Thursday's Shootaround

BIAH headquarters was dealing with a couple of technical difficulties this morning, meaning that we were unable to get some stuff posted this morning. Thus, here is a quick look at the bubble games from last night as well as some links to some game stories from last night.

Notre Dame 58, UConn 50: Before this game started, many were touting this as a potential play-out game and, well, it looks to be that way. The Huskies looked horrendous offensively last night. After taking a 16-6 lead with 10 minutes to go in the first half, UConn was outscored 28-10 over the next 20 minutes. As the Irish found their shooting touch in the second half, they started to pull away from UConn. The win, the third straight for Notre Dame, improves the Irish to 9-8, all but puts them in the dance, and moves them into the seventh seed in the Big East tournament. Tory Jackson scored 20 of his 22 points in the second half, and Carlton Scott added 12 points and 14 boards.

Florida State 51, Wake Forest 47: Florida State picked up a big win last night as they knocked off the Demon Deacons. The Seminoles moved back into a tie with Clemson and Virginia Tech for third place in the ACC. The top four get a first round bye in the ACC Tournament. The Seminoles looked pretty impressive last night. They beat a team with a quick point guard -- something they tend to struggle against -- and held Al-Farouq Aminu scoreless on two field goals attempts in 28 minutes. The Seminoles are all but in, while Wake probably needs to win at least one more game. This is their fourth straight loss. Michael Snaer scored 14 for the Noles.

Rhode Island 80, Charlotte 58: Rhody used a 17-2 run midway through the second half to pull away from the 49ers last night. The loss puts Charlotte seemingly out of bubble contention for the time being, while it saves Rhode Island a little bit. The Rams were precariously in the tournament before last night's game, and with so many bubble teams losing, this win definitely helped the Rams chances.

Virginia Tech 71, NC State 59: The Hokies desperately needed this win. They had just lost three in a row, and do not have enough power at the top of their resume to handle many more losses. Malcolm Delaney and Dorenzo Hudson both had 21 last night to lead the way.

Auburn 89, Mississippi State 80: Mississippi State was out of bubble contention for a while, but managed to put together a five game winning streak heading into Auburn last night that had them as one of the last four in of a lot of brackets. Well, after losing last night, that looks to be a pipe dream. If you want an idea of how weak the bubble is this season, look at Mississippi State. This is a team that has beaten just one NCAA Tournament team (Old Dominion, unless you incorrectly think their sweep of Ole Miss means something), will very likely be headed into the tournament with 11 losses, and it 9-6 right now in a very weak SEC West. That changes if the Bulldogs can beat Tennessee at home this weekend, but for now MSU is out.

Memphis 70, UAB 65: UAB probably had the best chance of getting into the tournament of any team in the C-USA not named UTEP, but that idea is done after they lost to NIT-bound Memphis. Simply put - both of these teams need to reach at least the C-USA finals.

San Diego State 68, Colorado State 55: Beating Colorado State is really nothing special and in most years would not improve your bubble stock as much as it would keep you from hurting it, but with the number of teams losing games in ugly fashion this season, a win, even one against the bottom of the MWC, is really helpful. SDSU is going to be in so long as they can beat Air Force this weekend and either Utah and or Colorado State in the first round of the MWC tournament.

Temple 57, St. Louis 51: St. Louis was barely on the bubble, if at all, and this win all but knocks them off.

Maryland 79, Duke 72: Dana O'Neil

Maryland 79, Duke 72: Gary Parrish

Kansas 82, Kansas State 65: Seth Davis

Kentucky 80, Georgia 68: A Sea of Blue

Tennessee 80, Arkansas 73: Wes Rucker

Texas A&M 76, Oklahoma State 61: Dallas News