Updating Your Ass: NCAAB, Week 12

Can you smell that parody (or is it parity?) in the air? Ahhh yes, another week has passed and college basketball has failed to disappoint us with surprising results.

A lot of this week’s games were lost in the hype of the NFL playoffs, so here is a quick recap of the games you missed while watching Brett Favre refuse to end his career on a high note.

The week started off with a bang with the Monday night game of #10 Kansas St. hosting beating #1 Texas, 71-62. The Kansas St. players, and insanely loud crowd, were well prepared for the top ranked Longhorns. If Texas wants to be a #1 seed in March, they have to step it up.

#5 Syracuse and Wesley Johnson continued their dominance of the Big East with an 84-71 win over Notre Dame.

#15 Purdue finally ended their three game skid on Tuesday by beating the (non)Fighting Illini, following up with a win against struggling Michigan on Saturday. While the other significant news in the Big Ten was #25 Ohio State notching their fourth win in five games since the return of Evan Turner. However, the Buckeyes blew a 12 point half-time lead on Saturday to lose to #9 West Virginia, failing to capitalize on a perfect opportunity to notch a solid road win for the committee.

On Wednesday night we witnessed 12 ranked teams in action. #3 Kansas got a scare from Baylor, but held on for the win thanks to Sherron Collins’ 28 points. #4 Villanova continued their quiet dominance with a 94-68 win over Rutgers.

Another surprising team is #17 Temple. They notched two more wins this week to remain undefeated in A-10 play — possibly a team to watch come March.

The best match-up of the night was in Pittsburgh between #11 Pitt and #14 Georgetown. The Hoyas knocked the Panthers from cloud nine with a 74-66 win. Pitt is by far one of the more surprising stories this year after losing a large part of their offense from a year ago. The surprise has faded a bit, though, with Pitt losing to Seton Hall four days after the Georgetown loss.

Speaking of Seton Hall, the Pirates are another team to watch come March. Their six losses have come by an average of eight points. Those six teams are Temple, West Virginia, Syracuse, VT, Connecticut, and Georgetown. A couple more solid wins like this week (Louisville and Pitt) and the Pirates will be sailing into the tournament (pardon my pitiful pirate pun).

Perhaps the biggest upset of the week came from NC State knocking off #6 Duke. Duke bounced back days later, defeating a tough #16 Clemson team, 60-47. If Duke can avoid having these little hiccups throughout the season they will be a team to be reckoned with come season’s end.

Jim Calhoun my not have to come back to UConn if the Huskies keep playing the way they did this week. A win on Wednesday against St. Johns and the upset of Texas on Saturday have them back on track after dropping three straight. While the Huskies stock is up, North Carolina’s stock is plummeting. The defending champions lost their third straight game against Wake Forest to drop to 1-3 in conference play. The Heels did have to replace almost all of their offense from last year, but dropping from the top 25 will not sit well with Roy Williams and Tar Heel nation.

The week ended with more surprises and great basketball.

#1 UK and John Wall continued to embarrass opponents with a 101-70 drubbing of Arkansas. #9 Kansas State’s hangover from the Texas win lasted a little longer than expected. The Wildcats exhibited their exhaustion against Oklahoma St., who stayed with K-State the entire game and, thanks to a missed lay-up with 3 seconds left, hung on for the win.

Finally, Tennessee gets my WTF??? Award for the week. After beating Kansas on Jan. 10th the Vols were looking solid (Bruce Pearl didn’t even have to sweat stain his suit). Then they rolled into Georgia (8-8) and got flattened. This just goes to show this is still the same old inconsistent Tennessee team we see every year.

KB’s TOP 3 GAMES TO WATCH FOR (WEEK 13)
1.) Monday – #11 Georgetown (15-3, 6-2) @ #4 Syracuse (19-1, 6-1)
2.) Saturday – # 7 Duke (16-3, 4-2) @ #11 Georgetown (15-3, 6-2)
3.) Saturday – # 2 Kansas (18-1, 4-0) @ # 13 Kansas St. (16-3, 3-2)