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November 22, 2011

Welcome to today’s NCAA Daily, a lot of closely contested games and comebacks. Here is the run down:

Michigan in Maui over Memphis
(Rob Beard/The Detroit News)

Tim Hardaway Jr. lead the #15 Michigan Wolverines to an upset victory over the #8 Memphis Tigers, 73-61, in the opening game of the Maui Invitational. Michigan neutralized Memphis’ perceived athletic advantage with a strong zone defense, while shooting a fantastic 60% clip in the 1st half and 53% on the game. Hardaway Jr., the son of former NBA All-Star Tim Hardaway, finished with 21 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists. He also scored 9 points in the first 6 minutes, as Michigan rushed out to a quick 18-9 run.

Another Wolverine player garnering rave reviews was freshman PG Trey Burke. Burke finished with 14 points and 4 assists, while getting high praises from Memphis coach, Josh Pastner. The Wolverines also got some key play from the bench, in particular PF Jon Horford (brother of Al Horford) who had 6 points, 6 boards and 4 blocked shots. Memphis was held to 33% shooting for the game with senior guard Chris Carmouche finishing as their only double-digit scorer with 14.

Coach John Beilein’s Michigan squad will take on Duke in their next game in Maui, a team that knocked them out of the NCAA tournament last season. Duke has never lost a game in Maui under coach Mike Krzyzewski, but I think this might be a first. It will undoubtedly be a fantastic match-up to see Hardaway Jr. and Burke up against the strong guard play of Duke. Meanwhile, Memphis plays in-state rival Tennessee to see if they can re-group after a tough loss at the hands of the Wolverines.

Balanced Effort Leads Duke over Tennessee, 77-67
(AP/USAToday.com)

Coach K added another win to his record, moving up to 905 after beating Tennessee. The Vols kept things close, but a nice first half close out with a couple of triples by freshman Austin Rivers had the Blue Devils rolling on all cylinders. Rivers finished with 18 while getting a helping hand from both Seth Curry and Ryan Kelly who each had 17. Andre Dawkins was the other Blue Devil in double digits with 10.

Tennessee hung tough behind new coach Cuonzo Martin, but ultimately succumbed to Duke’s ability to stretch the floor. Tennessee moved to 2-1 on the season and were lead by junior Jeronne Maymon with 14 and scrappy sophomore guard Trae Golden with 13. The undefeated Blue Devils will face another undefeated team in Michigan, who will be their highest ranked opponent in the season thus far. A number of teams have kept it close with Duke, so this will be a real test to see how they fare against a Michigan team on a hot streak.

UCLA Turns It Around in 2nd Half To Pick Up First Win
(Ben Bolch/LA Times)

UCLA only had a 40-38 lead going into halftime against DII Chaminade, making it look like they might once again be facing an upset. But, in the next half of play, the Bruins outscored their opponents by 30 to win the game 92-60. UCLA’s guards seemed to do the most to come out of their major shooting slump, finishing with 9 three pointers. Lazeric Jones scored 19 points while Jerime Anderson chipped in with 18 and 4 treys.

Sophomore Tyler Lamb also finished with 15 for his first double digit scoring game of the season. Joshua Smith also seemed to turn things around completely in the second sequence and was an immovable force in the paint, finishing with 12 points, 8 boards and 4 swats. Reeves Nelson, suspended for the first half of the game for missing the team flight to Maui, only played 11 minutes in the game, finishing with 1 point and 5 boards. Nonetheless, his energy seemed to play a big part in the Bruins turnaround during this game.

KU gets past Georgetown, 67-63
(Gary Bedore/KUSports.com)

In the last game of the day, #14 Kansas took down Georgetown to advance on to face UCLA in the semifinals of the Maui Invitational Tournament. Lead by PF Thomas Robinson’s 20 and 12, they fought off a scrappy Hoya’s squad. Tyshawn Taylor also had 16 for the Jayhawks and fought off 2nd half cramps to help seal the W.

Georgetown was lead by guard Jason Clark with 15, getting nice performances from lanky forwards Hollis Thompson and Otto Porter, who finished with 14 and 12 respectively. Kansas takes on UCLA in the next round for a chance at the Tournament title. Meanwhile, Georgetown takes on tourney host Chaminade in a chance to move to 3-1 on the season. One of those things is better than the other.

Sullinger, Ohio State Obliterate Ospreys, 85-50
(Ben Axelrod/The Lantern)

The #3 Ohio State Buckeyes destroyed the North Florida Ospreys, proving that all of the pre-season hype surround North Florida as a legitimate tourney team is at best half true. Jared Sullinger showed why he is thought by some (and yours truly) to be the odds on favorite for National Player of the Year, finishing with 27 points and 13 rebounds. DeShaun Thomas finished with a season high 16 and William Buford notched 13 to keep Ohio State rolling at 4-0.

Brad Tinsley Breaks an Oregon Schools Heart Once More
(The Oregonian/OregonLive.com)

Senior guard Brad Tinsley, originally from Oregon City, Oregon, made the #22 Vanderbilt Commodores a perfect 2-0 against Oregon schools this season. Tinsley’s pull-up jumper with 4.5 seconds left put Vandy up for good over foe Oregon State. The balanced Commodores were lead by 14 from shooting star John Jenkins with 13 from defensive specialist Jeffery Taylor.

Sophomores Devon Collier (6’8/F) and Ahmad Starks (5’9/G) lead the way for the OSU Beavers, finishing with 19 and 14 respectively. Early season star Jared Cunningham was held to only 9 points on the game, notching 7 steals, but also missing a potential game tying shot at the buzzer. Both teams are 4-1 on the year.

Behind Boynton, Beal Gators Bounce Wright St.
(AP/STLToday.com)

Kenny Boynton and Bradley Beal both scored 22 points as the #9 Florida Gators moved to 3-1 on the year after beating Wright St. 78-65. Florida made 12 triples on the game, half of them coming from Boynton. Erving Walker had 9 points and 7 dimes for the Gators, with Mike Rosario providing 11 off the bench for the guard heavy squad. Julius Mays had a valiant 21 in a losing effort for Wright St.

Marquette Win Power Jam
(Mike Nelson/The Marquette Tribune)

Buzz Williams boys at #17 Marquette barely escaped with a win after squeaking by Norfolk State, 59-57. Nonetheless, the win gives the Golden Eagles a 5-0 record and won them an early season tournament. Thus far, senior forward Jae Crowder has been a major part of the Golden Eagles success. Crowder had a 25-point game against Ole Miss early in the tournament, where he shot 9-11. In the Final, Crowder had 14 and 11 and was helped by Darius Johnson-Odom’s 20.

PG Junior Cadougan finished with 8 points and 6 helpers, though Vander Blue had an 0-7 night without notching a single point. Marquette is balanced and hungry, which has been a staple under Buzz Williams. They will look to be the hunted this year after last year being the hunter in their upset over Syracuse in the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament. I think this years team should do better in the Big East and I am guessing they at the very least want to get as far as last year’s Sweet 16 appearance.

Cal Bears Beat Georgia Bulldogs, 70-46
(Jonathan Kuperberg/The Daily Californian)

Kind of feels nice to see a Pac-12 team lay a beat down on the SEC, even if it is only basketball. #18 Cal keeps rolling, playing monster defense and looking like the premier team in the conference after handing the Bulldogs their first loss of the season in a 70-46 beat down. The Golden Bears will play Mizzou in the CBE Title game. Harper Kamp had 16 for Cal, who also got 14 from senior leader Jorge Gutierrez.

Tigers Fight Off Irish, 87-58
(Martin Manley/Upon Further Review/KansasCity.com)

Not to be outdone by the Golden Bears, Missouri had a whipping of its own to reach the CBE championship as they dismantled last years Big East runner-up Notre Dame, 87-58. Marcus Denmon had yet another impressive scoring performance with 26 points on an amazing 9-11 shooting from the field (2-3 from 3) and 6-7 from the line. Flip Pressey scored 17 and the Tigers shot a fantastic 58.2% from the field on the game. Forward Tim Abromaitis had a stellar 22 points on 9-18 shooting, though the Tigers D held Notre Dame to 37% on the day. Should be a fantastic CBE finale with Cal as both teams have been on top of their games and are undefeated.

J’Covan Brown Loses His Cool, Texas Loses To NC State
(Adam Zagoria/Austin American Statesman)

J’Covan Brown picked up a technical foul with 9:08 left in the game and his Texas Longhorns up by 13. The T, which was for apparently using profanity towards a referee gave Brown his fifth foul of the game (Technical Fouls count as Personal Fouls in NCAA Basketball) and he was thus ejected. This seemed to fuel the fire for the NC State Wolfpack who used a 25-9 run to win the game, 77-74.

CJ Leslie, in his second game back after being suspended the first 3 games of the year, led the Wolfpack with 17. Junior Scorr Wood had 16 and sophomore guard Lorenzo Brown 11 for NC State. Texas was still lead by Brown with 17 and had freshmen Jonathan Holmes and Sheldon McClellan each score 16. Texas freshman PG Myck Kabongo struggled mightily and finished with only a single point and 3 TO’s along with 3 assists.

That is all for today, hope everyone gets to watch some great College Basketball games and I will have more for everyone tomorrow!

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