Saturday was quite a day of basketball all across the country. A blizzard that hit much of New England a day earlier into Saturday morning did more than just dump 31.5 inches of snow on my home area – it also affected a few games. St. Bonaventure and Rhode Island played at 7 p.m. instead of the originally scheduled 2 p.m. tip, and with no television coverage. In addition, Sacred Heart will play at Bryant, Harvard will play at Columbia and Dartmouth will play at Cornell on Sunday and Manhattan will play at Fairfield on Monday instead of Saturday as originally scheduled.
That aside, there were a lot of noteworthy games on Saturday, and not just the one many will be talking about for a while that was near the end of the day. Here are some thoughts coming from those games.
- How deep is the Big Ten this season? Wisconsin’s win over Michigan shouldn’t be considered much of an upset, if at all. It was in Madison, and the Badgers are pretty good – in fact, they’re tied with the Wolverines at 8-3.
- Penn State is still winless in the Big Ten after losing at Nebraska.
- How hard is it to imagine Kansas losing three straight? It has happened now for the first time in eight years after Oklahoma handled them in Norman, a bigger win for the Sooners than a loss for the Jayhawks as it keeps the Sooners above .500 in the Big 12. Kansas now brings that streak into Monday’s game with arch-rival Kansas State, who knocked off Iowa State later on Saturday.
- Texas probably wouldn’t be an NCAA Tournament team with Myck Kabongo this season, although he could certainly change their season a little. The Longhorns are now 2-8 in Big 12 play after a home loss to Oklahoma State.
- At the start of Big 12 play, it looked like it could be a long couple of months for West Virginia. The Mountaineers have improved since then, and after Saturday’s win at TCU they are 5-5.
- Miami is in control in the ACC right now after blowing out North Carolina. This is a game the Tar Heels needed, given their lack of resume-building wins and a relative lack of opportunities for them coming up, although they have Duke on Wednesday.
- Florida State continues to be tough to figure out. I know it was on the road, but a 25-point loss to Wake Forest?
- Georgia Tech seems to be getting on track a bit now in the ACC, winning at reeling Virginia Tech on Saturday.
- The road team won both games this season between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, and ironically both games came when the losing team was slumping. Cincinnati came in fresh off a loss at Providence on Wednesday night where they struggled offensively.
- UNLV picked up a much-needed win over New Mexico to go back above .500 in Mountain West play.
- Temple needed Saturday’s win at Dayton to avoid slipping below .500 in Atlantic 10 play.
- Saint Louis capped off a nice week with a win at Richmond after a win at Fordham. Granted, they aren’t exactly powerhouses in the Atlantic 10 (Richmond is down a little this year), but two road wins is never a bad thing.
- Memphis further asserted themselves as the team to beat in Conference USA by winning at Southern Miss in Saturday’s showdown.
- Brigham Young had a tough weekend with two losses to drop to 8-4 in West Coast Conference play, the latter of which being a surprising 99-87 home loss to San Francisco.
- Northeastern survived in overtime against a suddenly rejuvenated Old Dominion team. The Monarchs probably aren’t quite as bad as their 2-20 mark at the time of Blaine Taylor’s surprise firing suggests, but it wouldn’t have been good for Northeastern to lose this one with a trip east to William & Mary on Monday night. The Huskies have never won in Williamsburg.
- If anyone in the CAA can catch Northeastern, it might be Delaware. The Blue Hens scored a big win at George Mason on Saturday, which puts the Patriots four back in the loss column while the Blue Hens are three back heading into Wednesday night’s matchup with the Huskies in Boston.
- Yale has had an up and down season with a little more down than up, but this weekend was definitely an up time as they swept the Penn-Princeton trip. Winning at Penn was one thing since the Quakers are bad this season, but winning at Princeton was a stunner. The Bulldogs have enough talent to be a sleeper in the Ivy League.
- Not many scores are as ugly as one from the Sun Belt on Saturday: Middle Tennessee 93, Troy 41.
- Akron continues to rack up the wins in the MAC, this time at Miami (Ohio).
- Mike Davis has Texas Southern in contention in the SWAC, as they are 9-2 in SWAC play after winning at Jackson State on Saturday. They are right behind both Southern and Arkansas-Pine Bluff after the latter beat the former on Saturday.
