Rush The Court

Hummel vs. Turner.  Ohio State 70, #6 Purdue 66.  Evidently Robbie Hummel got tired of hearing about how great Villanova’s Scottie Reynolds was last night.  My favorite tweet last night from a hoop-o-phile friend came in two parts: “What do Robbie Hummel and a Swarthmore sorority have in common?  They both have a lot of threes.”  Hummel came out and hit eight shots from behind the arc in the first half, setting off a chain reaction of texts, tweets, and phone calls that rivaled the second half of Tennessee vs Kansas a couple of nights ago.  Hummel tied a school record in the first half — meaning a record for a whole game — with his eight treys, also adding a two and, for completeness’ sake, a trio of free throws to end the half with 29 points, equaling Ohio State’s output for the half.  That’s right.  At halftime, it was OSU 29, Robbie Hummel 29.  Here’s the problem, though.  The rest of the Purdue squad contributed only 12 points in the first half on five field goals.  The halftime lead was 41-29, and if you were watching this one you never felt like the Buckeyes had been put away.  You also saw Evan Turner get a little more confident in his movement and ability to take contact with each trip down the floor.  In the second half it was almost like Turner was waiting to see how much his teammates would contribute before wresting control of this game.  And that he did.  This thing looked like a done deal just before the under-4 TV time-out with Purdue up 62-52.  Turner then went on a 14-0 run by himself, and in doing so, not only put OSU in a position to win with a 64-62 lead, but vaulted himself back into the talk for Player of the Year…as one of the two favorites.  OSU simply outhustled Purdue down the stretch and, with Turner solidly back as master and commander, were effectively unfazed by Purdue’s tight defense in both the half- and full-court sets.  Purdue never so much as tied the score after Turner’s 14-0 run.  Two William Buford (19/7) free throws with 16 seconds left closed the scoring and sealed the unlikely Buckeye victory.  Robbie Hummel’s first half was legendary, there’s no question.  And it had a lot of flash (something you don’t necessarily think of when you think of Purdue basketball), since 24 of the 29 points were from threes.  We don’t mean to drag down Hummel’s 35/10 night, but Evan Turner had 23 of his 32 in the second half, and considering whom he did it against, where it was done, and the fact that he did it while playing all 40 minutes with two bones still healing in his spinal column, we think it’s an easy call to say that Turner’s second-half 23 was more impressive than Hummel’s first-half 29, even though that probably won’t be the popular opinion.  There’s one thing on which everyone can agree, though, after what we saw from Evan Turner tonight: his backbone is not to be questioned.

Kentucky Remains Unbeaten.  #2 Kentucky 89, Florida 77.  In an era of college basketball where many teams (even in the Top 25) have barely a single serviceable point guard, John Calipari’s team boasts two.  Everyone knows about the spectacular John Wall, but it might just be his backcourt mate Eric Bledsoe who has the longer-lasting impact on the UK program (think: Brandan Wright’s vs. Tyler Hansbrough’s careers at UNC).  Tonight Bledsoe scored in just about every way imaginable — driving, twisting layups, mid-range jumpers, three-pointers — as he dropped 25/7/5 assts/3 stls on a Florida team that appears to be going nowhere fast.  Think about how far this Gator program has fallen since the “04s” left Gainesville.  With a record of 11-5 (0-2 SEC) and an RPI rating in the 80s (and dropping), a third straight NIT is looking like a realistic possibility.  When is it acceptable to openly question whether Billy Donovan simply caught lightning in a bottle with that spectacular recruiting class to win back-to-back national titles in 2006 and 2007?  It’s utterly ridiculous that he hasn’t been able to sustain the success of at program after winning back-to-back (it’s not like we’re asking for F4s; a simple NCAA second round would be nice at this point).  As for Kentucky, the Cats moved to a still-perfect 17-0 and broke a five-game losing streak in Gainesville tonight while shooting 52% and answering every run that Florida made (including the start of the game when the fans were wild, and a late run to tie the game at 72-all).  We’re on record as saying that when UK loses (and they will), it will be in a situation where the young players are not focused because they do not respect the opponent — they were clearly focused for Florida.  John Wall added 19/4/6 assts and Patrick Patterson had 15/7, while Florida got 20/4 from Erving Walker who almost singlehandedly brought the Gators back into the game late.  According to Pomeroy, UK will be favored in every game it plays until February 16 at Mississippi State, but we have a sneaky suspicion that one of these ‘lesser’ teams will give the Cats their first loss (@ South Carolina is our best guess).

More Upsets!

• Colorado 78, #24 Baylor 71.  Way to let us down, Bears.  In a shocker of shockers, the hapless Buffs took down the 13-1 Baylor Bears tonight by forcing 18 turnovers and hitting 50% from the field.  Ekpe Udoh had his typically fantastic game (14/14/5 assts/2 blks), but the Bear guards, Tweety Carter and LaceDarius Dunn, had a tough shooting night (12-32 combined) and weren’t about to find a rhythm.  More importantly for the Big 12 in general, is this a signal that a trip to Boulder will no longer be an easy W for teams looking for a break in the tough conference?  Jeff Bdzelik hopes so, and with Colorado now sitting at 9-0 at home (but 10-6 overall), the Buffaloes might be only a year away from actually being competitive in this league.
• NC State 88, #25 Florida State 81.  NC State took control of this one early on a 16-1 run in the first half, and in a road win as suprising as we’ve seen in conference play this year, the Wolfpack held on to win the game in Tallahassee.  Normally we’d say ‘same ol’ FSU’ except they usually win the home games against inferior opponents, so we’re not sure what to make of this.  FSU has a great defense against the two (second in the nation), but it was the three that was the problem tonight.  NC State freshman Scott Wood did his best Hummel impression, hitting seven threes and scoring a career-high 31/7 as his team continues to perplex us (losing home games to Northwestern, Florida and Virginia, but beating Marquette and FSU away).

Other Games of National Interest.

• #12 Kansas State 88, Texas A&M 65.  Home court in the Big 12 continues to rule, as only one team has lost a home game all season.  K-State wasn’t about to break that trend tonight, as Denis Clemente came out firing in the first half for 20 of his 24 points in an effort to remove the bad taste left after the Missouri loss over the weekend.  Jamar Samuels came off the bench for 19/4 and Dominique Sutton added 12/12 as A&M struggled to score against the KSU defense (36%).
• Wake Forest 85, Maryland 83 (OT).  Wake got 24/13/3 blks from its star Al-Farouq Aminu, while Maryland’s Greivis Vasquez dropped 30/4/7 assts in a shootout in W-S tonight.  Ish Smith had the game-winning floater in the overtime, as Wake played (and won) it’s third OT game in the last four.  It seems that every game the Deacs play comes down to the last possession.
• Illinois 54, Penn State 53.  In a classic Big Ten defensive battle, Illinois used a late 14-5 run to close out the game and get its fourth win of the conference slate (granted, the schedule has been weak).  Demetri McCamey got the start and responded with 25/5 assts, but Brandon Paul continued his slump, contributing zero points and one assist in only seven minutes of play.  Remember, Paul had three 20-pt contests prior to Christmas, but has failed to reach double-figures in seven of the last nine games.
• Northern Iowa 52, Bradley 50.  UNI won it’s fourteenth straight game to get off to its best record (15-1, 6-0 MVC) since the 1960s tonight.  Bradley outrebounded UNI by nine and the Panthers only hit four threes in the game, but Ali Farokhmanesh hit for 14 pts and Jordan Eglseder had 11/10 to eke by in a close one down the stretch.