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//  Saturday, July 31, 2010

College Hoops is in the Home Stretch

Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Posted by Thomas Cochet

With only three weeks left until Selection Sunday, every team in the nation is gearing up to enhance their NCAA Tournament resumes as much as possible. BracketBuster Saturday is behind us, and conference tournaments start in less than two weeks.

While Kansas and Kentucky have separated themselves from the rest of the college basketball landscape and have all but assured themselves number one seeds in the Big Dance, several powerhouses are fighting for those two final top seeds.

Boilers boiling up: No team is hotter right now than the Purdue Boilermakers, who have their eyes set on a Final Four in their home state. Purdue has won nine in a row after suffering a three-game losing streak back in mid-January. Road wins over Illinois, Michigan State, and Ohio State have the Boilers in position for a Big Ten regular season title and a shot at a number one seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Bruised and Battered Big East: Does anyone want to win the Big East?

The conference regular season title will likely not be decided until the first weekend in March, especially if teams like Georgetown, Syracuse, and Villanova continue to lose to the likes of Rutgers, Louisville, and UCONN in games they are supposed to win. Syracuse has the best shot to earn a number one seed in the NCAA Tournament, with Villanova and West Virginia also in the running with some work to do.

No team helped its case in the Big East in the Big East title race this past week than the Pittsburgh Panthers, who picked up a win at Marquette and a big home victory against Villanova over the weekend. The Panthers have exceeded all preseason expectations, as the Panthers already have a win at Syracuse back in January.

Just when you were about to count UCONN out of the NCAA Tournament picture, the Huskies defeat two Top Ten teams in one week. In Jim Calhoun’s return to the sideline last week, the Huskies looked lifeless in a home loss at the hands of Cincinnati. But the Huskies followed that up with a victory at Villanova last week and a victory over West Virginia last night. Not many other bubble teams have multiple victories over Top Ten teams, which could go a long way in helping UCONN sneak into the Big Dance after all hope was lost just two weeks ago.

Atlantic-Ten bids dwindling by the day: Just last week, there was discussion that the Atlantic-Ten Conference could snatch as many as six NCAA bids in a year where the PAC-10 and Southeastern Conferences were down. Now with two weeks until the conference tournament, it is tough to envision more than three of four bids.

Charlotte did not help its resume with home losses to Duquesne and Xavier last week, and will almost certainly have to win out and make a deep run in the conference tournament to have any shot at making the Big Dance. Dayton’s road woes continued Sunday as the Flyers fell to Duquesne in the final seconds. The preseason favorite’s road does not get any easier as the Flyers visit Temple on Wednesday. The only viable A-10 contenders for NCAA bids appear to be Temple, Richmond, Xavier, and Rhode Island.

Overrated: Georgia Tech, Butler, Gonzaga, Michigan State, Dayton

Underrated: Ohio State, Texas A&M, Xavier, Virginia Tech, Murray State

Five Contenders that still have more to prove: Villanova, Kansas State, Duke, West Virginia. BYU

10 Biggest Games Remaining (all times Eastern Standard Time)

Kentucky at Tennessee (February 27 @ 12:00P.M. on CBS)

Kansas at Oklahoma State (February 27 @ 4:00P.M. on CBS)

Villanova at Syracuse (February 27 @ 9:00P.M. on ESPN)

Michigan State at Purdue (February 28 @ 4:00P.M. on CBS)

Georgetown at West Virginia (March 1 @ 7:00P.M. on ESPN)

Kansas State at Kansas (March 3 @ 8:00P.M. on ESPN FULL COURT)

Duke at Maryland (March 3 @ 9:00P.M. on ESPN)

West Virginia at Villanova (March 6 @ 12:00P.M. on CBS)

Kansas at Missouri (March 6 @ 2:00P.M. on CBS)

Syracuse at Louisville (March 6 @ 2:00P.M. on ESPN)

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