Week 7 - Kansas Falls, Army Victorious
Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated. Yes, I have been missing lately. No games to watch, no musings. Not that those things haven't gone on. I just haven't had the chance to write about them.
Well, all that is changed. I am back with a vengeance, and the first thing I have for you in my triumphant return is the review of Week 7.
- Kansas lost to Villanova by a huge margin. I am first shocked that Kansas was playing at full strength. If they were going to lose, you would have thought it would have come when Wayne Simien was out hurt. If it didn't come then, you might have expected that when Keith Langford was hurt with a concussion. Yet, none of these things happened. In fact, they looked better playing without Simien than they have since he has returned. The MRI almost foreshadowed the downfall, consistently marking Kansas down, though in the past two weeks, they had begun to make a run for the top. This week changed that with the big loss. At the same time, you have to admire the play of Villanova this year. They handed West Virginia their first loss of the season by a big margin. This sent the Mountaineers into a downward spiral that included a loss to three win Marshall and they have yet to recover. The Wildcats then lost three of four, which almost made the win streak they were having look like a fluke. In those losses, though, they were in every game. Notre Dame is definitely still a contender, despite the last second loss to Georgetown on Saturday. Boston College is undefeated and Nova came close to upsetting them also. Georgetown turned the tables from the 1985 championship loss and won by the same score as the famous Cinderella game. And now, Nova bounces back with a huge win against a Kansas team which has been in everyone's Final Four. Villanova deserves a great deal of credit for hanging in the tough games this season. If they can add two more big victories to their plate and continue this play, they may well return to the dance.
- While the Big East is all bunched up, they may want to look down the East Coast to the ACC to get a glimpse of what life will be like next year. When the Big East expands, adding Cincinnati, Louisville, South Florida, Marquette, and Depaul, they will become the new basketball powerhouse in America. Sure, they will lose a Boston College team, which over the past few years has been as good or better than both Connecticut and Syracuse. In return, they are adding some of the top teams, and most overlooked teams, in the country. Just look at where Cincinnati and Louisville are in the MRI, both in the Top 15. DePaul is now consistently putting together tournament caliber ball clubs, and Marquette is finding ways to win, even without the talent they once had. Add in that teams like Villanova and Georgetown will get older and even better and scrappier than this year's version and you are looking at a conference which will field at least 8 teams which can compete for the championship. They best watch that ACC though. Virginia Tech and Miami, both picked to finish at the bottom of the standings, are hanging in every game. They are getting wins and finding ways to make the ACC conference appear that every team could be 8-8 at the end. The teams at the top beat each other up, and the teams at the bottom are picking off what they can. No one is safe in the ACC this season, and no one will be safe in the Big East or ACC next year.
- When Illinois takes to the floor tomorrow to face Wisconsin, they will be looking to end the longest home winning streak in the country. Ohio State couldn't do it. They were plagued by cold shooting all game. Michigan State almost did it. Somehow, they thought the game ended about four minutes earlier than it actually did and they gave up the big lead at the end. Now Illinois gets its chance. Don't expect it to be easy, but they may have the best shot so far to do it. The real question will be if some combination of James Augustine and Nick Smith can contain Mike Wilkinson inside while Illinois's guards chip away at the Badgers from the outside. One of the biggest keys may be getting the Wisconsin big man out of the game and hoping that the Wisconsin shooting can't compete with the tough Illini defense. Illinois will need to hope that Badger leading scorer Alando Tucker doesn't return to the form he was displaying before he went down with the injury that kept him out of the Ohio State game. He hasn't been the same since his return and a big game against the #1 team in the country may be just what he needs. Right now, give the Illini a 67.37% chance of staying undefeated and ending the Wisconsin hold on their home court.
- I have already mentioned how Cincinnati and Louisville will take their Conference USA dominance to the Big East next season. Left behind in all the movement is a very good Charlotte team. With each game, the 49ers continue to make their case for a tournament berth by adding wins to their resume. Earlier this week, they were soundly defeated by Cincinnati, but this can be forgiven. On Saturday, they bounced back to win against a ranked Marquette team, who continues to win without the talent of previous seasons. In that win, Charlotte looked nothing like the team that was embarrassed earlier in the week. The loss to Cincinnati ended a nine game win streak which stretched back to their last loss, a one point, three overtime thriller against Alabama. Charlotte has what should be two easy games against TCU and East Carolina before they get a chance at revenge on the Bearcats, this time at home. A win against Cincinnati in the rematch should secure a dance ticket for Charlotte. The rest of their season is such that they only have two potential losses after the Cincinnati game, those coming against DePaul and Louisville. Look for the 49ers to cause some havoc in the conference tournament and then in the big dance that follows.
- Whether Mike Davis gets to keep his job at Indiana beyond this season may depend on the performance of his team over the next two weeks. While the Hoosiers have tuned up against the bottom of the Big Ten, they now face their toughest challenges. This week, they take their show on the road. The first stop is against a surprisingly good Minnesota team which is looking for their first chance at the dance since an academic scandal ended what looked like a return to glory for the Gophers. After that, a trip down the road to Iowa greets them to face a Hawkeye team which almost dethroned Illinois. They get to return home to face Penn State the next week before traveling to Champaign and taking on Illinois. It is not hard to believe that Indiana could go 1-3 through this four game swing. If they can somehow change that into a 3-1 record, Davis might be safe, provided he can at least get Indiana into the NIT. Should anything worse than that find its way into their record books, Mike Davis better start looking for a home buyer in Bloomington.
In other news, I am hard at work on a new look for the site which will allow you to get all of Sitting Courtside, On The Field, and the MRI rankings at one site. Stay tuned, I promise it will be worth it.
