Men’s college basketball, women’s college basketball – there’s no shortage of college ball, every night.
Don’t worry, we’re here to help you figure out what you missed but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from last night in college basketball.
TCU was nearly upset by Incarnate Word
Let’s set the scene here, since TCU isn’t ranked and therefore this might not be as obvious of a problem as it should be at first. The Horned Frogs came into play on Monday against the Incarnate Word Cardinals ranked 65th in the NCAA Evaluation Tool, or NET — they were, by NET’s reckoning, the second-best team in action on Monday on the men’s side, behind VCU which started the day 62nd. NET, by the way, is used to help fill out the at-large bids for March Madness, so the teams sitting in the 60s are potentially on the bubble for a chance at a national championship.
Incarnate Word is… not ranked in the 60s. They began Monday instead at 233 out of 365 Division I men’s teams. That’s the kind of team that TCU needs to not just win against, but crush. Instead, the Horned Frogs won by all of 4 points, 69-65, and were even behind at halftime, 37-31. Coming back to win is good and all, but this was a home game against an opponent from the bottom-third of the D-I teams, and they won by just a couple of buckets.
The reason for the close score? That would be Monday’s points leader on the men’s side, senior guard Davion Bailey, who scored 32 points — just under half (!) of Incarnate Word’s total — in 38 minutes. Bailey was 9-for-18 on threes while adding 5 rebounds and an assist and block each, and it was nearly enough to bring TCU down.
TCU might very well have won by more if only they could have hit a three. They were just 3-for-16 beyond the arc — 19% — compared to Incarnate Word’s 10-for-23 that was almost entirely Bailey’s doing. The Horned Frogs scored more fast-break points than the Cardinals (21 to 5), they outscored them in the paint (40 to 28), they committed fewer fouls (11 against 18) and hit more of their free throws (18 to 5). But they couldn’t score from three, and Incarnate Word — well, Bailey — could, and it meant the game was all tied up until there were just 38 seconds remaining in regulation.
Sophomore forward David Punch had 17 points, 13 rebounds and 5 blocks for TCU to help keep them within striking distance, and good thing, too, or else they would have lost. As is, NET dropped them from 65 to 70 despite the W, and Incarnate Word from 233 to 219 in spite of losing. That system is all about quality of wins, and this was not a quality dub.
No. 13 Vanderbilt improves to 10-0
Vanderbilt moved up to No. 13 in the poll on Monday, and got a chance to show why that was later that day. They defeated South Florida, 87-58, and improved to 10-0 in the process. It’s just the sixth time in program history that Vanderbilt has started the year 10-0, and the first time since 2011-2012.
Every Vandy starter reached double-digits in scoring, with sophomore guard Mikayla Blakes serving as the team-high in points with 19, rebounds with 6 and steals with 3. She also had 4 assists, but freshman guard Aubrey Galvan dropped 8 dimes in her 36 minutes, to go with 11 points, 5 rebounds and a pair of steals.
A dominant showing from the Commodores, one that saw them move up in NET ranking by four spots to 15th on the women’s side, as South Florida isn’t a bad team despite their 6-5 record so much as they have already faced a bunch of high-level opponents like Vanderbilt and lost against all of them. They are actually on the bubble right now because of that schedule — losing to the likes of Vanderbilt, UCLA and UConn has its perks, and hey, next up is No. 3 South Carolina.
Williams, Collins both grab 16 boards
Two players reached 16 rebounds to lead Division I on Monday, one on the men’s side and one on the women’s. For Arkansas-Pine Bluff, senior guard Quion Williams would not only grab 16 rebounds, but score 25 points on 10-for-13 shooting, dish out 7 assists, log 6 steals and register a block in 32 minutes of play. Arkansas-Pine Bluff would crush D-II opponent Ecclesia, 114-64, in no small part thanks to Williams’ dominance. By Game Score, he had the best showing in men’s college basketball on Monday, and it wasn’t close, as he was one of the only players to have such a well-rounded game to go along with so many points.
Then there is Rhema Collins for Florida International. The junior guard scored 16 points on a day where the shots just weren’t falling, but she did have 16 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks to make up for the misses.
The timing of when she scored also helped out: Collins might have been just 4-for-16 from the floor for the day, but she was part of a massive fourth quarter that allowed for Florida International to pick up the W against Florida Atlantic — they were tied 55-55 after three quarters, and then the Panthers exploded for a 25-8 fourth quarter, led by Collins scoring 7 points and picking up her final 4 rebounds.
Collins played for Ole Miss the past two seasons before transferring to Florida International. She played 5 and 6 minutes per game for the Rebels, but is now at 32.7 for the Panthers with 10.7 rebounds per game, and on top of that is leading Conference USA in scoring at 20 points per game while averaging just under 50% shooting. Hey, her team won on an off shooting night and she picked up the pace before the end to help make that happen. No harm done.
Perdue drops 34 on Chicago State
Monday’s scoring leader across all of Division I was Arizona’s Mickayla Perdue — that’s Perdue, not Purdue, Wildcat not Boilermaker. The senior guard dropped 34 points on Chicago State on 10-for-18 shooting while also sinking 10-of-12 free throws in an 89-70 win. There wasn’t a whole lot else going on in her game on Monday — a pair of rebounds and a lone assist — but when you score 34 points on efficient shooting, you’re given a pass there.
Plus, her fellow Wildcats had plenty else to offer. Junior guard Sumayah Sugapong contributed 9 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists and a D-I-high 7 steals to the Arizona cause, while senior guard Noelani Cornfield scored 15 points with 7 rebounds, 7 assists and 5 steals (to help offset her 6 turnovers) in 33 minutes. Junior guard — big day for Arizona guards, huh? — Tanyuel Welch had a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds, as well. The bench didn’t have any standout performances, but when this is what the starters provided, it’s not like Arizona needed that extra assist, either.
Arizona is now 8-2 overall, but you haven’t heard much about them to this point because they (1) haven’t played on the road yet, (2) haven’t played even a moderately difficult opponent to this point and (3) haven’t begun conference play in the Big 12. We’ll have a better sense of what’s actually here once they can start ticking those boxes.
Oklahoma State bounces back against Tulsa
Oklahoma State might have lost to No. 8 Oklahoma on Saturday, but the Cowgirls are a good team even if they aren’t also ranked, and reminded everyone of this on Monday against Tulsa. Thanks to a couple of big games off the bench — freshman guard Lena Girardi scored 14 points with a rebound and a steal in 21 minutes, while sophomore guard Jadyn Wooten had 13 points, 7 assists and 3 rebounds in 29 minutes — Oklahoma State toppled Tulsa, 90-58.
The biggest game, though, went to Amari Whiting. The junior guard scored 18 points — second-most on the team and in the game behind Micah Gray’s 20 — but added 6 rebounds, 5 steals and 2 assists in her 33 minutes.
This was just too much for Tulsa, which has a solid basketball team but not a “could be in the poll” one like Oklahoma State. The Cowgirls, by the way, still rank 26th in NET, and were first runner-up for this week’s poll with 35 votes despite the loss to Oklahoma that pushed them out of the top 25 to begin with. There’s a lot of season left for them to climb back in and prove they are better than at least one team currently sitting within its ranks.
Georgia took care of business
Georgia is another team that might deserve some more attention than they are getting, and a relatively light schedule across college basketball on Monday should help with that. They faced North Carolina A&T, and led throughout in what ended up being a 77-49 victory.
Now, North Carolina A&T isn’t a particularly good team this year, but that’s fine: beating these teams is part of the job, which is why there’s a reference to taking care of business here for Georgia: these are the teams that a team like Georgia isn’t supposed to just beat, but take apart, and a 28-point margin of victory certainly qualifies.
They shot 53% from three, almost entirely thanks to junior guard Riley Theurkauf, who went 5-for-6 from deep while the rest of the team went a combined 3-for-9. Dani Carnegie scored 20 points, and the sophomore guard — beyond hitting the 3-pointer that allowed the Education Day crowd to lose it to celebrate the scoreboard hitting 67 — also contributed a game-high 10 rebounds with 6 assists.
Now, Georgia wasn’t perfect here. They turned the ball over 21 times, which included 12 steals by North Carolina A&T players. What the Bulldogs did well, though, is avoid allowing the Aggies to convert those turnovers into points: despite all those turnovers, North Carolina A&T scored a mere 9 points off of them, whereas Georgia turned 20 turnovers into 21 points. All-around accurate shooting from short, deep and the free throw line, combined with taking advantage of turnovers, led to this convincing W.
Smith just didn’t get any help
A tale of two teams: Memphis was 4-6, and Murray State 7-2. Their records did a good job of reflecting who they have been to this point, too: Memphis has been kind of middling, while Murray State is kind of on the bubble of the bubble. Here, their strengths and weaknesses were on full display, with Memphis having sophomore forward Tamya Smith basically try to go it alone against a team-effort for Murray State. It did not end well for Memphis.
Despite Smith scoring 27 points to lead all scorers while chipping in a team-high 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals, Murray State was in a position to just let her score and get away with it if they wanted to: they won 85-57 because the rest of the Tigers only barely combined for more points than Smith.
Meanwhile, Murray State had four starters score at least 14 points, and junior guard Halli Poock led the team with 22 while grabbing 10 boards for a double-double. Poock also logged 4 assists and a steal for a pretty good day at the office.
It should be said, though, that Memphis looked much better in the second half: they were outscored just 32-28 there, as opposed to 53-29 in the first half. Some of that is on Murray State letting up off the gas and playing the bench more, sure, but it’s still the kind of thing you want to see if you’re in Memphis’ position against a Murray State.
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