Monday Lay-up Lines: Slow Night

Only two games of significance tonight. The first sees Villanova (23-6, 11-5) head to Notre Dame (16-12, 7-9) as the Irish take one last crack at the NCAA tournament. Their resume is about as mediocre as they come - RPI of 69, SOS of 38, 3-10 against the RPI top 50 and 1-1 against 51-100. Basically, Notre Dame needs to beat Villanova (convincingly), blow out St. John's (who has already beaten them), and then will still probably need to win at least one, maybe two or three, games in the Big East tournament to have a shot. Villanova, on the other hand, blew an opportunity to make up a game on Marquette, who currently is sitting in fourth place in the Big East (which would give them two byes in the Big Eat tournament). Marquette still has to play Pitt and Syracuse (without Dom James), which means that 'Nova still has a good chance of getting that fourth spot.

The other game tonight is Texas (19-9, 8-6) hosting Baylor (17-11, 5-9). Baylor has been one of the most disappointing teams in the country. After starting the Big XII season 3-1, the Bears have since lost eight of ten (including six in a row). The biggest issue has been defense - the Bears allowed an average of almost 82 ppg in those eight losses. Texas has been somewhat disappointing as well, although can you really blame them after losing Kevin Durant and DJ Augustin in back-to-back years. The Longhorns are just about a lock for the tourney at this point, but they still probably want to pick up another win before the season is done. As they travel to Kansas for their finale, this game becomes much more important.

The only other game you may be interested in tonight is Davidson (24-6, 17-2) heading to Elon (10-18, 7-12).