Opening Night: Duke Escapes, Carolina Bores, State Farm Suckout, UCLA Upset, Anthony Davis fills it up
Opening night was full of basketball and everything was business as usual. We won’t bore you with details, but there is some analysis from last nights games as we try to recover from our Hoops Hangover this morning.
Duke escaped a pretty good Belmont team to win 77-76 in Austin River’s debut in Cameron Indoor Stadium. Coach K got win 901 (he goes for 902 today against Presbyterian) but it didn’t come without stress. Duke gave up a 16-point second half lead and had to battle Belmont down the stretch to seal the victory.
It seemed like Austin Rivers tried to do a little too much. While it was just Belmont and Rivers did have 16 points, he had five turnovers and only two assists. No doubt K will have him running like a well oiled machine. Player of the game was Mason Plumlee who wanted the ball all night and played aggressive and in control.
It was an exciting game that I’m sure many tuned into late once the upset alert button was hit, after all, what red blooded, non-Duke fan wouldn’t want to see the nation’s nemesis lose their opener to a team with the nickname Camels.
North Carolina rolled past Michigan State on the water, which is what everyone expected. Carolina took care of business, showed off a deep bench and spread the ball around to take out Izzo and the Spartans. Carolina wasn’t spectacular, they just methodically beat a MSU team that seems to be in rebuilding mode in what turned into a pretty boring game. Not to take anything away from the Tar Heels, they did what they needed to do.
Draymond Green was impressive for the Spartans scoring 13 points and grabbing an impressive 18 boards against a good Carolina front line. While it was great to see the game on a ship, the atmosphere and the idea behind the game and having it on veterans day were was more exciting than the actual game.
The only thing more boring than the game itself was the State Farm half time shootout. James Worthy and Brooklyn Decker squared off against a guy who used to play for Missouri who is a recording artist and Psycho T himself, Tyler Hansborough. Each ‘team’ got two shots from six circles around the net, whoever made the most won. James Worthy went two for six, Decker tried not to airball every shot, the recording artist guy, who only uses his first initial, shot the ball well and T was his usual void of personality.
There were a ton of things they could have done to make that more exciting, like have three alums from each school play a game of knockout, have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich eating contest or watch paint dry. The buildup led us to believe it was going to be exciting, or at least cool. The actual product was void of entertainment.
Number 18 UCLA was upset in their opener, losing69-58 to Loyola Marymount. UCLA has been an underachiever for a few season now and were supposed to be up-and-comers this year. Stay tuned, more on UCLA on CHD later.
Kentucky’s Anthony Davis scored 23 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, blocked five 
shots and had three assists as Kentucky beat Marist. It looks like Davis is going to live up to the hype. While it was ‘just Marist’, Kentucky scored an impressive 108 points. Most disappoint for Kentucky is Terrence Jones. Once a highly touted forward, he came back for his sophomore season and didn’t even start for UK. Down the road he may be back in the starting lineup, but he is a kid that everyone expects to do more.
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