Rush The Court

If you are interested in participating in our ATB2 feature, send in your submissions to rushthecourt@gmail.com. We will add to this post throughout the day as the submissions come in so keep on sending them.

Top 25 Games

• Providence 83, #6 Villanova 68: “Villanova evened their record for this, the longest road trip of this season, at 1-1 on Saturday with their 11 point win, 83-72, over Syracuse. Chances to conclude the road trip with another win were foiled as the Friars won a decisive, 83-68 victory over Villanova at the Dunkin Donuts Center in downtown Providence, RI. The Friars punched the Wildcats with a 6-0 run to start the game, then stretched that lead to nine, 34-25, going into halftime. Credit Providence for striking again early in the second half, taking a 7-4 run over the first four minutes that stretched the lead to 12, 41-29, before the ‘Cats could regroup for their own run. Villanova could get no closer than seven (43-50 at the 10:11 mark), and once repelled, could not stop the Friars from pushing their lead back out to double digits, where it largely remained through the end of the game. Villanova’s longest road trip for this season ended with on a 1-2 note.” (Villanova by the Numbers)
• #6 Texas 61, Oklahoma State 46: “Texas turned in another fantastic defensive performance, holding Oklahoma State to 32% shooting, as the Longhorns improved their record to 17-3, 5-0 in Big 12 play, with a 61-46 win over the Cowboys in Stillwater.  Tristan Thompson led the Horns with 14 points, and both Jordan Hamilton (12) and Dogus Balbay (10) scored in double digits.” (Burnt Orange Nation or Pistols Firing)
• #19 Minnesota 81, Northwestern 70: “Not many teams could survive losing two point guards capable of starting in the Big Ten in a matter of weeks. But Tubby Smith’s Gophers are surviving and thriving with Devoe Joseph opting to wear street clothes in Oregon and Al Nolen on the bench with a broken foot. How? Dominating the paint. On Wednesday night against Northwestern, the Gophers pounded the ball in the paint at every possible opportunity as Colton Iverson, Ralph Sampson III and Trevor Mbakwe helped the Gophers to a relatively easy win against the Wildcats.” (The Daily Gopher or From the Barn)
• #21 Georgetown 77, St. John’s 52: “That was quite satisfying. Georgetown defeated St. John’s 77-52 in the most impressive performance since Big East play started. Austin Freeman, Jason Clark, and Chris Wright each played spectacularly, and were supported by new super 6th man Hollis Thompson. Clark scored 16 points on 5-5 from the field, including 3-3 from three point land. Thompson, who has improved dramatically since the beginning of the year, came off the bench for the first time this year and scored 15 points, including a ferocious dunk and foul in the first half. Georgetown looked like a completely different team than the one that lost three straight games in early January. Nate Lubick started alongside Clark, Freeman, Wright and Julian Vaughn for the first time this season. The defensive intensity exhibited tonight was far superior to anything we’ve seen in a while. The Hoyas outrebounded St. John’s 39-28, and made 26 baskets on 21 assists” (Casual Hoya)

Other Games of Interest

• Louisville 55, West Virginia 54: “So, that happened. Obviously the big questions going forward are the health of Dieng and TJ. Glad the team could get the win, would hate to see the vitriol that TJ would get for that last miss. The refs were awful, surprised Huggins waited until 5 minutes left to get T’d up, and he really should have been run based on his post-T conduct. Preston! had a rough night shooting but played 34 minutes.” (Card Chronicle)
• UNC 74, Miami (FL) 71: “You can look at this game in one of two ways. One, UNC came out flat and gave up six three pointers from the Hurricanes, and fell behind 18-4. It took a herculean effort to even get to a tie game by halftime, and the Heels spent the rest of the game muddling along, and barely escaped with a win. In the second perspective, UNC hung on despite a torrent of threes from Miami – they’d finish with 13 – and had their best shooting night since the St. Francis game, winning down the stretch with a dead-eye performance from Harrison Barnes. Your view on this game probably depends on how you’ve felt about this team for awhile now, and both ways of thinking are equally correct.” (Carolina March)
• Tennessee 75, LSU 53: “The Vols have been frustrating at times, but tonight wasn’t one of them.  Playing well at home against an LSU team that’s both young and banged up doesn’t say much about your overall skill, but not playing down to the competition hasn’t always been one of our strengths…and tonight, Tennessee took control early and cruised to a 22 point win.” (Rocky Top Talk)

Pre-Game Analysis

• Michigan at #23 Michigan State: Doing a Q&A with a Michigan State blogger. (UM Hoops or The Only Colors: Part 1 or Part 2)
• UCLA at Arizona: “This is a crazy important game for the Arizona team. They feel this is their chance to prove they are back in front of a national TV audience. (Ironically, Arizona has as many wins right now as they did last year while if UCLA were to beat Arizona they would match their win total for last year.) How crazy is Arizona for this game? As tasser10 noted, they are unveiling new uniforms at this game. Arizona’s student and alumni will be pumped and that tends to help their players. Of course as I discussed Tuesday, the biggest issue for UCLA may be facing Derrick Williams. A stat I did not mention is that no one in the COUNTRY has attempted more free throws than Derrick Williams. To make matters worse, UCLA may not have Reeves Nelson and certainly not at a 100%” (Bruins Nation)

News/Analysis

• Greivis Vasquez Might Be Seeing His Banner Raised on Feb. 20 Against N.C. State: “If you were attentive, as some around here were, you had some inkling of this earlier in the week. But now it’s approaching semi-official status: Gary Williams says Greivis Vasquez’s banner/jersey will likely be hung in the rafters on Feb. 20, when Maryland takes on N.C. State in the Comcast Center. That’s all pending some “things” and Gary says nothing is decided yet, but if he’s talking openly about it, I have to imagine they’re somewhat far along.” (Testudo Times)
• Kansas Vs Kansas State Is It Rivalry Week?: “Since the Jayhawks put together a nice offensive performance in a road win at Colorado things have been oddly quiet on the Jayhawk basketball front. Oddly quiet when you consider that in two days from now ESPN’s College Gameday will be aired live from Allen Fieldhouse and oddly quiet when you consider that a team that presents itself as an in-state rival will also roll in to town. Has there been a dip in the enthusiasm for this one? Why the change in enthusiasm? Two months ago this was looking like a battle of top 10 and maybe even top 5 teams. In fact ticket prices still pretty much reflect that feeling. But it seems like some of the air has maybe been taken out of the sails for what could have been a game that played a major role in renewing or perhaps building this rivalry.” (Rock Chalk Talk)