Wisconsin Downs Duke

Wisconsin 73, #5 Duke 69
It's been interesting for me to see the reaction of so many people to this result. Every single year everybody says that this is the year that Wisconsin will finally miss the NCAA Tournament, and every season they win basically every game at home, end up back in the Dance, and everybody swears they'll never again doubt Bo Ryan. I'm sure they'll forget again next season. But that said, while everybody in the nation is jumping on the Wisconsin bandwagon and throwing them into the mix to win the whole conference, I think people need to relax. Wisconsin is always nearly unbeatable at home, but this team still has to prove that they can win consistently on the road against good teams. They are still very thin at the guard position, and despite depth inside they struggle to score in the paint whenever Jon Leuer or Keaton Nankivil get in foul trouble. This was a great win, but I just don't see how they are as good as Purdue, Michigan State or Ohio State. While everybody else had Wisconsin as an NIT team, I've had Wisconsin as a 7 seed since April. But because I had already expected this type of play at home, I'm not going to move them up further. At best I'll move them up one slot to a 6 seed when the next BP65 comes out after tonight's games, but that will depend on what happens with the rest of the games around the nation. As for Duke, you can see how much their lack of depth is hurting them. Kyle Singler has to basically play 40 minutes a game or they will struggle to score against anybody. In this game, Andre Dawkins showed some of that shooting touch that made him a hyped recruit, so Duke fans have to hope that his playing time will increase and that he can shoulder more of the scoring load as the season goes along. Watching how this team struggled so much against Wisconsin just emphasizes how much of Duke's success the last couple of years has been Coach K's coaching. I don't think there's another coach in the nation who does a better job of adapting his playing style to his players, getting his kids to always make the right play and never do anything stupid, and making in-game adjustments. When he doesn't out-coach his opponents, Duke is going to struggle to win. So it makes sense why they could beat UConn, a team with superior athletes but whose coach (Jim Calhoun) basically tells the kids "Go out there and play basketball", but they struggled with one of the few coaches in the nation who can go toe-to-toe in terms of preparation, in-game strategy and adjustments (Bo Ryan). The Coach K battle against Bo Ryan was fascinating to watch.

Northern Iowa 63, Iowa State 60
Northern Iowa continues to prove that they're the best team in the state, and their leading trio (Adam Koch, Kwadzo Ahelegbe and Jordan Eglseder) is really sharp together. The lack of any production at all outside of those three is disconcerting because a bad night by one of them could lead to an upset, but it's hard to argue with the results thus far. That loss to DePaul is getting pretty far in the rear view mirror, and this win comes with a win over Boston College, and the Panthers are the clear best team in the Missouri Valley. Their next two games will be at home against Iowa and Siena, and both are games that they should win, and might need to win if they're going to be in a good position for an at-large bid should they lose during Arch Madness. As for Iowa State, Marquis Gilstrap is a better sidekick for Craig Brackins than they had last season, but there's not a whole lot else on the roster. Iowa State is an athletic team, but they're fairly young and still don't have great chemistry together. They get a good chance tonight against a reeling California team, but in general I'd say that this season is about getting Iowa State ready for next season. Even assuming that Craig Brackins goes pro, Iowa State has some nice young talent and seems to be going in the right direction as a program, so there's no reason that they can't be a serious contender for the NCAA Tournament in 2011 or 2012.

Tulsa 86, Oklahoma State 65
It wasn't particularly surprising to see Tulsa win this game as they're probably the better team. But the margin of victory here was something of a shocker, even if it was more about shooting percentage than anything else (Tulsa shot 56% from the field and 59% from behind the arc, Oklahoma State's percentages were 39% and 25%, respectively). You would expect Tulsa to win the paint with Jerome Jordan going up against a small Oklahoma State team (the final tally was 39-to-22 in this game), so I was more impressed with Tulsa's guards fighting to a draw. Tulsa is going to need good guard play to beat Memphis, so it's a really good sign to see that kind of play this early in the season. The Golden Hurricane are now 6-1 with their one loss coming against Missouri State. Their next test is on December 22nd at Nebraska, but the date circled on their calendar is February 13th, when Memphis comes to town. If they're going to finally topple Memphis (which has dominated Conference USA since the other elite teams in the conference were poached by the Big East), they've got to show up in February. As for Oklahoma State, this wasn't a particularly bad loss when you consider that Tulsa was playing out of their minds, and the fact that this will end up being an RPI Top 100 loss. Their other six games have all been victories, including impressive double-digit takedowns of Bradley and Utah. The question I have for this team is whether they'll be able to develop those young players that Travis Ford has been bringing in. If he's going to build up Oklahoma State the way that he built up UMass, he's going to have to start getting production from his own recruits. Their remaining tough out-of-conference games are road games at Stanford and Rhode Island.