Friday night lights: Big East and Pac-12 action

[Plebe]

Teams projected in the NCAA tournament field are in bold, with projected seeding in brackets.

Big East:
St. John's @ Villanova (7pm, FoxSportsGo)
Butler @ #11 Marquette [3] (8pm, FoxSportsGo)
Xavier @ DePaul [7] (8pm, FoxSportsGo)

Butler and Villanova still have an outside shot at an at-large bid, but they need wins.
DePaul is in barring a complete collapse down the stretch.

Pac-12:
USC @ #12 Oregon St [3] (9pm, Pac-12 Network).
Washington @ Utah [first four out] (9pm, free live stream).
Washington St @ Colorado (9pm, free live stream).
Arizona @ #7 Stanford [2] (10pm, free live stream).
#17 Arizona St [5] @ Cal [9] (10pm, Pac-12 Bay Area/Arizona).
UCLA [8] @ #2 Oregon [1] (11pm, Pac-12 Network). How will Oregon fare without Ruthy Hebard?

The Pac-12 is an interesting conference this year: 1st in Massey and 2nd in the RPI, yet only 4 teams are truly safely in the tournament. UCLA and Cal are likely in but far from locks. Utah looked safe 3 weeks ago but is on a 6-game skid and absolutely must sweep the Washington schools this weekend to stay in contention. Arizona and USC look more out than in at this point.

 

[triaddukefan]

In Colonial Action...... James Madison (11) @ Husky Nan's Elon Phoenix. JMU is up 42-23 at the half. I'd thought about driving over to catch the game.... but I figured it would be a blowout (the dukes dropped a 50 piece on them in the previous matchup) plus its a cold, rainy Friday evening.

 

[Plebe]

In Colonial Action. James Madison (11) @ Husky Nan's Elon Phoenix. JMU is up 42-23 at the half. I'd thought about driving over to catch the game.... but I figured it would be a blowout (the dukes dropped a 50 piece on them in the previous matchup) plus its a cold, rainy Friday evening.

James Madison has very quietly put together a really strong season: 20-4 and 12-1 in the Colonial. Not a good enough résumé for an at-large bid, though, so they'll need to win their conference tournament.

JMU is a good case study for those who believe that mid-majors with tons of wins should be selected for at-large bids over power conference teams with mediocre (or losing) conference records. The Dukes are #37 in the RPI and will almost certainly get more than 25 wins. But they have no top 50 wins, and one of their losses was to Wake Forest (lost by 1).

 

[Plebe]

Erika Davenport of Marquette just went down with an injury early in 3Q with Marquette leading 36-35. I didn't see it happen but she was screaming in pain and she was carried off the floor.

 

[IrishTiger]

Erika Davenport of Marquette just went down with an injury early in 3Q with Marquette leading 36-35. I didn't see it happen but she was screaming in pain and she was carried off the floor.

That’s not good

 

[Plebe]

Southern Cal is off to a shocking start in Corvallis, up 10-0. Rueck calls an early timeout to stop the bleeding.

Oregon State looks *flat* and USC came to play. Mazyck already with 6 points.

 

[Plebe]

It took OSU more than 6 minutes to score their first bucket.
USC got off to a 16-0 start and leads 21-10 after 1Q.

 

[Plebe]

Marquette-Butler is going down to the wire.
Marquette had gone on a 9-0 run to lead by 8 with 7:00 to play.
Then Butler went on an 11-0 run after that.

Butler leads by 1 with 2:37 to play.

 

[huskeynut]

Butler downs Marquette 60 - 57.

 

[Plebe]

Butler downs Marquette 60 - 57.

Absolutely huge win for Butler. This will likely punch their NCAA ticket.

Also huge for Marquette, in a bad way. This, combined with last week's loss to St. John's, jeopardizes their status as a host for the first 2 rounds.

Even worse for Marquette: Davenport may have been lost for the season.

 

[Fightin Choke]

Butler downs Marquette 60 - 57.

Wow. Does Marquette remain a host? This loss calls that into question, as they now have recent losses to two teams that are probably not bound for the Big Dance (St. John's and Butler).

 

[Plebe]

Wow. Does Marquette remain a host? This loss calls that into question, as they now have recent losses to two teams that are probably not bound for the Big Dance (St. John's and Butler).

Butler is likely in the tournament now, with this huge road win.

But yes, as noted above, Marquette's status as host is in jeopardy.

Edit: On further review, Butler is a question mark. A road win at Marquette puts them in the conversation, and their RPI will be within range, but their only other quasi-decent wins are over Villanova and Ohio State. A very thin resume, to be sure.

 

[Plebe]

 

[Fightin Choke]

Butler had an RPI of 60 before this win (Marquette was 7). Still waiting for the updated RPI...

...it's taking a while. Usually it's faster updating...

 

[biobioprof]

USC at Oregon State has been interesting but I’m annoyed that with a bunch of Pac12 network channels I’m not getting Arizona Stanford.

 

[Plebe]

Butler had an RPI of 60 before this win (Marquette was 7). Still waiting for the updated RPI...

...it's taking a while. Usually it's faster updating...

The Warren Nolan site usually updates scores and results in near-real time, but tonight it's unplugged. If you click on "Scores," all of today's games (including the midday game between Georgetown and Seton Hall) are showing zeros.

 

[Plebe]

USC at Oregon State has been interesting but I’m annoyed that with a bunch of Pac12 network channels I’m not getting Arizona Stanford.

See OP above. That game is showing on the Stanford live stream.

 

[biobioprof]

Wow Slocum!

edit to add. Beats the shot clock with a contested step back 3 to make it a 5 pt lead in the last 30ish sec. Dagger

 

[ochoopsfan]

USC hard luck loses late in the last two games to Stanford and OSU. I would take them over Tennessee in the Tournament. Unfortunately their best win is over Utah. They need more.

 

[Plebe]

USC hard luck loses late in the last two games to Stanford and OSU. I would take them over Tennessee in the Tournament. Unfortunately their best win is over Utah. They need more.

Actually, at this point UCLA and Cal are better wins than Utah. But yes, they probably need more. The loss to Colorado is also hurting them.

 

[eebmg]

Arizona on last second steal and challenged layup by McDonald takes 47-45 lead over Stanford into 4Q.

 

[Plebe]

USC led 57-50 with 5:30 to play and then were outscored 18-4 the rest of the way, including a nearly 4-minute scoreless stretch. Ouch.

Mazyck was on fire for large stretches of the game, finished with 25.
The Moore sisters combined for 14 assists but only 6 points on 3-17 shooting.

Probably the biggest storyline for Beaver State over the past couple weeks is the emergence of Joanna Grymek. She was a major factor in the Oregon games and tonight had 13 points and 9 rebounds.

 

[Plebe]

Whoa. Arizona was leading by 1 in the last minute and then shot a 3-pointer that went in and out.
Coming back on the other end, Alanna Smith was left alone on the 3-point line and nailed it.
Stanford leads by 2 with 25 seconds left.

Whoa, McDonald shot what would've been a game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer ... and it went in and out as well. Heartbreaking loss for Arizona.

 

[biobioprof]

missed opportunities for both teams at the end. McDonald missed both FTs after drawing a foul after Smith’s 3 pointer. Then Stanford just had to inbound the ball to force AZ to foul, but they turned it over, setting up the final shot for McDonald.

 

[biobioprof]

Grymek had 13 but Pivec was the one who was outstanding in the 4th for the Beavers, IMO.

I’m underwhelmed by Grymek. Overbeck and Jones combined for 24 and there was a stretch where Jones was abusing Grymek when she got the ball in the post. The problem for USC was when they weren’t in transition OSU could fall back in the paint in their zone.