Saturday College Basketball Recap

Another week and another #1 falls.  Virginia Tech defeated the top ranked Duke Blue Devils in what has become a weekly ritual.  No team can ever keep a grasp on #1, which shows the lack of a dominant team in college basketball.  Here is a recap of some of the key games yesterday:

Virginia Tech 64 - Duke 60: Virginia Tech is safely off the bubble and will get a bid in to the tournament.  Led by a balanced offensive attack, the Hokies also limited Duke to a 39% field goal percentage.  All five starters for Virginia Tech had double figures in points, and two players (Jeff Allen and Victor Davila) had double-doubles.  The Hokies pulled out the win despite shooting 8-19 from the charity strike, but made up for it with strong defense.  Virginia Tech is now 19-8 and is 9-5 in the ACC, putting them in fourth place in their conference.

Kansas and Notre Dame took care of business.  Kansas beat Oklahoma 82-70, while Notre Dame won 60-48 vs. the Seton Hall Pirates.

BYU sweeps season series vs. San Diego State - BYU came out on top with an 80-67 win, giving them an opportunity to earn a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament.  For SDSU, the Aztecs just can't seem to beat BYU or stop Jimmer Fredette, but still will likely be a #2 seed in the NCAA tournament.  Both teams will be strong candidates for the NCAA tournament, and we will see how well they do against the powerhouse teams from the big conferences.

Colorado stuns Texas 91-89: The Longhorns blew a 22 point lead, and a 15 point lead at halftime, as Colorado came back and stole this game.  Alec Burks scored 33 points and grabbed 10 boards to lead the Buffaloes.  Both Texas and Colorado shot poorly from the free throw line, but Colorado won the edge from the field, making 53% of their shots.  Andre Roberson for Colorado provided a spark off the bench, grabbing 11 rebounds, with 9 points and 5 assists. This probably means Texas will drop from the #1 seed race, but will be a safe #2.

Syracuse and St. John's pull out road Big East victories against Georgetown and Villanova, respectively.  St. John's was led by Dwight Hardy's 34 points.  Villanova responded in the second half, behind Corey Stokes' three point mastery, but their comeback fell short as Hardy was too much for the Wildcats.  As for Syracuse, Scoop Jardine hit a huge three pointer late in the second half to secure the win for the Orangemen.  Scoop finished with 17 points and 7 assists rounding out a solid week after beating Villanova in Philadelphia on Monday.   This game was a testament to the Syracuse zone, which shut down the Hoyas.  Georgetown shot 18-50 from the field and 7-25 from downtown.

UCLA pounds Arizona 71-49:  This game was surprising to say the least.  Arizona, new to the top ten, got pummeled by UCLA, which puts the Bruins in a tie with Arizona atop the Pac-10.  Reeves Nelson had 27 points and 16 rebounds for UCLA, who dominated Arizona on the boards: 38-23.  Arizona's offense was terrible last night, shooting just 31.5% and they only had 7 assists. Derrick Williams had an average game by his standards with 15 points and wasn't nearly enough to compete with UCLA.