Kentucky Opens SEC Play With Win

Kentucky 70, Vanderbilt 60
A lot of people were ready to give up on Kentucky after their opening game loss to VMI, and so they really haven't gotten much attention at all this season. The thing is that, first of all, VMI has turned out to be a pretty good team, leading the Big South and still hanging onto an RPI in the Top 100. Second of all, Kentucky got off to a much worse start last season and still managed to make the Tournament. With this win they are now 12-4 with a respectable 3-4 record against the RPI Top 100. This win pushes their RPI up to about 70th, with a Sagarin inside the Top 50. That said, the out-of-conference schedule was pretty weak, with seven opponents with an RPI of 230th or worse. With the SEC still struggling to rate ahead of the Mountain West in the computers, Kentucky might need a 10-6 conference record to get back to the Tournament for the second time in as many seasons under Billy Gillispie. Vanderbilt's numbers are actually worse than Kentucky's, including two losses to RPI 100+ teams, and with RPI Top 100 victories only coming against VCU and Drake. They slip to 0-1 in the SEC, and they're in the SEC East, which means that they still have two games left against both Tennessee and Florida. Even moreso than Kentucky, Vandy really needs to get 10 wins in conference to make the Tournament, which means that they're really going to have to rack up the wins against their lesser SEC foes.

Nebraska 56, Missouri 51
It seems like Nebraska always pulls off a couple of home upsets in the Big 12. In fact, this isn't too much of an upset, so we've probably got more coming. Last year they took out Oklahoma and Kansas State. The year before they came within one point of taking out Texas. The year before that they took out Oklahoma, and in both of the two years before that they took out Kansas. The question for Nebraska has always been taking care of business against the lesser Big 12 foes, and with losses already this season to UMBC and Oregon State, that's not looking like a likely scenario this season either. I actually found their game strategy a bit peculiar in this one. The typical way to play an aggressive full court or 3/4 court press (like Missouri plays after every made basket) is to attack it. You want to punish them with layups and dunks to force them to back off the press. But Nebraska chose to back the ball back out to the perimeter after beating the press, meaning that Missouri could afford to press as aggressively as they wanted to, knowing that they'd have no problem getting back into their half court defense even if Nebraska beat them up the floor. Even though I disagree with the strategy, I understand why Doc Sadler went with it, especially when his team had an 18 point lead early in the second half. He knew that rushing too much would turn the game chaotic, which is what Mike Anderson wants. And while Missouri pushed back into the game, including taking two shots that would have given them the lead if they had gone in, they never managed to ever pull back into a tie or the lead. Still, Missouri is 12-3 with wins over California and USC, and with zero bad losses. It's just going to be a matter of winning enough games in the Big 12, whether the magic number is nine or ten. Either way, there is a long way to go, and nothing is decided in a single game in early January.

St. Joseph's 92, Rhode Island 86, 3OT
A heck of a game that I regret not having a chance to watch on television. This game actually looked on its way to a blowout, as St. Joe's opened the lead up to as large as 19 points early in the second half. Rhode Island expended a lot of effort coming all the way back, and that might have been why they finally gave out in the third overtime. Despite the great effort, the Selection Committee does not give credit for moral victories, and Rhode Island misses a huge opportunity to move firmly into second place in the Atlantic Ten pecking order. That conference is likely to only get two Tournament teams, so this jockeying for second place with Dayton could be really important. The Rams slip to 11-5, although this is by far the worst of those five losses. They are a decent 3-4 against the RPI Top 100, which means that they'll actually be in pretty good shape for an at-large if they can go something like 11-5 in Atlantic Ten play. They only play Xavier once, and it's at home (on Thursday evening), and their one match-up against Dayton is at home as well (on February 25th). So they've got a great opportunity here, especially if they can pull that upset over Xavier on Thursday.