Detroit 69, St. John’s 63: The story coming into the game was that Detroit named their court after Dickie V, a former head coach of the Titans. The story afterwards, however, was that Detroit had finally notched an impressive win. On the back of 21 points from Ray McCallum and 20 from Chase Simon, the Titans took down St. John’s. Frankly, it was a refreshing thing to see out of Detroit. This is a group that came into the season with quite a bit of expectation, but suspensions (Eli Holman) and injuries (Nick Minnerath) have led to a slow start.
St. John’s isn’t a powerhouse by any means, but they are an athletic team that plays an aggressive style of defense. They are also a Big East program with national relevance. In other words, beating St. John’s means something even if it doesn’t help your tournament profile all that much. Can this be the kind of spark Detroit needs to turn their season around?
Of note: Nurideen Lindsay has been a different player during St. John’s three game losing streak. He’s scored just 21 points on 8-24 shooting during that stretch, turning the ball over 16 times. He’s the only guy that can create for St. John’s. They need him to be better.
Boise State 79, Idaho State 55: The Broncos got 14 points from Drew Wiley to lead five scorers in double figures as a young Boise State team improved to 7-1 on the season. This group may only start one of the two seniors on their roster, but they can shoot the heck out of the ball. On Monday, they went 12-29 from deep.
Milwaukee 87, DePaul 76: The Panthers got 21 points from Kaylon Williams to lead four players in double figures as Milwaukee jumped out to a 35-13 lead on the Blue Demons in the first 10 minutes of the game. DePaul made a couple of runs and got 27 points out of Cleveland Melvin, but it wasn’t enough as Milwaukee was able to break DePaul’s press and hit enough important threes down the stretch. Tony Meier and Paris Gulley combined to go 10-10 from long range.
Florida State 76, Charleston Southern 51: The Seminoles got a career-high 20 points from Okaro Wright, opening up a 45-18 halftime lead on CSU.
Austin Peay 86, Arkansas State 82 OT: The Governors picked up their first win of the season, getting 22 points from Josh Terry and 21 points and 10 boards out of Melvin Baker. You have to wonder what happened to Tyshawn Edmundson this season. He averaged 17.1 ppg last year, but that number is downed to 12.2 ppg this season as he’s coming off of the bench.
Providence 80, Brown 49: Vincent Council went for 21 points, 11 assists, nine boards, two steals and two blocks.
Rob Dauster is the editor of the college basketball website Ballin’ is a Habit. You can find him on twitter @ballinisahabit.