Two Weeks...
Although the majority of my weekend was taken up with softball, there was also quite a bit of basketball on TV. As I mentioned last week, we are getting close to the NCAA tournament and that means teams are laying it all out on the floor to try to punch their ticket to the big dance. Despite the fact that we still have the conference tournaments to play, these last few games can go a long way toward setting yourself up for that tournament as well as the national tournament beyond.
They are already starting to project where teams will be seeded in the bracket even though it still seems so far away. In fact, they started predicting seeds a couple of weeks ago, so this isn't a new thing at all. Even back in January I think they were talking about where some teams would be seated when it finally got to March.
Friday night there were two games in the top 25. Neither of them were upsets, but the Western Michigan Broncos gave number 21 Miami of Ohio quite a scare before falling short 69 to 67. If I remember correctly, Miami of Ohio is the only undefeated team in the NCAA Division I right now. They have a massive 29 wins with zero losses. Of course, people are obviously going to point to strength of schedule, but this is still pretty impressive for one of the "other" schools in Ohio.
On Saturday we had 15 games in the top 25. Clemson got the upsets started with a nice 80 to 75 win over number 24 Louisville, then Kentucky followed it up with a 91 to 77 throttling of number 25 Vanderbilt. Number 4 Iowa State seems to have been on the losing side of a lot of upsets this year and that was the case once again after their 82 to 73 loss to number 16 Texas Tech.
West Virginia upended number 19 BYU 79 to 71, and finally St. Mary's had a massive 70 to 59 victory over number 9 Gonzaga. I'd also like to point out on Saturday that number 17 Alabama had a narrow win over number 22 Tennessee 71 to 69.
On Sunday there were only two games in the top 25 and they both happened in the Big Ten conference. Ohio State had a thrilling upset over number 8 Purdue 82 to 74 which caps off a rough week for the Boiler Makers after they fell on Tuesday (I think it was) to Michigan State. Meanwhile, Michigan State is looking to finish their season strong and had a nice 77 to 64 win over Indiana. There were still a lot of mistakes, but it was definitely one of their better games I have watched this season.
Cooper is a bit of a disappointment for me, but I really like what Teng is doing and my wife is a huge Scott fan. I feel like every shot Cooper makes falls short unless he is doing a lay up or dunking. We could really use some reliable help at center. MSU has two games left in the season with the next one being on Thursday against Rutgers, and then the season finale at home against Michigan on Sunday. That last one is a win-able game for the Spartans, but they are going to have to play hard an the crowd is going to need to show up.
Either way, they are still going to make it to the NCAA tournament, so that's all that really matters.
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