Thursday Morning Shootaround

Wednesday was a quiet night on the College Hoops front. Good thing too, as I (and I'm assuming of my fellow junkies) needed some time to recover from the two-day hoops bender I went on. Onto the games.

Three ranked teams in action last night, three wins.

• Michigan State 70, IPFW 59 - This game was a lot closer than the final says as IPFW had multiple leads in the second half. The Mastadons were able to slow down the Spartans for a while, but a 13-0 run in the second half put MSU ahead for good. The Spartans forced 5 turnovers during that run, and Raymarr Morgan had 8 of his team-leading 22 during the run.
• Wake Forest 120, UNC Wilmington 88 - Jeff Teague had 31, 5 boards, and 5 steals, and James Johnson had 25, 9 boards, 4 dimes, 3 steals, and 3 blocks (fantasy stud?) as Wake Forest ran all over the Seahawks. To get an idea of how fast the Demon Deacs were playing, they scored 120 and only hit four 3's.
• Villanova 77, Niagara 62 - 'Nova is banged up, but got 19 from Scottie Reynolds, 15 from Corey Fisher, and 14 from Reggie Redding to improve to 3-0 against a game Niagara team. Dwayne Anderson missed his third game in a row, Casiem Drummond only played two minutes, Shane Clark was forced to come off the bench, and Corey Stokes had to play with a taped thumb because he sprained it.
• Virginia 77, South Florida 75 - The Wahoo's improve to 2-0 with a win the battle of the worst in the ACC and Big East. Mickey D's all-american Sylven Landesberg is living up to the hype as he scored 21, following up a 28 point performance against VMI.
• Mercer 78, Auburn 74 - Mercer got 25 from James Florence as they beat their second SEC team (Alabama). If you're counting, that's four losses for SEC schools against mid-major opponents - Alabama, Auburn (both Mercer), Kentucky (VMI), and Georgia (Loyola IL). Yea, the SEC is bad.
• Clemson 93, Wofford 40 - Clemson is 4-0 with wins over TCU, Temple, and Hofstra. 
• Butler 64, Ball State 55 - Matt Howard had 15 and 6 as the Bulldogs move to 2-0.

Best of the night:

• Garrison Carr, American - Carr had 29 and hit 7 3's as American improved to 2-1 with a win over Howard.
• Isaac Butts and Kellen Brand, Appalachian State - Butts had 15, 17, and 2 blocks and 23 and 6 boards as ASU beat Charlotte in 2OT.
• Llewchean Radford, Wagner - Radford has 26 and 12, his second straight double double, as Wagner knocked off St. Peter's.
• Michael Deloach, Norfolk State - Deloach had 32 in NSU's loss to William & Mary.
• Darrin McKinstry, New Orleans - McKinstry had 28, 5 boards, and 3 steals in a loss to Nicholls State.
• Eric Maynor, VCU - Maynor had 29 and 5 dimes as moved to 2-0 with a win over South Dakota State.
• Al Fisher, Kent State - Fisher had 35 in an overtime win against St. Louis. KSU is now 2-0.
• Jarvis Varnado, Mississippi State - Varnado had 16, 14, and 7 blocks in a win over North Alabama. MSU hasn't played anyone yet, but Varnado already has 23 blocks through 3 games.
• Josh Young, Drake - Young had 34 as Drake picked up their first win of the year against Morehead State.