12 Dec24 - Fresh-Squeezed Orange

Volume XVII, No. 8 - 12 Dec24 - []
Fresh-Squeezed Orange

Earning milestone victories for Hall of Fame coach Jim Boeheim had Syracuse playing tight in the GOTHAM CLASSIC round-robin event. Career win No. 900 (third all-time) came against Detroit, @72-68. Temple delayed No. 901, though, stunning the Orange, 83-@79, in Madison Square Garden in the feature game thanks to 33p4a;15/15ft from gKhalif Wyatt and 29-for-36 on free throws overall (despite 25p from C.J. Fair). Still holding at two to tie/three to pass Bob Knight for second place (902) with Mike Krzyzewski still adding to his first-place total (938 and counting).

Streaking Kansas went on the road, shot 51 percent, held Ohio State to 31 percent shooting and got 22p6r from bBen McLemore in a big 74-@66 win. Kansas State finally made a mark with a @67-61 win over Florida in the WILDCAT CLASSIC in Kansas City.

    
After getting blown out at 8-3 Belmont (49-@76), South Dakota State regrouped and knocked off unbeaten New Mexico, 70-@65, behind pNate Wolters (28p7a5to).

Missouri won BRAGGIN' RIGHTS over Illinois in a back-and-forth game, @82-@73, in front of a split-crowd in St. Louis thanks to a 51-29 rebounding margin, EM>23p10r from fLawrence Bowers and 18p7r from newly eligible (Oregon transfer) 6-5 bJabari Brown (despite 25p5a8r from tBrandon Paul).

    
Thankfully, there were no issues with the Cincinnati/Xavier CROSSTOWN SHOOTOUT -- (UC won @60-@45). The neutral site/split-crowd setup this year makes for a better game on-court, but probably a worse crowd control problem off-court. New Mexico completed the sweep of New Mexico State, (@73-58; 68-@63) in back-to-back home-and-away games -- real recipe for bad blood/immediate payback with the games' being only days apart. (West Virginia and Marshall already played their neutral=site game in Charleston, WV -- [WVU won @69-@59]. Wish Georgia and Georgia Tech would go back to a split-crowd game in Atlanta, but they home-and-away these days -- GT won earlier @62-54. Belmont and Lipscomb are still playing their BATTLE OF THE BOULEVARD twice this year despite the Bruins' switch
to the OHIO VALLEY -- BU swept LU {89-@60; @100-66}). VCU/Richmond's BLACK AND BLUE city rivalry is now two-games a year, home and away, as part of ATLANTIC 10 conference play.

UNLV beat Northern Iowa, @73-59, to make the final tally 6-3 for the MOUNTAIN WEST in its head-to-head challenge with the MISSOURI VALLEY.

    
Colorado State rolled past Portland (70-53) and crushed Virginia Tech (88-52) to take the LAS VEGAS-CHRISTMAS CLASSIC; fPierce Hornung and cColton Iverson are a nice rontcourt duo: good rebounders and passers. Arizona routed Miami(Florida), 69-50, in the semifinals of the DIAMOND HEAD CLASSIC, setting up the expected showdown with San Diego State.

N.C. State handled (but couldn't put away) Stanford, @88-79. Florida State got a key victory, escaping 79-@76 at Charlotte, thanks to 30p1a from gMichael Snaer -- (probably a better win than beating St. Joseph's to win CVC, frankly).

    
VCU dominated a decent Western Kentucky team, @76-44, behind 20 steals while forcing 32 turnovers. St. Mary's pounded Pacific at home, @74-46 -- but that doesn't erase the damage done when they lost to UOP the first time around in DTV/ANAHEIM (@66-@76) and the Gaels dropped the next game, anyway, 75-@82 at Northern Iowa.

    
Murray State isn't quite the same killer squad as last year; the Racers fell at Dayton, 68-@77 (and they'll have their hands full in the OHIO VALLEY with new conferencemate Belmont). Similarly, Ohio University has struggled of late, ropping a 76-@85 decision at Massachusetts (in a duel between OU's pD.J. Cooper[23p10a] and UM's gJesse Morgan
[35p].)

    
5-6 Mercer continued Alabama's descent into irrelevance with a shocking 66-@59 road win -- (the Bears also won at Florida State earlier). Princeton delivered its best result of the season, knocking off Bucknell, @79-67. Drexel salvaged a bit of respectability with a @69-58 home win over disppointing Davidson.

We're still mostly in preseason mode for one more week, but conference play starts up in a few leagues.

    
Arizona meets San Diego State in the last big preseason tournament final (DIAMOND HEAD, Tuesday). Cincinnati hosts New Mexico (Thursday); Gonzaga hosts Baylor (Friday). Kentucky seems more together and gets another shot at a name win when they visit archrival Louisville (Saturday); UCLA is slowly getting better, but beating Missouri (Friday) is too much to expect; North Carolina continues to struggle and doesn't appear ready to claim payback for last year's shocking loss when UNLV comes to Chapel Hill (Saturday).

    
Murray State hosts Valparaiso (Saturday) in a game that may matter quite a lot when the at-large bids are handed out in March.

Hope you're having a Merry Christmas.

-- Ron

Key games this week:

Tuesday (CHRISTMAS):

DIAMOND HEAD CLASSIC Finals @ HonoluluHI /Hawaii/

-(1st: Arizona-SanDiegoSt;

  3rd: MiamiFL-IndianaSt;

  5th: @Hawaii-Mississippi;

  7th: SanFrancisco-ETennesseeSt),

Thursday:

@Cincinnati-NewMexico, @Akron-TexasSo,

Thursday-Sunday:

GOTHAM CLASSIC RndRob(4) on-campus, @ NewYorkNY /MSG/

-(Syracuse, Temple, Canisius, Detroit, AlcornSt),

Friday:

Missouri-@UCLA, @Gonzaga-Baylor, @LoyolaMD-Bucknell, @Memphis-OralRoberts, @Brown-Providence(ProvidenceRI),

Friday-Saturday:

DP CLASSIC Semis @ ChattanoogaTN /Chattanooga/

-(AustinPeay-UTValley, @Chattanooga-HighPt),

UCF HOLIDAY CLASSIC Semis @ OrlandoFL /UCF/

-(@UCF-Howard, Belmont-BostonU),

Saturday:

@Louisville-Kentucky(KY), @Creighton-Evansville, UNLV-@NCarolina, @MurraySt-Valparaiso(BG), @LouisianaTech-Denver, @LongBeachState-Pacific(CA), @WeKentucky-NTexas, @NDState-SDState,

ORANGE BOWL CLASSIC DblHdr @ FtLauderdale(Sunrise)FL

-(@Florida-AirForce, @FloridaSt-Tulsa),

Sunday:

@Memphis-LoyolaMD, @Akron-Princeton,

Monday week:

@Pittsburgh-Cincinnati, @Minnesota-MichiganSt, @OklahomaSt-Gonzaga, @Drexel-StJosephs(PhiladelphiaPA), @MidTennessee-NTexas.

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Top 25 - 12 Dec24 - [] Column

1. Duke (11-0) (@@CHAMPS) [3:ATLANTIS] (vBIG10)
   
2. Michigan (11-0) [2v2:NIT.T-O] (vACC)
   
3. Arizona (11-0)
   
4. Louisville (11-1)
   
5. Kansas (10-1) [2v2vCBE]
   
6. Missouri (10-1) (@@BRAGGIN')
   
7. Butler (9-2) (@@CROSSROADS)
   
8. Indiana (11-1) [2v2:LEGENDS] (vACC)
   
9. Ohio State (8-2) [2v2:HALL.FAME]
   
10. Illinois (11-1) [3:MAUI] (vACC)
    
11. Kansas State (8-2)
    
12. Florida (8-2) (vBIG E)
    
13. Temple (9-2)
    
14. Syracuse (10-1) (@SEC)
    
15. Creighton (11-1) [2v2:LVI-THANX]
    
16. Cincinnati (12-0) [2v2:GS-A] (vSEC)
    
17. Minnesota (12-1) (@ACC)
    
18. Wyoming (10-0) (@MVC)
    
19. Oklahoma State (10-1) [3:P.RICO]
    
20. New Mexico (12-1) [3:PARADISE] (@MVC)
    
21. Notre Dame (12-1) (vSEC) (@@CROSSROADS)
    
22. San Diego State (9-1) (@MVC)
    
23. Gonzaga (10-1) [3:OS/ORLANDO]
    
24. UNLV (10-1) (vMVC)
    
25. Pittsburgh (12-1)
    

Honorable Mention:

South Dakota State (6-4), Florida State (7-4), Princeton (5-6), Colorado State (?-?) [2v2:LVC-XMAS], Massachusetts (7-3), North Carolina State (9-2), Dayton (9-3), Mercer (5-6), Drexel (4-7).