NCAA Top 25 Recap: A Day Late...
I know, I know, I'm late right? I usually write this post on Monday, but I think it would have been a huge mistake if I waited until two days after the Superbowl to talk about it. It was necessary to do a little flip flop with my posts this week. I trust you understand.
Despite the Superbowl being the talk of the weekend, there were some really great basketball games on as well.
I started off the weekend watching my nieces varsity team close out their home season with a win over their regional rival. In fact, with that win the team clinched their local championship and now they head to the playoffs.
I'm going to be honest, I don't think they are going to make it that far this year. Trust me, I hope I am wrong, but I think they aren't quite as good as the team they had last year. They also still lack some fundamental skills that coaches just don't seem to teach these days.
They are really nice kids, but they aren't aggressive on defense like they need to be. My brother in law has commented that it is almost like they are too nice. They need to get all Bill Laimbeer an throw some weight around out there on the court. I'd love to see them get a little scrappy.
We finished up watching the stream of that game and I quickly changed the channel to the #13 Xavier/Butler game. Remember me talking about this last week? Remember how I said that you might want to put some money down on a Butler upset? Did you?
I did! Won me a nice $3 on a $1 bet, but more on that Thursday!
Saturday there were twenty huge games in the top 25. You need to remember, the new rankings came out yesterday, so some of these numbers won't reflect what you might see now. Rumor has it Alabama moved up to the #1 spot. What!?
St. John's started off the action on Saturday with a upset victory over #20 Providence. Then we had #23 Creighton taking down #21 UConn. Over in the Big 10, Illinois beat #24 Rutgers 69 to 60 for one of those upsets you know I love.
Unranked Duke (yep, you read that right) took #8 Virginia into overtime but ultimately fell short. Meanwhile, Oklahoma State upset #11 Iowa State 64 to 56.
There was some talk that Michigan might have a good chance of beating #18 Indiana this past weekend, but they ended up falling just short losing 61 to 62. Probably the two biggest upsets of the weekend was Missouri edging out #6 Tennessee 86 to 85 in Knoxville.
The second huge upset would have to go to Standford who took down #4 Arizona 88 to 79.
Finally, Texas Tech upset #12 Kansas State 71 to 63.
I actually spent most of my Saturday watching some of the games that weren't in the top 25. Also, my niece had a junior varsity game that my wife and I streamed. It was a great game. My niece got two fouls really early in the game so they pulled her pretty much right away.
I'm not saying she is the best player on the court, but it really is amazing just how smoothly their offense runs when she is out there. She doesn't score a ton of points, but she is selfless with the ball and she sets her team up for success.
It is going to be exciting to see her start getting more court time on the varsity team in the coming years.
Sunday there was one top 25 game. Somehow #1 Purdue fell to Northwestern 64 to 58 and that makes sense now why Alabama was able to clinch the #1 spot in the nation.
Personally, I was watching the Michigan State game and although it wasn't a top 25 game, it was still really great to see them play quite well. It was a low scoring game with a ton of defense against Ohio State. My inlaws were actually at the game.
I'm honestly not sure if it was the fact that MSU was playing so well of if Ohio State was just playing horrible. It was a good win for the Spartans though. I look forward to seeing how they finish out the season and if they can make it to the playoffs.
Right now my thoughts are with the students of MSU. There was an active shooter at the school last night. Three students are dead plus the shooter. I have a feeling there might be some games postponed this week due to the recent events.
Finally, last night there were three games in the top 25. Texas Tech continues to look strong taking down #3 Texas. That's two upsets in a span of four days. Watch out Big 12!
That was the only upset of the night.
Things are really getting hot now as we are halfway through February. Pretty soon it will be Selection Sunday and time to start working on your Bracket.
Are you ready?
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MIZ! What a buzzer beater that was!
Can't say I am too happy about it. I am a closet Vol, so it would have been cool to see them win. That's two losses this week right? After the loss to Vandy I think.