Several teams get much-needed resume wins on Saturday

Saturday saw a few teams get a victory they needed to jump-start their NCAA Tournament resume. A few others suffered bad losses in games they needed, or missed opportunities, but we’re going to stick with the positive and focus on the teams that got big wins. It’s too early to declare a number of these teams locks after what they did on Saturday, but they are in a better place than they were to start the day.

Let’s start with Florida State, which annihilated North Carolina 90-57 in Tallahassee. The Seminoles had a so-so non-conference run, as they came into Saturday lacking a win against the top 50 in three tries. Beating the Tar Heels is a remedy for that, although they need to make it relevant come March by playing well the rest of ACC play.

Next, we go to Northwestern, a team for whom heartbreak has become a regular occurrence. The Wildcats have had chances to play their way into the NCAA Tournament for the first time in recent years, but haven’t been able to pull out the games they needed to. It looked like this year might be another case of that, too, although they did win the Charleston Classic over Seton Hall, a win that is looking better all the time. They won at mediocre Georgia Tech and lost to Baylor, which is hardly a bad loss. But then they lost at Creighton, got hammered at Ohio State and lost tough ones to Illinois and Michigan by a combined three points. And on Saturday, they knocked off Michigan State in Evanston for their best win of the season. Add that to the Seton Hall win and the Wildcats, who don’t have a bad loss and an RPI of 33 at the start of the week, are in a good place for the moment.

Then there is Oklahoma, a team thought to be rebuilding. But the Sooners knocked off Kansas State 82-73 for their second win against a top 50 team. The Sooners are now 1-3 in Big 12 play, so they have a good deal of work to do. But if they get to .500 in conference and win a game or two in the conference tournament, they may have done enough work by then to be in the discussion for an NCAA Tournament team.  It helps that they don’t have a bad loss.

Lastly, San Diego State knocked off UNLV in a thriller, 69-67. The Aztecs were actually in a reasonably good place before Saturday, but perhaps now they can be called an NCAA Tournament lock if they win the games they should the rest of the way. The Mountain West figured to be rebuilding this season, but that hasn’t been the case thus far as both of these teams look like they will be in the field of 68.

We go coast to coast with news from around the college basketball nation.

Pittsburgh lost at Marquette, 62-57, and is now 0-5 in the Big East for the second time in program history and first in 12 years. They have never started 0-6, but they play at Syracuse on Monday.

Connecticut freshman Ryan Boatright was suspended by the NCAA and did not play in the Huskies’ 67-53 win at Notre Dame. The NCAA is investigating more eligibility matters with the freshman guard.

Iowa handily took out Michigan 75-59, and continues to be something of a Jekyll and Hyde team.

Jarnell Stokes gave Tennessee a boost in his debut, but Kentucky prevailed in Knoxville 65-62. The thinking is that although it was a loss, Saturday’s game bodes well for the Volunteers.

The Ivy League has started the season a little differently this time around, and Penn has started off 2-0 with wins at Columbia and Cornell. Normally teams play their travel partners over two weeks, save for Penn and Princeton, before the Friday-Saturday weekends start.

No America East team will go undefeated in conference play this season, as Stony Brook had its six-game winning streak end at Boston University, who has won three in a row after losing six straight.

Big Ten rises to the Challenge

The Big Ten has the look and feel of the best conference in the country.

From top to bottom, the Big Ten has the most quality, and those teams were on display Tuesday as the conference grabbed a 4-2 lead in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.

Among the premier teams, Ohio State thumped Duke 85-63 as the Buckeyes tore through the Blue Devils’ Swiss cheese defense. Four of Ohio State’s five starters scored at least 17 points, led by Jared Sullinger’s 21. As a team, Ohio State shot nearly 60 percent from the field and from 3-point range. When they did miss, they collected the rebounds nearly 30 percent of the time, which is actually off their season average of about 34 percent, according to Ken Pomeroy’s stats. But when you’re already shooting 60 percent, any second chances at all could be devastating for your opponent.

Although the convincing victory is excellent, it’s not altogether shocking. Duke entered a hostile environment in Columbus coming off a tough trip to Maui last week in which the Blue Devils battled tooth and nail three straight days to claim the EA Sports Maui Invitational title. Yes, they had nearly a week off, but Duke looked tired, as several players launched air balls from deep throughout the game. With eight days off until their next game, look for the Blue Devils to rest up and rebound well.

Perhaps the best win of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge last night was Northwestern’s 16-point victory at Georgia Tech. For a team searching for its first NCAA Tournament bid in school history, the Wildcats had to win this one. Georgia Tech does not figure to be competitive for the ACC title this year, but the Thrillerdome remains a tough place to play. Northwestern was on its game, shooting 55 percent from the field, with John Shurna leading the way with 25 points. The Wildcats’ win is impressive because it’s not like the team is totally unfamiliar to the Yellow Jackets. Georgia Tech coach Brian Gregory was an assistant to MIchigan State’s Tom Izzo for several years, including in 2003, Bill Carmody’s first season in Evanston. And it’s not like his style of play has changed much in eight years, according to Pomeroy’s stats.

The Big Ten will look to continue its strong play tonight, highlighted by a huge match up in Chapel Hill between North Carolina and Wisconsin.

Here are some other news and notes from across the college basketball nation.

North Carolina’s Harrison Barnes is expected to play in that clash with the Badgers tonight after spraining his ankle in the Tar Heels’ loss to UNLV last weekend, ESPN reports.

Bernie Fine is out at Syracuse after new and more troublesome allegations of sexual abuse emerged during the past week. However, the Associated Press’ John Kekis writes, Orange coach Jim Boeheim isn’t worried about his own job security, despite vehemently defending Fine when the allegations first appeared, going as far as to call the accusers liars. The investigation continues in this case, so Fine is innocent until proven guilty. But there apparently was enough smoke for Syracuse to find cause to ditch the veteran assistant before a raging fire broke out.

USC forward Dewayne Dedmon, averaging 7.7 ppg and 6.0 rig, will miss about a month because of a stress injury in his right foot, the Associated Press reports. The Trojans have been struggling already this season with one of their big men in the lineup. This certainly won’t help the cause.

Eamonn Brennan notes for ESPN’s College Basketball Nation blog that Florida coach Billy Donovan picked up win No. 400 in his career when the Gators dismantled Stetson 96-70. At age 45, Donovan is one of the few coaches in the game who have the early success that could put him in position to challenge Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski’s record for Division I wins — whenever Coach K calls it a career.

Northwestern Wildcats 2011-12 Preview

Northwestern Wildcats (18-13, 7-11)

Lost in quarterfinals of the NIT (lost to Washington State 69-66 OT).

Bill Carmody (160-177) heads into his 12th season as the Wildcats’ head coach. He is coming off of two consecutive winning seasons, the first time in Northwestern basketball history.

Projected starting five:

Sr. F John Shurna
Jr. G/F Drew Crawford (2009-10 Big Ten Freshman of the Year)
Sr. C Luka Mirkovic
So. G JerShon Cobb
Jr. G Alex Marcotullio

Important departures:

Michael Thompson: 16.3 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 4.3 apg, 39.3 percent from 3-point range

Additions:

Assistant coach Fred Hill (former Rutgers head coach)

Outlook:

Northwestern returns four out of five starters, constituting 73.8 percent of last year’s scoring and 84.4 percent of last year’s rebounding. Fred Hill (head coach from Rutgers) also joins Carmody’s staff. Nikola Cerina transferred from TCU where he started 20 games last season. He will have to sit out the 2011-12 year.

Schedule highlights:

The Wildcats fly relatively under the radar this year. A winnable game against LSU could put the team in good position to have momentum heading into their conference match ups. Northwestern takes on Purdue in Evanston for what will be a very important, nationally televised conference game.

Prediction: Seventh

Next: Ohio State Buckeyes
Back to Big Ten preview

Northwestern Makes History in the NIT

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – Everyone wants to be in the NCAA Tournament, and understandably so. You want to compete for a national championship, and with the nation watching closely as they always do in March. But when your program has a chance to make history and it comes in the NIT, that’s not a bad thing, and Northwestern is doing just that right now. They continued to do that with Saturday’s 85-67 win at Boston College.

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In the NIT, Different Feelings Can Lead to Surprises

Being in the NIT means different things for different programs.  Everyone wants to be in the NCAA Tournament, but some have that as an expectation.  In light of that, every year there’s an NIT surprise or two, often one that involves a team that almost made the NCAA Tournament putting up a clunker when they bow out.

On the first night, we probably saw that with Seton Hall being handled easily by Texas Tech.  Another case of this nearly happened in a battle of Huskies that Connecticut barely won over Northeastern thanks to a 9-2 run in the final minutes.

Seton Hall went 9-9 in the Big East but did not make the NCAA Tournament, a result of not getting enough quality wins along the way.  Connecticut had a disappointing regular season, going 7-11 in the Big East and then getting blown out by St. John’s in the Big East Tournament.  It would be easy for either team to play with some disappointment from not being in the NCAA Tournament and then losing a game they shouldn’t, especially a team like Connecticut where the bar has been raised to set expectations of not only reaching the tournament, but making a deep run.

“You’ll see the Northeastern Universities of the world – and I’ve been there, for 14 years – and understand what these games mean to you and the opportunity,” said Connecticut head coach Jim Calhoun.

On the other hand, you have a program like Northeastern, which was making just its second NIT appearance in program history and hasn’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 1991.  For a program like this, in a conference that is typically a one or two-bid conference, NCAA Tournament opportunities aren’t exactly plentiful.  Since their last trip to the NCAA Tournament, Northeastern has twice played in the NIT and played in the CBI last year.  For them, being in the NIT is a big deal.

“I thought it was an honor for our program to be playing at this time of the year,” said Northeastern head coach Bill Coen.  “I know our kids were excited about it, our fans were excited about it, our student body was excited about it, and I know I was excited about.”

Further demonstrating this is that Northeastern and Connecticut played in front of a crowd of 5,571 (Gampel Pavilion’s capacity is twice that), with a good number of fans for the school two hours away from the campus.  This is Northeastern – a school that has had a hard time drawing even 1,000 fans over the years to its home games in pro-dominated Boston.  Now they had a significant cheering section in an arena that normally is dominated by home fans

Northeastern played like it, too, playing with confidence and a sense of urgency all game long.  Even when Connecticut got going and seemed like they could be a play or two away from breaking the game open, Northeastern kept running their offense solidly and had just six turnovers all game.  They didn’t look like a team reeling from a heart-breaking loss to William & Mary in the semifinals of the CAA Tournament a week earlier; rather, they looked like a team with new life.

Connecticut started the game and the second half very sluggishly, so it’s easy to think they might have been playing with some disappointment.  They insist otherwise, and it’s not impossible to believe considering they weren’t really on the bubble for the NCAA Tournament, not after being blown out by St. John’s when they really needed to make a run in the Big East Tournament.

“It’s our fault we’re in the NIT,” sophomore guard Kemba Walker said.  “At this point, we’re only thinking about winning the NIT.  This is where we’re at, and we can’t change it.”

The general thinking seemed to be similar: they would rather be in the NCAA Tournament, but they know this is what they have in front of them.

“Don’t get me wrong, we’d definitely like to be in the NCAA Tournament, but this is the hand of cards we’re dealt and we’re just going to make the best of it,” said senior forward Gavin Edwards.

A night later, it was clear that if Rhode Island had any disappointment about being in the NIT for the third straight season, they got over it pretty quickly.  The Rams played terrific defense all night long against Northwestern en route to a 76-64 win over the Wildcats.  They were aggressive all night long and very loose in the post-game interviews.  Will Martell, who started off strong, was engaging in some self-deprecating humor and happy to be in the tournament.

“Of course we’re disappointed that we didn’t make the NCAA (Tournament),” said the junior big man.  “I think we had an argument.  I think as a team, as a program, we moved on and we realized, hey let’s get to (Madison Square) Garden, that’s the new goal.”

At this point, the Rams have set the goal of getting to Madison Square Garden for the NIT Final Four.  They understand where they’re at, even while some in the fan base aren’t very happy about being in the NIT again.  They want the NCAA Tournament, and some think the coach needs to change because of that.  But the players take a different view, as does the coach, who’s continued to do a solid job of running the program.

“You could put your head down, and I was real concerned when we didn’t get the invite (to the NCAA Tournament),” head coach Jim Baron said.  “To come back and play against a very good Northwestern team that has 20 wins, that beat Notre Dame, beat Iowa State, beat Purdue, beat Minnesota, it’s a heck of a team and it’s a heck of a win for us.”

With the CBI and CollegeInsider Tournament (CIT), the postseason tournaments aside from the NCAA might seem like little more than alphabet soup to the casual fan.  But for a number of teams, it’s an opportunity in a couple of ways.  It’s a chance to play in a tournament recognizing the season they had.  It’s a chance to play for a championship.  And for teams with underclassmen, it’s a chance for more practice days and more games, which can only help.

This year’s CAA champions, Old Dominion, played in the CBI two seasons ago and won the CIT last season.  The Monarchs thus entered this season with a lot of players who gained extra experience from those tournaments, and that had to have helped in their development.  Though they had just two seniors and two redshirt juniors on the roster, this team came in more experienced than that might indicate.

But besides all of that, sometimes there’s a simple benefit to playing in a tournament like the NIT.

“The NIT isn’t the NCAA, but it’s better than sitting at home not playing,” said Rhode Island freshman Akeem Richmond.

Since players play the game, that right there is reason enough to keep competing.