A lot of surprises ....Texas Tech is leading the B12 and Auburn is leading the SEC. Both Duke and Kentucky lost yesterday. Purdue keeps rolling along. Tom's Vols are rising as well, I think they and Auburn were not predicted to have very good seasons. Longhorns had a huge win yesterday at home vs OU and Kansas lost at home again! It's wide open right now folks, only Villanova and Purdue look like locks for the Final Four.
The Vols were in a 3-way tie for 2nd in the SEC. After last night, we have 2nd place outright behind Auburn. It appears that those in the know had no idea how to rank the SEC in pre-season.
Similiar problems in the Big Ten Tom. We were predicted to be at the bottom of the conference and we currently are only behind Purdue. Great for Buckeye fans and we travel to Purdue Wednesday for a showdown.
Don any word on what Kam Williams did to get suspended? Is he done for the season or expected to be back?
Terry, no word and likely will not be any word on William's suspension, other than breaking team rules. Coach Holtmann has indicated he will be welcomed back as time and others factors as assessed. He probably will not travel to Purdue Wednesday evening. Personally, I like the coaches approach and decision. You have to have discipline and Coach Holtmann has reacted quickly and firmly. :idea: I am guessing Coach Holtmann felt the violation was a serious one for the fifth-year senior player. I just read a statement from Coach Holtman: He’s got classes back here he needs to attend to." It sounds like an academic issue to me!
Tennessee takes Kentucky down twice during the regular season. Waiting to see what the polls think at the end of this week... that is if we don't lay an egg at Alabama.
Kentucky tried... 61 to 58 UT up by 3 with 1.3 seconds on the clock and Kentucky going to the line for 2 free throws. 1st one hits making it a 2 point game. I told Cindy to watch the forceful shot coming next to put the ball in play for another 2 or 3 points. It happened but Tennessee got the rebound.
Great win for the Vols tonight. Irish get a slump buster tonight in Boston College. 96-85 stopped a 7 game losing streak. Xavier beat Butler in OT. TCU up on KU ..if they hold on and win...yikes back to back losses at home for the Jayhawks.
Lot's of upsets last night. St. Johns took down #1 Villanova, as noted by Don Ohio State took down Purdue at W.Layfayette and the Aggies go to Auburn and beat #8 Auburn. The up and down Longhorns lost a close game at home to KState, NCAA hopes are slip sliding away.
Don, Recognizing that the Buckeyes have been a great rebounding team; Nonetheless if you don't block out and get the defensive rebounds...you're not gonna win. Purdue did pretty well in the first half, but rebounding was shaky the entire second half...and giving up TWO offensive rebounds in the last 15 seconds to give the Buckeyes the winning bucket. Kudos to the Buckeyes...man, can they play defense. Actually both teams do so, which made a good game look particularly ugly. Both teams hustled. Vince Edwards was off his game...not sure if residual problems from his illness last week or the excellent defense played against him. Probably the latter. Thought the officiating was fair. A couple of weird and missed calls but they went both ways.
With the bigs that Purdue has it's hard to imagine them not winning the boards. Does OHio State have the size inside to match them?
Stu, your observations are pretty much what I saw as well. I thought we could be competitive but held little hope we could win on the road in that environment and crowd noise. I thought we took some poor shots early on and as usual, we seem to start slowly. The smaller lineup in the second half worked well for us and we finally had some bench points which really helped.Tough game to lose either way. Terry, Bates Diop & Potter were holding their own on the boards. Kaleb Wesson was not effective, but he is learning and should be a great player down the road.
Looks like my team has finally figured out how to be a "team" again. Still not full speed (our PG is still gimpy) but much better than the 5 weeks they were sleep walking as individuals. We'll see if they can carry it forward and at least make the tournament.
Terry, I think Purdue is an ok...not great...rebounding team. I don't have the plus-minus stats. Haas is vastly improved in terms of footwork and shooting touch, but can be a bit slow and sometimes the ball doesn't bounce right to you and you gotta hustle to get it. Haarms is thinner and quicker...a good shot blocker and defender but I'm not sure he's mastered some of the subtleties of blocking out, etc. Plus going after the block sometimes pulls him out of rebounding and blocking out position. It seemed to me that OSU got most of their offensive rebounds when he was in there. Late in games Painter has been putting Haas in on offense and Haarms in on defense because of his quickness and shot blocking. Add to that the fact that Ohio State has been a great rebounding team all year.
Interesting speculative article on ESPN's 538 site. They predict that Villanova, Virgiana and Purdue are the most likely #1 seeds right now. That 4th slot? Tenn Vols. Think Ohio State has been a good story, the Vols are maybe even better. Surprisingly of the teams they think have a shot at the 4th #1 seed, Ohio State is not one of them. One last No. 1 seed up for grabs Men’s college basketball teams with the best chances of getting a No. 1 seed according to ESPN’s College Basketball Power Index Team BPI Rank Chance at No. 1 seed Virginia 2 >99% Villanova 1 >99 Purdue 3 94 Tennessee 12 37 Xavier 14 21 Kansas 7 16 Michigan St. 6 10 North Carolina 10 8 Duke 5 6 https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-tennessee-the-men-could-easily-get-a-no-1-seed/?addata=espn:ncb:index Of course a lot of games left to play. Right now Ohio State holds the tie breaker for the B1G title over both MSU and Purdue.
I'm guessing the results of the conference tournaments will go a long way in determining all 4 #1 seeds.