Brian Joyce (@bjoyce_hoops) is an RTC correspondent and writer for the SEC microsite. He filed this report after Saturday’s Clemson-Arizona game in Littlejohn Coliseum in Clemson, South Carolina. 

Littlejohn Coliseum was rockin’ on Saturday night when Clemson hosted the No. 8 Arizona Wildcats. With just over 11 minutes left in the game, Clemson had a young Arizona team on the ropes with a six-point lead. The Tigers were hosting their first Top 25 non-conference opponent since 2000, and were hoping for their first victory over such a foe since a win over South Carolina in the 1997-98 season. The Wildcats were rattled, and could have easily thrown in the towel. But senior point guard Mark Lyons wouldn’t allow his Wildcats to lose. When the college basketball world tuned into ESPN2 to determine if a collection of freshmen from one of the nation’s top 10 teams could respond in a hostile environment, it was the transfer from Xavier who put the team on his back. In crunch time, Lyons scored eight points, dished out two assists, and came up with one steal. He may not be a natural fit at the point guard position, but he solidified his standing as Arizona’s team leader.

Lyons led Arizona when the going got tough at Clemson. (US Presswire)

Lyons committed just one turnover on Saturday night, and it came within the first four minutes of the game. He did not turn the ball over once after that. He was the ultimate senior leader for a team playing in a hostile environment needing a lift. He finished the contest with 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting, four rebounds, and a perfect 5-of-5 from the free throw line. Some continue to criticize Lyons’ play at point guard with the argument that he commits too many turnovers and does not pass the ball enough. Don’t count his coach among the skeptics.

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A relatively quiet week in terms of movement within the Top 25, and this coming week may be even quieter as many schools throughout the country have a lull in their schedule because of semester exams. In the Week 4 poll, the top seven teams went unchanged, and all but two teams had movement of two spots or less. The big result over the weekend was, of course, Illinois’ upset at Gonzaga. Illinois moves into our Top 10 after not even garnering a single vote in the preseason Top 25. John Groce has the Illini well on their way.

This week’s QnD after the jump…

Quick ‘n Dirty Analysis.

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When Kyle Anderson announced his intention to attend UCLA (he was the second of the team’s four current freshmen to commit), Bruin fans no doubt imagined that he would be a confident, play-making force who would lead Ben Howland’s team back to national importance. Suffice it to say, up to this point, those visions haven’t quite yet panned out. There have been glimpses here and there of the versatility that makes Anderson such a promising prospect, but his swagger has been sporadic and there are now questions about whether Anderson was overrated as a top five player in last year’s admittedly weak recruiting class.

Kyle Anderson Has Struggled Early For UCLA, And In The Process, Lost Some of His Confidence

It was no secret even before Anderson arrived on campus that he wasn’t the type of athletic freak who would wow fans with great speed or hops (his nickname, Slo-Mo, is not meant to be ironic), but the expectation was that his tremendous feel for the game and leadership would overcome those deficiencies. After all, he was a 6’9” point guard who had led the fabled St. Anthony’s High School to 65 straight wins in the prep ranks. But it didn’t take long to realize that college competition would be a whole different animal. Against weaker competition such as Indiana State, UC Irvine and James Madison, Anderson showed he was more than capable of getting into the lane and finding a shot for himself, even if he was unable to convert over players his size inside. Although he shot just 7-of-23 from the field in those games, he at least offset his scoring deficiency by grabbing some boards, dropping dimes, and being a leader on the floor.

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1. Following this first weekend where the college basketball didn’t pale in comparison to the college football schedule, we start our week not recounting some of the action on the court, but rather action on a picket line. On Saturday, The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (now there’s a phrase I never expected to type out for the Pac-12 Morning Five) declared a strike against the Pac-12 Network and set up picket lines at USC, Arizona State, Oregon State, Oregon and Washington for those days’ games. The IATSE complaint centers on the fact that the Pac-12 Network has, in some markets, used non-union crews, and that employees on those crews don’t receive the benefits that union employees receive, such as higher wages, benefits and other protections. The Pac-12 issued a statement in response saying that it “respects an individual’s right to decide whether to be represented by a union” and not a whole lot else. Coupled with the conference’s impasse with DirecTV over carriage of their network, this is another bump in the road for the fledgling network. But, I gotta admit, the Pac-12 Networks are really cool. Just for instance, on Saturday you could have turned on the Pac-12 at 11 AM for Cal State Northridge and Arizona State and watched basketball straight through until the USC/Minnesota game wrapped up around 9:30 PM. And, something similar is on tap for next week.
2. On to actual on-court action, brave basketball fans who showed up at Reliant Stadium for UCLA and Texas may have reason to go on strike against the sport after the two huge programs put on a horrendous display of basketball in front of a largely empty stadium. As Jeff Eisenberg of Yahoo! Sports writes, the game may have set the record for most empty seats at a basketball game. The game was played at the home of the NFL’s Houston Texans and was capable of fitting some 43,000 fans. Let’s just say that the announced attendance (which was apparently an imaginary figure) missed that mark by somewhere in the neighborhood of 40,000 people. Why this game was scheduled at that location, I’ll never be sure. There was certainly no chance in hell that, even if UCLA had been playing well, the Bruins were going to bring any significant number of fans to Houston. And Texas, well, you guys know you do have a perfectly good Erwin Center that, even with its 16,000-some capacity would likely not have been filled for this game. As for the game itself, well, let’s just say Texas missed two point-blank layups on breakaways and neither of those likely qualify as the low point in this game.
3. From one monstrosity to another, for those of you who maybe thought that Washington getting back the services of Scott Suggs and Shawn Kemp Jr. would help turn this team’s season around, consider Saturday night’s loss at home to Nevada the cold water to the face to dissuade you of that illusion. The Huskies have now lost three home games to increasingly bad competition and, while Lorenzo Romar isn’t about to let his team give up, this looks to be headed to a lost season that will put 2007-08’s 16-17 campaign to shame. There were some extenuating circumstances Saturday night, as Abdul Gaddy was abused regularly by Nevada’s Deonte Burton early in the game and picked up three early fouls on a night when Andrew Andrews was out with injury, leaving the Huskies without a true point guard for 10 minutes, but that’s mere explanation rather than excuse. The schedule eases up significantly between here and a December 29 date with Connecticut, but this group is far away from congealing into a quality basketball team.
4. After knocking off Boise State last week, Utah had a great chance on Saturday night to not only exceed last year’s win total, but also knock off in-state rival BYU to seal up a phenomenal week for the program. At the under-eight timeout, the Utes had a six-point lead, the Marriott Center was quiet and Utah looked to have the Cougars right where they wanted them. But then a pair of Matt Carlino threes and a Craig Cusick three as a chaser brought things back to reality. The Utes wound up scoring just one field goal in the game’s last 11 minutes, turned the ball over seven times and let a very winnable game slip away. But if you take a step back and look at the season as a whole, especially in contrast with last year, it is clear that progress is being made.
5. Around the college basketball world, we’re into the dreaded time known as Finals Week, where the number of watchable games dwindles to a trickle. But, in the state of Oregon, both Pac-12 schools have wrapped up their exams and are ready to focus on basketball. Oregon’s finals were last week and they celebrated their first day of winter break with a demolition of Idaho State. But, rather than pick up on a whirlwind of cross-country travel in search of games, the Ducks will hunker down for a week, try to clean up some of the mistakes that Dana Altman has seen and prepare for next Saturday’s game against Nebraska. Meanwhile, Oregon State is on slightly different schedule. Having wrapped up their finals, the Beavers crushed Grambling State on Saturday in a game that was drastically different than its first game back from finals last year. But up next for OSU, rather than spend a week practicing in Corvallis, they’ll head up north to face Portland State on Wednesday night.

Joe Dzuback is an RTC correspondent. He filed this report after Saturday afternoon’s Temple-Duke game in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

“How good can this team become coach?” Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski did not want to answer that question. Superstitious perhaps, or having coached nearly 38 seasons in Division I, he knows how quickly a team’s prospects can change. “I have had some pretty good teams… [“one or two” someone whispered)] …we’ve done ok.” Anyone who had watched Duke dismantle Temple to the tune of 90-67 on Saturday afternoon had to know the #2 Blue Devils were better than “ok.” Previews of this match-up dwelled on the role Temple’s guards played in the Owls’ 78-73 win last season, and the Owls’ prospects would rise or fall on guard play again. Both teams play three guards, but the similarity ends there. Duke’s guards look like… guards. Quinn Cook is 6’ 1” and 175 pounds. Seth Curry, who still wears a boot while not on the court to protect his ankle injured in Duke’s win over Ohio State, stands at 6’ 2” and 185 pounds. Rasheed Sulaimon (dubbed “Sulaimon the Great” by a member of the press after the freshman hit his first three of the game standing about four feet behind the three point line) is a 6’ 4”, 185-pound beanstalk. Tyler Thornton is a 6’ 1”, 190-pound “sixth man,” and the only other guard on the roster.

Despite a lingering ankle injury, Duke’s Seth Curry launches a three from well behind the three-point line. He made this second half attempt.

Temple head coach Fran Dunphy favors taller, thicker wings who move seamlessly between point guard and small forward. Will Cummings, a 6’ 2” sophomore who plays the point for Temple this season, is the only one of the seven players listed on the Temple roster as a “guard” or more appropriately “guard/forward” who could pass for a Duke mold guard. Khalif Wyatt, at 6’ 4” and 210 pounds, and Scootie Randall, 6’ 6” and 225 pounds, are “Philly guards,” whose build and style of play reminds fans of the Big 5 of Diante Christmas and Ramone Moore, two of the wings developed by Dunphy since he moved over from Penn four seasons ago. They are all built like safeties and each is as likely to roll off a screen, catch and shoot a three, as he is to put the ball on the deck and drive the lane for a layup. Christmas, Moore, Wyatt and Randall, along with 6’ 5”, 220-pound transfer Dalton Pepper, grew up in Philadelphia or in one of the surrounding Delaware Valley suburbs.

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1. If you’re looking for the next fan favorite in the Big 12, get ready for four years of Buddy Hield. The Oklahoma freshman has a motor that never steps, and that goes double for his mouth. As the linked article points out, his family hails from the Bahamas and visited him during the Old Spice Classic. Hield, a 6’3” guard, has played well off the bench and has made the most of his minutes. He’s part of the new fresh blood that could help Lon Kruger’s more experienced veterans get over the hump this season.
2. Kevin Noreen has always been an interesting case at West Virginia. The 6’10” center doesn’t get a lot of fanfare and he’s logged limited minutes under Bob Huggins so far in his career. That’s why his performance on Saturday in a win over Virginia Tech might be his coming-out party. He was a terrific high school shooter, but he’d never even attempted a three-pointer in college until Saturday. He took three treys in that game and made a pair of them, which means he’s now a 66 percent lifetime three-point shooter. Oh, and he’s a 6’10” center — did we mention that? In 33 minutes of action, he finished with 14 points, and that’s a great sign for a guy Huggins calls “a great role model.”
3. Historic Gallagher-Iba Arena, once one of the the most feared arenas in all the land, has taken a step back ever since Eddie Sutton stepped down. At times, it’s even been sad and downright pathetic to see the empty seats at that place, but slowly, the fans are starting to crawl back. If you’re anywhere near Stillwater, listen to what The Oklahoman has to say in that column. You need to see this team. And the third-party observers want to see GIA all the way back to glory.
4. Some of you are snobs. Some of you will laugh when you read that Texas Tech will offer $1 tickets for December games. You’ll say it’s a sign the program is in the dumps, you’ll say it’s pathetic and you’ll pity the fans for having to watch a poor product on the floor. We’re going to be bigger than that here at RTC’s Big 12 Microsite, though. Is the demand low for a team and program in transition? Certainly. But there aren’t a lot of athletic departments out there at this level of college basketball that would offer a deal like this and essentially let people come to watch its games for free. That shows a real commitment on the part of Texas Tech’s administration to get people in the seats and make games affordable for people who might not otherwise be able to attend. Kudos to the Red Raiders. Now, go win some games.
5. There were a lot of shining moments during Kansas’ 90-64 victory over Colorado at Allen Fieldhouse this weekend, but Travis Releford deserves top honors for his dunk over Jeremy Adams late in the first half. Teammate Kevin Young had the quote of the day: “It shocked me.” The Lawrence Journal-World has a couple of solid, posterizing photos to embarrass Adams, but that’s the least of the Buffs’ concerns right now. In other notes, Tyler Self scored the first points of his college career with two seconds left in the game. Not sure anybody thought that debut would come against a team like Colorado, but KU fans will certainly take it.

1. Indiana sophomore guard Austin Etherington is out for the remainder of the season due to a fractured patella. Etherington went down during the Hoosiers’ 100-69 win over the weekend against Central Connecticut State when he was carried off the court in front of a packed house at Assembly Hall. The sophomore has averaged 1.9 PPG during 6.7 MPG so far this season, but the loss is unlikely to hurt Tom Crean’s team because he probably would have seen fewer minutes once Hanner-Parea and Peter Jurkin come back from their suspensions. Nonetheless, getting some playing time during his sophomore season would have helped Etherington to build for next season, but his recovery will be the main focus over the next few months.
2. The Minnesota Gophers’ win against USC on the road Saturday night, 71-57, was Tubby Smith’s 500th career victory. He becomes the 19th active head coach in Division I basketball to reach 500 wins, joining Bo Ryan and John Beilein as one of the three B1G coaches to be included in this exclusive list. Smith cited “longevity” as the main reason behind his milestone and said that he was “fortunate” to have coached at good programs such as Tulsa, Georgia, Kentucky and Minnesota. The Gophers have been very impressive so far this season (10-1) and it is very likely that Smith could add another 15 or more Ws this season to his career wins total.
3. Ohio State sophomore wing Laquinton Ross is learning to be patient and efficiently use his playing time to impress head coach Thad Matta. Ross only played 11 minutes in the Buckeyes’ loss to Duke over a week ago but he scored nine points and pulled down three boards. Since then, he has seen more playing time and is proving his worth to Matta during his time on the court. Ross played 22 minutes in the Buckeyes’ rout against Long Beach State, 89-55, and scored 16 points along with nine rebounds. He will continue to come off the bench until he improves his on-ball defense and understands his assignments on the defensive end. Matta told Ross “not to take it for granted,” and the 6’8″ sophomore is utilizing any chance he gets to provide the offensive spark to the Buckeyes.
4. The Michigan freshman class is more than Mitch McGary, Nik Stauskas and Glenn Robinson III. Freshman guard Spike Albrecht has provided valuable minutes off the bench and his play allowed Trey Burke to get some much-needed rest against Arkansas over the weekend. Albrecht has been playing about seven minutes per game but gives Burke a breather as he handles the ball in the half court. Michigan is unbeaten and has plenty of talent on their roster, but John Beilein needs to make sure he rotates his players efficiently so that Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr. stay healthy and fresh for a run in March. With Albrecht playing eight minutes against Arkansas and not turning the ball over during his time in the game, Beilein can afford to give Burke some rest and save him for crunch time.
5. The Iowa Hawkeyes snapped their three-game losing skid to in-state rival Iowa State and head coach Fran McCaffery thinks it was their best game so far this season. The Hawkeyes won 80-71 with sophomore forward Aaron White scoring 18 points at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. McCaffery was very impressed with his team’s defensive effort as they held the Cyclones to 34% shooting during the second half. The Hawkeyes’ depth allowed him to rotate the players efficiently throughout the game which helped to maintain a very high defensive intensity. Freshman point guard Mike Gesell also impressed his head coach by turning his game around during the second half after a shooting slump during the first half. Gesell drove the lane more because his jumpers were not falling and he finished 6-6 at the free throw line for a total of 11 points in the win.

Danny Connors is an RTC correspondent.

It wasn’t too long ago that Michael Carter-Williams was a forgotten member of the Syracuse Orange. Stuck behind an experienced backcourt featuring Scoop Jardine, Dion Waiters and Brandon Triche, Carter-Williams seemed glued to the bench – playing sparingly, and with a tight leash whenever his name was called. The 6’6” point guard only played in four of the Orange’s last 11 games and did not enter any of last year’s NCAA Tournament contests. “I thought I should have been playing,” he said. Fast forward a year later and Carter-Williams is proving to be one of college basketball’s biggest breakout players. After a 15-point, 16-assist performance in a 108-56 thrashing of Monmouth over the weekend, the Massachusetts native is averaging 12 points and over 10 assists per game, good for first in the country. His 16 assists versus Monmouth were the third most in Syracuse single-game history, behind only Sherman Douglas and Pearl Washington.

Michael Carter-Williams Has Been a Revelation This Season

Carter-Williams has kept the Orange’s offense running smoothly with his deft passing ability and vocal leadership. When he leaves the game, Syracuse is left without a facilitator and the offense crumbles. As shown in Luke Winn’s latest Power Rankings, Carter-Williams assists on 50.2% of Syracuse’s field goals, which is fourth most in the country. Rakeem Christmas, the recipient of many of Carter-Williams alley-oops, said having the point guard on the floor is key. “He [Carter-Williams] makes it very easy. Just knowing he’s there on the court makes me want to get open even more, so he can pass the ball to me.” He said his vocality on the floor is something he learned from Jardine. “Scoop was great. He taught me a lot. I learned from him a lot, probably more than any other player,” he said. Carter-Williams can often be seen directing a teammate where to go on the floor or gathering the troops for a quick huddle before a free throw. “He’s just taking control of this whole entire team,” said redshirt freshman Trevor Cooney. Aside from his assist numbers, Carter-Williams has also stuffed the box score in the rebounding and steals columns. He’s second on the team in rebounding with six per game, and fourth in the country in steals with just under four per game.

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1. Camp Cal, as coach John Calipari affectionately termed his boot camp with the Wildcats, is more about thinking than it is conditioning. “For the next two weeks, we’ll be going at least five of the days three times a day,” Calipari said. “I’m fine. I’ll be exhausted, but what the heck. The whole point is to help these young people think differently. They’ve got to think differently than they’re thinking.” The change in thinking hasn’t yet made its way into the full 40 minutes of game play, although the Cats were victorious over Portland by 28. “I had to coax them into playing,” Calipari said. “I shouldn’t have to. I shouldn’t be on a guy, ‘Play, scramble, stay down.’ What? What is that, strategy? I mean, that’s basically how I’m coaching right now.” The Cats are still making mistakes made by inexperienced teams, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has reviewed the Wildcats’ roster. They have two more home games over the next two weeks before meeting Louisville in the Yum! Center on December 29. Three weeks is a long way away, so expect Kentucky to look significantly improved by the time its intrastate showdown with the Cards roll around.
2. Another SEC guard has been suspended, and this time it’s LSU’s Anthony Hickey. LSU coach Johnny Jones cited a violation of athletic department and university rules as the reason for the suspension. “We will cooperate fully with the Athletic Department and University on the matter,” said Jones. “There is a responsibility that comes with playing college basketball. If a player doesn’t take care of his responsibilities, then he loses the privilege of being able to play. We look forward to continuing to focus on our upcoming game Tuesday and our three-game road trip that follows.” At this point, there is no timetable for Hickey’s return to the court. The Tigers are 5-0 with Hickey in the lineup, fueled by his 10.2 points, 5.2 assists, and 4.0 rebounds per game. However, this is not the first time the point guard has found himself in trouble.
3. The Arkansas media is calling for Mardracus Wade to be more aggressive on offense after the Hogs lost to Michigan in Ann Arbor by 13 points. Wade scored five points on just five shots from the field despite playing 34 minutes. Wade has the third best effective field goal percentage on the team, but is ninth in percentage of shots and is 10th in percentage of possessions. The Razorbacks could have used his help on Saturday. Wade is extremely effective at getting to the free throw line (76.3% free throw rate), but Arkansas didn’t shoot a free throw until six minutes left in the game. Mike Anderson’s squad has lost four of its last five contests, with three of those losses away from home. The Hogs are typically very strong at Bud Walton Arena, and they begin a five-game home stand on Saturday. That should give Anderson time to work out a few of the kinks.
4. Who loves statistics? We do! And so does John Clay of the Lexington Herald-Leader who provides us with 20 stats you need to know from Kentucky’s win on Saturday. A lot of good information here about the Cats’ recent performances including a snippet about the play of freshman Alex Poythress. Poythress has scored in double figures in seven of the first nine games of his college career, including his 15 points on Saturday. Most importantly, he is 13-of-17 from the field in the last two games, including three of four from beyond the arc. Poythress’ efficient play has put him as an early member of a prestigious grouping that Luke Winn often refers to in his power rankings called the 70/50/20 club. Only four players possess membership at this point in the season. The club is reserved for players who shoot an effective field goal percentage of at least 70 percent, play in at least 50 percent of available minutes, and take at least 20 percent of his team’s shots when he is on the floor. Poythress is shooting 72.2 percent, playing in 73.1 percent of available minutes, and shooting 21.5 percent of the Wildcats’ shots. He joins Belmont’s Ian Clarke, UC Davis’ Ryan Sypkens, and Syracuse’s James Southerland as the only current members. With efficiency numbers like that, Poythress can’t shy away from the basketball as he did against Notre Dame.
5. Tennessee’s Skylar McBee’s jersey will hang in the rafters at Grainger High School after he scored 2,362 points during his high school career. McBee was honored Saturday when his number four jersey was retired. “I’m very proud of where I come from,” McBee said. “And it’s an honor that all these people back home think that highly of me that they want to retire my number. It’s very humbling, and it means a lot to me.” McBee started as a walk-on for Tennessee, but was given a scholarship by previous coach Bruce Pearl. The guard is averaging 7.3 points per game for the Vols this season in his senior year.

1. Boston Globe: Steve Donahue is trying to figure out how to best rebuild Boston College, but after losing to Harvard for the fifth straight year (and in non-competitive fashion), he called off practice. He assessed what the team is good at and what it isn’t, and, long story short: shooting and defense, respectively. With that in mind Donahue changed the look of the Eagles. He went out against St. Francis looking to score 75 or 80 points, and focused the defense on aggressiveness instead of implementing complex schemes. When the first half wasn’t going well, Donahue benched his star player Ryan Anderson for most of the second half. If the Eagles start looking better, we might look back and see coaching genius. If they don’t, we’ll see desperation.
2. Fayetteville Observer: Richard Howell may be the most important player on NC State’s roster this season. He’s definitely not the most talented, but the senior consistently outworks everyone on the floor. Most people expected Lorenzo Brown or CJ Leslie to take the helm of this Wolfpack team, but Howell has been the guy who refuses to quit — he’s the guy that sparks the team and steps up in the big moments. This isn’t to say Howell is perfect, as he still attracts fouls at an alarming rate and lacks the polish to really be an offensive centerpiece. But he’s the type of guy who could bring the talented freshmen into the fold and build on the success Mark Gottfried’s team had to end last season.
3. Charlottesville Daily Progress: Justin Anderson is going to be a special player for Tony Bennett if he stays all four years. Right now, he’s an incredibly athletic wing who adds a little flash to the slowest team in college basketball. But his greatness still comes in spurts. He’s taking too many threes, especially considering his skill set. Anderson is a guy who is going to give some very good teams fits during his career. Combine him with Bennett’s muck-it-up pack-line defense that keeps things close, and it certainly looks like a recipe for success.
4. Washington Post: Mark Turgeon is still figuring out his rotation. Mostly Turgeon is trying to find his most effective combinations. Right now the Terrapins are playing a caliber of opponent that allows Turgeon to tinker a lot with very little risk. Even though he wasn’t on the team last year Dez Wells had a quote that certainly harkened back to a certain elite Terrapin from last season:
   

   “Nobody cares about who scores the points, nobody cares about the Terp of the Week, that stuff. That’s good for the team, and that’s good for the school, because they’re really behind us, but as a team we’re not worried about the accolades, we just want to win. Whether somebody scores 50 points or somebody doesn’t score at all, we’ll continue to pick that person up.”

5. Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Duke isn’t the only ACC team struggling to crash the boards this season. Georgia Tech has struggled with rebounding margin as well. Somewhat surprisingly, the Yellow Jackets’ advanced splits from Ken Pomeroy don’t back up Brian Gregory’s concerns. It’s true Gregory’s team is in the second half of the country in rebounding its own misses, but the team is actually a solid defensive rebounding team. But stats never give the whole picture, and it’s clear Gregory wants the team to box out more aggressively.

EXTRA: Brian Zoubek is still living the dream as a deluxe cream puff chef based in New Jersey. He planned on giving Duke a sampling of his craft after its trip to the Izod Center to play Temple.