Happenings in Basketball

 

There was some great basketball played yesterday. Unfortunately I was only able to watch a few games. I was able to catch most of the Syracuse-Memphis game, a decent amount of the second half of the Michigan State-Texas game, and the final few minutes and overtime of the Connecticut-Gonzaga game, and the first five minutes of the Davidson-Perdue game (that's all I wanted to watch).

Plus there was Duke-Xavier, Minnesota upsetting Louisville, and 3 games with unranked teams loosing to ranked teams by 3 or less.

And there were what looked like to be a bunch of great games in the NBA. The Lakers lost to the Magic...whoops.

So after looking through all the box scores (a favorite past time of mine) there were some things that stuck out to me.

I guess I'll start with Davidson. I love this team, Steph Curry is awesome. However he did not have a good night. 5 of 26 for only 13 points. Purdue got out to a huge lead with a real physical defense and that was pretty much the end of that. Plus Curry was matched up against Big-10 defensive player of the year Chris Kramer. I saw a stat on Sports Center that said Davidson has lost 52 or 56 consecutive regular season games vs. ranked opponents. I found that hard to believe and cannot find it online, but I don't think ESPN would lie to us.

Michigan State pulled off a big win against Texas. Funny thing about that game was that the Michigan State bench outscored their starters. I can't imagine there have been many times a team ranked 5th in the nation (or better) has fallen when that has been the case.

Jodie Meeks of Kentucky scored 46 points on only 14 made field goals. Talk about efficiency.

And I'm sure there were some other pretty cool things that I've missed.

No player on the Bulls last night had more than 3 assists and they still managed to get a win against the Jazz.

Eight players for Milwaukee scored in double figures. Talk about balance.

Kobe scored a season high 41 points last night. And the Lakeshow still lost their second game in a row.

Chris Paul had 34 points and almost had a triple double with 9 assists and 8 steals against the Kings. The Hornets as a team only had 6 turnovers, meaning Chris Paul forced more turnovers by himself then the Kings did as a team.

Jamal Crawford scored 50 points against the Bobcats, and made 17 of 18 free throws. The Charlotte Observer reported the Warriors and Bobcats were talking trades involving Raymond Felton. He played 45 minutes shot 6 of 19 (32%), had 8 assists, 2 rebounds and 4 turnovers. Not the best audition in the world. But maybe he doesn't want to go play for Don Nelson's squad and played poorly to try and scare the Warriors away. But maybe not.

Dwayne Wade had his 4th 40+ point game of the season.

Andre Miller had a triple double in a losing effort against the Pacers.

Finally I have to mention running back Gartrell Johnson of Colorado State. 27 rushes for 285 yards and 2 touchdowns and 5 receptions for 90 yards. It was the most combined rushing and receiving yards ever in a bowl game and the second most rushing yards in a bowl game as he led the Rams to a win against Fresno State.

And that's all I've got for today.