College Basketball Recap - Nov 20th

Not a good day for the Pac-10. Two days after Arizona State had a pretty awful looking win over San Diego St., top 20 teams UCLA and USC go down to unranked opponents. USC blew a 15 point halftime lead vs. Seton Hall, shooting just over 21 percent in the 2nd half. The Trojans got good production from Taj Gibson (8-13 shooting, 19 points) but didn't get much from anyone else offensively, including freshman DeMar DeRozan (3 points in 20 minutes). Meanwhile, Seton Hall's defense stepped up and the Pirates got an important non-conference win. These are the kind of wins those lower tier Big East teams are going to have to get if the conference wants to get 10 teams in.

As for UCLA... they fell to Michigan 55-52 in the Coaches v. Cancer semis. UCLA has played this methodical, slow-paced style for a few years now, and it's worked well, but if they can't get consistent offensive performance, they're not going to be able to do this successfully. Josh Shipp (2-9 shooting) and Alfred Aboya (5 points) will have to contribute more down the stretch if UCLA is going to want to be a Final Four team. I think they're missing not just Kevin Love but guys like Mbah a Moute who provided a consistent scoring option in the post. That's something these Bruins lack. At least Holiday played well. As for the Wolverines, look out. This team may not be a tournament team, but they are much improved from last year and got big performances from DeShawn Sims (18 points) and Stu Douglass (10 points, 5 assists). We all know Manny Harris will be good, but if Sims can step up and be that 2nd viable scoring option, Michigan will not fall into as many offensive ruts as they did last year, particularly in the 2nd half.

As for the other Coaches v. Cancer semifinal, Duke and SIU played a fairly tight game but SIU never really made a charge and Duke pulled away late 83-58. The Salukis played the Blue Devils physical and tough but it ended up costing them in the end as they were in constant foul trouble throughout most of the 2nd half and had 47 free throws which amounted to almost half their points. 4 Duke players scored in double figures, including Brian Zoubek (10 pts, 68 from the line) who could be huge for Duke in the post later this season. As for SIU, this team is well coached for the most part and they are disciplined but not experienced and were somewhat undermanned vs. Duke.

In other top 25 news, Florida escaped some horrible 3 pt shooting woes to beat Southern Utah 64-50, and Memphis took down Chattanooga 83-71. They'll face Seton Hall tonight in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off, while Chattanooga and USC will face off before them. Also remember tonight... Duke v. Michigan and UCLA v. SIU. Should be a good night of college basketball!