Both Notre Dame and USC travelled to the dregs of their respective conferences for road games today, with the Irish at Cincinnati and the Trojans at Arizona State. The Irish already finished their game, beating the Bearcats 76-64 to earn their second road win of the season — a win ND absolutely had to have. ‘SC just tipped off against the Sun Devils, and the Trojans are ahead 8-7 early. Supposedly, Comcast SportsNet will pick up the Fox Sports feed of the game at 8:30. I’ll ignore the bizarre inconsistency of being unable to watch the huge games against UCLA and Arizona, but able to watch the (on paper, at least) ho-hum game against ASU, and just say: FIGHT ON, TROJANS! BEAT THE SUN DEVILS!
UPDATE: USC loses, handing the Sun Devils their first Pac-10 win of the season after an 0-14 start. Dammit.
To be honest, I’m not stunned (the headline notwithstanding). I’ve been worried about this game ever since reading BK’s comment on Friday. He was right — after all those close losses, ASU was “due for a win” — and on the Trojans’ side of things, this had “trap game” written all over it, coming in the wake of USC’s first win over Arizona in Tucson since 1982 and ahead of the season-ending stretch against the Bay Area and Washington schools. The stars were aligned, as the Fox commentator said.
Oh well. Here’s hoping the Trojans get their act together and don’t use this loss as an excuse to suddenly fall apart. In their next five games — Stanford, Cal, at Washington, at Wazzu, and a Pac-10 quarterfinal (probably against Stanford, Oregon or Arizona) — USC should certainly be able to go 3-2; 4-1 would be great, and 5-0 would be fantastic. They still have a chance at a protected seed in the NCAA Tournament, but methinks they’ll need at least 4-1 for that, possibly 5-0 (or 4-1 plus one or two more wins in the Pac-10 tournament).
As for ASU, I’m happy for them that they finally got their first win, though obviously I wish it didn’t have to come at the expense of my team. I must say, though, I was amused by the fans storming the court — especially the ones holding up their right index fingers in celebration. Are they seriously saying “We’re #1″? Or are they simply keeping track of their total number of conference wins? ;)
Anyway… Beat the Farm!
February 18th, 2007 at 9:59:30 pm
Ouch. USC looked bad down the stretch.
February 18th, 2007 at 10:01:48 pm
Go Devils!
February 18th, 2007 at 10:04:09 pm
I told you this was no “easy” win!!!
Muahhahahahaah!
February 18th, 2007 at 10:16:00 pm
In fairness to me, I didn’t exactly say it would be “easy.” I said, “Outside of ASU, none of [the Trojans’ remaining games] are easy (heck, even the Sun Devils almost beat UCLA yesterday).” Even without the parenthetical addendum, my initial comment doesn’t necessarily mean that I thought the ASU game would be easy; I only explicitly said that the other four games wouldn’t be easy, not whether ASU would. Thus, my comment could be read as meaning that I thought the other four games definitely wouldn’t, and I was undecided, reserving judgment or withholding comment on the ASU game. And this reading is supported by my parenthetical addendum, pointing out that ASU had just given UCLA a close game. In other words, I was saying, “The other four games definitely won’t be easy, and the ASU game might not be easy, either!”
That said: I did indeed underestimate the Devils, until I saw your comment. I hadn’t been following them, and thus I’d been unaware that they’d been playing teams close; I assumed the UCLA near-win was a fluke. After your comment, I realized it wasn’t, and that the Trojans were potentially in for a surprise tonight. So like I said in the post, I’m not stunned. I am, of course, disappointed. But as long as the Trojans don’t fall on their face the rest of the season, this won’t have overly drastic consequences.
February 18th, 2007 at 10:20:51 pm
How “still have a chance at a protected seed in the NCAA Tournament” became “still have a chance at a shot in the NCAA Tournament,” I have no idea, but I just fixed it… apologies to anyone who was confused. :)
February 18th, 2007 at 10:30:14 pm
And so, Brendan. How come you haven’t written about the movie “Bridge to Terabithia,” which conjures themes parallel to Narnia or Harry Potter?
February 18th, 2007 at 10:37:44 pm
Okay, maybe you didn’t ACTUALLY say it was going to be “easy.” I have one response:
Fight, Devils Down The Field
Fight With Your Might and Don’t
Ever Yield
Long May Our Colors Outshine All
Others
Echo From The Buttes, Give ‘Em
Hell Devils!
Cheer, Cheer For A-S-U
Fight For The Old Maroon
For it’s Hail, Hail, The Gang’s All
Here
And It’s Onward to Victory!
February 18th, 2007 at 11:01:12 pm
I suspect it’s Onward to Three Consecutive Losses Followed By A First-Round Conference Tournament Loss To Washington, but hey, enjoy the euphoria while it lasts. ;)
February 18th, 2007 at 11:23:54 pm
ASU is currently holding a one game win streak against USC.
February 19th, 2007 at 1:36:22 am
Coach Sendek is known for a smothering style of defense, and USC’s offense is still fairly average overall (it’s their tough defense that has propelled them to success this season). I am not surprised USC had trouble with ASU on the road, but still, this loss points to tough times come NCAA tourney time: if you can’t score consistently, you won’t get far in the tournament.
But most importantly, what is this concept of a “protected” seed? If the last couple of years have shown anything, it is that no seed is “protected” — any team can win from any seed (except maybe a 16 seed over a 1 seed).
February 19th, 2007 at 2:57:52 am
The top 5 seeds are, in theory anyway, “protected” from potential home-court disadvantage — e.g., a #3 seed isn’t supposed to be matched up against a #14 seed that’s playing close to home. #6, #7 and #8 seeds get no such guarantee; they could end up playing a lower seed with a nearby fan base. That’s all the term means.