Thursday's Shootaround: Another night of finals, another top 25 upset

UC Santa Barbara 68, No. 22 UNLV 62: So much for UNLV looking like the best team in the Mountain West. For the second consecutive game, the Rebels just could not get anything going on the offensive end of the floor. They shot 29% from the field. They made just 6-29 threes. They missed 14 of their 34 free throw attempts.

Everything else was working for the Rebels. They grabbed 23 offensive rebounds. They forced the Gauchos into 25 turnovers. They held Orlando Johnson to just 12 points (although Joe Nunnally went for 23, six came on free throws at the end of the game). The Rebels twice made runs to comeback from a double digit deficit. But when you play a team like UCSB -- a team expected to win the Big West that has two guys averaging over 21 ppg -- you cannot shoot 29% from the floor and expect to win. It doesn't work that way.


In Saturday's loss to Louisville, UNLV blew a 45-36 lead in the second half as a result of poor shooting (9-21 in the second half) and ten second half turnovers. In the last 60 minutes of basketball, the Rebels are shooting just 32.5% from the floor and have committed 27 turnovers. Yuck.

No. 2 Ohio State 83, Florida Gulf Coast 55: Jon Diebler was red hot. He scored 29 points and went 9-14 from deep. He missed his first two threes then missed his last three threes, meaning that Diebler at one point hit nine straight triples. That's impressive.

No. 20 Minnesota 66, Akron 58: The Gophers looked terrible in the first half, shooting 10-36 from the floor before finding themselves down 32-27 to the Zips. Ralph Sampson and Rodney Williams sparked a 12-3 run that gave the Gophers the lead for good midway through the second half.

Florida State 97, Stetson 63: Playing his first game in nearly two years, 24 year old Juco transfer Jon Kreft had six points (all on free throws) and six boards for the Seminoles.

UCF 79, Louisiana-Lafayette 58: Keith Clanton scored 28 points, and the Golden Knights pulled away in the second half to remain undefeated.

Montana 71, Oregon State 66: Montana is now 2-0 against the Pac-10, knocking off the Beavers two weeks after they handled UCLA. Maybe its time for Craig Robinson to start giving Roberto Nelson more minutes. He had 13 points in 17 minutes off the bench.

Other Notable Scores

• No. 9 Baylor 83, Bethune-Cookman 39
• Wake Forest 69, UNC-Greensboro 67
• Arkansas 87, Mississippi Valley State 64
• South Florida 61, Auburn 49
• Alabama 59, SE Louisiana 38
• Stanford 76, Alabama A&M 59