New Year's Shootaround

As expected, BIAH was a waste of space on New Year's Day. As we said we would, we caught up on all the games we recorded via TiVo while wasting that space. And as we promised, here is a recap of all the holiday's game.


NEW YEAR'S DAY GAMES

Purdue 77, West Virginia 62: Purdue made Jeff Goodman look like a genius. If you missed it, on New Year's Eve Eve, Goodman wrote an article detailing how the Mountaineers were going to struggle until Truck Bryant and Joe Mazzulla are healthy enough to solidify the point guard position. West Virginia committed 18 turnovers, a number of which came in the first 10 minutes of the second half when Purdue extended a four point halftime lead to as much as 26, and never looked comfortable running their offense.

But even with Bryant and Mazzulla running the show, West Virginia is far from an offensive powerhouse. Instead, they hang their hats on their ability to rebound the ball, especially on the offensive end (where they came in grabbing almost 50% of their own misses), and their ability to defend. But Purdue, led by 25 points, 10 boards, and 2 blocks from JaJuan Johnson, dominated the defensive glass, giving up just seven offensive rebounds while shooting 50% from the floor and committing just 7 turnovers. Robbie Hummel was a huge factor in Purdue's run as he jumper after jumper, finishing 7-8 form the floor for 18 points.

New Mexico 68, Dayton 66: Dayton, who had been behind for much of the first 25 minutes of the game, finally made a run, taking a 37-36 lead midway through the first half. But Roman Martinez, who has been struggling with his shot, hit back-to-back threes as New Mexico regained a lead they would never relinquish. Dayton had a run in them, scoring 15 points over the final four minutes, including 11 from Chris Johnson in the final minute, but the Lobos made just enough from the line to hold off the Flyers.

Texas Tech 76, McNeese State 75: The Red Raiders were down by as much as nine in the first half, but they buckled down defensively in the second half. Tech was still trailing at the end of the game, but Mike Singletary, who finished with 27 points, hit two free throws with 18 seconds left to give the Raiders the win.

Missouri Valley

• Missouri State 68, Illinois 64: Adam Leonard scored 20 points and Kyle Weems added 19 as the Bears improved to 2-0 in the league in what is arguably their best win of the season.
  
• Northern Iowa 65, Evansville 46: The Panthers gave up an 11 point first half lead, but used a 21-4 run to open the second half, a half in which they gave up just 13 points.
  
• Southern Illinois 86, Bradley 81: Bradley led 79-72 with 1:44 left, but the Salukis used a 14-2 run to close out the game and become just the third undefeated 2-0 MVC team. Iowa transfer Tony Freeman led five Salukis in double figures with 24.
• Indiana State 70, Creighton 64: Creighton is 0-2 in the league.
• Wichita State 61, Drake 38
  

NEW YEAR'S EVE GAMES

Tennessee 66, Memphis 59: If I had written this before news of the arrests of the Tennessee players came out, I would have said that this win was a good sign for Tennessee. I would have said that I was impressed by the fact that the Vols could win a grind-it-out defensive game playing a physical Memphis team. I would have mentioned that its a good sign to win a game when Scotty Hopson and Tyler Smith don't play well, and its nice to see JP Prince play well. But after the arrests, all of that is moot.

Georgetown 66, St. John's 59: Chris Wright scored 21 points to lead the Hoyas while Greg Monroe finished with 15 points, 8 boards, and 5 assists as the Hoyas opened up Big East play with a nice win over a surprising Johnnies team. More important for Wright than the points he scored was the fact that he only turned the ball over once to four assists. Austin Freeman scored 15 as well as Georgetown built up a couple big leads, allowing St. John's to work their way back into the game before closing it out on a 13-5 run. Of note for SJU - Justin Burrell was back in the line-up.

Wisconsin 65, Ohio State 43: Jon Leuer spent much of the first half on the bench, but the Badgers were able to build a big lead on the Buckeyes as Trevon Hughes caught fire early. Leuer had 11 points and 5 assists in the second half, while Hughes scored 13 of his 16 in the first 10 minutes.

Gonzaga 83, Oklahoma 69: Steven Gray led five Zags in double figures with 18 points as Gonzaga opened up an early double digit lead on the Sooners. They shot over 50% from the floor and hit 11 threes as Oklahoma looked slow defensively. The only bright spot for OU? Tiny Gallon broke a backboard.

Indiana 71, Michigan 65: Great win for the IU program on Thursday. No one is confusing the Hoosiers with a tournament team this season, but Indiana, who is lost leading scorer Maurice Creek to a season ending knee injury, is much improved over last season. What is appealing about these Hoosiers, however, is how hard they play. Jeremiah Rivers, Christian Watford, Verdell Jones - these kids leave it all on the floor, and its nice to see kids succeed when playing like that. Jones had 20 to lead IU.

Wake Forest 74, Richmond 68 OT: Kevin Anderson scored 31 points as Richmond completely took Al-Farouq Aminu out of the game during regulation. The end of regulation was a little controversial. Chas McFarland, who finished with 13 points and 12 boards, rebounded a missed from three from LD Williams at the buzzer, but after reviewing the shot, the refs (correctly) ruled that it came after the buzzer. In the OT, Wake was just too much. They opened up a lead, and hit their free throws down the stretch.

Mississippi State 77, San Diego 68: San Diego got 31 points from Brandon Johnson, but Mississippi State went inside to Jarvis Varnado who wasn't to be stopped. He had 23 points and 17 boards, and the Bulldogs were able to hit enough free throws to hold off a late push from the Toreros.

Pac-10

• Washington 76, Oregon State 70: Washington came out sluggish, but 11 first half points from Veony Overton off the bench sparked the Huskies. Quincy Pondexter scored 20 points, 13 in the second half, as the Huskies held on down the stretch.
• UCLA 72, Arizona State 70: For the first time in the history of Ben Howland, UCLA played almost exclusively zone as they opened up a 16 point first half lead against the Sun Devils, then held on down the stretch as ASU got hot. Nikola Dragovic scored 23 points and hit six threes, which is important for the Bruins as he was shooting just 22% coming into the season.
• USC 56, Arizona 50: The Trojans got 14 points from both Marcus Johnson and Dwight Lewis as they opened up a lead as big as 14 in the second half.
  
• Oregon 91, Washington State 89: TaJuan Porter scored 31 points, Michael Dunigan added 22 and 12 boards, and Malcolm Armstead hit a runner with 3 seconds left in the second OT as the Ducks beat the Cougars. Klay Thompson led the Cougars with 33 points. The first OT ended in controversy. DeAngelo Casto scored a layup with 0.3 seconds left, but the Cougar bench was called for a technical foul for coming onto the court, which allowed TaJuan Porter to tie the game with two free throws.
  

Other notable games:

• Butler 72, Green Bay 49: Shelvin Mack had 14 to lead the Bulldogs, but Matt Howard (7 points, 5 boards, 16 minutes) once again struggled.
• Florida State 81, Alabama A&M 34: FSU outscored A&M 42-10 in the second half.
  
• Siena 64, St. Peter's 53: The Saints improve to 3-0 in the MAAC as they used back-to-back threes from Clarence Jackson and Edwin Ubiles to open up a seven point lead midway through the second half. Ubiles had 21 and 11 boards, while Ryan Rossiter added 14 and 10.
  
• NC State 89, UNC-Greensboro 67: Tracy Smith led the Wolfpack with 21 points and 8 boards in the win.