Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Tourney Projected Seeds after Jan. 29

No. 1: Wisconsin, Florida, North Carolina, UCLA
No. 2: Kansas, Oregon, Ohio St., Pittsburgh
No. 3: Duke, Oklahoma St., Marquette, Texas A&M
No. 4: Memphis, Air Force, Virginia Tech, Butler
No. 5: Washington St., Nevada, Kentucky, Clemson
No. 6: Southern Illinois, Arizona, Texas Tech, Indiana
No. 7: Stanford, Notre Dame, Texas, Georgetown
No. 8: Creighton, Tennessee, Boston College, USC
No. 9: UNLV, Michigan St., Vanderbilt, Georgia
No. 10: Alabama, Villanova, Arkansas, Maryland
No. 11: Missouri St., Syracuse, Georgia Tech, Gonzaga
No. 12: George Washington, New Mexico St., Virginia Commonwealth, Xavier
No. 13: Davidson, Winthrop, Toledo, Holy Cross
No. 14: South Alabama, Penn, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Oral Roberts
No. 15: Vermont, Cal St.-Fullerton, East Tennessee St., Austin Peay
No. 16: Central Conn. St., Loyola(MD), Weber St., Delaware St., Jackson St.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

The First Seedings of the Year

1: UCLA, Florida, Wisconsin, North Carolina
2: Texas A&M, Ohio State, Oregon, Pittsburgh
3: Duke, Oklahoma State, Clemson, Washington St.
4: Butler, Arizona, Air Force, Kansas
5: Virginia Tech, Marquette, Tennessee, Indiana
6: Nevada, Texas Tech, Alabama, Memphis
7: Kentucky, Boston College, Southern Illinois, USC
8: Florida St., Texas, LSU, Notre Dame
9: Michigan St., Villanova, Georgia Tech, Arkansas
10: Creighton, Northern Iowa, Georgetown, UNLV
11: Gonzaga, Syracuse, Vanderbilt, Missouri St.
12: Drexel, New Mexico St., Davidson, Virginia Comm.
13: Holy Cross, Winthrop, Toledo, Western KY
14: Rhode Island, TAMU-CC, Oral Roberts, Penn
15: East Tennessee St., Long Beach State, Idaho St., Vermont
16: Jackson State, Loyola (MD), Sacred Heart, Delaware St., Austin Peay

Monday, January 22, 2007

Games to keep an eye on the ticker for... Jan. 22-26

In my early Sunday morning post, I forgot to give props to Southern Illinois on a clutch win at Creighton and finishing the job at the Qwest Center where MO State couldn't.

And here are the weekday games to keep an eye on. With an addendum to the national TV part. I simply can't ignore the games that end up on ESPNU and Versus. I will still ignore CSTV because Conference USA is crap.

Monday
High Point at Coastal Carolina
-One of these two teams should be playing at Winthrop on March 3 for the Big South title.

Chicago State at Kansas State
-Don't keep an eye on this, actually. But let me stand up in the Stephen A. Smith Memorial Speaker's Circle and ask WHAT BUSINESS KANSAS STATE HAS PLAYING THIS GAME IN JANUARY????

Norfolk State at Delaware State
-Top two teams in the MEAC standing and the only ones with records at .500 or better.

Tuesday
Florida State at Boston College
-Seminoles have a drop-dead gorgeous RPI, but they need more marquee wins that just the Florida one for Al Thornton to make his first trip to the Big Dance.

Northern Iowa at Southern Illinois
-Not one guy on Northern Iowa is a complete standout, but there are a bunch of good players and their level of teamwork is up there with anyone in the country.

San Diego State at UNLV
-The Aztecs are underachieving at need this kind of win to get back into the MWC/at-large race.

Wednesday
Drexel at UNC-Wilmington
-Again, you don't really have to keep an eye on it, but I have to make a point. A lot of people criticized Brad Brownell for leaving UNCW for Wright State last spring, and now it looks like he knew exactly what he was doing. Wright State is second in the Horizon (bid stealers, possibly) while UNCW is 4-13. The Raiders also have a possible HL 2008 POY in 5-11 guard Dashaun Wood.

Kentucky at Georgia
-Georgia must have been so pissed to let that game against Alabama get away from them. what better way to get that taste out of their mouth than by giving Kentucky a second straight unexpected loss.

Creighton at Missouri State
-Think there's just a little bit of an element of revenge here?

Michigan at Wisconsin
-I feel like the same script goes on with Michigan every single year. Hot start, big marquee win, then collapse.

Winthrop at High Point
-If Winthrop doesn't drop this game, they should go undefeated in conference.

East Tennessee State at Belmont
-Due to possibly the nation's biggest example of Ewing Theory this season (ETSU graduating shot-loving Tim Smith), the two-team A-Sun Battle of Nashville has officially turned into a three-way Tennessee Tussle.

Oakland at Oral Roberts
-First of three meetings, anybody?

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Saturday Observations

-You can officially move Washington to the "Left for Dead" column after their latest version of Leave Everybody Open On Defense against Washington State for all the apples.

-Wichita State is real close to that same column, but something just gives me the feeling this team will make a late-season run. There's just too much talent there to stay in their current Valley spot.

-Poor Iona.

-Appalachian State got a gorilla-sized win at Davidson and showed the rest of the SoCon that they will be in this race for the long haul.

-If this UConn team had South Florida or Baylor across their chests, they wouldn't even be considered on the bubble at this time.

-I have no idea which Alabama or LSU team will show up at what time and for how long during the course of any game and/or week.

-The AP headline for the New Mexico State-Nevada game said, "...NMSU stuns [national ranking censored] Nevada". That game is not a stunner in the least bit. The Land of Enchantment State Aggies have the best team speed in the conference and are an excellent team that has won 14 of 15 (the one a head-scratcher against LA Tech).

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Games to keep an eye on, Weekend Edition

Saturday
Providence at Louisville
-A team possibly underrated and a team possibly overrated

Florida at South Carolina
-If you remember, the NIT champs were the only team to beat the NCAA champs twice last season

Virginia at Boston College
-BC is off to a quiet 3-0 ACC start, while Virginia is constantly up-and-down

South Dakota State at Butler
-I would have said this was an upset possibility at the beginning of the week, but I can't see Butler losing again after the loss to UIC.

Albany at Vermont
-The two best teams in the AmEast square off

Missouri State at Southern Illinois
-It'll be interesting to see if the Bears can keep up their uber-offense against the Salukis' uber-defense

Colorado State at San Diego State
-Remember when I said that Utah was the only easy out in the Mountain West earlier in the week? Well, I forgot TCU.

South Carolina State at Florida A&M
-Two teams breathing right down Delaware State's neck in the MEAC standings

Kansas State at Missouri
-Oh-fer teams in Big 12 play that didn't expect to start that way

Drexel at Old Dominion
-The CAA is becoming like the Valley in that there are two or three games every week that have two quality teams playing

Air Force at Wyoming
-The Falcons are so damn good, but then again, so is Brandon Ewing

Tennessee-Martin at Morehead State
-Morehead State has surely been the surprise story of the OVC so far this year

Loyola(IL) at Illinois-Chicago
-UIC doesn't get an easy day after the giant win over Butler

Washington at Cal
-The Huskies have time to turn around their 1-4 Pac-10 start, but they've got to find ways to play good defense and perform in crunch time. Also, of all the highly touted frosh this year, Spencer Hawes is the most overrated.

Robert Morris at Fairleigh Dickinson
-RMU has the best overall record in the NEC by far, but they are just 2-3 in conference to FDU's 3-0.

Bradley at Indiana State
-Two teams in The Valley that are dark-horse NCAA possibilities, and are both coming off huge wins

Xavier at Saint Louis
-Musketeers are finally starting to realize some of that preseason potential

BYU at UNLV
-UNLV is only 1-2 in the MWC, but has a super-high RPI of 19. Meanwhile, BYU is riding a seven-game winning streak

Nevada at Hawaii
-This trip is normally hell for Nevada, and they won't have Fazekas. However, Sessions and Kemp have emerged to be big-time players in his absence

Sunday
Samford at Tennesee Tech
-All three of the Tennessee OVC teams are doing worse than I thought they would be doing. Samford is leading the conference, meanwhile.

Monday, January 08, 2007

Games to keep an eye on the ticker for...January 8-12

As always, no national TV games on here.

Monday
Old Dominion at Hofstra
Two of the top four team in the CAA with Drexel and surprising VCU.

Tuesday
Clemson at NC State
NC State is probably one of the two worst teams in the ACC, and they're not an easy out.

Loyola(MD) at Siena

Siena is leading the MAAC at 4-0, with the east coast Loyola at 3-1 after Gerald Brown and company beat Marist last week.

Wednesday
Pittsburgh at DePaul
DePaul is just an awful team away from home. At Allstate Arena, though, they haven't been beaten.

Loyola(IL) at Wright State

Both of these teams have a good shot to be first runner-up to Butler in the Horizon.

Hofstra at Drexel
Talent wise, the two best teams in the CAA.

Southern Illinois at Bradley

The theme early on in The Valley is that the top six teams are protecting their home court against each other. At Bradley is a game that the eventual conference winner will probably snatch.

UNLV at Wyoming

Utah is truly the only bad team in the Mountain West.

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at Northwestern State

This, I believe, will end up as a "passing of the torch game" in the Southland when all is said and done.

Thursday
Washington State at Cal
This Cal team has the potential to lose or win by 25 to just about anybody. The latter won't happen. This Wazzu team finds ways to stay in (and win) games.

Friday
Lipscomb at Belmont
The first round of the Nashville A-Sun supremacy fight. There's going to end up being three rounds.

Creighton at Northern Iowa
In an unrelated Valley note, does anyone realize that Indiana State's RPI is higher that Wichita State's now? And that they have wins over Butler, Purdue and Creighton?