For those that missed the games, it was an AMAZING day of hoops yesterday for our guys. Here are some of the better performances:
Ignas Brazdeikas and Jon Teske helped lead Michigan to a win over South Carolina. I've really been impressed with Teske. He's been a guy that went from playing 20 MPG to start the year to nearly 30 per game recently. Brazdeikis has all the tools. He's very impressive, and should be must watch stuff for CF users. For South Carolina, Maik Kotsar, a junior forward, head 16 points.
Villanova's Joe Cremo has been playing very well of late, and has been getting 20+ minutes off the bench for the defending national champs. He had 12 points and 2 boards yesterday. The Wildcats are watchable this season with Collin Gillespie as the starting point, and Cremo coming off the bench for good minutes. Cole Swider, a freshman forward with a sweet stroke, also gets 10+ minutes off the bench.
Northern Iowa freshman AJ Green is a good one. He scored 20 points yesterday. Unfortunately, his team is not good. They barely beat Division 3 Dubuque yesterday. Hopefully his team improves so people are more able to see Green.
It was nice watching BYU/Utah yesterday. Both teams started 3 white players, and the Cougars had 4 white players on the floor for large parts of the game. BYU has gotten point guard Nick Emery back, so they should be improving the next couple of weeks. Their black forward Childs is their best player this year, but guards TJ Haws and Zac Seljaas make up the rest of the Top 3. Haws had 18 points and 6 boards, while Seljaas had 14 points and 6 boards. With St. Mary's down, this could be a good chance for the Cougars to make some noise.
Utah has an impressive freshman in forward Riley Battin. Battin has forced his way into the starting lineup, and has produced. Battin had 9 points, 6 boards, and 5 assists against BYU.
Ohio beat all-black Radford, who are sure to be media darlings this year, since they'll be in the NCAA Tournament. Ohio improves to 6-3. They only have 1 white starter, but he's their leading scorer in sophomore forward Jason Carter. He again led the Bobcats yesterday with 19 points and 6 boards. In addition, Ohio plays two white players for heavy minutes off the bench in wing Gavin Block and forward Bennett Vander Plas, who often play more minutes than two of the starters, so Ohio is one team to watch.
Ethan Happ finished with 34 points, 11 boards, and 4 assists on an outstanding 16-21 from the field. It wasn't enough, as Marquette ended up winning in overtime, 74-69. It was an enjoyable game to watch, with at least 2 white players on the floor for both teams nearly the entire game. Joey Hauser had 15 points, while his brother Sam Hauser had 13 points, 14 boards, and 4 assists. Bucky is right; Howard is a complete ball-hog, and makes watching Marquette hard at times. He was 7-29 from the floor last night. I'd say Marquette won in spite of Howard, not because of him. For Wisconsin, they need to get Brad Davison going. I'm not sure what happened with Davison, but he's been very quite the last couple of games for the Badgers.
Mitch Ballock had 23 points in a losing effort for Creighton last night. I think the Blue Jays would be better if they let more than one of their white big men on the floor at the same time. Krampelj, Epperson, and Froling are all very talented; surely they could play together at some point.
It was a great day to watch Butler basketball yesterday. In their destruction of nearly all-black Northern Illinois, the Bulldog's top three scorers were white. Sean McDermott hit 7 threes and posted a career-high 23 points. Paul Jorgensen had 16 points, 3 assists, and 3 boards, while Joey Brunk came off the bench for 15 points and 4 boards.
John Mooney and Rex Pflueger both had good nights for the Irish against UCLA last night. Mooney had a double double with 12 points and 11 boards, despite going up against players much taller than himself. Pflueger had 14 points, 6 boards, and 4 assists. However, the Irish lost because of the extremely selfish play of their two black guards. TJ Gibbs went a sparkling 4-14 from the floor with three turnovers. Gibbs has taken by far the most Notre Dame shots this year with 120, and is making just over 34% of those shots. He's the Irish leading scorer at just 13 PPG, which is horrible for the amount of shots he's putting up. Freshman Prentiss Hubb, who somehow has a green light to shoot from anywhere apparently, one-upped his upsid-laden backcourt mate by posting 2-12 from the field. Hubb has taken the third most shots of anybody in a Notre Dame uniform this season (76) for a sparkling 37% FG average and less than 9 PPG. Gibbs and Hubb finished with 9 and 7 points respectively. Some of their horrible shot attempts allowed the Bruins to get out in transition and score easy baskets. They both caused critical Irish turnovers down the stretch that allowed the all-black Bruins to win the game. So, while the Irish pretty much play 2-3 white players the entire game, the enjoyment of watching them is lessened somewhat by their black ball-hog backcourt that think they are way more talented than they actually are.
