As the month of January is coming to a close, teams are nearly halfway through their conference slate. Things are starting to pickup as teams are taking each other out and bluebloods are attempting to establish their dominance within their conference. But for some, they are trying to stay on the right side of the bubble.
It’s still another month until the madness begins, but today were going to look at teams that are on the outside looking in and what teams would make it.
Who’s In?
Arizona State:
The Pac-12 has been so difficult to gauge as they are by many considered the worst Power 6 conference in College Basketball. Washington has stunned many with their great start, Arizona State has emerged as well. They have a couple of resume building wins over #11 Kansas, #22 Mississippi State, and Georgia. But with that, comes some bad losses and Arizona State has a couple of those.
Arizona State fell to Princeton, Vanderbilt (the worst team in the SEC), and Stanford (10-10 on the season). Arizona State is a good scoring team, averaging nearly 80 a contest and has had excellent guard play from Luqentz Dort so far this season (16 PPG, 4.5 RPG).
Arizona State still has some work to do and we’ll see if they can keep up their winning ways (3 of their last 4). Their next game will be in Tucson against the Arizona Wildcats on Thursday at 9 PM EST.
Minnesota:
Minnesota won 3 early season games against Power 6 teams and 2 of those teams would currently be in the tourney (Utah and Washington). Minnesota also bolsters wins over #19 Iowa, #22 Wisconsin, and #24 Nebraska. Minnesota nearly pulled off a upset over #5 Michigan on Saturday, but a prayer at the buzzer from Charles Matthews connected and heartbreak city was live and well in Minneapolis.
Minnesota doesn’t have a ton of bad losses, but a 27 point loss to 2-7 Illinois is certainly not appealing to anyone. They also lost a early season game to 11-7 Boston College that lost to IUPUI and Hartford. But Minnesota has quite a few good wins and with more opportunities on their schedule (Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State) to add some more, Minnesota could sneak in and make some noise.
Minnesota does have a chance to avenge their 27 point loss earlier in the conference play, as their next contest is back at home against Illinois. It’s a Wednesday night game will tip off at 9 PM EST.
St. Johns:
St. Johns started the season on fire as they got out to a staggering 14-1 and their lone loss was a 2 point game to Seton Hall on the road. They got a huge win on New Year’s with a 20 point win over their the favorites to win the conference in Marquette. They also defeated other Power 6’s like Georgia Tech, Rutgers, and California.
But St. Johns has fallen on hard times recently with dropping 4 of their last 5 games. All 4 have been within 11 or loss, but some are bad losses. They dropped a game to a much worse Villanova team. They also lost to other bubble teams like Butler and Georgetown. They did beat Butler (who might make the tourney). St. Johns can score with just about anybody and is one of the better teams at not coughing the ball up.
St. Johns is back on the road and faces the only team they’ve beaten in the previous 5 games. They travel to Creighton on Wednesday at 8:30 PM EST to try and get back on track.
Baylor:
Baylor is the hottest team in the conference winning 5 in a row and 6 of their last 7 games. Ever since the loss of their starting PF Tristan Clark, Baylor has decided to go with a small ball lineup and has been effective. Baylor has wins over Oregon, Arizona, Oklahoma, #8 Texas Tech, and #20 Iowa State. The problem with the Bears is how bad they started the season.
Baylor started out really cold as they have 3 ugly losses. Baylor lost to Texas Southern, Stephen F. Austin, and at. Wichita State. Only SFA has a winning record out of those 3 teams at 10-8. But this team looks different than the one in November and is currently Tied for 1st in the Big 12 with a 5-2 conference record.
Baylor’s next game is back at home in Waco against Rival TCU. TCU defeated the Bears in Fort Worth early in conference play, 65-61. Baylor will look for revenge as that game is on Saturday at 8 PM EST.
Who’s Out?
Arizona:
Arizona has kind of been up and down throughout the year, but is on the wrong side of the bubble for just a few reasons. They have some solid wins over Iowa State, Utah, and Oregon State. But Arizona has been sliding as of late and had some chances at wins earlier in the year that they couldn’t quite get.
Arizona doesn’t have a brutal loss, outside of a 21 point loss to UCLA. But Arizona had chances at some big wins, but couldn’t quite get the job done. They faced Gonzaga and Auburn early in the year and lost both by quite a bit. They had a chance at Alabama and were a 3 point away from sending it to OT. They lost to Baylor at home (who is currently a tournament).
The Pac 12 isn’t great, so winning a lot of conference games will be the way for Arizona to try and squeak in. UA finishes their 3 game road trip with Arizona State on Thursday at 9 PM EST.
Alabama:
Alabama has some solid wins and has a talented team with a ton of athleticism. But they have some glaring losses and not enough good wins to keep them on the right side, for now. They have wins over Wichita State (8-11), Penn State (0-9 In Big 10 play), and Arizona (who mentioned earlier, is considered out right now). They do bolster wins over #13 Kentucky and dismantled #20 Ole Miss. But away from home, they are not the same.
Alabama has a 1 point loss at home to the worst team in the SEC in Texas A&M. They dropped a game to Northeastern by 16 and fell to middle of the pack, LSU. The encouraging thing is that Bama has been in nearly every game since Northeastern as they nearly beat #1 Tennessee in Knoxville and has some chances to get some big wins.
Alabama faces Mississippi State for the first time this season on Tuesday at 8:30 PM EST. That game will be in Tuscaloosa.
Temple:
Temple has some wins over middle of the road Power 6 teams in Missouri, Cal, and Georgia. But has some unattractive losses so far. Temple doesn’t do anything great on offense or defense, they just play solid ball on both sides for the most part.
Temple’s ugly losses have come to VCU (who is not in the tourney in my opinion), Villanova, and most recently, Pennsylvania. TU nearly pulled off a big win over Cincinnati, but fell just short at home, 72-68. Temple has a huge chance coming ahead of them for an upset though and have that big resume building win.
Temple will travel on the road to face #13 Houston (the best team in the AAC). That will be a 7 PM EST tipoff on Thursday Night.
Florida:
Florida doesn’t necessarily have a really bad loss, but have had chances to pick up some wins, but couldn’t get it done. Florida has a blow out win over Butler and their next best win is to Georgia. Florida has to pick it up and get some meaningful wins in order to make it.
Florida has a ton of losses against good teams, and no real bad losses. Losses consist of #17 Florida State, Oklahoma, #10 Michigan State, #3 Tennessee, and #24 Mississippi State. Although they didn’t get blown out in either of these games, a win over 1 or 2 of these teams would certainly pay dividens and have them in the tourney.
The SEC Gauntlet continues and the Gators have a chance on Wednesday at 6:30 PM EST as they are at home facing off against the Ole Miss Rebels. Florida also has a big chance later in the week as they face #7 Kentucky at home on Saturday.
Image Credit: https://gophersports.com/news/2018/6/14/Summer_Update_Amir_Coffey.aspx
