Thursday's Shootaround

We've already written pretty extensively about the three marquee games that took place tonight. This post will focus on all of the basketball that happened around the rest of the country that no one seemed to notice.

No. 10 Kansas 68, No. 6 Baylor 54: See here.

No. 2 Syracuse 64, No. 11 Georgetown 61 OT: See here.

No. 9 Duke 85, No. 5 UNC 84: See here.


Boston College 64, No. 17 Florida State 60: Thanks to a game-winner from Austin Rivers in Chapel Hill, the Seminoles had every opportunity in the world to move into sole possession of first place in the ACC. All they had to do was head up north and knock off BC, and they couldn't do that. The Eagles used a 23-3 run midway through the second half to turn a 13 points deficit into a seven point lead. Florida State exhibited their textbook offensive execution during that stretch.

The likelihood of the Seminoles missing the NCAA Tournament is probably not affected by this outcome, not with wins over Duke and North Carolina still on their resume. But this loss is concerning when its grouped in with Florida State losing to both Harvard and Princeton and getting dropped 20 points against Clemson. We all thought those inconsistencies were behind them. Should we be more concerned about FSU? Keep an eye on this team. One loss can kill any and all momentum and confidence a group.


South Florida 63, Pitt 51: This is just a devastating blow to the Panther's NCAA Tournament chances. They drop to 4-8 in the league after winning their last four games. Pitt's struggles on the offensive end of the floor reared their ugly head again on Wednesday night. Tray Woodall was just 4-13 from the floor and Ashton Gibbs finished with only four points. This was, however, a nice bounce back win for the South Florida, who had gotten ripped and called a fraud after their loss to Georgetown over the weekend.

Notre Dame 55, West Virginia 51: The Irish just continue to ride on, moving into a tie for second place in the Big East standings after a solid win in Morgantown. The Irish had been ice cold all night long, but drilled three huge threes in the final minutes to put the Irish ahead for good. Jack Cooley had 21 points in the win.

UAB 71, Southern Miss 61: The Golden Eagles had not lost in 17 games before getting dropped in Birmingham by a scrappy UAB team. Cameron Moore led the way for UAB, finishing with 27 points and 12 boards. The loss drops USM into a first-place tie with Memphis, who beat East Carolina 70-59, and two up on UCF, who handed Marshall yet another loss.

Georgia 81, Arkansas 59: You really expected a Mike Anderson to perform on the road?


The rest of the top 25:

- No. 12 Michigan State 77, Penn State 57: The Spartans held up their end of the bargain, beating Penn State and staying within a game of first place in the Big Ten standings. Michigan State takes on the first place team in the league -- Ohio State -- On Saturday.

- No. 20 Virginia 68, Wake Forest 44: The Cavs got close to a perfect game out of Mike Scott, who finished with 19 points on 9-9 shooting from the floor. If only he had made that free throw.

No. 25 Michigan 62, Nebraska 46: Michigan used a 15-4 run to open a second half where they made 16 of their first 19 shot, blowing this one open.


Other notable games:

- Temple 79, GW 72
- St. Louis 72, St. Joe's 60
- Vanderbilt 76, LSU 61
- UMass 76, St. Bonaventure 67
- Drexel 63, James Madison 56
- George Mason 72, Hofstra 62
- VCU 66, Towson 43
- Old Dominion 70, William & Mary 51
- Xavier 84, Rhode Island 66
- Cincinnati 76, St. John's 54