Wednesday’s college hoops roundup: Florida rolls and Gonzaga survives

TOP 25 SCORES

No. 6 Florida 72, Florida State 47

Let’s ignore the complete and utter dumpster fire that has been the first month of Florida State’s season and talk about the Gators, who might be the best team in the country right now. Florida’s 25-point win at their ach-rival actually dropped their average margin of victory (25.3) slightly. Kenny Boynton has continued to be fantastic, Patric Young still terrifies small children and grown men alike, Erik Murphy (who has a hip pointer) has looked like a first round pick, and Mike Rosario is becoming the player he couldn’t be a year ago when there were too many cooks in the kitchen.

Had their game against Georgetown not been canceled at halftime (and they’d gone on to win), the Gators would have a resume worthy of No. 1 discussion. The only thing missing is a true road win, and they’ll get a chance to change that in a major way next week at No. 8 Arizona.

No. 10 Gonzaga 71, Washington State 69

Kevin Pangos has emerged as public enemy No. 1 in Pullman. A year after burying nine three-pointers against Wazzou, the sophomore guard hit a contested runner with 2.3 seconds left to lift the Zags to a hard-fought road victory over the Cougars.

Though Pangos’ heroics were impressive, this was a pretty clear message that maybe everyone needs to pump the brakes of the Gonzaga Final Four talk just a bit. A road win over a Pac-12 opponent is never anything to scoff at, but this is a Washington State team that lost to Kansas by 37 three weeks ago. Brock Motum dropped 23 in the game and is exactly the type of versatile wing player that Mark few has to figure out a way to stop, because there are going to be plenty of Brock Motums in the NCAA Tournament.

No. 18 New Mexico 75, USC 67

The Lobos utilized a 25-6 run over the final seven minutes of the first half to erase a 10-point deficit and remain unbeaten. They hit 8-of-11 field goal attempts including 4-of-6 from beyond the arc during that key stretch.

I wrote during the tip-off marathon that I’ve always imagined Hank Schrader being a big New Mexico hoops fan. Along the same lines, here’s this from Luke Winn featuring the dynamic backcourt duo of Kendall Williams and Tony Snell.

Ninety-seven percent of what I know about New Mexico is based off of “Breaking Bad”...and I was baptized in Albuquerque. Also, I just spelled “Albuquerque” right on the first try, so yeah, pretty good morning.

No. 19 Michigan State 76, Arkansas Pine Bluff 44

Michigan State scored the first 14 points of the game, held Pine Bluff without a basket for almost 10 minutes at one point, and led 33-5 in the first half. They won the game.

No. 23 Oklahoma State 61, South Florida 49

A solid bounceback victory for the Cowboys following their first loss of the season over the weekend against Virginia Tech. Marcus Smart continued to build on his early lead in the Freshman of the Year race by producing a stat line of 15 points, six rebounds, five assists, four steals and two blocks.

As for South Florida, the Bulls have once again put themselves in the unenviable position of needing to be world-beaters in the Big East in order to snag an at-large bid. They currently sit at 5-3 with losses to Central Florida and Western Michigan, and have no wins worthy of writing home about. That’s not going to change with a remaining non-con schedule consisting of Youngstown State, Bowling Green, George Mason and Central Florida (yes, they play twice).

OTHER SCORES OF NOTE

Memphis 84, Ohio 58

The Tigers have looked impressive in back-to-back blowout wins after returning home from a Bahamas trip that saw them lose twice. This was also a major blow to the potential at-large resume of an Ohio team that returned everyone from last year’s Elite Eight squad. The Bobcats also suffered a bad loss (their first of the season) four days ago at Robert Morris.

Virginia 46, Tennessee 38

The UT football coaching search is the only thing in Knoxville having more trouble scoring than the Volunteer basketball team. That’s two straight games that Cuonzo Martin’s squad has failed to crack 40.

West Virginia 69, Marshall 59

A beardless Deniz Kilicli scored a season-high 21 points to lead the Mountaineers to a win over Marshall in a battle of in-state rivals who are off to fairly disappointing starts.

Saint Louis 67, North Texas 63

Jordair Jett and Cody Ellis scored 17 points apiece as SLU rallied from a two-point halftime deficit to upend disappointing North Texas. Despite having a future lottery pick (Tony Mitchell) in its starting lineup, the Mean Green are now just 3-6 and have lost four straight.

DePaul 74, Chicago State 64

It was touch-and-go there for a whole (Chicago State led by 14 at halftime), but the Blue Demons officially aren’t the worst team in Chicago. Put that on a flyer and I guarantee you’ll recruit the city better. You won’t recuit the city better, I was just joking, Oliver. No seriously, call that marketing person back and tell them to scratch the idea. I’m sorry I caused this stir.

Saint Mary’s 88, Drake 73

Matthew Dellavedova dropped 31 and the Gaels shot 55.6 percent from the field as a team. Drake drew criticism from other mainstream teams for its overly emotional and whiny performance.

Utah 76, Boise State 55

On a night in which the coaching staff all wore sweaters to honor former coach Rick Majerus, the Utes played like one of Majerus’ teams from the ‘90s. Jarred Dubois scored 18 points as Utah cruised to a 21-point win over a Boise State team that beat Creighton by 13 last week.

Temple 76, Villanova 61

Temple improved to 6-0 for the first time since the 1987-88 season by winning (easily) at Villanova’s Pavilion for the first time since 1990. They get Duke on Saturday.

Dayton 81, Alabama 76

The Flyers, who lost to Weber State 10 days ago, continued their annual tradition of coupling puzzling non-conference losses with wins over quality BCS conference opponents by handing ‘Bama its second loss of the season. It was the seventh straight win against SEC opponents for UD, which improved to 19-8 over the past six seasons against teams from BCS conferences.

Colorado 70, Colorado State 61

The Buffs continued to build on their solid early resume by handing in-state rival Colorado State its first loss of the season. Colorado guard Spencer Dinwiddie did some serious trash talking on Twitter before the game, and backed it up with a game-high 29 points.