RSS for Comments

RSS for Entries

Sully’s Court: Rising, the Bucks, Bears among others

Five Rising

Florida Atlantic: The polarizing Mike Jarvis has his team on a seven-game winning streak and undefeated in the Sun Belt.

Ohio State: Undefeated and top-ranked, the Bucks get into Five Rising just for winning at Illinois, which is really difficult to do. Plus they trailed by 8 in the second half but rallied to win, 73-68. It will be hard to dislodge Jared Sullinger as freshman of the year and first-team All-American based on performances like yesterday’s, when he played all 40 minutes, scored 27 points, and grabbed 16 rebounds. He’s everything some people thought North Carolina’s Harrison Barnes was going to be.

Maine: The Black Bears have a five-game winning streak and are now the front-runner in America East. That was established with Saturday’s 70-59 win over Stony Brook, the league’s preseason favorite.

Texas: What a week for the Longhorns, who now must be considered a Final Four contender after beating Kansas, 74-63, in Allen Fieldhouse to break the Jayhawks’ 69-game home-court winning streak. That came on the heels of an awesome 81-60 rout of arch-rival Texas A&M

Washington: The Huskies are 7-1 in the Pac 10, their best start since the 1986-87 season. They are head and shoulders the best team in the conference. Washington guard Isaiah Thomas had 19 points and eight assists. In his previous two games he had exceeded 20 points and picked up 10 assists in each game. The last player to have more than 20 points and at least 10 assists in consecutive games was Jose Juan Barea of Northeastern in 2006.

Five falling

Clemson: Coming off an eight-game winning streak, the Tigers lost their 55th straight game at North Carolina and followed that up with a disappointing loss at Maryland. Colorado: OK, I guess I went a little far in praising Colorado after the Buffs lost at Nebraska. If they were really a good team, they wouldn’t have lost to Oklahoma like they did Saturday.

DePaul: A father of a DePaul freshman asked me if his son would see his school in the NCAA Tournament before he graduates. I had to break it to him: No. The Blue Demons, who were so great at one time, have trouble competing (they’ve lost their last three games by 30, 30, and 20) and have lost 20 straight Big East games and 43 of their last 44. James Madison: The Dukes lost control of the CAA by losing at Old Dominion and then blowing an 8-point second-half lead to lose at home to George Mason.

Syracuse: It’s one thing to lose on the road at Pitt, but then to get run out of your own building in front of more than 33,000 people in the same week, you’re falling. The Orange have challenging trips to Marquette and UConn coming up after a home game against the Wild and Wackies from Seton Hall.

The week’s Butler (best mid-major): Saint Mary’s. I’m going to forgive the loss at Vanderbilt Saturday, but the score (89-70) surprised me.

This week’s Final Four: Duke, Pitt, Ohio State, Kansas

This week’s national champion: Pitt

Big-game alerts

Purdue at Ohio State Tuesday: The Boilers have really overachieved without injured star Robbie Hummel and they really could prove a point with an upset win in Columbus. On the other hand, it’s a chance for Ohio State to reinforce itself as the Big 10′s best team. San Diego State at BYU Wednesday: Jimmer and BYU host undefeated San Diego State. Of course, the game doesn’t start until 10 p.m., and it’s on CBS College Sports. Who will watch? CBS College Sports has good production (except for its score crawl) but it just doesn’t televise enough games. On a given night with live games on the schedule, it will show a three-day-old repeat. The score crawl won’t even be up-to-the-minute with the game being televised live on the channel and it has days-old news items. Saint Mary’s at Gonzaga Thursday: It’s an 11 p.m. start, so I’ll have to record it. It’s a chance for the Gaels to firmly establish themselves as the best in the WCC and best mid-major in the US.

About the weekend:

Absurdity: Watch the highlight on espn.com; Ben Hansbrough, brother of Tyler, hit what might be the best shot of the season. You have to watch the entire sequence, plus it helped turn this game around and pushed Notre Dame to an important win over Marquette.

My soap opera: The Wild and Wackies of Seton Hall seemed to care less than Rutgers Saturday, and got too far behind before losing, 66-60, in beautiful downtown Newark. Coach Kevin Willard looked extremely frustrated.

My favorite team: Nicholls State is back on track, winning its second in a row by beating Southeastern Louisiana, 66-52. The Colonels have won 11 in a row at home. Anatoly Bose, the Kazahk gunner, had 22 points, his 40th career game over 20.

The puzzle that is BU: The Terriers scored the first 13 points of the game but lost to Hartford, 59-55.

Surprising results, amazing margins:

Florida State 67, BC 51: Time for me to forgive the Seminoles for losing to Auburn; this was an impressive victory. The Seminoles play championship defense. Richmond 84, UMass 68: A rude awakening for the Minutemen, who couldn’t compete with Spidey. LaSalle 76, Rhode Island 75: The Explorers’ first A10 win and a disastrous home loss for unpredictable Rhody. Florida 75, Arkansas 43: What a beating! The Gators have won seven of eight. Missouri 87, Iowa State 54: The Tigers are ultra-tough at home but I thought Iowa State would hang tougher. Perhaps a little hangover from the difficult-to-swallow overtime loss at Oklahoma State. Providence 72, Louisville 67: Away from the Pitino Palace, L’ville is ordinary. I hope Rick had a good meal while he was in back in town. This broke a 17-game Big East losing streak for the Friars. Georgia 86, Mississippi State 64: A surprising rout as the controversial Renardo Sidney can’t help MissState. UGa very tough at home. Texas Tech 72, Nebraska 71: A road game but still a bad, bad loss for the Huskers. Rice 57, Central Florida 50: It’s got to be full-scale panic mode for the Jordanaires. Penn 73. Saint Joseph’s 61: This breaks a 16-game losing streak for Penn in Big Five games. San Francisco 96, Gonzaga 91: Here’s another stunner, San Francisco is 4-1 in the WCC. The Zags are 3-2. Milwaukee 86, Butler 80: An OT shocker but wait …. Milwaukee now has beaten Butler twice this season.

Similar Posts:

Share
This entry was posted on Friday, January 21st, 2011 and is filed under Education News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
«
»

Leave a Reply