College Basketball 1/18-1/24

[Crimson's Ghost]

Monday - Not a bad Big Monday double header with Syracuse-Duke and Oklahoma-Iowa State.  OU is the new #1 team, but Iowa State has one of the best home court advantages in the country. It'll be a good one to watch with two final four caliber teams.
Tuesday - Butler/Providence t 6:30 on FS1 seems to be the game to watch this night.  Two top 25 Big East teams squaring off, and if you haven't seen Kris Dunn play yet - you should. 
Wednesday - Villanova at Seton Hall will be worth watching for sure, also on FS1.  Seton Hall is tough and they are a younger team, Nova has climbed it's way up to the top 4.  Are they for real or overrated?
Thursday - Kind of a "bleh" night of games. If you must Kentucky traveling to Arkansas can be interesting. 
Friday - Rhode Island at George Washington should be the game of choice on ESPN2.  Kind of like the A10 has been putting up some good Friday games. 
Saturday - Oklahoma at Baylor and Villanova at Providence gets things going in the 12:00 hour. Maryland at Michigan State at 6:30 is a good one. The College Gameday one is Arizona at Cal.  Cal isn't living up to the hype just yet, but they have a ton of big time freshmen. 
Sunday - Purdue at Iowa 1:00 on the Big Ten Network will be very good.  Iowa is legit. 


Pitt 15-2 (4-1)    NC State  Tuesday 8:00  WTAE   // @ Florida State Saturday 4:00 WTAE
Pitt had a very poor showing against Louisville on Thursday night.  Pitt's offense looked very bad, and there just simply wasn't anything working that night.  In all honesty, I half expected that to kind of happen.  They just never match up well with Louisville, and it's a tough place to win.   Pitt rebounded and throttled Boston College on Saturday. Going 1-1 that week was a solid outcome.   This week will be interesting.  They host NC State, who is 0-5 in the ACC. NC State is better than their record indicates, but Pitt should win this one. Florida State on Saturday is winnable, but not a sure thing. Pitt just doesn't match up well with FSU.  The Noles have some 7 footers that clog the lane. I think splitting this week seems likely, but 2-0 is very possible if they play well. 

Penn State 11-8 (2-4)  Wisconsin 8:00 Thursday B1G
Penn State took a humbling defeat on the road to a good Purdue team.  No shame in that, the Boilermakers have an imposing and skilled front line. Pat Chambers' team bounced back nicely and scored a conference road win over upstart Northwestern.  The Lions have a winnable one this week with Wisconsin coming to the BJC.  Wisconsin isn't bad, but far from what they were last season. 

Duquesne 12-6  (2-3)   @ VCU Wednesday 7:00  //   @ George Mason Saturday 4:00
Duquesne snapped a four game losing streak with a pair of wins last week, including an impressive one over a good Saint Bonaventure team. They will be up against it this week as they travel to VCU on Wednesday.  George Mason on Saturday is one they should win though.  1-1 this week is a must for the Dukes. 

Saint Francis 7-10  (3-3)  @ Bryant Thursday 7:00  // @ Central Connecticut State 3:30
Saint Francis dropped both games last week, but they should be able to get both this week.  At the very least, the Central Connecticut game.  

[Crimson's Ghost]

Last night had a pair of solid games. Syracuse went into Cameron Indoor and beat Duke. The Orange have played much better when Boeheim is on the bench, go figure...a hall of fame coach making an impact? Duke has lost 3 straight, and it's pretty apparent they just aren't a top 10 team. Does that mean much? Not really. They have the talent to get hot at the right time, but they need to prove it as well.

As I said, Iowa State is a tough place to win a game and the newly #1 ranked Sooners found that out. As it stands right now, being #1 isn't a good thing at the rate they are losing. I think we've had 5-6 different teams take the top spot in the rankings already.

[Crimson's Ghost]

Right now, there are no great teams.  There isn't a Kentucky like last year, where everyone was chasing them.  There are plenty of good teams, but not that one team that makes you say "wow - they are the team to beat'

Looking at it conference by conference, here are some teams I like at the moment


AAC - Unfortunately, the best team in the league is ineligible with SMU.  They are the nation's lone undefeated team. Beyond that, this seems like a league up for grabs with no real championship contender.  UConn would be the team to figure it out, though.  Cincinnati and Memphis aren't bad though.

ACC - Right now, it's UNC and everyone else in my opinion.  They lost two games early while Paige was hurt, but since they've been awfully good. After that, Duke and Virginia are struggling, but they have talent.  Louisville and Pitt are teams that still need to prove it. Notre Dame, Miami, and Syracuse all seem to be finding some consistency.  Clemson is tough to take for real just yet.   Wide open league after UNC.

Big East - Villanova is the team to beat here, but Xavier and Providence are in that seam level.  Creighton, Georgetown, Seton Hall, Butler, and even Marquette are all capable of beating anyone on the right night.  The Big East will be tough to navigate and fun to watch, but is there really a national championship contender in the bunch?

Atlantic 10 - I always like this league, it's kind of a low fat version of the Big East with a bunch of private schools in big cities across the East Coast. Dayton is always good, and I like them to win this league eventually.  VCU has played better recently, Saint Joe's has some really good players too. George Washington has really slowed down and Sainy Bonaventure might be tough to take seriously just yet. 

Big Ten - Tough one to figure now, but it'll work itself out.  Indiana and Iowa are atop right now, but everyone seems to think Maryland and  Michigan State are the best teams - but they need to start acting like it. Purdue is really good, and Michigan is better than I thought they'd be.  After that, I have to root for the only power conference team to never make the NCAA's - Northwestern.  Seriously - they've NEVER made the tournament. 

Big 12 - pound for pound, the best league in the country I think.  Oklahoma, West Virginia, Kansas, and Iowa State are all legitimate top 10 caliber teams. I don't quite buy into Baylor, but obviously they are really good too. 

Mountain West - This is always a good league, but doesn't seem to be this year. Probably only a 2 bid league when it comes down to it - San Diego State and Boise State. 

Missouri Valley - Wichita State is still around, and people are forgetting about them I think. Evansville is the only other team in this league that appears to be a real threat, maybe Southern Illinois. 

Pac 12 - They'll get a bunch of tournament teams probably, but outside of Arizona, are any of them legit?   UCLA, USC, Cal, Utah, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Stanford are 8 teams that theoretically could make the tournament, but I'm not sure how many will.

SEC - Texas A&M is the best team, kind of out of nowhere. South Carolina is overrated. Kentucky isn't bad.  LSU has Ben Simmons, so they'll be the team to watch.


Mid-Majors - Monmouth is the darling, and if they get into March - they'll be the big story.  They have some great wins, and their bench attracts the attention.  UC Irvine has the big 7'4" center, and an all around huge team - they'll be interesting to watch if they go up against a good, guard oriented high major team. Valparaiso is going to be a fun team to watch too. Harvard had a slow non-conference schedule, but if they get in - they won't go away easily. Belmont is always good in March, they play a difficult style to defend. Chattanooga is quietly having a good year. Arkansas-Little Rock is one to watch. Stephen F Austin has been really good the past 5 years themselves.

[dougkeklak]

Local papers all over this Maverick Rowan angle... quite honestly I had forgotten about him.  So what if the kid didn't want to come to Pitt after all.  This is why I don't get too hyped up about these early recruits in basketball... remember when Terrelle Pryor committed to play hoops at Pitt?  LOL.   The zoo is always looking for some stupid angle... just win the game.

[Crimson's Ghost]

The Zoo definitely is playing it right, they're a student section. Their whole point is to be a distraction somehow.

If Maverick Rowan was from New York and committed to Pitt then came and played them, I don't think it would matter much. I guess since he's from Pittsburgh - it matters.

I don't think Dixon cares one way or another, and Rowan seems like a quiet kid anyway. It'll just be a basketball game.

[dougkeklak]

They did this back in '02 with Brandon Fuss-Cheatum. And all I think that was, was he picked Ohio State over Pitt. It's a bunch of "whatever" to me. The last guy that actually wooed me locally... Pitt got (Blair). People that think Pitt needs to not let local recruits slip away need to be reminded the Pittsburgh area has never really been a hotbed of D1 recruiting.

As for Rowan, he was a ringer anyway. He won with that sham of a team in Lincoln Park and then went elsewhere for exposure. Just part of this new age of recruits where AAU teams are more important anyway.

[konjo78]

Another bad loss. A few more of these and pitts back on the bubble again. They need a lot better than a usual record. Non conference wasnt strong and they will only have their conference play to back them up.

[El-Moldo]

I would say Pitt has ONE bad loss, against NC State. Sure they did not play well AT Louisville. But the Michigan State (ranked #11) home loss to 11-8 Nebraska was a BAD one. And it extended the Spartans losing streak to 3 games. Also, Penn State has 11 regular season games to play. With a record of 11-9, THEY need to win 5 of them to guarantee a non-losing season. Can they do it?

[Crimson's Ghost]

Nice come from behind win for Pitt today. Road wins are never easy, especially when you are down 10 at the half. Very good showing, and they made it happen without sixth man Sheldon Jeter in the lineup.

Moving forward, they have some big games ahead but 5-2 through 7 games is definitely a good place to be.

[konjo78]

Good win but it seems if games arent 70 plus pitt is going to lose. Which is weird because they use to be the opposite but basketball changes. ACC baby basketball now where everything is a foul