Saint Louis Survives Slow Start Against Boston College

Saint Louis 62, Boston College 51
You never know quite what you're going to get from teams on Thanksgiving. Sometimes teams just don't come to play, and Saint Louis looked that way in the early going here. They were actually down 13-5 at one point, causing me to joke on twitter that Saint Louis appeared to be in a tryptophan-induced coma. But a 23-8 run spanning several minutes before and afternoon halftime allowed Saint Louis to grab control back in this game, and they cruised through the final minutes. The difference in this game was the aggressive Saint Louis defense, which forced 20 turnovers. There's no shame in that for Boston College, of course. Saint Louis is forcing turnovers on almost 30% of defensive possessions this season, and will be one of the best defenses (if not the best) in the Atlantic Ten.

While Saint Louis will be disappointed in not winning by more over a very weak Boston College team, the reality is that no team plays to expectations every night. Every team occasionally has off nights. Saint Louis had one of those games here, but fought through it and ended up taking care of business. They move on to play Villanova tomorrow. They'll play in the finals or third place game of the 76 Classic on Sunday. Boston College moves to the Consolation Bracket, where they'll play UC Irvine tomorrow. Honestly, as poor as Boston College looks this season, that's going to be a pretty even game. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see UC Irvine win.

Illinois 63, Illinois State 59
Illinois got another big performance from Bradley transfer Sam Maniscalco, who in his two games in Cancun had a combined 33 points on 12-for-23 shooting. Illinois also got a good performance from Brandon Paul, who didn't shoot well but had six assists and zero turnovers. Between Paul and Maniscalco, Bruce Weber has two very reliable backcourt ball handlers. As good as Demetri McCamey was at times, he was also dreadfully inconsistent, and an occasional attitude problem. I think this year's Paul+Maniscalco could end up being better than last year's Paul+McCamey. Of course, replacing Mike Tisdale and Mike Davis is quite another story. The Illini are very thin on the front line right now.

Illinois is now 5-0 with quality neutral court wins over Richmond and Illinois State. They head home for a game on Sunday against Chicago State, and then go on the road to play Maryland on Tuesday as part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. Illinois State now has this loss and a loss to Fresno State, along with a win over Rutgers. It's not an NCAA Tournament resume, but Illinois State does at least look to be a little better than they were last season. They head home for a series of cupcakes. In fact, they should be solid favorites in every game they play between now and the start of the Missouri Valley regular season. Illinois State will open up conference play against Northern Iowa on December 29th.

Indiana State 60, Texas Tech 49
This was a pretty ugly game. Neither team had any coherence on offense. Both teams scored less than one point per possession, and Indiana State won by 11 despite a 42.7 eFG%. It wasn't that the defenses were particularly good - the teams just weren't taking good shots. But in the end, the result was what was expected. Indiana State is better than Texas Tech this season.

The reality for Texas Tech is that they are very, very young. Billy Gillispie is a strong head coach, and he'll make this team better in time, but he took over a program with a completely bare cupboard. The majority of production in this game came from true freshmen, with true freshman Jordan Tolbert (20 points on 8-for-13 shooting, along with 8 rebounds) being arguably the best player on the floor for either team. This year will be about developing these freshmen. Texas Tech won't achieve much in terms of wins over quality teams.

Texas Tech moves to the Consolation Bracket at the Old Spice Classic, where they'll play DePaul tomorrow. They'll play their final game on Sunday. Indiana State moves to 5-0 with a few decent wins (Ball State, Texas Tech, UW-Green Bay), but nothing that really stands out. They head to the Old Spice semifinals, where they'll play Minnesota tomorrow. They will play either Dayton, Arizona State or Fairfield in their final game.