A Few More Friday Night Recaps

#4 Pittsburgh 80, Texas Tech 67
Pittsburgh continues to impress in the early season. They haven't played a very impressive schedule, but they've looked like an elite team in the way they've easily dispatched solid teams like Texas Tech. Texas Tech probably isn't Tournament bound, but at least it's not the Morehead States of the world that Louisville is beating up on. The whole out-of-conference schedule isn't all too difficult, but it doesn't really matter too much. There will be plenty of chances for big wins in the Big East. And besides, Pittsburgh isn't going to be a bubble team, so they're not worried as much about getting that resume-building win. Their top priority is winning the Big East, and they're going to be in the hunt. To me, they're among the handful of teams that has a really good chance of taking that conference. The scary thing is that Pitt can actually get better, because they can shoot a lot better than they did in this one.

#6 Michigan State 94, Oklahoma State 79
This was the result that you had to expect. As I said before, their loss to Maryland was something of a fluke. Goran Suton still isn't back, but they are still an elite team without him. Unlike the Maryland loss, their stars were able to stay out of foul trouble. Raymar Morgan, for example, made up for his 4 point & 4 foul performance against Maryland with a dominating 29 points on only 11 shots from the field. Kalin Lucas also has 10 assists, and I stand by my statement from my '08-'09 Big Ten preview where I said that it's not absurd when people compare him to a young Chris Paul. In my mind, Michigan State's consistency and depth make them the most likely team to roll through the Big Ten for the title. They're the favorites right now, with Purdue close behind. For Oklahoma State, this performance in Disney World seems to put them where I thought they'd be. They're not good enough to seriously challenge for the Big 12 title, but they're a solid team with a very good shot at an at-large bid. The key for them will be winning all of the games they're supposed to win the rest of the way. They should be favored for every single game they play between now and January 17th, when they head to Baylor. If they can find a way to actually win all of those then they'll be in great shape. If they do that, and get to 12-2 before the Big 12 season starts, and a 9-7 conference record will probably be enough for an at-large bid. A 10-6 would make things safe. If they do drop one of these games (the most likely losses being later this week at Washington, or December 20th against Rhode Island) then they'll really need to get that 10-6 record to feel good about a bid.

California 73, UNLV 55
This game was way the heck below the radar, but I don't think I've talked about California since they started the regular season, and this was one of those games that has big bubble implications regardless. Cal has shown nice depth early this season, including five players in double digits here. If I was going to find a flaw, it's on the inside, where they really lack a good scorer, or a powerful rebounder. They've been giving 7-footer Jordan Wilkes a lot more playing time than in years past, but he's really just not that good. I'm curious to see 7'3" Chinese import Max Zhang, but clearly they don't expect him to play a big part of this season. He hasn't played more than 8 minutes in a game all year. That said, the Pac-10 is pretty weak on the inside everywhere. Other than Arizona's Jordan Hill and Washington's Jon Brockman, I can't think of another real dominant big man. So Cal's lack of size should hurt them less than if they were in the Big East or Big 12. Cal has intentionally scheduled a lot of good-but-beatable opponents, without any ranked teams in the out-of-conference. They're going for the good record/good RPI resume, which is a decent way to go. They just need to make sure that they topple one of the ranked teams in conference play, because it's tough to get an at-large bid without a win over a ranked team.

Baylor 87, #14 Arizona State 78
Baylor continues to get better and better, and this marks their best win to date. They are now up to 6-0 with a chance for another huge win tonight against Wake Forest. They head to Washington State next weekend, and then it's mostly easy street until Big 12 play starts. But that's okay, because they've already accomplished plenty in this out-of-conference. Assuming that they can avoid a fluke loss or two against a bad team in December, they'll probably only need a 9-7 record in the Big 12 to make the Tournament. And I think that they'll be more like 11-5, and could even contend for one of the top two or three spots in the conference. Arizona State, meanwhile, shouldn't feel too bad about this loss here. This will not be a bad loss by any means, and they're not likely to be a bubble team anyway. For Arizona State this season is going to be about seeing whether they're ready to compete for a Pac-10 title. I wouldn't bet on it, but it's possible. They start off the Pac-10 with two good road tests, at Cal and Stanford. Two wins there and they could potentially be 5-0 in the Pac-10 when they head to Pauley Pavilion for a huge game on January 17th on CBS. That could be a match-up between two Top Ten teams, so mark it on your calendar now.