Texas Outlasts Michigan State

#2 Texas 79, #9 Michigan State 68
Despite the final score, Michigan State actually led most of this game, and Texas didn't open this game up until the final three minutes. But I feel like Tom Izzo had a bad plan of attack here, trying to run with a Texas team that is more built to run, and that has more bodies they can throw on the floor. Dogus Balbay did a great job shutting down Kalin Lucas (11 points on 11 shots from the field, along with 2 assists and 6 turnovers), which put way too much pressure on Korie Lucious. Lucious played pretty well for most of the game, but looked lost late in the game. With Lucas shut down, Michigan State really should have slowed things down and pounded the ball inside. By putting too much in the hands of inferior guards, they ended up with 22 turnovers. Both teams ended up rushing way too many shots early in the shot clock, explaining the lack of offensive rebounds by two teams that are generally pretty good at those (10 combined for both teams). It's hard to argue with what Texas has done over the last week, beating both North Carolina and Michigan State soundly, but if there's one word of caution it's that Texas hasn't yet proven that they can win away from home. I know that the UNC game was technically a "neutral court" game, but it was in Cowboys Stadium. They have had only one true road game, and it was in state against a bad Rice team. Their two true neutral court games were against Iowa and Pittsburgh, who both gave Texas a lot of trouble (they were losing to Pitt at halftime, and were tied at halftime with Iowa). I'm curious to see how they respond to a true road game against Arkansas on January 5th. Arkansas is a bad team (Sagarin rates them 185th), but I want to see Texas play like this in a truly hostile crowd. As for Michigan State, they appear to have found their ceiling, as they've lost to the three truly elite teams they've played. They do have that four point win over Gonzaga, but their next best win is probably over UMass. They get a fairly easy start to Big Ten play, so if Michigan State is going to have any chance of competing for a Big Ten title they've got to get off to a quick start.

UAB 67, #16 Butler 57
Don't look now, but UAB might actually be a good team. A lot of people thought UAB would be down this year now that the last of Mike Davis's Indiana transfers is gone, but we forget that as much as Davis had yet to really prove himself as a good game manager, he is unquestionably a good recruiter. He has done a good job at bringing in some transfers and quality recruits, and he's got a team that is a legitimate bubble team. They are now 11-1 with wins over Cincinnati and Butler, although the one loss is a bit of a question mark (Kent State). A good test will be their next two games: true road games at Virginia and Arkansas. They are better than those two teams, but they're also a team that might be riding a little bit too high, and that might have celebrated this Butler win just a little bit too much. I'd like to see whether they take care of business, or collect another weak loss. They are in contention to win Conference USA, which appears to be between them, Memphis, Tulsa and UTEP. But the conference won't get four Tournament teams, so UAB needs to distinguish themselves somehow. As for Butler, this is probably a game they didn't take seriously enough, but they've accrued enough quality wins that they can still get a pretty good NCAA Tournament seed if they can avoid more than two losses in the Horizon League. It continues to be disturbing how Matt Howard can't stay on the floor, managing to foul himself out again here despite the fact that UAB spends most of their time with four guards on the floor. If only he could live up to the promise he had when he first showed up on campus, this Butler team might actually be in the conversation as a potential Final Four team. Their other four starters are just really, really good (despite being ice cold from behind the arc in this particular game).

#1 Kansas 84, California 69
This game was closer than the final score, with Cal and Kansas exchanging small leads the whole way until nearly midway through the second half, with Kansas finally opening things up in the final five minutes. It seemed like Cal just wore out from the tempo, and the fact that they don't have the kind of depth that Kansas has (Cal played six guys for 8+ minutes, Kansas played nine). Cal also seemed a little bit out of control at times, rushing three-pointers early in the shot clock before their offense was set. But that said, they were playing a true road game against the best team in the country, so it's hard to get too down on this performance. They appear to be playing a lot better than they were in November, and the return of Theo Robertson really helps as well. I still think that they will battle with Washington for the Pac-10 title. Those two teams also happen to be the only Pac-10 teams who look like safe at-large teams at this point. As for Kansas, it's nice to see them playing some legitimate teams. Their schedule up through December 15th or so was a joke. They now have two intriguing true road games before starting Big 12 play: Temple and Tennessee. Kansas is an experienced team that should not be rattled away from home, but you never know what will happen the first time all season that you venture onto a truly hostile court against a quality opponent.