College basketball live blog: Nevada tries to stay unbeaten, Davidson tries to pull an upset, and more

UPDATE 5:21 p.m.

Texas Southern did it again!

For the second time this season, the Tigers took down an in-state foe from a power conference, defeating Texas A&M 88-73. After opening the season with a victory over Baylor and following that up with a win against then-ranked Oregon, the Tigers have begun to finally win some of those tougher games they’re known for scheduling.

Today, the victory can largely be attributed to solid team basketball and generally atrocious defense from Texas A&M, as the Tigers hit 57% of their shots from the floor. TSU is used to seeing balanced scoring performances from Jalyn Patterson, Trayvon Reed, and Jeremy Combs, and tonight was no different.

Seriously, the numbers posted by these guys were exactly what a team would need to take down an SEC opponent on the road:

NCAA.com

Despite those three big wins they now possess, the Tigers are still 5-8, but things are certainly looking up for TSU as they begin SWAC play next Saturday. It goes without saying that they should once again be the favorites in that league.

UPDATE 4:32 p.m.

The 2 o’clock window wasn’t much more exciting than the noon slate, but let’s run down a few of the notable games that just wrapped up.

• Nevada improved to 13-0 with a road win over Utah. The Wolf Pack led by just one at the half, which continued their trend of “slow” starts before ultimately pulling away in the second half.
• Toledo might be able to give Buffalo a run for its money in the MAC this year. After dismantling a good Penn team by 30 today, the Rockets enter conference play with a 12-1 record. They’ll be tested right away though with games against Ball State and Buffalo to open MAC play.
• Saint Joseph’s held on to edge Wagner, 59-57. The Atlantic 10: where nothing ever goes smoothly!
• Santa Clara took down Washington State, giving the Cougars their sixth loss to a mid-major this year and their second to a WCC team since last week. Give the WCC all of the PAC-12’s bids please. Thanks.

UPDATE 3:24 p.m.

Hello, the Never Made the Tournament Club is checking in to recap Longwood’s 110-94 win over The Citadel, which was the best game of the early afternoon slate for people who like mid-major college basketball on Red Bull. The Citadel came into this game on a seven-game win streak and as 12-point favorites. The Troops (sky blue edition) had been rolling through opponents with their typical up-tempo style. Longwood opened a 46-29 lead 2:30 before halftime, but the troops did their thing and cut it to eight at the break. I hope everyone bet the over at 156.5 points, because that hit with 8:14 left in the game.

The second half was a rollercoaster. After just eight minutes of game action, Longwood was up 17, The Citadel made a barrage of shots and found itself up 63-60. I love cocaine basketball. Then, Longwood outplayed the Citadel at its own game, quickly reassuming the advantage and then putting the game out of reach. Shabooty Phillips (incredible name) had 23 points and Isaiah Walton had 28. What did we learn? Not much for The Citadel, which is capable of losing these games, even at home, if things don’t break right. Longwood, however, has been awful for years, but it exits non-conference play at 10-5 and with some momentum. That being said, having Longwood in the NMTC column creates infinite chances at dumb jokes, so we have to be careful here.

- Tristan Jung

UPDATE: 2:16 p.m.

Your early-game recap:

The noon slate was bad. Awful. The games we thought might be good were not and there were no cool upsets to make up for it. HOWEVER, Coppin State made things really interesting in South Bend and came close to pulling out its first win of the year. The Eagles lost 63-56, but led for a majority of the game and didn’t fade when the Irish came back to take the lead late. Cedric Council had 12 points and 17 rebounds as the Eagles owned the boards throughout.

Some other notable scores...

North Carolina 82 Davidson (without Kellan Grady) 60
Wofford 74 Western Carolina 54
Mississippi State 103 BYU 81

With the college basketball doldrums of exam week and the holidays now behind us, the schedule ramps up on Saturday with major non-conference matchups and even a few early conference games sprinkled in.

It’s one of those classic noon-to-midnight Saturdays in college basketball, and we’ll be with you all day with updates, highlights, tweets, and more.

So set up that second screen, stream that new Black Mirror movie on your third screen, and start watching. We’ll check in in a bit. Here are the notable games on tap today (all times Eastern):

Noon: Davidson at North Carolina, ESPN2
Noon: BYU at Mississippi State, ESPNU
2: St. Bonaventure at Syracuse, ESPNU
2: Penn at Toledo, ESPN+
2: Nevada at Utah, Pac-12 Networks
3:30: Georgia Southern at Dayton, NBC Sports
4: Furman at East Tennessee State, ESPN+
4:30: Belmont at Purdue, FS1
5:30: Wisconsin at Western Kentucky, CBS Sports
6: Liberty at UCLA, Pac-12 Networks
7:30: Oregon at Boise State, CBS Sports
8: Stony Brook at Northern Iowa, ESPN3