Thursday, Dec. 10th in College Basketball

John Wall shows us once again why he's a special player. With the Wildcats struggling to score down the stretch, Wall put his team on his back, scored 12 of the final 15 points for UK, and led them to a 64-61 victory over UConn. Wall seems to live for these big moments, and down the stretch he was basically unstoppable no matter who Calhoun put on him. Kentucky still has turnover problems (Wall especially), they still can't shoot from the outside, they still have issues executing in a halfcourt set... but they're 9-0 and they've beaten some pretty good teams in road venues (and let's face it, MSG was primarily UConn fans last night). The Huskies weren't bad yesterday but they found ways to shoot themselves in the foot, whether it be inopportune turnovers or giving up offensive rebounds. I'd like to believe this is a top 10 team, but they need more consistency out of Jerome Dyson in order for that to happen. Top 15, Top 20 seems more reasonable at this point.

Meanwhile, Wisconsin fell in overtime to Green Bay, as the defense that gave Nolan Smith and Jon Scheyer fits was non-existant (48% shooting, 9-18 from three for GB). For the 2nd game in a row Nova gave up over 85 but simply out-scored their opponents. They have a TON of weapons and are incredibly difficult to shut down. Kansas clubbed another nobody and the other ranked teams took care of business. And Oral Roberts stunned Missouri on a last second lay-up, dealing a big blow to the Tigers. Here's what's up tonight:

Game of the Night:

Syracuse v. Florida: The SEC/Big East Two Day Event/Challenge Thingy continues with a very intriguing matchup. This young Gators team has handled everything thrown at them so far and has looked really good doing so. This team has four guys scoring in double figures and and has been superb defensively. The same could be said for Syracuse (by the way, this seems to be a theme. Team loses key player, team focuses on defense, team is actually better. See Gonzaga another example) but the Orange offense is more focused around one guy, Wesley Johnson. It will be interesting to see how this offense operates when Johnson is not shooting 60% from the floor. It's going to happen eventually, and why not against a defensive-minded team that has some size? I'll take Florida in a 2nd straight minor upset.

Pick: Florida 75, Syracuse 70

Others:

DePaul v. Mississippi St: Actually might be a decent game.

Colorado v. Colorado St: Yay for rivalry games between two irrelevant teams.