Thursday, March 13, 2008

W2W4: Survival Day+1

The drama continues for the squads on that unforgiving Bubble. All of these games involve teams clinging to tournament hopes. Wins are crucial. Losses are devastating. The Madness continues.

Big East Tournament
Villanova (20-11, 9-9 Big East) vs. No. 9 Georgetown (25-4, 15-3 Big East)
11 a.m. CT

Villanova pounded Syracuse 82-63 yesterday to keep its tournament hopes alive. If the Wildcats find a way to beat Georgetown, they've got a strong case to make the tournament. Villanova came achingly close to beating the Hoyas earlier this season, but a suspect foul call with 0.1 seconds left gave Georgetown two free throws and the win, so the Wildcats are quite capable of taking Georgetown down.

Atlantic 10 Tournament
Dayton (21-9, 8-8 A-10) vs. No. 10 Xavier (26-5, 14-2 A-10)
11 a.m. CT
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Pretty much the same story as Villanova for the Dayton Flyers. After barely beating Saint Louis yesterday, they can most likely punch their ticket to the Big Dance by beating the bad boys of the conference, the Musketeers. However, Xavier smothered Dayton in their last meeting back on Jan. 24, 69-43.

Pacific 10 Tournament
Arizona State (19-11, 9-9 Pac-10) vs. Southern California (20-10, 11-7 Pac-10)
2 p.m. CT

The Sun Devils have made a remarkable turnaround from last season to put themselves in contention to make the NCAAs. USC has sharp-shooting freshman O.J. Mayo, but ASU has one of their own in James Harden, and the teams split their season series. ASU has a lousy RPI but nine wins in the Pac-10 aren't bad.

Oregon (18-12, 9-9 Pac-10) vs. No. 21 Washington State (23-7, 11-7 Pac-10)
8 p.m. CT

Washington State has beaten the Ducks twice this season, but that was in the regular season. The Ducks won the Pac-10 tourney last season and have won three games in a row coming into today, the kind of momentum you need heading into the postseason. A suspect RPI (52) makes this game a must-win for Oregon.

Arizona (19-13, 8-10 Pac-10) vs. No. 11 Stanford (24-6, 13-5 Pac-10)
10:30 p.m. CT

The Wildcats took care of business against Oregon State to set up another showdown with the Cardinal, who've beaten Arizona twice in close games this season. Given Stanford's recent sluggish play, don't be surprised to see Arizona pull the upset and solidify its tournament hopes.

Check out Eric Silver's previews and predictions for the SEC tournament below. Happy watching.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Please stop writing like youre explaining college basketball to children. Clearly you know nothing about any of the teams you're previewing, so do us all a favor and do some research before you post. I could care less about the blind musings of an uneducated rambler. If you're going to make a post, at least add a little insight, not the same recycled garbage that I can get anywhere else.

David Rutz said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
David Rutz said...

I can see why what I wrote might come across as dry; this was more for the casual viewer who might not know the importance of these games, and this would give them a little background information.

For someone like you who clearly knows a lot about college basketball, I see why this might seem dull. I encourage you to keep writing and commenting on our page, you'll find the rest of the writers on the site(and me, at times) are very insightful and know their stuff.