It is December in DC so that can only mean 3 things: holiday parties, stories about the Redskins that include the phrase “mathematically eliminated”, and the BB&T Classic in Chinatown. This year we got 1 competitive match-up (Temple-GW) and…1 battle of an undefeated team vs. a winless team (Coppin State-Georgetown). Sadly, no Hill Country BBQ on this year’s pregame menu (just lukewarm pizza) but a nice long 2-hour break between the 2 games that allowed everyone to catch their breath. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel spent all day at the Capital One Arena…and lived to tell about it. Today we cover Temple-GW in Part 1, and check back later this week for Part 2 about Coppin State-Georgetown.
When Hoops HD sits right behind the basket, we sit RIGHT behind the basket: 
They might not know exactly who I am…but I have been called worse, and perhaps there is some truth to the rumor that we are merging with a medical insurance website!:
Pregame intros were nice:
Cheerleaders as well…even if there not were a lot of fans around to lead in cheers:
Temple-GW was a classic tale-of-2-halves game with the Colonials building a 40-25 lead by halftime. 1 team lived by the 3 in the 1st half (GW: 6-10 3PM) and 1 died by it (Temple: 1-7). Time was really flying because somehow neither team made a single FT before halftime! Obi Enechionyia barely kept the Owls in it through the 1st 20 minutes with a pretty finger roll, baseline fadeaway jumper, and a jumper that bounced once on the rim before dropping in. GW used a balanced attack featuring several different scorers: Arnaldo Toro/Jair Bolden each made a pair of threes, and Patrick Steeves banked in a leaner at the buzzer to give his team what seemed like a stranglehold at the break.
The 2nd half was a completely different story thanks to Coach Fran Dunphy instructing his team to play more full court defense and his stars finally playing to their potential. The Temple coaching staff is so fascinating: they have the best coach in Penn history (Dunphy), my former college neighbor (assistant coach Shawn Trice), and the 2001 NBA 6th Man of the Year (assistant coach Aaron McKie):
Shizz Alston made a pair of threes and extended his consecutive made FT streak to 46 (3 shy of Lynn Greer’s school record), while Quinton Rose had his own person dunk contest as he got to the rim on 3 separate occasions for sensational slams. The X-factor was Alani Moore II, the 5’10” sophomore who returned to his hometown of DC and almost won the game all by himself. With his team down by double-digits late in the game, Moore made a corner 3, then stole the inbounds pass and found Rose for another 3 to cap a 10-0 run in just 75 seconds, but it would not be enough. GW’s 2nd half star was SR Yuta Watanabe, who made a pair of threes and had a huge BLK at the rim to deny Rose with 41 seconds left. However, we also witnessed the coming-out party for FR G Justin Mazzulla: the younger brother of Joe (the former West Virginia PG Joe who played 145 games and went to the 2010 Final 4 under Bob Huggins) did a little of everything including an acrobatic layup off the glass, grabbing a loose ball and then converting a layup, and even taking a charge on the 6’10” Enechionya with under 3 minutes to play.
Temple had a couple of chances to tie it at the end but kept missing 3-PT shots as GW escaped with a 71-67 victory. Temple’s defense was dragging a bit in the 1st half but the Colonials are not going to lose many games when they shoot 27-45 from the field. It might not be as cool as the Miami football turnover chain, but Jair Bolden received the “Ghost Belt” due to all of his hustle plays (oh how it shines!):
I asked him at the postgame press conference what he was going to do with the belt, and he said that the winner just hangs it in his locker so that everyone else can be jealous. Unbelievably, the Owls have still not played a home game this season, so I asked Rose/Coach Dunphy if they were excited to finally play in front of their home fans this Wednesday…but they did not take the bait. Rose said he wished he could have returned home with a win, and Coach Dunphy said that his team was excited to play at Madison Square Garden last week and today in DC.
News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Sunday, Dec 3rd
NEWS AND NOTES
-Nothing about the Xavier v Cincinnati game was exciting. I think Xavier got up by double digits in the first 90 seconds (or so it seemed), and it was never close or interesting after that. Thank God that after the game Cincinnati Coach Mick Cronin came riding to the rescue!! All we really know for sure is that at the end of the handshakes after the game, he ran at a Xavier player and needed to be restrained. The whole incident lasted for just a few seconds (not wanting to blow this out of proportion), which is fortunate because had he not been restrained and had he not left the floor, yesterday may have ended up being the last game he ever coached. The list of coaches who have gotten in physical altercations with opposing players is small, and the list of coaches who have continued to coach after that is non-existent. He was also spectacular in the postgame press conference by calling the player (JP Macura) out by name and claiming the Macura told him to “eff off” multiple times. So, all and all it was a typical Cincinnati v Xavier game. A boring game with spectacular postgame antics. They call this a great college basketball rivalry, and it is, but after a previous stretch where seemingly every game came down to the wire every year, we’ve had nothing but boring games on the court for what seems to be nearly a decade. Like the brawl a few years ago, most of us learned about yesterday’s incident on social media. The game was boring so we had all changed the station and almost no one saw it live.
-Kansas continues to look extremely impressive. They blasted Syracuse down in Miami yesterday.
-Villanova v Saint Joe’s is another heated rivalry that typically turns out to be a boring sort of rock fight. Yesterday was no different with Nova winning by close to 40.
-Wichita State picked up a HUGE true road win at Baylor yesterday. That is the kind of win that ends up in teams getting protected seeds.
-USC continues to look overrated as they fell huge at SMU yesterday. That’s not a bad loss in and of itself, but to lose by that margin, and to have not looked like a top fifteen team at any point in the season so far, is leading me to believe that USC is not a top fifteen team.
-Look out for Georgia! They picked up their second true road win of the year with a win at Marquette yesterday, and are now 6-1 on the season.
-Washington State, the team that I doubted more than anyone coming into the year, and then quickly jumped on their bandwagon after the 6-0 start, lost rather handily yesterday. At home. To UC Davis.
-Ohio State won easily on the road at Wisconsin yesterday. It’s the first true road win on the year for the Buckeyes, and Wisconsin is continuing to slump. Ohio State fans were so excited about beating Wisconsin yesterday! The city was just one big buzz!!
-Rhode Island FINALLY knocked off Providence to get the upper hand in a rivalry that they haven’t had the upper hand in in quite some time. It was a nice win for Rhody who continues to build a solid profile and look like a solid team despite the injuries.
-Vermont lost their first game since losing the opener at Kentucky when they fell to Bucknell yesterday. Bucknell had a lead for most of the game, but it was very close. Vermont just couldn’t get over the top. When your margin for error is small, which it is for nearly every UTR team, then every loss hurts.
-Houston blasted, and I mean BLASTED, an Arkansas team that I thought was underrated. I’m still sold on Arkansas and am not writing them off just because of one game. My question now is, at 6-1, is this Houston team a lot better than we thought?
-Arizona won an overtime thriller at UNLV to close things out last night. This is a much improved UNLV team, and by the end of the year I think this win will end up looking pretty good on paper.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-TULANE AT NORTH CAROLINA. This may look and sound like a buy game, but it’s not. UNC actually went to Tulane a year ago. Tulane is also off to a very surprising 6-1 start. They don’t have any scalps that are nearly as big as this one would be, but they have been one of the more surprising teams of the season so far.
-UCF AT ALABAMA. UCF has been somewhat of a disappointment this year whereas Alabama has had some close calls, but they’ve had close calls against some really good UTR teams and at the end of the day are an impressive 6-1.
-KANSAS STATE AT VANDERBILT. K State is off to a decent 6-1 start, but this is their first true road game.
-TEMPLE AT GEORGE WASHINGTON. A win for the Owls gets them to 5-1 on the season and will give them their first true road win of the year.
-GEORGE MASON AT AUBURN. The Tigers can improve to 6-1 on the year. All things considered, they’ve actually had a pretty good season as far as what they’re doing on the court. It’s probably their best start to a year since Bruce Pearl arrived on the plains.
-SETON HALL AT LOUISVILLE. Louisville is coming off a close loss at Purdue and is trying to pick up their first win that isn’t a buy game. Seton Hall comes in with a rather impressive 6-1 record, but this is their first true road game and it would be their biggest win of the season to date.
-NORTHWESTERN AT PURDUE (Big Ten). Northwestern is off to a somewhat sluggish start, but they can get things turned around in a hurry if they can pick one up on the road against Purdue in a conference game. They’re coming off of a win against rival Illinois, which in and of itself isn’t that big of a deal, but a win in a rival game can sometimes build up momentum, which is something Northwestern really needs.
-NEBRASKA AT MICHIGAN STATE (Big Ten). Nebraska has a respectable 6-2 record. The problem is they don’t have any decent wins. Michigan State continues to look like a #1 seed and could roll in this one today.
-RUTGERS AT MINNESOTA (Big Ten). Minney has had a good year and shouldn’t have too much trouble at home against Rutgers, who comes in at 6-1, but who also comes in as buy game heroes.
-TENNESSEE AT GEORGIA TECH. Tennessee has been surprising this year in a good way. Georgia Tech is coming off of a loss to Grambling, which is far more surprising in a bad way. This would be the Vols first true road win of the season if they’re able to pull it off.
-BRADLEY AT SAN DIEGO STATE (MWC/MVC Challenge). A really good match up here between two teams with solid records, but who need solid wins to go along with that. It should be fun.
-MARYLAND AT ILLINOIS (Big Ten). This game has a pivotal feel for both teams. Both have had their struggles and could really use it.
-DAYTON AT MISSISSPPI STATE. Mississippi State has had some close calls, but should be able to remain unbeaten on the year against a Dayton team that is rebuilding.
BUY GAMES
-Saint Francis Brooklyn @ Notre Dame
-UNC Asheville @ Clemson
-Mississippi Valley State @ Oklahoma State
-Portland @ Boise State
-Pairie View @ New Mexico State
-Coppin State @ Georgetown
-Omaha @ Washington
-Detroit @ UCLA