Saturday, December 17th

Purdue Boilermakers 69, Davidson Wildcats 61

MaximumSam: Purdue gets ranked #1 and suddenly looks like the Bad News Bears. Some real shooting woes in this one, as Purdue shot a frigid 3-25 from three. Luckily, Zach Edey remained large, going for 29 and 16. The Battle of The Loyers was more a battle of bricks, as they combined to go 3-16 from three. Sparty remembers that Loyer.

BoilerUp89: Purdue had their third awful shooting game of the season but second in a row. This isn’t a great shooting team, but they’ve found a way to win all three of those games. I’m only partially concerned as this one was coming after finals week and I try not to take those individual results from this Saturday too seriously. It’s not like the team isn’t getting open shots. They just haven’t been hitting them the past two games. Take a deep breath, relax, and keep putting up good looks.

Congratulations are in order to Zach Edey for surpassing 1000 career points and 100 blocks. Also congratulations to Brandon Newman for getting his degree in 3.5 years.

I did not like the lineup combination of Mason Gillis and Trey Kaufman-Renn. I don’t think they fit together on the floor.

Kansas Jayhawks 84, Indiana Hoosiers 62

MaximumSam: Woof. Indiana looked out of sorts the entire game, leading to 23 turnovers and constant calls from Dickie V about how they were missing open guys all game. Xavier Johnson went down in real pain and didn’t return. He is out with the mysterious foot injury, so who knows when he’ll come back. Hood-Schifino returned and looked healthy, if not particularly effective. Burn the tape.

BoilerUp89: With the same caveat that this is the Saturday after finals - this was a real ugly game for the Hoosiers. Trayce Jackson-Davis had 13 points on just 4 of 8 shooting. Twenty-three turnovers is unacceptable.

All five starters for Kansas scored in double figures. Gradey Dick was as impressive as advertised and led all scorers with 20 points.

^That is an issue.

Illinois Fighting Illini 68, Alabama A&M Bulldogs 47

BoilerUp89: A bit of a sloppy affair for the Illini as both teams had 18 turnovers. Matthew Mayer had 21 points and Terrence Shannon Jr. had 18. The Illini won the rebounding battle by 13.

North Carolina Tar Heels 89, Ohio State Buckeyes 84 (OT)

MaximumSam: The basketball gods giveth and taketh away. The Buckeyes will be kicking themselves, as they controlled this game much of the way, but made a lot of mistakes down the stretch which gave North Carolina the opening to get a buzzer beater from Pete Nance to send it to overtime. Zed Key had a forgettable game, as he got bodied by Armanda Bacot and was mostly a nonfactor outside of a couple threes. It sounds like Ice Likekele will play again soon, which should help. Bruce Thornton looked a little sped up at times, and North Carolina found some success pressing OSU, which probably wouldn’t have been the case with Likekele.

Rutgers Scarlet Knights 81, Wake Forest Demon Deacons 57

MaximumSam: Rutgers straight up whooped Wake. I thought the Deacons might be shorthanded, but they weren’t. They were, however, completely unprepared for the RAC. Rutgers had five guys in double figures, and a Rutgers team that scores points is an intimidating prospect.

BoilerUp89: The trapezoid of terror strikes again. Rutgers defense generated 22 turnovers and the Scarlet Knights ran away with this one despite Damari Monsanto coming off the bench for Wake to lead all scorers with 22 points including six three-pointers.

Northwestern Wildcats 83, Depaul Blue Demons 45

BoilerUp89: Northwestern took control of this one early and never looked back. Chase Audige had a big game with 28 points including six three-pointers. Overall Northwestern shot 13 of 33 from three point range which is a recipe for success. In addition to the good shooting night, the Wildcats outrebounded and won the turnover battle by 10 each.

Michigan Wolverines 83, Lipscomb Bisons 75

MaximumSam: Once, again, Michigan gets all they want from a bottom 200 program.

Kansas State Wildcats 71, Nebraska Cornhuskers 56

BoilerUp89: KSU ran a shot rotation but did not have much of an issue in this one. Nebraska had issues making jump shots (19% from three, 32.1% from the field overall) and that was the difference in this game. Keyontae Johnson had 23 points and 11 rebounds for KSU to lead all scorers.

MaximumSam: Nebraska got totally boned in this game. They had to play in the Wildcat Classic. Their opponent? The Wildcats! I don’t think that’s a coincidence. How can you expect balanced play when the entire premise of the game is to celebrate the other team? Unfair!

Iowa Hawkeyes 106, Southeast Missouri St. Redhawks 75

BoilerUp89: Iowa eclipses 100 points again by shooting 57% from the field. Filip Rebraca overmatched the Redhawks and scored 30 with just one missed field goal attempt. The double-double eluded him by a rebound despite 37 minutes played.

The McCaffery brothers combined for 29 points, Payton Sandfort chipped in 24, and Fran managed to not get a technical called on him.

Iowa might want to check in on their defense though as that was the second highest point total allowed to Southeast Missouri St. in their 10 division-1 games this season.

Sunday, December 18th

Penn State Nittany Lions 97, Canisius Golden Griffins 67

BoilerUp89: Hopefully for Penn State fans, the Nittany Lions saved some of their three point shooting for conference play. Penn State went 13 of 22 from beyond the arc and was able to get deep into their bench in the 2nd half with six bench players logged 10+ minutes and another five appearing after them. Jalen Pickett had 16 points and 9 assists.

Caleb Dorsey started this one after missing PSU’s last game against Illinois (coach’s decision) but only played 4 minutes before coming out and not returning to the lineup. Not really sure what’s going on there. Of bigger concern is that Seth Lundy twisted his angle and did not play in the 2nd half. He was seen using crutches and with an ankle brace in the second half. Hopefully he returns to full health quickly.