Wednesday night was one of those wild nights you see a few of every college basketball season. With a couple of early games, you had a feeling it might be just such a night, and it didn’t disappoint.
The first notable happening was Houston going down for the first time this season as Temple edged them 73-69 in Philadelphia. This was a defensive struggle, and Houston had a chance to tie in the final seconds, but an offensive foul call waived off what would have been a game-tying basket. This is a big help for Temple’s NCAA Tournament resume, which wasn’t bad to begin the night but now has a signature win.
Also early on, Ole Miss beat Auburn 82-67 in the Tigers’ SEC opener, continuing a fine first season under Kermit Davis and serving as one more example that he can coach. Ole Miss put forth a fine defensive effort for the win to go to 12-2 overall and 2-0 in the SEC, and with the only losses coming to Butler and Cincinnati and wins over Baylor, San Diego, Vanderbilt and Auburn, we can certainly talk about them as one of a number of NCAA Tournament teams that will come out of the SEC.
The individual performance of the night goes to a player who has done something like this before. Markus Howard scored a Big East record 53 points on 15-26 shooting, including 10-14 from long range, to lead Marquette to a wild 106-104 overtime win at Creighton. Both teams shot better than 50 percent from the field and over 51 percent from long range, so the score was no accident – this game was a shootout. It comes just over a year after he had 52 points at Providence. Creighton had a chance to seal the game in regulation, but a long downcourt pass didn’t touch a player and gave Marquette a chance to tie the game with an inbounds pass and shot from their own end, and Sam Hauser made good on it.
Looking in the Big Ten, we see Rutgers getting their first conference win as they knocked off Ohio State 64-61. They did it with defense, slowing down Ohio State just enough to pull off another building block in Steve Pikiell’s process.
Another notable win came in the ACC, with Pittsburgh getting their first significant win under Jeff Capel as they edged Louisville 89-86 in overtime behind 33 points from Trey McGowens. The Panthers were agonizingly close at Iowa in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, but lost by one. They have been in every game they have lost except for the prior one against North Carolina, so Capel and his staff are already changing things there.
There were close calls, too, especially in the ACC where Virginia Tech just got by Georgia Tech 52-49 in Atlanta and Miami really could have used a win but had a rally fall short at Florida State in a 68-62 loss. Wednesday will be most remembered for the wild night of surprises, however, which Ted Sarandis and I will talk about along with other subjects in a forthcoming podcast.
Side Dishes
There were signs of normalcy on the night, like Virginia running away from Boston College 83-56 after the Eagles made it interesting early on, and Nevada being unstoppable in the second half to run away from San Jose State 92-53. To a lesser degree, Kansas hanging on for a 77-68 win over TCU fits in, although the Horned Frogs had a chance late as they were within three with less than two minutes to go before Kansas was much more poised. Iowa went on the road to beat Northwestern 73-63, Arizona beat Stanford 75-70 in Palo Alto and Arizona State took care of Cal 80-66 in Berkeley.
Can anyone figure out Florida? The Gators lost their SEC opener to South Carolina at home, then on Wednesday night went to Arkansas and held off the Razorbacks 57-51.
West Virginia losing at Kansas State 71-69 isn’t shocking, but the Mountaineers blowing a 15-point halftime lead is. West Virginia is now 0-3 in Big 12 play, and that isn’t a good place for a team with no significant non-conference wins to be.
A dandy out west was a game we thought would be one, and Fresno State pulled out a 78-77 win at Utah State to join UNLV at 3-0 in Mountain West play. Braxton Huggins capped off a 33-point night with a late three-pointer to win it for the Bulldogs.
Tonight’s Menu
It’s a busy slate, with the Big South, CAA, Horizon, Ohio Valley, Southern and Sun Belt among those with full or near-full slates, but a lot of the more interesting games will come later on.
- A couple of games to watch in the American Athletic Conference are SMU traveling to UConn and Tulsa hosting Cincinnati, both with 7 p.m. tips.
- A good one in the CAA is Hofstra taking their ten-game winning streak to Williamsburg to face William & Mary (7 p.m.)
- The Horizon League matchup of the night is 3-0 Green Bay at 3-1 Detroit Mercy (7 p.m.)
- The best game in the Southern Conference is one with two who have yet to lose a conference game as Wofford heads to UNC Greensboro (7 p.m.)
- The Sun Belt’s best offering might be Louisiana traveling to Georgia State (7 p.m.)
- Michigan will try to remain undefeated as they visit Illinois (8 p.m.), while Nebraska tries to get going again as they host Penn State (9 p.m.)
- Two teams that have enough talent to contend in the Pac-12 square off as Oregon hosts UCLA (9 p.m.), while Utah hosts Washington (10 p.m.) and USC goes to Oregon State (11 p.m.) later on.
- Gonzaga is in action ahead of their anticipated showdown on Saturday as they host Pacific (11 p.m.)
