Oklahoma State Hammers Texas Tech

Oklahoma State 81, Texas Tech 52
Texas Tech is overrated, and Oklahoma State has played well lately, so you had to figure that Oklahoma State would take care of business at home, but I don't think anybody saw this kind of demolition coming. They won the rebounding battle, they won the turnover battle, they shot better, they committed less fouls, they got to the line more - they dominated every aspect of the game. The Cowboys opened up a 22 point lead in the first half and never looked back. The one big worry you have to have about Texas Tech is that they are too balanced, and yes, that's a bad thing. The Red Raiders had ten different players earn double-digit minutes in this game, which is just too big of a rotation. And they have no go-to player, nobody to turn to when things get tough. Texas Tech is still 12-3, but their only quality win is over Washington, and they're now 0-1 with a home game against Missouri before heading to Phog Allen to play the Jayhawks. They need to win that Missouri game or they'll probably be 0-3 with a fairly tough stretch ahead. I know that Texas Tech came into this game ranked in the AP poll, but in my opinion they are not a Tournament team. Oklahoma State, meanwhile, has a chance to get off to a quick start in Big 12 play (their conference schedule is back-loaded). James Anderson is a threat to score 30 points on any given night, and that gives the Cowboys a chance against anybody.

Northwestern 68, Michigan 62
This was a pretty shocking home loss for Michigan, especially after they opened up a 17 point lead over a Northwestern team that doesn't exactly light up the scoreboard. But Northwestern is a team that always grinds games out and always enforces their playing style on a game, and they slowly worked their way back into this one. Michigan went cold from the field, and Northwestern got a shockingly good performance from true freshman Drew Coleman, who had the best game of his career with a very efficient 25 points (7-for-9 from the field, 4-for-5 behind the arc, 7-for-8 from the line) along with eight rebounds. The fact that they won this game despite the big deficit, despite a hostile road crowd, despite bad shooting nights from John Shurna and Michael Thompson, and an awful game all around from Jeremy Nash, is a testament to the Princeton offense that they run. No matter what players they have on the floor and how poorly they're shooting, they can always grind out points. Northwestern moves to 1-2 in the Big Ten with a nice opportunity next against a Wisconsin team that hasn't played well on the road and will be playing its first game since losing Jon Leuer to a broken wrist. It's also a near must-win considering that they follow that up with Purdue, and then head to an Ohio State team that will have a healthy and in-shape Evan Turner. A loss to Wisconsin will likely mean a 1-5 start to their Big Ten season. As for Michigan, they're running out of time to make a run at an at-large bid. They're now 8-7 overall, and it doesn't matter how tough your schedule is (they have played the third toughest schedule so far among Big Ten teams according to Sagarin) if you're right around .500 on Selection Sunday. They will have to get to at least 10-8, and probably 11-7 in the Big Ten to have a shot at an at-large bid. Also, since they follow up a home game against Indiana with a brutal next four games (vs UConn, at Wisconsin, at Purdue, vs Michigan State), they run the real risk of entering February with a sub-.500 record. They're at the point in the season where they can't just hold serve and win the games they're supposed to win. They've got to start taking out ranked teams.

Arizona State 71, Washington State 46
I've been saying that I think Arizona State is one of the three best teams in the Pac-10, and they're making me look good with consecutive home blowouts of Washington and Washington State. They're still only 2-2 in Pac-10 play, but considering how poorly Washington and California have been playing, that 2-2 still puts them firmly in the Pac-10 title discussion. Of course, since the Pac-10 will potentially be a two-bid conference (there's even a small chance that the Pac-10 will be a single-bid conference), that's not saying a whole lot. There really aren't any games in the Pac-10 that are eminently difficult, and everybody has to play home-and-homes against everybody else, so I can't really point out a difficult or easy part of Arizona State's schedule, but I have to point to road games. They are currently 0-4 in true road games for the season, and now head into two road games against Oregon and Oregon State. Arizona State is clearly better than both of those two teams, but they have to prove that they can win on the road. If they're going to make a run at a Pac-10 title then they've got to at least split those two games. As for Washington State, they've gotten a bunch of at-large buzz because of their good record (even with this loss they are still 12-4 overall), but it's come against a soft schedule. The RPI is still not that wonderful of a metric at these early stages in the season, but Washington State is 5-4 against the RPI Top 200, and you can't earn an at-large bid with those types of numbers. Their only RPI Top 100 win came over Arizona. Like Arizona State, I can't really point to a particularly difficult or easy part of Washington State's upcoming schedule, but they've just got to keep winning games against what will end up being a pretty weak schedule. It's hard to see Washington State earning an at-large bid without going 10-8 or better in Pac-10 play.