Well it's about that time. November. Exhibition games started this past weekend. Real games start in a matter of days.
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Here's to another great year and maybe another 16 beating a 1.
I'm so excited. So many good games on tonight!
That Duke game though.... Good lord. I expected Duke to be tough, but daaaaaaaaamn.
They're going to be hard to beat. The starting 5 has a SERIOUS concentration of talent, and they have some solid folks coming off the bench as well.
Oh, I don't think they'll make it through the season unscathed. The ACC is an 'any given evening' kind of place, y'know?
They're not playing any serious contenders for a few weeks, but they're also an injury or so away from losing a lot of talent on the 1st five on the floor. Still, last night was as dominant a performance as I've seen in recent years. UK has some good players on the roster, but last night just seemed shellshocked by the Duke assault. There was never a real resurgence to close out, and it seemed like all 5 positions on the Duke side could score nearly at will.
I definitely didn't expect the 34 point lopsided victory.
My Tarheels, by comparison, looked shaky to start, and didn't finish as strongly as I'd like. They won the game, getting a little revenge for the loss at home last year (the only game I actually went to. Sheesh).
Sadly, I no longer have the option for cheaper UNC home game tickets.
In other news... Michigan kinda crushed Villanova last night. AT Villanova. A little revenge for last year's championship game (though not over the same team, really)?
I dunno if it was a combination of a bad night (V) vs a good night (M), but it was a good old fashioned shellacking.
Yes, I am excited about ALL THE BASKETBALL EVER.
Duke looked good against SDSU last night, but i'm really interested in how they match up with Auburn tonight, and then a potential match up with Arizona or Gonzaga should they win!
UNC starts its gauntlet this week as well @ Texas on Thursday, followed by @ Michigan (eep, they dismantled Villanova... but so did Furman?!), UNC-W, and then Gonzaga and Kentucky!
Ugh. Hopefully we go at least 3-2 in that stretch. I'd love to win them all, but I suspect Michigan and/or Gonzaga will have our number.
Duke looked as talented as always, but the presence of some additional experience on the floor and hot shooting by a couple of Auburn players kept them in the game. If Auburn made another ~15-20% of their shots in the first half, we might have had a different outcome. It was probably Duke's first real test of the season, and it was interesting to see how they responded.
Tonight's matchup with Gonzaga should be a good game to watch.
Welp, it WAS a good game. I missed most of it, since we have company.
Gonzaga will definitely be a threat this season, and will probably crush UNC when we play them in a week.
I think some of the early rankings were based on scouting and last season success... Tennessee is definitely good, but I don't know if they're #5 good. Kinda like UNC. I think we're good, but I don't know about top-10 at this point in the season.
And as if to prove my point, Texas beats UNC. I don't know what it is about Texas, but they seem to always have our number. Something about a scrappy guard having the game of his life (Roach w/ 32 points tonight).
Still, if you don't play defense (gotta stay in front, kids!), you get beat.
And as a nice followup, Michigan just *dismantles* UNC last night.
Michigan looked a little rattled early, when UNC made a typical fast-paced run at them. Then they recovered, and came back with a vengeance. They definitely look like a top-10, top-5 team. We did not.
Ugh.
ACC B1G Challenge ends up in a the again. Lame.
Louisville took down #9 Mich St Tues. Hell of a win for Coach Mack. Most people considered this season a rebuild but we might make some noise after all. Should have won in regulation just like Fri with Marquette, but this time did great in OT.
Special for me, first daddy daughter basketball game. We watched together in her hospital room. Hopefully the first of many and someday she won't sleep through most if it. Was considerate enough to eat and get diaper changed at halftime too. Smart baby.
I watched the tail end of that Louisville / MSU game. They looked poised in OT for sure! Wish UNC could have taken care of business. Miami lost to Rutgers! Syracuse came out of nowhere and beat down Ohio State! NCSU should have had Wisconsin, but got runover in the last 5 min and let Wisconsin take the game away from them.
I gave up around 11pm on the UNC / Mich game. I had to be up early this morning, and I wasn't going to waste my time watching if they weren't going to play basketball.
UNC pulls out the 13 point win over Gonzaga. College Hoops, thy name is inconsistency!
Gonzaga looked shaky at times (though had plenty of points off of UNC's 23 turnovers... ugh), but UNC was dominant on the boards and commanded a significant number of putbacks for second chance points.
Would like to see more of this team, and less of the one that played Texas and @ Michigan.
Hey look, TN has incomplete games and still beats Gonzaga who was #1 at the time, and then doesn't let down in a crazy foul fest in Memphis to follow it up, showing they can score more than 100 when they need to.
Still room for improvement, but I have good feelings about this team. And they're so fun to watch.
Admiral and Williams look like linebackers. I wouldn't want to play them if I was a one and done type of freshman
Yeah, Tennessee looks good this year. It's funny you mention the 1 n done freshman thing in passing, I was thinking Duke / Tennessee would potentially be an awesome game to see.
Speaking of TN beating Memphis, this tweet is pretty funny about how bad Memphis was flopping.
It's post play. For some reason, they can't seem to engage with teams that have any kind of frontcourt.
Frustrating to watch, though.
Not sure how they handled Gonzaga so solidly and failed utterly to contain UK.
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