Seton Hall Suffers A Bad Loss To Rutgers

Rutgers 77, Seton Hall 72, OT
This was a very frustrating loss for Seton Hall. Rutgers had not shot 50% or better on threes in any Big East game this year, but hit 10-for-15 here. A balanced attack got Seton Hall to overtime. But once you're in a close game like this, any single bad break can cost you the game, and that's what happened here. Seton Hall had the ball in a tie game with 45 seconds to go when Herb Pope was called for a really dicey illegal screen, which fouled him out of the game and gave Rutgers the ball. Jerome Seagers hit a three for Rutgers, and then Jordan Theodore's three bounced out. Win for Rutgers.

Seton Hall had won four of five, but this loss drops them to 8-9 in Big East play. They have wins over Georgetown, West Virginia and UConn, along with a dicey loss to Villanova. They are 8-8 against the RPI Top 100, and their Sagarin ELO_CHESS will fall into the 45-50 range. If the season ended now their quality wins would probably put them very narrowly into the NCAA Tournament, but they can't afford another bad loss. They have a week before their regular season finale at DePaul, a game that they definitely can't afford to lose. With a win there and a win in the Big East tournament, they should be in pretty good shape on Selection Sunday.

Rutgers is only 13-16 on the season, but they have a nice set of scalps. They've beaten Florida, Notre Dame, UConn, Cincinnati and now Seton Hall. If they can win their first round game in the Big East tournament, they could be a scary second round opponent against a team like South Florida or Cincinnati playing to try to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament. Their next game will be Thursday against Villanova.

#7 North Carolina 54, Virginia 51
Virginia still hasn't beaten an elite team since the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. They have lost games by three points or less to North Carolina, Duke and Florida State. And they hung in this game (and actually led for much of it) despite Mike Scott struggling badly with North Carolina's defense length. He finished with only 6 points on 3-for-13 shooting, the first time he's been held below double-digit scoring in ACC play. Virginia had their chances down the stretch, including a wide open Sammy Zeglinski three to tie the game up with a few seconds to go that he just missed.

Virginia's resume is looking dangerously bubblicious. They are 8-6 in the ACC and 1-4 against the RPI Top 50, and their Sagarin ELO_CHESS will likely fall into the 25-30 range. They will play Florida State at home on Thursday, which will be a very important opportunity to grab another big win. It's never good to go into Selection Sunday with zero RPI Top 50 wins in the calendar year. If they can win that game and then win at Maryland on March 4th, then they should be safe for an at-large bid.

North Carolina moves to 12-2. They'll play Maryland on Wednesday, but that's not the game that matters. North Carolina will play at Duke next Saturday, and the winner will almost certainly be the ACC regular season champion. A win over Duke followed by the ACC tournament title would make the Tar Heels a very compelling 1 seed candidate.

Georgia 76, #11 Florida 62
This game was never really that close. Georgia scored the first points of the game, and there were zero ties or lead changes the rest of the way. The Bulldogs led by double-digits for most of the second half. Florida did make a little run late, but 9-for-10 free throw shooting by Georgia down the stretch allowed them to expand the lead in the final couple of minutes. Florida tends to struggle when they're not hitting threes, which is what happened here. They finished 5-for-23 on threes for the game. Georgia had five players in double-digits, led by Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who had 18 points on 8-for-13 shooting, along with 4 steals.

Kentucky locked up the SEC regular season title just as this game was tipping off, and Florida is still in second place in the conference, but this loss does do damage to their resume. They have wins over Alabama, Florida State and Arizona, along with bad losses to Rutgers and Georgia. Their RPI is still 19th, but their Sagarin ELO_CHESS will likely fall to around 25th. If the season ended now, you could make an argument that Florida would fall as low as a 7 or 8 seed. They will get two chances for big wins down the stretch, though. They'll play at Vanderbilt on Tuesday, and then at home against Kentucky on March 4th.

Georgia moves to 4-10 in SEC play, but with a road game at Kentucky up next (on Thursday). They could need a win over South Carolina next Saturday to avoid last place in the final SEC standings.