10 Jan 4 - Back To Reality

Volume XIV, No. 9 - 10 Jan 4 - [] Top 25 Ballot

Back To Reality

Even though a few out-of-conference fantasy matchups remained, for the most part it was Back To [the] Reality of conference play.

The highly anticipated Battle of Unbeatens between Purdue and West Virginia was a shocking blowout as the Boilermakers won @77-62 (including a 26-point lead, thanks to 25p10r from cJuJuan Johnson. WVU is tall on the perimeter but had all kinds of trouble guarding the 6-10 cJohnson underneath.
    Kansas had no trouble at all on the road at Temple, winning easily 84-@52 behind a balanced attack while holding the Owls to 25 percent shooting from the floor.
    Gonzaga added a couple of name-brand out-of-conference wins. They beat disappointing Oklahoma @83-69 at their own RMH CLASSIC. They also prevailed in overtime 85-@83(OT) against Illinois in Chicago.
    14-1 New Mexico had a big week -- first, routing Texas Tech @90-75 behind 23p12r4a from tDarington Hobson; then, edging Dayton @68-66 as bRoman Martinez(17p6r) hit some big 3s for the Lobos.
    Georgia Tech gave back a 15-point lead and trailed by 1 with under three minutes left before closing with an 11-1 run to prevail 76-@67 over Charlotte as the Yellow Jackets' cGani Lawal(29p10r;17/20ft) outdueled the 49ers' gDerrio Green(31p0a).
    10-2 Wake Forest had one easy and two hard-fought wins on the week: 75-@60 over UNC-Greensboro; @74-68(OT) over Richmond (despite 31p0a from gKevin Anderson); and finally, @96-92(2OT) over Xavier thanks to 28p from gIshmael Smith (despite 30p4a from gJordan Crawford).
    We even managed a couple more Unwelcome Guests as 6-7 Northeastern salvaged something from an otherwise disappointing preseason by taking home the CABLE CAR CLASSIC crown (which included a 60-@52 win over host Santa Clara). Likewise, 3-8 Jacksonville -- dismal in all other respects -- won the UCF HOLIDAY CLASSIC with a 61-@51 win over host Central Florida in the final.

In league play, no-name 12-2 / 2-0 Pittsburgh, which was supposed to be in a rebuilding year after last year's stars departed, handed Syracuse its first loss with a physical gameplan, winning 82-@72, thanks to 24p8r from tAshton Gibbs, 21p5a5r from pJermaine Dixon and 26-for-36 on free throws (while 'Cuse only shot 1-for-13 on three-pointers).
    10-3 / 2-0 Cincinnati's freshman gLance Stephenson(21p) calmly drilled the game-winning free throws as Cincinnati knocked off Connecticut @71-69 (despite 24p5a7r from pJerome Dyson).
    11-1 Northern Iowa took early control of the Missouri Valley Conference race -- first, beating disappointing Creighton 60-@52; then, handling surprising Missouri State @84-76 behind 22p13r from cJordan Eglseder as the Panthers got out of the blocks 3-0 right away.
    Just when you wanted to believe in this year's Washington squad, they couldn't defend their home court against 10-4 / 2-0 Oregon, as the visiting Ducks won 90-@79 behind the penetration of 5-10 pMalcolm Armstead(21p6a) and gTajuan Porter(16p) and the cleanup play from cMichael Dunigan(20p14r).
    Duke gave Clemson a dose of reality with an easy @73-54 win. With more height in the paint and more consistent contribution from gNolan Smith(22p), these Blue Devils should be able to deliver a postseason result worthy of their regular season performance.
    Preseason darlings St. John's stumbled out of the blocks in conference play at 0-2 in the Big East after falling 59-@66 at Georgetown and @59-74 at home to Providence. Similarly, Northwestern dropped a pair of games: 83-@89(OT) at Illinois (as John Shurna's 27p weren't enough to match Mike Tisdale's 31p), and @71-90 to visiting Michigan State (despite another 29p from Shurna). Also (more understandably), Ohio State debuted 0-2 in the Big Ten as well, with losses at Wisconsin (43-@65) and at Michigan (64-@73, due to 28p9r from UM's fDeShawn Sims).
    13-1 / 1-0 Lousiana Tech got a leg up in the WAC, beating main contender Nevada @77-71 behind 21p6r from bJamel Guyton (despite 24p13r6to from cLuke Babbitt).
    In 1BC-Land, Oakland took early control of the Summit League race at 3-0 thanks to an @85-82 win over IUPUI.

Kentucky-Louisville doesn't need any help in the hype department, but the added angle of coach John Calipari taking on his mentor Rick Pitino, on top of Pitino's being the former UK coach, on top of the added fuel of Pitino's off-season off-court scandal, had the players and fans worked up to a frenzy. Because of the Cardinals' disappointing preseason, this one (on paper) didn't have the import of that #1 Memphis vs #2 Tennessee ("Biggest Game in the history of the state of Tennessee") from a couple year ago, but you can forgive the fans (and players) for acting as if it did. Lville was able to hang tough and even lead 42-41 midway through the second half, but UK won comfortably @71-62 behind 18p18r from freshman cDeMarcus Cousins, 17p4a from freshman gJohn Wall and 17p1r from gPatrick Patterson.
    They are talking "undefeated season" in Lexington. For me, they're too vulnerable to foul trouble in the paint for cCousins and fPatterson for that to happen -- but ... Tennessee (despite a nice 66-@59 win at Memphis) is now in disarray following the suspension of four players (including fTyler Smith); Florida has come back down to Earth with recent home losses to Richmond and South Alabama (and needed a three-quarters-court heave just to win in overtime at N.C. State); Mississippi and Vanderbilt are probably too soft in the paint to do UK harm. Maybe only Mississippi State (which gets the Wildcats at home on Feb 16) has the talent and makeup to knock them off in conference.

2-0 Wisconsin has a big week ahead: at Michigan State (Wednesday) and vs Purdue (Saturday). UNLV starts conference play with two big road games: at BYU (Wednesday) and at New Mexico (Saturday).

-- Ron

Key games this week:

Monday:

NCarolina-@ColofCharleston, Pittsburgh-@Cincinnati, @WeKentucky-MississippiSt, @LouisianaTech-UtahSt, Northeastern-@VCU, @RobertMorris-MorganSt(@PittsburghPA),

Tuesday:

@Purdue-Minnesota, @Akron-RhodeIsland,

Wednesday:

@Kansas-Cornell, @Syracuse-Memphis, Georgetown-@Marquette, @MichiganSt-Wisconsin, @Temple-StJosephs(PhiladelphiaPA)(BIG_5), @BYU-UNLV, @Tennessee-Charlotte, @MissouriSt-WichitaSt,

Thursday:

@SAlabama-WeKentucky, @LongIsland-RobertMorris, @OralRoberts-Oakland, @NoColorado-WeberSt,

Friday:

Butler-@WrightSt(BG), @{SDakota}-Cornell,

Saturday:

@Kentucky-Georgia, Duke-@GeorgiaTech, Purdue-@Wisconsin, @Georgetown-Connecticut, WVirginia-@NotreDame, @Villanova-Marquette, @NewMexico-UNLV, Florida-@Vanderbilt, @Mississippi-MississippiSt(MS), Gonzaga-@Portland, Cincinnati-@SetonHall, NoIowa-@IllinoisSt, @Minnesota-OhioSt, @OklahomaSt-TexasTech, @Louisville-StJohns, @Idaho-LouisianaTech, @Houston-Tulsa, @California-USC(CA), @Siena-Niagara(NY), @OldDominion-Hofstra, @MiamiFL-WakeForest, @{CalStBakersfield}-Longwood, @TexasSo-PrairieViewA&M,

Sunday:

Kansas-@Tennessee, @NCarolina-VirginiaTech, Temple-@RhodeIsland, @Michigan-Northwestern, @Denver-WeKentucky.

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Top 25 - 10 Jan 4 - [] Column

1. Texas (13-0)
2. Kansas (13-0)
3. Kentucky (15-0)
4. Duke (12-1)
5. Purdue (12-0)
6. Syracuse (13-1)
7. Georgetown (11-1)
8. West Virginia (11-1)
9. North Carolina (9-3)
10. Michigan State (10-3)
11. Villanova (12-1)
12. Pittsburgh (12-2)
13. Wisconsin (12-2)
14. Kansas State (12-1)
15. New Mexico (14-1)
16. Temple (11-3)
17. Florida (10-3)
18. Mississippi (11-2)
19. Gonzaga (10-3)
20. Texas A&M (9-3)
21. Cincinnati (10-3)
22. Brigham Young (13-1)
23. Connecticut (10-3)
24. Georgia Tech (10-2)
25. Northern Iowa (11-1)

Honorable Mention:

Oregon (10-4), Louisiana Tech (13-2), Northeastern (6-7) [2@CABLE CAR], Jacksonville (3-8) [2@UCF].