Photo by cstein96.There’s just a week left for all you college basketball fans to bone up on the squads which you’ll then pretend to have followed all season. This weekend’s games feature some big-time contests: #4 Pittsburgh just waltzed over #1 Connecticut in a 70-60 victory, and tomorrow sees a big match up between a couple of big schools from the North Carolina Triangle. But, all things considered, it’s the games with big implications for teams on the bubble that will be the ones to watch.
(Okay, just to get it out of the way: Georgetown plays DePaul today. They should cruise against the hapless Blue Demons — 0-17 in Big East play — but it’s a near certainty that Georgetown will likely need three or four wins in next week’s Big East tournament to get back into the conversation. Sorry, Hoya fans.)
In the Big Ten — which features a whole bunch of teams looking like solid at-large bets one day and barely on the outside the next — Michigan just narrowly defeated Minnesota 67-64, a victory that boosts the Wolverines’ conference record to a tournament-viable 9-9 while curbing the recent momentum of a now similarly 9-9 Golden Gophers. Kentucky (19-11) and Florida (21-9) were running neck-and-neck in the least-compelling candidate category after some serious losing streaks, at least until the Gators smothered the Wildcats’ tourney hopes with a seven-point victory at home this afternoon. For my money, Florida’s Nick Calathes is one of the more exciting players in the NCAA — an electrifying guard who can shoot the lights out from the three. But the way these teams have been playing, you’d be better off watching Brent Musburger doing color commentary for Washingtonian’s burger brackets instead.
In the Big 12, Texas (20-9) and Oklahoma State (20-9) each have opportunities to bolster their resumes in the run-up to the tourney. Texas has an opportunity to finally put a one in the win column when they play away at #9 Kansas, who is coming off a surprising loss against Texas Tech. Oklahoma State, the team with the longest active winning streak in the conference, could knock Oklahoma off the #1 seed line with a victory in Norman. Earlier today, Texas A&M (22-8) handed #12 Missouri (25-5) an unexpected drubbing.
The situation in the ACC is considerably less exciting than that of the other power conferences. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi sees Maryland (18-11) bubbling up; today’s matchup against a hapless Virginia (9-17) should give the team an opportunity to strut. Whether anyone on the committee will be watching is another story. Lord help the Terps if Lunardi’s bracket is at all accurate — he currently has Maryland’s potential opposition including a murderer’s row of Oklahoma, Villanova, Marquette, and Memphis.
Smaller local teams are well into their respective conference tournaments: American begins their defense of last year’s Patriot League tournament championship with a semifinal game against Army in D.C. George Mason has a CAA Tournament quarterfinal game tonight against James Madison in Richmond. On the other end of the spectrum, George Washington will try to avoid the Atlantic Ten standings’ basement as they close out their regular season tonight at home against Temple.
