Top Ten Tuesday

Good Morning! It’s going to be a little less football and a little more basketball today, including some top 10 teams playing tonight in college basketball. We had some exciting finishes in college ball last night, some drama in the NBA, and a doping scandal on the ice!

Let’s dig through the details and then figure out what to watch on a Tuesday night

#4 Houston Outlasts The Longhorns

The #4 ranked college basketball team met up with the Texas Longhorns last night for the first time since 2013. If only Texas were staying in the Big 12, this could have the potential to be an awesome college basketball rivalry.

Houston played a decent first half of basketball last night, putting up 33 points and holding Texas to 25. Texas got up for the 2nd half, scoring 40 points, and forced a game into OT. 40 points from the offense helped, but it was also a defensive battle on the court, and Houston couldn’t get into their normal rhythm.

Fast forward to the extra 5 minutes and as most overtimes go, the best team usually finds a way to get out to a quick lead. That didn’t necessarily happen last night, and Houston had to rely on J’Wan Roberts to make a big-time layup with 39 seconds to go in OT that would give Houston the needed edge. Jamal Shead led all scorers with 25 points and had 2 big 3-pointers in a row in regulation that helped keep Houston from losing all control in the 2nd half.

Nuggets Spoil Doc Rivers’ Debut

This is the first time in Doc Rivers’ career that he is taking over a team in the middle of the season. Before his team took to the court, Doc was preaching about patience. The team and the fans in Milwaukee will definitely need patience, but patience might pay off.

The Bucks have been a very bad defensive team this year, and it really shouldn’t have been the case, even with the Dame addition. Things already looked better last night as the Bucks held the Nuggets to 113. Sure, the Bucks lost 113-107 and had a 13-point lead early in the game, but it was definitely an improvement in the defense category.

It was also going to be an uphill battle for Doc and the Bucks when you’re facing the defending champs and one of the best players in the world when you’re debuting as a new unit. Speaking of that “best player in the world”, Nikola Jokic recorded his 14th triple-double of the season last night. Jokic finished with 25 points, 16 rebounds, and 12 assists. Jamal Murray also scored 35 points.

Give Doc some time, and they just might be able to figure this out.

8 on 5? Is That Really Fair

If you had to play 8 vs 5 in the NBA, that wouldn’t be unfair. But is Anthony Edwards’ criticism of the referees fair?

The Minnesota Timberwolves got a 107-101 road win against the Oklahoma City Thunder last night. After the game, Edwards said “The refs was bad tonight. We was playing eight on 5.” Is Edwards justified in his dissent? The Thunder had 22 free throws, and the Timberwolves had 15 on the night.

This is a bigger topic for the NBA. It seems every night, we have one coaching staff or one player complaining about the lack of fairness in a game.

22 compared to 15 isn’t that bad.

The other night, we saw the Lakers take 43 free throws compared to the Warriors 16 in the Lakers 2OT win. Hop on the google machine and change your search dates, you’ll find a new article about free throw discrepancies for every week of the NBA season.

I don’t think free throws need to be equalized in each NBA game. Teams have different styles of play, which will result in different free throw numbers. I think this is an overreaction by players, and Anthony Edwards needs to take a chill pill to avoid getting more fines.

Haliburton Expected To Make Return

Tyrese Haliburton is expected to gradually return to full playing time after suffering a grade 1 hamstring injury earlier in the month. Haliburton wants to give it a go in tonight’s matchup against the Boston Celtics. He won’t be playing a full game, but let’s see if he can provide a spark, as the Pacers are 6-6 when playing without Haliburton.

Doping On Ice

You might think this is an NHL substance abuse or PED scandal, but it ain’t!

We’re talking about another Russia doping scandal, and the Olympics are actually doing something about it. SURPRISE!

In the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva was under investigation for the use of a banned substance. The Olympic Committee allowed her to compete, but if Russia placed, there would be no podium presentation. This might ring a bell from a few years ago because everyone was wondering what the heck was the point of letting Russia compete if there would be no presentation.

The investigation took months to complete, and it’s been decided that Russia will be stripped of their gold medals and they will now be awarded to the silver place team, aka the USA.

Valieba is now banned from the sport until 2025 for her violations.

What’s On TV Tonight?

NCAA Basketball

🏀 #3 North Carolina @ Georgia Tech, 7 pm ET on ESPN

🏀 #9 Marquette @ Villanova, 7 pm ET on FS1

🏀 #14 Illinois @ Ohio State, 7 pm ET on Peacock

🏀 #15 Texas Tech @ #25 TCU, 7 pm ET on ESPN2

🏀 Oklahoma State @ #8 Kansas, 9 pm ET on ESPN

NBA

🏀 Indiana Pacers @ Boston Celtics, 7:30 pm ET on TNT

🏀 Philadelphia 76ers @ GS Warriors, 10 pm ET on TNT

NHL

🏒 Columbus Blue Jackets @ St. Louis Blues, 7 pm ET on NHL Network

🏒 Seattle Kraken @ San Jose Sharks, 10:30 pm ET on ESPN+

That’s all for today. Enjoy your Tuesday and we’ll be back with more scores and stats tomorrow.

-The Daily Breakroom