Thursday Morning Shootaround

Michigan 76, Northeastern 56: I was finally able to watch some college basketball last night, as I caught some of the Michigan-Northeastern regional final in the CvC. To be honest, I was a little disappointed with Northeastern. I thought they had a chance to be pretty good this year, but they looked completely flustered by Beilien's zone last night, shooting 29% for the game. Matt Janning and Chaisson Allen, the Huskies backcourt, combined to go 5-23 from the floor and 2-11 from deep (crazy stat here: Northeastern had 29 total rebounds ... with 18 offensive boards!!).

But last night wasn't about Northeastern. The real reason I wanted to catch this game was to see Michigan's Manny Harris, the leading returning scorer in the Big Ten. Harris did not disappoint, as he put up a near-triple-double with 26, 10 boards, and 8 dimes. But I am not sold on him yet.

There is no question the kid can put the ball in the basket. He was getting to the rim just about anytime he wanted to last night. He has a nice first step, but he didn't seem all that quick or explosive. Instead, it seemed as if Harris was gliding to the hoop. Maybe he has long strides which allow him to cover a lot of ground, maybe it was because he was playing a team from the CAA, but when he would go by a defender, it never seemed like the defender was out of position. What I mean is that it wasn't like watching Ty Lawson or Darren Collison or a guy like that, who makes a move and utilizes their quickness to get by a defender. Harris just seemed to have enough of a burst at the end to get his shoulders by the defender to draw a foul (he shot 14 free throws last night). Looking at his numbers from last season, he shot 38% from the field and 31% from 3, but still averaged 16.1 ppg with 1.24 pps (points per shot), which is a very good number for a scoring guard with an iffy jump shot. Last night he scored 26 on just nine shots, so it looks like he is picking up where he left off last year.

Harris did have eight assists last night as well, and he made a couple really nice, really tough passes. One particular play that stands out in my mind happened in the first half. Harris had the ball on the right wing with a post on the block. He drove base line (to his right hand), and the guy on the block peeled out behind him to the wing. The post's defender came over to help on Harris, leaving him double teamed. Without picking up his dribble, Harris stopped his penetration, used too pull-back dribbles, and threw a behind-the-back bounce pass right on the money to the Michigan post, who knocked down an open 15-footer from the wing. But Harris also had a couple sloppy, careless turnovers.

So what is my consensus for Harris? He is clearly a talented basketball player and really knows how to draw fouls and score points, but I need to see him play against some better competition. That should happen when he takes on the winner of Miami OH and UCLA in the CvC semi's in New York.

Southern Illinois 80, UMass 73: Southern Illinois was down 39-28 heading into halftime, but exploded for 52 points in the 2nd half, including hitting 9-14 from deep. BJ Mullins had 16 and 13 for the Salukis, Carlton Fay added 17 points, and Kevin Dillard shook off a cold first half to knock down four three's and score 14 points in second. UMass was led by their back court, who combined for 56 points (Ricky Harris had 24). But they also combined for 16 of the Minutemen's 20 turnovers. Chris Lowe had 10 turnovers himself and 0 assists.

Southern Illinois will play Duke in the CvC semi's on Nov. 20th at the Garden.

UCLA 82, Prairie View 58: UCLA's five freshman impressed and Darren Collison had five 3's en route to a 19 point, 4 dime night. Jrue Holiday was the only freshman starter (11 points) but Malcolm Lee scored 12 and Drew Gordon added 6 points and 8 boards.

Miami OH 70, Weber State 66