|
highlighted matchups for january 22....
-OREGON STATE AT ARIZONA. after dropping two straight games and slipping a little down the board, arizona looked good against ucla last week. they need to keep winning if they want to keep stanford within reach. remember, conference standings are considered during the selection and seeding process.
-OREGON AT ARIZONA STATE. oregon is on the outside looking in right now, but it is still within reach and there is still plenty of time left. they need wins though.
-UTAH STATE AT CS FULLERTON. for utah state, this is the second game in a row with cs fullerton. kind of an unusual to see that in conference scheduling. they have done what they've needed to do to keep their at large bids alive and that is win. they need to continue to do it. i saw this morning that they are #29 in the rpi. it is almost getting to the point to where maybe they could lose a game and still be in position for an at large.....ALMOST.
-NORTH CAROLINA AT FLORIDA STATE. now that the acc has begun to play each other, we are finally seeing some separation among the teams. florida state has lost 4 straight games and their stock is falling fast. north carolina, on the other hand, is playing extremely well. they do have 2 conference losses and if they want to keep a spot of the raleigh pod within reach, they cannot afford a slipup at florida state.
-RICE AT FRESNO STATE. fresno state sits atop the wac standings right now with a 5-1 conference record. however, they are only 8-6 overall and would probably need the automatic bid to get to the dance. rice is 4-1 in conference and 11-4 overall, but would also have difficulties getting an at large bid unless they absolutely dominated the wac from here on out.
-RICHMOND AT KANSAS. richmond's rpi is hovering around 50, but that is more due to the tough schedule they have played rather than the success they have had. they don't have any quality wins, but they've put up some pretty good showings against some pretty good teams. kansas has won five straight since losing convincingly at nevada and is looking to make it six straight tonight. the bulk of kansas's schedule is still ahead of them, but seeing is how they are in the north division, they only play texas, texas tech, oklahoma state and oklahoma (who may not be all that great this year) once. the fact that they are in a weaker division and lost to oklahoma last year had a lot to do with why oklahoma got the #1 seed and kansas didn't. the point is, if they drop a game like this, the same thing could happen again even if kansas finishes with more overall conference wins.
-UTEP AT HAWAII (***at large spotlight game***). this is the game of the season so far for hawaii. hawaii is currently 11-3 overall and 4-1 in conference. they have an rpi right around 50, so an at large bid is definitely within reach. a win at home against utep tonight would REALLY be a shining point on their resume, not to mention give their rpi a nice nudge. for utep, they currently have a strong at large resume and are projected as a current #10 seed. a road win against hawaii would certainly secure that spot. utep is only 2-2 in conference. now, getting back to the issue of the conference standings, it is VERY rare for a team to be lower in the standings and receive a higher seed (or in this case an at large bid) over a team that is higher in the standings. in fact, it has never happened more than once in the past ten years. not to mention, head to head competition is also looked at by the committee. do you think this is a hugely important game for both teams?? oh yeah. is this game on tv?? not where i'm at. why?? because the idiot network execs do not read this board like they should thats why.
-UCLA AT STANFORD. ucla has a solid rpi and a solid resume, but one way to push themselves up the board would be to win a big road game like this. for stanford, they are the clear current frontrunners for the #1 seed in the west, as well as 1 of only 2 unbeaten teams in div1. this would be yet another quality win for them which you can never have enough of and it would help them secure that status.
__________________
IT'S MILLER TIME!!!
|
highlighted matchups for january 22....
Linear Mode
