Ding! Bling! Zing!
Some nights in college basketball sound like a video game, the numbers are so astonishing. Wednesday night might have been the noisiest of the season.
Five hours of statistical mayhem:
Alabama vs. Arkansas.
Ding…
The Tide win 117-115 in two overtimes, the highest scoring total in a game for Alabama since 1971. Labaron Philon Jr. has a big night for the Tide with 35 points and he’s not even the game’s top scorer… by 14 points. Darius Acuff Jr. goes for 49 in 50 minutes for Arkansas, becoming the eighth different freshman this season to have a 40-point game.
“That was a fun game; I’m sure the fans enjoyed that,” Alabama coach Nate Oats says afterward.
Five of the 10 starters for the two teams score at least 20. Four Razorbacks foul out. Already shorthanded because of injury, John Calipari must use two reserves in the second overtime who had played a total of 35 minutes and scored a total of eight points all season.
Illinois at USC.
Bling…
Seven different Illini score in double figures as they crush the Trojans 101-65. No Big Ten team has had that many in double figures on the road against a power conference opponent in at least 15 years. It’s Illinois’ biggest league win on the road since 1946 when the Illini routed… the University of Chicago.
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Illinois makes 51.6 percent of its shots, 44.8 percent of its 3-pointers and 24 of 26 free throws. The Illini become the first team this century to score 100 points and go 50-40-90 percent in a Big Ten game.
Auburn at Mississippi State.
Zing…
Josh Hubbard leads Mississippi State with a remarkable outburst of 35 points and 9-for-12 shooting from behind the arc… in the first half. At halftime he has personally outscored the entire Auburn team 35-33.
Hubbard returns to human form and finishes with 46 points and even with all that, Mississippi State nearly loses. The Bulldogs blow an 18-point lead and then some and have to rally from seven down in the final four minutes to win 91-85.
Creighton vs. Connecticut.
Ding…
Creighton is struggling at 13-13 and is below .500 in conference games. Connecticut is at home, leading the league and No. 5 in the nation with a 24-2 record. The Bluejays win anyway 91-84 and continue one of the more mystifying coaching hexes.
In the past six years of Big East membership UConn’s Dan Hurley has won two national championships and is 86-23 against every conference opponent not named Creighton. He’s 4-10 against the Bluejays’ Greg McDermott.
Gonzaga vs. San Francisco.
Bling…
The Zags won’t be around the West Coast Conference much longer to dominate, but San Francisco can certainly testify about what that has been like. Gonzaga rolled 80-59 Wednesday night to beat the Dons for the 35th time in a row. The last San Francisco win was 2012.
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Vanderbilt at Missouri.
Zing…
The Tigers are all over the Commodores and sailing away at home with a 21-point lead with 8:40 to go.
They win by one point. Vanderbilt has a would-be winning half-court Hail Mary roll around the rim and fall out at the end. It goes in, the Commodores win by scoring six points in the final two seconds.
Virginia at Georgia Tech.
Ding…
Defensive-minded Virginia scored 80 points in seven games during its 2018-19 national championship season. This Cavaliers team has now done it 16 times after breezing through Georgia Tech 94-68.
Virginia puts up 59 points… in the first half. The Cavaliers haven’t done that in an ACC game in 43 years.
St. John’s at Marquette.
Bling…
It’s the Red Storm, all right. Once a tad wobbly at 7-4, they beat the Golden Eagles 76-70 for their 12th win in a row.
They are also now 8-0 in true road games. The last time St. John’s could say that was…1928-29.
La Salle at Duquesne.
Zing…
Now here’s what you call an even rivalry. In the past 25 years of this series, La Salle has won 13 games, Duquesne 12. In the past 25 years, La Salle has scored 1,951 points, Duquesne has scored 1,947.
The latest edition was Wednesday night. Same old, same old. Duquesne 62, La Salle 61. The winning shot is a layup with 0.3 seconds left.
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There were more buzzing numbers. Navy clinched the Patriot League, its first outright league season title in 29 years. The Midshipmen have lost one game since Thanksgiving weekend. Kansas reached 20 victories for the 37th time in 38 seasons. East Carolina lost 92-89 in double overtime to Wichita State despite 40 points from Jordan Riley. The Pirates had 77 shots. Riley took 37 of them.
Some night. Saturday looks highly promising, too, when the schedule is like the sky presenting a rare alignment of planets.
No. 4 Arizona at No. 2 Houston at 3 p.m. No. 3 Duke vs. No. 1 Michigan in Washington D.C. at 6:30 p.m. The Final Four in February, 1,200 miles apart. Ding!
