Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Some good college basketball action

There are some other things going on, such as the Red Sox signing JD Drew (a veritable steal in this market if he can stay healthy), but I don't feel like writing a lot about baseball today, and I've been neglecting college basketball. So, a rundown of what happened on Tuesday:

First, LSU beat Texas A&M 64-52. Glen Davis was a beast with 24 and 10, but the determining factor was that Acie Law was not a factor. 1/11 shooting, 4 points. On a day when Joseph Jones was limited to 16 minutes because of foul trouble and Acie Law was a non-factor, LSU didn't even need a miracle like the one Darrel Mitchell gave them last time.

Two decently solid games in the Jimmy V Classic. The first featured Oklahoma St. remaining undefeated a 72-68 win over Syracuse. Obviously its looking like the Cowboys were a little underrated to start the year... they have a very good inside-outside game with Mario Boggan and JamesOn Curry and are well-coached under young Sean Sutton. For Cuse, this was the first time I got to see Paul Harris extensively, and I echo the sentiment of others. His outside shot isn't that good right now, but he's very good going to the hoop, an excellent rebounder for his size (6'5'') and a solid defender. No need for Cuse to panic after 2 straight losses, as the talent is in place for a Tourney run.

The nightcap featured #15 Arizona taking out Lousvilla 72-65 in a strange game. Arziona built a big first half lead, then Louisville came back to take the lead early in the second half, and Arizona quickly pulled back ahead by double digits. Everything you've heard about frosh Chase Budinger is true, but I'm not as big a fan of these guys as some are. Marcus Williams has not looked great, and I still think Mustafa Shakur takes too many bad shots. As for Louisville, could it be another year out of the Tourney for Rick Pitino? You heard it here first.

Another game of note was Washington St. upsetting Gonzaga by 10. Normally a Pac-10 team beating a WCC team isn't an upset, but in this case it probably is. Though Washington St. is 8-1 right now, a record that's probably skewed a little because their schedule has not been very challenging yet. But still a very nice win for them under a new coach.

A final game of note that I mention because I can was UCLA remaining undefeated with a 78-54 win over Cal-State Fullerton. Luc Richard Mbah a Moute struggled, everyone else was good. 7-0.

What do you think was the biggest storyline in college basketball for the day?

2 comments:

SAMO said...

Tough loss for A&M. They are still a very good team though. Don't count them out!

Mike said...

The biggest story is Iowa losing to Northern Iowa, 57 - 55. How about those Panthers?

Despite Iowa's losing record, watch out for Tyler Smith. He's a true freshman averaging 14, 5, and 3!

Iowa's not very good thise year, but they are playing a lot of young guys. Maybe next year?