Thursday, February 09, 2006

Wanna Dance?

I. Get your dancing lessons from me on SCS.com. Consider it my waxy ode to Jerry Palm. Jerry has it right more than anyone else out there, IMO, and I consider him my bracketology hero. Most of what I believe about bracketology comes from a mock committee that I did with him back in 2002.

II. Last Night's GOI

--at Alabama 77, Vanderbilt 74 (OT). Vandy is adrift at this point.
--at Charlotte 66, Temple 59. Both will struggle to get into the NCAA picture.
--at UConn 73, Syracuse 50. Deathly serious doubts about the 'Cuse.
--at Kansas State 66, Iowa State 59. The Cyclones just cannot put it all together.
--at LSU 78, Arkansas 74. Hard-luck Hogs let another monster road win slip away.
--NC State 86, at Miami-FL 77 (2OT). This keeps us guessing about the 'Canes.
--Kansas 69, at Nebraska 48. Wow...does anyone want a piece of KU right now?
--Oklahoma 73, at Oklahoma State 65. Sooners have really found their groove lately. They've won 6 of 7 with the only loss coming to blazing Kansas in Lawrence.
--at San Diego State 61, Air Force 51. The Mt. West is now the Aztecs' to lose.
--at Texas A&M 61, Colorado 58. Buffs had little room for error, and this may have used it up.
--at UTEP 65, UAB 37. One of the more bizarre scores of the season. The Miners could roll up a ton of wins from here on in. This puts UAB in a tough position because they now trail UTEP in the standings and the committee is loathe to skip teams in the conf standings to take a lower team.
--at Wisconsin 72, Indiana 54. Hoosiers have now lost four of five, but still trail the leaders by just one game in the loss column. It's a logjam amongst the top seven teams in the Big Ten.

III. Tonight's GOI
--Stanford at California. Monster game for both teams. Stanford is doing their best Lazarus impersonation, and this road win would be huge.
--Ohio State at Michigan. Great football rivalry means more in hoops this year that it has in a long while.
--West Virginia at Pittsburgh. Beginning of a murderous stretch for WVU (three roadies, UConn at home, then at Syracuse).
--George Mason at VCU. Important game in the wild CAA race.
--Southern Cal at Washington. Huskies find themselves in a must win game.
Sun Belt Slate
--FIU at UALR. Trojans could gain ground tonight with WKU at a tough venue in Denver.
--Western Kentucky at Denver. Denver has the nation's third-longest home winning streak and WKU has the outright conference lead at 8-1.
--Middle Tennessee at North Texas. Both are in the thick of the race for the 2-seed in their respective divisions.
--UL-Lafayette at South Alabama. Suddenly hot Cajuns take on Jags who have skated up to 69 in the RPI.
--New Orleans at Troy. Scrappy Privateers will have their hands full with Troy PG Bobby Dixon at home.