The most important development of the holiday week in college hoops was two RTC top 10 teams finding a way to win without the services of a key contributor. On Tuesday night, #1 Michigan State had to fend off a pesky Oakland team in a very hard-earned 99-93 overtime victory. The Spartans were of course without star player Denzel Valentine, who will miss 2-3 weeks after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery. #8 Kentucky had to showcase some resiliency of its own in a big rivalry win over #18 Louisville on Saturday after freshman guard Isaiah Briscoe suffered an ankle injury during pregame warm-ups. He is expected back soon. Injuries are part of the game, but as we head into the start of conference play this week, teams generally can’t afford to be banged up. This week’s Quick N’ Dirty after the jump.

Quick n’ Dirty Analysis.

• Michigan State remains the RTC #1 team. The Spartans had to battle hard to earn a short-handed 99-93 overtime victory over Oakland. A win is a win, though, and our pollsters did not penalize Michigan State for winning ugly. Without Valentine, Tom Izzo’s group was lifted by the performances of Bryn Forbes (32 points) and Eron Harris (27 points). Big Ten play begins Tuesday night, and with Valentine expected to miss a few additional weeks, the Spartans are going to need players like Forbes and Harris to pick up the slack in order to stay undefeated. Michigan State travels to Iowa and Minnesota this week.
• Uncertainty Regarding Providence. Ed Cooley’s Friars are 10-1 with a victory over Arizona and its only loss to #1 Michigan State. Even with those stellar credentials, not all of our pollsters are sold on Providence. The team is ranked as highly as #8 by one pollster and as low as #24 by two others. It should be expected that there will be a more definitive opinion on the Friars next week, as their trip to Butler on Thursday should give a better hint of exactly what kind of team they are.
• South Carolina keeps winning. Frank Martin’s Gamecocks continue to be one of the best stories in college basketball this season, as they moved their unbeaten mark to 11-0 last week with a 14-point victory over St. John’s. While South Carolina has not played the most arduous of non-conference schedules, it will enter SEC play with an unblemished record if it can get by Memphis on Saturday. That is certainly noteworthy for a program that has not made a trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2004.

Game of the Week. #5 Xavier vs. #9 Butler. There is no love lost between these two schools and with both now residing in the RTC top 10, expect the environment at the Cintas Center to be unbelievably raucous on Saturday. The individual matchup to watch in this game will take place in the backcourt. The undefeated Musketeers are loaded at the guard position with the dynamic duo of Edmond Sumner and Trevon Bluiett. The Bulldogs will counter with the tandem of Tyler Lewis and Kellen Dunham. As far as early conference season battles go, this is a Big East battle that you cannot miss.

Keep Tabs On. #13 Purdue vs. Wisconsin; #1 Michigan State vs. Iowa; #5 Xavier vs. #12 Villanova; #9 Butler vs. #17 Providence; #13 Miami (FL) vs. Syracuse; #2 Kansas vs. #23 Baylor; #4 Virginia vs. Notre Dame; #3 Oklahoma vs. #15 Iowa State.

Conference Call. Big 12 (5), ACC (5), Big East (4), Big Ten (3), Pac-12 (3), SEC (3), AAC (2).

WCarey (318 Posts)

This entry was posted on Monday, December 28th, 2015 at 9:01 am by Walker Carey and is filed under blogpoll, feature, Regular Features. Tagged: butler, feature, kentucky, louisville, michigan state, providence, rtc25, south carolina, xavier. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.