Purdue's win over IU last night put them into a tie for 2nd place with Maryland. Good year for the Boilermakers. Mich State seems to be rounding into tournament shape at the right time, and the Buckeyes have one of the truly outstanding freshmen in the country playing extremely well. Wisky still the big dog with Frank the Tank though.
Ohio State basketball has been a disappointment to me this winter. Russell is an outstanding individual and he has not made any secret of just playing here for one year and going pro. He does not have any consistent supporting staff. We have five games left in the conference, Michigan, Purdue, Nebraska, Penn State and the final game with Whisky here in Columbus. Depending on what happens now, will determine our fate as a bubble team for the Big Dance.
I kinda hate the term "bubble team"...at least at this time of year. To me a bubble team is one who is on the bubble...at the end...when the tourney committee is making their selections. We are in sole possession of 5th place...one game in the loss column out of 2nd place. If the tourney was set today, OSU would be absolutely in. If we win 3 games we are in the tourney, as far as I can see...without being on the bubble. That would just about have to put us in the top 6 in the B1G. I say that without doing an extensive analysis of the remaining conference games and who plays whom. Win only 2 and I figure then we will be on the bubble.
Texas loses to Iowa State today, at home. Going on the road to WVU and KU so those are likely losses...road getting tougher for the Longhorns.
Upset Tues as 2 top 10 teams go down in Wisconsin on the road to Maryland and Notre Dame at home to Syracuse. Probably won't hurt either team very much though. Texas lost again, this time on the road to WVU, things looking bleak in Austin as next up is a trip to Kansas and then at home to Baylor...both likely to be losses. North Carolina was also upset last night at home by NC State.
Maryland going down would have helped Purdue and Ohio State in our bid(s) to finish high in the B1G standing. Wiscy is pretty close to a lock for the championship. Purdue has been on a roll of late and Ohio State has been struggling. But there are games yet to be played. Lots of angst from the Purdue Sports List involving how everyone is now playing more to "make the dance" than to win the conference championship...even the conference tourney is looked at as a chance to "pad your resume with a couple more wins."
Not sure how focus on NCAA hurts at this time of the year, you have to keep winning so you'd better show up to play every night. Can't lose your way into the tourney. It does seem though that most teams are pretty much slotted after the regular season is over and rarely make much of a move up or down based on their conference tourney results. If not for the money, I'd just as soon see them do away with conference tourneys myself. But they do make money for the most part and so they are not going away.
What's the interest in the final four contest? We've done one every year but right now the skybox is pretty dead.