-26. New play for every coach's playbook. Guard up top and outside the arc overthrows a lob to a big man in the paint. Big man can just get a hand on it to deflect down the baseline to teammate open in the corner. Teammate drive baseline, and as the defense collapses, passes back to the first guy still standing up top well outside the arc and drains the three. I put it up there with the inbounds pass from one baseline off the opposite backboard for the teammate to get the carom and drop in the short open jumper.

Nebraska is digging a hole for the third straight game against non-tournament teams. It came back against Northwestern, but it couldn't catch Penn State. Now it is down at home 30-17 to Minnesota.

So Car 50 Arky 20 with 12:10 left. Wow. UNC won 92-73. Like I said, not a needle mover, but other teams can move down with losses while UNC stays put, so someone might drop below it.

So Car 16 Arky 3 with 10:31 to go in the first half. Arky shooting 1/11.

Not without more losses by either team, because any bubble team currently projected to be an 11 seed that wins 2 of 3 games is likely to stay in the field. Then the first round of the SEC tournament will play large with the committee. Georgia has three winnable games (@Texas, @ So Car, home vs. Vandy). It could go anywhere from 0-3 to 3-0 in that stretch. OU has three lose-able games (@ Mississippi, home vs. Missouri, @ Texas), so I think it is much more unlikely OU gets a couple of wins by regular season's end.

As I predicted, we are not in the field according to the matrix this morning. 21 brackets have not updated since the Arky game. We are on 18 of them. 85 brackets have updated since the Arky game. We are on only 28 of them. Last four at larges are now OU, Georgia, tOSU, Indiana. Boise State is hot on our heels, getting on 23 of the 85 updated brackets. Beating Seton Hall by only 4 hurt Xavier. UNC just ended the first half on a 14-2 run to go the lockers up 46-31 over Miami in the only game happening now with a team in last 8 in or first 8 out. UNC has played well of late, but none of the games were needle movers.

I think we are coming to a consensus that it is a near certainty. I hope CDC regularly updates any such list. That he has one doesn't mean we should restrain our tendencies to conjecture wildly about future events. Isn't that why sports message boards were invented?

Gotcha. I think Murray would be even better, since he has spent years recruiting for UConn, so he's well-versed in recruiting at this level.

Yet you keep rejecting the idea of hiring a young guy who doesn't have P5 head coaching on their resumes.

And I still say the best hires over the last 7 years have proven to be Hurley, Oats, Lloyd, Otzelberger, Scheyer, Golden, and maybe May and McCasland will be soon added to the list. None of them had P5 coaching experience before taking their current jobs. You get the right young guy, give him support, step back, and watch it happen.