Stop Slacking!

Major games from the weekend:
Saturday:

• Maryland defeats UNC. This is a huge lift for Maryland, and lessens the aura of dominance surrounding the Tar Heels. However, for all intents and purposes this loss did nothing to the Tar Heels, as they maintained their seeding in many seed lists (mine include).
• USC defeats UCLA. Much more important for USC than the UNC win was for Maryland, as USC only had one bad loss. This also hurt UCLA, as they already had one loss. This game allowed Tennessee to sneak in as a 1 seed.
• Speaking of the Vols, they have an astounding 7 wins against the top 50 RPI teams. Thats three more than any other team. However, they only beat the Buckeyes by 5. Is this a sign of weakness, or a sign that the Buckeyes are good?
• Fordham defeats Duquesne. Duquesne's whole tournament resume was based around the fact that they had no bad losses, and this game ruins that.
• Miami (FL) is a pretender. Miami (FL) is a pretender. (Repeat as necessary)
• Baylor picks up a road win. Baylor is for real, and they will make the tournament. This makes me happy, since this improves the Irish chances.
• Texas A&M is not good. They cannot win big games on the road. However, they are not bad. But unless they start winning some road games, they are done for. Same goes for the Irish.
• Kudos to Nova for picking up a road win in the Big East. Through Saturday, home teams in the Big East are 34-9, with only Rutgers having more than one home loss.
• Kudos also to Cincinnati for beating Pittsburgh. Cincinnati needs to continue knocking off top teams so they can overcome their pathetic non-con schedule.
• Drake beats Illinois St. in the battle for the Valley. Drake is now the master of the universe.
• BYU beats Utah in the only significant Saturday MWC action. This probably drops Utah out of the running for an at-large.
• Stanford beat Arizona St. Stanford is moving off of the bubble while ASU is moving closer to the bubble.
• California needs to win a game every so often, or they will miss the tournament.
• Davidson and Chattanooga squared off, and Davidson resoundingly showed that they will win their conference.
• Mississippi loses to Auburn? Inconcievable! This could shove Auburn back into NIT level.
• IUPUI followed up the tough loss at ORU to an unthinkable loss at Centenary. IUPUI went from one-bid stud to one-bid dud in the span of a week.
• Still searching for SWAC teams that want to win.

Sunday:

• Marquette got shellacked on the road by UConn. No one in the Big East is going to end up with a good road record, which will hurt seeding a lot. On the other hand, West Virginia's road win at USF will look very good, even if USF isn't the best team.
• Wake Forest beats Florida St. Enough said.

Monday:

• Syracuse ALMOST beat G'town, which would have pushed them into the tournament. But they didn't, and now they must suffer the consequences.

Big Matchups for Tonight and Tomorrow:

• Wake Forest @ Clemson: Big game for each. A win for the Deacons might push them into the tournament and send the Tigers tumbling out.
• Drake @ Creighton: Jeff from basketballpredictions.com says that Drake will falter once they're in the spotlight. Here they are, on the road, against one of the best teams in the conference. A win here will solidify their position, while a loss will leave many doubts for the Drake.
• Utah @ New Mexico: Another important game regarding the MWC. Quick story: yesterday a friend was going through conference-by-conference, asking me who could realistically win each one. We got to the MWC. I looked at it for a second, then told him "Everyone except Colorado St. and Wyoming"
• UNC @ Miami (FL): The Cane's can show me here that they are not pretenders.
• Virginia @ Florida St.: Bubblicious ACC game.
• Baylor @ Texas A&M: Road win will push Baylor above the bubble, but Texas A&M will be looking for someone to beat after two embarrassing losses sent them tumbling.
• Iowa St. @ Kansas: The Cyclones have been surprising solid at home, but so far do not have a stellar road win.
• UConn @ Cincinnati: The Bearcats are 8-3 at home with wins over Pittsburgh and Villanova and losses to Belmont and Bowling Green. Which team will show up?
• Akron @ Kent St.: For control of the MAC bEast.
• San Diego St. @ BYU: See previous comments regarding MWC.
• Bucknell @ Lafayette: For control of the Patriot League.