Thank you Kent Benson. Thank you Quinn Buckner. Thank you Scott May. In a year where quite a bit of attention was focused on a certain Eugene Morris and who was "good enough to be on his block"--I'm just glad the last college basketball team to finish an unbeaten season hasn't turned into a bunch of killjoys rooting for teams' demise each February/March...
Meanwhile, area teams are moving towards March-- with just one school virtually assured of a berth in the field of 65. Georgetown (22-4, 12-3 Big East) is looking at a 2nd or 3rd seed, depending on how they fare over the final three regular season games (a potential battle for the league regular season crown March 8th against co-leader Louisville)... coach John Thompson III has done a nice job insulating his team from the curse of top 5 expectations; despite having most everyone back from a Final Four team this is a different squad and a different year--Saturday's 73-53 thumping of Cincinnati was textbook taking care of business.
Maryland's in a completely different world than the one they were in a week ago--Saturday's 78-63 loss to Miami drops the Terrapins to 7-6 in the ACC-- foul trouble plagued James Gist for the second straight game as the senior was held to 10 points on 3 for 11 shooting after scoring just 7 against Virginia Tech; Jerome Burney was the lone Terp to score off the bench (4 points and 5 boards over 12 minutes)... can this team regain the groove that saw them win 7 of 9? It won't be easy-- as they'll visit Wake Forest (Deacons are 14-1 at home) before hosting Clemson (Tigers regarded as the third best team in the conference) this week.
Virginia Tech is now the hot team in the conference's underbelly- two straight wins puts the Hokies at 7-6 (they own the tiebreaker with Maryland after sweeping the Terps)... and the little engine that chugged its way to a 5-3 ACC mark is back--while A.D. Vassallo's 27 points served as the highlight, the fact that the Hokies only committed ten turnovers helped Seth Greenberg's bunch prevail... you'd have to think they'd need to beat
Boston College Tuesday to provide some margin of error (Hokies wrap up the regular season against NCAA-contenders Wake Forest and Clemson).
George Mason's hopes for an at-large bid may have taken its final breath Saturday as the Patriots waste a 13 point halftime lead in a 69-57 loss to Ohio. The road continues to haunt coach Jim Larranaga's team (7-8 away from Fairfax) after the Bobcats got back into the game with an 8-0 run after intermission. Will Thomas was contained for the first time all season (9 points and 9 boards-the first time this winter the senior's been held to less than ten points and ten rebounds)... Patriots resume CAA play Wednesday by hosting William and Mary (Senior Night at the Patriot Center) before wrapping up the regular season at Northeastern Saturday. At this point, one would think GMU's only path the NCAA's would be to win the CAA Tournament.
American had the weekend off-- Wednesday's game at Navy looms as a battle for the top spot in the Patriot League- a win and the Eagles clinch the regular season title while a loss to the Midshipmen would place the schools into a tie for first--and Navy would own the tiebreaker thanks to a regular season sweep. By the way, in the Patriot League Tournament the teaml with home-court advantage for the conference tournament final is 12-3.
Somebody forgot to tell George Washington their season is a wash-- the Colonials have been between a rock and a hard place since point guard Travis King's campaign ended with a knee injury; but coach Karl Hobbs' crew has play has upped their level of play in February with three wins in four games-the most recent a 59-53 victory over Richmond. Although there are no light touches remaining on their schedule (Xavier, Rhode Island, UMass and Charlotte), GW has an outside shot at qualifying for the Atlantic Ten Tournament (they probably need to split their final four games to have a chance)...
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