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News, Notes and Highlighted Games for Tues, 1/30

News, Notes and Highlighted Games for Tues, 1/30
Jan 30, 2007, 01:00 am
NEWS AND NOTES

-This week's bracket projections were posted yesterday. If you haven't seen them yet, it's posted in the article below this one.

-The Bracket Buster match-ups were announced yesterday. I think they should at least wait another week before pairing the teams because there is a lot of basketball to be played between now and the Buster.

I like a lot of the match-ups. It’s unfortunate that VCU and New Mexico State didn’t get better opponents. New Mexico State in particularly really would have benefited from a strong opponent because a win against Ohio isn’t the kind of strong statement win that they need. VCU is facing Bradley, who looks to be a bubble team right now so it’s not a horrible match-up, but they probably would have preferred playing someone a little bit more solid.

No real surprises among the top teams. Southern Illinois is at Butler, Northern Iowa is at Nevada, and Drexel is at Creighton.


HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-UNLV AT COLORADO STATE (Mountain West). Colorado State has been tough to beat at home this year and they should be up for this one, but UNLV is clearly the superior team. As it stands now they are in good shape for a bid and will remain that way barring a major collapse.

-MARYLAND AT FLORIDA STATE (ACC). Maryland is just 2-4 in conference play, and their schedule isn’t getting any easier with their next two games being on the road, so a win here would really help them out. Florida State is right on the bubble and really needs wins at this point to solidify their resume. Both these teams need this one.

-MICHIGAN STATE AT ILLINOIS (Big Ten). Both of these teams have played well at home, but struggled on the road. Michigan State appears to be in much better shape than Illinois, but they could still use some road wins on their resume to boost their profile. Illinois still appears to be outside the bubble at this point and needs some quality wins to help out their resume. They are just 3-6 in their last nine games, which isn’t good enough.

-WICHITA STATE AT NORTHERN IOWA (Missouri Valley). Wichita State has won two in a row, which means they’re going in the right direction, but they need to win a few more to get back into the bracket picture. Winning this one against a Northern Iowa team that is in the tournament mix would certainly help. Northern Iowa needs a big win as well. They are right on the bubble after losing four of their last six and need to string together some wins if they want to be safe for an at-large bid.

-NOTRE DAME AT SYRACUSE (Big East). Syracuse is coming off a loss against Louisville where they led most of the game, but fell apart at the end. They’ve been playing pretty well at home, though, and with the type of team they have that loss to Louisville will probably motivate them more than anything else. Notre Dame really needs some road wins, because all their big wins have come at home. A big road win like this is just the kind of thing they need to improve their resume.

-GEORGIA TECH AT WAKE FOREST (ACC). Georgia Tech has lost three in a row and needs to take care of business on the road against a Wake team that is among the worst in the conference. As cutthroat as the ACC is, Tech can’t afford to lose games like this because it makes it even more difficult to keep pace with the rest of the tournament hopeful teams in the conference.

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