Games 787-788: Wednesday doubleheader

788 - Utah State at San Jose State
December 4 at Event Center in San Jose, CA
ESPN2

Welcome back, Richie Schueler, we've missed you:

"you have to be able to rebound the basketball to win basketball games"
"in Mountain West circles"

IN MOUNTAIN WEST CIRCLES

"a terrific basketball background"
"they determined it was a basketball play"

!

"the sneaky athleticism tool"
"skill set"
"all energy, all the time"
"a high IQ basketball play"

787 - Nebraska at Georgia Tech
December 4 at McCamish Pavilion in Atlanta, GA
ESPNU

Game 502 - Colorado State at New Mexico

January 27 at The Pit in Albuquerque, NM
ESPN

Always nice to hear from Richie Schueler, who combined with Trey Bender for a fine night of saying the word "basketball":

Total: 30
First half: 16, Second: 14

Bender: 8
Schueler: 22

Notable

"taking care of the basketball" (said eight times)
"...and is saying 'give me the basketball so I can finish'"

Game 462 - San Diego State at Wyoming

December 27 at Arena-Auditorium in Laramie, WY
espn3.com

Both Hayden Dalton & the broadcast team of Shawn Kenney and Richie Schueler had huge nights on Wednesday. Dalton scored a career-high 36 points to lead the Cowboys to an 82-69 win in the Mountain West opener, while Kenney and Schueler provided this list of nonsense:

"the dome of doom"
"ran out of real estate"
"court vision" (2)
"the Steve Fisher era"
"he's an absolute bulldog to the basket" (2)
"he's like a Swiss army knife, he just has so many weapons"
"Wyoming came out guns a blazing" (2)
"the main rim protector"
"road warriors"
"sharp shooting sniper uncorked"
"still trying to get his game legs"


200 Game Season legs rankings

1. road legs
2. game legs
3. young legs
4. tired legs


"high low action"
"bingo! Devin Watson splashes her in"
"hero ball"
"San Diego State not starting on the foot that they wanted to"

Game 320 - Boise State at Nevada

February 22 at Lawlor Events Center in Reno, NV
ESPN

As I planned out my basketball watching for Wednesday, I saw a trio of enticing games tipping at 9:00 pm:

- Butler at Villanova, FSI. The ranked Bulldogs visiting the No. 2 team in the country
- Louisville at North Carolina, ESPN. Two top-10 teams, each looking to win the ACC regular season title
- Oregon at California, ESPN. An excellent Oregon team against Cal, looking for what would be its best win of the season

...and decided to wait until 10:00 pm and watch Boise-Nevada.

I like to see as many teams as possible at this site, so we got the Broncos for just the second time and the Wolfpack for the first. And despite lacking the qualities of the other three games - ranked teams, historic programs - it was an entertaining contest won by Nevada, 85-77.

The trio of Marcus Marshall, Cameron Oliver and Jordan Caroline combined for 68 of the 85 points (80%) & the Wolfpack hit their final 12 free throws (Marshall knocked down the last six to seal it) and went 30-for-34 for the game. Boise State got to within 74-72 with about 2 1/2 minutes to play, but couldn't pull any closer.

With the victory Nevada also tied Colorado State (both are 11-4) atop the Mountain West Conference.

As for the other three games? Well, Butler ended Villanova's 48-game home winning streak, North Carolina may have moved to a No. 1 seed with a huge home win, and Oregon was held to 16-first half points, then erased a 16-point, second-half deficit and won on a Dillon Brooks three with two seconds left.

Those all seem like better choices, don't they? BUT - without Boise-Nevada, I never would've heard

"They say offense sells tickets, defense wins games...but rebounding wins championships."

from commentator Richie Schueler!