Michigan upsets #4 UCLA

Was I right about John Beilein? It was a typical UCLA vs. John Beilein game: low-scoring, plenty of defense, and from Michigan's perspective, a lot of effective backdoor cuts. Michigan goes on and plays Duke tomorrow in the championship game of this preseason tourney. If you think Duke will have a cakewalk, you are dead wrong. This is the exact style of basketball that eliminated the Blue Devils from the 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament last year, as they got eliminated by West Virginia. UCLA will play Southern Illinois in the consolation game tomorrow. It was not a good day for the PAC 10, as both UCLA and USC lost.

Seton Hall nips #20 USC

This was something I definitely didn't see coming. Seton Hall was projected to finish #13 out of 16 in the Big East. Yet, they went down to Puerto Rico and defeated #20 USC by 2 points. It is not farfetched to possibly see 10 teams coming out of the Big East and going to the NCAA Tournament. I did not get a chance to watch this game, so I won't be able to comment on the game or the players of Seton Hall, but I'm sure to catch a few Seton Hall games, thanks to my DirecTV ESPN Full Court package. Seton Hall is now 3-0, and we will see what they do in the next few games.

Another team to watch out for in the Big East is Providence. After underperforming again with Coach Tim Welsh, the Friars went out and got Keno Davis, formerly of Drake. While Providence lost their first game to Northeastern, I believe this team will start gelling around late January and February and become dangerous, once they learn Davis' system. The Friars return senior Geoff McDermott, who I believe is capable of a double-double every night at 6'8" and 235 pounds.

Duke Destroys Southern Illinois 83-58

Well, I was wrong. Coach Mike Krzyzewski apparently had one hell of a halftime conversation with his team and Duke's intensity picked up big time after halftime. They played better defense and scored 54 points in the second half. Duke had many drives into the lane and ferocious dunks. Swingman Gerald Henderson was the catalyst for the intensity lift and had a few thunderous dunks in the 25-point victory over the SIU Salukis. Duke definitely looked like a #5 team in the second half and the second-half run eerily looked like the 56-13 run that UConn had against Hartford on Monday (i.e. night and day).