Saturday, November 21, 2009

Big Win For Vanderbilt That Nobody Knows About

Vanderbilt 72, Saint Mary's 70
Vanderbilt entered this season under the radar. They are possibly a Top 25 team, yet they are overshadowed in their own conference by the John Calipari traveling circus at Kentucky, Tennessee's 60 point victories over cupcakes, and even the Renardo Sidney show at Mississippi State. And so it's fitting that they get one of the most impressive victories by any team in this young season and it comes well after midnight eastern time, in a game that nobody is paying attention to and that got absolutely no mention on any national sports radio or television show I heard from this morning. Remember that St. Mary's almost never loses at home: the last two years they had a grand total of two home losses, and both came against teams that earned single-digit seeds in the NCAA Tournament at the end of the season (Gonzaga last year, Kent State the year before). And they'd opened the year with blowouts of New Mexico State and San Diego State. I don't think I consider Vanderbilt a contender to win the SEC, but they are probably one of the 25 best teams in the country right now. As for Saint Mary's, they get to regroup against a couple of inferior opponents. I'm looking towards a road game at Oregon on December 12th. That series has turned into a decent west coast rivalry, and Oregon looks far improved this season. If Saint Mary's wins that game then I'll be convinced that they can be an at-large team this season.

Saint Joseph's 84, Boston College 80
St. Joe's shot the lights out of the building with 10-for-21 shooting behind the arc, and collected a nice early season scalp. I only picked them to finish 4th in the Atlantic 10, but at this point it appears like things will be wide open in that conference in the battle for second place (Dayton appears to be a step better than everybody else). They've done a good job of taking care of business thus far, and have four more tough opponents before A-10 play begins: Purdue, Villanova, at Minnesota, and at Siena. If they can split those two games, and avoid any other losses (I'm looking at games at Rider and at Cornell over the next few weeks as other potential trip-ups) then they'll be in excellent shape for an at-large bid. As for Boston College, it's looking like this will be a rebuilding year without Tyrese Rice. I'm not saying that they can't make the NCAA Tournament again, but I'd say that their ceiling is a team that just barely sneaks in. They won't compete with Duke, North Carolina or the other powers at the top of the ACC.

South Carolina 69, South Florida 66
This is actually a pretty good win for South Carolina. South Florida appears to be better than they've been in recent years, opening the season with wins over Virginia and Davidson. The Bulls actually have a chance to make a run at something like 10th or 11th in the Big East if they keep improving. But South Carolina has higher aspirations, as they enter this season looking for an NCAA Tournament bid. They entered this game 3-0, but mostly against patsies (although La Salle could end up being a decent team). With this win under their belts they now go on to play Miami (Fl) in the championship game of the Charleston Classic tomorrow evening. They have a pretty easy out-of-conference schedule in general, so it's really important for them to beat BCS conference teams when they get the chance. All they've got left is a home game against Baylor, and road games at Clemson and Boston College. Considering the fact that they'll struggle to finish higher than fourth in the relatively tough SEC East, they need to have a good out-of-conference resume, and the only way they'll have one of those will be if they enter SEC play with something like a 12-2 record. They're off to a good start.

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