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NU 81 UTSA 66

NU 81 KU 79

Oh and loved how Cope played today - he did take a lot of shots, but we needed him to. We're asking him to guard guys bigger than him much of the time, be one of our top rebounders, and score a lot. His game is really rounding into form nicely. We'd be in some trouble if he was just playing his first game Saturday at Kansas, as it kind of looked like he might have to do originally. He's made some very nice strides since the beginning of the season and he's ready for really strong performances in B1G play.

Holy crap. We shot 3 free throws. Guess I wasn't paying attention to that number during the game. I need more beer after seeing that. Not happy right now, but when you think about how this team looked in game 3 in Queens versus how they looked today in Game 11, we're getting better as these guys gain more time on the floor together. Still a lot more improvement is needed, but after how we competed Tuesday and today, I think we're on the right trajectory heading into full-time conference play. Now back to drinking heavily. 3 free throws for a team that had 26 paint points and attempted almost 2/3 of its shots from inside the arc. Wow.

U-Dub by 10 with 3 to play - they have completely flustered KU with an extended 2-3 zone that's preventing 3-pt shots - they're letting KU have the ball in the lane, but they can't score in there Hope we have a sharp zone defense ready to use for the next 2 Saturdays

Not a great night for the big boys - Top 5 Florida just lost to Loyola-Chicago; KU trails Washington by 2 at half (ESPN2) - first time KU has been behind at halftime this season Illinois still scuffling with A Peay with 6 min to go Throw in Ball State beating Top 10 Notre Dame last night - with finals coming up and holidays, big favorites don't always have good focus this time of the year.

Gotta think Tommie lost a bet. Badly.

NU 88 Team that shall not be spoken 76

NU 74 Minny 67 9

Over the past few months, I've learned to really hate FS1.

Road teams 3-2 on the opening weekend so far, and a 4th (Illinois) probably should have won. Let's hope the road teams keep rolling until Tuesday! Sunday's pt spreads NW at Purdue -13 Nebraska at MSU -19.5 Rutgers at Minny -13.5 Maryland -2.5 at Illinois

Buckeyes smoking Wisky 49-26 at halftime in Madison - they shot 78% from the field

Illinois-NW was a game nobody wanted to win. NW somehow turned the ball over on its final 4 possessions in regulation and still got to overtime. But they're 1-0 so I guess that's all that matters. Today's point spreads Indiana at Michigan -7.5 Ohio St at Wisconsin -8.5 Penn St -3 at Iowa That last one seems a little odd to me, but Iowa hasn't been very good so far. Also just throw this in here - Craig Smith's Coyotes are a 22 pt dog at Duke today.

Friday Point Spreads: Purdue -2 at Maryland Illinois at Northwestern -6

2017 B1G-ACC Challenge (all times Central) Monday, Nov. 27 Syracuse 72, Maryland 70 Virginia 49, Wisconsin 37 Tuesday, Nov. 28 Georgia Tech 52, Northwestern 51 Florida St 78, Rutgers 73 Virginia Tech 79, Iowa 55 Wake Forest 80, Illinois 73 Purdue 66, Louisville 57 Wednesday, Nov. 29 Clemson 79, Ohio St 65 NC State 85, Penn St 78 North Carolina 86, Michigan 71 Miami 86, Minnesota 81 Duke 91, Indiana 81 Nebraska 71, Boston Coll 62 Thursday, Nov. 30 Michigan St 81, Notre Dame 63 ACC wins 11-3

Hopefully Sparty is using their full allotment of points for the remainder of the week tonight. Wow. They might be pretty good.

As are the games against the team that shall not be named and Kansas, so it'd be a good time to change our luck on FS1.

Yeah - after playing UConn, UNC and Notre Dame consecutively, plus having played Duke a couple of weeks ago, maybe they look at NU and Rutgers back to back and decide it's time to relax and focus on school work. It'd be nice to catch them napping a bit.

MSU 91 Neb 79 9 wins

2017 B1G-ACC Challenge (all times Central) Monday, Nov. 27 Syracuse 72, Maryland 70 Virginia 49, Wisconsin 37 Tuesday, Nov. 28 Georgia Tech 52, Northwestern 51 Florida St 78, Rutgers 73 Virginia Tech 79, Iowa 55 Wake Forest 80, Illinois 73 Purdue 66, Louisville 57 Wednesday, Nov. 29 Clemson 79, Ohio St 65 NC State 85, Penn St 78 North Carolina 86, Michigan 71 Miami 86, Minnesota 81 Duke 91, Indiana 81 Nebraska 71, Boston Coll 62 Thursday, Nov. 30-- ACC leads 11-2 6 pm – Notre Dame at Michigan St, ESPN Good thing NU is around to carry the banner for the league. At least Ohio St's hoops team played Clemson closer than their football team.

Not a huge fan of playing conference games this early - if the B1G wants to play its tournament in MSG, maybe they should've waited until they could force the current tenant to leave for a year so we could play the B1G tourney at the normal time. Or maybe we should play the B1G-BE challenge to see who gets MSG the following year. Then again, if NU has success versus MSU and/or Minny, I promise to become a big fan of this type of schedule. In case you want to binge watch some B1G hoops this weekend: Friday, Dec. 1 6 pm – Purdue at Maryland – BTN 8 pm – Illinois at Northwestern – BTN Saturday, Dec. 2 11:30 am – Indiana at Michigan – CBS 4 pm – Ohio St at Wisconsin – FOX 4 pm – Penn St at Iowa – BTN Sunday, Dec. 3 3 pm – Northwestern at Purdue – BTN 3:30 pm – Nebraska at Michigan St – FS1 5 pm – Rutgers at Minnesota – BTN 7 pm – Maryland at Illinois – BTN Monday, Dec. 4 5:30 pm – Michigan at Ohio St – FS1 6 pm – Wisconsin at Penn St – ESPN2 7 pm – Iowa at Indiana – BTN Tuesday, Dec. 5 6 pm – Michigan St at Rutgers, BTN 8 pm – Minnesota at Nebraska, BTN

Early point spreads for Wed. games Clemson at Ohio St -3 Penn St -1 at NC State Michigan at UNC -10 Miami at Minnesota -5 Duke -10 at Indiana BC at Nebraska -3

2017 B1G-ACC Challenge (all times Central) Monday, Nov. 27 Syracuse 72, Maryland 70 Virginia 49, Wisconsin 37 Tuesday, Nov. 28 Georgia Tech 52, Northwestern 51 Florida St 78, Rutgers 73 Virginia Tech 79, Iowa 55 Wake Forest 80, Illinois 73 Purdue 66, Louisville 57 Wednesday, Nov. 29 -- ACC leads 6-1 6:15 pm – Clemson at Ohio St, ESPN2 6:15 pm – Penn St at NC State, ESPNU 6:30 pm – Michigan at North Carolina, ESPN 8:15 pm – Miami at Minnesota, ESPN2 **8:15 pm – Boston Coll at Nebraska, ESPNU 8:30 pm – Duke at Indiana, ESPN Thursday, Nov. 30 6 pm – Notre Dame at Michigan St, ESPN So far only one home team has lost - Rutgers - so B1G will need to protect home court tonight to try to scramble back into this thing - not looking good though, as we know Indiana basically has no shot at home against Duke.

Yeah, ESPN may not have completely thought through the ramifications of putting those two together.

Early lines for Tuesday's games Fla St -5 at Rutgers NW at Ga Tech (Pick 'em) L'ville at Purdue -7 Illinois at Wake -3 Iowa at Va Tech -8 B1G will have to pull an upset or two to try to push this thing back to even.