Champ Week Thursday: Shaken and Stirred

Well, we knew it wasn't going to be simple, didn't we? On the first truly serious day of Championship Week for the big boys, there were plenty of surprises. I'll go through the major conferences and see what we learned while we have a chance during this last break before the late games.  

Big East

• Louisville's methodical beatdown of Providence, 73-55, probably dealt a significant blow the Friars' hopes to dance.  As Shankar commented earlier, Providence was deprived of a real chance to get a decent win when a woeful DePaul team upset Cincinnati on Tuesday. Louisville solidifies itself in the 1-seed discussion, especially in light of Oklahoma's loss (to be discussed below). 
• Ah, starts to get spicy here. Marquette continued its Dominic-James-less late season slide down the S-Curve in heartbreaking fashion, giving up a backdoor reverse layup to Dwayne Anderson as time expired. Villanova did what it needed to to stay in the conversation for a 3-seed.  Louisville vs. Villanova is a tasty, tasty matchup with plenty to be gained for both teams.
• I think West Virginia rocking Pitt 74-60 qualifies as a shocker, unless Pitt simply felt that their 1-seed was so secure it didn't matter what they did.  West Virginia gets a huge shot in the arm heading into the tourney, regardless of what happens tomorrow at the Garden. Devin Ebanks is a name that you will hear a lot next year, unless he executes a Tyrus Thomas-like ride up the draft board, which I doubt.

ACC

Starting out the day, I considered the first 3 ACC games complete tossups.  No result of those games would have surprised me, as I mentioned before.  Shankar already covered the elimination matchup between Miami and Virginia Tech, so I'll look at the other two. 

• Georgia Tech manages to confirm that Clemson just can't be trusted by beating the Tigers 86-81. Booker, Rivers, Stitt, and Oglesby can be great players and a great team at times, but I still sense a 6-seed and an early exit from the dance for Purnell's experienced crew. 
• Maryland basically just kept itself alive for an at-large bid by getting past NC State 74-69. If they beat Wake I think they're absolutely in. Wake, like most ACC teams, has shown it can beat or lose to anyone. We'll see if Greivis Vasquez can bring the fire to get Maryland's ticket punched. 
• The only thing that would surprise me is BC losing to Virginia. Of course, BC lost to Harvard, so I probably wouldn't be surprised after all.

Big 12

• Oklahoma ceded major ground to Louisville today in the race for the 4th 1-seed by losing to Oklahoma State in a thriller. Conversely, the Cowboys can breathe a lot easier now with their bid pretty much guaranteed.  Oklahoma has shown a worrisome lack of focus since Blake Griffin returned from injury. They'll have time to rest up for the tournament though. I never really know what to make of this "early loss in the conference tourney is a good thing." Yes, big time conference tourneys are a grind, but losses leave a bad taste. I think situations where a loss is good are rare. 
• Baylor made some major noise by dismissing regular season champ Kansas. I'm not sure the committee has a lot of wiggle room for Kansas, but the argument to move Kansas behind Michigan State and Memphis in the overall seeding is much stronger now. I'd be surprised to see them drop to the 3 line, but it could happen.  Baylor's resume doesn't cut it for a bid, but they're playing a very beatable Texas team tomorrow, and with OU out of the picture, the Big 12 auto-bid is a pretty wide-open affair. 
• Kansas State still has an ok bubble case, but beating Texas may have guaranteed their bid. Losing 61-58 to the Longhorns puts the Wildcats on the edge for Sunday.  Texas catches a break by having to face Baylor rather than Kansas, but with their bid secure, will they have the same motivation as Baylor?
• Mizzou is currently taking on a Texas Tech team clearly relishing their spoiler role. Last night Mike Singletary scored 29 STRAIGHT POINTS, the last 2 of which were the go-ahead bucket for the Red Raiders.  Look at the play-by-play!!! That is bonkers, bananas, ridiculous, etc.  Seriously, that's insane. 

Others

• Minnesota over Northwestern was discussed below.
• Michigan did what was necessary by pasting Iowa, but they can breathe easy Sunday if they beat tourney lock Illinois tomorrow. 
• Arizona couldn't push Arizona State, losing 68-56. They may get in because they're Arizona, but losing 5 out of the last 6 pushes them out in my book.
• Is there some other conference that matters that I'm missing?  Oh, right...nope.

Once the late games finish, I'll take a fresh look at my Top 12 seeds. We're set up for a very entertaining run to the Selection Show. I love it.