With so many spectacular games, I am going to take a slightly different approach to this post. I am going to do a bunch of mini breakdowns, with results and top performers, rather than the normal longer breakdowns and top performances, and I will end the blog with a section on some takeaways I have from all the results.

Best Games of the Night

My team, the Virginia Cavaliers, took on Villanova in the earliest game of the slate, with the Cavs winning 70-60, led by sharpshooter Isaac Mckneely who scored 23 points on 8/9 from the field and 6/6 from three. For the Wildcats, Eric Dixon led as usual, with 20 points and 8 boards on 50% from the field.

In a top 25 matchup, Texas A&M beat Ohio State 78-64. A&M got 15 points a piece from guards Wade Taylor IV and Manny Obaseki. The Buckeyes were led by 15 from Bruce Thornton and 13 from freshman John Mobley Jr, who were the only two in double digits for them.

Wisconsin matched up at home against top 10 Arizona, and took them down 103-88! They were carried by John Tonje, who put up a ridiculous 41 points and 6 boards, shooting 8/14 from the field including 4/6 from three, and 21/22 from the free throw line. Yes, he shot over 20 free throws by himself. Guard Jaden Bradley was most impressive for Arizona, scoring 22 points 50% from the field, and the 5th year senior Caleb Love disappointed big time, scoring 6 points on 2/13 from the field and 0/6 from deep, while fouling out after 25 minutes of court time.

Iowa beat newly WCC Washington State 76-66, led by Sophomore big Owen Freeman, with a 21 and 11 double-double. Guard Nate Calmese was the offensive leader for the Cougars, with 27 points on 12/22 from the field.

Pitt played very well in a demolition of West Virginia under new Coach Devries, 86-62. The Panthers had another strong performance from Houston transfer Damian Dunn, who is looking like a huge addition, with 23 points on 7/12 shooting. Ishmael Leggett added another 15 on 7/13. It was a rough offensive performance from WVU, but freshman guard Jonathan Powell had a solid game, scoring 16 points on 6/12 shooting, in double digits for the third of his 3 collegiate games thus far.

In probably the best game of the night, Maryland fell to Marquette at home, 78-74. Kam Jones had another spectacular performance, with 28 points on 10/18 shooting, and Stevie Mitchell added 18 of his own. For the Terrapins, freshman Derik Queen continued to impress, scoring 24 and grabbing 7 boards on 9/13 shooting, with Ja’Kobi Gillespie scoring another 24 on 10/17 from the field.

Georgia beat Georgia Tech 77-69, led by sophomore guard Silas Demary who had 18 points and 7 boards, alongside freshman Asa Newell, who scored 14 and grabbed another 7 rebounds. For the Yellow Jackets, Lance Terry ended with 20 points, all in the second half, on 7/11 shooting, and Javian McCollum and Baye Ndongo added on 13 and 14 respectively.

Northwestern beat Eastern Illinois in overtime, 67-58, led by Fairfield transfer Jalen Leach, who scored 27 points, and Nick Martinelli, who got 16 of his own. Nakyel Shelton had 19 for EIU, leading the way for them offensively.

In the highest caliber matchup of the day, Alabama headed to Purdue to take on the. Boilermakers. The result was quite a surprise to me, with Purdue taking the win, 87-78. Trey Kaufman-Renn scored 26, with the junior guard duo of Fletcher Loyer and Braden Smith contributing 17 a piece, along with 10 assists for Braden, and freshman CJ Cox with 11 points, including a huge streak of three straight threes to give Purdue a lead early on in the second half. Freshman Labaron Philon was most impressive for the Tide, with 18 points on 7/10 shooting. Grant Nelson added 12 points and 11 boards, and Mark Sears put up 15 of his own, however very inefficiently, at 5/15 and 1/6 from three.

A little double mid major recap here: Loyola Chicago beat Princeton 73-68, a big win for the Ramblers, led by center Miles Rubin who had 11 points, 13 rebounds, and 4 blocks. Xavien Lee and Dalen Davis put up 17 a piece in the loss. High Point pulled out a victory over UAB, 68-65, with Texas Tech transfer D’Maurian Williams scoring 23 and Kamani Hamilton scoring 18. Yaxel Lendeborg did his thing as usual, with 17 points and 15 rebounds, and Efrem Johnson scored 21 of his own, but it wasn’t enough to get the win.

In the thriller of the day, Charleston beat Florida Atlantic 119-116 in DOUBLE OVERTIME! Both teams had numerous guys in double figures so I’ll give you my top two for each team. For Charleston, the man who hit the game winner (seen below), Ante Brzovic, had yet another really 30+ point game, with 39 points and 13 boards to carry the Cougars, and guard Derrin Boyd added his own 18 points, along with 7 boards and 6 assists. For the Owls, Louisville transfer Kaleb Glenn 27 points on 10/14 shooting, and Florida State transfer Baba Miller 15 points, 12 rebounds, and 6 assists.

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Michigan picked up a high major win over TCU, 76-64, led by Yale transfer Danny Wolf and Nimari Burnett. Wolf had 14 points and 14 rebounds, and Burnett had 16 points, shooting 6/7 from the field. TCU got 16 points from Trazarian White, and 15 points from Brendan Wenzel, who shot 5/9 from three.

Florida beat Florida State in the cross-state rivalry, 87-74. Walter Clayton Jr. couldn’t be stopped, with 25 points on 8/15 shooting, and Alijah Martin contributed with 17 of his own. The seminoles got their usual 19 from Jamir Watkins, and freshman guard Daquan Davis added 10 of his own in 23 minutes of play.

Takeaways

• There are a lot of REALLY GOOD mid major teams this year. The matchups between mid majors were high quality, and the results show that. Really getting more and more excited for some of these teams to cause chaos when it comes to March.

• Pitt, Marquette, and Georgia are all better than I expected, Marquette is definitely the best out of the three, but all could be sleeper teams for this season, with some serious talent on their rosters.

• Purdue and Wisconsin are LEGIT. Two teams that I had major doubts about prior to the year, and ones which I definitely have slight agendas against, proved me wrong on Friday night, with big wins over top 10 opponents.

• Texas A&M and Florida confirmed the type of teams that they can be. Florida State has a lot of concern, should be where I projected them, as a low level team. For Ohio State, this isn’t a terrible loss, but streaky shooting could be something that hurts them throughout the season, winning them some big games, but also losing them some.

(P.C. Wisconsin MBB)