Sunday Games Minus Paradise Jam

There are slightly more games that I want to talk about from Sunday than would fit comfortably into one blog post, so I'm going to split up the day. Since I want to talk about two games from the Paradise Jam, and those were late in the day, the logical split is to put those two games in another post. So before I get to those, a few other interesting games from yesterday:

Missouri 83, #20 USC 72
A great second half run powered Missouri to a nice early season win here at the Puerto Rico Tip-Off. By this point, everybody knows how Missouri likes to play under Mike Anderson. They press like crazy and try to turn the game chaotic. The way to beat Missouri is to stay calm and collected on the offensive end, because Missouri's chaotic style will generally lead to bad shots and turnovers of their own. But USC tried to run the whole game with Mizzou, and they got burned. In the end, USC lost because of turnovers and free throws: Seven more turnovers led to seven fewer shots from the field than Mizzou, and they only hit 54% of their free throws (compared to 67% for Mizzou). Fix those free throw and turnover numbers and USC wins. Missouri has really been buoyed by the emergence of fifth-year senior DeMarre Carroll as a star on the inside (29 points and 11 rebounds here). Missouri has gotten better and deeper every season under Mike Anderson, and I think that they have a great opportunity to finally break through and get to the Tournament this year. USC, meanwhile, should not be discouraged. The Pac-10, after UCLA, is very wide open right now. USC should be part of the battle for second place, and that should be their primary focus. If you can finish second in the Pac-10, your Tournament seed will take care of itself.

Seton Hall 77, Virginia Tech 73
I wanted to talk about this game to follow up on what I said about both of these teams over the past weekend. For Virginia Tech, I spoke about how they really needed a win here and against Wisconsin during the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. With this loss, and a loss against Wisconsin, they would be at best 10-3 without any good wins heading into ACC play. A 9-7 conference record would then leave them 19-10 with a weak out-of-conference resume, which sounds a whole lot like an NIT resume. In other words, they had better beat Wisconsin at home on December 1st, or else they're going to need a really good ACC season to save their at-large hopes. For Seton Hall, I spoke about how their lack of depth wlil probably keep them from reaching the Tournament this season. And to be fair, this turned out to be a very successful tournament for them. Wins over USC and Virginia Tech, and a loss against Memphis? If you offered them that before the tournament began, they'd have taken it in an instant. With a pathetically easy out-of-conference slate the rest of the way, solid play will allow them to go undefeated until Big East play starts. If they can avoid a bad loss, they'll be 11-1 with wins over USC and Va Tech heading into Big East play. That's a Tournament-quality at-large resume. But that said, I still think that their depth is going to keep them out of the Tournament. A single injury would cripple them (especially if it was to Jeremy Hazell, who is their best scorer and who essentially carried the team on his back in this particular game). And the Big East is such a brutal schedule, with 18 straight games against quality opponents. Even if they stay healthy, I don't see how their depth doesn't cost them a close loss or two. And the Selection Committee is going to be loathe to give the Big East more than eight teams, which means that even that 11-1 out-of-conference record would still probably require a 10-8 Big East record for a serious chance at an at-large bid. And if they drop one more game out-of-conference then they might need to go 11-7. I think this program is making great progress under Bobby Gonzalez, but I think they're still a year away.

Xavier 63, #12 Memphis 58
I would love to give you a more satisfying explanation for this result, but the honest answer is that free throws decided this one. Xavier only hit 68% for the game, but they got better down the stretch. Memphis, on the other hand, was 50% for the game and got worse as the game went along. The game was eventually decided in the last 30 seconds. Xavier had the ball up one point and was fouled: Terrell Holloway hit both (he was 10-for-10 from the line off the bench). Xavier then hacked Robert Dozier in the post: He missed both of his free throws. C.J. Anderson rebounded the ball and hit his first free throw, effectively ending the game. John Calipari is a great college coach, but I really don't understand his nonchalance on this issue. Shaq's old line about how he "hits it when they count" line is a bunch of crap, and this game proved it. It's like Memphis expects to miss free throws late in games. They have a ton of raw talent, but raw talent gets exposed with turnovers, missed free throws and poor team defense. Memphis displayed all of those flaws here. That said, Memphis will improve as the year goes along. Tyreke Evans will be special eventually, even if he's really struggling so far (4-for-16 from the field in this one). They just have too much talent to not eventually play better. And as for Xavier, I think it's safe to say that they're playing better than anybody expected after all of the graduation losses. We all knew that they had a great freshman class, but it's actually been their returners who have sparked this start. None of their starters are freshmen, and their top scoring freshman (Holloway) only has 7.8 points per game thus far. The reality was that Xavier's team last year was about its depth, and not one single star. So the loss of a few players didn't change how good all of the returners are. The excellent wins thus far, plus the chance to get more good wins before the A-10 season starts, means that Xavier will likely have a big margin for error as they head into A-10 play. They won't have to feel like one bad loss will sink their at-large chances. And that's a great place for a team outside the BCS conferences to be.