November 16, 2009 –
by Brendon
In sum: Conference favorite Brigham Young led the way this weekend with a victory over Bradley out of the Missouri Valley. Colorado State showed well in Oregon despite running out of gas on Sunday, but Utah and Wyoming had rough losses.
Team of the week: Colorado State. When four of nine members begin play with non-Division I opponents, there aren’t many teams of the week from which to choose. So, the Rams get the nod for a pair of blowout wins followed by a respectable loss at Oregon. Picked eighth in the league, CSU took it to UC-Riverside and Winston Salem State with 28- and 17-point victories respectively. After Oregon dismantled those two opponents, the Rams’ 68-55 loss to the Ducks was a decent result.
|
Poss |
PPP |
eFG |
Turn |
Reb |
FTR |
| Colorado State |
68 |
0.80 |
0.405 |
0.278 |
0.333 |
0.138 |
| Oregon |
68 |
1.00 |
0.500 |
0.219 |
0.379 |
0.283 |
With a third game in three days, Colorado State showed signs of fatigue in Eugene. Tim Miles basically has a seven-man rotation, and the lack of depth on the bench showed — Ernie Kent got 30 more minutes out of his bench than Miles did. CSU’s starting backcourt Adam Nigon and Dorian Green combined for 12 turnovers in a game where their team committed turnovers on 28 percent of possessions. The poor shooting, 16-for-41 (39.0 percent) on 2-pointers didn’t help either. Despite all of the poor offense on Sunday, Colorado State hung around against a Pac-10 team after two comfortable wins. Good start. Read More »
Posted in Mid-Majors, Reviews/Previews
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Tagged Adam Nigon, Brigham Young, Cal State-Northridge, Colorado State, Dorian Green, Idaho, Memphis, Mid-Majors, Missouri Valley, Mountain West, Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon, Patty Mills, San Diego State, Southern Illinois, St. Mary's, TCU, Tim Miles, UC-Riverside, UNLV, Utah, Winston Salem State, Wyoming
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February 6, 2009 –
by Brendon
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Bracketing challenges: The most difficult team to place in this bracket was Purdue. On Tuesday, the Boilermakers lost at Ohio State in overtime without their best player — Robbie Hummel. It’s the second time Purdue has lost a close game on the road without the sophomore star. Usually those losses would be discounted slightly with the expectation that Purdue will have a full-strength Hummel by the time March comes around. The problem with that assumption is that Hummel is suffering from a stress fracture in his back, an injury that won’t fully heal until the offseason. Hummel is expected to be day-to-day from here until Purdue’s final game of the season. Because of the chronic nature of the injury, I’m treating those losses as if they were full-strength losses — with a slight discount for the Penn State loss, because Purdue was without Chris Kramer for that game. Losing close road games to Penn State and Ohio State is not particularly egregious — certainly better than Michigan State’s home losses to Penn State and Northwestern — but Purdue would probably be listed as a No. 4 seed if doctors expected Hummel to be fully healthy by March. Instead, the Boilermakers are the top No. 5 seed on my board.
Note: San Diego State is in the field as an automatic bid from the Mountain West after winning at UNLV on Tuesday. The Aztecs would be right between Baylor and Southern Cal in the “Last In” list if they were considered an at-large.
The Bubble: The bubble was a little awkward this week because of several results in conference play. Even with San Diego State’s inclusion as an automatic, the standard for inclusion in the field on Friday feels less stringent than it did on Monday thanks to many losses by teams around the bubble. In the end, I’m very comfortable with the top 32 at-large teams. It’s the last two — Baylor and Michigan — that I could take or leave.
Michigan’s impressive win over Penn State put both teams right around the cut mark. Because of the Wolverines’ win Thursday and their more impressive play out of conference — wins over Duke and UCLA — they’re in and the Nittany Lions are out, not that it was necessarily and either/or proposition. Baylor is running out of reprieves. Scott Drew’s team has now lost four straight games, all against teams seeded No. 7 or better in this projection. Baylor now enters a stretch of five games — at Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, at Oklahoma State, at Iowa State — where the Bears will need to win at least three to stay in the field. Read More »
Posted in Bracket Junkie, National Perspective
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Tagged ACC, Arizona, Arizona State, Atlantic-10, Baylor, Ben Howland, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Bo Ryan, Boston College, Brigham Young, Bruce Pearl, Butler, Chase Budinger, Chris Kramer, Cincinnati, Clemson, Connecticut, Davidson, Dayton, Derek Glasser, Florida, Florida State, Georgetown, Gonzaga, Illinois, Iowa, Iowa State, James Harden, Jay Wright, Jerome Randle, Kansas, Kansas State, La Salle, Louisville, LSU, Miami (Fla.), Michigan, Michigan State, Mike Montgomery, Minnesota, Mississippi State, Missouri, Mountain West, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Northern Iowa, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Oregon State, Pac-10, Patty Mills, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Providence, Purdue, Rhode Island, Robbie Hummel, Rutgers, Saint Joseph's, Saint Mary's, San Diego State, SEC, Siena, South Carolina, Southern Cal, Syracuse, Temple, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Tom Izzo, Tywon Lawson, UNLV, Utah, Utah State, Villanova, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wisconsin-Green Bay, Xavier
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