-Xavier is legit. Just legit. And I was slow to realize it, but the second half really IS Tu Time. Last night against Georgia, he went scoreless in the first half. When X is down one at half when Tu is scoreless, things are looking good. He ended up with 18, including a perfect 11-11 from the charity stripe. Four players were in double figures for both teams. For Xavier: Holloway, Mark Lyons (14), Jamel McLean (12), and Kenny Frease (10). Dante Jackson also bettered his season average with 9 points, draining 3 crucial treys. This win was huge for the Selection Committee, because this becomes Xavier's best OOC win.
-The 5th foul against Trey Thompkins (UGA) was definitely a terrible call. McLean definitely got away with a push there, and the game could have ended up very differently. Thompkins is Georgia's leading scorer with 16.6 PPG.
-The Mountain West Conference is going to come down to the Feb. 26 matchup of BYU @ San Diego St. Sorry Colorado State, but you're probably not going to be able to pull off the upset on either of these teams. You had your chance at home against both, and lost a very close one to SDSU, 56-54.
-Purdue is going to have a great deal of trouble in the NCAA Tournament. If a mid-major team can stop the tandem of JaJuan Johnson and E'Twaun Moore, they have a chance at a first round upset. And vice versa...
-Indiana is starting to finally get some of the national recognition back, and finally playing some decent ball. It's been an ugly five years for Tom Crean at Indiana, but this year he has defeated the first two ranked teams at his current tenure, and played @ Purdue well for around 30 minutes until they eventually ran out of steam.
-Kentucky is an extremely different team with Brandon Knight on the floor as opposed to when he is on the bench. UK started last night with a 33-14 run that I personally watched, and was extremely impressed with. Once Knight got a blow, Tennessee then went on a 14-2 run to end the half. Knight is the master distributor of this team, and his PG play got guys like Darius Miller and Doron Lamb very open looks, which they nailed.
-Cincinnati could easily lose the rest of their Big East matchups. Last night, they almost blew a double-digit lead against Big East stinker DePaul. Looking ahead on their schedule, they still have St. John's (which is the best chance for a W), UConn, Georgetown, and Louisville at home and Providence, Georgetown and Marquette on the road. Life's about to get really tough for Mick Cronin. Have fun.
-Speaking of DePaul, if they don't get their act together soon, they need to leave the Big East. Besides being winless in the BE, they have OOC losses to Western Carolina (Southern, 11-14), Oklahoma State, Cal State Northridge (Big West, 9-14), Stanford, Indiana State (Missouri Valley, 12-12), and Ball State (MAC, 14-8). In the words of Keyshawn Johnson, "C'mon, man!"
-A team I featured in the Power Rankings Top 25, Wichita State, fell to the Salukis of Southern Illinois, 56-53. This comes as a pretty large shock to me (get it, they're the Shockers), as they're usually a team that doesn't turn the ball over much, and the Salukis were missing four starters. Last night, they had 6 assists against 15 turnovers. Not very good. Southern Illinois had only been 4-9 in the conference, so this was a big upset. The MVC is starting to really beat itself up; Drake took down Creighton, and Evansville beat Northern Iowa (although Evansville did beat Iowa earlier in the season). Obviously, Wichita State will not be appearing in next week's Power Rankings.
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