- The Arizona Wildcats do not play until next Wednesday and although they have won their first three games easily, they still have areas to work on before their next game. Sean Miller’s team is allowing opponents to make 39% of their threes so far in this early season and gave up 10 threes to Charleston Southern, nine to Humboldt State, and 14 to Long Beach State. They also are struggling to feed the post and are turning it over more than they would like from the point guard position. Big man Kaleb Tarczewski has only taken 10 total shots and Grant Jerrett is 1-10 on two-point field goals so far. Point guards Mark Lyons and Jordin Mayes have combined for 16 assists and 14 turnovers. Overall, the Wildcats are still a very good team and should improve as the season goes on, but slow starts are never a good thing.
- Tad Boyle doesn’t care where Colorado is ranked. The Buffaloes were 23rd in this week’s AP poll, but Boyle is stressing to his team that being ranked doesn’t guarantee his team anything. He believes Colorado still has a lot of work to do and that they need to turn the ball over less and play better transition basketball. However, the good news for Colorado Buffalo fans is that the Buffs are 4-0 and ranked and their head coach still believes they have a long way to go.
- Even though Shabazz Muhammad has only played two games this season, he’s already drawing NBA comparisons. Scouts were all around at the Barclays Center when UCLA played Georgetown and Georgia this past week and Muhammad’s physicality and aggressiveness on the floor were very apparent. What was also apparent was that Muhammad wasn’t attacking off the dribble from the perimeter. But, Muhammad is drawing comparisons to former Kentucky and current Charlotte Bobcat Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. Ultimately, Muhammad’s NBA stock should rise and fall as the season goes on, and it’s evident in the first few games in his college career, that he has a place at the next level.
- Because the Oregon State Beavers were unable to schedule an east coast game into their non-conference schedule, they decided to partake in some unusual Thanksgiving activities this week. They first went to the Capital Food Bank in Washington D.C. on Wednesday to fill out food bags for needy families and then made a trip to visit Craig Robinson’s brother-in-law at the White House yesterday for Thanksgiving. The players took a tour through the White House and also got to shoot on the basketball court. Although the Beavers were unable to get any real basketball in, it was a humbling experience for the team and the next best thing they could have done.
- Switching to the gridiron briefly, Andrew back here with our weekly update on the pick ‘em contest that Connor and I have engaged in all year long. Entering last week, Connor was down four games on the year and he went all out in an attempt to get back in the game, a strategy that backfired. We differed on four games last week and I won all four of those matchups, giving me an eight game lead with eight games (including the conference championship game) remaining on the schedule. In other words, it’s all over but the shouting. But, as is typical of all the great rivalries around the conference, Connor’s not going to lay down while there is still the slimmest chance of victory. As a result, he’s picking the opposite of everything I pick this week – desperate times calling for desperate measures and all that. Our picks below, with our game of the week, below:
Game Connor’s Pick Drew’s Pick Utah at Colorado Colorado Utah Washington at Wash. State Washington State Washington Arizona State at Arizona Arizona State Arizona Notre Dame at USC Notre Dame USC Oregon at Oregon State Oregon State 37-34 Oregon 52-17 Stanford at UCLA UCLA Stanford