The best part of Thanksgiving break every year, besides the no classes thing, is all the great college basketball that is played. The preseason tournaments are full of good teams and give us an idea of which teams are for real and which might not be championship caliber.
This year was no different: There was a lot of great college basketball played and the marquee matchups didn’t disappoint. Some teams rose up and showed how talented they are and others showed their flaws.
I had the privilege of witnessing one of the clobberings issued by Mizzou in the CBE Classic. In the two games the Tigers played in Kansas City’s Sprint Center, they simply demolished the competition. In the championship game against a pretty talented Cal team, Mizzou didn’t hold back as they beat the Golden Bears by 39 points. The Tigers had six players score in double digits and played great defense to show that they are for real. If they can keep up this kind of play all season then there are many more good things to come for this Missouri squad.
Moving to a higher ranked team, the then-No. 4 ranked Connecticut Huskies tried to get past unranked Central Florida in the Bahamas. Unfortunately for the Huskies, their poor defense and the lackluster performance of sophomore guard Jeremy Lamb cost them the game. The Husky struggles culminated with the play of UCF junior guard Marcus Jordan, son of the great Michael Jordan. He scored 20 points and added seven assists and seven rebounds to lead UCF to the big upset win. Early on, I was skeptical of the UConn team this season and it may have shown some of its weaknesses in this game.
Another upset occurred in the Bahamas as Harvard took down No. 21 ranked Florida State 46-41. Florida State couldn’t get out of a bad shooting rhythm and it became a scramble to score points any way possible. The main difference was the foul line. Harvard ended up making 17 of its 24 free throws, while FSU made only four of 10.
On the mid-major side of things, the Creighton Bluejays may have found their groove while on Thanksgiving break. They have been absolutely destroying opponents and continued on that path against Iowa. They didn’t give the Hawkeyes a chance as they beat them on their home floor. So far this year, Creighton is fourth in the nation in points per game, fifth in field goal percentage and leads the nation in assists at 23.2 per game. Meanwhile, sophomore forward Doug McDermott is leading the Bluejays in scoring with 23.4 points per game and rebounding at 7.8 rebounds per game. This Bluejay team could be the one mid-major to watch come tourney time.
In the final days of break, perhaps the biggest upset took place. UNLV took down then-No. 1 North Carolina in Las Vegas. UNLV was led by the 28 points of senior forward Chace Stanback, while UNC freshman guard P.J. Hairston was the top performer for the Tar Heels with 15 points.
Harrison Barnes had a tough shooting night for UNC as he wound up with 15 points on 6-of-16 shooting. He also had a scary moment when he came out of the game due to him rolling his ankle. Without Barnes, the Tar Heels would not have nearly as good of a shot to cut down the nets at the end of the season.
This is the third earliest in the season a number one team has lost. But I expect the Tar Heels to bounce back from this minor setback.
Looking back, Thanksgiving was a blur of turkey and college basketball. Honestly, I’m not sure which part I enjoyed more. But I do know that after watching all of these great games over break that I am very thankful for college basketball.
