[The Poet]

Happy hoopy New Year! There's a bunch to cover, so lemme get to it:

On the last day of 2009, we had a few good games:

# 13 Georgetown 66 - St. John's 59 = A nice win for the Hoyas, and not an embarrassment for St. John's either.

# 17 Washington 76 - Oregon State 70 = Here was a tight border war, but not as tight as . . .

Oregon 91 - Washington State 89 (2 OT) = Did anybody see this one? I'm curious as to if it was one neither wanted to lose, or neither wanted to win. If the former, it's a classic.

USC 56 - Arizona 50 = I suspect the low score was more a product of bad offense than good defense, but regardless it was competitive. Again, speaking of competition . . .

Wake Forest 74 - Richmond 68 (OT) = I KNEW this would be a good one. The teams were tied at the half, tied at the end of regulation, but the Deacs outfought the Spiders 12-6 in the extra 5 minutes. Ohhh, baby.

Then to kick off 2010, we had these:

# 4 Purdue 77 - # 6 West Virginia 62 = Lessee, we had that OT against Seton Hall last weekend, then this 15-point pounding by the Boilermakers. Coupled with their Gator Bowl loss in Bowden's swan song, it was not a great week for the Mountaineers.

# 19 New Mexico 68 - Dayton 66 = Well, the Flyers hung tough . . . just not quite tough enough.

# 20 Texas Tech 76 - McNeese State 75 = C'mon, you gotta be kiddin' me. McNeese State? Hrumpff.

Today there is a ton of action, some already in progress:

# 5 Syracuse has a slim lead over Pitt halfway through the first, but # 10 U. Conn is in a real war with Notre Dame, while so far Arkansas is laying a whuppin' on # 24 UAB. I'll keep you updated. Other games include:

# 1 Kansas vs. # 18 Temple = One's gonna wanna run, the other crawl. This could get interesting . . . for a while, anyway.

# 2 Texas vs. TAMU Corpus Christi = Cupcake of Criminy, given to thee Horns.

# 3 Kentucky vs. Louisville = Hatfields and McCoys, brothers. I think Calipari and Pitino should just face off with pistols at midcourt.

# 8 Villanova vs. Marquette = Hmmmm. Might be a pretty good matchup.

# 11 Michigan State vs. # 25 Northwestern = Northwestern's week in the spotlight ends with a second loss.

# 17 Washington vs. Oregon = Should be fairly close for a while, but the Dawgs have that Starbucks edge over the Quacks.

Georgia Tech vs. Charlotte = Nice potential out of conference, and the ranked.

Seton Hall vs. Virginia Tech = Ditto.

Gonzaga vs. Illinois = Ibid.

Cincinnati vs. Rutgers = Mid-pack conference implications.

USC vs. Arizona State = Also.

Arizona vs. UCLA = Less so, as both may turn into bottom-feeders.

Then come Sunday we can look forward to:

# 12 Kansas State vs. South Dakota = Well, maybe we can't look forward to this one.

# 13 Georgetown vs. DePaul = Nor this one, unless the Blue Demons find some old magic.

# 15 Ohio State vs. Michigan = The Logans need a good win, and badly. Will the Buckeyes oblige?

# 20 Texas Tech vs. UTEP = Ehhh, who the fark cares anyway?

# 23 Wisconsin vs. Penn State = Uh, yeah.

Florida vs. N. C. State = This could be the best game out of the ranked teams.

Whatever you choose, enjoy.