Two Final Recaps From The Week

Creighton 77, Dayton 59
A couple of results from earlier in the week before we get to today's upsets. In this game, a battle for mid-major conference RPI rankings, the Missouri Valley came up with the win against the Atlantic Ten. The difference was Creighton's defense, which kept Dayton's stars from being major factors in the game. Chris Wright and Marcus Johnson are Dayton's two best scorers, yet despite a combined 67 minutes on the floor they had only 17 combined points on 16 combined shots from the field. Creighton didn't even get a big performance of its star: P'Allen Stinnett (13 points, 4 assists). Booker Woodfox has actually led the team in scoring this year, and the sharpshooter led all players with 21 points here. For Creighton, they continue to make their case as best team in the Missouri Valley. That loss to UALR is inexplicable, but otherwise they've been fairly solid. This is their second straight win over an A-10 team (they won at St. Joe's last Saturday). But if the question is whether Creighton would make the Tournament as an at-large if the season ended now, the fact is that the jury is still out. They have to win their remaining three out-of-conference games before the Valley regular season starts (the most daunting being Fresno State on the 22nd). After that it's just about avoiding bad conference losses. For Dayton, this is their first loss, and a bad loss it most certainly is not. They still have wins over Marquette, Auburn and Akron. Of course, the Flyers got off to a great start last season also. We'll see if they learned some lessons (and can avoid all of those bad injuries) so that this season can end on a more positive note.

#12 Villanova 59, Saint Joseph's 56
Scottie Reynolds, after a disappointing start to the season, is beginning to find himself. He looked more like he had the past two years as he led Villanova back from a 9 point second half deficit here. Villanova does have a bunch of guys who seem to have been playing together forever, and they should always do well late in close games. For St. Joe's, they're just a bit thin. They have nothing to bring off the bench at all, so it's all on the starters. This won't be the last time that they wear out late in games. Maybe they should suit up the kid in the Hawk outfit for an energy boost. Saint Joe's is a pretty good team, and this is not a bad loss, but it's been a relatively mediocre out-of-conference performance for them. I give them credit for scheduling so many good opponents, but they just haven't won any of them. Too many losses for a good team this early in the season. For Villanova, they're ranked highly mostly because they've had a pretty easy schedule. They've been clear favorites in every game that they've played except for one. Guess which was the only game that they lost? Big East teams, of course, can only hide so long. The Wildcats will play a slew of elite teams just in the first three weeks of Big East play (including UConn, Louisville and Marquette). We'll learn plenty about how good Villanova really is after those games are played.