Games 683-684: From Tennessee to Texas

684 - Temple at Houston
January 31 at Fertitta Center in Houston, TX
ESPN

Color commentator Mark Wise:

"from bonus land" (3)
"rim protectors"
"smash mouth hoops"
"defense doesn't happen by accident, it happens because of your culture"
"effort plays" (2)
"Temple just trying to be the hang-around team"
"the help the helper defense...it's not necessarily the helper, but who is helping the helper"
"blow by"
"that was a basketball play"
"he comes at you with all these arms and legs, he's like Inspector Gadget!"
"degree of difficulty...10!"
"we talk about resume builder, this was a resume protector for Houston"

683 - Western Carolina women at Chattanooga
January 31 at McKenzie Arena in Chattanooga, TN
ESPN +

Games 681-682: Southland Wednesday

682 - Nicholls women at Lamar
January 30 at Montagne Center in Beaumont, TX
ESPN +

681 - Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at Abilene Christian
January 30 at Moody Coliseum in Abilene, TX

espn3

I didn't get the names of the broadcasters, but late in the first half of Abilene Chrsitian's 78-71 win (it's first over A&M in 10 all-time meetings) the play-by-play man said "he's been out-athleted at the basket".

So we can't let him get away with that.

Game 680 - Ohio State at Michigan

January 29 at Crisler Center in Ann Arbor, MI
ESPN2

Triple-double!

Always a rare treat to watch a player collect a triple-double and Tuesday, Michigan's Zavier Simpson was fantastic - handing out a career-high 11 assists to go along with 11 points and 10 rebounds. It's the sixth triple-double in Michigan history and it was a huge reason why the Associated Press No. 5 Wolverines turned a six-point halftime deficit into a 65-49 win.

That's 20 consecutive home wins for Michigan, which improved to 20-1 overall and 9-1 in the Big 10.

For us at 200 Game Season, we've had plenty of close calls & this was just our second triple-double after Georgia State's D'Marcus Simonds accomplished the feat in November, 2017.



Other games watched:

Virginia at N.C. State (UVA 66-65 in OT)
Mississippi State at Alabama (ALA 83-79)

Game 679 - Baylor at Oklahoma

January 28 at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, OK
ESPNU

Conference games pitting two teams close in the standings aren't supposed to play out like Monday's Big 12 contest.

Baylor (14-6, 5-2) completely dismantled Oklahoma, leading for the final 34 minutes and cruising to a 77-47 victory, the Bears' fifth straight win.

The Sooners had a dreadful night, specifically on defense, where the visitors had no trouble getting easy buckets at the rim (Baylor had a 38-18 advantage  in the paint) and jumpers from any distance. Baylor shot 54% from the field and hit half of its 20 three-point attempts against a Sooners (15-6, 3-5) team that came into the night 11th nationally in field goal percentage defense.

"You don't have many nights like this (in the Big 12) and you're blessed when you do," Baylor coach Scott Drew told baylorbears.com.

The balance was extraordinary as well - no player scored more than 12 points (Makai Mason), but seven scored at least seven points in Baylor's most lopsided Big 12 road win since beating TCU 91-58 in February, 2014.

Let's not forget the Baylor defense, which was superb, holding the Sooners to 27% shooting and below 50 points for the first time since a 72-47 loss to Gonzaga in November, 2012.

Game 678 - Golden State Warriors at Boston Celtics

January 26 at TD Garden in Boston, MA
ABC

That's 10 consecutive wins for the Warriors, who got 33 points from Kevin Durant in a 115-11 win.

Golden State, back on top of the Western Conference with the victory, has now won nine straight on the road since falling at Utah last December 19.

Nice nights for Al Horford (22 and 13, 10-of-15 from the field) and Kyrie Irving (32 points, 10 assists) in a losing effort. Also a nice night for color commentator Mark Jackson who said "that's good basketball" after Boston missed a first quarter shot.

"That's good announcing."

- Derwood Morris



Other games watched:

Utah at California
Grand Canyon at California Baptist

Games 676-677: Two on Saturday

677 - Bowling Green at Miami (Ohio)
January 26 at Millett Hall in Oxford, OH
The MAC on ESPN

676 - UT Arlington at Georgia State
January 26 at GSU Sports Arena in Atlanta, GA
ESPN +

Jeff Thomas!

My favorite Panther since current Boston Celtics guard R.J. Hunter delivered in a big way Saturday, scoring 27 points on 11-of-15 shooting in a 77-71 win.

Thomas reached the 1,000-point plateau with the first basket of the game (he's the 21st in school history to reach that mark), then was the only consistent shooter for GSU, which was out-rebounded 48-30 (UTA grabbed an absurd 21 offensive rebounds), and saw its best player, D'Marcus Simonds, score one point, miss all nine of his field goal attempts and basically sit out the entire second half.

It's a win, though, and it snapped a two-game losing streak and helped GSU (15-6) improve to 6-2 in Sun Belt play.

Great days for sophomore point guard Kane Williams, who came off the bench to score 16 points on 5-of-7 shooting, and Jordan Tyson, a senior, who got a rare start and had perhaps his best game in two years with the Panthers (career-high 11 points, five rebounds, three blocks, two steals).

Games 673-675: Thursday trio

675 - Charlotte at UT-San Antonio
January 24 at Convocation Center in San Antonio, TX
ESPN +

Play-by-play announcer Lincoln Rose with a phrase of the year nominee after a Jhivvan Jackson first-half rejection:

"Perhaps the only thing the fans like more than a Jhivvan Jackson three is a little rejection from the future post master general...insufficient postage from the 49ers!"

674 - Charleston Southern at Radford
January 24 at Donald N. Dedmon Center in Radford, VA
ESPN +

673 - Texas State at Georgia State
January 24 at GSU Sports Arena in Atlanta, GA

There was very little joy found on the main court - GSU was out-played and lost 81-66, its second consecutive Sun Belt defeat after a 5-0 start - so, sadly, the highlight of the evening was this old scoreboard I found at GSU's auxiliary gym:

Game 672 - LaSalle at Fordham

January 23 at Rose Hill Gym in Bronx, NY
ESPN +

The trio of Isiah Deas, new Scoochie Smith All Star Pookie Powell & Saul Phiri were a combined 11-of-18 from three-point range (LaSalle made 14 threes as a team) and the Explorers led the entire way and as much as 16 in winning 73-71.

LaSalle picked up its first Atlantic 10 win since its league opener January 5 at Massachusetts, while Fordham remained winless at 0-6.

It was also a great night of nonsense from the broadcast team of Mike Watts & Andrew Bogusch:

Bogusch:

[after LaSalle started the game on a 9-0 run] "take a nine-point punch in the face"

"you can't be Villanova at LaSalle, but you can be Villanova light at LaSalle"

"acknowledge that the mini-battle was lost...win the war"

"play 40 big minutes"


Watts:

"[after a 3-pointer got Fordham to within nine points with 12:19 left] "trying to make sure it's not too little too late"

"this is one of those every possession matters moments"

"LaSalle at times last year was pesky good"

"Ed Croswell, the lunch pail guy on this LaSalle team"

Game 671 - Akron women at Northern Illinois

January 20 at NIU Convocation Center in DeKalb, IL
espn3

Northern Illinois is a top-20 team nationally in scoring (average of 80.8 points coming in), and while they fell short of that mark, the Huskies got a pair of great performances in a 70-59 win.

Gabby Nikitinaite was really impressive and finished with 23 points on 9-of-17 shooting and was the only decent three-point shooter for the visitors, hitting 3-of-7 (rest of team was 1-for-10). Mikayla Voigt complimented that with a 10-for-11 day at the line and finished with 20 points.

Akron's a good defensive team-scoring defense is third in the MAC & top-95 nationally-so 70 points to NIU is about what I thought they'd give up. The Zips just didn't make enough shots-33% from the field in the second half and only 21 made field goals for the game-and turned the ball over 18 times.

Game 670 - Tusculum at Wingate

January 19 at Cuddy Arena in Wingate, NC
espn3

Outstanding scoring game for Tusculum's Donovan Donaldson, but it was his distribution that ended up being a savior for Tusculum.

Donaldson scored a career-high 32 points, but his assist on Brandon Mitchell's dunk with eight seconds to go in the second half sent the game into overtime. Donaldson's final points - a long two at the end of the overtime - made it an 80-77 game and Wingate's attempt to tie fell well short as time expired.

Donaldson was 13-of-23 from the field and hit half of his 12 three-point attempts for the visitors, who won their fourth straight after an 0-4 start in South Atlantic Conference play (and snapped a four-game losing streak in the series).

Wingate, which came into the night tied with three other teams for second place in the conference, didn't score in overtime after Marco Haskins' two free throws put the Bulldogs in front 77-75 with 3 1/2 minutes to play. Tusculum's offense wasn't much better, but Mitchell went 2-of-2 from the line to tie the game at 77-77 with about a minute and a half to play, and his 1-of-2 trip with 51 seconds left gave the Pioneers the lead for good.

Basketball phrases/nonsense

Sam Hyman (pxp) and Eddie Lewis (cc)

"volume shooter" (2)
"Jakob Dawkins, Mr. Garbage Man himself"
"50-50 balls"
"a tear drop finisher"
"he motors across the timeline"

Also, we had this exchange:

Hyman: "he does the nitty gritty stuff to win games"
Lewis: "...and that's stuff you can't teach"

And, game tied, under two minutes to play. Hyman: "winning plays will be needed"

thanks, Sam!

Games 668-669: Thursday doubleheader

669 - Georgia State at South Alabama
January 17 at Mitchell Center in Mobile, AL
ESPN +

668 - Murray State women at Eastern Illinois
January 17 at Lantz Arena in Charleston, IL
Panthers Sports Network

What a performance by Rob Calhoun.

The play-by-play man is relentless in saying the word "basketball". Calhoun will say it multiple times in a possession if needed. Thursday it was said 116 (!) times in Eastern Illinois' 75-67 win.

Let's break down this record-setting achievement:

First quarter: said 26 times
Second: 32
Third: 24
Fourth: 34

Average per/game minute: 2.9 (!)

Game 667 - Iowa State at Texas Tech

January 16 at United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock, TX
ESPNU

Color commentator Tim Welsh - "off the bounce" count

8

First half: 5
Second: 3

Notable

"break you down off the bounce"
"he creates that space off the bounce"

Game 666 - Purdue-Fort Wayne at South Dakota

January 13 at Sanford Coyote Sports Center in Vermillion, SD
Midco Sports Network

This was our first time watching Stanley Umude play and the South Dakota sophomore didn't disappoint.

Umude scored 26 points on 11-of-18 shooting, including 11-of-15 on his two-point attempts as the hosts erased a first-half deficit of as much as 10 points to win 87-73.

Tristan Simpson added 19 points and three others were in double figures for South Dakota, which scored 50 second-half points.

Matt Weir was another sophomore who had a great night, scoring a team-high 20 points on 5-of-5 shooting from distance for Purdue-Fort Wayne. Weir was a big part of a 17-0, first-half run for the visitors that put them up 34-24 with 5:25 to go until halftime.

Weir's teammates struggled from behind the arc, though, missing all but four of their 23 three-point attempts.

Game 665 - Louisiana-Monroe at Georgia State

January 12 at GSU Sports Arena in Atlanta, GA
ESPN +

Thank you, D'Marcus Simonds.

Simonds capped a 28-point day with a lay-up with .9 seconds left as GSU survived, 74-73.

The Panthers, who moved to 4-0 in Sun Belt play and won their sixth straight overall, blew a 21-point lead and Monroe took a 73-72 lead with five seconds left. After receiving the in-bounds pass, Kane Williams made a perfect pass to Simonds in stride, and the junior took it the rest of the way, got away with what looked like a travel, and saved GSU from what would've been a horrific loss.

GSU is top-20 nationally in steals and they had 10 Saturday, helping them build that big lead. But Monroe shoots a ton of threes (8-of-31 in the game) and they started making a few of them. Meanwhile, the Panthers again allowed far too many offensive rebounds (13), while the offense disappeared for stretches. That's how a 62-41 lead with about 12 minutes left turns into a deficit after Monroe's Daishon Smith converted a lay-up with five seconds to go.

Smith (11 points) was one of five Warhawks in double figures; JD Williams led the visitors with 19 points.

Nice day for Devin Mitchell as the senior scored 16 points on 4-of-10 shooting from three-point range.

Games 664 - Bethel College (KS) at York College (NE)

January 12 at Freeman Center in York, NE
espn3

The story was Jada Brown's 27 point, 14-rebound double-double and teammate Abby Schmidt's 26 & 14 in helping the visitors overcome a nine-point halftime deficit to win 76-62.

The senior Brown was sensational in the second half, scoring 23 of her points by mainly getting to the rim and finishing a number of possessions with lay-ups. Schmidt, a sophomore, lived at the line (14-of-21) and the pair were a big reason why the Threshers out-rebounded York 48-34.

York, which fell to a Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference-worst 1-13 (Bethel moved to 9-5), scored the final 14 points of the half and led 38-29 at the break. The third was all-Bethel, though, with a 15-0 run to start the quarter the key push. York got to within 62-60 on an Amaia Diez jumper with about 6 1/2 minutes to play in the game, but that was the last field goal for the hosts, who scored just two points over the final 6 1/2 minutes.

Of course, the story for us at 200 Game Season was the work of play-by-play man C.J. Layton, who set an in-game site record by saying "dribble drive" just 12 seconds into this one. The 9:48 mark of the opening quarter? OUTSTANDING WORK, SIR.

Layton now sits atop our ever-growing list.

Games 662-663: Two on Thursday

663 - Old Dominion at Florida Atlantic
January 10 at FAU Arena in Boca Raton, FL
ESPN +

Color commentator Mike Gillian on ODU guard Justice Kithcart:

"he's like a roller coaster - when he's up, he's up, when he's down, he's down."

662 - Louisiana at Georgia State
January 10 at GSU Sports Arena in Atlanta, GA
ESPN +

Let's quickly move past the free-throw shooting, which was horrid (14-for-24), and look at the second-half field goal shooting, which was incredible.

GSU hit 19-of-28 from the field in the second half (67%) and moved to 3-0 in Sun Belt play with an 89-76 win.

D'Marcus Simonds had 14 of his team-high 21 points in the second half and Devin Mitchell scored all 13 of his after halftime as the Panthers won for the sixth consecutive time against its league rival despite 36 points from JaKeenan Gant.

Gant, who was 14-of-21 from the field, is a really impressive player and I'm just glad no one else really helped him out. Justin Miller and Jerekius Davis combined for 24 points, but on just 8-of-22 shooting and Miller fouled out with just over five minutes to play. Non-Gant shooters were just 13-of-45 for the visitors.

GSU (12-4), winners of five straight overall, got great contributions from Jeff Thomas (17 points, 5-of-9 on threes) and Malik Benlevi (15 points, 6-of-8 FG).

Thomas was huge early, scoring 11 points, including three 3-pointers within the first eight minutes, while Benlevi was, once again his team's most consistent player and finished with 15 points and nine rebounds. The defending league champions are 3-0 in conference play for the first time since the 2013-14 team won its first 10 on the way to a regular season championship.

Game 661 - St. Francis (NY) women at Bryant

January 7 at Chace Athletic Center in Smithfield, RI
espn3

Let's get a "basketball" count from the broadcast team of Craig D'Amico (pxp) & Pam Roecker (cc):

First quarter: said 18 times
CD: 10
PR: 8

Second: 9
CD: 5
PR: 4

Third: 4
CD: 2
PR: 2

Fourth: 11
CD: 4
PR: 7

Total: 42
Average 1.05/game minute

Game 660 - Georgia State at Texas State

January 5 at Strahan Arena in San Marcos, TX
ESPN +

Games 658-659: Thursday doubleheader

659 - Southeast Missouri State at SIU-Edwardsville
January 3 at Sam Vadalabene Center in Edwardsville, IL
OVC on ESPN

Phenomenal night for freshman Cameron Williams, who scored a career-high 27 points in SIU-Edwardsville's 94-88 victory.

Williams, senior David McFarland (22 points) and junior Brandon Jackson (17) combined to shoot 54% from the field (24-of-34), part of a 58% team effort.

Southeast Missouri was just as good shooting the ball, knocking down half of its 26 three-point attempts and 51% overall. The Redhawks had 20 assists on 30 made baskets.

"dribble drive"

Got a nice, late-first half "dribble drive" from color commentator Colin Suhre, who said it with 1:45 to go until halftime.

Here's the full list.

658 - Georgia State at UT-Arlington
January 3 at College Park Center in Arlington, TX

ESPN +

The wins don't all have to be pretty, and this one certainly was not.

GSU used an excellent perimeter defense - Arlington missed 23 of its 25 three-point attempts - and held on for a 63-58 win to open Sun Belt Conference play.

The defending league champion Panthers hit half of their 18 shots in the first half, but just 33% in the second and that allowed the hosts to get to within two with 30 seconds to play. Devin Mitchell, who hit three 3-pointers within the first minute and a half of the game, didn't score again until knocking down a pair of free throws, Kane Williams had a steal and two more free throws and that put the game away.

It was ugly - 19 turnovers, 60% shooting from the line - but I'll take a 1-0 start in league play after three consecutive losses in conference openers.