Rush The Court

The Big 12 got off to a running start this weekend. The competition wasn’t exactly stout, as the Big 12 faced just one KenPom top 100 opponent (Kansas, vs. UC Santa Barbara), but as of Monday afternoon, the conference sat at an unblemished 13-0 and is the only league other the Big East to sport an undefeated record. The quality of the opposition heats up this week, but before we look forward, it’s helpful to look back and make note of some relevant observations.

• Kansas’ Freshmen Debut In Hot And Cold Fashions: The extremely early returns on Jayhawks freshmen Cliff Alexander and Kelly Oubre are mixed. The former played just 12 minutes against UC Santa Barbara, but scored nine points and brought down four rebounds while Oubre barely played long enough to make a dent in the box score (zero points, two rebounds, an assist and a turnover in just four minutes). The limited minutes for both players are explainable. It was revealed that Alexander played through some wrist soreness after dunking particularly hard during one of Kansas’ prior exhibition games, and it’s well-known that Bill Self prefers experience over unpolished players in the early part of the season. Either way, it will be very interesting to see how both players are deployed tomorrow night against Kentucky, as their size and athleticism will be very important if the Jayhawks are to knock off the #1 team in the Champions Classic.
• Myles Turner Hits The Ground Running: The Longhorns’ stud forward didn’t start Friday’s game against North Dakota State, but he entered at the 16:05 mark of the first half and nailed the first three shots of his career: a tough turnaround jumper from the baseline; a 17-foot jumper; and a beautiful step-back fadeaway. Turner went on to finish with 15 points, but he wasn’t done. On Sunday afternoon, he put up 10 points to go along with seven rebounds and a staggering six blocks in an 85-53 thrashing of Alcorn State. Despite the quality of the opposition, it’s very tough to hold back the excitement for this freshman. Turner will get a national audience on Thursday when the Longhorns head to Madison Square Garden to take on Iowa in the 2K Sports Classic.

• Brandon Bolden Becomes Famous: The most-looped Vine of the young season belongs to former Georgetown transfer Brandon Bolden, who, in his Kansas State debut, mercilessly destroyed a layup attempt by Southern Utah’s John Marshall in the second half of the Wildcats’ 98-68 blowout win. The sophomore played just 13 minutes, but made his presence felt in the best way one can do in the social media age. In addition to his forceful rejection, Bolden swatted two other shots and finished with six points on 2-of-3 shooting and four rebounds. Tonight Kansas State will look to avoid becoming the second team to fall prey to UMKC’s regional tour of destruction after the Kangaroos upset Missouri on opening night.
• Iowa State’s Heavy Hitters Come Through: Georges Niang and Bryce Dejean-Jones scored 50 of the Cyclones’ 93 points in a nine-point win over Oakland on Friday night. We knew going into the season that those two would drive the Iowa State offense, so this isn’t a surprise, but it was reassuring to see them get off to a hot start as the two combined to go 15-of-30 from the floor and 18-of-20 from the charity stripe. One thing to bear in mind is that while Iowa State had a very efficient game (scoring 1.25 points per possession), its bench contributed only four points. It’s worth noting that two key reserves — Matt Thomas and Abdel Nader — were unavailable due to suspensions, so this shouldn’t be a lingering issue, but with some good defensive teams at the top of the conference, the Cyclones will need a little more balance than what they got Friday night.