Sunday night basketball.
Big Ten Recaps
Oregon Ducks 98, Eastern Washington Eagles 71
MaximumSam: Wei Lin, who I forgot was even on the team, dropped 20 and added 4 assists. The new Linsanity.
Valparaiso Beacon 83, Purdue Boilermakers 80 (2OT)
BoilerUp89: Before we go any further, hat tip to Rakim Chaney. The Rockford, Illinois native lit up the scoreboard and scored 35 points to power Valparaiso back into the game when their offense was struggling. Secondly, this is the exact type of game more high major teams should be playing. Yes, there is a risk you lose and that loss will sting but you can't tell me it wasn't good for the sport at large for Purdue to play a close game against an in-state program. Okay, on to my Purdue recap.
The defense was great in the first half holding the Beacon to just 20 points. However, as the game went on Valpo discovered that they could get to a midrange jumper without issues and attacked that soft spot again and again and again. The inability of any Boilermaker guard/wing to play one-on-one D and fight through screens to return to the play quickly was a disappointment and at some point in the second half the coaching staff should have made an adjustment in how they were defending the high ball screens. The fact they didn't tells me that improving the defensive execution was more important to them than any one game and I'm not sure that's the correct move here.
Daniel Jacobsen was effective. 28 points, 10 rebounds, and an efficient box score line. He was noticeably tired at multiple stretches though and it affected his rebounding and defensive effort. He's got to improve his conditioning to play high minute totals.
Almost everyone else stunk on offense. Outside of Jacobsen the team went a combined 15 of 51 from the field (29% for the mathematically challenged). 18% from three. Antoine West was 2 of 10 (1 of 9 from three). The biggest offender was starting PG Omer Mayer. Mayer went 1 of 11 and had some extremely questionable shot attempts that resulted in him being benched down the stretch for the second consecutive game. Purdue can't feed Jacobsen every possession - he's not in good enough shape - but when you have a critical possession late you can't take a contested midrange with 20+ seconds on the shot clock and not even looking to get the center the ball.
The defense can be mostly fixed. The offense - someone is going to have to figure out how to shoot and soon. Otherwise the keys are going to be turned over to the undersized and physically not ready Ertel and Webber at some point.
glass: Ertel needs to start with Cox and Harris in the backcourt. Mayer plays like he is trying to earn an NBA contract on every possession and should barely see the floor against either sneaky good Illinois St or Ohio. Purdue better hope Valpo stays about 160 in the NET so this loss doesn't fall to a Q4.
The Ohio State Buckeyes 89 , Youngstown State Penguins 65
BoilerUp89: This game was close well into the 2nd half and then all of a sudden it wasn't thanks to a 13-0 run that gave the Buckeyes some breathing room. Mobley had 25 points.
MaximumSam: Andrija Jelavic had a nice game - wasn't expecting him to play as much. Probably bad for the defense if he's the starting center.
Rutgers Scarlet Knights 81, New Haven Chargers 54
BoilerUp89: Nothing major stands out about this game so I'll note it is the first career victory for Brandin Knight.
Wisconsin Badgers 73, Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens 64
BoilerUp89: The lack of a bench is going to catchup to Wisconsin at some point, but not against Delaware. The Fightin' Blue Hen Chuck Bailey III led all scorers with 25.
Connecticut Huskies 85, Michigan Wolverines 77
BoilerUp89: Give Michigan credit for keeping this close. 25% from three isn't going to cut it against UConn although we should recognize their perimeter defense had a lot to do with that.
Northwestern Wildcats 78, Stony Brook Seawolves 65
MNW: Northwestern handled Stony Brook, because they shot something like eleven billion percent from deep. The latter part is nice; the former less so because it’s not likely we would’ve done so without the former.
The ’Cats have no frontcourt, ostensibly, unless Luke McEldon comes back from his leave of absence. That’s a problem.
Anyway onto whatever tomato can is next before the Mayor’s Key on Friday.
Minnesota Golden Gophers 76, St. Thomas Tommies 62
BoilerUp89: The Tommies kept it close for 8 minutes but an extending scoring drought to end the 1st half allowed Minnesota to pull away and the Gophers held them at arms length the rest of the way. Minnesota finished with a 50-31 rebounding advantage.
Iowa Hawkeyes 91, Eastern Illinois Panthers 47
UCLA Bruins 114, North Florida Ospreys 63
MaximumSam: I for one welcome our new Serbian overlords.
Nebraska Cornhuskers 67, Providence Friars 58
BoilerUp89: This is a nice win that should pay dividends come March. Both teams had issues with turnovers and neither shot the ball very well (Providence was worse in this regard) but Nebraska had Sandfort to bail them out while Providence lacked a counterpart.
Georgetown Hoyas 86, Maryland Terrapins 74
BoilerUp89: Don't overreact to this loss. Maryland outscored Georgetown by 20 in the paint and outrebounded them by 10. That's what Buzz wants to do. Unfortunately Georgetown picked tonight to go 50% from three while the Terps went 15% from outside. Those games happen to the best of teams.
Sunday Big Ten Previews
#90 Pittsburgh Panthers (2-0) v. #118 Penn State Nittany Lions (2-0)
Philadelphia, 8 pm ET, ESPN2
glass: Someone is going to take a Q3 loss and someone is going to earn a Q3 win. Yuck.
#32 Southern Cal Trojans (1-0) v. #74 Wichita State Shockers (1-0)
Lake Tahoe Classic, 11 pm ET, CW
glass: A decent barometer game for two programs with tournament expectations.
BoilerUp89: Old friend Will Berg plays for Wichita. While Purdue fans may watch and wonder what could have been, a reminder that the center position isn't the problem.
Other Games of Note
#24 Arkansas Razorbacks (1-0) v. #6 Virginia Cavaliers (2-0), 1 pm, ESPN, Washington D.C.
#82 Butler Bulldogs (2-0) at #87 Boise St Broncos (1-0), 2 pm, USA
#63 Saint Mary's Gaels (2-0) v. #77 Nevada Wolfpack (1-0), 4:30 pm, MW+, Lake Tahoe Classic
#110 Richmond Spiders (2-0) at #122 Temple Owls (1-0), 5 pm, ESPN2
#5 Houston Cougars (1-0) v. #96 California Golden Bears (2-0), 8:30 pm, CW, Lake Tahoe Classic
America East - Metro Challenge
glass: Credit to Ronald Nored for taking Butler on a dangerous road trip to Boise. The St Mary's backcourt of (insert Lithuanian name) and (insert Australian name) seems to be humming along without Randy Bennett. Doesn't hurt that those two have been joined by 5 star Darius Bivins. Richmond (1 tournament in 15 years) and Temple (1 tournament in 11 years) are two programs who should be in the NCAAs a whole lot more than they are.
Sickos Special: #178 Green Bay Phoenix (0-1) @ 146 St Thomas Tommies (1-1), 2pm (the not made up) Summit League Network
glass: Both are expected to finish in the top 3 of their respective low major leagues and both are coming off not embarrassing themselves in road losses to high major programs. It will be easy enough for St Thomas to play a back to back when they never had to leave the Twin Cities. And despite being a wholly unpleasant individual Doug Gottlieb continues to prove he is actually a decent head basketball coach.
