The Daily Gus: November 21st

Thursday night may have signified the true beginning of the college hoops regular season. Two top 25 teams (USC and UCLA nonetheless) went down to unranked teams marking the first of what promises to be an upset-filled season. The game of the night belonged to New York City as Michigan shocked UCLA 55-52 in the Coaches v. Cancer semifinals. Michigan will now move on to play Duke tonight in the final. Michigan moved to 3-0 with the victory and maybe John Beilein has began his second season at Michigan restoring the fervor with a huge, Lake Michigan size win over a top five UCLA team. Manny Harris scored 18 for the Wolverines, but UM got it done on the defensive end, holding UCLA to 42% shooting as Alfred Aboya and Josh Shipp only added a total of 10 points. Michigan was outrebounded 32-21 to the Bruins, but managed to get buckets when they needed to and more importantly they stopped Darren Collison from penetration and kick out to the bigs for 15-footers. This game was ugly from the get go which is why I don't put too much stock in the future for Michigan, I still think they do not have nearly enough scoring to contend in a lackluster Big Ten. However the more crucial look is to UCLA; the Bruins escaped at home in their quarterfinal win over Miami-Ohio 64-59 and now get completely contained by Michigan. If UCLA continues this struggle to score it could be a much more tumultuous season than Ben Howland envisioned even with the return of his big time point guard Collison.

USC blew a 15 point lead and only scored 18 points in the second half in the first round of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off as they fell to Seton Hall 63-61. USC's Taj GIbson went for 19 and 18 including ten offensive rebounds as he kept USC in it and relevant durin this game. The Trojans had 19 turnovers and really struggled to keep John Garcia off the glass. Garcia had 11 and 18 for the Hall on 5-9 from the field. Seton Hall, picked at the bottom of the Big East once again, showed a lot resiliency to battle back and lock up the Trojans to get this victory, ruining a potential exciting semi between USC and Memphis.

Funny story. A year ago (nearly to the day) a CAA favorite littered with young talent traveled to an in-state rival who was laying in the midst waiting for the opportunity to pounce on a higher mid-major who figured to come in and romp them away. The home crowd and referees got to them and a low-major without much talent raised their game to shock that contender and possibly ruin their at-large hopes. The low-major was Hampton and the favorite was VCU, as that loss haunted the Rams all season. Last night, Hampton used a 22-7 free throw advantage to shock young George Mason in their first true road test. Both teams shot under 40%, but Hampton had nine players score and Mason had four assists and 23 TURNOVERS! That attributes to the loss, but so ironic how similar the situations are; road openers are one of the more difficult things to predict in NCAA Basketball.

Shoot-Around:
- FSU got a charge call at the buzzer after blowing a 16-point halftime lead to Stetson to escape with a 79-77 home victory. Toney Douglas had 20 in the second half and a game high 26 on 9-16 to lead 3-0 Florida State.

- Memphis aint played anybody yet, but they look like they haven't missed a beat; placing four guys in double figures in a 83-71 cruise over Chattanooga. X-factor Robert not Curt Dozier went for 18, 8 and 4 on 6-8 shooting. If Dozier can finally meet expectations Memphis can get back in the top five easy.

- A big time low major win for North texas last night. The Mean Green invaded Sam Houston State, an incredibly difficult place to play, and escaped with a narrow 76-71 win. SHSU is real young, but littered with JUCO transfers and is real real athletic. North Texas could be a force in the Sun Belt this season and George Odufawa will be a force inside.

- A huge huge huge road win for Illinois last night at Vanderbilt. In what could be a win bigger than any one for the Fighting Illini last season, Demetri McCamey dropped 23 in another tough SEC venue. AJ Ogilvy had 13 points, and only six boards. He needs to step up and capture the void left by Shan Foster if Vandy hopes to return to the NCAA Tournament. The Illini invaded Nashville and slapped the Commodores in the face, giving Vandy a rare non-conference home loss.

- Xavier looked impressive, but so did Mike Anderson's Missouri club, as the Muskies won 75-71. I think both squads will be better than most think, although X is picked to win the A-10 anyway. Missouri on the other hand selected to be at the bottom of the league has alot of depth and athleticism as they forced 20 Xavier turnovers. The glass was the difference as XU outrebounded Mizzou 39-24.