Tuesday
Maryland 88, Charlotte 72
Jon Davis had 28 for the 49ers, but a balanced Maryland attack with five players in double-digits who remembered how to shoot in the second half and saw off a challenge from Charlotte in Baltimore.This Maryland team has yet to put together a full game sans the one against Jacksonville State so Big Ten play could be very tricky for the young Terps who start three freshmen.
DJ Carver could not be reached for extended comment, but at various points in our Slack channel he shouted:
20 turnovers
TWENTY
Lazy play infuriates me. I'm happy they are winning though :).
Maryland was down 1 at half and up 20+ with four or so to go, so looks like the big ten is going to have one of those years.
-MNWildcat with DJ Carver
Ohio State 77, Youngstown State 40
Keita Bates-Diop, Jae’Sean Tate, and Kam Williams each scored 15 points and Trevor Thompson added a double-double (11 points, 15 rebounds) as the Buckeyes blew-out the listless Penguins. OSU’s aggressive defense did exactly as it should against a lesser opponent, holding Y-State to 21% from the field and 9% from deep.
-MNWildcat
Nebraska 81, Southern 76
After an ugly loss over the weekend to Gardner-Webb, the Huskers have to be happy with getting the win, even though it was closer than many would like. Once again, Nebraska was beset by the same big problems it has faced all year—unreliable offensive production and turnovers. As has been noted many times, this is an incredibly young team, and it shows. Unfortunately, last night even Nebraska’s lone senior, normally reliable Tai Webster, caught the team’s shooting struggles until partway through the second half. But happily, Jeriah Horne, who has played mere minutes this season prior to last night, came off the bench with something to offer. He immediately hit a three (something the Huskers tend to be horrendous at doing), and then added 13 more points in the second half (in 12 minutes). Who knows if Horne will be part of the answer to the Huskers’ scoring woes, but in any event, it’s nice to know that potential is there.
The Huskers finish a tough non-con slate at 6-6. Next up, they travel to Indiana and to Maryland, neither of which is likely to go particularly well.
-BigRedTwice
Northwestern 87, IUPUI 65
Sanjay Lumpkin had 13 points and 13 rebounds, Bryant McIntosh struggled with his shot but dished out 9 assists, and Northwestern rolled the Jaguars at home. The ‘Cats assisted on 23 of 31 makes, rebounded at an impressive 40% OReb rate, and got 11 combined blocks from Barrett Benson and Gavin Skelly (who had 19 points on 9/12 shooting and is averaging 12 and 6 over his last five games off the bench).
The ‘Cats move on to face Houston Baptist tonight and need just the one more win to escape the non-conference with a possibly NCAA-worth resume of decent wins (Wake, Dayton, and Texas) and only good losses (Notre Dame and Butler).
-MNWildcat
Iowa 84, North Dakota 73
This was supposed to be a tune-up cupcake with a feel-good twist. Former Hawkeye great Jeff Horner is an assistant coach at North Dakota, and there are several Iowa natives playing for them, as well. Even the North Dakota coach is a former Iowa assistant coach under Fuckface McDouchecanoe. Overall it was a bit sloppy and physical. Iowa led all the game but couldn’t quite completely pull away for a blowout. In the second half the game became increasingly physical: A couple of Iowa players got hit with nut shots; Peter Jok was tackled on a hard foul during a fast break; On an out of bounds play Jordan Bohannon was attempting to get free and a UND player flopped, which resulted in Bohannon getting a tech:
@sammmidd pic.twitter.com/Tp8Q6SSvf1
— Hawkeye Hunz (@HawkeyeHunz) December 21, 2016
Yes that’s the Fighting [REDACTED]’s head coach calling Bohannon a “fucking prick”. Then at the end of the game, Nicholas Baer was holding onto the ball to finish the game, and was mugged, had the ball stolen, and UND attempted to get a buzzer beater (for no apparent reason). At that point Fran had had enough and walked off the court without doing a handshake. After that, all hell broke loose with HOT TAEKS.
Here are some things to get straight:
- This wasn’t just about the buzzer beater, this was the culmination of incidents throughout the game.
- UND has a bit of a reputation for this sort of play. In their previous game against North Dakota State, they had 3 players ejected.
- Fran stated that he didn’t want any further incidents during a handshake line. Which seems like a bit of a lame reason, because that could have been headed off by a timeout, or a brief huddle after the game ended. I think that he just didn’t want to respect their team for playing that way. And you know, there’s something to that. Why shake hands hands with a team/coaches that just played like punks?
- Fran should still have shaken hands. Be the bigger man, the better team, the better sports. Maybe even have a few choice words about how the game played out. That’s ok.
- This is all being blown up way, WAY out of proportion. This is not a huge deal. So they didn’t shake hands after a physical game because of the way the other team played? Big fuckin’ deal. At least there’s a reason, unlike in a pregame handshake (looks over at Maryland).
-StewMonkey13
Wednesday
#15 Purdue 91, Norfolk State 45
32 points. 20 rebounds. Caleb Swanigan.
That is your recap, because holy shit this kid is good.
Penn State 96, Morgan State 55
Lamar Stevens erupted for 20 points, Tony Carr was two assists short of a triple-double (11, 10, and 8), and the Nittany Lions manhandled the Bears, using a 49-32 rebounding advantage to see them off in short order at home.
Illinois 75, Missouri 66
Maverick Morgan had another double-double (17 pts, 11 reb), Malcolm Hill added a ho-hum 21 points, and Illinois harassed Mizzou into a 36% night from the field, dominating the glass and leading the entire way while never quite burying the Tigers in St. Louis.
BRAG BRAG BRAG BRAG BRAG BRAG BRAG
Missouri is very very bad. We'll either shape up or be exposed immediately in conference play.
-MNWildcat with Thumpasaurus
Michigan State 77, Oakland 65
Nick Ward, making his first start for Tom Izzo, erupted for 25 points and 9 rebounds, justifying his continued increased playing time as the Spartans went from leading by just 2 early in the second half to a comfortable win over the Golden Grizzlies. Tight Spartan defense harried Martez Walker, this year’s heir to Kay Felder, into a 2/12 night from the field, while Eron Harris chipped in 15 from the bench and Cassius Winston added 8 assists.
You tell us: Do you think Fran was justified walking off the court? Is Nebraska going to keep skidding? Why isn’t this The Year?
Show your work.