There were a few games this week where major conference and mid major conference teams with NCAA Tournament aspirations were dealt severe blows to their chances.
It started on Tuesday, where the state of Illinois was dealt two bad losses. First, Illinois saw its seeding in the Big Ten and the NCAA tournament seeding drop when they lost at Michigan 72-64. Illinois is tied for third in the Big Ten at 8-5. Meanwhile, Southern Illinois inexplicably lost at Evansville 64-59. That put the Salukis in a tie for fourth with surging Missouri State and definitely put the Salukis on the outside looking in as the Missouri Valley may get four teams into the tournament but definitely not five.
Seton Hall on Tuesday continued its path of self destruction losing to St John's at MSG 58-47. Before that, the Pirates lost at home to Notre Dame 102-91. Yes they gave up 102 points at home. Eek. The Pirates finish at DePaul, home to Cincinatti and at Pittsburgh. The most critical game may be the home game with the Bearcats. Seton Hall, Syracuse and Cincinatti I think are fighting for two of the three remaining Big East at large bids. And depending on conference tournament upsets, it might be only one bid.
#11 Boston College may have hurt their seeding in the NCAA tournament when they lost at Virginia by 14 on Tuesday. Virginia helped their slim at large bid hopes alive with the win and moved to over .500 in the ACC, which if they finish that way will make it hard for the NCAA committee to leave them out.
Akron fell out of a tie for first place in the MAC East and into a tie for second place with Miami Ohio when they lost to the Redhawks 63-60. The Zips and Redhawks are now one game back of Kent State in the MAC East.
#18 Michigan State suffered a damaging loss at home to #13 Ohio State 79-68. The 2005 NCAA runnerup Spartans are now SIXTH in the Big Ten at 7-6.
The curse of the ranked mid majors continued as #25 in the AP poll, Northern Iowa got smoked by TWENTY TWO AT HOME to Bradley, 71-49. The usually stingy Panther defense allowed the Braves to shoot 59.6 percent from the field. Not a game you want to follow up with after defeating Bucknell, who was ranked at that time before they lost.
#16 NC State lost at home to #21 North Carolina 95-71. Not the way you want to lose your first game at home in conference this year. The Tar Heels shot 53.6 percent from the field and outrebounded the Wolfpack 38-23.
San Diego State fell to BYU 100-90 (lots of high scoring games on Wednesday). The loss moved Air Force to within one game of the Aztecs for first place in the Mountain West and BYU moved to two back.
On Thursday, the curse of the ranked mid majors continued as Hofstra extended its home winning streak to 19 games by beating George Mason, #25 ranked in the Coaches Poll, 77-66. Not only did George Mason lose the game, they lost their first place ranking in the CAA. As a result, UNC Wilmington has the tiebreaker and can finish first with a win on Saturday. The CAA now has three teams with 21 wins and an RPI under 40; UNC Wilmington (34 RPI), George Mason(19 RPI), and Hofstra (39 RPI).
Iona slipped up at home, losing to Siena 82-76. As a result, Sunday's game at Manhattan decides who the MAAC regular season conference champion is and gets the double bye in the MAAC Conference Tournament. As far as I know, only the MAAC gives the regular season conference champion two rounds of byes in their tournament. The MAAC conference champion does not play until the semifinal round of the tournament.
Western Kentucky damaged their seeding in the NCAA tournament and possible at large bid when they lost at Middle Tennessee 80-74. The Hilltoppers fell to 20-6 and 11-2 in the Sun Belt.
Finally Wisconsin damaged their seeding in the NCAA tournament when they lost at Northwestern 62-51. Wisconsin fell into a third place tie with Illinois.
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