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PHSports Top 10: Saturday-Afternoon Style

Memphis annihilated Tulsa to secure the Conference USA Championship. No team on or off the bubble was sweating one second of this “matchup”. It’s not going to happen, but I’m officially starting the movement to move Memphis into the SEC. There is no need for them to be in this laughable ‘conference’.

Wisconsin fell down double-digits to the Spartans and fed off of an amazing last ten minutes to move onto the Big Ten Championship game. Bo Ryan is the National Coach of the Year, folks.

UNC and Va.  Tech put on a SHOW to see in the opener of the SEC semi-finals. Deron Washington is a sight to behold when he’s under control. As for that Hansbrough-guy, he had his MOP moment (although, how many votes are already in?). Congrats to Seth Greenberg and the Hokies, you may be the NIT favorites.

Texas breezed past Blake Griffin and Oklahoma. While I question their interior, on offense and defense, the Longhorns are going to be an extremely popular Final Four pick, regardless of their outcome against the Kansas/Texas A&M semi-final victory.

MD Baltimore City joins American and Georgetown as DC-based teams earning tournament bids (although in fairness, Georgetown might need an at-large if Pitt takes them out in MSG tongith).

UNLV vs. BYU appears to be all about seeding, as the Runnin’ Rebs are moving closer to ‘lock’ status.

Arizona, Oregon, and Arizona State all lost in the Pac-10 quarterfinals, questionable officiating or not. Joe Lunardi and Jay Bilas are battling our ASU vs. Illinois State. Frankly, I’ll take the architect of the Billistrator (favoring ASU). Although it MUST be noted: ASU has the 30^th weakest non-conference schedule in all of Division 1 basketball, have lost 10 out of their last 15 (they did start 14-2 overall and 4-0 in the Pac-10), and their wins against Oregon & Arizona (bubble in or out?) can’t be overrated. Don’t worry Sun Devils, you’re IN (w/ wins over Stanford, Xavier, and a sweep of ‘SOS’ aka Arizona).

Illinois or Minnesota is going to give Wisconsin a game…write it down. They may, in fact, be the last legitimate seed-stealer tomorrow afternoon.

Kentucky didn’t lose today due to weather, but a bad no-call late in the game against Georgia. Classy Billy Gillespie responded perfectly when he called out his defense for allowing an open-3 (admittedly, off of a 360-pivot). The Cats are tourney bound, but I have them pegged as a 8/9 loser almost regardless of the opponent.

 If Stanford beats UCLA for the Pac-10 title today, can they potentially leap-frog several teams to earn a #2-seed (with everyone calling out Josh Shipp’s over-the-backboard hoop).

Extra Thought: If Temple blows out St. Joe’s…the Red Hawks are still in. Although I’m not sure they’re better than the majority of the first eight out.

Plenty more to come in the next 24 hours.

In case you didn’t know, we LOVE this time of year!