Tuesday means we're geting closer to the end of the season, with some teams now having as few as 2 games left. So let's get to it.
-Ohio State rebounded from their first loss of the year with a 61-51 defeat of Michigan State. William Buford led all scorers yet again with 23, as he continues to ride his two game hot streak. Jared Sullinger, the diaper dandy who averages a double-double with 18 and 10, struggled all game, barely getting into double figure scoring with 11 and pulling down a measly 2 boards. This is his worst rebounding output of the season; before, his low was 3. Kalin Lucas led the Spartans with 14. Michigan State is only 2-6 in its last 8, but they have deifnitely been hard-fought games, as the outcome in this game was unknown almost the whole duration. The Spartans have a lot of work to do before the end of the season to be more comfortable about making the tournament.
-Villanova narrowly avoided another crushing defeat, clipping Seton Hall 60-57. An unknown freshman named James Bell was the catalyst for the Wildcats, scoring a career-best 21 in 29 quality minutes. The 6-5 Bell from Orlando, FL averages just under 3 points a game, and had one other double-digit effort, 10 points against Delaware. It's great for 'Nova that Bell stepped up, since Nova had a mediocre effort from Corey Fisher (12 points) and poor efforts from Dominic Cheek (scoreless) and Maalik Wayns (5 points). Jeremy Hazell had 25 to pace all scorers and almost lead Seton Hall to a big home win.
-North Carolina and Missouri had easy wins at home, NC against bottom-feeding Wake Forest, and Missouri against Texas Tech.
-Kentucky thoroughly struggled against Mississippi State to win their 31st straight game in Rupp Arena. Mississippi State was up 5 with 2 seconds left when Brandon Knight weakly threw the ball as he was fouled by Brian Bryant. The officials said he was in the act of shooting and awarded three free throws. Let me say that this was a bogus call, as he appeared to be passing to Terrence Jones. Rick Stansbury, the Bulldogs coach, immediately lost it and was T'd up, and Knight made 4 of 5 to get the margin to one going to halftime, which was a big momentum swing for UK. Knight led with 24 points and Doron Lamb came up big, notching 20, including the continuing tradition of him nailing treys from the left corner. Ravern Johnson had a big game off the bench, as he is still not be inserted back into the starting lineup. He had 21.
-Missouri State and Wichita State both advance to 13-3 in the MVC with wins over Drake and Evansville, respectively.
-Lacedarius Dunn became the all-time scoring leader in Baylor's tune-up game of the week, a 64-50 win against Wayland Baptist University, a NAIA team. Dunn has accrued 2,196 points in his illustrious career at Baylor. He is 61 points shy of the Big 12 record, set by Andre Emmett.
-Damned mid-majors. A team I've been raving about, the Chanticleers of Coastal Carolina, laid a goddamn egg in their loss at home against Gardner-Webb, 59-57. Gardner-Webb was 3-11 in the Big South, so this comes as a huge upset, and quite frankly, Coastal Carolina will tumble off my Power Rankings. Desmond Holloway only had 11, and the Chanticleers did not score a field goal in the final 6:42. Oh, and they lost to a team called the Runnin' Bulldogs. Ick. The second ranked team in the Big South, Liberty, also fell at home, to the uptempo offense of VMI.
CENTENARY WATCH: Yes, they lost again. No big surprise. This time, it was 81-61 to one of the best teams in the Summit League, Oral Roberts. 0-28 now, and 0-16 in the Summit League. Only two games left for the Gentlemen. Good luck, guys! You need it.
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