Now it’s a party.  The first round is done.  The next 48 hours of games will define which big-time teams can handle the pressure cooker that is the Big Dance, and it will identify the Cinderellas we’ll be talking about for years.  If you’re a double-digit seed, winning one game is nice, but you don’t receive your wicked stepsisters, pumpkin coach, and glass slipper until you at least reach the Sweet 16.  Oh, you’re a big-conference bigwig?  Then the next round is still probably less than what was expected of you.  People don’t remember Second Rounders.  They remember teams that make the Sweet 16 and beyond.  The first round was fun.  But it’s over.  Here are the teams vying for the Sweet 16 on Saturday:

• #2 Villanova vs #10 St. Mary’s
• #5 Butler vs #13 Murray State
• #6 Tennessee vs #14 Ohio
• #1 Kansas vs #9 Northern Iowa
• #3 Baylor vs #11 Old Dominion
• #3 New Mexico vs #11 Washington
• #2 Kansas State vs #7 Brigham Young
• #1 Kentucky vs #9 Wake Forest

We’ll be here all day, watching the games with you.  We hope you’ll join us, and we definitely look forward to seeing you in the comments section as we all climb in to ride this rollercoaster for the third time.  See you right here about fifteen minutes before the first tip!

12:55: Here we go!  For the Sweet 16, gentlemen…let’s play!  Some interesting matchups throughout the day.  Looking especially forward to Baylor vs ODU and KSU vs BYU.  To me those look like the more intriguing games.

1:05: St. Mary’s off to a quick start!  The inside battle between Omar Samhan and Mouphtaou Yarou and/or Maurice Sutton is gonna be fun to watch.  God, Samhan looks bigger every time I see him.

1:15: I guess Jay Wright’s “minor teaching point” is over.  Samhan could not have asked for a better start to this game.  Eight points on 4-6 shooting.  SMU does not look intimidated early.  I fact, Villanova still looks like they’re getting over whatever hangover they were nursing that caused them to almost get beaten by Bob Morris.

1:26: Samhan just rooked with that second foul.  I agree with Raftery.  That should have been a no-call.

1:35: This is great.  This is one of the things I love about the tournament.  For the first 12 minutes of this game, SMC has played as well as they have all year.  You get into the second round and the Sweet 16 and teams rise to the occasion.  I know that sounds cliche’, but it’s true — teams you’ve watched that have been fair-to-good all year suddenly find new gears in the NCAA Tournament that they never knew they had.

1:42: So Scottie Reynolds’ first field goal comes with 6:00 left in the first half.  I agree with Raftery.  Villanova has to be more guard-oriented.  For goodness’ sake, keep the ball in the hands of the people that got you here.  By the way, WHAT is going on with this down-low referee on the SMC end?  Yarou got jobbed by a TERRIBLE call!  That was a clean block and that’s the second call that guy’s missed.

1:48: Yeah, Coke Zero?  Might want to wait a few weeks before making those promos.  That one featured North Carolina in the tournament…

1:51: Perfect fastbreak after the turnover.  Corey Fisher to Pena for the slam.  But Samhan answers with the and-one!  I’m amazed at the amount of chirping I’m seeing on Twitter…lots of folks ALREADY have SMC penciled in to move on the the ELITE EIGHT, just because they’ve started well against Villanova in this second round game.  And now Samhan gets a warning for taunting with the “shhhh” signal to the ‘Nova bench.  Calm down, people.  The real Villanova hasn’t arrived.  I don’t actually now if they’re on the way, but if they are…well, let’s just calm down with the Elite Eight talk and the taunting.

1:58: And there’s the half.  38-31 in favor of the Gaels.  Definitely better than a lot of SMC supporters were hoping, but I get the feeling Villanova has an awakening coming.  Maybe Jay Wright can wake up his side.  But credit to SMC for really stepping up and putting pressure on Villanova.  Upsets don’t usually happen because an underdog team comes from behind.  They usually get an early lead and do everything they can to hold it.  Except for Ohio vs Georgetown, where OU just extended it.

2:03: OK, I’m a fan of the Axe products commercial.  And during the times that I’ve watched the games this year with my family or friends, I think I’m one of the only people who enjoys just about every Old Spice commercial.  “Ladies, look at your man.  Now me.  Him again, NOW BACK to me…” all the way to the ending of  “I’m on a horse.”  It’s fantastic.  And they’ve got the new ones we’re seeing during the tournament. I don’t know who created that ad campaign, but I dig it.

2:21: Second half.  The only person who’s come out with any early second-half increased energy for ‘Nova is Reynolds.  Jeez, Yarou cannot defend Samhan in the post.  Too big and more agile than I think Jay Wright and Yarou anticipated.

2:28: Here’s a thought…SMC is playing so much better than ‘Nova, but yet it’s only a 5-point lead, 45-40.  I know that includes a three that resulted from a ball that came off a ref’s foot, but hey, whaddaya gonna do.  In the last two possessions, we’ve seen great examples of how ‘Nova can take control of this game if they use their athleticism to go after offensive boards, increase the pace, play close defense, drive and crash, etc.  If they keep it slow and staid, and (as Raftery said) “play too pretty,” they’ll have a tough time.

2:36: Looks like the message has gotten through to Villanova.  Two fast breaks yield two buckets including an and-one to tie it for Antonio Pena.  If SMC wants to stay in it, SMC has to touch it every time, and the only threes they should take are when it’s kicked out by Samhan.  The other Gaels will get baskets through him.

2:45: St. Mary’s threes this half?  Zilch.

2:47: Man, the kid has got 30!!!  He had two Wildcats in his face and still put it off glass.  Again, Scottie Reynolds gets his first bucket of the half with 14 minutes already played.  Two straight three attempts for SMC.  Can anyone tell me why?

2:51: That’s amazing — I checked the stat sheet and Verne Lundquist is exactly right.  Only FIVE turnovers for Villanova today.  Again, these guys are losing their minds for SMC, and they’ve played REALLY well, especially Samhan.  But this is a one-point game, still.

3:00: I don’t know, folks…Samhan hasn’t touched it in a while.  He can be more aggressive now, since he’s not in foul trouble.  Only has two.

3:05: Sorry.  Looked to me like there was contact there with the body before that Samhan block.  But after that banked three by Mickey McConnell, everything’s going their way.

3:10: Matt: good question.  I thought they’d use him more, but Pena started out having a good game and it’s like Yarou was forgotten.

3:11: These FTs by Matthew Dellavedova seal it.  The Sweet 16….Enter Samhan.  Is St. Mary’s the new Gonzaga?

3:18: Paula:  Good question — his reputation took a MAJOR hit from this one game.  He’s been known for being clutch all year (career) long, and today it looked like he was just fine with letting his career move on to the next phase.

3:25: Matt:  I saw that Thamel tweet and look like he’s right.  I know Samhan’s good, but can they slow down Baylor and Ekpe Udoh?  Assuming Baylor gets by Old Dominion — and I’m not saying that’ll necessarily happen — that would be a GREAT inside battle.

3:27: Meanwhile, on to the next game.  I have a feeling about Murray State, here.  Wondering how Butler will handle being the hunted and not the hunter.

3:32: So which is it?  Has the Big East been overrated all year, or is their poor tournament performance (4-5 playing nobody better than an 8-seed) due to the long, hard Big East schedule and the cannibalistic post-season conference tournament?

3:33: Murray State is going to have to get over the nerves, here.  Butler is totally capable of jumping out to a big lead and then turning to stone on them.

3:38: Refs are certainly letting them play!  Lots of contact inside, no calls.  That’s OK, as long as it’s consistent.  After a 7-0 Racers run, it looks like the nerves are gone.  12-10 Bulldogs.  Man, the Twitt-o-spehere is still buzzing with that SMC win.  It IS a #2 seed going down…

3:48: Butler’s Shelvin Mack is a Kentucky kid playing against Murray State.  And he’s playing well.  We’ve got some creative kids in this game, like Mack, and definitely Murray’s Isaiah Canaan and B.J. Jenkins.

3:57: Peeking in on the other game, Ohio U. and Tennessee are tied at 10 early.  I don’t know how OU is going to be able to keep up with the UT athletes.  Tennessee should be going inside almost exclusively.  I don’t know who OU has to guard those UT bigs.

4:06: Ohio’s D.J. Cooper is a fantastic backcourt defender.  He’s already got one five-second call on his man and almost drew another.  Not bad on offense, either!  They just put up a graphic of Chicago-native point guards in the NCAA Tournament, and one that I think they missed…Evan Turner?

4:12:  Donte Poole with a three at the buzzer to end the half!!  Man, St. Mary’s might not be the only school waiting on their Official Cinderella Handbook to arrive in the mail…

4:16: WOW, that was a right-handed DISCARD of Tommy Freeman by J.P. Prince.  UT is starting use their athleticism to put some space between them and the Bobcats.  10-0 run.

4:25: Whoooooa!  Cameron Tatum with the LONG three at the end of the shot clock!  The two worst things that could happen for Ohio is that UT (4-8) hits their threes and OU (3-9) misses theirs.  The Armon Bassett/D.J. Cooper tandem is a combined 2-11 right now.  That’s gotta change for this to be competitive.  Right now Ohio looks very satisfied with their win over Georgetown.

4:33: About two minutes played in the second half over at Butler/Murray State, and Matt Howard has his third foul.  And now his fourth.  Seriously, he picked up his fourth in the short time that it took my to write that sentence, and I started it when he picked up his third.  That kid is a fouling machine.  Murray State just drilled a trey to go up seven, and if it gets bigger Brad Stevens may have to put them back in after just a short rest.

4:41: Ohio/Tennessee go to the half at 38-27 Vols.  Butler/Murray St. is definitely the better game.  But now we have the dreaded double-commercial.

4:45: Our man at the San Jose pod just posted his diary from the first half of today.  Great stuff.

4:47: Look at this!  Butler is forced to go small because of Howard’s four fouls, and what happens?  The small lineup is a quick one, which can keep up wit Murray State better, and they’ve come back to tie this thing at 33.  Ronald Nored has 12 points on 5-7 shooting, not to mention 5 assists.  GREAT game for this unlikely source of production.

4:57: Butler is now WINNING this game because of the play of Shelvin Mack.  That kid’s been everywhere but most importantly has turned up his defensive intensity.  In fact, Butler’s done so as a team in the last five minutes, but most notably Mack.  They’re now up by SIX.  Murray looks shaken.

5:03: We’re back on at Ohio/Tennessee.  Man, Ohio just cannot defend Tennesse inside.  And the Ohio guards aren’t hitting.  Armon Bassett hasn’t seen daylight all day.  I mentioned in my writeup of this game that UT would win if their guards could play tough defense on the Ohio U. guards, and they’ve done just that.  In the end, I went with Ohio on a whim because in the past UT has petered out of the tournament when they’re SUPPOSED to win.  Looks like the current UT guys weren’t informed of that.  Playing well right now.

5:08: Back at Murray State/Butler…I think it’s clever that this arena is called HP Pavilion, and one of Hewlett Packard’s desktop computers is called the HP Pavilion.  And there are the words denoting the name of the arena in the right end zone that say, “HP Pavilion.” Somebody thought that through.

5:11: That was a GREAT call by the baseline ref to call the charge but still allow the basket.  That’s exactly the way it should have been.  Murray’s gone on a little run and have TAKEN THE LEAD with that three by Canaan!

5:15: And now we’ve got a game in the other one!  Tommy Freeman has just gone nuts for and and-one and a three to reel off six straight and bring his team to within five with 12:30 left!

5:21: NOT a good shot by Murray State there.  You don’t need a three.  At the other end, Ronald Nored drives to the hoop and gets an and-one to make it a six-point turnaround and give Butler a three-point lead.  GREAT game.  You know Murray State’s going to be looking for a trey at the other end.  B.J. Jenkins, Isacc Miles, or Canaan should take it…

5:26: Could you have positioned that trap better, if you’re Murray State?  These are Howard’s first FTs of the day, right?

5:27: I think if Howard hits this second one, you have to let Canaan (4-4 from three) just dribble down and take it like he did a couple of minutes ago.

5:29: Oh, my.  Canaan had it and tried to give it up, and threw it right into Gordon Hayward’s hand.  Knocked it into the backcourt, time runs out, game over.  You would have liked to have seen Murray State get a shot off, at least.  Butler goes to the Sweets.

5:40: Back down to a 10-point lead and the Vols respond with an in-bounds over the press for an easy dunk. Another transition dunk and it is up to 14. Quick 3 by Ohio cuts it to 11, but Tennessee gets another easy lay-up. Is Ohio going to start playing a little defense here?

5:47: Northern Iowa is up 10-2 early against Kansas. I don’t think the lead will last, but if the Jayhawks don’t show up soon they could find themselves in the deep hole against an experienced team. Even for a team as talented and experienced as KU could have trouble coming back from double digits.

5:49: And Kansas has cut it back to 3. So much for that. This just in: Kansas is good.

6:10: Big 3 for Ali Farokhmanesh, but Tyrel Reed responds with a 3. Things are starting to pick up in Oklahoma City. I’m not sure that the Panthers can hang with the Jayhawks if the game is played at this pace.

6:30: Kansas cannot guard Farokhmanesh. How is that possible? So many good athletes on that team. As a result the #1 overall seed is down by 8 going into the half. This would be  HUUUGE upset. I know Northern Iowa is good, but this is Kansas we are talking about. In New Orleans, Baylor is up by 9 on Old Dominion with 21 seconds left. Finally one mid-major is in trouble today. Quick question about the New Mexico-Washington game: Who is the little guy? The mid-major or the #11 seed?

6:51: I am glad that the CBS crew read my post about how similar Farokhmanesh’s shot was to Maurice Newby’s from 1990. These first 5 minutes will be huge for Northern Iowa. If they can build on their lead, Kansas will be in big trouble. If Kansas makes a run, the Panthers will probably start getting a lot tighter.

6:55: The lead was up to 10, but Collins just made a driving lay-up in transition. He doesn’t seem to have the range from the outside today so I would expect the senior to recognize this and attack the basket on every possession. Speaking of higher seeds in trouble. New Mexico is down by 12 half to Washington.

7:05: Jake Koch just hit a 3 to put the Panthers up by 12 almost midway through the 2nd half. In other news, approximately 1/2 of all NCAA brackets are about to go down in flames.

7:10: Down to 8. Somebody needs to take over for Kansas. Sherron Collins, Cole Aldrich, or Xavier Henry need to step up.

7:20: It looks like the we might have a solid set of games here. This potential huge upset and ODU tying the game with Baylor. Big news right now for Kansas: Cole Aldrich sitting on the bench with less than 7 minutes to go after injuring his leg.

7:30: Down to 3. Kansas is going to win this game. Sorry folk. I just get the weird feeling that UNI will give this game away. . .and Johnny Moran hits a huge 3 as I typing this.

7:45: Down to 1 with less than 30 seconds left. Sorry for the delay in updating here, but so many things happening. KU decides to play pressure D then UNI almost falls apart then KU blows a bunch of simple plays then UNI implodes again. Wow.

7:50: And down goes Kansas!!! And there goes my bracket. . .

7:55: So who is the favorite now? Kentucky? Is there a definitive favorite right now? I’m going with wide open. Everyone loves Kentucky’s talent, but they are also afraid of their youth and immaturity.

7:58: And Baylor advances to play at home in Houston. Unfortunately nobody watched it because they were all transfixed on UNI shocking Kansas. The other game (Washington up by 20 on New Mexico is barely worth commenting on at this point, but maybe the Pac-10 bashing–even by Pac-10 fans–was a bit premature or maybe they have just had a favorable draw).

8:28: BYU out to 10-0 lead. CBS just cut away from the feed for the pre-game of Kentucky-Wake Forest. I’m not sure they didn’t call them game in BYU’s favor for the “mercy rule”.

8:47: I’m getting the sense that Kentucky is just about to blow this game wide open. Of course, I am also the guy who thought Kansas had the win locked up with 2 minutes left and they were DOWN by 5.

8:58: BYU and Kentucky are up by almost identical scores (25-19 and 24-19, respectively). And DeMarcus Cousins continues to struggle at the FT line. Will this be an issue tonight?

9:07: Wow. Kansas State has come back to take the lead with 4:02 to go in the first half. Wake can’t stop Kentucky right now. I’m not sure they can hang with Kentucky for much longer at this pace. If the game is in the 80s, the Demon Deacons are in a lot of trouble.

9:25: Kentucky up by 16 (like I said big run coming even if it was more like they are just consistently better than Wake) and Kansas State has flipped the margin on BYU and is now up by 10 at halftime. Things are not looking good for the underdog in the night session. On the plus side, we had Saint Mary’s and Northern Iowa today.

9:52: Kentucky is up by 27 with 15:08 left. As Billy Packer might say, “This one is over” except this time it really is. BYU trails KSU by 8 with 16:45 left. Jimmer Fredette has been relatively quiet. Will he come alive in the 2nd half?

10:14: Cheap move by Chas McFarland trying to get a rise out of Cousins. I hope Dino Gaudio doesn’t let him back in the game any more. Bad way to end your career, but this should be a “teaching moment” for life.

10:23: BYU hasn’t found a way to chip away at this lead, but Jacob Pullen is out and he has been ridiculous tonight with 25 points and solid defense on Fredette so let’s see if they can make a run here.

10:35: Kansas State has this one wrapped up unless they have a massive collapse. This kills any potential whining we might have next week about how BYU gets an unfair home-court advantage.

10:50: Ok. A boring finish to an otherwise remarkable day.  We will be back tomorrow with more action and we can only hope it matches what we saw today.

]]> http://rushthecourt.net/2010/03/20/boom-goes-the-dynamite-second-round-03-20-10-edition/feed/ 16 http://rushthecourt.net/2010/03/19/second-round-game-analysis-saturday/ http://rushthecourt.net/2010/03/19/second-round-game-analysis-saturday/#comments Sat, 20 Mar 2010 05:41:15 +0000 rtmsf http://rushthecourt.net/?p=20144 Over the next two days in a series of separate posts, RTC will break down all 16 of the second round games using our best analytical efforts to understand these teams, the matchups and their individual strengths and weaknesses.  Our hope is that you’ll let us know in the comments where you agree, disagree or otherwise think we’ve lost our collective minds.  Here are the Saturday games.

1:05 pm – #2 Villanova vs. #10 St. Mary’s  (Providence pod)

A great opening game of the day for the group of teams that produced the best opening day of the NCAA Tournament ever. A lot of experts are going to be calling for an upset here and based on the way these two teams are playing we can’t say that we blame them. The Wildcats came into the NCAA Tournament having lost five of seven games and nearly lost to Robert Morris (down by 7 with less than 4 minutes left before some controversial calls went ‘Nova’s way). On the other side, the Gaels stormed through the West Coast Conference Tournament and knocked off Richmond, a team that a lot of people had as a potential sleeper, in the first round. The key to this game will be how Reggie Redding handles Omar Samhan. After watching Samhan rip apart the Spiders, Jay Wright has to be concerned about his interior players going against one of the best low-post players in the country. On the other side, Saint Mary’s has to figure out how to deal with Scottie Reynolds and the rest of the Wildcat backcourt. They are certainly better equipped to match-up with Villanova’s perimeter players with Mickey McConnell and Matthew Dellavedova than the Wildcats are to handle Samhan. Saint Mary’s perimeter players pack enough offensive punch to make keep up with Villanova’s guards, but Mouphtaou Yarou and Redding shouldn’t challenge Samhan too much defensively. The one wildcard here is Reynolds. Will he “learn” from Wright’s “teaching moment” and become the Scottie Reynolds we knew for most of the past two seasons or will be the 2-15 from the field Reynolds?

The Skinny: Samhan overwhelms the Wildcats on the inside and advance into the Sweet 16 as this year’s Cinderella.

3:20 pm – #5 Butler vs. #13 Murray State  (San Jose pod)

The second game of the second round will feature the top mid-major program in the east versus an upstart who would love to get there themselves.  In their first round game, if you haven’t heard, the Racers’ Danero Thomas hit a shot at the buzzer to knock Vanderbilt out of the Tournament, but what you may not know about that game is that Murray State pretty much controlled it throughout.  It was very late when Vandy regained the lead and set the stage for Thomas’ game winner.  The point: Murray is better than your typical #13 seed Cinderella.  Butler, on the other hand, had a weak first half and a superb second half to put away UTEP.  It was two of the staples of Butler’s attack — relentless halfcourt defense and the three-ball — that allowed the Bulldogs to quickly take the lead and never look back against the Miners.  As for this game, Murray State does many of the same things that Butler does, it’s just that Brad Stevens’ team does those things better.  It will certainly be interesting to see how Butler responds to being the Big (Bull)Dog in an NCAA Tournament game, as they’re usually the upstart taking on some higher-seeded Kansas or Florida type of team.

The Skinny: We’d love to take Murray State here, but Butler isn’t going to let a johnny-come-lately out-Butler them en route to the Sweet Sixteen, so we expect Butler to hang on and win by 6-8 points.

3:35 pm – #4 Tennessee vs. #14 Ohio  (Providence pod)

Who predicted this one? Evidently 56 people out of about 4.5 million, according to ESPN’s Tournament Challenge game. That’s assuming, at least, that if you didn’t have a perfect bracket, you missed at least one of these teams. So, anybody want to bet against these Ohio U. guards? Yeah, we didn’t think so. The only thing more shocking than the Bobcats’ dispatching of the Hoyas was that Ohio U. hung 97 POINTS on them, and it’s not like Georgetown is some terrible defensive team. Armon Bassett and D.J. Cooper were somehow always able to get open from beyond the three-point arc, and when you have two guys who hit five threes apiece, you’re going to beat a lot of teams — especially one as schizophrenic as Georgetown. But Bassett and Cooper were also able to get inside, absorb contact, and get to the line. What can the Volunteers do to stop this? Well, it depends on which Tennessee team shows up. This season, UT has gotten up for big games and relaxed for not-so-big games. Can they get up for an NCAA second-round game against…Ohio? They have enough offensive weapons. Ohio U. guards the three very well, and they showed that on Thursday night. If Tennessee’s guards concern themselves with playing good in-the-jerseys defense against that Ohio U. backcourt, and if they’re convinced that the best offensive strategy is to go exclusively inside for at least the first half of this game, Tennessee will quell this uprising. If the UT guards feel like chucking threes and playing sagging defense, the Vols will lose. You cannot give a hot upstart team a reason to believe.

The Skinny: Tennessee seems to sputter out of the NCAA Tournament early whenever anything’s expected of them. We have every reason to think the Vols will crank up the defensive effort and get the job done. Despite OU’s performance against the Hoyas, the talent disparity is pretty remarkable, here. But what the heck, let’s have some fun and take Ohio in a close one.

5:40 pm – #1 Kansas vs. #9 Northern Iowa  (Oklahoma City pod)

I wouldn’t make too much of Kansas’ relatively slow start and the lack of a big blowout win against Lehigh. The Jayhawks only got to the line ten times while Lehigh managed to coax the Jayhawks into 18 fouls and get to the line 21 times. They hit 17 of them, which is 12 more than Kansas. A 12-point deficit at the free throw line is pretty substantial, but it’s the only statistical category the Jayhawks didn’t win. They hit more shots, owned the boards, snagged more steals, and if they’d tried to mount more of an attack inside the paint, they’d have made up that free throw deficit and it would have been a bigger win. Northern Iowa fought hard to get by UNLV, and you can bet Ali Farokhmanesh will find himself well-covered by taller, quicker players all night. No offense, but that’s probably a situation he finds himself in a lot during the year, yet he still gets his. But that makes the inside matchup that much more important.  Cole Aldrich won’t destroy Eglseder, though he may outplay him.   But the rest?  Tough to see UNI keeping pace with that stacked KU lineup.

The Skinny: That first game took a lot out of the Panthers, and we don’t think Farokhmanesh is going to get nine looks from three that he’ll feel like actually shooting. He may take them, but the looks won’t be as good. Have to stick with the Jayhawks.

5:45 pm – #3 Baylor vs. #11 Old Dominion  (New Orleans pod)

While the seeds might suggest that one of these teams expected to get here and the other pulled off a big upset that would be a gross underestimation of how good Old Dominion is. Even though the Monarchs lost a bunch of close games (they did have a win over Georgetown–insert Ohio joke here) to NCAA Tournament level teams that surely benefited them when they reached this stage. They lack the “names” that Baylor has, but they also lacked the same “names” when they matched up against Notre Dame, but they still held on for a not-that-surpising win. If you’re looking for a guy to watch on the Monarchs, keep an eye on Gerald Lee. He had a relatively quiet game against the Georgetown so expect him to come back firing. Likewise Baylor survived against Sam Houston State despite an awful performance from one of its stars (Tweety Carter with two points) and a mediocre performance from another one its stars (LaceDarius Dunn with 13 points, but didn’t get going until late). Even though it was Sam Houston State it says something about the fortitude of the Bears to overcome weak performances out of two of its stars. Even though Baylor’s backcourt has more firepower they won’t have that big of an edge over Old Dominion. The key in this game will be on the inside where Ekpe Udoh will be a matchup nightmare for the Monarchs.

The Skinny: Scott Drew rides Udoh into the Sweet 16 where they will have a home crowd behind them.

5:50 pm – #3 New Mexico vs. #11 Washington  (San Jose pod)

Ranked in the preseason poll, many prognosticators figured Washington had a Sweet 16-caliber team back in November. It just took them roughly four months to start playing like one. The Huskies rallied from 15 points down in the second half Thursday behind red-hot outside shooting and the leadership of Quincy Pondexter to hand Marquette yet another NCAA Tournament heartbreak on the West Coast. This should be a wildly entertaining game played with both rabid fan bases packing the HP Pavilion. While the seeding of these teams does have a range, not many would be surprised if Washington advanced to the Sweet 16 (in fact, kenpom.com favors the Huskies to win based on their efficiency statistics). Pondexter ranks in the top-30 in all of college basketball in offensive rating, Isaiah Thomas appears to be coming alive at the opportune time, and role players like Darnell Gant, Matthew Bryan-Amaning and Elston Turner are contributing when called upon. The key for the Lobos will be continuing what they’ve done all season to win 30 games — balanced scoring from Darington Hobson, Roman Martinez and Dairese Gary, a top-25 efficient offense, not allowing second chances to the Huskies frontline and limiting turnovers (top ten in the country in that category). Hobson and Pondexter, two long forwards with all-around repertoires, should be one of the best individual matchups of round two.

The Skinny: Washington is riding quite the wave right now. I expect little big man Isaiah Thomas to hit a few dagger threes and an improbable Sweet 16 run will continue into Syracuse.

8:10 pm – #2 Kansas State vs. #7 BYU  (Oklahoma City pod)

From our perspective, this is the game of the day on paper.  Kansas State had no trouble dispatching its first round opponent North Texas, while BYU had to go into two overtimes to remove Florida from this year’s Tournament.  But that shouldn’t influence your thinking about this game.  The fact is that K-State and BYU have similar strengths and tendencies.  Both teams can score, with Jimmer Fredette (BYU) and a cast of three others contributing double-figures each night, while the Wildcats bring the same number of scorers led by the dynamic Jacob Pullen and Denis Clemente.  And their defenses are solid as well, with K-State locking people up at a little better rate than the Cougars.  The prize, of course, is a trip to the Sweet Sixteen, but for BYU there’s an added incentive: the chance to play two games in front of a home crowd in Salt Lake City to go to their first-ever Final Four.  If you know anything about BYU fans in the Wasatch Front, you know that they are rabid about their sports there.  This would be one of the most partisan regional crowds that we’ve ever seen in NCAA Tournament history.  Expect this game to come down to the wire, with the two K-State playmakers taking turns trying to outdo Fredette in the clutch.

The Skinny: We have a sneaky feeling that BYU is going to play one of its best games of the year tomorrow, and it’ll be just enough with a Fredette play in the clutch to upset the Wildcats and make it back home for the regional.

8:15 pm – #1 Kentucky vs. #9 Wake Forest  (New Orleans pod)

The Demon Deacons and Big Shot Ish Smith rallied from eight points down in overtime Thursday night, properly ending the two month long Texas collapse and advancing to the next round to face top seed Kentucky. Regardless of how shaky Wake played down the stretch, the NCAA Tournament is all about one thing: survive and advance. Dino Gaudio notched his first postseason victory as Wake head coach and his team is now riding the momentum and positive energy from their overtime comeback. Could the Deacs pose matchup problems for Kentucky? There are some reasons why they may: 1) Wake is in the top-25 in four very important defensive categories: defensive efficiency (#24), 2-point FG% (#17), 3-point FG% (#7) and effective FG% (#3). The Deacs can become stagnant in the halfcourt and they often have issues making free throws and jump shots on a consistent basis, but their defense never truly falls off. The 2-point FG% stat could be the most imperative to maintain at a high level Saturday, as we know Kentucky likes to penetrate with John Wall and post up their two future lottery picks on the block. Force the Wildcats into shooting long jump shots and the 9-seed could hang around. The other key will be Al-Farouq Aminu staying out of foul trouble and on the floor. Tony Woods and Chas McFarland cannot handle DeMarcus Cousins and Patrick Patterson; Aminu is the Deacons’ best rebounder, shot blocker and post defender. He’ll need to have a heroic performance for Wake to pull off the upset.

Skinny: The way this Tournament has played out, we’re more and more convinced Wake Forest hangs around in this game on the heels of their defense in the halfcourt. Eventually, Kentucky will make this more of a transition-oriented game and win by around 10 points.

Black Wednesday in RTP.  A bit of hyperbole here, as we make reference to Black Sunday (March 11, 1979), the infamous day when both UNC and Duke lost NCAA second round games on the same afternoon.  Still, tonight’s surprising losses by both Carolina and Duke to the two ‘other’ schools in the traditional Big Four represent the first time in nearly seven years that they both lost conference games on the same night.  How on earth could this have happened?  Are big scary red/black aliens shaped in Deacon and Wolf form landing tonight to take us all away?  Will tears of blood flow from the sky as God weeps for us?   Will high-profile recruits clown Uncle Roy?  These are all good questions for the people of central North Carolina to be asking tonight, so we’re here to help them make sense of it all.  (ed. note: what?  NC State wasn’t shipped out to somewhere like Pembroke in the late 80s?)

NC State Exorcised Their Devils Tonight (N&O/Ethan Hyman)

• NC State 88, #6 Duke 74.  There were a lot of shocking parts to this game, but by far the biggest shocker was the knife-through-butter ease by which NC State repeatedly shredded the Duke defense.  The Devils have held their opponents to 41% from inside the arc and 28% from beyond it all season long, but the Pack paid that no mind, shooting a red-hot 58% for the entire game and hitting five timely threes on a reasonable twelve attempts.  Even the expected collapse that everyone thought was coming immediately after halftime (and Nolan Smith’s ridiculous catch-and-shoot trey just before the buzzer) never materialized.  Instead it was NC State that appeared to have the confidence, pushing their lead back out into double-digits and answering the Devils each and every time they cut the lead to eight.  The night belonged to NCSU’s Tracy Smith, the 22d birthday boy who could seemingly do no wrong, dropping 23/5 on 10-12 FGs on a variety of post moves and drives to the hole.  The Duke defense, one of the very best in the nation coming into tonight, seemed bewildered and confused by Smith all night long, almost as if he’d been left off the scouting report.  Coach K’s group allowed over a point per possession for just the fourth time all season, and at 1.23 PPP tonight, it was easily their worst performance of the year.  Something tells us that their level of effort on that end will not go unnoticed by Krzyzewski.  With the win, NC State moves to 2-3 in the ACC race, and would you believe that the leaders of this conference are Virginia (3-0) and Maryland (2-1)?  Is it too early to start calling the ACC the Pac-10 East with its nuttiness so far this year?  Final thought: nice RTC, State students.  And, deserved (start at 2:50).

• Wake Forest 82, #23 UNC 69.  Freshmen?  No, I don’t think so.  Wake’s C.J. Harris and Ari Stewart were impolite guests in their first visit to the Dean Dome as collegians, to say the least.  In the first half, Wake cajoled UNC into questionable shot selection while taking good ones themselves and went into halftime with a three point lead.  When UNC came out quickly early in the second and almost immediately made it just a one-point deficit, you got the feeling that Roy Williams had indeed gone into his magic bag and come up with a speech that would now put things right.  You could feel that UNC had finally shown up and that they — the ranked team, at home — would redeem themselves, take advantage of the young Deacon guards, pull out a win, and SURELY avoid a three-game losing streak, something that’s never happened here under Roy Williams.  It cannot happen here under Roy Williams.  Right?  RIGHT?  Well… it just did.  Harris and Stewart looked like anything but frosh in the second half right about the time UNC started getting their legs under them.  First, almost halfway through the second half, it was Stewart.  A three.  Then another.  Then ANOTHER.  That last one is in caps because it was from about 22 feet, finishing the triple of triples that came in a span of a minute and 26 seconds.  About a minute later, it was Harris, drilling two straight from the same spot on the left.  Those five threes were courtesy of assists from four different players.  At that point the Deacons’ lead was 15, and the Tar Heels were done.  A couple of minutes later Ish Smith — a terror tonight, with 20/7/6 on 9-17 shooting — drilled another three for the official dagger.  A team on which each player knows and cherishes his role is a dangerous thing, and that is this Wake Forest team — at least, it was tonight.  Aside from the aforementioned guards providing the outside threat, Smith distributes well and is a heady senior point guard.  Al-Farouq Aminu, whose 13/11 we haven’t even mentioned, is a fine interior defender and rebounds like a maniac.  Chas McFarland might not take many shots (1-3 tonight), but he gets to the line and hits the boards (ten against UNC) and anchors the defense inside with Aminu.  And they seem to be buying in to what Dino Gaudio is teaching.  Sure, the Heels didn’t have Ed Davis, and this might have been Wake’s best outside shooting night of the season.  But this is North Carolina.  At home.  What can you say about this team at this point?  Is Roy about to lose them?  It’s been an incredible three-year run.  But sometimes after such a period of sustained success, when hard times arrive it can be easy for a young team to fold.  They’re 12-7 and 1-3 in the ACC, have twelve games left, with seven of them away.  A split does not get them in.  The Heels have six days off, and it’s a good time for it.  They have a lot to think about.  It’s soul-searching time.

Is It Safe to Say Georgetown is For Real? #14 Georgetown 74, #11 Pittsburgh 66.  Given last year’s meltdown when Georgetown couldn’t beat anybody in the Big East, it’s understandable that people would be a little gun-shy this year about the Hoyas as they entered Big East play.  With away losses to Marquette and Villanova in the past two weeks, the whispers about the Hoyas as a fraud were persistent once again.  But tonight should have put much of that talk to rest.  Pitt came into tonight’s home game against Georgetown having already vanquished Syracuse, UConn, Cincinnati and Louisville (the first three on the road), and although nobody really believed that Jamie Dixon’s team was the best in the conference, everyone had come to respect the Panthers.  So this win tonight by Georgetown, in a building where Pitt had won 31 games in a row and held the lead late into the game, is impressive.  How did JT3′s team do it?  Chris Wright is one reason.  He had 27 points on 11-17 shooting, and often looked like the best player on the floor tonight.  Perhaps more importantly, he helped harass Pitt’s Ashton Gibbs into a 3-16 shooting night and eight points, well below his 17.5 PPG average.  We know that with Georgetown’s lack of available depth that the Hoyas’ margin for error is small, but there may not be a more efficient starting five in America with Freeman, Clark, Monroe and Vaughn joining Wright in the regular lineup.  We’ll known for sure soon enough, as Georgetown travels to Syracuse for Big Monday next week and hosts Duke the following weekend.  As for Pitt, Jamie Dixon didn’t think that his defense was up to snuff tonight, but in general it wasn’t bad.  The big issue was that the Hoyas hit 7-10 from deep, and that must really stick in his craw considering how well the Panthers have shut down the three-ball this season (27.6%, 7th nationally).  Pitt was going to lose eventually, we just didn’t expect it to happen at home.

Yeah, Kentucky IS Having a Great Week. UTEP 72, Memphis 67. OK.  It finally happened.  We all knew it was coming this year.  The 64-game conference winning streak is history, stopping in a tie with a feat accomplished at Kentucky some sixty years ago.  The gap between Memphis and the rest of the teams in the CUSA just isn’t there anymore.  We all know what Memphis lost over the summer in terms of departing players, recruits, and coaches (no disrespect intended to Coach Pastner, of whom we’re fans), but what’s more, these former CUSA also-rans like UAB, Marshall, Tulsa, UTEP — these are good teams.  This was a fantastic game, close throughout, neither team ever achieving a double-digit lead; UTEP’s Jeremy Williams was arguably the best player on the court, leading with 18/12 on 6-10 shooting, which consisted of four monster dunks and two threes.  He got an awful lot of help from junior guard Christian Polk, who contributed 17 points in 24 minutes of play off the bench, including a trio of threes that all seemed to come at critical junctures.  Elliot Williams did all he could for the Tigers, leading his squad with 23/5/4.  Aside from ending the streak, this one will sting in two other ways for Memphis.  First, the Tigers were up by three at the half; second, they had their chances down the stretch.  You simply can’t turn the ball over five times out of your last seven trips down the floor.  Listen, GREAT job by UTEP, coming into a hostile environment and snagging a win like this.  But it’s not exactly time to bury Memphis.  They’re 13-5 and this was just their first conference loss.  Still, now that it’s done, this one is all about…the streak.  We know many people out there will disagree, but — like pretty much everyone else — everyone knows we’re on record as saying this broke a 64-game conference win streak, “vacated” games or not.  If anyone wants to have the discussion, we’ll have it in the comments section.  But there are too many important games ahead for both sides.  So, Memphis fans — welcome to the first day of the rest of your conference lives.

Other Games of National Interest.

• #3 Kansas 81, Baylor 75.  Baylor shot 52% from the field, outrebounded Kansas by eight, and got 44/9 assts from its superb backcourt of LaceDarius Dunn and Tweety Carter… and still lost the game.  That’s how difficult it is to beat KU in their building (53 in a row now).  The difference was turnovers, as the Jayhawks forced twenty while committing only seven themselves.  Sherron Collins was once again the Man, dropping 28/4 including a gigantic three with a minute left that finally put the pesky Bears away. 
• #4 Villanova 94, Rutgers 68. Props to Dane Miller’s 26/8/6, but Rutgers’ only lead came at 2-0, and it was barely competitive after that.  Nova led by 22 at the half and the closest it ever got in the second half was 16.  Dominic Cheek came off the bench with 16/4 to lead the Wildcats, who are now off to their best start in — yeesh — 46 years.
• #7 Michigan State 70, Iowa 63.  It was another lackluster performance for the Spartans, but the result remained the same.  A win over a Big Ten squad to go to 6-0 in the conference race.  Raymar Morgan led MSU with 16/3, but it was a balanced effort for the team, an effort that almost didn’t cut it as Iowa cut the lead to three twice in the final two minutes.  Tom Izzo isn’t happy with his team’s intensity right now, and it’ll have to change quickly with six of their next eight games away from East Lansing.
• #12 West Virginia 68, Marshall 60. This was a two-point game with 27 seconds left, but WVU hit their free throws down the stretch and managed to hold off an underrated Thundering Herd squad.  Hassan Whiteside (remember the name) stepped up with 18/6 for the Herd and Chris Lutz added four threes, but 12 of Da’Sean Butler’s 16/6 came when they were needed — that is, in the second half.  Marshall is 15-3 and 4-0 in the CUSA,  and this was close the whole way, so the ‘Neers deserve credit for a tough road win here.
• DePaul 51, Marquette 50.  DePaul got its first win in its last 25 Big East games as Mike Stovall (9/5/3 assts) hit a game-winning jumper with 0.7 seconds remaining in tonight’s upset victory over Marquette.  Perhaps interim head coach Tracy Webster wanted to make sure that DePaul AD Jean Lenti Mosetto knows he heard today’s directive loud and clear?  Marquette isn’t doing itself any favors here, missing two FTs with a one-point lead and eight seconds on the clock to give DePaul the daylight it needed; the Golden Eagles move to 2-4 in the conference.
• Tulsa 57, Oral Roberts 52.  For much of the first half of this game, Tulsa couldn’t buy a bucket, going nearly ten minutes without a point.  But a 17-6 run to start the second half got the Golden Hurricane back in the game and when push came to shove in the last few minutes, it was the home team that collapsed under the pressure.  Ben Uzoh was held well under his season averages, with 7/6/3 assts, but he did hit the final two FTs to provide the final margin.  Tulsa won its first game of the year after trailing at the half, and their win tonight was the second in a row in the Mayor’s Cup between crosstown rivals.
• VCU 81, William & Mary 59.  Old Dominion and Northeastern both won tonight to go to 7-1 in the CAA, so W&M couldn’t afford to lose this one in Richmond tonight if they wanted to keep the pace (now 6-2).  Why is this of national interest?  Because W&M, like Northwestern, is a great hard-luck story and we love seeing programs like this have a shot at the Dance after all these years of futility.  Two of the Tribe’s next four games are against ODU, so they’ll have opportunities.

Joe Dzuback of Villanova By the Numbers is the RTC correspondent for the Atlantic 10 Conference.

Road Warriors

A few BCS schools developed reputations for rarely venturing far from their home arenas during their out of conference seasons and relying on their conference’s RPI to bolster their resumes come Selection Sunday.  Coach Jim Calhoun masked the inexperience of his 2007 Huskies by keeping them at home from early November to late December where they ran off 11 straight wins and rose to #12 in the polls.  They opened the Big East season with a 10 point loss to West Virginia, and continued to implode with an 6-14 record through January, February and early March.  The 1st round of the Big East Tournament was their post-season.  Florida State’s Len Hamilton nursed his 2006 Seminole squads to an 9-1 OOC record, leaving home once before ACC conference play (a loss to in state rival Florida).  FSU finished with a 9-7 conference record, and despite a signature win over #1-ranked Duke at the end of the conference season, could not tease a dance bid out of the Selection Committee come Selection Sunday.

A10 coaches have no illusions that the conference’s reputation (however good among the non-BCS conferences) will carry a bubble team into the field of 65.  While few subscribe to former Temple head coach John Chaney’s “Anyone, Anywhere” philosophy, everyone recognizes the virtue of playing invitational tournaments and having a healthy dose of road games on the resume.  Most of their OOC resume-building games may come from traditional rivalries and invitational fields, but the road games, at worst, help their squads prepare for the hostile crowds they will face when playing conference opponents.  How did the conference members do this OOC season?

The statistics, drawn from each team’s Game Plan page at Ken Pomeroy’s website, shows the team’s road (away and neutral site) record, the team’s efficiency (points per possession the team scored – offense and allowed – defense), the team’s shot efficiency (on offense and defense) and the estimated average possessions per game.

Temple looks better with each passing week.  The road wins in particular are very encouraging and suggest the Owls will be able to score and defend in hostile venues. Seton Hall is a resume win, and the 46-45 loss at Georgetown (provided the Hoyas don’t implode again in 2010…) will be a good loss.  The nucleus of Fernandez, Brooks, Allen and Guzman (see Temple Team Capsule below) are putting together a very nice run, which they may well be able to sustain going into conference play.  File Rhode Island and Charlotte under “Surprised in a Good Way” also.  Though the Rams’ slate is a bit light (they did not participate in any MTE tournaments this season), it does include a double-digit win over Boston College from the ACC and a 2 point loss to a well-regarded 7-2 Virginia Commonwealth team on 12/2.  Charlotte was torched early in the season by Duke at the Cameron, but has bounced back nicely with double-digit wins over Hofstra, Louisville of the Big East and Winthrop, each of whom has a record of .500 or better.

Filed under “Surprised in a Bad Way” — try Dayton, Duquesne and Richmond. The Flyers participated in the Puerto Rico Tip Off and started strong, taking out Georgia Tech in their first round.  They dropped their next two games to two more BCS teams (Villanova and Kansas State) and have scraped by their two road opponents — Miami, OH and George Mason.  Mason having a down year, is teetering at .500 (5-5) at this point and will, should the trend continue, watch the post-season on CBS and ESPN.  Duquesne started out well, housing Iowa in their second game of the season, but the two-overtime, neutral court loss to Pittsburgh seems to have thrown the team out of synch. They were hammered by West Virginia and lost to UIPIU last weekend.  The Jaguars may be the pick of the litter in the Summit League, but they too have taken three double-digit beatings.  Hardly makes for a stirring endorsement of the Dukes.  Bolding’s return may spark the Dukes, but heading into conference play (they have 2 more OOC games left), Duquesne’s prospects for A10 road wins seem uncertain at best.  Taking South Carolina may have been a stretch for Richmond, but their losses to in-state rivals William & Mary and Virginia Commonwealth (both of the CAA) gives me pause to think.  Those games most resemble the conference road conditions Richmond will probably encounter in conference play.  Both may have been “close” losses, but they were losses nevertheless.

George Washington’s 4-0 road record may look impressive, but know the opponents were UNC – Wilmington, Boston University, Navy and Towson. Not a BCS team to be found in a group whose collective record is 15-24.  Their extended, post holiday trek through New England should provide a bit more insight into the state of the program and their prospects in conference road play.  The unimpressive road/neutral records posted by Xavier, Massachusetts, Saint Joseph’s and St. Louis (a combined 3-18) maybe due in large measure to the youth of all three squads.  Ken Pomeroy ranks them by experience level as #259, #305, #156 and #346 respectively, out of D1’s 347 D1.

Standings as of – 12/21/09:

1. Temple (9-2)
2. Rhode Island (9-1)
3. Charlotte (9-2)
4. Dayton (9-2)
5. Richmond (9-3)
6. George Washington (8-2)
7. Duquesne (8-4)
8. La Salle (7-4)
9. Xavier (7-4)
10. St. Louis (8-4)
11. St. Bonaventure (6-5)
12. Massachusetts (6-6)
13. Saint Joseph’s (4-6)
14. Fordham (2-8)

Team Rundowns…

Charlotte

Taking to the road, the 49ers beat Winthrop by ten, 57-47, on Sunday (12/20).  Junior forward Shamari Spears delivered from the field, going 5-11 from the floor for 13 points (his 45.5% shooting percentage well ahead of the team’s overall 39.1%), while senior point guard DiJuan Harris delivered from the line, hitting 7 of 8 free throws to pace Charlotte to the win.  Junior center Phil Jones grabbed 11 rebounds as the taller, more physical 49er team dominated with inside play.  The A10 team received ten more free throw opportunities than the host, and made the most of the advantage by converting 13 more times, going 18-22, compared to 5-12 for the Eagles. There indeed was the margin of victory.  Charlotte has now won five straight, all by double-digits.  The Niners traveled to Old Dominion on Wednesday (12/23) for one last game before the Holidays and got thumped, 81-48, after shooting 16% in the first half and appearing generally uninterested.  They resume their schedule when they host Mercer on the 29th.

Dayton

The Flyers beat Presbyterian by 19 (71-52) at the UD Arena on Saturday (12/19), paced by junior forward Chris Wright and senior back-up point guard Mickey Perry, each of whom scored 15 points.  Perry, normally in the rotation for about 17 minutes per game saw 25 minutes when off-guard Marcus Johnson went down with an ankle sprain in the 1st half.  Redshirt freshman Josh Benson scored 10 points, also in extended action, when starter Chris Johnson left the game after a blow to the head, also sustained in the 1st half.  Dayton beat Appalachian State, 65-49, on Monday night.  The Blue Hose and Mountaineers should have been double digit wins, and the Dayton team many expected in November appears to be rounding into form as the conference season approaches.  Wright and Perry led the team in scoring for both games, grossing 29 and 30 points apiece respectively for the two games.  The Flyers return to action after the Holidays with a game versus Boston University on the 29th.  They will ring in the New Year in Albuquerque, New Mexico as they take on the Lobos of New Mexico on New Year’s Day.

Duquesne

The Dukes needed two overtimes to put down the Griffins of Canisius 86-77 on Wednesday 12/16.  Duquesne used size and speed to force turnovers and alter shots, but they did not control the boards.  The game, played for 68 possessions (adjusted for the overtimes), was a bit low for Duquesne home games this season.  The Dukes’ offensive efficiency was about 1.00 (points per possession), very slightly above their home court average, the defense, at 0.90, was higher than the Dukes’ 0.81 home average, suggesting the stifling defense, especially on opponent’s shooting, was simply not there.  Duquesne dropped a nine point road game, 73-64, to IUPUI in Indianapolis, IN on Saturday 12/19.  Continuing a trend for road games, Duquesne’s defensive efficiency again turned in a >1.00 defensive effort, 1.05 this time.  The Iowa game in November aside, the Dukes have had problems keeping opponent’s points per possession under 1.00 this season.  The culprits appear to be shot defense (the Dukes let the Jaguars hit at a 56.5% eFG% clip) and rebounding.  Duquesne hosts St. Francis, PA on Tuesday 12/22, then break for Christmas. They finish their OOC schedule with a trip to Virginia to play the Monarchs of Old Dominion on Wednesday 12/30.

Fordham

The Rams “hosted” Villanova at the IZOD Center, in the New Jersey Meadowlands last Saturday.  Before a Villanova-friendly crowd, Fordham dropped a 96-53 decision to the #9-ranked Wildcats.  The good news has to be that forward Chris Gaston had another good day scoring.  Another Ram has to step into the vacuum left by Jio Fontan.  Fordham faced James Madison in Virginia on Wednesday and dropped a disappointing one, 85-73, after leading by nine at the half.  They now break for the Holiday.  They resume their pre-conference road trip with games against Kennesaw State (in Georgia, Tuesday 12/29) and Hampton (back to Virginia, Sunday 1/3) in the fortnight before they take on Massachusetts in their A10 opener.

George Washington

George Washington took a week to finish the fall semester.  They squeaked out an 84-80 victory at  East Carolina on Tuesday 12/22, led by Damian Hollis’ 21/3 and Tony Taylor’s 20/6/4.  They will take a New England road trip the week after Christmas, facing Holy Cross in Worcester, MA on Monday 12/28, then travelling east to Cambridge, MA to face Harvard on Wednesday 12/30.  They will return to Washington to face cross-town rival Howard on Saturday 1/2.

La Salle

The Explorers beat Bucknell, 83-70, at home on Saturday then dropped a road game to Oklahoma State 77-62, on Monday night.  The Explorers continue to feel the effects of being an undermanned squad.  With senior PG Ruben Guillandeaux out indefinitely with a stress fracture in his right foot, and senior swingman Kimmani Barrett nursing a fractured middle finger on his non-shooting hand, La Salle needs to free Rodney Green to cut and shoot, rather than take over the ball-handling duties.  Green continues to lead the Explorers in points scored — he scored 22 in each of last week’s games (Barrett scored the team-high 23 points versus Bucknell), but needs to maintain his stamina through the end of the game.  La Salle will host Cornell on 12/29 in what may be their last best chance to score a signature win in the OOC. Cornell beat St. John’s to take the ECAC Holiday Festival on Monday (12/21) night.

Massachusetts

Coach Derek Kellogg’s squad scored their best win of the season Saturday night when they downed the Tigers of Memphis 73-72 in Boston.  Freshman Terrell Vinson scored a team-high 21 points on 8-13 (0-1, 8-12) and 5-7 shooting.  Vinson grabbed nine boards, missing the chance to log his second consecutive double-double.  The Minutemen headed out of town to Chestnut Hill to take on Boston College on Wednesday night and were stifled from beyond the three-point arc, shooting 3-21 (14.3%) resulting in a 67-79 loss to the Eagles.  After the Holiday break they conclude their OOC schedule with a trip into the South to play Davidson on Wednesday 12/30.

Rhode Island

The Rams extended their winning streak to five when they beat Fairfield 89-84 on Saturday (12/20).  Senior guard Keith Cochran stepped back a bit in this game, letting the forward tandem of Delroy James and Lamonte Ulmer take the offensive lead.  The seniors did not disappoint, scoring 21 and 20 points, respectively.  James logged his first double-double of the season by grabbing 11 rebounds as well.  Marquis Jones and Stevie Mejia handled the point guard duties effectively, dishing ten assists (with only four turnovers) between them.  Rhode Island has three more OOC games before they commence conference play, the first coming next Tuesday (12/29) when they travel to Philadelphia to play Drexel.

Richmond

The Spiders dropped their road game to South Carolina last Wednesday (12/16), 76-58.  The result may not have surprised; after all, Devan Downey, Sam Muldrow and Brandis Raley-Ross can be a handful, especially in front of a Gamecock-friendly crowd.  The margin was troubling as the Spiders will — should their fortunes during conference play pan out –  be looking for an at-large bid from the selection committee come that Sunday in March.  Justin Harper, Dan Geriot and Kevin Anderson took large amounts of the possessions when they were on the floor (29.5%, 28.4% and 30.0% respectively — Anderson played the entire game), but of that core only Harper converted efficiently.  With an eFG% of 54.2% and a PPWS of 1.16, Harper developed an offensive rating of 111.6; an offensive rating greater than 100 is good, greater than 110 is very good.  For Geriot and Anderson however, the numbers were not nearly as impressive.  Both converted (eFG%) in the high 30s to mid 40s, but worse, both lost high percentages of their possessions:  Geriot lost 30.4% of his possessions, while for Anderson the number was 26.1%.  Where was David Gonzalvez? Out of action with four fouls, for starters.  The senior guard logged only 65% of the minutes, in large measure because he picked up his second foul at the 12 minute mark of the first half, sat for five minutes, came back in for another five minutes before picking up his third foul for the half.  Gonzalvez picked up his fourth foul two minutes into the second half, and found himself watching as the Spiders four point advantage became a five point deficit.  The Spiders managed to bring the score to a tie, 52-52, with eight minutes left, but the Gamecocks launched a 24-6 run over the last eight minutes, running away from the Spiders and handing them their third road loss of the season.  Richmond bounced back with a 56-53 win over #13 Florida in the Orange Bowl Classic on Saturday.  The game, played at Sunrise, FL (and not Florida’s homecourt at Gainesville), found the Spiders paced by the backcourt duo of Gonzalvez (16 points) and Anderson (14 points).  The two minute mark of the 1st half found the Spiders down by 13 (32-19), but Gonzalvez and senior center Geriot scored five unanswered points.  Still trailing by eight (32-24), Coach Mooney and his squad took to the locker room to regroup.  A 22-5 run over the first nine minutes of the 2nd half saw the Spiders blow by the Gators and take a nine point lead.  The Gators scored six unanswered points (a jumper by Georgetown transfer Vernon Macklin, two converted free throws by sophomore guard Erving Walker and a layup by senior forward Dan Werner) to cut the deficit to three over the next 90 seconds.  The two teams were locked in a tug-of-war, never separated by more than four points (and tied twice) for the last 9:30 of the game.  The Spiders took the lead for good on a Gonzalvez three-pointer at the 1:34 mark, and the Spiders hit their free throws down the stretch to bring home the win.  After beating UNC – Greensboro, 89-63 (David Gonzalves posted a season-high 25 points), the Spiders can now break for the holidays.  Richmond will return to action on the 28th against another North Carolina school, the Seahawks of UNC – Wilmington.  The Spiders will spend New Year’s Eve on the road with yet a third North Carolina school, the Demon Deacons of Wake Forest.

Saint Joseph’s

The Hawks beat Lehigh 77-66 on Sunday (12/20) and are off until after Christmas.  Senior guard Darrin Govens paced the team with 15 points, while three others, starting sophomore guard Chris Prescott along with two freshmen, forward Carl Baptiste and guard Carl Jones chipped in 13 apiece.  Sophomore forward Bryant Irwin scored a career-high 11 points.  Saint Joseph’s will travel to Albany, NY and will face the Siena Saints on Tuesday (12/29).

St. Bonaventure

The Bonnies dropped a 13-point decision to the Orange of Syracuse 85-72, Saturday (12/19).  Sophomore forward Andrew Nicholson and senior guard Chris Matthew led the Bonnies with 18 and 17 points, respectively. The Orange answered with 17, 18 and 17 points from junior forward Rick Jackson, transfer wing Wes Johnson and sophomore forward Kris Joseph, respectively.  St. Bonaventure traveled to Little Three rival Niagara on Tuesday (12/22) for one last game before Christmas, but couldn’t get the job done, losing 71-77.  They return to action on Wednesday the 30th, as they host Canisius.

St. Louis

Coach Majerus’ squad beat Belmont, 75-67, on Wednesday (12/16), then lost to Missouri State, 73-63, on Saturday (12/19).  Sophomore guard Kwamain Mitchell, poked in the right eye with 2:59 to go in the Belmont game, was held out of the Missouri State game.  The Billikens could have used his 14.3 PPG on Saturday.  After winning by seven (61-54) at home against Missour-Kansas City on Tuesday 12/22, the Billikens break for Christmas, and return to action against Eastern Illinois on Tuesday 12/29.  Let’s hope Mitchell’s recovery is swift and complete.

Temple

Looking for a definition for “on a roll?”  Check out the Owls!

After knocking off Villanova on the 13th, the Owls headed up the New Jersey Turnpike to Newark and housed the Seton Hall Pirates in their downtown arena, the Rock.  Down by 13 twice early in the 2nd half, Temple took a 40-21 run in the last 16 minutes to hand yet another Big East team their first loss of the season.  The two game snapshot above suggests that a nucleus of Ryan Brooks, Juan Fernandez and Lavoy Allen has taken the reins on offense and has efficiently converted possessions into points.  Fernandez and Brooks took turns having career games, but that each was able to step in is a very good sign going forward.  Scootie Randall and Craig Williams should see their minutes grow; Randall because he has provided timely offense in both games, and Williams has taken the injured Michael Eric’s spot in the rotation.  Of particular interest is the Owls’ rebounding.  They dominated both of their Big East opponents, a bit surprising given the Big East’s reputation for physical inside play.  Especially noteworthy is the defensive rebounding coach Fran Dunphy is getting from his backcourt and wing players (Brooks, Guzman, Moore and Di Leo); 15% is a good number for a front court player, the 14%+ the four are registering is terrific.  Allen and Williams’ DR% is phenomenal, but simply not sustainable.  Guzman’s turnovers are high, but he has brought the ball up against two teams known for their press and ability to harass ball handlers.  Like Allen and Williams’ defensive rebounding, the number will probably not hold.

Xavier

The Musketeers traveled to Indianapolis, IN to take on the Butler Bulldogs, losing a 69-68 nail-biter on an unusual clock malfunction.  Xavier trailed through the first half, dropping behind by double digits ranging out to 15. They closed the gap to seven before the break, then came out with an 11-0 run to overtake the Bulldogs.  Jason Love and Kenny Frase were beginning to control the paint, as Terrell Hollaway hit several critical threes from the outside.  The X-Men were held the lead for over 13 minutes in the second half, but a Butler surge tied the game at the four-minute mark, and the teams traded the lead (and tied) five more times over the last four minutes.  Jordan Crawford’s trey with 45 seconds left broke the fourth tie and gave Xavier a three point cushion.  Holloway’s fifth foul at the 39 second mark put Butler guard Shelvin Mack on the line.  Mack hit both free throws, but Xavier had possession with just over a shot clock’s worth of time left.  A steal by Butler guard/forward Gordon Hayward with 36 seconds left gave Butler three tries (two misses and offensive rebounds) before Hayward converted on a layup with an unknown amount of time left on the clock.  According to the clock itself there appeared to be 1.8 seconds left, but the time keeper reported an earlier malfunction had prevented the clock from starting properly earlier in the Butler possession.  The referees (D.J. Carstensen, Sid Rodeheffer and Bo Borowski) decided there was no time left and called the game.  Xavier then hosted in-state rival Miami, OH on Wednesday 12/23.  The Muskies almost fell victim once again to a clock-related question at the end of that one.  Xavier’s Dante Jackson stole an in-bounds pass with less than seven seconds left which would have sealed the Xavier victory, but the play was blown dead because one of the zebras was checking the clock.  On the re-do, Miami’s Kenny Hayes missed a long three at the buzzer that would have tied it and Xavier won, 70-67.  After breaking for the Holiday, the Musketeers will conclude the OOC portion of their season with two BCS opponents — LSU (at home) on Tuesday 12/29 and Wake Forest (in Winston-Salem) on Sunday 1/3.

Games to Catch

• La Salle vs Cornell, Tuesday 12/29 — The Big Red are heavy favorites to grab the Ivy’s bid to the NCAA.  I am interested, given Cornell’s win over St. John’s (a team looking to improve it’s standing in the Big East this season) in the ECAC Holiday Festival, to see how the Explorers match up.
• Xavier vs LSU, Tuesday 12/29 — The Musketeers host the Tigers during holiday week.  While LSU was not expected to be a force in the SEC West this season, Xavier has a good chance to match up (indirectly) with two BCS teams expected to make some noise in their respective conferences, Connecticut and Arizona State.  The Huskies beat the Tigers by 26 at the NIT Season Tip-Off (semifinal game), while the Sun Devils took LSU by 19 a round later.
• Richmond at Wake Forest, Thursday 12/31 — The Spiders get another road test, this time against ACC contender Wake. The Spiders’ front court contingent of Dan Geriot, Justin Harper and Ryan Butler will have to match up with the Deacons’ Al-Farouq Aminu and Chas McFarland.
• Dayton at New Mexico, Friday 1/1 — The Lobos are not a BCS power, nor are they favored to take their conference bid (the Mountain West) this season.  But their homecourt, an 18,000 seat hole-in-the-ground in Albuquerque, NM known simply as “The Pit,” is a legend.  A notoriously difficult place for visitors to win.  The Flyers are expected to win the A10 title this season, and The Pit will be a good place to get ready for hostile crowds, and lots of noise.

The sports world may have told us that this was a college football weekend, but we know better, right?

CHEERS

That Kentucky vs. UNC is Meaningful Again.  Now that John Calipari is at Kentucky and his Cats are ranked in the Top 10 with a legitimate shot at postseason glory for the first time in a long while, it’s good to have this game on the early-season schedule.  UK rode a masterful 28-2 run to build an early 19-point lead behind John Wall’s 16/5/7 assts even though he spent much of the game cramping up, and the record crowd of 24k+ at Rupp Arena loved it… until UNC got their young legs settled in the second half, and a late 12-1 run got the Heels within one bucket with 0:33 remaining.  Eric Bledsoe and John Wall made five pressure-filled FTs to close it out 68-66 and UK moved to 8-0 on the season while UNC fell to 7-2.  One thing was clear, though — both of these teams are going to get a lot better before March – can we set a rematch in Indy on Semifinal Saturday four months from now?

Oregon State.  For putting an end to the discussion that was already gurgling (ahem) about the Pac-10 getting swept in the Big 12/Pac-10 Hardwood Series.  The Beavers defeated Colorado 74-69 on Friday night to give the Pac-10 its first win in the Series, and through the weekend games, only Cal’s dominant home victory over Iowa State was the other.  The Big 12 now leads 8-2 in the matchup, and with two games remaining at Pac-10 venues, we’re still not coinvinced that the league will get another win (Oklahoma State @ Stanford & Texas A&M @ Washington).

Reggie Jackson. It didn’t count, but lordy…  Jackson damn near brough the entire world down with this ridiculous dunk (below) at the end of the BC-Miami (FL) game on Sunday.   Still, Jackson dropped 18/9 in a conference opener for both teams that showed both of these teams will be heard from in the ACC this season.  BC dominated the glass 43-19, but it was Jackson’s FTs (not a dunk) with three seconds remaining that gave BC the home win to go to 1-0 in league play.

Dunk to Win.  How about a dunk that did count?  On Saturday afternoon, Ole Miss’ Eniel Polynice broke free for a throwdown right before the buzzer that ended up being the winning margin, 81-79, over Southern Miss.  This was the capper on a wild game that saw the 7-1 Rebels come back from six pts down in the final minute to take the lead and win the game on that dunk.  We’ve yet to find online video of this play but it’s really impressive, so if someone finds it a link to the dunk only, please let us know.  Chris Warren added 20/6 assts for Ole Miss, while Gary Flowers contributed 20/8  for Southern Miss.  Afterwards, USM coach Larry Eustachy found time to throw Mississippi State coach Rick Stansbury under the bus for not playing his team.  Good times.

JEERS

Gravity.  If you haven’t heard by now, Ohio State superstar Evan Turner took a nasty spill after attempting a dunk in the first few minutes of the Buckeyes’ 111-60 mauling of Eastern Michigan on Saturday afternoon.  He landed on the small of his back and broke two vertebrae which will shelve the early-season leading candidate for NPOY for at least eight weeks.  Ohio State will undoubtedly have trouble recovering from his loss during that time.  For a more detailed description and video of the fall, see our report from Saturday.

A 22-point Half.  You probably missed this on Friday night, but we didn’t.  Pitt and New Hampshire tried their best to set the game back fifty years with a wretched offensive performance during a 15-7 first half.  You read that right.  15-7.  The 22 combined points was the lowest for a half in the shot-clock era, which began in 1985.  It may as well have been 1955, though, as Pitt won 47-32 with the two teams combining for 31% shooting and Pitt in particular getting almost all of its points from two players — 23 from Ashton Gibbs and 19 from Brad Wanamaker.  In fact, the entire Pitt front line contributed a total of three points.  We’re not sure what exactly caused this, guys, but let’s please not let this happen again, ok?

She Looks Different With the Lights On.  Nouveaux-riche WCC powers Portland and San Diego are learning what it’s like to be Gonzaga after all these years.  Just one week after one of the most successful weekends in both schools’ basketball history, the giant red target that was placed squarely on their backs is weighing down both teams.  On Sunday, both teams took blowout losses at the hands of schools that were clearly fired up to get a shot at a team playing with the big boys into their arena.  Portland, the media RTC darling of a week ago,  lost its second straight game to a middie after finishing as the runner-up to West Virginia in the 76 Classic.  Idaho ran out to a 16-pt first-half lead and never looked back, holding Portland to 32% shooting and 6-22 from deep.  Things have been even worse for San Diego since returning as the runner-up in the Great Alaska Shootout.  The Toreros have dropped three straight games, including Friday night’s loss to UC Riverside and a 37-pt  (19% FG) stinker on Sunday at Fresno State (note: Brandon Johnson did miss the game for disciplinary reasons, but SD was still down 38 pts in this one at one time – ugh).  It was Idaho’s first win over a ranked team in 27 years and Fresno’s first win in five tries.  Both of these WCC teams are going to need to right the ship in home games this week (Denver and New Mexico, respectively) or be considered irrelevant by Christmas after such good starts.

Weekend Upsets.

• Wake Forest 77, #16 Gonzaga 75.  Wake used a thuggish play by Gonzaga’s Elias Harris in the first half to get themselves back into the game and force the smaller Zags to defend their imposing size (instead of vice versa) in the second half.  Harris struck his forearm into Chas McFarland’s neck with just over two minutes remaining in the first half and Gonzaga with a nine-pt lead, and was given a flagrant and immediately ejected (Harris’ interesting take: “I don’t know what happened.’) from the game.  Wake then turned that mistake into a seven-pt trip and was able to regain the lead heading into halftime with all the momentum.  In the second half, the Deacs built a sixteen-point lead behind two freshman — CJ Harris (19/4) and Ari Stewart (17/3) — even though star Al-Farouq Aminu was struggling (9/5 on 4-11 FG while in foul trouble).  Gonzaga came back thanks to Matt Bouldin’s 22/4/5 assts, but it wasn’t enough as Wake hang on for the fourth all-time victory at the Kennel by an opponent.  This came one week after Wake lost at home to William & Mary, but the Deacs are an interesting team if their freshmen continue to play at a high level.

• Charlotte 87, #18 Louisville 65.  Charlotte thoroughly dominated the injury-depleted Cardinals in their house on Saturday, running out to a 15-pt halftime lead and never seriously being threatened by the home team in the second half.  Louisville’s backcourt depth of Peyton Siva, Preston Knowles and Jerry Smith were all on the bench with injuries, but that doesn’t explain why Edgar Sosa and Reginald Delk combined for 4-15 from the field for a total of 11 points and gave up ten threes on the defensive end.  Or why the UL frontcourt was dominated (-11) on the boards.  This was Rick Pitino’s worst home loss while at Louisville, and we’re convinced that there are fundamental issues with his team this season that will not be solved even with every player healthy.  Charlotte, who lost by 42 to Duke earlier this season, got 21/14 from Chris Braswell and 20 pts (including four treys) from Derrio Green in the convincing victory.
• NC State 77, Marquette 73.  This is as surprising a win as we had all weekend, with as well as Marquette has played so far this season.  The Pack forced tough shooting nights out of Lazar Hayward (6-16) and Jimmy Butler (6-14), however, and were able to shred the MU defense for 54% shooting in a landmark road win for Sidney Lowe’s program.  There haven’t been many of these over his tenure.  In fact, only two in the last two years (at New Orleand; at Georgia Tech).
• Troy 81, Auburn 77. Auburn lost to Troy 81-77 at home on Friday night by allowing the Trojans to shoot 54% and rain thirteen threes (seven from Brandon Hazzard) on the Tigers’ heads.  Can Jeff Lebo survive this season?  Should he?  Is this an upset?

More Big 12/Pac-10 Hardwood Series.

• #1 Kansas 73, UCLA 61.  UCLA definitely showed signs of coming out of its tailspin, especially with freshman forward Tyler Honeycutt coming off the bench to provide energy (3/6), if not much else.  Still, Kansas was never truly threatened despite a poor offensive game from Cole Aldrich (7 pts on 1-6 FG).  Markieff Morris picked up the slack, coming off the bench for a career-high 19 pts and 6 boards in the win.  One thing we’re getting tired of hearing is excuses for UCLA’s troubles this year in terms of NBA personnel losses.  It’s absolutely true that the Bruins have lost players, but the bottom line is that if the Ben Howland’s sophomore class of HS all-americans was as good as people expected, UCLA would be in the top 10 right now.  They aren’t, and UCLA is struggling.  Period.
• Missouri 106, Oregon 69. For the people out there who actually thought Oregon might compete in a down Pac-10 this year, here’s exhibit A as to why  not.  They quit when they’re down.  Missouri used two huge runs totaling 32-1 in the first half to dominate the turnover-prone Ducks, and this one wasn’t ever a contest.  Interestingly, TaJuan Porter came off the bench and only played six minutes (scoring zero points).  Missouri was scorching hot, hitting 58% for the game and raining fourteen threes over the course of the game.
• Kansas State 86, Washington State. 69.  Same story, different venue, as K-State ran all over Wazzu from the opening tip, building a 20-pt first-half lead and forcing their star Klay Thompson (22/6 and NINE turnovers) into a 5-15 shooting night.  KSU nailed ten threes compared to Wazzu’s one, and Denis Clemente and Jacob Pullen each had 21 in another easy win for the Big 12.  This K-State team is good, folks.
• Oklahoma 79, Arizona 62. Oklahoma jumped all over visiting Arizona from the opening tip and Willie Warren played like the all-american we all think he is, dropping 25/4 assts on 10-14 FG in this one on Sunday.  Arizona lost its third straight as Sean Miller will try to right the ship this week against Louisiana Tech and San Diego State.

RTC Live.  Our correspondents caught games on both coasts and the midsection this weekend.

• Xavier 77, Kent State 61.  Back from a disappointing trip to the Old Spice Classic, Xavier looked happy to be back in the friendly and familiar confines of the Cintas Center Friday evening as they survived an early challenge from Kent State but pulled away in the second half to win, 77-61.  The Golden Flashes got up by as much as 12 deep into the first half, keeping Xavier under wraps by switching defenses frequently and relying primarily on a 3-2 zone that appeared to confuse the Musketeers, but Xavier head coach Chris Mack dispelled that notion, saying afterward that “the first ten minutes of the game were a direct result of our guys trying to over-share the basketball.  But that’s good.  That means they’re listening to their coaches and they trust us.”  In the midst of KSU’s changing defenses, Mack called guard Terrell Holloway “a calming influence for our team.”  Holloway contributed 13/5/2 steals to the Xavier cause and center Jason Love had a double-double with 10/10, but the star tonight was Jordan Crawford, whose 21 points came on 8-13 shooting from the floor, including 5-7 from three-point range.  KSU was still within a point six minutes into the second half, but a 9-0 Musketeer run put this one away.  Xavier will need all the calming influences they can get over the next couple of weeks, given the rest of their brutal non-conference schedule.  But don’t we always see this from Xavier?  They hover on the fringes of the rankings early, then overachieve at the end of the season and surprise everyone.  This is a win Xavier had to have…because they were “supposed” to win.  But if they keep winning the ones they’re supposed to win, and they learn from this tough early schedule…you never know.  Most of the basketball talk in Cincinnati these days is about the Bearcats.  Might want to keep an eye on this “other” Cincinnati school, too.
• California 82, Iowa State 63.  In a game where the home team didn’t appear to have the best players on the court, Cal used a second-half run fueled by hustle and grit to put away the Cyclones.  Patrick Christopher (20/11) broke out of his slump, while Jorge Gutierrez contributed with an efficient 12/4/3 assts, but it was the play of Omondi Amoke that really got Mike Montgomery’s attention in the postgame media interviews.  Monty said that the team got a little bit of their “swagger” back in this one, and it was apparent that the Bears were really concentrating on a Montgomery staple, rebounding, as Cal outboarded the bigger Cyclones to the tune of +19.  Iowa State got 21/6 from its star Craig Brackins and 17/10 from Marquis Gilstrap, but only nine FGs from the rest of the team, as the Bear defense took away all other options.  This was only the Pac-10′s second win in the Big 12/Pac-10 Hardwood Series over the weekend.
• St. Mary’s 68, Utah State 63.   St. Mary’s broke Utah State’s 37 game home winning streak as senior Omar Samhan used his 22 points and 17 rebounds to power the Gaels (6-1) past the Aggies (4-3) 68-63 in Logan, Utah, on Saturday night.  Samhan’s partner in the frontcourt, Ben Allen, consistently got open at the top of the key and was able to hit four deep threes and ended the game with a stat stuffling line of 14 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists and a block. Nobody was bigger for the Gaels then freshman reserve forward Clint Steindl. One of head coach Randy Bennett’s many Australian recruits went 3-4 from behind the arc including what turned out to be the game winner, breaking the 63-all tie with 36 seconds left on the clock in front 10,000+ screaming Utah State fans.  Pooh Williams lead the Aggies with 15 points and had the ball in his hands following Steindl’s clutch three but was whistled for a charge that was questionable at that point in the game. St. Mary’s became the first non-conference team to win a regular season game at Utah State since BYU in January of 2001.
• Villanova 95, Maryland 86.  Villanova burned up the nets in a spectacular display of three-point shooting by Scottie Reynolds (25/5/8 assts) and Corey Stokes (18/3/3 assts) where the Wildcats lit up the Terps for eleven first-half threes.  They finished with sixteen on the evening, but it was really Nova’s  overlooked inside play on the boards that consistently held the Terps off of making a big enough run to get back into the game.  Villanova was +12 on the glass overall, but even more importantly, +13 on the offensive boards, meaning numerous additional possessions and three attempts.  As for Maryland, the enigma known as Greivis Vasquez must be pressing too hard this year because he turned in another weak performance — 12/3/7 assts on 3-9 FG and 7 turnovers.  Maryland must have Vasquez playing with fire and confidence to become the team that they were at the end of last season, and sometimes it takes a good portion of the senior year for players such as Vasquez to stop worrying about scouts and just let the game come again.  Maryland should be encouraged by its other guards’ play, as Sean Mosely blew up for 26/5 and Eric Hayes for 20/4, but this team will rise and fall with Vasquez this year.

Other Games of National Interest.

Friday Night

• #9 Michigan State 72, Wofford 60.  Another lackluster win by the Spartans, according to Izzo, who told media afterwards that some of his players were playiing for the names on the back of their jerseys, not the front.  Raymar Morgan’s 19/11 was the lone bright spot for MSU.
• #17 Florida 85, Jacksonville 67.  Jacksonville was able to stick around for most of this one until they had a five-minute scoreless drought to end the game, but it was UF’s threes — 12 of 20 attempts — including seven by the Gators’ starting backcourt of Erving Walker and Kenny Boynton that kept things just out of reach.
• #22 Texas A&M 74, Akron 62.  A&M slogged is way through a defensive battle to move to 7-1 behind Donald Sloan’s 17/3/4 stls and Derrick Roland’s 15/8.  Of notable concern for Mark Turgeon’s team is getting outrebounded (-3) by a MAC team in their building.

Saturday

• #5 Duke 80, St. John’s 71. Duke was tested but never seriously threatened by St. John’s as the Devils won their 73d consecutive game at home against a nonconference opponent.  Mason Plumlee got his first start since returning from a wrist injury, but it was Kyle Singler (17/8/3 assts/4 stls), Nolan Smith (16/3) and Jon Scheyer (15/6 assts) who led the way for Duke.
• #6 Purdue 101, Buffalo 65.  The Boilers nailed twelve threes in an undressing of Buffalo where they shot 52% for the game, well above their season average of 43% from the field.  E’Twaun Moore and Chris Kramer both had 14 pts in the win.
• #7 Syracuse 101, Maine 55.  The Orange also hit triple digits after dominating Maine to the tune of 60-12 in the first half of action, holding the Black Bears to a mere 4-31 from the field in that stanza.  Brandon Triche led Syracuse with 16 pts, and the team shot a scorching 65% for the game.
• #14 Georgetown 73, American 46.  Georgetown used its patented defense to lock up Jeff Jones’ American team to 27% shooting, and Greg Monroe had 9/13/3 assts/4 blks as the Hoyas quietly are showing signs of recovering from last year’s disaster.  Their next three games against Butler, Washington and ODU will be telling.
• #20 Butler 84, Valparaiso 67. Butler used a hot second half of shooting (69%) to pull away from Valparaiso and got a well-balanced effort from its stars Gordon Hayward (18/4/5 assts) and Matt Howard (16/5) to knock out Valpo despite allowing 53% shooting from the Crusaders.
• #21 UNLV 66, Santa Clara 63.  UNLV had to come back from an 8-pt halftime deficit in order to keep its perfect record intact, as Santa Clara fought and clawed itself into a lead despite the loss of star player Kevin Foster, who will miss the rest of the season with a broken foot.  Tre’Von Willis had all fourteen of his points after the break as the Runnin’ Rebs are off to their best start since the 1990-91 season.
• #23 Georgia Tech 79, USC 53.  This one seemed over early, as Georgia Tech ran out to an 18-0 lead before USC could find the basket, but then the Trojans went on a run themselves to cut the lead to three at 27-24 with 4:30 to go in the first half.  At that point, Tech went on another run spanning both halves to blow out the Trojans, who have no quality depth to speak of.  Alex Stepheson had 22/7 for USC in the losing effort and Derrick Favors had his second dub-dub of the season (10/11) for Tech.
• Rhode Island 86, Providence 82.  The Battle of Brotherhood ended with URI rallying from a 14-pt second-half deficit behind Keith Cothran’s 19/5.  Jamine Peterson had 20/11 for PC, but Marshon Brooks struggled (4 pts in 20 foul-plagued minutes).
• Temple 45, Penn State 42.  An ugly affair at Temple ended with Ryan Brook (19/8) nailing two late FTs to seal the game in this intrastate rivalry game.  Lavoy Allen had 8/12 for the Owls, but it was the play of PSU’s Talor Battle (8/5 on 3-15 shooting and no threes) that was notable here.
• Vanderbilt 67, DePaul 54.  DePaul continues to play competitive basketball this year, as Vandy needed a late push to put away the Blue Demons behind AJ Ogilvy’s 19/6 and Jeffery Taylor’s 18/4.  The foul line really hurt DePaul (5-14), especially Eric Wallace’s oh-fer (0-5) from the stripe.
• Illinois 84, Boise State 77. Illinois followed up its spectacular win over Clemson last week with a tough home win over Boise State as all five starters put up double figures.  Demetri McCamey led the way with 23 pts, and the Illini were able to force 23 turnovers which led to scoring opportunities.  They needed it because BSU was able to get the lead down to 2 pts in the last twenty seconds before Illini FTs sealed it.
• Missouri State 58, Air Force 48.  Definitely worth noting that Missouri State moved to 7-0 with wins over Auburn and Tulsa on its resume thus far.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out with the Bears being picked in the middle of the pack of the MVC by most preseason prognosticators.

Sunday

• #10 Washington 88, Cal State Northridge 76.  UW returned home licking its wounds from the first loss of the season in double-OT at Texas Tech last week to finally put down CSN after a second-half 17-2 run that opened up the game.  Isaiah Thomas (21/4/4 stls) and Quincy Pondexter (20/7/4 assts) led the way for the Huskies, who will face unbeaten Georgetown Saturday at the John Wooden Classic in Anaheim, CA.
• #13 Connecticut 79, Harvard 73.  UConn continued its trend this year of letting inferior teams hang around, as Harvard was able to push the Huskies all the way into the final few minutes despite a near-triple double from Jerome Dyson (24/14/9 assts) and great games from Kemba Walker (20/4/4 assts) and Stanley Robinson (18/12).  Harvard’s Jeremy Lin ran roughshod over UConn’s defense, torching the Huskies for 30/9/3 assts/3 stls in a scintillating performance that must have left Jim Calhoun shaking his head a little bit.  Four players scored all but five points for UConn in this one, and Dyson himself said he was exhausted afterwards — UConn will need to find more production to make a run in the Big East this season.
• #19 Clemson 72, South Carolina 61. The tigers continued their hardwood dominance of this series, winning the sixth straight between the two behind Demontez Stitt and Tanner Smith’s 14 each.  More importantly, they did it without a great game from their star Trevor Booker (7/7), who was routinely triple-teamed by the Gamecocks.  South Carolina, still banged up with two starters out of the lineup, hung around until the last few minutes, but they needed a better scoring game from Devan Downey (8/4/3 assts/5 stls on 3-15 FG) to have a realistic shot at this one.
• Notre Dame 90, UCF 72.  Notre Dame got 31 points from a player other than Luke Harangody (who had 29/7 himself) as Tim Abromaitis hit for a career-high 31/4 in his first start, which must encourage Mike Brey in looking for another consistent scoring option.  ND used a second-half run to pull away, but of serious concern has to be UCF hitting 51% of its own shots.  Also notable was Marcus Jordan hitting for 9/6 in twenty minutes off the bench, the best outing of his young career so far.
• Creighton 67, Nebraska 61. Despite being ice-cold from deep (1-10), Creighton was able to ride the 25/10 of Kenny Lawson, Jr., to a hard-fought intrastate victory over a Big 12 team to break a three-game losing streak.  This year’s Creighton team is all over the place — not sure what to expect from the Bluejays on a given night.

]]> http://rushthecourt.net/2009/12/07/atb-weekend-cheers-jeers/feed/ 0 http://rushthecourt.net/2009/02/07/set-your-tivos-020809/ http://rushthecourt.net/2009/02/07/set-your-tivos-020809/#comments Sun, 08 Feb 2009 03:36:29 +0000 nvr1983 http://rushthecourt.wordpress.com/?p=4502

Today’s schedule is a lighter than yesterday, but there are several solid games today.

#13 Purdue at #21 Illinois at 1 PM on CBS: Both teams looking to bounce back from road losses in the Big Ten. The homecourt should be pretty big here as Illinois is 13-1 with their only loss coming by 2 points against a Clemson team that is pretty good (just ask Coach K about the Tigers). If Purdue was at full strength, they might be able to give them a challenge, but they will be without Robbie Hummel. Purdue coach Matt Painter will have to rely on E’Twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson to have big games against Bruce Weber‘s squad. Watch the Mike Davis-Johnson match-up because Johnson will have to dominate Davis in order for the Boilermakers to win.

Creighton at Northern Iowa at 2:05 PM on CBS Affiliates (in Iowa), ESPN Full Court, and ESPN360.com: Yes. Sometimes we think it’s worth watching the “little guys”. This match-up, which features the top 2 teams in the Missouri Valley Conference (Creighton is tied in 2nd with Illinois State), might end up being the most compelling match-up of the day. The Panthers don’t have any player who puts up huge numbers, but they have 5 players averaging between 9.5 and 11.5 PPG with Adam Koch leading the way (11.5 PPG and 4.8 RPG) and Kwadzo Ahelegbe (11.1 PPG and 3.3 APG) close behind. The Bluejays have a legitimate go-to-guy in Booker Woodfox (16.3 PPG).   The last time these two teams met Northern Iowa escaped with a 3-point win. Johnny Moran had a big day for the Panthers scoring a season-high 22 points on 6-of-8 shooting from beyond the arc. I doubt Moran will be able to duplicate the effort, but it should be a close game as the Panthers have a tendency to play close games (only have a +/- of  4.7 PPG despite their 17-6 record).

Boston College at #6 Wake Forest at 4 PM on Raycom, ESPN Full Court, and ESPN360.com: Will Wake come out as flat as Duke did after their 27-point loss? I’m sure that Dino Gaudio will mention that sometime before the start of this game. The last time these teams played, RTC was there and the Demon Deacons dominated the Eagles. The match-up at guard featuring Tyrese Rice and Jeff Teague could be interesting, but I would expect to see Ishmael Smith on Rice. If Wake has shaken off the shock from their blowout loss at Miami, they should be able to win this game relatively easily utilizing Al-Farouq Aminu, Chas McFarland, and James Johnson on the inside.

#25 Washington at Stanford at 5:30 PM on Fox Sports: Despite their nearly identical overall records (16-6 versus 14-6), the Huskies are well ahead of the Cardinal in their quest to land a NCAA tournament bid as they sit 7-3 in the Pac-10 compared to 4-6 for the Cardinal. Lorenzo Romar will be looking to get his Huskies out of their recent skid (losing 2 of 3) when they travel to The Farm. This game will likely come down to which team’s trio of stars plays better. The Huskies are led by Isaiah Thomas, Justin Dentmon, and Jon Brockman while the Cardinals are led by Anthony Goods, Lawrence Hill, and Mitch Johnson. The PG match-up of the freshman Thomas against the senior Johnson should be particularly entertaining as the winner of that duel will probably end up winning the game. I’d look for the Huskies to ride Thomas and Brockman, who comes in averaging a double-double and doesn’t really have anybody on Stanford who can slow him down, to a road victory.

Game of the Day #1

#12 Georgetown at #2 Duke on CBS at 1:30 PM

John Thompson III might want to think about asking the AD at Georgetown for a new schedule maker. I can understand wanting to get your team ready for the tournament, but this is ridiculous. Coming off a brutal start to their Big East schedule (Pittsburgh, Connecticut, Notre Dame, and Syracuse), the Hoyas get a respite by heading out of conference with a leisurely trip to Cameron Indoor Stadium where the Blue Devils have a 67-game home non-conference winning streak. Normally a trip to Cameron would be a major focus of any team’s season, but with the Hoyas’ recent schedule it will be interesting to see if they have anything left in the tank.

This has the potential to be an entertaining game with great matchups all over the floor. The most interesting matchup will be Greg Monroe against Kyle Singler. While Monroe has more potential and will be a higher NBA Draft pick, Singler is quite talented too and plays at a high level more consistently. I’m not sure how Duke will open up because I don’t think Brian Zoubek has a chance against Monroe, but with Monroe’s tendency to coast it might not be such a big issue for stretches of the game. The matchup will be made more interesting by the fact that Duke was the front-runner for Monroe (the #1 high school recruit at times last year) for most of the recruiting season before committing to Georgetown. If Monroe had joined Singler in the middle, Coach K could have had a legitimate title contender.

If Coach K decides to put Zoubek on Monroe, Singler will end up playing against DaJuan Summers who has really stepped up his game this year (15.1 PPG on 53.8% FG and 44.4% 3FG). Either way, it should be an interesting match-up on the inside. Singler probably has the most complete game of any of the 4 bigs in the starting lineup, but Zoubek is still the weakest link of the Duke starting lineup despite his tremendous improvement since he has been at Duke.  Singler’s ability to shoot from outside brings up another intriguing aspect of this game about whether Monroe can come out and defend Singler if necessary. The Hoyas might be best served to put Summers on Singler to keep Monroe out of foul trouble because they will need Monroe to play 30+ minutes if they hope to pull off the upset in Cameron. In the end, it might be the battle on the inside and who controls the boards that will determine outcome of the game despite the talented guards on both sides.

The backcourts also provide some interesting match-ups: Nolan Smith vs. Chris Wright, Jon Scheyer vs. Jessie Sapp, and Gerald Henderson vs. Austin Freeman. All of these are intriguing match-ups with solid players who are capable of taking over a game at any time. Keep an eye on Henderson in this one since he’s the one world-class athlete on the Duke team and he has stepped it up recently including taking over the 2nd half of the game against FSU last Saturday.

Game of the Day #2

- #2 Wake Forest at #10 Clemson on ABC at 3:30 PM

To show just how stacked Saturday’s deck of games is, we have two GOTDs.  Unbeaten Wake Forest (15-0) travels to unbeaten Clemson (16-0), meaning that somebody has to lose tomorrow, and depending on what happens in Louisville tomorrow night, the winner of this game may remain as the only undefeated team in America on Sunday.  For Wake, this means potentially a shot at #1; for Clemson, this game means legitimacy.  Even though Clemson’s strength of schedule is a relatively solid 48th in the nation (vs. Wake’s 125th), there is a sense that Clemson isn’t as good as it record indicates.  Some of this perception is based on previous years’ collapses, but make no mistake, this Tiger team has the markings of an excellent team.  They’ve won road games at tough venues such as Illinois, Miami (FL) and rival South Carolina, and have proven to be one of the most efficient offensive and defensive teams in the country halfway through the season (top 15 in both measures).

Wake, on the other hand, comes in as perhaps the hottest team in the land.  In the last two weeks, the Deacs have ended BYU’s 53-game homecourt winning streak and taken down the presumptive “best team in America,” UNC, at home. One thing seems certain – the game will be a barnburner.  Three of the last four contests between these schools have gone to OT, with the home team winning all four games (by an average of 3.5 pts).  The attention throughout this week has been on the remarkable play of Jeff Teague for Wake, but we feel that this game will be won or lost in the frontcourt.  Clemson is not a big team, but Wake is the fifth tallest team in basketball and secures more rebounds per game (40) than anybody.  If Wake gets strong contributions from Al-Farouq Aminu, James Johnson and/or Chas McFarland inside, we don’t think it will matter much what KC Rivers, Terrence Oglesby and Trevor Booker are doing on the wing.  However, if Clemson can get their guards open for threes and they’re knocking them down frequently enough to rile up the Littlejohn Coliseum crowd (as tough a place to play in the ACC when Clemson is good), then the Tigers could shellshock the Deacs into the upset.

Vegas likes Clemson at home (-2), but they’ve lost seventeen in a row to Top 5 clubs (and 34 of 35), and we loved Wake’s performance at BYU a couple of weeks ago, so we look for Jeff Teague to continue to show his mettle down the stretch by making key plays for the Deacs to get the huge road win to go 3-0 in the conference.

Others to Watch/Tivo

- #13 Notre Dame at #8 Syracuse on ESPN and ESPN360.com at Noon

Both teams will be looking to rebound after tough road losses. In their last game (at Georgetown), the Orange were handed only their 2nd loss of the season. The Fighting Irish are looking to rebound from a loss at Louisville where they were outscored 16-2 in overtime. The key to this game will be how well the Orange are able to neutralize Notre Dame’s advantage on the inside and how well the Fighting Irish are able to neutralize Syracuse’s advantage on the perimeter.

Jim Boeheim will be depending on Paul Harris and Arinze Onuaku to limit reigning Big East POY Luke Harangody from going for 30 points and 15 rebounds, which he is certainly capable of doing. Neither Harris nor Onuaku can match-up with Harangody individually, but thankfully for the Orange the Irish lack a strong second interior presence. If Harris and Onuaku combined can match Harangody’s totals the Orange should be in good position to win. Syracuse’s bigs will also have a chance to attack Harangody when they are on offense as he’s not quite the force on defense that he is on offense (see below–courtesy of Earl Clark)

On the outside, the advantage shifts back to Syracuse with Jonny Flynn and Eric Devendorf, who make up the most electric backcourt in the Big East. Mike Brey will need Kyle McAlarney “The Irish Bomber” to have a big game from the outside, which he has done before against very good competition this year (10-for-18 from 3 against UNC). Tory Jackson will also need to have a solid game controlling the ball for the Irish. A six assist, seven turnover game (like he had at Louisville) isn’t going to cut it in the Carrier Dome either. I think this game would be a toss-up on a neutral floor so give the edge to Syracuse at home.

- #16 Arizona St. at #7 UCLA on CBS at 3:45 PM

This game would have had a little more luster had ASU not laid a gigantic egg at crosstown USC in the second half of their 61-49 loss against the Trojans on Thursday night (USC outscored the Sun Devils 42-23 in the second stanza).  The key to that loss was the enignmatic disappearance of their all-world guard James Harden, who went 0-8 from the field (4-7 from the line) for a measly four points.  This coming from a guy who entered that game shooting a ridiculous 56% from the floor and was averaging 23 pts/game.  The nation’s most efficient offense will have to find a way to get Harden off if they have any inclination of knocking the Bruins off in Pauley Pavilion tomorrow.   Last year UCLA held Harden to 10 ppg on 6-16 shooting, and it was no coincidence ASU was destroyed by 33 and 21 pts in those two games.

UCLA, on the other hand, sliced apart Arizona on Thursday night in an 83-60 victory, putting five players in double figures (between 12 and 15 pts each) and absolutely shutting down every offensive threat UA had other than Chase Budinger and Jordan Hill (16-26; all others were 8-29 from the field).  You probably last saw UCLA when they were losing to Michigan and Texas in early December, but this team has steadily improved behind not its star-studded freshman class, but upperclass role players such as Josh Shipp, Alfred Aboya, Michael Roll and Nikola Dragovic.  This quartet of players last year contributed 21/8; now they’re bringing a much stronger 36/14 to the table.  The freshmen have been used primarily as for depth, and that has given Ben Howland the option of ten players who have varying skill sets that he can pull off the bench at any time.

ASU’s only true road wins this season have been at San Diego St. and at Stanford.  We don’t exactly think that will prepare them for what they’ll face in Pauley.  Still, if watching teams execute offensively is your thing, this game is the place to be.  Both teams almost always work the ball until they get the shot they want, and their 50%+ field goal percentages prove it.  This will be a close game for a while, but UCLA will pull away in the second half.

- #1 Pittsburgh at #20 Louisville on ESPN and ESPN360.com at 6 PM

The last time we thought Pittsburgh would lose on the road, they went into the Verizon Center in DC and humiliated Georgetown at home.  So we’re going to be very careful in how we evaluate this game at Louisville tomorrow night.  How this game is not the Gameday choice, but Miami-UNC is, is a mystery to us.  Nevertheless, this game will be a true test for the Cards, who tend to struggle offensively yet will be playing the most bruising, in-your-face defense in the country.  Frankly, unless Louisville’s Samardo Samuels channels Pervis Ellison and shows some big-time moxie in the post, we feel like DeJuan Blair is going to have a field day in the paint.  His 6+ offensive rebounds per game leads America and it contributes to Pittsburgh rarely going through prolonged scoring droughts because of second-chance opportunities.

As usual for Louisville, though, their success will largely depend on what kind of production the Cards can get from their guards.  After Edgar Sosa’s initial spike in production following Coach Pitino’s invitation to transfer, he’s settled back into mediocrity (13 total pts, 1-8 from three in the last two games).  Jerry Smith hasn’t been much better, averaging 5.0 ppg in their last three games.  We shouldn’t expect that to get better with the likes of Levance Fields and Jermaine Dixon checking them tomorrow.  That really puts the entire burden on the capable shoulders of Earl Clark and Terrence Williams, either of whom could drop a triple-double on a given night, but neither of whom exactly blew up against the Panthers in two games last season (T-Will: 6/5; Clark: 12/6).  It will take significantly more than those numbers to beat Pitt.

The wildcard here is the motivational techniques of Rick Pitino, who can convince kids that he hung the moon in situations like this (i.e., where #1 comes to town).  Pitino is 2-0 versus #1 teams in the regular season at Louisville, although both wins came within two weeks of each other in the 2003-04 season, and it wouldn’t shock us in the least if guys like Andre McGee and Preston Knowles play out of their damn minds in this one.  Still, we can’t get over the fact that Pittsburgh is built to shock-and-awe offensively challenged teams like Louisville, and we can’t get the image of what they did to the Hoyas a few weeks ago out of our heads.  We like the Panthers to slowly pull away in this one once the adrenaline wears off.

- Miami at #6 UNC on ESPN and ESPN360.com at 9 PM

RTC’s East Coast Bureau will be in Chapel Hill to cover the GameDay festivities, to live blog the action, and answer your questions. Since I’m going to be spending the entire day covering the game while rtmsf handles the “Boom Goes the Dynamite” duty, I’ll keep this brief. The matchup, which seemed like it was going to be much better in the preseason, lost some of its appeal with UNC’s 0-2 start in the ACC and Miami’s early-season loss to Ohio State and Clemson. The Tar Heels appeared to have returned to form last night with their easy win at Virginia. While they are not the invincible team that some “experts” thought they were before their loss to BC, they still remain the title favorite. If they play at the top of their game, I don’t think there is a team in the country that can beat them. The question is whether they can string together 5 games in a row where they at least come close to that level. [I am assuming that they could win their first game playing as poorly as they possibly could play.]

At first glance it might appear like the Hurricanes have underperformed this year because they are unranked after being a preseason #17, but a closer look reveals that the Hurricanes have performed about as well as you could expect them to. Two of their losses were to current #4 UConn and current #9 Clemson. Their only other loss was at home to Ohio State in game that was marred by Jack McClinton’s ejection for slapping ex-Buckeye Anthony Crater in retaliation for a swipe that Crater had taken while guarding McClinton. Miami ended up losing by 5 with McClinton only playing 8 minutes after starting out on fire (4-for-4 from 3) against an Ohio State team that still had David Lighty. The Hurricanes also will be coming into this game on a bit of a high after coming back from 17 down to beat Maryland on Wednesday night. I’m not saying that I expect Miami to beat UNC tonight (although the Hurricanes are ahead of the Tar Heels in the ACC standings), but I expect it to be much closer than Vegas does (UNC -17). The key for the Hurricanes will be getting someone other than McClinton and Dwayne Collins to score.

For more on this game and the GameDay events, join me on my interactive live blog from Chapel Hill.

If You Have a Second Tivo

- #6 Oklahoma at Texas A&M on ESPN at 2 PM. TAMU is underrated so far, but OU has only had one blip (at Arkansas) this season.

- Illinois at #7 Michigan St. on ESPN at 4 PM. If Illinois wants to be considered “back,” they need to win a statement road game like this one at MSU.

- #22 California at Stanford on FCS Pacific at 8 PM. Former Stanford head coach Mike Montgomery heads back to The Farm as the head man across the bay at archrival Cal.

- Ohio St. at #25 Michigan on Big Ten Network at 8 PM. Two teams trying to separate themselves in the Big 10 race.  Which OSU will show up – the one that beat Notre Dame or the one WVU incinerated?

- I’m sitting courtside right now (actually 2nd row) across from the Wake bench.
- Wake goes up 2-0 on a tough lay-up by James Johnson.
- Great play off the alley-oop from Al-Farouq Aminu. Going to the line for the old-fashion 3-point play.
- Should be a good match-up between Tyrese Rice and Jeff Teague tonight.

Teague Splits the BC Defense

- Wake up 10-2 and BC calls a timeout. Crowd is pretty quiet right now. I guess that’s what happens after watching your team lose to Harvard and Miami back-to-back.
- Nice spin move by Corey Raji to get the crowd back into it and Rice follows with a 3. Rakim Sanders going to the line.
- Rice gets stripped again and Aminu leads the break before dishing off to Teague who finishes. I’ve been impressed by Aminu’s handle so far. Much better than I expected.
- Teague and Aminu head to the bench. Let’s see if BC can capitalize and cut into the lead here.
- Wake is really struggling to get into its offense without Teague and Aminu.
- Dino Gaudio appears to be reading my mind or my laptop and signals for both guys to head to the scorer’s table.
- Rice just got run over there leading to a steal and a Wake Forest fast break. The crowd is less than pleased with the officiating so far.
- Rice with a big 3 to get the crowd back into it.
- Aminu goes behind his back and dishes to Gary Clark for the easy layup. Aminu has been ridiculous so far.
- Wake with another alley-up. That has to at least be a half a dozen just 15 minutes into the game. Isn’t Al Skinner telling his guys to stay with their men?
- Teague and Rice both have 10, but Teague has been much more efficient in doing it. Teague is totally dominating Rice right now. Teague is making a case to be 1st team All-ACC and possibly All-American.
- Wow. The new BC head football coach has been sitting in front of me the entire time and I had no idea. I wonder what kind of contract he had to sign after the Jagodzinski fiasco.
- Wake gets bailed out after an ugly possession before the half. The Demon Deacons go into the break with a 47-24 lead.
- Just had a discussion with a BC official about how he doesn’t like the flex offense they run. I told him I don’t care what type of offense you run as long as it doesn’t look as bad as BC’s tonight. I wonder if I am going to get invited back. Maybe I should keep those thoughts to myself. . .
- Nice alley-oop by Rice to Reggie Jackson pulling the Eagles to within 19. The crowd goes wild. . .
- I wonder if anybody calls Reggie “Mr. October”. Great nickname for baseball not so much for college basketball. . .
- Another 3 by Rice pulls BC back to 16. They can’t possible make this a game. Can they?
- Teague almost threw down a nasty dunk. That might have gotten press row out of its chairs.
- Things getting physical now. An altercation between Rice and L.D. Williams. What’s Rice doing getting involved with L.D. Williams?
- Rice is out of the game for BC. I think this is the first time all night. I wonder how long Skinner will rest him.
- Rice is already standing up next to the BC assistant coach.
- Chas McFarland has been having a solid if quiet game and gets into double figures with that tip in.
- BC cuts it to 13 with 9 minutes left. How are they still in this game?
- Offensive foul on McFarland. BC ball now with a chance to cut it to 10.
- Huge 3 by Rice to cut it to single digits and the crowd erupts. Could we have a “Rush the Court” situation at RTC’s first game as a “media member”?
- Errant pass by Rice. He is a great scorer, but sometimes I question his decision-making. He’s thrown a couple awful alley-oops tonight.
- Strong finish by Teague bumps the lead back up to 14 and quiets the crowd.
- Rice needs to step up here.
- And he does with a nice driving lay-up.
- It looks like it is going to be Teague vs. Rice to finish the game off tonight.
- The crowd is heading to the exits with the Eagles down by 14 with 3:23 left.

The BC Student Section Didn't Have a Lot To Cheer About

- Teague just sealed it with a 10-foot runner in the lane to put Wake up by 15 with 1:30 left.
- “Let’s go defense!” chants from the crowd down by 15 with 50 seconds left.
- Teague with the exclamation point dunk and now Aminu with an alley-oop in the last 30 seconds. Not going to say it’s classless, but I don’t think BC appreciated it. Rice said something to Teague after his dunk.
- Well that’s a wrap for our first live blog at an actual game. Let me know what you think since I’ll be at the Miami-UNC game on Saturday night. Feedback, suggestions, and criticism are all welcome.

Game of the Night
#8 Syracuse at #12 Georgetown, 7:30 PM on ESPN2 and ESPN360.com: It’s hard to believe that these two powerhouses are only the 3rd and 4th highest ranked teams in their own conference. [Calm down ACC folks. I realize that you have 4 teams ranked ahead of Georgetown, but the ACC doesn't even come close to the Big East in terms of depth. Look for the next ACC team in the top 25. There are none.] Looking at these teams, I still have a hard time believing that the Orangemen can compete with Pittsburgh, UConn, or Georgetown if all of those teams are playing up to their potential. However, Jim Boeheim has his team playing solid basketball and is one miracle 60-footer away from being undefeated (or at least being in OT to stay undefeated). Syracuse has been able to do this despite the distraction created by the suspension of Eric Devendorf for assaulting a female student as noted extensively here at RTC. Boehiem has been able to do this thanks to solid play from Jonny Flynn (seen below getting away with the most blatant charge that wasn’t called that you will ever see) and Devendorf (when not interacting with the co-eds) on the perimeter and Paul Harris and Arinze Onuaku on the inside. The embarrassingly weak early schedule (SOS: 56th in the nation) has certainly helped the Orangemen have a gaudy record.

Tonight the Orangemen will face their first true test against the Hoyas on the road. Unlike Syracuse, Georgetown has already faced a difficult schedule (SOS: #2 in the nation behind only 6-10 Oregon) including 3 brutal games in the Big East (road games at Connecticut and Notre Dame and at home against Pittsburgh). While the Hoyas lack the depth inside (or thugs according to JT2), they will have the most talented player on the court playing for them on the inside in Greg Monroe who has shown glimpses of brilliance this year. Having seen him in person at the Old Spice Classic over Thanksgiving Break, I can definitely see why he has NBA scouts drooling, but at times he appears too passive at times to dominate games. While neither Harris nor Onuaku can match Monroe’s talent, it will be interesting to see if he can match their intensity the entire game. The other key match-up will be how DaJuan Summers, Chris Wright, and Austin Freeman do against Flynn and Devendorf on the perimeter although I’m not sure how John Thompson III will utilize Summers if Boeheim opts for his patented 2-3 zone. I’m not sure what to make of his experiments with man-to-man, but I would venture that he will go with the more familiar now that he is finally playing some solid teams. I’m guessing that Georgetown has too much talent, the home court, and experience from playing actually competition to lose this game. Syracuse should be able to keep it close until the final 5 minutes when the Hoyas should pull away.

Others to Watch
#2 Duke at Georgia Tech, 7 PM on ESPN and ESPN360.com: This has trap game written all over it. Duke just came off a win at FSU, which has shocked Duke several times this year, and the Blue Devils have a nationally televised showcase at Cameron against the aforementioned Hoyas on Saturday. Georgia Tech is mediocre enough (9-6) that the Blue Devils may overlook them, but just talented enough that they could shock Duke particularly since the game will be played at Alexander Memorial Coliseum. The key thing to watch here will be how the Yellow Jacket bigs–Gani Lawal (16.8 PPG and 10.0 RPG) and Alade Aminu (13.5 PPG and 9.4 RPG)–do since interior play will continue to be Duke’s Achilles’ heel (except when they go 3 for their first 27 from 3-point range). If Lawal and Aminu can dominate inside against Kyle Singler and Brian Zoubek, Paul Hewett just may be able to pull out the win.

#3 Wake Forest at Boston College, 9 PM on ESPN Full Court and ESPN360.com: RTC will be at this game (look for the male equivalent of Erin Andrews typing away on his keyboard) to bring you the latest scoop on Wake Forest, the most intriguing team in college basketball. Even after the Demon Deacons win at BYU to end the Cougars nation-leading 53 game home winning streak, there remained a healthy skepticism of Dino Gaudio‘s young squad. However, after they held off everyone’s national title favorite UNC people have really started to come around on this team (I don’t think their rise of 1-2 spots in the polls reflects the magnitude of the change in perception). On the other hand, Boston College may be the most confusing team in the nation. After pulling off one of the bigger upsets of the season (and ending the media’s speculation of an undefeated season for UNC), the Eagles followed it up with a loss at home against Harvard and then to Miami. While the loss to Miami (preseason #17) is excusable, the loss to the Crimson isn’t. Wake will try avoid a letdown similar to the one BC had by relying on Jeff Teague, James Johnson, and Al-Farouq Aminu. Teague will likely be guarded very closely after his explosion against UNC. Wake also hopes to get a big contribution out of Chas McFarland, who was last seen outsprinting Ty Lawson down the court for a crucial lay-up on Saturday. If the Eagles are going to rebound for their back-to-back defeats, they will need a huge game out Tyrese Rice along with solid contributions out of Joe Trapani and Corey Raji. Much like the Duke-Georgia Tech game, this is one to watch to see if the favorite is looking ahead to their next game, which is also a monster match-up for Wake (against undefeated Clemson).

#21 Baylor at Texas A&M, 9:30 PM on ESPN2 and ESPN360.com: A match-up of two lightly regarded teams with impressive records (13-2 and 14-2, respectively). These two teams are my pick to compete with Kansas for the #3 spot in the Big 12 this year. Baylor appears to have recovered from the Dave Bliss fiasco and comes into the game with a top 25 ranking. They have done this with their entire starting 5 averaging double figures, but the unquestioned leader of this team is Curtis Jerrells who will need to have a big game tonight to get a win on the road. Looking through their results so far, I’m having a hard time finding any good wins. A win at College Station would mean a big jump for the Bears in the eyes of the voters. I think a lot of people forget just how good Texas A&M was last year. They were one blown call against UCLA away from potentially forcing OT in the Sweet 16. The Aggies will rely on a balanced attack with Josh Carter, Donald Sloan, Bryan Davis, and Chinemelu Elonu to try and defend their home court.

#24 Michigan at Illinois, 8:30 PM on The Big Ten Network: It looks like a year after his program looked like it was going implode after the Eric Gordon recruiting disaster, Bruce Weber has his team headed in the right direction. Tonight he will try to avenge one of the Fighting Illini’s 2 losses (the other was by 2-points to undefeated Clemson). This should be a close game as the Wolverines won by 10 at Ann Arbor a little over a week ago. Outside of the big guys from each team (Manny Harris and DeShawn Sims for Michigan and Mike Davis and Demetri McCamey for Illinois), my player to watch tonight is Alex Legion, who has shown signs of becoming a big-time scorer since his mid-season addition to Illinois after his transfer from Kentucky.

So what does this mean – is UNC overrated?  Probably not in the sense that they’re definitely one of the top five teams in America.  But the ridiculous talk about undefeated seasons and ‘best team ever’ was egregious and irresponsible.  Carolina is an experienced, talented team, but they’re essentially the same team as last year.  Their offense remains spectacular, especially when Lawson can get them running up and down the court, but their defense is almost completely predicated on getting  on-the-fly turnovers to fuel that attack.  When they don’t get takeaways where they can run, they have to rely solely on their halfcourt defense, and as we saw tonight, it can be broken down and exposed by dribble penetration and ball movement.   What about Wake Forest – are the Deacs underrated?  As John Stevens’ showed in his column last week, there are dozens of teams ahead of Wake on the Vegas odds list, so it’s clear that the national consciousness hasn’t caught up with them yet.  But we’re looking at a team with two NBA lottery picks in the starting lineup (Teague/Aminu), the possibility of a third (Johnson), a few other nice parts (McFarland, Williams, Hale, Woods) and we’re wondering if any other team in America, Carolina included, has more talent?  Furthermore, the core of Wake’s team are sophomores and freshmen, which means this team could be markedly better by March (cf. with UNC, where we pretty much know what we’re going to get) – how good could this Wake Forest team ultimately become?  From the looks of it now, this team is clearly one of the top four in America, and probably has more upside than anybody.  The only real question is how the Deacs will perform now that the national spotlight will begin to squarely focus on their program.  This isn’t a program that has traditionally reveled in that role.

Wake's Rush the Court = FAIL

Sunday’s Other Games.

• UCLA 64, USC 60. This USC team is not good – they’ve lost to every halfway-decent team they’ve played (and Oregon St.) – ugh.   We’d rather have Jrue Holiday on our team than Demar DeRozan, though.
• Alabama 65, LSU 59. We do not want to hear about LSU again until they win a game away from Baton Rouge – the Tigers are now 0-3 away from home.
• Purdue 65, Wisconsin 52. Robbie Hummell came back from his back injury and hit four threes in a 16/5 performance.
• St. Mary’s 66, San Francisco 54. SMC continues to roll.  Nobody seemed to see the dagger three that Patty Mills hit to win Friday night’s ESPNU game against Santa Clara at home, so we’re providing it here (start watching at 7:30).