A cornucopia of great action in New York City and Maui Wednesday night. The final round of the Maui Invitational and semifinal action in Preseason NIT took center stage.
Turkey of the Night
(1) North Carolina 102, (8) Notre Dame 87
The Tar Heels established pretty clearly that they are the best team in the country with a dominating win over Notre Dame. The speed of Ty Lawson and Tyler Hansbrough's offensive efficiency had the Irish struggling to keep up with UNC.
Down two points early, North Carolina went on a 26-9 run to jump out to a 15-point lead that the Fighting Irish could only trim to 10 entering the half.
The second half was more of the same, as UNC used an 18-9 run to open the half and bury the Irish.
The Tar Heels did something few teams have been able to do, and that's contain Luke Harangody. The junior center didn't have a lot of legs left, playing his third game in three days. Harangody posted a subpar 13 points and eight rebounds.
North Carolina won its third Maui Invitational Title in the last 10 years.
Cranberry Sauce of the Night
(13) Oklahoma 77, UAB 67
With the game teetering on getting away, down eight early in the second half, Blake Griffin decided he was going to take over. In a three-minute stretch, the super sophomore scored eight points and grabbed two rebounds. UAB didn't have an answer for the OU center all game. Griffin put up an astounding 32 points and 15 rebounds.
A late 17-2 run finally put the Blazers to bed, but UAB showed it'll be a team that will compete with Memphis for the Conference USA crown.
Griffin didn't have to do it all himself either. Tony Crocker and Cade Davis both supplied four three-pointers to establish the Sooners' inside-outside game.
UAB controlled the first half behind fifth-year senior Paul Delaney III and went into the break up five points.
Pumpkin Pie of the Night
Indiana 81, Chaminade 79
Yes, Indiana University, the Hoosiers, Bobby Knight's former program, needed to survive a missed buzzer beater to defeat a Division II team. The Hoosiers jumped out to a 9-0 lead but could never put the Silverswords away, and a missed free throw with seconds left gave Chaminade's Noah Gottlieb enough time to hoist an air ball at the buzzer.
Indiana leaves Maui as the seventh-place finisher in the Maui Invitational.
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about 1 month ago
Good, clever recaps.
For Lehigh, I'm pretty sure their one loss was by one point against Rider. They blew a pretty good lead and lost.
from about 1 month ago
Yeah Lehigh's only is to Rider, they had that back to back games against lehigh/lafayette since they are 15 minutes from each other.
Just wait til you see my black Friday themed preview of the weekend if you like good, clever recaps hahha.
about 1 month ago
Ugh, you forgot about the Oklahoma-Marist women's game, but for embarrassment's sake, I suppose it's better it was left out.
I'm glad the Big East mouths have been put to rest after all that nonsense about Harangody showing up Hansbrough.
from about 1 month ago
I do plan on dabbling into women's basketball in the future, at least highlighting the biggest game when its my day to do the daily recap, but I had to be up at 6AM today to go report at a high school football game so as soon as the UNC game was over this thing was up on the web.
As for the Big East, it's still the hands down best conference and its not even close. Yeah, UNC is the best team in the country, but as a whole the ACC doesn't compare to the Big East.
from about 1 month ago
Which conference do you think the National Champion will come from?
from about 1 month ago
ACC. That doesn't give it bragging rights though. The Big East has four of the top ten teams and eight of the top 25, all the bragging rights belong to the Big East.
from about 1 month ago
I understand and respect what you're saying. I just think that if the title comes to the ACC and the big matchups are won by the ACC, that's what we'll remember next year.
from about 1 month ago
I get where you are coming from, but this year the Big East should be the best a conference has ever been and that's what will be remembered along with UNC's likely title. It'll give the ACC the bragging rights of having the national champion, but anyone who follows college basketball will likely realize the overall superiority of the Big East this year.
from about 1 month ago
I just don't know how you can be so enthusiastic about a 16-team conference. It's wacky. How can you defend a schedule where you only see THREE conference opponents twice in-season?
I concede that Big East teams' schedules are still full of great tests, but don't you want to 'Cuse to host UConn? Wouldn't you like to play Notre Dame later than January when both teams are fully seasoned?
I know I'd rather see the second or third best team in the MAC or the MVC in the Big Dance as opposed to the No. 10 Big East team.
Maybe that's just me.
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