1. In round 1 Marquette ran Norfolk State out of the building in a 99-68, 84 possession game. In that game (on November 14th) Marquette turned Norfolk over on 31% of their possessions. A week later in the rematch the Spartans took care of the ball (18.5% turnover rate). Meanwhile, they held Marquette to 3-11 (27.2%) shooting on 3s and only sent them to the line 6 times. Those same numbers in the first game were 9-21 (42.8%) and 30. Combine all of that with a game that featured 20 fewer possessions and the final score was 59-57 Marquette, in their first squeaker of the year. The 0.92 points per possession was easily the low of Marquette’s season, though they’re still averaging 1.19.
2. Boston College is really really really bad. They’re currently the leader-in-the-clubhouse for worst high-major team. After escaping New Hampshire in their opener, they proceeded to get blown out by Holy Cross (86-64) and then yesterday got destroyed by UMass (82-46). For the season they’re averaging 0.87 points per possession, which is good for 297th place – and that’s the good news. Defensively BC is giving up 1.15, which currently ranks them 330th.
3. If you want to see how individual defense is played, go back and watch last night’s Vanderbilt-Oregon State game. Jeffery Taylor’s job was to shut down Jared Cunningham and his performance was inspiring. I haven’t seen anything like it since Chris Singleton made Kyle Singler cry (okay, he looked like he was going to cry – and no one would have blamed him). Cunningham came into the game averaging 26 points per contest, and was limited to 9 on 3-9 shooting. Oregon State played some defense of their own though, and almost stole this game. It took a Brad Tinsley jumper with 4.5 seconds left for the Commodores to win a game in which the Beavers held them below 0.90 points per possession.
4. Trailing by 18 in the 2nd half, NC State used a 19-1 run to tie the game versus Texas with 6:10 left. They then filled that 6:10 with floor slapping, yelling, jumping around and general posturing while Texas showed very little emotion at all. Even CJ Leslie – who typically looks on the basketball court the way the rest of us look cleaning out a clogged drain – got fired up, if only for few seconds. Most importantly, NC State took care of the ball (16.2% turnover rate) and was able to hit enough shots to pull out a 77-74 win. Their defense is still a concern, as they’ve allowed 1.13 per possession in the last two games.
5. Georgia fans who weren’t paying attention were excited by the Bulldogs 3-0 start even if they hadn’t beaten anyone of note. Bowling Green and South Dakota State wouldn’t compete for the SEC Title, but they’re still decent teams. Those who looked closer saw an offense in disarray. In those three games they’d averaged 0.99 points per possession and were just waiting to be exposed. Last night Cal took care of that. The Bulldogs managed 46 points in a 64 possession game (0.72 per trip), primarily by repeating what they’ve shown in earlier games: they can’t shoot. The Bears held them to 38.5% on 2s and 21.1% on 3s. 5-star freshman Kentavious Caldwell-Pope continued his campaign of bad basketball, scoring 10 points on 13 shots and dishing out just his 3rd assist of the season.
