Thanksgiving week men's basketball games

[bierce]

Maui tournament starts today.  Who the hell drew the bracket?  The tournament has 3 teams in both Pomeroy and AP top ten, and two of them (Auburn and Iowa State) play each other in the first round?  Meanwhile, the two weakest teams in the tournament (Colorado and Michigan State) also face each other in the first round.  Weird.  Memphis-UConn and Dayton-UNC are the other two first round games.  With the advent of so many 16+ team conferences, these tournaments are allowed to have more than one team from a given conference.

Weird bracketing is not unique to Maui.  The "Players Era Festival Power Tournament" (I guess blow a raspberry for the acronym) has its two best teams (Alabama and Houston) playing each other in the first round tomorrow in Vegas.

The other interesting game today featuring an SEC team is Xavier against So. Car.  in Fort Myers.

 

 

[CJ Vogel]

One of the best weeks of the year!

[bierce]

8 minutes ago, CJ Vogel said:

One of the best weeks of the year!

And all we have is a Friday game against Delaware State.  Sigh. 

At least we'll get to check out upcoming opponent NC State playing Purdue and then either BYU or Mississippi.

[bierce]

Dainja, one of four former Big 12 players in Memphis's top 6 playres, has lost of lot of weight from his Baylot/Illinois days.  He gets up and down the floor pretty good now, and has some post moves. 

Memphis out to an early 13-8 lead.  Could be 16-8 were it not for missing 3 of last 4 ft attempts. 

[bierce]

UConn-Memphis tied at 40 at the half.  Hunter hit 3/5 threes and qb'd Memphis's final possession by driving and dishing to Dainja for an easy layup.

UConn got 29 points from its bench.  Stewart and Reed shot a combined 13/17. 

Edited November 25, 2024 by bierce

[bierce]

Memphis up 73-62 with 5:30 left, ball, and in the double bonus.  Just fouled while shooting a three.  Hunter has hit 7/10 threes.  

[bierce]

UConn just closed regulation with a 15-3 run to tie it with .9 seconds left.

Memphis did a poor job against pressure and didn't even try to run its offense in the half court, preferring to run clock and drive 1 on 5 near the end of the shot clock.

[bierce]

And Dan Hurley, who had been begging for it all game, got hit with a technical foul with the game tied at 92 and Memphis to already shoot a pair for McNeely going over the back.  Hurley deserved it.

This game would be over had Dain Dainja not brainfarted and make a little retaliatory push after UConn's Johnson fouled out by pushing Cisse to the ground on a deadball situation, but UConn just hit a couple of ft to make it a two point game.   Memphis ran a lot of clock and will shoot ft with 13.2 left, but Hurley is trying to lobby for an offensive foul because Carter trying to twist around made contact with his elbow to Ball's face.

Called incidental because Carter's elbow stayed within the cylinder of his body.  Memphis made both, up 4. 

[bierce]

Cisse called for a blocking foul with 8.5 left.  Diarra was in no position to shoot at the time.  Diarra made both.

Memphis calls its final timeout without trying to inbound.  Mistake.  Should have kept the timeout in case can't get it inbound. 

 

[bierce]

Quick foul.  Everyone on UConn acting with disbelief.  But they're good at that. 

[bierce]

Missed the second ft.  UConn comes up and is fouled with 2.2 left.

Missed second ft on purpose.  UConn got the weird bounce, but perimeter player was guarded and put up an airball. 

Memphis 99 UConn 97

[Jordan91]

9 minutes ago, bierce said:

And Dan Hurley, who had been begging for it all game, got hit with a technical foul with the game tied at 92 and Memphis to already shoot a pair for McNeely going over the back.  Hurley deserved it.

This game would be over had Dain Dainja not brainfarted and make a little retaliatory push after UConn's Johnson fouled out by pushing Cisse to the ground on a deadball situation, but UConn just hit a couple of ft to make it a two point game.   Memphis ran a lot of clock and will shoot ft with 13.2 left, but Hurley is trying to lobby for an offensive foul because Carter trying to twist around made contact with his elbow to Ball's face.

Called incidental because Carter's elbow stayed within the cylinder of his body.  Memphis made both, up 4. 

How did McNeely do?

[bierce]

1 minute ago, Jordan91 said:

How did McNeely do?

Shot terribly in the first half, shot well in the second half, and was the guy called for the fouls that drew the technical from Hurley early in OT and caused the dismay at the end of OT. 

[GQ03]

5 hours ago, bierce said:

Maui tournament starts today.  Who the hell drew the bracket?  The tournament has 3 teams in both Pomeroy and AP top ten, and two of them (Auburn and Iowa State) play each other in the first round?  Meanwhile, the two weakest teams in the tournament (Colorado and Michigan State) also face each other in the first round.  Weird.  Memphis-UConn and Dayton-UNC are the other two first round games.  With the advent of so many 16+ team conferences, these tournaments are allowed to have more than one team from a given conference.

Weird bracketing is not unique to Maui.  The "Players Era Festival Power Tournament" (I guess blow a raspberry for the acronym) has its two best teams (Alabama and Houston) playing each other in the first round tomorrow in Vegas.

The other interesting game today featuring an SEC team is Xavier against So. Car.  in Fort Myers.

 

 

Is the Players Era Festival a true tournament and not just a showcase? They already have the matchups set for the 2nd day which isn't something you'd see in a true tournament setting/format.

[bierce]

7 minutes ago, GQ03 said:

Is the Players Era Festival a true tournament and not just a showcase? They already have the matchups set for the 2nd day which isn't something you'd see in a true tournament setting/format.

It is a goofy tournament with goofy seeding and goofy pooling.

https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/article/2024-11-22/players-era-festival-schedule-teams-tv-channels-streaming-college-basketball

[Jordan91]

3 hours ago, bierce said:

Shot terribly in the first half, shot well in the second half, and was the guy called for the fouls that drew the technical from Hurley early in OT and caused the dismay at the end of OT. 

Thanks, just curious. 

[bierce]

Memphis-UConn was a riveting game, but the game that appeared to be the best game of the day before play started was Auburn-ISU.  How did it wind up on ESPNU?

[bierce]

ISU absolutely torching Auburn in the first half.  40-23 with 4:20 left and ISU about to shoot ft. 

[bierce]

I'm not much for ignoring a chance to score instead of taking the end of half clock to as close to zero as you can before trying a shot, but Auburn just f'd up royally.  It took a risky shot with 14 seconds on the shot clock and 15 seconds on the game clock, ISU rebounded, went down and scored.  49-33 ISU at the half. 

ISU is winning boards, turnovers, and shooting % bigly.

[bierce]

Great comeback by Auburn, but ISU totally gacked it.  It dribbled away most of the shot clock on its final possession, despite having a 9 second difference on the shot clock and the game clock, then it made turnover.

I never understand that.  When you know the other team will have a possession no matter when you start your offense, then why don't you run the offense from the very beginning and try to get a basket rather than just burn the clock? 

Auburn took possession and went down and scored.

I hate Pearl, but right now I think Otzelberger is a dumbass for not running a real play when he had a chance to get a lead. 

[bierce]

Slow start to the day in basketball compared to yesterday.  BTW, UNC came back from down 18 at the half to beat Dayton late last night.

Today San Diego State is clobbering Creighton 56-40 with 11:45 left.  Creighton is struggling badly on offense without starting PG Steven Ashworth.  

[bierce]

UConn out to a 25-14 lead over Colorado with 7:50 left in the first half, despite Karaban, Diarra, and Reed all picking up 2 fouls before 11 minutes had been played.  McNeely is 4/4, 3/3 bta.  His last shot landed on the bridge and rolled in, so I guess it will be one of those days when he will make even the bad shots.

[bierce]

We have a game in Maui.  2:04 left, UConn by one and with ball, but Johnson and Reed have fouled out.

[bierce]

UConn just got away with two things on that possession.  It nearly threw the ball away, and someone went to corral it, dribbled once, picked it up with both hands, then spun and starting dribbling.  He drove, missed the layup, and Karaban went over the back big time to try to tip it in.  No call despite him clearly having an arm on the shoulder of the Colorado player, holding him down.  Husky on the other side of the basket got the tip in after Karaban's miss.

Then Colorado got away with an over the back on a rebound on its end.  Hurley had to be held back by his assistants.

I think he will lead the country in technical fouls this year.

So Bilas doesn't compare the Colorado over the back to Karaban's a minute ago.  He compares it to the one called on McNeely yesterday.

[bierce]

CU hit a runner with 7 seconds to go to take a 1 point lead.  It had extended the possession by getting away with calling timeout from the ground after player with the ball got away with traveling.