Some quick hitters coming out of college basketball’s opening day:
- Much of the buzz about opening day came from the games played on aircraft carriers, and unfortunately, Ohio State-Marquette had to be cancelled due to condensation on the court and Georgetown-Florida was called off at halftime. This will surely raise questions about holding games outdoors in the future; Connecticut-Michigan State was played inside.
- The game that will surely be talked about the most is Connecticut’s 66-62 win over Michigan State in Germany. Kevin Ollie won his debut, starting to make the case already that he deserves more than just the few months he originally got for a contract. The Huskies are down as a result of the APR ban, but they will be far from an easy out all season.
- The big off-court news of the day was the NCAA declaring Shabazz Muhammad ineligible, with no details on just how long. UCLA then went out and beat Indiana State convincingly in one of the last games of the day.
- Kentucky held off Maryland in a dandy in the Barclays Center Classic. Nerlens Noel didn’t exactly set the world on fire in his debut for Kentucky, scoring four points on 2-6 shooting with nine boards and three blocked shots in 26 minutes. Maryland big man Alex Len, meanwhile, had a stellar outing with 23 points on 10-18 shooting to go with 12 rebounds and four blocked shots. Dez Wells, who the NCAA recently allowed to play this season, struggled for Maryland with eight points on 2-12 shooting.
- Baylor picked up a very impressive win to start the season in blowing out Patriot League contender Lehigh 99-77. Sure, the game was at home, but Lehigh is used to going on the road and has a veteran team, the perfect combination to score an early win over a favorite.
- To emphasize Baylor’s win, one can look at South Alabama’s 76-71 win at Florida State. The Seminoles should be fine, but sometimes this can happen in a season opener.
- George Mason’s 66-62 win over Virginia is no surprise. The Patriots were at home and have as much talent as anyone in the CAA, although they lost three very key veterans. This was a very good start to the season for this group.
- Bucknell beat Purdue 70-65, wasting little time showing that they will be right there in the Patriot League. Granted, this isn’t Purdue’s best team, but a road win like this is always good.
- St. Peter’s won at Rutgers 56-52, a nice start to the season for John Dunne’s team.
- It was a day and night full of blowouts, but Miami got all it could handle from Stetson before holding off the Hatters behind a solid double-double (22 points, 11 rebounds) from Reggie Johnson.
- With its 97-59 blowout win, North Carolina State certainly looked the part of ACC favorites, at least as much as one can while playing at home against Miami (Ohio).
- Morehead State scored a nice 77-74 win over LIU in the Barclays Center Classic in Brooklyn. It’s a good win for new head coach Sean Woods in his debut over the favorite in the Northeast Conference.
- If you only saw the final score of Penn’s 80-75 win over UMBC, you would have no idea of the big momentum swings in the game. UMBC ran out to a big early lead and was up by as many as 18 in the first half, but Penn shut down the Retrievers in the second half to take over the game.
