Yesterday wasn't the biggest day for college basketball, but some very interesting things still happened, including one notable team finally getting off the conference schneid. Let's get to it!
-Arizona probably killed Washington State's chances for any hope of an at-large bid with the win, 79-70. The game was a great one, as it pitted the two top scorers of the Pac-10 against one another, and they did not disappoint in the slighest. Both led their teams in scoring: Klay Thompson of WSU, first in the Pac-10, led all with 30. Derrick Williams of AZ, second in the Pac-10, was close behind with 26. Klay also had 5 treys. Arizona keeps a one game lead over UCLA, who also won, defeating Stanford 69-65, despite a game-high 27 from Jeremy Green, who now has 5 straight 20-point games. He averages 16.1 PPG.
-Temple asserted themselves as the clear opponent to Xavier in the A-10 with a 20 point blowout of Richmond, 73-53. Both Ramone Moore and Juan Fernandez eclipsed the 20 point mark; Moore had 24 and Fernandez had 20. Fernandez only missed one shot from the field, going 9-10 as well as 2-3 from behind the arc. Moore was also impressive with his shot selection, going 10-15 from the field with 4 of 5 treys falling for the leading scorer of Temple. Kevin Anderson, the leading scorer of Richmond, has been held in check this year, his PPG output of 15.8 below his sophomore and junior year averages. While he is averaging a full assist better, his free-throw percentage has dipped below 70% for the first time in his career. Richmond had an 8 game road streak snapped, impressive as Anderson has been weak the past month. Temple will still have a difficult time in the NCAA Tourney without starting forward Michael Eric, who oddly enough, fractured his patella during practice on Tuesday. He wasn't a big scorer, averaging only 7.9 PPG, but he was a big defensive presence down low that will be difficult to replace.
-Coastal Carolina walloped the shit out of North Carolina Central, an independent D1 school, 94-59. Trouble is brewing for the Chanticleers, though. Starting PG Kieran Greenwood, a sophomore from Cincinnati, tore his knee up and is done for season. The bigger blow, however, came in the indefinitite suspension of leading scorer Desmond Holloway. He also leads the team in rebounding despite his 6-5 size. In their loss to Gardner-Webb, Holloway had only gone 2-13 from the field. Without these two, trouble is ahead in the Big South tournament despite their record.
-Minnesota's collapse in the Big 10 is complete, and I believe they are now out of the tourney with a 66-63 loss to Penn State. Talor Battle, the hero in their multiple wins over ranked opponents such as Michigan State, Illinois, and Wisconsin, was the man for Penn State again with 28 points to pace the way. I believe both of these teams are on the outside looking in. Minnesota has been decimated by injuries, and that OOC loss to Virginia is just embarassing. Conversely, Penn State's OOC play was even worse, with an even more embarassing loss at home to Maine.
-Belmont got a huge win in the Atlantic Sun to keep their reign on the conference with a convincing 68-58 win over second place East Tennessee State. Ian Clark notched 18 points, and Scott Saunders came off the bench for 10. Milford graduate Brandon Baker, who saw himself removed from the starting lineup early in the year, came off the bench for a clutch trey. Three starters for ETSU all scored 14 points: Isiah Brown, Mike Smith, and Justin Tubbs. Belmont clinched at least a tie for the conference regular season championship.
-Hooray for DePaul! The Blue Demons, who had lost 24 straight regular season Big East games (last year they stunned UC in a moment that every X fan relished), snapped that streak with a big win at Providence, 79-76. DePaul hadn't won on the road in the Big East since March 6, 2008 -- also against Cincinnati. Hmmm. DePaul, in all honesty, was due. They had played close at Louisville and West Virginia, and home against Cincinnati. Marshon Brooks, the nation's third leading scorer, almost provided Providence with a win, dropping 28.
EMBARASSMENT UPDATE: Savannah State, an independent and new D1 team, played D2 Trinity Baptist and shitted all over them, winning 84-24. That is not a typo. Trinity Baptist scored 11 in the first half and 13 in the second half, and went 15% from the field. Just end the damn game at halftime. That's ridiculous.
FUTILITY UPDATE: Chicago State, a D1 team from the worst conference in the nation, the Great West (who doesn't even get an NCAA bid), lost to an NAIA school called Olivet Nazarene, 81-76. Seriously, what are all of these fucking awful teams doing in D1? (Although Chi State did beat one team in a different conference: Georgia Southern, who has yet to win in the Southern Conference.) I bet Centenary could beat these schools: even Centenary! (Actually, I'm getting way ahead of myself.) Speaking of the Gents, their next game is by fair their best chance: at home on the 24th versus the 2nd worst team in the Summit League, Western Illinois. They only have two chances to get a final D1 win before reclassifying to D3.
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