07 Dec 3 - Hustlin' For The Home Folks

Volume XII, No. 5 - 07 Dec 3 - [] Top 25 Ballot

Hustlin' For The Home Folks

The ACC routed the BIG 10 once again (8-3 this time, without the help of 6-0 Miami(Florida)) in their annual CHALLENGE thanks to North Carolina (at Ohio State), Boston College (at Michigan) and Wake Forest (at Iowa) pulling off road wins. For the third time in three big games, tWayne Ellington(23p0a8r) hit a nail-in-the-coffin three-pointer to seal the Tar Heels' 66-@55 win. Meanwhile, Duke crushed Wisconsin @82-58 and Michigan State embarrassed N.C. State @81-58 in two disappointing contests. Clemson had its hands full (without fJames Mays) holding off young Purdue @61-58 and Indiana eventually rallied to an @83-79 victory over Georgia Tech behind GC gEric Gordon's 29p8to. Only one of the marquee matchups, UNC-@OhioSt, was even interesting in this one.

Not so with the new HARDWOOD SERIES between the BIG 12 and PAC-10. We've had 12 pairings, but only 11 were officially part of the SERIES. (Kansas at USC on Sunday wasn't part of the count; Stanford vs Texas Tech in Dallas on Sat 22 Dec will be.) Officially, it's 6-5 PAC-10 and holding until the final matchup. On paper, you'd think Texas' front line wouldn't give it a shot at being a Final Four contender; but the Longhorns bolted to a 30-14 lead at UCLA (with cConnor Atchley beating cKevin Love down the floor on fast breaks). The Bruins rallied in front of their home crowd on all-out hustle to take a 59-55 lead with three minutes to go, but UTx answered and tDamion James'(19p10r) follow/slam proved to be the game-winner in a 63-@61 thriller. Marvel at the talents of the GC superguards; but none of them propels him team to a higher level the way that pD.J. Augustin(19p4a6to) can. Augustin's speed with the ball puts so much pressure on opponents and his cohorts gA.J. Abrams and gJustin Mason (and even tJames) are devastatingly quick on the perimeter and they can all shoot. (This is the Left Behind Season, to be sure; but the "Year After Rule" has proven true again: Texas never made it to #1 last year even with tKevin Durant. Well, here they are!)

Texas A&M looked scary good as they methodically built a 32-12 lead in the first half at Arizona (playing in its second game of the SERIES). But, as talented as the Aggies are, they are being led by a replacement point guard (pDonald Sloan), which complicates their own "Year After" story. The home crowd in the McKale Center spurred a comeback as GC pJerryd Bayless(26p6a) displayed his full talents in rallying the Wildcats to a @78-67 win going away. cMichael Beasley(24p12r) did his part, but Kansas State's youth showed as they gave away a game that should have been theirs (with missed free throws, turnovers and bad shots on key posessions) when Oregon rallied to win in overtime 80-@77. Washington State won the endplay after the things were tied up 60-60 with three minutes left as the Cougars beat host Baylor 67-@64. Elsewhere, USC won its official game @66-55 over Oklahoma; Oklahoma State crushed visiting Washington @96-71; California beat Missouri @86-72; and Stanford (in its first of two games in the SERIES) drubbed host Colorado 67-@43.

It wasn't officially part of the series, but Kansas at USC was plenty good as well. The Trojans' individual talent staked them to a quick 16-4 lead only two minutes into the game. But, the Jayhawks (still without pSherrod Collins) came all the way back to tie things up 16-16 with eight minutes left in the first half. KU even pulled out to a 51-42 lead with six minutes left in the game and survived the endplay, mostly behind big shots from bMario Chalmers(20p0a7r5to). Kansas makes it hard on itself by not being able to score many easy points on open jumpers, but so far they've found a way against USC this week (and Arizona last week).

It was mostly a tough week for the mid-majors trying to keep pace with the BCS powers (who have amped up their own strength of schedule with these interconference specialty events). George Mason pounded Drexel @85-38 in an early Colonial league game, but goofed around and lost to 1-4 East Carolina, @65-68 in the BB&T CLASSIC. VCU beat Maryland @85-@76 at BB&T, but only after losing 55-@64 to in-state rival Hampton. (If the Pirates wind up in the Play-In Game, keep this result in mind.) Miami(Ohio) dropped two more close games, at home @62-63 to Dayton and on the road 44-@47 at Louisville. Southern Illinois couldn't stay with Indiana even at home, falling @51-64. South Alabama gave Vanderbilt a run for its money, but fell just short, 88-@91(2OT). Davidson was close-but-no-cigar once again in Charlotte, this time falling @73-@79 to Duke (and it doesn't get any easier on Saturday with a game against UCLA in the JOHN WOODEN CLASSIC in Anaheim). Belmont was crushed on the road at Xavier, 49-@90. There was a some good news, though. St. Mary's followed up its stunning upset of Oregon with a fine @85-70 win over Seton Hall (and they can keep the ball rolling Saturday with a win over San Diego State at JOHN WOODEN). And Butler actually improved its standing, coming from 10 points down at halftime and turning in a spectacular 45-16 second half performance over Ohio State in its @65-46 win.

The JIMMY V CLASSIC on Tuesday features three of the top Golden Child freshmen: cMichael Beasley of Kansas State (against overmatched Notre Dame), and bO.J. Mayo of USC head-to-head against pDerrick Rose of Memphis. Although it doesn't seem quite ready to win yet against the very top teams, it's USC who may be the only thing that stands in the way between Memphis and an undefeated season. (No one in Conference USA will challenge the Tigers; their other big out-of-conference games are all at home: 12/22-Georgetown, 12/29-Arizona, 1/26-Gonzaga and 2/23-Tennessee(TN) -- not pushovers, to be sure, but the home crowd could easily be the difference in competitive games). The Trojans have plenty of talent and should love the up-tempo style Memphis will enforce, but they haven't shown the maturity yet that is up to the level they'll need to pull this one off.

The SEC will be lucky to win 1-out-of-3 in its pair of INVITATIONAL double-headers with the BIG EAST on Wednesday and Thursday. (Only Auburn in front of a home crowd has much of a a shot, against decent West Virginia.) Can BYU pull off another big win? They won't be able to sneak up on Michigan State like they perhaps did with Louisville. Creighton gets some real opponents at last when it visits Xavier on Wednesday and hosts St. Joseph's on Sunday. GC's bEric Gordon(Indiana) and fPatrick Patterson(Kentucky) meet on Saturday in Indianapolis in the annual bluegrass clash. Some fine "State Title" games are on tap as well: Rhode Island hosts Providence on Tuesday; Washington State visits Gonzaga on Wednesday; and Marquette hosts Wisconsin(WI) on Saturday.

-- Ron

Key games this week:

Monday:
@Arkansas-MissouriSt,
Tuesday:
MichiganSt-@Bradley, @StJosephs-HolyCross, @RhodeIsland-Providence(RI), @BostonCol-StLouis, @NewMexicoSt-NewMexico(NM), ETennesseeSt-Marshall,
JIMMY V CLASSIC DblHdr @ New York NY
- (Memphis-USC, KansasSt-NotreDame),
Wednesday:
@Texas-NTexas(TX), @BYU-WeberSt(UT), @Xavier-Creighton, WashingtonSt-@Gonzaga(WA), @Virginia-Syracuse, Clemson-@ECarolina, @GeoMason-Hampton(VA), UNLV-@NoArizona, @Utah-UtahSt(UT), @Dayton-HighPoint,
Wednesday-Thursday:
BIG EAST-SEC INVITATIONAL DblHdrs
- (Wed @ Birmingham,AL: Georgetown-@Alabama, WVirginia-@Auburn,
-  Thu @ Philadelphia,PA: @Providence-SCarolina, @Villanova-LSU),
Thursday:
@Maryland-MorganSt(MD),
Saturday:
@Duke-Michigan, @BYU-MichiganSt(@SaltLakeCityUT), Pittsburgh-@Washington, @Oregon-Utah(@PortlandOR), @Louisville-Dayton(BG), Marquette-@Wisconsin(WI), Arizona-@Illinois, @Indiana-Kentucky(BG), @Syracuse-RhodeIsland, @PennSt-SetonHall, @KentSt-GeoMason, @UNLV-FresnoSt, @VCU-@Richmond(@RichmondVA)(VA), @OklahomaSt-ETennesseeSt, NCState-@ECarolina(NC), SamHoustonSt-@StLouis, @NewMexicoSt-UTEP, @Yale-Vermont, @Centenary-{NDState},
JOHN WOODEN CLASSIC DblHdr @ Anaheim CA
- (@UCLA-Davidson, StMarys-@SanDiegoSt(CA)),
Sunday:
@KansasSt-California, @Creighton-StJosephs, @LoyolaMD-Manhattan.

---

Top 25 - 07 Dec 3 - [] Column

1. Texas (6-0)
2. North Carolina (7-0)
3. Kansas (6-0)
4. Memphis (6-0)
5. UCLA (6-1)
6. Duke (7-0)
7. BYU (6-1)
8. Georgetown (5-0)
9. Pittsburgh (6-0)
10. Xavier (6-1)
11. Texas A&M (6-1)
12. Butler (7-0)
13. Oregon (6-1)
14. Washington State (7-0)
15. Vanderbilt (7-0)
16. Louisville (5-1)
17. St. Mary's (4-0)
18. USC (6-2)
19. Michigan State (6-1)
20. Tennessee (6-1)
21. Marquette (3-1)
22. Gonzaga (7-1)
23. Virginia (5-1)
24. Arizona (4-2)
25. Indiana (5-1)

Honorable Mention: - Dayton (5-1), East Carolina (1-4), Hampton (4-3), North Texas (3-1) [2@HENSON].