What a Saturday of College Hoops. There were a lot of bubble teams in action and most of them won their games and a lot of them won going away. Florida blew out Auburn. Nebraska blew out Michigan, Texas A&M blew out Tennessee, and Mississippi State blew out Missouri. That is it for the blowout games then there were the close games. Gonzaga finally wins a quad 1 game at Kentucky. Michigan State picked up another signature win against Illinois in East Lansing, Butler beat Providence in Hinkle, Wake Forest beat NC State, and Washington State beat Oregon.
Some bubble teams lost and hurt their resumes. Kansas State lost a close game to BYU, Colorado got blown out by Arizona, Xavier lost to Creighton, Cincinnati lost to Houston, TCU lost to Iowa State, and St. John’s lost to Marquette. Those teams all have some work to do to climb back into the field.
That was the bubble but what about the teams who were already in the field and took a bad loss. Wisconsin lost their 4th game in a row at Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights are playing good basketball right now and the 22-point win is their largest ever over a ranked opponent. Utah lost to Arizona State which is going to likely put the Utes closer to the bubble. New Mexico got swept by UNLV. Then there were the teams who took care of business.
Kansas beat Baylor, South Carolina beat Vanderbilt, UConn destroyed Georgetown, and Alabama crushed LSU and took 81 shots 44 of them from deep while scoring 109 points. Their offense is a thing of beauty when it is rolling. Texas beat West Virginia, Saint Mary’s beat Portland to stay undefeated in the West Coast Conference. North Carolina beat Miami, Texas Tech beat UCF, Purdue killed Indiana, and Utah State beat Boise State. It was an eventful day with a lot of movement happening
Yesterday I went 101-51 in my picks that brings my 95 day total to 2,808-1,149 overall. It is Super Bowl Sunday but before the big football game there are some key College Basketball games to get the day started. Everything is in the morning and early afternoon as a primer to the Super Bowl. Picks for day 96 February 11, 2024, are below.
Florida Atlantic over Wichita State
Villanova over Seton Hall
Northwestern over Penn State
Tulsa over UAB
Charlotte over Temple
SMU over North Texas
Memphis over Tulane
UMass over Rhode Island
Louisiana over Bowling Green
Iowa over Minnesota
Northern Iowa over Illinois-Chicago
There were over 150 games on Saturday and only 11 on Super Bowl Sunday. The games on Super Bowl Sunday are still huge, especially on the Bubble. Northwestern can not lose to Penn State, Florida Atlantic can not lose to Wichita State. It would be very beneficial for Villanova to beat Seton Hall, and its a game Seton Hall can’t lose if they want to stay on the bubble.
Charlotte needs to win to keep pace in the American and Memphis can not get swept by Tulane. There are only 11 games but all of them will have an impact.