Georgetown Obliterates Duke

#11 Georgetown 89, #7 Duke 77
The final score does not do justice to how big of a blowout this game was. Georgetown led by 23 points with about four minutes to go before Duke went on a little run. Duke actually played fairly well for the first 25-30 minutes of this game, playing their typical solid basketball and dominating the rebounding battle against the more athletic Hoyas (Duke had 12 offensive rebounds versus only one for Georgetown). But Georgetown was shooting out of their minds, and Duke couldn't even get the score particularly close. And with about ten minutes left in the game Duke just began to fall apart, and they played worse than I'd seen all season long. One thing you can almost always count on with Coach K's teams are the lack of stupid mistakes, but they started making them by the bunches. They made stupid passes, took stupid shots, and were back-doored to death on defense. Georgetown shot 72% from the field, although as hot as they were that number wouldn't have been nearly as high without so many layups. For almost two years I've been saying that Georgetown can be a really good team if they can just click as a team, and this is the first time in the past two seasons that they've really clicked like that for an extended stretch. At 6-3 in the Big East Georgetown is a long shot for the Big East regular season crown, but they have a legitimate shot at a 2 or 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament even if they don't win the Big East. If they're going to make any run at a conference title then it will have to start next Saturday when Villanova comes to town. As for Duke, the good news about this game is that it doesn't count in the ACC standings, and they remain in a virtual tie atop the ACC at 5-2. They next play Georgia Tech at home, but the game that is really looming is that game in Chapel Hill on February 10th.

Marquette 70, #19 UConn 68
Marquette came into this one 1-7 in games decided by five points or less, even though this is a team that you might expect to be good in close games, with a very guard heavy lineup and with fairly experienced stars. Jimmy Butler hit the game winner here with 2.6 seconds to go and UConn never got another shot off. For UConn, the warning bells really have to be going off as that Texas win is looking more and more like a fluke performance. In the other three games they've played since Jim Calhoun has been on leave they beat St. John's, lost this game and were rocked at Providence. This loss drops them to 3-5 in the Big East and they have a very difficult game upcoming at Louisville on Monday night. They also still have to head to Syracuse, Villanova and Notre Dame this season. I do believe they'll be a Tournament team if they get to 8-10 in Big East and have a respectable performance in the Big East tournament, but that's no sure thing anymore, especially with the upcoming schedule and the uncertainty around Calhoun. Do not be surprised to see UConn still on the Tournament bubble when March rolls around. In fact, I'd be surprised if they aren't. As for Marquette, it's clear that they still think they have a chance at the NCAA Tournament, particularly after taking the redshirt off of true freshman Junior Cadougan and letting him play his first game of the year last week. I still view them as something of a long shot considering how much they are struggling to win close games, and how they don't even seem to be a complete team (the biggest player in their regular rotation is Lazar Haywood, who is 6'6", 225 pounds -it's no surprise they lost the rebounding battle to a huge UConn team here 41-to-18). This win moves Marquette to 4-5 in the Big East with an RPI of 58th, but they're only 7-8 against the RPI Top 200. They now have a few nice wins (over Georgetown, Xavier and now here against UConn), so they can make the Tournament without great computer numbers, but they still have a lot of work to do. They're going to have to get to at least 9-9 in Big East play to have a realistic shot at an at-large bid.

#9 West Virginia 77, Louisville 74
Louisville has to start thinking that the Big East referees are conspiring against them, as another bad call in the final ten seconds cost them a game - in this case it was an incorrect out-of-bounds call with six seconds to go. Louisville led this game by 12 points with less than seven minutes remaining, but they have continually managed to blow close games while West Virginia has continually pulled out close games, and in the end those trends continued. With the win West Virginia moves to 6-2 in the Big East, and with home games against Pitt and Villanova coming up in the next two weeks they are still positioned to make a run at the Big East title. And if they can win a share of that title and then win the Big East tournament title then they will have to be seriously considered for a 1 seed on Selection Sunday. For Louisville, as good as they've played they remain a bubble team because of these close losses. On the season they are 0-4 in games decided by five points or less, including 0-3 in the Big East, and they are now 4-4 overall in conference play. They are only 4-8 against the RPI Top 100 and do not have a win over the RPI Top 40. Their Sagarin ELO_CHESS is 59th and their PREDICTOR is 29th, so they're clearly a much better team than their record, but it's getting a little bit late in the season for that to be much comfort. At this point any hopes of a top three or four finish in the Big East are over and Louisville has to focus on just locking up an NCAA bid. Their next game is a dangerous home game against a desperate UConn team, but other than a road game at Syracuse they have a fairly easy next three weeks. Despite this tough stretch (four losses in their last five games) I'd still be surprised if Louisville doesn't have that at-large bid sewn up by the first of March.