Saturday, November 28, 2009

Florida Knocks Off Michigan State

Florida 77, #2 Michigan State 74
Florida has built up a nice new core of young talent, and they showed that when things are going good for them they can beat just about anybody. Michigan State is over-ranked (they're not the second best team in the country), but they are better than Florida. But the Spartans were treating this game like another November grind, while Florida's players were treating this one like a Sweet Sixteen game. The difference in intensity was glaring, with Florida players diving all over the place forcing turnovers, and willing themselves to the basket and to the foul line. Even though Michigan State's overwhelming size advantage meant a slaughter on the boards (38 to 20), Florida managed to force 11 more turnovers. In all, despite the rebounding disadvantage, they managed to take two more shots from the field, and 11 more shots from the line, and that was the difference in the game. For Michigan State, this seems eerily similar to last season, when they'd beat up on elite teams, and sleepwalk to losses against vastly inferior foes. Of course, last season ended up with a trip to the National Title game, so it's not too bad of a parallel. For Florida, this win means so much because of how weak the SEC is. Collecting a big scalp out of conference will mean so much in March if Florida is still on the bubble. But the way they've been playing so far this year, they might not even end up on the bubble. Florida might enter March with a Tournament bid already sewn up.

Northwestern 72, Notre Dame 58
I don't pay any attention to the Top 25 polls, so I hadn't realized that Notre Dame had moved into the AP Top 25 until this game started. But that's just ridiculous - there's no way that Notre Dame is one of the 25 best teams in the country. They weren't remotely close last season, and I don't see how they're any better than they were then. I know that Luke Harangody is one of the best players in the country, but wasn't he one of the best players in the country last season also? I just don't get the hype. It's not like this is Notre Dame football - Notre Dame basketball usually doesn't get overhyped like that. But even so, this is a very impressive win for Northwestern. Most people assumed that this team would roll over and die once Kevin Coble and Jeff Ryan went down with injuries, but they're hanging tough. This is their first good win, but they're now 4-1 with that only loss coming to Butler. If they can beat Iowa State next then they'll really have some people paying attention. It's hard to see this team competing day in and day out in the Big Ten, but you can't rule them out just because of those two injuries, as this game proved.

Temple 61, Virginia Tech 50
Temple doesn't have any really big wins over ranked opponents, so they're still under the radar, but you have to respect their start to this season. They're 4-1 with wins over Siena and Virginia Tech, and that single loss was a one-pointer to Georgetown. It's not clear whether they or Xavier have played better so far, but those two teams are beginning to emerge as key contenders for at-large bids out of the Atlantic 10. Temple could use another win or two over BCS conference teams, and if they can avoid any bad losses then they'll be in a very good position heading into what appears to be a strong A-10 this year. As for the Hokies, they really are starved for any offense from players other than Malcolm Delaney (who had 32 of their 50 points here). Temple is a good opponent, but if you're only scoring 50 points against them, how are you going to score enough to compete with the top teams in the ACC? Of course, you don't want to draw too many conclusions from a single game, and this was the first non-cream puff that Virginia Tech played this season. We'll see if they prove that this game was a fluke, or if they continue to struggle to score against good teams.

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