Notable Games & Discussion 1/27/2010

• Azubuike24

  

  Another good night of hoops this evening!
  
  (15) Temple at Charlotte - If the Owls win this one, they would have wins over Xavier, Rhode Island and Charlotte. Their only 3 remaining games against A-10 contenders are at Richmond and home against Dayton and Rhode Island. Quite simply, at 6-0 and a 2-game lead (via head to head) over Xavier, Temple would be in the driver's seat for the A-10 title. For Charlotte, they could vault themselves back into real at-large contention and would be in a 3-way tie for first in the league.
  
  (21) Vanderbilt at (14) Tennessee - With Kentucky losing last night, these teams have 1st place in the SEC East on the line. Both have big games this weekend (Vandy at UK and UT hosting Florida), so like K-State/Baylor last night, neither wants to put that pressure on themselves to must win this weekend. The Vols have whipped up on Vandy the past few years, and coming off a humbling loss to Georgia, look to rebound. Vandy faces their toughest 5-game stretch of the year starting tonight.
  
  Illinois State at Wichita State - Right now, the MVC is Northern Iowa's to lose, and both of these teams can't afford another conference loss. For ISU especially, any sniff of an at-large bid may hinge on winning this game. Truth be told however, neither of these teams would be in if the tourney began today, and this is the type of game you must win to keep that resume in-tact in case the MVC truly is a multiple-bid league in 2010. The Redbirds have already beaten the Shockers by 15 earlier in the season.
  
  Texas A&M at Oklahoma State - I don't think many of us believed in A&M after losing Derrick Roland, but they have hung around and are still in the mix for an at-large bid in a league that will likely get 6 in. OSU on the other hand would be that 6th team as of now after winning over K-State in Manhattan this past weekend. In fact, given OSU's homecourt advantage, I see them making a push late in the year and solidifying their spot, likely finishing 4th in the conference ahead of Baylor and Missouri. For A&M, this is almost a must-win game.
  
  Memphis at Marshall - The Thundering Herd have never beaten Marshall since the newly formed C-USA came about. Hardly anyone has, but UTEP whipped on the Tigers last week and it sent the message that the league was wide open this year. Both teams have one loss, and the way UAB is playing, another would be damaging. Both teams are in position for at-large consideration, and again, this isn't a game you want to drop. It's a bigger game for Marshall given the past, but neither has a win over the RPI top 50.
  
  Florida State at (8) Duke - Both teams come in with 2 ACC losses and coming off big wins this weekend (Duke at Clemson and FSU at Georgia Tech). It's slightly bigger for the Noles who could use that extra major win, but it's a big game in the wild ACC regardless. For Duke, a win here would make them the undoubted favorites to win the ACC with a favorable league schedule coming up, but they also have Georgetown on Saturday, so there can't be any looking ahead. With that said, this series has produced some wild upsets and wouldn't be surprised if this game was very close tonight.
  
  (12) Brigham Young at (23) New Mexico - Probably the game of the night, and maybe the game of the year in the Mountain West. If anyone is going to derail BYU, it's going to be the Lobos at the PIT. The only other chance will be in 10 days at UNLV, but for now, the Cougars can really put a stamp on the MWC lead with a win tonight. For UNM, they still have to play at UNLV and at BYU, so a loss tonight pretty much takes them out of the conference title discussion and hurts their NCAA Tourney chances. On the flip side, a win gives them a very quality top 10 RPI win and keeps them only a game back.
• Mulva

  

  I think New Mexico takes down BYU tonight. Also, not really an important game, but I have a feeling Penn State gets it's first Big 10 conference win over Illinois.
  
  Interested in the Illinois State @ Wichita State game. The Shockers have been great at home this year and have a shot at an at-large. Illinois State played a miserable out of conference schedule, so I think they're probably looking at auto-bid or nothing, but for them to have any shot at an at large they need this win.
• wildcats20

  

  I have this feeling Duke loses tonight. I don't know why, I just do.
• swamisez

  

  Duke has lost to FSU at Cameron before. twice actually. I was there for the last one.
  
  This FSU team has Alibi and Singleton. Could be a long day for the Devil front court. Where FSU is short handed is the front court. At Leon CC I would take FSU, but not at Cameron, not in advance of a road trip to Georgetown.
• CinciX12

  

  No bigger Charlotte fan than myself tonight.
• swamisez

  

  Bruce Pearl is in the Orange jacket tonight.
  
  and Mark Gottfried is doing all he can to prevent himself from going off on an obscenity laden tirade telling everyone how shady the University of Tennessee athletic program is.
• reclegend22

  

  Keep in mind that, in terms of deciding the ACC champion, this game is big only in the fact that it determines key seeding for the conference tournament. Obviously, you want to win them all (and slap a regular season award cloth banner to the rafters along the way), but the ACC is determined in Greensboro in March.
  
  As for the game itself, I don't think there is anyway the Blue Devils drop one in Cameron this year. This team is much improved from a year ago and much more dangerous at all five positions on the floor. As we saw from Duke's poor outside performance against BC earlier in the year, the Blue Devils, even on a night when the team can't buy a three, are capable of finding other ways to win. In Cameron that kind of stability means no losing most of the time. FSU will probably put up a scare for the first 25, 30 minutes, but I see Duke winning by doubles in the end.
• Azubuike24

  

  Vandy impressively taking care of UT at Thompson-Boling Arena. Very impressive I must say. UK is going to have their hands full Saturday.
• Mulva

  

  Charlotte goes on a huge run and beats Temple by 10.
  
  Also, UConn fell badly to Providence. Nice way to spoil that huge win over Texas.
• Firad

  

  I'm calling for the Seminoles to upset Duke tonight!
• Azubuike24

  

  Vanderbilt knocks off Tennessee 85-76.
  Wichita State holds on to beat Illinois State 74-66.
  Charlotte knocks off Temple 74-64.
  Oklahoma State leading Texas A&M by 7 late in the 2nd half.
  Memphis up 10 on Marshall at halftime.
  
  Some other key scores, Providence beats Connecticut by 15 and Florida rolls Georgia by 16.
• Azubuike24

  

  Some other interesting notes.
  
  Vermont loses AGAIN at New Hampshire. 2 weeks ago this looked like a team ready to steamroll through the America East. Now they are at .500 in the league.
  
  Northeastern who has been red hot and leading the Colonial at 8-1 falls to Drexel by 13 at home. The CAA is getting wilder.
  
  Ohio State struggling mightily with a terrible Iowa team.
  
  Oklahoma State about to finish off the Aggies.
  
  Marshall on a 22-7 run to start the 2nd half, leading Memphis by 5.
• Mulva

  

  Texas Tech is up 8 on Texas late in the first half in Austin in a high scoring game.
• swamisez

  

  Tennessee was up 6 then they went to sleep. Vandy goes on blistering run, and cruises to victory. I lost that one in streak for the cash. Ticked me off.
  
  Duke up 10 at half on FSU. Scheyer is a Cameron Indoor shooter and is hitting tonight. Gonna be tough for FSU to mount the offense to win this one.
• Azubuike24

  

  Memphis holds onto beat Marshall despite a near triple double by Hassan Whiteside. Anyone seen this freshman? Projected as the top pick in the 2011 draft...a legit big center.
• reclegend22

  

  Andre Dawkins getting a little time, and drilling a nice rainbow triple from the left corner. It'd be nice to see us expand this lead a bit and get No. 20 into a second half flow. He's going to be incredibly important to this team as a quick scoring threat off the bench once tournament time rolls around.
  
  Jon having another big first half. Hitting three triples in the first 20 minutes. If there has been one flaw with his play tonight, however it has been his odd propensity to want to force things. He's thrown about two or three very badly timed full court passes to push Duke's offense, none of which have resulted in anything good. A couple in turnovers. This is very uncommon for him and needs to stop.
• swamisez

  

  Azubuike24 wrote: Memphis holds onto beat Marshall despite a near triple double by Hassan Whiteside. Anyone seen this freshman? Projected as the top pick in the 2011 draft...a legit big center.

  I watched a little bit of this game. Kid is long and athletic. He probably would have gotten that triple double but he had to sit some in the first half after picking up two cheap fouls.
  
  Didn't realize it but both Marshall and Memphis really like to get up and down the floor.
• Azubuike24

  

  Yeah, that was an exciting game for sure. Wishing I could get a feed to this BYU/UNM game. Only have audio and gamecast. No DirecTV!
• swamisez

  

  Huge three there by Singler to put Duke back up 11 at the 5 minute mark.
• swamisez

  

  I don't know why the Mountain West doesn't let Byu show their bball and football games on the Mormon Tv station. Makes sense to me?
• Azubuike24

  

  Agreed. That's a worthless station.
• swamisez

  

  Don't hate on BYUTV. There are 15 million mormons on the planet, there has to be a couple of people who like it.
• ironman02

  swami,
  
  Is this home record that Vitale keeps talking about actually correct?
  
  He's saying that Duke has lost two games in CIS in the last three seasons, both to Carolina. I thought for sure they had lost some other games, like Maryland, FSU, and maybe VaTech. Maybe I'm just thinking too far back.
  
  Edit: Nevermind. Just realized that he's counting this season, 2007-2008, and 2008-2009. I was going back to 2006-2007.
• Mulva

  

  New Mexico gets the win over BYU, 73-69.
• reclegend22

  

  Duke takes down FSU in Cameron, 70-56. This game was actually much closer in the second half, after Duke, in typical second half lull fashion, allowed the Seminoles to creep back to within four, 51-47. Eventually, however, Duke's Kyle Singler came on strong and powered the Devils to their fifth ACC victory on the season.
  
  Duke now stands at 17-3 and 5-2 in the conference. Singler finished with 20 points, including three triples, which is a good sign considering his recent shooting woes. He still shot 10 of them, but he hadn't even made a three in what seemed like weeks, so it was nice to see the net ripple. Maybe that will get him going.
  
  Scheyer was his typical self. 22 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds, 3 steals and 4-of-6 shooting from deep. This was one of his better shooting games in the last couple of weeks, so, again, perhaps this was the beginning of a shooting turnaround for the Devils. He did commit four TO's, which is very un-Scheyer like. I mentioned this during the game, that Jon really looked like he was forcing some of his passes to get the Duke offense moving quicker down the court. I have no worries that this will be corrected against Georgetown on Saturday.
  
  Good win.