Marquette, Arizona State and Xavier Win

Marquette 79, #15 Michigan 65
It's hard not to notice the really nice start that Marquette has had to their season after being projected by just about everybody to finish near the bottom of the Big East. Manny Harris got his points, but Marquette did a great job of keeping the rest of the team from hurting them. You have to wonder whether Michigan's lack of depth hurt them a little bit here, in their second game in as many days. Although in the end, the statistics were pretty much identical between the teams, except for shooting percentage. So maybe this was just a terrible shooting day for Michigan, one of those days that happens. But either way, it brings up questions about who this Michigan team is, as that win over Creighton may or may not turn out to be a quality win, and all of Michigan's other wins have come over cupcakes. It will be important for them to take care of business against an inferior Alabama team tomorrow. As for Marquette, they now get a chance to win the Old Spice Classic tomorrow against Florida State. They should be favored there, and shouldn't have too much trouble beating NC State at home next weekend, which means that their only really tough game left before Big East play begins will be at Wisconsin on December 12th. This means that a win over Florida State tomorrow could potentially mean an 11-1 or even 12-0 record entering Big East play, which would give them a fantastic shot of getting back to the NCAA Tournament with only a 9-9 Big East record.

Arizona State 71, LSU 52
This game was closer than the final score, but Arizona State was clearly the better team. Eric Boateng is really starting to make a name for himself inside for the Sun Devils, and considering how starved the Pac-10 is for big men, there's no reason that he can't have a really effective season. The problem for Arizona State is that their only remaining quality opponents are Baylor, at BYU, and vs San Diego State. This means that there is a decent chance that they'll fail to get any RPI Top 50 wins before Pac-10 play, which is a problem amplified by the fact that the Pac-10 is really down this year. It's important for Pac-10 teams to collect quality scalps out of conference in order to make their at-large case. As for LSU, Tasmin Mitchell played better in this one, and Storm Warren continues to do well inside, but there's not much else on the roster. They also have the same problem that Arizona State has, which is that their conference is not very good, and they don't have many chances left to beat decent teams before conference play begins (at Washington State, at Xavier, vs Utah). It's hard to see them making the NCAA Tournament out of the SEC West without an 11-5 or better record.

Xavier 80, Creighton 67
Jordan Crawford showed nice poise coming back from that 4-for-20 performance with 22 points on 8-for-12 shooting here. Xavier also boasts a really nice nine or ten man rotation, which will keep them in games against just about anybody even though they lack true stars. It's important for them to keep winning as many of these out-of-conference games as they can to buoy their computer numbers, since they're very unlikely to win the Atlantic 10 over Dayton. Meanwhile, Creighton will likely leave the Old Spice Classic without a quality win, as they'll probably play Iona in their final game. The Missouri Valley is no longer an automatic multi-bid conference, so it's particularly important for Valley teams to play well out-of-conference. Creighton is off to a bit of a sluggish start.