Advantage Stimpy

During the draft, Ren who as we've said doesn't actually watch basketball, thought he made a great pick with Wichita State at #76.  Through his misguided attempts at scouting, Ren deduced that the Shockers were easily one of the steals of the draft.  Well the dream all but died for the Shockers on Tuesday night much to Stimpy's delight after a stunning loss to Evansville.  All the Purple Aces had done prior to their upset of Wichita St was lose 14 consecutive times.  Tuesday Evansville recorded its first conference victory and doomed Wichita State's at-large hopes in the process.  Already, quite bleak, the Shockers will now have to win the conference tourney to reach the NCAA tournament.

Other blows to Ren's midsection include:

• Illinois who just a week ago were squarely on the bubble, pulled off 2 major upsets.  First, they handled Michigan State at home as the injury to Kalin Lucas was too much to overcome for Sparty . Then on Tuesday they did the unthinkable: beating Wisconsin on the road.  The Badgers  had an 18 game winning streak in Madison including wins over Duke, Ohio St, and Purdue and held a 51-0 record against unranked Big 10 opponents during the Bo Ryan era.  The Illini find themselves in a tie for first place in the Big 10 and with those 2 signature wins and are sitting pretty in terms of receiving an at-large bid for now.  
• Stimpy's homework is paying off as pick #118, the Richmond Spiders are poised to return to the NCAA tournament.  After blowing out Temple on Saturday, the Spiders edged Rhode Island on the road Wednesday and find themselves tied with Xavier and Charlotte for the conference lead.  The Spiders shot a sizzling 74% from the field in the second half of Wednesday's win over the Rams . There's still much work to be done with a treacherous 3 game stretch at Xavier, vs Dayton, at Charlotte still to come. 
• Northwestern which was attempting to build on a 2 game winning streak, fell flat on its face losing to Iowa Wednesday.  The Wildcats sit at 5-7 in the Big 10 and their chances of reaching the NCAA tournament are all but gone.  To have any chance, they'll need to ruin Valentine's Day for Minnesota and then go into Madison and beat Wisconsin.