It was a return to normalcy for many teams last week after the bevy of tournaments and showcases and neutral-court extravaganzas that marked the latter part of November in college hoops. Across the O26 landscape, some programs were able to play much-needed home games after weeks of travel, while others made trips to take on regional power conference foes or fellow mid-majors. Conference play even tipped off for one league in particular (we’re looking at you, MAAC). And while only a handful of schools took the court more than twice last week, there was plenty enough action in the opening days of December to hand out some superlatives to deserving performers.

O26 Team of the Week

Maurice Creek helped George Washington to an outstanding week. (Richard A. Lipski/Washington Post)

George Washington. After capping off Thanksgiving weekend with an upset over 20th-ranked Creighton in the Wooden Legacy, the Colonials had every reason to be on letdown alert in a return home on Wednesday versus a maligned-but-talented Rutgers team. Instead, George Washington maintained its momentum by defeating the Scarlet Knights by six in an outcome that featured knock-down shooting and a 106-point second half. The team’s two star transfers again the led the way for head coach Mike Lonergan, with former Villanova forward Isaiah Armwood scoring 20 points and grabbing nine rebounds, and Maurice Creek — the Indiana graduate who took to D.C. for his final year of eligibility — dropping in 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting. Yet, while that contest was relatively tight throughout, it paled in comparison to Sunday’s outcome at the Verizon Center in the BB&T Classic. Thanks to the late-game heroics of Creek, the Colonials edged out fellow capital-area opponent Maryland, 77-75, in a thrilling, impressive win that helped further solidify George Washington as a legitimate at-large (and A-10) contender. The Terrapins made a furious rally in the game’s final stages after trailing by 14 with fewer than seven minutes to play, turning GW over multiple times and eventually tying the game at 75 with a few seconds remaining. But in the game’s final possession, Creek worked his magic, drilling a clutch shot over Nick Faust to make it three straight victories for the Colonials, moving them to 8-1 on the year. With several more very winnable non-conference games on the slate before league play begins in January, Lonergan’s club has a great chance to continue its winning ways and put itself in the NCAA Tournament discussion for the first time since 2007. If that happens, its work this past week may be one big reason why.

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After everything has calmed down in the aftermath of the B1G/ACC challenge, it’s time to take a first look at the resumes that each team in the league has put together. Granted, this is going to be a fluid situation all season, but right now this is how it shakes out. I won’t reveal my exact methodology, but suffice it to say that I used a combination of KenPom efficiency ratings and the RPI to assign a specific value to each team’s wins and losses. Starting from the bottom and working up, this is how B1G teams stand right now as we head into the exams period. I’ve listed teams #12-#7 here, with teams #6-#1 to come tomorrow.

12. Northwestern (5-5)

Chris Collins’ First Season in Evanston Has Been Challenging So Far

• Best Win: Western Michigan  (51-35)
• Worst Loss: Illinois State (68-64)
• Breakdown: Northwestern has played four power conference teams but did not win any of those games. The Wildcats played Missouri reasonably close, but they lost by 21 to an NC State team that is predicted to finish in the middle to the bottom of the ACC. They have a chance to finish the season with more than 20 losses given the formidable conference slate Chris Collins’ team has ahead of it. They got back on track slightly with a win against a top-150 Western Michigan team on Saturday, but don’t expect the wins to pile up here.
• Status Right Now: No postseason.
• Projected Status: No postseason. Not trying to pick on the Wildcats, but they’ve done nothing to show that they are better than all the other bottom-level teams in the conference right now, and might only win three or four games in league play.

11. Nebraska (6-3)

• Best Win: Miami (60-49)
• Worst Loss: @ Creighton (82-67)
• Breakdown: When listing Creighton as their worst loss here, this is more because of the fact that the Cornhuskers blew a golden opportunity to get a signature win, and because they looked so bad in doing it. That said,  Tim Miles’ squad has probably slightly exceeded expectations. They’ve started 6-3, but have no wins versus anyone that would be in the field of 68. Their first two losses to UMass and UAB weren’t horrible ones, and neither is the Creighton loss, but the Huskers need a win at Cincinnati on December 28 or they would need to do some significant conference damage.
• Status Right Now: No postseason.
• Projected Status: No postseason. This team could pull off some upsets and get to five or six B1G wins, and if so, they could find themselves headed to the NIT.

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Although it’s still very early, NC State is showing signs that this may not be quite the down year many were predicting. After a lackluster 2-2 start to the season, head coach Mark Gottfried made some major lineup changes that are starting to pay big dividends during a four-game winning streak. The most obvious change is the return of seven-foot center Jordan Vandenberg, who missed the first four games due to an injured ankle, but he’s not the only newcomer to the starting lineup. Although all five opening game starters are now healthy, three of those players are coming off the bench.

T.J. Warren is Averaging 26 ppg in Last Four Games
(photo: Grant Halverson/Getty Images)

Without Vandenberg in the lineup, the Wolfpack had to use all three freshmen bigs to man the post. When their highly regarded recruiting class was formed, BeeJay Anya, from famed DeMatha Catholic High School in Maryland, was NC State’s highest rated post recruit. Kyle Washington from Brewster Academy in New Hampshire was the next highest, with the third post player of the class, Lennard Freeman from Virginia’s Oak Hill Academy, less celebrated than the other two. Ironically the three freshman bigs are performing in the exact opposite order when compared to expectations. Anya, who was listed at 275 pounds for his senior year of high school, inexplicably reported to Raleigh over the summer at 337 pounds and is currently listed at a hefty 325. He simply cannot play effectively at that weight. Out of necessity, Anya played about 10 minutes per game in the team’s first five contests, but only a total of three minutes in the last three.

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Michigan State‘s early season stronghold on the top spot in the rankings has come to an end, as the Spartans were upset victims last Wednesday at home against North Carolina. The Spartans were not the only top 10 team to suffer a loss last week, as previously third-ranked Kentucky fell to Baylor on Friday in a game played at AT&T Stadium in Dallas. Previously sixth-ranked Kansas returned to action for the first time in a week on Saturday and was promptly defeated via a buzzer-beater from Colorado. As upsets of top teams has been a trend thus far, new #1 Arizona was able to remain on the winning track with a blowout win over Texas Tech and a narrow home victory over UNLV. Considering all the ranked teams that have fallen so far this season, it is safe to say that this week’s Top 25 should be on the lookout for upset-minded squads seeking a highly-ranked scalp. The quick n’ dirty analysis of this week’s poll is after the jump.

 Quick n’ dirty analysis.

• There Is No Clear #2 Team. Arizona earned every vote for the #1 spot this week, but there was no such consensus when it came to the next team. #2 Syracuse, #3 Louisville, and #4 Ohio State all received votes for the #2 team in the country with the Orange ultimately receiving the nod with an average ballot placement of 3.0. This is quite different from last week when Arizona received every #2 vote from our pollsters. This has been quite the uncertain year thus far in college basketball and the lack of consensus after #1 serves to illustrate that.

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The Pittsburgh Panthers, a team comprised almost entirely of underclassmen, werent supposed to take the ACC by storm in its first year. Clearly the prognosticators didn’t realize what one of Pitt’s lone seniors was doing this offseason. Lamar Patterson, a fifth-year senior known mostly for his sharpshooting ability coming off the bench, wanted to make himself into a better athlete and a more complete player. Through the first nine games of the 2013-14 season, Patterson’s hard work is paying off. He is now averaging 16.2 points per game (on 49 percent shooting), a remarkable six points per game higher than any other season in his collegiate career. And he’s proving to not just be a scorer, either. His teammates have been feeling the love as he is stuffing the stat sheet by dishing out five assists per game and grabbing five boards per game this season. That’s the kind of all-around production that Jamie Dixon will need from him this season if the Panthers are to reach their ultimate goals.

Lamar Patterson will need to continue his solid play if Pitt wants to truly compete in the ACC this season. (AP)

His athleticism is evident in his more aggressive style of play. Patterson is taking the ball to the basket and regularly getting to the free throw line. He has made twice as many free throws per game (3.8) than at any point in his career, and he ranks among the top 500 players in America in fouls drawn per 40 minutes (5.2). In past seasons, he had relied on his shooting so much that an off night here or there would greatly impact his effectiveness. That shouldn’t happen as much if Patterson continues to leverage his shooting threat to work with his athleticism to get to the basket. On Friday night against Loyola Marymount, Patterson struggled for most of the game with his jumper but didn’t let that stop him from scoring. He recorded four points at the charity stripe, and put in back-to-back layups in the second half to put the game out of reach, propelling the host Panthers to an 85-68 win.

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1. By the time you read this, odds are good that the new AP poll will have been released with Arizona topping the list for the first time in more than a decade. After Michigan State fell at home to North Carolina earlier in the week, all the Wildcats had to do to solidify their position was to take care of business at home against a UNLV team that has yet to congeal. However, as the game on Saturday entered its 40th minute, the outcome was still very much in doubt. But a spectacular Aaron Gordon block was followed up by a driving layup from Brandon Ashley, and the Wildcats escaped. With newly top-rated teams having a habit of dropping games quickly, watch out for Arizona’s tough road trip to Michigan next Saturday morning.
2. Oregon was one of several Pac-12 teams with tough road games scheduled for this weekend. But, while UCLA and California came up on the short end of the stick in their first true away games of the season, the Ducks took to the road with aplomb, getting a steady performance from Jonathan Loyd and plenty of production from talented transfers Mike Moser, Joseph Young, Jason Calliste and Elgin Cook to withstand the Marshall Henderson show at Mississippi. With the Bruins’ defeat at the hands of Missouri, Oregon and Arizona now stand alone as the two remaining undefeated teams in the conference.
3. Colorado, meanwhile, got to spend its weekend at home in frigid Boulder, but their test was no less stringent. The Buffaloes welcomed in a talented Kansas team and came away with their first win over the Jayhawks in more than a decade. That 0-for-19 streak is now in the past, as the Buffaloes rode a surprise contribution from little-used senior center Ben Mills, versatile and efficient play from sophomore center Josh Scott, an inspired performance from sophomore forward Xavier Johnson – including a ferocious early dunk – and, of course, a deep buzzer-beating runner from Askia Booker to inspire a good old-fashioned rushing of the court. Not everybody found the court rushing so fun, as Paul Klee of the Colorado Springs Gazette recounts photographers getting trampled, some near-misses and even Booker himself sustaining a shoulder injury in the celebration.
4. USC scored a solid win for itself on Sunday night, thumping Boston College behind an impressive second half. While the Trojans got balanced scoring with five different players reaching double figures, junior guard Byron Wesley continues to stand out as the team’s leader. Head coach Andy Enfield regularly praises his veteran wing for his fundamental soundness, while teammate Omar Oraby says that just watching Wesley’s work ethic helps his teammates get better.
5. Lastly, Utah bounced back from its first loss of the season by scoring 50 second-half points to get past Fresno State. Sophomore Jordan Loveridge broke out of something of a slump by scoring all 13 of his points in the second half, while junior point guard Delon Wright continues to fill up stat sheets, setting a new career high with 12 assists and tying his career high with 23 points for his third double-double of the year. Wright came up four rebounds shy of a triple-double, but with his complete game, expect him to register at least one of those by the time the season is done. Oh, and while we’re on the topic, Wright has made 52 of his 70 shots from the field this season. Combined with his solid free throw shooting, that put’s Wright’s true shooting percentage at 76.6 percent, good for fifth in the nation to this point.

Four Thoughts is our way of providing some rapid reactions to some of the key games involving AAC teams throughout the season.

Cincinnati’s swarming defense wasn’t good enough to overcome New Mexico’s efficient offense in a 63-54 loss Saturday. (GoLobos.com)

1. Every basketball fan understands the concept of the run, where a team strings together a series of defensive stops while scoring points on the other end. The name is appropriate for a team like Louisville, which can put up a dozen straight points in an eye blink. Cincinnati can’t really do that, particularly against a quality foe. What the Bearcats do – when the ferocity of their defense overwhelms the ineptitude of their offense for a while; or for the other team, when it doesn’t – is more like a walk. In the first half on Saturday, New Mexico walked away from Cincinnati in The Pit, outscoring the Bearcats 16-4 over a period of a little more than 10 minutes to take a 27-10 lead. Cincinnati later cut that lead to only two early in the second half, but never got it all the way back to even. The Bearcats have never been a good offensive team under Mick Cronin (KenPom had UC ranked #64 in offensive efficiency coming into the game, which would be near the top of the Cronin era), but no matter the quality of your defense, beating a good team on the road is going to be nearly impossible when you shoot 29.5 percent and score around 0.9 points per possession, as Cincinnati did in this game.
2. That said, the defense wasn’t good enough on Saturday either. Cincinnati was ranked #9 in adjusted defensive efficiency (92.4), #12 in effective field goal defense (42.1 percent) and #2 in turnover percentage (27.5 percent) coming into the game. New Mexico brought thoroughly mediocre ranks in effective field goal offense (#128) and turnover percentage (#100), so a path to victory for the Bearcats had to include getting stops and turning over the Lobos. The Bearcats did force 15 turnovers, roughly one out of every four possessions, which might have been enough on its own had they also not allowed New Mexico to shoot 50 percent from the field. Moreover, they couldn’t get those stops when it counted. After cutting a 12-point lead down to seven with 3:29 remaining, Cincinnati allowed New Mexico to score on its next three possessions. The first of those possessions lasted 61 seconds, thanks to an offensive rebound more than 30 seconds into the shot clock that allowed another 20-plus seconds to run off. The last of those scores made it a 13-point game with a minute left, putting things out of reach. Read the rest of this entry »

The last time I wrote about Georgetown, I described Josh Smith as slow and uninterested on defense against Wright State. Nearly a month later, when I watched the Hoyas blow out High Point late last week, Smith was much more energetic on both ends of the floor. He was forceful in the paint, putting down a rim-shaking dunk early in the game, finishing the night with 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting. He made a couple of standout defensive plays too – registering a steal by intercepting a lob pass in the paint, and putting a nasty block on a High Point player’s attempted layup. The problem was that Smith was also in foul trouble the entire night and played a total of only 18 minutes. It was a similar story on Saturday in a win against Colgate — 14 points and five rebounds in 20 minutes of action. The opportunity cost of Smith unable to play starter’s minutes remains the narrative for the talented but enigmatic junior — not just for this pair of games, but for his entire playing career.

Josh Smith is playing great offense but more minutes remains a challenge. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

By all accounts, the transfer big man is having his best start to a season so far and might be the best offensive player for the Hoyas. He is averaging a career-high 13.6 PPG while shooting 70 percent from the field, easily the best such mark on the team. If we look at the more advanced statistics, his numbers are just as impressive. Smith has an offensive player efficiency rating of 121.9 — second on the team only to D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera at 125.1 — and an average plus-minus of +10.8 points per game – trailing Smith-Rivera by only 0.2 points with significantly less time. But as previously mentioned, the issue is not Smith’s effectiveness for the minutes that he’s on the court; it’s getting him on the court and keeping him there. Whether the issue is foul trouble (he averages 7.7 fouls per 40 minutes, and has fouled out of two games) or his stamina, Smith has only managed to average 19.4 MPG through the Hoya’s first eight contests. This begs the obvious question: How much is Georgetown missing in production by not having Smith play starter’s minutes?

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1.  The Kansas City Star’s Rustin Dodd tied up some loose ends from Kansas‘ heartbreaking loss to Colorado. In case you were too caught up in Saturday afternoon’s football action, lost in the shuffle of Askia Booker’s buzzer-beater were Joel Embiid showing off an impressive array of post moves against the Buffaloes’ undersized frontcourt rotation and Andrew Wiggins putting up a season-high 22 points. The Jayhawks very clearly have a few things to work on, but it’s tough to be too disappointed with Kansas’ two losses in non-conference play, as both came on last-second shots in games away from Allen Fieldhouse.
2. Iowa State needed an extra frame to beat Northern Iowa when Panthers guard Seth Tuttle banked home a three-pointer at the end of the second half. The Cyclones showed how vulnerable they can be when their threes don’t fall, as they shot just 28% from the perimeter in regulation. They made them when they mattered, though, as Melvin Ejim buried a pair of treys in overtime. Somewhat surprisingly, the win was Fred Hoiberg‘s first as a head coach over Northern Iowa. Iowa State, one of the most impressive programs in the still-young season, takes a well-deserved break until Friday, when Hilton Coliseum should be rocking for a meeting with Iowa.
3. Reserve center D.J. Bennett has given Lon Kruger some quality minutes down low on the defensive end. The Sooners boast one of the highest-scoring offenses in the Big 12, but the defense isn’t quite where it needs to be for Oklahoma to comfortably rank in the top half of the conference. If Bennett can continue to help the team get stops on the other end, that may change.
4. Dave Hickman of The West Virginia Gazette wrote an interesting piece late last week where he delved into the Mountaineers’ surprisingly low attendance numbers. If you ask us, the culprit isn’t hard to find: West Virginia‘s non-conference schedule has been short on attractive names. With all due respect to the following programs, no one is lining up to camp out for Mount Saint Mary’s, Duquesne, or Georgia Southern. To boot, the annual Backyard Brawl with Pittsburgh was put on hiatus when the two teams separated conferences. We’ll see how many fans show up at WVU Coliseum on Tuesday, when Gonzaga pays a visit to Morgantown.
5. Oklahoma State guard Stevie Clark returned to action Friday night against South Carolina after serving a four-game suspension handed down by Travis Ford for undisclosed reasons. Assuming Clark stays on Ford’s good side, the freshman will have plenty of time to ease back into the lineup, as the Cowboys play just two games between now and December 21, when they will take on a Colorado team that will almost certainly be ranked later today.

1. There are not many coaches in the college sports landscape that have performed better than Tom Izzo over the past 15 years. But Izzo believes that it is time to look up to the Spartans’ football coach, Mark Dantonio, to learn how to be a champion. After Michigan State’s upset win over Ohio State to win the Big Ten title on Saturday night, Izzo sang high praises of his counterpart in East Lansing. “It’s so good when you got a friend that’s in the same profession but in a little different venue because you look at it a little differently,” Izzo said. Over the past decade or so, Michigan State basketball owned the state of Michigan, but the football team appears to be slowly turning the tables since 2009. Having a great football program will further help Izzo’s basketball program reach new heights because it increases the overall profile of the school’s athletic department.
2. John Beilein is trying to find answers to turn around Michigan’s slow start and he is looking to Mitch McGary to take over the leadership role on and off the court. McGary doesn’t appear to be at a 100%, but he could be the spark plug to ignite the Wolverines after nine games in the non-conference season. Against Duke, he was very active on the defensive glass (14 rebounds) and pushed the tempo in the open floor to trigger transition opportunities and pick up a few easy points. Nik Stauskas on McGary: “Coach is starting to trust him a lot more with the ball and anytime he gets a rebound and he’s going (down-floor) by himself, we’re OK with that. Sometimes he’s going to make a bad decision here and there, but for the most part he’s either going to score a basket or find someone who is open.” A healthy and active McGary can help freshmen guards such as Derrick Walton get comfortable on the offensive end, especially if Stauskas is struggling with his ankle injury.
3. Indiana won the Big Ten title under Tom Crean after a long drought. They were ranked #1 in the pre-season poll, after another long drought of being ranked in the top-5 under Crean’s watch. What else is needed to add to Crean’s impact on the renewed hoops culture in Bloomington? A renovated basketball arena. Assembly Hall, is potentially up for an upgrade that could be worth millions of dollars. One of the oldest arenas in college basketball could add luxury seats in the bleachers and a “jumbotron” to show the score of the game. Any renovations will only add fuel to the well-oiled recruiting machine that Crean has built at Indiana.
4. Without Josh Oglesby, Iowa doesn’t have a consistent three-point shooting threat, but the offense has been humming along fairly well, averaging 1.17 points per possession. Transition buckets have provided to the offensive spark this season. Drake’s head coach on Iowa’s transition capabilities: “We sent three guys back. We normally just sent two back. You send somebody back to stop the ball and you put somebody in the hole. We tried to send our three-man back and just with four different guys that can push it, it really causes confusion in transition defense.” With Devyn Marble playing the stretch-four position, the Hawkeyes run the well exceptionally well, but that pace may slow down once conference season begins.
5. Speaking of slowing down the pace in the Big Ten, Wisconsin is off to an impressive undefeated start after beating Marquette at home on Saturday. Bo Ryan may have one of the best starting lineups in the nation because each of them averages at least 10 PPG. The three-guard lineup rebounds the ball effectively and this could be one of the most versatile teams that Ryan has had in Madison in terms of their ability to put points on the board. With the schedule they have it is quite possible that the Badgers will enter 2014 undefeated and have a manageable schedule in January too.