If you thought we've been shooting free throws poorly lately, you should have tuned in to watch Nebraska shoot 8/30 at the charity stripe against Northwestern (yes you read that correctly!), the battle of the two worst teams in the Big Ten. Nebraska ended up losing at home in overtime by 5, and appear to have clinched last place in the conference. Things aren't looking so great in Hoiberg's first year!

Nice performances for a pair of former Colonials, as Kevin had 10 points, 16 rebounds, and 5 assists in Quinnipiac's dominant 71-52 win over lowly Marist, and Jordan had 25 points in a close 75-72 home loss to Towson.
 

Davidson at Richmond   7   ESPN+/NBC Washington+  -  big game for Richmond and the A10, if Richmond loses this game, they will be pushed further off the bubble, and it damages the A10's chances of getting 2 or 3 at large bids. 
Duquesne at VCU          7   ESPN+/MASN

#9 Maryland at Rutgers   7  Big 10 Network  -  big game for Rutgers to solidify a NCAA tournament bid. Rutgers was considered an 11 seed a couple days ago, so they may need a few more wins to feel safe. 

Mississippi State at South Carolina  6:30  SEC Network - we haven't had an update on Jair Bolden in a while, he is now a back up, but gets decent minutes. Cousinard took his starting job after South Carolina upset Kentucky in January. I believe South Carolina in on the Next 4 Out(or maybe not even on that line at this point) and may need to win the SEC tournament to make the NCAA tournament. 

Absolutely huge win for the GW Duo of Rutgers, blowing out 9th ranked Maryland last night.  

Put on your dancing shoes! Karl and Pikiell are Dancin' in New Jersey

 

Mike K wrote:

So happy for the GW duo.  In another year or 2, would love to see them come back to the Smitty for a game!

If you pray real hard you may receive lol.

I'm so used to visiting these "other games" threads to read about America's worst coach, Shaka Smart.  Funny how I can't recall reading about Shaka here lately.  Did he suddenly learn how to coach?  I guess maybe he has given Texas's five game winning streak which includes three wins on the road and four wins by double digits.  The most recent three victories were against West Virginia, Texas Tech and last night's nailbiter at Oklahoma.

Why must we only read about Shaka here during the bad times?
 

The Providence turnaround is the best I've seen in 30 years of watching the NCAA bubble.

Really stunning stuff.  

I would say UConn isn't very close to being in the NCAA tournament this year. The NIT is probably their ceiling. The 6 point Houston win at home is probably their best of the year, and probably hurts Houston more than it helps UConn. They had a win against Florida earlier which is definitely still notable (I'd expect the Gators to make the tournament pretty safely), but Florida has honestly underperformed compared to their lofty preseason expectations. A 9-8 record in the AAC isn't usually enough to make the tournament, although it would probably be fine in a conference like the Big East or Big Ten. The teams in the top half of the AAC all look the same to me (Houston, Cincinnati, Wichita State, SMU, Memphis etc.) in that they are closer to the bubble than safely in. Also, a team that loses to St. Joe's should probably not make the tournament. UConn lost a lot of close games to teams like Xavier, Villanova, and Indiana. Had they won those things might have been a bit different (although Xavier and Indiana are also just on the bubble).

Having said that, Hurley has without a doubt got them moving in the right direction and the Huskies should be back in the tournament conversation as they return to the Big East, where they will have the chance to play NCAA tournament bound teams more often. Honestly, neither UConn nor Syracuse should have left the Big East to begin with. These were football decisions that honestly only ended up hurting the school's basketball programs than it has helped their football teams become more competitive.
 

UConn is 3-5 against Quad 1 teams, but more notably 2-6 against Quad 2 teams. That just isn't very good, and the St. Joe's game counts as a Quad 4 loss which hurts a great deal as well. Only 36 teams get an at-large, and right now it would be hard to make a case that UConn would make that list. The Huskies are currently 6th in the conference, and I'd be surprised if more than 3 make it from the AAC (Houston, Wichita State is probably on the right side of the bubble right now, and maybe Cincinnati although the Bearcats will probably be sweating come Selection Sunday).

To clarify what I was trying to say regarding Houston (I was probably a bit more negative than intended), yes they are safely in at this point (they are 8-2 in Q2 games, and haven't lost a Q3 or Q4 game which is solid) but I think the metrics overrate them a bit based on what they have shown this year. Sampson is without a doubt a great coach, but they are just 2-6 in Quad 1 games this year which doesn't suggest that they are a fringe top 10 team. Now, most of these losses have been by 1-2 points and on the road which is why the metrics don't dock them too much, but I think if they had come out on top in 2 of them they would be looking at a much higher seed rather than playing in the 8-9 game. They are a good team with several missed opportunities.
 

the committee says they do not, but does anybody believe they do not look at how you are playing currently and WHEN the wins happened?

Providence and UCONN and Texas have finished very well, other teams have been crumbling down the stretch

Is UConn even on any sort of Next 4 Out or 1st Four Out line? They've rebounded well this year after a slow start, but next year they go to the Big East which is a lot stronger than the AAC, how will they fare? I commented in the other thread that Richmond appears to need more wins to get into the NCAA tournament despite finishing 2nd in the A10, and with Northern Iowa may steal a bid from a team like Richmond(as opposed to an 8-10 team in a BCS conference) since they were upset in their 1st conference tournament game by 9th seeded Drake

La Salle at St.Joe's   2   ESPN+   It looks like GW will avoid the play-in round in Brooklyn if St.Joe's wins. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong on this

George Mason at Fordham   2  ESPN+  - I didn't realize Fordham was 2-0 vs GW and 0-15 against everyone else in conference until reading it in the GW-Fordham thread. We need Fordham to win this game against George Mason so GW can avoid such a terrible distinction

Rhode Island at UMass  7  ESPN+  - Must win for Rhode Island

#14 Villanova at Georgetown    noon   Fox 

Rutgers at Purdue      2    Big 10 Network  - Rutgers may need to win this game to feel secure about an NCAA tourney bid