What’s Trending: Comeback Saturday Edition
Posted by Griffin Wong on February 2nd, 2015What’s Trending is a column examining the week that was in college basketball social media. Griffin Wong (@griffwong90) is your weekly host.
Pitino Steals the Spotlight
And it wasn’t because of his team’s come-from-behind win over UNC (more on that later). Pitino went with the Colonel Sanders white suit to go along with the beginnings of a beard.
Rick Pitino looks like the basketball version of Roy Munson pic.twitter.com/BXJ9g7eSL2
— Ben Swanson (@CardboardGerald) January 31, 2015
A bold look, but I guess it paid off.
A Wild Saturday in the ACC
As mentioned above, Louisville came back from an 18-point second half deficit to give Pitino his first career victory over North Carolina (now 1-6). Junior Montrezl Harrell went off with 22 points, 15 rebounds, and a one-handed alley-oop that brought The House That Colonel Sanders Built completely down.
Wow. But as fantastic of a game that this one was, it was arguably bested by another ACC match-up later that evening. In an ESPN Gameday event between two top-five teams, Duke took down Virginia on the road, giving the Cavaliers their first loss of the season. The Blue Devils needed an impressive second-half comeback of its own to do so. After cutting Virginia’s lead to just three points with a couple minutes remaining, Justin Anderson delivered a thunderous alley-oop that appeared to thwart Duke’s run.
Nice dunk, but Duke had the last laugh. The Blue Devils ended the game on a 16-5 run, capped by freshman sensation Tyus Jones‘ crowd-hushing dagger that put the game out of reach.
Kentucky Aims for Perfection
Since a couple of surprising overtime wins in early January, the Wildcats haven’t been messing around much since. In a week where several top-10 teams fell, Kentucky stayed undefeated with convincing wins over Missouri and Alabama.
Kentucky leads Alabama 28-10 with 6:25 left first half. Nothing to see here, please keep moving.
— Seth Davis (@SethDavisHoops) February 1, 2015
John Calipari has now guided three programs undefeated into February: UMass 26-0 (1996), Memphis 26-0 (2008) and Kentucky 21-0 (2015). #BBN
— TheCatsPause247 (@TheCatsPause247) February 1, 2015
VCU Suffers a Huge Loss
VCU lost to crosstown rival Richmond on Saturday, but that isn’t the loss that cut the deepest. Senior Briante Weber suffered a gruesome knee injury that will end his career at VCU. Writhing in pain, Weber and coach Shaka Smart shared a touching Da’Sean Butler/Bob Huggins Moment.
ICYMI: RT @RTDSports: Knee injury ends Briante Weber's career at #VCU. http://t.co/FKpdLCEMbs #rva pic.twitter.com/kg84HIgtd2
— Times-Dispatch (@RTDNEWS) February 2, 2015
The senior was a defensive standout and fit perfectly into Smart’s HAVOC system. To add insult to injury, Weber was just 12 thefts away from the all-time NCAA steals record.
No one player defined the term HAVOC more than Briante Weber. Just an absolute shame that this is how his college career will end at VCU.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) February 1, 2015
Briante Weber was 12 steals away from the NCAA record. Just awful news.
— Jeff Borzello (@jeffborzello) February 1, 2015
Tragic, one could say.
Quick Hitters
-NC State’s Trevor Lacey hits a huge three to give the Wolfpack an 81-80 (OT) victory over Georgia Tech:
-Division II Drury University wins in a crazy finish over Quincy. Junior Kameron Bundy hit the prayer at the buzzer to win it for the Panthers:
-Wisconsin’s Nigel Hayes with a monster putback slam in the Badgers’ 74-63 win over Iowa:
