Friday, November 18, 2011

Mississippi State Upsets Texas A&M, Seton Hall Beats VCU

Mississippi State 69, #20 Texas A&M 60
The first ten minutes of this game were a nightmare for Texas A&M. Mississippi State got some early confidence, Texas A&M looked like they didn't want to be there, and all of a sudden it was a 22 point lead for the Bulldogs. Texas A&M did fight back slowly, and made the game competitive in the second half, but they were just too sloppy (16 turnovers versus only 9 assists) to sustain any runs. Dee Bost led the way for Mississippi State as usual, and Renardo Sidney as usual sat for about half of the game. Sidney just displays no effort other than when he has the ball in his hands. The Bulldogs did get some nice production from Brian Bryant (12 points and 7 rebounds), who only scored 4.9 points per game last season but has scored in double digits in the past two games.

While Texas A&M didn't look that bad, they didn't look that good either. You have to wonder how much it's hurting them that their brand new head coach is suffering so much physically, and simply isn't able to get his new players to learn the new system properly. It wouldn't be fair to expect the team to be doing as well as they would have if Billy Kennedy was at full strength. They will play St. John's next, in the third place game of Coaches vs Cancer. It will be their last quality opponent until they play Florida on December 17th, so they'll have to try to make it count. Mississippi State will play in the finals against Arizona. Their next major conference opponent after that will be West Virginia on December 3rd.

Seton Hall 69, VCU 54
VCU's Final Four run last year was, in my opinion, the greatest and most improbable Final Four run ever. I had a lot of fun watching it, and loved watching their band play in person during the games in Chicago, but last year can't be allowed to cloud the view of this year. The reality is that VCU's run was a fluke in so many ways (go to any recent post of mine tagged with VCU to read some of the jaw-dropping stats). On top of that they lost four starters to graduation. While I do think VCU will be at least close to the Tournament Bubble this season, I'll be surprised if they actually make the NCAA Tournament.

Seton Hall, coming off a disappointing overtime victory against St. Francis, got quality performances from all of their established best players. The concern for them going forward, however, is depth. Their bench gave them a combined zero points in 43 minutes, with only seven rebounds and two assists. Teams without depth tend to get eaten alive over the 18 game Big East schedule. This win puts Seton Hall into the semifinals of the Charleston Classic, where they'll play Saint Joseph's. Their final game in that tournament will be against either Northwestern or Tulsa. VCU heads to the Consolation Bracket, where they'll play Georgia Tech, and then either LSU or Western Kentucky.

Minnesota 67, Fairfield 57
Fairfield kept this game close throughout the entire first half, but Minnesota eventually pulled away in the second half. Fairfield had no physical answer for Trevor Mbakwe, who earned 18 free throw attempts to go with ten rebounds. But despite the quality victory, this game had some warning signs for Minnesota. The biggest problem the Golden Gophers had last year was a total lack of a point guard after Devoe Joseph transferred and Al Nolen got hurt. And ball handling does still appear to be a problem, as they finished with 23 turnovers and only 9 assists. Fairfield had ten steals, and might have won this game if not for a frigid 2-for-16 shooting from behind the arc.

Interestingly enough, it's possible that these two teams could face each other again next week, as both head off to the Old Spice Classic. Minnesota will open on Thanksgiving against DePaul, and will play either Texas Tech or Indiana State in their second game. Fairfield is on the other side of the bracket and will open with Arizona State, after which they'll play either Dayton or Wake Forest. The Old Spice field is weaker than it's generally been the past few years, and it's not inconceivable for these two teams to meet in the finals. I'd certainly consider both teams to be the favorites in their opening games.

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