Thanksgiving Roundup

Quick round-up today as the turkey awaits.

UNC 102, Notre Dame 87: I hope you weren't expecting any defense in this game. Notre Dame hung around for a while in the first half, but a 25-9 run (sparked by 9 points and 2 assists from Ty Lawson) by the Tar Heels turned a two point deficit into a 14 point lead. Notre Dame only got it under ten once the rest of the way. Lawson finished with 22 and 11 for UNC, Deon Thompson had 19 and 13, and Hansbrough looked like he is finally healthy as he went for 34 and 5 boards. Kyle McAlarney went for 39 points on 10-18 shooting from deep, but Harangody (13 and 7) was not himself as he had spent time in the hospital because of the flu and Tory Jackson (10, 3 dimes, 3 turnovers) did not show up.

When it comes down to it, this game really taught us nothing about either team. We knew UNC was going to push the ball on offense and put up big numbers offensively. We knew that Notre Dame was going to have problems stopping people defensively and problems matching up on the inside. If Notre Dame had Harangody at 100%, I think that it would have been a closer game (although, I guess you can say if Hansbrough had been at 100%, UNC may have won by 25).

The rest of the last day of Maui action:

• Alabama 58, St. Joe's 48
• Texas 70, Oregon 57
• Indiana 81, Chaminade 79

The pre-season NIT semi's took place last night as well:

• Purdue 71, Boston College 64: Purdue built up a 20 point lead and hung on as BC made a late run. Purdue is going to be tough to score on this year. Granted, BC is not UNC, but Tyrese Rice is as good of a scorer as there is in the country and Purdue completely shut him down. Yea, he ended up with 17 points, but 7 of those came in the last 1:30 of the game when it was all but over. All five starters had at least 9 points for the Boilermakers, led by 19 and 6 dimes from E'Twaun Moore.
• Oklahoma 77, UAB 67: Blake Griffin led the Sooners (surprise, surprise) with 32 points and 15 rebounds (which actually lowers his rebonding average from 19.8 to 18.8). The Sooners were down 62-60, but went on a 17-5 run to close out the game. Griffin had 5 points during that run, and also made a steal which led to an and-1 dunk by Austin Johnson. There were a few red flags for OU. The Griffin brothers combined to play 74 minutes last night. Every starter except Willie Warren (who battled foul trouble all game) played at least 35 minutes, and only one guy off the bench (Cade Davis) played more than 7 minutes. That is not a good sign early in the season, a time when coaches normally have too deep of a rotation. Robert Vaden did not have his best game for the Blazers, going for 18 points on 7-19 shooting. Paul Delaney III led UAB with 23.
  

If yo get bored with football today, here is the basketball schedule. It is actually a pretty good one.

Old Spice Classic:

• 12:00 PM: Tennessee (3-0) vs. Siena (2-0)
• 2:30 PM: Wichita State (2-1) vs. Georgetown (2-0)
• 7:00 PM: Maryland (3-0) vs. Michigan State (2-0)
• 9:30 PM: Oklahoma State (4-0) vs. Gonzaga (2-0)
  

76 Classic:

• 2:00 PM: St. Mary's (3-0) vs. UTEP (2-1)
• 4:30 PM: Cal St. Fullerton (2-2) vs. Wake Forest (3-0)
• 9:00 PM: Charlotte (1-3) vs. Arizona State (3-0)
• 11:30 PM: Providence (3-1) vs. Baylor (4-0)