Upset Saturday

Two of the top five men's hoops teams lost this past weekend. UCLA and North Carolina both dropped home games to slightly above average opponents. UCLA was done in by Southern Cal while UNC was bested by Maryland...

North Carolina vs Maryland:

Terps coach Gary Williams came in with a game plan in mind: get back on defense and attack the rim. Maryland at times became vulnerable to the UNC break but for most of the game got back and forced the Heels to struggle with their half court offense, a major Achilles heel for this team. UNC scored 80 points in the game which is well below their home average of 98 points/game. Another successful plan was to be physical and frustrate Tyler Hansbrough early. Forward Bambale Osby gave "Psycho T" a couple fore arm shivers that would make Hulk Hogan proud. The referees also let the big men play and this frustrated Hansbrough so much because after he would missed a shot he would go after the man who got the board and try to reach in. The key to the Terps offense was Venezuelan sensation Greivis Vasquez who had 12 points, 11 assists, and more importantly outplayed his hyped counterpart Ty Lawson ( 11 points, four assists).


UCLA vs USC

Coach Tim Floyd went to his bag of tricks and pulled out the triangle and two defense that frustrated Memphis back in December at the Jimmy V Classic. He mixed this with straight man-to-man and also a zone defense to keep UCLA out of rhythm and to also limit the touches to freshman Kevin Love. Love still got his (18 points, 12 rebounds) but other key Bruins suffered like Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (two points, one concussion) as well as their bench production (ten points, six turnovers). On the offensive end for the Trojans, it was the steady ball handling and passing of Daniel Hackett and OJ Mayo. Mayo did not force shots and seemed content to give up the rock to his teammates and that not only took UCLA off guard but it also sprang freshman Davon Jefferson to his best game of the year (25 points, eight rebounds). USC was written off early because of their youth but because of the win at Pauley Pavilion, USC seems to be right back in contention to win the most competitive conference in the nation.