Thursday's Mid-day Championship Week Update

How do you spell done?

How do you spell done? U-A-B. The Blazers killed their slim tourney hopes by bowing out early in the CUSA tournament. Their resume doesn't really matter at this point as Mike Davis and co. will be a 3 or 4 seed in the NIT. Tulsa, quietly winners of 9 of 11, has a good chance to make it to the CUSA finals as they face Houston or UTEP next.

Break out the deoderant

Villanova will be sweating it out on Selection Sunday. After mercifully ending Syracuse's season, the Wildcats never really had a chance against Georgetown. The Hoyas looked fresh and focused, and are primed to make a Big East title run. Villanova meanwhile pretty much has to sit back and hope other bubble teams bow out as well.

Enough about OJ

Don't get me wrong, OJ Mayo's a great talent. But despite the fact the announcers talked about him for 40 straight minutes (over and over and over), he's not the second coming. He's just a really good talent that also has a lot of flaws.. particularly a tendency to make careless turnovers, take poor shots, and an ugly somewhat flawed release (which can be fixed). Anyways, he's good and was the difference in USC's win over Arizona State.

ASU trailed most of the game and could never mount that one big charge in the 2nd half. Now the Sun Devils just have to pray that they've done enough to impress the voters.. but unfortunately they probably haven't. 5-10 in your last 15 games simply won't cut it.. neither will a non-conference SOS of 304. Villanova, noted above for example, should get in instead.

Wacky A-10

St. Joseph's was somehow the 5 seed to Richmond's 4.. despite being a far superior team. Just one of the consequences of the league's highly lopsided schedule. The Hawks easily blew by the Spiders, and still have an outside chance of reaching the Dance. They match up well with Xavier, and a win in the semis would be their 5th Top 50 victory of the season. Xavier knocked out Dayton, whose bubble hopes have also burst. The Flyers had many chances to make a game of it down the stretch, but lack a true go-to player on offense. Brian Roberts is a nice player.. but he can't break down a defense and take over a game. They'll be a tough out in the NIT.

Locked and Loaded

West Virginia (especially) and Miami (most likely) locked up NCAA Tournament bids with wins today. Miami's win was a ho-hummer against disappointing NC State.. but a 22-9 record and a Top 30 RPI look good to me. WVU was probably in already as well, but now they're looking at a possible 7 seed after beating UCONN.