College Hoops Re-Cap 12/6/2021
Lot's of stuff to catch up on this morning. I waited a long time since my last college basketball post because I wanted to try and get back on my regular schedule of posting on Friday and then on Monday. College basketball is a bit of a different beast than college football. Stuff happens all through the week, so you never know what you might miss if you just cover the weekend games.
I've gotta take you back almost a full week to the first of December. That is where I left off. I was out watching my friends daughter play basketball, while anticipating the Michigan State/Louisville game that was on that night.
I will be honest that I was a bit nervous about the game. Although MSU is ranked #22 and Louisville was unranked, fans of the game will know that the Cardinals are no slouch and the game could have likely went either way.
Especially given the fact that the Spartans have a tendency to implode sometimes. In fact, although they got the win, it wasn't a pretty game. They had a whopping 19 turnovers, someething that has plauged them for seasons on end. At some point Izzo needs to get that under control. The good thing is, he knows it. Whether he can do something about is is another story.
I think this quote from Izzo sums it up pretty good:
Izzo: "I'm gonna figure it out because if we can do this with 19 turnovers ... against quality teams, just think what we can do when we quit turning the damned ball over."
As for upsets on Wednesday, we had unranked Georgia over #18 Memphis by three points. Unranked Oklahoma over #14 Florida by about 7 points, unranked Utah Valley over #12 BYU by 7 points in overtime (sorry @enforcer48). Finally, much to my delight, the other upset on Wednesday night was unranked North Carolina over #24 Michigan. What a great start to the ACC/BIG 10 showdown!
The game between Washington and #11 Arizona on Thursday was postponed.
Friday there were zero upsets, but I think the 111 to 44 beat down of unranked Bryant by #15 Houston should be noted. I also think it should be pointed out that unranked Iowa came within seven points of beating #2 Purdue. That isn't anything to be ashamed of.
Saturday brought us quite a few games along with a couple of notable upsets. First, lets talk about Michigan State and Toldeo. #22 State was able to easily take away the win. They dominated most of the game and even had only a handful of turn overs in the first half. The play was still a bit sloppy at times, but I can't really complain too much about their perforance.
#24 U of M was able to take down what has been a pretty formidable San Diegto State team in the past. I think the past two years they have at least made it to the tournament or were going to before Covid shut things down. This might be the start of a turn around for Michigan. We will see.
Unraked Ole Miss took down #18 Memphis by four points. If you have been paying attention, that is two upset losses in one week for the Tigers. That has to hurt.
The other big upset for the week was #16 Alabama over #3 Gonzaga. It would appear that the weaknesses are starting to appear in the Zags armor. The good news is, this is still very early in the season. They have plenty of time to right the ship and I have zero doubt we will be hearing a lot about the Bulldogs throughout the season and into the tournament.
Finally, that brings us to Sunday and the biggest news that happened yesterday was unranked Washington forfeiting their game against #5 UCLA. I am not sure what happened there, but I guess a win is a win right Bruins?
There you have it, that is the college basketball update. Check back tomorrow when I cover all the football action that happened this past weekend.
Sports Talk Social - @bozz.sports
Quite interesting, congrats to the winning teams
It was a pretty crazy week!
Ah yeah, that UVU loss was pretty bad. Not only both teams weren't performing all that great in terms of stats, giving the Wolverines 35 attempts at free throws was bad news all around.
On the flip side, the Zags losing could be a good thing. That means they probably won't curb stomp BYU this season. One can hope.
I was a bit worried about UofM at first this season too, but they appear to have some issues just like most other teams, so I am not too concerned now. I think if MSU gets their turnover stuff under control they will be pretty great. We should get a better picture of how everyone is going to look when we enter conference play this week.
oooh, the Zags getting beat was unexpected. Even though I like them I do NOT like when the same teams are always good so I can't say that I am entirely disappointed about this. Plenty of time left though, just like you said.
Yeah, I think it is going to be an interesting season. The Big 10 is looking strong again, so it might be a tough road to the tournament this year.