Today is one of the fullest days of college basketball all season, with lots of big impact games to be played. Unfortunately, a lot of these games are coming during daytime hours so it won't be easy to catch them, and those of us at work are saving our sick days for next Thursday, not this one. Here's the batch of games tipping off today at noon: West Virginia v Boston College - A win here would seal things for WV Buffalo v Toledo - Must win for Buffalo at-large hopes Clemson v Maryland - Must win for Maryland, three losses to Clemson would look bad Richmond v St. Joseph's - St. Joe's needs at least to reach the conference championship Then, later, all possible NCAA tournament teams: 1:00 TCU v Louisville - Louisville gunning for a 2-seed 2:00 Colorado St. v Utah - Will Utah win their tournament to get the automatic? 2:00 Pittsburgh v Villanova - Just two big-time teams 2:30 Florida St. v NC St. - Must win for NC State 2:30 Akron v Western Michigan - Must win for both 3:00 Hawaii v UTEP - Must win for UTEP bubble hopes 3:00 Baylor v Iowa St. - Must win for Iowa State 3:15 Georgia v Mississippi St. - MSU should be in, but still want to win 3:20 California v Arizona - Arizona playing for a 2-seed 3:30 DePaul v UAB - Possible elimination game for both teams 5:50 Oregon St. v UCLA - UCLA should be in, but still want to win 6:30 Fordham v George washington - GW needs at least to reach the conference championship 7:00 Memphis v Charlotte - Charlotte is NCAA bound 7:00 Georgetown v Connecticut - An upset could get Georgetown back on the map, UConn playing for 2-seed 7:00 Kansas St. v Texas A&M - Must win for A&M 7:00 Bowling Green v Miami (OH) - Miami needs to win a few to be safe 7:00 Virginia v Miami (FL) - Miami needs to make serious noise to get consideration 9:00 Dayton v Temple - Two teams that could win conference championship 9:00 BYU v New Mexico - Must win for New Mexico 9:00 Rutgers v Syracuse - Syracuse is in but has to snap cold streak 9:15 Arizona St. v Washington - Washington is playing for a 2-seed 9:20 Colorado v Texas - Texas should be in, but still want to win 9:30 Kent St. v Ohio - Must win for both longshot teams 9:30 South Florida v Cincinnati - Cincy is NCAA bound 9:45 Vanderbilt v Auburn - Must win for Vanderbilt 11:30 Boise St. v Nevada - Will Nevada win their tournament to get the automatic?
I just got back from watching the Clemson/Maryland game in which Clemson won 84-72. After getting destroyed by Sharrod Ford in thier first two meetings they came into today's game with a mission that they wouldn't let Ford beat them. It turns out Clemson didn't need Ford. Clemson's Shawan Robinson was huge in the game coming off the bench for the Tigers, converting on 6 of his 8 three point attempts and ending the game with 24. Maryland played the second half without Josh Gilchrist who got injured his knee in the first half. Maryland can now kiss thier hopes of making the Big Dance goodbye. Even though they beat Duke twice, three loses to Clemson and going 7-9 in the ACC Regular Season isn't good enough to get them in. Also, Boston College will now be looking at getting a three-seed IMO due to their 78-72 loss to West Virginia.
A couple notes. Buffalo wins no problem over Toledo. I made a bet at school, picking Buffalo to win the conference tournament, and so far, my pick is standing. I saw them against Ball State when it was televised earlier this season on ESPN, and I was pretty impressed by them. Charlotte finds themselves down by two right now against Memphis, despite Withers having 20 first half points. It's a home game for the Tigers since the conference tournament is being played at Memphis' own court. Charlotte needs to come back and win this. Memphis' only hopes of getting into the NCAA tourney is winning the conference tournament which is a huge task to fulfill. Louisville wins big over TCU. In that game, Ellis Myles was everywhere, recording a triple double scoring 10 points, grabbing 10 rebounds, and dishing out 10 assists. This is another doulble digit assist game he has had, and I really feel he is one of the better passing big men in the nation. At worst, Louisville finds themselves as a #2 or #3 seed, but I have heard some ESPN analysts mentioning that Louisville could even be a #1 seed. There's discussion about them, or possibly Arizona grabbing a #1 seed. DePaul loses to UAB. It was said UAB needed a win more than DePaul, and UAB got it. Demario Eddins hit a big shot at the end to put UAB up. DePaul screwed themselves in this game missing a lot of freethrows. If UAB gets in, then they will be one of the more dangerous low seeds. They are more known as an upset seed, showing it last year upsetting number one seeded Kentucky. Next on their agenda is Louisville.
