Chris Johnson is an RTC Columnist. He can be reached @ChrisDJohnsonn.
The Weekend’s Lede. Parity Rocks Conference PlayThe theme of this college basketball season isn’t going away. There are no dominant teams. From Indiana to Duke to Louisville, or whoever else inherits the top spot in the rankings this season, their stay won’t be a long one. But what we’re seeing this season is about more than big-time upsets. Not every surprising result is a top-five stunner. It’s the parity in conference play that makes pegging conference frontrunners and Final Four contenders so adventurous. The insanity continued over the weekend, and frankly, I don’t envision it stopping any time soon. This – hotly-tested games, minimal gaps between the best and worst of each league, contested conference races, no clear favorites – is college basketball at its finest. It comes at you from so many different angles, so many different time zones, so many different TV channels. It gives you unranked Villanova knocking off two top-five teams in a week, and UCLA losing to the little-brother Arizona school two days after beating big brother, and Marshall Plumlee and Alex Len engaging in mid-game dunk warfare. And then, just when you’ve seen enough, it brings you another healthy heaping throughout the week. Before we get there, the weekend brought us plenty to dissect and deliberate. Time to dive in.
Your Watercooler Moment. Villanova Strikes Again.
Two top-five upsets highlighted an excellent week for the Wildcats (Photo credit: Getty Images).
There is no rational explanation for why Villanova was able to take down not just one but both of the Big East’s best teams this week. The Wildcats are still worlds away from the perimeter-oriented teams that fared so well under Jay Wright over the past decade. But they got those wins, and now Villanova’s season is headed in an entirely different direction. A week ago, the Wildcats were licking their wounds after dropping consecutive games against Pittsburgh and at Providence. The first was predictable and totally understandable; the second one hurt. It hurt not just because you’d rather not lose to a talented but young Providence team on the road under any circumstance, but because the rigorous two-game stretch that loomed left the possibility for a sustained losing streak. That rigor, in hindsight, was ‘Nova’s upset gold. And the weirdest part: Louisville and Syracuse, both ranked in the top-six in Kenpom’s defensive efficiency rankings entering Saturday, are about as upset-proof as tom-five teams come this season. Sure, the Cardinals’ offense betrays them from time to time, and when the bad, turnover-proned, wacky Russ Smith overwhelms the All American-level star we’ve seen in large stretches this season, Rick Pitino’s team can lose. And yes, the Orange have their warts, especially without their best shooter, James Southerland. But that baseline defensive commonality buffers against bad shooting nights, against 25-point games from Darrun Hilliard and poor late-game foul management. Seeing one of these teams go down in Philadelphia would have been run of the mill stuff for this season. But two, both lorded over by hall of fame coaches with decades of upset-avoiding wisdom at their disposal? Can’t say I saw this coming.
Also Worth Chatting About. Bruins Still Maturing.
As the season rolls on, the Bruins will continue to get better (Photo credit: AP Photo).
Swinging through a late-week road trip bookended with games at the two Arizona schools without a loss was a pipedream from the start. UCLA is an explosive offensive team, flush with talented freshmen and a handful of valuable role players, plus a much-improved defense. It is not the best team in the Pac-12; at least not yet. By season’s end, Ben Howland’s team is the odds-on favorite to own that title, but the Bruins have a few tweaks to make before they reach their peak. They won the more important of the two games, beating Arizona Saturday in relatively comfortable fashion, and that’s the biggest takeaway from this brutal two-game stretch. UCLA, like its Pac 12 challengers (Oregon, Arizona), is not experienced or balanced enough to stroll through conference play without a few hiccups along the way. Besides, Arizona State is quietly playing some excellent hoops on both ends of late; the Sun Devils entered Saturday making exactly half of their two-point shots, tops in the Pac 12. If Jordan Bachynski is going to give you 22 points and 15 rebounds, Carrick Felix adds 23 and 11, and David Wear can’t hold his side of the bargain (five points on 2-for-12 shooting), competing – much less winning – is a dubious goal.
Chris Johnson is an RTC Columnist. He can be reached @ChrisDJohnsonn.
Tonight’s Lede. Good Hoops, But Not Like Wednesday Night. There were so many good games last night, so many wacky outcomes and thrilling finishes, asking for a repeat performance was as unreasonable as it was delusional. Nights like Wednesday don’t come around on a weekly, monthly, perhaps even yearly basis – the number of stunning upsets, in the time frame in which they went down, was not something me, you, nor any obsessed college hoops observer was ready for. If March Madness exists in January, it was Wednesday night. By necessity, the clock ticked, the calendar flipped and Wednesday became Thursday, where – you got it – more games were played in campus gyms across the country. I’ll be honest right off the bat: Thursday night’s slate has nothing on what you witnessed Wednesday. Even so, it was still college hoops, and it was still Gonzaga-BYU and Ole Miss-Tennessee and VCU-Richmond and UCLA-Arizona. It was still a good night. Here’s what stuck out.
Your Watercooler Moment. Bruins Defense Overlooked.
Defense has helped UCLA solve its early season chemistry issues (Photo credit: AP Photo).
The key to UCLA’s December revival, when the Bruins ripped off 10 straight wins, five of which came in Pac-12 play, was widely diagnosed as a product of offensive firepower and a correspondingly poor attention to defensive detail. It was all about Shabazz Muhammad’s offensive explosion and Jordan Adams’ continued development and Larry Drew’s stewardship at the point – or some fuzzy mixture of positive offensive growth. Ben Howland was eschewing tradition, it was widely and casually assumed, as if the Bruins were a fundamentally flawed, offense-only team that couldn’t defend a lick. Tempo-free enthusiasts knew better; UCLA, in fact, ranked first in the Pac-12 in adjusted defensive efficiency heading into Thursday night’s crucial road test at Arizona. The Bruins have been giving up 0.94 points per trip in conference play, compared to Arizona’s 0.98, good for fifth among league counterparts. So when the Wildcats got off to a ghastly 1-of-10 shooting start, and UCLA blew open a 17-3 lead in the first half, the Wildcats couldn’t find a way back. It was smooth sailing in the second half, despite Arizona’s and a super-geeked fan base’s best efforts to rally for a comeback push. UCLA wouldn’t be here without its offense – without the natural talents of Muhammad, the Wear Twins’ old-school finesse and Kyle Anderson’s instinctive play-making. The Bruins are and will continue to be identified by what they do on that end of the floor. But their improved defense brings UCLA to a whole different level. Without it, they are a high-flying, explosive, fun team to watch – something like the college analog to the Los Angeles Clippers (yes, the Clippers defend; I’m speaking strictly in terms of offensive visuals). Now that Howland has gotten his team up to par defensively, the Bruins are able to do some pretty good things – things like beating the No. 6 team in the country on the road in the biggest regular season game UCLA has played in the last five years.
Also Worth Chatting About. Another A-10 Newcomer Goes Down.
In the rugged A-10, road losses are par for the course, even for teams as strong as VCU (Photo credit: AP Photo).
On Wednesday, Butler had its undefeated conference record ruined on a full-court drive and finish at the buzzer from La Salle guard Ramon Galloway. It was karmic justice for the Bulldogs, who just days earlier rushed the court after knocking off Gonzaga at Hinkle Fieldhouse thanks to Roosevelt Jones’ last-second runner. The road to VCU’s downfall followed a similar narrative. One week ago, the Rams fended off a feisty St. Joes’ team in overtime. The Hawks played Shaka Smart’s team down to the final possession, but they fizzled out in the extra period, overcome by the Rams’ high-paced style. Then came Thursday night’s rivalry game at Richmond. A win at the Robins Center would have sealed the Rams’ temporary spot atop the A-10 standings. Instead, the Spiders coughed up a modest 11 turnovers, dealt with VCU’s HAVOC full-court pressure and smothering half-court D, and after 40 minutes of hanging tough and keeping within striking distance, Richmond leveled the score in the final seconds to send the game to overtime. VCU was not as fortunate in the extra period this time around. It’s a great win for the Spiders. For VCU? Sigh. Beyond the coincidence of the league’s two best teams falling on back-to-back days, the Rams won’t come away from this loss doubting its ability to compete for a league title. Teams lose road games in conference play, and even more so against bitter city rivals. This is a tough, tough league, and the Rams – like every team at some point or another – hit a wall they couldn’t break through.
Chris Johnson is an RTC Columnist. He can be reached @ChrisDJohnsonn.
Tonight’s Lede.Not Many Games, But A Lot Of Action. You may have looked at tonight’s hoops lineup and come to the quick conclusion that there were bigger and more important things to put on your television this evening. If that’s the case, I apologize for your misfortune, because you missed one of the best pound-for-pound weekday nights of the regular season. In total, 14 games were played. That is not a lot of games – at a glance, it fit the customary boring-Monday-night profile. But it was the ratio of quality to volume that made Tuesday night’s schedule special. We had a big upset in the ACC, a really tight SEC finish, two really nice wins from Big Ten teams of near-equal standing, a shocker in the Big East, and a reaffirmation of everything we already knew to be true about Big 12 basketball. All packaged tidily within the construct of a 14-game schedule.
Your Watercooler Moment. Cardinals Drop Second Straight.
Two straight losses has Louisville reeling as it hits a tough stretch of conference play (Photo credit: AP Photo).
When Louisville fell at home Saturday to Syracuse, college basketball fans nationwide let out a collective sigh. Don’t get me wrong: Beating the No. 1 team in the country is huge news for the Orange, and it might go down as the most important win of any team this season. But for Louisville, once you got past the initial disappointment of losing the No. 1 ranking, it wasn’t all that hard to fathom Syracuse pulling out a win against the nation’s best team. The Orange could, in fact, earn that same honor at some point this season. Michael Carter-Williams is an excellent basketball player. Boeheim’s 2-3 zone has spooked more than a few teams over the last 30-plus years. Louisville would lick its wounds, roll out the nation’s best defense (the Cardinals entered Tuesday allowing 0.81 points per possession) and stomp on Villanova in a vengeful, cathartic rout at the Wells Fargo Center. Instead, the Wildcats picked up a win they badly needed. They forced Louisville into 17 turnovers (up five from its season average), exploited its foul trouble by hitting 22-of-29 free throws and got a huge inside performance from JayVaughn Pinkston. Pinkston’s 11-point, six-rebound line won’t strike you as anything particularly noteworthy, but he was the perfect counter to Louisville’s loaded frontcourt, for a team that’s struggled to get consistent interior play all season long. Until things really spiral out of control for the Cardinals, I’m willing to give them a pass – teams are just as vulnerable (or nearly so) coming off big wins as they are big losses. Saturday’s trip to Georgetown will test Louisville’s mental resolve, not to mention their defensive ability, but unless the Cardinals’ struggles persist into February, Tuesday night’s loss will be remembered more as Villanova’s at-large clincher, or just a really nice moment for a struggling program. It says here that Louisville remains Final Four material.
Also Worth Chatting About. Court Rushings Becoming Familiar For NC State.
Ten days ago, NC State caught a Ryan Kelly-less Duke team at the right spot and the right time. In a frenzied PNC Arena, the surging Wolfpack – who for the past few weeks fell out of national favor after a couple non-conference losses killed NC State’s preseason hype train – upended the then-No. 1 Blue Devils. Hundreds of jubilant red-clad fans rushed the court (one notable fan wheelchaired his way onto the floor). C.J. Leslie and company basked in the glory. NC State had arrived. The Wolfpack then voyaged to Maryland, where the Terrapins were looking to do unto NC State exactly what NC State did to Duke four days earlier. College Park is no safe haven for traveling ACC teams, and the Wolfpack came up short. The resulting court rushing was debated vigorously on Twitter; but still, it happened. The Wolfpack had come full circle – from the pinnacle of happiness to the victim of another fan base’s joy. NC State had experienced quite enough floor celebrations of late. You could understand coach Mark Gottfried getting fed up with all this emotional noise, both in support of and against his team. The floor-rushing party continued Tuesday night in Winston-Salem. Wake Forest – long the bottom of most every ACC fan’s bar room jokes – actually did something of merit (backhanded compliment? You bet) under third-year coach Jeff Bdzelik by treating the visiting Pack to another RTC. These celebrations were already getting old for NC State. After being court-rushed twice, and having their own fans rush the court just once all in the last week and change, the practice must feel nauseating.
(A note: please do watch the above video. It brings you right into the celebration, with a unique hands-on-deck camera angle)
Chris Johnson is an RTC Columnist. He can be reached @ChrisDJohnsonn.
Tonight’s Lede. Top Teams Battle Quick Turnarounds. Basketball played at the highest levels, both professional and Division I, is an all-encompassing enterprise. Games are but a small fraction of the athlete experience. There’s a laundry list of team workouts, weight-lifting sessions, post-workout ice baths and rehab, nutrition management, sleep monitoring, all among other minutiae — all of which influences how a player feels when he’s out on the court. One of the toughest parts about playing in front of jam-packed stadiums and millions of eyeballs is that half of the time, you’re doing it away from the comfort of your own home/campus/stadium. Teams travel around the country to various arenas, sleeping in hotels and braving late-night flights. Even for non-athletes, that stuff wears on you. Imagine having to jump off a plane, get a half-night’s sleep, then wake up for a morning shootaround and play a game in a foreign place later that night. This is the reality these players face, and it’s even more daunting when games are stacked in close proximity, and more so when you’ve just ground out the biggest win of the season to date. To wit: Syracuse, fresh off Saturday’s toppling of No. 1 Louisville at the Yum! Center, faced a 3:30 PM ET tip with Cincinnati, one of the toughest, persistent, and most physical teams in the country. Getting up for a two-day whirlwind is difficult against any team. Against Cincinnati? It’s outright brutal. A few other big-name teams stared down similar time constraints, including one with a huge asterisk. I don’t want to give too much away. This is, after all, a lede.
Your Watercooler Moment. Orange D Wears Out Cincinnati.
A tough two-game stretch couldn’t stop the surging Orange (photo credit: Getty Images).
You couldn’t help looking at this match-up, and the two teams comprising it, and not come to the basic conclusion that this was a strength-on-strength battle. Both teams entered Monday touting defenses ranked in the top 10 of Ken Pomeroy’s metrics. Syracuse’s defense is slightly better, efficiency-wise, and the disparity – the Orange have allowed 0.84 points per trip thus far, compared to 0.86 for Cincinnati – and that disparity bore out on the court. It might not seem like much, but over anywhere between 65 to 75 possessions (give or take), it makes a difference. On Monday, that margin came in the form of Jim Boeheim’s patented 2-3 zone grinding and harassing and forcing star Bearcats guard Sean Kilpatrick into an inefficient 21 points on 6-of-16 shooting. Syracuse’s ability to stunt Cincinnati by zoning in on one or maybe two really talented guards is why there’s so much skepticism about the Bearcats as any sort of sustained threat at the top of the Big East. You know Mick Cronin’s team is going to defend. You know they’re going to play some of the most physical hoop in the country. But unless they can remake their offense to lessen the load on their esteemed guard trio (Kilpatrick, JaQuon Parker, Cashmere Wright), Cincinnati is going to run into teams it simply can’t put away. Defense is important, but it is also only half of the equation.
Tonight’s Quick Hits…
More Big 12 Muck. The glimmers of hope offered by Kansas’ shaky play in recent weeks — neck-and-neck home wins over Temple and Iowa State, an uninspiring effort at Texas Tech, a grind-it-out victory at Texas — are nothing to worry about. Presuming a safe passage through Bramlage Coliseum Tuesday night, the Jayhawks will win the the Big 12 going away. That’s because the rest of the league just isn’t very good. Oklahoma State lost again Monday night. Texas guards like crazy but can’t keep up with anyone on the offensive end. Baylor is as inconsistent as it is talented. And Oklahoma (who handled Texas on Monday night), for all its recent buzz at the Big 12 watercooler, hasn’t beaten anyone remotely good. The point is, however much you quibble with Kansas’ unflattering conference form, and however critical your reviews on the Jayhawks’ secondary offensive weapons — the idea, misguided perhaps, that Ben McLemore is the only thing Kansas has going for it on the offensive end — the fact of the matter is the Jayhawks have not lost in Big 12 play, and if they can get by the Sunflower State’s little brother on the road tomorrow night, it’ll be smooth sailing to another KU Big 12 crown. This is not new territory for Bill Self’s program. Read the rest of this entry »
Chris Johnson is an RTC Columnist. He can be reached @ChrisDJohnsonn.
The Weekend’s Lede. No Dominant Teams. The preseason talk about college basketball’s dearth of NBA talent was an easy crutch for “casual” sports fans. They took a quick glance at this year’s draft class, nodded in dismay, and decided the sport wasn’t worth their watch – that there wasn’t enough high-level lottery talent to make things interesting. That narrow thinking – and trust me, it’s out there – inverts what we value most about college hoops. Watching first-rounders dominate the sport is cool and all; Kentucky rolled through the SEC last season with three transcendent freshmen. You know what’s better? Unpredictability, parity, a diffuse top-tier. When there’s equality at the top of the sport, and number one rankings have one- or two-week expiration dates, strange and inexplicable things happen, leaving us with little recourse how or when to expect them. A new No. 1 was borne out of last week’s chaos, when Duke and Michigan fell in tough road spots. Louisville filled the void, a worthy presider over that prized distinction, built on an impenetrable defense and veteran savvy, one of the game’s most respected coaches, and an erratically effective lead guard. The Cardinals felt like they might have some staying power at the top of the polls. Many sang Louisville’s Final Four praises from the mountaintops. The Cardinals’ reign ended Saturday, at home to a familiar Big East contender, Syracuse. In this evolving college basketball season, enjoy your time at No. 1, because one week, maybe two, might be the natural limit.
Your Watercooler Moment. Hinkle Heroics.
When College Gameday released its schedule this summer, I remember looking at the Gonzaga-Butler opener with enormous anticipation. There were other games on the schedule that looked better on paper, but Gameday at Hinkle? That’s like college hoops euphoria, times 10. So on a wild day of games, with the nation’s no. 1 going down and a crop of other interesting developments happening at the same time, the nightcap needed to be something really special, something to put a bow on a super-loaded day of hoops. I should never have doubted the Bulldogs for a second, but I have to admit, Rotnei Clarke’s neck injury gave me pause. The Zags were too big, too deep, too talented. None of it mattered. This is what the Butler Bulldogs (not to be confused with the visitors from Spokane) do. They defy convention. They beat the Nation’s No. 1 team with three starters relegated to the bench in overtime, and with a little-used walk on hitting the game-winning layup. They play in a quaint little gym most famous for its place in a movie about high school basketball. They go to back-to-back National Championship games. They make Starbucks crowds collectively stare after jumping out of my seat to celebrate one of the craziest game-winning sequences in years. They are Butler. And man, do I wish they played on national television more often.
*We should have anticipated a spectacular finish after witnessing this in the pre-game festivities.
Your Second Watercooler Moment. MVC Shakeup.
By beating Creighton, Wichita State proved itself as the Bluejays’ chief competition in the MVC (Photo credit: AP Photo).
The biggest hurdle to Creighton’s undefeated MWC season came Saturday at Wichita State. The Bluejays are vastly improved last season, particularly on the defensive end, where they’ve allowed 0.93 points per trip compared to 1.01 in 2011-12. Not only did this team have the frightening offensive capability of Doug McDermott, Grant Gibbs, Ethan Wragge and Greg Echenique. It has a renewed commitment to stopping opponents on the opposite end of the floor. That’s where the Shockers thrive – per kenpom, their 89.5 defensive efficiency entering Saturday ranked 35th in the country – and they proved it Saturday by making life difficult for McDermott and co. all afternoon long. Dougie got his points (25), but not without a constant harassment on every catch, dribble and shot attempt. Wichita State and coach Gregg Marshall have overcome three key injuries along with massive roster turnover to field one of the better teams in the MVC. On Saturday, the now-healthy Carl Hall announced his official return (he played in Wednesday’s game against Illinois State but scored just two points) with a monster 17-13 double double. Combine that with his constant annoyance of McDermott in the lane, and it’s fair to say that Hall – out since December 20 – was the deciding factor for the Shockers. Creighton and Wichita are all knotted up atop the league standings. If both can survive February unscathed, the Mar. 2 rematch in Omaha will decide the regular season champion.
Also Worth Chatting About. Conference Milestones Abound.
Holding off Arizona for the entire Pac 12 season will be difficult, but Oregon has the right mix of toughness, experience and youth to keep their top spot in the standings (Photo credit: AP Photo).
In beating UCLA at Pauley Pavilion Saturday, Oregon reached a pretty cool new milestone. For the first time in 39 years, the Ducks are 5-0 in Pac-12 play. On it’s face, that doesn’t feel like a huge accomplishment; a soft early schedule and a minor upset or two could put any mediocre team in strong position to win its first five league games. Oregon did it the hard way. Not only did the Ducks take down streaking UCLA, they also handled title contender Arizona at home and a decent Arizona State team. There is nothing specious about their hot start. All five wins point to a legitimate conference frontrunner. Meanwhile, Ole Miss, the flavor of the week in the SEC (and the owner of one of the most emotionally charged players I’ve seen in years) turned in an even greater historical feat Saturday by beating Arkansas at home. It’s the first time the Rebels have moved to 4-0 in conference play since before World War II (1936-37), according to ESPN. It was hard to know how to measure these teams in the nonconference. Both took questionable losses – Ole miss to Middle Tennessee and Indiana State; Oregon at UTEP – and the precedent for recent success, in both cases, was mostly nonexistent. Now we know: Ole miss and Oregon are serious about winning their respective leagues. College basketball needs a bit of novelty in its assortment of power league champs – the Rebs and Ducks are here to deliver.
Your Quick Hits…
SEC Looks Sealed. If the Big 12 is a foregone conclusion, the SEC is a lecture on 20th century European history. Everyone knows how this story ends. Florida is the best team in the league, no question. The second-best, Missouri, ran into a buzzsaw in Gainesville Saturday, where Billy Donovan picked up his 400th career victory. Would the Tigers have put up a better fight with Laurence Bowers in the lineup? Yes. And might this game go the other way when these two teams meet in Columbia February 19? Maybe. But if you look at Florida’s body of work, and sift through their tempo-free stuff (the Gators have been a constant atop kenpom’s rankings), you see a balanced, experienced, multifaceted team with real national championship potential. Missouri, on the other hand, is something a partial byproduct of transfer hype and a natural fascination with high-paced offense – at least to me. Conference play will sort out the distinction, but right now, Florida stands alone on the SEC peak, with no one in near sight.
Heels Dug In Against Maryland. After a Jan. 10 home loss to Miami, UNC’s tournament hopes were quickly dwindling. There just wasn’t all that much on their profile, and anytime the Tar Heels played someone good – Indiana, Butler – they lost convincingly. A home win over UNLV aside, this was not one of Roy Williams’ better teams. Saturday’s win over Maryland didn’t convince me otherwise. What it did do is give UNC some bubble breathing room. The Tar Heels, now 2-2 in the ACC, hold victories over Florida State and the Terrapins, with a manageable five-game stretch on the horizon. The Tournament warnings were not premature, but the Heels are on solid footing as of this writing.
Stingy Longhorns Test Kansas. Offensively, Texas isn’t much to look at. It’s a bunch of incoherent freshmen still trying to learn Rick Barnes’ system, rudderless while their capable point guard waits out an NCAA eligibility jail sentence. But there’s one thing this UT team does really, really well. They guard. Kansas ran into the Longhorns excellent defense Saturday, ranked 13th in terms of points-per-possession. But for a courageous second-half comeback, headed by Ben McLemore’s 16 points, the Jayhawks would have taken their first Big 12 loss. In the end, Kansas had better players, so the outcome was nothing special. But there’s a larger concern with the Jayhawks here. For all the talk about the Big 12 being a one-man race, the Jayhawks aren’t letting on like the Final Four juggernaut they’re being touted as. To wit: over its last five games, Kansas has either been tested or looked plainly sloppy (Texas Tech) in all but one contest (Baylor). The Jayhawks are the best the Big 12 has to offer, but if they aren’t fully engaged, no matter the opponent, someone’s going to get before league play wraps up. Tuesday’s trip to Kansas State could be their biggest challenge from here on out.
MAC Race Gets Serious. It is one of the most casually overlooked leagues in all of college hoops, but you’d be remiss not to pay attention to the Ohio showdown brewing in the MAC. Akron, Kent State and Ohio U entered Saturday with undefeated league records. The Zips won a tight one at Kent State while the Bobcats held off Toledo at home to draw even at the top of the league standings. At 4-0, Akron and Ohio have two games to settle this thing. Jim Christian’s team, a proven giant killer come tourney time, is the favorite, but Akron has the edge inside with seven-footer Zeke Marshall, who had 17 points and 11 rebounds in Saturday’s win. As for NCAA Tournament considerations, at-large bids have long since fallen out of contention, so we should get a thrilling conference tourney. That doesn’t mean the conference race won’t be interesting to follow.
Lyons Keys ‘Cats Win In Arizona State Showdown. The Pac-12 has produced its fair share of surprises this season. One of them is Arizona State, who has turned a woeful 10-21 campaign last season into 14 wins in 2012-13 behind Jahii Carson’s electrifying point guard play and the remarkable development of center Jordan Bachynski. But from the looks of it, the Sun Devils aren’t ready to break into league title contention. After losing at Oregon last Sunday, ASU welcomed stateside older brother Arizona for a huge chance at a season-defining upset. The game was decided by the two most important players from either team, Carson and ‘Zona point guard Mark Lyons. Though both struggled with foul trouble, Lyons’ veteran savvy won out and played a huge part in helping Arizona keep pace with Oregon in the league title race. And by the way, doesn’t that have a weird ring to it? Oregon, first place?
The Purple Wildcats Are Ready For Their Shot. Any and all Big 12 conversation is funneled through the basic assumption that Kansas will waltz to another conference championship. Given what Bill Self has accomplished in Lawrence, that’s far from misplaced foresight. It could be very accurate. But if Kansas is going to stumble in league, state basketball stepchild K-State will be right there to assume the Big 12 throne. The Jayhawks’ win over Texas was an intriguing style contrast. The Longhorns gave KU a real scare in Austin, and Kansas State is prepared to do the same when they meet in Manhattan Tuesday night. Winning at Bramlage is a tall order, and this team is prepared to mimic Texas’ defensive efforts, only with better offense and a bigger homecourt advantage. (no offense, Texas). On Saturday, the Wildcats beat what might be the third best team in the Big 12, Oklahoma, thanks in large part to 20 points from Rodney McGruder. That’s a nice prelude to the biggest Big 12 game of the season.
The Best Big Ten Team You’re Not Hearing About. Judging Tom Izzo’s teams in the nonconference season is to discount the customary improvement Michigan State undergoes over the course of the conference season. The Spartans are quickly working out the kinks – a muddle big man rotation, Keith Appling’s poor shooting – and they picked up their biggest win of the season Saturday against a familiar Big Ten title contender, Ohio State. This year, the Spartans and Buckeyes aren’t quite on the same plane as Indiana, Minnesota and Michigan (at least not yet), but make no mistake, both teams will have a say in the league title chase before March. Michigan State needed this win; it has a brutal four-game stretch coming up: road trips to Wisconsin and Indiana, followed by home dates with Illinois and Minnesota. I wouldn’t put it past the Spartans to pull an even split, which – given the competition – would be a huge bonus for the stretch run.
… and Misses.
Neck Injury Overshadows Virginia Domination. One week after Butler guard Rotnei Clarke was sent flying head first into the basket stanchion after a hard foul on a fast break attempt, another serious neck injury occurred in Florida State’s game at Virginia. FSU forward Terrance Shannon was shuttled to nearby UVA medical center after colliding with Virginia’s Evan Nolte and laying motionless on the court for nearly 10 minutes. Team doctor Bill Hamilton diagnosed the injury as a neck sprain, but said Shannon regained full strength in his extremities, which is very good news. Whenever a neck or possible concussion is involved, any manner of deleterious consequences –brain trauma, paralysis – comes to mind. Fortunately, none of those things came about as a result of this particularly scary injury. Ryan appears to be ok. Unfortunately, the Seminoles managed just 36 points and had no one in double figures as the Cavaliers’ sturdy defense baffled Michael Snaer and co. into a 16-for-43 shooting night, including – get this – 1-for-15 from beyond the arc.
Temple Baffles. Again. Inexplicable variance is wired into the fabric of conference play. It makes every interleague clash interesting, whether because of familiarity of sluggishness or road trip fright or some combination therein. Temple is taking this theme to a new level this season. Consider the Owls’ last five games: near-upset of Kansas, loss at Xavier, easy win over Saint Louis, win at George Washington and – with 30 years of history stacked in its favor – a home loss to Saint Bonaventure (that’s without mentioning the weird Caniusius loss-Syracuse win sequence in December). And yes, the last note means exactly what you think it means. Before Saturday, Saint Bonaventure hadn’t won at Temple in three decades. The Owls are one of college basketball’s great mysteries. Right now, their inconsistency leaves them short of Butler and VCU, but we’ve seen this team knock off (Syracuse) and/or challenge (Kansas) some of the nation’s best outfits. They’re widely viewed as the best-chance league title threat behind the newcomers (Saint Louis, maybe?), but before Temple can even think about catching up to VCU and Butler, it needs to develop some level of consistency against middle or lower-echelon opponents.
Missing Key Guard, Broncos Stumble. There are no comfortable road trips in the Mountain West. Every game is a grind that demands your very best effort. It also demands a fully healthy roster, something Boise State wasn’t privileged to have for Saturday’s voyage to Air Force, where the Falcons dropped Boise to 1-2 in MW play. A concussion forced guard Jeff Elorriaga – who entered Saturday averaging 11.9 points and 3.5 rebounds per game, and who hit the game-winning buzzer-beater at Wyoming two weeks back – to miss the trip, and the Broncos labored without their dynamic perimeter scorer. Losing two in a row won’t knock you from this year’s league race, if only because the sheer breadth of quality – five NCAA bids is a conservative projection – will wear teams out over the next two months as they fight each other for standings positioning. Boise is in good shape; getting Elorriaga back on the court should do wonders.
More MWC Action: Rebs and San Diego State Go Down. Any casual assessment of the MW typically focuses on one of three teams: San Diego State, UNLV and New Mexico. Only one of those teams made it through the weekend unscathed. This is nothing new in the MW – there’s so much equality, so many opportunities for “big wins”, it’s hard to pin down who the best two or three teams are. This week, UNLV and SDSU, long considered conference frontrunners, don’t look so good. But we could be singing a different tune next week. For me, the specifics don’t matter as much as the constant drama. In this league, there are no certainties, especially on the road. Arguably its two best teams took losses Saturday (UNLV at Colorado State and SDSU at Wyoming), and I’m not amazed or shocked in the slightest: you could have seen these road hiccups coming from a mile away. Besides, the Rams and Cowboys have proven themselves capable challengers in this deep conference.
Georgetown’s Ceiling. Scoring has been a huge stumbling block for the Hoyas all season. They’re converting just 0.99 points per possession, converting 66.2 percent from the line and shooting 33 percent from beyond the arc – all of those figures rank below the D-1 average. Georgetown can combat its offensive shortcomings with fantastic defense, and to date that’s how they Hoyas have won most of their games, but there comes a certain point when dragging along a woeful offense puts a major strain on your ability to win games. The Hoyas are hitting that wall. Now without suspended forward Greg Whittington, the offensive burden falls almost exclusively on Otto Porter. He scored 21 points against South Florida Saturday, well above his season average of 13.8, but it wasn’t enough to edge offensively-challenged South Florida. What’s alarming about this loss is that the Bulls, ranked 155th in adjusted offensive efficiency, are exactly the type of team, stylistically, Georgetown should have no trouble beating. Like the Hoyas, they can’t get much done on the offensive end. JTIII needs to invent new ways to manufacture offense. His team’s season depends on it.
Badgers Not To Be Fully Trusted Yet. The Indiana win was huge. It was a live testament to Bo Ryan’s timeless strategic brilliance. The Badgers throttled one of the nation’s best offenses in its deafening home arena and came away with one of the best wins the season to date. But as we often forget in the hectic landscape of conference play: one win does not a revolution make. In other words: Wisconsin is not to be anointed atop the Big Ten based off one major win. The Badgers remain, like the rest of the league, vulnerable to perilous road trips. Carver-Hawkeye Arena is no sanctuary for visiting teams, and the team that plays there – ranked 34th in Kenpom’s ratings entering Saturday – is no slouch, either. Bo Ryan’s team couldn’t lull the Hawkeyes into their slowdown game, and Iowa, after an 0-3 start in the Big Ten, has now won its last two. In the Big Ten, a winning streak of any length is an accomplishment.
Magic Wearing Off For Saint Louis. After the passing of coach Rick Majerus, Saint Louis quietly reeled off 10 consecutive wins, including games over Valparaiso and New Mexico. The Billikens looked as focused and locked-in as ever, and you started to get the sense their former coach’s tragic death was motivating them along the way. Then the Billikens lost at Temple, which is nothing to get upset about. But when you fall to Rhode Island at home, there’s reason for concern. Jim Crews had this team playing excellent basketball on both ends, but Saint Louis is at its best in grinding low-scoring affairs, where it can deflate the tempo and smother you on defense. The Rams shot 55 percent from the floor, 53 percent from three and hit 18-of-21 free throws. That’s not an SLU performance of recent vintage. The Billikens are still one of the A-10’s better teams, but if their swarming defense doesn’t produce its intended effect, they can’t keep up offensively.
Baylor Played Who? I’m all for scheduling good nonconference games in January and February. Saturday’s headliner at Hinkle FieldHouse is a prime example. But if you’re going to play someone out of league in the run of conference competition, play someone that classifies as a Division I athletic institution, or at least someone that’s somewhere within your competitive wherewithal. Don’t play someone like Hardin-Simmons, who – with all due respect its “Education Enlightened By Faith” – does not belong on a basketball court with Isaiah Austin and Pierre Jackson and Ricardo Gathers. College hoops should find new ways to curb these types of guarantee games. They don’t belong in November and December, and they definitely don’t belong in the middle of conference play.
Dunkdafied #1 In real time, it’s difficult to wrap your head around the enormity of the humiliation Nerlens Noel wrought upon Frankie Sullivan. Watch the video, but make sure to check out this photo, which freezes Noel as his midsection brushes Sullivan’s head.
More Notes From Around The Nation.
The CAA Stinks; Northeastern Doesn’t Care. In a league that saw its best team bolt to the brighter lights of the A-10 this offseason, the fighting JJ Bareas continue to dominate CAA opposition. Saturday’s win at Delaware pushed the Huskies’ conference record to 6-0. If not for Towson’s remarkable 10-win campaign – the Tigers won one game last season – Northeastern might go down as the biggest mid-major surprise in all of college hoops.
NEC Leader. Speaking of small New England schools riding 6-0 conference records, Bryant beat Wagner Saturday to extend its unbeaten streak. Keep in mind that the Bulldogs won just two games last season.
Pitt Scores First Home Conference Win. The Panthers have baffled tempo-free enthusiasts since the start of Big East play. Their efficiency profile depicts the ninth best team in the country, but a 2-3 start to conference play said otherwise. Saturday’s eight-point win over UConn is more in line with the Panthers’ projected capability.
Huskies Show Inconsistency. An impressive start to Pac-12 play came to a close Saturday when the Huskies, after sweeping through the Bay Area with wins over Cal and Stanford slipped at home against Utah. Whether this loss will be viewed as an errant data point or the start of something more sinister, I can’t really say. Not yet.
Mike Rice Needs To Chill. Earlier this season, Rutgers coach Mike Rice was suspended three games and docked 50 grand for reportedly throwing basketballs at his players during practices. There’s a fine line between having a stern hand and denigrating your players. Rice crossed that line, and he’d do well to bring his best behavior the rest of the season. On Saturday, in the heat of some questionable officiating during the closing moments of a three-point loss to Notre Dame, Rice lost his cool on the sidelines. You can’t blame the guy for lashing out in the heat of the moment, but this is an exceptional case. Rice can’t afford to risk further physical confrontation – with players, officials or anyone in between.
Summit League Opens Up For SDSU. The team everyone wants to see win the Summit League, South Dakota State, home to everyone’s favorite mid-major hero, Nate Wolters, can pull even with North Dakota State in the league standings after the Bison took a loss Saturday at Western Illinois. The Jackrabbits won at IUPUI.
Valpo Coasting Through Horizon. With UIC’s early hot start all but flamed out, Detroit and Wright State stood as Valpo’s chief competition in the Horizon league. The Crusaders toppled both over a three-day span. Butler may be gone, but Valpo is doing its best to keep the league’s reputation in good stead.
Harvard Challenges Memphis. At one point, Memphis’ at-large hopes were in real jeopardy. Harvard had erased a 20-point Tigers lead to go up by two inside the seven-minute mark in the second half. Josh Pastner’s team survived, but the shakiness doesn’t reflect well on their ability to avoid disaster in C-USA.
Can Anyone Catch Wichita or Creighton In The MWC? The answer to the bolded question: No. The Bluejays and Shockers are in a class of their own. Indiana State may be the best of the next group, and the Sycamores handled Evansville at home Saturday to stake their claim.
Maybe Charlotte’s Not That Good. I couldn’t make a definitive judgment on Charlotte before observing a decent sample size of conference competition. Saturday showed me all I needed to know: the nation’s 31st ranked defense, efficiency-wise, allowed Richmond to score 81 points while holding the 49ers to 61. Charlotte won’t contend in this version of the A-10.
More A-10 Miscellany. If Charlotte isn’t ready for the big boys at the top of the league, neither is UMass, who fell at home to George Washington Saturday. The way VCU and Butler look right now, you can’t lose these games to mid-to-low-level teams and expect to realistically vie for a top-three spot. Meanwhile, Xavier is forging on like a real A-10 competitor, beating La Salle at home Saturday to move to 4-0 in conference play, and providing yet another reminder of the fallacies of counting out Xavier early in the season.
Lemon Buzzer-Beater Lifts Bradley Over Missouri State. When you look back on the wild roller coast ride that was Saturday’s hoops slate, you’re going to find it hard to remember every game. More likely than not, any mention of the MVC will conjure up Wichita State’s upset over Creighton, just like the word “buzzer-beater” will immediately bring you to Roosevelt Jones’ last-second heave for Butler. But buzzer-beaters are buzzer-beaters, and this one – though not relevant in terms of conference championship races or College Gamedays – is awesome. Walt Lemon Jr. of Bradley beats Missouri State at the buzzer on an off-balanced runner, with the added bonus of a rare bank-swish.
West Virginia Needs Work. One of the best and most well-respected coaches in college basketball, Bob Huggins, is praised for his consistency and timeless winning (710 wins over more than 30 years of coaching). You expect certain things from his teams: toughness, good defense and rebounding – you know, Hugginsian things. I’m starting to get the sense his team this season, who got shredded at Purdue Saturday (79-52) to fall under .500 (8-9), just isn’t very good.
So Much For Notre Dame’s Home Advantage. The Irish’s biggest strength under Mike Brey isn’t something tangible or calculable. It’s a structural entity, located in South Bend, IN. The Joyce Center is one of the tougher places to play in the country, only this season, it has lost some of its luster. UConn won there last week, and on Saturday, Rutgers fell three points short of handing the Irish their second home loss of the season.
Service Academies Engage In Battle. The football side of the Army-Navy rivalry is a habitual rite of Fall, one of those games folks will flip on for no other reason than the namesakes themselves. The basketball aspect is less historically contrived, but let us not overlook the Midshipmen’s nine-point win Sunday, which snapped a six-game losing streak. Sometimes, all it takes is a little patriotic motivation to snap a downward spiral.
Tough Loss For Villanova. Some people – slightly delusional, maybe – had started to believe Villanova could make a run at an at-large berth this season. A seven-game December win streak perpetuated this idea, but the Wildcats are starting to realize they aren’t tourney material. Get run at home against Pitt? Sure. Lose at Providence (Saturday), before games against Louisville and Syracuse? That’s not going to help your chances.
NC State Wobbles, But Survives. After upsetting Duke at home, some believed NC State was ready to springboard back to the top of the rankings, where many believed it belonged in the preseason. Others remained tentative. After Sunday’s escape at Clemson, which followed Wednesday’s one-point loss at Maryland, measured caution is the best mode of analysis for this hyper-talented but wildly erratic team.
Alabama Resurfacing In SEC. What once looked like a patented Anthony Grant team – physical defense, superb rim protection, steady offense – fell off the map in December. The Tide are finding themselves in SEC (considering the depth of competition in the league, that’s not a huge compliment), having won three of four to start the conference season (they beat Texas A&M at home Saturday). On Tuesday, Kentucky visits Tuscaloosa.
Bruins Taking OVC By Storm. One of the most underrated realignment moves of the offseason was Belmont’s decision to join the OVC. They’re wasting no time finding their bearings in a new league. Saturday’s win over Tennessee State, previously sitting in first place in the west division, gave Belmont its sixth win in conference play and bumped the Bruins to the top of the division standings.
UIC Embarrassed. The early success of UIC started to die out weeks ago. On Saturday, the Flames’ reached a new nadir. Facing Detroit in a big Horizon matchup, UIC lost by 51 points. This was a nice story early in the Fall, but it’s looking more and more like the Flames are little improved from last season’s eight-win squad.
Hoosiers Fight Off Northwestern. The Wisconsin loss primed all sorts of Monday-morning quarterback-type analysis on Tom Crean’s poor adjustments to Bo Ryan’s pace-averse gameplan. Crean ran into more problems Sunday in Evanston, when the Wildcats 1-3-1 took IU out of its offensive rhythm and forced the Hoosiers to make key free throws in the waning moments to seal the win and stay unbeaten on the road in conference play.
Buffaloes Snap Skid. Losing three of five following the infamous Sabatino Chen Arizona loss gave the impression the Buffaloes didn’t recover, whether emotionally or physically, from that crushing defeat. It was important they ended their losing ways at Washington State (never an easy place to get a win) Saturday night. Tad Boyle’s team made easy work of the Cougars. Next up: winnable home games against Stanford and Cal.
A Home Win For Cincy. The weird part about Cincinnati’s recent three-of-four losing skid wasn’t so much the level of competition – New Mexico is as tough and aggressive as they come; Saint Johns is green but talented; Notre Dame has hit the skids lately, but by no means a weak team – but the location. Cincinnati dropped all three games at home. It followed up with consecutive road wins at Rutgers and Depaul, and on Saturday reclaimed Fifth Third Arena by nipping Marquette in overtime. It’s good to be home….when you’re winning.
USU Doesn’t Look Like MW Material. If Utah State plans to compete in the Mountain West next season, it’s going to need to adopt a new attitude for conference play. After opening the season 14-1, the Aggies have dropped consecutive WAC games, including Saturday’s loss to Denver. USU now sits two games out of first place. Mountain West competition could bring a rude awakening.
Dunkdafied #2. In one of the most riveting individual turnarounds in any game this season, Orange guard Michael Carter-Williams more than made up for his early turnover and ballhandling woes to make some crucial plays in crunch time. This steal and dunk may have been the most important of them all.
The Weekend’s All Americans.
First Team
Sean Kilpatrick, Cincinnati (NPOY) – The Bearcats are going to struggle scoring the ball all season. Kilpatrick, who finished with 36 points in an OT win over Marquette, needs to carry the load.
Michael Lyons, Air Force – Beating Boise State was a huge step for the Falcons, but it would have never happened without Lyons’ 37-point performance.
Nerlens Noel, Kentucky – The natural comparisons to Anthony Davis were unfair, but Noel – who put up 10 points, nine rebounds, seven blocks and one huge dunk against Auburn – is starting to show why he was the most highly-rated prospect in the class of 2012.
Mike Muscala, Bucknell – With so many good games Saturday, it was easy to overlook Muscala’s 27-point, 15-rebound double double against Lafayette.
Isaiah Canaan, Murray State – The Racers may not be the best team in the OVC this season – Belmont holds that title, for now – but Canaan is still one of the best guards in the country. On Saturday, he scored 22 points, notched nine assists and seven steals in a win over SIU-Edwardsville.
Second Team
Shavon Shields, Nebraska – The future is brighter in Lincoln than the Huskers’ 1-5 Big Ten start would indicate, and Shields (29 points, 10-of-11 from the field) could be a big part of coach Tim Miles’ plans going forward.
Darien Brothers, Richmond – The 20-point smackdown of Charlotte, one of the nation’s better defenses, was nice. Brothers’ 39 points and eight rebounds was nicer.
Jack Cooley, Notre Dame – It took all of Cooley’s 19 points and 10 rebounds for Notre Dame to avoid a crushing home loss to Rutgers.
Cody Zeller, Indiana – When a 14-point halftime lead was cut to five, and Indiana couldn’t figure out Northwestern’s 1-3-1 defense, Zeller helped IU survive by not only excelling in a big way on the glass (13 rebounds) but pouring in 21 points.
Ray McCallum, Detroit – It’s going to take a few Valpo upsets, and errorless play the rest of the way, for Detroit to make a run at the Crusaders in the Horizon. McCallum might be the league’s best player. Here’s to hoping we get more performances of this ilk – 25 points, seven assists, five rebounds.
Tweet Of The Weekend. These storybook endings have become standard operating procedure for the Bulldogs. What gets lost in the celebration of the moment is the 40 minutes that preceded Roosevelt Jones’ miraculous game-winner. Again the Bulldogs were pitted against a more capable opponent on a national stage, and again Brad Stevens had his players in all the right spots, doing all the right things to nullify Gonzaga’s athletic and size advantages. I think it’s time we think about modifying the “cinderella” narrative and realize Butler’s true identity. There’s nothing fake or inherently magical about this team. The last-second heroics adds to the mystique and the improbability of it all, but in truth, this is an elite team led by one of the best coaches in the country.
The idea that Butler is some cuddly mid major dominated by the red and white-clad state school – the one it beat on a neutral floor earlier this season – is grounded less in truth and more in national media fabrication. The Bulldogs are one of the better teams in the country. The Gonzaga win finished with a flourish, but the actual game was a brilliantly-devised defensive slog – Stevens knew his team couldn’t match the Zags bucket for bucket in a high-paced shoot out. So he slowed it down, forced Gonzaga to play an ugly game and trusted his team’s mental and physical discipline down the stretch. The Jones buzzer-beater was great theater, but it is not the entire story.
One’s a fluke, two’s a trend, but always being the better & more-prepared team in crunchtime of a must-win is no fluke. I see you, #Butler.
Chris Johnson is an RTC Correspondent. He was at Welsh Ryan Arena Sunday for Indiana’s 67-59 win over Northwestern. You can reach him @ChrisDJohnsonn.
Midway through the second half of Indiana’s meeting with Northwestern Sunday at Welsh Ryan Arena, a thunderous chant rained in from the bleachers. “IU..IU..IU.” Crowds do not win basketball games, but the swaths of Hoosier partisans, and the contrasting miniscule showing of Northwestern fans, served as a microcosm of the proceedings on the court below. This was never a fair fight from the start. Indiana has more size, more depth, and more talent at practically every spot on the floor. If Northwestern was going to win this game, it needed all the dominoes to fall in its favor. It needed Indiana to miss shots it normally makes. It needed the Wildcats’ to carry over their 50 percent three-point shooting efforts from Thursday’s Illinois win. And most of all, it needed coach Bill Carmody to flummox an offense that has scored 1.20 points per possession thus far this season, fifth best in the country.
The Hoosiers hung tough through Northwestern’s second-half push to scrap out a win in Evanston (Photo credit: AP Photo).
For a brief moment, as the Wildcats chipped away at Indiana’s 14-point halftime lead, the Hoosiers panicked. Northwestern unleashed its patented 1-3-1 zone to combat the match-up disadvantages posed by Cody Zeller and Christian Watford on the low block. “They sped us up for a while,” Zeller said. “We panicked. That’s what that defense forces you to do.” All the easy looks Indiana was getting in the first half – the nifty post ups, the uncontested threes, steady lane penetration – began to dissipate, and Northwestern pounced. Reggie Hearn led the second-half surge, scoring 13 of his 22 points after the break, but the Wildcats got contributions from unlikely sources. Jared Swopshire drained a three around the eight-minute mark, followed by a Hearn block and a cunning lay-in from Alex Olah. With under three minutes remaining, the Hoosiers’ lead had been sliced to five.
Chris Johnson is an RTC Columnist. He can be reached @ChrisDJohnsonn.
Tonight’s Lede.The Grind Of League Play.The non-conference season came and went. November and December whizzed by, but it gave us a solid look at who’s who in certain leagues and where various teams stand among conference challengers. Playing teams from different leagues provides a large enough sample size to draw minor conclusions on certain teams. Others are more difficult to figure out. Conference play creates order amid the uncertainty, but at the beginning – in early January – teams are still getting used to the nightly grind of top-flight competition. Some teams, accustomed to soft schedules, struggle to make the transition, so there are some wacky results during the first two or three weeks. Things even out over time, and now, with most teams having played at least three or four conference games (depending on the league), the intra-league mentality has set in. Teams are locked in for conference play. The initial adjustment period is gone; if teams are still easing their way into the conference portions of their schedules, they’re too late. Bubble watches and at-large considerations are in full effect. It’s time to bog down, meet your fellow league mates on the court and move your way up the standings.
Your Watercooler Moment. A Confirmation Of The Big Ten Pecking Order.
In a loaded Big Ten, Michigan Exists On the Mountaintop (Photo credit: Getty Images).
Last weekend’s Big Ten action – Michigan’s loss at Ohio State and Minnesota’s loss at Indiana – created an interesting proposition for two of the league’s best outfits. Neither of those losses truly shook anyone’s understanding of the Big Ten elite; Indiana, Minnesota and Michigan are all really good, close losses or not. The Gophers’ second-half surge at Assembly Hall was a convenient talking point for Thursday night’s clash at the Barn, and many afforded (rightly or wrongly) some kind of unspoken momentum advantage to Minnesota based off Saturday’s “moral victory” performance. Michigan’s weekend loss didn’t look as pretty, mostly because Ohio State hadn’t played anywhere near its capabilities to date, so the consensus – and more formally, Vegas bookies, who spotted Minnesota 2.5 points – leaned toward the Gophers, if ever so slightly. That wasn’t a misguided stance or anything, but what Michigan’s win Thursday night said more than anything else, was that the Wolverines are, at least right now, the best team in the best league. Maybe the best in the country. It’s not just the gaudy tempo-free metrics, or the flashy non-conference work. It’s John Beilein’s trademark system, slightly tweaked, readjusted and retooled with some of the best athletes and freshman talents in the country. It is the pinnacle of Big Ten hoops in 2012-13. If you haven’t seen it yet, trust me: these guys can play, man – whatever Indiana and Minnesota are, Michigan is a step above. That gap, believe it or not, really shined through at the Barn Thursday night.
Also Worth Chatting About. Texas A&M Transitivity Reflects Poorly on Kentucky.
After showing up Kentucky in Lexington, the Aggies absorbed a humbling blow from Florida at home (photo credit: AP photo).
Five days ago, Elston Turner had the game of his life. His 40 points were brilliant not only because they spearheaded Texas A&M’s upset of the defending national champions, but because of where he did it: Rupp Arena, the sanctified home of so many great UK teams, and a fan base made livid by Turner’s career day. When you beat Kentucky on the road, people take notice, no matter where Kentucky stands in the national picture, and when you took a clear look at Texas A&M’s body of work (specifically the Arkansas win that preceded the Lexington triumph), the upset wasn’t as incredulous or fraudulent as the initial shock factor may have suggested. Maybe this A&M team wasn’t all that bad… Right. Florida brought the Aggies, and Elston Turner (four points, 1-of-10 shooting), back to earth in College Station Thursday night on the strength of Erik Murphy (16 points), Patric Young (18 points) and Mike Rosario’s (19 points) efficient offense. What this game really says to me has nothing much at all to do with the Gators – we all know how balanced and scary good this team can look on both ends of the floor. It’s about the implications for Kentucky, and the fact they allowed Florida’s hapless blowout victim to embarrass the Wildcats at their unassailable home fortress. In the week since Kentucky’s loss, analysis of the Wildcats’ NCAA Tournament prospects painted a gruesome portrait. Most observers are unanimous in mandating a win over Florida or Missouri for Kentucky to seal a favorable postseason fate. The transitive property, using Texas A&M as the common unit of analysis, doesn’t give Kentucky much of a chance against the Gators. Those types of chain-link conclusions typically doesn’t jibe, but hey, neither does Elston Turner scoring 40 points in Rupp Arena.
Your Quick Hits…
Horizon League Produces Favorite. It is rare that a team wins or loses a conference race over a two-game stretch. After Thursday night’s victory at Detroit Valparaiso is in position to accomplish this, with a home date against undefeated Wright State awaiting on Saturday. If the Crusaders win that game, they will have beaten their two chief league competitors in a two-day span. Without Butler, the league doesn’t have a clear favorite, but Valpo is the closest thing, and now that Detroit’s out of the way (Ray McCallum can ball), beating the Raiders at home is the only logical hurdle to a regular season title. That’s assuming Bryce Drew’s team doesn’t slip up the rest of the way – a road trip to Wright State in early February could cause problems. The bottom line is that in a pool of mediocre teams, Valpo gives the Horizon some sense of hierarchy and order.
Bruins Primed For Key Stretch. Back in the dark days of Ben Howland hot seat rumors, Josh Smith weight problems and Shabazz Muhammad ineligibility, UCLA endured a fracas of national scrutiny – not just for the off-court drama but also its inability to actually win games. The Cal Poly loss was the lowest of lows. The Bruins, of course, have long since figured things out on the court, and the locker room hearsay (Tony Parker’s attention-grabbing nonsense notwithstanding) has faded into the periphery. Winning makes things better, and UCLA – who fought off Oregon State at home Thursday night – will keep getting better if it can extend its current 10-game win streak through a crucial slate of Pac-12 competition. Over the next nine days, the Bruins will take on Oregon at home, followed by a road trip to the Arizona schools. If Ben Howland’s team can plow through that stretch unbeaten, or even with one loss, a Pac-12 championship is very much in play.
Rams Pushed To The Brink. After 40 minutes of thoroughly exhausting VCU press defense and manic perimeter harassment, St. Joe’s was spent. The Hawks couldn’t summon the energy to hang with the Rams into the overtime period, but their grinding effort served notice. It showed that the team picked to finish first in the A-10 preseason poll is no joke – that the Hawks’ 1-2 league record does not tell the entire story. Phil Martelli’s team played the two toughest games on its league schedule (home against Butler and at VCU) and lost both. If you’re going to lose games in A-10 conference play, there’s no shame in falling to the league’s top dogs. The Hawks hit a soft patch of schedule over the next couple of weeks, including games at Penn and Fordham and home against Saint Bonaventure. By the end of the month, their conference record should be more in line with what coaches and media projected before the season. The Hawks aren’t the A-10’s best, but they’re not far behind those who are.
OVC Divisional Alignment Offers Intriguing Matchups. For the first time this season, the Ohio Valley Conference has implemented eastern and western divisions to reorganize its conference schedule. With Belmont’s move into the OVC, the divisional switch couldn’t have come at a better time. The Bruins would carry the flag in the West while Murray State anchored the East for an equal balance of the league’s two best overall teams. Cross-divisional play allows Belmont a shot at the Racers (February 7), but the real intrigue lies in the West, where the Buins, Eastern Kentucky and Tennessee State all entered Thursday night’s games with undefeated records. Belmont edged EKU at home (and TSU edged Jacksonville State), but because division members are guaranteed to play home-and-homes, all three of these teams will slog it out on their respective home courts over the course of the season. Thursday night was the appetizer; the next two months promise to be just as good.
…and Miss.
What’s Happening To Illinois? No team had a more pleasantly surprising non-conference season than Illinois. John Groce’s team rolled through Maui, trounced Butler in the championship game, then pulled out a miraculous win at Gonzaga before staying neck-and-neck with Missouri for most of the Braggin’ Rights showdown in St. Louis. For a team that basically threw in the towel down the stretch last season as Bruce Weber lost his coaching touch and the Illini flailed into a 12-of-14 losing skid, Illinois looked re-energized, refocused and primed for big things in its new coach’s first season. The Big Ten season, with the exception of a blowout home win over Ohio State, has flipped the script. No longer is Illinois the product of Groce’s transformative touch. Instead, the Illini are starting to look like last season’s team. Losing to Purdue on the road is one thing. Dropping four of five conference games, three of which came at home — and one of which came to Northwestern, of all teams — is seriously disconcerting.
Dunkdafied. Of all of Michigan’s promising first-year players, Glenn Robinson III is by far the most athletic. Little Big Dog one-upped noted dunking specialist Rodney Williams in said noted dunking specialist’s own house.
Thursday Night’s All Americans.
Tim Hardaway Jr., Michigan (NPOY) – When Trey Burke and Hardaway Jr. are getting out on the break, delivering pinpoint passes and knocking down perimeter shots, this is the best backcourt in the country – no holds barred. Hardaway poured in 21 points, five rebounds, two blocks and three steals to help topple the Gophers in Minneapolis.
Kevin Van Wijk, Valparaiso – If Detroit’s Nick Minnerath is going to go out and score 36 points, keeping pace is a real burden. Van Wijk fell just five points short of Minnerath’s total.
Shabazz Muhammad, UCLA – This Bruins team complements Muhammad’s individual scoring talents in tangibly beneficial ways: Kyle Anderson’s a-positional point forward play, Travis Wear’s improving post offense, Larry Drew’s conservative, turnover-averse point guard play. It’s coming together at the right time. Muhammad remains UCLA’s go-to scorer, and he posted a modest 21 points and six rebounds against Oregon State to help the Bruins prolong their winning streak, which is now at 10 Ws and counting.
Darius Theus, VCU – As long as VCU continues to bring suffocating defense, and the offense keeps shooting the ball at acceptable rates, Theus (22 points, 10 assists, four steals) and the Rams are out in front of the league title race.
Kelly Olynyk, Gonzaga – Anyone want to explain to me how Elias Harris, and not Olynyk, made it onto the Wooden midseason watch list? Anyway, Olynyk provided yet another reminder of why he belongs in that conversation – 21 points and eight rebounds in a win over Portland.
Tweet of the Night. Back when Eric Maynor was running the show and upsetting Duke in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, VCU was a plucky mid from the CAA. Don’t get me wrong: VCU was the class of the CAA (with George Mason a worthy adversary), and no team welcomed the idea of dealing with Anthony Grant’s hard-nosed defensive philosophy in a tournament setting. But the program operates on a different competitive plane these days. Now the Rams are a nationally-feared program with a widely-coveted head coach. They’ve moved up the hoops food chain, made a run to the Final Four and are trending upward under Shaka Smart’s passion and recruiting acumen. Next on the agenda: winning the A-10.
Chris Johnson is an RTC Columnist. He can be reached @ChrisDJohnsonn.
The growing monetary influence of college sports is one of today’s mostly hotly-debated topics. Much of the discussion surrounds the NCAA, and the allegedly outdated and misguided legislation that comprises its controversial amateurism ideal and restricts student athletes from reaping the financial benefits of their athletic achievements. There is a firestorm of protest brewing in that realm, and we could soon reach a tipping point with the Ed O’Bannon lawsuit. In fact, NCAA boss Mark Emmert is hoping to chip away at the organization’s shield against compensation for student-athletes by pushing through a stipend payment – in essence, extra funds on top of grant in aid scholarships – within the next couple of years. And you count on at least a few more messy player ineligibility cases surfacing over that same span, which, inevitably, will ramp up the chorus of scrutiny on the folks in Indianapolis. Ripping the NCAA has become a seasonal exercise – the national media not only relishes the opportunity to poke holes in the organization’s moral mission. It amplifies miniscule and often nebulous procedural issues into long-winded screeds on student-athlete exploitation and “unfair” profiting off unpaid undergraduates.
Emmert Is Trying To Push Through A Stipend For Student-Athletes
That’s the stuff you hear about all the time. What may be less familiar – and there’s good reason for this – is the growing chasm between schools’ athletic and academic financial priorities. In the past decade, as the scramble for favorable television rights arrangements sent programs in a rabid conference-hopping scramble, coaches salaries were sent skyrocketing out of control (particularly in football) and athletic staffs multiplied, the dividing line between “athletic” and “academic” priorities on college campuses has reached an uncomfortable balance. The goal of maintaining academic standards while trying to keep up in the financial arms race that underlies today’s intercollegiate sports world has skewed university spending balances towards athletics.
This is nothing new. But thanks to a comprehensive study at American Institutes for Research in conjunction with the project reform Knight Commission on intercollegiate athletics, we now have a clearer picture on the specifics of how funds are allocated between academic and athletic resources. To no great surprise, our foremost suspicions are correct. Athletes are indeed, far greater financial responsibilities than students for universities. How much greater? According to the study, universities are spending, on average, anywhere between six-to-12 times more on athletes than non-athletes. In dollars, the disparity is as follows (on average): $164,000 per athlete to $13,390 per student.
Chris Johnson is an RTC Columnist. He can be reached @ChrisDJohnsonn.
Tonight’s Lede. The MW Rocks. On a night when San Diego State confirmed its allegiance to the Mountain West, further cratering any hopes of Big East survival, the league gave us two huge examples of why it is as exciting and high-quality as just about every other hoops consortium this side of the Big Ten. Four teams, all riding NCAA Tournament trajectories, met in frenzied campus gyms, and on both occasions the road team held on for close wins. New Mexico (at Boise State) and UNLV (at San Diego State) will walk away smiling from two brutally demanding match-ups on nights when they could have just as easily flailed under the heat of road stop in a perilous league. Beating conference rivals is one thing. Doing it on the road is another step of achievement. Tonight’s results don’t tell the whole story. These four teams, along with a crop of other solid outfits, will bang it out over the next two months, frequently shaking up the standings along the way. It’s way too early to nominate a league front-runner, because as impressive as UNLV and New Mexico’s wins were, the conference road is far too hazardous to survive unscathed. Each of these teams will probably lose before conference play concludes. And that’s what makes this year’s Mountain West the league’s best version in years. The quality depth, combined with a bona fide upper-tier, gives the MW everything any “power” league could ever want and more. It has national contenders bound for high seed-lines, plus a nice mix of bubble aspirants, and a bottom echelon that, when you really dig in, doesn’t offer any true “guarantee” wins (Nevada?). This has the feel of a golden age in in the West Coast’s best league, and the best part is, we’re just getting started.
Your Watercooler Moment. A Win Maryland Couldn’t Afford To Squander.
For NC State, the last four days have been a polarizing tour on the court-rushing circuit. On Saturday, the Wolfpack sacked then-No. 1 Duke at home. A frivolous celebration ensued, a wheelchair-tethered legend was born, and the Wolfpack’s season-long overrating was henceforth marked a misnomer (or at least an exaggeration). The celebration was short-lived, for a tough match-up at Maryland loomed, not to mention a nasty history of post-Duke/UNC upset failures (chronicled by the Charlotte News and Observer Wednesday). And NC State wasn’t just walking into any Maryland team. It was walking into a Maryland team reeling after a two-game losing streak and a national piling-on against its cushy non-conference schedule, which the Terrapins devoured for 13 straight wins prior to ACC play. The Terrapins had a gaudy record, but with no wins of substance to speak of, this was as big as home league opportunities come in mid-January. Roughly two hours after tip, a different breed of red swarmed the NC State players, this time to celebrate the Wolfpack’s defeat, and Alex Len’s improbable game-winning dunk/volleyball spike at the buzzer that caused it. Losing in College Park is no sin – the Terrapins, desperate circumstance aside, are a big, long, athletic team with talent all over the floor. Just because NC State took a tumble on the road in league play doesn’t mean its shining moment in Raleigh four days prior is in anyway diminished or marginalized. The Wolfpack remain a very real challenger at the top of the ACC, which after Duke remains murky and undecided. NC State belongs near the top, even after Wednesday night’s loss.
Tonight’s Quick Hits…
Canes Survive. It is unreasonable to expect Miami to stroll unbeaten through ACC competition without its star center. That’s what it has managed to do though, stacking wins over Georgia Tech, UNC and Maryland, and it continued the trend Wednesday night at Boston College. This game was different than the others in that Miami was forced to scratch and claw and go all out for 40 minutes, needing four Durand Scott free throws to push them past the Golden Eagles, but the result is no different. Miami won, and that’s the bottom line. Any league road trip is a dangerous proposition; that Miami survived, despite not playing anywhere near its best basketball, says a lot about this team’s late-game poise. Let’s focus more on what Miami avoided, and less on the optics of a “close” win over an ACC bottom-feeder. The Hurricanes continues to impress, and with a week off before welcoming Duke to Coral Gables, you can bet Jim Larranaga’s team will be ready to go. Read the rest of this entry »
Chris Johnson is an RTC columnist. He can be reached @ChrisDJohnsonn.
Tonight’s Lede. I Can’t Predict This Stuff. It is never wise to judge college basketball teams on one game; you need a comprehensive data set to make an accurate assessment. Teams win and lose games out of character. It’s the common denominator that underpins college hoops competition: unpredictability. There are a variety of reasons for this – energy levels wax and wane, road trips bring unfamiliar sight lines and the environmental pressures. Some are unexplainable. Often times, shots just don’t fall, defense fails and game plans are picked apart. If you were to watch the first half of Indiana’s game against Minnesota Saturday, you would have fairly called the Hoosiers the best team in the country. And if you happened to flip on Wisconsin’s 47-41 slog at Nebraska, or pretty much any other game the Badgers have played this season save a recent blowout win over Illinois, you would have come to the reasonable conclusion, based on a reliable body of work, that the Badgers aren’t destined for the same good fortune they have enjoyed so long so consistently under Bo Ryan.
Arguably the best team in the Big Ten couldn’t deal with their stylistic opposite, Wisconsin (Photo credit: Getty Images).
You would have been even more shocked to learn that the low-scoring, defense-minded, grinding Badgers not only kept pace and challenged No. 2 Indiana, but straight flummoxed the Hoosiers into a five-point loss at a supercharged Assembly Hall. That’s the thing with conference play: you just don’t know. At this point in the season, it’s a trite rhetoric, but it bears repeating. Before laying down any proclamations about league races or contenders, remember to account for the whims of 18-to-22 year old college students, the natural ups and downs, energy highs and lows and everything else that goes into making conference competition – particularly in a year without any single dominant team – an enduringly spectacular winter thrill ride.
Your Watercooler Moment. Starting To Look like “That Kind of Year” For Ole Miss. The SEC would very much like to send four teams to the NCAA Tournament this season. Florida and Missouri are virtual locks. Kentucky is teetering on the margin. Ole Miss, after 11 years of missed tourneys, might be the league’s saving grace. If it continue on this path, Andy Kennedy’s team will saunter its way into the Big Dance, no late-February/early-March bubble anxiety included. When you get players making shots like this, the type that avoids those brutal in-league losses that pile up in the spiteful regions of the selection committee’s collective mind, you start to get the sense that maybe, just maybe, the Tournament gods are here to offer some assistance. Vanderbilt isn’t any good (except on nights where they are knocking down a ridiculous 17 three-pointers including 11 in the first half), but escaping pitfalls is just as crucial as toppling giants. But for a late-season collapse, the Rebels are on their way to the NCAA Tournament. It’s games like this that help secure that road.
(A Note: Marshall Henderson has drawn his share of criticism (fair) for having a loose trigger. I won’t try and impeach that claim. But hey, if Henderson can make that 35-footer with any type of regularity, cease the shot selection critiques and let him fire away.)
