Sometimes we can be so silly. And by we, I mean me. See, I saw the little red urgent weather icon pop up on my Firefox web browser at least six times yesterday while at work. What did I do? Ignored it. Yeah, I just kept working, trying to chug out things for the newspaper and drafts for posts on this site.
Next thing I know it’s 6:30 p.m. and there’s four inches of snow on my car and I gotta get home. Plows? Nah, I have to drive back roads and less popular routes, so I was surfing half the time. It took me 70 minutes to get home (normally a 25 minute drive) and I almost crashed four times. Connecticut is a manic mother when it comes to weather.
–UPSET–No. 19 Purdue 60, No. 10 Michigan State 54. Everybody pile on that Purdue bandwagon. No, really—they’re good engineers at that school, so the vehicle can probably support the weight. 11-1, are the Boilers in conference play, so you have to have them as close to a lock as humanly possible right now. Robbie Hummel had himself a ballgame. Damn, it’s like there are all of these impact freshman all around the country, you know? Purdue appears to be a legitimate team (or the Big Ten could be this weak). Spartans have dropped two of their past three.
–No. 5 North Carolina 75, Virginia 74. What’s up with Carolina? They keep escaping in these games, but they’re showing a lot of vulnerabilty. And by a lot of vulnerability I mean not a lot of defense and a helluva lot of luck. Hansbrough threw up one of those awkward types of shots. I’m-falling-away-but-I’m-Tyler-Hansbrough-so-this-will-go-in-even-though-I’ll-probably-fall-on-the-floor-anyway type of shots. You know the type. He’s probably one of the best ever at it, too. Then Singletary sinks a huge three, but UVA can’t foul immediately and after Ellington misses the front end of a one-and-one, the ball just kidn of bounces off of everyone’s hands, giving Baby Blue the win.
–No. 9 Butler 83, Wisconsin-Milwaukee 75. U Dubs (that’s the other school for those in the back of the class) hit a 3 right before the buzzer to tie the game and send into an extra session, but Butler escapes again, keeping their hopes for a 3-seed still alive. Keeping their hopes for national respect still alive. Mike Green, again: The Best Player You Don’t Know About, had 24 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists. Yet, here’s what I love about Butler: By shutting Green down, you don’t really handicap this team; they’ve got too many weapons and work too well as a unit to allow that to happen.
–No. 22 Pittsburgh 82, Providence 63. And the Big East really starts to separate the water from the oil now. Ronald Ramon drained five treys, Sam Young put 22 points down. Still, we all can agree that Pittsburgh would have to get a huge break to make the Sweet 16 this year, right? If you think otherwise, let me know: editor@collegehoopsjournal.com.
–No. 24 Vanderbilt 93, Kentucky 52. What a grease fire. Nugget you might like to know: Vanderbilt is 5-4 on the road, undefeated at home.
Notable:
Marquette 89, Seton Hall 64. Losing by 25 at home is one way to prove you were a pretender.
Kent State 79, Central Michigan 66. Golden flashes get 20 wins in their first 25 games (they’re 9-2 in the MAC). It’s hard to argue an at-large case against them right now.
Northern Illinois 88, Akron 78. Why is this notable? Well, the Zips (17-7) were on the bubble before losing at home to 6-17 Northern Illinois.
RE: Purdue – Yes, the Big 10 is that bad this year, but yes, the Boilers are still pretty legit.
RE: Pitt – Yes, they have all the makings of an early-round exit. Hey, it’s Pitt. That’s what they do: Bow out early.
I once had to drive about 250 miles in a snowstorm in Pennsylvania. I’ve tried to black it all out.
Caught that Purdue game, I think they’ll eventually have a bad game in the tournament (further discounting the Big Ten). Didn’t watch UK, but it’s good to see them failing.
I will start by freely admitting my Carolina bias, and I’m getting a little worried about them as well – not about their recent performances but more about the recent rash of injuries. It has to be hard for any team playing without its top two point guards and also having the three tallest starters all nursing injuries after playing a 2OT game only 48 hours earlier. I expected them Virginia to win the game.
That being said, UVa shot 37.8 percent from the field and 29 percent from 3-point range, so I think the defensive effort for UNC was better.
I think that UNC will be back on track and we’ll forget a lot about these types of games once Ty Lawson comes back. Still, I don’t trust them to win it all this year.