Games of interest - January 9

[BeKnighted]

A night of upsets, including 2 by RU opponents, although happily there wasn’t one in Illinois


Big Ten

#12 Indiana 66 Purdue 48 – Hoosiers still only undefeated team in B1G play
Iowa 66 #17 Maryland 61 – Hawkeyes had a big lead, lost it, then got it back together
Ohio State 78 #24 Michigan 69 – not sure how big a surprise this is, but at least a bit of one
Penn State 88 Michigan 73 – 1st B1G win for the Nittany Lions
Northwestern 56 Minnesota 54 – nice win for the Wildcats
Nebraska 65 Wisconsin 50 – Cornhuskers looking better than I expected

Right now the B1G standings are highly symmetrical: 1 team at 4-0, 4 teams at 3-1, 4 teams at 2-2, 4 teams at 1-3, 1 team at 0-4.


Other RU opponents

Louisiana 73 South Alabama 68 – Doucet had 18 rebounds for the Ragin’ Cajuns
Niagara 68 Siena 61 OT – Ekpiteta had 22 and 15 for the Purple Eagles in their 1st MAC win
LSU 57 #10 Texas A&M 54 – on the road, to boot
Vanderbilt 63 Georgia 55 – Love had 22 and 7 for the Commodores
Georgia Tech 67 #11 Florida State 52 – also on the road, and Yellow Jackets all the way
Virginia 66 Duke 63 – would have been an upset most seasons, but maybe not this year
Middle Tennessee 75 Marshall 55 – Savage led the Lady Raiders with 20 and 10


Other ranked teams

#6 Baylor 74 #1 Connecticut 58 – Kind of shocking, particularly the margin
#4 South Carolina 91 #21 Arkansas 82 – not as close as it looks
#7 Louisville 87 Miami (FL) 41 – about as close as it looks
North Carolina 66 #9 North Carolina State 60 – Tar Heels trailed by 10 at the half
#13 Mississippi State 79 Missouri 64 – maybe a bit closer than I’d have guessed
#14 Kentucky 81 Alabama 71 – Tide still looking for 1st SEC win
#16 Gonzaga 74 St. Mary’s 49 – 18-2 2nd quarter
#23 Tennessee 84 Mississippi 28 – hard to believe Rebels are that bad.


Also

Rider 75 Quinnipiac 59 – Broncos are 3-0 in MAAC
Boston College 75 Notre Dame 65 – 1st BC win against the Irish since 2006
Northern Arizona 114 Sacramento State 107 2OT – 11 players in double figures; all 5 NAU starters had at least 15 points
Idaho 69 Montana State 68 – close all the way


B1G

Today: 0-0
Year to date: 122-33

Other RU opponents

Today: 5-2
Year to date: 77-70


There have been no palindromic scores in 70 games completed so far today. There have been 23 palindromic scores in 2,558 games so far this season. It’s been five forlorn days since the last palindromic score.

 

[ecojew]

It was a very interesting night in women's bball, with so many upsets and several good wins by RU's P5 opponents, including two road wins against ranked opponents. All good for RU's SOS.

 

[sammybb]

LSU and GA Tech wins are huge for RU.

Also, what a crazy night in the B10. RU truly cannot take any team for granted this year (well, maybe Illinois).

 

[fbc1866]

This is a difficult conference. Any night you can be beaten. This will help in the post season.

 

[Ewecon]

"#6 Baylor 74 #1 Connecticut 58 – Kind of shocking, particularly the margin"

Not really shocking to any UConn fan that has a sense of reality. While I'm a bit shocked it ended up being a 16 point margin (after all, it was only a 3 point game after 3 quarters), I'm not shocked we lost. UConn's wheels came off in the 4th quarter and they only scored 6 points. Game. Set. Match. Let's be real, UConn was not the #1 team in the country. They were there because everyone else ranked above them lost. Top 10, I believe yes. Top 5? Ummm, don't think so.... yet. Geno benched Olivia Nelson-Ododa for the entire 4th quarter so we had no chance against Lauren Cox. That didn't help matters. Fact is, both she and Kyla Irwin scored zero points in the game. When two of your starters score zero points combined, you can't beat a team like Baylor. The reality is this.... Baylor is a much better team at this stage of the season. They kicked our ass and deserved to win. Although we missed so many layups and wide open shots, kudos to Baylor's defense for holding UConn to 29% shooting, 20 percentage points below their season average. This won't be their last loss this season, and I'm predicting their string of 12 consecutive Final Fours comes to end. I hope I'm wrong.

 

[fbc1866]

Not many teams come into UConn and go home with a win.

 

[Ewecon]

Not many teams come into UConn and go home with a win.

That's true, but last night the better team did exactly that. It's frustrating because the score really wasn't indicative of the game. With 5:42 left in the game, it was a 1 point game! And then, inexplicably, UConn allowed Baylor a 15-0 run to finish the game. Complete collapse. If I was to take any optimism from this game, it would be that UConn shot 29%, missed 6 free throws and 9 layups, and despite all that, it was still only a 1 point game with less than 6 minutes to play. <bang head on table> UConn has a lot of work to do, but I believe they'll learn and mature by March.