After Texas A&M opened the season in Germany with an 88-65 dismantling of a West Virginia team that has only lost twice since (both to top-10 teams), you could have gotten pretty good odds against the Aggies being winless in SEC play with nearly a third of the conference season complete. But that is exactly where they stand following a pair of road losses against Kentucky and Tennessee last week. An 11-1 pre-conference performance, with the only loss coming at Arizona, puts the Aggies at 11-6 overall (0-5 SEC), and although still projected by the bracketologists as an eventual entrant into the NCAA Tournament, Billy Kennedy’s squad needs to quickly get things turned around. Here are three ways that can happen.

Tyler Davis has been a consistent performer for the Aggies, even during their slump. (AP Photo/Sam Craft)

1. Get Robert Williams going. Williams surprised many observers when he decided to return for his sophomore season despite the widespread belief that he would be an NBA Draft first-round pick. The reigning SEC Defensive Player of the Year has been disappointing so far, especially on the offensive end, where evidence of any real development in his game has been scant. The big man is averaging just 8.7 points per game this season, and while he leads the Aggies in rebounding (9.6 RPG), he has not at all been the equal to fellow frontcourt star Tyler Davis. If Texas A&M is going to turn things around over the next few weeks, it starts with getting more productivity out of the talented Williams. Read the rest of this entry »

The path to a head coaching position at a high major university is not a beaten one; many of today’s coaches ascended different ladders to get to their current positions. Some coaches got there by taking little-known schools to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament; others took an open position at the same school when their boss moved on; while still others first served as high-profile assistants to established coaches in more prestigious programs. Marquette’s first-year head coach, Steve Wojciechowski, falls into the latter category with a pedigree few others can boast. After a successful four-year playing career at Duke, he spent 15 years apprenticing for one of the best to ever coach the sport, Mike Krzyzewski. But despite the unimpeachable regard everyone holds for his former coach and mentor, success at the highest levels has not been guaranteed for Krzyzewski’s acolytes. Now that Wojciechowski is the leader of one of the most tradition-rich programs in the country, he’s hoping to start a tradition of his own in Milwaukee. On Tuesday night in Washington, DC, he came very close to getting the first truly big win of his young career when Marquette battled the Hoyas to a tight six-point loss.

Steve Wojciechowski’s first job as a head coach is to rebuild a proud Marquette program (Gary Porter).

When the 38-year old accepted the Marquette job last spring, the program was not in the same shape as it had been when it made eight straight NCAA Tournaments from 2006-13. After a disappointing 17-15 season, former head coach Buzz Williams downgraded to Virginia Tech because of the uncertainty of the athletic director’s position (currently being filled by interim AD, Bill Cords), and a general concern about the new Big East’s visibility in moving from ESPN to Fox Sports 1 as its primary television carrier. Another factor in his departure may have been the stark realization that his current roster simply was not all that competitive. After Shaka Smart and Cuonzo Martin passed on the Marquette job, this opened the door for Wojciechowski to become a first-time head coach at a respected basketball program with an opportunity to rebuild it in his own image.

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The Big East Weekend Wrap will cover news and notes from the weekend’s games.

What is basketball, or any sport for that matter, except for a continuous stream of results and changing expectations? We only know as much about a team as their body of work, and with that, we attempt to make judgments about their future performances and outcomes. With more data comes more information and hopefully, more informed opinions. The Big East got off to an incredibly hot start in its first six weeks, but the last few days of action have brought most of its teams back down to earth. Whether they recover remains to be seen.

The Good…

• Villanova posted an impressive rally. The Wildcats struggled to penetrate the Syracuse zone for the first 25 minutes of action and trailed for nearly the entire game before rallying to send it to overtime in the final 17 seconds. The offensive balance that propelled the team in past victories was gone, as three players scored over 20 and nobody else on the team scored more than six points. However ugly, Villanova found a way to win. It exemplified the team’s resiliency and also demonstrated a sense of senior leadership that was missing earlier this season. Darrun Hilliard posted 23 points, five rebounds and four steals while JayVaughn Pinkston scored 25 and added 10 rebounds of his own. With the Wildcats’ perimeter shooting nowhere to be found, both seniors found ways to score down the stretch by attacking the rim and creating for themselves. The gap between Villanova and the rest of the pack appears to be widening; the target on their back has never been bigger.

Despite some early struggles, Jay Wright’s crew eventually cracked the Orange’s zone and found a way to eek out an impressive victory. (Getty)

Other Big East teams were not so fortunate…

• Butler went 0-for-2 in resume-building games. The Bulldogs have fallen in the past week about as quickly as they rose in November. Chris Holtmann’s squad had two good chances to build on their 8-1 start: the first was at Tennessee, a game in which they broke down in the final 10 minutes as discussed here. The second was Saturday on a neutral floor against a similarly athletic team in Indiana. Here, Butler again played well in the first half before crumbling, scoring just 12 points in the final 8:38. The game was close the entire way, but the Hoosiers’ second half adjustments worked to slow Kellen Dunham and no other Bulldog was able to put together an efficient shooting performance. The defense was effective (held leading scorer James Blackmon – 19.2 PPG prior – to 5 points), yet to the surprise of many, the rebounding was not. The Hoosiers grabbed 15 offensive rebounds and only gave up 11 turnovers, preventing the run outs that kick start Butler’s offense. The offensive struggles remain: Roosevelt Jones and Alex Barlow are defensive-minded players that have not proven to be consistent scorers, and the Bulldogs are in desperate need of one to complement Dunham. The hope is that freshman Kelan Martin will eventually emerge.

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The Big East Weekend Wrap will cover news and notes from the weekend’s games.

After a long week of preseason tournaments, which often featured days of consecutive games for a team, the Big East has just two undefeated teams remaining: Villanova and Seton Hall. The conference at a whole has continued to play competitively and currently stands at 48-12, ranking 4th in Kenpom’s conference rankings. Below is a list of four key takeaways from the past week of Big East action.

JayVaughn Pinkston Came Up With the Defensive Play of the Year in CBB (USA Today Images)

• Villanova finally showed up to play. After their first three games, some had already begun to question whether Villanova truly deserved their preseason #12 ranking. The team as a whole struggled mightily with its outside shooting – something they relied upon heavily last season – and up until last week, held unconvincing wins over Lehigh and Bucknell that weren’t decided until the closing minutes. Yet when the national spotlight was on, the Wildcats came through. The team handily defeated #14 VCU with quick, effective ball movement and a penchant for taking care of the ball. Then, following their statement win was a gripping victory over #19 Michigan, in which the Wildcats escaped after several lead changes in the last few minutes. Finally, they capped off the week with a 31 point rout over Delaware. Junior center Daniel Ochefu should be the frontrunner for Most Improved Player in the Big East. The 6’11 center has shown a newly developed array of post moves that have added a frontcourt dimension unseen in previous Villanova teams. In a league without much talent disparity, Villanova has established themselves as the top dog, head and shoulders above the rest. They will be playing with a target on their backs all season as every opponent will be seeking a resume building victory when they step onto the floor to face the Wildcats.

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Joe Dzuback is the RTC correspondent for the Atlantic 10 Conference and a regular contributor. You can also find his musings online at Villanova by the Numbers or on Twitter @vtbnblog.

This could not be the team Buzz Williams envisioned would play this season as the 2012-13 wound down last April. That team had a backcourt rotation that included All-Conference First Team guard Vander Blue, junior Todd Mayo, a solid backup point guard in junior Derrick Wilson and a pair of promising freshmen, Duane Wilson and JaJuan Johnson, who would be allowed to ease into the system as they logged a minute here and there. Redshirt senior Jake Thomas and freshman John Dawson would hold down the end of the bench and wait. The always important wing and front court spots would go to a rotation of junior Jamil Wilson, All-American JuCo Jameel McKay, sophomore Steve Taylor (rehabbing from off season surgery) and junior Juan Anderson (who explored a transfer before returning to the team in late April).

Buzz Williams knows his team still has a long way to go to secure a bid to the Big Dance. (AP)

Freshman tweener Deonte Burton, a typical Williams recruit who could log minutes anywhere between off guard and power forward, would have to pick up scrap minutes and wait for his time. The low post would be anchored by Davante Gardner and Chris Otule. Either one of whom — possibly both — would be All-Conference Teamers (Gardner on offense, Otule on defense). Although Williams typically runs 10 (or more) players through each game, last April anyway, it appeared that he would have 13 talented players to mix and match for any given game and opponent. Read the rest of this entry »

Most fans around the country know Marquette’s senior frontcourt of Davante Gardner, Jamil Wilson and Chris Otule as they have played in three straight Sweet Sixteens over the last three seasons. This year the Golden Eagles have not lived up to preseason expectations in large part because of a lack of production from their guards — point guard Derrick Wilson, in particular, is averaging only five points per game despite playing starter’s minutes. Wilson is known for his defense and low number of turnovers, but defenses can sag off of him because he rarely attempts a shot outside the paint. This causes the middle to get clogged and hurts the frontcourt’s ability to score in the post.

Steve Taylor Jr. (25) was all over the place Monday against Georgetown.
(Alex Brandon/AP)

All season long, the team has been looking for a spark to get the offense going. There had been some good spurts that showed promise, but time after time, Marquette returned to its inability to shoot and long scoring droughts. In Monday night’s win over Georgetown, two players who had barely played all season were the reason that the Golden Eagles kept their hopes of an eight straight tournament berth on life support. With the highly touted freshman Duane Wilson redshirting this season, the point guard position has looked bleak for Marquette. With Williams putting his trust in Wilson, it did not seem that he would look to his backup, freshman John Dawson, for much playing time. He had averaged just over five minutes in conference play so far and most pundits and fans seemed to think he was a project and four-year backup (the New Mexico native had not had as much exposure in high school and recruiting services did not rank him highly). Read the rest of this entry »

1. Marquette freshman Jajuan Johnson suffered a sprained ankle in practice on Wednesday. There was some concern among the Marquette faithful after Johnson sent out three tweets that playfully hinted that he was hurt, but they were taken down soon after. Fellow freshman Duane Wilson was hurt before the season started and decided to redshirt this season. Hopefully Johnson’s injury is nothing severe as he has been getting more consistent minutes recently, and after being such a highly-touted prospect, we would hope that he can start to come into his own as the season progresses. 
2. Another day, more attention and praise for Creighton‘s All-American, Doug McDermott. ESPN.com‘s Eamonn Brennan took a look at his chase for a career mark of 3,000 points. The second leading scorer in the nation has turned his game up a notch recently despite a sprained shoulder. Brennan also places McDermott at the top of his Wooden Watch list, and says quite frankly that the award is his to lose. With an offensive rating of 121.6 on 33 percent usage, it is no wonder that the nation is starting to pay more attention to the uber-efficient senior.
3. Seton Hall is getting some much needed help as Eugene Teague will return from injury on Saturday. Teague has not played in a conference game yet as the Pirates head to Georgetown with a 1-3 record. Teague’s return is obviously a huge game-changer for Kevin Willard as his starting center was averaging nearly a double -double with 10.8 points and 9.4 rebounds per game prior to his injury. Besides the obvious statistics that show his value on the court, his size is much needed as the Pirates have been deficient all year in their frontcourt. Teague has the experience and strength to battle down low in the Big East and brings a fair amount of leadership that is difficult to replicate.
4. St. John’s began the year with talk as a potential sleeper to win the league and some coaches saying that they had the more talent than anybody. Unfortunately for Steve Lavin and crew, the Johnnies’ season has not gone to plan as they have seriously struggled so far in conference play. After last night’s loss in double-overtime to Providence, they Red Storm are o-5 in league play and had yet to look impressive. Zach Braziller at the New York Post takes a look at why they have gotten off to such a bad start. He argues that the players have been settling for too many tough jump shots, failing to use their size as an advantage, and ultimately are playing inefficiently. Lavin is widely renowned as a tremendous recruiter, but the knock on him since his days at UCLA has always been that he isn’t a great coach in game situations. After going two extra periods with Providence, hopefully the team has seen what it can do to compete with the top teams in the league, because any more bad losses and St. John’s dwindling hopes of a postseason berth will be long gone.
5. Luke Winn of Sports Illustrated has one of the best and most interesting power rankings out there and this week he has two Big East teams on his list of 16 teams, as Villanova moved up to fifth and Creighton jumped to 11th. Winn takes a look at both of the team’s three-point shooting. In Villanova’s case, he points out that the Wildcats have the biggest gap between their 3PA/100FGA and their opponents 3PA/100FGA , at about 13. Creighton is second at about seven. The Wildcats shoot 44.8 of their shots from behind the arc as opposed to their opponents trying about a third from there. Winn also highlights Creighton’s lumberjack three point specialist, Ethan Wragge.

1. Michigan’s dreams of making another March run were dealt a major blow on Friday when the school announced that sophomore Mitch McGary would be out for the rest of the season after electing to have surgery on his lower back. McGary, who was one of the top recruits in the country coming out of high school even after a late slide down the rankings, started slowly as a freshman before turning around things late in the season to become perhaps Michigan’s second most effective player in the run to last season’s title game. Had he elected to enter the NBA Draft there is a good chance he might have been a lottery pick, but slowed by a back injury that had been bothering him since late August he was less effective (9.5 points and 8.3 rebounds per game) than the Wolverines would have hoped. Although we have seen college players make some strange decisions we assume that this will probably mean that McGary will return to Michigan next season to prove he is healthy unless some agent convinces him to leave with a guaranteed first round spot.
2. In a somewhat similar way, but for a completely different reason, we may have seen the last of suspended Utah State forward Jarred Shaw this season after he was charged with felony drug distribution. Shaw, the team’s leading scorer, rebounder, and shot blocker, had already been suspended after police found marijuana after responding to a call at his residence. According to police, the amount of marijuana that they found was “more than personal use.” Given the latest information, we would be surprised if we saw Shaw, a senior, back in an Aggie uniform. Our best guess is that Shaw is headed overseas for a pro career assuming he is not playing in a prison league first.
3. Seton Hall has already suffered several significant setbacks including both injuries and an Israeli military call-up, but those pale in comparison to what happened to Gene Teague on Friday night. Early in the second half of the team’s win over Lafayette, Teague went up for a lay-up and was undercut by a Lafayette player leading to an ugly fall (video here). Teague was immobilized, put on a stretcher, and taken to a local hospital when he was diagnosed as having suffered a concussion. The overall outcome is somewhat fortunate because based on the way he fell it could have been a lot worse. For now, Teague will be undergoing a series of tests as part of the standard concussion protocol to determine when he is fit to play again.
   
4. Many of our younger readers might not be familiar with King Rice, the former North Carolina point guard from 1988-91. If they are familiar with him, it would either be through replays of old games or his history of arrests that continued up through his coaching days. So it was good to read a New York Times profile on Rice that appears to indicate that he may have turned a corner. Now the head coach at Monmouth, Rice has been arrested on several occasions including once as a junior at UNC on charges of assaulting his then-girlfriend, resisting arrest, and destroying public property. Many of Rice’s issues, including that arrest, appear to have revolved around alcohol. According to Rice, he has been sober for 17 years, but as anybody who has ever interacted with an alcoholic knows that can change very quickly so we hope Rice can continue on the new track that he appears to be on.
5. This season has been a challenging one for Marquette and head coach Buzz Williams so it would not have been entirely shocking to see them try to get heralded freshman Duane Wilson healthy in order to try to salvage the season. Wilson, a top-100 recruit coming out of high school, has been sidelined with a stress fracture in his left leg since the preseason. On Friday, the school announced that Wilson would be taking a medical redshirt. Regardless of the status of Wilson’s recovery, which we have to rely on Marquette’s reports for, it seems like a redshirt is the best option for both parties as we doubt Wilson would have been unable to turn this team around and it seems reckless to throw away a year of eligibility on this Marquette season.

Marquette fans were disheartened after Saturday’s home loss to Ohio State, ending the nation’s longest active home winning streak at 27 games. The Golden Eagles managed to only score 35 points and looked hopeless offensively all game long. They ended up shooting 18 percent from the floor and went a miserable 1-of-18 on threes. Pundits from around the nation were criticizing and making fun of the Golden Eagles’ ineptitude on the offensive end. The Golden Eagles definitely deserved it after the tough loss, but contrary to what some may have you believe, the season is not over and there is still plenty to look forward to. Here are three quick reasons why Marquette will have another successful season regardless of what happened over the weekend.

Marquette’s youngsters will need to start contributing more to ease the worries of Williams. (Mike McGinnis/Getty Images)

1. They held an experienced and talented team to 53 points: Lost in the fact that Marquette couldn’t score is that the Buckeyes weren’t all that impressive on the offensive end either, largely due to the Golden Eagles’ defense. Derrick Wilson brings a defensive tenacity to the point guard position unlike any other player on the team. Last year he was used to harass and wear down opposing lead guards, such as in his first career start where he limited Wisconsin star Jordan Taylor to 13 points and forced him into five turnovers in a key win over the Badgers. Jamil Wilson, Juan Anderson, and Steve Taylor Jr. are big guys who are capable of guarding multiple positions with their length and athleticism. Wilson has averaged over a block per game the past two seasons while seeing time at center and both forward spots. Chris Otule has also averaged over a block in each of the past four seasons and with his improved mobility after recovery from knee surgery, he should flourish this season, allowing Williams to play he and Davante Gardner together. The team has not had much of a problem with the new foul rules, so as long as they continue to build team chemistry, the Golden Eagles should again sport an elite defense as evidenced by their sixth-ranked adjusted defensive rating from Ken Pomeroy. Read the rest of this entry »

In the past week, Marquette fans have received quite a bit of bad news via social media. Last Thursday, incoming junior college transfer Jameel McKay went to Twitter to announce his departure from the school before even playing a game. The next day, freshman point guard Duane Wilson sent out a picture of himself on crutches on his Instagram account. It was not announced officially until Monday when the Marquette men’s basketball Twitter account noted that he would miss the start of the season with a stress fracture in his left leg.

Buzz Williams has his work cut out for him. (US Presswire)

McKay was supposed to be next in a growing line of successful junior college recruits for Buzz Williams. Since coming to Marquette, Williams has had five junior college players and four of them have gone on to the NBA, most recently the pair of Dwight Buycks and Jae Crowder. McKay came to the program after starring in the Milwaukee public school league and then went on to Indian Hills Community College, where he was a two-time All-American. He is an athletic forward with great energy and rebounding skills. Popular Marquette basketball website PaintTouches.com recently spoke with McKay about his departure, where he revealed that he was unhappy with his role on the team and is looking for a better situation. A fellow Milwaukee native, Wilson is a high scoring point guard who can get to the rim at will and shoot a high percentage. Marquette fans were pulling for him to win the starting job out of the gate over junior Derrick Wilson. With Duane looking like he will be out eight to 12 weeks, there is little hope that he will crack the starting lineup this season.

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