I feel like a broken record, but another week of basketball behind us. Can you believe it? March is right around the corner and before we know it we will be sharpening our pencils and sitting on the couch one Sunday night to start churning out our bracket(s).
Where to even begin this week... Let's start with the good news. My nieces had a game on Wednesday night and their team won that game by their usual 20 point plus margin. They will be advancing even further in the tournament. I didn't get to watch the game because it wasn't streamed, but I heard my older niece was a beast of a game. That is always great to hear. Tough games are coming, so I hope they are taking their success to heart.
Now for the bad news. Michigan State fell out of the top 25. That is pretty much a kick in the gut, but not totally unexpected. It was a horrible game against Iowa and once again the same stupid mistakes and sloppy play continued to plague the Spartans. I still think they will make it to the tournament, but somewhere in the back of my head I feel like this is going to be another disappointing year for the Green and White. I pray I am wrong.
Well, that slap in the face seen round the world ended up culminating in what I consider a slap in the face punishment. Juan Howard was suspended for five games, but will still get a chance to coach in the tournament should his team happen to make it. I personally find that to be quite the joke. Howard clearly has anger management issues. This isn't the first time that he has acted like a child. I know many people are pointing to last year when he literally threatened to kill the head coach of Maryland.
What kind of message are we sending here NCAA? Big Ten?? U of M??? Pretty trashy if you ask me.
There has been a lot of debate lately about how much responisbility Gard the head coach of Wisconsin holds in this. Of course, the Michigan faithful insit he started the fight by trying to talk to Howard about why he took the timeout and grabbing his arm when Howard acted like the five year old he is and snubbed Gard.
I've also seen many people saying that they should just do away with the handshake like at the end of games. Honestly, if grown adults can't act like grown adults, then maybe they should do away with the line. They might want to stop claiming that they are teaching sportsmanship then. Just saying...
Monday gave us a fantastic start to the week with three top 25 games. There were no upsets, but two of the games went into overtime and in the case of Baylor, they barely squeezed out the win against Oklahoma State.
Tuesday gave us seven top 25 games. The aformentioned loss by Michigan State against #25 Iowa, Tennessee bounced back with a win against Missouri, and the sole upset belonged to #21 UConn over #8 Villanova. I see you #5 Kansas posting 102 points versus Kansas State.
Wednesday gave us another seven games. None of them were upsets, but many of them were very close. I am counting at least four games that were determined by a margain of about five points. Probably the most exciting contest award goes to the Xavier/Providence game where the Musketeers took the #11 Friars into three overtimes before finally falling 92 to 99.
I am sensing a pattern here, but last night gave us another seven games. #22 Ohio State upset #15 Illinios in what might be a good thing for Michigan State. It could be nothing at this point but every bit of jockying in the Big 10 helps us out I think.
Gonzaga holds onto the number 1 spot with a win over San Francisco. Unranked Oregon took down #12 UCLA, and Oregon State almost had the upset against #16 USC taking them into two overtimes before finally losing by three points.
Tonight Iowa and Nebraska face off before we head in to the weekend and have a full slate of games on Saturday with a handful on Sunday.
Things are really heating up and you can see that in terms of the competitions. Standings are solidfying and teams are finally starting to get their feet under them. This is a good time of year for that. I just hope Michigan State can pony up and do the same.