What better way to open up a college basketball season then having a game take place aboard a United States aircraft carrier? Well how about making that three games? That was the plan last weekend but disappointingly, two of the games were cancelled.
The No. 10 ranked Florida Gators were set to take on Georgetown aboard the USS Bataan in Jacksonville. Florida was up 27-23 at halftime before the floors became wet due to condensation. The game was cancelled and is not going to count or be rescheduled.
No. 4 Ohio State was the second game supposed to take place aboard an aircraft carrier with them facing Marquette aboard the USS Yorktown in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Unlike the Florida game, this game never even started.
Tip off was delayed half an hour while both sides waited for the weather to improve. The weather did not improve at all and that game was called before it even started, also not likely to be rescheduled.
The only game that was played was No. 9 Syracuse against No. 20 San Diego State aboard the USS Midway. The game was scheduled for Friday night but because of the weather had to be moved back to Sunday. Syracuse did not seem to mind the delay as they went on to win the game 62-49.
The first upset of the season happened when No. 14 Michigan State fell victim to Connecticut 66-62.
Instead of playing on an aircraft carrier, this game took place at Rammstein Air force base in Germany.
The Huskies put on a show for all the troops in the first game that featured a Jim Calhoun-less Huskies team. Calhoun, who retired in September, coached the Huskies for 26 years and his achievements included winning three national championships, winning 873 games (10th all time) and being inducted into the college basketball hall of fame in 2006.
Besides No. 25 Florida State losing to South Alabama, upset alert wasn’t at its fullest last Friday. No. 1 Indiana looked sharp in their 97-54 blowout of Bryant University.
Preseason All- American center Cody Zeller led the way with 18 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks. No. 2 Louisville also looked sharp, beating Manhattan University by 28. Rick Pitino has the bar set high, and after rival John Calipari won the national championship last year, Pitino will have more pressure on him this year then any other coach in the country.
No. 3 Kentucky was the only top team who showed early warning signs, after beating Maryland but by the score of 72-69. Coach John Calipari is a recruiting genius and reeled in the second ranked recruiting class in the country according to ESPN.
However, he had six players drafted in June including Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist who went one and two respectively.
Nerlens Noel, the number one ranked player in the 2012 recruiting class didn’t have as impressive debut as Calipari would have liked. His line of four points, nine rebounds and three blocks weren’t exactly fantastic; it is only the first game of the season.
The biggest news of the weekend however was High School player of the year, and No. 2 recruit in the 2012 class Shabazz Muhammad was ruled ineligible for UCLA’s win Friday night over Indiana State. This is definitely a blow to UCLA who had the best recruiting class in the country.
It was deemed that Muhammad violated the NCAA’s amateurism rules. It was uncovered that Muhammad accepted travel expenses aid and lodging while he was making visits to North Carolina and Duke. No timetable has been given to when Muhammad can return, but that’s some drama to start the season off with.
Connor Anthony can be reached at connor.anthony@spartans.ut.edu.