Sunday, January 08, 2012

Upsets Galore as Darryl Bryant and Kevin Jones Lead West Virginia Past 9th-Ranked Hoyas

College Hoops Player of the Day for Saturday, January 7, 2011

One of the more amazing aspects of West Virginia's 74-62 victory over #9 Georgetown is that 12-4 Mountaineers have received no votes - that's right, zero - in any of the AP polls this season.

One might think that West Virginia is on probation (not the case) or that the entire voting community of coaches holds a grudge against Mountaineer head coach Bob Huggins (well, maybe), but that all may change on Monday when the new poll comes out after Darryl (Truck) Bryant paced all scorers with 25 points and Kevin Jones notched his 11th double-double of the season with 22 points and 16 hard-earned boards.

Both players are seniors and coach Huggins leans heavily on his two stars for scoring as well as leadership. The Mountaineers were 21-12 last season, ousted from the NCAA tournament in the second round by Kentucky. This year, votes or no votes, ranked or unranked, West Virginia is poised to make noise come March.

NOTABLE: Upsets dominated the college basketball landscape on Saturday, with no fewer than seven ranked units being knocked off. #1 Syracuse - seldom mentioned here due to their balanced scoring which rarely produces a 20-point scorer - took care of business with a 73-66 win over #20 Marquette, but that was business as usual for the 17-0 Orange.

Elsewhere, Tennessee topped #13 Florida, 67-56, #23 Kansas State took down previously-unbeaten #7 Missouri, 75-59.

Rutgers won at home over #9 Connecticut, 67-60, while the Fighting Irish went on the road to defeat #11 Louisville in double overtime, 67-65.

In the usually wide-open SEC West, Arkansas took down #15 Mississippi State, with a 98-88 home win.

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