College Hoops Re-Cap: 12/10/2021: The mighty have fallen
It has been a long week, but I am hoping that I am finally back on my schedule with these posts. At least until the Christmas holiday hits, then I will likely be all messed up again. It feels weird not posting about college basketball for four days straight. They play so many games in that time frame that you really feel like you are missing something. At least I do.
I don't know as though I could find enough content or babbling words to write a daily post about college basketball though. Perhaps if I started to cover teams outside the top 25... I am not sure I have the energy for that!
Anyway, let's get to it.
On Monday there were only two top 25 games played. The biggest news of the day was unranked Texas Southern taking down #20 Florida.
Tuesday gave us six top 25 games and once again, there was only one upset on that night. Sadly it was unranked Texas Tech beating #13 Tennessee. I am a bit sad about that one since I have kind of adopted Tennesse as my secondary team after Michigan State. Ever since my wife and I visited Nashville the first time, we have kind of fallen in love with the state.
It was an overtime win, so at least they didn't make it easy for them. If you are keeping track, that is two Texas teams so far with upsets this week. Must be something in the water...
Wednesday was an exciting night for me since it opened conference play for the Michigan State Spartans. They were playing Minnesota in Minnesota. The game didn't even start until 9:00 PM, a good hour after I was already in bed, so I didn't watch it.
I was honestly a bit worried about this game. If you have been following my posts, you know that Michigan State has a proclivity for turning over the ball. In fact in this contest they had 13 turnovers. That could have easily been the difference in the game if Minnesota was having a better night.
Until they get that sorted out, I am going to be nervous about pretty much every matchup the Spartans have this season. Nothing is a given. Just ask Purdue (more on that in a little bit.).
Even with the turnovers, Michigan State did win their game, as well as the other two ranked teams in the Big 10 that played on Wednesday night.
Florida bounced back from their loss and beat unranked North Florida, and unranked West Virginia beat #15 Uconn in a three point upset victory. That one isn't too surprising since the Mountaineers have been known for their basketball program in the past.
Whatever was in the water down in Texas either ran out, or didn't hit the campus of the #7 Texas Longhorns (Austin right?) because they fell to #23 Seton Hall. Gonzaga bounced back from some of their recent losses and easily handled Merrimack (where is that even?), and #17 Iowa State beat unranked Iowa by 20 points. Can you believe that? Iowa State is ranked and Iowa isn't? Crazy!
Speaking of crazy, the biggest news of last night was probably unranked Rutgers knocking #1 Purdue out of the top spot by a two point margin. I need to go back and watch some of the highlights because I am getting the end of that game was pretty epic.
Alright, I am back, it was indeed pretty epic. Down by one, time running out, a Rutgers dribbled the blal down the court, and took his shot from just past half court with like .4 seconds left on the clock. It fell, and the rest as they say is history.
In other basketball news, I had the chance to watch my niece play for her freshman team this past week. While she is technically a freshman, she gets some playtime with the JV and even Varsity squads. She had a monster 18 points in the game this week and some pretty awesome defensive stops. I am so proud of her and I just think the blockchain deserves to know that.
Tonight I get to watch her older sister play on the varsity squad. She is a defensive powerhouse and I am just as proud of her (in case they ever read this!)
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And Purdue losing to Rutgers on a buzzer beater 3.
So, that makes Baylor the de facto #1, which Villanova will face this weekend. Pretty insane pre-conference schedule when you think about it. Facing several top 10 teams.
That's what Michigan State does pretty much every year. When other teams are playing cupcake games, Michigan State is like name the time and place. I have a lot of respect for teams like that.
I think basketball is one of those sports you should play the toughest opponent possible during out of conference play if you are serious about getting national championships.
Yeah, I agree with that.