Here’s everything you need to know from college basketball’s Saturday …
Game of the Day: Askia Booker hit a running 3-pointer at the buzzer to give Colorado a win over No. 6 Kansas.
Askia Booker had one of the best shots of the season, as he Euro-stepped past his defender and hit a 25-footer as time expired to give Colorado a 75-72 win over Kansas. Kansas tied it up on the previous possession, when Perry Ellis finished at the rim -- this coming after Spencer Dinwiddie and Andrew Wiggins both missed free throws in the final 20 seconds. It might have been the most complete game we saw from Wiggins, who showed aggression and confidence en route to 22 points. Booker and Dinwiddie each poured in 15 points for Colorado, which is now 8-1.
Read Gary Parrish's column off this game here.
What else we’ll be talking about in the morning: Chaz Williams establishes himself as one of the premier point guards around.
Massachusetts point guard Chaz Williams has always been fun to watch. He’s always been an impact player, because he changes the game so much at both ends of the floor. But in the end, he was always just 5-foot-9. He’s still the same size, but now it’s clear that Williams is one of the best point guards in the country. In an entertaining 105-96 win over BYU on Saturday, Williams had 32 points, 15 assists – and just one turnover. According to ESPN, he’s the first player with those sort of numbers in more than 10 years. Moreover, the Minutemen are now 8-0 on the season, and are looking like a team that can win the Atlantic 10.
That’s a good win: Missouri dominates the second half en route to a win over UCLA.
I wrote about this earlier, but the Tigers’ 80-71 win over UCLA was impressive. Missouri’s backcourt trio of Jordan Clarkson, Jabari Brown and Earnest Ross combined for 63 points and completely dominated the game. When those three are hitting their perimeter shots, the Tigers can hang with anyone in the country. And they will certainly be a factor in the SEC. As for UCLA, the Bruins struggled on the defensive glass and in a half-court setting. Missouri took them out of their transition game, and UCLA went through huge droughts in the second half.
But that's a bad loss: Virginia gets downed by the Phoenix.
Green Bay hosted UVa Saturday. This was specifically scheduled by Cavs coach Tony Bennett, as he was a big-time player at the school a little more than two decades ago. Greg Mays put a career-high 24 points for the Phoenix, which is now 5-2. Virginia's 7-3 and perhaps on its way to creating a resume similar to last season, when the Cavs had really nice wins ... and very bad losses. That ultimately kept UVa out of the NCAA tournament. Long way to go this season, but at the very least, should Bennett's team make the big field this year, this loss will cost them at least one seed line.
Wisconsin continues to roll: Another game, another win – and another impressive showing for Wisconsin, which looks very much like a top-five team nationally right now. The Badgers are now 10-0 after defeating Marquette, 70-64. Sam Dekker had 20 points and 10 rebounds, while four other players finished in double-figures. Jamil Wilson led Marquette with 22 points. Wisconsin now has wins over Florida, St. John’s, Virginia, Marquette, Saint Louis and West Virginia – but the schedule lightens up until league play. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Wisconsin sitting at 16-0 heading into a January 14 road trip to Indiana.
Arizona will be No. 1: The Wildcats won out at home over a game UNLV team, 63-58.
It was closer than Sean Miller wanted, but still, he's got this team set to become the No. 1 team in the country for the first time since March of 2003. That will be a very big deal on that campus, where the basketball tradition is proud and Miller's put together something undeniable: a top-10 national program.
UNLV is now a 3-4 team that will have to do wonders in the Mountain West, not to mention get above water for the rest of December. The Rebels do have a manageable schedule, at least.
Players with impact
- We already talked about Chaz Williams.
- Second-best game of the day? Rice's Sean Obi had 25 points and 19 rebounds. Really strong. It was a 96-93 triple-OT win for the Owls against South Alabama.
- Youngstown State’s Kendrick Perry had another impressive outing, finishing with 33 points and four assists in a loss to UMKC.
- Terrific all-around line from Sir’Dominic Pointer of St. John’s. He had 12 points, nine rebounds, 11 assists, three blocks and four steals.
- Jordan Fouse: six points, six rebounds -- and eight steals in the Phoenix's W.
- San Jose State's Jalen James had a triple-double, putting up 13 rebounds, 12 points and 10 assists. It was the second trip-doub in school history.
Numbers to figure
104: St. John’s scored 104 in its win over Fordham. The Red Storm hadn’t reached 100 points since February 1999 against Providence.
19: The number of times, consecutively, Colorado had lost to Arizona prior to Askia Booker's big bucket.
24: Missouri has the nation’s longest home winning streak, at 24 games. Duke is second, with 22.
23: Kansas' 3-point shooting rate in its past four games. Via @rustindodd.
1993-94: Wisconsin is off to its best start since the Badgers went 11-0 in the 1993-94 season.
Other outcomes of note:
- Cincinnati was knocked from the ranks of the unbeaten after falling on the road to New Mexico. Dropping a game in the Pit is reasonable, so no knocks of the Bearcats for losing 63-54.
- Iowa State needed overtime to win on the road over Northern Iowa 91-82.
- Alabama is now a 4-4 team after dropping a road game to 6-2 South Florida. A 66-64 final, you wonder if Alabama can be a top-half-of-the-SEC team this year.
- The best finish of the day came in Texas vs. Temple. The Longhorns blew a 16-point lead, but Javan Felix’s 3-pointer with nine seconds left gave Texas an 81-80 overtime win. Temple could have extended its lead to three, but Dalton Pepper was called for a lane violation on his second free throw. Texas isn’t great, but not many expected the Longhorns to be 8-1.
- Michigan bounced back from two losses in three games to throttle Houston Baptist, 107-53. It was the third-largest margin of victory in school history.
- No hangover or underperforming from UNC. Heels galloped to an 81-50 home win over UNC Greensboro.
- Louisville struggled with Louisiana-Lafayette for a half, but the Cardinals cruised in the second half en route to a 113-74 win. Montrezl Harrell had 20 points and eight boards. Keep an eye on the Ragin’ Cajuns in the Sun Belt, though.
- Shaq Goodwin is starting to figure it out down low for Memphis. He had 17 points and eight boards against Oklahoma State last weekend, and followed that up with 21 points and six boards against Northwestern State on Saturday. The Tigers won by 20.
- Harvard dominated overtime against Boston University on Saturday, outscoring the Terriers 13-2 in the extra session to get a 79-58 win. Wesley Saunders had 25 points.
- Clemson had 19 offensive rebounds against Arkansas – but only 14 second-chance points. That was one of the reasons the Tigers lost to the Razorbacks, 74-68.
- Georgetown (Colgate), Tennessee (Tennessee Tech) and Minnesota (New Orleans) all had some struggles, but emerged with a win.
- T.J. Warren has now reached at least 22 points in six of his eight games. He had 23 points on Saturday, as North Carolina State beat Long Beach State.
Notebook:
-- Arizona's going to be No. 1, but will Ohio State be top-three? Probably. The Buckeyes cruised at home, beating Central Connecticut State 74-56.
-- Colorado had to play against Kansas without the services of power forward Wesley Gordon, who missed Saturday with an injury he suffered against Colorado State.
-- Stanford guard Aaron Bright suffered a dislocated right shoulder and will miss the rest of the season. He is expected to take a medical redshirt and transfer elsewhere for his final season.
-- Prior to getting its good win over Marquette, Wisconsin announced George Marshall will transfer after the semester.
-- Mike Brey scheduled a home game against his former school, Delaware, and almost paid dearly for it. Irish won 80-75, but it was a two-point game with less than two minutes to go.
-- Reports from out of Florida have Scottie Wilbekin on pace to play Tuesday against Kansas. This is sooner than expected, as Wilbekin went down on Monday night at UConn with what was initially diagnosed as a high-ankle sprain.
-- Tulsa's home game against Arkansas Little-Rock was postponed due to inclimate weather. Same went for SMU, which was scheduled to host Hofstra.
-- Still undefeated after winning today: Wisconsin (10-0), Arizona (9-0), Syracuse (9-0), Villanova (9-0), Missouri (9-0), UMass (8-0), Toledo (8-0), Ohio State (8-0), Iowa State (7-0).
-- Still winless after losing today: Cornell and Tennessee State (0-10).
