What a strange day of basketball
Well Sunday got a bit odd, didn’t it?
Florida Atlantic winning over Virginia Tech wasn’t a huge surprise...but the magnitude of the win was.
FAU won by 34. This may not be an ideal Virginia Tech team, but at a minimum Mike Young knows how to get threes off.
Well not this time.
The Hokies went a long way into the game before they hit one at all and only shot 2-17. They only shot 33.3 percent overall and got pounded on the boards. There was a (we think) 19-0 run followed by a 15-0 run, both in the second half.
Worse, MJ Collins went down late in the game and while he walked off under his own power, he looked pretty shaky. He might play against Auburn on Wednesday, but he might not, too. Didn’t look great.
Florida Atlantic looked great, so in the long run, this might not be as bad a loss as it looks like right now. But it was definitely a whipping.
Louisville’s win was really, uh, unusual.
New Mexico State’s starting lineup finished with 24 fouls and two more bench players fouled out for a total of six.
The Aggies finished with four players and Louisville got to the line 49 times, which might be a program record (they hit 36 of them).
Even so it was barely enough. NMSU led for most of the game and was up 73-67 with 1:09 to play. Louisville showed some heart to come back late like that and the game went to overtime where the Cardinals won, 90-84. Jaden Harris fouled out with :21 left in OT, leaving New Mexico State with four players and down 85-80. There was no way out after that.
The Cards are now 3-3 which means they are one game away from matching last season’s win total of four.
They play Bellarmine on Wednesday, and, aside from having possibly the best ball movement in the country, the Knights are generally a tough out as Louisville saw last year, losing to Bellarmine in the season opener, 67-66.
A win there would probably do Kenny Payne’s program a world of good.
No Monday Games
