3 Most Important Results from Tonight (all ACC-Big Ten Challenge related results will be handled in the Final Thought at page bottom)
Creighton 85, San Diego St. 83 – San Diego St. got off the great start, nearly blowing Creighton away to start the game. Credit Creighton with weathering the storm on the road. This was a great win by the Blue Jays and proved why they have their national ranking at this early point in the season. That said, Creighton probably won't be able to count on getting 19 points in 19 minutes from sophomore backup Ethan Wragge too often. The starters need to be better, especially at the start of games in the Missouri Valley.
Gonzaga 73, Notre Dame 53 – Results like this are why teams don't want to make the trek to Spokane to play Gonzaga. Notre Dame shot badly, and got run off the floor early, never to recover even once they found some offense (getting to 53 points when you have eight with under six minutes to go in the first half is actually an accomplishment). Based on what we've see so far, the Irish look like an NIT team this year.
UNLV 94, UC Santa Barbara 88 (2OT) – Gritty win for UNLV where nobody other than new star Mike Moser played particularly well until overtime. One strategic note here: UNLV fouled UCSB star Orlando Johnson (who had a huge game with 36 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks to lead his team in every category) up three with under five seconds to go. Against this team, that is likely a bad strategy as UCSB has a 7-foot-3-inch center who, after Johnson made the first free throw, got the rebound on the second and sent the game to overtime. Of course, UCSB took the other tactic of not fouling and paid for it as Chase Stanbeck hit a 3-pointer to send the game to the second overtime with 1.7 seconds on the clock. And once again, nobody really knows which approach is the better one.
Worst Loss from Tonight
Denver 67, Utah St. 54 – Scratch Utah St. from the at-large picture. It won't be happening this season. When a team is carrying losses to Weber St and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, it can ill afford to lose home games to Sun Belt teams, even decent ones like 5-1 Denver if at-large contention is the goal. Considering that the WAC is weak and there are likely losses at Mississippi St. and Wichita St. before conference play, and it is already conference tournament or bust time for the normally stout Aggies.
3 Biggest Games of Tomorrow
Alabama vs Georgetown – The best of tomorrow's games in the SEC-Big East challenge, Alabama has been very good to start the season thus far, rolling over Maryland, Wichita St., Purdue and Virginia Commonwealth thus far. But Georgetown is the best team the Crimson Tide have faced so far. The Hoyas did well at the Maui Invitational, getting a huge quality win over Memphis along with playing tough against Kansas. That said, I expect this to be another test passed by Alabama. This is Georgetown's first non-Maui road game and that has been a problem for quite a few good teams this season.
DePaul vs Ole Miss – Neither of these is expected to be anything special, but both are off the surprising starts and a win tomorrow could launch one of them towards a surprise at-large challenge. Ole Miss is likely the better team on a neutral court, but they often have trouble scoring, a trait that can be a killer on the road. As for DePaul, the Blue Demons nearly toppled Minnesota (with Trevor Mbakwe) and then beat Texas Tech and Arizona St. at the Old Spice Classic, but Texas Tech and Arizona St. are both bad rebuilding teams. Ole Miss is a step up from those two in DePaul's long road back from the abyss of the last few seasons.
Kansas St. vs George Washington – We know very little about these two teams. Kansas St. is one of the few major conference teams that avoided the early season tournaments, so they have only played three games against low-major competition, all at home. George Washington is nothing special, but they are a step up from Charleston Southern, Maryland-Eastern Shore and Loyola (Illinois). If Kansas St. really is good again, they will likely drill GW at home like Cal did a couple of weeks ago.
Final Thought on the night in College Basketball
The Big Ten looks like a force to be reckoned with this season. The league flat out steamrolled the ACC in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge and stamped quite a few teams as possible at-large contenders. Just tonight, Minnesota overcame the loss of Trevor Mbakwe, at least for one game, to beat Virginia Tech. Indiana went to NC State and won to keep its perfect start going. Michigan St. clobbered Florida St. (sending the preseason top 25 Seminoles to its 3rd loss in a row after being beaten by Harvard and UConn). Heck, Penn St., bad though they are, beat up on even worse Boston College (experiencing the very beginning of a total rebuild under former Cornell coach Steve Donahue). With all that, the Big Ten won 8-4. A great result for the league (and one that could have been better had Michigan beat Virginia and Wisconsin beat North Carolina in winnable road games) and one that bodes well for NCAA Tournament hopes from the league. At this point, the league looks like the strongest in college basketball, especially with the top of the Big East and Big 12 in transition, the SEC lacking depth and the Pac-12 still way, way down.
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