College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon Live Blog!!! Pt. 4

11:43: Normally, even if Davis hits both of these, I would say don't take a three, get a quick two. But with Curry, who knows. Curry throws it away, and the Sooners hand on 82-78. Great performances by both all-americans. 44 for Curry, 25 and 21 for Griffin. We are going to watch the Arizona-UAB game, but that is it for the live-blogging. We figure 28 straight hours is enough for you guys. Now it is time for some sleep. Bring it on bed.

11:41: Jesus, Crocker missed another three early in the shot clock, it is a good thing Griffin was there to clean it up. He has 25 and 21 now, and Cade Davis got fouled. 81-76 with 23 seconds left.

11:39: Is OU trying to lose this game? With under two minutes left up 9 then up 6, OU missed three's early in the shot clock. And oh my god, what a shot Curry just hit. A step-back, fade-away with Blake Griffin guarding him. Good lord. This kid is all Davidson has tonight, and he has them down 79-76 to arguably the best team in the Big XII.

11:35: Lovedale is 4-12 and has been completely ineffective in the post. If he was on, Davidson would be right in this. More on Curry being so smart. Three times in this game, Curry has gotten a wide open three off of an out-of-bounds play where Davidson runs a little interference, but basically has Curry coming off an elbow screen going to the wing. Well, they ran it again, and Austin Johnson was over playing the screen, so Curry just slid to the hoop for a lay-up.

11:33: The Wildcats have cut it to 75-67 and Willie Warren just got called for a charge - his fifth.

11:30: Announcers really piss me off sometimes. Fran Fraschilla was just talking about how Curry has 37 tonight and he hasn't played his best game, which is completely true. But then he says "if he was on, he would have 50 against a very good defense". Hey jackass, maybe he isn't "on" because of the "very good defense".

11:27: If you throw some hair and a shaggy beard on Blake Griffin, he would be one of the Geico cavemen.

11:25: That might have been the worst charge call I've ever seen. Crocker was tripped into McKillop, McKillop wasn't there in time AND he wasn't just under the basket, he was on the other side of the rim.

11:19: OU is up 69-58 at the under 8:00 timeout. Jeff Capel made a great adjustment at halftime. Since he wasn't able to get the ball to Blake on the block because of the collapsing Davidson defense, he started isolating Blake on the wing. None of the Davidson bigs can stay with Griffin when he squares up on the perimeter. Griffin can basically only drive right or left all way to the rim (he isn't going anywhere with a cross over), but he is coordinated enough and has enough body-control that when he takes off, he can avoid the charge and jump over the help side. Blake has 22 and 17. He is a beast.

11:18: Live-blogs are so hard when you get really into a game.

11:11: It's not over yet. A Curry led 14-0 run has made this a 61-54 game. There is no quit in these Wildcats.

11:04: To give you an idea of how good Curry is, he is having an off-night and he has 27 points with 12:00 left in the game. And he sat out the last 6:00 of the first half.

11:02: OU has gone on a 23-6 run to start the second half.

11:00: Blake Griffin has woken up. Three BIG dunks in the last few minutes. Does anyone in the country dunk as hard as this guy?

10:58: Curry looks tired. He's been short on his last few jumpers.

10:54: Oklahoma is really starting to assert their dominance, and Blake Griffin is finally waking up. It was only a matter of time. Davidson has started taking bad shots. They really need someone else to step up as a scorer or playmaker, because they will not be able to rely on just Curry all season.

10:49: Willie Warren is taking this game over. He has looked fantastic. He's hit three's, taken the ball to rim, found the Griffin's on pick-and-rolls. He still is making some bad decisions - like ill-advised shots and passes - but he has looked very good nonetheless.

10:44: First three plays of the half - Curry picks up two fouls on Warren, then goes by Crocker for a leaner off the glass. He is such a smart player and reads the defense so well. He doesn't seem to force anything, just takes what he is given. And now Taylor Griffin has three fouls, and Warren as well.

10:30: Davidson dodged a bullet with Curry sitting the last 6:00 with three fouls as they head into the half down 38-34. The story of the first half wasn't Curry, it was Davidson's defense. They played very well, especially on Blake Griffin. Every time he touched it within 10 feet, the Wildcats were running an extra defender at him from the weak side. It did lead to some Sooner three's early on, but Davidson really tightened up on their rotations as the half went on. The Sooners also stopped looking to Griffin in the post because he wasn't scoring. They need to run their offense through him - he needs a touch every possession. If he shoots and misses, the double team will mean either a wing or the other big will have a free run at an offensive rebound. If he kicks it out and the Sooners swing the ball quickly, they will have an open jumper, a mismatch on the perimeter, or a chance for a player to go 1-on-1 against a close-out.

Davidson's offense is, well, Steph Curry. It really bogged down towards the end as they started settling for three's (and deep ones in the case of Barr). No one else has really been able to get anything. Rossiter, Lovedale, and especially the freshman Allison have been overwhelmed inside against the bigger, stronger, more athletic Sooners.

10:20: While Davidson's offense has sputtered without Curry, their defense has kept them in this game. And Davidson just caught a break, with Blake Griffin going over the back on a rebound, picking up his second. To the bench. This is big for Davidson, especially defensively, because they don't have to focus on Taylor Griffin as much.

10:14: Willie Warren is showing why he was one of the best recruits in the country. He has 14 points, and that last move might have been his best of the day. Coming down the right side of the court on a secondary break, he puts on a quick in and out move, blows by the defender with one dribble, takes off of one foot and makes a floater off the glass. But he was able to go straight up off of an explosive blow-by and thus avoiding a charge. Beautiful move, great body control. This kid is a player.

10:11: Taylor Griffin has 11 points now. He is feasting off of o-boards because of all the attention Blake is getting.

10:08: Uh-oh, Curry just picked up his third. And McKillop takes him out. OU needs to build up a lead here. Davidson should not score with Curry on the bench.

10:04: Under 8:00 timeout, and Curry is all Davidson has right now. He is making plays defensively, he is scoring off the ball, he's finding open men in transition, he's going to the hole. He's already got 17. Blake Griffin on the other hand has not really shown up offensively yet, but he is still the reason OU has the lead. He is drawing defenders, which allows OU's shooters to get looks, and he is dominating the paint defensively. And I have to give some credit to Taylor too, who is also playing very well.

10:01: Davidson has switched to man, and they just cannot handle the Sooners. Three straight hoops off of pick-and-rolls - Warren with a dish to each Griffin, then a bucket for himself in the lane.

9:57: Curry just picked up his 2nd trying to take a charge on Warren.

9:52: 2nd TV timeout and OU is up 21-17. Curry has 10 and assisted on two of Davidson's other three field goals.

9:49: Willie Warren is 3-3 from deep now and Tony Crocker hit one as well, which is so important because it will give Griffin more space inside.

9:45: Curry is so smart off the ball. That's two back-cuts he's made when Austin Johnson is over-playing screens.

9:41: Davidson is doing a pretty good job on Blake Griffin early. What they are doing is running the opposite wing at him whenever he has it within about 10 feet and daring Blake to make that cross court pass. He has yet to make a good move in the post, and just turned the ball over with a travel. But after Davidson built up a 7-2 lead, OU responded with a 9-0 run, capped by Willie Warren's first three-ball of the year. OU is getting some fast break points right now, and has two acrobatic lay-ups from Taylor Griffin.

9:37: Curry looks like a good distributor early, with two quick assists finding open shooters.

9:33: Heading over to ESPN2 for the Davidson-Oklahoma game.

9:26: UK is finally waking up a little bit. It is because of their defense. It has picked up, which means that UNC cannot get into their pressure. UK's points cannot handle that pressure.

9:23: Quickly, my thoughts on Erin Andrews. She is hot, but the blogosphere has made her made her out to be so incredibly beautiful, that she is actually overrated at this point. She's like a 9, but the blogs put her at about a 17.

9:17: 12:00 in and Patterson gets his first touch - on a fast break for a dunk. Gotta get rid of the 'fro PP.

9:14: Text I just got from a friend that is a UK fan: "This is not good". Exactly.

9:11: PP has no touches inside of 40 feet.

9:08: UNC is a whole different beast this year. Their defense is really getting after it, although for some reason Roy Williams has the big guys going for steals and the guards on the glass, which is why Perry Stevenson got those two rebounds.

9:05: Nice start for Deon Thompson. I've always thought he was pretty good. And UNC's defense is all over Kentucky right now. Back-to-back turnovers.

9:01: Oh no. Dickie V is doing a UNC game. Shulman is pretty good, and he at least balances out Vitales insanity enthusiasm. I actually have a soft spot for Vitale. You have to respect the fact that he actually loves this game that much. Nothing about the guy is fake. He wears his emotions on his sleeve, and he seems like a legitimately good person. Let's keep the ACC homerism in check though, ok Dick?

8:55: ESPN has really put viewers in a bad position with their scheduling. Why would they put the two best games of the day in the same time slot? I am going to be watching the first half-hour or so of the UNC-UK game, but I will definitely be switching over to watch OU-Davidson once that game starts. I'll probably end up watching Arizona-UAB, so be sure to check in here for that game as well.

8:39: I've only been watching for about 10 minutes, but I think Bobby Knight on Gameday is an overwhelming success. Not only does he seem to genuinely enjoy it (he was cracking jokes on Hubert Davis Dickie V) but he has some insight that you don't get and won't hear from the other guys. Like how coaches don't plan on having freshman that can carry their team. I won't go through his entire point, but basically he told Bilas, Davis, and Digger, who were raving about important freshman, right in their place. I think the quote was "You know when freshman are at their best? As sophomore".

8:27: Hubert Davis tells us the truth about Obama's performance against the Heels. "He was 0-9 with 3 turnovers. He was struggling".

8:07: AND WE GOT RAFTERY!! He may be a crazy old man, but I like him. And a huge dunk by Sean Evans gets Raftery going. Evans slowed up to wait for the BC defender to try and block that.

8:05: St. John's-BC is a 31-30 game. I'll stick here for a while.

8:03: How does the Gameday crew not mention the number of turnovers that Tyreke Evans had last night (6)? He was downright sloppy on some of them. My take on Evans - he played well defensively last night, but offensively, he had 13 points on 4-14 shooting with 6 turnovers if you take away those three fast break dunks (two of which he didn't even create).

8:00: Can't decide what to watch right now. Probably going to be flipping between BC-St. John's, Purdue-Loyola, and Gameday.

7:55: It looks like Syracuse is going to win this one. Really impressed with Devendorf, especially in the second half. He put a struggling Syracuse team on his back and carried them to this win. He ended up with 22, but at least 16, including all four of his 3's, came in the second half.

7:53: Syracuse really took control of this game down the stretch, but Richmond has gone on a little spurt and cut it to 71-67 with a minute left.

7:39: Flynn and Devo have 26 of the Cuse 29 second half points.

7:35: Is it just me, or does it feel like every single time a coach calls a timeout after one of the TV timeout thresholds (meaning 16:00, 12:00, etc.) that there is a whistle within the next 15 seconds of play, meaning that the commercials last about five minutes.

7:33: Syracuse looks like they might start to pull away. And as a I was about to praise them offensively, the Cuse turn it over, give up a big dunk by Kevin Smith, and Boeheim uses a time out. There is no question this Cuse team is talented, but it looks like their biggest question mark is going to be focus and intensity.

7:25: Richmond runs a lot smoother offensively and defensively with the PG Kevin Anderson on the floor. He went out right before Devendorf went on his run. He came back in and Richmond has cut the lead to two.

7:19: Little things make good teams great teams. For example, the freshman Joseph, on Harris's missed jumper, went for an offensive rebound and tried to steal the outlet pass. He then jogged back down court, his man was left open, and he had to give a foul on a lay-up. It won't show up in the stat sheet, but if he doesn't go for the steal and hustles back on D, he saves the free throws and the foul.

7:14: Thank God for this commercial. I could not bear bare bear (help?) to hear another color commentator talk about how the deeper three point line will only effect marginal shooters.

7:11: Well, it looks like Devendorf may be healthy. He just scored 11 straight points, including three 3's, that put the Orange up 44-40. Yea, I know I said stop shooting three's, but these were good three's. Two were off of kickouts from Flynn's penetration, and one was off of a Onuaku post touch when the defense collapsed.

7:08: Will Syracuse get back into their zone? Two straight possessions they got burned on a pick-and-roll (second one got bailed out by an Ongenaet block).

6:56: Going into this game, Syracuse was really growing on me. They are deep and they have talent at every position. But wow, have I been disappointed in this effort. First of all, it is their defense. They look terrible. They don't locate shooters. They aren't bumping cutters. They are allowing penetration. They let the ball get to the high post way too easily. They aren't identifying players in transition. They are letting Richmond do whatever they want. The Spiders shot 50% from the floor and 7-12 from deep.

Syracuse hasn't been any better offensively. Devendorff and Flynn are over penetrating and forcing it way too much, and that is when they (meaning the Cuse as a whole) aren't jacking up three's. What happened to Onuaku? He had four quick baskets, and has touched it once since. No one on Richmond can handle the big man inside. Give him the ball.

All that was taking away from Richmond, which is wasn't intended to do. The Spiders played a great half. They shot well, they were aggressive offensively, and David Gonzalvez was probably the best player on the floor in the first half.

6:37: As I write that last post, Richmond makes two three's to take a 31-27 lead. This kid David Gonzalvez on Richmond has been unconscious, scoring 14 points and hitting all five of his shots (four from deep).

6:36: The Cuse have really picked up their intensity defensively. Richmond hasn't scored in about four minutes, and everything the Spiders do is contested. Even the foul that Rick Jackson just picked up was a result of a great trap and lucky pass.

6:26: Syracuse looks like they are sleep walking out there. Richmond is out hustling them, beating them on the glass. The 'Cuse really need a spark, and if Flynn had put down that dunk on the Richmond center, that probably would have been it.

6:24: Where is the Syracuse defense? Richmond is getting whatever they want offensively.

6:21: Onuaku is looking great with 8 early points.

6:16: Andy Rautins hair makes me want to punch him in the face.

6:12: Syracuse is playing some man-to-man defense right now. Not really sure why, but I bet it is because Flynn, Devendorf, and Rautins are not the as big and long as Boeheim likes the guys to be at the top of his zone. I actually like this team as a zone team. Harris and Ongenaet are athletic enough to get out and defend the perimeter, but they are both (along with Onuaku) very good rebounders as well.

6:09: Onuaku looks like he has bulked up a bit, but in a good way. He was kind of chubby last year, but he is looking like he is solid muscle right now.

6:07: Did Paul Harris really just hit a three? That's not good news for the Big East.

6:03: Doris Burke is doing color. She's decent, not too great, not too bad.