College Basketball is a house of cards, but you already knew this. When Jeezy wrote his mega-post on how College Basketball is bad and that’s what makes it total awesome sauce, he was talking about nights like last night. If you weren’t paying attention to basketball last night, damn, you really should have been paying attention to basketball last night. Let’s dive right in, shall we?
OK, the night started out innocently enough with our beloved Orange taking care of business against DePaul, who, bless their hearts, are the worst basketball team outside of fictional Disney films. I mean, there’s just no hope for those guys. Once that game ended, however, all hell broke loose.
Let’s start with Georgetown, who punched Villanova’s ticket to the Big Dance with a 67-57 loss at the Wells Fargo Center, which is just a house of horrors for top 5 teams this year. Why there’s any debate about ‘Nova now is beyond me, as they’ve got wins over Louisville, Syracuse, Marquette, and now Georgetown, in a year where the bubble is horrifyingly bad.
But oh boy, our crazy night was just beginning. Oklahoma State? Losers to Iowa State, another hungry bubble team that’s on the right side of the in/out line right now. For a top 15 team, Oklahoma State has a surprisingly average resume, which is basically carried by a win over Kansas at Phog Allen Fieldhouse in early February. I’d give them a harder time but it’s essentially the same resume as Syracuse, who is still hanging their hat on that road win at #1 Louisville two months ago [sad tuba].
Did you know St Louis is ranked #16? Well, forget that I just told you that, because they are going down a bit after they lost in overtime at Xavier last night in their final regular season game before the A-10 Tournament. At this point, bubble teams get so muddled I have no idea what this even means. Is Xavier even on the bubble? They’re 17-12 and 9-6 in the A-10, but they’ve got two top 20 wins in their last 3 games and are just half a game back in the A-10 from Butler. I could see an argument that they’re safely in and I could see an argument that they’re nowhere close. This is madness.
Then there’s Miami. What in the world happened to you guys? A close loss at Duke with Ryan Kelly back, sure, don’t feel bad there. Have an ice cream if you want. But a home loss to Georgia Tech? HOW? Don’t even give me that ‘Duke hangover’ excuse either. This was a chance for Miami to win their first conference championship in THIRTEEN YEARS and they blew a thirteen point second half lead at home. I do not understand basketball.
There’s so much more. In a game that apparently nobody saw, not even the Associated Press, who wrote a jaw-dropping 148 word recap (?), Nebraska beat Minnesota 53-51 in the final game at the Bob Devaney Sports Center, which is where Nebraska played their home games for a bunch of years, I guess. I’m too confused to even look into that right now. I mean goodness Minnesota, do you want to dance or not? Because right now you’re hokey-pokeying in and out too much for my liking. You’d think finishing the regular season 5-9 would keep the Gophers out, but this team somehow has wins over Indiana, Michigan State, and Wisconsin. I’d call their game Saturday at Purdue a must-win, but I really don’t have the faintest idea anymore.
Lastly, we can’t forget the Pac-12. No. 23 UCLA had a chance to put a stranglehold on the conference championship, but naturally, they got worked by last place Washington State, who had lost nine games in a row before yesterday. This was good news for another Pac-12 championship hopeful Cal, who… oh, well they lost too. At home. To Stanford. Of course.
Derp’d.
We’ll have an entire bracket special here once that comes out, but here’s my plan: I’m going to pick a weeknight between Selection Sunday and the tournament opens on Thursday, I’m going to drink a lot of bourbon, and then I’m going to fill out that bracket while drunk. Because that’s what you are this season College Basketball, you’re drunk. And we wouldn’t like it any other way.
Aggro Swag 