2021-22 College Basketball Thread

[DINGO Joe]

Kudos to Colgate for breaking a 54 game losing streak to Syracuse this weekend.  They last won in 1962.  The teams have played 173 times with Syracuse having a 127-45 record vs Colgate until their loss Saturday.

[DINGO Joe]

Big win for the Pac-12 tonight as the Huskies  outlast the Jackrabbits.

[DINGO Joe]

FINAL: Texas Southern 69, Florida 54.  That's a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad loss.

Assuming the box score is correct, TX Southern turned the ball over 22 times and still won by 15. 

[DINGO Joe]

The conference is six western schools and seven Texas schools. There isn't any reason to break-up a finally decent arrangement. There's a chance Seattle ends up in the WCC replacing BYU if Gonzaga doesn't veto it and then the conference can evaluate two other southwestern teams

Southern Utah and Utah Tech are needed for the football conference to have enough teams, so might as well keep them and UVU...no reason to get rid of Grand Canyon to appease them as well considering they have the biggest fanbase in the conference.

California Baptist is a weird fit, but there aren't really other options for them and they usually are a competitive squad.

I always figured Dixie St. was some random Mississippi school I had never noticed (I was probably thinking of Delta St.).  Who knew.

I knew the retiring commissioner of the WAC, Jeff Hurd, when I was a kid and he worked for the Missouri Valley Conference.  The only two conferences he ever worked for.  Also, the two conferences that have had the most different members over their their respective lifetimes, with the WAC pulling ahead in the last decade or so.  Even in just his worktime at the two conferences there may have been close to 100  different schools he would have been involved with.


Actually, New Mexico St. would have been in the Valley when he was there and is still in the WAC as he left, so I guess he had one constant.

[DINGO Joe]

Why would Gonzaga care if Seattle were in the league?  Can't really see their worlds overlapping.

[DINGO Joe]

BYU leaving probably means Gonzaga at least kicks the tires on joining the Big East. It's a cultural fit for Gonzaga, and the cross country travel isn't as bad as people think, given Creighton's presence in the conference.

If that should happen (which I think is unlikely) a possible mate to join them might be Wichita State, the only non-football school in the declining AAC.

I thought part of the reason for Wichita St. going to the AAC  was their desire to start a DIV 1 football program.  Cause ya know, Kansas can support three two maybe one division 1 program.

[DINGO Joe]

Who knew John Stockton would turn out to be the village idiot. 

[DINGO Joe]

Who knew John Stockton would turn out to be the village idiot. 

Athletes are just like the general population in that they have a wide variety of capabilities and viewpoints, but like all celebrities, they get an oversized amount of attention.  Some will turn out to be idiots, but OTOH some will turn out to be extremely impressive people (e.g. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar).

Well, of course Kareem is far more accomplished as an academic than 99.9% of the NBA, but it's not even a matter of intelligence, it's just Stockton is mentally incapable.  I mean who would ever give him any respect after he sh**t all over himself like that? 

[DINGO Joe]

Creighton outscored Xavier 36-19 in the first half.  So far in the second half, Xavier has outscored Creighton 19-0 and now leads 38-36.

And then Xavier got serious.

[DINGO Joe]

Wild finish in Tennessee-Texas.  The Volunteers trailed 51-35 with 5:30 left, went on a 16-0 run to tie it with under a minute, then had a shot to take the lead, but missed it.  Texas got a free throw with 6 seconds left, and Tennessee had an open look to win it at the buzzer...but missed again.  Texas won 52-51.

Yeah, it was a game TX deserved to lose but TN didn't deserve to win. 

[DINGO Joe]

Wyoming beats Colorado State 84-78.

Wyoming is now 17-3 and 6-1 in the MWC.  Their game against Boise on Thursday looms pretty large in the conference race.

The NET ratings for the MWC are pretty ridiculous, but I haven't actually watched a MWC team this year, so who knows.

[DINGO Joe]

Ya know, I understand that the NET rankings are based on math and all, but I really can't fathom how Washington St. is at 37 while Creighton is at 67.

[DINGO Joe]

The Dons are pimp slapping BYU on their home court.  They're looking tourney bound.  Unless I just jinxed them.

[DINGO Joe]

Arizona State defeats UCLA in triple overtime 87-84.

I tried to follow that game on my phone but it went so late I finally had to give up at the end of the first OT.

Yeah, I cashed out before the end too.  ASU seems like they've been up in every game  this year only to have it get away from them, but they finally got one.

[DINGO Joe]

In a battle of pollsters, Marist won 83-58 at Monmouth, a pretty big upset in the MAAC.

Who could have predicted that?

[DINGO Joe]

Uncertainty in the Big East? Georgetown's march to 0-20* continues unabated! Despite controlling most of the first half (of the ugliest basketball game I've seen in some time), once the score hit 49 all, DePaul went on a 26-0 run to send the Hoyas to 0-11.

Georgetown only has two remaining games where is a <10 point underdog: when they host Creighton on Saturday and when they host DePaul for the rematch in two weeks.


*The Xavier game in DC has not been rescheduled yet.

On the other side of the ledger, as I'm sure you know, UConn lost for the first time in 170 conference games to Villanova.  They last lost in 2013.

[DINGO Joe]

North Carolina takes a terrible home loss to Pitt, 76-67.  The Panthers were a 13.5-point underdog.  UNC might be close to falling out of projected tournament brackets after this.

North Carolina was the total inverse of Rutgers, it beat all the teams it should, but couldn't beat any ranked teams or even fellow conference bubble teams.  Rutgers on the other hand  has won five games against ranked teams and has beat some bubble conference teams but had some really bad Nov losses and even in conference has lost to everybody in the bottom 5 except Nebraska (barely).  Of course, losing to Pitt breaks that narrative, while Rutgers dominated Illinois.

[DINGO Joe]

SMU (without their star player Kendric Davis) led Temple 49-42 with four minutes left but completely disintegrated, losing 64-57.  Their loss created a numerically rather pleasing sequence at the top of the AAC standings:

9-2 Houston
9-3 SMU
9-4 Memphis
9-5 Tulane

It's bonkers that Tulane is 9-5

[DINGO Joe]

RIP Oregon?

I mean AZ St. is a better team than their record, but not that good so they're a longshot at this point.

[DINGO Joe]

Well, that's a wild one in the Big East.  Hurley gets tossed for pumping up the crowd and UConn pulls one out of nowhere in the final 30 seconds.

[DINGO Joe]

In spite of historic greatness, the Big XII is really cannibalizing itself with a clear first tier and second tier and few upsets despite everyone being a top 50 team. Might be as few as 5 bids.

After losing to OSU, Kansas State needs to win @ Texas Tech or @ Kansas. Quite possibly both (i.e., win out) and a game in the conference tournament.

After losing by 20 points, Oklahoma definitely needs to win out, starting with @ Texas Tech.

While a loss today was obviously expected, TCU is still projected in if they go 2-4 with an immediate B12 tournament loss. I'm not really seeing it personally, especially if those two wins are WVU. They may have a lot of Q1 wins by virtue of being in this conference, but only Iowa State (1) and LSU are currently in the field. OOC schedule is trash.

As a TCU alum who knew Jamie Dixon back in the day, I feel like I should stand up for them, but they are basically the BYU of the B12.  Kind of just getting in because their conference deserves bids and the teams just below them just can't be justified.  Santa Clara has actually beat both and probably is a better team  but had a "Rutgers" run (bad) that really hurt their Net

[DINGO Joe]

Senior Will Alcock of Loyola Chicago, who I presume is a walk-on had scored 9 points in his 4 yr career as a Rambler scored 9 point tonight in his last home game as a Rambler as Loyola beat Evansville 82-31.  UNI and Loyola go head to head Saturday in a winner wins the conference on Saturday.  Loyola has been inconsistent enough that they aren't a lock for a tourney bid

[DINGO Joe]

Xavier and Providence are going to a third OT, tied at 88.

EDIT: Providence won 99-92 in 3OT.

The Big East probably is the most exciting conference to watch, night in night out.  Creighton snuck one out at St. John's tonight too.

Rutgers had a big loss tonight, though you could see it coming, with Michigan having to show some pride after the recent debacle.

Although it turns out Creighton has lost their point guard for the season, the younger Nembhard.  They're  probably in the tourney (unless they somehow play Butler again) but it's obviously a big loss.

[DINGO Joe]

No suspense in the pick'em tonight as everyone agreed on Illinois and UCLA.

Maybe not suspense in the picking part, but.....

[DINGO Joe]

My "NET"pick of the week is that Loyola's 51 point win over a 6-22 team at home somehow raised them from 37 to 29 in the NET rankings, I know some other things are going on and the teams in the 30s must be tightly grouped, but c'mon.