12:35pm: Great timing! As soon as we decided to light this candle, the internet connection tenders its resignation. But we’re back up now, it looks like.
12:37: The first thing I should mention is that we have someone courtside at UConn vs Georgetown for RTC Live, so while I might say a few things about that one, for now I’ll be focusing more on some of the other games happening. A link to the RTC Live for GU/UConn is above left, or just click here. UConn is currently spanking the Hoyas, 36-21.
12:44: Right now, St. John’s is looking pretty confident at Louisville, up 26-22. Man, that’s all Rick Pitino needs right now. A home loss in a Big East game. St. John’s is very patient on offense and the only threes they’ve taken have been virtually wide open, which is why they’ve hit 50% of them so far. Just under 3 minutes to go in the first half there.
12:48: This is John, by the way, so welcome and thanks for joining us here. I’m in Lexington KY for the Kentucky vs Georgia game that I’ll be doing for RTC Live later on this afternoon (4pm tip), at which point RTMSF will take the reins. Then, HE’LL take off for another RTC Live today in the form of USC vs California (note how the founder gets the assignments out in California…not that I’m complaining) and I’ll come back to do some late games here. Pretty big day of hoops.
1:00: Right now it’s halftimes galore. Florida and Vanderbilt, two teams on the fringes of the Top 25 (well, they WERE), have gone to the half at 44-42 in favor of the Gators. Kenny Boynton (who I’m surprised isn’t more hyped than he is) has 14 already. How strange is it that Florida is LAST in 3p FG% in the SEC?? Mike Patrick just said that, actually. I guess Chandler Parsons didn’t get that memo.
1:08: Well, the plan for Vandy to start the second half is pretty obvious…go inside. They opened the half with a 6-0 run by going to A.J. Ogilvy almost exclusively, and he’s delivered. I’ve been watching college basketball for so long…and yet I can never get used to those Vanderbilt benches positioned on the ends instead of the sidelines. The only other place I’ve seen like that was a grade school gym I played in when I was 11 years old. At this point, though, it’s basically tradition.
1:14: Louisville has come out with a little more fire here in the second half but still only leads by two. Vandy still only leads by three over Florida, 60-57. UConn/G’Town has gotten interesting, now with UConn up only by a tally of 53-48.
1:30: I’m kind of fired up to do this UK vs UGa game at Rupp later. A tweet from John Calipari said that he’s going to have “a special guest” for tonight’s game, which most people think is going to be Ashley Judd, who’d be making her first appearance at Rupp this year, from what I’m told. A local TV station reported last night that she was indeed going to be Coach Calipari’s guest, so we’ll see.
1:34: Vandy’s kind of fun to watch, aren’t they? Lots of guys who move without the ball, lots of nice opportune bounce passes for scores, lots of cutters. It’s not “Princeton ball,” but it resembles a slightly amped-up version of it. It’s at 69-64 (Vandy) as I type this, and that would have been a high-scoring Princeton FINAL score back in the day.
1:38: We’re starting to get just a little bit of separation in these close games. Not much, though. Louisville is up six with the ball against the Johnnies but there’s an eternity left (almost 10 minutes)….and they miss a dunk. Georgetown has gone up by two (61-59) with eight minutes left there. Vandy as noted above, up by seven. A couple of close ones, a couple of high scoring ones.
1:43: Our man doing RTC Live at G’Town/UConn is singing Austin Freeman’s praises, since he has 23 (?!?) in the second half and is leading Georgetown back by himself, by our guy’s account. Hope the rest of the day is exciting as these first few games!
1:45: Louisville’s press is driving St. John’s batty. The ‘Ville is up 58-46 at the under-8 TVTO. St. John’s will have to start their run soon if they’re going to make it interesting.
1:50: ESPN/Big East Network commentator Mike Kelley just put up his “Top Centers” list during this Louisville/St. John’s game and I didn’t see Cole Aldrich on the list. Did I just miss that? Also no Patrick Patterson or DeMarcus Cousins from Kentucky (perhaps he’s considering them forwards), no Dexter Pittman from Texas. He got Luke Harangody, though.
1:55: G’Town/UConn is a one-point game (GU 70, UConn 69) with 40.4 left. Again, I don’t mean to oversell this but our guy is at RTC Live for that one if you want more of a live perspective.
1:58: Georgetown wins 72-69 and has now beaten Connecticut four times in a row. Back at the Florida/Vandy game, Alex Tyus just got UP for an insane two-handed tomohawk to cut Vandy’s lead back to seven. Ogilvy answers at the line to make it nine again. Just over a minute left.
2:06: Hey, Scott. Thanks for the comment. I don’t know about my other RTC compatriots, but I see Louisville more toward the back end of that 3-8 range you mention. That’s no sin, because the Big East is stacked with some fine squads to say the least, and right now you’ve got a few teams jockeying for position, trying to turn themselves into the second surprise team from that conference this year (there are usually at least two “surprise” teams that make thing especially interesting in the Big East every year). Louisville? Notre Dame? Cincinnati? Pittsburgh has claimed the first “surprise” spot so far.
2:15: And now our second flight of games. The big daddy here is Duke at Georgia Tech where the Blue Devils have jumped out to a an early six point lead but we’re only five minutes in, there. Also, we have new top-10’er Kansas State vs Missouri where the Tigers are up at home early, but only by 14-13. This will be most folks’ first look at K-State. Interesting to see how they handle this tough Mizzou environment on national TV.
2:26: OK, latest tweets from John Calipari say that his special guest is someone he visited this past summer, and that “he’s a sports figure.” Unless he means Dario Franchitti, probably no Ashley Judd for me. But now you have to think…LeBron? Another source (h/t, KSR) says Mike Tomlin, since he’s not busy this weekend.
2:32: Duke has gone cold, shooting 7-18 so far and this is a PHYSICAL game as Jay Bilas just noted. Tech takes a single point lead into the under-8 TVTO. Meanwhile, Kansas State is up six on Missouri midway through the first half. By the way, doing color for ESPN2 on Mizzou/K-State is Fran Fraschilla, possibly the best tweeter in the world. I say that with all due respect.
2:38: For now, I’m going to hand it off to rtmsf since he’s finally out of bed, I guess. He’ll take you through the midday games and I’ll be back around 5pm or so to finish it…
2:43: Here we go… as John heads off to his RTC Live assignment (bundle up, brotha), we’re going to be here taking you through all the afternoon games. What’s on your tv right now? I’ve got Duke up four on Ga Tech, switching back to keep an eye on a very interesting K-State team in Columbia. On 360, I’m also switching back and forth between the Egg Bowl (bball version) and Marquette-Villanova.
2:47: I don’t have BTN here, but I’m also gametracking the Purdue-Wisconsin game, which is arguably the biggest game of the entire day. ‘Sconsin has the unbeaten Boilers down five early in the second half, and reserve Jordan Taylor has been great for Bo Ryan with 13 pts off the bench.
2:51: Marquette goes into the break down 12 at Villanova. Why am I having a sense of deja vu here? Oh, right — it’s because these two teams played ONE WEEK AGO. What kind of Big East scheduling SNAFU was that? Seriously, are we doing home-and-homes now in the Big East? A seven-day layoff between games.
2:54: K-State is up six, but the fans and Mike Anderson are not happy right now. Ron Franklin is doing the game along with the aforementioned Fraschilla. Is there a bigger conference homer than him (for the Big 12)? Ok, excluding Mike Patrick (ACC) in his glory days, but ESPN finally moved him away from Dickie V to put the clamps on that.
2:57: One game I am really watching closely is that battle of the Magnolia State in the SEC. Both of those teams are very dangerous and are largely being overlooked by the national media. If UT doesn’t get their four players back this year (well, we already know one of them is gone), then I’d wager that the second-best and third-best teams in the SEC are in this game. Ole Miss is up seven coming out of the half.
3:00: K-State has to be the team where someone who doesn’t really pay attention to college hoops would look at the top ten and say “whaaaa?” They’re really good, though. Behind Dominique Sutton and Curtis Kelly, they’re monsters on the offensive glass (#3 off reb % at 43%). That’s insane considering they’re an average height team (about 6’5). Shows that they really focus on going after the ball on misses.
3:02: I’m talking them up and they’ve missed their last nine shots in a row in this one. Ahem. One-point lead for KSU. Press is really getting to the Wildcats right now. Ten point lead is GONE.
3:07: Score check as Mizzou takes a 3-pt lead into the half. Wisconsin is now up ELEVEN on Purdue, and the bulk of that difference is from the FT line — Purdue is 11-21 from the stripe so far. Duke is up six on Ga Tech at the half, and Nova is now up 14 on Marquette early in the second. Also early second half and Texas is up 13 on Colorado.
3:11: Barry Stewart of Miss St just missed all three free throws on a trip to the line, which wouldn’t be a big deal except that he’s one of the best three-point shooters in the SEC at 37%. Bizarre. Ole Miss is still up seven in that one.
3:15: Villanova is destroying Marquette 43-26 right now over on 360. Shooting 58% for the game will help cause that. Does anyone think Jamie Dixon at Pitt and/or Jay Wright at opposite ends of Pennsylvania would ever leave those schools? They’re both phenomenal coaches.
3:19: A John Riek sighting! Mississippi State’s huge man is on the court, and honestly, this is the first time I’ve ever seen him play in live-game action. He’s only played in twenty minutes since he became eligible after the first-semester break, and he’s put in 10 pts, 12 rebs and 3 blks in that time. I suggest you switch over to get a look at this long, lanky guy who has come a long way to get to this point. (yeah, 3 blks in 20 minutes – that’ll get the NBA scouts interested…)
3:27: Some internet troubles there for a few minutes, lost my feed on 360. Duke-Ga Tech is back on, and Duke can’t really pull away from the Jackets just yet. Was anyone else really frightened that John Salley was going to say something incredibly inappropriate about meeting Mark Price for the first time. I was almost ready to throw up a post about it – that’s how scared I was.
3:31: Ok, Wisconsin in going to beat Purdue, leaving just three unbeaten teams. The Badgers are up 63-57 with over a minute left. I guess it’s still possible, but a Bo Ryan team? Probably not. Wisconsin RTC’d when they beat Duke a month ago? Is #4 and unbeaten Purdue RTC-worthy?
3:33: Quick update from the SEC; MSU has made a run to go up one, and I just saw a drive where John Riek showed why he was so sought after. His arms are endless. He completely erased an Ole Miss attack on the rim without really even jumping.
3:38: Marquette has made a bit of a run to get back within single digits at Villanova. The Al McGuires were down twenty not very long ago. Mizzou is still up five on K-State, and Duke-Ga Tech are battling back and forth with the lead.
3:43: And that’s it from Madison. The Badgers just do it year after year up there in cheese country, taking down another top ten team 73-66. This wasn’t an upset in the Vegas sense (UW was favored by two), but to beat a 15-0 team is something to be very proud of, so wherever you are right now, Michael Bleach, enjoy it.
3:47: Terrico White just hit a big three for Ole Miss to draw the Rebels back within two after MSU had made a run. One minute to go in Oxford.
3:48: And now Marquette is within three in Philly! I’ve got two computers up and running to get both 360 feeds. Five minutes to go in that one.
3:50: Meanwhile, Ga Tech went on a run to take a five-pt lead before Duke hit a three to get it back to two. This has every earmark of a game down to the wire, which isn’t what I thought was going to happen here. Honestly, I thought Duke would rip Tech a new one.
3:53: HUGE block (goaltend?) by the nation’s best interior defender Jarvis Varnado to ice the game for Mississippi State. Like we said on Friday, this MSU team (even w/o Renardo Sidney) is pretty good.
3:59: Villanova has jumped back up by six, but that one is still in doubt on the Main Line. Duke and Georgia Tech are destined to go down the last possession as well. Keep in mind, folks, that RTC Live will be covering Georgia at #3 Kentucky right now from Lexington. Here’s your link.
4:04: Marquette just had a three in the air to get within one but it rimmed out. They’ll have another chance, though, with the ball down four. Duke and Ga Tech are still battling a close one, and I almost forgot about Mizzou-Kansas State, but KSU is still leading by 5 with six minutes to go.
4:06: Wow, really big call by the refs in the Marquette-Nova game, as a hard foul on a breakaway led to a flagrant called. With Marquette down four points, they could theoretically take the lead here! With 0:27 on the clock, the Nova fans are in shock.
4:08: Kyle Singler just missed a three to take the lead in Atlanta. 1:24 left in that one. Marquette has never led in their game, and they hit both of the FTs from the flagrant to cut it to two points. Nothing but net with the empty foul lane. MU is 1-4 tihs season in close games. Can they gut out this comeback?
4:09: Ugh. You hate to see that. Jimmy Butler got himself into a trap and was stripped by Scottie Reynolds to turn it over. Antonio Pena hits the first to push it back up to three, as we go into a timeout.
4:11: Lawal hits a really tough fading away bankshot to put GT up four. After a Singler miss and a Plumlee dunk off a TO, we’re back to two. Over in Philly, we’re still waiting on the timeout to end with 8.4 seconds remaining. Pena will be at the line for another.
4:14: Lazar Hayward fouls out with 3.7 left and another big game in the books. 20/8/3 assts/3 stls for one of the best in the nation. Villanova hangs on as they nearly blew a 22-pt lead but never lost actually lost it, and despite a boneheaded play at the end with the intentional foul, they win their 35th in a row at the Pavilion. Another close loss for Marquette. Eventually they’re going to win one of these games!
4:17: Duke needs a miracle to have a chance in this one. I think we’re looking at our second top ten loss of the day, though. Ga Tech has been impressive. But why don’t they bring it every night (or even, most nights)? Scheyer hits a three to keep it close…
4:19: That’s it from Atlanta. Will we see an RTC? I don’t see anyone lining up. Hmm… ok, we had a delayed one. Looks pretty small, actually. Must be just the freshmen.
4:20: Heading back over to Missouri, and we have a back and forth game here…
4:21: Merriewether left his feet in the corner, which is recipe for disaster against the Mizzou overplays, leading to a breakout and two FTs for the Tigers. While we have a timeout, what a day so far! #4 and #5 have already fallen on the road in conference play, and the games just keep cooking…
4:23: Jacob Pullen with a DAGGER three to tie the game! Zaire Taylor with the RETORT from three himself. Mizzou up three with 33.3 now.
4:29: Mizzou hits both to put the Tigers up four. Denis Clemente loses the ball and the THIRD top ten team goes down this afternoon. Mizzou wins its thirtieth in a row at home. What a day!
4:30: John Stevens just tweeted about this, and yeah, you need to see it. Georgia’s Travis Leslie just dunked on Kentucky’s DeMarcus Cousins so hard he’s probably still wondering why he crawled out of bed this morning. Mercy!
4:33: That dunk made me hurt a little bit, and I’m 2500 miles away. Whew. So let’s see what’s happening at the 4 0’clock hour in the world of college hoops, shall we? Dayton looks like they’re going to survive Duquesne in overtime at home in a key A10 battle, Clemson and Kentucky have early leads, and Evan Turner’s Buckeyes are up one on Minnesota at the half.
4:40: Over on Versus, we’ve got UNLV-New Mexico down in the Pit, and UNLV has an early lead. The UNC-Illinois State game is also, of course, on ESPN2 if you’re feeling a little Valley this afternoon.
4:46: Wow, Georgia is leading Kentucky right now. The Bulldog program has been so bad for so long that it’s nice to see Mark Fox getting some good effort out of his players. A win over Ga Tech at home last time out and now a solid first half at UK are building blocks for his program.
4:51: Just ordered a pizza for some sustenance. How much does a delivered pizza cost in your corner of the world? Good grief. Mine was $20. Anyway, getting back to why we’re here… Georgia still up 3 on Kentucky, but this UNLV-New Mexico game has sucked me with its intensity.
4:56: Dammit, I really wish I had the Big Ten Network here. Minnesota just went on an 11-5 run out of the half to take a 5-pt lead. Evan Turner has ok numbers – 7 pts, 5 assts, 4 rebs. John Wall is looking active during the UK-Georgia game, and UNLV has taken a nice lead into the half in the Pit.
5:00: UK’s Darnell Dodson gave a 35-footer a great look at the end of the half, but Kentucky will go into the half trailing by one point. There’s no way this could actually happen, right? Right. Not as long as John Wall is still playing.
5:07: We’re back on the MVC game between N. Iowa and Illinois St and UNI is up 13 early second half. They’re really playing well this season, at 13-1 and coming off a nice road win at SIU. If they can get this one today, they’ll have already vanquished two of their biggest competitors in the Valley in their buildings.
5:12: Wow, what a ridiculously nasty move by Osiris Eldridge for ISU and the Redbirds are showing signs of life. On Doug Collins Court. No word on whether the court is as smarmy as its namesake.
5:24:Georgia still leading after a little mini-run by Kentucky at Rupp… and UNLV up four on the Lobos. Up in Minnesota, Blake Hoffarber has 7 threes (on 8 attempts) to give the Gophers a 12-pt lead mid-second half. Evan Turner’s #s are good (17/6/6 assts/4 stls), but he needs help from guys like Jon Diebler (5 pts on 2-8 FG).
5:26:Correction on that – there’s only four minutes remaining at Minnesota. I thought OSU would put up a better performance than this with Turner back in the fold.
5:30:You know the criticism about Cousins at the next level? He can’t jump! I’ve seen him several times not be able to go up over smaller people, and he just got packed again at the rim. I wonder how that will impact his status on the draft boards if scouts pick up on that.
5:32:One score I noticed on the last review was Clemson now ripping BC by 15. You just don’t know what you’re going to get from BC these days, so that was worth watching. UK is on another mini-run to go up three, while OSU is now down fifteen and about to lose in Minneapolis. Additionally, New Mexico is now up one on UNLV.
5:38:Ashley Judd is at the UK game today for the first time this season, I understand. Wonder if she’s done the John Wall Dance yet? One other interesting score… 3-13 Ga Southern is up four on Western Carolina in the SoCon this afternoon. That would be a huge upset in that league.
5:42:Georgia is NOT going away here, folks. I’ve found this on my CSN channel, which I didn’t even know I had. The Dogs lead by two, but remember, UK has done this several times this season. I can think of Stanford and Miami (OH) off the top of my head.
5:46:UNLV has gone on an 11-0 run and is back up to a ten-pt lead at New Mexico. This would be an enormous win for the Rebels. This league is year-in, year-out so underrated.
5:49:You won’t see that much – NM’s McDonald took two straight threes from the same place, and he nailed the first one (swish) and hit nothing on the second one (airball).
5:52:Georgia’s Jeremy Price fouls out on a Cousins rebound, which will hurt the UGa depth inside down the stretch. Then they proceed to lane violate on a missed FT. Weird series of plays here. Someone goaltended that ball, and they’re saying now it was a Georgia player.
5:55:Big three to keep Georgia within distance here, as Kentucky has repeatedly gotten its hands on passes by the Dogs the last few trips. Over on Vs., it’s a seven-pt game with 3 minutes to go. Do the Lobos have a final push?
5:59:Just a programmatic reminder, but RTC Live will be carrying the game at Seton Hall today vs. Cincinnati starting shortly. Our man Joe will be at the Rock for that one, here’s the link…
6:04:UK is still up three with 2:44 to go, and UNLV is closing out Steve Alford’s team in the Pit. Tremendous road win for the Rebels today.
6:07:Clemson finished off BC for a nice but expected win for the Tigers. That upset possibility mentioned earlier in the SoCon came through, as Ga Southern knocked off W. Carolina. And Georgia is now down six (w/ ball) against UK. They’re going to need to get some breaks here to pull this off.
6:10:UK just fouled out the third frontcourt player for Georgia, which more or less makes sense. Cousins may not be able to jump, but he is a major widebody who can score. big time steal and finish by Travis Leslie – what body control! Isn’t it weird that former Bama coach Mark Gottfried is calling SEC games one year later?
6:12:Cousins has 16/6 in this one. And there’s Wall with a sick dunk to end it. UK remains unbeaten. And Georgia has a name to watch in Travis Leslie (20/5 with a Dunkathayear candidate). Again, for a full analysis, check in over with John for postgame coverage on RTC Live.
6:18:Another score check here. A couple of interesting CAA scores. W&M destroyed Drexel on the road for their fourth CAA win, and George Mason got its fourth win as well over UNC-Wilmington. In the SEC, Alabama is doubling up LSU in Baton Rouge, which is a little surprising, and Michigan State is up 8 at Iowa in the first half.
6:28:I don’t have a lot of tv options right now without the U or BTN, so I’m settled on Stanford vs. UCLA, where the Cardinal are already up 8 early on Ben Howland’s team.
6:35:UCLA has come back with a chance to take the lead. I should have said that on ESPN2 there is also the Austin Peay-Murray St game as well. Seton Hall-Cincy is on 360 and we’ve got that going as well.
6:42:Seton Hall is looking good right now, on a big run to come back from a deficit to now go up three. UCLA and Stanford are going back and forth so far. Another game to keep an eye on down near Cuba… Wake is down five in the first half to Miami. Does anyone know how good the Hurricanes are this year??
6:48:Cincy has missed 10 of their last 11, while Jeremy Green is carrying Stanford in this first half. I love having multiple games up at once. Here at the RTC Cave, we need to move out of the lo-def world though. Michael Roll and Green traded threes here at the end of the half.
6:51:Our correspondent Joe Dzuback is seeing Seton Hall go on a 21-2 run in north Jersey this afternoon, as SH has pushed up to a 9-pt lead very quickly. Cincy can’t seem to do anything right now.
6:55:Jeremy Hazell nearly hit a 28 footer that would have brought the house down, but a 25-4 run will do for the Hall going into the half. MSU is up 18 on Iowa on BTN, and Miami leads Wake by five at halftime in Coral Gables.
7:01:We’ve now hit our seventh hour of BGTD today — where is everyone? No matter, we’re going to push on through for anybody who wants to see what was happening today after the fact. An interesting game on CBS College Sports starts now between Tulsa and Houston. I’ve found both teams a little disappointing this year relative to their talent, but Aubrey Coleman is always fun to watch, as he takes the award for Human Cannon: Southwest Division.
7:09:Jeremy Green continues to shoot lights-out from deep in Palo Alto, hitting for 20 pts on 4 threes so far in this one. The Hall is up fourteen on Cincy now, and Jeremy Hazell just continues to shoot.
7:24:FSN went out for a bit but it came back with still Stanford up three.
7:35:I’m not going to explain why I can’t watch the Seton Hall game right now but suffice it to say that domination of every form of media in the house is not a great way to get along with other people that might live here. Nevertheless, the Hall is up 13, and Stanford remains one bucket up on the Bruins. Wake is now up two at Miami.
7:39:MSU fiinished off Iowa, and look at Baylor ripping Oklahoma a new one in Waco today. Tweety Carter and LaceDarius Dunn have 27 and the Bears are shooting 58% from the field in that one.
7:42:Michael Roll and Reeves Nelson both have four fouls, but Stanford appears to be in control of this one even though they’re only up by eight. Jeremy Green has been spectacular in this one, scoring 28 pts on 10-16 from the field. Meanwhile, on the opposite end of the country, the Hall appears to be well on their way to their first Big East win this evening.
7:51:Every time it seems like UCLA is going to make a final push they turn the ball over. Just not the Bruins’ night, it seems. Don’t look now, but Seton Hall is only up five on Cincy now! 1:27 left…
7:55:Cincy had a three in the air from the corner to cut it to one possession, but if SH can hit their FTs, they should have their first BE win wrapped up. UCLA is done in the other game.
8:03:A few games of interest here in the 8pm hour starting… with WVU taking on Notre Dame in South Bend on ESPNU, and Illinois visiting Indiana (BTN). Baylor is destroying Oklahoma by 30 – has any team been more disappointing this year than the Sooners?
8:10:Miami just pulled out a one-pt win at home against Wake. I didn’t see it but it appears that Wake had the ball and Al-Farouq Aminue missed a shot and then they turned it over to end the game. Good win by the Hurricanes there.
8:20:Ok, we’re going to hand it back over to John Steven who will take you through the evening hours, as I’m heading over to Berkeley for the Cal-USC game for RTC Live tonight. Stop by if you’re not tired of college hoops yet today!
View Comments (1)
I'm pretty sure St John's is not going to make it interesting. Louisville is going to be interesting in the Big East. They have taken care of half of the bottom 6, and play Nova Monday. But, they have clear problems. Do you see them making noise in the Big East? I can see them anywhere from 3-8