Breakfast Buffet: Notre Dame parties with Mickey in Orlando
Pull up a chair and sit down at the breakfast buffet, an assortment of all the freshest newsworthy college hoops stories on the net. To make a submission, contact me via email or Twitter.
• The Old Spice Classic in Orlando was one of the more bizarre preseason tournaments because it pitted so many teams that appeared to be evenly matched. Credit Notre Dame for emerging from the morass of good but not spectacular competition by turning aside Georgia and Cal before outlasting Wisconsin 58-51 in the title game on Sunday.
• Florida dulled the sting of losing to Florida State in football over the weekend with a 55-51 victory over the Seminoles in the hoops version of one of the nation's better intrastate rivalries. The Gators let a 13-point lead slip away but won thanks to sophomore Erik Murphy, who grabbed an air ball 3-point attempt from guard Kenny Boynton and made a reverse layup putback with 18.2 seconds left to seal the victory.
• Far bigger tests are on the way for Northwestern in Big Ten play, but the Wildcats got their first quality win of the season with a thorough 65-52 home victory over Creighton on Sunday. They survived a lengthy scoring dryspell to open the second half and then blew open the game with a 10-0 run to extend the lead to 16 with 8:33 remaining.
• Sophomore big man Derrick Nix opted not to join Michigan State in Maui while he briefly pondered leaving the program, but in the end the former highly touted recruit decided that he will not transfer. " "I felt stupid. Like, 'Dang, I should be there,'" Nix told the Lansing State Journal. "All I can say is I let my team down in a big way."
• Good thing Minnesota's ACC-Big Ten challenge opponent is merely Virginia on Monday night because the Gophers will be short some key personnel. Point guard Al Nolen will miss the next two weeks with a foot injury and wing Rodney Williams is doubtful with a sprained ankle, though it sounds like there's a chance suspended guard Devoe Joseph may make his debut.
• Scary moment at the 76 Classic when Stanford guard Jeremy Green collapsed walking off the court after the Cardinal defeated DePaul in the seventh-place game. Green, who had been battling a stomach flu bad enough to require pregame IVs, appears to be fine and was expected to return to Palo Alto with his teammates on Sunday night.
• Anyone interested in the role of Atlantic 10 favorite? Right now it could be Richmond the way Temple struggled in Orlando. Sandwiched around a decent victory over Georgia, the Owls lost to Cal and Texas A&M, losses that will almost certainly drop them from the top 25 poll when it's released Monday.
• Cal looked like a potential surprise team after back-to-back upsets of New Mexico and Temple, but the Bears rocketed back down to earth in a hurry with a pair of ugly losses in the winner's bracket in Orlando. First came that hideous five-point first half on Friday against Notre Dame, followed by a 68-46 shellacking on Sunday at the hands of Boston College.
