The Daily Gus: November 22nd

Four years ago a star studded North Carolina team littered with talent at all five positions and a unanimous selection for preseason number one headed out to Hawaii for a jumpstart shot to the season in the Maui Invitational. There were rumblings of an undefeated season as they started out against tiny little Santa Clara as a pit stop on a Friday night before Maui. The Tar Heels were shocked, 77-66 with relative ease as Clara opened the eyes of the hoops nation. UNC went on to win the Maui the next week and ran off a 33-4 record with a national title. This time around, Carolina had a pit stop at Santa Barbara instead with a lesson learned and the return of Tyler Hansbrough helped UNC bring a little different result this time around. Hansbrough played 25 minutes and had 13 points (9-10 from the line) on just 2-8 shooting. I think a very important game for Hansbrough to get back in it and get his freshness back before he hits the islands. He will have his work cut out for him if he comes across Notre Dame forward Luke Harangody in the Maui final. Carolina sot 48% and forced 21 Gaucho turnovers, most certainly being the reason for an uptempo UNC team's victory. Ty Lawson paced UNC with 19 points as the Heels placed six players in double figures.

Dante Jackson threw up a half court prayer for Xavier Friday afternoon and nailed it as they took down Virginia Tech 63-62 in OT in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off. Derrick Brown had 16 points to lead XU, and they overcame Jeff Allen's 22 and 11 to snatch the victory right from under Va Tech. Best ending of the season to date to put Xavier to 4-0 and a possible date with Memphis in the tournament final.

Iona drives into Madison and takes Wisconsin all the way down to the wire and past it. The Badgers needed overtime to overcome the Gaels 60-58 led by Trevon Hughes' 21 points. ALways the achilles' heel for Wisconsin is their shooting and it was no different last night; 15-48 from the field for the game, 5 of 21 from three. For those counting at home thats a 31 % clip. They had 7 assists to 19 turnovers and managed to get to the line 19 more times than Iona. Yet, somehow, this game was just a two point nail biter for Bo Ryan. Hughes and Bohannon will not have many nights where they combine for 7-22 shooting, so it should not be too big of a worry.

Shoot-Around
- Sylven Landesberg scored 22 for Virginia as they narrowly escaped a huge home upset from Radford. The Highlanders had a two point halftime lead and put four in double figures but could not hold on, as Landesberg hit two free throws with 30 seconds left. UVA's big time scorer and playmaker, a freshman. Watch out in Charlottesville this season, March cannot come soon enough.

- Maryland was just playing with Vermont obviously, letting them think they could hang around at an ACC school's homecourt. The Terps were driven to overtime before going on a 17-2 overtime spurt to capture a "much harder than it looked" 15 point win.Grievis Vasquez paced Maryland with 26 on 8-19 shooting. Do not look for Maryland to have great success if Vasquez shoots 19 times a game. Marques Blakely had 23 for the Catamounts.

- Manny Harris had 25 for Michigan and was 11 of 12 from the line, but the Wolverines did not stop Gerald Henderson and Kyle Singler as Duke captured the 2k Sports title in NYC. The Wolverines hung around for the entire first half, but Duke blew it open in the second when Michigan wore down. Duke did what UCLA couldnt do; keep up the tempo and figure out the 1-3-1 zone from Michigan.