This is a huge day here at RTC. Not only will we be blogging with you all day with this BGTD nonsense, but we’ll also have a presence at ESPN GameDay live from Chapel Hill where our man on the ground will be taking questions and comments from you, the readers, so that you can finally ask Erin Andrews what shampoo she uses and where, exactly, does she find such perfectly fitted tops. Or anything else you guys may want to know (within reason, of course).
RTC Live: Miami at UNC will be a sticky at the top of the page all day, so be sure to stop by and check it out as you put off going outside into the semi-Arctic environment known as the East Coast Midwest South Mountains USA this lovely Saturday.
As for this post, we’ve got the three-tv setup ready to roll, and with Notre Dame-Syracuse starting off the day in a few hours, we should probably try to get some sleep. We’ll be back for that one (and all the others), but in the meantime, feel free to peruse our SYT preview of today’s big games.
11:52am – And we’re back. Let’s get going. Quick note – lamest sign just spotted at GameDay in CH – Everyone Still Predicts National championship? Wow, props for creativity there, er, not.
Noon – What’s on your tv right now? There’s an interesting mid-major on ESPN2 (N. Iowa at Drake). The Noon FC games aren’t too exciting (Maryland at FSU; Ga Tech at NC State; USF at WVU) – we’ll keep an eye on each, but it’s looking mostly like Cuse-ND and UNI-Drake here.
1pm – UNI is absolutely desecrating Drake’s home court (47-25). This might be the team to beat in the Valley this year – they’ve won five in a row (soon to be six) and have completely handled Drake’s stud Josh Young so far. Cuse is playing well but hasn’t been able to put the hammer down on ND yet, and the FC games are close so far.
1:30pm – somehow Duke is a nine-pt favorite over Georgetown at Cameron this afternoon. Wow, Syracuse seems to keep pulling away only for ND to hit a three to keep it within reach. This Cuse team is going to be a bear for someone in March. There’s an upset brewing in the CAA on one of the Fox regional channels – 2-4 Hofstra is up seven on 6-0 Northeastern in the second half.
2pm – Cuse finally put the pesky Irish away. Lord, McAlarney has no conscience. Georgetown looks good against Duke’s pressure D so far, and USF has come back on West Virginia (down 1 with 2:20 left). The next slate of games is set to start and it’ll be very interesting to see how Oklahoma handles itself at a surging Texas A&M (ESPN). Arkansas at Florida could also be interesting on ESPN FC. How about Butler at UIC? Any chance of an upset there?
2:15pm – WVU held on against S. Florida, Hofstra upset Northeastern, and Duke just went on a run against the Hoyas with Greg Monroe out of the game. Sometimes it seems like Duke never misses in that building. Upset brewing in Waco? Oklahoma St. is running Baylor out of its building early.
3pm – Things are starting to heat up. Gtown must have Greg Monroe on the floor to pull off this game. Butler looks terrible, down 11 at halftime. A&M is starting to get it together against Oklahoma after a miserable start, and Baylor has pulled within six at halftime vs. OSU.
3:30pm – Georgetown keeps shooting itself in the foot from the foul line – Summers just missed three in a row. Butler is making a run on UIC and Baylor has moved ahead of OSU. OU-A&M remains interesting in the early second half. The battle of unbeatens is about to begin on ABC – is Clemson legit?
4pm – The Big 12 games are finishing up great. OSU just took Baylor to overtime after a Curtis Jerrells miss from the line, and Texas A&M is still within striking distance of Oklahoma with under a minute to go. Wake and Clemson look sloppy so far – that’ll change though.
4:30pm – Wake probably feels like they should be up 15 pts instead of 5 based on how their defense has shut down Clemson so far. James Harden already has 3 fouls at UCLA and that doesn’t bode well for ASU in the second half in Westwood (although they held on to the lead in the last 3 minutes without him).
5:15pm – Wake’s biggest weakness might be turnovers – the ballhandling has looked shaky and sloppy at times today. Clemson can’t seem to put two good possessions together, or they’d be right back in this game. Illinois is playing very well on the road, leading by 8 at the half. UCLA went on a nice little run to build up a cushion against Arizona St.
5:45pm – Clemson made their run, but Wake was just too athletic and powerful for the Tigers (held to 34%). The few times Clemson got open looks for Oglesby were off of broken plays and loose balls. Wake could end up #1 if Louisville can beat Pitt in a couple of hours. UCLA didn’t score a single point for the last 8+ minutes and now that game is going to overtime. Illinois-MSU is a classic B10 battle with ten minutes left. One interesting score was that LSU absolutely blitzed Ole Miss in Oxford this afternoon.
6:15pm – Arizona St. outgutted UCLA in OT to get its first win against the Bruins in six years – great win for Herb Sendek’s club. Over in the Big 10, Michigan St. had a big second half to hold off Illinois. Now it’s on to the Pitt-Louisville game and so far the Panthers have shown no signs of intimidation whatsoever.
7pm – Louisville looked sunk but their pressure defense and some Pitt foul trouble on Levance Fields and DeJuan Blair got them back in the game. Not a lot else going on nationally right now, but be sure to check over on our RTC Live post now because our man on the ground is in the Dean Dome and will be providing updates, photos and taking questions to pass along to the players, coaches and media throughout the rest of the evening.
8:15pm – Wake’s your new #1 team in America now that Louisville showed a ton of guts on big possessions to stay in their game with Pitt and pulled it off at home. If Wake and Duke both win their games this week (Wake: v. Va Tech; Duke: v. Maryland and NC State), then it will set up a #1 v. #2 matchup on Wed. Jan. 28th at the Joel. Great win for Louisville here – they continue to show that they can win close games, which is a helluva lot better than losing them! Pitt is still a great team, but foul trouble and (shocking) weak rebounding is what sunk the Panthers tonight. They’ll be back, though. The Big East is just too tough to get through unblemished.
9pm – A couple more interesting scores from this evening. Tennessee barely survived South Carolina after a huge halftime lead. Stanford is leading Cal in the basketball version of the Big Game with Mike Montgomery back on campus, and UMass is leading Dayton late on ESPN2. We’re about to start the UNC-Miami game, and for those of you who are reading this, be sure to go over to the RTC Live post where you can liveblog comments and questions along with us – the best will be selected to be taken into the media and locker rooms afterwards. Link here.
10pm – Very entertaining first half in Chapel Hill (even beyond RTC’s witty commentary on the liveblog). The reverse dunk by DeQuan Jones was ridonkulous. UNC had a much-needed late run to retake the lead, but they’re going to need to get more than Hansbrough to win this one. Stanford is going to beat Cal in the Mike Montgomery reunion (another entertaining game) and Providence is up on Marquette at halftime. Could it be another quiver in Upset Saturday (so far, five of the top theirteen teams have lost).
10:05pm – We are now convinced that Jamelle Horne of Arizona is the stupidest player in America. Either that or he’s got money on these games he’s intentionally blowing. He just fouled USC in a tie game 64-64 with 1.4 seconds left as the USC player was running upcourt 50 feet from the basket. Nearly the IDENTICAL thing that he did back in November when he fouled a UAB player with the game tied, giving the Blazers the win. More on this later, but WHY is this guy ever on the court at the end of games????
11pm – Whew. What a day of games. Five of the top thirteen teams took losses, and for a while it looked like six of fourteen but Providence just collapsed against Marquette in the last five minutes. UNC certainly had a big second half from Ellington – hopefully RTC will be able to get some questions about that in the press conference. And Ohio St. had a nice upset win up at Ann Arbor this evening. This is going to be it for BGTD today – thanks to those of you who were checking in. Have a safe MLK Day Weekend, and we’ll see you next weekend.