Notable Games & Discussion 2/17/2010

• Azubuike24

  

  Another action-packed Wednesday. Here's a quick rundown, again, I'm focusing on the possible games between bubble teams or those games that may not get their own threads.
  
  (6) Duke at Miami - Duke can continue their march for a #1 seed while 3-8 Miami's hopes of an NCAA birth are slim to none. Beating Duke would at least give them some hope of entering this conversation again.
  
  Florida State at Virginia - FSU is a little ahead of the bubble, and Virginia has fallen off the bubble map. However, a UVA win here could make things even more interesting for both teams going forward.
  
  Notre Dame at Louisville - Although they both have the same number of losses, and Louisville one less win, the Cards are in the dance as of now, and the Irish aren't. Without Harangody the separation should continue, but if ND somehow won, it would just cloud the Big East even more.
  
  Tulsa at Marshall - The Golden Hurricane have a chance for an at-large bid, and Marshall is likely going to have to settle for the NIT, but this is still a big game between quality C-USA teams.
  
  (15) Texas at Missouri - The Longhorns are in the NCAA's, but are sputtering big time. Missouri is right on the edge, likely in today, but this is a prime chance to defend their home court and boost their resume with another W.
  
  Rhode Island at St. Louis - The Rams have fallen a bit, and are definitely in danger of their at-large position. St. Louis is on the rise after beating Dayton and they could conceivably take the place of RIU, Dayton or someone else in the A-10 bid discussion if they continue to win.
  
  Louisiana Tech at Utah State - This game on ESPN2 at 11PM, I encourage people to tune in and watch. Two quality teams, both of whom are the favorites to win the WAC. La. Tech whipped USU by 22 earlier in the year, and it should be a great game that may determine the WAC champion.
• Mulva

  

  Duke trailed by 12 at half to Miami, but it's taken them less than 4 minutes in the 2nd half to even it up.
• Azubuike24

  

  Duke pulling away from Miami. Typical from a Miami team who just isn't there yet. As Mike Patrick said a few times, watch out for them going forward, but this year is a bit too early.
  
  Charlotte is struggling with Duquesne at home, down 3 at the under four TV timeout. Richmond and Temple have taken care of business tonight when they needed to.
  
  Florida State puts a whipping on Virginia at John Paul.
  
  Without Luke Harangody, Notre Dame is close to upsetting Louisville (the most bi-polar team out there). Up 3 with 74 seconds left.
  
  Tulsa falls to Marshall by 6 in Huntington, Hassan Whiteside with 17 points.
• Azubuike24

  

  Final Scores:
  Duke 81, Miami 74
  Florida State 69, Virginia 50
  Marshall 64, Tulsa 58
  
  Upsets
  Duquesne 83, Charlotte 77
• Azubuike24

  

  Louisville holds on in double overtime to beat Notre Dame 91-89.
• swamisez

  

  Wow Charlotte looking ahead I think. They have a big one at home against Xavier this weekend. This was a catastrophic loss for the niners.
• Azubuike24

  

  Penn State up 2 on Northwestern mid-2nd half.
  N.C. State up 10 on Maryland at halftime.
  Missouri up 1 on Texas at halftime.
  Arkansas up 7 on South Carolina at halftime.
  Rhode Island up 6 on St. Louis at halftime.
  
  Kansas State, Butler, Xavier and Tennessee all hold on. The latter 3 have huge games upcoming this weekend.
• ralphus33

  Rhode Island lost to St. Louis. St. Louis is starting to put themselves in the at-large discussion after a so-so non-conference schedule. Rhode Island may be playing themselves out with their 3rd straight loss which puts them at 7-5 in the A10. The next few weeks will be extremely interesting with 7 teams now receiving discussion for at-large bids.
• Mulva

  

  Utah sweeps the season series from UNLV. Not a loss the Rebels could afford. 3 straight losses and only 7-5 overall in conference now. They need to win out (which they should, no good opponents left) and probably reach the MWC final to have any shot at an at large.
• Azubuike24

  

  Good news for the big conferences tonight.
  
  Rhode Island, Charlotte and UNLV losing.
  
  Bad news for Northwestern who now has to win the Big Ten Tournament IMO. Losing to Penn State at home is pathetic.
  
  USU/LATECH is a very good game coming down to the wire.
  
  Another team to keep an eye on is Arkansas. They are 7-4 in the SEC, and 7-5 since the return of Courtney Fortson. They won't get an at-large bid unless they get on fire, but this team is more than capable of ruining things for the Mississippi schools and doing major damage in the SEC Tournament. They still play LSU, Auburn and then get Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Mississippi. Win all of those, they are 19-12, a bye in the SEC-T and looking at quite possibly an at-large bid. It's a long shot, but I had this team 11th in the SEC for a while, and to even in the discussion it's amazing.
• CinciX12

  

  The way Xavier has played lately it is looking likely Charlotte will lose 3 straight. Tough break for them. Allows Dayton a chance to maybe have a prayer if everyone else self destructs in the A10 standings as well.
• Azubuike24

  

  The A-10 still will get 5 bids, possibly only 4 depending on the results of a few key games.
  
  Xavier at Charlotte 2/20
  Dayton at Temple 2/24
  Xavier at St. Louis 2/24
  Richmond at Xavier 2/28
  Charlotte at Rhode Island 3/3
  Temple at St. Louis 3/3
  Dayton at Richmond 3/4
  Richmond at Charlotte 3/6
  St. Louis at Dayton 3/6
  
  For right now, St. Louis and Charlotte are on the outside I'd think while Rhode Island and Dayton are right on the edge. Xavier, Temple and Richmond are locks.
  
  Rhode Island hosts Charlotte and plays 3 bottom feeders, so that's why most projections have them in the tournament. Their RPI and SOS is really good, and you have to think with this schedule, at worst they go 22-7, 10-6 in the league.
  
  Dayton is only 6-4 in the league, and still must go to Temple, go to Richmond and host St. Louis. They control their own destiny, but at the same time, they have a tough road. I see them finishing 21-9, 10-6 in league play.
  
  St. Louis is only 16-8, but finish with 3 of 5 at home, 2 of those 3 being Xavier and Temple, so good chances for quality wins. They also have 2 bottom feeders. So SLU, if they win 4 of 5, may have accumulated enough to sneak in at what would be 20-9, 12-4.
  
  Charlotte is 18-7, 8-3 in the league, but they still have to travel to Rhode Island and host Xavier and Richmond. You would think they need to win 2 of those games, maybe just 1 if it's at URI, but I think at best they are looking at 21-10, 11-5 in the league, which would put them in a tough spot without much out of conference. They played Duke, Tennessee, Georgia Tech and Old Dominion, and were smacked by all 4.
• CinciX12

  

  I still think Xavier wins the conference. UD is good for 1 more decent game on the season where they maybe beat Temple, and then X has to beat Richmond.
  
  By the way, and it just shows that the A10 is a joke more or less, that if Xavier and Temple both finish with 14-2 or 13-3 records, the two schools would be co-champions. The league doesn't take into effect head to head contests during the season in the regular season championship. They only look at it in seeding for the tournament.
  
  I think the A10 is alone in this, but I could be wrong?