Points are stacking up as we approacheth the end of regular season and beginning of tournaments, and the big winners last week were...
1. MUSASHISAN! That's right, cellar dweller Musa nailed 36 points to shoot from last to 10th place, and that was without any of the four conference champs dolled out to others. How did he achieve this amazing feat? Lowly Oregon St beat California and Stanford (Boaris)... Lowly St. Louis beat St. Joes (Boaris) & Dayton (Akaoni)... Florida St beat Miami (Turtle) and Virginia Tech (Boaris)... Iowa over Michigan (Akaoni), Wash St over UCLA (Turtle), Penn St over Illinois, even Western Kentucky beat conference rival Arkansas Little Rock (Progress) to lead to the only decent week Musashisan has had all year. Congrats!
2. AKAONI! No conference champs here, he took 34 points the hard way: Purdue over Mich St (Babs), Texas A&M over Texas (Progress), Florida over Alabama and Vandy, Drake over UNI and Austin Peay... Akaoni is likely the one player that doesn't stand a chance of winning a conference so he needs the points. These 34 points put him just 7 points behind first place Boaris, who turned in a second slumpy week of play.
In fact, lets take a closer look at Boaris' week, since he is the team to beat: Oklahoma lost to Texas, Kentucky lost to Vandy, Virginia Tech dropped two games, Stanford lost to both Oregon and Oregon St which is really sucky, Butler lost to Milwaukee, St. Joes lost two straight in the A-10, Miss St fell to Alabama, Providence dropped two in the Big East, and Austin Peay lost to Drake in the Bracket Buster. Boaris' 6-13 record would make even last place NotaTurtle cringe (Turtle went 10-9 last week). But... can anyone beat Pitt?
The rest of us:
Phunmunki - 30 points to jump from 9th to 6th place
The CEO - 28 points to climb to 5th place
ProgressMedia - 26 points moves into 7th place
Jutdog Millionaire - 23 points
Jaybird - 22 points
Notaturtle - 20 points
HippieD - 18 points falls into 11th place
Babblemur - 17 points falls from 2nd to 3rd place
Boaris - 16 points to show signs of weakness and vulnerability
Gunz - 11 points to drop from 5th place to 9th place
Team of the Week: Morgan State (ProgressMedia) who won 3 games this week to seal the conference championship of the MEAC, nice job!
Conference Champs:
So far 4 conference championship points have been doled out so far. Champs get 7 points for Majors, 6 for Minors. We have:
Big Sky - Weber St (Jutdog)
MAAC - Siena (The CEO)
MEAC - Morgan St (Progress Media)
West Coast - Gonzaga (Phunmunki)
This week we will likely see a dozen or more conferences sealed up, which is a lot of bonus points flying around. Look for the leader board to shake up even more.
23 comments:
Smoke and Mirrors I tell ya...Smoke and Mirrors!
What are you describing, your bathroom?
I just can't figure how my team continues to hold near the top. As Ron mentioned, I'm unlikely to have any conference champions. I only have a couple of rated teams (none in the top 10) and none of my teams looks particularly strong. It's likely that the Tourney will quickly push me down the leader board, however...until then I'll enjoy the smoke and mirrors.
-Aka
"Below the Fold" stories:
Well Murray St (HippieD) just made things interesting in the Ohio Valley! Beating first place UT Martin puts Murray St just one game out of first place instead of eliminating them entirely.
It also keeps Austin Peay (Boaris) in play, tied with Murray St in second place, just one game out. All three teams have two games remaining, along with Morehead St, who is tied with UT Tennessee in first place.
Anything could happen!
Who told Babblemur that Oklahoma was going to lose at least two more games this year? The same person that called Dayton's late season destruction? The same person that is owed a six pack of Sam Adams Brown Ale from Babblemur? Who cares how it happened, it happened.
For those readers of this, Babs will follow with a middle school butt and mom joke.
Kansas winning the conference would be huge!
"Babs will follow with a middle school butt and mom joke."
I'm still trying to think of one. Give me a little more time here.
However I am jumping for joy at the Jacksonville Dolphin's win last night and the E. Tennessee St. loss in the Atlantic Sun. Jacksonville is one game up on Belmont now. Belmont and Jacksonville face off this Saturday in the final game, that might determine the conf. champ. Jacksonville beat Belmont in their only other meeting, so if they tie, they are both champs.
E. Tenn St. can still share the title as well as long as they win their last two, and Belmont & Jacksonville both lose at least 1 game each. ETSU split their games with both Jacksonville and Belmont.
Go Dolphins! Eee! Eee!
If Jut was actually as good at prediction as he is at patting himself on the back he would have a dominant lead. But looking at the board...not so much.
-aka
Ah, but I am "in the lead", being the only one with a championship ring, a Hall of Fame spot. See, you simple-minded Iowan, it is great to "win" the regular season, but it doesn't really matter at all. None. You and Turtleater should remember that from last year, with your big showing in the reg season, followed by a dismal effort when it mattered.
Lets try some more though:
-Ill St over UNI
-BYU over SDS
-Boston College over Florida St (my upset pick)
-Liberty over VMI
-Ohio St over Penn St
And Tomorrow: Rhode Island over Dayton
~ Jut
You may remember that without a Mario Chalmers last-second desperation 3 to send the championship to overtime my Memphis would have taken the crown...but sometimes it's better to be lucky than good...
-Aka
True, but my name isn't Dick
LSU is now guaranteed at least a tie for the SEC reg season champ. That game last night was worth 10 pts for CEO (3 for Florida, 7 for SEC). That makes him the first major conf winner.
~ Jut
Congrats to LSU - BUTT I didn't give them the points yet because of the following:
LSU could lose their last three games, Kentucky could win their last four games, including a game against LSU.
If this happens, both are 12-4, and the only match up between the two teams is the LSU-Kentucky game this Saturday, and Kentucky wins, then Kentucky gets the 7 points for the SEC and LSU gets nuthin.
So if Kentucky loses tonight against South Carolina, LSU gets the 7 points. Otherwise, we'll wait until the Saturday game.
Lets see how old Habba the Jut did with his predictions:
-Ill St over UNI
Two overtimes, but WRONG
-BYU over SDS
Yeah that one sucked.
-Boston College over Florida St (my upset pick)
Good call!
-Liberty over VMI
Ha Ha! VMI 109, Liberty 72 we spanked them flames!
-Ohio St over Penn St
That game was ugly, good call.
3 out of 5, not bad. We'll call you "60% Correct Jut"
God I suck. I really, really suck. Especially Baylor, who Jut fawned over during the draft and afterward.
Yes, the following are the worst predictions of my 2008/09 season (in no particular order):
Over-estimating: Georgetown, Notre Dame, Western Michigan, Texas, UCLA, Wisconsin (loss to Iowa shattered all hopes), Tennessee, USC, Alabama,
Under-estimating: Missouri, Butler, Creighton, Clemson, Utah St, Florida St, Providence, LSU, Xavier
Picks that I still think were right, but injuries to an important starter on the team caused a significant set-back: Ohio St, San Diego, UWGB
~ Jut
wow - interesting to see who they have going where:
http://www.draftexpress.com/nba-mock-draft/2009/
Big Pts coming REAL SOON:
VCU - they sealed the deal - 6 pts for CEO
Robert Morris - they sealed the deal for Jaybird - 6 pts
LSU - 7 for CEO
Utah - 6 for jut
American - 6 for ProgMeds
Davidson - 6 for ProgMeds
Alabama St - 6 for Jaybird
Memphis - 6 for GUNZ
Utah St - 6 for Munki
And can they do it?
Vermont - Munki - 6 pts - 1 game to win
Cornell - Jutdog - 6 pts - 2 wins needed
N Dakota St - Jaybird - 1 win needed
Michigan St - Munki - needs 2 wins
The rest are too close to call
~ Jut
I awarded points for
LSU in the SEC for The CEO;
American in the Patriot for Progress Media
Davidson in the Southern for Progress Media
I didn't give points for VCU yet because Northeastern could still take the title if VCU loses Saturday and Northeastern wins, NU wins the tie breaker (they beat VCU in their only meeting).
In the NEC Mt St Mary's could tie it up and split with Robert Morris, so I'm waiting on that one too.
Arizona St at Washington tonight is a HUGE game. Washington has the advantage in the PAC 10 now - just 3 games left, all at home, against ASU, Arizona, and Wash St.
Arizona St has four games left, at Wash, at Wash St, and then at home for Stanford and California.
UCLA is still in the running, tough this week on the road vs. Stanford and Cal but at home next week vs. the Beavers and the Ducks.
Atl 10 Review:
4-way contention right now:
- Xavier (10-3) - Phunmuni: At St Joes & Richmond, Dayton home. They should finish 13-3
- Temple (9-3) - Jutdog: 3 very winnable games, with a tough road battle at Dayton. I predict a 13-3 first place tie.
- Rhode Island (10-4) - Jutdog: Only two games left, one tough game on the road at Duquesne. Will finish either 11-5 or 12-4.
- Dayton (9-4)- Akaoni: Finishes the conf season with a gauntlet, first losing at Rhode Island, then having to face both Temple (hm) and Xavier (away). Dayton finishes 10-6.
Can 3 teams make it? Xavier is a certain.
Temple has the best resume of the remaining teams, with a 53 SOS, 37 RPI, and 57 Sagarin.
Rhode Island looks OK, but needs a strong finish. They post a top 60 RPI and a 61 Sagarin, but have only a 119 SOS.
Dayton has a great RPI (35) and good record, but a SOS at 116 (171 at one source) and only a 63 Sagarin. A poor finish and/or conf tourney finish could mean the boot for them.
~ Jut
Mountain West Review
Can 5 teams really make it from the Mountain West? Utah is shaping up to win the reg season, although both BYU and New Mexico are in striking distance. In fact, a 3-way tie is in my guess is just as probable as an outright Utah win.
Two teams are certainly in: Utah (20-7, 11-2 conf, 25 Sagarin, 9 RPI, 20 SOS) and BYU (21-6, 9-4 conf, 23 Sagarin & RPI, 49 SOS).
So what about the others:
New Mexico: 64 Sagarin, 70 RPI, and 75 SOS. They'll need to finish the season with a good conf tourney, and a win in their upcoming home game vs Utah.
San Diego St: Should finish the year with 3 wins, but a tough home game vs UNLV could change that. 51 Sagarin, 53 RPI, 60 SOS. They also better not lose the opening round of the conf tourney.
UNLV: At one point, they were a top 35 team. Now? They'll finish just above .500 in conf play. Sagarin 52, RPI 50, SOS 68. We'll say it again, They also better not lose the opening round of the conf tourney.
Overall, I say barring a huge upset in the tourney, 3 teams are guaranteed from the MWC, and it depends on how they finish in the conf tourney. Upsets over Utah and BYU could produce 4 NCAA teams.
~ Jut
CUSA report:
If Memphis beats UAB tonight they have secured the champ points.
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