Welcome to this blog's new feature after a few weeks in the wilderness of sickness, family and post-football blues. Each day there will be a rundown of the best and worst from the previous day and the most important games of the day. Fridays will bring an expanded preview section and Mondays an expanded review section for the weekend games. I hope you'll join me for the ride through February, the best month in college basketball.
Team that helped itself most yesterday: Texas
The Longhorns played one of the best halves of basketball any team has played all season in their blowout road win over Texas A&M (in fact, the first half joins the second half of Texas' game at Kansas as the best road halves any road team has played all season, no question). If the Longhorns keep their current form into March, they look like potential national champions. Who would've thunk that considering the chemistry challenged bunch of losers that returned after the collapse last season.
Team that harmed itself most yesterday: Nobody
Monday's are typically lighter fare and this week was no exception. Louisville shouldn't have been expected to beat Georgetown on the road and while Texas A&M played badly, nobody at their level would have been beating Texas in any venue the way the Longhorns played last night. In the lesser leagues, no possible at-large contenders were in action so no real harm was done to anyone.
Other notable wins: Georgetown over Louisville
While I said in the last section that Louisville shouldn't have been expected to beat Georgetown on the road, the win is still a big one for the Hoyas resume come March. After a slow start to Big East play, the Hoyas have rounded back into form and while the conference title looks like a longshot (Georgetown is three behind Pittsburgh in the loss column), a double bye as Madison Square Garden and a possible two-seed in the NCAA's looks possible.
Other notable losses: Duke women to Connecticut
Notable more for what it says about the women's game than anything else. That a 3rd ranked undefeated team can go to UConn and get steamrolled as badly as Duke did (it was 25-2 and 40-11 at various points) is ridiculous. Can we just play out the Final Four of UConn, Baylor, Stanford and whoever manages to get out of the other bracket now and dispense with everything else in the women's game?
Game of the Night: Purdue at Wisconsin
The Big Ten takes center stage as Purdue tries to continue its recovery from the road evisceration at the hands of Ohio St. last Tuesday. Tonight is a trip to face a pretty good Wisconsin team in the toughest road environment in the Big Ten. It should be a good game even if it is played at a snails pace (Wisconsin is ranked last in the nation in tempo according to kenpom.com).
Team that can help itself most tonight: Boston College
The Eagles host North Carolina. In need of more quality wins to make the tournament field, Boston College has a golden opportunity at home against a Tar Heel team that has been rounding into form the last couple of weeks. While it wouldn't be the so called signature win, it might be necessary with no home game against Duke this season.
Team than can harm itself most tonight: Illinois
The Illini are slumping and losing at home to Penn St. would make the resume start looking a lot like last season's resume that had lost of quality wins and tons of strange weird losses that led to Illinois missing the NCAA Tournament last year.
Other notable games tonight:
Vanderbilt at Florida
Kentucky at Ole Miss
Wichita St. at Indiana St.
Kansas at Texas Tech
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