— Vanderbilt 96, Alabama 90
Vandy was 35-50 on foul line, Alabama 29-38; lot of fouls.
Crimson Tide was 9-40 on the arc, 17-30 inside arc.
Commodores are 15-0, one of six unbeaten teams in the country.
— UConn 103, Providence 98 OT
Providence led by 11 with 3:12 left in regulation.
UConn shot 18-32 on the arc; Friars were 14-24.
Silas Demery had 23 points, 15 assists for UConn
— Saint Louis 71, VCU 62
Saint Louis outscored VCU 10-0 over last 2:30 of the game.
VCU only shot 28.6% from the floor, at home.
Billikens are 14-1; they lost by a point to Stanford.
— Creighton 76, Villanova 72
Bluejays shot 62.9% inside the arc.
Villanova led by 10 points in the first half.
Creighton is 4-1 in Big East; they’re 6-5 in non-league games.
— Marquette 66, Xavier 65
Golden Eagles snapped a six-game losing skid.
Marquette out-rebounded Xavier, 47-34
Xavier shot 31.4% inside arc, 11-24 on the arc.
— Clemson 74, SMU 70
Clemson never trailed; they’re 13-3, 3-0 in ACC games.
Tigers have #25 eFG% defense in country.
SMU is 12-3, 1-3 on road, with only win at Mississippi State
— Arkansas 94, Ole Miss 87
Arkansas shot 14-30 on arc, scored 1.30 ppp.
Arkansas won its last three games, scoring 97.7 ppg
Razorbacks are 12-3; all three losses are to teams in top 12 in country.
— BYU 104, Arizona State 76
Cougars shot 70% inside arc, 14-31 on the arc, scored 1.34 ppp.
BYU scored 59 points in the second half.
Arizona State lost its last four games, giving up 91.8 ppg.
— Famous birthdays, January 8th:
Calvin Natt, 69
Mark Herrmann, 67
Jason Giambi, 55
Billy Joe Hobert, 55
Mike Cameron, 53
Jeff Francouer, 42
Jeff Hoffman, 33
Chris Paddack, 30
Jhoan Duran, 28
— More and more, college basketball teams prefer that all their shots either be layups or 3-pointers; 15-foot jumpers are pretty much frowned upon.
These are the teams whose 2-point shots are the shortest in the country:
Saint Louis
Texas A&M
Marquette
George Washington
South Florida
St Thomas
— One thing about college basketball the next few weeks; this is Gonzaga’s last year to beat the tar out of WCC opponents- they’re moving up to the new/improved Pac-12 next year.
— In-game interviews with coaches are useless; none of them ever say anything, they’re mainly spouting cliches and trying to get back to their bench.
— Colorado Rockies signed P Michael Lorenzen for one year, $8M; Lorenzen was 7-11, 4.64 in 26 starts for the Royals last year. Colorado will be his 7th big league team.
— Three of 14 teams in the Atlantic 14 are nicknamed the Rams; VCU, Rhode Island, Fordham all have Ram mascots.
— Random observation: NFL kickers are way better than they used to be. Jaguars’ Cam Little has made field goals of 67, 68 yards this year; he made a 70-yarder in an exhibition game.
— Indianapolis Colts ran a successful fake punt last week, then on the very next play, they kept the punt team on the field and ran another fake punt. Other team was so confused they got a penalty for having too many men on the field.
— Matt Campbell is the new football coach at Penn State; he’s already poached 19 players from Iowa State, his old team.
