New Year's news and notes

Good morning, sports fans! As you may now, we started a new year today and a new season last night. Let's get caught up, shall we?

Nova trounces Butler in Big East opener | vuhoops.com
A spirited Butler squad kept it close for a while, but Kris Jenkins had 11 points off the bench and ultimately Nova's talent shone through as they opened the conference season with a win. Daniel Ochefu had 10 and 9 with five blocks for Villanova and Butler had Kelli Dunham and Roosevelt Jones combine for an 8-25 shooting day.

Short-handed, Seton Hall's guards shine in upset of St. John's | Chris McManus, southorangejuice.com
Seton Hall had leads as big as 14 in the second half, but a St. John's run cut it to a single bucket with 5:41 to play. The Pirates responded with a 13-2 run to remove all doubt, despite having freshman sensation Isaiah Whitehead out with an injury. Keeping the Johnnies out of transition was key for Seton Hall, who got 25 from Sterling Gibbs. St. John's blog Rumble in the Garden's coverage was somewhat less excited.

Garrett and Crockett Spark DePaul to Win over Marquette | depaulbluedemons.com
Not a feather in Marquette's cap here. They were up 13 in the second half but squandered it to a DePaul club on a six-game losing streak to such teams as Ohio U and Loyola Maymount. Undeterred, they rode a 25-9 run spurred largely by Billy Garrett, Jr. to finish the game with a win. Neither of these teams is going anywhere this year, but Marquette is going a lot more nowhere than I thought.

Henton Serves Reminder in PC Win | Kevin Farrahar, friarbasketball.com
LaDontae Henton earned that extra capital letter in his name last night, dropping 35/8/0 on an overmatched Creighton defense in the Friars' 65-53 win. Henton shot 12-21/3-7/8-9 and didn't turn the ball over at all. No other Friar scored more than 8, thought Kris Dunn had 12 assists and Carson Desrosiers blocked 3 shots. Mostly, though, they just watched the big dog eat.

Some bracketology news:

28-Iowa, 29-Ark, 30-OhioSt, 31-Prov, 32-But, 33-Xav, 34-Gtown, 35-Lsu, 36-Gw, 37-Ind, 38-SMU, 39-Cuse, 40-MichSt, 41-Tcu, 42-Georgia, 43-Byu

— Joe Lunardi (@ESPNLunardi) January 1, 2015

Multi-bid leagues: ACC (7), Big 12 (7), Big East (7), Big 10 (6), Pac-12 (4), SEC (4), A-10 (3), American (3), MVC (2), MtWest (2), WCC (2).

— Joe Lunardi (@ESPNLunardi) January 1, 2015

Lunardi isn't the most accurate bracketologist on the planet, but it's currently January 1st, so a lot is going to change here anyway. Mostly, it's nice to see Xavier on that 8/9 line with a chance to move up in a very strong league.

And some more video from last night, including chat with Dee Davis and some highlights, both courtesy of FOX Sports One:

Xavier's Dee Davis pleased with victory over (25) Georgetown Highlights: Xavier bests (25) Georgetown, 70-53

And finally, this poor fool from Florida, tipping in the game-winning basket for the wrong team: