Putting the Hammer Down!
It's going to be a bit weird not driving down to Ohio this season to watch our niece(s) play basketball for their school. Now that they are both graduated, the majority of our basketball watching will be a bit more local. In fact, I think this weekend we are heading about an hour south to watch our nephew play basketball with his middle school team.
Thankfully, the college basketball season is starting to get in full swing and there have been some really interesting match ups outside of the regular cupcake games that we often see this time of year.
Let's rewind to last Wednesday when there were two games being played in the top 25. Neither of them were upset victories, but I would like to point out that at this time last week, Houston was ranked the number 1 team in the nation.
Thursday night we had another two games in the top 25. Number 17 Michigan State were just coming off their big upset victory over Arkansas and there was some concern that they might drop the ball (pun intended) against San Jose State. Thankfully they didn't and they won that game 79 to 60 though they seemed to be struggling to hit any outside shots.
On the same night, number 2 Purdue took on number 8 Alabama and beat them 87 to 80.
On Friday night there were ten games in the top 25. It shouldn't come as much of a shock that none of them were upsets. I would argue all but two of them were cupcake games. I would like to point out that number 6 Michigan just barely beat TCU 67 to 63. This is the same Michigan team that just barely beat Wake Forest earlier in the week, so I think they might be a bit over-ranked.
Also, number 5 Arizona had a close game against number 15 UCLA winning 69 to 65.
Saturday brought us 4 games in the top 25, and once again not a single one of them was an upset, but number 3 UConn had a close scrape just edging past number 7 BYU 86 to 84.
we actually had some Sunday basketball this past weekend with there once again being no upsets. However, number 1 Houston almost had one when they beat number 22 Auburn 73 to 72. That's likely part of the reason Purdue now sits in the number 1 spot and Houston has fallen to number 2.
Monday night there were five games in the top 25. These were all cupcake games with the scoring margin being at least 30 points or more to the ranked team. The lone exception is number 25 North Carolina State who only beat VCU 85 to 79. Unlike number 13 Gonzaga who took down Southern Utah 122 to 50. That's a 72 point spread!
Finally, last night we had a couple big games with the Champions Classic taking place at Madison Square Garden in New York. number 17 Michigan State opened the night stunning number 12 Kentucky with an 83 to 66 victory. I think the ma in difference here was the fact that MSU was hitting three pointers. Where they struggled last week, they almost couldn't miss last night. It was amazing to watch.
I was afraid they might lose some steam heading into the second half, but as the title suggests, they put the hammer down and sailed to an easy victory. The other four ranked games last night also fell in favor of the higher ranked team. Number 21 Arkansas number 18 North Carolina, and Number 19 UCLA all had cupcake games. Meanwhile, number 5 Duke took on number 24 Kansas in the second game of the Champions Classic. Duke came out on top 78 to 66 in that game.
That's the college basketball recap for you until next week! Thanks for stopping by!
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