The best of the made-for-TV games on Monday night came early. The Big 12 games in the back half of the evening were a pair of duds, but fortunately, we had Florida State visiting Duke in a game that was every bit as good as we could have expected.
Second place in the ACC was on the line in this one, but you wouldn’t know it. It felt like two heavyweights battling, and it was, as the Seminoles battled valiantly against a Duke team that had to have been drained physically and emotionally from Saturday night’s unbelievable win at North Carolina. They forced 21 Duke turnovers, but their offensive struggles doomed them in a 70-65 win for the Blue Devils.
Duke made up for the turnovers by shooting well enough when they got a shot off. They were especially good from deep, going 7-17 from long range and shooting just over 45 percent overall on the night. The Seminoles, on the other hand, shot under 38 percent, including 3-18 from long range. The Seminoles came into the game shooting 46.5 percent from the field on the season.
Tre Jones has been a big key for Duke all year long, as was expected, and he made just about every big play to will them to victory on Saturday. You also know what you’re getting with Vernon Carey Jr., who had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds on Monday, and Cassius Stanley is quite a talent. But in this game, Jones’ other backcourt mate, Jordan Goldwire, was perhaps the biggest factor, as he was a perfect 5-5 from the field including 3-3 from deep for 13 points.
In recent years, the big question with Duke teams has been about the veterans. That they will have talented freshmen who will play a big role right out of the gate has not been in doubt, but their recent teams have not had a clear veteran presence. When the Blue Devils won the national championship in 2015, they had freshman stars in Jahlil Okafor, Tyus Jones and Justise Winslow, and Grayson Allen had his coming-out party in the title game, but it’s easy to forget that they had a key senior in Quinn Cook and another solid upperclassman who brought intangibles and did other things in a non-starring role in the person of Amile Jefferson. They also had a sophomore, Matt Jones, who had emerged as the kind of player he would spend his career as – an under-appreciated winner, especially after they dismissed Rasheed Sulaimon from the team in mid-season.
More recently, the Blue Devil teams stacked with one-and-done players have lacked their own versions of Cook, Jefferson and Matt Jones. Could Goldwire, a guy many thought would barely play many minutes for this team, be one of those guys? He’s a solid defender and intangibles guy, so he seems to fit the bill. After being the bit player most thought he would be for two years, his minutes have jumped significantly.
Monday night’s win over the Seminoles wasn’t one where you would send a copy of the video to the Basketball Hall of Fame. But it was a solid win and a sign of a team that continues to figure out how to win, and it was a game with a good deal on the line – though not as much as will be on the line in a little over a month.
Side Dishes
One of the aforementioned Big 12 games ended up having a deceptively close score as Texas tried to rally late but could never sustain much momentum in losing 52-45 to Baylor. For a good deal of the second half, it felt like Baylor had out-classed the Longhorns, but Texas tried to make it a ballgame late. Texas Tech annihilated TCU in the other game 88-42, the sixth straight loss for the fading Horned Frogs. It was a classic case of one team playing very well and the opponent playing poorly on the same night, as Texas Tech shot over 60 percent from the field including 13-22 from long range, while TCU shot under 27 percent and turned the ball over 20 times.
Colgate has a stranglehold on the top spot in the Patriot League after going on the road and winning impressively at Boston University by a 79-63 margin. BU led by seven at one point in the first half, but Colgate tied it at halftime and then broke open a 49-49 tie with a 16-6 run and never looked back to go up two games on the second-place Terriers.
The Big South race got a little tighter as Radford went to Winthrop and snapped the Eagles’ 14-game winning streak by holding them off for an 81-77 win. Radford led by as many as 27 about six minutes into the second half, but Winthrop stormed back and had a chance to tie in the final minute. The Highlanders are now just a game back of the Eagles, but don’t control their own destiny as the teams are done playing in the regular season. The road team won both meetings, as the Eagles won in Radford earlier.
Other results of note: The MEAC got even tighter as only a game and a half separates first from third place after NC Central edged Morgan State 58-57 and Florida A&M took care of North Carolina A&T 79-60, handing the Aggies their second straight loss; Mississippi Valley State picked up their second win of the season, both coming against Alabama A&M as they beat the Bulldogs 67-61 at home; and Portland State knocked Northern Colorado back in the Big Sky standings with an 83-71 win in Greeley.
Iowa State has had a tough season, and it got worse on Monday as the school announced that star guard Tyrese Haliburton is done for the season with a fractured left wrist. As he tested the NBA Draft waters last year and is widely projected to be a likely lottery pick, he might well have played his final game in Ames. He suffered the injury in the first half of the Cyclones’ win over Kansas State on Saturday.
Tonight’s Menu
A number of important games are on the slate tonight, highlighted by the ones below.
- A Big Ten game gets it going as Purdue hosts Penn State (6:30 p.m.), then Nebraska goes to Maryland (8:30 p.m.) and potentially the best one of all is the last one as Illinois hosts Michigan State (9 p.m.)
- Arch rivals meet in the SEC as Ole Miss hosts Mississippi State, while Tennessee hosts Arkansas in a battle of two teams that could use a win (7 p.m.)
- An important ACC game is on tap early as NC State goes to Syracuse (7 p.m.), while Virginia hosts Notre Dame later (9 p.m.)
- A key game is on tap in the MAC as Akron hosts Bowling Green (7 p.m.)
- First place is on the line in the Atlantic 10 as Dayton hosts Rhode Island (7:30 p.m.)
- In Big 12 action, Kansas State hosts Oklahoma State (9 p.m.)
- Second place in the Mountain West is on the line early as Colorado State hosts Utah State (9:30 p.m.), then San Diego State tries to remain undefeated as they host New Mexico (11 p.m.)
