If you’re looking for two teams heading in opposite directions, Tuesday night gave you Indiana and Kansas State. They aren’t in the same conference – though Kansas State plays in a conference with ten teams while Indiana is in the Big Ten – but they offer a real study in contrasts right now with just over a week to go in January. On Tuesday night, both teams continued to do what they’ve been doing of late.
After a run to the Elite Eight a year ago, much was expected of Kansas State given their holdovers. But after a relatively non-descript non-conference run (best win came against Vanderbilt after they lost their best player for the season) was followed by an 0-2 start in Big 12 play, one had to wonder if this team had “underachiever” written all over them. The first loss wasn’t pretty, either – a 20-point blowout against Texas at home.
Then they edged West Virginia, a team that looks like an underachiever, or at least one many of us had pegged all wrong. Then they went to Ames and beat Iowa State by one. It seems as if pulling out those close ones changed everything, because they went to Oklahoma and won by 13, then beat TCU by 10 before Texas Tech came to town on Tuesday night.
Texas Tech came in having just lost two in a row, including the first game in which they had allowed at least 70 points all season on Saturday. This time, they were on the wrong end of a big defensive outing, as Kansas State held them below 33 percent from the field to overcome 17 turnovers in a 58-45 win in Manhattan.
On top of all of this, Dean Wade is back from his injury, which was a concern when it happened, and he has been playing well. He had just two points but grabbed nine rebounds in his first game back, but has since scored 20, 16 and 13, and while he only has seven rebounds in the last three games, he had six assists against TCU and got the 20 points in just 25 minutes as foul trouble slowed him at Oklahoma.
The Wildcats have a lot of challenges left in the Big 12, but have made it to a good place right now.
Indiana, meanwhile, lost its fifth straight on Tuesday, a 73-66 setback at Northwestern. This is probably the worst loss of the bunch, and it at least came on the road. In fact, Tuesday night was the fourth of five on the road for the Hoosiers, so this has been a tough stretch, and it’s not done yet because after they host Michigan on Friday night, they go back on the road for two more in a row, which will make it six of eight on the road.
The Hoosiers started off in promising fashion, beating Marquette, Louisville and Butler in non-conference and winning their early Big Ten games in December over Northwestern (home) and Penn State (road). But ever since getting past Illinois at home, it’s been tough sledding, with three of the five losses by double digits. While it’s been a team effort, Romeo Langford has come back to earth in the last three games, shooting under 33 percent from the field and missing all ten of his three-point attempts.
The Big Ten is full of land mines, which means getting out of this funk will not be easy. As noted, Michigan comes to town on Friday, then two games later they go to Michigan State, and Iowa comes to Bloomington right after that. You get the idea. Even so, if they can manage through the remainder of this road-heavy stretch, they should have a better to shot to win more at home.
Side Dishes
The shocker of the night came in Illinois, and in dramatic fashion to boot. Northern Illinois led Buffalo 75-72 in the final minute, when C.J. Massinburg came up big again with a deep three-pointer to tie the game with 6.6 seconds left. Northern Illinois came down the floor and looked like they might get thwarted trying to get a shot up, but Trendon Hankerson then found a cutting Noah McCarty right by the basket for a layup with less than a second to play, ultimately giving the Huskies a 77-75 win over the Bulls. At first, fans rushed the floor, but had to go back because Buffalo had called and been granted a timeout, but the Bulls couldn’t get a shot off after that.
Speaking of dramatic finishes, Michigan also won at the buzzer, as Charles Matthews hit a baseline jumper off a loose ball at the buzzer to give the Wolverines a 59-57 win over Minnesota, a tough loss for the Golden Gophers. Matthews also beat the shot clock that was running down, and while he finished with just seven points, it’s a different game if he finishes regulation with just five.
Two ACC games didn’t require buzzer-beaters, with Virginia running out to a 25-3 lead en route to a 68-45 rout of Wake Forest and Duke going to Pittsburgh and taking care of the Panthers 79-64. Also, Georgia Tech held off Notre Dame 63-61 in Atlanta and Florida State got back on track with a 77-68 win over Clemson, who is now 1-4 in the ACC.
It was a busy night in the SEC, with a mix of results. Kentucky continued to look better as they pulled away from Mississippi State 76-55 in Lexington, while Alabama ran out early against Ole Miss in Tuscaloosa and handed the Rebels their largest margin of defeat as a ranked team in a 74-53 romp as Donta Hall had a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Florida won a classic tale of two halves, being outscored 46-33 in the first half and outscoring Texas A&M 48-26 in the second in an 81-72 win in Gainesville, while South Carolina continued their magical conference run behind 32 points and 14 rebounds from Chris Silva as they edged Auburn 80-77 to go 5-1 in the SEC and drop the unpleasantly surprising Tigers to 2-3.
The night closed with a game similar to Texas A&M-Florida, where it looked like San Diego State was going to run away from Fresno State. After the Bulldogs went up 2-0, it was all San Diego State in the first half as they were up 38-26 at the break. Fresno State would steadily rally in the second half and finally grab the lead at 52-51 just over 11 minutes in, then never trailed the rest of the way in a 66-62 home win to go to 5-1 in Mountain West play.
To the surprise of no one, Vanderbilt point guard Darius Garland said on Tuesday that he will enter the NBA Draft after the season and not return to school, The freshman was impressive in five games before a season-ending knee injury, and when that happened most figured he was done, although it might be a mild surprise that he also withdrew from school already.
How much longer NC State will be without Markell Johnson is still unknown as the point guard continues to deal with soreness in his left hip and back. The junior has missed the last two games and could return soon or in a couple of weeks depending on how he feels.
The FBI investigation into corruption came into the news on Tuesday as former Arizona assistant Emanuel “Book” Richardson pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery. He joins Tony Bland as a former assistant coach to accept a plea deal, and he could face 18 to 24 months in prison. Richardson was a rising name in the world of coaching as one of Sean Miller’s best recruiters at Xavier and Arizona, but like all of the former coaches caught up in this, he has bigger things to worry about than coaching.
Tonight’s Menu
The games get going a bit earlier than usual on most weeknights, and they continue with a few late ones out west.
- The first game of the night is a makeup game, as American travels to Boston University for a game originally scheduled for Monday (5 p.m.) as part of a full slate in the Patriot League.
- Big East play gets going next as Xavier hosts struggling Providence (6:30 p.m.), then Marquette tries to stay hot as DePaul comes to town (8:30 p.m.)
- A pair of SEC games on tap early include two teams going in opposite directions as Tennessee visits Vanderbilt and a hot LSU team hosting Georgia (7 p.m.) Later, Arkansas hosts Missouri in a battle of teams trying to get untracked in SEC play (9 p.m.)
- In Big 12 action, TCU hosts Texas (7 p.m.) and a big rivalry game comes later as Oklahoma State hosts Oklahoma (9 p.m.)
- George Mason’s trip to Dayton (7 p.m.) highlights the Atlantic 10 slate, which also includes Rhode Island hosting VCU at the same time and an important one later as Saint Louis travels to Duquesne (8 p.m.), with the Dukes being just a game back of the Billikens.
- Purdue tries to keep up their good play of late as they go to Ohio State (7 p.m.)
- The highlight out west is Nevada hosting Colorado State (11 p.m.)
