Wednesday Night Update

Remember, a new BP65 comes out after all of tonight's games are complete. Before then, a look at some of the most important results from last night and tonight:

#14 Indiana 77, #15 Purdue 68
Indiana is certainly playing inspired ball for their embattled coach. Honestly, it shouldn't be much of a surprise. Kelvin Sampson is a coach who really connects with his players, which is why he is such a good recruiter. And this Indiana team really has a "let's make one run" sense about it. Eric Gordon will be in the NBA next year. DJ White and Lance Stemler will graduate. Indiana really needs to hang onto this momentum to make a frenetic final run. The conventional wisdom is that Sampson will be suspended by the school sometime before this week is out, and that he will probably be asked to step down. If the Hoosiers can get away with it, however, they should try to hang onto Sampson for the rest of the season. They should make an announcement that Sampson will resign at the end of the season, when a full search can be done for a new coach. The Hoosiers can then rally around one last run for Coach Sampson. Gordon and the seniors can try to go out on a high. A motivated team like that could easily make a run deep into the Tournament. If Sampson is removed in the next few days, however, it's going to be hard to guess what will happen. We'll have to see if the interim coach can find a way to harness the emotions that the team will be feeling.

Oklahoma 92, Baylor 91, OT
A huge win for a Sooners team that is looking better and better for the Tournament by the week. Blake Griffin is an unbelievably talented freshman who continues to live off the national radar for no good reason. It's probably some combination of the fact that he wasn't as highly touted in the preseason as some of the other to freshman, along with the fact that he doens't play for a glamor team. Regardless, his 29 points and 15 boards led the way in this one. This win puts the Sooners at 6-5 in the Big 12, and in good position to finish at least 9-7. There's a good chance that 9-7 will be enough, with all of the chaos on the bubble. The RPI is safely inside the Top 30, and they will benefit from their tough schedule. This win makes them 8-7 against the RPI Top 100, to go along with a 6-5 record in road/neutral games. Neither of those stats blow you away, but they're definitely solid. If the season ended now they'd be in the Tournament for sure. They just have to take care of business the rest of the way. Baylor, meanwhile, is really digging themselves into a hole. At 5-6 they are probably going to need to win four of their final five games in order to steal an at-large bid. They lack a lot of big wins, and the computer numbers have become mediocre. Baylor has had a great season, and Scott Drew has clearly helped the program turn a page in its history. This program has good days ahead of it, but I think they're probably going to have to wait another year to make the Tournament.

UAB 101, Houston 99
The most important game tonight that you didn't hear about. A game with massive implications not only for these two teams but for the entire Conference USA. This result actually hurts the conference's chances at a second team, as they'd be better off if a second place team could establish itself clearly. With this win, UAB nearly pulls even with Houston in the overall resume, and it's hard to see the conference getting three teams. Both teams are now 8-3 in the conference. And this loss will drop Houston's RPI out of the Top 50 (UAB's will move up somewhere into the high-60s). UAB is still a fairly long-shot to get into the Tournament, even with this win. They had a chance against Memphis this past week, and didn't pull it out. Houston probably needs to win their final five regular season games, which is quite doable. Their toughest match-up is the finale at UTEP. If they drop that game, they will really need to get into the Conference USA Tournament Final. A loss there to Memphis would make them 25-8 overall, 12-4 in the conference, and with an RPI probably somewhere in the low-40s. Does that get in? I say yes. There is more parity this year than in previous years, so the last few teams to get into the Tournament are going to have a lot of holes in their resume. The fact is that Houston is 19-0 against teams with an RPI worse than 70, and that's a stat which will look really good on Selection Sunday. I still think this is a Tournament team.

Villanova 78, West Virginia 56
A big victory here means that Villanova can stay in the bubble picture for at least a little while longer. Maybe West Virginia's players were out late last night, because they were a sluggish 2-for-20 from behind the arc in this one. If they shot even a mildly average level from deep, they would have made this a game. But their loss is Nova's gain, and the Wildcats now enter the most important stretch of their season. Their next two games are at home against UConn and Marquette. At 6-7 in the Big East, a home sweep would put them above .500 and in good position to finish 10-8 in the Big East. A split and Villanova's at-large chances get a lot longer. A loss in both of those games and they can just forget the Tournament. As for West Virginia, I think they're still in pretty good shape to be the seventh team out of the Big East. This loss drops them to 7-6 in conference play, but they finish with a pretty easy schedule. Unless they really fall on their face, they should get to safety at 10-8. If they can do that they should be able to lock up an at-large bid with a win in their first Big East Tournament game.