College basketball's moving month means the emergence and building of the NCAA Tournament bubble. Schools can salvage subpar non-conference slates with impressive runs in league play (Alabama) while some teams go from flying high to floundering in February (Cincinnati). Others do just enough to reach the threshold but not enough to get the dream. Every college hoops expert has their "bubble watch" and while a few are rather well done, a few seem to have more schools on the bubble (in reality probably 10-15 at-large schools) than actually play Division I basketball.
Maryland (16-10, 5-6) suffered the second half of a double-whammy when the Terps lost at Virginia Tech. Too many turnovers (15 to the Hokies 8), poor three-point shooting (4-14) and lack of rebounding (Terps were beaten on the boards by BC and Va Tech) putting coach Gary Williams' team in a difficult spot... especially with North Carolina and Florida State on the horizon.
Cruising the Commonwealth-- Steps forward and steps backward for the Dominion Duo. Virginia Tech (17-7, 7-4) completed a necessary sweep of fellow bubble resident Maryland... but can the Hokies put together consecutive ACC road wins (Seth Greenberg's club is 2-2 in the conference away from Blacksburg)? Thankfully Virginia and Wake Forest aren't UNC and Duke, although the Cavaliers won at Cassell Coliseum in December. Virginia (12-13, 3-8) slips in the standings with a 56-41 loss to Duke. I always thought the ACC was like the SAT... and just like one gets 400 points for signing their name-- schools get 50 points for rolling the balls out.
Georgetown (20-6, 9-5) finally saw their surge up the Big East standings end with a 78-70 loss at Connecticut... as talk of a #1 seed in the NCAA's will die down. The second best shooting team in Division I had a rare off night (43% with Austin Freeman and Chris Wright going 11-for-30) and one can expect they'd get back in gear for their final four regular season games: a home and home with bubble team Cincinnati, a breather against South Florida and a home date with archrival Syracuse.
Alma Mater Update-- Okay, everyone-- here's a newsflash: the Orange 2-3 zone has trouble defending the three-point shot. Even in a win over West Virginia SU allowed 11 threes...
and they face Villanova and Georgetown again (two teams that burned Boeheim's bunch from outside the arc). Rutgers is next (a rare 4pm tipoff) and while the Scarlet Knights may be off to another sub-.500 finish in the Big East-- I request that SU pay atteention to Jonathan Mitchell (42.7% from outside the arc). He may have the green light. In other SU news-- the Washington DC alumni group is proud to have former quarterback Marvin Graves guest-bartending at Sign of the Whale on M Street during the Rutgers game. Unfortunately, my non-alumni friends aren't familiar with SU's best quarterback between the Don McPherson and Donovan McNabb... prompting the exchange "you got Marvin Gaye to guest bartend?"--"no, Marvin Gaye's been dead almost thirty years"-- "didn't he die because somebody poured burning grits on his back?"-- "no, that was Al Green... and he's alive". These are my friends.
George Mason (22-5, 14-2) enters bracket buster weekend with a ridiculous amount of momentum. After smacking fellow big dog VCU by 20 points in Richmond thanks in part to devastating defense (GMU held the Rams to 19 first half points... and 37% shooting for the game) the Patriots stand alone atop the CAA with a perceived chasm between coach Jim Larranaga's crew and the field. While Cam Long has provided steady senior play and Luke Hancock has made the leap, Ryan Pearson's play this month has been smothering- a pair of double-doubles, 18 points against VCU and 12 second half points against JMU.
George Washington (13-12, 6-5) may get a preview of their first round A-10 touranment matchup saturday when the 7th place Colonials clash with LaSalle. GW beat the Explorers 72-67 in Foggy Bottom earlier this winter thanks to 28 points from Tony Taylor-- and he could use memories of that game; the senior's made over 50% of his shots just once since.
Maryland Womens' Moment-- Happy Birthday, indeed. The Terps topped #7 Duke 69-47 on the birthdays of coach Brenda Frese's twin sons... but should this be a surprise? In 2008 Maryland beat the Blue Devils in Cameron the very day Markus and Tyler were born. Duke has asked the ACC not to schedule any more February 17th meetings between the two schools. This was a huge victory for a Terps team that had dropped two straight and needs to complete a sweep of Virginia Tech, Boston College and Florida State to have hopes of a first round bye in the ACC Tournament.
American (18-8, 8-3) now needs a clean sweep plus a Bucknell collapse to win the Patriot League. The Eagles received a nice effort from Nick Hendra (18 points and 7 assists) in a 65-59 win over Army to clinch homecourt for the first round of the conference tournament. AU closes with Holy Cross, Navy and Lafayette...schools that are all capable of shocking coach Jeff Jones' team. On a much more important note, late February at Bender Arena means the McDonald's will start offering the Shamrock Shake as an option... although I'm not pleased with the see-through plastic cups used for milkshakes at the Golden Arch. There are certain things I'd like not to have transparancy about.
Howard (5-20, 3-9) has a home MEAC weekend with games against Florida A&M and Bethune-Cookman (combined 15-9 in the league)... but Burr Arena has been quite the home for coach Kevin Nickleberrry's bunch lately as the Bison have won three straight league games in the district.
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