Wednesday's Shootaround: Georgetown and Indiana win in MSG

Jimmy V Classic:

• Georgetown 72, Butler 65: G'Town got 25 and 14 from Greg Monroe as he absolutely shut down Matt Howard, who finshed 1-9 from the floor. Austin Freeman added 18 in the win, while Gordon Hayward went for 24 points and 8 boards in the loss. The question that remains is did Butler just cost themselves a chance to be an NCAA Tournament team? It is getting dangerously close to that point. The Bulldogs are now 0-3 against top 25 teams with just one more chance to pick up a win ... and it is against the Evan Turner-less Buckeyes. With Xavier struggling as well, it realy looks like Butler will head into conference play with a win at Northwestern as their best out of conference win.
  
  But why is Butler struggling so much?
  
  For starters, Matt Howard is struggling, especially on the defensive end. He is averaging 4.0 fouls per game, has fouled out five times, and has played just one game with less that three fouls, which is why he is barely averaging 24 mpg. But even with Howard on the court, Butler doesn't have much size of length up front. Hayward is 6'9", but he rarely plays on the interior defensively, and is rarely effective when he does. Willie Veasley, who is all of 6'3", usually ends up playing the majority of minutes at the four spot, meaning that Butler is almost always going to have a disadvantage on the inside.
  
  Howard's struggles carry over to the offensive end as well. Butler has no post presence without Howard, and when he is struggling (or not on the floor), it means that Butler becomes way too reliant on the three and the (over) penetration of their guards. Howard is the most important player on this team, and he must pick up his play if Butler plans on making it to the tournament.
• Indiana 74, Pitt 64: Congratulations must go out to Indiana, who knocked off Pitt last night at the Garden. It is their first real BCS win (Iowa doesn't count) in the Tom Crean era, and it came at MSG with Bobby Knight at the game. Indiana clearly has a long way to go in terms of talent, but Crean's kids already play extremely hard. Once their skill level catches up to their effort level, which shouldn't take too long as guys like Christian Watford, Maurice Creek, Verdell Jones, and Devan Dumas are good looking prospects, the Hoosiers will be back. Last night, Jones went for 20 and Watford had 18 despite shooting just 3-12 from the floor.
  
  You really have to feel good for the IU players. They have suffered a couple heart breakers this season, and to see the joy on their faces after this win was something special. It clearly means a lot to them, and hopefully they can keep winning some games.
  

Kansas State 71, Xavier 56: This one was a war. Two years ago, Kansas State went into Cincinnati and were embarrassed by the Musketeers, losing by 26 in front of ruthless fans and players. This time, the bigger Wildcats came out and outphysicaled X, getting 16 second chance points off of 14 offensive rebounds and holding X to just 29% shooting. Jacob Pullen led the scoring charge with 16, 14 of them coming in the second half.

BYU 81, Arizona State 68: The Cougars jumped out to a 39-23 lead, then held on down the stretch as the Sun Devils made a run, cutting the lead to six. Tyler Haws had 17 points and 11 boards for BYU, while Jackson Emery added 17 points on five threes.

Illinois 79, Vanderbilt 68: Illinois jumped out to a 9-0 lead, and Vanderbilt never was able to get much closer. The Commodores simply weren't getting stops. McCamey had 23 points (but still 6 turnovers) to lead the Illini, while Mike Tisdale and DJ Richardson added 14 and 16 respectively.

Dayton 56, George Mason 55: Dayton held on as Mason made a furious comeback from a 35-19 halftime deficit. The Patriots would get as close as 54-52 late in the game, but two free throws with seven seconds left sealed the win. Chris Johnson led the Flyers with 14 points.

Texas Tech 80, TCU 70: The Red Raiders were down 10 in the first four minutes, and were down 14 as halftime neared, but John Roberson scored eight points in a 9-0 spurt that made it a 41-36 halftime deficit. Tech took the lead early in the second half, and never gave it back. Roberson had 21 for the Techsters, while Mike Singletary added 17.

Northern Iowa 67, Iowa 50: For just the third time, Northern Iowa knocked off in-state rivals Iowa and Iowa State in the same season. Kwadzo Ahelegbe had 20 in the win.

Other notable scores:

• Penn State 58, UMBC 42
• Minnesota 94, Morgan State 64
• Marquette 71, Milwaukee 51
• USC 51, Sacramento State 36
  

Tuesday's best:

• Quinnipiac's Justin Rutty had 30 points, 15 boards, and 4 steals to keep the Bobcats close against URI.
• Paul George had 29 points, 5 boards, 5 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks, and went 6-10 from three (fantasy stud?) as Fresno State held on against Pepperdine.
• John Roberson had 21 points and 10 assists, including eight straight in a key run in the first half, as Tech stayed undefeated with a win at TCU.
• Columbia's Noruwa Agho is shooting 64% from three this season. On Tuesday night, he had 30 points and hit 4-6 from deep in a win over Wagner.