Duke Outlasts Butler

#1 Duke 82, Butler 70
This was the best Butler has looked all season. They clearly got a huge emotional boost from Ronald Nored, the leader of the team who was suffering from post-concussion symptoms and was not cleared to play until this morning. This game was very close for nearly 30 minutes of action until Shelvin Mack went down with an injury that the team called a cramp but which kept him out of the game the rest of the way. That injury really exposed the fact that the biggest difference between Duke and Butler is depth. Matt Howard was in serious foul trouble, but it's been middle school since he played in a game and wasn't in foul trouble. The problem was that the top Butler big man other than Howard is Andrew Smith, and he also missed much of the second half with an injury. Zach Hahn also fouled out. In the end, Butler just ran out of bodies capable of playing with Duke. Kyle Singler fouled out for Duke, and Kyrie Irving missed some time with a toe injury, but Duke has such a strong bench that they barely missed a beat. The Irving injury should concern Duke fans, even though he did eventually return to the game because those types of injuries can occasionally hamper players for months. The hype about Duke going undefeated should continue to grow. As for Butler, they fall to 4-3 without any decent wins other than arguably that win over Siena, but if they play this way every night they can clearly still play at a level above what any other Horizon League team can muster. Their next chance to build an at-large resume will come Thursday night at Xavier.

Providence 87, Rhode Island 74
With all of the success that the elite Big East teams had at early season tournaments, along with a lot of high profile coaching changes among teams in the bottom half of the conference (Seton Hall, St. John's, Rutgers, DePaul), there might not be a team in the conference getting less media attention than Providence. Their cupcake schedule to start the season didn't help. Other than Rhode Island, the only other decent team Providence has beaten is Northeastern, and they also lost to La Salle. That said, they are now 8-1 and will be somewhere near 70th in the nation in both the Sagarin and Pomeroy ratings when the new numbers come out tomorrow morning, so they're worth at least paying attention to. They next head to Boston College for a game Wednesday night, and also will play Alabama before beginning Big East play at Syracuse. Rhode Island, like most of the Atlantic Ten, has been disappointing so far this season. They are 5-3 with their best win coming against College of Charleston, and this loss could potentially end up as an RPI 100+ loss. They are nowhere near a bubble team at this point. They still will play Boston College, Florida and Northeastern before starting Atlantic Ten play.

Miami (Fl) 79, West Virginia 76
West Virginia should feel like they deserved to win this game. They led by 12 points with 13 minutes to go, but the Hurricanes got red hot down the stretch to finish the game 8-for-16 behind the arc. That said, a big part of this win for Miami was also Malcolm Grant's attacking play, which led to 14 free throws and 3 assists, with only 2 turnovers. This game was another missed opportunity for West Virginia to get a resume building win, although that doesn't matter too much since they'll have plenty of opportunities for big wins in Big East play. They have avoided bad losses, which helps. Their next tough game will be a week from tomorrow at Duquesne. Miami, meanwhile, is really coming to life after a very disappointing first couple of weeks. This win comes right after a win over Ole Miss, which will help remove the bad taste from that loss to Rutgers. They will play Central Florida on December 18th, but otherwise shouldn't be too tested before beginning ACC play. Even if they avoid any bad losses the rest of their out-of-conference slate, I still think that Miami will have to go at least 9-7 in a weakened ACC to go Dancing.