It’s starting to feel like March. The NCAA Tournament selection committee boldly inserted San Diego State into the top 16 of its bracket reveal, clearly an ode to the strength of the Mountain West. The league then went out and had a tizzy of a Saturday. Colorado State bulldozed Utah State behind 18 points and eight assists from Isaiah Stevens, and Nevada rallied out of nowhere late in regulation to hand UNLV a 69-66 loss and spoil a brilliant Dedan Thomas Jr. outing.
The Mountain West now has three teams tied in the loss column atop the league standings: San Diego State, Utah State and Boise State. It has four teams just a game back: New Mexico, Colorado State, Nevada and UNLV.
What a war. This is shaping up to be one of the best conference title chases down the stretch.
“This league is a bear,” Nevada coach Steve Alford told reporters. “It’s so deep. To win road games in this league is hard. To win at home is hard.”
Let’s dive into college basketball overtime. It’s got something for just about everyone.
Marquette tries to poke and prod you to make you uncomfortable and pestered. It usually works.
But there’s something about UConn at Storrs that just doesn’t sit quite right with Marquette.
For the second year in a row, a good Marquette squad got rolled. The second time was uglier than the first. No. 1 UConn thrashed fourth-ranked Marquette 81-53. UConn takes those annoying pokes and prods from Marquette and then simply decides to just beat the doors off of the Golden Eagles on the glass.
It’s utter dominance.
This stat is still blowing my mind. This isn’t normal.
Don’t poke the bear.
Life as the hunted isn’t very fun. South Carolina didn’t sneak up on Auburn at all on Wednesday and paid for it with a 40-point drubbing. LSU needed a signature win more than air to breathe, and it got it with a vicious comeback late in regulation to stun the Gamecocks 64-63.
Somewhere, South Carolina’s doubters are rejoicing that the Gamecocks have fallen back to earth a bit. Even after a 21-3 start and a stark rise up the AP Poll rankings, predictive metrics like KenPom were hesitant to fully buy-in.
That looks warranted now.
South Carolina went from knocking on the door of being a top 40-rated team on KenPom for the first time since 2017 back to No. 55 after the LSU loss.
Perspective is always vital. South Carolina had no business blowing a 16-point lead to LSU, but it simply doesn’t have the depth in place to withstand Meechie Johnson going scoreless and then leaving with a head injury for the final five minutes of regulation. LSU had three guards it could trust. South Carolina had one.
The Gamecocks are still in solid shape to make the NCAA Tournament. Just being in the hunt for a SEC crown in mid February and not being on the bubble is a massive win for a once-downtrodden program.
Maybe it’s the wake-up call Lamont Paris needed to flip the switch for his team when do-or-die games begin. South Carolina was feelin’ itself after a 21-3 start and that was warranted. But its grind-em-out, style of play doesn’t usually lead to monster blowouts. The margin for error is still small with this group, and there’s still work to be done to feel good on Selection Sunday.
A week of practice could be just what the doctor ordered before a daunting closing schedule which is filled with Quad 1 wars.
Maybe in a week, South Carolina will be back to the hunter.
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