Precap 2/9 - Indiana, UConn prove themselves, and Wednesday's bubble implications in review

 2/8-2/9

Recap

• Yesterday’s “Prove Yourself” games

In yesterday’s precap, we went over how TCU, Indiana, UConn, and Dayton had big games to prove themselves to the country. We can start with the only team in this group that lost: TCU. TCU needed to be proven without Mike Miles against good teams. And at Kansas State in a game they may have not even won with Mike Miles, TCU got trounced. The Horned Frogs really need that leadership, experience, and scoring to compete with the top Big 12 teams. With Miles out for a couple of more games, TCU will likely be an Oklahoma State-level team. Unfortunately, their next 2 games are against Baylor and Iowa State, so unless they pull off an upset, they’ll likely fall further away from the top of the conference. 

Indiana had just beaten Purdue, but they had been inconsistent all season, so I was worried about how they would keep that level of play up after upsetting the #1 team in the country. And against #24 Rutgers, Indiana barely won. I was worried about Hood-Schifino, as when he plays well Indiana usually wins, and though he played subpar today, his slack was picken up by Miller Kopp, who scored 18. If the Hoosiers’ other players can make up for Hood-Schifino’s bad games with good games on their own, this team can continue to be consistent.

UConn has finally broken through and become the team we expected to see earlier in the season. They beat #1 in the Big East and #10 in the country Marquette by 15 in an impressive 87 point offensive performance. Now they can climb back to a top seed and the top spot in the Big East, but like Indiana, they’ll have to prove their consistency against Creighton on Saturday.

Lastly, in our mid-major segment of the day, Dayton upset #1 A10 VCU. This game is huge for them because they have finally shot with good efficiency for most of their starting 5, which is the best in the A10. Kobe Elvis and Mustapha Amzil struggled, but Toumani Camara and DaRon Holmes played extremely well, combining for 37. If Elvis and Amzil can shoot at good efficiency with the rest of the team, this Dayton team should once again be favored for the A10 title despite being eliminated from the at-large bubble.

Preview

• Today’s bubble implications

There are multiple teams currently on the bubble looking to pick up games that could seal them inside the bubble. We’ll start with Seton Hall, who plays a hot Creighton team at home. Seton Hall still plays another 3 ranked teams this season, so if they win today, they would have the confidence to potentially make it through a couple other of those games. They’ve struggled against ranked teams this season, and last time they played Creighton, they lost by 22. This will have to be fixed by March if they make the tournament, and what is a better time to do it than the peak of Big East conference play?

Next, we’ll bring it to Michigan, who currently isn’t even on the bubble now, but could make it back on if they build up a strong win streak. Outside of today’s game against Nebraska, they only play tournament or bubble teams for the rest of the season. So, this is a must-win. If they lost this, count the Wolverines out of the NCAA tournament.

West Virginia, who has struggled against Big 12 competition this season, and has had numerous opportunities to pick up good wins, has another today against #11 Iowa State. They’re currently in Last Four Byes, and this could be their best opportunity to pick up a much-needed Q1-A win at home, as most of their ranked opponents will be played away for the Mountaineers.