A future Kentucky basketball opponent is off to a hot start
College basketball notes:
▪ The coaches say you’re supposed to play the schedule one game at a time, but a future Kentucky basketball opponent is off to a hot start.
No. 16 Ohio State, which plays UK on Dec. 21 in the CBS Sports Classic in Las Vegas, ripped No. 10 Villanova 76-51 on Wednesday night in Columbus to run the Buckeyes’ record to 3-0.
Duane Washington, who made six of his first seven shots, led the way with 14 points as Ohio State shot 60 percent from the floor. Kaleb Wesson scored 10 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked four shots for Nicholasville native Chris Holtmann’s club.
Ohio State held Villanova to 30.6 percent shooting from the floor. The Wildcats were 10-of-30 from three-point range, but just 9-of-32 from inside the three-point line. Villanova trailed 40-22 at the half.
Ohio State opened the year with a 64-56 win over Cincinnati, then beat UMass-Lowell 76-56. The Villanova game was part of the Gavin Tipoff Game series pitting Big Ten teams against opponents from the Big East.
▪ Louisville improved to 3-0 with an easy 91-62 win over Indiana State at the Yum Center on Wednesday night. The Cardinals rolled to a 47-26 halftime lead and never looked back.
Jordan Nwora scored 21 points for U of L. He has scored 20-or-more points in each of the Cards’ first three games — 23 against Miami; 21 against Youngstown State and 21 against the Sycamores.
Dwayne Sutton scored 14 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Stephen Enoch also had 10 rebounds. Louisville shot 58.5 percent from the floor. The Cards were 9-of-17 from three-point range. Ryan McMahon was 3-of-4 from behind the stripe.
Rick Bozich of WDRB writes that Louisville did not let the Valley upset bug spread. Indiana State, like Evansville, is from the Missouri Valley Conference. Evansville shocked No. 1 Kentucky 67-64 on Tuesday, of course.
Louisville next plays North Carolina Central on Nov. 17.
▪ Will Wade’s return to VCU did not go well as No. 23 LSU lost 84-82 to the Rams. Wade, VCU’s coach before heading to Baton Rouge, watched his team fall behind 50-38 at halftime on the way to being 1-1 for the season.
Skylar Mays scored 23 points for LSU. Marcus Santos-Silva had 17 points and 11 rebounds for VCU, which is off to a 3-0 start.
By the way, several VCU fans dressed as FBI agents, a reference to Wade’s troubles during the FBI investigation into college basketball corruption.
▪ Marquette rallied from an 18-point deficit to beat Purdue 65-55 in Milwaukee. Utah State transfer Kobe McEwen scored 23 points to lead the Golden Eagles.
▪ Nate Sestina’s old team Bucknell knocked off Hofstra 86-71 to go 2-1 on the season. Jimmy Sotos scored 24 points for Bucknell.
▪ Saint Louis is off to a 3-0 start for Travis Ford. The Billikens beat Eastern Washington 82-60 in the Gotham Classic on Wednesday.
▪ After being suspended the first two games, DJ Funderburk scored 11 points off the bench in North Carolina State’s 86-77 win over Florida International.
▪ Gary Parrish of CBS Sports is reporting that Memphis and the NCAA are working toward a resolution in the James Wiseman case. The heralded signee was ruled ineligible by the NCAA for accepting an $11,500 payment from Penny Hardaway to help move from Nashville to Memphis. At the time, Hardaway was Wiseman’s high school coach. Now, Hardaway is Memphis’ head coach.
“The number of games Wiseman might be asked to sit out due to an alleged impermissible benefit his mother accepted from Memphis coach Penny Hardaway in 2017 is the biggest issue to resolve, a source told CBS Sports. The range of possible games is unclear,” writes Parrish.
After the NCAA’s ruling, Memphis sought and received an injunction allowing Wiseman to play. He scored 28 points in his college debut against South Carolina State. After the injunction, Wiseman scored 17 points against UIC and had 14 points and 12 rebounds in Memphis’ 82-74 loss to Oregon in the Phil Knight Invitational.
▪ In Thursday’s games, No. 3 Michigan State is playing No. 12 Seton Hall in a Gavitt Tipoff Game at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. That’s an 8:30 p.m. start on Fox Sports 1. Seton Hall star Myles Powell is questionable with a sprained ankle.
This story was originally published November 14, 2019 at 9:01 AM.
