Weekend Rewind
The Gold Sheet
Well, maybe college basketball can finally get the stage to itself, at least for a few weeks.
For those who thought the composition of the Final Four was a fait accompli, last weekend should change your mind. The college season wasn't exactly turned inside-out (except for one particular high-ranking team...more on that in a moment), but anyone who pegged Kansas or Kentucky as untouchables has something else to consider after Saturday, when both went down to stinging road defeats (the Jayhawks at Oklahoma State, the Wildcats at Tennessee).
But Kansas and Kentucky supporters can feel fortunate that they're not instead backing Purdue, whose very-real title hopes were dealt a lethal blow with last Wednesday's season-ending knee injury suffered by versatile star jr. F Robbie Hummel. Depth was not a strength of this Boilermakers team in the first place, and when Purdue laid an egg on Sunday in its first game post-Hummel, losing at home to Michigan State by a 53-44 count, the air was suddenly out of the Boilermaker balloon. Although Purdue is still capable of winning a game or two in the Big Dance, its days as a serious title contender this season are history without Hummel.
Other interesting developments over the weekend...
1) Here comes...Notre Dame? Absolutely. The Irish are back in bubble territory and into the at-large mix after Saturday's 78-64 romp past Georgetown at the Verizon Center, Notre Dame's second straight win minus injured frontliner Luke Harangody, who has now missed four games with a bruised knee. But after beating ranked Pitt and the Hoyas in the last week, we wonder if HC Mike Brey is really going to want to hustle big Luke back into the lineup, especially since the coach has confirmed observations by us and others by admitting that the Irish might be a bit better defensively without Harangody in the lineup. Notre Dame is not into the Big Dance yet, and has a couple of tough games on deck vs. UConn and Marquette. Meanwhile, Brey has said there is a chance Harangody might not return for the rest of the season, professing caution with this sort of knee injury that could be a precursor ro a microfracture problem.
2) Bubble trouble for Florida?...After last Tuesday's win over Tennessee, Florida's at-large case looked to be pretty solid. But by stumbling on Saturday at underrated Georgia, the Gators are back in plenty of bubble trouble, especially with Vanderbilt (at Gainesville) and Kentucky (at Lexington) on deck this week. For the moment, we've kept Florida in our field of 65 (check out our attached and updated "Bracketology" report), but the situation is going to be fluid all of the way until Selection Sunday. There are now plenty of ways to envision the Gators missing out on the Dance for a third straight year.
3) Pac-10 not a one-bid league after all?...Maybe not, especially with Cal securing the top seed in the upcoming Pac Ten Tourney and clinching no worse than a tie for the conference regular-season crown with last weekend's sweep of the Arizona schools. Considering that the Bears were minus one of their high scorers, 6-6 F Theo Robertson (14 ppg), for a 6-game early-season stretch that saw Cal lose to Syracuse, Ohio State, and New Mexico, the Committee might cut the Berkeley boys a bit of slack for some of those early defeats. But it might not have to, since the Bears' computer numbers suggest they're in solid at-large territory even if they lose in the Pac-10 Tourney. Which means that the Pac-10 could easily become a 2-bid league if someone other than the Bears wins next week at Staples Center. By the way, the Pac-10 event looks like one of the most wide-open major conference tourneys we can ever recall, with any of the nine entrants (Southern Cal not participating) apparently having a shot.
4) But before jumping on a Pac-10 bandwagon...The sorry state of affairs in the Pac-10 was nonetheless underlined by the fact that a lowly Oregon team could come into the L.A. schools last weekend and sweep USC and UCLA, which the Ducks also managed in late January in Eugene. Oregon, one of the league's weaker defensive teams, held the Trojans to a hard-to-believe 12 points in the second half of Oregon's 54-44 win last Thursday. For SC, it was the middle of an awful 3-game offensive sandwich in which Troy failed to crack 47 points and committed almost as many turnovers (47) as field goals (53) while dropping games vs. Washington State and Oregon State as well as Ernie Kent's Ducks. Oregon sr. G Tajaun Porter, who was truly been from the penthouse (Elite 8 team as a frosh, NCAA team as a soph) to the outhouse during his career in Eugene, burned the-team formally-known-as-UCLA with 29 points in a 70-68 win on Saturday at Pauley Pavilion. The Ducks had lost 5 straight and 10 of 12 entering last weekend's set in L.A., yet amazingly exited town being considered as a possible darkhorse for the tourney next week, down the street from the Galen Center at Staples Center. Could Ernie Kent yet save his job?
5) More bubble trouble...Virginia Tech, now on a 3-game losing streak after losing in double OT vs. Maryland, 104-00; Wake Forest, also sliding with three straight losses, the last two of those vs. ACC cellar-dwellers NC State and North Carolina; Illinois, which continues to make it hard on itself after bowing at home, 62-60, vs. Minnesota on Saturday; UConn, which had put itself into position for a late run at an at-large berth only to succumb on Sunday vs. Louisville, 78-76, as a hail of turnovers (a recurring problem for the Huskies, with 22 total vs. the Cards, 11 combined by Jerome Dyson & Stanley Robinson) proved costly at Storrs; and Rhode Island, fading late again and now a loser of four of its last five after dropping a damaging 81-74 verdict at St. Bonaventure.
Player of the Weekend: Greivis Vasquez, Maryland...Although he had an extra 10 minutes to pad his point total in the Terps' 104-100 double OTwin at Virginia Tech, Vasquez' 41 point effort at Blacksburg deserves special recognition. It wasn't as if Vasquez started off in ball of fire at Cassell Coliseum, missing 8 of 10 shots and scoring only 8 points in the first half, but he erupted for 33 in the second half and the overtimes to pace Maryland to an important road win that now has the Terps thinking about a protected seed on Selection Sunday.
Game of the Weekend: New Mexico 83 - BYU 81 at Provo...This Mountain West showdown lived up to its billing and then some, with the Lobos displaying all of their resourcefulness while fighting back and then repelling the determined Cougs in the final minute. BYU was compromised in the second half when star G Jimmer Fredette missed all but a few seconds of action while suffering from the flu...but maybe it really wasn't compromised all that much, as Fredette's backup Michael Loyd Jr. scored all 19 of his points in the final 20 minutes. Still, almost every New Mexico player had a key moment down the stretch, especially star F Darrington Hobson, who blocked Noah Hartsock's potential game-tying shot in the final seconds. The action included an incident between Hobson and Cougar senior Jonathan Tavernari in the final minute, which carried over tot he postgame handshakes when Tavernari exchanged words with other Lobos including HC Steve Alford, although the BYU swingman made amends by apologizing to all afterwards in the New Mexico locker room. Just another non-eventful afternoon in Provo.