The Duke Blue Devils, Pittsburgh Panthers and Florida Gators entered road games on Saturday as the only remaining undefeated team in college hoops. The Wisconsin Badgers, sitting atop the Big Ten, hosted an opponent in the process of making the jump from Div. II to Div. I. All of these teams ended up on the losing end of a day full of excitement.
Duke lost 87-84 to the Georgetown Hoyas in a game that wasn't as close as it looks. The Hoyas shot 61 percent from the field and had five players score in double figures, led by Brandon Bowman's 23 points. Georgetown led by as many as 16 early in the second half before Duke, led by J.J. Redick, mounted a comeback. Redick was stellar, tying a career-high 41 points and illustrating his superiority in the national field.
However, Redick got little help from his teammates. Shelden Williams was held to a season-low four points on two-for-eight shooting. The Hoyas went right at him, scoring at will and getting him in early foul trouble. While Greg Paulus did have 14 points, he failed to get the ball to Redick for a potential three-pointer that would have tied the game, instead getting stripped by Georgetown's Jonathan Wallace and foiling Duke's comeback attempt. The victory is massive for Georgetown, which is underrated and trying to make the NCAA Tournament out of the Big East, the best conference in college basketball.
Pittsburgh fell to the St. John's Red Storm, 55-50, in another game that saw a comeback fall short. St. John's went on a 14-0 run to begin the game and held a 12-point halftime lead. The Panthers came back, tying the game late in the second half, but the Red Storm regained the lead and held off the Panthers. Carl Krauser missed two three-pointers that would have tied the game, and St. John's hit their free throws down the stretch to hang on.
The Red Storm won with defense, holding the Panthers to 35.2 percent shooting from the field, including three-for-sixteen from beyond the arc. With this win and the victory over the Louisville Cardinals, St. John's is clearly a team headed on the right track under coach Norm Roberts.
The Gators, in the least surprising of Saturday's results, fell to the Tennessee Volunteers, 80-76. The Vols were 11-3 and had blown out the No. 6 Texas Longhorns in Austin last month, showing that they were capable of playing with the nation's top teams. This game, unlike the other two, was close from start to finish, especially in the second half as neither team led by more than four points over the final 12 minutes.
The Vols were able to hang on despite the foul-out of point guard and leading scorer C.J. Watson with 2:53 remaining. Watson had been ineffective, shooting one-for-eight and scoring only six points. Tennessee's scoring was led by Chris Lofton, who had 29 points. Lofton has combined with Watson to form one of the better backcourts in the NCAA.
Florida played with its typical balance but could not pull out a victory. All five of its starters average double figures in scoring, and four of them did it against the Vols. The only one who failed to score over ten points was guard Lee Humphrey, who missed a three with six seconds left that would have given Florida the lead.
Lofton got the rebound from Humphrey's missed shot, was fouled, and made both free throws to provide the final margin. New coach Bruce Pearl, who was hired after leading the Wisconsin-Milwaukee Panthers to the Sweet 16 last year, has the Vols playing great basketball in his first year in Knoxville.
With these three upsets aside, the most shocking result of the day, and arguably of the season, was Wisconsin's loss to the North Dakota State Bison, a new addition to the world of Div. I basketball. No, that isn't a typo.
The Badgers were defeated at the Kohl Center, where they have proved nearly unbeatable - until now. Their 27-game non-conference home winning streak was snapped by the Bison, who held the Badgers to an atrocious 16-for-72 from the field, including 4-for-27 from three-point range. The Bison won 62-55. Despite forcing 24 turnovers and grabbing 13 more offensive rebounds, Wisconsin could not overcome a 16-point first half deficit and a generally terrible performance.
The Bison were led by freshman Ben Woodside's 24 points, and were also helped in their gameplan by assistant coach Saul Phillips, formerly an assistant under Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan. North Dakota State allowed the Badgers to shoot from the outside and defended the paint, resulting in Wisconsin's terrible offensive performance.
While the Bison are still ineligible for postseason play, the victory put them on the map and is exemplary of the excitement and unexpected results that make college basketball great. With conference play now in full swing, expect more fantastic games in the coming weeks.
