The fact that Notre Dame was even in the position it was in on Wednesday night is remarkable. This is not one of the better teams Mike Brey has had in South Bend, and in non-conference play they were fairly undistinguished. Even in ACC play, they had muddled along for a while, and in a down year in the conference, no less.
All the same, Wednesday night’s 73-71 loss to Florida State still has to be a tough one to swallow for a team that surely has to win the ACC Tournament to have any chance to go dancing.
I’m not sold on the Fighting Irish as a bubble team even before they lost their last two games, but the talk has been that this team still has some hope. Considering how big the bubble is and how flawed most of the teams there are in this wide-open season, though, I suppose it would not be a shock if they had a different result and then had their name called a week from Sunday.
A look at their resume shows only one bad loss, which was in the prior game at Wake Forest. They lost to Boston College early in the season, but the Eagles are better this season, and other than blowout losses at Maryland and Duke, they have never been out-classed in a game this season. But those losses are mounting, especially since it’s not like they have a boatload of quality wins to offset that. Their best non-conference win came against UCLA, which didn’t look as good then as it does now, and they haven’t knocked off a lock NCAA Tournament team in the ACC.
They had a chance to change that on Wednesday, and it looked like they might do it as they led by seven at halftime and led 61-48 with under nine minutes to play. That’s when Florida State guard M.J. Walker took over, scoring 16 of his 21 points from that point on as the Seminoles led for all of 20 seconds the entire night. But a win is a win, and the Seminoles keep alive their hope for a regular season title and the top seed in the ACC Tournament.
As if that’s not enough, this was similar to what happened in their first meeting in Tallahassee. To that end, it’s worth noting that Notre Dame is 4-7 in one-possession games this season. A little different result in a few of those games would change the narrative greatly.
Side Dishes
Three conference tournaments got going on Wednesday.
- In the Mountain West Tournament in Las Vegas, No. 9 Air Force beat No. 8 Fresno State 77-70, No. 7 New Mexico took care of No. 10 San Jose State 79-66, and it ended with a surprise as No. 11 Wyoming beat No. 6 Colorado State 80-74
- Home teams swept the quarterfinals of the Northeast Conference Tournament, with No. 1 Robert Morris edging No. 8 St. Francis Brooklyn 59-58, No. 2 Saint Francis U coasting past No. 7 Bryant 87-61, No. 3 Sacred Heart barely getting past No. 6 Mount St. Mary’s 61-59 and No. 4 LIU blowing a 15-point halftime lead but getting a buzzer-beating layup for a 73-72 win over No. 5 Fairleigh Dickinson.
- In the first round of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament in Evansville, No. 5 Tennessee State needing overtime to take out No. 8 Morehead State 74-67 and No.6 Eastern Illinois taking out No. 7 Jacksonville State 67-61.
Dayton went on the road and dismantled Rhode Island 84-57, putting them a game away from an undefeated Atlantic 10 run. They held the Rams under 29 percent shooting, out-rebounded them 49-38 and were more than adequate offensively, including going 8-20 from long range. It was not the result Rhode Island wanted, and they might very well have to do some damage in the Atlantic 10 Tournament to be an NCAA at-large team.
Villanova can still get a share of the Big East regular season title after they edged Seton Hall 79-77 in Newark. Last season, the Wildcats looked to be out of it before a late surge and Marquette falling apart combined to give them an outright title. If they can beat Georgetown on Saturday and Creighton, who handled the Hoyas 91-76 in Omaha on Wednesday night, can top Seton Hall at home, there will be a three-way tie atop the conference. Also, Providence continued their surge, winning their fifth straight as they knocked off Xavier 80-74 and also force the Musketeers to win their regular season finale to keep their streak of .500 or better seasons in conference play alive, and Butler handled St. John’s 77-55.
One team that will go dancing but is trending in the wrong direction is Auburn, who lost for the fourth time in six games as Texas A&M edged them 78-75 in Auburn. The Tigers started the season 15-0, but that is a distant memory at this point. Give Texas A&M credit as well, as Buzz Williams has this skeleton crew set to finish at least .500 in the SEC. Also in the SEC, Florida handled Georgia 68-54 in Athens and Arkansas got a nice 99-90 win over LSU behind 26 points and 15 rebounds from Jimmy Whitt Jr., but is it too little, too late for the Razorbacks?
Other results of note: Kansas used a big second half to knock off TCU 75-66; Virginia Tech pulled away from Clemson 70-58; Tulsa got past Temple 61-51; Indiana edged Minnesota 72-67 despite 24 points and 16 rebounds from Minnesota’s Daniel Oturu; Siena won their eighth straight game and clinched at least a share of the MAAC regular season title with a 77-55 romp over Niagara; Charlotte knocked off North Texas 56-43; Virginia edged Miami 46-44; and out west, a surprise in the Big West as Cal State Northridge edged UC Irvine 72-70.
The coronavirus is now having an effect on college basketball, as three games are officially canceled as of press time. Chicago State will not play its final two games at Seattle University and Utah Valley, while UMKC will not play at Seattle University. The virus has notably hit Washington state, hence the hesitation the schools have in playing there.
Tonight’s Menu
Conference Tournament action is in full swing on the day, along with some important regular season games.
- The Big South Tournament gets going with quarterfinal action at Radford as No. 2 Winthrop takes on No. 7 USC Upstate (noon), then No. 3 Gardner-Webb takes on No. 6 UNC Asheville (2 p.m.), No. 1 Radford takes on No. 8 Charleston Southern (6 p.m.) and No. 4 Longwood battles No. 5 Hampton (8 p.m.)
- The quarterfinals of the Mountain West Tournament are on tap, with No. 1 San Diego State taking on No. 9 Air Force (2:30 p.m.), No. 4 UNLV battling No. 5 Boise State (5 p.m.), No. 2 Utah State taking on No. 7 New Mexico (9 p.m.) and No. 3 Nevada taking on No. 11 Wyoming (11:30 p.m.)
- The semifinals of the Atlantic Sun Tournament have No. 1 Liberty hosting No. 4 Stetson and No. 2 North Florida hosting No. 3 Lipscomb (7 p.m.)
- The Missouri Valley Conference Tournament gets underway in St. Louis with first round action as No. 8 Drake takes on No. 9 Illinois State (7 p.m.) and No. 7 Valparaiso takes on No. 10 Evansville (9:30 p.m.)
- Quarterfinal action is on tap in the Patriot League Tournament, with No. 1 Colgate hosting No. 8 Lehigh, No. 2 American hosting No. 7 Bucknell, No. 3 Boston University hosting No. 6 Navy and No. 4 Army West Point hosting No. 5 Lafayette, all tipping at 7 p.m.
- Also with quarterfinal action is the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament in Evansville, where No. 4 Eastern Kentucky battles No. 5 Tennessee State (7 p.m.) and No. 3 Austin Peay takes on No. 6 Eastern Illinois (9:30 p.m.)
- The Horizon League has quarterfinal action as No. 6 Oakland visits No. 3 Green Bay and No. 5 Youngstown State visits No. 4 UIC (8 p.m.)
- Las Vegas is also home to the West Coast Conference Tournament, which gets underway with first round action as No. 8 Loyola Marymount battles No. 9 San Diego (9 p.m.) and No. 7 Santa Clara takes on No. 10 Portland (11 p.m.)
- The Big Ten headlines the regular season slate as Illinois visits Ohio State (7 p.m.)
- The MEAC regular season title all comes down to one game between the two teams tied at the top as NC Central hosts North Carolina A&T (7 p.m.), while Norfolk State visits Morgan State in another good one (7:30 p.m.)
- New Mexico State tries to finish a perfect run through the WAC as they host California Baptist (9 p.m.)
- Memphis hosts Wichita State in a good matchup a little later on (9 p.m.)
- There’s a showdown in the Big Sky as Northern Colorado visits Montana (9 p.m.)
- The Pac-12 takes over later on, with Stanford visiting Oregon State, Washington going to Arizona State (9 p.m.), Arizona hosting Washington State (10:30 p.m.) and Oregon hosting Cal (11 p.m.)
