Buckeyes

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) &mdash; J&rsquo;Wan Roberts scored 15 points, Marcus Sasser added 13 and top-ranked Houston held on to beat Saint Mary&rsquo;s 53-48 on Saturday night.
The Cougars (8-0) won twice in their first week as the No. 1 team since the final poll of the 1982-83 regular season, when Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon led high-flying Phi Slama Jama.
Logan Johnson scored 17 points and Aidan Mahaney had 14 for the Gaels (6-3), who lost their third in a row following a 6-0 start.
Houston was the favorite to win it all in the second of three consecutive trips to the Final Four nearly 40 years ago, but lost to Jim Valvano and North Carolina State in one of the iconic championship games.
Coach Kelvin Sampson&rsquo;s first top-ranked team is coming off trips to the Final Four and Elite Eight the past two seasons.
For the third straight year, the postseason path will start at Dickie&rsquo;s Arena, where Sampson likes to bring his team during the regular season as prep for the American Athletic Conference tourney.
NO. 3 VIRGINIA 62, FLORIDA STATE 57
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) &mdash; Kihei Clark scored 18 points and Virginia overcame poor shooting to beat Florida State and win its 15th straight Atlantic Coast Conference opener.
Virginia (7-0) trailed 22-21 after both teams shot under 30% in the first half. The Cavaliers started the second half with a 22-9 run to lead 43-31 midway through the half.
Florida State (1-9) scored the next six points, then didn&rsquo;t score again for five minutes as the Cavaliers rebuilt their advantage.
Darin Green Jr. scored 17 points in the Seminoles&rsquo; fifth straight loss.
RUTGERS 63, NO. 10 INDIANA 48
PISCATAWAY, N.J. (AP) &mdash; Freshman guard Derek Simpson scored 10 straight points in a game-deciding run and Rutgers beat Indiana for the sixth time in a row.
Caleb McConnell had 16 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Scarlet Knights (6-2, 1-0 Big Ten). Simpson finished with 14, all in the second half.
Miller Kopp scored a season-high 21 points for Indiana (7-1, 0-1) . Star forward Trayce Jackson-Davis was held to 13 points and 10 rebounds before fouling out late. The rest of the team had 14 points.
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NO. 11 ARKANSAS 99, SAN JOSE STATE 58
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) &mdash; Trevon Brazile scored 23 points and Arkansas broke away in the second half to beat San Jose State.
The Razorbacks (7-1) led 40-35 at the break before erupting. It was the first men&rsquo;s basketball matchup between the schools.
Ricky Council IV had 17 points for Arkansas. Heralded freshman guard Nick Smith, Jr. contributed 16 points and five assists in his first career start in only his second game as a collegian.
Omari Moore scored 21 for the Spartans (6-3).
NO. 11 ALABAMA 78, SOUTH DAKOTA STATE 65
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) &mdash; Freshman Noah Clowney&rsquo;s breakout game &mdash; 22 points, nine rebounds, four assists and a steal &mdash; helped Alabama recover from blowing a 20-point lead and beat South Dakota State.
Clowney shot 8 of 17, including 5 of 12 on 3s, in his highest-scoring game of the season.
Alabama (7-1) led 37-17 with 6 1/2 minutes left in the first half. South Dakota State (3-6) rallied to go ahead 51-50 on Alex Arians&rsquo; 3-pointer with 11 1/2 minutes remaining.
Charlie Easley and Arians each scored 17 points for the Jackrabbits.
NO. 17 DUKE 75, BOSTON COLLEGE 59
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) &mdash; Mark Mitchell scored 15 points and Kyle Filipowski posted 13 points and 10 rebounds for the freshman&rsquo;s fifth double-double as Duke beat Boston College in the Atlantic Coast Conference opener for both teams.
The Blue Devils (8-2), who shot 52.8% from the field, are unbeaten in six home games under first-year coach Jon Scheyer.
CJ Penha scored 16 points and Jaeden Zackery had 14 for Boston College (5-4), which has lost eight straight to Duke.
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NO. 25 OHIO STATE 96, ST. FRANCIS (Pa.) 59
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) &mdash; Brice Sensabaugh led the Buckeyes with 15 points and Bruce Thornton added 13 as Ohio State surged in the second half to be St. Francis.
The Red Flash trimmed a 16-point deficit to eight in the first half, with Josh Cohen getting the first points after the break. But Ohio State (6-2) went on a 13-5 run, held St. Francis (2-7) scoreless for about five minutes in the second half and at one point went up 39 points.
Roddy Gayle Jr. had 12 points, Zed Key had 11 and Sean McNeil and Felix Okpara scored 10 apiece for Ohio State, which shot 50.7% from the field.
Cohen finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds for his first double-double of the season. Cam Gregory added 15 points and Maxwell Land scored 14 for the Red Flash.

J’Wan Roberts scored 15 points, Marcus Sasser added 13 and top-ranked Houston held on to beat Saint Mary’s 53-48 on Saturday.

No. 1 ranked Houston Cougars hold on to beat Saint Mary’s 53-48

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) &mdash; Iowa has had a first team All-American in three consecutive seasons, two for Luka Garza and one for Keegan Murray, raising the natural question about who the next star will be for the Hawkeyes and how quickly he can emerge.
Kris Murray, predictably, has everyone who follows the program staring straight at him.
The third-year forward has the sleek frame at 6-foot-8 and 220 pounds, the unflappable demeanor on the court and the track record of sharp improvement after increasing his scoring average by more than nine additional points per game.
But the tendency for comparison is unavoidable for the human brain, never more in the analysis of sports, and the fact that Kris Murray is Keegan Murray&rsquo;s identical twin brother will hover over him as long as he puts on a Hawkeyes uniform.
&ldquo;If he didn&rsquo;t look the same as me, we probably wouldn&rsquo;t be having this conversation,&rdquo; Kris Murray said at Big Ten media day in Minneapolis. &ldquo;Nobody expected Keegan to make the jump he did when Luka left. I think that&rsquo;s kind of the big difference. We have a really balanced team this year.&rdquo;
Keegan Murray, who averaged 23.5 points to lead the conference last season, left Iowa after his sophomore year to enter the NBA draft. He was the fourth overall pick by Sacramento.
&ldquo;It was a good thing having Keegan in every single way, so I&rsquo;m not taking away anything from him,&rdquo; sixth-year reserve Connor McCaffery said. &ldquo;But that&rsquo;s a lot of shots that were in that lineup that you have to make up. So now it&rsquo;s different guys coming in, every day in practice.&rdquo;
One look across the Big Ten this fall reveals a trend of departed stars, rosters still in a rather awkward state caused by the eligibility waiver for the pandemic season, the relaxed rules around transfers playing right away and, as always, the allure of an NBA career.
Only eight of the top 25 scorers in the conference in 2021-22 returned to their teams. Just nine of the top 25 most-used players in terms of minutes per game are back.
There are some established standouts on the consensus title contenders like Indiana&rsquo;s Trayce Jackson-Davis, Michigan&rsquo;s Hunter Dickinson and Purdue&rsquo;s Zach Edey who will headline every game they play in 2022-23, but there is a wide-open stage in the league for less-heralded players like Kris Murray, Wisconsin&rsquo;s Tyler Wahl or Rutgers&rsquo; Cliff Omoruyi to step up onto it.
The Big Ten had three top-10 draft picks, with Keegan Murray, Purdue&rsquo;s Jaden Ivey (No. 5) and Wisconsin&rsquo;s Johnny Davis (No. 10). Seven other players were drafted, including two each from Ohio State (Malaki Branham and E.J. Liddell) and Michigan (Caleb Houstan and Moussa Diabate).
The transfer portal, of course, had exits around the conference with potential instant-impact arrivals such as Michigan&rsquo;s Jaelen Llewellyn (Princeton), Minnesota&rsquo;s Dawson Garcia (North Carolina) and Illinois&rsquo; Terrence Shannon Jr. (Texas Tech).
But the Big Ten has long been shaped by a core of established head coaches who have remained as committed as they can be in this era to running developmental programs.
Michigan State&rsquo;s Tom Izzo lost his top three scorers from last season but declined to pursue any transfer replacements &mdash; even with a nonconference schedule he called &ldquo;the most brutal&rdquo; he&rsquo;s ever had. The Spartans play Gonzaga, Kentucky, Villanova and Notre Dame, plus a trip to Oregon for the Phil Knight Invitational that matches them up against Alabama and likely two other tough opponents depending on how the bracket unfolds.
&ldquo;I choose the route I choose. I stand behind it,&rdquo; Izzo said. &ldquo;Chemistry, camaraderie, culture, loyalty are all really, really important to me. It&rsquo;s worked. New era? Maybe it won&rsquo;t work. But I like where we are right now.&rdquo;
Established coaches who have produced consistent success have more of a latitude to be patient, to be sure. Purdue&rsquo;s Matt Painter, Wisconsin&rsquo;s Greg Gard and Iowa&rsquo;s Fran McCaffery have all followed a similar philosophy. Ohio State&rsquo;s Chris Holtmann will lean on freshmen as much as ever, with prized rookies Bruce Thornton, Brice Sensabaugh, Roddy Gayle Jr., Felix Okpara and Bowen Hardman putting the Buckeyes at the top of just about all the Big Ten recruiting rankings.
This season, then, ought to serve as a test case of sorts for several of the conference&rsquo;s top teams as they put the value of stability up against some of the other powerhouse programs across the country who might be relying more on game-ready transfers.
&ldquo;We all make jumps year after year,&rdquo; Kris Murray said. &ldquo;The thing about Iowa basketball is we&rsquo;re always improving.&rdquo;

One look across the Big Ten this fall reveals a trend of departed stars, but there are more players set to shine this season.