Can Maryland Challenge For Third In ACC?

Maryland 80, #6 Michigan State 62
A very nice looking win, even if looks a little bit deceiving here. Goran Suton missed the game with injury, and Raymar Morgan missed extensive time with foul trouble (four points scored in 14 minutes). And in addition, the usually solid free throw-shooting Spartans were an atrociously bad 12-for-27 from the line. Still, a win is a win, and an 18 point win is a very nice win. Both of these teams have two more good games coming during the Old Spice Classic, so we'll get more time to learn more about both of these teams. Still, this win reaffirms my belief that Maryland is a likely at-large team in the Tournament. And this loss doesn't change my belief that Michigan State will duel with Purdue for the Big Ten title.

UTEP 75, Saint Mary's 62
I've said it before and I'll say it again: I don't think any team is as different in ability at home versus on the road as Saint Mary's. I spoke last week about how I was looking forward to see how Saint Mary's would fare once they left their comfortable home court, and we've now got our first result. To be fair, UTEP is a pretty good team, and I don't think that this will eventually qualify as a "bad" loss. But if Saint Mary's continues to struggle away from home, then this will just be the first of several losses in the out-of-conference slate. I'm not going to put them into the BP65 until they prove that they can win consistently away from home. They were able to earn an at-large bid last season based on their home wins. This year's schedule has too many good road opponents for them to repeat that performance. For UTEP, this win formally puts them in with discussion regarding the best team in C-USA outside of Memphis. At this point, they've played better than anybody other than perhaps UAB. They're still an unlikely at-large team, in my opinion, but they're certainly in the discussion.

#14 Arizona State 84, Charlotte 56
Arizona State just blew Charlotte away in this one. It was never that close. A lot of players have great freshman years and never really get any better, but James Harden has truly taken his game to another level this year. He's good enough that he could singlehandedly take a team to the Tournament, but he doesn't need to with the solid core of guys around him. And with how weak the Pac-10 has looked so far this year, the sky is really the limit for these guys in that conference. There's no reason that they can't actually make a run at UCLA if the Bruins can't figure out how to fix their front court. That said, their out-of-conference schedule is disappointingly weak. They could have a very good record when Pac-10 play starts. In fact, they could potentially be undefeated. But in the end, everybody plays everybody twice in that conference, so conference position will be earned on the court. Charlotte, meanwhile, has had a very tough out-of-conference schedule. But 1-4 is 1-4, and their Tournament hopes are already looking pretty dim. They have a bunch of good teams left to play, so there are plenty of potential good wins ahead. But if they've lost four in a row now, then there's no reason to expect that they're not going to lose a bunch more even before the Atlantic Ten season starts up.

#10 Gonzaga 83, Oklahoma State 71
This game was very close the whole way before Gonzaga pulled away in the final minutes. We all knew that Austin Daye was set for great things, and Jeremy Pargo, Josh Heytfelt and Matt Bouldin are all well known players in the starting lineup. But one guy I really like is senior Micah Downs, who never really got to play much in previous years. After never averaging more than 8.1 points per game in a season, he is up around 14 points per game this season and is a really good rebounder as well (he earned his first double-double of the season here). Gonzaga is just insanely deep this year, even by ordinary Gonzaga standards. I think they're a wee bit overrated at #10, but they're certainly a very good team. As for Oklahoma State, this loss doesn't change my belief that they're going to make the Tournament. They went toe-to-toe with the currently-tenth ranked team in the nation, keeping the game within a few points for almost the entire game. Everybody knows Byron Eaton, but the star here for Oklahoma State was actually Obi Muonelo, who had 16 points and 15 rebounds here. Oklahoma State has done a good job so far this year of taking care of business and avoiding bad losses. If they can get one or two good wins before the Big 12 season starts then I think quite a few more pundits will jump on the Oklahoma State bandwagon with me.