Weekend Quick Hitters

Ok, nothing too special about this segment. Just a few sentences about the major teams that played Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. There weren't really any exciting games, except for Kentucky's loss to VMI (I'll get into that in MUCH more detail later)

UConn - beat Western Carolina, 81-55. Thabeet is a beast. A. J. Price's knee looked good but he didn't register a point in 25 minutes of play. He also twisted his ankle pretty bad in the first half and was ejected for a flagrant foul with just over 7 minutes left

Pitt- beat Farleigh Dickinson 86-63. Lavance Fields showed no signs of his former foot injury and DeJuan Blair went off for 17 points and 13 rebounds in 27 minutes of play.

Texas - beat Stetson 68-38. Abrams was 5-9 from 3 pt, Atchley and James had 14 and 13 points respectively, and Texas held Stetson to 26 % shooting.

Purdue - beat Detroit 82-50. E'Twaun Moore paced the Boilers with 18 off the bench, JaJuan Johnson had 17 points (look for an enhanced role from him on offense this year), and Purdue set a school record with only 3 turnovers. Not bad for your first game

Oklahoma - beat American 83-54. Blake Griffin had 24 points and a career high 18 boards. However, he was only 5 for 14 from the line. Sophomore Cade Davis chipped in 11, including 3 threes.

Arizona St - beat Miss Valley St 80-64. James Harden had a double-double (24 points, 10 assists). But get this: Arizona St shot almost 58 percent from the floor and had 24 assists for 26 baskets, but head coach Herb Snedek said he still thought his players were too deliberate and the ball didn't move freely. I wonder what this team could do when they aren't this slow...

Marquette - beat Houston Baptist 95-64. Wesley Matthews had 27 to lead everyone and Jerel McNeal pitched in 20. Junior Forward Lazar Hayward added 19 points, and maybe he can be a frontcourt option for a Marquette team that needs one. One final note... the guy who led Houston Baptist in scoring, Gordon Watt, used to play for Purdue. Go figure

Florida - beat Toledo 80-58. Dan Werner had 19 points to lead Florida, while Calathes added 16 points and 7 assists. Florida forced Toledo into 4 10 second violations. I rarely see even one a game in the games I watch... interesting

Davidson - beat Guilford 107-83. Stephon Curry appeared to settle into his new role of scorer/distributor/do-everything, with 29 points, 10 assists, and 9 steals. Andrew Lovedale added 16 in the paint for the Wildcats.

Wake Forest - beat North Carolina Central 94-48. 5 guys scored in double figures for the Demon Deacons, including freshmen Al-Farouq Aminu (21 points) and Tony Woods (12 points). Wake shot almost 60%, NCCU shot almost 27%. If you weren't a believer in Wake before this season... you might want to re-think that

Villanova - beat Albany 78-60. Lots of scoring distribution for the Wildcats as six players all had 10 or more. Scottie Reynolds scored all of his 13 in the 2nd half but was only 4-11 from the floor. Nova is missing senior guard Dwayne Anderson (out indefinitely with a stress fracture) and senior forward Shane Clark (surgery on his right knee, out 3-6 weeks)

Other random non Top-25 stuff:
Virginia Tech was outscored 36-25 by Gardner-Webb in the 2nd half and barely held on to win 65-62. Oregon squeaked out a win over Northern Colorado. And... poor Oregon State... they lost to Howard 47-45. 0-18 in Pac-10 play, here we come. Again

Oh, and this team from the University of Kentucky... ever heard of them? They lost to VMI 111-103. AND they were lucky it was that close. VMI had over a 20 point lead on Kentucky with 14 minutes to go in the game. Anyway, I plan on writing a piece on this Wildcats team in the near future, because that's now two embarrassing losses in two years for Billy Gillispie and this Wildcats team, and now they're going to have to make another miracle run to get back in the tournament this year. Sad, sad happenings in Lexington.