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Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Recapping last night's games

Tonight marked the first time I've been able to sit down and just watch college basketball for hours without interruption.  So, I had to sacrifice Obama's State of the Union address.  I think I'll be ok.  Here's what I saw:
  • Villanova 90, Notre Dame 72: Villanova is really quick.  Notre Dame had no one that could guard Scottie Reynolds and they played just enough defense that Notre Dame thought 25 ft jump shots were a good idea.  The Wildcats are a legit top five team.  I think Notre Dame is done. Put a fork in 'em.
  • UConn continues to be one of the strangest teams out there.  They lose to Michigan, beat St. John's, beat Texas, and then lose to Providence badly.  They're still on the bubble.  Providence meanwhile inches closer to an at-large bid.
  • Temple lost at Charlotte.  You had to figure they couldn't remain undefeated forever but I'm still a little surprised they lost this game.  Charlotte must be reading the blog!
  • Vanderbilt may have just punched their ticket to the Big Dance.  You have to wonder if Tennessee's win over Kansas was the exception and not the rule to their true performance after key players were suspended.  This is a team to keep an eye on.
  • Duke didn't play well but held off a decent FSU squad.  If Florida State had any kind of offensive discipline this game could have been closer.  Instead Duke just toyed with them defensively and took over down the stretch.  I'm still not convinced this Duke squad can win it all.  They'll reach the Sweet 16 but I haven't seen a dominating performance since they crushed Gonzaga in mid-December.
  • Texas appears to be back on track.  Tech gave it their best effort but it wasn't enough.  I think Texas is a top five team this year.  They play really good defense and out rebound everybody.
  • Ohio State got a big scare from Iowa.  OSU really struggled with Iowa's scrappy defense.  They were forcing shots they didn't need to and often shot way too early in the shot clock.  Iowa had this game but let it slip away.  All game they were terrified of driving inside with Lauderdale patrolling the paint; instead choosing to pass the ball around the perimeter and launch a three.  Yet somehow it almost worked.
  • The last game I peeked at was Oklahoma State and Texas A&M.  The Cowboys are crawling ahead of teams in their conference as they try to secure a place in the field.  A&M could really have used this road victory.  It's still early but the Aggies needs to reel of a little streak here to be taken seriously by the committee.
  • Unfortunately the BYU - New Mexico game started too late.  That's the game I most wanted to see all night.  I should have DVR'd it.  Oh well.

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