Tuesday's Shootaround: UNC, William & Mary, and Mississippi State all lose while Pitt scores another Big East road win

College of Charleston 82, UNC 79 OT: You have to credit Roy Williams for taking his Tar Heel team on the road to a mid-major conference favorite, but does anyone else think he is regretting that decision right now? Charleston came out with more passion, more fire more heart, and more of any other cliche sports term you can think of, jumping on the Heels with a 12-5 run to start the game, closing regulation with a 12-2 run, and taking a lead they would never relinquish in the extra frame.

The initial reaction is going to be obvious: Carolina's back court struggled. With Will Graves and Marcus Ginyard on the bench, Roy Williams started freshmen Dexter Strickland and Travis Wear at the two and three. The four guards that saw action last night (Strickland, Larry Drew, Leslie McDonald, and Justin Watts) combined to go 10-36 from the floor, 1-6 from three, and hand out just 9 assists to 6 turnovers in 107 minutes.

Its not exactly Wayne Ellington, Danny Green, and Ty Lawson out there this season, that's for sure.

And while UNC's bigs kept them in the game offensively, they also allowed Charleston's front line to compete. Without a player bigger than 6'8" in their starting lineup (a 6'9"freshman played five minutes off the bench), the Charleston bigs competed admirably with the Heels. Casaan Breeden had 15 points, 7 boards, and 5 blocks, while Jeremy Simmons added 13 points, 6 boards, and 4 blocks. All this from a team that ranked 346th and 344th (out of 347 DI teams) in offensive and defensive rebounding, respectively, coming into the game.

The blame cannot be put all on the Heels. Charleston took the win from them. The Cougars at the team that hit 13 threes. The Cougars are the team that rallied from an 11 point deficit after the final media timeout. Andrew Goudelock, who led the Cougars with 24 points, hit the 26 footer that forced the overtime.



To be fair, UNC's time management at the end of overtime did prevent them from having any chance at tying the game. With just under a minute left, Larry Drew hit a three that cut the lead to 80-79. UNC played 20 seconds of tough defense before fouling, their sixth of the second half, with just 39 seconds left. On the ensuing in bounds, Carolina spent 24 seconds half-heartedly trying to trap Charleston before finally sending the Cougars to the line. After two free throws put the Cougars up three, the Heels dribbled 10 seconds off the clock before Strickland drove and missed a tough lay-up that would have cut the lead to one.

Maybe this is a loss that UNC needed. Charleston may very well win the Southern Conference, but they aren't a top ten team like Texas, Michigan State, or Kentucky, UNC's other three losses. Maybe this loss will make the Heels realize that they actually need to play hard every night if they want a shot at winning the ACC.

Pitt 74, Cinci 71: I think it is safe to say that Pitt is back. The Panthers went into Cincinnati last night, and for the second game in a row knocked off one of the better teams in the Big East on the road. Gilbert Brown, who was academically ineligible in the first semester, scored 13 of his 17 points in the second half and Ashton Gibbs added 19 points for the Panthers.

Pitt is now 13-2 on the season, with wins at Syracuse and Cincinnati and a neutral site win over Wichita State. Their only losses are to Indiana (before Maurice Creek was injured and before Jermaine Dixon and Brown were in the line-up) and to Texas, a game the Longhorns won by 19 but didn't take control of until midway through the second half. With Dixon and Brown back, Pitt is apparently as good as anyone in the Big East. They proved it the last four days.

UNC-Wilmington 62, William & Mary 61: William & Mary had the most crowded bandwagon in the country coming into this game. They had won 10 straight games, including roadies against Maryland and Wake Forest, with just two losses on the season (to UConn and at Harvard on a buzzer-beater from 40 feet in triple OT). UNC-Wilmington had just four wins on the season and were coming off of a 34 points loss to VCU.

What happened? The Tribe went cold from the field in the second half, allowed UNCW to hang around, and eventually gave up a tip-in with 3.4 seconds left by John Fields that gave the Seahawks the win. I'm not ready to get off the W&M bandwagon just yet - there are a lot of ACC teams that won't win two conference games on the road this season. But as the Tribe learned today, you have to come ready to play every night. They still have the resume to earn themselves an at-large bid if they can roll through the CAA, but their margin for error just got that much smaller.

Western Kentucky 55, Mississippi State 52: The Bulldogs led at the half, but allowed the Hilltoppers to make a run and take a ten point lead in the second half. Jarvis Varnado would help bring the Bulldogs back, cutting the lead to one on a dunk with 51 seconds left. After getting a stop, MSU had the ball with the chance to win down 53-52, but Varnado, who finished with 17 points, missed a short jumper and Western Kentucky hit two free throws at the other end.

All talk of Mississippi State being a contender in the SEC can stop now, if it hasn't already. The Bulldogs are still without Renardo Sidney, and when the shoot like they did tonight (4-19 from three, 14-27 from the line), they are going to lose a lot of game.

Other notable games

• Northeastern 62, VCU 57: With non-conference wins over the likes of Oklahoma, Richmond, and URI, the Rams were thought to be one of the favorites in the CAA. But Manny Adako scored 23 points as Northeastern handed VCU their second conference loss already this season.
• Florida State 94, Texas A&M-CC 54: Deividas Dulkys scored 17 points, Chris Singleton added 12, 7 boards, and 5 assists, and the two combined for 9 of FSU's 12 threes as the Noles rolled.
• Old Dominion 87, Towson 71: Garrett Lee had 19 as the Monarchs improved to 2-1 in the CAA.
• George Mason 67, Hofstra 63: Don't look now, but Mason is now 3-0 and alone atop the CAA standings.
• Siena 76, Loyola MD 56: The Saints got 24 points and 7 steals from Clarence Jackson and Ronald Moore added 11 assists in the win.
• Alabama 67, Toledo 50: Mikhail Torrence scored 19 points to lead the Crimson Tide.
• Louisiana Tech 82, Utah State 60: La Tech got 21 and 14 from Magnum Rolle as they ran away from USU, the only team to have beaten BYU. All of a sudden, the Bulldogs look like the best team in the WAC.
• Oklahoma 88, UMES 54: Cade Davis's 19 points paced the Sooners.
• Arkansas-Pine Bluff 69, Mississippi Valley State 68 OT: The Lions earned their first win in exciting fashion. After George Davis gave APB a 62-60 lead with 7.8 seconds left, Kevin Burwell went the length of the floor to tie the game at the buzzer. Lebaron Weathers (What. A. Name!!) hit a jumper in the extra period with 10 seconds left to lift APB to the win.
• Vanderbilt 73, Middle Tennessee State 53: The Commodores got 14 points from Jeff Taylor in the win.

Monday's Best:

• Nevada's Luke Babbitt scored 26 points and added 11 boards as the Wolfpack knocked off New Mexico State on the road.
• Lorenzo Keeler scored 38 points as Cal Poly knocked off UC-Irvine.
• Kyle Casey scored 27 points and grabbed 9 boards as the Crimson won at Santa Clara in the Jeremy Lin homecoming.
• UC Davis knocked off Cal. St. Northridge on the strength of 28 points and 11 boards from Dominic Calegari.
• James Madison got 26 points and 10 boards from Denzel Bowles in a win over Delaware.
• Trenton Marshall scored 37 points and grabbed 7 boards, but Jacksonville State still lost to SE Missouri.
• Jamie Harris scored 32 points for Drexel in a win over Georgia State.