ND blew the doors off WVU last night, for their 9th straight win and 20th on the season (12-3 in the Big East!). They're up to #18 in the coaches' poll (#20 in AP).

Huggy Bear was not pleased...

"I don't know what the school record for misses is," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said, "but I think if I would have left Jabarie Hinds in tonight he would have had it."

LOL

FLORIDA LOL.

And the FT jinx continues. Historic bed shitting by Mizzou and an inexplicable loss by the Irish. May want to sit the next play out Bob. Take a knee.

Still, some of those games got me fired up for March. Gonna be a pretty good week of games with Duke/Carolina this Saturday. Could be for, unsurprisingly, the conference title.

Some other thoughts:

Florida State is fools gold. I don't think they'll make it to the 2nd weekend despite the big wins they've had. Jekyl & Hyde.
Michigan is overrated. Michigan St. is totally underrated. (Izzo has done a masterful job this year)
Syracuse may be the most overlooked team in the country.
Anthony Davis, Charlotte Bobcats. Charlotte, Anthony Davis. Player of the year IMO.
Also, Kentucky is ridiculous. NBA minor league team. Only starting 5 that can match their talent is....
North Carolina, who is starting play better at the right time. Although free throws are killing them.

I will say in all fairness to FT, despite Mizzou probably costing themselves a #1 seed, they are a damn good team.

I probably agree with you about FSU not making it to the sweet 16, but then again with the intensity and activeness of their defense I could also see them making a run to the elite 8. I didn't see yesterday's game, but when I've watched them this year I always take away from the game just how good their defense is.

As for NC State, they are the best FT shoot team in the ACC but didn't hit their free throws to ice the game against Clemson on Saturday before losing in OT (aka the very definition of "NC State Shit"). State is now all but completely on the wrong side of the bubble unless they make a serious run to end the season.

maybe i should start betting against myself

"Cholly Hustle"

(As in chol-esterol.)

fucking irish

That Jesuit punishment of a bunch of Irish Catholics has caused Bernard Law to get the shakes.

Washington won the regular season Pac 12 title today. But given the sorry state of the conference this year they won't make the Big Dance unless they win one or two games in the conference tournament.

damn, I guess I didn't realize it got that bad for the pac 10...err, pac 12.

Me neither. If Cal wins the conference tourney, they may only get one bid.

NC State is one of the last four out and needs to win 2 in the ACC tournament this weekend to greatly increase their chances. It just feels nice to be back in the conversation of the tournament again.

Oddly enough, former (and oft-maligned) coach Herb Sendek and Arizona State may have helped us out a little bit by beating Arizona yesterday, who is now likely NIT-bound.

So, let's say Cal-Berkeley wins the PAC12 tournament. PAC12 gets only one entrant in the field of 68. Meanwhile, Penn & Harvard tie for the Ivy (regular) season championship, then Penn wins the tie-break. Ivy gets two entrants.

Will the BCS conferences shit a brick & divest themselves of the NCAA in basketball, just as they have in football?

(Never mind the Ivy getting more teams than the PAC12; so will the Atlantic 10, Mountain West, West Coast, & Missouri Valley.)

I'm just glad my alma mater, Southern Illinois, finally fired Lowery (aka "Coach Lousy"). Dude gets "Gonzaga money" after taking another coach's players to the Sweet 16, then proceeds to set futility records in several categories, including the worst record in the team's 99 year history (8-23) despite a soft non-conf schedule designed to help the freshmen acclimate, and 90 losses in the past 5 seasons.

Otherwise, I'm glad to see 2 MVC teams ranked this late in the season, and hopefully well-seeded in the tourney.

To be fair, Bruce Weber has hit on some struggles in Urbana-Champaign, of late.

These college sports tend to ebb quickly, save for the historic powers (Kentucky*, Kansas, Duke, North Carolina). I suppose you could throw in Indiana & UCLA, though the fallow period before & after the Lizard of Westwood (Harrick) & IU's struggles between the Final Four run of '02 & this year's team seem to point to the ups & downs attendant with non-UK-KU-DU-UNC teams.

*When not on probation, which has befallen UK in every decade since the 40s or 50s.

Savour the Salukis recent glory, then... & hope for more. But don't expect it.

I mean, I'm a Marquette fan, & as Bloor has advised, "It ain't going to be 1977 ever again". (Of course, I would settle for a Final Four run out of the 2nd or third seed, then losing (but not by the embarassing margin of KU-MU back in '03 (100-60, if not mistaken). All things considered, it would be a smashing end for Jae Crowder's college playing days.)