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December 5, 2011

Welcome to this Monday version of NCAA Daily. Hope that everyone had a great weekend and had a chance to watch some basketball! There were a number of great games this weekend and the marquee match-up definitely did not disappoint. Let’s start the Daily:

The Block against UNC is a signature moment for Kentucky
(Mark Story/The Lexington, Ky Herald-Leader)

North Carolina had the ball and time to try to overcome a one point late game deificit to Kentucky. After a tipped pass intended for Tyler Zeller went into the hands of John Henson, the long armed 6-10 UNC PF thought he had a relatively uncontested 10 foot shot. Kentucky’s Anthony Davis proved him wrong with his athletic, clutch block that left Henson and the Tar Heels so stunned that they let the final 4.2 seconds tick off the clock without fouling. #1 Kentucky held onto their top spot in the polls with a 73-72 victory that pitted what many pundits view to be the two most talented teams in college basketball against one another. (there was more NBA talent on the floor than at a Minnesota Timberwolves practice!)

John Henson, who actually has a somewhat similar story to Anthony Davis with his own late growth spurt, definitely felt what it was like to be on the other end of a rejection. "It’s funny, because I do the same thing to other guys," Henson said, "and he did it to me for the game. It was a great play by a great player." Davis’ stat line does not exactly stand out, with 7 points, 9 rebounds and 2 blocks, but it was obvious UNC had to gameplan for him and his presence was felt. Relegated to defending North Carolina’s 7 foot senior center Tyler Zeller, Davis had a few rough patches in the first half. However, as the game wore on, he definitely made Zeller hesitate, which led to double teams that were incredibly effective, forcing Zeller into 4 turnovers and that last second bobbled pass.

In a game that included 9 players currently in the first round of the 2012 NBADraft.net Mock Draft, plus others who are sure fire NBA prospects, Anthony Davis was not the only stand out. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist had a career high 17 points and 11 rebounds in a marquee match-up with sophomore wing Harrison Barnes. Barnes scored 14, with 12 points on 4-5 three point shooting, but Gilchrist was able to burn the defense slashing to the basket and getting key offensive rebounds. Barnes did not attempt a single free throw and seemed incredibly intimidated by Kentucky’s interior defense, staying on the perimeter and fading away rather than trying to draw contact. His jumper is pristine, but he certainly has things to work on as far as creating his own offense.

Kentucky forward Terrence Jones started the game on a mission, scoring has 14 first half points in a number of ways, including long range shots, strong drives and a monstrous dunk on North Carolina’s two big men early in the game. In the second half the defense John Henson provides became omnipresent and Kentucky got a majority of its scoring from Kidd-Gilchrist and Doron Lamb, who finished with 14 points and some hugely clutch baskets. Kentucky senior 6th man Darius Miller was also incredibly key with 12 points off of the bench.

North Carolina freshman PJ Hairston was the key to the Tar Heels 43-38 lead going into halftime. Hairston, who was rumored to be sidelined due to a sprained wrist, had 11 points on 3-3 from long range and a couple FT’s in the premier half. North Carolina built up as much as an 8 point lead, with beautiful feeds from PG Kendall Marshall being a theme. The second half brought out a new identity in Kentucky as they focused on defense, at one point holding North Carolina scoreless for a 5 minute stretch. This game absolutely lived up to its billing and I do not think their are two more talented teams in the nation. They both have room for improvement and should only get stronger as the year goes on. Fingers crossed for a re-match come tournament time.

Scoop Jardine Joins 1000 Point Club in Cuse win over Florida
(Mike Waters/The Post-Standard)

The #3 Syracuse Orangemen held off the #10 Florida Gators 72-68 in their Friday night contest. Syracuse senior combo guard Scoop Jardine had 16 points, 7 assists and 4 steals, while getting past the 1000 point mark for his college career. He led an 18-7 second half charge that put the game in Syracuse’s favor. The Orange managed to match-up well with Florida’s fantastic production from their guards, getting 20 from Brandon Triche and 14 from wing Kris Joseph. Florida was led by junior guard Kenny Boynton with 22 and 5’8 Erving Walker had 17. Florida frosh Bradley Beal finished with 7 points and 10 rebounds, but was held in check, shooting poorly and accumulating 5 of 20 Gator turnovers. Syracuse won the battle of the boards and used their depth and defense to move to 8-0 on the season.

#6 Louisville Holds Off Vanderbilt, 62-60 in OT
(CL Brown/The Courier-Journal)

Peyton Siva decided to pass off a potential game winning shot in regulation to freshman forward Chane Behanan. In OT, he took it upon himself and scored the game winner over Vanderbilt on a drive with 1.4 seconds left. Siva finished with 14 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists as the Cardinals withheld 27 points by John Jenkins of the Vandy Commodores. Behanan finished with a double-double of 14 and 10 for Louisville, who got a team leading 15 from Kyle Kuric (though he had almost half of Louisville 15 turnovers with 7). Louisville continues to win these hard fought defensive battles and stayed a perfect 7-0. Meanwhile, the lack of depth is really hurting Vanderbilt as they move to 5-3. Senior center Festus Ezeli cannot come back quickly enough for Vandy.

Deonte Burton’s Late Game Heroics Get Nevada 76-73 OT win over UW
(Jeff Taylor/The Husky Haul)

The Washington Huskies won the rebounding battle, made a decent percentage of their shots and free throws, but late game mental lapses and poor ball control killed them. With a 5 point lead and only 28 seconds remaining in regulation, it looked like the Huskies had the game well in hand. However, after a rainbow triple from Nevada’s Malik Story and Darnell Gant missing his second FT, Deonte Burton barrelled up the court to try and tie the game up. After what can best be described as either a defensive lapse or a very poor attempt at fouling, Burton sunk an uncontested three pointer and sent the game into overtime.

Once there, Burton did not disappoint, scoring 8 of the Wolfpacks 10 OT points and assisting Kevin Panzer to close the game. He finished with 31 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists, leaving the Huskies with a major lesson. Apparently, coach Lorenzo Romar had ordered the team to foul Burton and Tony Wroten seemed to attempt to do so, but it definitely was not convincing and ended up looking as though Wroten gave up on the play.

Terrence Ross led the Huskies with 18 points and looked incredibly athletic, but this game left at least one Husky fan complaining about the teams basketball IQ. Tony Wroten, a tremendously talented freshman combo guard, had 14 points, but his play at the end was a head scratcher and his gambling on defense and offense was evident. He finished with 5 TO’s and he must cut this number down as it is becoming an unfortunate trend.

#13 Mizzou Tigers Slaughter Northwestern State Demons
(Mike Dearmond/The Kansas City Star)

Missouri has gotten off to an incredibly hot start as the Tigers move to 7-0 on the year after a 90-56 victory on Friday. Marcus Denmon continued to be a major scorer with 31 points while forward Ricardo Ratliffe had 22 points in 21 minutes on 10-11 shooting from the field. Michael Dixon also provided 19 points and 3 steals off of the bench. Missouri has yet to win a game by less than 15 points and seemed poised to make some noise in Big 12 play. They are very guard heavy, but they seem to be absolutely explosive on the offensive end and are shooting 52.5% from the field on the season.

Ryan Boatright Shines for #8 UConn in Home Debut
(Jeff Jacobs/Hartford Courant)

After missing the first 6 games of the season, diminutive guard Ryan Boatright has shined for the Connecticut Huskies in his first two games. Boatright played his first game at the XL Center and scored 23 points to go along with 5 rebounds and 6 assists. Boatright’s performance led Huskies head coach Jim Calhoun to bring up the names Allen Iverson and Kemba Walker when describing the freshman. Connecticut also got double digit performances from Jeremy Lamb and Tyler Olander in the 75-62 victory. Arkansas had there own freshman with a monster day as BJ Young finished with 28 points in 27 minutes for the Razorbacks. UConn freshman center Andre Drummond struggled on the day, finishing with only a single point and rebound with 4 blocks in 17 minutes. The big man suffered through early game foul trouble and seems to be taking time to adjust to the college game.

#16 Marquette Wins Battle For State Supremacy over #9 Wisconsin
(Luke Winn/CNNSI.com)

In a win that has SI writer Luke Winn claiming that Marquette may be the second best team in the Big East, the Golden Eagles came through with a 61-54 win at the Kohl Center. They were led by Darius "DJO" Johnson-Odom with 17 and freshman Todd Mayo (brother of NBA player OJ) added 15 off of the bench as Buzz Williams team upset Bo Ryan’s bunch at home. Marquette was without the services of starting PG Junior Cadougan (who was suspended for undisclosed reasons), but managed to hold Wisconsin to 32% shooting from the field. Wisconsin star Jordan Taylor led the team with 13 points, but statistics show he has really struggled with breaking opponents down off the isolation. The Golden Eagles stay perfect at 7-0 and should shoot up the rankings with this win over a highly ranked opponent.

Purdue Blows 19 Point Lead, Loses to #11 Xavier
(Robert Blackman/Examiner.com)

Have to say, I have been there. You have a huge lead on a highly ranked team and everything seems to be going your way. The problem is, the game is not over and the lead slowly slips away before your eyes. Purdue saw that happen on Saturday, with a comfortable 55-36 advantage over #11 Xavier with 10:45 remaining. Keyed by star guard Tu Holloway, Xavier ended up taking the lead with 1:05 remaing and pulled out a 66-63 victory. Holloway scored the Musketeers final 11 points, including three straight three pointers to ice the Boilermakers.

Holloway scored 21 points on the game and was helped by Mark Lyons who chipped in 14. Robbie Hummel led Purdue with 17, though he played sporadically over the games final 4:40 after suffering leg cramps. Lewis Jackson had 12 points as well as filling up the stat sheet, but his 6 turnovers proved costly. Holloway had 6 of his own, but the Musketeers survived their 22 mistakes with their strong defense and clutch play to end the game. They moved to 6-0 while the Boilermakers are still a respectable 7-2.

Meyers Leonard Has Big Game as Illinois Stays Perfect
(Patrick Z. McGavin/Chicago Sun-Times)

#19 Gonzaga came into Champaign, Illinois as the favorite in their match-up against also unbeaten Illinois. The Illini got a big game from sophomore 7 footer Meyers Leonard. as he outscored Gonzaga’s own big man Robert Sacre, 21-16. DJ Richardson finished with 19 points for the Illini as they won 82-75 and are now 8-0 on the season. Elias Harris had 19 and 8 for the Bulldogs and KEVIN PANGOS chipped in with 11. Leonard was the big story of the game as he has shown major improvement in his second year and is putting up numbers to go along with his potential as an athletic, talented 7 footer. He still has a ways to go physically, but is definitely a player to keep an eye on.

Moultrie, Bost Lead #24 Mississippi State over West Virginia
(Brandon Marcello/The Clarion-Ledger)

A 6’11 junior transfer from UTEP, Arnett Moultrie is leaving a big time imprint on college basketball. West Virginia coach Bob Huggins definitely felt it as Moultrie finished with 21 points (7-8 FG, 1-1 3PT and 6-7 FT) and 13 rebounds. Moultrie is averaging an impressive 16.7 ppg and 11.1 rpg on the year and has to have the NBA scouts taking hard glances. Bulldogs PG Dee Bost also had 17 points as the team moved to 8-1 on the season. West Virginia forward Kevin Jones finished with 14 points and 9 rebounds, but was held to 6-17 shooting and missed all 6 three point attempts. Jones is having an impressive senior season nonetheless, averaging 19.8 ppg and 11.7 rpg for the 4-2 Mountaineers.

Damian Lillard Looks Like Favorite For NCAA Scoring Leader
(Martin Renzhofer/Salt Lake Tribune)

Weber State is a small conference school in Utah that is not exactly known for churning out NBA prospects. You pretty much think of the name Harold "The Show" Arcenaux, who never ended up cracking the draft after his great NCAA performance, and little else. Well, Damian Lillard has been on the draft radar for a while and he is not going away.

He had 17 of his 41 points (On only 21 shots from the field) in two overtime periods in a 91-89 win over San Jose State. This moved his scoring average to an NCAA high 28.2 ppg. Lillard is shooting 50% FG, 44% 3PT and 87% FT, excellent percentages for such a high scorer. He has Weber State at 5-1 and he is still classified as a junior after missing a lot of last year with an injury. Expect to see Lillard talked about in either the 2012 or 2013 draft as a scoring guard prospect.

#14 Michigan Withholds Royce White and Iowa State
(Randy Peterson/The Des Moines Register)

Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 19 points as Michigan beat Iowa State, 76-66. Sophomore forward Jordan Morgan added 16 and freshman dynamo PG Trey Burke had 13 points. Iowa State has a couple of intriguing prospects in a couple of former Big 10 transfers, Chris Allen from Michigan State and Royce White from Minnesota. Allen is a senior scoring guard, who was held to 4-16 shooting on the game but hit 3 triples to finish with 11 points. White is a burly sophomore PF and he finished with 22 points and 13 rebounds. He is averaging 15.1 ppg, 10.8 rpg and even 4.3 apg since joining Iowa State.

#7 Baylor Defense Too Much for Northwestern
(Teddy Greenstein/Chicago Tribune)

Northwestern was undefeated and looked to pull off an upset of #7 Baylor on their home turf. Instead, it was an absolute wake-up call of a slaughtering as Baylor shut them down and won the game 69-41. Northwestern shot an abysmal 24.1% from the field (!) and their star player, John Shurna, was held to 11 points on 4-19 shooting from the field for one of the worst shooting games of his career.

Baylor senior forward Quincy Acy got the better of the match-up between the two, finishing with 16 points on 8-10 FG and 6 blocked shots. Pierre Jackson also had 16 for Baylor and sophomore Perry Jones III finished with 12. Baylor star freshman Quincy Miller, playing in his first game with Jones III, scored only 3 points but had 6 assists. Baylor shot over 60% from the field and are now 7-0. Northwestern is 7-1 and seemed to get a majority of their wins against, dare I say, cupcake opponents.

Wichita State Claims 89-70 Victory over #18 UNLV
(Wichita State/GoShockers.com)

The Runnin’ Rebels of UNLV had arguably the biggest upset win of the season thus far when they beat than #1 North Carolina. Wichita State, from the mid-major Missouri Valley Conference, decided to pull an upset of their own, claiming a definitive 89-70 win over UNLV. Senior guard Joe Ragland had a career performance with 31 points on 9-12 FG, 8-9 3PT (!), and 5-6 FT to lead 4 Shockers in double figures.

UNLV was led by Chase Stanback with 16 and also got 12 points and 7 rebounds from Mike Moser. Moser is still the nations leader in rebounds per game with 12.6. The Shockers were expected to make noise in the MVC and should be a NCAA tourney threat. They moved to 5-2 while UNLV dropped to 8-1.

Tapley’s Clutch FT’s Help SDSU Top #24 Cal, 64-63
(Bernie Wilson/AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Chase Tapley scored 25 points for the San Diego State Aztecs, including a pair of free throws with 8.6 seconds remaining to help the Aztecs top the Cal Golden Bears. Coach Steve Fisher loaded up the San Diego State early season schedule and they ended up facing 4 teams ranked in the top 25. They finished 2-2 in those games and are now 8-2 on the season. Guards Allen Crabbe and Justin Cobbs led Cal with 23 points and 17 points respectively. Mike Montgomery’s Cal team is now 6-2 on the year and more than likely will fall out of the top 25, at least for now.

Georgetown Moves to 6-1 With Win Over NJIT
(Jshuane Melton/DC Sports Box)

Here at NCAA Daily, I try to cover teams, players and stories that my readers would like to hear about. So, when a special young man alerted me about the lack of publicity his favorite school was receiving, I wanted to go out of my way to right this wrong doing. Behind 20 points (7-10 FG, 6-7 3PT) from junior Hollis Thompson, the Georgetown Hoyas beat my young viewers beloved New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) Highlanders, 84-44. Guards Ryan Woods and Isaiah Wilkerson had 16 and 15 repectively for the losing Highlanders. The two were bright spots on a day that saw the team shoot 27.3% from the field and get outrebounded by Georgetown 43-20. Happy now, McHighlander?

Well, hope you enjoyed this jam packed Monday edition, I will be hitting you up with even more news from the world of college basketball tomorrow!

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2 Comments

  1. WHAAAAAAAT?!?!?!A NJIT

    WHAAAAAAAT?!?!?!A NJIT SHOUTOUT?

     

    Thank you so much for giving them the ink they deserve MikeyVForVendetta

    I will always remember the great moment that made me a fan

     

    first the hate from espn douches

    but then…..

    #

  2. LMAO>>>>”More NBA talent on

    LMAO>>>>”More NBA talent on the floor of the Kentucky-UNC game than at a Minnesota TWolves practice”’.

     

    MikeyV you about to feel the Wrath of Kahn for that 1…..lol

     

     

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