Thursday Evening Update

I have to say, Illinois fans are putting on a pretty classless performance tonight on ESPN. Eric Gordon is one of about 100 kids every year who back out on a verbal commitment, and the only reason Gordon was a big deal was because he is just the most recent in a string of recruiting failures for the school since Bill Self left. The real person that they're upset at is Bruce Weber. No reason for them to take it out like this on a 19 year old kid, who is obviously rattled by everything going on tonight. Getting to games that were actually completed prior to this posting:

#25 Pittsburgh 55, West Virginia 54
Yet another buzzer-beater from three for Ronald Ramon, who has really stepped up with all of the injuries to the Panthers. A loss here would have dropped them back to 5-5 in the Big East, and actually might have dropped them all the way back to the bubble. But the win here should keep them in the Top 25. The computer numbers are still very strong, as are things like a 3-2 record against the RPI Top 50. West Virginia, meanwhile, missed a chance at a huge win for their resume. They've still got a decent RPI (just outside the Top 40) and very good Sagarin numbers (will probably be somewhere around 30th when tomorrow's numbers come out). But they could have really used this one. Next week they get two fairly easy home games, against Rutgers and Seton Hall. They obviously need those two wins to get the Big East record back up to a good level. And they get a chance for revenge against Pitt in their home finale, on March 3rd.

UMass 78, Rhode Island 76
The Minutemen keep their name in the at-large discussion with this big win. Like Dayton last night, UMass faced a possible 3-5 Atlantic Ten record with a loss here. Now, the out-of-conference resume for UMass is a mixed bag. Wins over BC and Syracuse are nice. Losses to IUPUI and Northern Iowa are not. The thing is that their remaining schedule isn't all too bad. They head to Temple and Rhode Island, but other than that they will probably be favored in every remaining regular season game. Even if they lose those two, they can still get to 10-6 in the Atlantic Ten. Hard to say whether that will be enough for an at-large bid, but it will certainly keep them in the discussion. As for Rhode Island, they still have a 5-3 record in conference, but they also have a tougher schedule remaining than the Minutemen. The home game against UMass obviously isn't a gimme, and neither are games against Xavier, St. Joe's, Temple and Charlotte. They don't have the really poor losses that UMass has. And that RPI Top 100 record is still an absurd 6-3. It remains to be seen if the Atlantic Ten will get a third Tournament team, but they certainly have four teams still in the thick of the hunt. And these are two of them.