Old Dominion

When filling out brackets, you have to choose your “sleepers” wisely. Do they matchup well against their potential opponents? Have they been challenged this year? Do they have a guy who can take over a game in the final minutes? If can say Yes to all three of these questions, you may have found yourself a sleeper. Here are 5 potential sleepers to consider:

 

Minnesota over Xavier

Old Dominion over Notre Dame

San Diego St over Tennessee

Washington over Marquette

Old Dominion Monarchs

Colonial Athletic Association (26-8, 15-3)

 

All the talk leading up to the West Coast Conference final between Gonzaga and Saint Mary's focused on how much the Gaels would need this victory. Anywhere from "they're fine without it" to "they're in trouble with a loss" depending on which bracketologist you happened to be listening to at that particular moment. But at the end of the game at Orleans Arena there was a rather emphatic message from Randy Bennett's team: 

Save that bubble talk for someone else. 

RPI #'s updated as of 2/24/10, 2:00 pm.

 

Butler (24-4, 17-0)

Cornell (21-4, 7-1)

Northern Iowa (23-3, 14-2)

Old Dominion (21-7, 13-3)

Siena (22-5, 15-1)

Utah St (21-6, 11-2)

Other (Louisiana Tech, Murray St, Northeastern, Wichita St, William & Mary, etc)

 

The Missouri Tigers hadn't beaten rival Illinois since 1999, losing games in which they've been favored as well as those they weren't expected to win. Wednesday's game was more of a toss-up with a slight edge going to Bruce Weber's team, who had already won at Clemson thus far. But the Tigers were able to control the flow of play, forcing 22 Illinois turnovers on their way to an 81-68 win. While Illinois outrebounded the Tigers 44-32 and all five starters reached double figures Missouri forced 22 turnovers and held the Illini to 39.7% shooting from the field.

Saturday was definitely a day full of action, but little did much of the nation know that the most-discussed event would be the end of the Xavier/Butler game at Hinkle Fieldhouse. Down one to the visiting Musketeers Butler scuffled through their final possession, even having the ball deflected into the backcourt as the clock ticked under fifteen seconds. But a peculiar thing happened as the ball rolled away from the Butler basket: the clock stopped.