Road wins are gold in college basketball, or at least they should be. (How blatantly obvious is this? Home teams regularly winning two-thirds of the time says it should be such basic knowledge that the NCAA basketball committee never should’ve needed reformulated team sheets to tell it something so simple.)
Mississippi State and Michigan both had chances for major non-conference road wins Tuesday night, the type that a month of results now indicate will most likely hold weight as the season goes on. The Bulldogs were unable to capitalize, falling to Cincinnati 65-50, but the Wolverines took full advantage of their chance and walked out of Texas a 59-52 winner.
Mississippi State entered Tuesday with an 8-0 record built almost solely on the strength of a soft, home-loaded schedule. Its best win is by five points against Stephen F. Austin…or maybe by two vs. Dayton…or maybe by three against Jacksonville State.
That was still good enough to get the Bulldogs in the ring of the final seven undefeated teams left this season, but it was clear Cincy was several notches above anything they’d dealt with earlier this season. Indeed, the Bearcats were in control throughout, holding Mississippi State to 30.2% shooting-including a big fat 0-for-20 from its bench, as only four Bulldogs scored in the game.
Cincinnati is still a solid top-25 team-regardless of how far the Bearcats have fallen after a pair of perfectly understandable losses-and there’s no shame in losing there, but we’re still in wait-and-see mode to find out just how good the Bulldogs are. Ben Howland’s team is certainly improved on defense
While Cincinnati took care of business, Texas took on a role looking more like a road team, trailing almost the entire way against Michigan. The Wolverines flat outplayed the Longhorns, a theoretically finesse team owning the glass 40-31 and also making life tough on prize freshman Mohamed Bomba, who posted a double-double (10 points, 10 rebounds) but also made just 4 of 10 shots.
Texas labored offensively without leading scorer Andrew Jones, who fractured his wrist last week against VCU and is out for an indefinite period. A notably awful shooting team last year, the Longhorns’ struggles in that area surfaced again, to the tune of making just 19 of 52 shots (36.5%). If they weren’t missing, they were often stagnant, and that mixed with John Beilein’s changing, sagging defenses made for one tough night.
Michigan didn’t necessarily ‘need’ this game, and it remains to be seen how Texas does in the ultra-tough Big 12 anyway. Still, winning a contest like this-on the road, on TV, against one of the biggest name programs in college sports-can only help make an impression with selection committee members. The Wolverines took full advantage of an opportunity, and will be rewarded for it. As they-and any other team beating solid competition on the road-should be.
Side Dishes:
- Seton Hall took care of St. Peter’s 84-61 at ol’ Walsh Gymnasium on the Pirates campus. A businesslike effort by the Hall against the always-pesky Peacocks, grabbing hold of this one from the get-go. Angel Delgado (18 points, 11 rebounds) got the requisite double-double and the Pirates shot better than 50%.
- Memphis became just the second team this season to beat Albany, withstanding numerous charges by the Great Danes for a solid 67-58 win. For all the griping about the Tigers supposedly being a program in decline in the offseason, Tubby Smith still has some size and athletes, plays hard, and really isn’t performing any worse than it did the past couple years with bigger-name recruits. Memphis was the aggressor throughout this game even as Albany was its usual stubborn self and controlled tempo until the Tigers went to a zone defense late in the second half that was the difference.
- San Diego has been one of the better stories of the early season, as an experienced team that has gone through growing pains under Lamont Smith has turned that seasoning into performance. USD won at Colorado 69-59, leading almost the whole way in Boulder, and one of the nation’s top defensive teams did it again, holding the Buffaloes to colder-than-Coors-Light (and maybe just as watered down) 25.9% shooting. San Diego is now 8-2, the best start in the program’s nearly 40-year Division I history.
- At least another Pac-12 team narrowly avoided another home loss, as Oregon State slipped by Jacksonville State 70-69. The Beavers withstood three potential go-ahead shots by JSU in the final minute but won their fifth straight.
- Georgia Southern laid a beating on George Mason, winning 74-51 on the road in a result every bit that decisive. The Eagles are an underrated defensive team under coach Mark Byington, and they held Mason to 28.6% shooting and forced 21 turnovers.
- Chalk up another good road win for a Sun Belt team by Louisiana-Lafayette, which defeated in-state rival Louisiana Tech 75-71 to move to 8-2. Very nice win for the Ragin’ Cajuns, who never trailed, withstood a late run by the Techsters and got a big 22 points from Jakeenan Gant. This was just the Bulldogs’ fourth loss in their last 66 non-conference games at home.
- Central Florida got a nice push from Southeastern Louisiana but Tacko Fall was the difference with 19 points, 11 rebounds and five blocks in the Knights’ 61-53 win in what was a one-point game with just over two minutes left.
- Iona topped Yale 83-67 with E.J. Crawford going for 24 points. The Gaels have won four straight and have a nice chance up next with the Holiday Festival against St. John’s Saturday. The Bulldogs had Miye Oni back for this game after he missed the contest vs. St. Bonaventure this past Saturday; he scored 12 but was just 4-for-16 from the field.
- Princeton made it a tie in the night’s unofficial MAAC/Ivy League challenge, defeating Monmouth 69-58 with Myles Stephens and Devin Cannady combining for 37 points and nine of the Tigers’ 13 three-pointers. The Hawks have turned the ball over too much all season and it continued here with 20 turnovers, and Princeton took control after trailing early.
- Ultra-early in the day hoops action had South Carolina State rally from nine down late in regulation to get to overtime and then get a three-pointer by Donte Wright with :04.2 left in the extra session to defeat Charleston Southern 91-88.
Tonight’s Menu:
- One game headlines over all tonight, with a must-watch Philadelphia Big 5 battle that has new No. 1 Villanova on the road at Temple (7 p.m. Eastern, ESPN2). It’s the third consecutive year the Wildcats have been No. 1 when they faced the Owls. Villanova has an incredible 21-game winning streak in Big 5 games. Temple hasn’t exactly overwhelmed of late with narrow wins last week at home against Wisconsin and St. Joseph’s and a loss 10 days ago to George Washington…but the Owls do have Quinton Rose and Levan (Shizz) Alston Jr., and the Liacouras Center should be as amped as it will ever be.
- Florida International just dusted off South Florida on Monday; now the Panthers take on North Florida, which is bombing away with impunity again (12.0 three-pointers/game, fifth-best in the country). Unfortunately, FIU won’t get to play Central Florida this year.
- Very interesting game in Madison as Western Kentucky faces flailing Wisconsin (8 p.m., FS1), which has been badly hurt by injuries and youth. This is an eminently winnable game for the Hilltoppers-who were good enough to beat Purdue and SMU earlier-but they’ll have to play better than they did in a loss at Ohio on Sunday.
- One-loss Houston goes to LSU for what promises to be an entertaining game (9 p.m., SEC Network).
- Grand Canyon plays at Boise State trying to shut down Chandler Hutchison and the Broncos’ bombers, who are tied with North Florida in three-pointers/game.
- Maybe the second-best game of the night might be one of the latest as Portland State heads two hours south on I-5 to face Oregon (10 p.m., Pac-12 Network). The Vikings are 8-2, have a win over Stanford and are 3-0 against the West Coast Conference, and should be no secret anymore.
Do enjoy your Wednesday.
