Off Tackle Open Threads: Nov. 13th Basketball

Recaps

Rutgers Scarlet Knights 66, Bryant Bulldogs 57

MaximumSam: Rutgers found the sledding surprisingly tough against Bryant. They were down in the second half and only up two with two minutes to play. Gavin Griffiths got stuffed in a trash can and finished with five points on 2-11 shooting. Still they did sign the third overall prospect on 247 for next year in Ace Bailey, so I figure they were distracted.

BoilerUp89: Things are so bad for Rutgers that after losing to them Bryant head coach resigned today.

UAB Blazers 66, Maryland Terrapins 63

MaximumSam: Kevin Willard is going to send a strongly worded letter to the Asheville Tourist Department, because his team was not warmly welcomed to North Carolina. After dropping the first game to Davidson, Maryland led much of the second game, but then let up a 20-3 run to UAB in the second half and that was all she wrote. This quote from Testudo Times is perfect:

“(Noah) Batchelor, a sophomore, earned his second career start against the Blazers, a move Willard made to provide more shooting. Batchelor finished the game with zero points on 0-for-2 shooting and a rebound.”

BoilerUp89: Andy Kennedy is a solid coach and UAB is a decent team, but Maryland’s got some problems they need to iron out. Credit to Eric Gaines for scoring 20 points to lead the Blazers to victory.

Indiana Hoosiers 72, Army Black Knights 64

MaximumSam: A much tougher than expected victory for the Hoosiers, who were tied with Army with less than four minutes to go. Indiana was in a giving mood for Veteran’s Day weekend, and had 18 turnovers. Luckily, the guy guarding Kel’el Ware has to fit in a tank, and Ware finished with 20. Indiana is still very much a work in progress, and heralded freshman Mackenzie Mgbako has given them nothing. Get the man some chalupas, coach!

BoilerUp89: Mgbako has been disappointing to put it lightly. Luckily for Indiana, Army did not have anyone that can guard Kel’el Ware and they were able to feed him the ball down the stretch.

Previews

#46 Michigan Wolverines (+2.5) at #54 St. John’s Red Storm, 5:30 pm, FS1

MaximumSam: Michigan looks to prove their early success is no fluke and head on the road to face Rick Pitino’s Red Storm. A bit hard to say much about St. John’s - they are a hodgepodge of transfers and have only played one game, a blowout win over Stony Brook. Penn transfer Jordan Dingle can put the ball in the net, and they do have a legit big guy in fifth year senior Joel Soriano. Torvik goes St. John’s by a bucket, 78-76.

BoilerUp89: Michigan has improved upon my preseason expectations for them the most out of any Big Ten team but if we are being honest it wasn’t the greatest competition. Tonight’s contest will see whether those improvements are real or if Michigan was just beating up on subpar opponents. St. John’s is 1-0 with a 16 point win over Stony Brook so we don’t know much about them yet either. They did have their top 7 rotation players all make a three pointer in their opener.

#240 Rider Broncs at #41 Nebraska Cornhuskers (-14.5), 7 pm, BTN

MaximumSam: Rider, I hardly know her! Torvik says Nebraska, 81-63. Rider was blown out by Marquette 65-95.

BoilerUp89: This is the start of the Cornhusker Classic, Nebraska’s MTE. Shame!

#75 Xavier Musketeers at #1 Purdue Boilermakers (-16.5), 7:30 pm, FS1

MaximumSam: Purdue gets their first reasonable test of the year against the X-Men. Sean Miller lost a bunch of guys from last year’s Sweet Sixteen team, so Xavier has the look of a ragtag transfer bunch. They’ve started 2-0 against a pair of sub-250 teams, but early on sophomore wing Desmond Claude has led them in minutes and scoring. North Texas transfer Abou Ousmane gets the task of guarding Edey. Torvik says Purdue, 80-64.

BoilerUp89: Purdue has lost 5 straight to Xavier - a streak that I would very much like to see end tonight. Xavier will miss forwards Zach Freemantle and Jerome Hunter for the year leaving them dangerously thin in the post. Purdue has come out with murderous intent in their first two games this season. Look for them to try and continue that in their first game against a top 100 opponent.

Here’s a full schedule for the night’s basketball: