Chris Johnson is an RTC Columnist. He can be reached @ChrisDJohnsonn.
Tonight’s Lede. SEC Owns Football. As For Basketball… Allow me to use this space to preemptively strike against the legion of SEC hawks bound to celebrate in droves after Alabama’s thrashing of Notre Dame in the BCS National Championship game, the conference’s seventh consecutive title. Because guess what, SEC fans? Your hoops league is pretty bad – by power conference standards, at least. It’s looking more and more like the conference will produce somewhere in the range of three-to-four NCAA teams, and that’s assuming Kentucky performs its typical Caliparian midseason rapid maturation process and picks up a few credible wins in league play. The SEC is an unassailable beast on the gridiron right now, but that dominance does not extend to the basketball side of things. With the exception of Florida and Missouri, it’s a barren landscape. Meanwhile, Notre Dame – what a dichotomously vexing night for the Irish. On one hand, the football team was bludgeoned, battered and broken on the biggest stage in the sport. That hurts, and it’s all Notre Dame fans really care about on this Monday night. The men’s hoops team fought off a grindingly intense Cincinnati team in their house to cement its place in the Big East elite, which is a big-time win for hoops fans but probably little more than a moral pacifier for Notre Dame supporters across the country. This is a bad, bad night for Irish athletics, even if Mike Brey’s team looked anything but in its showcase Big East road bout.
Your Watercooler Moment. Cincinnati’s Home Issues.
One home loss is an aberration. Two is a concern. Three is a string of evidence that bears further analysis. All three of Cincinnati’s losses this season have come at Fifth Third Arena, the latest a six-point defeat at the hands of Notre Dame. Two of those losses are passable – New Mexico is a stylistic analog with a smothering defense; Notre Dame’s offense is top-five efficiency-wise, armed with a coterie of capable shooters and savvy big men. Losing to St. John’s is not forgivable. Were these three slip-ups spread out over the first two months of the season, this might feel like less of a concern. Even teams as physically tough and skilled as Cincinnati lose games from time to time. But the Bearcats have now lost three of four, their only win coming at Pittsburgh. That is not nothing. It is something to think about, at the very least. It’s easy to point to the continuing offensive deficiencies, and the lack of an interior anchor. Those are not new revelations; we’ve long since known about Cincinnati’s offensive shortcomings. And New Mexico and Notre Dame are playing quality basketball on both ends of the floor. The Irish are measurably better than Cincinnati on a per-possession basis, and the Lobos are as good at taking you out of your offensive flow – which Cincinnati mostly lacks in the first place – as any team in the country. Cincinnati’s recent skid is puzzling because when good teams lose, they usually lose on the road, when hostile crowds and travel sluggishness and, ahem, natural advantages, just don’t go your way. Winning games in foreign gyms is important and all, but equally so is defending your home court. You’re supposed to win those games, after all. And more likely than not, Cincinnati is going to take a few hits on the road in Big East play. They aren’t good enough to survive that gauntlet. No one is. Do I think this is a permanently debilitating problem? No. This reeks of sample size aberration, and – lest we forget – some pretty high-level competition (save St. John’s). This team is far too good defensively, and far too loaded in the backcourt, to keep up this mystifying home charade. A January 19 visit from Marquette looms large.
Tonight’s Quick Hit.
- Hoosiers Gear Up For First Big Ten Test. There’s not much you can draw from Indiana’s 74-51 demolition of Penn State. Other that the fact that the Hoosiers, contrary to last year’s evidence, appear far more impervious to road environments than last season – the Hoosiers dropped five of their first six conference games away from Assembly Hall, and are 2-0 so far this season – and the reality of Indiana’s hyper-efficient offense, this game offered no surprises. If anything, Indiana was probably happy to get out of Happy Valley with an easy win, hop on the bus, flip on the TV to watch nearby Notre Dame get stomped in the national championship game, then start mentally preparing for Minnesota, who is as athletic and efficient and lethal as any team the Hoosiers have faced all season. The Gophers come to Bloomington Saturday for a massive Big Ten showdown.
…and Misses.
- It’s Official: UIC Is Bad Again. Maybe the biggest early surprise in the unpredictable mid-major realm was UIC. Howard Moore’s team ripped off a 9-1 start, with wins over Northwestern, Iona and Colorado State mixed in. I saw this team up close when they toppled the Wildcats at Welsh-Ryan Arena, and I have to admit, they looked positively competitive. There was every reason to believe the Flames’ torrid start was totally legitimate. What was once one of the great turnarounds in college hoops has now sputtered into desolation. After Monday night’s loss at Cleveland State, the Flames have now whiffed in four of their past five, nary a formidable opponent on tap. The Horizon League is so weak and so open that the Flames can win the league even if this current rut endures a bit longer. Beating Valparaiso, the league frontrunner, when it visits Chicago Wednesday is optimal.
- Notre Dame Football. That is All.
Dunkdafied. I owe a grave apology to Doug Anderson of Detroit University. Anderson, you see, is one of the best dunkers in college basketball. And here we are, more than two months into the season, and Anderson hasn’t made his Dunkdafied debut. He flushed this alley-oop off a Ray McCallum pass in last Thursday’s win over Milwaukee. Time frame is a priority in this space, but on tonight’s bare-bones hoops docket, it’s a perfect time to pay tribute to Anderson – this is something of a season career achievement award.
Monday’s All Americans.
- Christian Watford, Indiana (NPOY) – Whether or not he knocks off the No. 1 team in the country with a buzzer-beating three for the ages again this season, Watford’s adjusted efficiency numbers are up across the board. He led Indiana with 16 points and eight rebounds in Monday night’s rout of Penn State.
- Jerian Grant, Notre Dame – The ceiling on this Notre Dame team is not as high as some other top national contenders. What you see is what you get with the Irish: tough guard play, board-gobbling forwards, and a collective dedication to systemize their skills in a productive way. Grant’s 19 points were pivotal in helping Notre Dame knock off Cincinnati on the road.
- Sam Rowley, Albany – Can the Great Danes make a run in the America East? If Rowley (21 points, 13 rebounds) has his way on the offensive end, why not?
- Tymell Murphy, Florida International – If not for Murphy’s 20 points and 10 rebounds, FIU’s close win over Bethune-Cookman could have been a really disappointing come-from-ahead loss.
- DeQuan Hicks, Northwestern State – Nothing comes easy in the Southland, it is widely and casually said (let’s go with it…). The Demons got by Sam Houston State due in large part to Hicks 24-point, 13-rebound double-double.
Tweet of the Night. Look on the bright side, Notre Dame Fan X, your favorite hoops team is as good as it has been in years. What’s more, the Irish should be favored in every game they play until a February 4 road trip to Syracuse. And who knows, maybe Alabama will sneak into the NCAA Tournament, and the selection committee will schedule you into a hugely redemptive first-round match-up. It could happen.