UConn Knocks Off Texas

#9 UConn 82, #12 Texas 81, OT
If you are a fan of fundamental, intelligent basketball, you knew this wasn't going to be the game for you. Jim Calhoun and Rick Barnes are two of the most prominent "Go out there boys and play some basketball" coaches, and there was no chance we weren't going to see a lot of one-on-one basketball and a bunch of players launching bad shots in the first few seconds of the shot clock. But this game surpassed expectations with two truly atrocious mistakes in the final two minutes of regulation. First, Jordan Hamilton was off on a fast break by himself with a one point Texas deficit and about two minutes remaining. He proceeded to try an epic one-handed tomahawk jam and ended up butchering the whole thing so badly he's going to be on blooper reels for 50 years. With a one point deficit with 2 minutes to go??? I don't care how important he is to the team - you've got to bench him after that. The second idiotic play came when Texas missed a shot with 10 seconds remaining in a tie game. Roscoe Smith rebounded the ball and proceeded to launch an 85 foot shot, completely unaware they still had 10 seconds left. After those two plays followed each other in close succession I just wrote this game off as a fluke. No matter which team won this game the other team was going to know that their own idiocy cost them a win. One positive thing to note for UConn was that their frontcourt looked the best it's been all season. Alex Oriakhi had 10 offensive rebounds by himself and UConn completely manhandled the Texas frontline (a 43% offensive rebounding percentage, compared to a 28% offensive rebounding percentage for the Longhorns). UConn will now look to improve on their 1-2 Big East record with Rutgers and DePaul coming up next. Texas, too, will look to rebound with home games against Texas Tech and Oklahoma upcoming. Their only game this season against Kansas will be on the road, but Kansas looks to be the heavy favorite to win the Big 12 regardless. Texas is in a battle for second place in the conference, and they will benefit from their only games against Missouri and Kansas State coming at home.

#5 Pittsburgh 89, Marquette 81
Pitt typically wins games with their frontline, but Marquette doesn't try to match frontlines with anybody. Instead they threw wave after wave of their athletic guards at Pitt, and the Panthers really struggled. Marquette got to the basket at will, earning 27 free throws, and they out-hustled the Panthers with ten offensive rebounds from their backcourt. But Marquette's guards have to play really, really well to overcome the fact that they're going to get dominated inside by just about any team. Pitt's frontline shot a ridiculous 15-for-21 (71.4%) from the field in this game. Pitt will feel good about the way they distributed the ball around so efficiently, and this is a nice win, but their poor backcourt defensive performance will surely bother Jamie Dixon. Pitt's next game is a tough one, at Georgetown on Wednesday night. Their only game of the season against Syracuse will be at home, which is a big benefit for their regular season Big East title hopes. That game will be on January 17th. This will be another moral victory for Marquette, but moral victories don't get a team to the Tournament and the Golden Eagles are now 1-5 against the RPI Top 80 (the one win came against West Virginia). They have a key home game coming up Monday against Notre Dame.

Virginia Tech 71, Florida State 59
It feels like the entire ACC (other than Duke) is on the bubble right now, so almost every game seems to have bubble implications. If Florida State fails to make the Tournament this season, the reason will likely be that Xavier Gibson injury, which will likely have him out until at least early February. Without him the FSU defense is still very good, but it's not as dominant, and they just don't have a large margin for error when you consider that Chris Singleton is the only good offensive player they have. All FSU players other than Singleton combined for 37 points on 27% shooting in this game. Virginia Tech is going to have to get to at least 9-7 in ACC play to make the Tournament, so winning this game avoided an 0-2 start with a road game at Chapel Hill looming. Florida State is also 1-1 now, with a win over Baylor but also a bad loss against Auburn. They have a chance now for a huge win with Duke coming to town on Wednesday. They don't get to play Duke again this year, so there's a good chance that this will be FSU's only remaining chance to collect a win against a Top 25 team.